KIRUNA + End of Semester

Okej, so I'll do a quick blog update because I'm taking a break from studying. I have a Materials and Simulation Final on Sunday. On tuesday, I have a short paper due for Intercultural Communication, as well as a quiz and we also do a 10 minute presentation about our country in front of the entire class. So this is my last blog update until monday. It's also really sad that I have less than 2 weeks remaining here in Sweden. I think it will be just as tough to say goodbye as it was coming here. All good things must come to an end, though.

Last weekend, we took a trip to Kiruna, and it was a blast. Kiruna is the northernmost city in Sweden that is located above the artic circle, with a poplulation of merely 20,000. The city is alive because of the worlds largest iron ore mine located right beneath the city. Actually a cool thing about the mine is that it is actually destroying the city (due to creep/land deformations from the mine), so the city must rebuild away from the mine in the next 5-10 years.

The fun part of the trip:
We did a dogsled tour the first night, and it was a unique experience. We didn't get to actually drive the sleds, but it was still pretty cool to be driven by Huskies. Our sled was kinda heavy, and I could tell our guide was having difficulties driving the sled - as a result we got a little bit off course and ran into a tree! lol. On Sunday, we went on a snowmobile tour to the ICEHOTEL. The ICEHOTEL (http://www.icehotel.com/uk/ICEHOTEL/About-ICEHOTEL/) is purely made from ice and snow, and was under construction when we saw it. Also the snowmobiles had awesome acceleration (topped out at 105 km/hr) and it was a great way to see the untouched beauty of Swedish Lapland. Our accommodation was an 11-person cabin about 5km away from the city at a place called Camp Alta. It was nice to sit around our fire and warm up after being in -20 degree Celsius weather. Finally, we did not get to see the Northern Lights. :( I think it was too early in the season, which is disappointing. I'll add it to my bucket list and do it later in life. To sum it up: awesome trip, kinda expensive, but definetly worth it. :)

*Check back later for pictures from the trip