Gotland

I know. I haven't posted in too long. It's a tragedy.

Okay, so a few weeks ago we took an incredible long weekend trip to Gotland, a Swedish Island and the largest island in the Baltic (how's that for a little Jeopardy trivia?). The trip was soooo much fun, but definitely exhausting. We were go-go-going for most of the time, but I'd have it no other way.

The trip was optional, but most of the kids in my program came, so we got Friday classes off. Friday morning we met up at T-Centralen and headed to the airport where we took a plane to Gotland. Poor Erik is afraid of flying, but did pretty well.

Once we got to Gotland we hoped in our bus to Visby. Visby was absolutely gorgeous. It was like going back in time to see the windy streets and cobblestones. We checked into our hotel and were off! We had a Medieval lunch at Clematis (no, "Clematis" is not an STD, I was wondering the same thing). The restaurant was a dark, candle-lit tavern, complete with people dressed up, viking food, and even a flame-blower. I didn't think it could be topped. I had such a great time that I might have even convinced myself I was an actual viking for a moment or two.

Our tour guide, Gunnar Bäck, showed us around a museum after that. Now, I'm unsure how someone gets becomes an accredited tour guide, but this gentleman fell short of my expectations.

That night we went out to dinner as a group and even stuck around at the bar later for a little late night disco with our groups leader, Kajsa and Cecilia. Cecilia had some sick dance moves, and if I recall correctly, so did Bjorn, in his own special way. I bought a 160 Kronor drink and nursed it for a solid 2 hours.

The next day, Gunnar gave us a tour around Gotland, which included visiting sand and limestone beaches, graveyards, churches, and of course, hearing a lot of irrelevant personal stories of Gunnar's. Gotland is rich in viking artifacts and recently had two massive silver hoards found. Silver isn't found on Gotland, so it had to have been imported, which indicates how wealthy the vikings were. But here I go rambling about artifacts...

The highlight of the tour was seeing the view of Visby atop some beautiful cathedral ruins.

Later that night we went to a Viking Village. No one thought we'd have enough energy to enjoy it, but the viking Village ended up being the best part of the trip by far. We dressed up in viking tunics and did a variety of activities such as axe throwing, archery, metalwork, and house-building. We competed against one another and were rewarded with Viking beads. 

Once it got dark we headed in to a lodge where we feasted on lamb, vegetables, ligonberry juice, and carmelized almonds. It was like Clematis but even better! It was such a fun evening. Once we got back to the hotel we quickly changed and headed with Cecilia and Kajsa to a small pub located in the wall that surrounds Visby. It's lit up and beautiful at night. Erik, Alison, and I got a little lost heading back to the hotel, but didn't mind because the windy, hilly, Visby streets were beautiful at night. 

Sunday morning we had just enough time to explore a little. We saw some incredible gardens and I had a chance to hit up a candy shop (yessss!) before we flew back.

I'll post soon about Paris and Madrid! More pictures to come!

Some Generalizations and Observations (maybe unfair, but TRUE!)

Okay, so I've been in Stockholm for three weeks now. Is that enough time for me to report some over-simplified generalizations? Perfect.

1. Legs -- I walk around subway stations here (Oops! Pardon me! I mean tunnelbana. Wow, my Svenska is getting so good) and all I see is long, skinny legs. EVERYWHERE. It's almost jawdropping. It's as if the Swedish government has genetically altered everyone here to have a pair of these (I wouldn't put it past a bunch of socialists..). And I'm not just talking about girls -- guys got 'em too! Guys walk around in these tight, neon jeans and it throws me off big time. I guess I'm just an American girl, but I like to believe the illusion that my legs are skinnier than most guys... not true! New rule: all potential Swedish beaus must have thicker legs than me. You wonder how they stay warm in the winter...

My roommate, Dani, is practicing her svenska vowels and I would like to take this opportunity to embarass her and post this. Okay, well that's that.

2. Swedish Dads -- I would like to quote Julia here, "Swedish dads are the best invention ever!" She says this all the time. 'Why?' you ask yourself. Swedish dads are everywhere -- pushing strollers, riding on bikes with toddler seats, and buying their kids tons of candy (the kids here are always doped up on candy it seems). Stockholm natives are pretty fashionable and it's funny to see a man decked out in designer threads who looks like he might be a rockstar or a Dior model and he's pushing along his mini-me who is also decked out in punk clothes. I've also seen some ganster-type dads with strollers. It's something I don't recall seeing a lot of in the US. There isn't any shame in it here and it would never be thought of as emasculating which has a lot to do with the near-perfect gender equality in Sweden (men and women are both equal breadwinners in the family). Another factor is that both men and women get ridiculously long maternity/paternity leaves. I'm learn about this is my 'Women' class :)

3. Staring -- If you're me, right now you're thinking "Stare-ing? Star-ing?" I'm talking about the looking one. People stare here. It probably doesn't help that my peers and I reek of America, but I feel like when I pass people, they really stare at me. It's something I've adjusted to and some of my friends have felt the same way. I think a lot of the guys on my trip thought they were doing pretty well with the ladies based on this. The truth is (sorry, guys) staring here isn't as rude or suggestive as it is in the US. It's much more innocent and locking eyes isn't something Swedes are ashamed to do or even very aware of. So, rather than embarassingly glancing away when you make eye contact with someone, Swedes feel no problem reciprocating the glance.

4. Smiley Faces -- Swedes completely abuse the emoticons you can use in text messages. Even guys use them. For example, a typical text message might contain 2 or 3 of these. That's too much! It stops here, Sweden. Got it?

5. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- As I may have mentioned before, Swedes are somewhat reserved, in general. I'm still trying to coax the old lady who lives on my floor to return the "Hej! God dag!" I send her way every morning before she makes the long trek from her walker to the stairchair thing she uses. These reservations change once alcohol is involved... I'm not talking about the old woman anymore... I've never drank with her, but I'm sure she's a hoot. Stockholm is a pretty formal place and suddenly once the clock strikes midnight these proper Europeans suddenly turn to wild huligans (you got a glimpse of that with the soccer game). Suddenly everyone wants an American friend to show around the city and cook a traditional Swedish meal. It's kind of hysterical, actually. And did I mention there is alcohol everywhere? Oh, I didn't? Well there is. My parents will be happy to know that I haven't really been hitting the bottle while I've been here (I can hardly figure out which tunnelbana to get on sober) but I haven't forgotten Paul Nolan pulling my aside in New Hampshire this summer and telling me to write a blog "Completely smashed!"

6. Everyone Speaks English -- Okay, this one is just true. Everyone over the age of 12 is fluent in english, which is good for me and bad for my Svenska prof, Eva. At this rate I'll never get past learning tunnelbana. Even people who work at McDonald's here speak perfect english... (I'm going to save myself from saying something minorly politically incorrect here).

But don't think everything is all hunky-doory because everyone speaks fluent english! It's not! Some of the other students and I have been out with Swedes and let me tell you, ALL HUMOR IS LOST. Seriously. It's somewhat miserable. Also, Swedes are not afraid of long silences. Ye have been warned! All those wary of awkward date situations turn back now! It's obviously not just a language barrier, but also a cultural one. George put it very nicely, (paraphrasing!)"It's not that I don't have a good time [one-on-one with a Swede], but it's nothing great or special. It's hard to find a connection that can survive the language and cultural barrier". Well put, George! I think Joey (who lives a few floors up) would agree. Joey got sick of a Swedish girl after 3 dates and she was a professional Swedish ballerina! I hope people give him a hard time for that. And while I'm giving Joey a shout-out I might add that you should check out his awesome blog at apfeltunovers.blogspot.com

That's it for now! I'm up to Julia's apartment to enjoy an ice cream sundae binge-sesh with the other girls in my program.

Kurs på Stockholms Universitet

Alrighty, I promised my parents I'd write about my classes so forgive me if I bore you, but here they are:

I'm taking four classes this semester,
Swedish I
Europe and the World Economy
Women in Swedish Society and Culture
Urban and Rural Landscapes in Modern Scandinavian Art and Architecture

Swedish is fun and we have it in the morning three days a week. Our prof, Eva, is really great. I'm totally terrible at Swedish though, especially vowels (Swedish has three extra ones that have you make really bizare faces). The econ class is really dry, por usual, and is all macroeconomics. The 'Women' class should be fun. All the girls in my program are taking it and that boy, Benedict, who I mentioned earlier. He is a real... I guess 'character' would be the most polite way to put it. He's sure to make the class interesting. The prof seems to really know what she's talking about, but I find myself being distracting in class deciding whether or not she has always been a woman... The 'Art and Architecure' class will be fun. We take fieldtrips every other week to buildings and museums, but it is unfortunately until 5 every Friday.

Stockholm University has a policy of 45 minutes of class followed by a 15 minute break called 'fika' which is my favorite thing about Sweden so far. Fika is something like a long coffee break that Swedes take approx 7 times a day and it can last hours. Some professors have been giving us 30 minute breaks every 20 minutes or so. It's actually a little hard to get used to, but I'm not complaining. Another plus to fika are the Swedish cinnamon buns, kannelbulle, which have significantly increased my quality of life since arriving. I think many of my peers would agree.

Hamma hamma hamma HAMMARBY!

Since going to Grinda I've had the opportunity to do so many fun and exciting things. We went out that Friday and Saturday night and met lots of friendly Swedes who are eager to show us around the city. My contact dad explained to me that Swedes are very reserved people unless there's alcohol involved, and boy, was he right. We also had a chance to experience this at a soccer game on Monday night. The teams were AIK vs. Hammarby, both Stockholm teams. We were warned that it was similar to a Red Sox/Yankees rivalry, but we had no idea what we were in for. Some of the boys went by bus to travel to the stadium with the team. Apparently it was quite the experience which included lots of cheering, singing, and (you guessed it) binge drinking. Some of the girls and I opted to skip that, which in retrospect was probably a good choice.

Our tickets were in the standing section of the Hammarby side (we live in Sundyberg, AIK territory, but we didn't realize this when we were buying tickets). Before the game even started both AIK and Hammarby fans were waving huge flags, shooting colored smoke, and setting off fireworks. It was crazy. Later in the game the ref made a bad call and total chaos erupted. The Hammarby fans were throwing these little fireworks/bomb things at the soccer players so everyone had to clear the field. The Polis were beating rowdy fans with these pointy sticks and about two thirds of the stadium booked it out of there.... we chose to stay :) (I can just see my parents rolling their eyes now) which perhaps was not a wise choice. While exiting a bunch of us almost got trampled by a mob of angry AIK fans who rushed the Hammarby exits, some girls in the group had to jump on a lamppost to avoid being trampled by polis on horseback, and Colin sprained his ankle. Needless to say it was exciting, and in hindsight, AWESOME. Did I mention the game ended in a tie? These fans don't joke around. We booked it home in polis-escorted subway cars. We asked a nearby Swede if this behavior is common and he said 'yes'. I'd love to go again, but next time I'll leave early.

This is a picture of the polis lining the field before the crowd got rowdy. Haha I wish I weren't looking like an idiot pretending to look like one of them.

Last Saturday Julia, Dani, and I visited Skansen, which basically was a Swedish Sturbridge Village. To get there we took a ferry to a nearby island that also hosted an amusement park, Grono Lund, that I am DYING to go to. Hopefully we'll make it there this weekend.

Skansen was really interesting and very picturesque (again, I promise to post pictures soon!).

Wednesday nights are pub nights at Stockholms Universitet. We went last week but came too late to get into the dance club. Hopefully we'll have more luck tonight. We are hoping to meet up with some Swedish students there. One thing that is ineresting is that most students starting at the University are 20 or 21. Most Swedes take a year or two off after high school, so some kids we go to school with are even in there mid/late twenties and are engaged, which is really strange to me coming from Bowdoin.

I promise I'm taking classes here too! I just started this week, so I haven't had all my classes yet. I'm taking Svenska, Women in Swedish Society and Culture, Europe and the World Economy, and History of Modern Scandinavian Art and Architecture. All my classes are in english and only have kids in my program in them. I'll talk more about those once I've had all my classes. Don't worry, Mom and Dad, I haven't forgotten I'm studying abroad ;)

Other things I've done: visted SoFo, Östermalm, had "Fika", seen the National Museum, eaten Swedish meatballs, visited an epic IKEA, and got a tattoo of a Scorpion holding a Swedish flag the covers my entire back (JOKES!).

Sending everyone my best! Hope the fall is off to a good start at Bowdoin!