Sweden

I have arrived safely in the frigid land of Sweden. It has been snowing here and the powder stuck around for the first time since Cormac arrived. I am freezing my butt off since I am genetically cold-natured (thanks Mom).

I left Raleigh around 2:00 on Friday afternoon. As soon as I got through security I got my first taste of foreign culture. A Spanish speaking woman came up and was asking me (in a very rapid pace) for directions to her gate. I understood this concept but could not for the life of me remember my basic vocabulary to convey the directions verbally. Luckily she was on the same flight as me, so I managed to give clear enough hand signals to get her to follow me to the gate. On our way to the gate she kept asking me questions but I didn't get a single word of what she said. She was very soft-spoken and I was still in awe that I was already having to try to use my Spanish. I hadn't even left Raleigh yet, for heaven's sake!

My flight to DC landed 22 minutes ahead of schedule (so I was told 23320948 times by the pilot). I found my next gate and then went to Five Guys for one last batch of American French Fries. I rarely like french fries but when they come with malt vinegar, it's sort of like an addiction to me. I downed the whole thing in ten minutes.

I flew with Scandinavian Airlines to Copenhagen, Denmark. The flight was really nice. The chicken dinner was pretty crappy- too spicy for me to eat without guzzling wine and water between every bite! My grandmother would have died if she would have tried to eat it. I was picturing this in my head as I tried to get as much down as I could. I got the chance to watch two and one-half movies during my flight (six hours long). I sat next to a wonderfully nice but dreadfully stinky Swedish man. We talked a lot about the differences in culture between America and Sweden (he works in the US quite frequently). At the end of my flight I felt really sick because I was really dehydrated and hadn't moved from my seat (that's right- no potty breaks) the whole flight. I will never make that mistake again!

The line for customs was kind of confusing. There was a long line at a stand still that suddenly started moving very rapidly. I went through that and had my passport stamped. On the other side was the luggage carousals. I got my bags and then walked through "Nothing to Declare" doors... which led me to the exit. None of my bags were ever X-rayed. I'm still not sure if I did that right.

From the airport I had to take two trains to Lund, where Cormac is studying. I had to ask multiple times whether or not I had infact arrived in Lund. When I got off the trains I had a little trouble finding Cormac because I had forgotten we had changed our meeting spot. We then had to drag my heavy luggage twenty minutes across town to his dorm.

I slept pretty much all day long on Saturday. I didn't really get up and move around until noon on Sunday morning.

Cormac and I woke up to a blanket of snow covering Lund. We went out for a walk and he gave me a tour of the city. We went inside of a cathedral that is over 900 years old. It was incredible to see all the wood work and stone work that had been preserved. I also got to see his university which is also way older than any campus we have in the US.

When I could take the cold air no more we came back to the dorm for lunch. Cormac had reserved the dorm's sauna (this is Sweden) for a couple hours which was really relaxing (and finally warm!!).

Tonight we watched the SuperBowl with one of his roommates and explained a lot of the rules to him. I'm pretty exhausted and can't wait to see some more of Sweden this week!