People Watching

For our last night in Mora, we threw a party for everyone. Here are some pictures. Nate and I represented the group in giving goodbye speeches. This is how I found out I was giving a speech: I was half asleep and in bed and as Cassandra comes out of the bathroom says to me, "Oh, Karla, did anyone tell you? We decided you are giving a speech tomorrow at the party." Great. Both Nate and I noted that while we had high expectations of what Mora would be like from the 2009 group, these expectations were more than met. We both also observed that this would surely not be our last visit to Dalarna. Lennart, our wonderful Nordic Politics teacher and pictured with me here, also pulled out a perfectly rehearsed speech for the occasion. Our Swedish teacher, Anna, also pictured here, read aloud her grocery list.

Yesterday morning we loaded our luggage into the school van. We decided to let the van take the luggage and elected to walk through town in the sunshine one last time. (Somehow, though I sent 2 large boxes of winter clothes home, my suitcase still feels far too heavy. It seems like I have so little with me with me until we have travel days and then I realize that I wish I had attempted to do four months in Sweden with only a backpack... if that. Maybe a purse.) We got to the train station where Anna and Lennart (along with his wife and sons) came to say goodbye. Some of our new friends from the folk high school also came along to wave goodbye and exchange some final hugs. They even did the classic running after the train as we sped away.

I love trains. I have ridden on many in my life including several long Amtrak trips and a few in Germany. I wish the ride from Mora to Uppsala had actually been longer than 3 hours. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm a theatre major, but I love people watching and trust me, it has gotten me into some trouble in the past. I loved sitting in the cafe car with Jen and looking around at people and thinking of what their stories might be. We even met another American, an exchange student from Louisiana! He said that he had never heard of a program like ours and thought it sounded awesome. We enthusiastically agreed.

Now we are here in Uppsala. Rather, we are staying outside the city in what I might describe as a suburb by American standards. We were met at the train station by Daniel and Julia, former Gusties who are to be our leaders and teachers while we are here. We arrived at our hostel last night and had a group dinner to celebrate our fearless leader, Eric's, birthday. I am so excited to have access to a big city to explore and likely (safely) get lost in!