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!