Okay, it happened again, I’m very late and I’m so sorry. Yes, it is July and yes I haven’t posted for April yet. I’m shocking at this.

So April….

I know I’ve just left you saying that March was the best month of my life (and it most certainly was) so yes, it was very high of me to expect that April would be just as good. Not going to lie, April was pretty tough for me. It started out great and I was still buzzing with joy from last month’s endeavours, but things seemed to take a turn for the worse about a week in.

We went on a week long ski trip with our Rotary district to Vemdalen. It was stunning there and so fun and it would have been absolutely top-notch if it weren’t for my clumsiness.

I began the week with snow boarding. I’ve always wanted to be good at snow boarding but it turns out it may not have been my calling. I sucked and within (I kid you not) the first 15 minutes I had sprained my wrist. My friend had also hurt her ankle, so we decided, with our safety in our best interests, that we would swap to skis and the rest of the day turned out to be wonderful.

The next day however was not so great. It all started when I thought face timing my friend whilst skiing down ‘the fun, obstacle slope’ was a cool idea. It was not and I fell on my fellow exchange friends and although none of us were injured at this point, I did damage to my ski and the mechanism that clipped on to my boot. I did not realise this had happened at the time.

At the top of my next slope was when I realised a bit too late. I had begun to ski down a ‘black’ slope and on my second turn my left ski unclipped and I took a tumble. Honestly it didn’t really hurt all too much (although a mixture of adrenaline, cold weather and the pain killers I had taken for my wrist earlier that day probably contributed to this). At first I thought “ouch, that’ll be bruised tomorrow” until I felt that my leg was VERY wet. I looked down and to my surprise, my ski had cut through my my ski pants and into my knee, and what had felt wet turned out to be blood.

Fortunately we were not too far from the shack at the top of the ski lift. I walked up with my friends and they explained what had happened. And amidst all the blood and panic and crying children who did not like what they saw, I was laughing hysterically, god knows why.

They lay me on the snow and I tried to pull up my pants so we could see the ‘situation’. It was not very pretty and I was still laughing at this point. I did not realise the severity of the situation until the paramedic got my friends to “lift my leg so it was above my heart”. They had to cut through my pants that I had borrowed from my American friend and the ski pants I borrowed from my Swedish host mum and bandage up my leg (I’m sorry for borrowing your clothes). Then I was raced down the slope on a snow mobile to the sickbay cabin and stitched up 6 times. I was not laughing then.

The rest of that day was full of hospital visits and trying to stay awake. Then the rest of that camp was me watching netflix and eating noodles whilst my friends were out skiing, taking cute photos and having fika on mountain tops.

Not only this, but I had completely smashed my iphone past the point of repairable, so a lot of my photos from exchange have been lost and my ‘one second a day’ that I was so proud of. Pretty bummed about it 🙁

Throughout my exchange so far I’ve never once felt home sick to the point that I’ve wanted to go back to Australia, but I did miss my home and my family when I was coping with my injury. So yeah, this was a tough month for me, but like anything that is hard to get through you come out the other side so much stronger. I’m grateful for the support I have received here from Rotary, my host family, and my friends. They made my ‘healing process’ so much easier.

I was so angry with myself for quite some time following my accident, even today I’m still frustrated and this scar is a reminder of my stupidity. But now I think it’s also a reminder of what I managed to overcome, although not a great feat, it is something that shows my strength. It’s a strength that every exchange student has throughout their year. Yes, there will be bad patches. But nothing will ever be completely bad. Very, very cliché but you have to see the good that comes from your hard times.

Okay, till next time,

Jess xxx