July 2006

by Steve

29 JULY, 2006 Greetings Hej från Sverige! Allow Erica and me to welcome you to our ‘official’ site documenting our life abroad. After a little over a month of explorations, we are finally feeling settled here in Göteborg. The last few weeks have been an exciting whirlwind of acclimation, cultural discovery, and even a little tourism. We have been taking an intensive Swedish language course for 4 hours each weekday and have visited a few nearby cities. There has also been plenty to see and do here in Göteborg! Feel free to continue reading for more details of our adventures and make sure to checkout the photographic highlights in our Photo Album. Arrival Erica and I arrived in Göteborg on Monday, June 26, 2006…our luggage arrived two days later, which we can laugh about now. We wasted no time and were in our Swedish class the next morning learning that we actually come from the “ooh-ess-ahh” (USA) and are now living in “yeooh-teh-bohr-yeh” (Göteborg–Gothenburg) “svehr-yeh” (Sverige—Sweden). Much of our first few days dealt with the ‘business’ of living. I will spare you the details. Just know that Swedes take their vacations very seriously which results in many offices and businesses all but shutting down for a month at a time in the summer. The lack of people to answer questions makes it very fun when trying to understand the specifics of the apartment, phone, school, and work. But it all works out eventually! Apartment Our apartment is very nice! When we left the states we weren’t sure what we were getting ourselves into, but we ended up with great accommodations in an optimal location (see pictures in Lägenhet Land). We have what the Swedes would call a fully furnished two room apartment—a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. We are right next to Chalmers University where I will study and a short bus ride from the city center and Erica’s work. The final element that guaranteed our stay at this apartment and made this webpage possible was the setting up of internet access…ahh the necessary comforts of the 21st century. Göteborg—our new home The city of Göteborg has been lot of fun to explore (see pictures in Göteborg Pics). The city as it is today is about 400 years old, but Viking settlements are known to date back to the 10th century. Overall, the weather in the summer is very nice. We were a little worried at first because the weather was nonstop dreary for a couple days. Then the sun came out…and oh did it come out. At the end of July, the sun sets at about 11 PM and rises again at around 3 AM maintaining a fairly constant dusk throughout the night. The temperatures mostly stay in the 70s and 80s during the day. However, it can get fairly warm on the buses and trams much to Erica’s disapproval. She still wonders why the Swedes don’t invest in air-conditioning, but I have a feeling that will be explained come winter. The landscape of the city is a bit hilly and beautifully green with many trees precariously perched on rocky cliffs throughout the city. Buildings in the city appear to grow out of the rocks which is a pleasant change from the relatively flat farmlands of the Midwest. Travels Even with all of our studies, Erica starting her research, and the ongoing business of starting life abroad, we have found time to do a little traveling. Our first big European adventure was a weekend trip in July to Oslo, Norway (see pictures in Oslo). Oslo is only a 4-hour bus ride from Göteborg and a beautiful one at that. The landscape is so green and lush. There was even a picturesque fjord that we traveled across on the way. Once in Oslo, we quickly noticed a definite downtown city feel with more tourism than Göteborg. We also noticed the higher prices of everything. This was later confirmed by a tourism guide that officially stated as of January 2006 Oslo is the most expensive city in the world—more expensive than Tokyo or Dubai. The cost of visiting did not make Oslo a ‘Steve-friendly’ city; however, it does have its redeeming qualities. Erica and I spent two full days in Oslo visiting over 8 museums and seeing countless other attractions. The highlights were the Akerhus Castle, a 700 year old castle/fortress; the Resistance Museum, documenting the Norwegian resistance during World War II; the Viking Ship Museum, which houses multiple original Viking ships that were excavated in the mid-1900s; the Kon-Tiki Museum, which houses multiple boats used by a Norwegian explorer over the last 50 years to prove that ancient civilizations could travel across oceans; and Holmenkollen, the local ski jump from the 1952 Olympics and still used today. We saw a lot in those two days. It is possible that I walked Erica to death, but we had a lot of fun. We hope to go back for more later in the year! Closing We hope that all is well wherever you may be. Please let us know how you are doing. Enjoyed the site and hope to hear from you soon.