Sweden III

Hey everyone, apologies for not posting more regularly. Honestly, it comes down to sheer laziness and getting caught up in my adventures. I will be skipping around and mostly showing pictures of my travels, going to try to condense it down a bit more. Here we go.

September 3rd - Class Field Trip
On our second day of class in my Swedish Landscape course, we took a bus around the local Kronoberg county to look firsthand on the neolithic remains of the agrarian landscape as well as some associated burial mounds, farmland, and the house of the university's namesake, Carl Linnaeus.

Instead of posting all the pictures in this one blog post, I will forward those reading to an Imgur album for each paragraph. Please read the captions, as I will be telling my story that way.

Tour of Kronoberg County


September 10th-12th - Vaxjo to Stockholm to Uppsala and Back
After nursing a pretty bad flu for a week, I decided to buy a train ticket and book a hostel in the city of Uppsala, just shy of Stockholm. My goal was to see Gamla Uppsala, the old burial mounds as well as the parish church. There I met some pretty interesting folks. On the train ride from Alvesta to Stockholm, I encountered a woman name Josephine who had actually just recently came back from the United States (she was a native Swede) and was going to Stockholm to work for an exchange program. Another interesting mention was that a few stops away from Stockholm, a group of Syrian refugees boarded the train and were directed to the Swedish Migration Agency when we stopped at Stockholm Central Station. It was odd to me, being an American, as usually that sort of news is very distant. To see this world problem up close was very humbling. Without a very appropriate segue, as this was the closest I would get to a Starbucks, I ordered a pumpkin spice latte and boarded the train to Uppsala. Like everything in Sweden, it was sickly sweet. After settling into the hostel, I went out across the street to a local American-style sports pub and spent way too much money on food. I went to sleep early and prepared for my trip to Old Uppsala.

Travel to Stockholm and Uppsala

**

Old Uppsala 

I woke up early to catch the bus to Gamla Uppsala. Once there, I took probably 100 pictures of the burial mounds, the church, the museum, and the local Odinsborg Cafe and Restaurant. Whilst there, I hiked around and read on top of the mounds. I took a trip to the museum as well as bought an iron-wrought troll's cross as well as a Thor's hammer pendant. Afterwards, I ate at the local Odinsborg Cafe and had my first taste of authentic Swedish food. It was a hash called pyttipanna which contained potatoes and meat in a cream sauce, as well as egg and beets. I washed this down with some of their home-brewed mead and shared stories with some backpackers I met, one German and one American. After my adventures, I went back to the hostel for a well-deserved nap. I woke up a few hours later and talked with a man named Simon who was staying in the hostel due to a disagreement with his fiance. He discussed his whole life and his different perspectives on things and took me to a local bar. We had some very engaging debates about politics, pop culture, and history. He seemed to enjoy having someone to talk to, and it seemed he was going through a tough time. It was one of those few interactions you wouldn't normally encounter on your day to day in the United States. Apologies if the captions aren't working, hopefully the pictures speak for themselves.

Old Uppsala

That's it for now! I will be sure to update the next time some interesting events transpire. I plan on going to Octoberfest in Munich next weekend, so hopefully I will be able to get plenty of pictures. Thanks everyone for reading!

Sweden II

I will preface this blog post by answering the question: "What happened to day two?" During this time I was trying in vain to recover from jet-lag which led to me pulling an all-nighter right before orientation. Not a smart move. But onto the retelling of my last few days!

Day Three: A Cookout and a Castle 
After a fitful day of sleeping, I got myself ready to go out to a cookout the Linnaeus University international committee hosted. They called it a BBQ, but there were only hot dogs and soda. It was reminiscent of home well enough, although mustard, like most everything, is much sweeter here. I met a good amount of people there, eventually getting together for drinks at a local cafe. After getting done with the cookout, I walked up the hill to check out the locally famous Teleborg Castle, which was built in the 1900's as a gift from a local count to his wife. It is now used as a hotel and conference center. Cool, right? UNCG should learn something and build a castle on campus.



Afterwards, we took the bus over to the city centre, which is a quaint cobblestone plaza by the bus station. I got drinks with essentially the Western Hemisphere representatives. There was myself, a two girls named Brittany and Emma from the States, Derek from Canada, Sebastian from Mexico, and Alejandra from Colombia. We got in intense conversations about dating, cultural differences, politics, and of course Game of Thrones, both the show and the book series. I sipped on a Somersby Pear Cider and munched on a meat platter with bread and butter. It was absolutely delicious, and I had a dessert of "fika" which is coffee and a pastry which is usually saved for late afternoon and a social standard of Swedes.

This ended the festivities and we walked back to our apartment complex where I proceeded to not sleep until late into the night, prompting a rather long day of orientation the next day.

Day Four: Parkour and People 
Off to orientation, which was mostly logistical information. I gulped down a Red Bull and sat through a day long orientation. Not much excitement. Although the orientation started off with a video of students doing parkour through campus, which was interesting. It definitely startled my sense of reality in my caffeine-fueled, sleep-deprived state.

Day Five: Purple Hair and Pizza by the Lake 
The next day was a slightly shorter, more lax orientation hosted by the student associations on campus. One of the members of the student union had very bright purple hair and that spoke volumes to me about the youthfulness of the school and the country. More often than not, I saw people of all ages wearing casual yet snappy clothes and there is a sense of virility and style you see from many of the people. They make it look effortless, and one of my new goals is to take care of my appearance a little more. The Swedes know how to do it. I went shopping at the nearby Coop Nara, which seems to be equivalent to a 7/11. That is peculiar, as most things open late and close early here in Vaxjo.

Swedes love their sweets!

Later on that day I was invited to get pizza and drink beer by Lake Trummen near campus and we got together on the bank. We talked about all manner of things, myself, Jake, and Sarah being from the States compared things with Rachael who is from the United Kingdom. After getting too cold, we spent time at Sarah's place and I eventually walked back in the dark to my apartment, 40 minutes away. The walk was unsettling until meeting a cat, who is now a familiar friend: an orange forest cat who I see on my walks to campus almost everyday. There were many hares about too, where they are much larger than rabbits back home.

Lake Trummen

Creepy walk back, but the moon was very bright.

Day Six: Travel and Tribulations 
This was the day I became frustrated. Long story short, there were tickets being sold for cheap trips coordinated by the VIS (Vaxjo International Students) which ended up being sold out. So I got together and had a beer with some people from my apartment floor. Carlsberg is a terrible beer, would not recommend.



Day Seven: Cleaning and Cards 
Mostly I just cleaned and got my library card. Not too much excitement. Here's a rainy day picture from my window:



Day Eight: Geography and Groceries
First day of class! In a class about Sweden's landscape and the history of its people. The class was almost exclusively international students. The class was intriguing, and right up my alley as far as my studies for my history major. After the two sessions of class were over, I went out to go shopping and paying rent. Someone's birthday was today and there was a get together on my floor, and I dropped in.

Day Nine: Laundry and Laziness
Yet another unexciting day, mostly of cleaning, laundry and running errands. But tomorrow, I will take plenty of pretty pictures, as I am going on a field trip with my class to visit some neolithic excavation sites our instructor is familiar with. Stay tuned for more!

Addendum: Here are some out of order pretty pictures:

Sweden I

Perhaps the hardest part about travelling abroad is the time travel. I write this at the end of my day in Vaxjo, Sweden from my picturesque apartment. I am absolutely exhausted, so this post may not be very cohesive. I have some fantastic pictures though, so that should make up for it. The point is, time travel is not as easy as the Doctor may make it seem. In short, my flight from RDU took me to Boston, then a 5 hour trip to Reykjavik, Iceland and then to Copenhagen, Denmark until I finally got on a train that took me two hours to the small town of Vaxjo. Some of the highlights of the plane rides were the Boston Harbor, alien views of Greenland, and having my first international beer on the flight from Boston to Reykjavik.

    

Seeing sayings from the Havamal in the Iceland airport was impressive to this sleep deprived traveler.




Shout out to Emma and Raphaelli, a young couple who helped me get from Malmo to Vaxjo. The air is clean and cold, and the land has an ancient feel to it. The architecture of the older buildings contrasts the modernist, European infrastructure of the airport and the stations, as well as new apartments and businesses being built. On my way through the Skane region as well as through Malmo, the train passed by small farms, graffitied bridges and Quixotic wind-farms, with towering turbines over the horizon. On the train ride, one could sense the age of the land passing them by. It was surreal to think I had finally made it to Sweden.



Once I got to the train station, two students from Linnaeus University helped me and another International student get to the campus. There we got our keys and were quickly brought over to Vallgatan, the international housing complex. On the outside it is an old, imposing building, but on the inside it is a comfortable, somewhat modernist home. My room is cozy and has all the amenities I need, including a chair for reading and spacious desk. It honestly blows my old dorms and apartments out of the water. Speaking of water, the view of the lake and city are fantastic. It looks like something out of a Hayao Miyazaki film. Again, I pinch myself. I made it to Sweden.



After settling in, I took a leisurely stroll to scour up some food. So far in Sweden, eating out is a very scant occurrence. At 6pm here the businesses were barely attended and the city very calm. The quiet of the city is the most alien thing to me, coming from Greensboro, NC where noise seems to be paramount. It's safe to assume things will liven up on the weekend and when classes are in session.



All-in-all, it has been a very easy if not tiring transition. There are a few I's to dot and T's to cross, but for the most part things are all set in place. My goal tonight is to get some rest. Tomorrow I will finish unpacking and go figure out the gym and go to a campus event or two. Please stay tuned!

Addendum: There is a giant rainbow outside my apartment window. I couldn't get a great picture, but here it is. It's perfectly framed too. Good sign, everyone?