Sweden's Top 9!

I can remember January 19^th (the day we left Minot) perfectly. Sharing Sheila’s no bake cookies on the plane, vigorously using our last phone opportunities, getting kicked to the back of the train in Copenhagen after accidentally boarding in first class and especially shuffling for 23 hours with two suitcases, a backpack, purse, winter coat, pillow and blanket….each.

We didn’t know what to expect coming to Kristianstad, Sweden, but I am confident that each of us gained more than we knew possible. We are very sad to be leaving, but also excited to return to the good ol’ USA. Through our journey we couldn’t help but compare the two countries we’ve called home, so as promised...

The top things we love about Sweden

Friends

The reason we love Sweden so much. 

We’ve learned so much from these people and formed so many tight bonds.
The reason we’re sad our time is coming to an end.

Nature

Anywhere in Sweden I think you could find patches of gorgeous nature. It’s excellent to just clear your mind and take a walk through forests to the lake, literally right in your backyard.

Kebab

A glorious beyond glorious mix of meat, veggies, and sauce all wrapped in a pita like bread, my taste buds water just thinking about it.

Travel

In Europe it is so much easier and cheaper to travel. Every weekend can be a vacation in a new country.

Krebo

“Our apartment complexes” which are the worst run and also run down. But we are a 2 minute walk tops from all of our friends and our quirky neighbors just make it interesting.

Different cultures

Europe is puzzle pieced together with different countries. America may be the “melting pot”—different backgrounds that found a harmonious common culture. In Europe however, it is common to see different races, hear different languages and view wide varieties of cultures.

School System

I’ve often heard Sweden has THE best school system in Europe. Now sadly I hope this isn’t true, since we all feel we haven’t “taken much away from our studies”, but having less class, shorter classes, and less homework than America only made our time here more enjoyable!

Less waste

In 2008 every American disposed of 60% more solid waste than Swedes. Public transportation, separating garbage and having to pay for grocery bags are just a few steps Sweden takes to minimize waste.

Less work, more play

I always remember a quote by Oprah “Work to live, not live to work”. I think Americans tend to lose themselves in their work and Europeans take more time for themselves. Which personally I think is good, we deserve it.

Goodbye and Hello

It's hard to believe our time here is almost finished. We have only a week left in our lovely town of Kristianstad with our amazing friends. For me, it has yet to become a reality. Of course we are excited to see our friends and family back home but we've grown so close to all of the people here. We already have speculations of a reunion next year in Barcelona and the American girls have promised to come, even if it breaks our bank. This makes our sad departure easier, and change those "goodbyes" into "see you later." We'll be busy this last week preparing our travels and soaking up whats left of this life changing experience.

Starting June 1st we embark on our 3 week travel extravaganza. At the end of our travels we will have stepped foot in 7 different countries, taken 3 planes, 4 trains, and a week long cruise. Our first stop is Barcelona, Spain. We will soak up the sun all day on the 2nd and we will meet up with our Russian friend Karina and our Turkish friend Huseyin! Also joining our cruise will be Erin and Mariahs mom, we're so glad they got the opportunity to come with us, and it will be so nice to finally see familiar faces! The next day we board the Norwegian Epic for our week long cruise starting in Naples, Italy then to Rome and Florence Italy! Then we go to Marseilles and Cannes France before going back to Barcelona.

We have one more day in Barcelona then we're off to Austria to visit our friends Verena and Johanna's native land. Then we will stay in Germany with the Tupper clan before meeting up with some of our French friends in Paris! Then we're back to Kristianstad for 2 days before we head home. We're so thankful for the hospitality of our friends we've met here, we wouldn't have the opportunity to see the many places we wanted to see without them!

Map of our travels

It will be an exhausting 3 weeks but it will be so worth it in the end. We'll get to see so much of Europe and make memories we'll have for a lifetime. We'll be so worn out after our many weeks of being tourist I'm sure all we'll want to do is crawl in our beds and sleep for 2 days straight, after getting half priced apps at Applebees of course. See you soon Minot.

-Shanda

The Last Couple Weeks

With the end coming way faster than I want it to, I am trying to make the most out of everyday. Saying good-bye to all the new friends I have met here is going to be harder than I ever would have imagined. All we can do is thank each other for all the good times we shared. We are thinking about planning an end trip to Copenhagen and lots of parties will happen in the last weeks.

Two nights ago we enjoyed a nice girls night with our Austrian Girls.

It was needed!
-Mariah

Ello London

We’re getting worse and worse at updating you guys. And for that, we are SORRRYYY. We’ve just gotten busy and most importantly lazy. Oops. Well anyways I am here to update you on the American Girls fabulous adventure to London. We set off on an unexpected 12 hour travel to England. It was the four of us, our Austrian friend Verena, our German friend David and our Spanish friend Carlos. After a bus, train, bus, plane, and bus; we arrived on Sunday evening. We then had to drag our 20 kilo bags through the London Streets to find our hostel (we rode the Underground train station for the remainder of the trip, which was extremely cheap and convenient). This was not an easy task… but we eventually stumbled upon it. By stumbled I mean stood on a street corner looking confused with a map while a couple walked by and said “Hey, are you looking for the Generator Hostel? We’re going there now, it’s this way!” lucky break. We got in our room to find a tatted up middle age man laying in one of the vacant beds in our 10 bed room. This was a shock to us since we’ve never had to share a hostel before (it was a bigger shock at 7am… I’ll get to that later). So we locked up our stuff and headed down the street to get the most disgusting burgers of our life. We found a cheap restaurant that advertised a deal on “triple burgers” with patties suspiciously about 3 inches across, yellow and hard. We’re convinced they were plastic. I guess you get what you pay for. Exhausted from the day, we went back to our room to find two girls sleeping in the last vacant beds. Seriously Europe, this sharing a room with strangers thing is really weird.

Our Hostel

WARNING: RANT AHEAD. The next morning we were viciously awoken at SEVEN IN THE MORNING. The girls, who we found were Russian due to the unnecessary small talk with the tattoo guy (AT 7AM), woke up and continued to get entirely ready in our small hostel room. Instead of gathering their things and using the bathroom they continued to unzip, rezip, unzip, rezip, unzip, and REZIP their bags then shuffle through numerous plastic bags for the next HOUR AND A HALF. If anyone knows me, they know that nothing makes me angrier than getting a rude awakening when I have ample time to get sleep. Okay rant over, we got our revenge.

We eventually woke up and decided to go on a free tour the hostel advertised. The tour was a walking tour hosted by a very enthusiastic inspiring actress. She was amazing; she made the tour very interesting by telling historical but funny stories and took us to the most important sights in London. We saw the Wellington Arch, Buckingham Palace (where we almost witnessed the guards change, there we’re hundreds of people so it was difficult to see), Piccadilly Circle, Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, London Eye, and where the Olympic beach volleyball games will be held. We then did a little shopping on Oxford Street and had a much needed sit in the grass at Hyde Park. Surprisingly the weather was gorgeous which made the day that much better since we feared it would rain the whole time. We headed back to the hostel to find the Russian girls sleeping in their bed. We felt it was necessary to open our bags up a few times.

Olympic Beach Vollyball, London Eye

 Westminister Abbey

Big Ben!

London Telephone Booth

The Group! (Photo Bomb)

The weather was beautiful the next day as well. We spent the day souvenir shopping, fashion shopping and finding the famous Tower Bridge (London Bridge). We also saw St. Paul's Cathedral and rode around on a double-decker bus. We all even purchased matching “I <3 London” T-shirts, and we vow to return since we loved it so much! For the American girls, it is unanimously our most favorite trip we’ve taken so far.  Not to mention, hearing and seeing the English language everywhere was a big bonus!

St. Paul's Cathedral

 Tower Bridge

We love London!

-Shanda

Let's take a trip!

Stockholm

This past week our international advisor arranged a student trip. After a scenic 7½ hour bus ride we finally reached our first destination—Stockholm. Stockholm was a refreshing taste of city life, with a nice mix of restaurants, shopping, scenery and history. I personally could have spent at least a week more there, but two days was enough to break my bank account. The highlights of Stockholm had to be experiencing hustling and bustling Swedish city life and upgrading from McDonalds to eating a true American meal at TGIF, mmm tasty.

Church in Estonia

The third day we hopped aboard the cruise ship Baltic Queen to Tallinn, Estonia with around 800 other exchange students from the Scandinavian area. We met students from New York, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and even UND! (only after chasing him down three flights of stairs because he was wearing a University of North Dakota shirt...small world.) We docked and toured Estonia and danced one more night away on the cruise ship before our return home. Sleep deprived and hundreds of pictures later, I can say these are the “aha” moments that make me realize studying abroad was the best choice I ever made. —xoko

"Erasmus" (European students) we traveled with

Teaching in Sweden?

To be honest I’m not sure if I want to be a teacher and with only two education classes under my belt, it’s safe to say I’m the underdog around my fellow Swedish Education majors. This being said; let me tell you about my shadow day experience.

Anotonskolan, Blekedamm is a school of multiple “houses”, housing grade groups K-9. It gives a camp-like feel, where the kids remove their shoes and call their teachers by their first names. After my first day shadowing 4^th and 5^th graders I was highly impressed by the students English, number of aids per classroom and freshly made lunches prepared by a chef. This week was “North and South America Inspiration Week” and being from North America the teachers wanted me to plan three hours of lessons for students ranging from 12-16 years old—that night.

Three hours of sleep later—I headed back to Antonskolan with a powerpoint I created that focused largely on how Sweden and Scandinavia are connected to North America and how our school systems compare and contrast. I believe it got the children thinking and active in asking questions. Next we played quiz BINGO about my presentation and they all received North American and Swedish candy to compare the differences. Lastly, they each received a Minot pin to represent what we learned about the “Magic City” and where I am from. Leaving the classroom I know the teacher and students took something out of this day, but so did I. My shadow experience hardly went as I thought it would (sitting in the back of the classroom), but sometimes the greatest rewards come out of things unexpected.

—xoko

Spring Has Sprung

Spring is in the air and it has brought the sun and great moods. We often find people sitting outside in groups soaking in the rays or even bringing out the ping pong table out to play. Although, it is hard to be a good student with the warm weather tempting you to stay outdoors. It's only been around 50 degrees, so the best has yet to come. We're planning to take a trip to Ahus (a coastal city only 20 mins away) to spend a day on the beach! Of course we'll have to wait til it gets a little bit warmer :)

-Shanda