Week Six - Vecka Sex (Cultural Development) 18-02-12 - 24-02-12

Finally reaching the top of the hill after several attempts.

Week six in Sweden has without a doubt been filled with many cultural experiences in Trollhättan and Stockholm. Showing William around Trollhättan proved to be more fun than I expected as Trollhättan is a very small town. However, the sun made the weekend much nicer as we enjoyed walking around a nearby park which I had not yet been to. The park was very peaceful with few people around which allowed William and I to mess around and attempt to climb the biggest grass hill in the park. After many attempts and falls on the slippy slope we both managed to reach the top. Although the sun was out several ponds in the park and the Göta Älv (river) were still frozen solid. This week I have also had my first visit to a Swedish cinema where the movie was shown in English with Swedish subtitles which surprised me as I always thought the movies would be in Swedish in Sweden.  

Having spent a relaxing weekend in Trollhättan with William it was time to set off further afield. Filled with excitement and great expectations we got on our train bound for Stockholm. 

When William and I arrived in Stockholm it was chaotic with the amount of people and it being rush hour. We managed to meet with my parents’ friend, Anna, who lives in Stockholm. Anna provided us with a map, a list of several tourist attractions and nice restaurants as well as helping us buy the correct travel card for our stay in Stockholm. This made navigating around the city a lot easier as there are several different modes of public transport; tram, tube, train, bus, boat and trying to cram everything into four days in Stockholm is a little crazy so we were both happy for some help! 

 

While in Stockholm we wanted to see the ‘Changing of the Guard’ at the Royal Palace which is situated in the old city (Gamla Stan). We walked around the old city and saw some of the old buildings, statues and old streets such as ‘Kopmangatan’. We then arrived at the Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet) in time to watch the ‘Changing of the Guard’. Here is a short video of some parts of the ceremony. 

After watching the ceremony we then travelled towards the edge of Gamla Stan where we could get a boat to the island of Djurgården, which has some historical buildings and museums. On this island I had the opportunity to visit the Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet). The museum is devoted to a ship known as the Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in Stockholm Harbour. The museum was very informative as it included a lot of information about the artistic adornment and symbolism of the Vasa, original objects, what life was like on board, the history of the construction and even had skeletons of some of those who perished on board. 

The Vasa.

Some of the materials used to create colour for the artistic adornments.

Some of the artefacts found on board the sunken Vasa.

 

We decided that we wanted to get some spectacular views of the city so we booked our tickets for SkyView; a gondola made of glass that takes you up on the outside of the Ericsson Globe. The summit is one hundred and thirty metres above sea level and is definitely not for the faint hearted! It took me a while to get to my feet in the gondola but once I had adjusted to the height I managed to take some photos of the wonderful view of the city. Another activity we managed to squeeze into our hectic schedule was ice skating in an outdoor ice-rink at Kungsträdgården. I enjoyed ice-skating outdoors as it had a great atmosphere.  

 

 

Being in Stockholm and in plenty of shops I was noticing that the Princess Victoria and her husband were featuring a lot in the media. Trying my absolute best to translate the front covers of newspapers and magazines I realised that she had actually given birth to a baby girl. Now I can always say I was in Stockholm when the second heir to the throne was born.

Overall this week has been fantastic and I am glad that I still have two more days left with William. I have explored Trollhättan more and having the sun out definitely makes everything nicer as the snow is disappearing. It is great to see a blue sky even if it is still absolutely freezing!  This week can only be described as amazing.

Week Five - Vecka Fem (Personal Development) 11-02-12 - 17-02-12

I can see myself slowly getting into the Swedish way of life as I am arriving more and more promptly for all of my classes and I am also beginning to look the right way when crossing the road. Maria, Megan and I have even adopted the Swedish house rule of taking our shoes and coats off as we enter our apartment. This is a huge improvement as we usually tramp the whole way through the apartment to our bedrooms or kitchen resulting in our floor ending up wet and dirty from all of the snow outside which caused extra cleaning! 

 

Valentine’s Day in Trollhättan has also come and gone this week and I thought it was going to be like any other day of the week but I woke up to find a lovely bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table. I was extremely confused as it was early in the morning and somehow I could not actually figure out how they got there. After questioning Megan for several minutes she eventually told me that my fiancé had got in touch with her via Facebook and had asked her to get the flowers as a surprise. Needless to say that I was one hundred percent surprised!

There was also a party hosted by one of the French students on Valentine’s night. He had decorated his apartment with little tea light candles and roses which was lovely. However it was difficult to try and enjoy the atmosphere as I knew I had several essays to write for Friday and had not yet started.

My Valentine's Day flowers

 

Much of my week has been dedicated to completing these essays which is known as a ‘home exam’ for one of my modules. It involved answering three questions in essay form and having to step out of my comfort zone to write about topics that I have literally just learnt about since coming to University West. I have to confess that I did struggle to complete the home exam as it was very hard to move out of teacher mode and write several essays on power, gender, ethnicity and other inequalities that exist in society today. But I am pleased to say that it is at long last completed and handed in. Walking to class in the morning has also been quite nice this week as the sun has started to appear causing the snow to melt at long last. 

 

This week I also returned to Gothenburg Central Station in order to pick up my one and only visitor I will have while I am in Trollhättan. This was a very exciting journey as I knew I was going to see my fiancé and after five weeks of being apart I was definitely looking forward to seeing him. Having a visitor has finally given me an excuse to travel to Stockholm next week to see some of the famous sights. I am very lucky to have my own Swedish guide who is going to provide me with a map and advice on what we should see while we are in Stockholm. 

I think next week is going to be a lot more fun than this week as it involves Maria’s birthday and travelling around different parts of Sweden with William.