Sally and Linnea's Mini-Blog

Sorry for the lack of new blogs! It’s a good sign that my mom and I are having fun. Here’s my effort to recap the last three days in as little space as possible…

Thursday: A Lund Thanksgiving
Our mission to go downtown to find a bowl of pea soup at Gloria’s was fruitless, but we ended up having a delicious dagens rätt (the daily special) at Café Finn anyway. Lunch was followed by some essential Thanksgiving day errands: we took a trip to the Systembolaget for some Swedish jul öl, wine, and other beverages, picked up some potatoes and whipped cream at ICA, and bought some some yummy turkey from Ingelsta Kalkon.

We also did some shopping and found some fun gifts and treats, including some “Super Tomten” themed items. And we couldn't forget to make an essential stop, at Mormors (my favorite bakery!), for a classic Swedish kanelsnäcka.





Our evening consisted of pie making, potato mashing, and StoveTop mixing, and we threw together a very tasty Thanksgiving meal. The Swedes didn’t know why exactly there were seasoned chunks of bread on our plates, but we filled them in on the significance of the American family holiday. To top it all off, I wore the adorable Thanksgiving socks that my dad sent me (thanks, Dad!).

Friday: A Malmö Shopping Expedition
We bundled up and headed for Malmö to visit a Swedish IKEA and doing a little shopping downtown. We spent a few hours marveling at the Swedishness of IKEA (where the people shopping there are Swedes and all the displays are in Swedish). We enjoyed some lax in the restaurant, purchased some candles (now essential given the 3:45PM sunsets) and then headed back into the center of Malmö to wander the shopping streets.


Malmö is really the big city. My mom and I were comparing the Lund-Malmö area to the Davis-Sacramento area (where the former are smaller university towns with a lot of character and the latter are the economic centers with good shopping, lots of people, and more things to do). In both Lund and Malmö right now they are setting up for Christmas, which means that there are trees, lights, and other decorations adorning every street lamp, intersection, and square in the cities. It is a beautiful sight. We also stopped at Gray’s American store just to take a peek (I’m not feeling quite as homesick with my mom here, and I realized how desperate I must have been last time to find this store so appealing).


Friday night was a repeat of Thanksgiving leftovers (mmmm) and some Swedish TV, followed by a good night’s sleep!

Saturday: The Thanksgiving Three-peat
Sun! Saturday morning was sunny! The skies were free of the usual gray, so my mom and I headed out for a quick walk to the nearby lookout (Klosterängshöjd). I often jog over to and up this hill because on clear days the view is fantastic: you can see all the way down to Malmö and the Öresund bridge, all the way up north to Landskrona (and beyond) and even across to Denmark, not to mention all of the rolling Skåne landscape in between.


You’d think that after two meals of Thanksgiving goodies we’d be all turkey-ed out. Not the case. At 11AM, we met up with a group of about 50 UC students (40 studying in Lund, the other 10 in Copenhagen, which is right across the water in Denmark). As per tradition, the two groups meet up on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, first for the Lund students to give the Copenhagen students a walking tour of Lund, and then to join together in a Thanksgiving feast catered by an American chef!

Some pictures of the walking tour through Lund:


The Thanksgiving lunch took place in Falsterbo, a little town just south of Malmö. A restaurant was set up and reserved just for us. We ate delicious salad, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry lingonberry sauce, sweet potatoes, turkey, bread, and later an enormous Swedish-style apple pie and pumpkin pies as well! We all ate A LOT. My mom got to meet all of my good UC friends and I was able to share Thanksgiving with my “other” Swedish family. After we got back (around 4:30), my mom and I walked back to my dorm, under a big full moon (yes, at 4:30!)

Then we accomplished the impossible. It was bike box time… which meant disassembling my racing bike and fitting it into an impossibly small cardboard shipping box so that my mom can take it back to the states with her on Tuesday morning (it is too cold and icy to ride here anymore). I bubble wrapped the frame and all of the more fragile parts, and then tried getting the frame, the two wheels, and the handlebars into the box. We tried one arrangement. And then another. And another. After four international calls (to wonderful Max in California), oodles of packing tape, and lots of frustration, my bike was IN THE BOX. Thank goodness. Here is the before shot. And here is the after:


Whew.

Today we have more planned, and hopefully I will get a blog up about it soon!

Love,
Linnea (and Sally).

Field trip to Denmark: déjà vu?

This morning, all of the UC kids bundled up (it was 35 degrees!) and hopped on a bus at 8:15AM. We zipped up the coast, drove onto a giant ferry, and sailed (bus and all) from Helsingborg, Sweden to Helsingor, Denmark.

Our first stop was the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art - definitely worth the trip. Not only does the museum sits on a dynamite spot, with a beautiful view of Sweden across the Öresund, but one of their current exhibitions, on the work of photographer Richard Avedon, was stunning. Over two hundred portraits from his career’s work, of all kinds of people: his father, vagrants, and coal miners, the Beatles, Henry Kissinger, Twiggy, Bjork, Marilyn Monroe, and Hilary Clinton. Avedon also did some glam shots for fashion magazines like Harper’s Bazaar. But perhaps my personal favorite – just because it was such a time warp – were fifty portraits of prominent figures in the 1970s, including some very young, yet familiar faces: Bush Sr., Rumsfeld, Jerry Brown, and Ralph Nader.

Afterwards we drove up the coast to have lunch and then take a tour of Kronborg Castle, famously known as “Hamlet’s Castle.”

Yep, if you’ve been following closely, I’ve done this field trip before. It was a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip back in July. Lots of fun, and you can see some pictures if you click the link.

Still, it is a fun castle, and this time, camera-free, I was able to enjoy an official tour of the grounds, where we learned oodles about the warring nations of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden back in the 1600s, clever taxing gimmicks for trading ships passing through the Öresund, and exactly why the dark and creepy casemates are there (prisons and soldiers’ quarters, apparently).

Also, one of my fellow UC students, the very brave and sassy Izzy, had a go at some sword fighting against a Danish "knight" in the ballroom of the castle: who ever hits the other first wins… go Izzy!

Then it was back on the ferry! And back to Lund. Time for some studying!


Linnea

I ♥ IKEA

(Note: Sorry for the blogging delay! Classes have started, and with the fall semester in full swing, other things have been keeping me busy. But now, here’s the latest!)

Last Saturday, bright and early, we caught the bus to Älmhult, a city located a few hours north in the province of Småland. According to an IKEA postcard, “Forests, furniture, and stone fences. That’s Älmhult in a nutshell.” Actually, that sounds about right. It’s not a very big town – only 8,000 residents – and IKEA is a huge part of its culture. The first IKEA store was opened there in 1958! As the founder of the company, Mr. Ingvar Kamprad, once said, “Älmhult is, and always will be, the heart of IKEA.”

Fun fact: Did you know that the company’s name is actually an abbreviation for Ingvar Kamprad Emltaryd Agunnaryd? (Emltaryd is the farm where Ingvar was born, and it was located near the town of Agunnaryd.)

As you may or may not know, I LOVE IKEA. I had been waiting for this field trip since June (when the rumors of this trip began), and when we pulled up in front of the store, I couldn’t hide my excitement. I pulled out my camera and, along with a bunch of others, started taking photos of the store and the parking lot.


Our coordinators arranged for a tour of IKEA by one of the managers of the Älmhult store, who showed us around, explained her job, and pointed out some of the strategies they use in the store to encourage customers to spend money! For example, they always arrange a display at the beginning of the showroom walkway to grab a customer's attention – the “first buy.” IKEA also designs all those cool rooms with a specific customer demographic in mind, whether it is starving students, retirees, or families with children. Also, are your familiar with those huge wire bins in IKEA filled with pillows, towels, slippers, dish brushes, wrapping paper, and just about anything else? Well, IKEA has discovered that they can sell up to 500% more of an item if it’s in a giant bin than when it is stocked on a shelf. (Now you know!)

IKEA by the numbers…
Year the company was founded: 1943
Stores located in Sweden: 14
Stores located worldwide: 260
Stores opened in the last year: 12 (in Cyprus, Portugal, Romania, and Italy, among other countries. Eastern Europe is their newest market.)
Year the first IKEA was opened in the USA: 1985 (in Philadephia)
Year the first IKEA was opened in California: 1990 (in Burbank)
Items available through IKEA: over 8,000
Visitors to IKEA stores, worldwide, in 2007: over 500 million

Well, it looks like IKEA just might take over the world, and I think that would be OK with me!

Here we are in front of the store with our purchases:


After shopping, we headed over to the IKEA Inn, where we enjoyed a tasty buffet lunch. Then it was off to the IKEA museum, where we took a walk through IKEA’s history and decades of different IKEA furniture. My personal favorites? The 1970s and 1980s rooms.


After we'd had our fill of IKEA-awesomness, we were off to Wanås. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been to Wanås before, but it is SUCH a cool place that I was more than happy to return. Essentially, Wanås is a giant, outdoor art museum set in a beautiful forest. You’ll be wandering around and suddenly you might stumble upon a giant glass enclosure that looks like a mirage, or ten swings hanging from a giant tree, or recliners made out of logs and bamboo mats, where if you lie down, you hear a voice telling a quiet story. Or, you might happen upon a giant stone outhouse, with room for quite a few people (see pic!). There’s a modern little bridge, a house with no doors, a house with no walls, an enormous metal spider, and a stone pyramid. Each art piece is separated from the others, so you have to make your way up and down meandering dirt paths to find the next one.


I got to be the tour guide, since I sort of knew my way around, and we ran around for two hours seeing as much as we could. Our favorite part, though, was the giant swing tree:



We got back to Lund in the evening, and later I went out on the town with Karen for Lund’s Culture Night. We met up with Emma and wandered around the Stortorget and Mårtenstorget enjoying the music, free coffee and kanelbulle, and watching an acrobatic group perform. Lots of fun, even though it was COLD!!


Next time: an update on life in Lund (academically, socially, and otherwise!)

Hej då!
Linnea

Panorama-rama: Excursion #5
Helsingborg and Kullen

My fifth week of classes looked something like this:

• 20 hours of Swedish class.
• 5 hours (at least) of homework.
• 1 lecture (about Swedish film!)
• 3 field trips (first to the Museum of Sketches for Public Art, second to the Botanical Gardens in Lund, and third to the Folketspark for a night of Swedish folk music and traditional dance).

A fun week, no doubt, but add Thursday night’s cocktail party to the list, and by Friday evening, I was feeling pretty tired. The idea of getting up at 7AM on a Saturday morning to travel with 80 other people to Helsingborg and Kullen didn’t sound too appealing.

Nevertheless, I dragged myself out of bed in the morning, took the bus into town, bought a sandwich at Mormor’s (the best bakery ever, with the exception of Berkeley’s Cheeseboard), and boarded the bus.

First stop: Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg.


As the Swedish name probably suggests, the “kulturhus” is quite literally a “culture house,” containing a concert hall, theaters, Helsingborg’s local school of music and the arts, a café, a recording studio, an exhibit on the history of Helsingborg from the Ice Age until today, and modern art exhibitions (hence the banner with the giant mole in the picture).

“Dunkers” refers to Henry Dunker, dubbed “the Galoshes King.” Dunker ran a large rubber factory in Helsingborg in the 1880s, Helsingborgs Gummifabrik. He became the richest man in Sweden by producing a huge variety of rubber products, including tires, balls, shoes, rubber bands, weather stripping, and, of course, rubber boots (indispensable gear here in Sweden!). He was know both as an industrialist and a philanthropist, and when he died in 1962 he donated his fortune to the city. Thanks to Dunker, Helsingborg now has created Dunkers Kulturhus, Kultusmagasinet (museum), the Helsingborg campus of Lund University, and new seating in the Helsingborg stadium.

As we left Helsingborg, the skies looked rather threatening, and I worried that we might get rained on later in the day. Our next stop was Kullen, home to Kullaberg Nature Reserve. Luckily, as we drove up the coast, the weather stayed clear. We had some spectacular views of the water and we could see Denmark across the sea.


Sweden is gorgeous. I know I’ve said this before, but I am blown away every time I go to another part of the country (and to think I’ve only really seen Skåne!) You can tell Swedes really love their nature, and rightly so. Kullaberg offered yet another stellar opportunity to witness Swedish nature at its best. Bring on the panoramic shots:




The unique thing about Kullaberg is that it’s very much unlike the typical landscape of Skåne. The town of Kullen lies on a peninsula and Kullaberg is on a mountain that rises above it. The slopes are extremely steep and end in sheer cliff drop offs, which makes it all the more gorgeous and equally treacherous. Fortunately, if you stick the marked paths and/or paved roads, it’s very safe and the views were breathtaking. This was the first coordinated excursion I’ve made where it wasn’t raining (finally!) and the beautiful weather was a great bonus.


Kullaberg was very windy (as you can see in the pictures), but we managed to find a more sheltered spot to each lunch, and enjoy the view. There is a lighthouse at the highest point of the “mountain” (it’s really more of a very large hill) that is Scandnavia’s strongest light. It makes sense, as this peninsula juts out into the Öresund between Sweden and Denmark, a passage for many ships —- you wouldn’t want to run ashore. In the picture above, we're looking down to the shore below -- it's hard to get a feel for the scale, but we're about 175 meters up (about 575 feet).


Definitely worth the trip!
Linnea

Excursion #4: Glimmingehus and Ales Stenar, “The Viking Stonehenge”

This past weekend, we traveled to the southern area of Skåne to explore some of the most famous tourist attractions in the area and in Sweden.

First, we went to Hammenhög and toured Glimmingehus, a very large stone house that dates back to the Middle Ages. It’s the best preserved building of its kind in Scandinavia and was home to rich noblemen who constructed the building to stand up to attacks from peasants and looters. It is, of course, surrounded by a moat, but there are other features of the house to protect its former residents and their riches.


For example, the individual stairsteps in the building are very tall. Our tour guide told us that this was a way to prevent soldiers (weighed down by very heavy armor) from successfully scaling the stairs and stealing the valuables on the floors above. On the third floor of the building, there are several holes in the floor that, in the past, were manned by the nobleman’s soldiers, ready to pour boiling hot oil or water down on enemies who had entered the building. The inhabitants of Glimmingehus could also keep an eye out for unwelcome visitors from the top of the roof, where, on a clear day, you can see all the way to Germany.


That said, the building has never actually come under attack. Apparently rumors spread far and wide that it would be a BAD plan to attack this house (and so I guess their defense systems worked!).

After Glimmingehus, we got back on the bus and headed for Kåseberga, on the southern coast of Skåne. Our first stop in town was to walk down to the harbor and eat some smoked fish! Our program coordinators had arranged for a taste test at one of the local smokehouses. I was a little nervous – while I do like fish, I was wary after my pickled herring adventures during midsummer.


We were served two kinds of smoked mackerel (“makrill”) and one kind of herring (“sill”). They were delicious!! It’s definitely worth a trip back to the Kåseberga/Ystad area of Sweden just to get my hands on some more of that fish and to enjoy the beautiful shoreline.


After lunch, we hiked up a huge hill to see “the Viking Stonehenge”: Ales Stenar (or “Ale’s Stones), a 1500 year old set of stones in the outline of a ship. It’s over 200 feet long and is made up of 59 stones. Like Stonehenge, there is a lot of speculation as to how and why the stones got there. Theories range from burial monuments to sun clocks or calendars. It’s pretty cool looking and it sits on a top of a hill with a stunning view! Though I’ve found it’s pretty hard to find a view here in Sweden that isn’t stunning…


Still more to come, but I can only crank out these blogs so fast. I need to go study some Swedish!

Vi ses!
Linnea

Excursion #3: Malmöhus castle.

The excursions hosted by the Folk Universitetet are great. They’re:

1. Free (they take care of transportation and entry fees).
2. Fun (a nice break from the classroom and time to socialize with my peers).
3. Almost all located in Skåne (which has given me a much better sense of the local culture and history).

This past Wednesday, we went to Malmöhus Castle in Malmö (about 20 minutes south of Lund.) Apparently, Malmöhus Castle is the oldest remaining Renaissance castle in Scandinavia. Since it was built in 1434, it has housed royalty, prisoners, the Danish mint, and today, the city of Malmö’s Art Museum, the City Museum and the Natural History Museum.

We went on a tour through the original buildings and some of the museum’s exhibits, including one that tells the story of Malmö as a city. My favorite exhibit was one called “Kaffe,” which, of course, recognizes coffee’s hugely significant role in Swedish culture. In my pictures you can see some of the exhibit: old coffee advertisements, a huge tower of coffee (I drink Zoega, the green package, every morning), a breakdown of coffee's magic in symbol form (the text says "coffee = friendship"), and, finally, Melissa and me drinking coffee in the café downstairs. Mmm!


The museum also had some cool natural history exhibits with a dinosaur cave, taxidermied Swedish animals (Moose!! Wild boars! Foxes!), and some live fish and reptiles as well.

Our plans for the weekend brewed while we sipped kaffe and explored the museum. The most popular ideas involved sleeping in and visiting Denmark on Sunday. Friday was the END of the first round of our Swedish classes so people were eager to use the weekend to relax!

I’ve decided to go to Denmark on Sunday to visit Hamlet’s castle with some of my Californian friends. It’s nice to really feel settled in a bit in terms of getting to know people. I’ve faced dual pressures, both from Swedes and from my American peers, to be accepted and to make friends. While I desperately want to be able to speak Swedish well and feel comfortable in Lund, I also want to connect with other Americans, who are (currently) my social circle.

The summer time is making it a little difficult to figure out where I belong. I am surrounding by awesome, English-speaking college students, and the dorms are a little quiet because many Swedes are home for the summer. I’m enjoying myself right now, but I think the fall term will be a nice change, when I will be able to get to know more Swedish students.

Lastly: thanks to everyone who has sent me a message so far. I am very appreciative of the comments left on my blog and the email messages I’ve received. My apologies if I am slow to respond – even in my third week here I am still busy getting settled and studying Swedish!

Hope everyone is well!
Linnea

The Island of Ven!
Usually, a summertime trip to this tiny island is a popular idea for an excursion, but as we stood in the rain at the bus stop this morning, everyone was grumbling. “I hope they cancel it,” said my friend without a waterproof coat. “I am really not looking forward to this,” said another girl wearing flip-flops. I grinned and said nothing, as I was feeling very happy in my new rubber boots, wool socks, and rain shell.

Good news: they did not cancel the trip, and I’m almost positive everyone had a great time, despite the weather.


The Island of Ven is a quick, hour-long trip from Lund. We took a bus ride up the coast to Landskrona and then rode a ferry across the Öresund. Before we docked on the island, people debated the feasibility of the day’s plan – to rent bicycles and ride around the island, which is only 4.5 km long and 2.4 km wide. Were we willing to do it in the rain? Most people decided that whether they walked or rode a bike they were going to get wet, so they might as well do it in style, on one of Ven's yellow, one-speed rental cruisers.

We literally dove in and were wet within minutes (my jeans got soaked, but my feet were dry!) as we sped along the main road which bisects the island. I don’t know who was leading the group, but we ended up arriving at the opposite end of the island (where there is another ferry that can take you to Denmark), climbing up a steep dirt path on foot, and then off-roading it along cliffs bordering the sea. It was a blast.


We toodled back onto the main road and found a café for lunch. I brought my own sandwich but dropped an astounding 40 kronor ($6!!) on a latte, though it was worth it.

After lunch was a tour of the Tycho Brahe Museum, and here is where the history begins.

Tycho Brahe lived in the latter half of the 16th century and was one of the best astronomers of his time. It was Tycho who made the Island of Ven famous – it was given to him as a gift by King Fredrik II for Tycho to do his research. We toured Tycho’s underground observatory and saw the site where the Uraniborg castle used to stand In Tycho’s time, Ven became the center of Europe’s advanced astronomical research..

Our tour guide was very good, and he asked us to remember three things about Tycho:

1. He was an incredibly skilled instrument-maker. He designed various instruments that allowed him and his students to make extremely accurate measurements of the astronomical movements.

2. He was a leader in introducing the concept of empirical research techniques. Tycho insisted on seeking out the facts, rather than theorizing. It was his research philosophy that helped spur the use empirical research techniques in Europe.

3. His research led to some of today’s most important theories. His most talented student, Johannes Kepler, used the data collected by Tycho to establish the laws of planetary motion (and served as the foundations for Newton’s theory of gravity). Basically, Tycho helped shape the modern view of the world – major stuff.

Anyway, enough history – but that’s what we learned! Very informative, especially since I’ve never been the science type…

It was still raining when we got back to Lund, but now it’s FINALLY stopped. I’m hoping it stays dry for at least a day! I would like to see some sun!

Trevlig helg! (Have a good weekend!)
Linnea

Excursion #1: The Zoo!

But first, here’s a quiz for you:
What time was the picture below taken?

a) 7PM
b) 9PM
c) 11PM


















Yes, that would be: 11 PM!! Even here in southern Sweden, we are VERY far north.

Today our Swedish language program (the Folk Universitetet of Lund, kind of like UC Extension) took us to the zoo!

It’s called Skånes Djurpark and is full of animals native to Sweden. It was, hands down, the most beautiful zoo I have ever seen – no hulking concrete structures or anything like that, but lots of beautiful fenced enclosures with some awesome animals. We also lucked out with the weather. It was a beautiful day!

Right before we explored the animal park, we went to see some replicas of some Stone Age villages and buildings, located right next to the Djurpark.




Here is our group, checking out a hunter-gatherer hut.







This picture is from inside a larger house, a replica of where Swedish farmers in the late stone age would have lived.

















Some of my new friends in the program, who also go to UC campuses: Eva (from UCD), Karen (from UCLA), me, and Melissa (from UCI).





Walking down a hill towards the farmhouse.





Group picture! The group includes about 30 UC students as well as various other people from around the world who have chosen the Lund Folk Universitetet to learn Swedish (I'm on the left edge.)



Now on to the zoo! A bunch of animals, including one of the many species of birds they had in the park, an ox, a lake in the middle of the park, a lynx mama and cub, little wild piglets (napping in their trough?), a moose, and deer. Not pictured: the bears, wolves, and reindeer!







I’m leaving in a few hours for the weekend and will report more on Monday!
Til then, hej då!
Linnea