Scribbles from Sweden

Boat Cruise to Tallinn, Estonia!

2009-11-23T00:06:00.000-08:00

Hej everyone! Here's the update on the latest travels. Last Tuesday about 150 international students from my school and myself took a bus to Stockholm. Once we got to Stockholm, we got on a HUGE cruise ship headed to Tallinn, Estonia. The whole event is called "SeaBattle." There was international students from about 6 other universities in Sweden, as well as students from Finland and Estonia. We left Stockholm around 5:00 pm on Tuesday and arrived in Estonia at 10 am the next day. Needless to say, the entire boat was full of college kids. I don't think I saw even one person on the boat traveling who wasn't. There were several bars and clubs on the boat, and everyone had a great time. The clubs and bars didn't close until 9 AM! I woke up the next morning and could still hear music and people awake in the halls. It was crazy! There was two people to a room in the cabins and I roomed with a German friend of mine, Anne. The cabins have no windows so it's incredibly dark inside when the lights go out. They had speakers in the rooms with announcements in the morning waking us up to let us know we were in Estonia.
We got off the boat and spent the day in Tallinn. Tallinn was not my favorite city I've visited, but definitely the most interesting. Estonia is considered Eastern Europe with Russia literally right next door and it definitely felt that way. The city had beautiful architecture but was a little more run-down than most western European cities. Walking through the older part of the city, I felt like I was at the Renaissance Festival. Stores and restaurants had big torches lit on the outsides of the doors and vendors with little wooden carts were all over the streets. One distinct feature about Tallinn was the churches. They were BEAUTIFUL. We went into a few different churches, my favorite was a huge orthodox church in the middle of the city. (I posted pics of this) We went inside and they told us absolutely no pictures. People were inside lighting candles and praying. The inside was GOLD and the center dome inside was a light turquoise color with little gold spots that looked like stars on it. You can probably find pictures of the inside online somewhere. We also witnessed some kind of protest in front of the Estonian Parliament building. So a group of us basically spent the day exploring the city. We ate breakfast and lunch at a couple little cafes for really cheap. The Estonian kronor is not strong at all. For 1 Euro, you get 15 EKK. So that was nice. The city had a lot of really strange details. Like random statues of a 17th century-looking man on top of buildings looking through a little eye glass down towards the streets. That was weird. Never in my life did I think I would visit Estonia. But I'm glad that I did. It was definitely an eye-opening experience.
I only have about a month left in Sweden- time flies! This weekend I'm headed back to Copenhagen with Scott. Then the weekend after that I will be in London for four days! I can't wait!
Enjoy the Estonia and SeaBattle pictures!
Hej då!
-Sara

Sensation White Pics!

2009-11-05T03:36:00.000-08:00

Copenhagen- Round Två!

2009-11-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

Hejhej!
So school has been taking over my life the past few weeks... but I did manage to take a weekend vacation back to Copenhagen for Halloween weekend! After the first time in Copenhagen, I liked the city. But after this trip, I love it! Probably my new favorite city. On Friday afternoon, two American friends, Jen and Allie, and myself took the train to Copenhagen. Jen's dad works for a Marriott hotel, so he managed to get us a really good discount on a hotel room for the weekend. It was reaallllly nice not having to stay in a hostel the whole weekend! On Friday, we checked into our hotel and decided to climb Vor Frelser Kirke, meaning "Our Saviour’s Church." It's an extremely tall and cool looking church with spiral steps along the outside that go all the way to the top. We started climbing it inside at the bottom of the church. We worked our way up what felt like a MILLION steps. The church was built in the 1600's so the staircases we walked up were extremely tight, chilly, dark, and a bit scary. The steps were so incredibly small and the staircases were so steep I had to walk up them sideways- and on the way down I was trying really really really hard not to fall. When we finally got to the top there was a little door that led to the outside spiral steps. The view was INCREDIBLE. I could literally see all the way to Sweden. I could see the Baltic and the Öresund Bridge that connects Denmark with Sweden, the entire city of Copenhagen, the windmills in the sea, and all the way past the city into the Danish countryside. We walked up the spiral stairs on the roof of the church all the way to the very top. The experience was absolutely amazing- it was a little nerve racking though, climbing up 400 year old stairs on the outside of a very tall building with nothing but one little railing for safety. The pictures that I took are great, but they really don't do it justice. I've attached some video I took at the top as well. Climbing back down all those tiny steep stairs is NOT easy after climbing up all of them and then being really nervous outside. My legs were shaking on the way down- mostly because I think I was scared I was going to wipe out down the steps. We all got down safely, thank goodness.
After climbing the church, we walked to a Danish bakery and had ordered a strawberry tart to split between the three of us. Strawberry tart=most amazing desert I've ever tasted. I posted a picture of it on here! I wasn't going to mention it, but it was seriously one of the highlights of that day. After walking around the city all day, we were exhausted and made it back to the hotel for dinner and sleep.
Saturday was Halloween, and Sensation White. Sensation White is a giant music festival that's held in different cities throughout the world, specifically in Europe and Australia. It was at the Copenhagen stadium, which holds 30,000 people. Everyone that attends wears all white. If you don't wear all white, you can't get in. From 7pm until 3am some of the best DJs in the world play their music. There was a giant rotating stage in the middle of the stadium where the DJ stood. The theme for this year's Sensation White was "Wicked Wonderland." There was an Alice in Wonderland theme throughout the whole show. I'm posting separate pictures and video from this because there's way too much to show. It was such an amazing show and made for a really good Halloween.
Sunday we met a friend of ours that goes to school with us in Sweden. He's actually from Denmark and grew up in Copenhagen so he knows all the good places to go. We all had coffee at an awesome little cake house downtown and then got on the train to go back to Sweden. WONDERFUL weekend! To top it all off, when we were checking out of the hotel, the Danish guy at the counter asked where I was from. I said Minneapolis (not thinking he would know where Lakeville was.) Then he says to me, "No way! Are you familiar with Burnsville, Minnesota?" CRAZY. Turns out he has cousins in Burnsville and he spent a year with them- and even played tennis at the Lakeville High School courts! Small small world.
Sorry, I know this was a long one! But hopefully you got a good idea of what the weekend was like. :)
Next weekend I'll be in Göteborg, Sweden, so I'll post again then.
Hope all is well!
Hej då!
-Sara

København, Denmark!

2009-10-12T02:20:00.000-07:00

Hej all! I just got back last night from Copenhagen (capital of Denmark)! What a great city! Lots to do and see. I left Sweden on Saturday morning and took the train about 2.5 hours to Copenhagen. I went with a group of 12 friends from school. We arrived at the central station and took the bus to our hostel- "Sleep in Haven." This was my first hostel experience, and it wasn't too bad. The only bad part about the hostel was that it was situated kind of far from the downtown area and my bunk bed was right by the door in our room so I woke up every time someone came into the room. Other than that, the hostel was pretty good. I posted a picture of the hostel common area with the other pictures. So Saturday afternoon we walked basically around the entire city of Copenhagen and even made our way to Christiania (a free town on the other side of the city). Christiania was one of the strangest places I've visited. It was a bit like a miniature Amsterdam. It's a small town within the city boundaries of Copenhagen, with about 850 residents. Over the last 30 years, it's been the subject of several police raids due to the high amount of marijuana sales that take place there. Because of this, I also wasn't allowed to take any photos inside Christiania- they don't want any of the people in the pictures able to be identified by police. Seriously... but it was a cool place. The streets are mostly dirt roads and gravel, and vendors selling crazy clothes and jewelry are everywhere. There's also a couple small pubs, coffee shops, and little parks with benches and trees and flowers everywhere (also where the locals sit and smoke pot. no joke). It's basically a hippie village. I was SO mad I couldn't take pictures inside! It would have made for some amazing photos. I did manage to sneak one picture- leaving Christiania, the big archway reads "You are now entering the EU" (European Union).
On Saturday night we went out downtown and found a couple cool pubs and then made our way to another club. The clubs and bars in Copenhagen don't close until 5 am. So people are walking home when the sun is coming up on Sunday morning. It's crazy. What I really liked about Copenhagen was how the city didn't shut down on Sundays like most European cities. There was actually cafes and a few stores open. Usually in Europe, NOTHING is open on Sundays except the gas stations and grocery stores for a few hours. Copenhagen is a BIG city- much bigger than the Twin Cities- except instead of skyscrapers everywhere, there's 500 year old buildings and churches that make up the skyline. I'm going back to Copenhagen two more times before I leave Europe, so hopefully I'll get to see a lot more of it then. You can't possibly see the whole city in one trip.
OH, and I almost forgot to mention that my weekend in Copenhagen also happened to be the same weekend of the Denmark-Sweden soccer game- that took place in Copenhagen. So Saturday was CROWDED. And there were tons of crazy soccer hooligans running all over the place. The Swedish fans even took over an entire park and hung up blue and yellow flags and played music and blew these big fog horns every 10 seconds. So that was a pretty fun thing to see.
Hope everyone is well, Hej då!
-Sara

Swedish Crayfish Party

2009-10-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

Hejhej! Last Wednesday, I attended my first ever Swedish crayfish party! This is a common tradition for Swedes usually between August and late September. Crayfish is served whole and cold with dill juice over the top of it. Then there's some other food (we had Swedish potato/ham/cheese pie-that I made!- and deviled eggs, warm bread, salad, and of course, shots of snaps. Snaps is the official crayfish party drink and during the party everyone sings songs about snaps before taking a shot of it. It's also common to have crayfish party hats and bibs. (we just had that hats) So a few of our Swedish friends prepared the crayfish and salad and two other Americans and myself brought the rest. It was my first time making a Swedish pie from scratch and I was pretty nervous about how it would turn out. I think we were all a little surprised when the pies turned out really well! I posted a couple pics- one of a plate of ready to eat crayfish, the other of my ham and cheese pie. :) Also, I have a short video of a few Swedish friends trying to teach everyone some snaps songs.

Pics from Gotland and Fårö

2009-09-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

Gotland & Fårö! AMAZING Weekend

2009-09-28T10:14:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-02T02:39:00.000-07:00

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.

August 30, 2009

2009-08-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

It’s now Sunday evening and I’ve been in Sweden for almost a week. I’m starting to adjust to Swedish culture and getting better at navigating around campus. I got a bike last week! That was exciting. So now I can get everywhere a little bit faster. It takes about 15 minutes or so to bike to downtown Växjö so that’s not too bad.
On Friday and Saturday I had an orientation for exchange students. Friday night a few of us decided to go check out one of the pubs on campus, Sivans. Reaallly fun. I met a Swedish girl named Marie who was introducing me and a couple other Americans to some Swedes. It’s somewhat hard to meet and become friends with Swedish people because they will not approach you and talk to you. Some will, but most do not. Marie says it’s partly because of the culture and partly because if they hear us speaking English, they are intimidated or not comfortable asking us questions in English. That’s one thing that will be hard to get used to. Even if you are walking through campus, people don’t look up to say hello to you if they don’t know you. There are a few exceptions though… standing in line to get into the pub we met a Swedish guy who was really excited to talk to Americans. I told him I was from Minnesota and he started talking to me about Brett Favre and the Vikings and Packers! Pretty funny. Apparently they have an ESPN America and it’s fairly popular here.
Here on campus there is something called VIS- Växjö International Students. It’s a popular student club that provides pretty cheap trips and travel opportunities to students. Earlier today I signed up for 3 trips later in September that I’m really excited about. One to the very first Ikea store, one is a moose hunt and tour of the glassworks and crystal companies, and the other to Göteborg, an island off the coast of Sweden. It’s also pronounced Gothenberg, and used to be one of the main points of the Gothic period in Europe. Lots of old castles! So there’s a lot to look forward to. I will also be taking a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia later on in the semester. Should make for some good pictures and stories!
Start expecting some postcards soon!
Hej då!
~Sara

First Photos

2009-08-27T02:56:00.001-07:00

Arriving in Växjö!

2009-08-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I've finally made it to Växjö and am starting to settle in. The trip went pretty smoothly, with the exception of a ridiculously uncomfortable plane ride and a little confusion at the Copenhagen airport/train station. My flight to Copenhagen had some electrical issues... so there was basically no air flow and the overhead lights were stuck either on or off the entire way, and the TV on the back of the seats didn't work. So it was pretty miserable. The man who sat next to me was from the Dominican Republic and maybe said 5 words to me the whole way despite all of my attempts to talk to him. The train ride from Denmark to school took about 2.5 hours and for about half of that I was pretty sure I was on the wrong train... but I made it!
The train went up through Malmö, Lund, Alvesta, Växjö, and would eventually end in Stockholm. I decided that Sweden looks and feels a lot like Minnesota except with a little more character. (I'll post some pictures and you'll see what I mean.) Växjö even has 3 different lakes.
It was pure chaos here the day I arrived. Out of 400 international students, 280 of them showed up the same day I did. So everything was pretty crazy. I was really nervous about my living situation, but ended up getting my first choice of accommodation so that was nice! I live in a corridor with my own bedroom, bathroom, and two big closets. Then I share large kitchen, living room, and dining room with the 12 other people in my hallway.
This whole week is welcoming celebrations and kick-off so at any given time you can walk around campus and run into a mob of drunk Swedish kids... and I'm not kidding when I say mob... like 30-50 people at a time. But campus is BEAUTIFUL. Växjö University if fairly new, maybe 15 years or so. It's like a miniature town within a town. The architecture of the buildings on campus is incredible as well.
The first night here I didn't have food, blankets, pillows, toilet paper, a hairdryer, clothes hangers, and a whole bunch of other things that I really needed. I had a brief moment of panic and I thought I made a mistake by coming here. I felt completely out of my element and a world away from home and ALONE. Not fun. I think this was my moment of culture shock.
Everything got better the next day... there was a flea market on campus and I bought a nice big comforter and pillows for only 100 SEK and made it to a supermarket (probably the most overwhelming thing so far.. nothing is in english so you kind of have to guess what things are when you buy them.) I couldn't believe how small everything is here. Even a bottle of shampoo is about half the size they are at home.
Yesterday I met my Swedish buddy. Her name is Malin and she's GREAT! Her mom was actually with her because they were moving things into her new apartment. But we were able to drive into town to stores where I got some more things I needed and then Malin and I walked around downtown Växjö for the afternoon. It's funny how people here speak Swedish at first, then when they realize you are foreign they apologize and immediately switch to English. When we walked back to here apartment her mom had made a couple snacks and some coffee... the coffee I was excited about, but the bread with liver spread and onions on top was not so great. Apparently they eat that stuff for breakfast. Pretty gross. Anyway, I didn't end up getting back to my room til about 8 pm so it was a full and fun day. Last night I cooked dinner with two Italians, Flavio and Aleysia. They speak pretty rocky English so they instructed me to correct them every time they make a mistake. A few more of my corridor mates, Sophia and Fleur from the Netherlands, Iae from Japan, Tatiana from France, Jon from Sweden, and a few German students all had a little get together last night in our common area. It was foreign language overload. But very fun.
This morning I'm going with a couple students in my corridor to try and find a bike to buy for cheap. Everyone in this town has a bike, it's incredible. I've never seen so many bikes in my life. But it's pretty much the only way to get around. Town is just far enough away that walking takes too long, but it's perfect by bike. And there's bike paths EVERYWHERE.

Well... it's just past 10:30 am here and I have to get the day going. And I need to buy a bike!

I hope everyone is well, more to come soon!
Hej då!
~Sara