Seeing old friends

It's been great being able to see old friends while traveling throughout Europe.  Better yet, I've been able to meet a lot of new people.  There seems to be a pocket of ex-Tambo (the boarding school I used to study at) students here in Switzerland.  All except one of the guys (not pictured) that I know in Switzerland were at least once my roommates (in some cases, two or more times as well).  It's been interesting to see how much they have and haven't changed.  Each person still has their certain peculiarities which have been accented due to a new environment.

One thing is for certain: We're all forgetting our Spanish.  It's a good thing that I'm heading down to Argentina for the summer.          

Historical Photo

I feel like I see this photo every time I take a history class that has to do with the United States, immigration, South America, Africa, and England.  It's a good visual description of the horrors that slaves had to endure on their trips over to the western hemisphere.  It wasn't uncommon for slaves to throw themselves over-board at the slightest chance to escape the torturous trip and a life of labour with no chance of becoming free.     

I need to get out of Belgium NOW

I have never struggled with my weight; I've pretty much stayed the same since high school. My eating habits have been quite healthy most of my life due a great selection of fruit and vegetables available in Argentina. Compared to my days in high school, I do a lot less physical exercise though...

I might suffer from a heart attack if I stay any more time in Belgium. People eat so many fries here it isn't even funny (maybe for some people it is). I didn't sleep my first two nights because my body was in shock. You could look at it as a way for me to get ready to visit the States in a few weeks. What will I be eating in Switzerland? Cheese and chocolate? :)

Belgium

Belgium has been a blast (thank you so much Anthony!). I leave for Swizterland on Saturday morning. The first two photos were taken in Brussels and the last two in Bruge ("The Venice of the North").

Estoy en Belgium

I had a safe trip from Denmark to Belgium. For some reason the security guards in Copenhagen didn't really trust me and checked me extremely well. In fact, they emptied my backpack out and ran it through the x-ray machine twice. The security guard who checked me didn't believe that my mp3 player played music and didn't have a hidden blade inside.
Yesterday Anthony and I went to Wavre to visit a youth group which his dad leads with a girl fron the States. The kids were really cool and friendly. I really thought that I would be able to understand quite a bit of French...but the accent totally throws me off. If I read something I can understand 30 - 40% of it, which won't really help me if someone is giving me directions (to the bathroom).

This morning we all headed over to Toni's (Anthony's uncle) house to help move wood into his basement. Everybody will be quite sore tomorrow... After finishing that chore we (Anthony, his friends and I) went to Mons for a beer festival. We just got back from that actually. It was kind of rainy but one of his friends provided some sweatshirts for us to wear (mine was huge).
Tomorrow morning Anthony is driving us up to Brussels for church. After the service nous are driving back for lunch. I will be in Charleoi until Tuesday until I take the train to Brussels to meet up with Anthony (who will be studying until then) and Amy.

Update on Travels

I went over to a friend of Linnea's apartment last night to watch ''So you think you can dance Scandinavia.'' After finishing an episode of Seinfeld, we all left the apartment to head home. For some reason though, my keys didn't work on the apartment door (they did on the main door). So...I decided to climb over the wall and bang on someones window to have them let me in. I felt kind of nervous doing that because I wasn't sure how people would react to seeing someone jumping over walls. Thankfully no cops came, even though it would have made for quite an interesting night. I was finally let in after about three minutes of pounding on someones window. I guess they gave me the wrong set of keys.

I'm taking the train to the Copenhagen airport after lunch today and from there flying to Belgium. Sweden, I shall miss you.

A visit to Copenhagen

After missing my first bus by 30 seconds (literally), I was finally able to make it Copenhagen for a few hours of exploration. Copenhagen is a lot busier than Stockholm, but it still offered some great places to sit and relax. After wandering aimlessly about for an hour or so, I noticed that there was a little red dotted path on my map, so I decided to follow it (I really wasn't sure what it was). It turned out to be a great touristy walk that took me through the most beautiful parts of the city.

Hola Malmö

I guess this is just a continuation of my previous post. Here are some photos of my time in Malmö with Sara's friend, Linnea.

Chau Linköping

I know that most people like looking at photos more than reading long boring description of my trips. Here are some fun pictures of Christian and me at the train station right before I left for Malmö.

Swenglish

Who would have guessed that they have that here too? Daniel (Swedish guy I am staying with) told me that Logga ut and Logga in are both Swenglish words. Yes, he said Swenglish.

My first hokey game

I am proud to say that I just finished watching a full hokey game on tv. I did attend a game while at Western University, but I showed up a bit late and didn't really understand all of the rules. My Swedish hosts were gracious enough to tell me everything about the game.

Sweden beat the Czech Republic 3-2 in overtime for the world cup quarter-finals. It was fun, even though I became quite frustrated because they kept losing the puck every 10 seconds (sometimes 8). Overall though, it was a good cultural experience since I come from a country where Maradona has his own church.

Other sports which I haven't completely watched: American football, rugby, field hokey, polo...
Hm, maybe I should just give the list of sports which I have watched: soccer, basketball, and ice hokey.

Malmö

I made it into Malmö without any problems. I even took a bus from the train station to the neighborhood where my friend Linnea lives and got off at the right stop. It´s funny- I´m actually staying with a guy from Venezuela. My mind is in a very Spanish mode now since Christian (Linköping) is from Bolivia and I´ve barely used any English lately. Who knows if I will be able to write a blog post after visit my friend Simon in Switzerland (also from Bolivia)?

The plan is to tour Malmö all day tomorrow, Copenhagen on Thursday, and be in Belgium by Friday evening. Keep me in your prayers!

I Want a Bike

I've been walking between 3-8 hours a day since being in Sweden, and I could really use a bike. I took the last picture in a kind of walkay in Linkoping. It actually counts how many bikes pass it per day and month and compares it with previous years. How cool is that?

I Like Sweden

P.S. I just realised that the photo of me holding a bag of beer cans might bring a few questions to mind. Have no fear Taylorites, I was fulfilling my dreams of recycling in Sweden. I got most of those cans from walking through parks in Stockholm.

If I Lived in Sweden...

Having walked dozens of hours since being in Sweden, I've come to the conclusion that I would for sure own a bike. Everyone bikes here- way more than in Argentina or the States (combined and multiplied by three). All of the cities here are set up for bikes with special lanes and stop lights (just for bikes). The thing that really blows my mind is that I've seen quite a few bikes without locks. People just leave their bikes downtown without locks and no one steals them. Seriously now...bikes are safer here than at Taylor?

A new country

My first impressions of Sweden: beautiful and expensive. Everything is really clean here and there are many parks with nice little paths going through them. Timur and I are staying in a dorm with two girls from Lithuania. There are at least three lakes surrounding the campus with woods in between. We took a subway to the dorms, which cost us about $5 for a 10 min. ride. Ugh. In Klaipeda the same trip would have cost $1. Such is life in a socialist country I guess. :)

The room that we are staying is quite small. It's supposed to be a single but the girls are sharing it to save money. Add two guys, and it's quite squished. It's been fun though. Last night we made blini (Russian pancakes) and tonight we are planning on making stuffed peppers. We'll be in Stockholm until tomorrow (Thursday). Timur and I are going exploring down-town now. Bye!

At the Beach

(I guess I'm storing my computer tomorrow, not today).

A group of the remaining study abroad students decided to visit the beach after eating a great meal of leftovers. Here are the photos plus a video of our time there.

Poka Lietuva!

I need to store my computer along with my other big bags that I am leaving here. I'm leaving tomorrow morning to hitchhike to Riga (Latvia). Please keep me in your prayers. I'll try to post something as soon as I get to Riga or to Stockholm. Chau!

It's Been Fun

These past few days have been quite fun. The study abroads have been able to get together quite a few times this weekend. We were going to meet at the beach yesterday to celebrate Julie's birthday. Sadly, I didn't get the email announcing that the party was moved to the dorm so I spent some quality time with some nudes bathing in the Lithuanian haze (not really, but I did stumble upon a few + 60 year olds trying to get some sun where the sun doesn't usually shine). Very interesting.

For dinner some people from my dorm went to Chili Pica, one of the first restaurants that we visited when we got into Klaipeda. At night I had the opportunity to spend some time with Julie, Brandon, and Emily with some ice cream in Old Town.

Graduation is at 1:30 today. Time for goodbyes...

Yes I am.

I just finished my last two finals today- Interpersonal Communication and Cultural Anthropology. Believe it or not, I'm a senior now. I still remember when I was a freshman in high school. Heck, I still remember when I was a sophomore in college (hard to believe?). Large tasks lie before me while I'm still in Lithuania: organize, pack, and say goodbye.

Vilma (works for LCC) is going to pick my bags up and take them to her mom's house on Sunday after church. I'm checking out of my room on Sunday night and should be on the road towards Riga on Monday morning.

As Timur and I walked to the dorm after our final, we both admitted that our summer travel plans seem like a lot. We both want to go home soon- he'll be back about a month before I will (lives in Russia). I think I was feeling a bit of homesickness today... I guess I'm starting to realize that I'm not really caught up with any of the people that I'm staying with. The last time that I've seen: Christian- four years ago. Linnea- for a few hours a year ago. Anthony- a year ago. Simon, Jeremie, Obed- 4 years ago.

It will be fun though. I just need to build up my courage...