En månad i Sverige

Today marks exactly one month since I arrived on Swedish soil. In that month I have been in four countries, gained a new home and Swedish fam, broken a world record, learned preliminary Svenska (Swedish), fasted until Swedish sunset hours for Ramadan, met so many diverse and interesting people from all over the world, tried foods I've never heard of and been consistently and mostly pleasantly surprised by Swedish culture. It doesn't feel like a month at all. A month sounds so short; it seems like that clear, summer day when Marc and Ulla drove me to their home in Stockholm was years ago.

In my first weeks I explored Lund, the very nearby (one or two stops by train) and bigger city Malmö, and the somewhat farther (still less than an hour by train) Köpenhamn (Copenhagen), capital of Denmark.

Sparta, my studentrum (dormitory)

Sunday Sparta Dinners

The Great Beyond: The countryside is just a bike ride away, and everyone bikes in Lund.

Even lowering your camera a few feet to the forest floor changes what you see dramatically. A new world reveals itself.

Climbed cherry tree. Could not climb high enough to pick cherries.

Perhaps a little too excited at the prospect of "nature", my inner thief pushed her way out and convinced me to steal some turnips from a nearby farm. I was also a negative influence on Kristina, tsk tsk. They are in fact rutabagas (Swedish turnips) and tasted delicious.

Good evening...tonight's menu is the House Wienerschnitzel (Viennese breaded veal), Mashed Potatoes and Turnips in Cream, and Beet Spinach salad...usually it's just grilled cheese or noodles.

By the first weekend after school had started, it was decided to go visit Denmark. Köpenhamn is about a 30-40 minute train ride away, but in that short ride you've crossed a sea and entered a different landscape, culture and language.

The crown jewels in Rosenborg Slot

We climbed this tower

Kristiania...what American tourist visit to Denmark is complete without it?

There, little liberal Californian me bought...you guessed it...earrings! (Although I look tired enough to be high)

We finished the night with a) dinner b) a supposed music producer named "Kindergarden" who came up to us and filmed us all shouting his name into the night and c) fireworks over Tivoli garden.

Funny how traveling and living abroad incidentally bonds you with people more tightly in a day than if you had tried over the course of months. This is a point that living in International House in UCSD last year (where half the students are Americans and the other half exchange students) hinted at, but now as I live and travel myself, I experience for myself and not vicariously. It has proved true in many moments and countries.

Next entry, more Swedish cities, concerts, world records, Köpenhamn part 2, Swedish language classes, Berlin, and the best part of every single place: the people (and sometimes, the lack thereof).