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.