The view from the hill...

So, it looks like to matter where I go, I always end up going to a school with a view. Södra Vätterbygdens Folkhögskola, our home here in Jönköping, is located on a hill that overlooks the town, and is also right next to a nice park. I've already encountered the inherent hardships with living with such a nice view, like staring off into space for long periods of time, and the physical hardships of having to climb up it every time I get back from town. Even breakfast makes some of us winded, because there is a rather large hill from our dorm to the main dining hall. But at least we sleep well at night.

It seems like just yesterday I was out on the streets of famous West London, exploring Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and the many parks and museums which are west of Westminster. Although I did experience a cold wet 'typical' London day on Saturday, I still was able to enjoy myself in spite of the added Easter break crowds.

I think the best day from the second half of my time in London has to be Friday, because I got to do two things I haven't done before. Firstly, I took a ride on one of London's famous double-decker buses and sat on top, which is totally worth it, despite the inherent mundane nature of riding on a bus. Although I also went to the amazing National Gallery on Friday, in the evening I went to the musical Wicked, which I had never seen before. Some people may know I'm not usually one for musicals, even after having been in a few, because the point of (most) musicals is just to flash bright lights at you with big sets and place cliched plots into new, but just as predictable settings. Well, Wicked may have been entertaining because of its bright lights, big sets, and flashy costumes, but I also really enjoyed the story, and was really taken by the acting and singing quality of the cast. I don't want to spoil the musical for anyone, but even though they have quite a few lines we've all heard before, and even though you knew what was going to happen, I was still finding myself drawn in and liked the show for what it was.

So after going to many a museum, historical landmark, and doing so many of those things you 'have to do' in London (and walking to each and every one of them mind you), I flew back to Sweden on Sunday. After meeting some new friends while waiting five hours for the bus, and while on the bus meeting a Somali woman who has family in Minneapolis, I arrived in Jönköping at 3:45am on Monday. Luckily for me, I have an amazing professor with his sister's car who came and picked me up. It was great to see a familiar and friendly face again.

Since Monday, we've been getting used to the town here, planning what were going to do for the rest of the time, and slowly coming to terms with the fact that this is going to be our final destination here in Sweden as a group. We're going to be making a few extended field trips, but come May 19th, which is a month and three days from now, the group will depart from here and leave me to be on their merry way home.

While here, we'll resume our Swedish lessons, but on top of that, we'll also be going up with a few of the classes taught here. There's a history class, a Swedish class, a sport club, but I believe I will enjoy the Political Science/International Relations course the most over the coming weeks. Although we have yet to take part in the class itself, since there are other international students here from places like Russia, China, and India, I'm sure the discussions will be both interesting and, at times, heated.

I'll leave you today with the view from the lake here in Jönköping. It's so long, you can't see the other side because of the curvature of the earth. We're all looking forward to warmer weather soon, and hopefully I'll have more things to say next time.

OMGOMGOMG

So, I just got back from a great walk. The sky is perfectly clear, the stars are out, the night is warm... and I just walked back from seeing Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett here in Norwich, UK. I also had pictures of them both with myself on my camera, and their autographs on my playbill. Jealous yet?




It was way more than awesome. The play is notorious for being both indecipherable and over-interpreted. I've read it many times, studied it at least twice, and knew some ways this play can be interpreted, but I think I never truly understood what it meant. This performance, albeit with my two favorite actors alive today, provided clarity and a precise interpretation of what the performance meant to this show.

Many of us in the US say guh-dough, but in this performance, there was a definite GOD-ot, which really set the tone of the play to what I believe is its strongest meaning, that is, a reflection of God/Religion, Action/Morality, and basically telling a story in the context of a completely farcical one. I loved everything about the execution- except for maybe the set- but to see wonderfully developed characters playing with each other on stage, communication, dynamicism, I mean, this performance embodies what good theater is all about. What I loved is that their star power did not diminish from the actual performance, and I wasn't ever expecting Vladimir to say 'two to beam up' or Estragon to tell Lucky "You shall not pass!"

Of course, this is not the only thing I've been doing. Since it's late here in Norwich, I'll be brief. I've been to the Tate Modern, and of that I have a few short things to say. A) I really liked it when painters used paint on their canvases. At least some paint. B) Art should be artistic, not blatantly not artistic to try and be not artistic, because then it's not art by definition. C) Abstraction needs something to abstract from. D) I would say that minimalism is not in itself a style, but rather specific artists' minimizations of their own style, which is why artists who start as minimalists need to stop. Finally E) Modern Art is good so long as it is both serving a purpose and is expressive. Please don't just say "then what is art, Alex?" because we both know that no one can answer that question well.

I've also been to the Imperial War museum, which wasn't actually about wars of empire per se, but rather WWI-present. With great detail in retelling all viewpoints of all major wars Britian has been a part of, it was really interesting to examine from an American point of view, seeing as we hardly hear about the grimy details of the battle of Britian, or get to see an outside view on the Vietnam conflict, or the wars in the Middle East. An equally interesting part of this museum, however, was the massive sections devoted to both the Holocaust and Human Rights violations. Not wanting to get into details, some pretty grim comparisons could be made between the paintings and photography of the concentration camps, and the horribly gratuitous and self-deprecating 'art' at the Tate. There was a lot of thinking that went on.

I also made a stop into Westminster, where I saw Big Ben, the Abbey, and (unintentionally) a protest against the violence in Sri Lanka and also in general around the Arab world. The Abbey hosts an evening service (called Evensong) every day at 5pm, and it's the one thing I would recommend to anyone who goes to London. The choir, which is men and boys, are highly professional, and it may have been because of how long it has been since I played music myself, or maybe how long it has been since I heard professionals perform, but I know that it's a rare experience when music makes me tear up a little, and it did in the Abbey. Not many people hear that kind of choir often, but the blend of the choir, matched with the medieval style of music, in the cavernous Westminster Abbey all added up to be one of the most splendid musical moments I have bore witness to. In particular, I showed up right at 5pm, and the choir was just about to start, but they were behind the partition in the hall, meaning that they were actually facing me and about 4 other people who had just walked in as well, and as they sang their first song it felt like they were singing to just us. Having just stepped out of police sirens and political demonstrations, it was all too fitting. Beautiful moment.

Tomorrow I hop on to the train and ride back to London, where I begin the second half of my time there. Who knows what's actually going to happen. I love exploring.

London's finally here!

So, after a few bumps in the road, I finally made it to London. After two pretty rough travel days, night flights, and breathing in the fresh air of Frankfurt, Germany, I have two feet firmly planted on British Soil. At least, they all speak with British accents here. I've already screwed that up once; last night as I was ordering my train ticket from the airport to downtown London, I said, "Jag vill åka från här till Liverpool Station. Vilken tåg skulle jag ta?" To which the guy gives me a really odd look, says in a thick British accent, "Come Again?" and I think about how weird it will be, especially once I get back to the states, not having to talk to everyone in public places in Swedish. Over the past few days, Hegel and The Aeneid have kept be great company, but I think Virgil can take little more beating (both covers have fallen off, and the pages are quite loose too. Worth saving though, and thanks Grandpa for letting me take them before I left). Now, however, I have five random strangers to keep me company in my room, and the whole of London to occupy my time with for the next week.


I've already been doing my thing today, that is, walking around. My hostel (YHA St Pauls on Carter if you're trying to follow on Google maps) is right in between St. Pauls Cathedral and the River Thames, so I decided to walk the river in a big loop from where I am to what I thought was London Bridge and back. Turns out, London bridge is rather boring, so I blame American media for portraying Tower bridge as London bridge, and I ended up going all the way east to Tower Bridge (and, more importantly, the Tower of London). On my way though, I saw some cool things. For one, I crossed the Millennium bridge to the Tate Museum, but to my surprise, right next to it is Shakespeare's Globe Theater! It looked totally out of place, at least to me.


The tower bridge was pretty sweet to see up close- I didn't realize how big it was from all those Austin Powers movies or something. I was inadvertently corrected by a Brit who was complaining about all the Americans that confuse Tower bridge with London bridge, but that made me wonder, what does London bridge actually look like? Well, for all of you who are now wondering, it looks like this (the photo before the Globe), and it probably won't be falling down anytime soon either since they stopped building shops and houses on it (like the nursery rhyme).

After a quick stop back at the hostel, and listening to all the church bells go off around London for Palm Sunday (see video), I made my way back to the Tower of London. To me, that's kind of a misnomer. If I conceptualize tower of London, I think of the big radio tower here since it's basically the only skyscraper, but this Tower is far more like a fortress than anything else. So much like a fortress, in fact, that the only successful campaign launched against it was done by peasants in the 1300s, and it's also the storage place for the crown jewels. Yes, I have gazed upon the crown jewels of the throne, amongst other things. I've seen the biggest diamond in the world (impressive, but hard to believe it isn't a Claire's knockoff) as well as some pretty sweet swords, gilded maces, and purple crowns.

Among the many towers in the Tower of London, there are a few that the average tourist can enter. One exclusively features carvings prisoners have made into the walls during the 16th century. These are not the typical 'Alex 2009' which may or may not be inscribed in a certain church or residence in Sweden, but fully developed crests, lions, latin phrases, mottos, and other very detailed markings. Frankly, I was impressed by the artistry, even if they were inscribed with knives and other basic tools. Now, you also have to consider that these weren't your average prisoner, but could basically do everything they could at their own residence, except for leave, that is. Some of the most well-affiliated prisoners had their wives brought in, and a kid or two, and on top of that wrote a book (Sir Walter Raleigh), but most were afforded the luxuries of the nobility.

There was also an exhibit called Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill, a collection of his arms, armour, and war collections during his reign. As some of us know, Henry VIII was as violent hunting game as he could be to his wives, and although he sucked at collecting sons, he collected everything war-related very well. I saw full suits of armor for both man, child, and horse, more pikes and broadswords than I would know what to do with, Mace-guns, Pike-guns, Halberd-guns, guns, bigger guns, artillery, bigger artillery, multi-barreled artillery that had exploded, plunder, and oh so much more. It got kind of overwhelming when we gazed upon his codpieces, or had a laugh over the suit of armour made for his exceedingly overweight body.

There were a lot of interesting and nice things to do within the castle walls, but I think two will stand out to me most. The runner up is how well kept everything was; from the grasses, to the flowers, to the location in general, it really helps force the recent memory of winter out of me. The video below is of the grounds and the view from one of the battlements, which also looks out over the Thames. The most memorable thing was the guided tour by the Yeomen, however. These old and distinguished army personnel get to live in the Tower if they serve over 22 years with good conduct to even be considered, but on top of that they (usually) have a very good sense of humor. Our guide today was cracking jokes left and right, and apparently thought I was Swedish, or at least nordic, because not only had a totally spaced out when he asked who the Americans were (he was making fun of their slow sense of humor), I was wearing my Gustavus Adolphus sweatshirt, and I stand a full head taller than most people in this country (he said something about not even the vikings attacking this part of England; again, I had spaced out, but 'awoke' to the whole crowd looking at me and some people chuckling). Still, I really enjoyed myself and was happy to find out a little bit more about just the kind of people who get executed here, and what kind of prisoners lived in the halls, and other cool bits of information. (Note that this picture is from the inner wall, looking at the clothesline and car parked inside the outer wall of the castle.)


Today was really tiring. I love to walk everywhere, but that gets a little wearing. Tomorrow, I plan to see the Tate Museum of Modern Art, and maybe the London Museum as well, and get my tickets for Norwich in advance. Only three days until I'll be slobbering over what I've heard is a stunning rendition of Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart. I can't wait. If you have any suggestions as to what I can't leave London without seeing, please e-mail them to me at Alexlegeros@gmail.com. There's certainly plenty to do here, but I'm looking to suggestions to help make a priority list so I know I'm getting the most out of this week.

My how time flies

I apologize if this sounds a little 'journal-y.' I wrote most of this in different locations yesterday, so I didn't realize how long it got. I promise, I won't mind if you just look at the pictures on this one. Here's a funny one, just to give perspective on how large and small cars can get here in Sweden:

How should one capture a week on a blog? There’s so much to say, so many details, so many people, places, new experiences, the occasional struggle… too overwhelming to try to enumerate in its entirety. Then again, that seems to be the theme of this trip, so I will do the best I can.

Right now, in this little café in Jönköping that overlooks a lake, I’m already asking myself where these last two weeks in Stockholm have gone. Just last Satuday I was looking around the Modern Art Museum, trying to find as many H&M’s as I could find, and taking in as many churches and buildings as I could. Sunday is pretty easy to remember- outside of getting of the boat to find lunch, I worked a lot on a presentation about Sweden’s military from the Cold War to the present. You’ll see that our ‘findings’ are quite bold; when I had this picture up at a fast food restaurant that evening, I apparently was turning heads of those in line and around me.

Monday I presented those findings to our group. They too found it pretty interesting, or at least that picture was. The afternoon was spent in Santa Clara Church in downtown Stockholm, where we met with Kolleg, the vicar there. His story was quite unique: he started as a pastor in a small town when he was 23, brought a lot of vibrancy to his congregation through different youth and other activities, and eventually worked his way to becoming a missionary in Tanzania. After preaching to packed churches and studying and writing about how to grow congregations, he came back and began preaching at Santa Clara. On his first Sunday in 1989, in this massive church, he turned to the congregation only to see three old women looking back at him, none younger than 80. Since then, he has been commended by the King for the social work he has done in the area, known for its high crime rate and prostitution. Today, he says that the church is filled on Sundays, and it thanks coffee for bringing everyone in from the cold (well, they are Swedes, what would you expect when you offer free coffee?). It’s odd to me that for a country that up until recently had a state church that worked so closely with the government, almost no one goes to church with any sort of regularity. Not just in Stockholm either, but even in traditionally religious regions of Sweden church attendance is at best 15% of the baptized population (which is almost everybody).

Tuesday we got to see two of the biggest attractions in Stockholm: Dramaten, and the Vasa Museum. In the morning we got a tour of Dramaten, the royal dramatic theater here in Sweden, founded by Gustav III in the late 1700s. The original purpose of the theater was to educate Swedes about the Swedish language through theater, and so everything that’s performed on that stage is translated into Swedish. Last week at the Swedish Academy, also founded by Gustav III, we learned that the opera house and the academy itself were supposed to take foreign work and perform it in Swedish, to educate and culture the people as well. Dramaten itself is huge; one main stage, a dance studio, a black box, highly ornamented all over in the ‘Gustavian’ or Empire style, and they even had a marble room with busts of important Swedish directors and actors and a giant portrait of (guess who?) Gustav III. Backstage was really interesting too; we got to see the costume shop, one of their two huge costume storage areas, walk the skyway (a little less wide and a lot farther up than in Minneapolis), and see what goes on under the stage as well. Of there over 10,000 costumes which they keep, there were a few really cool ones that we got to see. I think my favorite was the baby troll costume from Peter Gynt that Ingmar Bergman directed in the 1990s, but there was also a cool Queen Elizabeth dress that weighed a lot and a jacket that would appear soaking wet on stage but just looked covered in white and black paint up close. We also learned a little about wig making at Dramaten, which is done using real human hair and, at least in the front, stitching in one hair at a time.

We also got to see the Vasa Museum (the ship, not the guy like in Mora) on Tuesday. The ship is huge. Hugely huge. If you know anything about the history of the ship itself, you know that its size is probably the cause of its downfall: Gustavus II Adolph (the Gustavus we’re most familiar with) ordered this ship to have a second row of cannons and to enhance the officer’s quarters, and that made the ship super unstable. As the story goes, it sailed for about a kilometer before a gust of wind came and it sank right in the deepest part of Stockholm harbor. Although they didn’t salvage the ship, divers using these giant bell-shaped things as an underwater air reservoir were able to salvage over 50 of the bronze cannons, which is astounding if you consider they had basically no light and were using mid-17^th century diving equipment. After it was pulled up and preserved (1950s-70s) and after using various methods to make sure the wood doesn’t rot or fall apart, it looks like a giant work of art today. There are so many things to look at on the ship itself, so much symbolism (a typical Polish nobleman stuck behind bars, for instance), and so much detail that it’s hard to take it all in. On top of this, it was once painted, so it’s fun to see what artist’s conceptions look like as well. Tons of exhibits, thousands of artifacts, some re-created faces from skeletons they found when they brought up the ship, and a lot more- definitely worth going to the next time you’re in Stockholm.

Wednesday was another busy day. We met with the Swedish Institute in the morning, and I was really surprised by how well received we were. SI is responsible for a lot of things, but is primarily concerned with the teaching of Swedish as a language abroad. It had focused on different regions of the worth throughout time, like Eastern Europe after the Cold War, and Asian nations today, but was originally founded in 1945 because “Sweden had an image problem.” Sweden was worried that its ‘neutrality’ during WWII may be misconstrued due to the transport of Nazi troops from Norway to Denmark through Sweden and the other troops movements the Nazis did to get a better hold on Norway. The people at the institute were very interested in our trip, and have asked us to write it up for their publication, which is a great honor considering they look at programs all around the world for that. They also were very generous, and outside of coffee, tea, and coffee cake, they gave us SI bags and some really cool books to choose from. Since Roland has used some of them in his classes before, many of us just picked them up then and there. I had a much more interesting time than I thought we would.

After that, we met with Amy Leval, a Gustavus grad, working as a researcher at the Karolinska Institute. She gave us a presentation on healthcare and the HPV vaccine, focusing a lot on Sweden and how it has been received here. The HPV vaccine has become standard now in the list of vaccinations students receive at school, and some women are worried about it and its effects. We did a comparative study question that asked why instances of Type II diabetes might be less prevalent in Sweden than it is in the US, to which we were very active in accusing all the bad things the typical American does, and how great Sweden is at encouraging good lifestyles. Call us biased, but we discussed huge differences between the two cultures: universal health care, exercise habits, diets and the lack of super processed foods, natural cane sugars… the list can go on for a while. It made us feel like all the walking we’ve been doing for the last few months has been worth it.

The afternoon featured a visit to two Gustavus grads at Vattenfall, the largest energy company in Sweden, and now the 5^th largest energy company in Europe. Annika Ramsköld and Lena Hovland, both Gustauvs grads and also memebers of the upper administration in Vattenfall, led us to the top of the building, which had a great view of the big Library in Stockholm and its park, and we fikaed and went over a lot fo Vattenfalls's environmental vision for the future. It hopes to be carbon neutral by 2050, which is a huge deal for a power company that still operates plenty of coal plants. They also powerate hydro and nuclear power plants, and have small scale offshore windfarms, biomass plants, and are experimenting with wave power too. Since they're a state company, the dividens go back to the people of Sweden. Green and making money for the country? If only Excel could do the same.

Thursday is by far the easiest to describe. Studying. It was a beautiful day, but many of us spent it in the cabin, studing to Lennart's final test, which was from 4:30-7:00pm. Many of us thought it was really hard, but the best part about tests is that once they're done, they're done. And now it's done. No more worries!

Friday, yesterday for me now, was the day of traveling- or at least was supposed to be. I left af Chapman for Jönköping by bus early in the morning, and met with the people from the next youth hostel we'll be staying with after Easter. Johan, our contact person there, was really gracious to us and extended an offer to store our extra baggage over break. I think I'm the only one that took him up on it, but not only is my luggage safe there, it's in the room I'll be staying in. The sky was beautiful, the view is gorgeous, but I'm saving those pictures for another post.

After a bus ride to Göteborg, and almost getting on a bus to the wrong airport, I finally got the Göteborg City Airport. I also got there two hours earlier than the suggested two hours early, so I had a lot of free time to brood over the small details that weren't going quite to plan. Then, after I finally got my passport stamped and went through security and stood in line for an hour, it was announced that our flight was canceled due to weather. At this point, I had been awake for about 20 hours, and was at my wits end. After re-booking a flight today (I get a layover in Frankfurt) I made my way back to the bus station, and then to the Robinson hotel. Although it's more than I would have paid for my night in London by four-fold, it was nice to sleep in my own room and have breakfast taken care of. Plus, I found another copy of a really cheap poster my mom got me when I went to college before my freshman year framed and hanging in the hallway. Although I'm down to my last kronor, I hope I won't be delayed again on my journey to London. As Buddha says, it's not the destination, but the journey that's importaint. Wish me luck! Hopefully I will be updating my blog more than weekly so this doesn't happen again. Thanks for reading-