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
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.
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.
