Hej! My name is Becca Awe. I am a sophomore Financial Economics and Scandinavian Studies double major. I am from Durango, Colorado. I am on the semester in Sweden program because I think studying abroad is an integral part of a college education, I love the uniqueness of the program, and I thought it would really augment my major.
So we’ve been in Sweden for around 4 days and wow they’ve been great! We are currently in Umeå, a gorgeous city of a little over 100,000 people. We are staying at an amazing hostel right down town.
On Thursday:
We got in late Thursday afternoon and made it to our awesome hostel! It’s great! We met Kristor, the wonderful man who organized all of our activities in Umeå. After we settled in at the hostel a few friends and I walked around downtown which is beautiful and we ended up in a food court at a new mall for dinner. After that we moseyed back to the hostel and pretty soon everyone was out, the day had been a long day of travel.
On Friday:
We woke up and had a yummy breakfast at the hostel, and then we all trouped to the local immigration office at 8am (super early but everyone was already awake because of the jet lag). The immigration office was actually pretty easy, we will be getting cards in about a week! It was kind of fun to get my picture taken and have my prints recorded :) After that we all went to the Trahppe Cafe, a cafe that has become a Sami cultural center and small exhibition center for the Västerbotten region, where we met Kristor. We had a lovely chat with the owner of the cafe who gave us a short lecture on the Sami culture in the region. A few of the people in our group made friends with this adorable Australian Shepherd named Sheila! After that we had some free time to go get lunch and then we went to the Västerbotten museum, a museum that collects, preserves and displays cultural heritages from Västerbotten through exhibitions and various programmes. We had a guided tour through the exhibit on premodern rock carvings and rock paintings which was really interesting. After that we were given free time to wander throughout the museum. There was a really neat exhibit about the development of skiis and I got to see the oldest ski ever found! After that we headed back to the hostel and people had a free evening to go do errands and such.
On Saturday
Saturday was amazing! Kristor took us out to the coast to watch the sunrise, and it was stunning! We got there around 9:15 and it was ICY! It was crazy, there was probably an inch of ice on the parking lot and the road we walked on to get to the coast. I use the term loosely since most of us slipped and slid the whole way there. Once we got there Kristor build a wonderful fire and all of clambered all around the rocky beach. This was quite the sight since most of the rocks were covered in ice and snow as well…there were numerous falls but no one got seriously hurt and everyone had great fun exploring the area before we all roasted hotdogs and cheese over the fire. Kristor pulled out a reindeer shoulder and we all got to try reindeer jerky (which I personally loved, it was really tasty). After we were all sufficiently chilled we decided to head back to the hostel where we had a nice discussion about the book that we are reading, Eaarth, which is about climate change. It was a pretty short discussion because everyone was fairly tired. Laura Carpenter and I spent another hour or so talking with our trip leaders about transportation options from here to Jokkmokk and from Jokkmokk to Mora. After that I crashed for over two hours (another victim of Jet lag). Everyone did their own thing in the evening, a few people went out to a club and had a lot of fun!
On Sunday
Sunday was a free day. A number of people went to a local Swedish-Lutheran church and really enjoyed the experience. I slept in, today the first day I have actually felt like I am in the right time zone. Some people went on a walk exploring some of Umeå and then Laura, Erin ad I worked on our group presentation. It was a pretty low key day.
Nice Rebecca, you’re all a wonderful group and I hope your tour to chilly Jokkmokk went well.
Keep on rocking!
Krister
Funny that you can catch the sunrise at 9:15! We’re loving the blog – keep up the great reporting!
Christie Day (Pat’s mom)
Well written, Becca…and the shared photography is awesome! I do have a photo of the whole group with Krister!!!
Thanks Becca. Now if you could get Sid to blog! Although just seeing her in your photos lets those of us in Minneapolis know she is up, awake, and smiling! Miss you Sidela!
Jean