1920s Party, Dutch Food Night

Thursday
Went out to Stockholms Nation. Despite trying to leave early to beat the line and paying the entrance fee Nick and I had to wait for about 40 minutes before getting in. It was a good night and many of our different groups of friends were there. It was a busy night overall as many students had just finished taking exams and were set to receive their monthly stipend from the Swedish government the next day. (That’s right they get PAID to go to school here!)

Friday
I did some work on my group paper for Sustainable Design during the day before suiting up for the evening. At the Systembolaget (state owned liquor store) I went all American with my 4 beer choices. I got a Sam Adams, a Brooklyn Brewer beer, and even cooler a brew from of all places Durango, Colorado! It was an IPA called Modus Hoperandi from Ska Brewing, which is a Durango local favorite that I had been treated to on one of my trips to Durango to see Logan, Reece, and Cody. All of these beers were delicious and I really look forward to having so many choices of great craft beer for cheap (compared to Sweden) back home again.

Ska Brewing, Durango, CO

I purchased these American beers because they seemed to fit the theme of the party I went to that night, The Roaring Twenties. As I said I suited up in my pinstripe jacket and donned a black fedora I got at H&M for the occasion. We had our American beer and oh yeah we also had bought Cuban cigars (not illegal in Sweden! Stupid outdated trade embargo) to put a finishing touch on our classy 1920s attire.

Nick and I left for the party in Kantorsgarten, another student housing area, but one we’d never been to. Kantors is about 3 km from Rackarberget so we set off in our suits and fedoras looking like guys from the mob, or FBI agents in the early to mid 20th century. After getting to the general vicinity of where we thought Kantors was we got lost and were pointed in the wrong direction once, ignored by another group when we asked for help before finally a helpful Swede finally directed us in the right direction. At the party people were very well dressed for the theme with guys in suits and girls dressed as flappers. We enjoyed our cigars in the cold of the balcony and came home smelling strongly of the fine tobacco. It wasn’t a big party and ended rather early, but it was a good time.

Saturday
Slept in and took it easy. In the evening Franzi came over and Nick and I walked over to Flogsta with her to go to Dutch food night. As I’ve mentioned before a group of about 10 of my international student friends are taking turns hosting dinners themed for their home country and tonight was Dutch night put on primarily by Anneloes and Laurie with a little help from fellow Dutchmen Ezra, Marten, and a girl who arrived mid-semester, Sara. Nick and I represented the US, while Franzi was the only German there as Julian couldn’t make it, and Guilia from Italy rounded out the group. We enjoyed a potato, apple mash with seasoning and ground beef with bread and cream cheese for the meal and then had a delicious chocolate-biscuit cake for dessert. It was a nice evening of eating and socializing and we are all looking forward to the next meal, German food night put on by Franzi and Julian later this month.

Sunday
I worked a lot on finalizing my group’s paper for Sustainable Design. It was kind of tough getting the paper to flow because 9 people had helped write it and only 4 of the group members are native English speakers. I finished the paper and submitted it by email that night content that it was a good piece of work and that I had contributed to the group work as I will miss our 10 minute group presentation on Wednesday as I head to Croatia.

Monday
It was a very nice day and the snow is really receding fast now. I had a group meeting for our Sustainable Design class before having a seminar for Actors & Strategies where we were to look into specific examples of corporate social responsibility. I found that many of the Swedish companies are leaders in the field of CSR and that the small ICA grocery stores I frequent have a reputation of being one of the most transparent and progressive companies in promoting sustainability and CSR so I can shop there knowing I’m supporting a decent company. We also worked in groups to propose ways consumers and companies can work to improve sustainability and social responsibility.

Tuesday
I somehow managed to sleep through my alarm and slept passed 1PM when my climate change leadership class starts. I have had good attendance in the class though and needed to do some other things before heading to Croatia. I printed off my tickets for the flights to and from Zadar, Croatia and paid my rent for April. At night I stayed up way too late again and heard the first half of the CU Buffs NIT semi-final game that they lost by one point to Alabama. Good season though! Hopefully Alec Burks stays in school for another run next year in the new Pac-12!

The week snow returned then spring arrived (hopefully for good)

Thursday
It’s St. Patrick’s Day! Found out rather quickly that this does not mean much in Sweden. People are aware of the holiday, the green, the drinking and everything else that goes on. Yet, not many Swedes celebrate it like we do in the US, perhaps even this now very secular holiday is too religious for the most secular country in the world. Of course for the US and many other English-speaking countries it is the beer and whisky drinker’s holiday to give thanks in the only fitting way possible, bringing out and exaggerating every possible Irish stereotype (wearing green, leprechauns, red hair, shamrocks, and of course copious amounts of alcohol). My sustainable design class happened to be moved to today instead of its usual Wednesday time slot. It was a very boring lecture of the history of design and I ducked out early during our 15-minute break. Other international students were on a nation pub-crawl while I was in class, but I skipped the end of the pub-crawl and met many of them later at Stockholms nation for their club night. Not many people were wearing green and you could bet that those who were wearing green like me and my friends were most likely international students from English speaking countries. Stockholms is still under some construction, probably for an upcoming gasque, and the dance floor is much smaller as a result. It was a good night as Stockholms usually is, but nothing special in terms of a St. Patty’s Day celebration.

Stockholms Nation

Friday
It was cooler today and started to snow in the afternoon and kept up for some of the night. About 4 cm (1-2 inches) fell and it was a little bit of a set back to the feeling of spring that had been growing in Uppsala. Nick and I went to Varmlands early to avoid any line, but the snow seemed to have put a damper on students’ will to go out that night and it was not a very crowded club, but still fun. I stayed up late after Varmlands and listened to the Buffs blowout our new Pac-12 rival Cal in the NIT to move onto the quarterfinals and one last game in Boulder.

Varmlands Nation

I heard that there was a near riot in Boulder on St. Patty’s night at an apartment party with 500 students and even worse later that night a student from the University of New Hampshire and former Coloradan was shot and killed in the heart of University Hill after an attempted robbery. Very sad and not something you expect in Boulder. Fortunately the suspect was arrested within a day.
Boulder University Hill Shooting

Saturday
Some of the snow has already started to melt as the weather started to warm up. Nick and I booked a flight to Zadar, Croatia for March 30th to April 2nd. Other friends may join us, but are on the fence right now. Zadar is on the Mediterranean coast across the Adriatic from Italy and has some Roman ruins as well as beautiful scenery and I’m really looking forward to the Mediterranean weather! Went out for a third night in a row, this time to Östgöta (ÖG) nations post gasque party. It was a pretty big disappointment despite being open until 4AM. Watched more of the NCAA tournament on demand, which kept me up entirely too late.

Östgöta (ÖG) Nation

Sunday
A group of us went out to try to play soccer again, but the only clear field that we know of was being used for league soccer matches. This field is a nice artificial turf field and the only field we know of that is kept clear of snow. It was a very pleasant 7 (45 F) degrees out which is the warmest it has been since I have arrived. After walking around to try to find any fields clear of snow that we could use and failing to do so, Nick and I each got a pizza at a little restaurant right by our corridor (my Hawaiian pizza was amazing). I forgot I had promised to video chat with the family that afternoon, but was able to video chat later that night with Mom and Dad, I missed Kels though as she had just left for Moab for a few days as CU’s spring break had just started. Mom and Dad tried to call my cell phone after I missed the first video chat to make sure I was okay and I think the call actually did get through to my phone, but I didn’t have it with me while out trying to play soccer. I’m sure the international call would have drained my pay as you go credits extremely fast anyway though. Again watched some good NCAA tourney games and my brackets are very much broken now as I’m sure many peoples are! Butler, Marquette and Richmond?! Wow

Monday
Had class including an interesting lecture about corporate social responsibility and its pros and cons. After class I worked on my section of the group paper for sustainable design. I looked into previous solutions in sustainable urban communities in regards to transportation and community aspects. I again stayed up late to watch basketball this time the Nuggets who blew out the Raptors to improve to 10-4 since the Melo trade. The Nuggets are more fun to watch now and I hope they can keep up this momentum and preserve most of this team through the off -season! These games are keeping me up until 3 or 4 in the morning, but luckily I don’t have class until 1 at the earliest, still this sleep pattern will need to get better at some point.

Tuesday
It was the nicest day by far since I’ve been in Sweden. It got up to an amazing 11 degrees (52 F) and was so nice I opened my bedroom window to let some fresh air in. After class I met up with some of the guys to play some soccer. I got surprisingly sore very fast even though we didn’t play as fast or hard. I think I need to stretch better beforehand. Made myself a rather Swedish meal for dinner. It consisted of mashed potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, some fried sausage and a piece of bread with jam. Stayed up late again, but was more productive as I completed and emailed in a make up assignment for sustainable design and then thoroughly cleaned my extremely messy room. By the time I had finished cleaning the Buffs were playing Kent State in the NIT quarterfinal in Boulder. I was able to stream video of the game live and watched the Buff prevail in a great game to head to the semifinals in Madison Square Garden! Go Buffs!

Wednesday
The weather was rather nice again besides the wind, but the snow is shrink faster everyday. I was at class from 1 until 7:30. Seminar for climate change leadership was very interesting and fun as we were divided into groups and then debated various issues from assigned standpoints. I always enjoy a good debate. Later I met with my group in sustainable design to discuss our paper and presentation. I volunteered to compile, edit and submit the final paper by this Sunday since I will miss the presentation date flying to Croatia. Sustainable design lecture was rather interesting about how to better utilize space in urban centers to be more multi-use and incorporate urban agriculture. Now I’m just finishing up the blog update and think I might add more to my other pages about My Impression of Sweden and Uppsala.

Side note: My hair is probably as long as it has been since high school primarily because getting a haircut here is expensive like most everything else and would cost about 35 dollars. If I find a friend with some clippers I will buzz my hair when it is a little warmer otherwise I may return home rather scraggly haired.


Next update either right before I head off to Croatia or immediately after! Come on spring weather and I’m ready for some Mediterranean weather, traveling, a dip in the sea, and cheap food!

North of the Arctic Circle, Lapland, Sweden

Friday
We just hung around for the day taking it easy. A little before 10 PM we met Anneloes, Franzi, and Laurie at the train station to catch our overnight train to Boden and then on to Kiruna. We had booked a sleeper cabin and the 5 of us were in the compartment with one other Swede. We set up the beds by folding up the seats so that there was a 3 high bunk on each side. I slept on the very top bunk and it was quite high, but there were some restraining straps to make sure I didn’t wake up to a good 7 foot fall. It was a little tough to sleep through the night with the movements of the train, but it was definitely better than trying to sleep in a passenger seat.

Saturday
We arrived in Boden and had to switch trains around 10 AM. From Boden to Kiruna the train ride was about 4 hours and we arrived in Kiruna at 2 PM. Kiruna is above the Arctic Circle and is Sweden’s northernmost “major” city (about 20,000 residents) at the latitude of 67 degrees north. To compare Kiruna is 900 miles north of Uppsala, which is at 59 degrees north. Boulder is at 40 degrees north and the furthest north I had been before was Denali National Park in Alaska at 63 degrees north.

The Group

We first got some pizza at a local restaurant after the long trip and then stocked up on some basic groceries for meals at the cabins we were staying at. It was a rather pleasant -5 degrees C out and sunny too, but on our way to Camp Alta where we were staying about 10 km out of Kiruna we went through a pretty strong snowstorm. We settled into our nice 5-person cabin with its own bathroom and kitchen. Luckily the storm passed rather quickly and around 6 PM the five of us got picked up to go nighttime dog sledding.

The guides geared us up for the cold and as we were waiting for the rest of our group to arrive we got to play with the sled dog puppies! All of the 40+ dogs were extremely excited in their kennels hoping they would get to go on the night run. We set up two sleds with 12 dogs and 4 people and one guide each. The dogs took off with surprising energy and power and ran for about an hour until we reached a traditional Sami hut (much like a tepee). There the guides had a fire going and warmed up some delicious seafood soup and sandwiches for us.

The night was turning out to be very clear and the guides said they could see some faint hints of the northern lights on the horizon, although I couldn’t really see what they were talking about. The dogs after an hour break were eager to go again and they finished off the 20km loop to return us back to the lodge. It was an awesome Arctic experience and just when were getting ready to shed our extra warm gear it got even better as the northern lights came to life. They started rather small in a few concentrated streaks of green, but then began to spread across the horizon moving and swaying and then for about 30 seconds they put on a magnificent show of green highlighted by a light blue and some pink and purple flickering and dancing across the sky. I was lucky enough to get my camera to capture some of the lights by using a 30 second exposure, but the pictures don’t do true justice to the entire spectacle.

The Aurora Borealis

Sunday
We again suited up in huge one piece suits that made us all look like little kids on the ski hill as we prepared to go on a snowmobile tour to the world famous Ice Hotel. We rode in pairs on the snowmobile and since we had a group of 5 one of us had to be the odd one out. This turned out to be me after a match of rock-paper-scissors with Nick so I found the other person in our 30 person group without a partner. Lucky for me though the odd person out was a girl who had no interest in driving the snowmobile so I got to drive to the Ice Hotel and back while Nick, Franzi, Laurie, and Anneloes all shared driving time. My snowmobile partner was a fellow American (from Chicago and going to Indiana State) studying abroad in Sweden for the semester. This was the first time I had driven a snowmobile, but I got they hang of it pretty quick and had a good time cruising along in our group. We did get stuck towards the back of the line where slower people were, but still it was very fun.

Ice Hotel entrance

We arrived at the Ice Hotel and had 2 hours to explore it. I had pictured the hotel being very isolated and romantic in this way, but it actually had a small and not too attractive town around it. Once inside the Ice Hotel we could look into any of the 60+ rooms including the 20 or so artistic rooms. The Ice Hotel is built from scratch each year primarily from artificial snow and then the rooms are designed and decorated by different artists, designers, and sculptors who apply to do the work.

Polar Bear Art Room - Reindeer skins on the beds

It takes about 6-8 weeks to complete and it closes each year in mid April when it starts melting. The rooms were very impressive as was the main lobby, church, and Absolut Ice Bar.

The Ice Bar

We cruised back to Camp Alta on our snowmobiles and moved to different cabins, as we were unable to reserve the 5-bed cabin for both nights. Nick and I were in one 3 bed small cabin and the girls in another. These cabins did not have a bathroom or running water and only had hot plates for cooking. After some rest we all decided to try to cross-country ski with the large supply of cross-country gear the Camp offered us for free. I was the only one to have previously cross-country skied, but everyone enjoyed giving it a try even though all of the gear wasn’t ideal. Nick and I ended up skiing around the entire frozen lake that Camp Alta is next to, which was about 9km.

After the ski we made a rather impressive pasta dinner using the two hot plates in our cabins. We attempted to make a fire down by the lake and the sauna, but the wood was rather damp. Nick and the girls all were really tired and decided to head to bed, but I decided to do the last thing on my list of things to do in the Arctic, use the sauna and jump into the frozen lake. In the wood fire heated sauna I met some students from Spain and France and after I got nice in warm I lifted the section of the sauna floor which exposed a hole in the ice to the lake and jumped in for about 10 seconds. It was very shocking and very refreshing and capped an awesome trip to Kiruna.

Monday
We caught the train to Boden around 1PM then had almost 2 hours in Boden before catching our overnight train back to Uppsala. I slept much better this time on the train, but we had to wake up around 5 AM to get off at Uppsala. I got back to my corridor around 6 AM and went back to bed until 11.
Some other random notes from the trip: We nicknamed Anneloes AnneMoose because she was constantly talking about wanting to see a moose while we were up there, unfortunately we didn’t although the girls did see a reindeer while dog sledding. I was somehow deemed the person to tell stories to the group at night, not knowing what to tell and the girls not allowing me to tell my own scary stories I ended up telling the group about my history of creatively asking my dates to high school dances, which the 3 European girls seemed to enjoy as they didn’t have dances or traditions like that growing up.

For more pictures from Lapland check out this link to my Facebook album:
Jesse's Lapland Facebook Album

Tuesday
So as I said I slept upon arriving back to Uppsala before catching my class at 1 PM. Still tired from the trip I decided to skip my nation Snerikes’ club night and relax.

Wednesday
Had seminar for Climate Change Leadership, which was very good with lots of discussion. I really like the wide variety of subjects we cover and the diverse backgrounds in the class; with 40 students in the class we represent 20 countries. At night I had one of my better lectures thus far for Sustainable Design as the lecturer spoke about the idea of cradle to cradle, which is to try to create a no waste society that has cyclical use of materials instead of linear use and then disposal of resources. I stayed up late that night and listened to the Buffs come back and beat Iowa State in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.

Thursday
The weather has been very nice since we have returned from Lapland and I am getting ready for spring! It has been several degrees above freezing everyday and the snow levels are noticeably decreasing each day. Along with this though comes very sloppy and at night icy conditions from the melted snow. Finally did some much need laundry and grocery shopping and went to Stockholms nation for their club night.

Friday
Took it easy all day and started some reading for a paper due the following Tuesday. I found out that the Buffs had beat K-State for the 3rd time this season in the Big 12 tournament and had advanced to the semi-finals. I stayed up late again to listen to the Buffs, but they couldn’t get pass Kansas, but still everyone, including the national media was projecting the Buffs had done enough to get into the NCAA tourney for the first time in years!

Saturday
Later Nick and I headed to downtown Uppsala to get a delicious and huge gyro. Nick also ended up buying some new soccer cleats and I found some nice casual shoes for the amazing bargain price of 99 krona (15 dollars) the first real deal I feel I have found in Sweden. Nick and I heard that Norrlands nation was having a special after Gasque party and would be staying open until 4 AM! This in unheard of in Sweden as the nations close at 1 AM except for special occasions where they may stay open until 2 AM. We went to the after party around 11:00 and it didn’t really get going until 1 AM. There was a metal cover band and later 2 other dance floors, one playing mostly American hip-hop for a little taste of home. It was a good night, but overall I think I’ve come to like the 1 or 2 AM closing time, because it allows me to get enough sleep to still be a productive person (if I choose to be) the next day.

Norrlands Nation

Sunday
After the late night I slept well past noon to recover. After preparing and eating a frozen pizza I felt rather sick (didn’t feel very good the previous time I ate one of these pizzas either and Nick also said the same thing, so I’ve decided to not buy that frozen pizza anymore). I really had to buckle down on the reading for my 4-5 page paper for Climate Change Leadership despite my short and uncomfortable sickness. At night I watched the NCAA selection and was appalled that the Buffs were not included in the field as was everyone in Colorado and media around the country. UAB, Clemson, USC, and VCU did not have a better resume than the Buffs! We beat 5-seed K-State 3 times, 4-seed Texas, and 11-seed Missouri. The selection committee makes no sense in their decisions. Hopefully the Buffs can redeem themselves a bit as a 1 seed in the NIT.
Buffs denied NCAA tournament spot

Monday
Had class for Climate Change Leadership and Actors and Strategies for Change. In ASC two young documentary filmmakers spoke to our class about their film Blybarnen or in English Toxic Playground. The rest of the class had seen the documentary the Monday before while I was on a train returning to Uppsala. The film exposes the effects some toxic waste has had on a town in Chile and how that toxic waste was shipped there by a Swedish minerals company in the 80s and then never processed by the Chilean company that received the waste. I watched the documentary following the lecture and highly recommend it to everyone. It is in Swedish and Spanish, but has available English subtitles.
Toxic Playground Official Site
After class I had finished my paper that was due the next day and then killed time until 3 AM when I had an interview with my friends in GlobeMed back home in Boulder. I was interviewing to have a leadership position with the organization next year. It was good talking to the group as I hadn’t heard from most of them this semester, but it was also a little bizarre because they could see and hear me through gmail video chat, but I could only hear them because Taylor’s computer doesn’t have a camera on it.

Tuesday
Had CCL where we had a video conference/presentation with Mike Hulme, a British sociologist who wrote one of the books we have in our course literature Why We Disagree About Climate Change. Unfortunately technology decided to give out on us half way into the presentation and we didn’t get a chance to ask Professor Hulme any questions. It was another great day out at about 5 degrees C (41 F) and Nick and some other kids had set up a little group to meet and play some football (soccer). I decided to tag along. I hadn’t played soccer for probably 5 years at least and hadn’t done any real physical exercise or running since being in Sweden. That being said I had a great time playing with our group of 10 that showed up despite probably being the worst player on the field. We played for about 2 hours and the sun was mostly down when we were done. I was exhausted and sore afterwards, but plan to keep on playing to get some exercise and have some fun as the weather continues to improve.

Wednesday
Woke up very sore from soccer, but it was very much worth it and good for me. Had seminar for CCL discussing our recently finished papers. Tonight we are looking at going to Stockholms or Varmlands to watch a Champions League match. Nick and I also are looking at booking our next adventure, possibly to the Mediterranean coast of Croatia, or maybe Dublin, Ireland!

New update coming in a week or so!

The past week - Pre-Lapland

I’m posting 3 posts at once so be sure to check out the previous two lower on the page or by clicking on the Blog Archive a little down on the right side. Especially be sure to check out the International Gasque entry! Alright and now to get caught up to the present before I head North above the Arctic Circle this weekend!

Saturday
Took it easy after the marathon that was the international gasque. Stayed in and even listened to the Colorado Buffaloes upset the Texas Longhorns at home! Go Buffs! I’m sure everyone in Boulder had a good Saturday night!

Sunday
Went grocery shopping and found a park nearby Rackarberget that will be amazing in the spring without all of the snow. It is also a good shortcut to get the ICA for our grocery shopping. It is slowly starting to warm up and the forecasts now are calling for above zero weather!

Monday
Had two rather uneventful classes and not much else. Realized it was the last day of February and I had yet to get an invoice to pay my rent so I emailed the landlord and got the invoice digitally. Hopefully I won’t be charged a fee for being a day late paying rent as it seems to be their fault I didn’t receive my bill in time. The Swedes seem rather relaxed about this.

Tuesday
Went to another rather boring lecture and then paid rent at Forex with Nick. Made burritos for dinner, which was a nice change from the regular fare I’ve been having and it was fun to just cook. I found this cool app on Facebook that shows where all of your friends on Facebook either live currently or are from depending on what is listed on their Facebook. Mine is fairly international and wouldn't have been nearly as cool to look at only a couple months ago!

My connections from my home base of Uppsala

Wednesday
Seminar for Climate Change Leadership was pretty enjoyable despite being almost 3 hours long. I like the sense of community we have the class between all the students as well as with the course coordinators who are graduate students. Most of the class went to a pub night at Kalmar Nation and had a drink and some food. Kalmar is the more alternative nation and they have a good selection of vegetarian food on their pub menu. Since I have been a far cry from the vegetarian I was just a couple months ago I decided to try their veggie burger. It was very good, but very different as the patty was made up different veggies fried in a curry like sauce topped with all of the usual burger toppings.

Thursday
Slept in and then went out and enjoyed the balmy weather by Uppsala standards, 4 degrees C! (39 F) Walked around downtown with Nick and ran into Caitlin first and then Pen and Tina at Max Burger. The sidewalks and roads were getting very slushy and there was even some non-icy parts now as well as plenty of puddles from poor drainage. Now I am finally finishing updating the blog that I have neglected for 2 weeks. Our friend Leander is having a little birthday party tonight that I am planning on attending and we’ll see where we go from there.

Tomorrow night Nick, Laurie, Anneloes, Franzi, and I leave for Kiruna in Lapland! It is in the very far north of Sweden above the Arctic Circle about 700 miles from Uppsala. We will be on a 15 hour train ride in a sleeper cabin to Kiruna where we will spend 3 days and 2 nights. We are planning on dog sledding, snowmobiling to the famous ice hotel, hopefully seeing the Northern Lights, and using the sauna at our hostel. It should be really fun! I’ll update again shortly after we return next Tuesday!

Hej då
Jesse

International Gasque!

Friday – International Students Gasque!


Took it easy during the day before getting freshened up and ready for the International Students Gasque that night. A gasque is a Swedish student tradition of a formal dinner party followed by an after party with dancing. I donned my suit for the formal evening and the ladies were in cocktail dresses. A ticket was required for the dinner, but it covered several drinks (that I’ll get into later), a 3-course meal, and entrance to the afterparty. Upon arriving to V-Dala nation around 5:30 PM we checked our coats and headed to the bar for an included glass of champagne. We mingled for about an hour talking and taking pictures of everyone very nicely dressed up.

Group going to Lapland and Caitlin

Lukas, Nick, and Me looking fly

Around 6:30 all 400 guests were ushered upstairs to a large room where about 12 tables were set up in front of a stage. Everyone had assigned seating and you stood at your seat until everyone was in the room and ready to sit down. The seating arrangement alternated boy-girl for the most part (some sections were only ladies as they out numbered us gentleman). The lady to the right of the man was their “date” or the one you were to give the most attention although conversation at the table was much more widespread than this. My table had a great group of people that really made the whole 4 hour dinner experience very enjoyable. The set up of the dinner was very formal with a plate, a salad plate, a salad fork and knife, a dining fork and knife, a desert spoon, a coffee cup and coaster, a small desert drink glass, a wine glass, a beer glass, and a water glass. I was surrounded by people from many places including: Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Singapore, and Austria. Everyone had an appetizer of salad with reindeer meat and parmesan cheese and waiters came out to poor everyone a shot of schnapps. The gasque had a toastmaster who led the dinner and all of the entertainment. He was a very funny Swede named Oscar and he led the whole gasque in the singing of many Swedish songs that we struggled to sing while reading from little pamphlets provided to us at the table. After every song we sang everyone did a very formal toast/cheers to those around them. For me and all the men we first cheers our “date” to our right by holding up the schnapps making eye contact with the date and saying “Skol!” and then did the same to the lady on our left and then to the lady across from us. After this you took a sip of the schnapps (not the entire shot! The schnapps were to last for about 4 songs), after the sip you did all of the cheers in reverse order, middle, left, right and then set your class down. We eventually did this cheer formality decently well, but often it wasn’t very smooth!

My date Sandra

Salad with Reindeer

The appetizer was very good and I enjoyed reindeer for my first time. Between the salad and main course there was entertainment provided by men’s choir from one of the nations. They sang several Swedish songs before ending with a rendition of about 6 different Backstreet Boys songs, which got everyone really excited and into the performance.

Choir

The waiters returned and poured wine before providing the main course of moose steak with a side of artichoke puree with a juniper berry sauce and snow peas. The moose steak was a little gamey and chewy for my liking, but the rest of the dinner was amazing. More songs and toasting occurred and everyone enjoyed their dinner while a string group came out and performed.

By the time dessert came around everyone had had their shot of schnapps, a beer, and two glasses of wine so needless to say the conversation and laughter were flowing. A desert beverage of Swedish punch or Bailey’s was provided and I opted for the Bailey’s. Then desert was presented, it was a delicious concoction somewhere in between cheesecake and pudding topped with raspberry and chocolate. The final performance was done by a drumline of sorts and this really got the crowd roaring with people clapping, banging on the table, and standing up on their chairs dancing and clapping to the beats. The toastmaster concluded the dinner around 10:30 and everyone returned downstairs while they cleared upstairs for the afterparty. More people came for the afterparty, which started with a cover band from Varmlands nation and was followed by a typical Swedish DJ playing the usual favorites found at the nations’ clubs.  There was also a room for karaoke. It was a really fun afterparty and good end to a very fun evening.

Our awesome table

Post Trip - Pre Gasque

It’s been far too long since I have updated the blog so I’ll do my best to recap the last 2 weeks!


Saturday - February 19th
It was absolutely frigid today so I stayed inside and relaxed. At night Nick and I braved the -20 C (-5 F) cold to walk the mile or so to Flogsta to go to Giulia’s corridor to have a pizza night. We have decided that our group of friends who come from many different countries should all have a dinner themed for their country. Later in the spring Nick and I are going to host a good ol’ American BBQ. We are also going to have a Dutch food night, a German food night, and maybe more depending on who is interested. Giulia (from Italy) with the help of some of the others baked us several delicious Italian style pizzas as well as amazing tiramisu for dessert. Upon arriving back to Rackarberget we found the corridor below us was having a party (which was the first time we had heard any partying going on in our stairwell). The party lasted until about 3 AM, but I didn’t join, I know it lasted that long because the music was clearly audible until then even in our corridor.

Sunday
Nothing much happened and the cold streak was still going strong so I stayed in the corridor and did some homework before the coming school week.

Monday
Had class and heard from an interesting speaker, Örjan Bartholdson, that used to head SwedWatch, which is a organization that oversees Swedish companies’ activities abroad to make sure they are living up to ethical and environmental standards. Also heard from Cristian Alarcon, who is originally from Chile about the relation of forestry and climate change.

Tuesday
Andreas Malm spoke to our class about the pros and cons of globalization and how it is so heavily dependent on fossil fuels. It was a very captivating presentation and he even tied in the cycle of revolution that is occurring in the Middle East in places like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and more and how rising fuel prices causes rising food prices, which causes political instability. At night several of us went out for the Snerikes Pub Crawl. We were divided into groups of 15 or so and got to meet international students as well as Swedes that are also part of Snerikes. We went to 7 different nation’s pubs (didn’t drink at all of them though) before heading back to Snerikes for our club night. We got to skip the line as we had stamps from being part of the Pub Crawl, and this was fortunate, because it was still very cold out.

Wednesday
Had seminar/recitation for Climate Change Leadership. We were asked a lot of opinion questions and then were to stand in a line based on whether we strongly agreed, agreed, were neutral, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with the statement. It was interesting to see such a variety of opinions from our very diverse class. At night I had to catch the bus to SLU to go to a workshop for Sustainable Design. SD has been a rather disappointing and unguided class thus far and we really haven’t had to do any work for it. In the workshop we split up into groups based on having similar ideas for a project. My group is going to work on designing a small sustainable urban community. After the workshop I joined Nick, Julian, Franzi, and Anneloes at Stockholms nation to watch a Champions League match between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. Stockholms has great couches and tables set up facing a large projector screen so it was a great venue to see the game. The match was very exciting and Bayern Munich scored in the 89th minute to win the match much to the delight of the German’s Julian and Franzi.

Thursday
Did some grocery shopping during the day and then went to Stockholms Nation early to avoid the line for their club and paying an entrance fee.  Nick, Laurie, Anneloes and I had a light dinner at the nation and waited around in their lounge area for the club to start. The club was fun as always.