1st week...

The first week in Sweden can only be described as fun and busy. The school set-up an introduction week for the international and first year Swedish students. They split us up into groups led by English-speaking Swedish men and women that had already been at Jönköping a couple of years. They were called the "fadders" (fathers). Our group was the Firefighters and throughout the whole week, we had this as our song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBPqiMfDQ2g ...haha.
As you can tell, our group was pretty wild, but everyone was nice and everyone got along just fine. It was a great way to meet new people and make some friendships right away.

The school also had (what seemed) every minute planned for us throughout the week. Information lectures during the day and activities at night as well.

A couple days ago, I was walking around town when I noticed some of the guys from the Firefighter group eating outside. I said hello and after a few mintues, they invited me to a traditional Swedish dinner the next night!
The name of the dinner is Kräftskiva, which basically entails eating crayfish, singing songs and drinking. They have this type of dinner in the summer, more specifically, August because that's the prime of the season for crayfish. The tables were decorated with crayfish-filled plates, paper party hats and bids...I can't remember the last time I wore a hat and bib while at a dinner table....4 maybe? haha it was a very fun dinner though. I even sang the National Anthem (US) for everyone to hear the lyrics! Of the 30-something people invited, I was the only exchange student from the Firefighters group, and there was another guy from Russia there who didn't know Swedish...so I felt pretty honored to be included in the festivities :)

During the singing, I could tell I was able to read most of the words with the rest of the group. I have been working on the Rosetta Stone still, and I have been impressing the Swedes with my counting and small talk. They offer Swedish as a course here, but I didn't sign up back in May. I would maybe try to get in it now, but the course is full and I would only be on a waiting list.

Speaking of courses...they started on Monday. The semester is split up into quarters, so I have two this quarter and two next quarter. Leadership and Marketing Management. Both intro lectures were just once this week for 3 hours...not bad now that I have a nice long weekend! One thing I miss about Whitewater is the renting of books, which would have come in handy, but at least now I know how most of the other college students feel when they mutter about the purchasing of books...oh well!

I finally got some laundry done today. It will be interesting to see how two washers and dryers for 50 people will work. Luckily, I was able to get mine done during the day while some people had classes going on.

Alright, I wrote a lot more than I thought I would, so I will leave you with this info. for now!!

the journey begins...

So right off the bat, I get a upgrade on my plane to London! I was bumped up 14 rows in the business class for the same price as economy! All because someone was probably sick..I managed little sleep on the plane and had a stomach ache that might have been caused by the food and nerves...

There was a little bit of a wait in London, due to the security check of all the passengers from different planes that showed up at the same time.

Not much longer though, I found myself on another plane going off some kind of energy that I don't know where it came from. 1 PM London time, 7 AM WI time. I sat next to a girl that not two questions in, do I find out that she's also studying at Jönköping! I thought she was from the US or London as well because she didn't have an accent that I could detect. She is from about an our away. She answered a lot of my questions about Sweden and the area and helped me find the train to Stockholm so I could get to my hotel.

After a 20 minute train ride to Stockholm Central Station, I didn't feel like taking the next train that was kind of close to the hotel, so I took the taxi and saw a little bit of Stockholm. After getting checked into my room at around 6:30 PM, now 11 AM RC time. I took a quick shower (which took about 7 frustrating minutes to figure out the damn nozzle for the shower..stupid jetlag!) and found myself dozing off in front of the TV.

Next thing I know, it's dark out and I'm hoping that it's like 12 or 1 in the morning. Nope. 10...whatever. Ok might as well sleep a little bit more. Wake up. 3 maybe? Nope. Midnight...dumb. Ended up being fully awake around 3...

watched some BBC news, somehow got some more sleep and woke up to my wake up call of 9 O'Clock.

I hadn't had anything to eat since about 4 in the afternoon, so I knew that I would enjoy the continental breakfast no matter what they served me. They had a pretty basic set-up. Some yogurt they had was pretty good. There were these tiny plates that had a littler circle in the middle that I saw later used as egg holders..not rocket science, but I couldn't remember seeing anyone actually using them before. Luckily, unlike the French, the hotel kept their milk chilled so that pleased was a plus. After that, I got checked out before the 11 AM deadline and made my way to the train station.

3 train changes , one person I found from Wisconsin riding the same train as me, and 5 hours later, I'm in Jönköping. I sign the contract for my room thinking I'm sharing a room with someone else, possibly this other guy(I never did ask his name) from WI and having to take the bus into town. Nope. I find my apartment building to be pretty close to campus,

I have about a 5-10 minute walk to the business school, great view:

and I'm pretty much downtown! The room isn't as big as I thought, but then again I thought I would be sharing a room, no TV, no bed sheets, no internet...but that should come in tomorrow.

We have about 10 people to a floor sharing a little kitchen that's right across from me, and a bathroom. I guess there's a laundry downstairs somewhere. Everyone in this building is foreign, as I thought it would be. I've met everyone I think, but I'm only remembering which countries everyone is from. We got a Germany, Mexico, Spain, Finland, Columbia so far on this floor. Earlier I heard some obvious Americans talking as I walked by. So far, everyone seems nice. I feel kind of lucky having English be the language of choice in the building and at the Int'l Business School.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get some food, bed sheets, and internet. I haven't had a full meal since breakfast at the hotel.

Some other things I've noticed. They write $500 as 500:-. The light switches are different. I just found out this IKEA coupon I have that would be really awesome to use is expired by one day...LAME.

The Beginning.....

Hey everyone! So, taking from my friend Luke's idea, (http://luke-annear.blogspot.com/) I thought it would be a good idea to leave a blog of events/pictures and other things that happen along the way while I'm in Sweden...

I'll leave around 10 P.M. on Friday, stay in a hotel in Stockhom Saturday night, and take a train to Jönköping.