Tallinn, Moose, the Volcano,and Hockey

It's been an eventful couple of weeks here in Europe!

A couple weeks ago I and what seems like half of the international students from the university took a cruise to Tallinn, Estonia. It's a well known cruise that happens every year called the "sea battle" and over 2,000 students from universities all over Europe, mostly Scandinavia, drink themselves silly and buy cheap alcohol. The first night the waves and white wine did mix well so I was sick and missed out on most of the fun. Then for some unknown reason security banged on our door around 4:00 in the morning with an extremely drunk person from our university and asked us to take care of this person. Apparently they couldn't find the correct room. This person got sick and made a terrible mess that forced us move rooms. While we were dealing with the mess and switching cabins we missed the window of opportunity to disembark and didn't get to see Tallinn. It must be a busy port because the ship was at dock for less than an hour each in the morning and afternoon. After the previous night and missing out on touring the city I was in the mood to join the party the second night. The trip was basically a 1150 kronor bust.

I also went on a much more successful and exciting day trip to see moose in the forests of Småland. It was a two hour bus ride deep into the countryside on which we took a moose quiz and watched a movie. Upon arrival half the group went on the 'safari' and the rest of us walked around and looked at the caged moose and gift shop. The animals are somewhat docile and let us pet them through the fence. Despite their friendliness they kick with the front feet so we had to stay behind a fence. When it was our turn we clambered into old military wagons and entered the fenced-off field. The very nice moose farmer gave all a lot of apples and potatoes to feed to the animals. Moose are so gentle you can put food between you teeth and one will come and eat it and not hurt you. I tried which was very fun and sticky. After the short ride around the farm we had a fika outside with cheese sandwiches, cookies, and coffee or tea; a typical fika. After the moose and snack we watched another movie and announced the winner of the moose quiz. I apparently don't know much about Swedish moose. It was a fun trip although a little far for how brief the safari part was

I hadn't scheduled any travel during the whole volcanic ash disruption but several people I know were stranded or had to cancel their trips. One friend was stuck in London for 7 or 8 days! Luckily she had a place to stay. Flights in Sweden were canceled for a while but not as long as mainland Europe. There was and is a little part of me that wanted to get stuck here in Sweden which is still possible because another volcano on Iceland usually follows the first. On the other hand it didn't stop my family from coming to visit which was lovely. My local contact family had us over for a nice and took us too the small mountain that overlooks the city and lake. It was a fun time and I'm glad they were able meet over their short visit. My mother and brother are visiting Denmark now before they head back to the states.

HV71, the city's hockey team, beat Stockholm for the national championship on Saturday and was it an exciting game and night! HV won in overtime at the opponents rink in the 6th of 7 scheduled matches. The championship is done like the baseball world series. Downtown was a mad house, cars horns, singing, dancing, hugging, and drinking of course. There was another big party downtown last night to congratulate the team. The weather has greatly improved lately so it was a pleasant evening.

I leave for Norway on Saturday and I'll write a post dedicated to when I get back!

Swedish Spring

Last weekend I went horseback riding with the international association. It was a one night trip into the Swedish countryside over the Easter weekend. We rode a charted bus for about an hour outside of the city to horse farm where we split into two groups. One rode horses to our lunch and the rest of us walked there. It was one of the warmest days we have had so far this year and the sun was shining bright and high in the sky. We had a simple, quick lunch by the swiftly moving river. Originally we were supposed to canoe to the picnic site but the river was too fast for us to safely canoe there and the water was still very cold from the last of the melting snow. There was a surprising amount of snow in the woods and shadows. The horses we rode back are of an Icelandic breed that is smaller, but equally powerful, and rather hairy. I could tell the horses were trained to mostly follow each but we did get to gallop which was really fun and a little scary. The horse I rode was named Glanni and kept stopping to eat.

After our ride we walked through the woods and along the river to a very big, old house where we tried to have a bonfire and did have a party. The wood was too wet from the snow to make a strong fire but everyone brought enough alcohol and games to keep themselves entertained. However, before the usual college student antics we had hand-made Mexican food for dinner. I never tire of watching people from around the world bond over drinking games. There were a lot of people I hadn't met before and it was great to get to know them a little.

I have the same professor from last quarter teaching both of m courses. I am not pleased because is a very poor lecturer. Luckily though one of my housemates is in one of the classes so we can help each other stay focused. The beautiful weather isn't going to help either. The classes themselves don't strike me as all that difficult but time will tell.

I was supposed to go to Copenhagen today with my friend and her visiting family but her mother has food poisoning and couldn't go. It was only going to be for the day so we wouldn't have been able to do much anyway and we're planning to go for a weekend later in the quarter. In other travel news, I will be leaving Monday for the cruise to Tallinn, Estonia. Two thousand students from all over the Nordic region will be on the ship. It's a three day trip that I expect to be even wilder than the last cruise. Norway is also officially in the plans. It, like the cruise and Easter get-way, is a school organized trip. They all kinds of exciting things planned which I detail in a later blog entry.

Otherwise I'm simply living the quiet Swedish life and loving it!