Pics from Gotland and Fårö

Gotland & Fårö! *AMAZING* Weekend

Hejhej everyone!
So I just got home late last night from a weekend spent on the Swedish islands of Gotland and Fårö. And it was absolutely wonderful. I'm going to do 2 separate posts- one just for the pictures!
Late afternoon on Friday we took a bus from Växjö to Oskarshamn, Sweden, right on the east coast. Then we hopped on a ferry that took us to Gotland. Destination Gotland was the name of the ferry- and it was the biggest boat I've ever been on. People drive their cars right onto the ferry below deck, get out, and then ride to Gotland in the passenger area (which is really really nice.) It was a lot like what I imagined a cruise ship to be like. There was a cafe, gift shop, and restaurant on the ferry so it was a very comfortable 4 hour trip.
When we got to Gotland, we arrived and stayed in the capital city, Visby. It was completely dark when we arrived in Visby so we had no idea what everything really looked like. We were all assigned to different cabins at this little resort park. They were basically brand new small mobile homes and were very nice! The next morning we woke up and looked out the windows... and realized the Baltic Sea was about 150 feet from our cabin. That was pretty awesome.
So that Saturday morning we took the bus into the city center of Visby. Visby is a medieval city and has a large wall (built in 1300) to keep out invaders that surrounds the entire city center. Everything was so OLD. Older than anything I've ever seen. The Visby Cathedral (which I had the pleasure of attending Sunday mass in!) was built in 1225. The streets in the city center are very narrow and all cobblestone. It was hard to believe people actually live in a place so beautiful. In a way, Gotland is a lot like how Hawaii is to the U.S. It's still part of the main country, but there is a sort of exoticness to it. Fun Fact- Gotland is where Pippi Longstocking was from! Walking through the streets, one thing I noticed was how quiet it was. There were no stop lights or traffic. Maybe one or two cars every 15 minutes passed us while walking. Between the cobblestone streets, the medieval aged buildings and statues, the countless flower gardens, and the Baltic Sea in the background, I would say Visby was the most gorgeous city I've ever visited.
Saturday afternoon we hopped back on the bus and drove to northern Gotland and took another short ferry to Fårö, another small island off northern Gotland. This island is famous for what's known as "raukarna". Raukarna are the huge rocks that jet out vertically from the ground or water. The beach on Fårö where we spent the afternoon was hands down, without a doubt, the most beautiful place I've ever been. The beach is snow-white, not with sand but with chalky rocks. The raukarna were a product of a glacier melting. Most of the rocks have little fossil patterns on the outsides of them. We brought small portable grills and cooked some burgers for lunch on the beach. The sun was shining and the temperature was pretty good. The only thing was the WIND. Wow. But it was a beautiful afternoon.
We got back to Visby and ate dinner at a night club and stayed there until 2:30 in the morning. It was a reaaallly long day, but a great one.
We left Gotland on Sunday afternoon and didn't get back to Växjö until about 11 pm. Everyone was completely exhausted and drained. But this was my favorite weekend in Sweden so far! And I would love to go back to Gotland later in life sometime. It's too good to go just once.
I'm posting pictures from the trip above this post!
Until next time,
Sara

Mushroom Picking on a Sunday

Hejhej everyone! Today was my first wild mushroom picking experience. It was also my first run-in with a poisonous snake in the wild! (Mom when you read this don't panic. Everything's fine.)
So two Swedish girls, two girls from CA and myself, drove out of town and down this dirt road/path into the forest. We walked a ways back into the woods and picked mushrooms and had "fika". Fika means a break during the day where people talk and drink coffee. It's a very popular tradition in Sweden. So we sat down on a log and had fika in the middle of the forest. We also found lots of good mushrooms to eat! There's tons of different kinds of mushrooms that grow where we were, so we had to be extra careful to pick the right ones. But we found quite a few and they are TASTY. While we were picking, I stepped right on top of a black snake. I don't think I hurt it, but it scared the crap out of me! Frida, one of the Swedes I was with, says that seeing black snakes are a sign of good fortune and it's pretty rare to see them in the wild. They're also completely harmless. I'm not sure about that good fortune bit because about an hour later I almost stepped on another snake... except this one happened to be poisonous. Sweden has only one type of poisonous snake and this was it. It's a burnt orange color with a jigsaw pattern on it's back. Maybe it was good fortune I didn't get bitten?
On the way out of the woods we stopped at a summer cottage that belonged to one of the girls' boyfriend's grandparents. (A bit confusing I know.) The cottage was right next to a GORGEOUS lake. It was a nice ending to a really good Sunday afternoon.
GOTLAND this upcoming weekend!!!

Kosta Boda Glassworks

This place was AWESOME. Kosta Boda is Sweden's oldest glass-blowing factory, founded in 1742. The gallery at Kosta Boda was full of incredible glass art that was created by different artists employed there. It was incredible! It's hard to imagine how someone could create some of the things they had.
We had the opportunity to watch some of the glass makers at work. While we were there, they were making champagne glasses. I posted a couple videos so you can see how they are made.
There was another man there who was an independent artist and was making these really cool vases. We got to see almost the entire process, starting with a small ball of melted glass. The video I have for this is too big for the blog, but I posted some pictures of him.

Moose Adventures

So yesterday was pretty exciting! I visited Sweden's biggest moose farm and Kosta Boda Glassworks. I'm splitting them into different posts because there's too much to tell for each!
So the moose farm was very cool. Our crazy tour guide spoke zero English and even the Swedish students with us had a hard time understanding him. And we were all pretty positive that in the off-season he was actually Santa Clause.
We got lucky enough to see a couple moose... sometimes they stay away from the people but they literally were right at the fence. At one point I was trying to take a picture in front of two of them and one stuck his nose in my hair. Terrifying! So we have a funny picture of me panicking and ducking out of the frame.
There was also an exhibit showing the danger of moose and traffic. They had an actual vehicle that hit a moose while driving, and the real pictures from the scene. It was a bit morbid. The Swedish government actually began installing elk and moose fences along major highways to reduce the number of accidents involving moose. They're the biggest member of the elk family and lots of people are killed in their cars if they hit a moose. Nothing like driving in Minnesota where we just have to worry about whitetail deer.
Sweden has roughly 350,000 moose and every year during hunting season, the number goes down to about 250,000. Moose meat is considered a delicacy in Sweden. We had the pleasure of grilling our own mooseburger... sooo good! I think I actually prefer it to a regular hamburger.
All in all, the moose farm was great.

Cultural Tidbits

Hejhej!
So I've been in Sweden for a little over 3 weeks now and I'm starting to pick up on trends and do's and don'ts of living here.
I put together a little list of my top ten cultural tidbits for Sweden...

1. Take your shoes off! You never enter a Swede’s home and walk around their house with your shoes on. This is practically a sin in Sweden.

2. Don’t smile at complete strangers. It gives the impression that you’re either interested or really creepy.

3. Don’t be early and don’t be late. If something is scheduled for 12:00, you need to be there at 12:00.

4. Wait your turn. Swedes will wait in line for HOURS. I’m not kidding. They’re known for waiting in ridiculously long lines for everything (groceries, department stores, banks… anything you can think of). It’s actually a joke here that waiting in line is a professional sport in Sweden.

5. During dinner, there should be at least 3 types of sauces at the table. Swedes eat everything with sauce. There’s a sauce isle at the grocery store. And it’s not just ketchup, mayo, and ranch dressing. Even desert! Whip cream on your pie? Nope… cream sauce.

6. “Lagom.” There is no word in English that this translates to, but it basically means not too much, not too little. Swedes are all about moderation and they tend to live their lives that way. For example, a wealthy person probably wouldn’t drive their most expensive car around a poorer side of town because they don’t want to look like they are bragging about their money. Very opposite from American culture where “bigger is better.”

7. Bicyclists rule!

8. If you don’t recycle here, you’re a loser. In my corridor alone, there are 6 different recycling bins for different materials. If you’re unsure of where something should go, chances are you could set it on the garbage can and someone would take it and put it in the right recycling bin.

9. Baggy jeans do not exist here. Women wear leggings, tights, skinny straight leg jeans and skirts. The only guys here wearing baggy jeans with their boxers showing are probably American exchange students. A Swedish friend told me they tried to bring back the flared jean here and it didn't go over well.

10. You cannot buy a case of beer in Sweden. The liquor stores, System Bolaget, are government run and if you want beer, you pick them out one by one. It's supposed to make it more difficult for people to buy tons of alcohol and get trashed.

Hopefully these are interesting and give you a better idea of what life's like here.
Onto other things... On Friday of this week I'm touring a glass and crystal factory! Sweden is world famous for their glassworks so this should be a really cool trip. I'm also visiting a Swedish moose farm and get to taste some moose burger and sausage.
Then off to GOTLAND next weekend!!
I posted a few recent pictures to this post. They are, in order, Iron Age grave field in the woods on campus- the Student Union, just down the path from my corridor- and of course, Teleborg Castle again.
I think that's all for now... I'll post again after the moose and glassworks tour!
Hej då!

-Sara

Welcome Dinner/Party!

Hej everyone!
So Saturday night was our big welcome party and dinner for the international students. It was so much fun! Some students dressed in their country's traditional clothing and performed some dances. I have most of them on video but they are too big to put on the blog.. so here is the web address to my friend Jen's website with the videos if you want to check them out! The Austrians are my favorite.
http://www.youtube.com/user/JenBrownEurope#play/uploads/5/P_6_N1SNGnM

Dinner was alright... we had some traditional Swedish food. I'm actually not totally sure what all of it is still. But I attached a picture of it up top.
I also learned how to say cheers! in Swedish...

Skål!!!!
(sounds like sko-all)

Love from Sweden,
Hej då!

-Sara

Life in Växjö thus far...

Hej everyone!
It's a very rainy day here in Sweden. A good day to start some homework. I started class this week on Tuesday- Perspectives on Globalization. My teacher is from Germany and actually isn't even in Sweden yet. She's finishing up teaching a course in Uganda so she'll be back on Monday. But we already have quite a bit of reading to do for class. I was surprised to find most of the students in my course are Swedish who just want to take some classes in English to improve in the language a little. The past week or so here has been non stop fun. Every night there is something going on somewhere on campus. So we don't even have to leave school. Växjö has 3 pubs on campus, each one's a little different. Sivans, Stallarna, and Stenladan. Each pub is run by a different organization on school. At the University, they have these clubs called "nations." Each nation hosts different activities and events on campus throughout the year. The nations are modeled after different regions throughout Sweden. I became a member of the Norrlands Nation (northern Sweden.) Most students become a member of at least one nation because to get into the campus pubs you actually need a nation membership card. It's really pretty smart actually. In order for a student to go drink in a bar on campus, they need to be active on campus and nations are a good way to do that. Speaking of drinking... the night life and drinking culture in Sweden is really interesting and complex, especially on campus. The legal drinking age here is 18 in bars, but to actually buy alcohol from a store you need to be 20. It's very different than the U.S. Even the teachers and professors make jokes about the bars or ask where the party's at towards the end of class. AND in our student day planners that are given to us by the school, the open and close times for the pubs are written in on the days. Needless to say, all the students from the U.S. are not used to this. Despite how acceptable drinking on campus is, you will almost NEVER see students out of control drunk. That's one thing that isn't really acceptable. So it all seems to work out. :) Outside some of the apartments late at night a food trailer shows up.. kind of like something you'd see at the state fair. A few of us decided to order something (everything on the menu is in Swedish and the guy running the stand doesn't speak English). So we order a Kabob. Meat, veggies, grilled on a stick, right? Wrong. It ended up being lettuce, french fries, and a HUGE hunk of lamb meat all mixed together. It was odd. Moral of the story, it's really hard to buy food here. So... moving on. Tomorrow I get to visit the world's very fist IKEA! haha Not the biggest deal ever, but still exciting because I get to travel a little. It's about 1.5 hours from campus so I'll get to see a little bit more of the surrounding area. Yesterday my friend Allie, from San Fransisco, and I went on a bike ride and stumbled upon an old Swedish cemetery with some graves dating back to the late 1600's, early 1700's. ((I've attached some photos of that to this post.)) ALSO on a previous post I wrote that I was traveling to Gothenburg in a few weeks. Correction: I'm going to GOTLAND in a few weeks, Gothenburg a little later on. If you don't know anything about Gotland, I recommend Googling it because it's REALLY COOL.
Okay! Well, I have to start doing some reading (150 pages by next class), so I better go.
And a quick note, if any of you have skype, please skype me if you are online! My skype name is sjlunde.
Hej då!

-Sara

PS. A couple people have asked how to pronounce Växjö. It is NOT "Vacks-jo". It actually sounds like "Veck-wah".

Teleborg Castle

Here are some photos of Teleborg castle and the surrounding area. Teleborg is located right on the edge of our campus and is surrounded by woods. There's a place in the woods near the castle that has 2 graves from the Scandinavian Iron Age- around 500BC to 800AD (sorry no pictures of this yet.) It's the oldest remaining evidence of humans in this area.