January 22nd, 2011

Here is a group of us having "fika" at Norrlands Nation! In the picture starting from left: Leander (Germany), Lauren (California/New York), Elyse (Canada), Kiri (Australia), Jonas (Germany), Sebastian (Australia), Alison (Canada), Me, Anna (Gustavus), Katie (Hawai'i), Dawn (Gustavus) and Jael (Germany). 

Its Saturday, which officially marks 10 days in Sweden! WOW! What an adventure it has been so far. I have been having so much fun exploring the city, visiting the Nations, attending orientation events, decorating my room, and hanging out with new friends. Last night was Katie’s (Hawai’i) birthday. We went shopping and to fika during the day to celebrate. A friend of our cooked dinner for her, and then we went out to Kalmar Nation for a “Balkan beats” dance night. It was so much fun! There were about 12 of us that hung out together. It was probably the first night that I felt really comfortable with the people too. I definitely feel like I am beginning to make some good friendships. To end a wonderful night, Katie and our friend Lauren (California/New York) slept over in Dawn and my room. Today I think we are going to meet up to discuss some trips we want to take—we may be going to Oslo for Dawn and my birthdays! We are also planning on going to see the Chapel, and then out to one of the last orientation events tonight! All is well here, keeping very busy, but excited for it to slow down a little too! I’m also enjoying the wonderful weather here! Today it is 34 degrees, which I think is safe to say is quite a bit warmer than the US right now…

January 20th, 2011

Sorry I have not been keeping up with my blog very well... This week has been very hectic, but I suppose that is good, right? We moved out of the hostel on Saturday and into our dorm rooms. I live right across the hallways from Dawn, and we are in individual rooms that are about the size of a double person room at Gustavus. This room is awesome! We share a bathroom and a kitchen with the rest of the people, so needless to say, it gets pretty gross. At the University, there are things called Nations, which are like of like sororities and fraternities, but they are co-ed and have anywhere from 500 to 8,000 members. They are mostly around to provided cheaper food and drinks, have club nights and pub nights, as well as plan some fun events for students and especially international students. There has been 3 or 4 events every night since we got here. It has been very fun, but very tiring as well. At the end of orientation, we will be able to decide which Nation we want to join for the semester. We are still enjoying wandering around, and getting acquainted with the city. Anna and I only have class for an hour and a half every Tuesday for the first 10 weeks that we are here, so we have a lot of free time to shop and "fika". In Sweden, people take time out of every day to sit in a cafe and drink coffee and talk with their friends. This is definitely a tradition that I will be able to get used to :) We are making tons of friends. There are a lot of students from Australia, Germany, USA and Canada here. Its taking a little longer to actually meet some Swedes, but I think that will come with time! It has been a wonderful last few days, and I cannot wait for more to come! We are planning trips to Jokkmokk for the Winter Market, the Ice Hotel, England for Easter, possibly Copenhagen/Denmark and maybe a trip to see Dawn's cousin in Switzerland. The possibilities are endless! There will definitely be better stories for all of you soon!

January 14, 2011

Today is day 2 in Sweden. Its 12:30 and we just woke up! Jet lag will do that to you I guess. At first I was kind of pissed for wasting the morning, but then I realized I have 5 months of mornings left and that sleeping in was probably a pretty good idea. Yesterday was quite the adventure. We met a friend on the first flight, Hugh, who became our travel companion for a while. It was very interesting finding our way from the Minneapolis flight to the Stockholm flight, but eventually we made it just fine. The long flight from Chicago to Stockholm went really well. It was long, but three movies: The Bucket List, Going the Distance and Big made the time fly a lot faster. I actually got to sleep quite a bit on the plane too, except a baby decided it was time to scream for an hour and a half when the lights turned off! Oh well, it didn’t bother me all that much. When we arrived in Sweden, we met a kid named Lars, who is our age from Colorado. He is actually a full time student at Uppsala University, so he was able to help us a ton finding a train and getting into the city and everything. I think he is going to take us on a tour of the city later today too. In the morning, we kept ourselves occupied by taking a bus out to Ikea and exploring the city. What a blessing it is to have Dawn with us… who happens to be fluent in Swedish. A Gustavus exchange student, Ida, who happened to be visiting her family back home in Uppsala over J-term showed us the good places for shopping, helped us get cell phones and took us out for dinner. It was the perfect way to end the night! By 8:30, we couldn’t stand it any longer and gave in to sleeping. It was a wonderful first day!  Oh! And we got to experience in full the sun rising at 9 and setting by 4. It is fun the way that they keep the streets lit at night though. It definitely doesn’t feel as dark as it is. There are large flood lamps, as well as trees and garlands of Christmas lights, and the lights coming from the stores. It was pretty magical.

Pictures to come... sorry!