Fun at the market

Today we went to the flea/farmer's market, our favorite event of the week! We have gone the past two Saturdays to get our produce. Today we rode our bikes there. On the way there, we stopped at a small park to take some pictures. We bought some plums from a vender that we went to last week, and he asked us if we wanted his family to be our Swedish family! He wants his children to practice English, and of course we would love to get to know the Swedish culture more. So, we exchanged phone numbers. We shall see what comes of it. If we don't make contact this week, we at least know we will see him again on Saturday when we are ready to buy more fruit. It started raining on our way home (bummer), but, we didn't melt. It was chilly and windy today, so we stayed in the rest of the day and studied for our class at IC.

Misery Loves Company

Yes, even bad days can happen in Sweden. The day starts out with Jen's bad day and ends with Christine's. Here is the rundown:

We wake up early to speak to our contact teacher and get the bikes from her that we are borrowing. When we get to her office, she is not there. So, we head down to the access card office to get our access cards, which allow us into the buildings after hours and serves as our library cards. We are a half hour early and I (Jen) am thirsty so we head to the library to get a drink. The vending machine eats almost $2 of mine. We head back to the access card office and now there is a line through the lobby and almost out the door. We wait patiently and then it is our turn. Christine is helped by the man on the left and I am helped by the man on the right. Christine's man says so her, "have a seat so I can take your picture... ok I am going to take your picture now" Mine says "have a seat so I can take your picture (I am looking at the floor while I am waiting for him to tell me he is ready to take the picture) then, "ok you are done." What?!? So, my picture is lovely - of me staring at the floor. This puts me in an awful mood.

Next, we get tested for MRSA by the school nurse, which includes a wonderfully comfortable throat culture. The test is required for our fieldwork placements. After that, we head to the bank to get our debit cards activated. These two activities are surprisingly successful.

We then meet up with our contact student for lunch. She takes us to a restaurant that costs $10 per meal. That is not what we would have spent on lunch normally, but how could we say no? We end up staying too long at the resteraunt and are late for class. Our very first class, and here the Americans are late. Great! When we walk in EVERYONE is sitting on the left side of the room, but we decide to sit on the right side of the room, just Christine, me, and Tess (our contact student). Awkward!

After class we met with our contact teacher and she gave us the bikes. The one that Christine ended up with had a flat tire so we walked to the bike store. We filled my bike with air and purchased a new tire and tube for her bike. It took us over an hour since we had never changed a bike tire before! A passerby helped explain a couple steps of the process to us and the staff at the bike store ended up helping us take the tire off, but we were on our own to put the new one on. I did a lot of the work because I ended up being better at it, and I ended up splitting my thumb nail. Ouch! When all was said and done, we were quite proud of ourselves and happy to ride the bikes, but a little grouchy.

We ride to the grocery store, where we bought way too much food for riding bikes there. We ended up with 4 bags and my backpack. But, we think we can handle it. We get out of the parking lot and I notice that Christine's "new" tire is flat. What?!? How could that have happened? Christine was quite annoyed, but at this point, I was hysterical. What else could I do? Everything just became hilarious to me. We walk the bikes and our groceries back to the bike shop to put air in it, to find they are closed and took the air hose inside. Now what? Do we leave the bikes here overnight or do we walk them home? Christine walked her bike home. I rode my bike, dropped off the groceries, then walked back to help her carry the rest of the groceries. What a day! We were so happy to be home and able to relax.

I Jesu Kristi Kyrka av sista dagars heliga

Today was my (Jen) first sunday attending church in Sweden. I really am lucky because my church is only a 15 minute walk straight down the street that is right in front of our apartment. It couldn't be any easier to get there. The meetings are switched in Europe, so I had Relief Society (women's meeting) first, then Sunday School, and finally Sacrament (whole congregational meeting). Relief Society was in Swedish, so a lady translated for me. She is from South Caroline, but is visiting her family here with her husband. Sunday School was in English, which was fantastic. Sacrament was half and half. One of the talks was in Swedish, but the other was in English. I had a translator for the Swedish talk. The speakers in Sacrament were from the Public Affairs mission and the husband told an interesting story about the progress of the Rome temple:

Last General Conference, we were all told that some new temples were going to be built. One of which is in Philadelphia (Yay!) and the other in Rome. Just recently, the speaker of this story traveled to the Rome temple grounds spot. He reported that the church owns the land, but did not have any building permits yet. The Church was told that in order to get the building permits, they would have to get the approval of the Vatican. You must be thinking what I was thinking - why on earth would the Vatican approve the building of a large temple of a differing religion??? Well, a meeting was set up between the Church and the Vatican. The Church sent one of the counselors to the European Area President. The Vatican sent their top Cardinal of their Public Affairs dept. Well, the two got to talking and found out that they both spoke French. Then, they found out that they both went to the same high school. The first 20 minutes of their meeting they reminisced about their alma mater. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Cardinal handed the Church counselor his private card and said "if you need anything, call me directly and we will bypass everyone else." Can you imagine? The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways. Why did the Church decide to send that particular counselor, they did not know who was coming from the Vatican or any personal information about him. But, the Lord did.

IKEA!!

Today, we ventured to the Swedish original... IKEA. What a store! We walked in the door and immediately walked upstairs where there was a restaurant. Then we browsed through many options of home interior design. There are sections, one after the other, modeled after real, fully stocked rooms. The one in the picture was the kitchen and bathroom. There was another that was a kid's room next to a bathroom, and another that was a living room. It truly was a sight a see. We find the tables that we want to buy, and figure out that they are the equivalent of $7, and we are anxious to figure out how the heck we get one. You see, there are only models on the top floor, and a computer station that gives you lots of information in Swedish. Jen asks an employee and finds out that we need to go "fetch" the tables ourselves downstairs. (Aha! So that's what the numbers mean). The other interesting thing about IKEA is it is laid out as a map. There are arrows on the floor in which you must follow to get to the exit. You end up walking through the entire store before leaving. Now that's marketing.

What We Didn't Expect From Sweden

There are so many things we did not expect from the Swedes/ Sweden. This is our running list:

• mini - sized everything (such as pillows, towels, papertowels, refrigerator, oven, shampoo bottles)
• everyone is SOOO kind
• Jen's sunday school class to be taught in English
• sinks and papertowels in each bathroom stall (and doors of each stall that run from ceiling to floor)
• toilets with full and half flush
• A towel heater in our bathroom (which seems to be a norm)
• The binders have four holes in the middle instead of three (more stable!)
• 25% retail tax, but included in the advertised price
• Hospital visits to cost around $70 US dollars which includes EVERYTHING from the bed to the food to the services, such as occupational therapy
• the yolks of our eggs to be neon orange
• the occupational therapy program is only 3 years long. our class (in our 4th year at IC) is with students in their 2nd year at Jonkoping
• Swedes schedule according to the week number of the year (example, we start clinical fieldwork at the beginning of Week 45 and our exam is during Week 48)
• our classes to be so long (some of them are 3 hours long each)
• Swedes eat sandwiches with no bread on the top! And, they eat sandwiches for breakfast and fika, but not for lunch. Crazy, huh
• TO MEET SUCH GREAT FRIENDS!
  

Day Four: Just a normal day in Sweden

This morning we had an information session with a police officer from the town and a bunch of health services personnel. We found out that STD testing is both required and free in Sweden if you suspect you have an STD. All the treatment is also free! We also found out that the counseling center has a light room to keep your circadian rhythms regularized during the darker winter months. You can go in there whenever you want!

The police officer was entertaining and very friendly, which follows what the men on our train from Stockholm told us: the police here are not as intimidating and harsh as police in the U.S. We have heard both positives and negative opinions regarding this trend. We found out that alcohol is illegal on the beach, with fines, but that public intoxication carries no fee. The police will either walk you home or take you back to the police station to sober up. Also, we can drive here if we want, using our licenses from home!

After this first meeting, we met with Rickard, our professor. Apparently professors go by their first names here. Rickard gave us a lot of great information about our course and answered all our questions. He also told us about the flea market on Saturdays, and showed us the location of his house on our map. He invited us to "ring the bell" if we're ever in the area!

We were now motivated to go to the bookstore, so we went to buy our books. We were thrilled to find that the bookstore had all the books we planned to buy! On the way there we stopped in a clothing store where Christine bought a short sleeve shirt for about $7! (She did not bring many short sleeve shirts here, because she thought the weather would be colder.) After the bookstore, we were walking home looking for the post office when we found a store with post cards and stamps! We bought some of both. Stamps are almost $2!

Then after dinner Christine went out on her own for the first time, meeting Karin (a Swedish friend) at the lake. With a couple of Karin's friends, they enjoyed the beach as well as some drinks and popcorn at Karin's apartment. After proceeding to another friend's house, Christine decided to take her leave and finally returned home via the bus. It was quite an exciting day!

Day Three: Figuring Stuff Out

The only thing on our required schedule today was an "Academic Introduction," which turned out to be sort-of like a convocation but with a different style. Before the convocation we went to the hardware store and a VERY kind Swede patiently helped us find adapters for our many electronic devices. Then, to get to the arena where the introduction was, we rode on the top level of a double-decker bus! The view was great. When we arrived we discovered that we were missing something. Everyone was wearing what looked like one piece painting suits, though everyone had them pulled down so they functioned as pants. People were gathered with others with the same color suits, which were red, yellow, green, blue, or white. Later we found out that these corresponded with the school people were from, and that if we had them they would be white for the School of Health Sciences. We also found out that they cost the equivalent of about $56! People write all over them and sew on patches from different events and places.

Upon entering the arena, a group of four was singing acappella into microphones! Christine was reminded immediately of Harry. There was lots of chaos but as we continued in there were different tables set up on each side of the arena, going in a circle, and it turned out to be sort-of like a student activities fair. As we walked around we received an apple from the health center, a notebook and planner from the student union, and various information from other student groups. We were particularly interested in UniVoices, Jonkoping University's 3-leveled singing group. The top level consists of the four that were performing when we entered! The lowest level is just singing for fun, mostly one-part stuff from the way it sounds. Then the middle level, the core, actually performs gigs and sings in parts. They meet on Tuesday nights! To be in the core you need to commit to 3 hours each Tuesday night. With much excitement we moved on to the library table, at which Christine won her choice of a book! She chose Kite Runner.

Eventually we moved into the auditorium for the English version of the ceremony. Here we heard from the mayor of Jonkoping (who graduated from the University himself), the vice president of the school, and two professors. One taught us some Swedish phrases (a much needed lesson!) and the other spoke about "cracking the codes" of Swedish culture. He was quite entertaining and has done a lot of travel, so he made fun of his own culture a lot.

After this we were offered Fika (traditionally coffee with something sweet on the side, a mandatory activity in Sweden). Though we tried to reach the tables that held coffee and cinnamon buns, it was not until the end that we found a few cinnamon buns, and we did not find coffee. We did get juice boxes. Scoffing down our cinnamon buns in hunger and a rush to arrive at the next part of the ceremony on time, we proceeded into the bigger part of the arena. Here we found all the "Fadder" (leaders) in what seemed like a pep rally. To our surprise, some of the girls started to take their shirts off, revealing only bras! After the Fadder paraded out, chanting, we were entertained by a British comedian who now lives in Sweden and likes to make fun of Swedes and Brits. His routine was titled "The Swedes are strange and so am I". Though his jokes were funny, Christine fell asleep on Jen's shoulder for part of the ceremony. (What a surprise!)

Tired and hungry after the ceremony, we went first to the bank and then to a little coffee shop to get Christine some sustenance before she fell over. We had to milk the soap dispenser in the bathroom to get soap out, which felt a little odd...After a trip to the bus station to buy a bus pass and a stop at the grocery store, we finally made our way home. Jen made yummy burritos for dinner!

Day two: Catching up

Since we missed the majority of the orientation yesterday, today we used our free time to catch up on what we had missed. This morning we received an email from the Director of International Programs for the School of Health Sciences, Karl Hedman, saying that we had a meeting with our advisor today. The only problem was there was no time mentioned! Concerned that we had missed it or were late, we hurried to the school. After the 30 minute walk to campus, we looked for Ann, our advisor. She was talking with someone outside her office and instructed us to please return at 4pm, as apparently that was the scheduled meeting time. Upon visiting Karl's office, we discovered that he was in meetings until the afternoon, so we went to get Christine's internet set up. The line for internet set-up was long and lasted almost an hour, so by the time we were done it was time to return to Karl's office. When we returned to Karl's office there was a note on the door saying that the programming he was in was running late and we should come by around 2:30pm. We decided we were hungry and proceeded to the cafeteria in the School of Health Sciences.

Here we dined at the salad bar, which was quite delicious as it was the first time we had eaten veggies since our arrival. (Our meal last night consisted of pasta and tomato sauce, which doesn't really count as fresh veggies. Before that all we had eaten was a bit of McDonald's in the train station in Stockholm City.) Satisfied and no longer hungry, we arrived at Karl's office once again.

Karl invited us to the cafeteria for a meal, where we explained we had just eaten but each grabbed a drink at his insistence. He was quite eager to hear about our travels and our time so far in Jonkoping, and was happy to answer our countless questions about the city and the way things work here in Sweden. We learned that the city has changed a lot and is now much more friendly toward career-women. :) We also set up our email addresses for Jonkoping University.

Next we met with Ann, who reminds us of our professor Carole Dennis in the US. When Jen told Ann this, Ann was thrilled! She said she had always felt Carole was a long lost sister. In our meeting with Ann we learned about the curriculum we would be following, as well as the schedule. We even met our professor for the course, Rickard Efvergren. With much work to do but all our questions answered, we left Ann's office.

We then proceeded to Swedbank, where we each opened a Swedish bank account! Next we took the bus to A6 Center, the local mall, in search of some watches! We successfully found watches and were poking around for an adapter (we realized once there that the store suggested to us for adapters was next to the bank, not at the mall) when we discovered that the mall closes at 8pm! In surprise and a bit of disappointment, we returned home with watches but no adapters. We did learn, however, that Sweden imposes a 25% tax on nearly everything, BUT it is included in the advertised price.

Our Apartment

When we arrived in our apartment for the first time, we each had very different reactions. Christine was surprised to find that our kitchen was fully stocked with dishes, pots, and pans! She was also surprised at the heated towel rack in the bathroom, and ran around exclaiming at everything. For her part, Jen found the apartment a bit small in comparison to what she is used to with Mike. She was not surprised by the stocked kitchen but rather discovered that our shower had no way of preventing water from flooding the bathroom! (This has proved a problem.) We will have to figure out some way of fixing this.

We discovered later that our windows have no screens, though it doesn't really seem to be a problem. We also discovered that our oven is in Celsius, which makes sense but didn't work so well for us at first. In addition, the settings are completely different and the instruction manual is in Swedish only.

For our privacy, there is one bedroom and one bed in the kitchen, blocked off by curtains. We decided that Christine would take the bed in the kitchen as she tends to be up later and is not all that used to privacy anyhow at the moment. We proceeded to unpack our things and eventually discovered that we have an attic space where we can put our luggage and anything else we want!

Day One: Getting Here

What a day this was! Our trip really starts on August 16th when we boarded our flight on Scandinavian Airlines at Newark International Airport. When we got to our seats we were thrilled to see that there were touch screen monitors on the backs on the seats. We watched movies (Monsters vs. Aliens and He's Just Not That Into You), played Sudoko and watched the views in front of and beneath the airplane from the exterior cameras.

After two delicious meals and 8 hours in the air, we arrived at the Stockholm Arlanda airport on the morning of August 17th. Next stop, Jonkoping, but how??? We walked aimlessly around the airport for over 2 hours trying to figure this out! Do we take the train? The bus? The express train? We finally decided to take the express train to Stockholm city and decide from there how to get to Jonkoping. We just wanted out of that airport! And, we wanted to get rid of our extremely heavy and bulky luggage. We bought our tickets for the train and walked down to the platform where we saw the train pulling in. We had to run with our luggage to get to it before it left us. While we were at the airport, we bought some minutes for our phone. At this point we were missing more orientation then expected and wanted to alert our Jonkoping contact. After we boarded the train and sat down we decided to add the minutes to our phone, which we borrowed from our friend, Alana. Come to find out, the phone was dead. Perfect!

When we get to Stockholm City, we are faced yet again with options. We can either take the bus to Jonkoping, or the train. We weigh the options and decide to take the 4 hr train ride, which had a connecting train in another city. We sat next to two older Swedes. They were very nice and talkative. We could not lift our luggage ourselves, so one of these men helped with Jen's luggage while another man helped with Christine's.

We arrived at our connecting location and had no idea what to do next. Jen asked one of the workers and we were directed to our next platform. We had trouble getting our luggage through the door of the station, so two men (our age) jumped up to help us. They each grabbed one of our suitcases and walked with us to our platform. Though this was a little scary to have someone help us, it was with the best of intentions. One of the guys was from Somalia and was thrilled to have met some Americans. The other one asked Christine for her number after we boarded the train. hehe.

After arriving at Jonkoping we caught a taxi which took us to the university. We decided to look for the student services building to find out how to contact our international director. As soon as we walked in, we saw the accommodations office. Hurray!!! We went there and got the keys to our apartment and one of the workers drove us to our apartment. We were soooo anxious to drop off our luggage and be done with it!

After a little while, we decided to walk to the campus. Christine tried to catch the last bit of the last orientation session of the day while Jen went to the internet provider and set up her internet. We met some of the international students from the Health Sciences school at Jonkoping and one of our contact persons, Karin. The international office at the school let us borrow some sheets (and dishes if we wanted) and other items for our apartment.

Needless to say, we were exhausted when we got home and were happy to go to sleep. Our experience today was that everyone we met, no matter what the circumstances, was very kind and helpful to us. We were quite surprised at just how nice everyone is.