Lev för Nuet...

It’s about 2pm and I’m sitting at Newark International Airport, officially back in the states! It still hasn’t truly hit me that I’m already going home, of course a very bittersweet feeling. It sounds cliché to say, but it honestly feels like yesterday that I was wearily getting on the airplane to go to Sweden all by myself…

When I think back to how terrified I was at the moment I realized what the reality of going to Europe all on my own felt like, I know that I’ve grown so much during my five months abroad. Although I’ve always loved the idea of backpacking through Europe while living the hostel life, I couldn’t be more grateful to have had the opportunity to actually live abroad for a semester and establish somewhat of a temporary life in Uppsala.

My room!

When I first started telling people that I picked to study abroad in Uppsala, everyone’s initial reactions were “why Sweden?” Of course the more traditional choices are places like France, Spain, or Italy…well, no offense to those countries, but the cheapness of Uppsala’s program gave me the opportunity to not only immerse myself in the unique Swedish culture, but also to travel and briefly experience these more common European destinations as well! I came abroad with every intention of experiencing a new culture, while traveling as much as possible in the process. Looking back on the semester, I’m happy to say that’s exactly what I did! Eleven countries and twenty different cities in about 5 months…rough life right?!

The Swedish culture and laid-back atmosphere of Uppsala left an everlasting mark on my life. Here’s a list of memories that will always be unique to Sweden and I’ll never forget:

1. Since Colorado doesn’t have one (yet) my very first IKEA trip! Not only was IKEA founded in Sweden (obviously making it memorable in that sense), but you can get the BEST and cheapest plate of traditional Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes, the BEST and cheapest French hotdogs (which I’d describe as a cross between a corn dog and pig-in-a-blanket), and of course the bomb ice cream cone machine! (you can see a video of it below, which is sideways, sry). Clearly good, cheap food was a priority!

Val and I at IKEA with our French hot dogs!!

                            2. Seeing H&M on literally every corner! H&M was also founded in Sweden so it’s memorable in that sense, but the clothing is also somehow better and more fun to shop than the few H&Ms in the states.

                            3. My first grocery shopping experience at ICA (the Swedish grocery store)! I’ll never forget how you can literally get any type of food in tube-form, the awesome ICA candy walls, and of course the cheap but very satisfying ICA frozen pizzas!

Everything in a tube!!

                            4. Swedish fashion definitely takes on it’s own style! The Swedish boys’ haircut (not exactly attractive in my opinion) where they shave the sides but keep the top longer so they can slick it back every once in a while with their hands. The boys’ love for bright red skinny jeans and the girls’ incredibly blonde hair with their bright red lipstick.

                            5. You can always find pre-made sandwiches with baby shrimp as the main component (for some reason the Swedes really like their shrimp), but they never put any type of spread (like mayo or mustard) on the more traditional kinds, which makes for one very dry sandwich if you ask me

                            6. The Swedish language was definitely one of my favorite things about the country! Although it literally sounds like gibberish to a foreigner and is pretty difficult to learn, the few words I picked up on are just so much fun to say! Also, when speaking they stress (with a higher voice tone) certain parts of a word and then tend to just slur all the stressed parts together.

                            7.  I’m positive the nations will be one of the things I miss most about college life in Uppsala. There’s nothing like them in the States and the many times I shared with friends at the nations, whether it was something as simple as grabbing a beer at one of the pubs or a crazy night on the dance floor, are memories that will last me a lifetime.

                            8. Valborg (the Swedish celebration at the end of April to commemorate the beginning of summer time), the way the Swedes drink, the plethora of bikes used in Uppsala (and the skill it takes to ride them during the frigid winter months, sober or drunk haha!)

Sooo many people enjoying the beginning of summer for Valborg!

Champagne party at Varmlands Nation!

9. At most places in Uppsala (like buying tickets at the train station or exchanging money at the local Forex) you can’t just get in line (or the “queue” as it’s referred to in Europe). You have to always remember to take a number! They don’t care if you forgot to take one, but were clearly there before others, they won’t help you if you don’t take a number…they’re very serious about this system, which I learned pretty quick haha!

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with my decision to study in Sweden. Uppsala was a perfect “home base,” offered the cutesiness of a small college town and was very livable!

After traveling all over Europe, I’ve learned to appreciate things we take for granted in the US, that you’d never think are actually a big deal. For instance, you always have to pay to use public bathrooms in Europe (yes, this even includes places like McDonalds, Starbucks, the local train station, etc.). I can’t wait to walk into a public place in the States and pee at my own convenience, instead of worrying about finding spare change to pay for my natural bodily functions! Also, free refills and extra bread or salad with your meal just doesn’t exist in Europe. Kebab (not what Americans traditionally think of on a stick, but more what we call Greek “gyros”) is EVERYWHERE in Europe. So if we ever needed a cheap, quick meal, that’s what we counted on!

Although I know there are tons of other memorable things I’m forgetting at the moment, these are all the things that have especially stood out to me during my time in Sweden and while traveling.

Coming home from this type of amazing experience, I know one of the main questions everyone will want to know is how study abroad changed my life?! This question is hard because there are so many feelings and moments that are difficult to put into words, but here goes…

Before coming to Sweden, I always thought of myself as very independent and strong. My program in Uppsala definitely tested both of these characteristics in me. Because the program was not organized by a bigger, overarching organization (it was just a direct exchange between universities), I initially felt more alone than I think I’ve ever felt in my life. Coming to a foreign country all by myself and living in a corridor where I shared a kitchen and bathroom with three others, but had my own room really tested this so-called independent personality I’d always been so proud of. I quickly realized that in growing up with a sister (my built-in best friend) and then always having roommates in college, I was not very used to being physically by myself for any length of time. After this semester, I’d say I’ve redefined my independence. I’m now perfectly comfortable spending an entire day with just my thoughts and truly enjoy longer periods of alone time!

Also, with the initial shock of independence I had in Uppsala, I quickly realized how much I depend on my family for my own strength. I’m not entirely sure I would’ve survived the first couple weeks in Sweden, if it weren’t for the long comforting talks with my mom, dad, and sister. If anything, I’d say studying abroad really made me appreciate not only the accessibility we have to different things in the US, but even more so the amazing relationships I have with my family and friends back home.

I came abroad expecting to “find myself” in some way (like most people going abroad do, I think). Looking back on the semester as a whole, I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve “found myself” or really even changed much as a person. What I would say is that I’ve grown as a person overall. I gained a type of independence and strength from my established life in Uppsala and from the way I learned to adjust to Swedish culture. I gained a greater sense of confidence in my ability to think on my toes and figure out situations when the traveling experience doesn’t go exactly as planned (which of course happens more often than not haha!). I gained a sense of appreciation for other cultures and the way they do things (truly realizing that there’s not just one way or even a right way to do something). I realized how YOUNG America is compared to the rest of the world, how prevalent religion is in Europe, and how BIG the world is. And last but most definitely not least, I gained a group of friendships that grew in Uppsala and will now last a lifetime…you guys know who you are!  

My Uppsala peeps!

And of course, the girls!!

LOVE!

And to all of these similar friends back home…thanks for reading!!

Where's the Beach?! CROATIA!!

It’s about 6pm here in Uppsala and I’ve officially completed my traveling for the semester! This last week, I headed to Croatia with four other friends for a girl’s trip and one last ‘hoorah’ before getting ready to go home (how time flies!).

Let me just start by saying how BEAUTIFUL Croatia is! We landed in Zadar (the capital) in the early evening and then took an 8-hour bus ride overnight down the coast to a city called Dubrovnik. Out of all the planes, trains, and automobiles I’ve been on these past few months, this was hands-down the most uncomfortable, bumpy bus ride of them all! It literally felt like an 8-hour long earthquake as we swerved around the bends of the coast at speeds that I’m almost positive would not be considered safe. On top of this, while trying to get the little sleep we could, the bus went through two different passport checks, where a police got on the bus and physically checked each passenger’s passport (as if we didn’t need them to get into the country in the first place, right?!). And of course, I was the only one to have left my passport in my bag under the bus, so I had to get off and frantically find it to show the police. To say the least, we were all very ready to get off that damn bus by the time we got to Dubrovnik!

Waiting for us at the bus station was the owner of our hostel…a very cute, older Croatian man named Marin, holding a sign with Valerie’s name on it. We piled into his small car, which was only meant for four passengers, but managed to squeeze all five of us! After the type of bus ride we’d just experienced, we all went to put our seat belts on, but just as we reached for them, Marin stopped us and said “Oh no no, Police sleep here!” Haha we all had a good laugh, immediately fell in love with this sweet old man, and made our way to the hostel. Looking back on it, this was by far one of the best hostel experiences I had because all the hostels in Croatia are smaller and owned by families. Instead of the common dorm style, we got to split just two rooms between the five of us, had our own kitchen, and a big balcony that overlooked the city with breath-taking views!

Marin and our hostel!

They had juice and cookies waiting for us when we first got there, it was so cute!

The view from our balcony!

After catching up on some much needed sleep, we all woke up around noon and headed out with one mission in mind: to find the beach!! Dubrovnik is a city that’s basically situated so that all the houses are stacked along the mountainous coast, so you have to climb up and down A TON of stairs to make your way to the Old Town, which is the main tourist area. Old Town is completely surrounded by a brick wall, so you literally walk through an entrance into the town, making your way through all the little shops, to find the beach on the other side! We quickly discovered that Croatia is filled with mainly rocky beaches, but did manage to find Dubrovnik’s only sandy beach!

Entrance into Old Town.

This pose is for you Mama!

Me and Allyson!

Because Croatia is well-known for its many islands and national parks, we took a short boat ride to the closest island and spent a day enjoying the scenery of the park!

On the boat!

Of course we made time for tanning while on the island!

Aside from our national park day, most of our time in Dubrovnik was spent at the beach, getting our tan on, walking through the shops in Old Town, and making dinner each night to enjoy on our balcony! Although we went grocery shopping and cooked most of our meals, the few times we ate in town was by far the best pizza and ice cream any of us had ever tasted! Even better than Italy…weird right?!

Anyways, after four full days, we reluctantly spent a day on the bus back to Zadar to spend our last couple days in the capital. Zadar is very similar to Dubrovnik in the sense that most of its residential area lies on the outskirts of the city and then Old Town consists of all the restaurants and shopping. Zadar was different though, in that its Old Town sits on a peninsula, surrounded by some of the bluest water I’ve ever seen. After struggling to find legitimate beach areas around the Peninsula, we finally settled on tanning at the city’s famous sea organs. The sea organs are basically just holes in the ground that sit right up against the water, so that as the waves pass by it sounds like the music of an organ! Definitely a very cool area of Zadar!

Old Town Zadar.

Tanning at the Sea Organs!

Me and Valerie!

Although the area by the sea organs wasn't exactly beach-like, we decided it was too hot not to jump in the water, so Val and I held hands and plunged in! You'll see in the video below that it took us a little while to work up the courage, but finally jumped!

After traveling to so many different cities and countries throughout this semester, I’ve learned that every trip has a completely different feel based not only on what the city itself has to offer, but also based on who you’re there with. In recognizing this, I couldn’t have asked for a better last trip with four of the closest girlfriends I’ve met while being in Sweden. Making Croatia a GIRLS ONLY trip was truly a perfect way to celebrate one last ‘hoorah’ and this amazing semester all together. By the end of it, each of us couldn’t help but feel a little sentimental, which led Allyson and I to embrace these feelings and get tattoos! 

"Lev för nuet" means "Live for the moment" in Swedish!  

Viking Ships in Sweden, Fjords in Norway, Castles in Ireland, Crepes in Paris, Gondoles in Venice, and the Pope in Rome...all with the Rents!

It's about 4pm here in Uppsala and boy does it feel good to be back after traveling the last two weeks with my Mom and Mike! I feel somewhat of a sense of accomplishment in being able to say that Sweden has a familiarity to it that felt great to come back to! I'm getting ahead of myself here though, because the last two weeks were one AMAZING adventure!! I thought about trying to blog each trip individually, but that seems a little too ambitious haha, so I will do my best to give you a brief rundown of our travels!
My parents got to Sweden on a Friday morning and took the train into Uppsala, just as I was finishing up the last day of my third class (yes, believe it or not I do attend class over here...once in a while haha!). Anyways, I showed them around Uppsala the rest of the day, so they got a feel for my daily life in Sweden! We spent the next day in Stockholm, where we explored the city, the famous Vasa Museum, and did some shopping of course!

At the river in Uppsala!

After giving them a taste of Sweden, we headed off to our first destination...Bergen, Norway! If I had to describe Norway in 3 words, it'd be money, money, and oh ya money!! I say this because it turns out that Norway is one of the most expensive countries in the world (we didn't know this ahead of time haha). To give you an example, it costs about $18 for just a coke...and like $25 for a single beer! CRAZY talk right?! So overall it's a good thing we only stayed for a day-in-a-half! But we definitely made good use of our time and took a train/bus/boat trip called 'Norway in a Nutshell' to see the fjords, which are beautiful. Norway overall actually reminded me of Colorado in someways because it's very mountainous. Not nearly as much water in Colorado though and there are waterfalls EVERYWHERE in Norway!

Gettin ready to get on the boat through the fjords!

On the boat!

One of many waterfalls...

Made it all the way to the top of the mountain, only to find fog covering everything (this is my sad face).

Went back up the next day, to find much clearer skies!

After the gorgeous scenery in Bergen, we headed to Ireland and found a mixture between city-life and country-life. We flew into Dublin and spent some time there, but also rented a car and took it to the west coast for a day. To be honest, the city of Dublin is nothing special (in my opinion). Overall it's dirty and loud just like any other city; the only pretty thing about it was the Liffey river, which flows through the middle of Dublin. My favorite day in Ireland was taking the car (which I named O'Reilly the Rental haha!) to Galway. It only takes 2-3 hours to get from one side of Ireland to the other and as soon as you get out of Dublin, it's completely green on both sides with sheep, horses, and cows everywhere. Galway was a very cutesy town, with a lot of Irish character and friendly people (overall the Irish are a friendly bunch I'd say!). After exploring the smaller town, we headed an hour south to Bunratty Castle! The castle is exactly how you'd imagine it and situated in a very adorable national park...

The Liffey River.

We also toured the Guinness Factory in Dublin, which was way cool!

You get free pints of Guinness at the end of the tour in the factory's 'gravity bar,' which also gives you a great view of the city! 

View from the car as we headed to Galway!

Galway's Spanish Arches.

Bunratty Castle!

The area outside Bunratty.

O'Reilly! (I attempted to learn how to drive a stick-shift on the opposite side of the road!)

Next we headed to Paris, which was round deux en Francais pour moi! (round 2 in France for me!). I must say, Paris was just as good the second time around! Our hotel was only a couple blocks away from l'arc de triumph (no big deal right?!)...actually it was a little bit of a big deal because we got to stay there for free! Since Mike has stayed in Hiltons for so many years with the military, he's earned a bunch of hotel points and we were able to take advantage of them in Paris! Anyways, we spent a longer time in Paris, truly enjoyed the high 70's weather, saw the sights, and spent a relaxing Easter weekend with the French!

Our first meal in Paris: fresh salad, fresh mozzarella, and wine...so french!!

LOVE!

Notre Dame in Good Friday!

The Louvre!

L'Arc de Triumph!

Added our own lock to the Lover's Bridge!

Got to meet up with Gabby again! We drank wine under the eiffel tower...no big deal right?!

Sat outside the Sacre Coeur and enjoyed drinks on Easter Sunday, with the picture below as our view... 

La Sacre Coeur.

After waiting in a VERY LONG line, made it up the Eiffel Tower!

We headed further south to our final country, Italia, and  spent a couple days in Venice, then ended the trip in Roma! As soon as we got to Venice, both my mom and I were in aww with how beautiful and AWESOME it is (Mike had already been there). For those of you that've seen the Italian Job, it looks just like the beginning of the movie! We visited the famous St. Marc's Square, took a gondole ride, and soaked up all the sun!! The man that "rowed" our gondole told us that 108 islands make up Venice, with a church on each island (not surprising, considering religion is EVERYWHERE in Europe!). 

Eating lunch in Venice right along the Grand Canale!

On the gondole!

View of St. Marc's Square from the top of the tower!

Once we were in Italy, we took a break from flying and made our way from Venice to Rome by train! It was an early-morning train ride that only took about 3 hours, so we made it to Rome by 10am and had the rest of the day to explore! Once you're in the heart of the city, you can pretty much just start walking and run into something historical just around the corner...so we went to the Spanish steps, hit up the Trevi fountain, saw the Pantheon, and several different piazzas before getting rained out for the day. Although it's filled with history, the city itself is a little overrated (in my opinion), but as soon as you make your way to the area of the colosseum or the Vatican, you'll find the beauty in Rome!

The Spanish Steps.

The Trevi Fountain.

Makin a wish!

The Pantheon.

Dome at the top of the Pantheon (which I now know is the structure's only light source and is not covered, so when it rains, there's a drain on the floor in the middle of the Pantheon.)

Outside the Colosseum!

Inside the Colosseum!

Me and Mama!

View from the Colosseum.

St. Peter's Basilica, outside the Vatican!

Inside St. Peter's Cathedral...next to the Parliament building in London, this is one of the most astounding buildings I've ever seen...all dedicated to Catholicism!

Like everything else I've experienced while studying abroad, this two week adventure is one I'll never forget! Since my mom had never been to Europe, I'm so happy this is an experience we could share and appreciate together! And I'm not gonna lie, it was not only great to see and spend time with my mom and Mike in Europe, but it felt good to live off of their money for a little while: staying in hotels as opposed to hostels, taking a taxi if we didn't feel like figuring out public transportation, and sitting down at restaurants instead of opting for the cheaper take-away option are all luxuries I'd forgotten about haha!