I'm BACK!!!

It's finally happened, I've made it home. I was definitely ready to be back. The last few weeks of travel through Europe have worn me down and I'm ready to be back on the lake.

I arrived home around 1:30am last night after leaving Amsterdam 28 hours earlier (a whole other painful story in itself). Mom was the first person at the airport, and consequently the first to get a hug. It didn't really feel like being home though, or at least not what I had expected. I woke up (in a bed!!) at 8am and was more or less bored an hour later after trying to show mom and make a dent in the massive 10GB of pictures. Then it was a call from Tiana to see if I was up for some sea kayaking. I was planning on staying home for a bit more but then thought better of it, loaded up the car with a few bags of clothes and outdoor essentials (life jacket, tent, sandals, etc). It was like Christmas going through all that stuff (probably because it had been Christmas since I've last seen it). I'd find another box, open it up and, BOOM, something cool would be there.

Anyway, the minute I walked up to the Union in Madison, it hit me that I was home-in a jet of water (thanks Tristan). Haha, I was actually excited, showing real excitement for something. Man, I missed everything and everyone so much. I walked down to the lakefront and there were already 10 friends I hadn't seen since leaving just working down on the piers. I went out on the lake in a kayak, the first time of the year. I even had a momentary lapse in memory when I couldn't figure out how to paddle the first 30 seconds. But once out on the lake, it was just awesome, looking back at all of the boats, heading out towards picnic point, just gliding across the water. I even got a boat ride from Jessie. It's gonna be an awesome summer!!

Arctic Backpacking

One week of backpacking, Swedish style! No tent, no stove, no water filters, non-existent 2am trains, random Norwegian girls throwing candy to us, rubber cement flavored ramen, sleeping on arctic shrubbery, turnip flakes, climbing glaciers, walking through rivers, when trails become rivers, Swedish 1,200m summits (sadly no Kebnakaise), lobster man, midnight sun (make sure to sleep face down; also references lobster man), reindeer, cooking on the beach, snowed in at mid-June, hiking through 3am - under the sun, pull my finger, drinking water fresh from mountain streams, inventing our own version of the Swedish language. All this and more to be explained soon...probably after living on trains for the next 15 days. Really, I just wanted to let you all know I am still alive despite aforementioned encounters.

This picture was taken at 3:13am.

My last night in Umeå

The end is near for my time in Sweden. Tonight is my last night in Umeå. I've already said goodbye to most people and we've already lost Lauren who left a little more than an hour ago. It's quite sad, though on the bright side, most of my best friends from here are within a day's drive. I'll see Hannah in England in less than a month, and Hugh will be touring the States next winter with a two week stay in the midwest (including Madison). All in all, it's been one hell of a semester and I've loved every minute of it.

I haven't quite finished packing (or cleaning for that matter) which isn't great considering that I leave on a train heading north tomorrow morning at 8:50am. However, that will be well after Matt, Kari, and Tiana (who is going to get an ass kicking) arrive at 6:05am. The ass kicking will be due to Tiana forgetting where to get off the bus. Instead of going to Alidhem Centrum (100 meters from my door) they are getting off at the downtown bus station (4000 meters from my door). Also, the local buses don't run that early thus I will have to walk down at 5:30am. Not so bad, except that the bus they are on comes right to me, we have to catch the last train to Abisko at 8:40am, and in the meantime get food and supplies as well as come all the way back to Alidhem to drop off extra gear. Oooh she's gonna get it.

The last few weeks have been pretty laid back. My last class ended a few days ago (with an oral final, no less) and in the meantime there have been hikes around the lake, games of ultimate frisbee, catching up on tv shows, and of course, nights out. Now that everyone is leaving, including me, I don't know what to do. The next month is going to be nothing but non-stop traveling and sightseeing. As much as I'm looking forward to it, I'm ready to head back home. I'm really starting to miss the nights on the terrace, Hoofer trips, sailing socials, the lake at grandma's, and most of all my many awesome friends. Oh well, plenty of time for that when I get back sometime late June/early July. Pictures and stuff from the last few weeks will come up soon.

Europe - Round 2: Berlin, Prague, Athens

First of all, I realize I still haven't written down anything about my first trip through Europe, and I know the longer I wait the more I'm gonna forget. Problem is, there's just too much to write so I figure if I wait long enough, I'll remember just enough to be considered manageable. Ehh, either way I'll get to it sooner or later.

Anyway, about two weeks ago Trevor, Lauren, and I booked a few flights and buses for a trip through Berlin, Germany; Prague, Czech Republic; and Athens, Greece. This originally started out as an open question of who wanted to go to Prague and when could they go. It ended up with the three of us looking for cheap airfare from random cities we could stay in a couple days apiece rather than spend 6 straight days in Prague.

Well, we found the cheap airfare (I love Europe's discount airlines) and cheaper bus options to get us from Umeå to Stockholm (YBuss), Stockholm to Berlin (AirBerlin), Berlin to Prague (Eurolines), Prague to Athens (Sky Europe), Athens to Stockholm (Sterling), and Stockholm to Umeå (SAS). For those of you counting that's two different bus companies and four different airlines. Total trip time was 8 days.

The 9 hour overnight bus was pretty uneventful. It was basically empty and even though you had an entire row to yourself, it was still hard to sleep...not to mention we got into Stockholm Arlanda at about 5am. Then it was wait around in the airport for maybe 6 hours where Lauren got really excited about the presence of 7 Eleven and their slushie machines (though sadly no Coke slushies).
Berlin was a surprisingly cool city to visit. I really just wanted to see the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate, but it turns out there's actually a fair amount to see. Our hostel was surprisingly nice (bar/lounge, outdoor patio, rooftop deck, free luggage storage, etc.) though we did share a room with 36 other people (apparently they turn their winter nightclub into one huge dorm in the summer). It's hard to describe a city but definitely take a look at the pictures and their captions, should be worth it (haha, this is of course assuming I know what I took a picture of). I will say that Berlin had a free tour service that went on 3.5 hour walking tours of the Eastern part of the city. Our guide was pretty much one of the best guides I've ever had (probably because she was Swedish). Other than that, nothing too eventful - though I did see a Panda.

We spent two days in Berlin and then caught a bus to Prague. Truth be told, I wasn't exactly sure where to find the bus station and we actually almost ended up on the wrong side of the city (I ended up reading through my travel book rather than looking online and took a guess to go with what the book said - it was right this time, not so much with the restaurants though). We got into Prague around midnight with no sure idea of how to get to our hostel. It went about like this: *Ryan pulls out compass and looks at crappy map* "I think it's this way", *Ryan leads down random streets, goes to far* "Ok, I think it was actually back that way a bit", we eventually find the hostel. Sadly, this occurred more than once (I blame it on the map...and my lack of careful consideration).

Prague was a pretty awesome city, though I think it's definitely more of a place to chill out and relax. There wasn't too much history, but some pretty awesome architecture everywhere you went. The castle was of course amazing, but there was also a pretty neat fortress up on a cliff south of the city. The castle and medieval feel to the old sections have got me pretty excited to go find some castles in the Scottish highlands, but again, check out the pictures. There was one monumental event that happened in Prague and this event was mine and Lauren's discovery of the fried cheese burger. Not fried cheeseburger, cheese burger. A piece of deep fried battered cheese thrown on a bun with ketchup and mayo. It. Was. Amazing.
Of course it being Prague, we also had to try the beer...and it was good...and cheap. You could go out for a night and spend $4 (this $4 got us a shot of Absinthe and 1.5L of beer...yes, even the cheap beer was good). It was definitely a nice change from the rest of Europe where prices make you want to cry a little on the inside (returning to Sweden, the land of expensive everything, didn't help much).

On to Athens where we found the worlds longest hallway in the Athens airport (I'm pretty sure you could actually see the curvature of the Earth). The weather was a bit rainy the first few days of the trip (scattered showers mostly) but by the last day in Prague, the rest of the trip was warm and nothing but sun. However, Athens being a decent ways south, it also meant hot...really hot. The temperature was about 30ºC (86ºF) which doesn't sound so bad, except when you've been used to -30 the last few months.
Anyway, we saw what we had to the first day and hit the beach the second. Well worth it, though I'm sure we stuck out as tourists having been living in Sweden with no sun among a beach full of tan Greeks. The crazy thing about Athens was randomly running into someone I knew from home. We had been talking about the odds of seeing someone you knew half way around the world and a day or so later I ran into Jason Gerstenkorn, a guy I went to high school with. Then we ran into him randomly the next day. Craziness.

It was then back to Umeå where we got off the plane (me still in shorts - I refused to accept the reality of the arctic) and got hit with 7ºC (45ºF) winds. Welcome back to Umeå. On the bright side, we're now the tannest people in northern Sweden.

Umeå Normality

I've been back for almost two weeks now and everything seems to be back to normal. This means class once or twice a week for 2-5 hours at a time, IKSU everyday, going out or finding something to do most nights, and lots of movies and tv shows to fill in the gaps.

After coming back to cold and rain, I'll be honest, I kind of missed the shorts, sandals, and t-shirt weather. But I'll be back to it soon enough, no worries. The weird thing was my sleep schedule. For whatever reason, I couldn't sleep after I got back. The first night back was an all-nighter. You never realize what kind of an effect the sun has on you until you go somewhere that's just not normal. It never really gets dark here anymore and I blame my lack of sleep on that. I haven't slept past 8:00am until just yesterday (due to a really late night). To give you an idea of this sunlight nonsense, at about 1:00am there was more light with no moon than the brightest full moon nights back home. Current sunrise: 4:02am, sunset: 9:11pm with 19h 34m of visible light.
I took a 5:00am run to the lake last week and I've decided it may just be my new favorite place in Umeå, probably because it reminds me so much of picnic point but without the awesome nighttime view. I liked it so much though that I dragged Lauren out there at 5:00am the next morning. Of course getting up that early needs a bit more incentive than just a good view so I threw in breakfast - bacon and eggs cooked over a wood fire (though sadly not my best work).
I always wondered what they did with the crap load of gravel they threw on the roads and sidewalks over winter. Turns out they mount massive street sweeper things to a front loader and literally sweep up everything. It then goes to a massive pile where more front loaders fill up dump trucks and ship it off. They even sweep the grass, weird.

We had a bbq one day, the day it decided to turn cold actually. When I say cold I mean colder, 50 degrees to 35 degrees. On the bright side, the hot dogs were pretty good and I've learned french hot dog buns are the worst idea ever. Their only redeeming quality was that they don't make a mess when you hold them - though that thought was quickly thrown out the window when I was attacked by the hot dog and subsequently covered in ketchup. There are a lot of bbq pits around, and by a lot I mean 3 or 4 to every courtyard - I'll wait until it gets warm to enjoy them I think.

On the topic of food, I've decided that Tetrapaks are starting to grow on me (yes, those stupid milk cartons I've been complaining about since getting to Sweden). Turns out they're the best thing to use if you drink out of the carton, nice little pour spout and you never have to open them (on account of they don't actually close). They are also really easy to break down flat so you can put them in the usually overflowing cardboard bin under the counter (we have 4 different recycling bins and a can collection area in the kitchen, Swedes and their recycling).

Brittany and I got a little crazy one night when everyone else went to a fashion show/concert/dance hall thing at Universum, the student union (we didn't want to pay the 125sek to get in). We ended the night with a total of 1 couch on a car, 1 bike in a tree, 1 street sign (and I still don't actually know what it says), 1 toy tractor on a roof, and 1 bead necklace.

There was a big Valborg celebration around the campus pond on the last day in April. It was basically Jokkmokk but without the culture and snow. Vendors had set up shops and a big bonfire was built (some would say massive, but given that I grew up with bonfires the size of small houses I still say big) to celebrate the start of Spring (still not exactly sure how that works either). There was also live bands playing most of the night which was pretty cool, but the best part was all of the small fires set up around the entire pond. They made for good gathering spots.
As I said before, everything is getting back to normal, that means time for another trip. Trevor, Lauren, and I all wanted to go to Prague. What originally started out as a trip to Prague then became Berlin, Prague, and Athens and now stretches just over a week. We'll be back just in time for the brännbol tournament (baseball but with less rules I'm told) and the massive Ålidhem party that accompanies it. It will sadly also be time for plenty of good bye parties as people are already starting to leave.

Anyway, I suppose I've been procrastinating on my readings long enough. Time to write a paper. Vi ses senare!

Back from Europe

After a month of traveling through a few countries (England, France, Spain, Monaco, Italy, Austria, Germany, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Belgium) I've finally made it back to Umeå, which, let's be honest, is basically home. Tons of good stories and even more pictures will make there way online sooner or later, but for now, I just need to catch up on a few things (email, laundry, sleep, etc.).

Åre Madness 2007

At long last, my ski trip to Åre, Sweden has happened. Though I originally meant to get out there for the 2007 FIS World Alpine Championships, it didn't happen. However, exactly one month later, 50 of us Swedes and internationals spent a long weekend on and off the pistes of Sweden's most famous ski resort. I signed up for the trip with IKSU Alpin, a group that is basically Hoofer's Ski and Snowboard, except that these guys have their act together (they are just finishing up an expansion that will double the space of the already largest athletic facility in northern Europe).
Anyway, I had just gotten back from the trip up north with Jenny and I had to finish up some schoolwork before we headed out on Thursday afternoon. Long story short, I did laundry at 8:00am and didn't get packed until 30 minutes before we left. However, I am now done with any sort of school related work until the end of April. Unfortunately, half way to Åre (7 hour drive via bus) it started to rain...and it didn't stop. Even after we got to our condos and went to bed around midnight you could still hear the rain outside. At this point I'm thinking there isn't going to be a bit of snow left on the mountain.

The next morning we were up bright and early to get to the lifts and do some skiing. Turns out, there was still over a meter of snow, but it was now covered in a layer of ice. No problem, the sun was out and it was warm. Very warm. By mid afternoon we were skiing through slush. I can't complain, the rentals were good and I was skiing in Sweden. After a full 9 to 4:30 day, we headed to one of the pubs on the hill for an After ski party, "possibly the best after ski in the world" says the banner sponsored by Carlsberg. The live music was really good, though it was Swedish so really they could have been singing anything and we wouldn't know better. By the time we were done and had skied back to the condo, everyone was dead. There was no going out on the town that night, only dinner at a local restaurant. Holy crap do you not want to eat out in Sweden if you can help it. 215 kroner for a buffet, and we weren't even in the main part of Åre. Oh well, we were on vacation.

Saturday was much colder, but the wind had picked up - almost 20 m/s. The peak was closed so no way to ski the summit. Though things were still a bit icy in places, the snow was generally okay. We had spent a bit of time in the terrain park but then moved on to the moguls and the lesser used trails. I can now say I will do any mogul run I come across, no fear. My biggest problem was that my speed was quite a bit faster than most of the people I was skiing with which meant frequent stops while people caught up. It was worth it though to be on slopes that steep and carve all the way down them. At one point my eyes were watering through my goggles (time for a new pair I think). Towards the end of the day it started to snow. By the final few runs of the day we had picked up a couple inches and were staying out on the lesser used trails as long as possible before the lifts shut down.
The next day it had continued to snow. Urska and I were at the lifts 30 minutes before they opened but it was worth it. I was the first one down a run through 5 inches of powder throughout the entire trail. Sooo smooth. Det blåser! It was windier Sunday than Saturday and so there was only one open chairlift. Everything else was t-bar. I hate t-bars...with a passion. Regardless, we headed over to the far right peak where we found the most amazing tree runs I have ever seen in my life. It was work, I could barely stand by the end of one run, but it was incredible. 3 or 4 of us found a section of trees that no one had been too. Fresh tracks every time. I've never had so much fun in the trees. I really think they might have been the best runs I've ever taken in my life. Sadly, the trip had to end. Our bus headed back at 4:30 making it home by midnight.

On the bright side, I leave for a month in Europe in just a few days (fair warning for when I don't update everyone for a while). I also bought my map of the Kungsleden and planned out the route. After those two, everything else will be icing on the cake. What an awesome semester.

PS: Pictures are up -->

Nine Days in the Arctic

Contrary to popular belief, I did not drop off the face of the earth last week...I was merely sitting on the edge. From Piteå and Kiruna to Poikijärvi and Jukkasjärvi, Narvik and Riksgränsen - I've tried more things for the first time in one week than at any time since the age of two.
Jenny Dahlberg, a friend from Hoofers, came over on the 2nd of March. We spent a couple days in Umeå seeing the town and roasting the marshmallows that mom sent over on the lake. On Sunday, we made an attempt to catch a bus from Umeå to Piteå...holy crap did that not start off right. After getting to the bus stop, I realized I had forgot to send in my paper that was due the next week. Deciding that it'd probably be better to walk to the regional bus station rather than wait for a city bus that may or may not come, I ran back to my room to send off the paper and gave Jenny really really...really bad directions to a bridge that I'd catch up to her on. My bad. She ended up off in another direction and I spent the next 40 minutes running around the area I thought I'd meet her at. Well, we ended up missing the first bus, but I still couldn't find her. However, she managed to borrow a cell phone and call me. She said she was at the bus station, so I said I'd meet her there.

Turns out, she somehow got to the bus station downtown (FYI, there are two 'Umeå Busstations'). When I realized she was at the wrong stop I took a bus downtown, but didn't see her at Vasaplan (the local bus hub) and not knowing how to get to the other station, I went back to the Hospital. I got another call from another borrowed cellphone 20 minutes before the next bus was scheduled to come (this is going on three hours since I'd last seen her). Found out she was indeed at the other regional bus stop and figured we'd just have to meet on the bus. 20 minutes later, we met up and where on the way north.

We were met by Sören and Eina (Jenny's relatives) who took us to their cottage near Piteå. It was the classic Swedish countryside that looked and felt remarkably similar to the Wisconsin countryside (fields, red barns, cows, etc.). We then proceeded to meet more relatives and have some awesome Swedish food. The next day we made our way up to Kiruna with stops at some local highlights (a church, the arctic circle, random coffee shops at the side of the road). By night time we made it to Kenth and Ann's (Jenny's cousin) in Poikijärvi. The room was really nice with both a sauna and laundry in the building, plus a kitchen overlooking the Torne river and the ice hotel.

The next morning we were up early heading out to one of their dog sled camps to set up for a large group of BMW executives coming up from Germany. I ended up getting to drive a snowmobile through snowy goodness to the site and setting up a Sami lavo (fancy name for tepee) 20 feet off the ground. There were also lots of wild reindeer. One of our jobs that day was to get ~30 gallons of drinking water. To do this you need a bucket, an ax, a funnel, and 5 gallon jugs. You then chop a hole in the lake and fill your bucket. The water is ridiculously clear (not too mention it looked pretty tasty). That afternoon I officially became a musher. I harnessed up my sled dogs and hitched them to the sled. After a 3 minute crash course in how to drive a dog sled, we were off. The mushing lasted a couple hours and I successfully managed to not tip over and crash my sled. Meanwhile, throughout the entire day, the Swedish army was dropping paratroopers along the river. It really was something else to see this river used as a sort of highway with dog sleds and snowmobiles flying by on either side and little men in white jumpsuits falling from the sky.
On Wednesday, I had my first ice fishing experience. After chasing some reindeer off the road, Sören, who is the old guy I aspire to be like, took us out to the lake near the camp. We drilled our holes, sat back on our reindeer hides, and waited for the fish. I got the first, and the second, and I think probably the third. After only a couple hours and yet another coffee break (literally 3 or 4 of them a day) we had 16 perch, 8 of them mine, and 1 of them Jenny's. Sören cut them up out on the lake and smoked them later that day. Good stuff. I also got my first bit of moose meat for lunch, followed by reindeer for dinner.
Thursday morning, Jenny and I got to ride reindeer (well, sleds pulled by reindeer anyway). I think we ended up kind of joining an icehotel tour but regardless, I got to race a reindeer around a track for almost a kilometer. That was followed by a Sami guy handing out Lingonberry juice (man, Swedes drink almost as much Lingonberry juice as they do coffee) and roasting reindeer strips over a campfire in his lavo. I've decided wild reindeer meat does actually taste better than venison. Later that afternoon we headed out to Riksgränsen, the northernmost ski resort in the world, with Ann and her two daughters Clara and Elina for some skiing. However, Jenny and I drove separately in an old Subaru (Sa-bar-oo in Sweden). Not a problem, except that I don't drive stick shifts. Turned out, I managed to do it alright - I didn't stall once the first day. That night I made another attempt at building a snow cave. This time, however, it was amazing. Because they have proper snowbanks this far north, I was able to build a tunnel big enough that you could stand up in it in some places and you could even see the entrance to the cave from the top of the mountain.

Friday and Saturday were spent skiing with quite a bit of off-piste runs. Sometimes the clouds would blow in on the front side and we'd have to move around to the back, other times, the opposite would happen. Regardless, the skiing was fun. The snow could have been a bit softer, but no complaints - minus the bad visibility the second day. It was slow going on some of the steep, unmarked terrain but still worth doing.

Sunday morning we cleaned up the condo and drove down into Norway through the mountains to visit Narvik to do some site seeing then headed back to Poikijärvi. After checking email and resting up for a few hours it was off to the ice hotel and dinner. Kenth got us a room in the ice hotel and so Jenny and I ended up getting to sleep in a giant fridge. I say fridge because it was actually 4 degrees warmer outside than inside. They gave us some awesome arctic sleeping bags though and they did the job well. Apparently, if you're too cold, you're supposed to take off more clothes since more body heat warms the bag (they literally say sleeping naked is best, right after they tell you about the double bags available). Before bed, however, we chilled out (literally) in the ice bar for a couple hours, having some really good vodka drinks in glasses made of ice.

Monday was a fairly easy day with a tour of the world's largest underground mine and souvenir shopping (not my idea) in Kiruna. That night we had a very Swedish elk dinner with Sören, Eina, Kenth, Ann, Clara, and Elina followed by a video of Kenth's expedition to the north pole with Prince Albert. That would have been an amazing trip. But, that was the end of ours. We caught a 6:00am flight back to Umeå this morning and Jenny heads back to airport to catch a flight back to the States in about 5 hours. The whole trip was maybe $400. In the meantime I need to write a paper and study for a Swedish exam before heading out to Åre on Thursday for 3 days of awesome skiing with about 140 university students.

So to recap, things I had never done before this week:

1. Hitched up a dog sled and gone mushing
2. Set up a Sami lavo
3. Seen paratroopers jump out of a plane over dog sleds and snowmobiles
4. Been in snow up to my thighs
5. Gone ice fishing
6. Raced a reindeer
7. Eaten reindeer fried over an open fire in a Sami lavo
8. Eaten moose, and elk for that matter
9. Driven a stick shift car
10. Skied at the northernmost ski hill in the world (in both Norway and Sweden)
11. Slept in a room made completely of ice

Now what do I do??

Abisko, Kiruna, and the Norwegian Coast

Best trip so far. Nine of us (me, Wayne(Hannah's boyfriend from England), Hannah, Lyndsey, Lauren, Trevor, Ryan, Sarah, and Brittany) packed up and headed to the far north of Sweden to see the ice hotel. We rented two cars, two cabins, bought a crap load of good food, and left town Friday morning...well Friday afternoon by the time we were actually making progress. The plan was to drive up to Abisko on Friday, see the ice hotel on Saturday, and drive home via Norway on Sunday.The drive up was fairly uneventful. Lauren saw the first moose, but by the end of the trip we had seen a total of 11, and not a single picture to show for it (usually due to someone shouting moose, me asking "what?", and then we're past it). Also speaking of pictures, I put them up (Abisko, Kiruna, and Norway on the right). We got into town somewhere around 9pm, picked up the keys and found our cabin.

The cabins were nice enough, we had two units side by side that overlooked some mountains across a frozen lake. We did all of the cooking and socializing in one and really only used the other for sleeping (I still think we should have crammed everyone onto the living room floor but that's the Hoofer in me talking). Anyway, the places were comfortable and the food was damn good. We had chili the first night with some things I had never thought to put into chili (avocados, green and red peppers, fresh tomatoes, salsa). It turned out to be amazing. That was followed up by pancakes and real maple syrup sent over from Canada Saturday morning; spaghetti, salad, corn, and broccoli Saturday night; and breakfast burritos with more avocado, peppers, cheese, eggs, salsa, tomatoes, tortillas, etc.) Sunday morning.

After a lazy Saturday morning, we made our way to this somewhat random chairlift that (for 100kr) went to a cafe near the top of a mountain. On the way to this chairlift we passed the entrance to the Kungsleden trail. I didn't get a picture, but Wayne said he and Hannah got one for me. That'll have to hold me over for a couple months until I can come back and do the first 100km or so. Speaking of which, Tiana - you up for some Swedish backpacking this summer?

The lift didn't quite go to the top of the mountain, but it was close so Trevor and I took off for the ridge line while the rest of the group headed to a relatively close rock outcropping. It was a good hike, but holy crap am I out of shape. My lungs hurt like hell by the time we stopped. The worst part about going to this place was that I realized people were actually skiing there. It wasn't a resort or anything, just one slow chairlift to the top, but because it wasn't anything major there was tons of untouched powder. When I realized that I had no way to get a pair of skis I may have cried a little.

After checking out the view for a while we headed an hour east back to Kiruna to see the ice hotel. This place was completely made out of snow and ice, even the pictures on the wall...it was amazing. There was evem a pretty big chandelier made of nothing but ice and fiber optics. Each room had it's own theme and was designed and sculpted to match that theme. Of course you also needed a way to keep warm, which is why we had to order a drink from the ice bar. The entire bar was built with ice, right down to the glasses they served your drink in. The best part (or worst depending on how you look at it) was that the drinks were the same price as any bar in Umeå - only 105kr (~$15) They went so far as to build a chapel of ice next to the hotel. I really can't describe this place and even the pictures don't really give you an idea of what it was like. If you ever get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

The next day we cleaned up and got on the road by 10am. We had heard the drive through Norway was good for scenery so we opted for that route. The only problem we might have had was that Lyndsey and Trevor had forgotten their passports. Turns out, we didn't need them. The border was so lax that the only way to tell was the change in speed limit signs. You took a look back, then forward again and said "Hey guys, I think we're in Norway."
The drive was definitely a scenic one...about 12 solid hours of weaving in, out, over, and under mountains and coastline plus another 4 hours of Swedish countryside. Again, the pictures didn't do it justice. Every couple kilometers there would be a 7-10% grade on a narrow icy road. This road also had one of the longest tunnels I have ever been through. It was at least 4km long and we were underground for about 3 minutes. There were also quite a few suspension bridges and even a ferry that took us across one of the many fjords. The ferry was 198 Norwegian crowns ($32) but it was worth it. We sailed down the middle of the fjord surrounded by snow covered mountains on all sides. The only thing that comes close to comparing is Alaska.
I also got to taste the Arctic Ocean (though it may have been mixing with the North Atlantic at that point). It seemed slightly less salty than other oceans I've tasted.

Thank god for the car we rented. All in all, those were the most difficult roads I've ever driven in my life, and I was doing it for 12 hours. Good thing for top of the line snow tires and anti-lock brakes. The traction control I could have lived without. I almost killed us about 15 times (not seriously mom, don't freak out). The crazy thing is that our car, an Audi A6, was brand new (less than 3,500km, we almost doubled the odometer) and found out that MSRP starts at $42,000. Why any company would give it to a 20 year old foreign kid to drive through these mountains is beyond me.

It was definitely a good way to spend the weekend and the best trip I've been on yet. The best part is that I get to do another version of it in a week or so when Jenny comes over and we head up to not only the ice hotel, but some dog sledding and skiing as well.

Sad day in Sweden

Yes, Hugh left Sweden today. We knew it was coming, but we figured someone would be able to stop him from making his flight...oh well. He was only here for the Australian summer session which was a little over a month. At least he went out on a good week.

We all went out to the lake on Valentine's night to build a campfire. After finally finding a campsite with enough wood, we got the fire going and did our best to make s'mores. I say did our best because I'm pretty sure Sweden doesn't believe in graham crackers...or normal sized marshmallows. At any rate, we found some digestive cookies that were fairly close to graham crackers and we searched for the thinnest chocolate bar we could find (most of them are pretty massive). At first, it didn't look like Sweden had marshmallows either but Lyndsey and Hannah were able to find them in the other grocery store. They turned out to be pretty good so we can't complain. At one point, Trevor managed to fall into the fire and lose his glove at the same time. We're pretty sure it didn't go into the fire with him, but it was nowhere on the ground either.

We did some more Swedish dancing, this time learning Shadish...crazy swedes and their dances.

On Saturday, Hannah, Lauren, Hugh, Brittney, and I hiked 14km or about 8.5 miles down to Holmsund which is where the Ume River empties out into the Baltic Sea. The hike there was interesting considering no one really knew where we were going except that we needed to go in a general South, Southeasterly direction. We made it, eventually, but not without going down random roads seemingly in the middle of no where, wading through snow while going over clear cut forests, and following railroad tracks only because we knew they'd get us to the town. Good thing we were planning on taking the bus back. Regardless, it was a good hike and I got to walk on the Baltic Sea. We also came across a pizza place with decently good pizza, so again, nothing to complain about.

We went out to a corridor party near my building that night. It was a big place with a lot of people but Hugh, Hannah, and I bailed after about an hour, instead opting to go watch movies until 3am.

Sunday night was quite good, as well as being Hugh's last night in Sweden. We made a simple dinner beforehand and then headed out to Sarah and Ryan's place for a murder mystery. The setting was Casablanca in the late 1930s and a famous mime artist had been murdered. I played the role of Kirk Ramson, a hopeless American romantic nursing a bottle of whiskey, but also the head of a significant black market. Other characters included a Gestapo agent, the deputy mayor of Casablanca and his French wife, their daughter, a French poet/communist, a Scottish journalist, and a man secretly pretending to be a woman. There were 11 of us, everyone dressed up as their character (thanks to a local thrift store), doing their best at speaking in French, Scottish, Russian, and German accents. It really was a good time (check out the pictures in 'Sverige' to see the costumes).
Hugh then spent the night on my couch (which I hear is quite comfortable if there are any takers). We spent the night comparing the size of our campuses and cities on Google as well as comment on how much of a douche Hugh was for leaving so soon. At the very least most of us will see him next year when he does his frozen north tour (we are all going to hold you to that Hugh). The impressive thing was that just about everyone managed to drag themselves out of bed at 8 this morning to come to my place and see him out the door. Good luck back in Australia Hugh, we'll be sure to remind you weekly of all the fun you're missing out on.

Bits and Pieces of Nothing Important

Sadly, no northern lights tonight...couldn't see through all the snow that is still currently falling. Did I mention it's a balmy -5°C? I tried to get into ICA for a milk fix (I finished off 2 liters last night - milk withdrawal from being sick and not having any I think) but they were closed. Oh well, nice walk anyway.

I added contact links under the picture of that good looking guy on the right side of your screen. Clicking each of the links (in respective order) opens an email message addressed to me, adds me to your Skype contacts, adds me to your MSN messenger contacts, goes to my Facebook profile (I wanted one more link and that was the best I could do).

Mom's Netflix account finally supports 'Watch Now' which lets you stream movies from their library directly to your computer which is great...if you're in the states (not available to people in the rest of the world). Good thing for public proxy servers, as far as they know, I'm in the middle of California. Second problem, I have download speeds of 1,100 kbps which is also great, except they cut you off at 12gb of traffic in a 30 day period. Thus I have been suffering through 15 kbps for the past two weeks. What a pain.

Jenna Guensburg probably makes the most amazing cards in the world. I'm not even joking. Mom can vouch for her, so can Hannah, Jen, and Jennifer. Anyway, Jenna, thanks for the valentines card.

Finally, in case some of you are still confusing Sweden with Switzerland or you're just wondering what the hell is in Umeå, Sweden, here's a link to the tourist office's video. It's actually pretty good, I recommend it. WARNING: may add insult to injury for those of you living in slightly duller corners of the world. Download the video here.

It's probably about time for another update

Okay, so I'm getting worse at keeping this up to date. My bad. Anyway, things have pretty much settled down into a routine after about a month. Tuesday and Thursday is class, Thursday through Saturday tend to be parties, there's at least one movie night a week in there, big dinners on Sundays (tonight was mini pizzas), and random trips to IKSU or downtown to fill in the rest of the time. If that fails, there's always TV shows to download. The problem with routines, though, is that they tend to get boring. Thus, I need to get out of town.

It turns out that there is a ski bus that runs every Saturday during the winter that stops at Ålidhems Centrum (the section of town I live in) where for 220kr you get transportation to one of the better ski hills (Bygdsiljumsbacken) in the area about an hour away, plus they throw in a lift ticket. Not a bad deal.

I'm planning on renting a car Wednesday and heading out to a small town called Bjurholm. They have an elk farm and Sweden's tallest bridge. The real reason I want to go out there, however, is the Balberget nature reserve. You can hike to the top of a large hill (480 meters) for a view of the entire region. There is also an abandoned mine in the reserve.

Since just about everyone is going caving next weekend in Norway, Trevor and I will probably head out to a ski hill. I'd like to get out to Hemavan which is on the far west of Sweden (a few hours away by bus), but we may just end up somewhere close. It'd be better if someone drops out of either the caving trip or an ice climbing trip on Saturday (I'm the first person on the reserve list for both trips).

For the weekend after, 9 of us rented two cars and a couple cabins up in Abisko (far, far north). Sweden's tallest mountain (Kebnekajse) is nearby so I'm climbing that sucker. It's also the start of the Kungsleden (king's trail) so I'll at least get to step on it (the idea being it'll hold me over until I can do a five day trip in the spring). After getting up there Friday night and putzing around Saturday morning, we are driving down to Kiruna to visit the Ice Hotel. (Yes, Jenny, I know, we're going literally two weeks later. It'll be worth it, besides, I'm in it for the good times with friends more than anything.) I'm not really sure what the plan is after that, but it'd be nice to drive through the Höga kusten (High Coast) region. I also plan to dig out a snow cave. And possibly sleep in it.

Jenny comes in the next week so after a few days here we're off for a week and a half or so of awesomeness up north which includes Luleå, the ice hotel, dogsledding with the fam, and, my personal favorite, skiing at Riksgransen, the world's northernmost ski resort (I believe it may also be a glacier).

In other news:

I finally tried Surströmming tonight. Surströmming is a Swedish delicacy (or at least that's what they want you to think). Basically, this stuff is Baltic herring that rots in barrels for a few months, and is then canned where it ferments for six months to a year. The smell is terrible and I had to open the can outside. Because of the fermentation, there is actually a fair amount of pressure built up inside the can (the ends actually bulge out). Anyway, I opened the can and poured the fish out into the sink. We didn't have any fillet knives so Hugh and I ended up ripping the stuff to shreds. They catch the herring right before they spawn so the sink was covered in fish eggs as well. Long story short, we managed to get edible (debatable) pieces of meat on to the flat bread with potato and onion (this is evidently how you're supposed to eat it). We all agreed that the taste wasn't that bad, except for Trevor of course who ate his piece with nothing but a bit of potato. At the very least, I have now tried it and will ideally never again have to go through the process again. (Those of you at Hoofers disregard that last statement. I am bringing at least two cans home for all of you to enjoy at a council meeting)

I am trying to go climbing here more often, problem is, I have neither shoes, nor a harness. Thus, I climb in hiking shoes, and if I get pissed enough, I take off the shoes and climb in socks. It works, but barely. I don't want to buy shoes here, but I'm not sure if I can stand to climb much more in bike socks with the word flammable written across the side.

I also have to stop procrastinating and finish my last two papers for Swedish History. The sooner that happens, the sooner I will have only 8 hours of total school work for two weeks. Beautiful.

I did another round of Swedish folk dancing. This time, it was much better, and admittedly, fun. We did bail out early in order to have a proper pre-party before we headed out to Skogis (4th student pub) for the international party. I don't know what else to say about it (I can't even remember the name of the dance we learned) but hey, I'm learning a piece of Swedish culture.

Daylight is coming!! The sun now rises by 7:45am and sets after 4:00pm. The first day of 24 hours of visible light is coming soon...I think I may spend that entire day awake and outside. The weather on my internet browser is also reminding me that it is currently -22°C and clear. And how much snow did Madison actually get last week?? People need to tell me these things.

The northern lights are predicted to be "Active" tomorrow night and the next night. A big group of us are planning on heading out to the lake tomorrow and setting up a campfire. Hopefully the lights will show up too.

I should probably also mention that I broke a window in Swedish class the other day since I am now infamous for it and people I don't even know come up and laugh at me. The thing is, I was racing to get a seat by the wall before Hannah and Lyndsey got them (and by got them I mean there were 4 or 5 seats left for 3 of us). I decided I'd try to jump over the table. Did that, but also caught my foot on a chair, so I fell over the other side and put my elbow through a window.

I finally got around to calling the airport to find out about aircraft rentals. Looks like I probably won't get a chance to fly in Sweden. There is a club, but membership is 1400kr for a year, and I'd need about two flight lessons to get checked out in the Archer (I fly small Cessnas) as well as get acquainted with the layout and area around Umeå - each of these at a cost of 1200kr. So, in dollar terms, it's about $580 before I'll be able to fly here. Not quite sure it's worth it, but I don't know (that's what I said about my skis).

Sköt om dig everybody!

PS: Thanks for the card J. Ferris, Linda, Andy, Adam, Eli, Claire, Amanda, Laura, B-West, Brett, Jim, Erin, and Amelia.

More Pictures --->

Yes, there are more pictures up.

Jokkmokk Winter Market

Yesterday, at 4:00am, I boarded a double decker coach bus headed north of the Arctic Circle to Jokkmokk. All this week, there is a winter festival put on by the Sami (history of Sami = history of Native Americans - but with warmer clothes) with street vendors, exhibits, food, and fireworks. Minus the 4am thing, it was definitely a fun trip. Hugh can now tell people he finished dog sledding only to call shotgun in a helicopter and take off. Though I didn't do the dog sledding (I can do it with Jenny in a couple weeks) or the helicopter tour (I'd rather fly a plane), I did get to pet a reindeer...as well as eat one (they're actually pretty good). I also got to watch a reindeer race where two reindeer are hitched up to their own sleighs carrying a random person from the crowd. They then race in a big circle where a group of people jump on a trailing rope at the finish to stop the sleigh and the reindeer from crashing into people. In all honesty, reindeer racing is probably the only real entertainment needed in the world.

I'd also like to point out that I miss snow...lots and lots of snow. Luckily, Jokkmokk had snow...lots and lots of snow. I may have been a bit more excited than everyone else, but seriously, I haven't played in snow up to my knees in a long long time. No one should live like that. I should probably also thank Jana for the gaiters which kept my feet completely waterproof (did I mention Gore Tex is the greatest invention ever? - yes, even better than sliced bread). I should probably also mention that I'm sorry to everyone else that was not waterproof and thereby ended up soaking wet by the end of the day (due to my shenanigans...and snow tackles).

Other than that, this morning I had one of those moments where you wake up and it just occurs to you that life couldn't get any better. I love it here.

Just another update

First off, things I now wish I had brought with me:
1. Skis
2. Skis
3. Climbing shoes
4. Harness
5. Skis
6. Wireless router
7. Camp stove, tent

Oops.

Now, the good stuff. Aerobics and I do not mix well. Mostly because I am not smooth or graceful...at all. Also, it was me and 30 other girls which in itself wouldn't be bad, except that you know everyone is thinking, "Wow, what's that guy's deal? Why is he here?" kind of thing. Haha, interesting, but probably not for me.

I saw my first northern lights Monday night. Very cool. That's really all I have to say about them. A bunch of us hiked out to the lake to watch and it was basically one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Check the facebook album link for more pictures.I learned a little more Swedish which is awesome. I actually succeeded in having a (very) short conversation with a Swedish friend last night. We had a wine tasting party with approximately 20-30 bottles of wine from all over the world. When the table was covered you knew it was going to be a good night. I also ended up meeting a few more Swedes which was pretty cool.

After that we all (20 of us) taxied downtown. The last Tuesday of every month there is a club called Rex that opens up to let students in free (coat check is still extra of course) so we all went down to check it out. It was a fairly decent place, but the unique thing about it was that the dance section of the club looked like a converted subway tunnel. It was pretty interesting, but also a lot of fun.By about 1:45am Hannah, Trevor, Lauren, Brittany, and I headed back to Ålidhem by way of the river path. There was a bit of snow falling and it wasn't too cold, basically, it was just a really good walk.

I finally got some bouldering done this morning too. Man, I have not gone climbing in waaay too long. Plus, I don't have any climbing shoes with me and IKSU doesn't rent them, only harnesses. So, long story short, I struggled on things I could do without a problem a month ago. At least it's free (well, paid for in the membership price anyway) and it's in the same building as the pool, gym, track, etc. so I have no excuses. I also got on the wait list for a caving trip to Norway (only 6 spots were left on the trip and 7 of us that wanted to go - I've done it, plus I'm a nice guy, thus, the wait list). I'm also on the wait list for some ice climbing that same weekend. Hopefully someone will drop out between the two, but if that fails, there's always Åre for some skiing.

Aside from climbing this morning, today has been one of those much needed days of relaxation; so...in keeping with that theme, I'm off to Ryan and Sarah's for a movie night. How sweet it is.

More Awesomely Bad Swedish Music

I added a link to the public version of my Sweden pictures on facebook (the link opens a new window). It's easier to update pictures there rather than create a new album and put it here.

(5 crowns says Trina will download this song)

Swedish Ice Hockey!!

Why is it that plans never work out the way they're supposed to?? Not that it matters, makes like more interesting. Anyway, I went to my first Swedish ice hockey game yesterday. Björklöven (the mighty Birch Leaves and our home team) vs. Rögle. We lost in overtime, but it was a good match nonetheless. The arena definitely wasn't the Kohl Center, but it was fun anyway. It's strange when you have no idea what's being said over the PA but you can sing along with basically every cheer the student section does (I guess all cheers and chants are universal, including the ever popular "You f*ed up!")

After the game, I finally broke out the lasagna skills. We had another big dinner with the native English speakers - I did the lasagna, Lyndsey and Hannah did the salad, and Ryan and Sarah did the dessert. I'm gonna be honest, cooking in metrics is a huge pain when you come from a country stuck in the imperial system (I'll bitch about that later). I didn't have a computer handy and I'm not too adept at converting celcius to fahrenheit so the temperature setting on the oven was a complete guess (I settled on 225°C) and 13"x9" pans don't exist here so I had no idea on the quantities of ingredients to get so that was another guess (not that it would have mattered since I have no idea what ounces are in milliliters anyway). On top of that, I either couldn't find what I needed or had no idea what exactly it was that I was buying for most of the ingredients (no cottage cheese and the type of pasta sauce was completely beyond me). Despite all of this, it came out ok. There was a distinct difference between my normal lasagna and this stuff, but I hear it was good nonetheless. I didn't mind it, in fact, I ended up with enough stuff for one and a half pans and leftover lasagna is still the second best food in the world.

It's time to finish laundry (well...more like actually start laundry) and find some clothes for an aerobics class I got talked into doing (haha, oh man, this'll be a joke). But the big thing today is northern lights viewing. Tonight is supposed to have a really good chance of a light show so I'm heading out to the lake away from the city lights. Wish me luck (on the laundry).

Museums, Beach Volley and More Food Stories

Hej!

After a change of plans I ended up going to the museums in Gammlia (just past the university) with Hugh, Hannah, Lyndsey, Ryan, and Sarah where I discovered that Swedish museums are much cooler than American museums. You get to play with things here. For instance, there was a small tunnel that (for all the Swedish I know) didn't really say what it was for or where it went (when I say tunnel I mean 24 inch drainage pipe). I crawled through it and it ended up coming into this teeny tiny room that I couldn't sit up in and there were small windows that made you think you were underwater with fish and all. Then there was a second tunnel in this small room that went to another room (everything was dark so you couldn't really tell where you were going, but so cool) and then a third tunnel that took you back into the exhibit area. I should also probably mention that everything was in Swedish so I had no idea about any of the history behind anything, but it still looked like cool stuff.

I also ended up playing some beach volley(ball) at IKSU with 11 other people (I only knew David and Annika but the others were also foreign and Swedish students in the mentor program). It was pretty good and yes, they are in fact indoor beach volleyball courts with sand and everything. Very awesome. Tomorrow I'm going to get some bouldering in on the climbing wall and play some more beach volley.

Not to keep going on the food thing but it's really the only thing I spend money on anymore and I feel the need to continually complain about it since it makes me feel better about the amount of money I'm actually spending. Anyway, at the museum today I saw a typical Swedish kitchen from many many years ago. In this kitchen there was a shelf that contained milk. BUT, this milk was in normal milk cartons. So, in the time between then and now Sweden milk producers have actually devolved into the crap they have now. Damn you tetra packs and your "protecting what's important" nonsense!!

Another observation I came upon today was that everything is sweet. Well...maybe not everything, but a hell of a lot of things. I opened a jar of pickles today, they were sweet pickles. What?!? Nowhere on this jar could I make out anything that resembled sweet or looked like there was any indication of being sweet. But it's not just the pickles; all of the pasta sauce I've gotten so far has been sweet. A lot of drinks in the bar are sweet. The pretzels are sweet. Even the milk is a little sweeter. It's quite strange really. I mean, I'll live, but come on, either I have terrible luck and pulling things off the shelves or everything is really sweet.

The chocolate, however, I will NOT complain about. Seriously, it's probably the most amazing chocolate I've ever had in my life. Ben was right, Marabou milk chocolate is probably the best stuff in the world.

Despite all of the bad, or at least slightly annoying, I've noticed that all of the pizzas are made with real mozzarella cheese. I love this stuff and I'm pretty sure it makes pizza three or four hundred times better. No joke. But also on that note, you can find frozen cheese pizzas, or even Margerita as I finally learned it's called here. Not that I mind, I think all cheese pizzas should probably be made with spinach and tomato chunks and so on. But now it's time for a low key night of movie watching, that and getting some more pictures up...hopefully.

Adjö så länge!

Australia Day and Folk Dancing

Haha, what did I get myself into? I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking, but I signed up for a traditional Swedish folk dancing class...yes, Swedish folk dancing. It's put on by the university chaplain for the foreign students every semester and about 30 people showed up. Nothing against Swedish folk dancing but that teacher could probably put anyone to sleep. The first thing we did was listen to some Swedish songs (Final Countdown by Europe is actually from Sweden) but we didn't just listen to a few seconds, no, we listened to the entire thing. Six songs later we were finally moving. I'm not opposed to going back, but Trevor had a pretty good suggestion of pre-gaming a little harder next time, maybe a lot harder. We'll see what happens next week.

Yesterday was Australia Day, which means basically nothing except some guy named James Cook bumped into a big island (our Columbus Day). I'm not sure why it's such a big celebration, but at the least it was an excuse to have another party, not that anyone has needed an excuse before. Anyway, Mary (an Australian) had the party at her place in Mariehem with real Australian food and beer. Among the food was this weird bread that I swear is a poor mans version of cake. It was buttered bread with sprinkles on top, but I think it was actually pretty good. You can't have more than two pieces, but still pretty good. Julia or Hugh, do you have any idea what this stuff is called?

By 10:00 we headed out to another pub that most of us hadn't been to. I believe it was called Villa. It's the medical student union's pub (yes, each union has it's own pub - take note those of you in the Wisconsin Union, I know you're reading this). I don't know if you could guess by the name but this place was basically an old villa converted into a bar and dance club. It was actually a pretty cool looking place, I liked it. Again though with the stupid cover charge and coat check, what's the deal with that?? Regardless, there were quite a few people that showed up that I hadn't talked to in a while (I've been there all of what? Three weeks now?) The only problem was that Hannah didn't have her student union card when she came later on so they didn't let her in. Instead she and Hugh headed back to her place. Trevor and I headed over there a bit later and we ended up watching Bring It On (the worst cheer leading movie I've ever seen, not that, you know, I've seen a lot of them or anything). By the end of it we had crammed me, Lyndsey, Hugh, Hannah, Lauren, Seb, and Lyndsey's corridor mate around a laptop screen. Tight squeeze, but a good night nonetheless.

Today it's off to Nydala (the lake near campus) to roast some s'mores, assuming we can find the marshmallows and graham crackers. The place we're going is basically picnic point in the winter (except with decent fire pits and wood stores)...pretty sure this place feels like home more and more everyday.

Sledging

It's still cold, but the sledding was worth it (sledging as it's called here for whatever reason). Turns out there's a small ski hill in the middle of town that you can also sled down. It was about a 40 minute walk from home, to campus, to the hill but well worth it (about 20 of us made the trip). It's almost completely dark except for the snow makers 100 meters away but then you see the glow of the city and it's pretty good. Few of us had decent sleds and we tried the garbage bags for a while but eventually made do with pieces (yes, pieces) of sleds that had seen better days. It worked pretty well. Fast rides down and long walks up. Temperature is still around -15 to -20 but you never noticed, or at least I didn't. Plus, I successfully avoided going out to the pub (and the $5 beers). Now if only I could get started on that next paper...eh, maybe later, time for dinner.

Jag heder Ryan

Jag bor i Umeå på Ålidhem (I live in Umeå in Ålidhem). Yes!! I finally remember a Swedish phrase. So far so good on the language class. Now, if I just remember to buy a notebook I'm in business. In this one class there are 15 different countries represented, crazy! (Class size is about 30) Anyway, it looks like it should be a lot of fun. Helena, the teacher, is pretty cool with probably too much energy to be healthy - but - keeps the class fairly entertaining (which is good since it's a two hour lecture).

Temperature, not so good... -20 at the moment. I love saying temperatures in celcius, makes them sound much more impressive when it's cold (-4 for you fahrenheit types). But, enough out of me, I'm off to the pool and more importantly, the hot tub.

There IS such a thing as school here

Not even a week into class and I'm already falling behind (that may be an exaggeration). Turns out, my papers are due every Monday, not Tuesday as I'd assumed because of the day our class met. Thanks to Sarah for making a copy of one of the articles, bringing it to dinner last night, and telling me about the due date. I managed to read the article and write the paper by 12:30am and get it sent off, which wasn't bad at all. Haha, so much for the plan to have all of those papers done in two weeks. If I can keep myself motivated maybe I'll knock off two more by Friday...maybe. Still, it's nice not to have class, or at least one less class since Swedish Language starts tomorrow afternoon and I'll actually have a lecture two days a week. Call me crazy, but I'm actually looking forward to having to go to a class - maybe it's because I'll feel less guilty about calling this a semester at a university.

I should put some pictures up...right after I read this paper (or watch a movie, either or).

Food

Ahh!! Why is food so expensive?!? I just spent 849 crowns on groceries which comes out to around $140 for about 2 1/2 weeks of food. Now, if I spend absolutely nothing for the next 17 days, I'll stay on budget. At the very least, I'm getting a better idea of what I'm buying so hopefully there won't be too many things I will refuse to eat (like soured milk).

Fact of the day: Swedish bacon comes in tubes - like plastic frosting tubes. Don't ask me how or why, I'm afraid to buy it.

Life in Sweden

Class:
I had my first (and only) class yesterday, Milestones in Swedish History I. About 12 of us show up for registration and introduction and an hour later we’re out of there. Aside from Trevor, Sara, and Cory, I will never see the people in that class again. I say this because that was our only class meeting. Seriously. The class runs for four weeks (the semester is broken into 4 parts with one class for each part) and we have one 3 page paper due each week on an assigned reading. That’s it. I write 3 pages on 100 pages of reading and email it to my teacher. Trevor and I figure we can finish everything in two weeks which leaves a hell of a lot of free time for the next two weeks. I’m becoming a big fan of how they set up their schedules here.

Swedish work schedules/breaks:
Does anyone actually work in Sweden? It’s crazy, everything is closed down by 6, at the latest. Aside from the pubs and Ålidhem grocery everything just shuts down (I might just be bitter since I stopped by the computer store to grab a cable and they had closed 10 minutes beforehand). Even in the student office, every time I’ve been in there, I’ve had to wait because the person I need to see is on coffee break or their posted hours are only 13:00-15:00 for the entire day. Must be nice, granted, I can’t complain for the amount of work I’ve had to do so far.

Swedish Parties:
It must be the lack of sunlight, because come 6:00pm, everyone heads to the pub. Yesterday was the kickoff to the mentor program and our group headed to NH (Nationer Hous pub) by 6pm and we ended up staying until they kicked us out again at 1am. It wasn’t bad (they turn in a dance club at about 9 every night) but I just don’t know if I can handle going out this much, physically, mentally, or financially. Madison is good practice and all, but I don’t think it can compare. There is usually a pre-party starting around 6 or 7 where everyone that has gone to System Bolagot (government liquor store) brings their alcohol and gets a head start (this saves money for when you actually go to the pub and spend 10x the money for a weaker drink). After this it’s on to the pub where you usually spend the rest of the night. All in all, it’s about 7 to 8 hours of partying…and this happens 4-5 nights a week. Swedes are hardcore.

Grocery Shopping:
Have you ever had that feeling where you’re completely out of place and have no idea what you’re doing? That’s me in a Swedish grocery store. As I’ve mentioned before, even finding milk the first time is not as easy as you might think (don’t worry, I’ve got that part covered now). I think I ended up getting loads of pasta and not much else just because it was in a plastic bag and I could see it. You put me in an aisle with boxes and I’m done for. I can’t believe how hard it is (imagine taking the words off of everything in the store and you can only go by the picture and the type of container). I know it’ll get better with practice, but food is a bit expensive and I’d prefer to just not make those mistakes (I’m still reeling over those 2 liters of soured milk that I bought, seriously what do you do with soured milk??). They do have some pretty fancy equipment that makes shopping much more efficient. There are these scanners where you swipe your food as you put it into grocery bags in your cart and then when you check out they just download the info from the scanner and you swipe your card. This is all hypothesis however since I couldn’t read a word of the directions and didn’t actually try the system. (I really can’t wait for my Swedish language class to start) I also have to throw in that I love the way they price everything here. Things may be expensive, but at least the price you see is the price you pay since it takes into account all of the taxes and leaves out that psychological take a penny off and put it at $.99 crap. If a price tag says a shirt is 100 kroner, you pay 100 kroner. It just makes sense….stupid American nonsensical pricing scheme.

Mentor Program:
Turns out there are about 260 international students this semester. Last night was the start of the mentor program and most of these students are in the program. The program matches up international students with a Swedish ‘mentor’ (another university student) which is supposed to let you better get into the Swedish culture. The students and mentors are also put into groups of 10-15 (there are 17? groups in all) that put together events and random outings. I ended up in group 5 (which also happened to be the group Trevor was assigned to). There are about 12 of us in the group and we have a team building thing scheduled for Saturday (good thing too because I can’t remember half the people’s names) and of course drinking afterwards. Anyway, the organizer showed a slide show of last semester’s activities and it looks like it should be a lot of fun. I will sadly miss the trip to St. Petersburg with everyone since I’ll be traveling through Europe during the month of April but I’ll live. This should work out pretty well though since a lot of people in my group tend to like the outdoors and I’ll have some people to help get some of the trips I want to do off the ground. I’ll keep you updated on the program when things start moving.

Boten Anna

So apparently this was the #1 song in Sweden at one point, but everyone hates it. I think it's hilarious. The music is okay, but then you actually see the words. Hugh made me ask the DJ to play it and they basically refused.

PS: a bot is an automated software program. For instance, scanning text in chat rooms and removing malicious code.

Only been a week

It's amazing to think that last week at this time I was still on my way here. I mean, in the span of last week, I've met tons of people (and the mentor program hasn't even started yet!!), including a few that have already become quite good friends (the kind where you think you've known them far longer than you actually have). I really wasn't expecting that to happen, but the fact that it did is pretty much the greatest thing to have happened over here. As much as I miss everyone at home, I'm not homesick at all and I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. I literally feel like I'm on a long term vacation and there is always something to do. Granted, it doesn't hurt that classes are only a couple hours a week and don't start until next week. But even the classes are small and you get to know everyone (I'm starting to see the appeal of colleges smaller than Madison, not that there's a chance in hell I would ever go anywhere else). The best part about knowing these people, is that they haven't seen Sweden either and are more than happy to put together a trip to Stockholm, Copenhagen, downtown, or the local ice rink (which sadly ended in disappointment).

Yesterday involved trying to catch a bus out of town but everything was closed and we couldn't figure out how to get outside the city limits. So instead, we just went to the nearby lake and walked around it, which turned out to be an amazing time. It was sort of a nature preserve with lots of cross country skiers going by on the trail or even the lake (you'd look up and there would be a skier way out in the middle that you could just make out through the falling snow). We even ran into another group of international students and ended up playing on the ice for a bit. Then the trail would narrow down to only a few feet and all of the branches arched overhead covered in snow (as the snow is still falling) and was just absolutely incredible (especially when you shake the branches over the people behind you). Then of course you have the Australian that has to jump on every patch of ice around, which unfortunately included the thin ice over a small stream (he then proceeded to squeal like a girl every time we came to ice, well that and our constant teasing [it really was pretty stupid] must have been enough for him never to forget it). I'm already gonna miss that kid when he goes. Poor guy, later that night Trevor and I dropped in early at Hugh's dorm with spaghetti and meatballs and ended up having him cook it (granted, it was pretty damn good, even the processed Swedish meatballs).

I picked up a membership to IKSU the other day as well after registration. I think I mentioned it before, but IKSU is basically a combination of Hoofers and the Nat. It's the largest athletic facility in northern Europe which means pools, gyms, courts, weight room, etc. etc. But they also rent outdoor equipment like skis, ice skates, climbing gear, kayaks, and just about everything else you could need for outdoor sports. Furthermore, there are individual operating units such as Alpin and Frilufts that take trips to ski hills and canoe, climbing, caving, hiking, cross country, etc. trips. Anyway, I signed up for a ski trip to Åre the other day (this is where the 2007 World Cup is being held in February) so I'm pretty pumped about that. There's also a canoe trip I still need to sign up for and I'm on the waiting list for ice climbing.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna come home in far better shape than I left. Not only do I walk everywhere, but it's too expensive to buy alcohol and IKSU has a hot tub, sauna, steam room, and climbing wall. Seriously, all of my free time will probably be spent here. A couple of us already took advantage of the pool last night and today. Not to mention the time spent in the hot tub and sauna. Like I said, this seems like an awesome long term vacation.

Time is just flying by, but I've also done so much in the last week that there's no way time is moving as fast as it seems. This semester is going to be over before I know it yet still feel like a lifetime I think.

I need to do some cross country skiing, especially since half the people you see are skiing to wherever they need to go. It's been snowing most of the last three days and it's supposed to snow four of the next five. Everything is pure white and looks incredible (no salted roads = no gross slushy roads). Yeah, take that those of you in Wisconsin with no snow; this is why I came to Sweden.

Finally, some pictures

I finally got a few pictures put up. You can find them in the list of photo albums to the right or click here. Michal also set up a site for everyone to load their pictures from this semester here.

It's pronounced oo-mə-ō

The most striking thing that came to mind when I got to Sweden was that everything was written in Swedish (go figure) but I somewhat expected a country with so many English speakers to at least have some minor English translations under the signs in the airport. Not so much. Anyway, this was the first time I’ve felt completely out of place with no idea of what I should do if something didn’t work out (like missing a bus or not finding a phone). So those where the first thoughts, but after finally getting in to Umea, I grabbed the bus to downtown so I could get some sleep. It actually worked out pretty slick, I asked the driver about the YMCA hostel (yeah, I stayed at the YMCA) and he was able to drop me off right out front. Problem was, it was after hours and I needed to call someone to let me in and get my keys. Well, you’d think downtown, there must be a pay phone somewhere. 45 minutes later, I found the pay phone, but I only had two crowns in coins and I needed eight. Crap. Ok, maybe I can get a phone card. Nope, everything is already closed down (it’s about 8pm at this point). I did happen to come across a hotel however and the receptionist let me use the phone. I made my way back to the hostel and got a room. Hell yeah.

There were two guys sharing the room with me. They were both Mormon missionaries, Jordan was from Idaho, and the other was from Finland. Jordan had been in Sweden for about 5 of 24 months. We ended up talking for a couple hours about what to know about being in Sweden and life in the States. Speaking of which, I still need to email him. I also met another four missionaries that were with them, good guys. Anyway, I ended up getting to sleep at about 10pm, but then woke up at 5:30 in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep (the furnace[my sleeping bag] wasn’t doing it for me). I ended up playing a game of pool on an absurdly small pool table with absurdly small balls and watched Swedish news for an hour and a half. Not knowing a word of Swedish, I was able to make out a terrorist bombing in Somalia.

After checking out, I grabbed another bus to campus (which was the easy part) and then tried to find the international office (not so easy). I got disoriented and ended up on the completely opposite side of campus still carrying my 20kg backpack. I ran into two professors that could tell I obviously didn’t know where the hell I was and pointed me in the right direction. 20 minutes later, I got my keys. I got a quick orientation of where my building was and took the bus to Aldihem Centrum. From there, it was another 40 minutes of wandering around trying to find the damn place. The streets are very poorly labeled and the buildings don’t make much sense. For example, they are arranged in groups of four like the sides of a box. The numbers go around the box but jump from complex to complex. Anyway, long story short, I eventually found it and immediately unloaded my stuff and put my compass on my key chain. That thing has proved to be well worth bringing.

The school put on an orientation type program so I spent the next few days taking tours of campus and going to lectures on life in Umea as well as things to do and things to know (minus the two I missed when I slept in). Those were okay, but at night, the real fun began. There are about 100 international students and on Tuesday night we all went out to one of the campus pubs, the National House. I ended up making the rounds through the bar and meeting most of the people. There are quite a few people from Finland and Germany, but I also met a few from Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, England, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, France, Greece, and others I can’t remember. At one point, I was having a conversation with Annika, a Finnish girl about why Finland was better than Sweden and apparently Santa Clause lives in Finland, not the North pole which is why you won’t find him up there. I also met some really interesting guys from Greece with amazing accents. I found out real English accents are also pretty amazing. Very impressive. Anyway, it was a great night. We started at 7 and didn’t end up leaving until near 1am. On Wednesday night, we went downtown to an Irish pub with an American set up and Swedish ice hockey. The place was called O’Learys and holy crap were the drinks expensive. A .4L beer was 49 crowns which works out to about $10 a beer. Despite this, it was still another great night. At one point, the native English speaking students ended up congregating into a big group and had some interesting conversations about the little differences, like how a quarter pounder is a royale with cheese in England. It was good. There were 8 of us (me, Hugh, Hannah, Lyndsey, Trevor, Ryan, Sarah, and Lauren) that made up the U.S., Australia, England, and Canada as well as some people from a few of the European countries. Later that night, the bar turned into a disco which was our first experience with what we thought was European dancing. Very slow, awkward movements. Trevor (from Illinois) and I figured it was because no one could afford to get drunk. Anyway, Hugh, Hannah, Lyndsey, Trevor, and I took off and headed back on a 30 minute walk to campus (and a stop at Subway).

Thursday night was fairly relaxed. Hugh (Australian), Hannah (English), Lyndsey (English), and I watched some family guy after getting back from downtown (where I was finally able to get a phone and a sim-card and spend a ridiculous $30 on linens).

Friday has been by far the best day here. We spent the daylight hours (of which there are still few) doing a citywide scavenger hunt and then headed to the store to buy some beer for the pre-party (yes, there are pre-parties, parties, and after-parties). Anyway, all of the international students met up outside of Alidhem Centrum and walked to a place on my street. We crowded about 70 people into the basement of this building and had a pretty good time. I, however, was put to shame by Hugh, my Australian friend. He was working on his 4th .5L can of beer before I had finished my first. I’m sorry to everyone from UW-Madison that is disappointed in my ability to accurately represent our collective abilities by getting my ass kicked by an Aussie.

About the time we finished our three dimensional beer tower, everyone made their (drunken)way back to National House, one of the four campus pubs, and continued the party around 9. The place had rearranged the tables in the back area so that there was room to dance. Hannah and I made a deal that she would teach me to dance if I would teach her how to climb. She claims I was pretty good by the end of the night, but I still beg to differ. Furthermore, if you've gone out with me, you know that I do not like to dance, at all. Anyway, it must have been the alcohol because the entire place was packed and I ended up dancing until the place closed up at 2am. Hugh, Hanna, Lyndsey, one of the student coordinators, and I then ended up going to this small hamburger place hiding behind Alidhem. I guess American is always a good choice for after bar food.

Today was also a good day. Trevor and I decided to make a big breakfast for everyone (everyone being Brittany, Ryan, Sarah, Lauren, Hannah, Lyndsey, and Hugh) around 11 and then headed out to Maxi, a big grocery store on the river. It had snowed most of the morning so there were plenty of snowball fights along the way. We ended up seeing a pretty amazing sunset (that first picture up top) as well as loading up on groceries. Swedish grocery shopping is not easy, by the way (I’ll tell you about my milk story a little later). I just hope half the food I got is what I think it is. A couple of us finished off the day just hanging out and watching a movie. A good day indeed.

So, here are just a few observations and tidbits on my experience in Sweden:

Milk – anyone that knows me, knows that I like milk…a lot. Well, the first day in my dorm, Hugh and I went grocery shopping (I had just met Hugh in the International Office a few hours before). I wanted milk as it had been a few days since my last glass. I found a box that had a bowl of milk on it. Why not, it seemed like more than a few people were taking them so I got two (they were half liter boxes – the boxes are also ridiculously dumb, they don’t reseal and are just generally a pain!!). Turns out, it was soured milk, and Hugh had made the same mistake, twice. He had gone back the next day and almost gotten another box of a slightly different type of soured milk. Anyway, through various sources, I eventually found out that the milk you want is the box with milk being poured into a glass (go figure) and not the bowl of milk or the cow fishing. I also discovered 1.5L boxes and am now the proud owner of 3.5 liters of milk (I found chocolate milk too).

Alcohol – there are a few things here. 1) it is expensive 2) you buy it by alcohol content, e.g. 2.8%, 3.5%, 7%, and stores can only sell alcohol up to 3.5%. To get something stronger you need to go to the Systembolagat which is a state run store. Alcohol is approximately twice as expensive here as it is in the States.

Day Light – at this point, the sun comes up around 11am and sets near 3pm, though there is visible light between 8am and 5pm. On the brightside (no pun intended) we are adding about 14 minutes of light time every day. Still, it’s depressing when you wake up and see the sun and automatically know that you are late to wherever you had to be (me on Wednesday).
Walking – I have no idea how many calories I eat now, but it doesn’t matter because holy crap is there a lot of walking. I’ve walked between home and campus, and home and downtown, and campus and downtown so many times in the last week that I can probably eat whatever I want.

IKSU – this is a group almost identical to a combination of Hoofers and the Serf, Shell, Nat, etc. There are individual groups such as IKSU Alpin and Frilufts that offer trips much like Ski and Snowboard and the Outing clubs. Plus, they have northern Europe’s largest workout facilities (40,000 some square meters). Trevor, Hannah, and I joined up and are now making each other sign up for these classes since we’re actually paying for them now (they have basically some of the exact same programs that the serf puts on, e.g. spinology). I now have access to a climbing wall, pool, and most importantly, a sauna. Not to mention some sweet trips to the mountain regions.

Snow – the most disappointing thing by far. I thought I was leaving Wisconsin for a place with feet of snow. Instead, I come here where this has been literally the warmest winter ever recorded. There are 2 inches of snow (it actually rained the second night I was here) and every lecture I have been to, they will remind you about the snow. In addition to only 2 inches of snow, everything is covered with a layer of ice which also means I have never seen so much gravel covering EVERYTHING. Anyway, they say there should be about a meter of snow on the ground so we’ve got some catching up to do.

Beautiful People – wow, there is no myth in this respect. I have never seen so many beautiful people in my life. Seriously, amazing! And not even just the Swedes, but a lot of the international students are quite good looking as well. I never realized how truly lacking the States were.
American Culture – there is no way to get away from it. Every other song on the radio is an American pop culture song. Even a lot of movies and TV shows are American with Swedish subtitles. I actually heard Justin Timberlake playing in Subway the other night. I died a little on the inside. Also, my Australian and English friends no just about all of American programming, yet I know very little of theirs. Just terrible.

Communication Technology – how did we get along before cell phones and the internet? The first few days, it was hard to coordinate with all of the new people I had met and how to get together to go out and do things. Now, I’ve got skype, I started using MSN again, and I even bought a cell phone since the rest of the world doesn’t use CDMA (thanks U.S. Cellular). The cell system is pretty convenient though. Just buy a sim card and throw it into most phones and you are set to go. I have a prepaid card with free incoming and I can talk to anyone with Hale Bopp for free (which is most people in this area). Very nice.

But, it's time for bed. Hugh, Hannah, Lyndsey, Trevor, Brittany and I are grabbing a bus towards the mountains tomorrow morning to find some snow.

I've also got contact info now:

Mailing address:
Fysikgränd 29 A - 104
Umeå, Sweden 907 31

Cell #: +46 070-6863473

Skype: schmud125

MSN: schmud125@hotmail.com

Email: schmudlach@wisc.edu

So far so good...

Hello everyone, sorry for not having any recent updates. Just know that so far, this trip has been unbelievably amazing! I'll try to update everyone when I get time this Saturday or Sunday.

On the way

According to the time zones of the world, I have now been travelling for over 24 hours. I got on the bus headed to Chicago at 4:25pm Sunday. I am now sitting in an airport in Stockholm, Sweden at 4:21pm Monday local time with yet one more flight to go. Technically, it’s 9:30am at home. I slept for 30 minutes on the flight from Copenhagen to Stockholm. I guess going through seven time zones will mess with you. My plan now is to stay functional long enough to get to Umea and find my hostel. If all goes well, I will pass out around 8 or 9pm and wake up at a time that is normal for Sweden. Haha, wow I hope that works out as planned. Staying functional is easier said than done at this point, however.

I just got off the plane in the international terminal. Turns out I had to pick up my baggage as it doesn’t automatically route to Umea, something to do with customs apparently (yet not once did a I see a customs checkpoint). Anyway, I picked up my backpack, then exchanged a few dollars for some bus fare. I then proceeded to stand in an arrivals service line thinking it was something I needed to do with customs. It wasn’t. So after killing time in the baggage claim area, I tried to find the check in area so I could get to my next plane which left in about an hour. Well, I followed the signs marked departures. Turns out, I came right back to the international terminal, where I did not need to be. My terminal was instead on the other side of the airport. Perfect. A long walk later, I found the main check in, and stumbled around a bit more until I found terminal 4 (which was not nearly as well marked as terminals 2 and 3 – just an FYI in case anyone from Stockholm traveler services reads this). What a pain.

Last night in the States

Haha, man...what a crazy and fun night. I was definitely able to go out on a high note. The night started off at Boulder's where Jenny and I got in a couple hours of rock climbing. Then, we moved on to Dahlberg's house with lots of good food, terrible movies and about a gallon of milk (Jenny, I'll buy you another gallon). We watched straight through XXX: State of the Union, then moved on to the first 5 minutes of The Producer's, decided it wasn't worth watching, then moved on to Derailed, another terrible movie, and decided to have Elliot fill us in on the rest of the movie after 30 minutes of nonsense.

Meanwhile, my mom calls up and proceeds to sing to us, along with my aunts Beka and Peg (for those of you that know them, and also those that know as of tonight). By singing I mean inebriated babbling which then broke down into a chant of "free drinks, free drinks!" Basically, they were requesting my presence at a bar on the square. They then offered drinks to everyone I was with which included Elliot, Jenny, Lou, and Jessie. Well free drinks, you can't turn that down. So, we took them up on the offer and they decided to meet us at Beka's house.

We got there, before them, and eventually found the house, mom included (she happened to pull into the driveway of Beka's old house down the block, slightly inebriated, and the house is also now owned by a police officer...yeah, smooth). But I digress, we all came in and Beka handed out the drinks. Let me describe the scene: me, Jessie, Elliot, Lou, Jenny - all sober; mom, mom's sisters Peg and Beka, not so sober. From this point on, I really can't describe the things that happened in the next thirty minutes, though there are pictures that can explain (I refuse to tell you, find the pictures, or better yet, the video, but I will not help you). Regardless, it was hilarious, everyone now knows Lou's explanation of a FUPA, and I made a dollar.

After this, we made our way to Perkin's to visit Meg. It was good, and I drank more milk, not so good. Arron, one of Meg's gay coworkers found out I was leaving and was very disappointed (I'm sorry Arron, it never would have worked out). Haha, such a good night. We basically ended the night laughing our way out of Perkin's, saying good byes, and going home. I'm sorry to be leaving all of you, but I will see you all in a few short months, except Elliot. Way to go to Africa for two years Elliot, thanks for thinking of me (<--this was said with sarcasm, Elliot, I still love you, in a strictly platonic way). Night everybody, the next time I talk to you, I'll be 4,000 miles away.

Things to do

In all honesty, this list is more for me than anyone else. I was looking through my stack of things to do in Sweden and put everything I want to do and visit into one list. If anyone knows of anything awesome and relatively cheap that I missed, definitely let me know (make a comment about it).

• Turning Torso building constructed in Malmö: This building looks amazing and it was relatively inexpensive to produce, though the engineering looks like it might have been a pain. Google it if I forgot to put a picture up.

• Royal Castle in Stockholm: only because I feel like it’s a requirement to visit, but also because I’ll be there a couple times anyway.

• Bohus Fortress, Borgholm Castle, and Skokloster Castle by Lake Mälaren: Castles are awesome, and the few pictures I’ve seen of these shouldn’t disappoint.

• Liseberg theme park in Gothenburg: Scandinavia’s largest themepark, and also because I can’t get enough of sweet high speed coasters.

• Dog sledding in Jukkasjarvi: this is part of when Jenny comes to visit. Her relatives own a large dog sledding company so I’m tagging along so I can learn how to mush.

• Sand dunes and beaches of Skåne: again, the picture looked pretty cool and it seems like a relaxing place to visit with friends.

• Hemavan and Tärnaby (see image below) in Lappland : incredible hiking, really all I need to say. (I think I’ve already got these places covered in a small backpacking trip on the King’s Trail).

• Visby: The town of Visby, on the island of Gotland, is a mixture of idealistic Swedish small town and medieval city. Medieval cities are pretty amazing to see.

• Kalmar Castle: Built in the late 12th century, Kalmar Castle is the best preserved Renaissance castle in Sweden…see above, castles are awesome.

• Ales Stones: Ales stones in the county of Skåne is an arrangement of 58 boulders raised in a ship-like formation some 1,000-1,500 years ago. I don’t know if I’ll actually visit this one, but I’d really like to go to Skåne to I mine as well see it if I’m there.

• Caving in Korallgrottan, Jämtland (longest cave in Sweden, 4800 meters in length): just because caving is pretty cool, but if the budget doesn’t allow, it will probably be the first to be cut from the list since caves are pretty similar all around the world. But I’ll also be in the area for some ice climbing so we’ll see.

• Laponia, Lapland: The breathtaking scenery of Laponia encompasses deep pine forests and mysterious, sweeping mountains and is home to a fascinating variety of wildlife. It is also recognized as a World Heritage Site. Basically, Laponia is a collection of four large national parks, including Sarek (which you’ll read about it a bit further down) so this probably doesn’t need to be on the list.

• Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) in Northern Sweden: I’ll probably see this while dog sledding, staying at the ice hotel, skiing in Riksgränsen, or backpacking in Abisko.

• Backpack Ammarnäs to Hemavan on the 440 km Kungsleden trail (Swedish for the Kings Trail): Arjeplog mountain region, including Ammarnäs and Hemavan, two beautiful mountain villages that are connected by the Kungsleden trail. Along the journey between these two villages, which takes five days, you will discover Vindel Mountain’s “Golden Gate”, an archipelago with five suspension bridges and two plank bridges. Along the entire Kungsleden trail there are strategically placed mountain cabins for overnight accommodation, food preparation and provisions, as well as two youth hostels.

• More backpacking, just read this sentence: The Swedish mountain regions stretch over a thousand kilometers from Treriksröset in the north to Dalarna in the south.

• See the midnight sun (meaning the sun is still up at 00:00 hours) in Abisko which is also the start of the King’s Trail.

• Sarek National Park: Sarek is an alpine region with dramatic mountain massifs and narrow valleys, glaciers and free-flowing watercourses. There are no less than 200 mountains over 1,800 meters high, and over 100 glaciers in the national park. Sarek’s “artery” is the famous and beautiful Rapadalen, with the river Rapaätno that carries a huge flow of green glacier water from around 30 glaciers. Sarek is characterized by the unparalleled variety of the natural surroundings, from open views with undulating mountain plateaus and marshy moorland, gentle mountain ridges, dense primeval forests and expansive areas of surface water to the sharp peaks and narrow ravines of the high mountain region. The great valleys provide rich animal life, with excellent chances of encountering the particularly grand Sarek moose along with predatory animals such as bear, wolverine and lynx. Sarek is also home to the unique remains of an ancient Sami culture, which show evidence of centuries of reindeer herding. It is a fantastically beautiful but also demanding landscape. Come on, who’s not jealous after reading that?

• Kayaking the Stockholm Archipelago: With its 24,000 islands, the Stockholm archipelago is a unique environment to visit all year round. On some of the islands, you’ll find picturesque homes, delightful restaurants, quality hotels, youth hostels and country stores. Other islands have no man-made facilities at all, just their natural harbors and wildlife.

• Spend the night in the Ice Hotel in Kiruna: The Ice Hotel is absolutely incredible. Double rooms and suites constructed entirely of ice, an ice lobby, a chamber of ice pillars and the famous Icebar. The beds are made of ice too, but the chill doesn’t get through thanks to a bed base comprising wooden slats, a mattress and a thick reindeer skin. Everything has a bluish sheen, as though you were staying in a glacier that had just calved.

• Whitewater Rafting the Gevsjöströmmarna: Sweden’s steepest navigable river allowing fast and furious, outstanding, world class white-water rafting. The high point of the trip is the Storfallet rapids with its fully six meter drop.

• Climbing the Kebnekaise, Sweden’s tallest mountain - I'll do both hiking and rock climbing here.

• Ice Climbing in Maltbrännan (possibly also Lunndörrspasset in Jämtland): I’m doing this one through a program at the university (that is a lot like Hoofers) so I’m going to get to learn ice climbing this year afterall.

• Whitewater Kayaking – there are some good rivers that I should be able to handle, but I don’t have any specifics for it yet.

• Mountain biking in Laponia (also possibly Western Härjedalen, where the best mountain biking is found): I don’t know how much, but I’ll get out there for at least two or three days.

• Sweden hosts competitions called Extreme Challenge Events which sound pretty awesome and I think I’m more than qualified to make a run for them. Now if only I could find their website.

• I’m also looking into the possibility of doing some snowmobiling through some heavy powder up north (more the cost than the possibility, there are places everywhere).

• Alpine skiing in Åre: Sweden’s top international ski resort is Åre, which will be host to the Alpine Skiing World Championships in 2007 (I’ll actually be in Åre to see the ski championships, again through this amazing program at the university).
  

• Sweden has a coastline of, approximately, 3000 km, exquisite and diverse archipelagos and at least one hundred thousand lakes. This means, if I can afford it, some windsurfing, lots of sea kayaking, and swimming.

• More alpine Skiing in Riksgränsen with Jenny: Riksgränsen is the world’s northernmost ski resort and internationally renowned for two things. Skiing under the midnight sun and high speed skiing. Several of the world’s best skiiers visit Riksgränsen every year. The vast mountains have masses of ravines, channels and snow overhangs to play in.

Seriously, if anybody knows of something I’d probably like to do, please let me know. Also, look for the upcoming edition of what I plan to do in the rest of Europe. Man, time is definitely going to be working against me this semester.