It is my last night in umeå. my bags are packed more or less and my room is cleaned. it's hard to believe that it's the end of a journey that i've dreamt about for years and took months to plan. being in sweden has made me poorer than ever but every krona was worth it. i've made friends from all over the world and learned so many things about other people and cultures. it's a sad and exciting time. the past few weeks have been cherished like every day was the last day. any amount of worth from a day has been extracted to the fullest extent, whether it be having boob tube time with a corridor mate, a walk around the neighborhood, having fika or just getting together to have a beer. there has been a lot of reminiscing the past few days. i still remember my first few days like they were yesterday. i was a little freaked at finding myself in a new country and excited at the same time. walking around was like seeing for the first time. everything was new and foreign; darkness all the time, trying to find the grocery store and using drying cabinets for the first time. at times i feel like i didn't use my time wisely but in the end it doesn't matter. i've made some close friends and learned some new things, that's all that matters for me.

i'm excited to get home though. i'm excited for a few american things and family and friends. i'm excited and motivated to get home and finish my degree and work more so i can get back to europe to visit friends and discover new things. i will miss my tiny little room with the pine tree view and seeing my corridor mates. it's a lot better than the neighbor's back yard that i have at home. needless to say, i do not regret any of this, i have loved every minute. it's not really a time to be sad about the end of this experience, new ones always start where old ones end. tomorrow i'm off to austria to hike the alps and see a little of italy at the end of it all.

...my time is quickly coming to an end here in Sweden. I literally have three weeks from today until I leave for Austria. I'm excited but at the same time sad to leave. I'm excited to go hike around Austria and maybe make it into Italy for a couple of days. I'm excited to go home and see familiar faces and have familiar things around me but at the same time I'm not. I'm not excited to leave what has become my new family, literally that's what they feel like. We gather at least once a week for a dinner together and spend a lot of time with each other. I'm finding it hard to believe that I've been here since January. It feels like so much and so little has happened since then. I've broken myself a few times with knives and bedposts, gotten to know many nationalities and some of their customs, learned how to grocery shop in a foreign language, and so many other things. The amount of daylight I see has drastically changed since I've come here as well. Back in January the sun was out for a few hours a day and now it's completely reversed, I see light most of the day except for a few hours at night and even that's getting shorter now.

I still remember my first day getting into Umeå at 2.30 in the afternoon in the pitch dark after many long hours of travel and no sleep. I forgot my Sweden address at home and the lady at the housing office said she couldn't give me my key because of it. I remember sitting in her office about ready to cry from exhaustion because she was being completely unhelpful and not willing to look up my address in her computer. I remember bonding a few days later with a few new friends who were complaining about the same lady being unhelpful.

I also remember going out my third night here with Annika, who was my new American corridor mate, to the international pub. I also remember trying to get home in multiple inches of snowy slushy gook and getting lost since there are no street signs and our neighborhood looks all the same. I also remember skipping part of orientation with Annika. We were a little fed up with it when they told us to wear hats, dress in layers and don't wander down dark alleys (seriously, they said all that!).

I have learned some things about Swedes and Swedish culture though. They love their lines. You have to take a number and get in queue to return your library books. Fortunately, there is never a line at the library. Don't believe a word what people tell you about Swedes. They really aren't all that shy and reserved, especially once it gets warm out. You also have no chance at becoming a Swede if you can't sleep when its light out. They also don't do things in bulk over here. The only thing you can buy in bulk is a pound of potatoes from the grocery, that's about it. I've also learned that Swedes do not wipe down machines after working out. It is one of the most disgusting things to me and every once in a while I'll get a stare for doing it. I've also learned that you can easily cheat the your way through Sweden with a Eurail pass in the off season. The ticket people seem to forget how they work in off season and rarely ever mark the pass. I think the most important thing I've learned while being here has been to be open minded and adventurous about new experiences; being able to laugh when you screw up or make a fool of yourself.

I guess part of me doesn't want this to end cause it's a great life over here. Despite the fact school is almost non-existent in my life, I still find plenty to do each day. I can actually cross of one of the goals in life; which was to live in a different country for at least a few months and Sweden was my preference for that. At least I know I still have plenty of traveling and things left to do in life too. I have plans for weekend trips to Chicago to meet up with Annika and Kline, the other Americans. Also a trip to New York next summer to meet up with the family and have a little reunion. Who knows what else will happen or where else I'll end up some day.

...it was Valborgsmässoafton (a.k.a. Walpurgis) and it's a rather large holiday in Sweden. It's an old pagan holiday that in a way is celebrating the coming of spring. People gather, sing songs about spring and of course light a giant bonfire. A few of my friends and I decided to celebrate the day with a picnic at the coast.  We went to Obbola, the place where I had been a couple months earlier and it was covered in snow and ice. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day; unfortunately we were all too tired to stick around and watch the bonfire become huge. Anyways, here are a few pics from the day:

Spring has finally come to Umeå! After complaining about never seeing the sun, it's now been out every day for over a week. The days are getting longer around here too; I've found that I'm not sleeping much at all. It's bright before 6a.m. and it gets dark at about 9.30 now. The sky here looks different too; it's a clear pristine blue all the time. It's insane. It's hard to find an upset person in this town right now. Just walking to the grocery there are people lounging about reading in the sun, having an afternoon beer or bbqing. Not much interesting has happened lately for me. Just spending a lot of time outside. Swedes are funny though. The last week it's been about 55F most of the day. Most of them haven't gotten the memo that it's spring. A lot of people are still walking around wearing heavy jackets, scarves, hats and mittens. It's entertaining to wonder why they're still wearing all that stuff!

The only interesting thing to happen lately is I went to the sjukgymnast(literally means the sick gymnast)-a.k.a. the physiotherapist. I found out I have a small tear in the ligament in my knee. It sucks, I know. But you may be wondering 'how did she hurt herself?' I've got the lamest story ever for that. About six weeks ago I got up to turn off the light in my room and walking back to my bed I was trying not to trip on my internet cord. I didn't trip but I successfully managed to ram my knee into the bed post and scream obscenities in my room at 3 in the morning while trying not to wake my neighbors. That's my story, I didn't hurt myself chasing a thief or anything cool like that.

Well, that's about all I've got for now. This weekend I'm heading down to Ostersund for a couple days just to walk around and explore. I'm off to go read in the sun!

just took a little trip out to the coast! it was beautiful! up next, planning for a couple trips!

If you don't like snow this is not the place for you! This past week has been full of lots of snow! After a bunch of snow Wednesday we got a bunch more in the past week, on many occasions. It feels like real winter here! I haven't had a real winter in a while so it's very nice. Plus, the town is small with not a lot of cars that most of the snow is still pristine white. Of course, snow merits sledding and playing in the snow like a seven year old all over again! I did happen to get a butt sled, I just had to buy 8 candy bars to get it; and it was well worth it! I spent most of last week Thursday with one of my friend looking for hills to sled on. The end to a fun day in the snow when you're younger is hot chocolate, so that's just what we had!

hey all! Sorry to disappoint; I really don't have an update for the past week. I spent my time sick and laying around in bed. I really didn't start moving about until yesterday. Being sick in a foreign country is odd though, especially with friends of so many nationalities. I've gotten so many cold remedies in the past week I could write a book! Thankfully I had plenty of people around to run to the grocery if I needed it. And going to the pharmacy to try and find something is an even bigger task. Trying to decipher a foreign language as to what product might help you best when you're not feeling your best is a little difficult. I also got a package the other day, at 7.30am. I didn't think Sweden could even get up that early since most of the shops don't open till later. Either way, I was happy to get the package containing reese's peanut butter cups (which made a good breakfast). Well, that's all I've got for now. Maybe something more exciting will happen this week. In the meantime, here's what I got outside my bedroom window; some really tall trees.

My Swedish vacation is still going well. Seriously, I haven't had so much free time since I was 5 years old! The benefits of my free time is that I have become a much better cook, especially with limited selection and deciphering labels in Swedish. It's also nice to be able to take a long walk and not worry about what time you get home. Days here are definitely longer then when I first arrived. When I got here the sun was going down about 3 in the afternoon. Now it's from about 7am till 5.30pm or so that we have light. I can't wait for the long days of midnight sun! I did wake to the pleasant surprise of snow, and lots of it this morning! It's been snowing since last night, and now it's about 2pm and still going strong. It looks beautiful out though! I might have to go sledding soon!

Last Thursday I had another Swedish cultural experience. There was a play down at centrum (town center) that the international kids were invited to. It was just a dress rehearsal but it was a lot of fun. One of the main characters had lost her voice and was ordered by her doctor to not speak so the director spoke all her lines. It was a little confusing at first but still a beautiful play. The play was called En Herrgårdssägen by Selma Lagerlöf, famish Swedish woman from way back when (early 1900's). The english translation of the title is something like Tales of a Manor. The story is about a girl that dies and is brought back to life by the violin playing of a guy. The tale is about their journeys afterwards and them falling in love. The play was all in Swedish so that made it even more fun to try and follow the story. The music was great for the play too. It was traditional Swedish folk music, just a few string instruments. Overall, it was a really fun night.

I didn't do anything too exciting last weekend. Just went out to an international pub night and spent time with friends, normal weekend things. It is really nice that the international office here organizes nights for the international students to gather at the pubs near campus. I can still go out and meet some international student I haven't met yet which is still fun to do. And of course Sunday was the fika day. Every Sunday most people gather at a place called Skogi's for fika on Sunday afternoons. After fika I took a nice long walk out at Nydalasjön. I didn't make it all the way around the lake because it started getting dark and I still needed to get home, which is about another 20 minutes walk from the lake. It was a nice warm (35f-warm to me!) day out though which made the walk more pleasant.

I had a late night on Monday, walking around centrum. I found out about a book sale at midnight at one of the bookstores down there. Apparently it's a big deal! I went down there with a couple of American friends, and we went down early since someone told us there would be a big line. There was one guy waiting by the door! There was a line half a block long eventually. I ended up buying a couple of Astrid Lindgren (Pippi Longstocking author) books and the big book of why in Swedish. So needless to say I've been busy the last couple of days reading kids books. I'm definitely getting more vocabulary though. I've moved from mostly picture books on up to books with lots of paragraphs in them. While we were down there, it turned out that most book stores in centrum were open so we went to three other stores. They all had the same things on sale though. It was such a nice night out that we ended up walking the 30 minutes back to our place, instead of the bus, at 2 in the morning. Of course the next morning is the first time I actually had to get up for class. It was the earliest I'd woken up since the day I left the states! Well, that's about all the news I have for now. I've gotta get myself to Swedish class

Well, Swedish life is still moving along fine here in Umeå. Nothing too out of the ordinary this past week. One of my classes is actually starting to pick up so I've been busy doing research for a paper that's due in a couple of weeks. I wondered why so much time is given for writing a 5 page paper but soon realized I'm writing in my native language unlike most of the class. Swedish class is still going strong and I'm still checking out kids books from the library to learn some vocabulary.

I'm finding Iksu, the giant gym, quite a lot of fun. It's nice when most of the people you know have a membership there cause you always have a workout buddy. I did sign up for some yoga classes and the fact that I'm in Sweden phased me when I signed up. I got to the class and just started laughing at myself for not realizing it would be in Swedish!

This past weekend I also went with other international students to the winter market in Jokkmokk. Jokkmokk is a small town about 400km north of Umeå. It's a small town of about 3000 people. It also lies just inside the arctic circle. It surprisingly wasn't that cold up there; only about 20f. That just felt brisk for me and my Minnesotan blood!(I'm happy I left MN before the -15f weather though!) The winter market was originally a gathering for traders in the region but has now grown to way beyond that. In the market you can find traditional Sami things (the Sami are the indigenous people of the area), furs and plenty of food. They've even got reindeer sausage at this thing! I know what some of you are wondering; no, my tastebuds were not that adventurous that day! Besides the market there are events to learn about the traditional Sami culture, dogsled rides and reindeer races. Unfortunately, I missed the reindeer races cause I had to go inside and warm up after waiting in line for my helicopter ride! It may have only been a four minute but hey, at least I can say I've done it!

Life in Sweden is still going great for me. My little room now feels like my home and I still get excited when I go out and hear people talking swedish. It's still an adventure most times I go into the grocery store trying to figure out what something is. The Swedes also love their spiral staircases. I think I've only walked up one regular staircase since being here!

Not much new has happened in the last week. I've been going to what little class I have over here and what little homework I have. It is definitely a change of pace from the American college system. Unlike the American system, people over here only take 1 or 2 classes at a time and it's broken up into weeks. So right now I'm taking a sociology class and a swedish class and that's it. Sometime in March my classes will switch again. The courses are more intense over a shorter period of time so you can't take 5 or 6 classes simultaneously like in America. However, it was a pain to try and get the books needed for my courses. The small little bookstore doesn't order very many copies of course books (maybe 2 or 3).

I've also become very fond of fika (not like I wasn't before!). Fika is a very swedish thing which is basically getting together with people and having some coffee and snacks. It's not really an option over here, more like a requirement to do this. Fika isn't something to be enjoyed once a day, more like multiple times a day.

This last week included my first trip to the Systembolaget. The Systembolaget is the state run liquor store. They have very limited selection of everything compared to the liquor stores in the United States. This last week also included my first trip to a swedish sports pub. I went on Satruday with a few friends to catch the United-Spurs football (as in soccer) game and enjoy a pint. The only annoying thing about being American right now is that when I talk about football with people they think I'm talking about American football and not soccer. I've had some confusing conversations because of this. Some people get pretty excited when there is an American into watching football. They always ask me if I know how the game works and if I know the rules to it. I kinda laugh at them and tell them I played the game myself for 14 years. I somehow become more impressive that I not only like to watch the game but I played it too.

I also joined iksu this last week. Iksu is this giant gym they have here, the second largest gym in Europe. When they say it's big, it's really big. I've only managed to find the gym and treadmills and a few gyms for badminton and such. There's a climbing wall somewhere in there that I'm going hunting for very soon. Needless to say though, I'm out of shape because I can barely move today after working out all weekend. And for some reason I'm going back tonight to do a yoga class with a few friends.

Yesterday was by far one of the nicest days since being here. It snowed some on Saturday night so there was a fresh little coating over the ice that is eveywhere but everything looked beautiful on Sunday morning. The other reason it was nice out was because there was actually sun! It's cloudy here like back home so I'm used to that part, but other people here aren't used to so much gloomy weather and get very excited to see the sun. After fika yesterday afternoon, we walked to Nydalasjön. Nydalasjön is a lake that is about a 20/25 minute walk from the neighborhood I live in, which is Ålidhem. Most students live in Ålidhem which can be really nice as far as getting to peoples places to have a cup of tea or make dinner with someone, or something like that. Anyways, the walk to the lake was very nice and it was beautiful out at the lake. There were plenty of other people out walking around yesterday as well. It was a bit chilly out but nothing I couldn't handle (being form MN and all!). Thanks papa & mom for the mukluks; they kept my feet warm and got me a nickname! I acquired the name Bambi yesterday because I was running around in the woods off the trails and taking pictures. Last night entailed a bus excursion a.k.a. taking the wrong bus and getting back out to Nydalasjön. Since yesterday was so clear it was perfect to try and see the northern lights. So back out into the cold we went in search of the elusive. We finally got to the lake and saw the northern lights for a couple minutes before they disappeared. Most of the group got to cold and walked back home while a couple of us held out for some more of the lights. The wait in the cold was worth it since they came back again for a few minutes. It was beautiful out with the northern lights in the sky and with it being so clear to see so many stars too.

Well, that's about all I've done in the past week. I'm now just sitting here about to read some kids books to work on my swedish vocabulary. I can't wait for next weekend when I get to venture into the Arctic circle to go to the winter market in Jokkmokk...

Well, I have been here for over a week now and still can't find anything I don't like about this place; despite the weather. I woke up to what looked like a bad blizzard yesterday morning and by the afternoon most of the fresh snow had turned into slush! I still seem to find something new to do everyday! I still can't get over the fact that I can go anywhere and hear some swedish. I've had a few chances to practice some swedish, but in shops people will usually start talking in english if they can detect an accent. Every once in a while though you can find some swedes that will keep talking swedish with you. I'm starting to understand more and more conversations people are having, but I still lack some vocabulary to carry on a pro-longed conversation. I actually went to the city library and checked out a couple of kids books to help with the vocabulary. I'm excited to read them once I can find some time!

I went back to classes this week after a month off. The class structure is probably the hardest thing to get used to right now. Back home, everything is very strictly scheduled. When you register for classes you know the days, time and where it's going to be. Not so over here! It seems very disorganized. I didn't know one of the rooms until the day before. They also don't take 4 or 5 classes simultaneously like in the states. They base their classes on an intensity scale of how much work would be involved. The classes also go for a few weeks and then you'll start new ones midway through the semester. Right now I only have two classes, swedish and sociology. My swedish class seems to be the only regular time and day type of schedule whereas I may have a sociology class or two this week, and then not meet for a week or two. It's a very strange system.

I've also gotten involved with the mentor program where I'm in a group with a few native swedes and a few international students. Last night, all the international students went to yet another student pub near campus to get to know our native swedes group leaders and the other international students. I'm still finding it crazy how in MN it may take a while to meet some international people but I come to northern Sweden of all places and have meet people from at least 15 different countries in less than a week. The standard introductions around here are now something like this:
-name
-country of origin
-age
-what you study
-why you chose Umeå
-where you live in Umeå
-what mentor group you are in
If you just state all this right away you can save yourself a few minutes of small talk. Its very interesting to learn about so many different cultures and what life is like for them. There are also so many misunderstandings during conversations but its still fun to talk to different people. I do think talking to so many non-native english speakers has started to have an effect on my english skills. Its funny cause they all ask the non-native speakers to correct their english if they say something wrong. Well, that's all of an update I have for now-I'm off to do some more exploring!

Well, I've been here since Wednesday and I've had nothing but fun. The last of the corridor mates moved in yesterday and she is from Wisconsin, thankfully another new international student so I have someone to do all the orientations with. Yesterday morning I woke up at a normal time so I could go explore my new surroundings in daylight. I ended up walking along these trails near my place that were amazing. It feels like you really are out in the woods for a morning stroll. By the way, I have yet to spot a tree that is not a birch or pine. Seriously, they love their birch and pine in this town! After exploring that area a little I strolled downtown which is actually a 25 minute walk away. It turns out its bigger than I expected. It is mostly shopping and a little eating down there. It reminds alot of Nicollet Ave in Mpls, without the 9-5 suits everywhere, just ultra fashionable Swedes instead.

After that excursion I ended up walking back to the grocery because there is so much different food to look at. I spent last night going out to two of the different student pubs on campus. They have pubs on campus where they serve beer and liquor for cheaper than other places around town. Life in Sweden is by no means cheap, even food from the grocery can be quite expensive. I spent today going to yet another orientation full of common sense info; like not to walk alone at night, wear a hat, dress in layers and more nonsense. I've been here for a few days now and I still have no idea which way is north. You never realize how hard it is to find your way around in the dark until you're forced to because of so little daylight. The sun rises and will just sit above the horizon for a few hours, that is if it isn't sleeting and raining you can see it. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten lost in the dark. The Swedes here must not believe in street signs because spotting one is like going on a treasure hunt. This does not help with the neighborhood I live in, Ålidhem. All the buildings look almost exactly the same and half the time there aren't numbers posted. It's no use asking for directions because the directions sound something like this, "go over that hill and down that road and then you'll see a fence, go left and keep going until you come to another road..." I've gotten directions like this from everyone, even the tourists office.

After six months of planning, twenty six almost sleepless hours of travel I’m finally here in Umeå. I can’t say I have the greatest luck on planes seeing as how all three flights I was stuck by some screaming child. However, if you ever go to Stockholm, you get lots of leg room in the winter, and I mean three seats to myself a lot. All the travel tired me out enough to sleep through the takeoff of my flight up to Umeå. That was definitely a first for me! After all my careful planning I forgot one thing at home, my address. Well, of course they can’t give you your keys without an address. The woman at the housing office dug around a little for my address and handed me my keys about half an hour later. I think she felt sorry for me in my sad state and called me a taxi and offered me food and tea. The rest of my afternoon was devoted to sleep after a nice shower.

I left my room the next afternoon after hibernating in my room since the previous day. I first met my Iranian flatmate, who gave me detailed instructions on how to get to two groceries, but wouldn’t let me leave until I had something to eat with a glass of milk. I don’t ever remember someone that I just met being so hospitable! He asked me many questions about America and especially politics. I was amazed that someone from a country that isn’t so keen on America was so well educated about our politics. After chatting for a while, he offered to go with me to the grocery store, which I was very thankful for! Everything I looked at he told me what fruits had better flavor, which brands were worth the extra kronor and things like that. The labels in the grocery are very weird and I still don’t quite understand. It gives two prices with one large and one small. The only thing I’ve figured out about it so far is that the small one matters more…maybe I’ll figure it out someday!

Water the plants
Empty the garbage-can
Where's the passport?
I feel like I forgot something