Well, it’s Thursday and I’ve missed two days of school due to a cold. (bleh!)
Today would make three, but it’s a day off for all students.
I’m totally bummed too because yesterday we had dance class, and I completely missed out.
Well, you win some you lose some.

In any case, on with the blog! *hoo-rah!
So, it’s nearing week five and I’m starting to adjust to the amount of time I’ve been here.
Initially I felt like I had been here a long time, but that the time had passed quickly, which is quite an odd sensation if I might say so myself.
But now it’s starting to feel like I’ve been here the amount of time that I have.

Of course, it helps that I’ve been accepted into this family 100%.
I really could not have asked for more.

School included, is going quite well, I’m really enjoying the company of friends.
Not to mention, I discovered that a girl in my dance class grew up just a few miles from me.
She lived in Victoria, British Columbia while I was growing up in Friday Harbor, Washington for seven years!

You can see by the map below that she was only a ferry ride away.
View Larger Map

It’s a small world.

On another note, as I mentioned in my previous post, I bought a pair of rollerblades.
Well, I’m COMPLETELY and helplessly addicted to rollerblading now.
I’m surprised at how fast I picked it up too.

It kills me that I wasn’t able to go yesterday because I was sick.
I’m feeling significantly better today, so hopefully I can go rollerblading later.
That would be fantastic!
If not, I’ve still got tomorrow and the weekend, but I REALLLLLYY want to go NOW.

But luckily I’ve got a few things to occupy my time.
We’re reading “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway in class.
Luckily there’s an English version available, so I’m reading that one.

It reminds me why I don’t spend much time reading books.

By no means am I devaluing reading, it’s a great form of potential education.
But books don’t work for me.
I read short stories, articles, newspapers, basically everything but books.
Keeping my focus on one subject for that long is difficult especially when I’m stationary.

I need to move.
I suppose I could try reading while rollerblading…

No.

Scratch that.

Terrible idea.

Ooh, audio nooks and yoga, hmmm.
That just might work.

Okay, back to Sweden.
The biggest difference between Sweden and the USA is the number of people.
Sweden as a country has about as many people as the state of Georgia at a size similar to that of California.
The population density is sparse, relatively speaking.
You can find hustling and bustling cities, but much of Sweden is open and spread out, not to mention flat.

The biggest cultural difference is a big one, albeit not being particularly evident.
The whole culture of Sweden is based on a principle found through out many of the Nordic countries.
It’s commonly reffered to as the Jante Law
Taken from Wikipedia, the Jante law is:

1. Don’t think you are anything. (Du skal ikke tro du er noget.)
2. Don’t think you are as good as us. (Du skal ikke tro du er lige så meget som os.)
3. Don’t think you are smarter than us. (Du skal ikke tro du er klogere end os.)
4. Don’t fancy yourself better than us. (Du skal ikke bilde dig ind du er bedre end os.)
5. Don’t think you know more than us. (Du skal ikke tro du ved mere end os.)
6. Don’t think you are greater than us. (Du skal ikke tro du er mere end os.)
7. Don’t think you can do better than us. (Du skal ikke tro du dur til noget.)
8. Don’t laugh at us. (Du skal ikke le ad os.)
9. Don’t think that anyone cares about you. (Du skal ikke tro nogen bryder sig om dig.)
10. Don’t think you can teach us anything. (Du skal ikke tro, at du kan lære os noget.)

While the law is not legally enforced, it is very much a part of the culture.
You’ll find it just walking the streets of Sweden.
Where it might be common place in America to say hi to the person sitting next to you or smile at a passing stranger who might be walking their dog, here in Sweden, that is not the case at all.
In fact you can almost guarantee that you won’t even be acknowledged, let alone have the favor returned.
And while this might sound cold and impersonal, it’s very easy to get used to, and frankly, kind of nice.
People are able to be themselves with little to no judgement from those around them.
People find their group of friends and everyone’s happy and society is stable.
It require that you be self sufficient and not rely on other to help you out.
Of course this isn’t to say no one will help you, but it is not at all a common thing here.

Though, I still smile and wave at strangers just to see how they react.

Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll update you all soon.

P.S. Forgive the lack of photos in this post, I’ve been at home most of this week so I didn’t get many pictures.
But, as a change of pace, here’s a short video of what I did with my day.

Friday, September 19, 2008 - Vecka fem - VARNING! Big Post!

Well, it’s week five here and things just keep moving, as they tend to do.
I’ve been here and there and done all sorts of fun stuff.
Nothing in particular, but it’s been a great week.

So, last Friday I went rollerblading 15km or so to a friend’s house with Tobi, who went on his bike.
The roads were lovely, flat and Rollerblade friendly.
We stayed there for a few hours, played Guitar Hero and coins (some might know this as the metal version of bloody knuckles) then we rode back at 02:00.
Oh boy, did I sleep well.

I spent most of the weekend relaxing and learning a little Swedish.

Sunday I went out for a little photography session as I hadn’t been taking many photos and it was starting to bum me out.

click for bigger pictures

I didn’t shoot much, but it helped inspire me to take more photos.

Monday I decided to Rollerblade to school.
That meant rollerblading to the train, on the train, at the train station in Lund, through the streets to school and back.
Nothing could go wrong, right?
Well it was all pretty good, even on the stairs at the station I was in control and totally mobile.
Then came the streets of Lund, if you don’t remember from a previous post, these are the streets.

NOT Rollerblade friendly, at all.

So that was the first and last time I did that.

Tusday we worked on our monologues.
Mind you, all are in Swedish, including mine.
So I’ve got a bit of work ahead of myself.

Of course the characters in our monologues need costumes.

me in chicken costume

Sigrid in a wig

Maya, looking ghetto

Mischa as an old woman

Come on, you gotta have fun sometime, right?

Not much can be said aside from that it absolutely wonderful.
It’s nearly impossible to describe.
But here are some shots.

Thursday, as I walked home from school there was the most beautiful reflection of the clouds in the water of the river that I cross everyday.
This one deserves to be seen bigger.

Click image for the large version.

Ugh… Everything that follows this point I’ve rewritten because my browser crashed (bleh)

Now for the main (and my favorite) part of this blog, FOOD! (eller ‘mat’ på Svenska)

Well to start, I should mention, across the board, Swedish food is far less harmful, if not far healthier for the human body than most of the food found in the US.
Their diet consists of wholegrain breads (fullkorn brödar), plenty of vegetables, a healthy portion of meat and dairy and very little sugar.
While sugar (socker) and candy (godis) are readily available wherever one might find food, it is purchased moderately and in small portions.

The standard Swedish breakfast consists of bread, usually topped with a buttery spread for moisture, on top of which a variety of items are placed, in moderation of course.
The toppings range from meats (köttar) and cheeses (ostar), to vegetables such as tomatoes (tomatar) and cucumbers (gurkar), and in some occasions, jams (syltar) or even Nutella.

Every morning tends to be a bit different in terms of what topppings are chosen.
For example, thursday morning I had a wholesome and hefty breakfast consisting of many toppings (I’m a growing boy from America, I eat alot).

In this case, it was wholegrain bread,

Topped with Lätta, a popular margarine found in many Swedish homes,

On top of which I placed cheese and then a delicious cream chesse spread that is saturated with shredded shrimp,

And to finish it off, meat, tomatoes and cucumbers.
Thus creating the food masterpiece that was my breakfast.

The sad part is, I really do make them like this.
I didn’t spend any extra time making it look pretty.
I think I need more hobbies to go with the hundreds I already have.

So, to recap, my breakfast (frukost) consisted of the following, from platform to toppings,

Bröd (bread)
Lätta (a brand of margarine)
Ost (cheese)
Räkor (a brand of cream cheese with shrimp)
Gris Kött (ham)
Gurka (cucumber)
Tomat (tomatoes)

And a sideview for good measure.

This of course is just breakfast.
Lunch (lunch) was just four hours away.

Luckily this week as school was vegetarian week.
I’m not a vegetarian, persay, but I much prefer vegetarian food over non-vegetarian food.

Thursday’s lunch as Spyken.

As you can tell from the image, I have much more food on my tray than the tray in front of me, mind you the tray in front of me had less food than everyone else’s, so not a good comparison.
Nonetheless, it does go to show the difference in eating habits.

As you can see, food is very hearty and much healthier.
Not to mention, so delicious.

I have yet to try caviar from a tube though.
Dinner, at my home, for the most part, is very much like the lunch you see here, but with more meat.
During the week, we eat reheated leftovers from the weekend, because Maria and Johan are quite busy during the week.

Come weekend time though, Saturday and Sunday night (Lördag och Söndag natt) and sometimes Friday night we have home cooked meals.
Tonight, busy bees be the parents, so we had leftovers.
But they were just as delicious as when they were first cooked.

Of course some of you might be asking , “But Casey, what about dessert?”
Well, like I said, not much sugar is consumed by the average person, so desert isn’t really a regular thing around here.
Maybe on celebrations or family get together, but definitely nowhere near as often as it is in the US.

In fact, I know know I’m going off on a tangent and call me on this if you would like, but I would venture to say having desert after dinner is a bad idea anyway because it enforces the idea that eating for the sake of eating is good.
It’s as if the entire meal was a build up to desert.
Not only making it seem like you’re being rewarded for eating, but giving the idea that it is necessary to do so in order to receive dessert.
Thus giving some people the idea that they have to eat the food just to get the delicious sugar that they want.
Making the meal seem much less important for sustenance sake and merely an obstacle put in place to be worked over so you may rejoice in the glory that is sugar.

I would also like to point out that it has been quite hard (personally) to overcome my sugar addiction.
I’m still working through it.
I don’t know how I’ll be in 35 weeks when my life moves back to the US, (after of course, some traveling).

Seeing as almost no food here has sugar in it, my body seems to crave it much more.
I have a small stash of emergency chocolate by my bed, just in case I have a break down.

In any case, I’m quite happy with what I have, an I hope this is helpful insight to those that wish to do this in the coming years.

Peace be with you and may your lives be filled with wonder, excitement and joy.
Much love to my family, friends and readers,

Hej då för nu!

Saturday, September 27, 2008 - The gods are happy!

Wow, it has been a fantastic, albeit strange week.

To start, last Saturday started out with a whole family get together full of laughter and card games, as usual.

Along with which, came animal ears. Pictures included.

Here I get to introduce you to my oldest brother Joachim as I finally got a picture of him.

As well, I have a photo of Enkvest, a close friend of Joachim’s and basically another son to Maria and Johan.

To me he also feels like a big brother.
he’s taken me under his wing, as has Joachim and they’ve been nothing but respectful and helpful in my growth as a person.

Following That event was a wonderful night’s worth of sleep.
Of course Sunday was just a regular day of resting and cleaning up.
Now, I tend to get down on myself when I don’t get out and about, and since I usually stay home on weekends, they tend to be less enjoyable than the week, though many exceptions exist.

But not in this case.

Sunday I found myself frustrated at my lack of growth in Swedish, wishing I had a friend who I could talk to and wondering if this place was really for me.

Of course, the day, or really night I should say, was made when my sister invited me to go rollerblading with her and visit their horse, Happy.
I had a wonderful time just rollerblading in the dark on the smooth road, watching the occasional car go by.
At this point, it was also good for my self esteem to see how I had improved in my rollerblading skills since only three weeks ago when I had started.
Plus it was good exercise, which is always the greatest (and safest) high.

So I returned home happy and slept well.
Of course I woke up Monday a bit early and thus tired, which was only the start to a very bad day.
Throughout the course of Monday I was quite manic depressive, at least when compared to my regular chipper mood.
I was very down and frustrated with everything I did and everything I am.
I’ll save the boring and depressing details, but it wasn’t fun.
Of course this mood was only made worse by the crappy overcast weather and light sprinkle.
Returning home I was so exhausted I considered sleeping right where I had stepped in the door.
Of course, I was reminded that I had money to send for a trip to Göteborg in October.
Well, I had no idea where to do these things, so I asked for help from Tobbe and we headed North, to Lanskrona, on a bus.

We went to the office to send the money.
750 :- (kronor) was the money I had to send.
After the information was entered, the final cost (with tax and surcharges) was given, 799 :-
Okay, cool. So I started counting out my money.
… 793, 794, 795, 796.
Okay, 3 :- short, which mind you, is about 50 cents US, “hey Tobbe, can I borrow 3 Kronor?”
“Dude, I don’t have any money.”

So, I was asked by the teller if I could go make a withdrawal.
Unfortunately I had withdrawn all of my money to make this transaction, so that wasn’t possible.

Of course, where I come from (a small town), the teller would have gladly paid the money out of their own pocket, of course this place is bigger, with more people, meaning less leeway.
So she unentered all the data she just put in the computer and opens the register, and counts back out the money I gave to her.
That was a painful moment.

So Tobbe and I left the office, frustrated and defeated and decided to return to Häljarp to get the money we needed and return North.
So we did, and returned to find the office closed.
Well, there went all that effort.

Not much happened after that since we were tired and the weather was crappy.
Tuesday wasn’t very eventful aside from school ending later which prevented me from being able to mail the money, now that I had the extra 3 :-.

Wednesday was the day everything turned around.
In fact, it was one of the best days this week, if not since I got here.
To start, my school day began with dance, which always puts me in a good mood.
I breezed right through the day, happy and chipper as I really became aware of how many people truly care about me.
And how important my friends are to me.
Of course I got home ready to go to Landskrona to find that Tobbe was beat from working out for over two hours at school from a professional trainer.
It was painful to seem him just try to pour a glass of milk with out collapsing.
Though, it was kind of funny and he was in good spirits anyway.

So I finally decided to go myself which was a little daunting at first because the teller at the desk doesn’t speak much English and if there was a problem, communicating might be an issue.
But I overcame that initial worry and moved forward.
With my music player as my soundtrack, I arrived in Landskrona with no conscious idea of how to get where I needed to go.
So I started walking.
Places seemed familiar-ish but roads were closed off that weren’t when we went Monday, so there was going to be a problem.

Onward and upward though.
I kept walking and here and I there I noticed a few things that I vaguely remembered.
Of course I decided not to think about it too much and just follow my instincts because they were giving me strong signals, despite me not being able to recall how we originally got there.
Sure enough, after ten minutes of walking I was there.

YAY for intuition and visual memory!

I went in, got out the slip with the info, handed her the money and got a reciept.
Problem solved, money sent.
WOOHOO!

Then I went to go mail some postcards I had written a few days earlier.
I went into the post office, luckily the woman behind the counter spoke English.
I paid for postage and she helped me put the stamps on and fix the cards, as I had placed the addresses in the wrong place.
She was so helpful and very sweet.
I also purchased extra stamps for future postcards just so I could save time.

After having completed those task I was happy as could be.
The sun was shining, the sky was clear, and I was listening to lovely music.

Traveling home was lovely too.
The walking, the bus ride, the train, everything.
In fact, when the PA came on in the train to inform us that we were arriving at Häljarp, I giggled with glee and almost threw my hands up in joy.
Hearing that name again reminded me this was my home and I felt it.

Upon arriving home, I found a package for me from my parents.
Of course I knew it was coming but didn’t expect it for a few more days.
I touched the box knowing my parents had touched it with their own hands and that this was an import from across the world.
I nearly cried with joy.

Of the selection of items sent, where these beads that my mother found and said reminded her of me.
She also wrote, as you can see in the pictures, that they looked like happy beads.

This was a great header into Thursday of course.
A regular day, like any other, school ended with dance, always a favorite.
Afterwards, Laura (the friend from Vancouver Island) and I walked around Lund for a while and had an afternoon meal at Graffiti Cafe.

Afterwards she took the train to Malmö and I took the train to Häljarp.
Once I arrived home, I realized there were monologues being done by part of my theatre class that night and that I should go and support them.
But unfortunately, the next available train would have got me there as the monologues were ending.
So I ended up not going.

Friday morning was absolutely beautiful.
Fog had set in and I had woken up early, giving me plenty of time to enjoy the view.
As the soft fog rested on the fields, the dew collected in the intricate spider webs strung between all the plants.
Hundreds upon hundreds, spread throughout this field, illuminated by the diffused sunlight shining through the fog.

Luckily the class was doing the monologues again for a crowd of students and faculty at Spyken.
So I got to see the show in full costume and character.
It was fantastic!
Now I have a month to practice mine, which as I’ve mentioned before is going to be in Swedish.
Seeing them really gave me inspiration.

As a little update, so far I’m still no where near where I’d like to be with Swedish, though I do think my goal is a little excessive.
So far I can understand more than I can speak, but I do know some survival Swedish.
Next I’ll focus my energy on the monologue itself which should help me learn some Swedish.

All of my friends have been very supportive and helpful in the process.
Unfortunately I can only learn so much at one time which is quite frustrating.
I want to learn as much as possible, but this isn’t the matrix and I can’t just download it all to my brain.
But that would be totally sweet if I could.

Anyway, following school I returned home and did the various computer oriented things tha I do and then went to dinner.
Well, I realized that I hadn’t been roller blading since Sunday.
So I decided to go for a little late night stroller-blade.

The feeling was truly ethereal.
I just rolled along the ground effortlessly as if I had been doing it forever.
I zoomed past trees, down roads and around parking lots.
With little thought I scooted along the ground like nothing.
It was absolutely wonderful.
Now I have to learn some cool tricks.
I can’t wait until we start ice skating!

Along with all of the various escapades I’ve had and self realizations that I’ve come to as of late, I’ve found much inspiration in a man who calls himself Halcyon.
He describes himself as a lifestyle artist.

The reason I post this, as I have come to realize alot about where I come from, the people I love, and the way I interact with this world.

As well, I consider myself an artist above all other labels as I have alot of creative energy that I need to expres which I do through photography, writing, dance, theatre an really anything else that inspires me.
This is just one of his many videos of his that I’ve found inspirational and I hope I can pass that on to you, as inspiration is to me, the most important feeling one can have.

Without inspiration I wouldn’t have come here to Sweden, I wouldn’t have had the drive to learn Swedish or much of anything else for that matter.

Inspiration is my driving force, what’s yours?