Glad Påsk från Sverige! (Happy Easter from Sweden!)

I think this Easter will be one I will always remember. Last night we started the process of dyeing eggs. (thanks again to the parents for bringing the kits all the way from America!) This morning while some of us were at church the eggs were then hidden around the dorm. I have yet to find mine. Church was nice- pretty traditional Lutheran. Even most of the music were pieces that I'm sure were played back home, and it was a little odd to be singing them in Swedish.

When we came back from church, we began the process of making brunch. I am continually excited by all the things I am learning to cook when before this trip pretty much all I could handle in the kitchen was making a mess. We baked a ham (ok chunks of ham) with apples and cinnamon and made some of the best french toast I have ever had. Sonja also made fantastic banana bread, which was quickly devoured. Needing some epic triumphant music to cook to in accordance with the day, the Lord of the Rings soundtrack seemed an obvious choice.

We could not have asked for a more beautiful day. Though some of the afternoon was spent inside doing homework, we broke free long enough to go outside for more than an hour. It was so glorious- we all sat around on blankets, reading various things- for fun! "Reading for fun" is a concept I seem to have forgotten after going to college but we are again becoming fast friends in Jönköping.

Tomorrow morning we leave to go on our Geology Field Trip. We are not sure what to expect but it will surely be a great week. I was at least hoping for camping, but we are evidently staying in hostels. Have a great week and Happy Easter, everyone!

More Time In Jönköping

Spring has finally arrived in Sweden! Everyday I see more and more wildflowers and I am increasingly able to go outside without a sweater. I am also no longer wearing socks which is always my marker of fast approaching summer. I have had some more time to explore the city and I am quite content. It feels so much more manageable and easy to navigate than Stockholm or London. Something else that's fun is that my parents are here!! They got in on Tuesday afternoon and left this evening to go back to Stockholm to be tourists for a few days. Though it was a little strange to go into restaurants and speak English right from the beginning, I absolutely loved having them here. My biological family got to mix with the one we have created over these last months.

We are here by ourselves for the week since the other students have time off for Easter. We are of course still having class, which continues to be quite engaging and so interesting. Yesterday we took a break in the afternoon and went to a sheep farm. Two of the teachers at the school own this farm and they were worried we might be bored during our time here. We had so much fun! After a lovely tour and lots of adorable baby lambs, we went inside where the most incredible meal was prepared for us. We were told by our host that she spent much time abroad and many people invited her into their homes. Doing the same for us is her way of repaying them. We were told we must now do the same thing when we encounter travelers in our futures.

Calm and Comfortable

(photo credit: Jen Fox)









For those of you who also are following the Gustavus Term In Sweden blog (http://gustavusterminsweden.blogspot.com/) you will find some overlap between my post on that blog earlier today and this one on my personal one. I will try to add in some variation.

Our first week in Jönköping has passed quite successfully. I am so happy to be back with the group and I feel more relaxed than I have in a while. After our incredibly long and stressful day of traveling from London back to Sweden, we arrived here on Sunday evening and walked into our dorm rooms which were complete with personal bathrooms and closets! I almost fell over with joy. Though we were exhausted, Sonja and I immediately turned up the Frank Sinatra and went about unpacking our overweight suitcases and then shoving the empty counterparts into a corner where they will remain until May 17th. Coming from sharing a room with 20 people in London, this little bit of privacy seems like such a luxury. I have no idea what I will do when I return home and have an entire basement to myself.

Being together with the group feels so very wonderful. After we unpacked on Sunday night, we could all be found in one room, laughing loudly and sharing all of our Spring Break adventures. We are calmer and comfortable.

Jönköping is wonderful. The students are quite excited to meet us and hear our story of why we are in Sweden. Everyday more of them approach us at lunch or dinner. Even on our first night, there were knocks on our doors, curious to who these new loud English speakers might be. The city is gorgeous. The school is located on top of a huge hill which looks down into the valley. Every night that I walk outside to go to the sauna, my breath gets taken away a little bit with the view.

I am also loving our classes! We are engaged in our Sweden Today class and our Nobel Laureates class. We have already read quite a bit and have pretty top notch class discussions. This rhythm of classes and homework feels natural and pleasant. If was fun to be a tourist, but this feels better.

I am beginning to worry what it will feel like to leave this place and these people that I have fallen pretty deeply in love with. There is a growing realization in my mind of how when I return home, no one else will understand my experiences than these eleven others. I can show pictures and tell stories, yes, but no one else will really grasp what these 5 months were.

Time to Head Back!

London has been great, but it is time to go "home." It is interesting that whenever people asked me where I was from during Spring Break, I would say the US but I would have to qualify that by explaining that I was actually studying in Sweden. So- the U.S...by way of Sweden. Coming from Sweden, London feels very much like the US, and it was so odd to have everything in English again. Well, almost everything. Today I saw an incredible production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" performed by a Russian theatre company so it was in Russian. It might be my favorite of the shows I saw here.

I am so excited to join the rest of the group tomorrow and hear about the adventures they all undoubtedly had over break. I am also so excited to be in one place for 5 weeks and I will actually be able to unpack my suitcase.

London was pretty great. The weather was incredible. I even got my first sunburn of the season which I was so proud of. Yesterday the three of us sat in the sunshine in Hyde Park for about an hour and a half and it felt so fantastic. It's a shame that the air will likely be slightly cooler in a matter of hours. Our flight leaves Heathrow at 7 am but the tube stops running at midnight so yes, you guessed it, we're waiting at the airport. At least I have a book and an ipod right?

Some other things we have done: Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, St. Paul's Cathedral, Camden Town and the Camden Market. (Sadly Bob Cratchit of A Christmas Carol was not there to greet us...) We also saw Chicago on West End and loved it. Much fish n' chips have also of course been had.

Spring Break!

Well I am in London! The weather is absolutely gorgeous and not at all the dreary typical London weather I expected. Yesterday I got much too warm walking around in a t - shirt! On Tuesday night after we arrived Janella and I rushed a production of "The Blood Brothers" which is fitting as it takes place in London. The show was absolutely incredible and we had pretty great seats for rush tickets.

Yesterday we set off for the tower of London and the major sites. We saw Tower Bridge, Big Ben, The Tower and spent several hours at Westminster Abbey. I saw another familiar face! As I was walking around the cathedral that is so beautiful I have no words, I saw my parents' dear friend from Gustavus, Ruth Johnson! It was so exciting to see her and I eagerly filled her in on my adventures to date. I am constantly surprised with how very small the world seems to be.

Last night Janella and I were lucky enough to snag tickets to "The Children's Hour" starring Keria Knightley. I have seen a lot of theater, but this is certainly one of the most powerful productions I have ever seen. It was so beautifully executed. If nothing else goes well on this trip (which I highly doubt) at least I got to see that show.

Today Sonja joined us at the hostel after spending the last two days with her friend who is studying here. I am sitting in the hostel lobby waiting for her to shower after her trek across town, moving her luggage through the vast subway system. Today's schedule?: It's looking like the Globe Theatre, Buckingham palace, St. James park and I imagine much more!

Love to everyone!

A Little More of Stockholm

Well Spring Break has officially begun. Friday morning we packed up and left our ship to go our various ways. Nearly all of us decided to stay in Stockholm through the weekend are situated at various hostels throughout the city. Anthony, Janella, Tyler and I are at Zinkingsdamm which is quite nice. Though it is not the beloved ship and I don't get to wake up with sunlight shining through a porthole, it's fun to explore another part of the city.

But for now, a little of what we did in the past week. On Monday, we went out to Vattenfall, one of Sweden's largest power companies, where we met more Gusties, Lena and Annika. As is becoming the usual, we got a private presentation on what the company does. Eric mentioned to Annika that we have seen Vattenfall at every juncture on our adventure. She mentioned that she was quite glad to hear that. I couldn't help but think if she would still be so glad if she knew the context we had heard about the company. When we were in the north, we discovered that the Sami have very clear ideas about the company as so many hydro plants have severely disrupted reindeer herding patterns. Though it is so admirable that Vattenfall is doing so much to improve the environmental impact of electricity, I can't help but wonder what we might have asked Lena and Annika were we here two months ago, fresh from our experiences in Jokkmokk.

We took a trip to the Karolinksa Institute. This is the facility which chooses who will be receive the Nobel Prize in medicine. We met Amy, yet another Gustie. While we got to learn a lot about the company, I think my favorite part of the visit was where Amy asked all of us what our dreams for the future were. My first thought was, "Does she think we're all Science kids and want a career here?" No, she just wanted to hear about us. I get pretty defensive when I'm asked what I want to do with my life. I mean, there is a lot I want to have happen. I thought that I would be judged when I told Amy, and the rest of the group for that matter, that I want to keep living and studying abroad and eventually be a theatre professor and an actor. There was no judgment, however, which leads me to believe I was maybe the one doing the judging all along.

We also went to the Riderholmen Church, which is the royal burial place. We saw so many gravestones and it's incredible how much history is present there. I caught myself thinking like my mother for a minute and imagined all the ghost lore and spirit activity which must take place once the doors have been closed for the night.

Cassandra also turned the big 20 right before we left for break. We had a lot of fun finding more places with live music in Old Town. Since being on break, I have visited several more museums and had a lot of fika time. Now that it is break I miss the rest of the group, and absolutely can not imagine what it will be like when we part for real on May 18th. I'm trying not to think about it. I am entering the fourth month that I've been gone and I'm realizing how much time that is. That's more than a summer vacation! Time has passed in such strange ways.

I am excited to go to London on Tuesday and do lots of theatre-y things, but I find that what I'm really excited for is to meet everyone in Jönköping on Sunday evening where we will all be together again and where we won't have to move our suitcases from place to place for 5 whole weeks. I have really missed the connections we get to have with places and people, like when we were in Jokkmokk and Mora- smaller towns with students to spend time with. This time in Uppsala and Stockholm has been great, but also strange. This is more time than we would have if we were merely tourists, but not enough time to really feel like it's ours. Here we go.