Countdown to Christmas

Hello all. Counting down the days now until I get back to the states. I've had a busy week trying to see all the sights that I haven't seen here yet. After Kiruna, I studied for a few days and took my exams. The great thing about exams here is if you fear you're going to fail, all you have to do is not take the final, then its just an incomplete class, and Iowa State will never know that you took nuclear chemistry and didn't start studying until the night before only to realize you didn't understand half the material...not that that happened or anything. You know me, straight A student. I can pass any test (that I take)

Anywho, after exams were over, I celebrated a Swedish holiday, called St Lucia Day. On this day (December 13th) a girl from every town/church/school is selected to be that year's Lucia. From what I hear, its pretty much a beauty pageant. You don't see too many Lucias without blond hair and blue eyes. So this girl wears a crown of candles on her head and sings with a bunch of other girls all these traditional Lucia songs. I went to Skansen (the open air museum) to see their Lucia concert. How very Swedish of me. That night, our corridor threw a "White Wonderland" party and lots of people came (and we got into a lot of trouble with KTH housing...) But it was fun, and everyone wore white like they were suppose to. I woke up early the next morning, cleaned up, and headed over to the bus station around 1 to pick up my friend Brent, who has been working in Germany this semester. So I waited, and waited, and finally I texted him to see where he was. "I'm in Germany," he said, "My flight gets in at 11:30 PM." So I felt stupid and went back home. So again that night, I went to the bus station, and this time I found Brent (with much longer hair than I recalled) and we had an exciting adventure that very night. The tunnelbana stops running at 1 am, so instead we decided to take the night bus back to my apartment (which I had never taken before) So we got on the bus alright and rode around for awhile. At one point the bus stopped, opened the door briefly, then closed it again, and drove off. This is when I realized that we had just missed our stop. Then the bus got on the highway, drove a bit, and got off again, and we exited at the next stop, Vastra Skogen. I didn't think it wise to walk back along the highway, so we just crossed the street, and waited for the bus to come back the other way. So we stood at the bus stopthere, next to a puddle of vomit might I add, for 40 minutes, and finally the bus came and took us to my apartment. We were back by 2:30. A great first impression of Stockholm from a very knowledgeable guide...

Drottningholms Slott

So I played tourist for the next 3 days. We visited the library (more fun than it sounds), my school, gamla stan, drottningholms slott (the royal castle), the nobel museum, stadshuset, the vasa museum, and the nordiska museum. Ate lots of lasagna (I'll leave it to Brent to describe the food in detail) and hung out with some of my friends. I told him all of the history and interesting facts about Stockholm I had learned over my time here. I'm surprised how much I actually did learn. We had a good time and it was nice to talk to an American... although I suppose I'll be able to talk to plenty of Americans in just a few days. He left on Thursday morning (at 3 am...Ryan Air doesn't always fly at convenient times) and since then, I've been to the Absolut Ice Bar (a bar made entirely of ice) and centralbadet (a spa) and started the difficult task of buying Christmas gifts...(grandparents, dad, and mom- done. chrissy, you don't get a gift, you still own me for all those clothes I bought you!)

Even the glasses are made of ice at the ice bar

Back in November, I was excited to think that in 6 short weeks I would be returning home and seeing my family and friends. Now, with only 4 days to go, I'm feeling really sad. For most of people on my floor, it is relatively easy to visit each other. Europe is small and flights are cheap. But for me, it is very likely that I'll never see these people again. I've had to say goodbye to 7 of my friends already. On Sunday, most of my friends will be leaving, including some of my close ones, and its going to be really hard. I've made Stockholm my home, and I've become really close with the people on my floor. However, I certainly haven't forgotten about all my fantastic friends in Ames, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, and annoying you with pictures and stories from Sweden for the next year of so. See you soon!

Training for the Iditarod

Sometimes I regret my decision to come to Sweden in the winter. Its cold therefore a lot of attractions are closed. My guide book is always telling me the best time to visit this city or that region is the summer. But finally, I have visited a place in Sweden that is best experienced in the winter. I left on Wednesday night for my 19 hour train journey north, past the arctic circle to the land of the northern lights and unimaginable cold. I traveled with the girls I usually travel with- Titia and Rose from my floor, along with 7 others, some of which I sorta knew, and others that I didn't know at all. We were a diverse bunch- french, australian, brazilian, german, spanish, netherlandsian (thats probably not right), and of course american. The train was not as bad as I expected and before we knew it, we arrived at our destination, Kiruna, a mining town in the north of Sweden, in the region called Lappland. In the summer, the sun never sets, in the winter, the sun never rises. Luckily we got there before the darkness set in. Although I never really saw the sun, there was about 4 hours of sunrise/sunset everyday.

We stayed at a place called Camp Alta, in the middle of the wilderness next to a big (frozen) lake. The cottage was nice and there was lots to do around the camp. The first night, we took a snowmobile tour around the lake and to the ice hotel (a hotel made entirely of ice) Unfortunately for us, the hotel was not yet finished (we were a few days to early) so we were unable to take a tour of the inside, but we did see the outside, and it looked pretty cool. Snowmobiling was also very fun. The fact that it was dark outside added to the excitement. The next day we decided to take a train to Narvik, Norway. We had heard that the view from the train was really something, and it certainly was. We spent the entire trip taking pictures out the window. I was happy to finally see a fjord. Once we arrived in Narvik, we didn't have much time until the train went back to Kiruna, so we wandered around some parks and down by the harbor. Again, there were many weird baby statues...but then again, we were in Norway...

View from the train to Narvik

The following day was our dog sled tour. We were suppose to have 2 people per sled, then take turns driving, but for some reason, they gave us each our own sled. The dogs weren't huskies like I thought they would be. Huskies are for longer expeditions I learned. We had racing dogs. I'm not sure what breed they were, but they certainly were fast. All I had to do was stand with a foot on each side of the sled and step on a brake, which dug down in the snow, when I wanted to slow down. The tricky part was braking with one foot while maintaining balance on the other, especially if the dogs were turning at the same time, or decided to cut corners sending you flying off a snow ramp. I didn't fall though. The only bad thing about the experience was the temperature. That day it was 25 C (in Kiruna they don't bother saying negative in front of the temperature, this is understood) and at one point got as low as 30. We stopped for lunch in a Sami tent (the Sami are the indigenous people of Sweden that herd reindeer in Lappland) and attempted to warm up, with out much success. Thankfully, we took the short way home after lunch and once we were back we played with the dogs and puppies for awhile and went back to our cabin. That night it was very clear and we saw what we thought were the northern lights, although it was not very bright, but at least it was something. The stars were also bright, so I looked for the only constellation I know and located the northern star. I had to look up much higher than I'm used to.

Sunrise over the lake

The last day, we spent the day enjoying the free activities at the camp. We woke up early to see the sunrise (early = 10:30) and then went cross country skiing around the lake. Afterwards we had a camp fire, and I showed them how to make smores (I had my sister bring graham crackers from home because I plan ahead like that) Would you believe these people have never heard of smores? Everyone liked them though. Our train back to Stockholm left that evening and 16 hours later we were back home. All in all, I had a really great time. This was probably my favorite trip of my time here. I made lots of new friends, a little too late though. I'm starting to get really sad about leaving Stockholm. I was trying to remember my cell phone number from back home the other day and I couldn't do it. I hope I at least remember how to drive. 2 weeks left...

I'm thankful for multiple kitchens

My sister, Chrissy, arrived in Stockholm on Wednesday morning, and proceeded to sleep several hours. I eventually had to wake her up cuz you see the funny thing about living up north...the sun sets at 3:30, and its getting earlier everyday. So we did the tourist thing, walked around Gamla Stan, went to the National Museum where we saw lots of modern furniture (its like IKEA in museum form). That night I thought I'd give her a taste of the European night life, so we put on our best clubbing attire and went to Cafe Opera. So we danced and drank expensive beer and listened to Swedish rap and left in time to take the last tunnelbana home.

The day after that was Thanksgiving, and I woke up in a panic. I don't know why I thought it would be a fun idea to share "American culture" and cook Thanksgiving dinner for my floor, but I did, and there was no backing out at that point. I scoured the city weeks before for a turkey, which I eventually found, although it cost quite a bit of money. We cooked all day for the 16 other people I had invited. After the turkeys were actually in the oven, I calmed down a bit and tried to enjoy the day. In addition to the turkey we made stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. There was only one other American there besides my sister, and he thought I did a good job, so it must have been ok. The others wouldn't have known any better if I messed it up- The turkey is raw? Yeah umm, thats how we eat it in America. It also helped that each apartment on the floor has its own kitchen. At one point I had something in 5 different ovens. So the day was stressful, but I was also very proud of myself. All those hours of watching the food network back home must have paid off....

On Friday we spent a considerable amount of time shopping. Chrissy didn't bring any money, and her credit card didn't work over here, but that didn't stop her from buying a new coat, a scarf, a sweater, shoes, tights, ice scrapers that look like tiger paws...and guess who paid for it all. But I suppose you're only in Sweden once. That night we went out to dinner at a nice Swedish restaurant and I got a moose burger. Moose is better than reindeer in case you were wondering. We went to another club, this one was called Medusa, and it was a rock club on Gamla Stan. It was two levels, the basement looked like a cave, and that is where all the dancing took place. DJ in a cage, fog machines, laser lights- you know, typical Ames, Iowa. We sang along with all our favorite System of a Down and Disturbed songs. They even played a rock version of Rihanna's Umbrella. I think the hard core head banger types there were not happy about this. We were forced to go home early because Chrissy's new shoes were hurting too much. "I wouldn't have worn them if I knew we were going out dancing" she said. Always expect dancing, Chrissy.

Saturday we went to the open air museum, Skansen. Its like one of those old timey villages we used to go to for field trips in elementary school. There are lots of old houses and shops, like the glassblowing shop, pottery shop, blacksmith, bakery, hardwear store. And everyone was in traditional costumes. It was the first day of the Christmas market (oh boy!) so we bought lots and ate lots. I tried glögg, which is a warm spiced wine-my new favorite. That night we went to a hockey game but Djurgården (the team I assume we were suppose to be cheering for) lost, so the Swedes were sad.

Chrissy, looking like she's having a fun time, at Skansen

On Sunday morning, Chrissy and I took a bus out to our relative's house, the same ones I had visited before- Björn, Kajsa, and Jerker. They had really wanted to meet my entire family, but my parents were not in Sweden long enough to see them, so my younger sister was all they got. Again, we ate and drank lots. More glögg, more traditional Swedish food. We did a smörgåsbord, a buffet with lots of food but no main course, and had christmas porridge, called risgrynsgröt. Supposedly you have to leave out a bowl of porridge for the christmas gnomes if you dont want to have bad luck fall upon your family. I never knew. The next day we drove around the area and looked at some places having to do with our family history- the train station from which our great grandfather used to transport people to town, the inn where out family would sell milk and butter, the old school my great grandfather went to, the lake my great great grandfather would fish in, my great great grandmothers gravestone, which is still there. We also visited the town of Loka where my great grandfather once worked. The town is known for its water, which is the cleanest in Sweden I'm told, and has special healing powers. This was extra exciting for me, because there is also this bubbley water they sell everywhere here, called Loka, which is made from the water at Loka supposedly. Anyways, I like the citrus flavored Loka water, and I buy it here a lot. I found all of this very interesting, although I think my sister is less enthusiastic about family history.

The family farm (photomerge!)

My sister left this morning, so I have a day and a half of free time before I leave for Kiruna, up north. Maybe one day I'll have some time to study for my exams. Perhaps that what I'll do on my 16 hour train ride tomorrow....ugh.

my first real visitor (parents don't count)

Hey guys. Long time no see. I'm sad to say I haven't been doing anything terribly exciting here lately. I haven't been traveling anywhere, in an effort to save money and avoid going outside (its cold). So I go to class, I hang out with my floormates, I try new recipes...Very exciting stuff. Over the past 3 weekends I have gone to various erasmus parties (erasmus = what europeans call studying abroad) I went to an Irish pub and watched a rugby match. What an odd game. Being in a bar, watching sports on a big screen with lots of people really made me miss football (the american kind) That is one thing that people here definitely don't understand.

This past weekend things were a little more exciting than usual because I had a visitor! Lillian, a friend from high school, is studying in Vienna this semester, and decided to pay me a visit. She was here Thursday until today (Tuesday) and we did all the touristy stuff. We went shopping all over the place- Sodermalm (the trendy south island), Drottningsgatan (the main shopping street near the central station), and Gamla Stan (the old part of the city). We must have spotted at least 15 H&M's along the way. There is a big H&M on Drottningsgatan, with one across the street, and one 2 doors down... Not sure why that one street needs 3 H&M's, but whatever. I admit that I have gone to all 3 on a single shopping trip. For those that don't know what H&M is, shame on you! Its only the best store ever. And its Swedish. Lillian was very excited to shop in an authentic, Swedish H&M (although they really are no different than the ones back in the US)

Lillian on the south end of Kungsholmen (the island I live on)

On Sunday, we got lost on the way to a Christmas market and nearly froze to death. We wanted to get to this Steninge Slott market that we had read about in a guide. We checked out the website and the instructions seemed simple enough...take the train to Marsta, then the bus to a certain stop, and follow the signs to the market...So we took the train 30 km out of the city and found our bus. The bus stop we wanted was in the middle of a residential neighborhood, but there were signs, so we followed them. So we started walking, but somehow along the way we became lost. We ended up on a path in a forest, which didn't seem quite right. Eventually, we encountered a man walking his dog and I asked if he knew where the christmas market was. We had taken a wrong turn, so we backtracked, and finally found this place after about 45 minutes of walking...in the snow. Anyways the market was nice. I bought a julbocken....a christmas goat. I'm not sure what the significance of these are, but you see them everywhere now. It is this horse like thing made of straw and ribbon. It looks way cool on my table next to my new IKEA candle.

Julbocken är kul!

So I had a fun time with Lillian, but now I'm going to have to do all the tourist stuff all over again because my sister will be here tomorrow morning! But I'm a way good hostess, I think I convinced Lillian to move to Stockholm. I was nice to speak to an American again, at a normal speed without having to explain what different words mean. I think you will find when I return that my english has gotten worse. Oh well, I'm an engineer, I suppose it works.

No need to tell people I'm from Canada anymore

So, I hear there was some sort of election in the US on Tuesday. How'd that go for you? Actually I should know the answer to that...as its all anyone's been talking to me about for the past 2 days. The people in my hall start chanting O-BAM-A when they pass my room. I've been congratulated even. Well gosh that's nice, but I didn't do anything. I didn't even vote (I know, I'm a bad American) Since I haven't been doing anything too exciting this week, I figure I'd share with you some of the things I've noticed regarding people's attitudes towards America and the election.

First, on the subject of America in general, only two cities seem to matter to the students here. When I ask if they've been to the states, they've either been to New York or LA, or want to go to New York or LA. Most people have heard of Chicago, but believe it to be on the east coast, somewhere warm with no snow. People have heard the name Iowa before but don't know anything about it. Probably a good thing, as the few who do know are relentless with the comments on corn and barn dances (I swear, I've never been to one!) In one of my lectures last week, the professor was talking about genetically engineered corn. He said- Believe it or not, in America, there are entire states devoted to growing corn!- I think I may know a little something about those. No one seems to know how many states there are either. Sometimes I'll ask, usually the answer I get is 48. Then I correct them and go on to recite all of the states alphabetically in song form. Europeans are impressed by this.

Now onto the election, because I'm sure you haven't read enough about that on the internet already.... For the past 3 months, I have been asked time and time again what I think about the election. For the most part, the Europeans tend to be in support of Obama. And although I'm not that well informed, I managed to stay more informed than all of them. So I could answer most of their questions, like "So is McCain a Democrat or Republican?" After awhile, the constant talks about the election started to get on my nerves. I'd be at a party, having a good time, when someone would come up to me and say- You're American right? What do you think of Obama's plan to blah blah blah- and I'd answer, because I'm nice like that, but secretly I just wanted to get away. At one such party, I was talking to a student from Iran, who asked what I thought about Bush. I gave my standard answer of saying something he's not my favorite, a lot of Americans disagree with his policies, and so on, and then he responded telling me that he and a lot of people in Iran, especially young ones, like George Bush. I was surprised by this. He said it was because he puts a lot of pressure on the Iranian government so they can still have a few liberties. It was his dream to go study in America. It seems to be a lot of people's dream here. "Just to see what's so great about it."

So anyways the election is over now, so maybe all the questions will be over too, we'll see. Some of the Swiss boys on the floor stayed up until 4 am and watched the results on election night, while the American (me) slept. I wish I could have been back in Ames to watch with all my American friends. It would have been even cooler to be in Chicago. But its also an interesting perspective to see people's reactions here. And I've seen how excited people are about America, and even in the subjects I'm studying, the US seems to set the bar for everyone else. So I guess I'm lucky. Even if I have a lame accent or overweight friends, the US is pretty sweet. (Totally kidding about you being overweight btw, you look great!)

I read that newspapers announcing Obama's victory are selling out quickly all over the world. So here's a little something from Sweden. The newspaper I usually read (or attempt to read)

Wait? So George Bush was Obama all along? I knew it!

Oslo: not enough fjords

It's been a very eventful week here in Scandinavia. It began with two exams, one of which I didn't realize I had until the day before because I didn't bother to look at my schedule. But don't worry, I aim only to pass, and that I am sure (or pretty sure) I did. After my two days of actual work, things went back to normal and I decided to go on a little trip to another one of my many homelands.

The destination was Oslo, Norway. I went with Karoline, a funny German girl who I did my dental implant paper with for biomedical materials. We left on Tuesday night for the 8 hour bus ride to Oslo. The plan was the sleep on the bus. I brought my pillow and my sleeping pills, but alas, I could not sleep. We arrived around 5:30 am and couldn't check into the hostel until 1 pm. A fun morning ensued. We sat in a Burger King for a few hours until stuff started opening. (More Burger Kings in Oslo than McDonalds, a first in any of the European cities I've visited) We went to the National Gallery and saw The Scream (Edvard Munch = Norwegian) and ate at Peppe's Pizza, the best American pizza chain in Norway I'm told. And I have no doubt that is true...Norway is a very small country after all. After a morning of walking around half asleep, we finally were able to check into the hostel and proceeded to take a nap. Afterwards, we visited the newly opened opera house. Its quite a unique building. We walked up the roof (see picture to understand how this is possible) and took lots of pictures. We continued the sightseeing the rest of the evening, probably had dinner at some point, and went out for a drink to my favorite Scandinavian chain of Irish pubs, The Dubliner. I had one beer for 75 Norwegian kroner (11 dollars) and decided I would never drink in Norway again, especially if I wanted enough money to get home.

The Norwegian Opera & Ballet

Day two in Norway was rainy and cold, what the Germans call "dog weather" I was told, but we were still out there, seeing what else Oslo had to offer. We visited the viking ship museum in the morning. The museum had 3 viking ships, later used as burial ships, for sailing around in the afterlife I suppose, from around the year 900. They were in very good condition considering the age. You must now be thinking that I have a weird obsession with old ship museums, but its not my fault, its what the Swedes and Norwegians like to display in their countries. So after that museum we went to the Gustav Vigeland sculpture garden consisting of over 200 statues by the same guy of humans at different stages of life displaying a variety of emotions. My favorite one was of a man kicking a baby. I guess its ok to kick babies in Norway. Perhaps its my Norwegian blood that makes me not so crazy about babies. Its only those darn kittens that reduce me to a girly mess. That night we took a trip up into the hills to visit a restaurant I had read about in my guide book, Frognerseteren. Getting there was a bit sketchy though. We took the tunnelbana (subway) to the last stop on the line, this too was called Frognerseteren. The stop was outside with nothing and nobody around except the forest. We eventually found a sign leading down a hill that said 'restaurant' and figured this was what we wanted. The path was dark. I kept tripping on rocks, keeping an eye out for rapists and murderers hiding in the woods. Very scary. But I suppose my fears are misplaced in somewhere like Norway. The food was good and the view was nice. So on your next trip to Oslo, I highly recommend it. Well this is getting a bit long so I'll speed things up here. The third day in Oslo was spent walking and shopping and trying to spend the rest of my money. We took the bus home on Saturday, another 8 hours of fun, and arrived in time for the big end of exams party at the student union.

A baby being kicked at the Vigeland sculpture park

I fear that my posts from now on may be less interesting, as I think I might cut back on the ridiculous amount of travelling. Although I have excellent news. 1 dollar now equals 7.9 kroner (up from 5.8 in August) Yay global economic crisis! So until next time guys, Happy Halloween!

Part II: Janet and Marty explore their Scandanavian roots

When I last left you, I had a full box of Reeses Puffs and I had just returned from London with my parents in tow. Well I ran out of milk, so I still have plenty of cereal. Skim milk in Sweden is called minimjolk- I was very confused the first time I went to the grocery store. Oh but you want to hear less about food and more about what I've been up to this past week? Well alright, if you insist...

So I finally got around to seeing Stockholm this week. We went to all the big tourist attractions. Skansen, the open air museum, has been open since the late 19th century. It features old buildings from all over Sweden. There are people dressed up in traditional costumes who hang out in the houses or shops or churches and tell you about what life would be like in that time and place. There is also a zoo, with animals found in Sweden. Moose, seals, and bears, oh my! Oh and there were just peacocks wandering around the paths. The bears and foxes were put in the same habitat for some reason. I was very nervous for the poor foxes. There was a bit of an issue regarding some kind of dead animal. The foxes had it, but the bear wanted it, so when the foxes noticed that the bear was approaching them, one of them took the food behind a bush along the fence and the other fox stood between the bear and the fox with the food. Gutsy. But no one died. Darn.

After a long afternoon at Skansen, we walked over to the Vasa museum. The Vasa is a warship that sunk in the Stockholm harbor on its maiden voyage back in 1628. 333 years later, the wreckage was found. It had been preserved under clay or silt or whatever was at the bottom of the harbor. The ship was salvaged and treated with some sort of polymer (yay materials) to replace the water in the wood and put on display. I hadn't been that excited about seeing the ship. My thoughts were, oh great, a ship, but it actually was very impressive. The place kinda smelled weird though.

The Vasa Warship

After 3 days in Stockholm, we left for Copenhagen, Denmark. We stayed at a bed and breakfast. The lady who owned it seemed very nice, but she kept talking to me in Danish, even though I never responded in this language. Fortunately, I could understand a little of what she said because Danish is pretty similar to Swedish. Not that I can speak Swedish all that well. We saw all the important sights. Went of a canal tour and saw the harbor, visited Tivoli, the amusement park in the middle of the city all decked out in Halloween decorations, and ate Danishes (sorry, no more food). My favorite part of the trip was probably the visit to the Carlsberg brewery. I think Carlsberg isn't as popular in the US, but you've heard of it right? Its my beer of choice here, as it was during my summer in London. I didn't learn anything on the tour that I didn't already know, as I've already been on many brewery tours. I just like free beer (well I still had to pay for the tour), and I tried some interesting Carlsberg varieties that I hadn't heard of before. I would have stolen some glasses too if it wasn't for my parents storing their stolen glasses in my bag. Good influences, those two.

My parents flight left several hours before mine, so on Sunday afternoon I went to the Louisiana modern art museum 30 km outside the city. It was a good museum, but god was it crowded. I've never seen so many people at an art museum. And so many children. It was a bit annoying. The museum itself was a bit of a maze. Lots of stuff was outside as well. I found a narrow path/work of art called journey of self discovery or something like that, so I followed it, and I wound up at some other building with other artwork. It was all a very confusing adventure. I returned to Stockholm that night, and over the last few days I've been recovering from all the sightseeing and walking. I don't see how I managed those 2.5 weeks spent backpacking through Europe. Maybe I've grown lazy in my old age. And now finals are approaching (quarter system, how silly) so I might actually have to do some work this week! lame.

Art museums in Denmark

Check out pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30355022@N06/sets/72157608020735470/
and sorry for switching between flickr and facebook all the time. People are going to have to put a little more effort into their stalking if they want to see pictures of my parents.

And all I can think of is that Weezer song

October already guys! And the days are just flying by now that my parents are here and I'm sightseeing 24/7 (maybe not quite that much, but more than usual) I now have my Reese Puffs cereal, and I can be happy again..for a week or so that is. Here in Sweden, cereal is eaten with plain yogurt instead of milk. And all the cereals are healthy and boring. No corn pops, or apple jacks, or lucky charms. I have no reason to get out of bed in the morning! No, I'm not that obsessed, I just miss good old fashioned sugary unhealthy American food. But don't worry, I get my daily dose of sugar and unhealthiness by covering everything I eat with nutella.

So my parents are visiting me this week. We went to London this past weekend, spent some time in Stockholm, and tomorrow we're leaving for Copenhagen. I'll write about London here before I forget everything. I met my parents there on Saturday and we found our way over to the hotel. I had forgotten how crowded the underground gets there. I'm so used to Stockholm where crowded means I might not get a seat on the train. In London, we barely had space to stand. So many people. That night we wandered around Leicester Square, Convent Garden, and Piccadilly Circus. If you haven't been to London, these names mean nothing to you, but it makes me feel cool to write about places you don't know about. Sunday it rained all day. Luckily I had those rainboots I bought in Helsinki, so I was alright. My mother, on the other hand, has difficulties with shoes. For example, on the day I moved out of my apartment in Ames, she wore these difficult-to-walk-in fancy sandals. I had told her to bring appropriate shoes for the trip- including something in case it rains. However, she failed to do this, therefore her feet were wet, which we heard all about that day. (If you're reading this Mom, sorry. I think you're swell!) We took one of those double decker tour buses around and saw all the sights- Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge (what you guys probably think is London Bridge) Then we took a river cruise down the Thames back to Parliament.

That night we went to see Stomp, which I very much enjoyed. Next time one of you sees me drumming on a table or attempting to tap dance, you should join in, but make sure it sounds cool. So the 3 of us enjoyed Stomp so much (well I enjoyed it, I think my parents nodded off a few times) that we went and bought tickets for another show the next night. This one was Buddy, the Buddy Holly story. I really wouldn't call it a musical so much as a concert featuring a guy with Buddy Holly glasses. It was entertaining, but not so much story was involved. Hate to spoil the ending for you all, but Buddy dies in a plane crash at the end. His last show before the crash was in Clear Lake, Iowa! So in the last scene of the show, Buddy and his band played to the audience, as if we were the audience in Clear Lake. So the concert announcer person came out and talked to the audience while they were changing the set. He said stuff like "I hear there is a group from Cedar Rapids here tonight" or "Who here came up from Fort Dodge?" and I thought to myself, I'm probably the only person in this audience that knows where these places are. He didn't mention anything about Ames though. Ames was probably cool enough to have their own show. I mean, if Clear Lake had one, we definitely would.

I planned most of the trip, but I did let my parents choose what museum we would visit. Afterall, there are a lot of great museums. I went to a lot of them the summer I was in London, as they were all free. So they chose the Museum of London, which focuses on the history of the city. However it was under construction, so I have no idea what happened to the city of London past the Great Fire of 1666. The rest of my time in London was spent hunting down delicious wine gums, shopping in Camden Lock Market, visiting St Paul's Cathedral, and trying to remain pleasant for my parents sake. On Tuesday morning we left for Stockholm and oh boy, what fun we've had here, but you'll have to wait for part 2 of The Bergerud (- Chrissy)'s European Vacation.

Quick shout out: Hi Chrissy! Hope you're having fun looking after the dog.

Back in the USSR

Greetings blog readers!

You may have noticed that I didn't write anything last weekend. That's because I stayed in Stockholm. I went out Friday and Saturday nights to a few clubs and bars, spent a lot of money, you know, the usual. So that weekend doesn't deserve its own post, neither do the weekdays, so lets skip ahead to this past weekend.

Many of you already know that I took a trip with my floor to Riga, Lativa...and you wondered why I did this...frankly, I wonder why too. Well Riga is the party destination of the former Soviet Union. Yeah. I didn't even know what Latvia was until about 6 weeks ago when we bought the tickets...ignorant american...

Riga from across the river

The transportation part of the trip was a bit sketchy. We took a ryanair flight, so that was to be expected. And then on the bus from the airport to the hostel, I was just sitting there with my stuff, minding my own business when suddenly everything went gray/white and something powdery blasted in my face. I stood up and noticed the people on the bus didn't seem as panicked as I was, but at this point I really wanted to be able to breathe, so I pushed my way off as everyone else exited the bus, which then drove away, without any announcement of what had happened or an apology of any kind. Just a normal bus trip in Riga I guess. So I sat there on the edge of the road coughing and trying to get all the white powder off of me for awhile, as my friends discussed what had just happened. They came to the conclusion that the fire extiguisher in front of me had went off or exploded or something, and I probably got the worst of it, as I was the only one covered in white. I hope inhaling that stuff isn't dangerous.

We soon arrived at the hostel, which seemed like a fun place. Bar open 24/7, friendly staff, seemingly cool people staying there. They gave us a free beer. That was nice. But we soon learned that 24/7 bar maybe wasn't such a good idea...but I'll explain this later. So we went off to explore the city a bit. It was a pretty place- cobblestone streets, colorful buildings, nice parks. Not exactly what I was expecting. We had dinner at a Latvia restaurant....but Latvian food isn't anything exciting, pretty much just meat and potatoes. But we were happy that everything was so (comparitively) cheap. We then went back to the hostel, got ready and waited for an acceptable time to go out, midnight in this case, as the clubs in Latvia don't close until 8 am.

So went out to this place called essential, which was unlike anything I've ever seen. There must have been at least 5 dance floors playing different music, and lots of different bars around. There was always a new section of the club to discover. Just walk up a different set of stairs and see where it takes you. We started off on the techno dance floor with its laser lights and fog machines then we advanced to the hip-hop dance floor where I impressed everyone with my knowledge of hip-hop lyrics. Eventually we ended up at the 80s and 90s pop floor. Any DJ that plays ghostbusters twice in one night is alright with me. At around 2:30 I was ready to leave. I'm used to going home by 2 afterall, but unfortunately, no one else wanted to, so I ended up staying until 5, at which point I was very ready to go to bed.

So we got back to the hostel and the place was pretty empty except for 5 English boys, who were still drinking at the 24 hour bar. They asked where we were staying and, lucky us, we were in the same room! (We were in a 14 person co-ed dorm) So they talked to us for awhile and they were obviously very drunk, but they seemed nice enough. So we put on our pajamas and got into bed and were about to go to sleep, when the 5 of them came in, turned on all the lights, and started talking to us. One of them actually climbed into bed with one of my friends, which was super creepy, so she just sorta inched away and tried to ignore him. The others were drunkenly yelling something about how the bus was coming soon and asked each person in the room individually what kind of sandwich they wanted (I said PB&J) So this went on for awhile, and despite the fact that no one was responding, they kept talking, so finally my friend Titia told them to shut up and get out because we were trying to sleep, or something along those lines. In the process she must have mispronounced a word (she's from the Netherlands afterall, but speaks very good English) so they started making fun of her. So this was not cool, at all, so another friend, Natalie, started yelling at them and went out to the desk to see if we could switch rooms. Unfortunately they were all full, but we at least scared them a bit, and they were better the rest of the night, although still loud, and still obnoxious. We really couldn't fall asleep until they did, which wasn't until around 8 am. Now I had read about how a lot of European countries have issues with English tourists being loud and drunk and obnoxious, but I had never experienced this first hand. What jerks. So needless to say, much of Saturday was spent sleeping.

The statues in Latvia scare me

The rest of my time in Latvia was less scary. We did some sightseeing, ate delicious pancakes, and did some serious floor bonding. I learned all about the history of Latvia in the 20th century. Man, they've had it easy. The next night we switched rooms, where I was kept awake by snoring instead. I was careful to avoid the fire extinguisher on the bus ride to the airport, and we got home Monday evening, just in time for me to rush to Swedish class 30 minutes late. Next week my parents will be visiting me. And they're bringing Reese Puffs! Finally, something to look foward to.

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen....

This last weekend I took a trip to Helsinki, Finland- and much fun was had. I went with two other girls from my floor, Rose from Melbourne, Australia and Titia from Delft in the Netherlands. We took an overnight cruise over there, which was pretty fun. The boat was big with lots of (expensive) stuff to do. Our first stop was the duty free shop, of course. While I was there, I spotted Maynard Wine Gums, my favorite candy back from my days in London. So I bought a big box, which I'm sad to say is now almost empty. Oh, interesting story. While we were in our cabin, we heard music coming from down the hall, so we went to check it out. There were a bunch of Swedish people our age drinking in a room, and they invited us in (FYI- many Swedish people go on these boats solely to buy cheap alcohol and get really drunk). They asked us where we were from, and when I said the US, they were like, oh, all snobby and disapproving like, and they didn't talk to me for the rest of our time in the room. I had never had people react like that to me being from the US. Most of the time people will say, oh we can't wait for you to get a new president, or something like that, but they wont hate me for being from the US. But not these people I guess. Oh well. And later on the boat, we went up to a karaoke bar (I may or may not have sang Summer of 69...) and this Swedish guy was telling me all about his dream to move to LA. I tried to explain that LA isn't really all that great, but I suppose the Swedes just watched too much of the OC. So anyways, the boat was fun. No icebergs or anything. For I would have surely died, being in the poor part of the boat, below the car deck.

Alright, enough about the boat. The destination was Helsinki. After a night of not sleeping very well we arrived, and it was freezing. Makes you really appreciate the 50 degree weather in Stockholm. We took the tram to our hostel, which was located inside the 1952 Olympic stadium, cool, then we set off to explore the city. Our first stop was the modern art museum, called Kiasma. And since I enjoy modern art very much, I was a fan of this activity. I bought a new poster for my collection of posters from art museums. Its a dog in a bee costume, and it says "en ihan ymmärrä" which is Finnish for something that I haven't bothered to look up yet. Oh I just remembered why dogs in bee suits seemed so familiar to me, its that website, with all the dogs in bee costumes....http://beedogs.com/ right. well, if you had trouble picturing what a dog in a bee suit would look like, this website has plenty of examples. After the museum of modern art, we made the mistake of walking through Helsinki's main shopping district on the way to our next destination. I ended up spending all the money I had just taken out of the ATM for the trip on shoes...but the good news is I now have rain boots (also known as wellies in England, gum boots in Australia) for those rainy Stockholm days. And a pair of crocs, but not ugly crocs, you wouldn't even know they were crocs, i swear! Since the majority of people reading this I'm guessing are male, I'll stop talking about shoes and move on. Our next stop was the Helsinki Cathedral. I got some nice pictures of it. It reminded me of what I imagine Russia would be like. Fun fact! Finland used to be part of Sweden, but Russia conquered it in 1809. It later became independent in 1917. So I suppose that's why there are both Russian and Swedish looking buildings in Helsinki.

The Helsinki Cathedral

This is where the trip starts getting a little bit dangerous, except not really. We read in the Lonely Planet guide about an old Finnish wood burning sauna, and we decided to visit it. The subway was sketchy (especially compared to the tunnelbana in Stockholm) and then the neighborhood we got dropped off didn't seem all that safe either...We had a hard time finding the building, but once we saw the old fat men in towels sitting outside this building with a huge sign that said 'sauna' we figured we were in the right place, but were beginning to question our decision to come there. But we decided to stay and use the sauna, but I wouldn't say I exactly enjoyed it. It was very old, and there were a lot of old (naked) people... anyways, it wasn't the relaxing experience I had imagined it to be. Our next stop was dinner, which again was picked out from the Lonely Planet guide, but don't worry, this time they got it right. We went to a little restaurant outside the city center with Finnish food. We opted to do the buffet, so we could try everything. I tried reindeer, which I was excited about, but I didn't care for it much. Not very flavorful. We stayed there for hours. Even when we wanted to leave, the old couple who owned the place kept talking to us, so we couldn't. They were nice though.

The next day, we started off the morning at Cafe Espanade. We bought 4 pastries between and 3 or us. I knew I was in trouble after eating the first third of a pastry and already feeling full. But I finished everything on my plate, a bad but delicious idea. We then took a ferry to Suomenlinna, an big fortress built on an island near the city in the 18th century to protect Helsinki. We walked around the island for a few hours, exploring different tunnels and buildings. It was huge, had the weather been nicer and if I would have had a flashlight to see inside some of these tunnels, I could have spent all day there. I imagine its a very nice place to visit in the summer. We took the ferry back and visited another cathedral, the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral. Gotta love churches...especially if you're travelling in any city in Europe. We went back to the hostel to retrieve our bags, ate lunch/dinner in the big food market by the water, and got back on our boat. The ride home was pretty low key. Titia and I went to the sauna on the boat (much nicer than the scary one in Helsinki) and we went to bed early. The next morning, the boat arrived at 9:30, and I rushed back to KTH in time for my class at 10. Check out my new facebook album with pictures from Uto and Helsinki. http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2239592&l=75664&id=16915404

A weekend with the family

This weekend, I visited the former home of Per Erikson, my great great grandfather. He had 8 or 9 children, Arvid, Gustav, Erik, Anna, Hilda, Jenny, some others I can't remember now, and my great grandfather Axel Pearson (back then if you were Per's son, your last name reflected that fact, I'm guessing Per's father was named Erik...) Axel eventually immigrated to Chicago along with his brothers. Jenny had wanted to go to America, but wasn't allowed to. So she remained in Sweden and eventually inherited the family home. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Axel married a woman named Elsa and had a child, Marian, who had 2 daughters, one of which was Janet, and she had 2 daughters, including a beautiful baby named Amy. You still with me? So in short, Marian is my grandma. Ok, so Jenny had a daughter who had a son an his name is Björn. Bjorn is married to Kajsa and they have a son in college (or rather university) named Jerker. They had lived in Stockholm for several years, but when Bjorn retired, they moved out to the old family home in the country where they live now. So I guess that makes me some sort of 2nd niece of Björn's, 3rd cousin to Jerker, or my own grandpa...either way, I'm related to these people. Of all the children of Per and their families, the only one that Björn managed to stay in contact with was my grandmother Marian. So they write letters to each other a few times a year. My grandma had mentioned in one that I would be studying in Sweden and they offered to have me stay there whenever I wanted.

The Pearson family home

Now that we're done examining that branch of my family tree, I'll tell you about my weekend in the country visiting Björn and his family. I did all sorts of typical Swedish stuff. I've only met a few Swedish people in Stockholm so far so this was very exciting for me. Anyways, everywhere you go in Sweden you see these yellow mushrooms for sale. I have always been curious to try them, as the Swedish people seem so obsessed with them. In the woods outside of Björn's house, many of these mushrooms grow, and if you're quiet and you look hard enough, you can find them. So we went out searching in the afternoon, and we found quite a lot, 2 kg (4.4 pounds). We then went back to the house and cleaned each one with a little brush, which took a long time. But if you're drinking at the same time, this task isn't so bad. They gave me lots to drink. When I first got there they gave a beer, then more beer with dinner, and a shot of aquavit (a popular Scandinavian liquor) during dinner (shots with dinner is very common in Sweden, I told them that this is typically not the case in the states....) then whiskey after dinner...beer with lunch, gin and tonic in the afternoon, more whiskey, more shots...anyways, I tried my best not to drink too much, as I didn't want to appear like an obnoxious drunk to my hosts. But the were very insistent...I suppose this is how we can tell we're actually related...

But enough about alcohol. I'll tell you more about the food (this is what you've been waiting for Jake) Besides the mushrooms which we worked so hard on, I tried a lot of traditional Swedish foods, which I either had read about or had seen at the store but had no idea how to prepare correctly. The thing I'm most proud of trying was herring. They put herring in a jar filled with vinegar, onions, and sugar, then eat it with potatoes (we ate a ton of potatoes that weekend) or with knäckebröd (this hard cracker type thing that they devote an entire aisle to at the grocery store) This was surprisingly good. I also tried beets. Now I know what beets are, but I don't think I ever bothered to try them. These again were in a jar with some sort of sugar liquid, and were very good. We attempted to go crayfishing as well. We went out on the lake and dropped in some cages. The next morning we went back only to find that we had caught none. They say a disease from Denmark came and killed most of the crayfish in the area. Stupid Denmark. But this was alright, I secretly wished for failure. As you might remember from my last post, I do not like crayfish (So, thank you Denmark....) Oh and we drank quite a lot of coffee. 3 or 4 times a day we'd sit for an hour and drink coffee (and whiskey...) and talk. I had read that Swede's like their coffee, and I can assure you this is true. Anyways, after than weekend I never want to see another potato or cup of coffee again! (Actually I just had potatoes last night, and I'm drinking a cup of coffee as we speak...I'm so Swedish)

Gosh so much already. You can stop reading now if you wish. But I want to remember my weekend, so I'll keep writing. On Saturday, we woke up early and first checked the crayfish cages, and then drove out to a iron mine nearby. In this area of Sweden, known as Västmanland, there are many mines- copper, iron, silver- but most of them are closed by now. Now this particular mine, which I remember correctly was called Stråssa, was on top of a hill with a beautiful view of the villages in the area. It was a bit gloomy outside that day, so I don't think my pictures really do it justice. After our visit there, we drove through the woods to the Löa smelting house, which Björn and the other families in their village (of 300) each own a part of. It is no longer in use, but it is now a museum and a popular (maybe popular isn't the right word here...sometimes frequented) tourist attraction. I learned all about the process used to convert iron ore into iron in the 18th and 19th centuries. I won't make you listen to that. But I will tell you that I found some pretty sweet rocks. The rest of the evening was spent picking mushrooms, drinking coffee, eating Swedish food, and looking at old pictures of the family. We spent the next day driving around the area looking at some of the old villages and towns, and some of their smelting houses (these are called hytta in Swedish by the way and every village in the area seems to have one- not all are as well preserved though as the one I visited) We spent awhile in Örebro, the 7th largest city in Sweden, which has a very nice castle (former prison) in the middle of the city. On Sunday afternoon we said our goodbyes and I took a bus back to the city.

View from the Stråssa mines

Anyways, I was very lucky to have a opportunity like this. It was a bit awkward at first, as I had never met Björn before, well I suppose they visited Chicago when I was 2, but that doesn't count. I felt bad making them speak English all weekend (well I didn't make them, but they were very good hosts and were careful to always make me feel welcome) but their English was very good anyways. I may visit them again sometime this semester. They told me I was welcome anytime. And I would like to, that is if I manage to find a free weekend...I'm planning way too many trips. So that's it. If you want to know more about iron mining, just ask me. I think I know way too much on the subject now...

If you care to see more pictures from my weekend, here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30355022@N06/sets/72157607197969241/

And you thought Iowa's windmills were awesome (or maybe you didn't)

Hej hej-

I did something touristy this week! And you'll be happy to hear I only went to one party since I last 'blogged'. Wednesday was my last day of Swedish class and the exam was Saturday morning. I think it went alright. I had to write a 200 page essay on my family. I wish there were more Bergeruds to write about. All I need is a 60% to pass....I think I can manage. I also started my first real class on Friday (weird day to start right?) Its biomedical materials. It seems that everyone in the class is a polymers expert but knows nothing about metals. I'm the other way around. And again, the only native english speaker. It doesn't look like it'll be too hard. I can pretend to know polymers I think. You polymers people make it look so easy.

After the test, me and 3 girls from my floor (Titia from Holland, Rose from Australia, and Natalie from England) took a trip to an island called Utö in the Stockholm archipelago. I really had no idea what it would be like. I called the tourism office on the island and asked if there were any open rooms, and there was only one 4 bed cabin available. So we booked that. It ended up being really nice. We weren't expecting that. It was one of the classic little red Swedish cabins you see so often (well, maybe you don't see them as often as I do) We took the train, followed by bus, then ferry, then we rented bikes and rode them to the cottage (3 km out of town) We had dinner at a restaurant in town. There was a buffet. Unfortunately for me, this buffet featured a lot of shellfish. Not exactly my favorite. Crayfish are really big here during the month of August. People have crayfish parties I guess (I haven't been invited to any yet...) But thats ok, because I don't like crayfish. Too much work for a not so good taste. The desserts at the buffet were really good though. So don't worry guys, I'm eating really healthy here. After the buffet we rode home, stopping every few minutes to take pictures of the sunset and let the mosquitoes eat us alive.

Our little red cabin on Utö

The next morning after a good 12 hours of sleep we got up and made swedish pancakes. We biked back into town and visited the old windmill. Its the big tourist attraction on the island. And what a windmill it was! We had lunch and then visited the old iron mines, which date back to the 12th century! I figured that would be the proper mat e thing to do. We spent the rest of our time there roaming around the island and taking pictures. I feel so Swedish now. The islands on the archipelago are a popular weekend destination for the Swedes. Many own summer homes there. What a life. When I grow up, I want to be Swedish too! Or at least have a summer home on the Baltic Sea and a sailboat. I suppose that would do.

Utö's 200 year old windmill

Hi, do you sell red plastic cups?

Its funny to hear what people think of the states. Everyone drives a huge SUV and lives on fast food and, well... actually, thats pretty accurate. I drive a 95 civic thank you very much. I find it difficult to share american culture with all of my new international friends. They've all got something interesting to share about their homelands. But they also know pretty much everything about the US. Every band, every movie, every tv show...Desperate Housewives and Prison Break are pretty popular...perhaps I'll try watching Prison Break so I can be cool too. And they also seem to know a great deal about rap. And you thought I was the blackest person you knew...

But this quest to share something about American culture hasn't been a total failure. My parents will be happy to hear that I am the only one here that seems to know any good drinking games. So, I made it my mission to teach these people beer pong. Now, preparing for this was more difficult than you might imagine. For one thing, ping pong balls do not reside in the liquor aisle where they belong. I had to go to a sporting good store! Crazy Swedes. I was unable to acquire the proper color of cup as well, but clear worked well enough. So Friday night, the people of 8th floor St Goransgatan 147 held a pre-party for the welcome party at the student union that night. So I set up the table in my room. Probably a bad idea as my floor was covered in beer the next morning. For being an expert at drinking games, I really suck at beer pong. But I was good at explaining the rules at least. I think everyone had fun.

So the next thing I taught my friends was the game of ultimate frisbee. They think I'm great, and maybe compared to them, I am. Good thing they don't know any other Americans...We played at Djurgarden (pretty island with lots of museums) after class, and we also played some football (translation: soccer) Oh, another thing they think I'm good at is shuffling...We play poker a lot, and when they first saw me shuffle and deal the cards, they were amazed. They asked if I had ever worked at a casino. But, yeah, they're probably right. I'm way good at shuffling.

American food has been a difficult thing to share, as it can only be properly made at McDonalds it seems. I thought maybe hotdogs, but gosh, you wouldn't believe the amount of hotdog vendors in Stockholm. Swedes really like hotdogs I guess. So that didn't work. Then I thought, perhaps chili cheese dogs...but I don't even like those. I settled on making rice krispie treats. Marshmallows are also difficult to acquire, but I found some in the special American shelf in the super market, along with the Mountain Dew and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (no Reeses Puffs though, sad) I think my biggest culinary feat will come around the fourth Thursday in November...by the way, does anyone know how to cook a turkey? Better yet, does anyone know where I can even find a turkey in Stockholm?

Is there anything more American than beer pong, ultimate frisbee, and rice krispie treats? I think not. So don't worry, I'm representing America well. I think I have the most fun explaining to them how the electoral college works. Oh one quick thing I found funny this week... I told this Irish guy I was from Chicago, and he asks- Do you know Kenan and Kel? - That's the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Chicago too. But I don't like orange soda, sorry. But yeah, I don't think you want to hear what I did the rest of the week (besides my quest to spread democracy)...you might think me an alcoholic. But don't worry, I have many trips planned for the month of September, so be on the look out for more interesting posts.

Speaking Svenska

So for the month of August I'm taking this intensive Swedish language course. My teacher likes to ask me lots of questions. I'm the only native english speaker in the class, so she'll often ask me if we use the same phrases in English (for example, "sleep like a log" was something we translated) She likes to come up to me at the beginning of class and talk to me about the Olympics. I usually hear something like- blah blah blah Bejing blah blah Micheal Phelps blah blah blah...so I sit there with a blank stare, and usually respond with a "ja" once she's finished, hoping this response is appropriate. Reading and writing Swedish isn't so bad, but if someone starts talking to me, even if its a phrase or words I know, I'm suddenly lost. It doesn't help that everyone here speaks English, so learning the language really isn't necessary to get around. But I guess I've pick up a little while I've been here. I get a newspaper everyday and try to figure out what the headlines mean ('och'...thats 'and'! yes!) And the club I went to Friday was called FemtioFyra...54! I'm really good at numbers. If only I could figure out the alphabet. I have class from 9-12, monday-friday...or should I say, måndag-lördag (are you impressed yet?)

The campus is about 30 minutes away by tunnelbana. At first I thought this would annoy me, but its not so bad. The Stadshagen station is right near my apartment, and the Tekniska Hogskolan stop is right near school, so minimal walking is involved. The tunnelbana system is really nice. So clean. Each station has been decorated by a different Swedish artist, so they're really fun to look at. I hear they offer a subway art tour that I might want to go on sometime (jealous?) Usually after class I'll wander around part of the city. It has taken me a little longer than usual to get a feel for my surroundings, but I think I'm ok now. I have gotten lost a few times. I have trouble remembering some of the Swedish street names...St Goransgatan, Hornsgatan, St Eriksgatan...names like these are too difficult to remember. Eventually I find a tunnelbana station and I'm ok. Although I have also been stuck in the rain before (sadly it has rained a lot this month so far) and thats no fun.

On Friday night, the ISS (International Student Society) organized a Swedish dinner which I attended. They told us to wear yellow and blue (the colors of the Swedish flag) so we totally looked like native Swedes. I didn't have any yellow clothes, so I bought a yellow shirt, and yellow shoes (how practical...) The dinner had 3 courses, lots of alcohol, and a band playing traditional Swedish party music. They gave us the words but we didn't know the tune, so the songs didn't sound so great. After the dinner, we went out to Södermalm (the south island where a bunch of cool clubs and bars are) and ended up at the 54 place I mentioned before. Again, the alcohol was expensive. I think I should stop trying to think in dollars. It makes me sick to think about how much I spend here. On Saturday I hung out with a few Irish girls and we went to an Irish bar (surprisingly, there are a ton of Irish bars around here) and watched a rugby match. I ordered nachos, but they didn't have any cheese. In America we call this chips and salsa, but whatever. And now, finally, a picture of me. Proof I'm actually doing what I say I'm doing.

Rose from Australia, Natalie from England, me from America, and
Jane from Northern Ireland taking the theme for the Swedish dinner
very seriously

I've got hos in different area codes

I suppose thats a lie...i really don't have many hos, but as the discussion today has to do with area codes, I thought my favorite Ludacris song (EVAR) was an appropriate title for this post. So for some odd reason, the people of Sweden take their area codes very seriously. In Stockholm, the area code is 08, and supposedly Stockholmers are known by the other inhabitants of Sweden as 08ers. So last Friday happened to be 08/08/08 and this was a very big deal for the 08ers. There was a huge city wide party- lots of free concerts all over, different events (like a huge watergun fight in Gamla Stan), and fireworks (not as good as our 4th displays though). We ate together as a floor then went out to explore all the festivities taking place in the city. We first went to a concert in Kungstragarden, however as we looked around, we noticed the majority of the audience was middle aged couples. I should mention that they were all Swedish bands, so we really didn't know any better as to whether the bands were cool or not. So we left there and went instead to Stureplan, a busy square in Stockholm. They had closed down all the streets in the area and had a dj playing from a balcony. It was insane. We could barely move it was so crowded. I had heard there were 50,000 people expected to attend, and I don't doubt that thats how many were actually there.

The crowded streets of Stockholm on 08-08-08

Once the dj stopped playing, we went on a quest to find somewhere else to dance. As you might expect, everywhere was ridiculously crowded. We stood in a line at a couple places for awhile and when we finally got in we were all so excited that we didn't care that we had to pay 180 kr cover ($30!). The club we went to was called Cafe Opera. It was the one place everyone said I had to visit while I was here. The building itself is an old opera house, so it was really unique and cool. We were defintely the most under dressed people there. Everyone was in suits and dresses and then there was us, these stupid looking college kids in jeans dancing right in the middle, but we didn't care that much. I even got to dance with some Swedes! While we were dancing, we didn't give much thought of how we were going to get home once the club closed. We missed the last tunnelbana train, so we searched around for a bus that would take us home, but this was sail. It was eventually decided that we would walk. So we walked for an hour in uncomfortable "going out" shoes as the sun was rising (it gets light out really early here) and came home at around 5 am to a homeless guy sleeping outside the elevator on our floor (first one I saw in Sweden....didn't take a picture though) but we were too tired to care. I'll keep the rest short...Saturday- slept till 2, shopped, hung out on the floor, Sunday- wandered/got lost, skype chatted with the rents, birthday party at another apartment, irish bar near Stureplan
Thats it for now. Later dudes.

Like Amy Winehouse

Greetings from Stockholm!

I have finally found the internets (along with a computer cord that works with the plugs here) so I will commence with the "blogging." For those of you that don't know, I am attending KTH (which stands for something that translates to Royal Institute of Technology) for the fall semester. I arrived last Friday and so far I've met lots of cool people with cool accents (although I suppose I have an accent to them too). There are a ton of international exchange students here. Over 500 right now, and 300 more in September. Most of them are French, German, and Spanish students. So far I've only met one other American (another Chicago-an who was actually on my flight) and I've heard that another one exists. But I'm the only American girl it seems, so as you might imagine, I'm a pretty big deal over here. And they don't seem to hate us either. In fact, they always have lots of questions about tv shows and california and obama and stuff like that. I guess Amy isn't a very common name over here. Everytime I introduce myself its always something like this....

Me: Hi, I'm Amy
Them: Emma?
Me: No, A-my
Them: Amy? Oh! Like Amy Winehouse

I've had like 4 people say that to me. Anyways, I thought that was funny. My apartment is really nice. I have my own kitchen and bathroom and everything is modern and ikea-y. Everyone on my floor is really social. They come from switzerland, england, holland, portugal, ireland, australia. So I mostly hang out with them and people from the floor above us. I was pretty jet lagged the first few days I was here (7 hour time difference and all), but Sunday I did this scavenger hunt type thing with the floor that they arranged for the exchange students, so I got to see a lot of the city. However we eventually got tired and went to a bar instead. Oh speaking of bars, alcohol is way expensive here. Usually like 60 kr for a beer ($1 = 6 kr) I'm going to be an expert at dividing by 6 by the time this is all through. And multiplying by 9/5 and adding 32.

I started my Swedish class on Monday, and it's really hard. Languages aren't really my thing. But I'll try my best. The worst part is that the teacher knows my name and calls on me all the time. It's probably because I'm American. I might throw in a few Swedish phrases in here as I learn more, so make sure to have your Swedish-English dictionaries handy. Anyways, I have lots more I'd like to say, but I'm going to try and keep these posts less that Brent-sized. I'll add some pictures later. Thanks for reading!