Lake Vattern
Well, I am finally in Sweden! Getting here was quite the experience! I left Denver on Thursday morning and got to Jönköping on Saturday afternoon…twenty-four hours later than anticipated. Thanks to my flight being delayed in Denver due to some mechanical issue with the plane, my entire trip got completely screwed up. By the time I made it to Chicago, I had missed my flight to Stockholm. I was rebooked on a early evening flight to London, but missed that one because I had to cross the airport, obtain my boarding passes, track down my luggage, and get through security…in one hour. I was then put on a later flight to London, which ended up leaving three hours later than scheduled. The one good thing about my Chicago experience was that I met a couple from Sweden, who were also traveling from Denver. They were super nice and told me a lot of great information about the country. I also met another guy, Vince, in Chicago who is studying at JIBS too! The four of us grouped up and ended up going through the ordeal together! It was nice to have other people with me. Let’s see, so when I finally got to London (after the worst seven hours of turbulence ever), I had exactly forty-five minutes to navigate across the airport and security and make my flight to Stockholm. Luckily, we got there just as they were closing the gate! That flight was much nicer! By the time we finally arrived in Stockholm, our flight to Jönköping had left, and apparently there are no flights there on Saturday or Sunday! The airlines arranged rooms for Vince and I at the hotel and booked us train tickets for Saturday. The three-hour train trip to Jönköping was actually pretty fun, minus the three switches, which were horrible with the amount of heavy baggage that we had. It was fun to see the landscape and all of the cities and towns that we passed through.
So, finally we arrived in Jönköping on Saturday afternoon. We had to wait for three hours to find out where we were living, but a bunch of other international students were waiting too. I am surprised by how diverse the international student group is – there are literally people here from every corner of the globe. Jönköping is on the shore of a huge lake, Lake Vattern, and near two smaller lakes. It is much warmer here than I anticipated (yay!). There is no snow on the ground! I am living near the edge of the lake, about four miles from the school. I really wanted to live in the apartments where the majority of the international students live because the complex used to be the Swedish projects! I have my own room, so I cannot complain too much. The place where I am living is sort of like dorms – there are a lot of rooms that share common kitchens, bathrooms, etc. I do not have internet yet, which is really difficult, especially because I wake up at 3:00 am every morning and need something to keep me occupied. Hopefully when I sign my lease (no idea when this will be), I will be able to figure out how we can obtain access to the wireless. Yesterday, my life was changed by my first trip to Ikea, which is pretty much the most incredible store ever invented! I went nuts at Ikea! I am glad that it is very far away – otherwise I would probably live there. My room is disgustingly dull, but I am working on the decorations.
Not as many people speak English here as anticipated. Most speak some, and I usually try to find someone younger because they can usually understand me better. I am excited to start Swedish classes! It is not too difficult to read because many of the words resemble English words. I have mastered the essentials – milk, eggs, cream, butter, etc, etc. That was key in order to navigate around the grocery store! I have not found soymilk yet, but there is a wide selection of gluten free food, which is encouraging. I am also getting pretty good at figuring out the bus system. I cannot wait to get a pass because I am sick of making sure that I have Swedish money with me. I am glad that it is Monday so that I can finally exchange all of the US money that I keep pulling out by accident. I forgot about the 6.4:1 conversion rate yesterday and attempted to pay the bus guy about $50 USD for a $2 bus ticket. Luckily, he was really nice and just let me on. I am really happy that Jönköping looks a lot like Evergreen! It was actually sunny yesterday too!
Orientation starts today, and I think that we get out passwords to use the school’s wireless. In the meantime, I am going to see if I can remember where the library and hope that I can tap into internet there. I am also going to check out the closest grocery store to my house, which the two British guys I met described as, “Cheap, crap Walmart.” It sounds really enjoyable!
I still have the same email (courtney.shephard@coloradocollege.edu), and will hopefully be able to check it more regularly in the near future.
