I now understand why UCF’s insurance policy is $250,000 per incident considering all of the things that could happen during a study abroad. Today was a true testament to that as we had our second industry visit to Husqvarna’s manufacturing plant. Husqvarna is very well known throughout the world and they sell various products, mainly consisting of gardening/landscaping tools (and cars if you’re in Northern Europe). What possible landscaping tools could this particular facility sell you ask? Only the best ones which are: chainsaws. Lots and lots of chainsaws.

Husqvarna

For full disclosure I should start by saying that at no point was I, nor anyone else in any danger. Husqvarna operates their facility very safely and makes sure that anyone who is on the manufacturing floor is wearing the proper personal protective equipment (PPE). For background, Husqvarna started back in the 1680’s making various tools and rifles. The town that the company is located in is also called Husqvarna which it rather interesting because I don’t know if the chicken or the egg came first. Both the town and the company have quite a history despite who was first. The main facility we visited today had buildings built between 1880-1940 but they had one exception which was a building from the 1720s. That number really didn’t have a significant impact on me until it was pointed out that the United States was still 50 years from an established country, and New Zealand was 100 years from being discovered. Despite the age of the facility, they do quite well for themselves; when they started producing chainsaws, they made around 350 per year. Today, they make 3,500 per day. Judging by the vast forests, the chainsaws to trees ratio doesn’t seem correct which makes me suspect that either most of them are exported, or there is one very dangerous man in Sweden just waiting to make his horror movie debut.

The Facility

Husqvarna wasted no time in showing us the facility. The facility is a set of large manufacturing buildings as anyone would suspect. Despite the facility’s massive size, they only employ 280 workers. Husqvarna has done an incredible job of implementing robotics into its facility to the point where some facets of the business have 2 workers per 5,000 square foot area. The processes they had implemented were great to see and they made sure everything was visual and visible. This included if they had any delays, what part they were on, suggestions for improvement, and various appropriate signage. I was also very amused to see various Kaizen boards throughout the facility because my business had spent quite a long time implementing those into our own facilities, and I found it funny that be it in Sweden or in the United States, every board still has a safety cross on it. Though this is mainly a board seen in manufacturing, if you do not know what either of those are and you would like to improve your business on a visual level, I would highly recommend looking into it. In addition to Husqvarna’s visual guidance of their facility, they also allowed us to hold a few of the defective products, allowed us to go through their manufacturing floor, and hold a few chainsaws. I really enjoyed this visit and I would like to think I was able to take a few things away from it.

Husqvarna Vs. IKEA

When it comes to tours, Husqvarna wins hands-down and not just because chainsaws are cooler than the things they cut. The reason that this was much more enjoyable was because Husqvarna did not waste a lot of time trying to tell us how great they were. There was a 5-minute informational session at the beginning and any other interesting fact about Husqvarna was given as we were walking around. IKEA’s warehouse is a logistical masterpiece and nobody can take that away from them, but I felt like I had actually seen the Husqvarna facility and I had only been rushed through IKEA’s. Despite my enjoyment with the tour, Husqvarna did not give us fika whereas IKEA did, so I do have to take off points even though in hindsight, that may just count as a bribe. Oh well.

The remainder of the day has been planning the trip to Copenhagen. From what I can tell, Copenhagen has all of its main attractions spread across 2 square miles and yet I still am not able to figure out when to plan dinner through all of them. Seeing everything the city has to offer in the course of one day is a logistical nightmare that my class has not prepared me for it. As for tonight, the United States is playing against Sweden, so a group of us are going to go out and watch the game. I, for one, cannot wait to figure out which sport we are talking about, but if we all get kicked out of Sweden tomorrow, it will be because the USA lost.

Normally I look forward to making my blogs posts but after having to write a large assignment for class these past two days, I don’t really love what I am currently doing. Unfortunately, week 3 is rather boring due to the large assignment looming overhead and the fact that this is the last week of lectures. Add to the fact that the only cultural activity in the last three days was a barbeque that got rained out and it makes for a perfect storm to post, well, nothing.

Why Write This

One of the main reasons why I have forced myself to write today is because I am obligated by this assignment to have 27 total entries about my life consisting of a minimum of 300 words. The good news on that is that my average blog post so far has been roughly 1000 words and if we’re going by word count then I nailed this assignment, and if not…well it’s a pass or fail so I’m not too worried. The other reason I am writing this is to say that after three weeks in Jonkoping, it’s gotten a little stale. Jonkoping is a lovely little city but when you come from a large place such as Orlando, the charm of a small town starts to wear out. Personally, I think Jonkoping was a great first experience into the larger world because even after two weeks, going to Stockholm was a really big shock for me, and I don’t know how well I would have done if I had initially only visited there. I would like to think I have learned a good amount that will help me, and I have come to appreciate my strengths as a traveler and my stupidities, but hey, I’m not dead yet. I have still not fooled anyone into thinking that I speak Swedish with my ordering abilities and in all honesty, I’ve mostly stopped asking if people speak English and just started talking in it. Even though the week is nearly half over, there is still a lot to look forward to.

The things that are still on the horizon include graduation, the Mid-summer Festival, a trip to Copenhagen, a possible trip to Gothenburg, and several more days of city exploring but if anyone does have any specific questions before I leave Sweden, please feel free to message me through the contact page or through the Facebook/LinkedIn Messengers.

And of course, thank you for following along thus far.

Just when I thought I mastered public transportation; I get introduced to trains. My journey to Stockholm began on Saturday. I had used an app called Omio to make travel arrangements for myself and two others to go to Stockholm and I arrived early to make sure that I had plenty of time to screw up know what I was doing. I saw the train pull up. I saw that it was going to Stockholm. I could not find my wagon number but did not want to miss the train (trains can be at a station and gone in less than 3 minutes) so I hopped on 13 minutes earlier than my estimated time only to realize…this is the wrong company.

Night Life in Stockholm

After getting off of the wrong train, waiting the 13 minutes for my train (they run very precisely), and then taking the two-hour ride in my designated seat, I had finally made it to the capital of Sweden and it. Was. Amazing. I am a very big car person, especially when it comes to exotic/super cars so you could imagine my delight when almost immediately after my friends and I got out of the station, two Audi R8 spyders came flying down the street. I would also later see a Lamborghini Huracan and Ferrari 458 because Stockholm is pretty wealthy. Stockholm’s wealth and culture make it a very beautiful place where the architecture is rich and historic; filled with cobblestone streets and oases of parks every few hundred meters. The night life itself is very incredible, with clubs and shops and bars every other block, it almost reminded me of downtown Orlando in that aspect. When my friends and I arrived, we checked into our Micro-Hotel (chosen so because we only planned to sleep there) and then immediately dropped our bags and left. From there we spent 15,000 steps and 2 hours exploring the city. It was already 10PM when we arrived but we stayed out until nearly 1AM just viewing the city. I was happy that I managed to find and take a picture of Stockholm City Hall (The building in the background of my blog) and that was just in the beginning. We didn’t stay out too late however because we did have quite a day ahead of us.

Stockholm Royal Palace

Our first stop in the morning…was breakfast, but our second stop was the Stockholm Royal Palace. The Palace is as you would imagine something to house 14-17^th century royalty; A massive labyrinthine building decorated with flowers, statues, grand entries, and gift shops. My friends and I visited four different sections of the palace (because that is what a standard student ticket will get you). The Tre Kronor museum told us about the palace history and contained the most reading. I found it pleasant that the placards and descriptions were both in Swedish and in English, because it didn’t really occur to me that I might have just spent 90 kronor to have a conversation with Google Translate. From there, I visited the Museum of Antiquities which is a room filled with statues. While an amazing view, I did often find myself looking at a name, nodding to myself to convince myself that I completely knew who the dead person made of marble was, followed by me moving to the next one. I did this roughly 30 times before running out of statues and leaving that section of the palace. For the next room…well I got lost trying to find it. Palaces really aren’t built with museums in mind so some of the entrances and exits aren’t exactly intuitive. However, after my determined searching I managed to find my favorite room which was the Treasury.  The Treasury is by far the crown jewel of this exhibit because it literally contains the crown jewels, as well as several crowns spanning over 200 years. In addition, the treasury also contains royal robes, scepters, swords, and an empty storage chest for some strange reason but it was quite an amazing room and I very much wish that photography was allowed in it. The final room was the Royal Apartments and in order to get into them, you had to pass the church and the altar…or at least that is the way I took after getting lost again. It took me several minutes to realize that I was not in the royal apartments and after I did manage to get into the correct room, my overall perspective of it was “cool”. There were some very nice portraits adorning the walls, but the reading material was light, and the overall sense was that, while impressive, these rooms are just rooms with outdated furniture. Maybe it would have been better with the audio tour but then again, I personally like going at my own pace on these types of tours. Either way, for the price I paid and the things I saw, I was far from disappointed.

Vasa

The next thing we went to see was the warship Vasa, which got its name after someone saw it and said, “Vasa big ship sir”, and yes, I do write my own material. In all honesty, Vasa was my favorite thing that I saw that day. The ship is a war ship that sank during its maiden voyage due to a design flaw. From there, Vasa was underwater in the Stockholm harbor for 400 years before excavators located it and hoisted it out. It took nearly two years from rediscovering this ship to haul it out of the sea and bring it to the surface. In fact, the only reason it is as well-preserved as it is today is because it had sunk. The way that the Vasa exhibit is laid out; the ship is along the left side of the wall and there are 5-6 levels of observation for it. To the right; there are several exhibits and movies that depict things such as the sinking of the ship, the recovery, several facts about the people of that time, etc. I will add that one of the most interesting exhibits was the one titled “Life Onboard” because my only hope for an exhibit with that title for a ship that sank during its maiden voyage, was a room with the word “Wet” painted along the wall. You can imagine my disappointment when I walked in. Anyway, Vasa is amazing, and it can take anywhere between an hour and three hours depending on how detailed you would like your view to be. There are over 900 carvings on this ship alone and I would highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in the city.

Grona Lund

Maybe I have been spoiled having Disney World and Universal outside of my door for my entire life, but for the remainder of my trip, my friends and I all went to Grona Lund which I can only describe as a permanent carnival. Grona Lund is the amusement park and I’m sure that if I had not ever been to Florida, I would have very much enjoyed myself but unfortunately, I had, and I now know the difference between a theme park and an amusement park. I bought entrance to Grona Lund (GL) for 120SEK and then paid an addition 345SEK for access to all their rides. Two things that I do have to give my admiration to GL for is that one, it does make sense to have the a ride access purchase because a lot of adults have no interest in riding the rides, so at least they can chaperone their children for the equivalent of $12. Two, GL has amusement park food, but the food is actually priced for human consumption. I have never before been able to spend $7 at an amusement park unless it was for water, so I do have to appreciate that. Unfortunately, that is where the nice things stop, and the comparisons start. GL has roller coasters and even though none of them (intentionally) go upside-down, they make up for it in sharp turns that could relocate a hip. I remember going on one ride and hearing a great review from a fellow person in line saying how great this ride is because of how comfy the headrest is. Why yes sir, that is important. But if that is your take-away from an amusement park ride then we really need to discuss your level of standards. Furthermore, for those wondering like I was, the difference between a theme park and an amusement park is very easy when you have examples. When you go to Disney, you have magic, animals, tours around the world, mickey, princesses, all things you associate with Disney in their own little section. When you go to Grona Lund, you have generic mice, knock-off Aladdin, a witch, a 50’s diner, a 70’s popstar roller coaster, and that purple thing, all within the same section. The last thing I wanted to touch on, which also has something to do with school, is timing and logistics of the rides: They had none. Anyway, overall if you enjoy carnivals or physical therapy then this might be the place for you, but I think my time would have been better spent at another attraction.

With that, my Journey in Stockholm mostly came to an end. We did go sight-seeing and shopping for a while before the train but there is only so much you can do in a day. I wish I could have stayed longer but I think that is the consensus of every tourist when they visit a new place for the day. Overall, Stockholm was a wonderful city to visit and a great way to start the third week of my Swedish life.

I have to say that I was conflicted on the title of this blog post. After all, there are so many good puns that can be made with the word “mine”. Despite all of the potential however, I decided that a nod towards Lord of The Rings was the best way to go, mainly because I sang the Misty Mountains song and the opening to Snow White (Hi-Ho) throughout most of the trip. For the record, neither song was appreciated by the group.

The Taberg Visit

As you might have guessed. Today we all visited Taberg mine which was quite a sight to behold. The mine itself had not been in use since the late 1960s but was still in relatively good shape. The information we were all told was that we would go in and take a guided tour the mine. After that, we would then go hiking to the top of the mountain. A great plan all around. What we all were not told (and all forgot until we got there) was that mine shafts are actually very cold, and hikes are done in the 78-degree weather. The mine was roughly about 45 degrees and everyone but the Canadians were all but under prepared for this newfound information. In addition, we were all given torches for the tour. This made us all excited until we realized they meant flashlights. While there were several different types of torches, my “torch” in particular had the luminescent power of a well-polished spoon. I ended up using my phone for most of the journey which worked well because I took a lot of pictures and, under 450 feet of solid rock, a phone doesn’t have much use as a phone anyway. Of the many people who went into the mine, most of the ones who came out seemed to enjoy it and I’ll leave the rest of that statement for interpretation.

The Taberg Hike

After testing my bodily limit of cold, I was eager to start the hike and get moving again so myself and a small group decided to start on the path a little earlier than the main group. We were given the go-ahead and were told to follow the path. Solid plan; we followed it well until we came to a fork in the road. When it comes to putting on a shirt in the dark, sliding a USB drive in on the first try, or choosing paths, I know that statistics say the possibility of guessing correctly is 50/50 but I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of the 50% that is right. After backtracking roughly half a mile and continuing on, then doing the same backtrack again on a different fork in the trail, we all managed to make it to the top of the mountain.Something I will always treasure is the view you get from the mountains. Being able to see for miles in all directions is a sight that I truly don’t ever get used to and never mind getting the chance to. Seeing as how small Jonkoping is and how little thought is given into it as a tourist destination, I couldn’t help but wonder what percentage of the population would ever get the chance to see the same sight as me. It is moments like these that define living from existing.

The next hour afterward was spent going back into town. As it turns out, going down a mountain is a lot easier when gravity forces you towards an exit. After the hike, myself and a few friends decided to take an extra trip to Stockholm, and I plan to make a post detailing those events specifically. In the meantime, thank you for reading; I encourage you to think about the things in your life that define living from existing.

I think I’ve sufficiently hit the point in my journey where I’ve started to feel a little homesick. I don’t think it is anything serious but the fact that I haven’t driven in nearly 14 days, haven’t eaten something grotesquely unhealthy, and haven’t laid down for bed without the sun shining through the windows has started to wear on me…well that and the fact that I was almost the target for a mugging last night but who’s to say really?

A Classroom Update

Before I get to the targeting, I should talk about what happened earlier that day. That day was a relatively normal start. I had gotten up and headed off to class without issue but was dragging due to the early morning. The lecture for that day was a group discussion on an assignment we had all completed but seeing as everyone had to present their findings as a group, calling it a discussion would be less accurate than it would be to call it a presentation given with the enthusiasm of a taxidermized cat. During that discussion, I started to wonder whether or not I could get back to Florida if a crisis hit and all technology failed. I devised that I would have to go across Russia and down through Alaska, but rowing 55 miles between the continents might be a stretch. Anyway, the point of this tangent was that the energy of the room was not stellar. After all, out of the entire month of this class, we only have 5 lectures and the rest are discussions like this, or projects with TW (time waster) or school sponsored events.

World’s Weirdest Sport

This week’s school sponsored event was a sport called bumper ball. Bumper ball is played exactly like Soccer, only you are wearing an inflatable ball around you so you can physically crash into the other team and practice Newtons 2^nd law. We all were able to form teams and overall, we all had a lot of fun at the expense of our bodies when we woke up the next morning. If anyone is interested, my team did not do great. We had two losses and one win but considering the last time I played soccer was when I was nine, I can’t really say that I’ll lose sleep over this defeat.

The Locals

One of the requirements that has been outlined for this blog has been to speak with the locals and get their opinion on whatever topic, so long as it is appropriate. Aside from the Nobel Prize research that I have to do (which doesn’t really have anything to do with this class) this fulfillment was my least favorite on the list. It’s not that I wanted to be anti-social but from everything that I had heard and researched, the Swedish citizens were more reserved when it comes to conversation, and as I have pointed out several times, I am quite proficient when it comes to verbally butchering their language. That being said, there are always exceptions to the rules, and I have had two separate conversations with two very nice groups of locals. One of which would end up helping me avoid a bad situation.

The Reason You Are Reading This

Last night on June 13^th (It’s the 14^th now so don’t worry, I’m still alive) me and a few friends of mine had gone out rather late. We had taken the wrong bus earlier in the night but ended up getting to where we wanted to go with the help of a friendly group of locals. The main person my friends and I came to know on this trip was named Carl (not his real name) and he and his friends were on their way to enjoy a few drinks after their long day. As it turned out, we were all heading in the same direction and we all got to know each other during the bus ride. After which, he and us parted ways and we thought nothing more of it. My friends and I started to do our late-night sight-seeing but due to a meeting with my group members I had the following morning (and the fact that I did not want to stay out until 5AM for the first bus of the morning) I decided to catch the last bus for the night and assured my friends that I would be fine. They waited with me for the bus and, as it would turn out, Carl and his friends were just getting out of a nearby bar and catching the same bus. We exchanged normal greetings and when the bus came, me and Carl’s started to board. Something I did not account for is that even though it was a Thursday night, the last bus of the night was packed full! Reluctantly, I shoved in with the other passengers to any space I could stand in. I think it was because of this that I appeared to be alone because my new-found friends were several rows ahead of me. Queue the meeting of my new all-too-friendly acquaintances.

There were two men in their early twenties, on the right next to me. There was one more on the left of me. From the looks of it and the way they were speaking, they had clearly been drinking. Not really to my credit, I am overly friendly to people, so when they started to talk to me, I obliged. That being said, I am also extremely cautious and paranoid to the extent that when they started talking to me, I thought I was being targeted but did my best to brush it off. Their questions seemed innocent enough; it was obvious I was a tourist, but where I lived, how well I spoke the language, where exactly I am from in the US, were all questions they had asked. The other thing they were trying to silently figure out was if I was drunk and realizing that this situation was turning south, I pretended to be. I am roughly three stops away from the end of the line (also my stop) when I realize that a fourth person has approached me from behind. One last thing I should mention is that I have taken martial arts for seven years at this point and despite those skills, it is best to avoid a confrontation if you can. One-on-one fights are doable, even with a weapon. Two poses a problem, three is either an initial attack that must render the subject unable to fight, and/or a flight tactic. When you are faced with a group of four possible assailants, unarmed or not, your best bet is to clear a path through the weakest looking one and run, drawing as much attention as you can along the way. This was going to be my plan. I stumbled over to a different section of a bus. One reason was to make it look like I truly was drunk and the other was to not be surrounded. It was at that moment that Carl came up to me and started talking to me. I ended up exiting the bus with Carl and his friends as they lived in Raslatt as well. Something Carl ended up telling me was that what I experienced wasn’t common, but sometimes something that happened to tourists late at night. Carl was also listening to our conversation at times and mentioned a few things to me that they had said in Swedish, not knowing that he was a now very firm friend of mine. I wish I could have made excuses for the actions of these men, but the final confirmation for me was that when I looked back on the bus, just moments after Carl had started talking to me, my all-too-friendly acquaintances left quickly without saying goodbye.

As bad as that experience was, I am glad to say that I am okay and even though this happened to me, I am glad that it did happen to me rather than anyone else on this study abroad. I was luckily able to return to my apartment unharmed and warn the others through our group chat. Traveling is always exciting for better or for worse and I refuse to let one bad experience paint any stereotype in my head about my experiences, this country, or the types of people involved in this situation. For those of you concerned for me, while it is appreciated, please do not be. I do not plan on traveling stupidly and I will remember this experience next time. I am still having a wonderful time in Sweden and I promise to tell you all bout it again soon.

Today marks another day in Sweden that was filled with mainly schoolwork. Our lesson today consisted of our group going into negotiations with a different group to buy shoes from them. How many shoes you ask? 70-90. How much should we pay for them? A couple hundred SEK per pair. When do we need them? Soon. You may notice that as the questions go on, the vagueness of the terms do as well. One could argue that this is a factor of the real-world business and that researching a product is a vital step in the contracts negotiation, but then again, one could also argue that our imaginary marketing department should be fired for not specifying a date and price point before announcing an event where we give out shoes.

Before Negotiations

I should preface that before this negotiation was to take place, each predetermined group was given a role. Either buyer or seller, and though it was rather open-ended, the buyers and sellers were given written terms that we were told to aim towards and what incentives we could manage. Neither group could look at the other’s notes, but apparently, they were equally vague as I would find out. That works for me and my group…enter TW. TW is short for time-waster and it is the only way I can refer to her at this point because, while everyone else in my group contributed to the prompt, TW liked to take the productiveness of our discussions and hold it hostage until we listened to her stories or experiences, which largely either had to do with her returning something from the store, or her rephrasing what we had discussed 5 minutes ago. I wouldn’t mind the second half if it was truly lack of understanding, but it became abundantly clear that TW did not bother reading the assignment after I had to cut her off of her 12 minute explanation of what questions we should ask about the manufacturer’s equipment, in order to tell her that we are buying directly from the supplier, who, has in fact, no equipment. Gracefully admitting her mistakes or so I wished, she then proceeded to tell us about her husband’s work (which had nothing to do with said negotiation) and how he sometimes did not have equipment that he needed for his job in manufacturing.

The Day of Negotiations

After the 30-minute preliminary meeting that lasted a full hour, our group had done some very thorough research and created very solid stances that we would bring to the negotiations table. Before the negotiations, each group would watch a string of videos provided by the University about miscommunications throughout different cultures. The video was very informative but not really appropriate for the time being due to the fact that we had already been in Sweden for a week and by that time we had already accidentally offended more than enough people to learn our lesson (kidding), and we had all gotten a sense for each other (except for TW) to the point where general cultural miscommunications were not going to be as much help at this point. The real issue was general communication but that is something I will touch on later. Due to the fact that TW was in our group, it took us all 15 minutes and 3 anecdotes longer than our sellers to watch the videos. Thankfully we had come prepared because they had just received 15 minutes more to figure out their pitch. Overall the actual negotiations went well. I believe all of us talked at some point and after TW’s obligatory drain on our existences, we were able to establish reasonably good terms for both sides. Even better, we established them amicably. As we would come to find out, the amicability was harder for most groups than the price point of the negotiation, which I found interesting due to the fact that imaginary shoes caused real insults to be passed amongst the groups. If you’re going into the market of fake shoes I would tread very carefully because the tensions are quite high.

Overall, I know that this problem with TW is serious and I am working on possible ways to handle this. I believe any group will have problems and the added international difficulty makes this a unique experience for me. On the bright side, if this goes well, then I can use it for the most common interview question about difficult teamwork I have faced. I would hate to replace the story about the group consisting of me and two people who broke up during the project, but this one may be a bit more relevant.