The First Snowfall

Last night it started to snow
...and snow and snow.



By morning, there was about 20cm of snow on the ground. It was very pretty!. There are still berries on the trees which add a nice contrast to the white of the snow.

I don't think this will last though, the weather man says that we are supposed to see temperatures of 8-10C on the weekend. How is the temperature/weather at your end of the world?

Chilly Chilly Chilly

I have been putting off breaking out the winter coat- just because I don't want to admit that winter is here! But today I finally broke down...

The temperature is rapidy dropping and soon there will be snow on the ground, my guess is before the week is over. Last night the temperature was -10C- although it did not feel that cold. I think it is a dry cold so it does not feel that bad...

I have been told that last winter they had a record breaking temperature for this area: -42C, which was even too cold for the locals. The girl (Jenny) telling the story said she was stupid and bought flowers, which immediately froze on the walk home and snapped in half.

School is challenging right now. We have been assigned many articles to read, as well as many group assignments. School is beginning to consume my life and my time, although I am fighting it :) Hopefully I will be able to find an effective balance between time given to school and social life.

Mountains at Bydalan

On Sunday, Lina and I went on a day excursion to the mountains at Bydalan. It took about 2 hours to hike up to the top of the mountain, which was very rocky! The mountains in Sweden are not too high, but are wide and gently sloped.

The weather and temperature was fantastic and the mountain was covered with this light frosting of snow. There was even abit of ice in the streams and coming from the rocks. I was able to take a few pictures which have been posted...

Bydalan is about an hours drive west going towards Åre. We had to take three ferry rides and cross 4 islands to get there. The roads are really narrow, just wide enough for two cars to pass. In preparation for winter they have placed markers on the outsides of the road, which, I thought had a claustrophobic effect when there were cars coming towards you because of the narrow roads...stuck between a rock and a hard place, praying that you were judging the gap accurately!

I must say though, I am lucky! To protect my camera, I put it in my back pack. Well, during the climb up on the steep rocky mountain side, somehow my backpack zipper came undone....can you guess what fell out?

Yup! my very nice, extremely expensive camera. I was very sad as I watched it, in slow motion, take a tumble down the mountainside.

-but as I said I am lucky-

although it is alittle scratched up, the only thing that broke (I think anyways) is the lenses' ability to be focused manually. The camera still works, the automatic focussing still works, the lense itself is not scratched, phugh! I am going to take it to a camera shop just to get it checked out though.

So my lesson of the day is...
to ensure that there is no way that a zipper can come undone...secure it with something, tape or string or something! when there is a camera inside.

Oh yah! and I got to drive there because Lina is alittle uncomfortable driving. I am learning the different rules of the road and am becoming comfortable driving on the narrow streets! She tells me that when the snow comes and the winter driving comes into effect, I will be driving, so I think I might look into getting a Swedish license.

Blood Pudding

Yesterday, Lina cooked me dinner and gave me a Scandinavian delicacy...blood pudding. Knowing what it was before eating it made the experience rather challenging. Blood pudding is solidified, boiled pigs blood and cream, which is fried and served with lingon berries. Although I tried it, I don't think it is something that I will partake in again. She later said to me that she won't tell me when she is serving moose tongue and a sort of haggis...I thanked her for that.

My exam for my first course went really well. It was challenging but fair. The next course is about how to create a sustainable society, i.e. who creates the rules and enforces them, what rules need to be created and how much liberty does a government have in creating these rules. I think it will be more of an opinion based course rather than factual, which will make the lectures much more interesting to listen to than the last course.