Stickin' Around Sweden

Back in Västerås! With a Swedish exam approaching and projects to complete, school continued without us during our time away. So it was time to pay the piper and buckle down with school work for a bit. But we managed to squeeze some fun in before the next adventure...

April 27th. Linguistics...a spy photo of our instructor.

April 28th...My toenail finally fell off! What a relief. It was so painful and I was glad to see it go. I thought about posting the picture, but it's pretty gruesome. Here's the link if you feel like seeing something gross, but don't say I didn't warn you: link.

April 29th. Really nothing going on today. This is the standard picture I take when that sort of thing happens.

April 30th. Everyone from Junior and beyond went to party in Uppsala for the holiday. I stayed behind to relax and was treated to fireworks in the evening.

May 1st. A picnic happened!

May 2nd. I decided to switch it up with the 'nothing's going on today' picture.

May 3rd. We went for a walk and saw some areas of Västerås that I had never seen before.

May 4th. I ate this apple. It had a strange seam on it. It was still delicious, though.

May 5th...I've only got this blurry picture of my desk to show for it.

May 6th. After studying Swedish for the majority of the day, we all decided to blow off some steam and throw some darts before the big exam then next day.

May 7th. Swedish final! Now this was a real trip. They take final tests very seriously in Sweden. For starters, the exam is held in a converted industrial park which is clear across town from the school.

The exam takes place in a gigantic exam room.

Exams in Sweden require these items. In addition to formally registering for the exam, you need an official ID. They give you a cover page for the exam as well as a receipt to retrieve your exam once it's corrected. You get assigned a number to put on the exam instead of your name so that everything remains anonymous.

Here we go!

May 8th. We went to visit a Viking burial ground that's on the outskirts of Västerås.

This pretty flower was growing on top of one of the burial mounds.

That night we went to Stockholm to check out the ice bar. Look at that sweet Eskimo-wear you get for going in there!

Everything is so icy...

Got mah drink! So crisp...

Skål! I just realized...there's a new face. That's Megan's friend, Jess, on the far right. She was visiting for a while. And in case you forgot, continuing left is Megan, Tyler, Laimis, Kim and some guy that snuck into the picture.

We quickly discovered that with the proper technique (obscene amounts of saliva), the ice cups could be affixed to the ice bar.

After being caught and scolded, I had to find a new place to stash my cup. If you look at the left edge of the frame, you can see where Tyler moved his cup to.

May 9th. We went to watch some man run down Skrapan for a world record attempt. He got it, but it was really not much fun to see.

That night, it was time for New Mexican dinner night since it was the last night for Kim (the other New Mexican). Huevos rancheros, FTW!

There's mine. You can hardly tell we're in Sweden any more. Delicious.

May 10th. Another boring day. This is breakfast. Or part of it, at least.

May 11th. We went to play beach volleyball. Sweden sure is beautiful in the spring...

That night, we went looking to cause some mischief at the school. This is the free water station at a cafe in one of the buildings.

All we could think of to top the cup stacking was to top the school. So we got on the roof. You can see Junior in the background, the fifth floor just peeking over the ledge there.

It's a very pretty school.

Good day.

May 12th. Time for a barbeque on the terrace.

These types of grills are surprisingly popular. I had never seen one before Sweden. Make sense, though. Super portable and almost no hassle.

Tyler and Ariel took the portability to the next level. Actually, five levels up...this is the 5th floor fire escape.

That night it was time to go to Elba. It's a little island in lake Mälaren where Swedes go to drink and be in a club on a little island in lake Mälaren.

Boatin' over. It was a nice ride.

It's a pretty nice island.

It didn't take long to get bored of the club, so we went to explore the island and found these to sit on.

They were very high up.

May 13th. Our last day in Sweden before Norway. While we were out for supplies, I saw some pretty flowers. Sweden in the spring is the best.

Another.

And a final delicious dessert, courtesy of our friend Maria. I think I introduced her before...the girl from linguistics who's basically a Swede at this point, but was also an American at one point.

It was so nice to spend some time back in Sweden. But we'd heard so many good things about Norway by now that it was time to get back on the road.