My final day in Sweden was spent in one of the larger cities called Gothenburg and the reason I went to this city was…well my flight was there the next morning and it was either get a hotel in the city or camp out at the train station. Something interesting about Jonkoping (and I assume a lot of public transportation) is that the buses stopped running at around 2AM on weekends and do not start up again until 5AM. This means that if you have to catch a bus at 4:45AM before the bus/train station is even open, you either get a very expensive taxi or camp out. Enough about that though, it is time to talk about the final goodbye from Sweden.

The City

When I arrived in the city, I had no desire to really explore it. I had been going non-stop on my journey thus far and the idea of putting in another 25,000 steps was not as appealing to me as it might have been in the beginning. That being said, I did try to go to a few museums and explore a little, but Gothenburg’s national museum was closed as was its medical museum. Taking it as a sign, I decided to explore the harbor and then one of their malls. Something I will say about Gothenburg is that they are the strictest bathroom monitors on the planet. During my exploration, be it train stations, the malls or various stores I went to, all of them wanted to charge me a dollar for using the restroom. I understand that this is more common in Europe, but I didn’t have this problem in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and even the paid bathrooms in Jonkoping did not go as far as to have a toll-taker employed for their facilities. Needless to say, I was not a fan, regardless of the strict restrooms, I found Gothenburg to be a little boring and devoid of anything new.

The Park

 Even though Gothenburg did not prove very exciting, there is one spot that I did find very enjoyable which was their public park. The park itself is located near the train station and it has immaculate views complete with lakes, trees, green houses and a rose garden. I did mention going to the rose garden in Jonkoping, but the garden here made me verbally exclaim amazement based on how many roses of different varieties there were. Of the 3 hours I had spent in the park, roughly half of it was spent wandering the garden and admiring the sight.

The remainder of the day was spent with less enthusiasm. I did manage about 20,000 steps in the city but that was mainly walking in circles. Also, if anyone is interested in seeing a movie in Sweden, nearly all of them are spoken in English with Swedish subtitles. As far as the trip went, I was more than happy with how it turned out and I was more than happy with waking up at 6:30AM the next morning than 2:00AM.

After the final, the next day was rather calming. We all still had to go to the school one last time to have an outro and to accept our certificates of completion. It was really interesting to see everyone again now that we knew everyone’s name had some connections with them. Once we had all gone and received our certificates, we immediately gave them back as we wanted them mailed with our transcripts. As it turns out, nobody was all too confident  with carrying this piece of paper several thousands of miles in a backpack. After the ceremony we all had one last free meal with the staff at the university and we took a lot of photos to immortalize the occasion. Many of us were heading out either that night or early the next morning so we all ended up using the remainder of that day to clean our apartments and plan one last dinner together. Where did we decide to go you ask? We went to a place that all of us would miss dearly and unanimously agreed on, which was MAX. MAX is a fast-food place that had really good burgers and really questionable milkshakes and coffees so it was a no-brainer that this would be our final dining place. After dinner, those who did not have to travel home went back to Raslatt where we celebrated a birthday for someone in the program. Our final activity as a group was to go along Lake Vattern one last time and watch the sun set at nearly 10PM. As we all sat and watched the sunset, we all talked about our experiences and made promises to keep in touch with each other and visit one another. Something about these types of trips is that these promises are always made and whether or not they are upheld, I hope not to forget this experience and not forget that sunset, because it may be quite a while before I get to watch the sun set at a stupidly late time with people of various nations to accompany me.

The moment I have been waiting for and the culmination of 25 days of Swedish academia is upon me…or it was because this happened yesterday. Yesterday was the final task where we all took an oral exam. The exam was structured so that we all were questioned in groups of five for a period of 45 minutes. Of the questions asked, each person was given one question to answer specifically and for the remainder, those who were not being directly questioned could compliment the main person’s answer and provide new information after the initial answer had concluded. After roughly 45 minutes of this, everyone would be graded on a scale of 1 – 5 with 5 being the highest and 1 being a waste of $4,500.

My Exam

I have always been a morning person, or more accurately, I have never been a person to delay the inevitable which is why this test was so painful for me. Though the testing started at 9AM, my group was not scheduled until 2PM which meant that I had the entire morning to attempt to study. That being said, I didn’t really feel the need to study so I ended up basically using the time to goof off and scroll through Reddit and YouTube like a reliable procrastinator. Despite me feeling confident in my answers at the time, I couldn’t help but feel anxious the entire morning out of a sheer desire to “Please, let me get this over with”. When it was finally time for my group to take the oral exam, we went into the room with our two professors and sat down across from them. I was the second to be questioned and much to my delight, I received a question on the state of future businesses based on two theories of Titan and Network. The very short version is that the Titan theory states that larger businesses will soon dominate the world market (Facebook, Walmart, Amazon, etc.) and all of their partnerships will be short-term and solely for profit. The Network theory states that smaller (comparatively) businesses will gain power and form intricate and equal relationships for a more sustainable market through collaboration. My explanation was a lot longer than that overview but seeing as I was one of the few to actually read the article, I did very well with the question. I received my final grade shortly after the final and it is safe to say that I passed the class without issue.

The After Party

That night was our final cultural event as well as our official farewell dinner. We all met up and sat down for dinner and trivia. The trivia was all song-based and after securing one of my professors as a teammate, our team won without issue. After the trivia, the stage was open to karaoke which turned out well. After some persuading and coercing, I was forced on stage and went to my go-to karaoke song which is Sweet Caroline. I will say that despite its lack of a global presence, Sweet Caroline still holds up so long as everyone is drinking and at least six people in the crowd know it. Overall though, we had a great time and I am glad as to how the night went. Today is my final day in Jonkoping as tomorrow I go to Gothenburg and then home again. I will be sure to update about today’s festivities but, as it turns out, I need to stop doing double entries because I do need to get close to 27 blog posts.

Tomorrow will mark the end of the study abroad program as we all take an oral exam. Personally, I haven’t really been worried about it because I find that if I am able to pay attention the first time around, going through the notes is all that is really needed. That being said, there are really only five PowerPoints worth of information, so the difficulty level of this test is rather limited by the pool of possible subjects. This will be my first oral examination in over two years and that always seems to put pressure on a lot of people, especially those who are more introverted. As you might have guessed, I find it difficult not to talk but I do understand the unnerving situation of giving a presentation. I can’t even imagine how those who are still struggling with certain terms in English are feeling, but I wish them the best. With all things considered though, I don’t think any of us traveled thousands of miles…well for most, thousands of kilometers, just to fail a class now.

Preparation

As I have said, I have mainly been going through the notes on the course, but I also don’t believe in over-studying. These past two days have been rather calming for me as I have been entertaining myself lately with the food festival that had set up at the beginning of this week. This festival has probably led to me gaining 5 pounds but in my defense, they have a solid 20 feet of fudge lining a section. This post is mainly being made to satisfy an assignment requirement and, in an attempt to bring this up to 300 words, I will share the good news that my apartment finally got a microwave. That’s right, a brand-new used microwave just a few days short of me leaving. Thank you Raslatt.

As the final week came into full swing, I awoke to realize that the coffee shop I have reliably visited for the past 3 weeks had closed its doors for the remainder of the Summer. I do not know if the timing was a coincidence or if this was a planned mission, but either way, we truly are in the end game now.

The PowerPoint

Yesterday was the final group presentation with my group of six, which meant it was the final time I would have to deal with TW (Time Waster). I had actually chosen to wait her out instead of trying to cause a fuss about it because I figured it might just be easier now that we only had one assignment. This final assignment included giving a 20-30-minute presentation and perhaps having someone that spoke in pure nonsensical filler statements might actually come in handy. That being said, she only had one part out of the ten total to speak, and it only had three points. To help give a streamlined view to our presentation, a group mate of mine and I decided to make a PowerPoint with basic points and emphases on what we needed covered. Everyone in the group was able to look it over as well and since all of us had specific parts assigned, it made the transition fairly smooth to the point where I was actually confident. Oh, how I would come to regret my decisions.

The Presentation

The hour comes upon us where we all go to present as a group. I plug in my laptop and kick off the presentation with a summary and opening statement. From there, each of us goes through the 9 steps of supplier development as we had been instructed and we all hit our marks well. Our timing is good, and we have very solid information to the point when we get to the 8^th point, we hit around the 18-minute mark. As I have said, the parts have all been split up and everyone has at least two parts except for TW. Part 9 is TW’s time to shine and she did so as well as my cave flashlight. Step 9 in the supplier evaluation is how to monitor improvements that have been implemented in the previous 8 steps. In a theoretical situation, three points, as we all agreed on, was more than enough. Let me tell you that when TW pulled out her notebook containing four pages, there was a collective look throughout both the presenters and the audience that said, “we’re never going to get this time in our lives back”. Before you try to justify this, she did not have a pre-written speech, she did not have a focused point, and she did not just stick to step nine. Instead, she talked about part 9 to an extent, what she thought of a few other points that had long passed, a few of her own stories of when she bought something, and maybe her grocery list; nobody was paying attention at that point. Five minutes of Mississippi’s later and she finally stopped talking to the point where we quickly went over the second topic and then abruptly ended. The instructor began asking us questions (from previous groups I knew he would ask roughly 3 or 4) and after I answered the first question, I let TW answer the second question. Approximately one daydream later she stopped talking and he stopped asking questions. I knew this would be a long presentation but what was initially an elegant relay race to the finish line turned into a crippled limp sputtering in before being immediately being rushed to the ER. I was told that Midsummer was the longest day in Sweden, but I never thought to question whether or not they might be wrong.

Ever since my trip I have been trying to find a good time to catch up on the blog posts and I have come to the conclusion that no time will be a good time. Of the 30 hours I was in Copenhagen, I left little unseen and created a great experience that I will hopefully never forget. Though Copenhagen is in Denmark, I figured that so long as I didn’t wear my “I ❤ Sweden” shirt, I would blend right in and I was correct. They suspected me to be an American tourist and not a Swedish student. My disguises never fail.

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

I don’t know how to pronounce that name, but the building was essentially a statue museum. For what the museum lacked in reading, it made up for in sheer volume and incredible works mainly from Egypt and Greece. I have never really been interested in ancient Egypt, but I did enjoy looking at the mummies they had as well as taking photos with a few of their lion statues as it is now my Facebook profile picture. What I was interested in was the Greek exhibit because I love Greek mythology. The statues that they contained were amazing and ancient and they led me to the conclusion that nobody in Greece had noses. I stayed in this museum for nearly an hour and a half admiring the ancient marble before I had to go to the next event. I was prepared to see everything (or at least as much as I could).

Nyhavn

If you end up going to Copenhagen, I recommend this as something you absolutely have to experience. Nyhavn is translated to “New harbor” and while the name certainly doesn’t hold up, the attraction very much does. The port is beautiful, and the various brightly colored buildings make you feel as if you’re in an art piece. Nyhavn offers a lovely boat tour where you can explore the canals and get very strange looks as you touch every bridge you go under…or maybe that’s just me. Anyway, the harbor has many illustrious buildings and restaurants that are very much worth exploring if not a little pricey. Much to my wallet’s dismay, I ended up eating while overlooking the harbor which is an experience that money can’t really compete with. It was the first time that I had salmon caviar and judging by the taste, it was probably the last. Regardless, I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything and if I ever find myself in Copenhagen again, this will be the first place I come back to.

Rundetaarn and Kastellet

Continuing with the places I cannot pronounce, I then proceeded to Rundetaarn which is an old church tower that you can climb and see the city from. Two things that I noticed while climbing this tower is that the city of Denmark is very pointy; the number of towers and spirals looking over Denmark is surprisingly high. The second thing I noticed is that 400-year-old churches were not designed to be tourist attractions. I came to this conclusion after I had to climb up a narrow stairway that looks like it was meant to hold half a person, while at the same time trying to avoid those who were coming down from the tower. Overall is was a fun experience. The second attraction is called Kastellet, which is a fort centered near the harbor. The key to this attraction was that in addition to looking very impressive, it was free to the public. I did go and do not regret walking over the ramparts of the fort, but overall it was a little boring. There are a few shops and restaurants in the fort but nothing of much attraction. I feel as though maybe I just went at a bad time but overall, I was a little underwhelmed by it. Something that did cross my mind while walking along the ramparts though was the fact that I realized that this is the perfect location for a blind date. The reason being that when you look over the harbor, it makes for a sight that is quite romantic, and if the date is going poorly, you can push your date down the rampart and get a good 5 minute head-start before they make it back up again and try to smack you.

Tivoli Gardens

After getting smacked for pushing my date off the ramparts (kidding), I went to meet up with the rest of my group at Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli Gardens was the main thing on this trip that I was hesitant about because it seemed a lot like Grona Lund from Stockholm, by which I mean it was advertised as an amusement park but might be another permanent carnival. The other big concern is that Denmark is nearly 1.5x more expensive than Sweden, and while money really wasn’t an issue for me, I would prefer not to spend $21 USD on another hip dysplasia while Mickey Mouse looks disappointedly at me from afar. I did end up going though but decided not to buy any ride tickets and I am happy to say that I more than got my money’s worth. While Tivoli does have amusement park rides, they look to be more stable and enjoyable. Not riding rides though, the reason I enjoyed Tivoli extensively was because of the plethora of things available inside of it. Tivoli has an amazing rose garden in the center of the park along with a Japanese tranquility garden to the left. The park seemed a lot cleaner and generally more beautiful; it had a live jazz band playing, had a fun water fountain show that was good to look at, and before the park closed, they had one of the most amazing fireworks displays I had seen from an amusement park. The best comparison I could make of this place is if Disney Springs had a few amusement park rides and a garden intertwined. For the price of admission, it was very much worth it and seeing as I left the park at midnight and had a full day ahead of me, naturally it was time to go to a casino.

Denmark Casino

I don’t recall if that is the actual name of the establishment, but it doesn’t matter because I won’t be going back. I followed my friend to the Casino because while I was not planning on gambling, I had been on a Victory Casino cruise before and knew how a few of the games worked. He had never been gambling before and I wanted to make sure he wasn’t doing anything dangerous and I partially wanted to see how he would do. We walked into the Casino without issue and my friend handed one of the workers 500 crowns (roughly $75) and took his chips as we sat down on roulette. He played for an hour as I coached him, and we had a relatively good luck on that. My friend walked after winning 200 crowns and we both decided that this was a good enough experience to go to bed on. As we walked to the table to cash in the chips, we were asked to present our cards. Uh? What cards? As it would turn out, we needed to go to the front desk (of which we were not stopped on our way in) and purchase cards for the casino at 95 crowns each. They would not release my friend’s winnings until he did so (funny how they were eager to take his money before without question), so we went and got him his 95-crown extortion card. Then, because even though I was not gambling I was in the casino, they extorted another 95 crowns out of me. Being thoroughly annoyed but still not wanting to have my friend be out 700 crowns, I paid up. He took his earnings and we left for the night. While we were both upset, I reminded him that for roughly $14 we still had an hour’s worth of entertainment…and house always wins.

Day 2

My friends and I woke up fresh off of roughly 4 hours of sleep and went to get breakfast. After breakfast we decided to visit another vantage point of the city from another spiraling church tower. While I forget the church name as I am writing this, I do have it written down somewhere and the building is very unique. Keeping with the tradition that 400-year-old churches are not made for tourists, my friends and I climbed up several passageways of narrow stairs and made it to the top after roughly half an hour. As we made it back down from the church, I took off the cross that has been hanging from my necklace for the last year and placed it somewhere along the route of the church. I don’t know what I am expecting to happen to this cross, but one of my friends said she would check on it when she returns to Copenhagen next year, so I may make a decision depending on that find.

Rosenborg

After our morning spiral walk, we all went to Rosenborg which is a resident castle, or more accurately, royal estate. The Rosenborg is pretty impressive mansion spanning three floors and a basement, but it is not a proper monolith like some of the other royal facilities. The main reason I wanted to go to this museum/castle/estate was because it contained the crown jewels of Denmark, and unlike Sweden, this one I could take photos of. I toured the home, playing the classic museum game of being fascinated by the dead people while rifling through their things until I came to the treasury. The treasury contained things like the ivory works that many royals and artists hand-crafted. It contained weapons and coats and medals, and it contained what I wanted to see. The most impressive things to me are the sword and the crown of a royal, and Denmark did not disappoint. The jewels on the crown were one thing, but the sculptures crafted within the base of the crown bring an astonishing testimony to the money and quality that people had long before modern luxuries.

The Danish War Museum

I had managed to do a lot on this trip and while not all of it has been mentioned here, the final thing that I could not forget was the Danish War Museum. Having previously worked in the defense industry and being very fond of explosions, I had to see this. I went with one of my friends and we both immediately were speechless upon entering the attraction. The building itself is two floors, but the floors are longer than a football field and the entire first floor, end to end, was adorned with cannons. It was amazing walking through history and realizing that the time we spent switching from cannons to mortars was only roughly 50 years, and as we walked further, we could see the cannons become thinner, and more armor-plated, and riveted, but not necessarily smaller. The second floor was just as impressive as it contained information on the Danish navy and “gems of the museum” which is clothing, weapons, and other artifacts that aren’t Danish, but related to war. This included things such as knightly armor, samurai swords, civil war uniforms, Nazi uniforms, war medals, and a javelin missile launcher. The historical significance of that last piece is that it is something I used to actually work on. Back when I was at Lockheed Martin, I had worked in part to support the Javelin missile system and even though the missile had been in production long before I had even started working there, it was an absolute treasure to see. To end the trip on such an amazing note was a great honor for me.

I think Copenhagen had been my favorite part of this study abroad even though it was not part of the actual program. I have come to realize that I am fascinated by the new sites and the sense of adventure that I couldn’t even get through this trip before trying to plan another trip. I will have very fond memories from this city for many years to come and if anyone wants to try to beat my record, I touched the underside of roughly 13 bridges while I was there. Good luck.

Last Friday was the Swedish Midsummer Festival and it was literally the longest day of the year. The Swedish Midsummer Festival was created when everyone in Sweden realized that since they weren’t going to get any sleep anyway, why not throw a party? How that turned into dancing around a maypole and eating herring is beyond me. Also, this post may be a little bit special because I am typing on a Swedish keyboard, which has the å, ö, and ä characters so I will be actually spelling things correctly this time.

The Morning Of

For this particular holiday, most of the study abroad group decided to travel to cities within Sweden to celebrate the festivities, but I decided to stay in Jönköping for a few reasons. Mainly because every city everyone was going to was one I had already visited/will visit, but also because after hanging out with the same people for one month non-stop, I figured it might be a good idea to switch it up and mingle with other groups before I had to say goodbye to them. Our cultural event for the festival did not start until the middle of the day so for the morning I decided to go to a place I had passed several times before called Skogskyrkogården. My Swedish is not great (what else is new?) but I figured that anything with the word “Garden” in it couldn’t be that bad right? Well as it turns out I was partially correct, because the garden was actually a cemetery, but a beautiful one at that. It may seem a bit morbid, but I enjoyed the peace and quiet as I went through the forests and gardens while looking on at headstones. Out of respect for the dead, I did not take photos with headstones in them. There was one thing that I very much wanted to capture on camera though, because I felt like nobody would believe me otherwise. This thing in particular was located in the garden that was dedicated to those without identification or a family to claim them. In this part of the cemetery, there were several candles, flowers and one large rock to commemorate the area. On that rock, written in pinecones, was the word “mamma”. I’m not one to really believe in the paranormal and there was a good chance that someone wrote that just to mess with me, but then again I didn’t feel like finding out what the culprit was while alone in a cemetery so I ended up leaving and heading in the direction of the cultural festival.

Pre-Festivities

Something that I miss about big towns is the fact that things are actually open. In general, I don’t think anyone wakes up earlier than 10AM on Saturdays in this city and combined with holidays it doesn’t seem financially possible for any of these businesses to still be able to pay their rent come July. This wouldn’t really bother me except for the fact that I like to wake up early and I have a borderline dependency on coffee. Every morning, I have to go on a scavenger hunt to start my day because God forbid any coffee shop be open at a reasonable time. After completing my daily hunt, I then proceeded to the cultural festival meeting point. Remember when I said that nearly everyone in the program decided to go to a different city for this holiday? Well neither I nor the coordinators actually knew that until we got there a realized. In fact, of the 70-80 students in the program, roughly 10 of us showed up. Something everyone might be interested in is the ability for people to separate themselves into similar cultural backgrounds. What I mean by that is that those from Mexico and Ecuador decided to stick with each other and head to Stockholm. Those from the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe decided to travel to Gothenburg, and those from Thailand, Hong Kong, and Vietnam…and me, decided to stay for the cultural activity in Jönköping.

The Flower Crowns

As the coordinators realized that the others were not coming, they decided to start the fun off with a traditional lunch “cake” that contained cucumbers, ham, cheese, and a plethora of things I did not want to question until after I ate it. The best way this traditional dish was described to me was as a salty cake, and while that was a fitting descriptor, I don’t think it made it any easier to swallow. After I had forced the first tradition down my throat, it was time for us all to make the festive flower crowns. I didn’t mind making one though part of my engineering decision came from the fact that I have never been artistic. I put my best foot forward and made something resembling a flower crown that I ended up wearing it until it died roughly 2 hours later. During all of this, I was mingling with my newfound friends and we were actually having a relatively good time just talking. Once all the flower crowns were masterfully constructed (or in my case, attempted) we all headed onto a bus and went to a local park for the real festivities. Up until then, I had noticed that the city had been relatively empty. As it would turn out, you can fit the entire population of Jönköping into a park area if you really try.

The Park Festivities

As a group, we all went down and found a relatively open spot that was about 100 feet from the maypole (The biggest festivity) and then played a traditional competitive Swedish game whose name I never actually got. The objective of the game was for two teams to face off against each other and take turns throwing sticks at wooden towers from a distance. Whichever team took out the opposing team’s towers ended up winning. I very much enjoyed the game and the competition gave us all on opportunity to poke fun at each other and bond a little. A little while later the main festivity started as everyone gathered around the maypole. The maypole is around 30 feet and adorned with two rings and a triangle. I do not know the significance of this pole other than the fact that everyone dances around it. Now, being the extraverted American who enjoys the opportunity to make a fool of himself, it did not take me long to lead both myself and my newfound friends into one of the dancing circles that surrounded this pole. Seeing as none of us knew the traditional dances or spoke Swedish, we all had a good time looking around at others and quickly trying to copy them, much to the locals’ amusement. For the record, these dances are not sacred but rather silly, and once you have to hop like a frog around a pole, all bets for being offensive are off. We all danced around for roughly 10 minutes before dispersing again and playing a few more rounds of Swedish stick-throwing. We all went home a few hours later having been fully satisfied with our participation in the festivities.

The After Party

Being an honorary Asian now (Part of my ancestry is from Russia after all) I was invited out to have dinner with my new friends. Something that I had noticed but never really investigated before was that, out of all the groups, most of the Asian students cooked and had dinners with each other and I was very happy to have participated in that. We all went into the kitchen, talking and cooking and having a generally good time. After dinner, we decided to partake in the last tradition which was, of course, drinking. In a small town, your options for activities are rather limited and even though alcohol is currently sold through a government-run monopoly, it is still very common to drink every night of the week. I have personally not gotten drunk since the beginning of the trip but can attest to this fact because I have ridden enough of the last busses of the night and have seen more than enough to be confident in that statement. We all ended up having a good time though; I introduced them all to a game called blockhead (which is very hard to explain to people after drinks have been involved), and after a few hours I now have connections in Thailand should I decide to travel there (which may be a future possibility). Overall, I very much enjoyed the change of pace and very much enjoyed the Midsummer Festival. When I woke up the next morning, I checked to make sure my friends were alive and after the consensus I got was “For the most part”, I packed up and headed out to Copenhagen.