Ah! Where do I start?
First of all, I made it here alive 9 days ago. So far, it has been nothing short of incredible. After flying for the LONGEST time I finally arrived in Stockholm. I'll be honest, the plane ride freaked me out a little as I watched a virtual map of the plane flying over Oslo, Norway and realized that not only was I far from home, but far from the rest of Europe. I guess my parents weren't lying when they said Sweden was "way up there". After arriving I got my luggage, was greeting, and quickly shoved into a cab that whisked me off to my apartment. I was left by the curb with 3500 krona, a cell phone, a set of keys, and my luggage. I hadn't slept in approx 36 hours and had to force myself to stay awake for at least another 10, when I'd be meeting the rest of the students in the program.
Bright and early the next morning we met at the dock in Stromkajen to hop on a ferry to go on an overnight to Grinda, a rural island in the Stockholm archipelago. I don't think any of us had enjoyed a full night's sleep, so we were all pretty comatose. We got to know each other and bond as a group -- especially around the campfire later that night. Let's just say that one of the students, Benedict, had some crazy stories that will forever be burned in our minds.
The next morning a handful of students and I got up at the crack of dawn to jump into the Baltic Sea. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself. I jumped in right off the dock. I even went for round two later. I didn't know I had it in me. It. Was. Cold.
This is the dock we jumped from:
