It has been two days since my last post and oh what a two days it has been.

On

Monday, November 1, we moved into our dorms. After a little confusion on how to get to the International Housing Office and the dorms, we made here. We unpacked and walked around campus to get our student IDs and get a lay of the land. It is a beautiful campus with lots of wooded areas, water and modern sculptures. That may sound like an odd mixture but it really works! The campus is really spread out, my dorm, STIPENDIEGRÄND is located in Ålidhem area of campus. This area alone has 2 grocery stores, a hair salon, a few restaurant and a computer parts store. Although these features are nice, it is about 1.5 miles or 2.4 kilometers away from the main part of campus. The dorms are different from those in America. First, they are not labeled well at all which makes it hard to find in the dark since all the buildings look alike. Next, like other big buildings here in Sweden, the hallways are very closed off (as you can see in the picture). This building has 8 rooms (view from my room) in each corridor with each having a private bath, but with a community kitchen and living room. There is a laundry room on the first floor that the whole building shares. It is free of charge, but you must be signed up to use the facilities. We didn't know we needed to sign up and last night Nikole and I luckily each snuck in a load of laundry. Lists, lines and things having a proper order seem to be common trends here.

Today, November 2 was a very cold, but sunny day. There was frost and ice all over outside when Nikole, Kaci and I ventured out. We were in search of the hospital because that is where bus passes are sold. From the maps we had and the directions we had been told, it should have been about 10-15 minute walk to find this said hospital. It took so much longer. After an hour of walking and asking many strangers for directions, we found it! Once in the building, we had to ask many more strangers where the bus station desk was located. You would never know it was a hospital from the outside, it was a white and green huge building, with no red cross symbol or name labeled anywhere. We got our passes and headed downtown for some shopping. We were all in search of warmer wears as the temperature is dropping and the snow is coming! Nikole, Kaci and I ate a French Hot Dog from a vendor on the square, which is a small loaf of french bread with a hole for the hotdog- condiments go in before the hotdog. It was great and reminded me of Grandpa Lund, so in his honor I had a fresh pastry from the grocery store for dessert. We had a successful day downtown and found our bus back home. It was confusing again to find which bus was headed back to our area. But we found out buses 5 and 8 go from campus to downtown and back, which will make our lives easier.

After we returned to our dorms, we ran into the same problem we've been having - nothing to do. I know this doesn't seem possible in a brand new city, in a brand new country. The sun goes down around 3:30-4pm, this makes it hard to explore a new area. Campus is nice and everyone seems really friendly and willing to help, but it's a little intimidating walking around in the dark through the woods and alley ways the campus is made up of. The people in my corridor seem nice, but really keep to themselves and in their own rooms. We have a meeting on Thursday for our program where we're hoping to meet more people and find out new things to do.

Loving every minute of it, taking it all in to try and grow and learn from each day's experience.