YFU re-entry camp

Tjena Tjena!

 

 As you saw I didn’t write any article last weekend. Not that I didn't wanted to, I just couldn’t.  I was actually at a YFU weekend. For those who don’t remember YFU is the organization which takes care and organizes my year in Sweden. This weekend was the “Re-entry” camp, a weekend supposes to prepare us, the exchange students, to leave Sweden, to come back in our countries, to make a small check-up of our year and other stuff like that!

For the first time since the “arrival camp” in august we were all the exchange students together, we were about 60 students plus maybe 10 YFU volunteers and we met in the island of drottningholm, a place next to Stockholm, where live the royal family. This place was exactly the same than nearly 10 months ago when we arrived in Sweden. It was a strange but great feeling to meet once again here, all together but this time to “finish” the year.

Many of us didn’t really know each other as we hadn’t really meet for nearly 10 months but this weekend was just awesome and will probably be one of my best memories of this year! We all lived the same experience, the same type of adventure so everyone had something to say, something to share with the others and there were not anymore the language problem. Now we all speak at least English and more or less Swedish! We were all different but no one had been alone this weekend, we were all like a big family, understanding each other, listening each other! Contrary to what I had imagined before, we didn’t really stay with the people from the same nationality or the same languages. Everybody was 100% open to the other and it was something really strong and beautiful to live. It was exactly like if we knew each other before meeting each other. We all became really good friends.

YFU volunteers

The camp was from Friday to Sunday and hopefully we had the best weather ever! Around 28 degrees with sun, sun and sun! We were living in small houses, in the middle of the “nature” with a river around us, it was just the perfect place to be!

We had some activities like groups discussions but also a lot of free time which was the occasion for swimming, making some sauna, watching the Eurovision, playing games, basketball, baseball, volleyball or “catch the flag” all together! The weekend was just perfectly organized thanks to all the YFU members and volunteers. All the YFU volunteers’ presents during this weekend were between 19 and 23 years old, all old exchange students and really taking care of us, understanding us, they were like friends and it was absolutely perfect!

The last night we were so sad to have to leave each other soon that a group of exchange students and I decided to not sleep to watch the sunset (10.30-11 pm) and the sunrise (2.30-05 am). So we spent the night on the dock, speaking and laughing all together a last time.

Sunday was the time for cleaning everything and saying goodbye to each other… It was really sad! We made a huge circle and one by one made a big goodbye Swedish hug to each other. This is how the year “finished”… It isn’t really finish, I am leaving Sweden the 29^th of June, will spend 4 days in Berlin with 450 other exchange students from Europe and then come back in France. I still have a small month of Swedish holidays to enjoy, spending my time with my friends… just enjoy!

I am not sad to leave Sweden because I have such good friends here, I know that we will keep in touch and it’s not that hard to come back, I’m actually pretty excited to come back and see “everyone and everything” again. But in the other hand I’m gonna miss a lot my school, the exchange student life, the fact of speaking English and Swedish everyday and all this human adventure with all the exchange students… Being 60 persons from EVERY part of the word, being all together but totally understand each other and feel like a family thanks to our year was something really strong to live! Otherwise SOME of my really good friends come from Ecuador, Australia, United States, Canada and I don’t know when I will meet them again… Hopefully some other live close like Estonia or REALLY close like France and Belgium.
We also plan to all meet again in 5 years at the same place... will see!

Otherwise I would like to thanks all the exchange students and YFU volunteers for this amazing weekend and year! It was maybe the richest experience of my life which gave me much more than just a new language and a new culture. I’ve been really happy to get young, active, understanding volunteers to take care of us, help us and guide us. Now I feel like it’s my turn to help the future exchange students and keep feeling the magic of this experience but in another way, that’s why I definitively want to become a YFU volunteer in France.

3 AM

                I will try to put a video of this weekend that I made and also some great pictures. Otherwise in two weeks I will travel once again to the North of Sweden, to Umeå. I will visit an American friend and see during 8 days a city where the sun never goes down during the summer.

Thanks for reading, I hope that this article isn’t too much a mess, I tried to express everything I feel.

See you soon!

All the YFU exchange students in Sweden 2011/2012

My video (if the quality isn't good, watch it on youtube): 

(I took the movie of the water at 3 AM, check out the light!)

(You can clic on the pictures to see it bigger)