October November

Part of October and November

                It’s been a little while since the last time I last wrote. I’ve been doing really well. I’m still really enjoying my time in Sweden and my town Eskilstuna. I’ve become closer with my Swedish friends and I’ve met a lot of people. Within the last few weeks my Swedish has been getting much better. With the encouragement of my host family and my friends to speak more Swedish, I have learned a lot. I still have a long ways to go though. Most of the time during the week I have a stable routine, go to school, go to the gym, have Swedish lessons, play Innebandy (floorball), have Fika, and playing Fifa. On the weekends however there is always something going on.

Around Halloween it was really nice to see that some of the Swedish people also go trick or treating, it reminded me of home even though I didn’t get any candy (luckily they have whole stores full of hundreds of different candies to choose from, so no worries I still have plenty of candy). We also had some masquerade parties were everyone dressed up as any character you could possibly imagine. Even some of the clubs had masquerade nights were people dressed up and hit the clubs dressed up as clowns and movie characters.

I went to a Digitalism concert in Stockholm (which is one of my favorite bands). On the way there we stopped at this massive mall that had an Ikea and a movie theater with 18 theaters. The concert was a really cool environment to have a concert. When you walked in to the left was a big stage and a big dance floor, but to the right there was a bunch of old sofas, a ping pong and a foosball table. We ended up playing foosball with a couple of German guys. We ended up being so focused on the game (we couldn’t let the Germans beat a Swede and an American) next thing I know about 600 people had shown up. From then on the night just got better and better. The band started to play, the crowd started to form, and then me and my friend were about 3 feet away from the stage. At some points I was pushed up right next to the stage, all of my clothes were shaking with every beat. I looked down and saw my bands moving back and forth, and underneath my moving pants I had goosebumps. The whole crowd seemed to move with every note. It was an amazing concert and my friend that went with me had never heard of digitalism but he said it was the best concert that he had ever been to.

On another weekend a fellow exchange student from Australia who lives in near Eskilstuna had just turned 18. She was having a joint birthday party with her host mother who was turning 60. So that family had invited me and a few other exchange students to a party at a castle at a nearby town called Flen. It was a lot of fun, the castle was beautiful and right on the lake, everyone was dressed up, we had a 5 course meal, sat by the lake even though it was very cold but beautiful, and we danced all night long.

A lot of these castles in Sweden were never made for defensive or military purposes. They were just made for the rich and loyalty. This castle actually has a lot of history, it has been around since the 1300, it has had a lot of different owners, including the German explorer Eric von Rosen and his brother Hermann Göring a famous German aviator and Nazi leader spent a lot of time at this castle. On the door to the castle there is a Swastika and one theory is that Hermann Göring got the idea for the Nazi symbol from this. It’s was a big shock to hear that I was in a building that could have so much history behind it. I may have been in a castle that caused a symbol that originally started out as a symbol of peace, which has now been turned into a symbol of hate.  

On the weekends I almost always seem to be doing something or if not we almost always seem to go to the club one night. It’s really a cool environment since you can go with your friends, and we’ll also see are friends there, I meet new people and we just dance the night away.

During the fall break my host family took me to Vienna, Austria. My host family used to live in Vienna a few years ago so they went back to visit the city and visit with their friends. We left early Monday morning and drove to the Stockholm airport. It was about a two and a half hour flight to Vienna. Their friends picked us up and brought us back to their house. They lived in an area of Vienna where a lot of the places where Beethoven lived. Also Einstein lived on that same street, so I stayed at a house right down the road from Beethoven and Einstein. We went to the top of this mountain which would look over Vienna but unfortunately it was too foggy so we were unable to see anything. We then traveled into town and I was able to see the beautiful center of town, the State Opera House, and we walked through this market that seemed to go for miles. Next they took to Schoenbrunn, which was an amazing palace, and we had a coffee at the Glorriete. I think just the palace was as big as Farmington. It had over 1,441 rooms, and so many beautiful statues, monuments, and gardens. That night we went to a traditional Viennese restaurant and we had Weiner Schnitzel.

The next morning we went to Prata, which is this huge piece of land that used to be the Kings hunting grounds. Now it’s a park and and Amusement park. Me and my host sister went on a few rides, including this revolving swing with thin metal chains that went about 600 feet up, we could see most of Vienna from way up there. We also went into Madame Tussaud’s and saw wax figures of famous Austrians and I was able to learn a lot about Austrian history and culture. After that we met up with their friends and they drove us around the city. It was nice having multiple personal tour guides showing me Parliament, palaces, monuments, museums, and beautiful architecture. Our hosts served us this wonderful dinner with moose, potato dumplings, and other typical Austrian food.

The next couple of days we mostly shopped for clothes and stocked up on Austrian things, and walked around the city. Vienna is surrounded by all of these wine vineyards and on Wednesday night we went to a almost a wine bar. There one of the vineyards sold their own wine and served meals. It was a great environment to be in, lots of laughs, wine, candles, and a guitarist singing Austrian folk songs. Overall it was a wonderful few days in the beautiful city of Vienna.

                I haven’t done a lot of things with my Rotary district but one thing we did was my rotary district had a conference in a nearby town. So the exchange students in my district went and we performed for our district. We had a small play that was about going to our first rotary meeting in Sweden, a dance performance to Dancing Queen by ABBA, and a duet. The performance was really good seeing as we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for it.

                I’ve been doing great and really enjoying my time in Eskilstuna. I hope things are going well!

Tim

12 weeks

I’ve been in Sweden for about 12  weeks now I think. So I’ll try to catch you up on everything I’ve been up to since I left.

My Town Eskilstuna

I had a wonderful departure with a going away party a week before where I got to say goodbye to a lot of my friends and family. I had a great last week and after having a great last night of saying goodbye to my friends, I was ready to go. I had some flight changes and instead of going from Portland to Washington to Copenhagen to Gothenburg, I went from Portland to Washington to Munich to Gothenburg. The trip was a little hectic at times but I got there safe and sound. I spent about 2 weeks on the West coast at my host families summer house. It was really relaxing and I got to know my host family really well and it helped me to settle into living in Sweden. They took me golfing, swimming, waterskiing, cliff jumping and took the boat around to various different island. After a few weeks on the west coast I traveled to language camp for a week with a bunch of other exchange students in Sweden. It was a really good week because I was able to meet most of the new exchange students and I really needed help learning Swedish. Although the camp didn’t help that much with my Swedish It was still one of the best weeks of the exchange so far. I don’t think I’ve ever become that close with such a large group of people.  I said goodbye to all of my newly made friends and made my way to my new city, Eskilstuna. I live in a city of about 60,000 in the city and about 100,000 in the area, so it’s a bit different then Farmington. My host family has been great and they live in a very nice two floored apartment that is very close to the center of town. I have about a 20 minute walk or 10 minute bike ride to school along a river, so it’s a very pleasant and beautiful ride to school. I’m in the technical program so that means I take physics, construction, calculus, design, and data communication. Needless to say there aren’t a lot of girls in my class but that’s fine there are plenty of other beautiful Swedish women around.

                Typically Swedish people are very shy at first and it takes a little bit of time to establish really good friendships, and I have experienced this a few times. Luckily immediately I became very close to my friends almost within the first couple of days. So usually what I do with my friends is after school we’ll go to a coffee place and have fika (which is basically a coffee break with some sort of pastry or desert). Or I’ll go to a friend’s house and also have fika and play Fifa. Other things I do during the week are having Swedish classes because I really need them, sometimes I’ll play soccer or basketball, and once a week I play Innebandy which is basically like floorball, and soon I’ll be starting rugby soon. Also my host dad is really into hunting so he took me skeet shooting. On the weekends I’ve gone to Stockholm a few times, I had a Rotary conference last weekend, and one weekend I went to my families winter house at a ski resort to work on it to get It ready for winter. Other weekends I’ll either go to a club with my friends (which almost seems like going to prom), playing Fifa, watching soccer, watching a movie at someones house, or hanging around with friends and have coffee and eat some kebab (which a lot of the Swedish guys here are obsessed about). Kebab can be a variety of different kind of meat and can be served in a sandwich, with fries, or on pizza with this red and white sauce. All of them are all really good. Most of the food is really good, I’m a little surprised that I haven’t more fish but I think I’ve had a lot of mushrooms because my host mom loves to go into the woods and pick mushrooms and that’s a Swedish tradition in the summer and fall.

                I’ve been keeping busy visiting with my host family, hanging with my friends, and trying to learn Swedish, doing various different activities, and having some great experiences. Other then that I’ve been doing great, I really like Sweden and the Swedish people and my friends. The only problem is that things are really really expensive but luckily money is the only problem.  I’m not really home sick yet but I do miss Farmington, my family, and friends.

Tim

My Departure, Arrival, and the Summer House

For those of you who would like a brief summary of my experience so far well here it goes all others who want the finest of details skip ahead to the next paragraph or do what you want. So I've been in Sweden for about a week and a half now. I had a wonderful departure with a going away party a week before where I got to say goodbye to a lot of my friends and family. I had a great last week and after having a great last night of saying goodbye to my friends I was ready to go. I had some flight changes and instead of going from Portland to Washington to Copenhagen to Gothenburg, I went from Portland to Washington to Munich to Gothenburg. My family has been great, the food is delicious, and I've been golfing, swimming, and water-skiing. I'm headed to language camp next week with a bunch of other exchange students in Sweden, which is good because I get to meet everyone and I really need help learning Swedish and then after that I start school.
Now for the details
So the Saturday before I left my parents threw a big going away party. There was wonderfully delicious food,  some Kan Jam, a bonfire and it was great to visit with everyone and say goodbye. There was a lot of people who showed up I think around 50 to 60 people came by. A lot of my friends showed up and family friends and family. It was all in all a great day.
Over the next week things were very busy. I was able to be with and say goodbye to my brother Shawn the rest of the weekend before he went back to work. Then the rest of the week was filled with packing and preparing for the trip even though I didn't have my visa or plane ticket yet but I needed to be prepared in case. Tuesay afternoon I received an email saying that my visa had been approved and I quickly started talking to my travel agent and the next thing I knew I had a ticket and a travel itinerary. On Friday at 220 I was going to fly From Portland to Washington D.C. I would have an hour and a half wait then my next plane would go to Copenhagen for another hour and a half weight then I would be in Gothenburg around 9 o'clock in the morning their time. This sounded wonderful to me and it suddenly became very real that I was leaving. At first without knowing when I was leaving it didn't seem that real but then I was hit with a variety of emotions and I was very anxious. Then over the next few days I finished packing and visited with people. My last night was wonderful I was able to see a lot of my friends and was able to say some wonderful goodbyes. As I came home that night I had a sad feeling that I was saying goodbye to my friends and family for a long time and good feeling that this was finally going to happen and I realized that in just a day and a half I would be in Sweden.
The next day my parents took me to the airport we checked in with no problems and everything seemed great. But when we checked the flight schedule the flight had been very delayed. Apparently there was a broken piece on the plane they had taken it off another plane, put it on and the flight was going to leave. Although this would mean that the plane would be about 2 hours late for leaving which would mean I would miss my connection to Copenhagen. I was bale to change my flight to Munich Germany although this would mean that I would have close to a 7 hour layover there. My flight drew near I said goodbye to my family, headed through security and I was off.
I arrived in Washington on the new correct time and it was about 98 degrees. I got some food and got on the plane and was ready to leave seeing as inside the plane there was around 150 people and it was about 95 degrees. So I was ready for my first international flight to be off the ground mostly so they could cool the plane down. As we were headed to the runway we stopped and the captain informed us that there was a thunderstorm around new york City and they had to redirect traffic so we had to wait until it was our time to leave. Unfortunately it was still 95 degrees and the Germans and the crying baby behind me and I weren't getting any happier. So 2 hours later we were off, luckily I had such along layover that the wait didn't affect me but other people were worried about their connecting flights. So as we neared the atlantic I was able to see this storm that had affected our flight leaving, and I had a window seat. As I gazed out my window to my left was a beautiful sunset with big puffy clouds beneath it, to my right was a very dark but magnificient storm cloud. I was actually eye level with this storm and the lighting. I watched as the bolts came crashing out of the sky almost simultaneously. It was a wonderful show and much more enjoyable to watch then the on flight movie. The rest of the plane ride was fairly uneventful with some okay food, some okay movies, and a couple hours of sleep. As we began our decent I was able to see a bit of the german country side with little white houses with red roofs in bunches surrounded by farmland. Then I arrived in the beautiful Munich airport, with a lot of BMW's, Audi's, and Mercedes Benz, a lot of germans, and not a lot of english. So I bought something that looked like eggs and sausage which turned out to be some type of potato salad and sausage patties and payed a ridiculous amount of euros for it, although it was actually very good. Then I tried to find my way over to the other terminal where there was a lounge I could relax in for a couple of hours. I found my way over there and had a few snacks, some German orange cola and relaxed and went on the computer for a little while and dealed with the very strange German bathroom. I made my way back to the next terminal, although the bus driver missed my stop so I quickly made my way across the whole entire terminal and caught the next bus. I got on the plane and I was on my way. Realizing that I was almost there and that everyone on the plane was speaking Swedish and I wasn't understanding very much of it I began to panic a little. I listened to some music and my panicking turned into excitement.
to be continued........

Almedalen Political Week

I've been a bit busy over the last couple of months but I'm going to try do some updates on what has been going on in Sweden.

Sweden's annual political week started on Sunday. It will go for eight days on an island called Gotland. This week started in 1968 when Sweden's Prime minister Olof Palme was headed back from vacation in Gotland and before he left he gave a speech to a crowd of people, beginning this tradition. Since then this week has been a time for people from every party to speak to the public. On the island there is workshops, seminars, speeches and other political events. This week has become the center of politics in Sweden where business leaders and politicians come to share they're ideas about the country.

This week seems like a very attractive idea for politics around the world. It seems very similar to our conventions except instead of separate republican and democratic conventions it is just one big convention. This political week seems to be a much better idea, it brings the countries politics together rather then causing more arguments and separation. Other countries such as Denmark have followed Sweden's example and I believe more countries should follow.

Current Events March 25: Swedish Bandy Final

A popular sport in Sweden is Bandy also may be known as Russian hockey. Bandy is played on a very large surface of ice about the size of a football field, with 11 players per team, and instead of a puck they use a ball. The Swedish Bandy final was played at Studenternas IP in Uppsala last which is where it is typically held on last Sunday, March 20. Uppsala is about 80 km north of Stockholm. The final was played between Sandviken and Bollnäs. The game is played outside and it was a sunny day with about 20,000 people in attendance. It was 5-5 at the end of the game because within the last couple of minutes Bollnäs scored one goal but it was taken away because of a mistake by the referee. It went into overtime and Sandviken won with a final score of 6-5.

Current Events March 19: Nuclear Power Storage Proposal

Due to the current issues in Japan with their nuclear power issues, Sweden has been focused on their own nuclear power. I read two articles one from The Local and one from Stockholm News, which are both Swedish news websites. In the Local there was an article about a recent pole that was done about Nuclear power in Sweden. The Pole found that 64% of 750 interviewed Swedes opposed the idea of installing a new Nuclear power plant in Sweden. Currently 50% of Sweden's energy comes from 10 reactors from three different power stations, and the is a starting controversy over whether these power stations should still be used.
http://www.thelocal.se/32690/20110319/

The article from Stockholm News discussed Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co. plan for Nuclear waste storage. The report was just recently released right after the Japan Nuclear issues. Their proposal is to store 8000 tons of used uranium in copper pipes 500 meters underground. Apparently the copper pipes need to be able to stay intact for 100,000 years and critics are worried that these pipes will not be able to contain the uranium for that long.
http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=6907

I personally agree with those 64%, nuclear power is a solution and it is great that it currently powers 50% of Sweden, but it takes so much energy to build a Nuclear power plant. It takes 7 years for the nuclear power plant to provide enough energy to restore the energy it took to make it. Seeing as most nuclear power plants only last for 15 years, that 7 years is just a little under half of its life time. Since wind turbines only take 6 months of running to restore the energy it took to make it. Wind turbines last for about the same amount of time so I think it is a much better solution then nuclear. Also it was really bad timing to release this plan at this time, they should have waited a little bit before releasing the report. Along with the issue of not having a way to store Nuclear waste, and the Obama administration just canceling a plan to store nuclear waste in Nevada, it is not the right time for nuclear power.

Starting

During Christmas Eve dinner I received a phone call from Su Wood the Rotary Outbound Coordinator that I would be going to Sweden next year. Although there were many steps leading up to this point. It started at the end of my junior year when I originally began to think that I wanted to be an exchange student. I thought about it over the summer A LOT and at the end of summer I decided to start the process to become an exchange student. One part of becoming an exchange student is the application, it took a lot of work to complete. The application is very long, it's 15 pages, it including having an up to date physical and dentist visit. Also a tuberculosis test and multiple doctor signatures. Since this application can be so complicated we had a conference call with the rest of the future outbound exchange students from our district to discuss the application. After the conference call it took a couple of weeks to get the application done. Then we had a meeting where some Rotarians went over the application and interviewed my parents and me about how we would be able to handle having me be an exchange student. The interview went great and I had a few issues to fix with the application but I fixed them and sent in the four copies of my application to Su. When I sent in my application I had to pick three possible countries that I wanted to go to. I originally had Sweden as my 1st pick Norway as my 2nd and Poland as my 3rd. Unfortunately Norway was not an option because I would have been two months to old. So my final picks were Sweden, Poland, and Romania. A few weeks later on Christmas I found out that I was going to Sweden.
I am very excited that I am going to Sweden and that I am very thankful that I was able to have this opportunity due to the Rotary Club and my local Farmington Rotary Club. Over the next several months I will be posting about my experience leading up to my exchange, including the multiple meetings, homework, and reports that I'll be doing. I'll also use this blog to report about my exchange trip to Sweden.
Well that's everything leading up to receiving the news of where I'm going and I'll try to keep updating. Wow I can't wait to go!