iSverige

The Inauguration. At Last. - And the Pursuit of Happiness

2009-01-30T07:02:00.003+01:00

From iSverige

The Inauguration. At Last. - And the Pursuit of Happiness Blog - NYTimes.com

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Thanksgiving #2

2008-11-23T13:16:00.002+01:00

The next day our school put on a Thanksgiving dinner at the Grand Hotel. It was uhh... judge for yourself...

From Thanksgiving 2008

The hotel was pretty in the snow anyway:

From Lund

The town was also really pretty. Kaj and I went for coffee and went into the Domkyrkan for the first time. A concert had just finished so we took pictures while the musicians were packing up.

From Lund

From Domkyrkan

Decorations are up!

From Lund

That's real snow on that garland!

From Lund

My korridor had a party Saturday night. I cut out early to get some rest for studying today but here is some of the fun:

From Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving #1

2008-11-23T13:07:00.002+01:00

Made a Thanksgiving dinner for my korridor because for the most part no one had had one before and those of us who had wanted a proper dinner. It was an awesome day and the dinner came out pretty good if I do say so myself... Here's a chronicle of the day's events.

Ooohhh.. ominous clouds at 7 a.m.:

From Thanksgiving 2008

Apple crisps:

From Thanksgiving 2008

The beginnings of the cranberry apple sauce:

From Thanksgiving 2008

This is what the clouds brought:

From Thanksgiving 2008

Markus cutting into the turkey:

From Thanksgiving 2008

Yummy sides:

From Thanksgiving 2008

The table:

From Thanksgiving 2008

Blurry picture of me telling everyone to start eating w/ election scores still on the chalkboard:

From Thanksgiving 2008

Maria playing in the snow:

From Thanksgiving 2008

I wonder who Sophia is going to attack with that snowball:

From Thanksgiving 2008

That vampire girl from "Let the right one in" is going to jump on someone:

From Thanksgiving 2008

Mark's snow angel:

From Thanksgiving 2008

Uhh what?

From Thanksgiving 2008

Snow lantern:

From Thanksgiving 2008

It's coming on Christmas...

2008-11-20T19:56:00.002+01:00

...in Lund:

From Lund

They're cutting down trees:

From Lund

It's totally gloomy every day (at 2pm):

From Lund

and "Kitchen Stories" is on SVT1:

From Lund

Weekend Fun

2008-11-12T19:31:00.003+01:00

Jessica was here visiting some friends and we spent Friday together having fun with a shopping cart.

From Jess

Serious Rainstorm

2008-11-12T19:22:00.000+01:00

From Lund

Election Night Party 2008

2008-11-12T19:11:00.002+01:00

It's great how many people here in Sweden care about the election. Here's a link to an article about Democrats Abroad written in the local newspaper, Sydsvenskan:

http://sydsvenskan.se/skane/article385086/Obamas-arm%C3%A9-langt-fran-USA.html

Since I was really excited for election night I held a little get together in the kitchen for any of my korridor mates who wanted to stay up with me to see the returns. Surprisingly quite a few did, but only a couple of tough girls stayed up with me until 6 a.m. to watch Obama's speech. Here are some of the photos:

Still early:

From Election 2008

Pumpkin Pie:

From Election 2008

They only had white balloons in the store with Swedish flags on them. Seemed appropriate.

From Election 2008

Lucy the Brit shines:

From Election 2008

Poor girls!

From Election 2008

I didn't make up the names:

From Election 2008

Småland

2008-11-12T19:04:00.002+01:00

I took a bus trip to Småland (land of Pippi Longstocking) to tour some glass factories and do some Christmas shopping. The bus ride took us about three hours and there was snow on the ground half the way there. I wasn't expecting snow and was happy to see it. The glass factories were interesting too. I will always find it strange though, when staring at someone while they go about their job.

It's like Christmas!

From Småland

My Life as a Dog in real life

From Småland

After the trip to Kosta, we had some lunch and then went to the Orrefors factory and store.

From Småland

All Saint's Day

2008-11-12T19:02:00.003+01:00

They celebrate this day in Sweden by putting wreaths (I mistakenly thought they were Christmas wreaths) on headstones and lighting candles. It looks great at night when the whole church graveyard is lit up. Kinda spooky too. My korridor mates and I spent that night watching Låt den rätte komma in (or Let the Right One In in English).

From Lund

Halloween

2008-11-12T19:00:00.003+01:00

They don't really celebrate Halloween here so we tried our best to carve some pumpkins and make pies.

Nothing like a refreshing "sugar drink" while you're on a break from shopping.

From Lund

More Lund

2008-11-12T18:56:00.002+01:00

Continues to be fall here. These pictures were taken in late October.

From Lund

Drinking Anchor Steam and the pub downstairs:

From Lund

Barack Obama for President

2008-10-24T12:21:00.001+02:00

Barack Obama for President

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Onsdag

2008-10-22T21:36:00.003+02:00

Had a calm day. Went to the library to get a lot of books and visited the System Bolag for the first time ever. Not bad!

Some lady was yelling at me for not acknowledging her when she asked me a question (I think... she was yelling in Swedish). So I just kept ignoring her and took this picture.

From Lund

Train station walkway:

From Lund

Lund's Youth Hostel. A lot of people lived in this train because they couldn't find a place to live when they first got here:

From Lund

Leaves are almost gone:

From Lund

Tisdag

2008-10-21T23:42:00.002+02:00

Went to Blekingska for our environmental group meeting. It was Cafe Kram night (like every Tuesday) so I bought a hamburger plate and a light beer (2.2%).

From Lund

Måndag

2008-10-20T21:30:00.003+02:00

Let's try this again... I'm going to take pictures around town every day this week (hopefully).

Took a walk close by where I live and found some cows in a nearby "by" (village).

Autumn continues in this part of the world. I love it!

From Lund

You can see more pictures from today in my Picasa web album:

Lund

Let's Hope So

2008-10-20T12:32:00.002+02:00

Tisdag

2008-10-14T20:52:00.002+02:00

Lund is old.

From Lund

I often go to this conditori for the special that is written on the board.

From Lund

I also spend a lot of time at the city library.

From Lund

Carl Linnaeus inspecting a flower outside of the city library (he went to Lund University for a time).

From Lund

Mmm... meat store.

From Lund

Same trees from last week have lost more leaves.

Måndag

2008-10-14T20:49:00.002+02:00

My town in a week! I am going to take pictures while walking around town every day this week so you can see how lovely it is. Here is Monday's installment (with only two pictures). As always, all pictures can be found on my Picasa web albums.

From Lund

Finjasjön

2008-10-14T20:38:00.002+02:00

On Saturday I was invited out for a hike around Finjasjön outside of Hässleholm. It was an 18 kilometer hike that took us five hours with stops for lunch and snacks. It was quite beautiful and wasn't as tiring as I expected. Here are some highlights:

From Hike

New TV

2008-10-14T20:02:00.000+02:00

I love my new t.v.!

Democrats Abroad

2008-10-04T11:52:00.002+02:00

YOU CAN VOTE! So, do it!

Cheesy video but it drills the message into your head that you can vote, no matter where you are!

The Choice

2008-10-04T00:41:00.003+02:00

After reading this essay, I find it incredibly hard to believe anyone would want to vote for John McCain. The choice is clear and The New Yorker put it better than I ever could.

The Choice: Comment: The New Yorker

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Dreams

2008-10-02T22:03:00.005+02:00

I am currently drooling over this bike:

Autumn!!

2008-10-01T13:47:00.001+02:00

Yes yes, I do love autumn and here are some more pictures of Lund. These were taken on my walk home Monday afternoon.

From Lund

Malmö Weekend

2008-10-01T13:09:00.004+02:00

I love Malmö and last weekend I got the chance to see a friend and take pictures of one of my favorite places in the city - the area around Malmöhus.

The parks are beautiful and they have an organic garden called Slottsträdgården open all year 'round with a cafe. Saturday was a great time to take a walk through the park and gardens because it was a beautiful and sunny day and because the leaves are changing color all over the city.

On my walk over to my friend's apartment I went through the old cemetery (you can probably tell by all of these pictures that I like tree-lined walkways). I am really falling in love with this city!

For dinner, my friend and I went out to a delicious, "lugn" restaurant called Metro in Möllevågnstorget. I had a very good veal "wallenbergare" and we shared a nice bottle of wine. I won't even try out my reviewing skills here because I am just not able to, however I will say that we were there before the DJ got started and therefore I think it was a nice place with good food and a great atmosphere. A little more pricey but a great place to have a calm meal or a drink with friends. I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures because I think my meal was worth a shot.

The next day we went to Ribersborgs Kallbadhuset. This was my first experience at a Swedish "cold bath house" and the least I can say is that it was a GREAT experience. Ribban is on the Öresund with views to the left of the Öresund bridge and to the right of the Turning Torso. In the sauna there is a calming view of the breakers and the sound, and outside is just as beautiful with an old-timey feel like everyone should be wearing Jansen bathing suits (but everyone is nude). After the sauna it is customary to take a dip in the sea water, which was a chilly 50 farenheit that day, then lay out for a while. It was a very windy and therefore cold day on the water, but after taking a 2 second swim in that water, the wind chill was more like a hot air dryer. I personally loved it and if I lived in Malmö I would make regular visits.

I have to apologize for all of the multiple shots in this album. I was trying out some different settings.

From Malmöhus

Malmöhus

Germany

2008-09-26T14:39:00.007+02:00

About two weeks after my arrival in Sweden, I took a plane over to Frankfurt (Hahn - blah), to visit my brother and his family. He is currently stationed in Schweinfurt but they are living in a cute little town called Waigolshausen in Bayern. I had a great time and was so happy to see the family. They took me to see so much and I took loads of pictures. Just a fraction can be seen in this album.

On one of the first days my brother and nephew took me to Würzburg. The town had been greatly damaged in the war but for the most part, some of these great buildings have been renovated. Some highlights were the Residenz and the Marienberg Fortress. The All Saints Bridge is nice to look at too.

On Wednesday my sister-in-law and I took the train to Nürnberg where we spent our time within the walled city. Nürnberg was also hit hard by the bombing of WWII and the entire city has now been rebuilt. The old town was great and we had a most delicious bratwurst feast with hefeweizen. We strolled around the town and spent most of our time eating (gingerbread, chocolate, hazelnut gelato and more) and looking at the sights. Bought some cute things and gifts.

On Thursday my brother drove me out to Bamberg, a town that totally steered clear of bombs. This is obviously apparent when walking the city with its beautiful churches, Residenz and other buildings. The area down the river is the best and probably the nicest on the south side. We found a great place to eat more bratwurst and ran into some incredibly adorable dogs.

Friday I went on an adventure on my own to Dachau. The total travel time was about nine hours for maybe 2-3 hours in the town itself. The train ride there was unbelievably awesome, especially once I got past Trenchtlingen. I passed by a small town called Solnhofen, apparently known for its limestone fossils. Trying to look up information on the town itself isn't very easy particularly because of the abundance of information about the fossils. The town is worth a trip of its own and was probably one of the best places I passed. Once I got to Dachau it was already late in the afternoon so I made it over to the historical site immediately. It was all together very depressing but being there alone I got to really take it all in and get some pictures with (surprisingly) hardly any people in them. I urge anyone taking a trip to Bavaria to stop in Dachau, very much worth the trip.

Saturday was my last day in Germany so my brother and I drove (or rather, my brother drove since I am not allowed on the autobahn) the four hours to Berlin. Berlin was fantastic! We only had a day so we spent the time we had being typical American tourists. We first hit up Charlottenburg Palace and then I forced my brother on to the Neue Nationalgalerie. They were having a great exhibit of the artwork of Hiroshi Sugimoto. The Mies van der Rohe building is such a great space for art and Sugimoto's photos were perfectly lit. My favorites were the seascapes. I think the Barcelona chairs made me feel most at home (right Special Collections?). On we went to Checkpoint Charlie than down Under den Linden to Brandenberger Tor and the Reichstag. After all that walking we jumped on the bahn for a quick stop at Alexanderplatz where I paid 10 euro to go up Fernsehturm. In all that rush I forgot to take a picture of Weltzeituhr. Our final stop was a great brasserie where I stopped to write postcards.

Ok, that was a rather long post but now my trip to Berlin is saved for posterity (until Blogger eats my post).

From Germany

Germany

Skåne

2008-09-26T13:38:00.006+02:00

Without going into too much detail, I will try to explain some of my Picasa albums.

The following album is a collection of pictures taken while my friend Shane and I went around Skåne in a rented car. Pictures from the following day were taken when the group expanded to include Erin and Lia (sp?). On the first day we headed east toward Åhus, then down the eastern coast, around to Ystad, then back to Lund.

The next day Erin had some good places in mind so we headed up north to Mölle, then around that area we stopped in a national park to take a hike to a cool little swimming spot, then over to another secluded spot to try to find Ladonia, a place on the coast with driftwood sculptures done by the artist Lars Vilks. After a successful hike we stopped by Arild, a quaint seaside town where we were invited to partake in some imbibing hosted by local 20 year olds. A precursor to the crayfish party they'd be having the next day.

All of this within my first week in Skåne!

Oh, and all images should have a location so you can follow our trip!

From Skåne

Skåne

Fantastic Film Festival

2008-09-25T18:05:00.000+02:00

Lund is home to the Fantastic Film Festival. The only movie I really cared to see was The Lost Boys, but as it turned out, Corey Feldman was going to be introducing the sequel The Lost Boys: The Tribe. I figured I should take the opportunity to see how this guy acts in real life and the results were that I didn't enjoy the film very much and I got these crappy photos of Feldman. The lighting was bad but he would not sit still so all of my shots of him are blurry. The upside to this night was the theater was nice (there is a picture of an overhead view) and I got free champagne.

Autumn and Rain

2008-09-25T17:56:00.001+02:00

It is now Autumn here in Lund. On my way to the local ICA with my korridor mate on Sunday we spotted a hedgehog! It is time for them to hibernate and this little guy is no doubt finding a better place to hide.

(Also, a picture of my plant and a view from my window of the clouds rolling in.)

Great Ideas

2008-09-25T17:37:00.006+02:00

I was in the bookstore, buying a book I had ordered for class when I noticed that Penguin has put out more books in its "Great Ideas" series. I have a few of the ones that came before and it seems like I can't resist buying more. I particularly like the Orwell cover, which looks like an old Penguin edition. This isn't the only series that Penguin has put out that I really enjoy. They have taken to publishing all of their books with attention paid to cover design. Their deluxe editions are no exception (especially the ones whose covers have been illustrated by cartoonists).

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/greatideas/index.html

Vi är här på Blekingska...

2008-09-20T15:42:00.006+02:00

I had my first ever encounter with a nation here at Lund yesterday evening.

I went over to Blekingska Nation to become a member since they are around the corner from where I live and they have great live bands playing there on a regular basis. It was really serendipitous that they are located so close. Immediately upon signing up, my friend and I were enlisted in the Novisch activities they were having at that moment to welcome in new members.

We followed some people over to one of the dormitories where we had a tricycle race down the corridor hall. It was a competition and we were the last group to partake in the race. We were judged on our inventiveness, team spirit, and least important, the time it took all of us to get down the hall and back on our trike. After we all took turns we filed into a room and proceeded to dance before our results were tallied. We were completely terrible with our speed but beat all the other teams with our very loud cheering.

The ladies and gentlemen taking part in the dinner lined up alphabetically by the second letter in our last name to go into the dining room where we ate, drank, and sang songs together, one of which included Forever Young. During dinner all the groups had to go up and perform a song written beforehand just for this occasion using certain phrases. Our rendition followed the melody of the Super Mario Bros. theme song, with my contribution being a loud "Finns det än askkop här?!" (Finds there an ashtray here?!) at the end. We won first place in all the competitions and won one beer (to split between us) and one pack of cigarettes!?

Overall I really enjoyed myself but after the dinner there was a club night which I attended but wasn't too stoked about. There is another formal attire dinner later next week for new members. I hope it includes more singing and no more packs of lucky strikes.

http://www.blekingska.se

Desktop Blues

2008-09-18T13:51:00.006+02:00

I wish my desktop looked like this. I always wanted a large desktop and now that I have it I have nothing to put on it.

Acne Studios - Acne Paper - Issue No 1 - issue No 1 Slideshow

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Media help??

2008-09-17T13:15:00.004+02:00

I have been aching in the media department. It helps that television here shows a lot of American TV, with Swedish subtitles, but I miss Netflix. I miss recording shows with my DVR that I can't wait around to watch at their regularly scheduled hour. I thought I had found my savior in NBC.com after watching a clip of Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin but when I went to watch full episodes, I came across a sad little message that said "Clip not available from your region". So much for getting to see The Office from the freezing north!

So then I went to the stadsbibliotek and tried to borrow a load of media and books to keep myself occupied. Of all the movies that I had either already seen, was not interested in watching, were not in English, or had no English subtitles, I came across Deconstructing Harry. One Woody Allen film in the whole bunch! Oh yeah, it is on VHS and I've actually already seen it.

NBC Video Library - Full Episodes - Shows Available - NBC.com

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New Hair

2008-09-14T20:47:00.001+02:00

I thought I would try out Picasa by posting a picture of my bangs. If it looks like I'm standing in a shower, it is because I am. Apparently in Europe the bathroom is in the shower and not the other way around.

Finally Settled?

2008-09-14T20:21:00.002+02:00

Hello Everyone!!

It is now almost a month after I left home and I still haven't posted anything on this blog. I really thought I would be on this thing all the time but really these past few weeks have been crazier than I thought. Now, after having come back from a trip to Germany and after school has officially started, I feel like I'm actually living here and know my way around everything. Therefore I think it is a perfect time to get this thing up and running.

That said, I'll leave this post now for more detailed, individual posts about some things that I've done so far - with more posts to come at later dates when I actually do something worth mentioning.

Kim i Sverige

2008-08-10T21:48:00.000+02:00

Ok, I started a blog for my stay in Sweden. Here is where I'll post pictures and updates.

There is nothing to post now because I'm not in Sweden yet.