Happy Easter!

(Uppsala's Easter Tree in Vaksalatorget (Vaksala square))

Glad påsk! (Happy Easter!)

It feels like Sweden has increasingly becoming like a paradise over the past couple of weeks!  The weather has just been absolutely beautiful.  In fact, there have been several days where I have been able to walk outside wearing short-sleeved shirts with no jacket!  It's incredible to see how the Swedes embrace the spring.  The streets are absolutely covered with outdoor tables and people sitting.  The amount of people walking everywhere is incredible!  It seems like the population of the city has tripled because the sidewalks are now so crowded with people and dogs.

Many people where I live have gone home for Easter or they have gone traveling.  Luckily all but two of my closest friends have remained here, and we decided to do some fun things.  Initially, we had planned to take a cruise to Helsinki.  However, a few of my friends had stopped there last week on her way back from Russia, and they said it was hard to occupy even an hour of time there!  So in the end, we decided that it might be wasteful to spend a whole weekend there.

Instead, yesterday we went to Stockholm.  First we walked around Gamla Stan (the old part of the city) and had a traditional Swedish meal of kotbullar (Swedish meatballs).  Then, we walked over to one of the Djurgården, one of the biggest islands of Stockholm.  On this island, we went to the famous "museum" called Skansen.  The best comparison I can think of is that it is the Swedish version of Colonial Williamsburg.  It is a huge park where they try to recreate the lifestyle of Sweden in the 19th century.  Like Williamsburg, you can see how a tanner, a baker, a glass blower,etc lived and worked their trade at that time.  The park also has a collection of Scandinavian animals such as moose, lynx, fox, bear, etc.

After several hours in Skansen, we met up with our friend Jean Charles who studies in Stockholm.  We spent some time with him sitting in the sun along the bay, and then we made our way back home to Uppsala.

Today, for Easter we all went out to our favorite cafe (Cafe Linne, of course!) for a long lunch and fika.  Later, we will go on a walk along the river, and then we will just spend some time together in the evening.

Beyond thinking about Easter, we have all been preparing for Valborg.  Valborg ( Walpurgis Eve in English) is a celebration of spring in Scandinavia.  The good news is that Uppsala (my city!!!) is the most famous place in the whole world to celebrate Valborg!  On sista April (the last day of April, April 30) thousands upon thousands of students gather on the hill by Uppsala Slott (our castle).  It is a huge day of celebration here, and there are so many traditions that I have heard of.  So many students who lived in our building last semester and have left are coming back just for Valborg, so we have all been trying to figure out who will sleep in which person's room.  I think it will be a very fun day, and I will be sure to write all about it!

Hej då och glad påsk! (Goodbye and Happy Easter!)

Busy busy!

Hej!

It's been forever since I last wrote about what I have been doing!  I've been busy here with school.  I had my exam for my second class just last week, and I did quite a bit work in March to prepare for that.  The actual exam was exhausting because I wrote over 20 pages and stayed for the full 5 hours!  I have recently started a new class which is all about genocide.  It is, of course, a pretty somber class, but I've really appreciated the different perspectives I have gotten.  My professor is from Croatia and was an aid worker in the Bosnian conflict, and there are a few of my classmates who have actually been volunteers in Darfur.  This class will actually end in the last part of April, and then I will be done with my studies here.  I will stay in Sweden until the middle of May, though.

In terms of adventures, I've had some good ones this past month!  A week after my trip to Paris, I went on a ski trip to the town of Romme in Sweden, which is just a couple hours north of Uppsala.  I was so nervous to go on the trip because I hadn't been skiing in ages, and even then I was very much a beginner!  I decided to just do it anyway!  Sure enough, I felt like quite the beginner.  The bunny hill was higher than the advanced hills I had seen in my Ohio ski trips!  It was also intimidating to watch the Swedish children.  There were 2 and 3 year olds flying down the very advanced hills!!  Even though I was clearly out of my league, I had a great time!  I worked my way up to the intermediate hills by the end of the day.  Once, by accident, I even went down an advanced hill because I took the wrong lift!  Yikes, that was scary!!

The next weekend, Jeff came to visit me.  He stayed for a week, and I was able to show him around Uppsala and introduce him to some of my friends here.  We also went to Copenhagen for two days!  While we were in Copenhagen we walked around to see all of the important tourist sites such as the Little Mermaid statue (in the picture), the Round Tower, the Tivoli Gardens, etc.  We also went to see a part of town called Christiana.  I had remembered it from watching the Scandinavia Globe Trekker with Mom and Dad.  It's this area in Copenhagen that is considered to be an independent community of "hippies".  Now it's really more of a tourist destination than anything, but it's really interesting.  They have their own currency and everything!

I felt pretty at home in Denmark because it was so similar to Sweden.  The language was very similar (I could recognize a lot of the key phrases), and I had to remind myself not to say "hello" or "thank you" in Swedish!  The buildings in Denmark also remind me of the buildings in Stockholm ( many different colors and a lot of older buildings, too).  Even the setting of the city was familiar!  Just like Stockholm, Copenhagen is situated right next to the water.  I think Scandinavian cities are really underrated as tourist destinations.  From what I've seen, they are all very clean, safe, well-organized, vibrant and interesting cities!  

Later in the week, I took Jeff to Stockholm.  Unfortunately we didn't have very much time because I had class that day.  However, we were able to walk around what I consider "the important parts" of Stockholm such as the main shopping and walking area and Gamla Stan, which is the old and very charming part of the city.  We also went to the most famous museum in Scandinavia, which is the Vasa museum.  Inside this museum there is the "the" Swedish warship from the 17th century that sunk on its maiden voyage.  Later in the 1950's the ship was found and they pulled it out of the sea.  It was incredible to see how intact this huge ship is after all those years under the water!

Besides the adventures, I've just been having a good time in Uppsala.  We have had a couple of birthday parties for people recently.  This week we said goodbye to our friend Nappe, who played bandy (it's like hockey) here.  It was a really sad goodbye for all of us!  The good news is that a few of us will be traveling to Helsinki (where he lives) over Easter weekend, and we will get to see him!

This weekend has been particularly nice!  On Friday, I got to meet my friend Wojtek's brother and friend who were in for the weekend.  We met up with our Swedish friend Emelie who had friends visiting from France.  On Saturday, we all had a picnic by the river because the weather was so lovely (it was over 60 degrees)!  Later that day, I went on another excursion to Gamla Uppsala (old Uppsala) with Wojtek and his guests.  Gamla Uppsala was the main center of the Vikings in Sweden.  Because I have just taken the Viking history class, I was the resident expert on Gamla Uppsala.  I felt like Laura!!

Today is another sunny and beautiful day in Uppsala, and I think I will go on a walk with some friends :-)

Hej då!  Puss puss (Goodbye! Kiss kiss)