Yesterday, we ate breakfast in the hostel. They have meats and cheese for breakfast here, and there's cereal (something familiar)! But wait, they use yogurt for the most part in their cereal, not milk. It's really pretty good! After breakfast, we took the ett (one) bus to downtown Jonkoping to pick up our bus tickets for our trip to Stockholm on the 12th (so excited!)

Next, we went to an open market. I forget the name in Swedish, but it's pretty interesting. It's like a shopping mall, but outdoors. They have one every Saturday downtown. I bought a few souvenirs for friends and family, and I tried the Swedish version of an American Donut. I have to say that I think they improved on our idea of the donut. It was the best donut I've ever had.

We wandered down the side streets of the city. There are no paved roads here; the roads are made of stone. The sidewalks are COMPLETELY covered in ice. It's so cold that not even salt will break up the ice. They have to lay down gravel instead. Something to note in the Swedish culture: it is perfectly acceptable to push your way through a crowd and even push someone to the side to get where you are going. There are no "pardon me"'s or "excuse me"'s here. It is not viewed as rude to them. It is simply part of the culture; however, it did take some getting used to getting shoved around all day!

The church in the middle of town is absolutely spectacular. While not as big as many of the churches I toured in high school when I went to Europe, the church was still very beautiful. There is a huge arch in the middle of the Church, memory candles, exquisite polished wood benches, and a gold painted podium up front for the individual leading mass. This church is part of The Church of Sweden, a non-denominational church that combines and accepts aspects of different denominations of Christianity in Sweden. Interestingly, 23% of Europe is declared aethiest.

We walked through the area of Jonkoping University in order to get to our next destination: The Museum of Natural History and the local artist, John Bauer. The university is much smaller than Penn State, but it is more specialized (education, nursing, and communications). Each college also has much larger and nicer facilities for each individual college (i.e. psu only has the Chambers building). On the way through the university, Michelle completely wiped out. Haha, she's not a klutz though! All of the streets in Jonkoping are literally caked with ice. It's about and inch and a half thick...everywhere. We've basically been skating from place to place.

On the way to the museum, we ran into what I'd call an eccentric Swedish artist. She found out we were from Pennsylvania and apparently, did a previous project there. After almost sending us in the wrong direction (of the museum we were going to, where she works), the artist took us inside the John Bauer museum. She begged for our contact information so she can involve us in here international children's peace project. She is creating installation pieces using quotes from children about peace all around the world. Maybe one of my students can contribute a quote to her project!

The museum was incredible. John Bauer was pivotal in influencing the entire fantasy style of artwork and writing in the early 1900s. His art even had an impact on Tolkien! His paintings are somewhat strange, but beautiful. There were also several installation pieces influenced by runway fashion. Art is very politically fueled in Sweden (I think it is similar in America). However, the interesting thing about this country is that they are already viewed as liberal by our country. Sweden is not actually a Socialist country, as many believe. It is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy. However, the right wing in their country is liberal to us! Imagine how liberal their left wing is! Imagine how conservatives from our country would be viewed. They might be viewed as fascist in this country. Their political views might not be accepted here.

Then, Scotty got us lost in Sweden, so we wandered around attempting to find our way to dinner: O'Leary's Pub. A) Americans are very loud compared to Swedes at restaurants. B) Swedes take their ice hockey VERY seriously :). They even have curling and ice hockey rinks in Jonkoping. Hopefully, we'll get to see a hockey match while we're here!

During the fall, we had Swedish student-teachers (larare-studentars) that came to observe our schools for five weeks. Tim kept in contact with Ceclia, a woman going to university for teaching in Jonkoping. She's very sweet! Tim has also been our guide for most of this trip. He really picked up Swedish quickly. He can actually hold conversations in Swedish with the people here. Cecilia came to meet us for dinner at O'Leary's and offered to take us out dancing afterward. Life in and after high school is very different in Sweden. High school is only three years (ages 16-19) in which students are able to specialize. Many people go straight on to work or university after high school, but it is also normal for people to return later. For instance, Cecilia traveled after high school; she lived in Spain for a year and went to many other locations. She decided to return to her studies and become a teacher at 23. "This is normal," she says. "Many people in my class are my age, a bit younger, or older maybe."

Yes, the Swedes are absolutely gorgeous, but there are brunettes here! For the most part, they are very friendly, maybe a little more reserved with emotions than Americans. However, I don't want to generalize with the whole Swedish population. We have encountered a white supremisist here (not common) and an eccentric and outgoing artist. According to Cecilia, prejudice is still a problem in Sweden. It is, unfortunately, directed primarily at the individuals who emigrate to this country. Sweden has a full range of personalities, just like the States. The Swedish also have a very low birthrate. People do not have children until MUCH older, and usually only one or two if they have children.

Cecilia took us to a Swedish club after dinner! The night club used to be "Huset," but now is called "Moon." They really love the disco era, I guess, because the club has flashing lights on the floor, smoke machines, and HUGE disco balls! Haha, all the music was American, too, minus the techno. They really love Michael Jackson and Tina Turner. Although, it's pretty hard to dance to Rage Against the Machine; somehow, they managed to do it. This was absolutely the best day. I wish our clubs were like these clubs. I think we danced for four hours, and I didn't even notice. Poor Cecilia! She had to make sure we got home on the bus okay :), but we didn't embarrass ourselves too much. She put us on a list for another place on Wednesday night (that's the Swedish Thursday night). Well, I'm off to bed. Will write more later! Hejdo!

What's a Polkagrist?!

Cathy sleeps after a long flight (haha).

Hälsningar från Sverige! I'm currently writing from our hostel in Jonkoping, Sweden. For being awake for about 20 hours straight, I'd say I'm doing pretty well. I'm here with friends from my student-teaching program: Cathy, Tim, Michelle, and Nick! Our flight departed from JFK (of course we made a stop at the sports pub pre-flight) on Thursday night, and we arrived in Stockholm, Sweden around 9:30 this morning! I've been studying Swedish for the past two weeks, and it took about 15 minutes on the plane for me to ask a man on the plan, "Ursåkta, kan ni hjelpa mig?" (excuse me, can you help me). I needed help translating a word, and of course he said, "Sure, I can help!" It seems that everyone here already knows English. In fact, most of the people living in Sverige (Sweden) know at least four languages. Everyone starts on English at a very young age, and Norwegian is almost the same language. Since Denmark is so close to Sweden, many people also pick up the Danish language as well. It makes me feel like a slacker!

Sweden is a very strange and beautiful country. Not far from the arctic circle, its landscape is covered in ice and snow. While the country remains frozen and dark during the winter months, it has no dark during the peak of summer. This phenomena is known as the Midsummer Sun, so even at night in the summer in Sweden, the sun never sets. This time of year, the sun never reaches its peak. It makes a lazy arc on one side of the horizon, but never reaches the zenith.

After stepping into the van with our Penn State guide (a Secondary Social Studies professor), Scott, I noticed how pristine Stockholm is compared to other cities. The city is incredibly clean for being such a heavily populated area! The same is true in Jonkoping (where I am studying). The cities I am used to in the United States are filthy (a majority of them), but what I have seen of the cities here are incredibly. There are hardly any slums in Sweden. Everyone enjoys basically the same comfortable standard of living.

There are 7 Kroner (SEK) for every U.S. dollar (left).

Although the taxes are high in Sweden, the standard of living is wonderful; the country and its people are absolutely beautiful.

Our Swedish guide, Christer, a Communications professor at Jonkoping University, drove us the entire four hour drive from Stockholm to Jonkoping. We grabbed lunch at a gas station (they put shrimp on top of hot dogs here?!?!) Before reaching our final destination, Christer took us to Grenna, a lovely town next a large lake. The lake, by the way, is completely frozen over, having a somewhat dazzling effect of the sun reflecting blinding rays of light off of the ice. Grenna is the birth place of the polkagrist! What's a polkagrist? It's a candy cane! You can watch the polkagristers make candy canes through glass windows in the shops. They heat up the sugar and then work the sugar until it becomes the delicious treats we know.

Grenna is also home to the site of the fist Swedish king! There is a ferry in Grenna that will take you to an island that has the ruins of his castle.

Along the roadside to Jonkoping, there are several sites for ruins. Vikings used to inhabit Norway, so there are many sites for ruins and old castles in this country. Before taking us to our accomodations, Christer, of course let us go to the local college favorite store, the spirit shop. Jonkoping University students love to visit this shop, where the minimum age requirement is 20 (Yes, they have a drinking age in Europe)! Apparently, the big thing in Sweden for university students is to wear out jumpsuits. That's right. Jumpsuits. Each major has their own color of jumpsuit. If you are dating someone from another major, it is tradition to tear your jumpsuit in half and give half of it to your significant other. I'm not kidding! The students will also collect patches at every party to decorate their jumpsuits.

We arrived at the hostel, and I was pleasantly surprised! I've heard all sorts of horror stories (haha...basically I recently watched Taken and Hostel). Honestly, the hostel is nicer than some hotels. It's like a bed and breakfast (although we do have sweet bunk beds). After taking showers (it was the most amazing shower after being on a plane for 12 some hours), Christer took us to a fabulous dinner at "Twin City", a local bar/restaurant. He is such an interesting person! The Swedish view on life is very different from our own, and it is so interesting to hear him speak about their views on education and life in general. Swedes believe that children should spend their childhood playing, so children do not start school until age 7 here. After dinner, we took a taxi back to the hotel and hung out with Christer.

When Christer came back with us, Tim tried to teach him kings. However, Christer would have none of this. "Why do you Americans need games when you drink? Why can't you just drink to socialize?" It's funny, because the Swedes are fans of more genuine conversation (just in my personal conversation). They are more reserved with their personal lives, and their conversations involved genuine topics; conversations actually reveal their true emotions and opinions. I have not witnessed many silly conversations. It's interesting, because they don't really have the "binge drinking" problem we have in the states. It's just an accepted social activity here.

Sweden is also part of what Christer calls "The Vodka Belt." I've never heard of this term before, but apparently, it refers to the Scandinavian countries down through northwestern America (so...Norway, Sweden, Finland, Ukraine, Russia, etc.) Drinking is very much a part of their culture, but that does not mean that ALL Swedes drink. We finally turned in for the night. Amazing first day!