In addition to being a photographer, I also write about travel and place, and last week, I was invited (along with various travel industry professionals and airlines) to a workshop organized by Dagama Travelweb and held at the swanky Stockholm nightclub – Collage.
From salsa dancing and freshly made Brazilian Caipirinhas to various airline swag, it was a good opportunity to network and mingle with others in the business.
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Well, I’m back.
Fifteen hours of flight time, a five-hour delay in Washington D.C. due to thunderstorms, and I’m back in Oregon. My student visa has expired, meaning my studies in Sweden have come to an end.
It’s been a long, strange journey, but it seems it has reached its end. Or has it?
The last 302 days have brought some of the greatest joys of my life – from meeting new friends to seeing the world outside the United States for the very first time – and some of the greatest challenges (having to learn a new language, making new friends, having to cook for myself). There were times where all I really wanted to do was leave Sweden, to go back to the familiarity of the Pacific Northwest, but somehow I stuck through it. And because of it, I’ve emerged a wiser, better man.
The hardest thing I did in Sweden? Leaving.
It’s no secret that I fell in love with the country. The landscape, the people, and yes, even the climate, grew on me in a way I could never have imagined. If I had my way, I would stay forever.
For the first time in my life, I actually felt at home. Like all my life I had been away, and had finally come home.
But unfortunately I had to leave. I still have one more year of studies at Boise State, and without a job, I had run out of money.
So I went back. Was I happy about it? No. But it’s what I had to do.
Jag alskär Sverige - I love Sweden. Photo: Martin Winberg
I’m already dealing with reverse culture shock. Let me tell you: integrating back into the culture of your home country is much harder than assimilating into Swedish culture. That’s what no one can prepare you for, what no study abroad advisor can tell you: that sometimes you don’t want to go back, and when you do it can be almost overwhelming.
I’ve found I’ve changed in ways I could never have imagined. In just the few days I’ve been back, friends and family have commented more than once on my newfound accent. Seriously, I now speak English with a noticeable Swedish accent. I never thought about or noticed it before, but I’ve spent so much time in Sweden that it rubbed off on me so much that I even picked up the habits and mannerisms of native-born Swedes, permeating my very being and changing how I perceive the world.
It astonishes even me.
It feels like I’ve left a part of myself behind, like I don’t really belong in the U.S. anymore. I’m trying to keep myself busy to help bury my feelings, but I admit it’s not easy.
“Lord of the Rings” is one of my favorite movies. The other day I was watching “The Return of the King,” when something happened to me that’s never happened before while watching it: I cried. It was the conclusion, when Frodo and his friends return home after destroying the One Ring, and they were sitting in a pub. The characters silently shared a toast, the music was simple and unpretentious, and suddenly I cried. Like a light bulb switching on in my head, the parallels became instantly stark: Frodo and his friends had experienced things nobody else would understand, travelled to strange lands much farther than anything they had ever known, and now they were home. The journey was over, their lives had been forever changed, and no one else would ever understand. The same, I realized, had happened to me. It hadn’t really sunk in before, but now I knew that I was back.
The best part about studying abroad? The people you meet. Photo: Ben Mack
The list of people who I’d like to thank could literally fill an entire novel, but to name just a few I’d especially like to thank University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC) for helping me realize my dream of going abroad, Lennart and Katrin Nordmark (my host parents) for helping create a home away from home (not to mention providing more “cultural experiences” than I can count), Karin Siöö and the rest of the International Office at Linnaeus University, Professor Jerald Catt-Oliason for teaching me to remember to listen, Katrin Ruffing for inspiring me to go abroad and being such a gracious host when I visited Germany, Jana Lepple and Clementine Monet for also inspiring me to cross the Atlantic, Sari Kiviharju and Sara Vanaikka for giving perspective to things, Foluoso Abbey for helping me see inward, John Harrigan for reminding me that the world is not flat, my parents for all their love and support (both financially and emotionally), my wonderful corridor mates – from both the Fall and Spring semesters – for helping make me feel like part one big, dysfunctional family, Martin Winberg for being my best mate in Sweden and keeping me sane (and for teaching me more than a little Swedish), Julie Blomberg for encouraging me to have faith in myself (not to mention question everything), Corrine Henke and the International Office at Boise State University, Christine Deppe for always being there when I needed to talk to someone, Tamar Amashukeli for helping me see the world through new eyes, Alina Merinscu for being a doppelgänger for so many of my adventures, and of course the people of Sweden for putting up with me for the past year.
For anyone else I neglected to mention, I haven’t forgotten you. I blame human nature for not having the patience to go through all the names. I also want to thank you, readers, for following this blog. Writing for the Swedish Institute has been an incredible, and unique, opportunity, and I’m glad to have shared with you my experiences and tips and tricks for surviving – and thriving – in Sweden. Hopefully you won’t make all the mistakes I did!
My immediate plans are simple: in August I will return to Boise State for my senior year, where I will also be working as Opinion Editor of The Arbiter (the university’s student newspaper) and living on-campus in the Global Village Community, a special housing program for international students and those who want to gain new perspectives from them and help them adjust to life in the U.S.
And after that? Who knows?
Maybe I will return to Sweden one day. Perhaps I will never go there again. But whatever the future might hold, I know this: I am better off for having studied in Sweden.
Studying abroad is not merely a physical journey – it is also an academic, cultural, emotional, and spiritual journey. In other words, it is personal. No two people have the exact same experience, and no two people reach the same conclusions afterwards.
But what exactly are those conclusions? No one can really say until one has gone abroad, and even then there’s no guarantee conclusions will ever be reached. It is an enigma of a most individual nature.
The Swedish sunset is one of many things I'll miss. Photo: Anne Balonier
I am not a celebrity. I have not been, and probably never will be, President of the United States. I am just an ordinary, average person who has had an extraordinary experience. But so, why then, am I bothering to write this? The answer to that is simple.
By studying abroad, you will gain an increased appreciation for the interdependency of the world today, the commonality we all share as human beings
While no one else will ever have the exact same experiences I have, studying abroad is nonetheless something that is more attainable today than at any other moment in history.
If you do decide to go abroad, dear reader, Sweden is an ideal location. I think my blog posts, and those by fellow student blogger Kristin Follis and other bloggers at the Swedish Institute, speak for themselves as to the reasons.
But know this: there are many more reasons why you should study in Sweden, reasons which words cannot possibly begin to describe.
In the words of St. Augustine, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”
Tack så mycket, och hej då.
On the coast of Öland the day before going back to the U.S. Photo: Ben Mack
I’m through. Finished. Pooped. Exhausted. Drained. Just plain old tired.
After nine months of studying, I need a little break.
When studying in Sweden, you try to squeeze in vacations where you can. Unlike the U.S., at Linnaeus University there is no designated “finals week.” Classes are ongoing, a rolling schedule that’s sometimes more confusing than a Picasso painting.
And after having no less than four finals within the span of two weeks, I need a break.
So I’m off to Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania, a five-day odyssey that – though it will test the limits of budget travel and human mental endurance – should hopefully prove to be invigorating.
With me I am bringing but a single backpack packed with a change of underwear and sandwiches. I have no travel guides, no maps, and no concrete plans whatsoever other than visiting some friends in Kouvola, a tiny town in southeast Finland whose entire population could fit comfortably inside a Wal-Mart.
Okay, so maybe not every moment in Växjö has been academic...
One of the great advantages of studying abroad for more than one semester is you have more opportunities to meet new people and make new friends all over the world. Seriously, even though until coming to Sweden last August I had never even been outside the United States before, I can now say I have friends in just about every country in Europe.
Here’s the benefits of having friends in many places:
A) You learn about their culture, particularly their leisure activities. Maybe you’ll find a new hobby.
B) You get to try new foods. Your taste buds will thank you later.
C) It saves money on trips overseas. Why sleep in a five-star hotel when you can crash on a pizza-covered couch?
I haven’t taken a vacation since November, so hopefully this adventure won’t turn out to be such a catastrophe as the last one. But, given the fact that I don’t speak a word of Lithuanian, Latvian, or Finnish, have absolutely no concrete plans whatsoever, and seem to constantly be constantly enveloped in a fog of intense confusion, my hopes aren’t the highest.
But that’s the beauty of travel: you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s enough to drive an NFL coach mad.
Having friends in many places can save on lodging costs when traveling, and makes for cool photos that have no point whatsoever.
Seize the opportunity when it presents itself. At the very least, it’ll make a sweet dinner conversation later on.
But before I go anywhere, I better get back to packing. You seen my socks?
I love to travel and experience new places and I think most of us international students here in Sweden would say the same. So when I found out there was an opportunity to go to Poland for a student conference I applied right away!
Some icebreakers/tree hugging love.
Two weeks after getting my acceptance I was off to the airport, one of my favorite places in the world. People might think I’m crazy, but it is true. There is something about the atmosphere that is very calming; after passing through security you sit and enjoy a coffee and read a newspaper, just awaiting some sort of adventure ahead of you. You can watch and wonder about those passing by, where they are going and who they will see. Maybe they just put something in the airport coffee, I don’t know.
So for me, leaving my apartment at 4:30 am to fly to Poland didn’t seem so bad after getting through security and sipping my chai latte in peace, thinking about what Poland will bring.
Working hard trying to understand the capacity for solar and wind power.
I have only been here just over 24 hours and enjoyed every minute. I arrived in Warsaw to meet with some other 80 students going to school all over the Baltic sea region.
We then travelled to Rogów where the conference would be held. Upon arriving, in what seemed like the middle of no where, we were shuffled into a really nice conference area where we were given rooms and tasty buffet dinner.
So far we have had a few icebreaker activities, to get to know all the students better, as well as participated in some workshops.
Workshops involve many speakers from within the region as well as hands on tasks, like creating sustainable energy sectors for different regions of Europe. While Lego may be involved it is far from how I played with it as a kid!
It is only day 2 of my week-long excursion to Poland so more to come on the conference and my hunt for the best Polish pierogi.
Some of my best expat memories have been made when I got to switch roles from visitor to host and show friends and family my new home. Of course, it always feels good to be the local expert for once instead of the newbie. Navigating the city without a map! Identifying the best coffee shop in town! Knowing which bus will take you to your destination! All important and satisfying skills.
Another thing I like leading up to the visit itself is that having guests gives you the opportunity to reflect on what you truly love about the place you’re living. Just think: you may have anywhere from three days to a couple of weeks to squeeze in all the things you want your visitor to experience and know about the place you live. You have to distill all the highlights of the time you’ve spent abroad to make a tour of what is now your home. What would you show a visitor that has never been to your country before? What strikes you as unique about your city? You’ll get to see what you really value, and it may end up surprising you.
Furthermore, it’s always interesting to see how the list of “must do” activities evolves depending on the visitor. It’s one thing when you have visitors from another city or another state—in most cases, there’s probably just as many familiar aspects of your city as there are new or exotic aspects. When you live in a foreign country, the stakes are a little higher. You have to put some serious effort into balancing the “here is where I work” and “these are my friends” parts of the visit with some serious tourist action. When I lived in Vienna, I did everything from the typical “Top Ten” tour of the city to a historical exploration of imperial residences to the underground foodie tour of open air markets and ethnic buffets. I even had one memorable weekend in which I shuttled all around the city with a friend to see the homes and workplaces of different classical musicians. My visitors’ different approaches to the city informed the approach we took to seeing it together as a team, and in the process I always ended up seeing a new side of my own home.
I haven’t had any visitors to Sweden yet, but I will soon, and I can’t wait. My best friend from high school is arriving on Saturday, and I have just under two weeks to show her as much as I can about Sweden and my life here. I’m also really looking forward to hearing her impressions of Sweden and my life here. She is just coming off 1.5 years of working in South Korea as an English teacher, and from what I’ve heard so far, I think that Sweden—and the sometimes sleepy Skåne region in particular—will have a dramatically different feel from where she has been living recently.
Katie Harger with goat cheese, circa 2005. I imagine that the wide range of dairy products available in Sweden will be among the most appreciated differences between Sweden and South Korea.
I started making a list of all the things I want to do with her, and then I had to divide it into different sections for Lund, Malmö, and beyond! (read: other places in Skåne, Copenhagen, and Stockholm) to make it more manageable. As you might guess, the sections for Lund and Malmö alone—the area where I live—have already exceeded the realm of what’s possible to do in the time we have together, let alone leaving any time to see other parts of Sweden or the surrounding area—you know, silly tourist attractions, just little places like Copenhagen and Stockholm. I don’t know how we’ll be able to pick and choose, but somehow we’ll make it all work. Maybe I can convince her to stay longer… (wink wink?!)
Obligatory Tourist Destination: Lund's Domkyrka. Photo by elsamu (CC BY NC ND)
More than anything, though, I’m really looking forward to being able to share my experiences as an expat with her instead of trying to describe it all in words. There are so many small details that create the sense of a place—the way people move through the streets, traffic sounds, street vendor food smells, the volume and tone people use when talking to each other, the colors people paint their houses and in which they dress themselves, and more, and more, and more. All these details can be perceived at the same time and often unconsciously as you move through the streets: my friend might appreciate my explanations from time to time, but I think that for the most part it will be enough for her to soak it all in without relying on me as an intermediary. I can’t wait until she arrives at the airport on Saturday, to share the place I live with my friend, and for us to experience this country in a new way together.
Bicycling: it's a way of life in Lund. Photo by Nicoze (CC BY NC ND)
Stay tuned to read about the still-evolving list of things to see and do in Lund and Malmö!
The estate of Katrinetorp is one of the places that Natur- och kulturbussen points out.
As many other weather-obsessed Swedes I’m eagerly following the progress of spring. Light mornings and days of sunlight don’t only make me wake up insanely early in the morning, it also awakes my longing for making excursions. I’m longing for wild forests, peaceful canals, old parks surrounding castles, small secret cafés… well, I simply want to get out of the city.
In most places it’s perfectly possible to do this without a car, it just requires some research. Where exactly is that field filled with dancing cranes? And what bus stop would be the right one to get off at?
In the province of Skåne in the South of Sweden, there’s no need for that research. A few years ago they started a project called Natur- och kulturbussen (”the nature and culture bus”). The project’s web page (some information in English) lists interesting nature areas, places to visit and nature and/or culture related things to do, all within the reach of public transport, and with a link to the public transport planner, showing how to get there.
Dalby hage. Photo: Lotten Pålsson.
When I speak to Sofie Norrby, who is project leader for Natur- och kulturbussen, she tells me that the idea behind this project is to encourage people to get out more, and quotes various studies showing how well-being and performance increase when we spend time outside. She also tells me that the arranged activities, where people can visit a new place together with others, works as an easy way to discover places where many wouldn’t otherwise dare to go to. Having been showed once how to get there, where to find the toilets/food/best spots, its easy to come back, bring your friends and become their guide.
Ready to go! Photo: Anna_T/Flickr.
The snow is falling down in big fluffy flakes outside my window and although it’s wonderful to be able to go cross country skiing, I must admit I have started to long for the bike season. Since Stockholm’s streets were covered in ice a few months ago I’ve been to much of a coward to get up on the wheels.
To feed my bike-starved mind I tend to lose myself in other people’s grand plans.
One great inspiration right now is Peter Dahlström and his girlfriend, who simply took their bikes and pedalled their way from Sweden to Paris in July last summer. I don’t know if I can think of a better way to see Europe – or Sweden for that matter. This summer Peter Dahlström is planning to make a bike tour along the edges of Sweden, a distance longer than 4000 kilometers… but not impossible in one summer, he points out!
Watching the video they made from their Paris trip makes me think about my own summer plans. I just received the good news that a friend is getting married in Greece in July, so it seems like there’s going to be a nice train adventure ahead, since I realize going to Greece by bike would take me a bit too long.
But someone who is firmly determined to go on an even greater bike trip is 20 year old Emil Börner, who will cycle all the way from Stockholm to Beijing. He had already planned his trip in detail, when he broke his back in an accident last spring. But after months of rehabilitation he is now again on his way, and will leave Sweden the 20:th of March. This time combining the trip of his dreams with a charity project to help others who have disabilities.
What I almost like the best with this video below, from the Sweden-Paris trip, is the end message: You don’t need a car to see the world. I agree!
From bicycle, with love from Bikeforlife on Vimeo.
Every summer, we usually make the 12-hour (14-hours with Max hamburger stops in Sundsvall and Skellefteå) journey to spend time with family in Luleå in Northern Sweden. The scenic route runs along the Gulf of Bothnia and Baltic Sea, occasionally cutting through villages lined with Falu red cottages along the way.
I didn’t know moose liked bananas. Not until I met Franz – a four-year bull – at the Arctic Moose Farm.
After failing to spot wild älg (moose) along the E10 highway which leads up to Kiruna (northernmost city with roughly 20,000 inhabitants), serendipity struck, and we spotted a sign to the small farm two kilometers north of Överkalix.
There, we would meet keepers Jörgen and Ana-Carin (pictured) along with their two bulls (Franz and Arthur), two cows (Ida and Elin), and twin calves – Klara and Märta.
The bus station agent in Luleå was certain I didn’t need a reservation for the bus to Jokkmokk.
But what if it was full? The next bus wasn’t leaving until three hours later.
“Don’t worry, if it is full, we’ll send another bus with only you on it at the same time.” So at 9:50 am, I boarded the bus, handed my ticket (207 SEK one way) to Lars, and joined four other passengers on the long haul double-decker bus to Jokkmokk.
