Philip "Phil" Malmqvist

2007-08 Inbound from Sweden

Hometown: Växjö, Sweden

Sponsor: Växjö Rotary Club, District 2400, Sweden

Host: Jacksonville Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: Episcopal High School

Phil's Bio

Hey!

My name is Philip Malmqvist and I'm from Sweden. I'm 18 yrs old and I usually live in a smaller town called Växjö, but now I live in Jacksonville, Florida. I'm hosted by Jacksonville Rotary Club.

After four weeks in Florida I'm finally getting used to the heat, the palm trees and the long distances to go anywhere. You don't just take your bike downtown in 3 minutes as I'm used to, no here you have a long car trip in front of you... But still, my town doesn't have skyscrapers, a monorail, a big stadium or a big river running thru it with beautiful bridges everywhere.

I go to Episcopal High School (Go Eagles!) - it's a private school with about 900 students. I really enjoy my school because I take a lot of fun classes and my teachers are great! I have met a lot of new friends and I have to say that I really feel like a celebrity, not that they are taking pictures of me on the beach, but it seems like everyone in school knows who the Swedish guy is.

Next week I'm joining the swimming team and I will also join a couple of clubs, maybe the Jazz band, cause I love to play drums.

Soon you will here from me again! Cheers!

Phil

August/September Journal

After 25 hours of traveling I finally walked through my new family’s door for the first time. I was exhausted but at the same time so excited over seeing my new family, dog, home, room, bed and of course my very own bathroom! The first night and the start of my one year adventure was weird, even though I was so tired I almost couldn’t sleep, my head was full of thoughts about everything thing that was so new, different and interesting, I mean how will it be to wake up the first morning at a completely new place? Is it going to breakfast at seven a clock and no one will have anything to talk about, just sit there quiet and stare at each other?

Luckily I woke up (like 1 pm), went out to the kitchen and it hasn’t been a quiet second in this house since then! It felt like I was a part of the family from the first minute and we just keep getting closer to each other. My Mum, Dad and sister here have become my new true family and we’re having so much fun together!

The days started to fly by, school started and it was time to make some friends. A thing that turned out much easier than expected. The Americans are so open and they seem to love to meet someone new and “exotic”. So the biggest problem was just to remember all the new people’s names (I’m actually still working on it).

So now you start to wonder what I’m doing when I’m not in school. That’s a lot of things! The first month here was hectic, we went waterskiing with my cousins on the river, Mum, my sister Glenn and I went to Orlando to visit my older sister and her husband, we have been boating to a place called Fort George (I saw five dolphins on our way there!!!!), I have been on parties with my new friends, I have been skateboarding, surfing with my sister, hanging out on the beach, doing a TV-interview for Rotary, been to some football games with Jacksonville Jaguars, seen a couple of concerts etc. I can make this list soooo long…..

After a while I joined my school's swim team. Everyday directly after school I jumped in the pool and were ready for a hard practice. I have never been swimming before but it didn’t take a long while before I was a real part of the team and made some more fantastic friends. After a couple of weeks of swimming I had the opportunity to go to a swim meet in Orlando. Standing on the platform nervous as never before, hundreds of people watching I was ready to get in the water. I heard the signal and dove in with a splash, and then it was just quiet I was so focused I barley didn’t breath. But a short time later I reached for the touch board and looked up above the surface, heard the applauses, I CAME IN SECOND PLACE!!!! It felt so good and I have never been that proud of myself! After the meet we all went to the world’s largest McDonalds for a well deserved meal after a hard and fun day.

Peace out! // Phil

December 17 Journal

Tjenna!

Time for a new journal! (Even though I’m running a little bit behind with it…) But isn’t that great that we have so much to do all the time? I think that it has to be impossible for an exchange student to get restless and bored when you are in America! So what happened during month number 3 and 4 here when you’re a little bit more adapted to the country and everything isn’t that new and exciting all the time? Well…. Hmm… let’s see…

First of all, we went to North Carolina for a birthday party. We took a road trip up there and passed Georgia and South Carolina on the way. It was really interesting to see how the nature can change so quickly. Only after a couple of hours in the car the palm trees disappeared and the temperature started to decrease. Oh no! Back to cold Sweden??? Not really it was still twice as hot and the dress code was t-shirt and flip flops instead of winter jacket and boots. We had a wonderful time up there and it was fun to meet the big family and see other parts of America!

The week after that trip we had our Fall Weekend with Rotary. It was a fun trip to Daytona, Kennedy Space Center and Winter Park Art Festival. We also had some really nice pool parties and barbeques along the way!

Friday October 19th was a day my host sister Glenn and I had been waiting on for a long time. A Swedish pop/rock band called The Hives came to Jacksonville. We just had to go there! The Hives is a popular band in Sweden and they always have huge concerts, so to see them here in Florida playing in a little club was so much fun because you can get so close to them and get the very best experience. But the best of all that night was that I caught one of the drumsticks they threw out to the audience!!!! I got so happy especially since I’m a drummer too!

In the end of October it was time for Halloween. A tradition that isn’t that big in Sweden but we getting there, just give it a couple of years and every single kid will be out trick or treating as they do here in America. And of course I had to do the same thing; you can never be too old to go trick or treating!! Even though a couple of people just open the door and stare at a couple of 6 feet tall 18 yrs old kids in weird costumes begging for candy and then close it again. You should not care about them; just knock on their door again until you get your candy! Because in the end of the night you will have a whole full bag with candy that hopefully will last all the way through Christmas!

In early November we had our homecoming at school. It was a whole week full of fun happenings. Every day was a dress out day; Monday – Halloween, Tuesday – Animal day, Wednesday – Class color, Thursday – Rock ’n’ Roll and Friday was just laid back day! On the Friday we had a car smashing. Yep you heard right! They bought an old car and you paid a dollar to get a sledgehammer and go crazy! After the car smashing we had a pizza party followed by pep rally where the cheerleaders showed off their skills and then it was time for a talent show! Off course I was in it, playing drums in a rock band. We had so much fun and we owned the stage in front of the whole school!

The Monday after homecoming my mum, older brother and I went to a really cool “Rock Symphony” with Christmas theme. They had a big light show with lasers, snow, fire, smoke that was synchronized with the music they played. It was incredible and so cool to see!

A week later I went down to Daytona Beach to take a diving certificate! We were a group of exchange students that decided that we wanted to see the underwater world of Florida so we took our scuba equipment on and had a weekend of diving. On the Saturday we had our classes and our first pool dive and the day after we went to a place called Deleon Springs for our first open water dive. On the Monday we did our last open water dive in Blue Springs. It was a really cool place with Manatees (“Sea cows”) in the water. In the end of the day we got our license 60 feet down in a cave looking spring. That was an experience I will carry with me for life!

Thanksgiving! Yay! A tradition that we don’t have at all in Sweden and that I didn’t know much about at all more than it was turkey on the menu for dinner. Anyway, we went down to Orlando to celebrate Thanksgiving with my older host sister Whitney and her husband Jason. I didn’t know what to expect of this week at all but in the end I have to say that it was some of the most relaxing and laid back days so far on my American adventure. And that fitted me like a glove! After doing so much all the time in school and after school and on the weekends you really need a time of just relaxing and just have a nice time with your family. I loved thanksgiving because I was just eating, drinking, talking and having a good time for a couple of days without thinking about homework or what people are doing back in Sweden. And off course it was fun to have your first home made turkey like the once I’ve only seen on movies back home. Delicious! J

Chill out, see ya’ later!

 

February Journal

But no matter where you get placed I bet you’ll have a good time. It’ll just be a little bit (or a lot) more difficult to get settled. But in the end everything is just up to what kind of person you are and I mean isn’t this whole exchange thing supposed to be a bit difficult? Some people will take coming to “hell” as “Why am I here, I want to go home” and others will take it with a smile and see things from the bright side… But I think it’s important as an exchange student to not put up too many expectations and just take the days as they come. And especially Not compare your year with other students, a whole year can never be the same for anyone.

Luckily I got the ticket straight to paradise! And I have to say that my year has been running by smoothly without any sort of homesickness, problems, boredom or whatnot. I’ve kept myself busy every single day here and I’m truly having an amazing time. But something I’ve noticed lately is how easily amused I have become during my year here. I’m like a little puppy that finds every small little thing hilarious. I mean I can play around with a little ball for hours just for the heck of it… It feels like I’ve started to appreciate small little things so much more than I did before. So a couple of days ago I got my plane ticket for my trip back to Sweden sent to my e-mail…. It felt like a stab in the heart!!! But I guess that day have to come sooner or later……….. Hopefully much later!

Hope someone will enjoy my advices for an exchange student, and keep some of these things in mind when you are sitting on the plane to your new country….

Peace Out!

April 15 Journal

I joined the Hawaiian Adventure tour in early March and it was majestic! I took the plane to San Francisco first and I arrived pretty early so I had some time to check out the town before I had to meet all the other people in our group. So I rented a bike and went crazy in San Fran!!! I had a blast taking my bike through China Town, Fisherman’s Wharf, over Golden Gate and on the boat around Alcatraz. It was fantastic and I met a lot of fun people along the way.

Later I met up with the rest of the group and for the first time I met some Swedish exchange students. So we hang out for a couple of hours, got to know each other and then we went off to Hawaii! When we arrived they greeted us with flower leis just like I’ve seen in the movies! (A good way to get “leid” without breaking and D’s by the way…haha) Hawaii was everything I have dreamed about; hula dancer, flowers, fantastic weather, the most beautiful sunsets in the world, coconut bras, white beaches, laid back atmosphere. It is sooo amazing!!!! We did so much fun stuff during our days there. We went hiking in the “jungle”, snorkeling (we saw some giant sea turtles), whale watching (yes, we saw whales), sailing, hula dancing, Pearl Harbor and much, much more! I can just say that I really recommend this trip! =)

Two weeks later I went to New York with my host sister. It was as cold as Sweden and I did not have any warm clothes with me at all… So what do you do? Go shopping of course! Yay! I spent way too much money, but at least I was warm for a while. =) We also surprised my two friends from Sweden there. They were supposed to go to NY first and then fly down to Jacksonville to see me here. But without telling them I went up to NY and surprised them in the middle of the street!! I haven’t seen them in 8 months and they got so chocked when sneaked up behind them and scared them haha, it was really fun to see their face expressions! So we had I blast with my friends there doing all kinds of cool stuff.

A couple of days later they came down to Jacksonville for an intense week of pure fun-ness! We went boating, camping, surfing, swimming, drive-in theater, gator hunting, clubbing etc. After that week I was completely exhausted, but still ready for some new adventures! =)

C ya later! Hej då!