Planning for May

Since I returned from Norway, I have had a super sore throat and I'm worried it might be strep. I sure hope it's not, and I sure hope I get better before tomorrow! Tomorrow is the big science fair at Cailan's school, where yours truly is judging. I also managed to  find, continuously, the flat spot on my head for headstands. Pretty soon I think I'll have them mastered, which is one of my goals while living here. 

The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy, and I am anxiously looking forward to it. 
This is a holiday weekend - Walpurgisnacht. Walpurgisnacht is on April 30th and is a big party to welcome spring, like most holidays now, it's a Christian holiday that was merged with a pagan on. The the end of April was a pagan holiday to celebrate the arrival of spring and the return of the sun on May first. With the arrival of Christianity, it also became St. Walpurgis' saint day. Over the years the celebrations combined into one. Usually in fields and parks, there are big bonfires, music and singing and an all around good time. The fires are symbolic for the holiday, they burn them to keep off dead spirits that are walking around. Here in Örebro there is a big party on the University grounds, with live music and a large bbq. We might go to that or check out a big party in town on the streets and parks surrounding the castle. Sounds like a good time either way, I better be cured by then :( 
On the 6th, Cailan's friend Terry from home is coming to visit. I'll have company during the days! 
That Saturday we are going to a schnapps party where you have to make you're own schnapps. It's with the people who had the wine tasting a couple weeks ago so we'll see how long we last after they stop speaking English. Being that we three are Canadians, we're making a maple syrup drink with rye. Mind you it's not schnapps, but I don't think they'll mind too much, and it hasn't been sitting for four weeks, so hopefully it'll taste ok...? One of the girls who is going was telling us she is making a snake schnapps with this snake flavouring or liqueur. I didnt quite catch exactly what it was, but that her dad brought it over for her from the Philippines and it came in a bottle with a snake in it. Eep!
The week after that is another holiday - Ascension, and Cailan has time off work! All three of us are going to Stockholm for a couple days and then taking a cruise to Helsinki for the weekend! I'm really looking forward to that. I can't wait to have a sauna! 
Hopefully one of the following weekends, probably after Victoria Day at home, I'll head down to Ystad. There is one of the big Viking stone ships, Ale's stones, down there that I am dying to go see. 
All in all the next month is shaping up to look like a good one!

Last night we also planned our way down south come June. We'll be in either Italy or Greece by my birthday. Yes! Birthday on a beach!

Back from Norway

Well I have returned from my short week travelling about Norway. It is how I pictured Sweden before arriving here...

I started in Oslo, but being a Monday, everything interesting to me was closed. I did manage however to check out the Vikingskipshuset. Its a museum with three large Viking ships that were used as burial ships and excavated in throughout the 19th century. Super impressive! They were so big, and look like they are in amazing condition considering that they were buried for centuries and reconstructed from little pieces. I walked on to another museum, which was closed, but outside of it was the Gjøa, the first ship to sail through the Northwest Passage, and where Gjoa Haven got it's name. Not as big as I would have imagined.
From Oslo I headed up to Trondheim, technically further north than Yellowknife, but you'd never guess it by the size of the trees. Everything there was closed as well because it was "winter" and none of their attractions open until June. Sooo I just wandered about, admiring all the colourful old fishing warehouses, checked out a 17thC fort that is being renovated. What impressed me the most, other than that fact that the trees were so large was that this random town is where Christianity was adopted in Norway, where their Crown Jewels are, where new monarchies are coronated (not sure if thats an accurate term?), and where Leif Ericson supposedly sailed off from during his voyage to Vinland. (Exciting for a history nerd...)
The next day I boarded a ferry/cruiser to sail down the coast of Norway to Bergen. Haha, I was the youngest person on board by about 40yrs. Apparently this ferry is advertised as a return cruise the length of Norway for Brits and Americans, not just as a transportation ferry. I accompanied two seniors tour groups for the last two days of their 12 day cruise of Norway. 

It was spectacular. Pretty much Newfoundland. Just small outcrops of houses littering the shore lines. Random two or three houses on islands only accessable by boats. Snow capped mountains rising out of the ocean, little fishing trowelers surrounded by seagulls.  
Arrived in Bergen, but poured rain, so all I really got to see were the old18thC wooden part of town and the fish market full of dried herring. 
Ah, herring. The staple food of Norwegians. They have an unappetizing cod jelly and pickled herring served a breakfast, I was not tempted to try it cause it was silver and I just do not enjoy fish... everywhere there are fish! Bergen was still not too disappointing, just wet and discouraging. 
I woke up Friday morning to huge snow flakes falling and zero visability. Just in time for another ferry trip down a fjord I had planned. Drat. But as I was on the bus, the snow ceased and the skies cleared! Hooray! But it was still cooold. I bundled up and hopped on the ferry though the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Nærøyfjorden to the village of Flåm. Super pretty. 
Along the shore of the fjord I noticed an old burial chamber like the ones I had seen in Scotland at the Clava cairns. Its was neat to be able to identify it on my own and not have anyone point it out.  I hiked around Flåm for a while and then headed up a train that was a grade of 1:18. Apparently that's steep? It climbs from sea level to 866m above sea level. Anyways, it was nice, but halfway up it started to snow again and the visibility disappeared again. 
After that train ride I made my way back to Oslo for the night. As a boarded the second train, everyone was was dressed for skiing adventures. Everyone had their ski boots on and large packsacks with sleeping bags and camping gear. Two stops later we were 1000m above sea level at the top of an ice cap and everyone litterely skied off. Super cool and made me really want to go skiing :( 
I returned to Örebro this afternoon only to start planning my next trip to Helsinki in a couple weeks. 

Super weekend!

So, this weekend was fantastic!
Friday night Cailan and I went out with her friend Andreas to take tourist photos. Instead we just drank a lot and took amusing photos with things around town. After we abused all the statues we could find around the Castle we went to a pub where I ordered my first drink in Swedish, and the lady understood me! Kan jag fä en öl? Aw yeah. After that I just ordered people's beers or red wines so I could practice. Once we got bored of the pub, we proceeded to go to this cool dance bar where we got swag when we collected our coats from the coat check - makeup, shopping bag, tshirt, bracelet, gum and a magazine. Definitely worth more than the cover we paid, I felt privileged.
Saturday night we went to a Portuguese wine tasting party with some Swedes who are planning to go to Portugal  for the wine in the summer. We all had three glasses of white, red and dessert wines. We had to describe them and guess which kinds they were - since Cailan and I were the only two who didnt speak Swedish, and are obviously not wine connoisseurs, we just drank them back. It was good at first, super good desserts, but after 10 glasses of wine they stopped translating their conversations for us, and were speaking too fast for us to guess what they were on about. We left to rest up for our big day today!

Today... today was probably the most fun I've had being here. We drove out into the country with two of Cailan's friends - Sophie and Peter - they drive the same Volvo we had as kids, in red! Anyways, they took us out to this hill - Öry Kulle - where snakes come out of hibernation and get all intertwined and start mating in giant balls. We saw two different kinds: adders and grass snakes. Super cool. They were just every where! Peter said on really hot days there are up to thousands. We definitely didn't see that many, but it was still super fun hunting for them and hoping you didnt step on any! Eep!

After that we drove around the country side south of Örebro and stopped at the summer town of Askersund for fika. Fika is kinda like the Newfoundland/British tea. You stop and have a coffee and a dessert or sandwich and as far as I can tell it is essential to Swedes. Everyone takes fika and can have it anywhere - at home, at work, in a cafe. When it's at work though  it's not like a coffee break. Hard to explain, but the best I can compare it to is "tea".

All in all, today was a super day, and it just added to an even better weekend.
Tomorrow morning I'm heading off to Oslo... the most expensive place in the world!

Teaching

Ha, so today I sat in on three of Cailan's classes. Grade 7 science. Preparation for Science Fair!
I was extremely nervous leading up to it, all I could picture was what little shits we were at William Mac... nightmares of what we did happening to me! Oh karma! I really was worried for no reason. The kids were ok, just ok. The mostly asked me how to translate Swedish words into English for their projects or for ideas on what to do their projects. Funny because I despised science fairs, never had any good ideas, and also because I can't spell to save my life. (Three attempts to spell recessive and they were all wrong)  I did receive some bribes of chocolate and ice cream once they found out I would be a judge.
My appreciation for teachers was reiterated today. Her last class just shot elastic bands at each other when she wasn't looking, had marker fights when she left the room...etc. And I didnt feel like I was in a place to tell them to sit down and shut up.
Tonight I think were going on a "tourist adventure" around town - drinking pear ciders and taking rediculous photos of each other around down town.

Come on Spring!

Well, its starting to get nice! The forecast however says it's going back to rain tomorrow. Drat. I have been enjoying the gradual warming with runs. The leaves are sloooowly emerging on the trees and the crocuses are out! When I lived out East they only were in purple, well, maybe I only saw purple ones. Here the crocuses are purple, yellow and white - Easter colours! Hmm... I wonder if that is where they came from?
I've met Cailan's friends here, they are nice and they all speak decent English, which is putting a hamper on my Swedish. The pronunciation of the different A's is really hard to remember.
I really don't have anything else to report. It is much like living at home, cept the signs aren't in English. I have yet to discover anything truly intriguing or inspiring here. Hopefully once I return from Norway I will be re-inspired to do something and figure out something with my life. Once I return we will be at much more I think. The science fair is on the go when I get back, then its the May day festival. We are going to see live music at the University, drink in the fields with bonfires and bbqs. Exciting! On the 6th I think Terry arrives and then I'll have come company during the days.

Life unexpected.

I have now been here a week. Well, pretty much a week.
It's been overcast and cool, and zero snow.
I wouldn't say I'm bored yet, cause I really am not, there just isn't as much as I anticipated being here.
This weekend was fun, Cailan and I went out on Friday night with a bunch of her friends, all of whom are over the age of 30. So that was kinda weird. I think the mean age was 32? But it was fun, I had too much fun and definitely should not have drank as much as I consumed.
Saturday and Sunday were write-offs. Seriously. We dog sat a friend of Cailan's dog all day Saturday and just lazed around her apartment yesterday.
BUT today looks gorgeous! High of 10, sunny and all the birds and little rodents are out making noises. Its definitely a running day.
Next Monday I head to Norway. Apparently the most expensive of the Scandinavian countries. Its costing me a fortune. Though, I know if I dont go, I'll kick myself for it later.
Hopefully today will be eventful!

Day 4

I've been in Örebro now for four days. It has yet to be nice out. I really thought today would be nice, all sunny and whatnot this morning, but then when I was walking down town to enroll in Swedish Language lessons it started to rain :(

Its about a 45min walk down town, not too bad, the first half of the walk, is all along woods and I follow a bike trail. The woods are all green and mossy, with these random big boulders in amongst the trees, and lots of the trees have bird houses . This afternoon on my way back on the bus I got my bearings, seeing as I had only been on it in the dark, and realized that the first 15min or so of my walk is pointless and I've just been walking in a circle around the sub-division when I could just cut through the parking lot on the other side and come out where the the bike trail comes out on the road. Damnit!

So I walked down town to sign up for Swedish classes at the community college, unfortunatly all the reception windows were closed for the day when I got there and I really had no idea where else to go to ask... instead I just walked along the river. It's pretty nice, and I cant wait to see what it'll look like in the summer when all the trees have leaves!

In the some-what centre of town there is a large castle which is on its own island, but it looks dreary...

The rain was starting to come down a little more and I was frustrated so back to Cailan's I went.  

Because of the rain I decided to book my trip to Norway. Get the hostels and where I'm heading all sorted out. I'm going in two weeks! I'm super pumped, it looks soo beautiful! I wanted to do the ferry trip along the extent of Norway, but its just too expensive, not to mention that ALL of Norway is expensive, the cheapest I could find a hostel there was about 50$. Anyways, its all sorted out now except my tickets to and from Oslo, on Saturday I'll venture down there to buy the tickets. 

I'll be back just in time to judge Cailan's school's science fair! Whoop! Funny to think because I hated science fairs when I was in school... and now her classes want to meet me and have me come in on Monday and give them ideas for their projects. Ugh, I cant even remember my projects, cept a citric acid battery and forcing beans to grow toward the sun. 

Jättebra!

So, I finally arrived in Örebro.
I haven't really seen any of it yesterday, cept for what I saw on the bus. Once I got to Cailans a crashed for about 15 hours, which was also awesom cause now Im on their time. High five.
My trip over was pretty sweet, hung out with Ben in Calgary, flew Luftsana here and got Cognac and Baileys after my meal. Preety much forced. They came around with a tray of each and just handed them to everyone. And our mid flight snacks were Toblerone. I love Toberlone. And not the little halloween bars either, real bars.  Their movie selection kinda sucked but whatever. My flight from Frankfurt to Stockholm was ok too, they only spoke English, where as on the one to Frankfurt was mostly German. They gave us chocolate Easter bunnies with our breakfast too.
Arrived in Stockholm where it was snowing. Found Cailan at the aeroport and bused into Örebro that afternoon, unpacked and slept.

Not too sure what I'll get at today.... I dont want to get lost. Just meandering around I guess.

And my stupid dreams were for nothing. No one even check my passport. I didnt even get a stamp :( Oooh well.

Fuegos

AHH! Im leaving tomorrow! Well, to Calgary anyways...
Overnighting in Calgary and then flying out on Sunday to Stockholm, where Cailan's meeting me at the aeroport. I'm so excited, yet terrified. I keep having these reoccurring dreams that I get stopped at immigration for not arriving on Jan 6th like my visa says... and they make me come home. Eff.
I'm also freaking out cause I'm convinced I have too much. I am fighting the urge to just unpack everything and only take my packsac. Impossible.
We'll see how travelling tomorrow works out. Stupid bags.