Week Seven - Vecka Sju (Cultural Development) 25-02-12 - 02-03-12

Walking along by the river in Gothenburg.

My last few days with William were in Gothenburg and this time the sun was shining! We managed to soak up some more Swedish culture by enjoying a walk around the city by following the river in order to navigate our way. It was really nice walking along beside the river as many people were sitting on benches or also walking but it was also great not to have a map in my hand, so maybe now I don’t look like a typical tourist! 

Whilst in Gothenburg I came across a protest about the recession in the centre of the city. It was really interesting to see this as I have never really witnessed a real protest happening. The majority of people were wearing masks and there were a lot of police officers standing by in case there was any trouble. Needless to say I soon continued on my walk of following the river!

The time soon came to say goodbye to each other and as sad as I was I got on a bus from Gothenburg Central Station to Trollhättan Central Station. 

The walk to the sun set.

Whilst back in Trollhättan the weather soon changed from clear blue skies to snow on Monday and by Tuesday the sun was back again. I think the Swedish weather is as changeable as our own weather in Northern Ireland! However despite these constant changes the Erasmus group decided to take full advantage of the nice evenings and watch the sun set by the waterfalls. 

We all set of on our expedition with high hopes of the view we were going to have. Having not yet been to the area of the waterfalls I was quite eager and excited to see the sunset from the top of the mountain. However when we arrived at the point of where we could not climb any further we were all a little disappointed as there were lots of houses in the way of the view. But being students we all sat down on the grass, took out our drinks and snacks and enjoyed the best view we could find. 

 

I signed up to a conference being held at University West as I thought that it would be very interesting in relation to teaching, it was focused on older children and related to dating violence in adolescents. Throughout the conference I was able to apply some of the things we discussed to methods used in the classroom for example, the idea that video games can help educate children. 

The conference was great fun and I was able to talk with people from many different countries including the Mayor of Trollhättan. The conference ended on a high as part of it was to see the waterfalls in Trollhättan being switched on especially for us! The waterfalls are a result of water gates being opened to allow the flow of water into the river. We stood patiently waiting for the gates to be opened on the bridge. The noise of the water is incredible and definitely worthwhile to see!

300 000 Litres of water per second!!

 

The water from the other side of the bridge.