Holiday Season

The snow keeps falling, the weather keeps getting colder (last night it was -10 Celsius)....but despite this I am still really enjoying the Swedish winter. There is a Christmas market going on now that is literally a 3 minute walk away, so today I went around explored and took some pictures. It was pretty cool seeing how the Swedes celebrate the Christmas holiday, with a lot of food, candy, sweets, singing, etc. There was a stage set up that had people caroling and also some teenage girls that put on a "dance performance." I sampled this drink called Glögg, which is a Swedish drink that only comes out around christmas time - http://www.saunalahti.fi/~marian1/gourmet/xmas11.htm. The fire department was there, and did a rescue simulation. I am like a half kilometer away, and I hear this "YYYAAAAAA" then a loud SPLASH. I feel bad for that volunteer who had to jump in the lake to be "rescued", because unless you paid me at least 500,000 SEK, I am not jumping in that ice bucket.

Tyler's friend Matt is visiting from Canada, and he's a pretty cool guy. Likes to drink as much as Tyler, and today they are drinking for a straight 24 hours. I am not participating in this because I have to study for my Swedish exam this friday. If I don't pass this class, I will not meet the requirements for my International Engineering minor. Pressure's on!

I bought my ticket to the Goodbye Dinner for this Wednesday, and I am predicting it to be a sad night. This will be the official goodbye, because some students will leave to go back home right after finals. Also I've noticed that where exchange students live has a big affect on their experience in Sweden. Cliques have formed, and people even have names for their accommodation. For example, Vilhelmsro calls themselves "VCrew," and one guy even got a tattoo of their "logo." The people in Furan used the Superman logo and put an F instead of an S. Observing this, we in delta had to come up with a cool name too and came up with "Delta Force." If you check out my Tallinn pics you will see that we put our logo on the back of our white t-shirts. People living in Bäckadal think they are the funnest group. They are fun and awesome people, but not very diverse (mostly French).

For me, living in Delta has been the best experience for me. We are not just really close friends, but more like a family....even fight like one (Friday night there was a big argument about Josete being too loud, was intense at the time but the next day we all made up). Whenver I am at the University or at a night club, I talk to everyone, but when I come home, its nice to have their company. Okay, that is my Delta speech, hope you liked it. :)

Finally, check out the picture of the university on this blog page. Together the Engineering School and JIBS (Jonkoping International Business School) are shaped like a key...symbolizing that the university is the "key to the city."

A Swedish Thanksgiving

Spending time with my "overseas" family was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving, even though I miss family/friends/old traditions back home. But hey, I'm in Sweden, so I had to do something different. There was about 13 of us, and we all made something different, something that represented our culture, and combined them for one awesome dinner. Shots of Jager from Boris, the German, started it off.....then we had my green bean casserole (turned out excellent!), Chili from Tyler and his friend, Salad, sausage and a typical cake from Slovenia, Quiche from the Dutch girls, Ratatouille and some wine from the French, Goulash soup from the Hungarian, and finally Tiramisu from the Italians...Translated, tiramisu literally means "pull me up"....which I heard the story at least 3 times while eating. Overall it was a great meal, but would have been better if we had more room to maneuver. 13 people jammed in a tight corridor was tough.

If you are wondering why the facebook event for this was called "First Annual Marc Sucks Feast in Sweden," you can blame Tyler, the Canadian roommate, lol. He didn't want to call it Thanksgiving because in Canada, its in October. So after I made him an administrator for the event to invite more people, and he hijacked it.....removing me as an admin., changing the picture and posting "I've got the Power" on my wall. We had a good laugh.

Australian culture day was on Wednesday, and was fun hanging out in the Student Haus. After trying some Australian snacks, we went outside in the snow and kicked the football around (Australian football, that is). One of the Sarah's from Australia that I talked to said that this was an accurate representation of Australian people....if thats the case, then I would like to visit Aussies in their home territory one day.

what a week

Here was my past week in Sweden:

During the week, Tallinn Cruise: We took a bus ride to Stockholm, and then left for an overnight trip to Estonia. The first night there was a dinner buffet with unlimited food and alcohol for two hours: lets just say that Jonkoping was the loudest school there. Party at night (was okay), then we arrived in Tallinn, Estonia at 10AM. At 12:15 I proceeded to wake everyone up, which was dificult, lol for obvious reasons. Our first impression of the city was that it was dirty, depressing, and just overall not very cool. This was just by the boat docks, because once we arrived at the

This past weekend: Friday night just stayed in and watched a movie ;) and last night we did our normal trip to Huset after a birthday party on the 5th floor. Was a fun weekend, but during the week was better.

-The weather is getting colder (obviously) and has been snowing more often. Also, the main street is lined with lights overhead, which makes it look awesome at night. Unfortunately night begins at 4pm.

-Initiation is going on back home for Beta Theta Pi. I can't wait to meet the new brothers of my chapter. Which is actually coming up too soon. Just about a month away until this whole process is over!! :( I cannot say goodbye to this just yet, and will probably shed a few tears when the time comes.

Things I'm looking forward to:

-Thanksgiving is this thursday. Need to represent the USA on this one.
-James Jarman and Victor visiting me in December
-Taking 3 finals....just kidding! not looking forward to this one.

-Kiruna trip. There's 9 of us going, and after calling a few audibles, we finally have the plans set. We are flying there on saturday (no 24 hour train ride), taking a doglsed tour in the evening to see the Northern Lights. Sunday we are taking a 6 hour snowmobile tour to the ICE Hotel (which we will see under construction), and monday we are getting a tour of the iron mine, which is the largest underground mine in the world. I'm really excited for this, but need to do school work in the mean time. Hej då!

22nd birthday

hej, thank you all for the birthday wishes. It was cool having friends from different countries write "happy birthday" in a bunch of different languages on my wall. Also, I miss back home, and even though its been the best time of my life over here...I know I have to get back to "reality" sometime, lol. My birthday night was fun, supposedly everyone counted down to midnight and yelled HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and I hugged everyone. Sunday, about 12 of us went to a pizza place for a bday dinner, and I ordered the Kabob Pizza (looked bad, but tasted phennomenal). No cake, but it doesn't matter to me because whats important is the company.

Today was pretty busy. We spray painted white t-shirts for the Tallinn cruise, which is tomorrow!! We had stencils that said random things like "Team JKPG" and "I'd hit that" and we made our shirts unique. Should be fun, and we leave tomorrow!!

Also, today I had the opportunity to help a researcher in one of the materials and casting labs at the university. I helped in an experiemnt that basically heated a magnesium and aluminum mixture, cooled it down a little and poured out the "sloshy" mixture. Boring? a little bit. Was cool when some of the 600 degree celsius material missed the container and almost caught the floor on fire. Other than that, its just something to put on my resume. :)

I failed my Swedish Exam!!! I feel dumb, and now have to re-take it on December 3rd, right before the Kiruna trip. No pressure, though, because if I fail it again I don't get my minor in International Engineering.

Finally, I forgot this story: About a week ago, I got a haircut from a swedish guy who spoke literally no English. The only word he knew was "shorter?" After his boss translated my request, I sat there extremely nervous and watched closely the entire time. Turned out great though.

brief update

so theres about 5 weeks left in this whole exchange experience, and it keeps getting more fun every day. Our floor has been full of visitors (friends, girl's boyfriends, etc.) and mostly they're Italians. Akademien was fun wednesdy night, my birthday is this weekend, we have planned our trip to Kiruna, Tallinn cruise is next tuesday, my 2 classses are actually pretty cool with great professors, talking to girls is going well. And yea, that's pretty much it for now. Have to go back to work, and then we are going to a chocolate factory this afternoon. Yea, a chocolate factory, lol. When we walked home from the free nature hike, we saw a sign that said "chocolate factor tours" so we're going back there today and checking it out. I'm keeping my expectations low for this one. lol Ready for a great weekend!

International Day

Yesterday was International Day at each one of the individual schools, which is basically a huge event where students represent their country. This was done mainly by food from their country, but it was also a means for students intersted in studying there to talk to someone from that country. I should not have eaten anything this day before I got there, because food was everywhere! My favorite was Switzerland, where they had cheese fondue on bread, and it was spectacular.

We represented the USA and UCF by cooking Mac'n'Cheese, playing Beer Pong, and having a powerpoint on my laptop. We couldn't have alcohol, so we used Coca-Cola instead (still American! lol). We had limited space, so we had everyone take 2 steps back and take a shot, and if they made it, then they "won" coke. One guy (from Germany), made a shot from accross the room, which was impressive. Coke Pong was perfect because it was a good way to pass the 3 hours that we were supposed to stand there, and a fun way to interact with everyone....and not be like "hi, where are you from? what have you heard about America?"

Now I'm really busy with school, and need to focus on that.....until the weekend. Also plan the Kiruna Trip.

Kopenhavn

(EDITED)

Copenhagen was a lot of fun, and a GREAT way to spend Halloween. Highlights of the trip include walking around downtown Copenhagen with Viking hats, me getting lost in a staircase, not being able to find Tyler on Sunday, and ending up in a different town Monday morning with Josette. Ask me to tell the story of me getting lost in the staircase, its better if I tell it in person, lol.

I'll always remember this trip for the rest of my life....check out my facebook pictures :)