See you soon Sweden

Well I initially thought I might add some more photos to this post, but after putting it off long enough because I couldn't bear putting an end to all those wonderful posts of my exchange year in Sweden...I've decided to leave it as it was at the time I last logged on. So here they are, a few photos to remember my time as a student at Lund University and residence in Sparta C 626.
Magnificent photos, wonderful friends and an overall fantastic experience....I'll be back :)

Norway

This country is beautiful! Its hard to describe how pretty this country is in words but hopefully the pictures can do a better job. For the first part of the trip we stayed with one of my mom's friends in Oslo. Frode was really nice and showed us around the town and treated us out to a nice picnic on the island and a traditional Salmon dinner. Top left is one of my favorite pictures taken on our hike up the fjord in Flam. After spending three days in the gorge and taking a boat tour up the Sognefjord (below) we continued on to Bergen. This city has it all as far as I could tell. Its right on the water has a world famous fishmarket, a lively atmosphere and nature right at the foot of the mountain.

Its hard to believe that the two photos below were taken just outside the city. From our hostel we walked directly up the mountain to the viewpoint over the city. We continued from there further into the wilderness by continuing the hike up the mountain. The views we saw are the ones below and it was absolutely breathtaking. I had to make sure mom didn't look down duing the hike because sometimes the terrain was quite steep.

Good Bye Parties :(

Though it was really fun to have all these parties it was still a little sad because it was the last time many of us would all be together. In the top left photo are three of my housemates, Lisa, Fredrik and Daniel at our corridor barbeque. The group shot was taken on Emilie's corridor in Spoletorp, the international student house. This corridor had many great memories and many of our evenings out at the nation started here with the pre-party :) As sad as good byes are it was great to know that some friendships last even with great distance. I met Eva my senior year in high school when she was an exchange student and she came and visited me here in Lund and even came out to my last night at VG. In the photo at right is Tuomas, my finnish friend that was also a fellow Karneval worker. We actually ended up doing laundry in Sparta together at 5 in the morning after the last Karneval workers party! Good times :)

Here's another group I spent a lot of time with during my year in Lund. My lab group went out to the restaurant in front of Kulturen as a little farewell to Ylenia, the Italien exchange studnet, and myself. Pictured from left to right are Martin, Viktor, Jessica, Kirill, Eva, Ylenia and her sister.

Falsterbo

Mom and Jackie joined me, Mel and Kara out to the southern coast of Sweden at Falsterbo. This is a popular vacation spot for Swedes and many Germans who come to populate the beaches in the summer. The weather was great for most of it but as you can see in the picture with the church the storm clouds were coming in fast. White churches such as the one below are typical of the scanian scenery.


Though it was June the water was still very cold and dipping my feet in for a few seconds was about as far as I would go!

Copenhagen with Mom and Jackie!

After staying up all night the evening before celebrating the goodbye of many friends till four and doing laundry thereafter, I barely caught the seven o clock train to Copenhagen that would get me to the airport on time to pick up the family! It was nice to see them after 10 months away. To keep from getting sleepy we all went straight to the bed and breakfast and after unloading began our tour of Copenhagen. I had seen it before a few times but today it was really nice. The second day we started by going to the Carlsberg Brewery :) Mom got us all an extra round of free samples in addition to having been admitted as a "student" by the nice man at the ticket booth. After a few rounds of beer we headed out on the town. The photos are all taken in and near the artist district of Christiania. The area is very interesting but we didn't stay long because there was still soo much too see!