A Swede Weekend, Day 3.

Geez, this running diary is exhausting, bear with me on this the last day of the trip. The first two days are available over on your left.

7:25- Wake up
7:26 - Get in Shower. Water is cold.
7:27 - Get out of shower.
7:30 - Get back in bed.
8:00 - Breakfast. Tasty, we were fed well on this trip.

10:15 - Walking tour of Vaxjo, the final destination of our trip. We went to a cool church. For a long time Swedes were forced to go to Church, but today without mandatory attendance practically nobody goes. Anyways, this place was beautiful, so I got artistic with the photography.

10:45 - Sweden is a cold place, much colder than Denmark. That's probably why they're so good at hockey. We duck into a coffee shop for some "Varm Chokolade" you can translate that one yourself.

11:00 - Swedish Emigrant Institute - This museum examines Swedish Emigration, mostly to the United States. Our tour guide was very long-winded but had alot of information. What struck me the most was the scale of things. Today, there are more people of Swedish descent in the United States than there in Sweden. Swedish people are spread out all over the States, mostly in Chicago and Minnesota. Another fun fact, there are only 113 people of Swedish descent in Vermont, far and away the least of any state. That's tiny! You could have the entire Swedish delegation over to your house for herring in Vermont. There's not many Swedes in Boston, but Worcester is heavily populated. Apparently the Swedes in Worcester need to do a better job of writing back where it is, because the map in the museum places Worcester somewhere in New Hampshire or Southern Maine. See picture below.

13:00 - Walking around Vaxjo. Some random tidbits from the rest of the trip:

-One remarkable thing that happened is that these British guys came up and asked me for directions to a sports bar, so I pointed them down the street and it actually worked! What are the chances that someone would ask me directions IN ENGLISH in a city I've been in for about TWO HOURS and I would actually be able to point them in the right direction?
-Blondes, blondes everywhere. I thought I saw Tiger Woods' wife six or seven times, I guess she does have a twin.
-I finally bought some authentic Swedish Fish, or Pastel Fish as they're called there. They were... alright. A little chewier than I would have liked.
-Sweden is cold, very cold.
-On a related note, nobody bikes here.
-Mailing postcards is expensive, very expensive.


17:00- Bus Ride Home- Sweden is very flat. See picture. The bus ride wasn't bad. I slept through a Danish movie starring someone Danish.

All in all, the trip was a success. Some of the activities were a little bland, but all in all I feel like I have a good grip on Sweden. We didn't really do a lot of political science, but that discipline doesn't really lend itself to field trip like the Architecture Program, which is DIS's specialty. This trip was also a good chance for me to get to know the kids in my class who I'll be spending a week with in Brussels, and for the most part they're cool.

Everyone who we met in Sweden told us we should come back in the summer, when it's nice. Well, I guess we may have to see how all those blondes look on the beach? So maybe I will head back...