Storforsen Nature Reserve

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of fat rat raindrops pelting the earth. The rain was from the night before - when we tried to get burgers at midnight- and had not stopped yet. And it looked like it was not going to stop for a while. I wouldn't have cared really, but that was the day we were supposed to go on a field trip to Storforsen to see the white water rapids and trek its rocky cliffs. Plus, we were told that the trip might be postponed if it rained but not to worry because the rain had never come during this field trip for the past 7 years. Oh dear, why now?!

So, hoping that we'd get to go anyway, I got up extra early to prepare my packed lunch of 3 grilled cheese sandwiches, 4 falaffel nuggets, and a vegetarian patty. And I warmed up a saucepan of milk to make into chocolate milk with the help of 'ICA Chocolate Dryck" powder, to be poured into a thermos so we can all have a hot drink later.

I met Dale and Vishnu at my porch and bundled up in our waterproof gear with our brollies overhead, we marched on to the pick up point and met up with Mel, Song and Bryan. Can't tell you much more about our two hour journey there because I was tired out from a late night and fell asleep :)

Thankfully the rain had passed in Storforsen so only the ground was wet. Well, I must say I was unimpressed. It was just a rocky terrain that seemed to be leading to a series of small bridges. Then I heard Mel ask, "Is it all just rocks?". Then we spotted a tiny creek......Water! And everyone was a bit more roused and excited, so we hiked on more enthusiastically. In no time the rushing water in the distance became audible a few seconds of walking later it became visible.
Wow, the sheer power of it alone is an awesome sight. The waves crashed, swirled, sprayed, leapt and rushed down the rocks. It was scary getting close to it for pictures because the rain had made it more slippery than it already was, but it was worth my almost falling three times. But I must say my Doc Martens proved themselves.
After more photo taking, we trudged on to another part of the reserve to find a cool, calm quary nestled between majestic cliffs. The walk down was pretty treacherous and Mel's wellington-styled rain boots were not giving her a good grip on the mossy, wet rocks. So Bryan and I were helping her to inch along and when we finally got there a whole bunch of boys from our group were stripping to their boxers, leaping off the cliffs and landing in the bright teal coloured water way down below.
We watched the brave ones do their stunts and withstand the icy water for a while and then proceeded to join the others for lunch. There was a fire going and those who brought sausages where grilling them and other were tucking in form the lunchboxes like I was. It was a good time of chatting and laughing. I was especially pleased that my thermos had kept my chocolate milk hot all this while and everyone got to enjoy a nice warm drink up in the cliffs. It was actually not cold anymore and I kept away my thick jacket and stood around in a t-shirt and jeans - if people were standing around in their underwear this was really nothing.
Bryan who was wearing 2 shirts and 3 jackets took a picture of his 'layers' before casting them off one by one onto an unsuspecting me. And Mel was making plans to leave ahead of everyone so she would not hold up the pack. Song was chatting up a French girl and the other boys were enjoying the view as now some girls had decided to join in the fun and leap into the water in their underwear.
Soon enough it was time for us all to go back and we made our way to where the bus was waiting for a group shot of the entire exchange students cohort! And needless to say, I slept the entire way back home to Lulea too :D

Free Wheeling

It's true what they say about never forgetting how to ride a bike, but what I think I had really forgotten was how it feels to be riding a bike. Shaun loves cycling and he always tells me that there's nothing quite as freeing as riding a bike and how it brings him joy in the simplest, purest most unadulterated form.
Today after school I headed over to Vishnu and Bryan's place and watched the first episode of Power Rangers on Bryan's laptop! I know, how very retro right? It was so funny and after the episode Vishnu and I were reeling from how as kids we never noticed how badly made the show was.
Then I decided that the weather was too perfect to be wasted on a day nua-ing indoors, so I got changed, packed a small bag of snacks , a good classic (Things fall apart by Achebe) and of course Gordon my camera. I loaded everything onto Logan's little white side basket from the red cross, and set out for the lake on my own.The only thing missing was my ipod. But it was a great '6km x 2 'cycle nonetheless. I'm not a proficient bike rider, and cycling everywhere here is something I have to get used to...when sometimes I feel like I rather walk. Perhaps, I am getting better since I've not fallen and rolled off into some ditch. The best part about being on a bike is being pushed along by the wind, flying downhill past the woods and getting to where ever you want to go three times as quickly.
When I got to the lake, I found a nice shady spot under a tree and read my book while munching on ultra yummy Ballerina biscuits. The constantly changing lighting also made it great for some scenic shots - check em'out in full on Facebook :)

It was refreshing to be on my own in unfamiliar territory. I tend to like wandering off my own back home and having some time to myself to read and reflect was valuable time. I really felt recharged by the end of it. Perhaps I'll get a bike when I get back home so I can have even more romantic solo adventures.
There was more cycling at night too! After dinner and watching some telly....at about midnight we decided t cycle 15 mins down to this place that was 'oppet 24.00'. When We got there it was closed! I guess it meant 'opened till 12am'! Well, given that is is Lulea, I'm not surprised. So after a short while of being grumpy about not getting fries and laughing at ourselves, Dale, Vishnu, Bryan and I decided to just head to a petrol station for a bite. We had to cycle back in a heavy drizzle, but thanfully it was not a cold or windy night, so we survived!

Make-do Spinach and Seafood Fried Rice

Dale and I really wanted...no scratch that, we really needed a plate of hot fried rice in all it's eggy, soya saucy splendor. So i decided to just make do with the strange rice that is available here, some random ingredients in my pantry and of course spinach (cos I have a 1kg bag of it to finish).
I loved my dinner, it was so yummy! Needless to say, you can get way better fried rice in Singapore so don't bother with this one. But if you must know, this is how I did it:

1.Cook a portion of rice with ample water, a pinch of salt and a few drops of oil
2.. Meanwhile defrost spinach, crabsticks and fish sticks. Spice and salt the spinach (I used corriander powder, salt, and chilli powder).
3.Heat some oil in a pan add chopped garlic and an egg, stir and when egg is almost well done throw in the rice, spinach, 'seafood', salt, soya sauce and curry powder and stir well to mix everything together.

That's all there is to it =D

Spinach and spiced oil pasta

I've been lumped together with British kitchen goddess Nigella as someone from the 'Gastroporn' genre. According to Vishnu, I'm very expressive when I'm eating and that look of pure bliss on my face after every mouthful just cracks him up.
*shurg* I dunno, I just love food and I'm hungry all the time here. I tell myself I'm walking and cycling a lot so I can eat big portions around the clock.

So this section will be dedicated to my culinary thrills and spills. The good, the bad the inedible...they'll all make it here :)

1.Spinach and spiced oil pasta
I have so much pasta and spinach here that I came up with my own recipe which has kept me very satisfied for two nights now. Here's how you do it :)
1. Throw in a portion of cooked pasta into a pan of hot olive oil (i used lemon infused olive oil) add in some salt to taste and a handful of chopped spinach (mine comes frozen in a bag so I just defrost them first).Give it a good stir until the pasta is evenly coated with oil and spinach.
2. Lower the heat and add in any kind of chilli powder, a pinch of cumin and a sprinkle of dried oregano (skip the oregano if you don't like the strong almost minty tatse, I know the boys here find it too strong, but i love it).
3.Transfer onto a plate and serve with cheese (either a slice put on top while the pasta is still hot so it melts, or grated cheese sprinkled on top)

Last week of ignorant bliss

Hi again guys! It's orientation week 2 and it's the last week before school starts, so I'm having as much fun as I possibly can. The result- many late nights and futile attempts at blogging - I just end up falling asleep at my desk. But today is different. Today I'll offer you a sneak peak into my (not so) secret life as an exchange student in Lulea - no dirt, just fun stuff ;)

To begin, here are some pictures of the university.


1. Swedish Lessons!

Hej (hey)! - Hello in Swedish :)

This whole week we have intensive lessons from 10:15am to 11:45am then a listening exam on Friday and a written exam on Monday. I can say a few things I guess, but can't quite type them out... I don't have the funny symbols on my keyboard. But it's manageable and I'm having fun :)

2.Bikes!
Meet Logan(athan) Pentasport...

I'm so happy I found him :) Everyone had gotten bikes except Bryan and I, so we kept going down to the recycling center to find bikes but never found any that fit right. It really was love at first sight - well for me at least. I even got a basket from the red cross so I can put my groceries and books in it when I cycle.

And for those of you who are wondering, yes I can ride through the woods to school, Mel's place (5km away), and back. It's quite fun but it gets really cold when you cycle against the wind at night, so I take gloves and an extra sweater when I know I'll be back late. The many slopes also mean I'll have well-toned legs by the end of my exchange so I'll just have to grit and bear with aching thighs for now and reap my rewards later.


3.Dinner/Dim Kopi sessions
My kakis, like me aren't really party animals, so we haven't been going to the nightclub on campus all week. Instead we stay in, cook our own dinners and da bao to one of our homes to eat together.
Then we usually play a game of Tai tee, watch some trashy MTV reality show and have hot chocolate or Owl 3in1 coffee that Dale brought from Singapore. Bryan has been hanging out with us so much that he speaks Singlish like a pro now and beats us at tai tee.When We go over to Song or Mel's place - there they have a kitchen shared by everyone living along the corridor - there is a wall with basic phrases and swear words from languages from all over the world. It keeps us entertained for hours on end.
Here's Mel contributing to the Mandarin/Hokkien/Cantonese section.
I love my nights in with these guys :)

4.Ice Cream
We also like going out for ice cream (glass in Swedish) in town...yeah it's cold but our cravings get the better of us :)
5. Lancing! Lancing!
No doubt about it, I've saved the best for last!
On Wednesday night, there was a no alcohol dance party called dirty dancing. And before the party there were dance classes to teach us the foxtrot and Jive (or bog as the Swedes call it). The classes were free, so Song and I decided to go even though we weren't going for the party later.
It was immensely fun! The guys formed the outer circle and stayed put, and the girls formed the inner circle and got to move to the right every 10 mins or so to switch partners. I was alright at the foxtrot, but Jive was easier and way more fun. The foxtrot was sexier though, haha, cos it would not work unless you and your partner were pressed against each other :p I had some really good partners too, especially this German guy who had been classically trained so he led really well. And then there was this very intense Swedish first year who was a bit scary...But the most fun I had was with a Swedish girl named Julia (Yu-lia), who had been taught the dance by her dad and prefers to lead. Needless to say, Song and I were grinning and very dizzy from all the spinning by the time it ended.
Best week ever? Oh yeah.

p.s. I got a Skype plan to call back to Singapore landlines or mobile phones and I get 6 hours a day for a very very low price and you'll only pay local rates. So if you want me to call you, please leave a comment with the time you want me to call you and I'll try to get home in time to get to you. Sweden is 6 hours behind Singapore. Missing you guys back home!

I get by with a little help from my (new) friends =D

Okay guys, I know is really really overdue, but I just haven't been bringing Gordon (my camera) around much this week. So I'll quit procrastinating and introduce you to the great new friends I've made in Lulea!Vishnu (s'pore), Bryan (Puerto Rico), Dale (s'pore), Me, Song (S'pore)

These are the people Mel and I usually makan with and usually in the evenings I'll be at Dale's or Vishnu's for dinner or some kopi and trashy MTV reality series. Bryan's even picking up Singlish cos he's around us so much. It's nice cos everyone kinda looks out for each other and I think I couldn't have asked for better company :)

More neighbours.....Fredrick (France), Reticlyve and Marco (Brazil)

They dropped by Vishnu's place while the rest of us were watching TV after dinner and got ready for a pajama themed party. Don't they look spiffy?
Marco is one of the first exchange students I met here and he's a real sweetheart, always so cheerful and making sure everyone's having a good time.

More pictures to come in due time I promise!

GodStop.

Today, I finally stopped. And I think God was waiting all this while for me to stop, but you know Him, He's a gentleman. He waited about three weeks for me to stop and the moment I did, He rushed out to meet me. Kinda like when the prodigal son returned and his father ran out to meet him. It was glorious, serene, overwhelming, humbling and uplifting all at the same time. My God knows exactly what I needed and He met me. All I needed to do was stop.


Ever since I arrived my days have been long, fun, hectic, packed with activities. Even on Sundays, yes there were no English services though I must have asked a dozen people, but I realized that even if there had been, my Sundays were spent traveling on trains. Probably that's why I felt like the prodigal son, I've not been at a worship service in what feels like an eternity. Especially since in Singapore church was not a Sunday morning slot, it was my Fridays to Sundays and it spilled into my weekdays, and I loved it.

But here, I've learned that being involved at church was not a want, it to me now feels like a need. It taught me how to depend on God and be constantly thankful, constantly praising. I've just had so much going on that I didn't notice that all-too-familiar God-shaped hole forming in me. And tonight at about 11pm, in the quiet and stillness of my empty house I was prompted to worship...truly worship not just read the devotion like I usually do, but to sing and reflect as well.

It's strange because tonight is the only night I've decided to stay in for the evening so far. I've been coming home past midnight a lot and because I start my day early I am just too tired to really take time to be with God. And the only reason I stayed in is because I am the only one among my roomies who doesn't have a bike and I didn't want to walk alone to the party. And I had actually spent the whole day looking for a bike and was quite bummed out that everyone managed to find one except me.

But now, I'm glad I had a quiet night in with three friends and a simple dinner. And once everyone had left I obeyed the prompting and listened to 'Indescribable' by Chris Tomlin. I was immediately reminded of my initial reaction when I arrived in Lulea, one of wide-eyed wonder at how beautifully God had crafted this place with its lakes and forests and wild flowers. And as I began to pray I was reminded that I worship God because I was meant to do it, when I don't, that is when that feeling of lack that is so easy to ignore and so hard to put your finger on surfaces. The need to worship is extremely real, it is a balm to the soul and I think the song 'From The Inside Out' by Hillsongs puts it well - "My soul cries out to worship you from the inside out". It couldn't be truer, I needed to say "Lord you are awesome and I praise you", I needed to sing "And I found myself in You, Lord". I'm going to just worship like this on my own until the English service at the end of September.



I'm so glad I skipped the party and just stopped tonight. The others may have gained a reputation for being cool (but yeah, who said partying is the coolest thing to do), but I met God. And though He didn't say very much, He spoke into me and reminded me of the reason He created me- to worship Him. Not because He needs to be worshiped but because when we don't, we will eventually realise an emptiness that nothing else can fill...we're just wonderfully wired to need constant interaction with our creator. How awesome is that?

On Culture

Being here in Europe and traveling with Mel has been an eye-opener in many ways. People always wonder how this girl from India and that girl from China came to be such good friends and converse so fluently in English with one another. I like it when they ask, so that I can clarify that we are both from Singapore, that we were both born there, our families have lived there for generations and that the country is made up of 4 main ethnic groups so we need English as a common language. Because whenever we tell them "Oh I'm from Singapore", they go "oh but you look like you're from India" or "China"...which i guess is technically correct.

Anyway the above paragraph is just a 'by the way' kinda thing. What I really wanted to muse about was my culture and identity. What got me thinking about this was an Indian guy at the Copenhagen train station who stopped to talk to me becuase he thought he had found a kindred Tamil spirit . He had moved there with his parents 20 years ago to escape the civil war in Sri Lanka.

So he was talking about Indian culture and language and how the modern Indian girls in Denmark speak Tamil very well and know traditional Indian dance. And when I admitted that I could barely speak Tamil and and hardly in touch with Indian culture, he began to lecture me about the importance of preserving my culture. I patiently listened and nodded for the entire length of his 'talk'. Then I realised that what he was saying made perfect sense for someone living in a country where his/her ethnic group is still seen as a migrant community and not an official people group. But in Singapore-and please, feel free to disagree with me on this but this is my sincere opinion- I don't need to preserve Indian culture.

I pride myself on being Singaporean first, then Indian. So the culture that I hold dearest to me is the Singaporean culture. Singlish, Chilli Crab with fried mantou, Bengs&Minahs, struggling with your mother tongue at the O levels, national day songs, supper clubs...these are the things of MY culture. And if I ever were to migrate, it would be this Singaporean-ness that I'll take with me. Of course being Indian will colour who I am to a certain degree but it does not get much more than that.

Let the mainland Indians carry on thier cultures where ever they are because it is their culture. If they don't preserve it, who will? Likewise, as a Singaporean I should preserve Singaporean culture. Why should I preserve a culture I don't even fully grasp just because that is my ethnic group? It's not that I'm not proud of my Indian-ness, I don't have any problems with it, it's just that the Indian culture is not something I am acquainted enough with to want to fiercely preserve. I'm more concerned that collective Singaporean culture doesn't die out some day.

But that's just me, the stubborn and opinionated one....Always having to be against the grain.

Whirlwind Tour of Scandinavia

How do I even begin to condense our entire trip into a blog post....I think it's an impossible feat, but if you go on FB you'll see all the pictures and my captions tend to be long so it's kinda like i'm narrating what went on. But here I guess I can give the juicy highlights, if any :)

This was the plan:
1.Depart Lulea 12 Aug, arrive in Stockholm 13 Aug
2.Depart Stockholm 13 Aug, arrive in Oslo 13 Aug
3.Depart Oslo 13 Aug, arrive in Malmo 14 Aug
4.Depart Malmo 14 Aug, arrive in Copenhagen 14 Aug
5.Depart Copenhagen 14 August, arrive Goteborg 15 Aug
6.Depart Goteborg 15 Aug, arrive in Lulea 16 Aug

Crazy? Well, maybe. Fun? Oh boy yes indeed-y!
We always took the night trains out but we had to stay in Goteborg bus terminal from 10:32pm to 9am the next day cos al the rooms in the city was taken due to some festival. Our train for Lulea was only at 5pm on the 15th. So that was the scariest thing we had to do. The young people there were all drunk and loud...Mel and I were afraid someone would throw up on us or something. And some guy like 3 inches away from my face and asked me if I "wanted to buy speed". My faint Chirstian, Singaporean girl heart almost stopped beating. Hahaha looking back on it now it's all so funny. But while we were actually trying to sleep in the station, it really wasn't.Anyway on to the good stuff!
Oslo! Very expensive and very pretty. Getting around here was easy and we didn't get lost. We saw men in kilts and men dressed as vikings everywhere, so that was cool. We even met an old guy - Earl- who went on about raffles hotel who told us "you've not been to Norway unless you've been to Bern". Then He took pictures with us and stood a little too close and held on a little too tight.....Sleazy old man. Hahaha.
And since we had not showered in many many hours, we were so excited to shower in the Malmo train staion. It cos about 30SEK, SGD$7 for a nice warm shower in a very clean bathroom. It felt good and we got on to out train to Copenhagen nice and clean!
In Copenhagen, the Mermaid statue is addressed as 'She'. I think thats just so quaint, no? We really had to fight out way trough the hordes of tourits just go get a picture with her, with our backpacks and DSLRs, it was no easy feat and poor Mel in her flip flops almost fell into the water twice. After that we headed to Hamlet's castle and the Stroget which is the main shopping district. I'm sure we could have covered more, but there was an outlet sale...and things were cheap...and the queue to the dressing room was long....so we got distracted :p

But all in all, I am proud of myself becuase I only spent SGD$100 during my entire time traveling, excluding the eurail pass of course! But I only spent money on cheap snacks, bus travel, seat reservation, a small gift for an aunt and clothes. Mel and I are so economical :)

Back in Sweden at Goteborg, after our scary night out, we visited the festival grounds and really got into the swing of things. There was a museum exhibit of wedding outfits promoting love and harmony among different races, so Mel and I decided to get hitched. Don't we look like blushing brides?But We're glad to be back in Lulea, I mean its kinda boring here but amny of the exchnage students have arrived and Mel's dorm-mates and my room-mates and neighbours seem real nice. We're constantly having dinner gatherings all over the place and meeting to do stuff, so I think things in the 'fun department' will start to pick up :)

Traveling

Traveling in Lulea is best done on bicycle and all the exchange students including Mel got one, but I have not....I figure if I am not confident riding it and would rather walk 5km, then I should not get a bike just cos everyone else is....I do see that it's much faster with a bike though. oh well.

Anyway, if you have read my previous post travelling by bus in Lulea is a bit of a chore because of all the waiting, I think people here must be very patient...back in Singapore just waiting 15mins for my beloved no.359 will get me irritated. And here I have no choice but to wait 49 mins :s

Mel and I have been wanting to get out of here for a while to see Norway, Denmark and more of Sweden but no one can tell us what to do with our Eurail pass and the "best" part of it is, that Lulea train station does NOT have an information counter or any body to answer questions on trains! Unbelievable, no?

Haha, so we found a travel agency and got that sorted. We leave Lulea tomorrow on a 6pm train back to Stockholm then to Oslo, Norway. Then from Oslo we'll head to Malmo, Sweden then Copenhagen, Denmark and Gothenberg, Sweden before we head up to Lulea again. Night trains also mean that we don't need to get lodging, yay! I can't wait :)

New Friends!

I just hosted a very successful dinner party tonight and I'm so very happy about it. Its just great to have people all gather around a table of simple food and eat and talk. I just pulled together some pasta, sauce, and corn form the pantry and a new friend (Kate) brought nuggests, and we made it work to feed about 8 people. Most of us were exchange students except for Kate and her boyfriend (M) who live next door to me.

I'm excited that I've met good people so quickly and many of them were just happy to eat in a 'home' especially since they just arrived today. You see, I made friends with the couple Kate and M yesterday night when I went to buy a thick blanket from M who is selling a whole bunch of tstuff. And Mel and I hit it off with Kate right away. So I invited her and M over for dinner, something I was told Swedish people never do, and Kate was so thrilled that someone she just met would actually open their home and kitchen to a stranger.

I decided that I should also invite Marco and Daniel, two really nice guys from Brazil to join us as well and they each brought another exchange student to just arrived today, Michael from Switzerland and Scott from the US. So yes, it was wonderful to have a home bustling with great conversation and warm people.

Everyone came about about 8pm and only left at about 12am! I love dinner parties =D

On another note, I really really like Kate, she's so sweet. She brought me and Mel out to the thrift store to get stuff for the house and tomorrow she's taking us to the dollar store. She even helped me with dinner (while I was skyping with Shaun) and showed me how to work the washing machines here. She's a little lonely here, because even though she's Swedish, she's new to Lulea and she's a lot more forthcoming than most Swedish people - who tend to be more reserved according to her- so she was just really glad that Mel and I were so comfortable and open with her. She's just full of positive energy and she sees the good in everyone, I can learn so much from her. Mel and I didn't get Swedish buddies from the uni even though we applied, but I think we've gained so much more than just a 'Swedish buddy' in Kate, she's a Godsend.

I'm looking forward to the spending more time with all these guys here and I'm excited about welcoming my house-mates...I hope they come sooner than later so I don't have to be alone in this big house. But at least Mel is staying over here every night so it's not so bad and we are not 5Km away from each other any more.

Wish I remembered to take pictures at the gathering...but I guess I have all 5 months to take as many pictures with all these wonderful people as I want :)

Gammelstad Church Town

It was a beautiful day out - plus it was Sunday, which meant everything including the shopping district was closed except for the supermarket - so Mel and I thought we'd go to Lulea's most famous site - Gammelstad Church Town - 10km away from town.
To get there we had to wait 49 mins for bus number 4 from the university to the centrum, then from the centrum we had to wait another hour for bus number 9 to go up t0 the church town. But it was so worth it as I can't get enough of those traditional Swedish cottages with the white trimming. Plus the church in the centre of it all was just gorgeous to say the least.

We got a guided tour for 50 Kronor (thats like SGD$10) and our guide Majlis (Mai-lis) was so nice, she even offered to help me look for a church with an English service near the university. We also made friends with a guy from Turkey who joined us fro the guided tour. It was just 3 of us and the guide so it was nice and cosy :)Gammelstad, as in the pictures will look far more spectacular in the winter when the roofs and the ground is white, but even now in the summer it is so lovely becuase of the contrast between the clear blue skies an dthe deep copper red of the cottages.We were told that this church was built in the 1600s by the then Swedish king as a fortress to ward of the Russians who wanted this part of Sweden for themselves. Then small cottages were built for people who travel here for church festivals and to spend saturday night there before going to church on Sunday. And this tradition continues as the cottages are still passed down from generation to generation within families that own one (and you must be from Lulea to own one). However, there is no running water in the cottages and no open flames are allowed, and you are only allowed to spend one night in it at a time. So everything is well preserved.

The church is also a living church as many baptisms and weddings still take place there and they have Sunday services there too. It is so popular that if you wnat to marry there, you need to book at least a year in advance, and they can have as many as 6 events going on in one day in the church! And really, a church wedding here would be so grand, considering the architecture of the church and the altar piece!
And just like it was hard to get there, coming back home, included wiating 2 hours for a bus. And it would not have been so bad if the shops there were open, but it was a Sunday there was no where we could go but the bus stop as even the cafes had closed by 4pm. Such is life in charming Lulea.
I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves :) More are up on Facebook!

Lulea Finally!

I woke up at 6:30am to the sight of beautiful country meadows, a rustic train station plucked out of some movie and a thick fog. Lulea is a beautiful sleepy town. Not quite as gorgeous as Stockholm but you can't go wrong with nature can you?

It was hard getting a taxi to the university but we found our way and we met the student coordinator who showed us our new homes (5km apart though so boo hoo about that) and we got our Swedish sim cards so if you want my number FB or email me!

My place is great, It's a 4 bedroom apartment with a living room and kitchen and 2 bathrooms. Its got so much space and the view from the porch and my room window is so nice! It's about 1.5km from the university and I have to cut through this quaint little wooded area which the other students say is "absolutely safe even when dark" so I'll take their word for it. Anyways no one but students and lecturers live around here.Mel's place is 3Km from the Uni and she has her own little flat but she shares a kitchen and living room with 5 other people on her floor. I'm just sad that we are so far apart, we cna't even walk home together. I'm hoping that things will get better once our room/floor mates move in sometime next week so we'll have company.

We had a tiring but relatively mundane day, settling admin stuff, buying basic things we need for the hostels. We also set up Swedbank accounts! And the guy who was helping us -Daniel- is such a nice guy, he not only helped us with banking, he also printed out maps for us and drew us simpler routes to get from hostel to uni. He's also a student at Lulea tech and is on a summer internship, so we're bound to see him again since the uni is quite small :)

After some shopping and a very yummy $10 pizza which mel and I shared, we parted ways to go home. It was about 7pm but still so bright out. I got a bit lost and a nice lady who works at the uni gave me a lift and showed me the path through the woods that I should take next time instead. The poeple here are really wonderful. Mel got a bit lost too, but she made it on her own safe and sound.

Well tonight is going to be spent skyping with shaun and unpacking and tomorrow Mel and I will be going shopping for 2nd hand bicycles! Wheee!

Day 1 and Day 2

In total, travel must have taken about 17 hours, and thank God it was a night flight so Mel and I were not jet lagged. The first thing I realised when I woke up on the plane at 6-ish Swedish time was how bright it was and then it hit me, that I really am a far far way from home.

Arlanda airport is like IKEA, everything it about it from the floors to the counters and toilets. It was quite funny. So with 130Kg divided in 9 bags between us, Mel and I decided to take a train to Stockholm Central and then find our way to our backpacker inn Lodge 32 by Metro or taxi. I am not kidding when I tell you, this was the worst and most tiring day of my life so far despite Stokholm being amazingly beautiful city and the weather being perfect.

We could not find a lift to get from the airport to the train station, and some guy told us the escalators were the only way. So the plan was for Mel to go down first and for me to send the bags vis escalator down one by one. Smart? Well you decide. We successfully brought down bags number 2 to 8. Bag 1 almost got me killed becuase the escalotor was very fast and I lost my footing for a while so I could have fallen resulting in a big mess. But bag 1 also almost killed Mel becuase I was unable to place it properly on the step, it started to tumble and roll down like a boulder towards Mel making a lot of noise on the way down. When we got to the bottom, we realised there were lifts after all. I bet you they are they still playing the CC-TV records at Arlanda and alughing at these two silly Asians.


After 5 long hours of moving bags to and from stations and taxis and sidewalks, we made it to out inn. Upon seeing our baggage the lady at the counter calmly asked me "Are you girls staying here your whole lives or what?". I was in no mood to joke whatsoever, so I calmly said "We're on a student exchange, going to Lulea, it's very cold there so we have a lot of thick coats & sweaters."

We spent Day 1 and 2 in Stockholm just walking around our neighbourhood and the main shopping district in the central. There's quite a lot of good shopping and many antique shops selling wonderful weird things from the past. If only I had space in my luggage to buy some stuff.

At 6:12 pm 6th August we boarded a train that would take us to Lulea - 13 hours away. Met really nice people in my compartment - which was a sleeper compartment with chairs that magically become beds! (pictures to come soon) In my cabin was a Swedish lady, a korean lady who lived in Sweden her whole life and is an alumni at the uni I'm doing my exchange at and a middle eastern lady with her two beautiful baby boys and of course Mel :) We all got along great, except for when the older boy who was about 3 would have a tantrum, but I gave him chocolate to keep him quiet and it worked.


I fell asleep at about 10pm, it was still bright out and we had to pull all the shades down.