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.