What the heck!!

Well!

I was reading over my old blog from Luleå when I remembered about my other blog on windrocklife.com and it DELETED my account!!! All of my memories! So I suppose I shall continue on the old fashioned way of keeping a journal when I go traveling. ( I still have yet to catch up on my writings since sea battle!) Oh well. Feel free to read over my one, lonely post from Luleå! I have started another blog at The Life of Lou!

Lou

Välkommen - från Luleå!!

Hej!

I have been in Luleå for nearly month now and have loved every minute of it so far. I am learning so much about Sweden, myself, and meeting so many talented and amazing individuals from all over the world.

Living here is like living in a large snow globe. The snowflakes shimmer as they fall and everything is dusted with snow and frost. The strangest thing I have encountered so far is the feeling of frozen nose hairs on cold days. The coldest day so far has been -25, and the warmest +2 ( I nearly died of heat).  Unfortunately I have yet to see the northern lights but I have a feeling it will be soon! It took me a while to adjust to the dark here. When I first arrived it got light around 10:00 and then the sun would go down at 13:30! But now it gets light at 8:12 and sun sets at 15:30

The first month here has flown by.  I have met the mayor of Luleå, been to the recreational ice roads, participated in many orientation parties, saw a MOOSE!!! MC'd the Welcome Dinner for the exchange students, joined the gym, climbed a hunting tower in the woods, celebrated my birthday,  and tomorrow we will visit the Jokkmok market and the arctic circle! Finally I get to see some reindeer!

 So far the people of Sweden are really lovely and I have not met one really rude person yet. When you ask "Ursäkta" followed by English most are very happy to help! I had one lady help me in the Roda Krosset find children's books in order to practice and learn Swedish. As I was checking out, she brought me a bunch of word cards kind of like hooked on phonics...it was an amazing act of kindness! But, in order to get a Swede to start talking, you need alcohol or you really have to make an effort to converse...good thing i'm talented at both ;-) ! The people are very true to stereotype; beautiful, reserved, and really like their alcohol.  I have heard the Northern Swedes are much quieter than the rest, and discovered a funny thing they do... in Northern Sweden they make a sucking in noise to signify "yes, or I agree". When you hear it it's really funny!

Unfortunately all the fun does not come without a bit of work! I had a bit of a reality check when I realized I had fallen a bit behind on my reading for my courses ...i'm supposed to study?! Oh riiight i'm on an "academic exchange". Actually, despite the hideous amount of reading, my courses are pretty interesting. I am taking a strategic entrepreneurship class with only 6 other students.  We analyze new cases each week and do presentations. My other business course is international marketing and I have a very unique opportunity to market Luleå as a brand, to attract young adults to study, and remain living and working in city. We will present our suggestions to the city of Luleå and the winning group will win a prize!

Vi Ses!