Above The Arctic Circle - Kiruna Trip 2014

Kiruna is a town in Sweden that lies 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle, making Kiruna the northernmost town in Sweden.

The red bubble on this map is where Kiruna is located. 

 This week, I went on a four day trip to Kiruna organized by Rotary with 40 other exchange students from all over the world who live in different areas of Sweden. On the trip there were exchange students from India, Japan, South Korea, Italy, France, Argentina, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the USA.

Kiruna is about a 16 hour train ride north from where I live, but it's only a 1.5 hour flight from the Stockholm Arlanda airport, so I booked a roundtrip flight for this trip. I'm really glad that I booked a flight because traveling to and from Kiruna was quick and simple, and I got to fly with about 20 exchange students. 

Kiruna, facing the iron ore mine.

Day 1: 

On Monday morning, I took the commuter train from Uppsala to the Stockholm Arlanda airport. I met up with all of the exchange students who had booked the same flight, we bought coffee and later boarded the flight together. I sat towards the back of the plane with Emily (Canada), Hamish (Australia), Aakanksha (India), Madie (USA), and Tanner (USA). The flight went by super quickly and before I knew it we were in Kiruna.

On the plane.

Kiruna Airport.

 We were met at the airport by a group of Year 3 students in the Tourism Program. Their responsibility was to be our tour guides for the week. They organized every activity and excursion for us and they were great hosts. After lunch at their school, we walked down the hill from the school to our accomodation. We didn't stay at a hotel, but I guess it was sort of like an apartment/hostel. Our room had a bathroom, kitchen, living room and bedroom. I shared a room with Paula (Argentina), Jessie (Canada), Bronte (New Zealand), and Nicole (New Zealand). I had so much fun hanging out with these girls and getting to know them better. 

We spent the afternoon at the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi (the world's first ice hotel). The Ice Hotel as you might imagine is built entirely out of snow and ice taken from the Torne River. The Ice Hotel has been built annually since 1994, and each year the Ice Hotel is built with a completely new design. We had a guided tour of the Ice Hotel and then free time to take photos. 

Ice Hotel.

Entrance to the Ice Hotel.

 Ice chandelier.

Fish.

Unicorn.

Origami Crane.

Ice Hotel Wall. 

Looking into the wishing well with Emily (Canada).

One of the hotel rooms in the Ice Hotel.

From the left: Daniel (Texas), Kate (Wisconsin), me, and Jessie (Canada).

The Americans.

From the left: Shane (Minnesota), Jesse (New York), Sam (Florida), Milo (Oregon), Madie (Colorado), me, Tanner (Kansas), Kate (Wisconsin), Ly (Florida), Daniel (Texas), Bridget (Ohio), and Ashley (California).

After our afternoon at the Ice Hotel, we walked a little ways up the road to Nutti Sámi Siida which is an outdoor musem about the culture of the Sámi people, and it is also a place where some of their retired reindeer live. We had a knowledgeable guide who told us about reindeer herding and Sámi history, and then we all got to opportunity to pet the reindeer and take photos with them. Immediately after visiting the reindeer we went inside a teepee and ate smoked reindeer meat for dinner. It was a bit unsettling to go directly from petting cute reindeer to eating them, but the meat was actually quite good. 

Reindeer pasture.

Reindeer without antlers.

Reindeer with antlers.

Smoked reindeer meat with potatoes.

Day 2:

 Since there were 40 exchange students on the trip, we were split into six smaller color groups: green, pink, orange, yellow, blue, and purple. Tuesday morning: the yellow, blue, and purple groups headed off to the LKAB Iron Ore Mine, and the green, pink, and orange groups took a charter bus to Jukkasjärvi for some winter outdoor activities.

We rode in an open sled behind a snowmobile out onto this lake to get to a few cabins where we would be having lunch. The sled ride was a lot of fun and we spent the ride singing Miley Cyrus songs to distract ourselves from how cold our faces were. Once there,we split into our color groups. The snow activities planned for us were snowmobiling, playing soccer/ pulling each other around on sleds whilst wearing drunk goggles, and ice fishing. I was in the green color group with Patrick (Australia), Adam (Australia), Kirsten (Canada), Miyeon (South Korea), Karine (Canada), and Fanny (France). I had a great morning laughing and hanging out with my group. For lunch we had soup and coffee inside a small cabin with a fireplace in the middle of the room, cozy. 

Snowmobile sled. Front row (from the left): Adam (Australia), Jesse (New York), Milo (Oregon). Middle: Miyeon (South Korea, Kirsten (Canada), me. Back row: Fanny (France), Ashley (California), Sam (Florida).

Outdoor activities cabin, where we ate lunch on Tuesday.

After lunch, we rode in the large sled behind the snowmobile back to Jukkasjärvi. We got stuck on the way back and had to get out of the sled a few times and push the sled to get the snowmobile unstuck. We briefly saw the yellow, purple, and blue groups as they got into the sleds and went to do outdoor activities and then we took a bus to the mine.

 The LKAB mine is the world's largest underground iron ore mine, but they only have a  2% share of the world's iron ore market. At least I think that's what our tour guide said. We rode in the bus downhill into the mine and we got off at the visitor's center/museum which is 540 meters (1,772 feet...I think) underground. We watched a 15 minute promotional video for the mine which was very informative, but I honestly didn't know enough about iron ore mining to find the video very interesting. After the video, we took a tour, learned about the iron ore pellets that are produced from this mine, had fika, and then took photos in the mine museum. The mine tour was a unique experience and it was nice to be inside after a cold morning spent outside. 

Map of the iron ore mine.

The iron ore pellets.

Mine tour group.

On Tuesday night, we walked to the school and had a pizza night with ice cream. After dinner, we had activities. We split into groups. Our first activity was to run to a baseball bat, bend over and spin around 10 times and run back to the group. Our second activity was the human knot. My group tried unsuccessfully to solve the human knot. When I've done the human knot before, my group has always solved it, but I think it's possible that we had too many people, or our group was just too tangled. After the human knot, we had to pass a tennis ball down a line of people without using our hands, so we all held the tennis ball under our chins and got up close and personal with the other exchange students. 

Day 3:

Wednesday morning we got up early and took the charter bus to a ski resort called Björkliden which was about a 1.5 hour drive from Kiruna. We started the morning right: with coffee and cinnamon rolls. Then we split into our groups and my group (green, orange, and pink) headed off for unspecified outdoor activities. We walked to a large hill and went sledding down the hill on butt-sleds. After sledding, we played rugby in the snow,  I can't say that I made any contribution to my team, but my team played rugby quite well. After rugby, we went inside to a lodge and had lunch as a large group.

These are the kind of butt-sleds that we used.

In the afternoon, we went snowshoeing. It took us all quite awhile to get the snowshoes on our feet, but eventually we snowshoed with our guides Michael and Anders to Torneträsk, the 7th largest lake in Sweden. We actually snowshoed on top of the lake and it was really cool. The snowshoeing was all downhill up to this point, so when we turned around the entire path was uphill. And it wasn't only uphill, it was a really steep uphill. Our guide Michael kept saying that there was only one more hill, but the "one more hill" that he mentioned was definitely more than one hill, and I was exhausted by the time we made it back to the lodge where we had had fika that morning. 

Michael, our snowshoeing guide.

Scenery at Björkliden.

Snowshoeing across train tracks.

After leaving Björkliden, we stopped at Abisko National Park and watched a 15 minute slideshow about the eight national parks in northern Sweden. We were all pretty exhausted by this point, so I'm not sure how many of us were even awake during this presentation. The photos were beautiful and maybe I'll visit some of Sweden's national parks someday. Lapporten is a U-shaped valley near Abisko. Because of the unique position of this valley and the surrounding mountains, there often appears to be a blue hole in the sky. For example there can be a winter storm in Björkliden, but the sky can be blue over the village of Abisko.

Lapporten.

Once back at our hostel, we all changed into our fancy clothes for our last night dinner with all of the exchange students and our guides. I had actually forgottten to pack fancy clothes, so I changed into jeans, a white tanktop, and my Rotary blazer...fancy enough. We all walked up the hill to the school for dinner. The school's Catering program prepared dinner for us and after dinner, we all performed our national anthems. I got to listen to national anthems from: Sweden, Canada, Australia, Argentina, France, South Korea, Japan, India, and the USA. It was a very cool experience to hear everyone else's national anthems because I am really only familiar with The Star Spangled Banner. 

The Americans (except for Jesse). From the left: Kate (WI), Milo (OR), me (CO), Madie (CO), Tanner (KS), Sam (FL), Ashley (CA), Ly (FL), Bridget (OH), Shane (MN), and Daniel (TX). 

Day 4:

Thursday was the last day of the trip and we spent the morning on a walking tour of Kiruna. We were not in our color groups today because we all had booked different trains and flights, so we were re-grouped according to the time of travel. We saw the first two buildings built in Kiruna, the city hall, and the church. Something interesting I learned about Kiruna this week is that they are currently in the process of moving the entire town. The town has to be moved because the mining operations at the LKAB mine will begin encroaching on the town center in the coming years, so the hostel we stayed at, the city hall, and the church will not be where they are in a few years. It was kind of unclear when they will begin moving and rebuilding the town, but sometime in the next few years, Kiruna will look very different than how it looks today.

The church.

The city hall.

The clocktower on top of the city hall.

We left for the airport and said goodbye to our guides. I got patted down at airport security, and then I was on my way back to Uppsala. Once back at the Stockholm Arlanda airport, I said goodbye to everyone and took the commuter train back to Uppsala. I can't believe the Kiruna trip is already over. 

Boarding the plane on the runway in Kiruna.

We had four very busy days north of the Arctic Circle in Kiruna. I had an absolute blast getting to know new people and making new friends, no matter how cheesy that sounds. I am incredibly glad that I decided go on Rotary's 1st Kiruna trip. Being in Kiruna was the furthest north that I'd ever been before, I saw reindeer for the first time, visited the Ice Hotel, went snowmobiling, visited a mine, and so much more. Special thanks to: the Tourism Program ladies who were our trip guides, Rotary in Sweden, LKAB Mine, Björkliden Fjällby, Nutti Sámi Siida, The Ice Hotel, the internet, Miyeon, Kirsten, Ashley, Bronte, Kate, and anyone else's whose photos I borrowed for my blog, and thank you to all 40 0f you exchange students who made this trip to Kiruna an unforgettable adventure. 

<3 Kiruna Trip # 1 2014 <3

Home Again - Relaxing Weekend

I just spent the past week in Åre, Sweden with a huge group of Rotary exchange students. We had a week of skiing and other shenanigans.

I got back from Åre at 6:30 on Friday morning and my host dad Stefan was waiting on the train platform to take me home.

 We drove home and I had breakfast with Karin and Stefan (my host parents) before they left for work. After eating breakfast, showering and doing a little laundry, I felt fully exhausted from my 10 hour journey on the night train so I spent most of Friday morning watching tv and taking a nap on the couch. Friday was a day of much-needed relaxation after an incredibly busy week. We had sushi for dinner on Friday evening and I provided my host parents with quite a bit of entertainment as they watched me attempt to eat sushi with chopsticks; laughter ensued. I also FaceTimed with my best friend Jae Jae and her little sister, and I introduced them to my host parents.

 After dinner, we ate pistachio ice cream,drank coffee and watched a black comedy film from 1978 starring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase called Foul Play. The movie was very good, but there were quite a few scary moments that caused me to jump, also resulting in a lot of laughter on the part of Stefan and Karin. 

I'd never seen Chevy Chase or Goldie Hawn this young before.

Easily the scariest movie villain ever.

Saturday was also a very relaxing and fun-filled day. After a chill morning at home, we headed off to Gränby Centrum (the biggest mall in Uppsala). I'd heard a lot about Gränby Centrum before, and after 7 and a 1/2 months of living in Uppsala, it seemed like it was finally  time to go check this place out. 

The mall was two stories tall and filled with all of my favorite stores in Sweden including: Intersport, H&M, and ICA. Yes, one of my favorite stores is ICA. For those of you who don't know, ICA is a grocery store, on par with King Soopers. 

While visiting the wonder that is Gränby Centrum, it became apparent that something was missing from our shopping experience. To remedy the situation, Stefan, Karin and I made a necessary stop at the Naked Juice Bar to get some fruit smoothies. Obviously, I had to document this epic moment and send it to Cecilia. 

With my Very Berry smoothie, delicious!

Later on, we left the magic that is Gränby Centrum behind and drove to a chocolate/candy store in Boländerna where I picked up lots of lördagsgodis. Lördagsgodis directly translates to Saturday candy, and it's somewhat of a Swedish tradition to buy this kind of candy on Saturdays. I'll explain lördagsgodis in more detail another time. Once we returned home from shopping, we had a light lunch of sandwiches and coffee and then I spent the whole afternoon in the living room hanging out with my host parents and listening to E.L.O.'s Greatest Hits.

 I skyped with my parents for 15 minutes and just caught them up quickly on my week in Åre. We had superb hamburgers with homemade hamburger buns for dinner. Our evening plans consisted of going to Filmstaden and seeing 12 Years a Slave. I was very impressed by the movie, especially the skill of the actors in their roles and the  stark historic reality that the film portrayed. I was so focused on the movie that I completely forgot about my lördagsgodis.

This long weekend has been excellent . I've really enjoyed laughing and joking around with my host parents and just getting back to my regular life in Uppsala after an adventure-filled week in Åre. 

Åre Ski Trip 2014

This past week has been wonderful.Terrific.Great. Impossible to describe. I'm not even sure how to begin writing this blog post. I guess I'll just start from the beginning.

On Saturday March 15th, I took the night train from Uppsala to Undersåker (a town a few kilometers east of Åre). This trip was with a group of 34  exchange students from all over the world who live in all different parts of Sweden. There were exchange students from India, Japan, Italy, South Korea, Brazil, France, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, the USA, Argentina and Australia. Åre is the best-known ski resort in Sweden, and it is about a 12 hour train ride from where I live. The train arrived early on Sunday morning and there were Rotarians waiting to pick us up at the train station and transport us to the hotel we would be staying at. Upon arriving at the hotel, we ate breakfast, met exchange students who had arrived earlier than us, and picked our rooms. I shared a room with Sierra (Utah), Mili (Argentina), and Sofia (Italy). Sharing a room with these girls was such a blast (I absolutely adored our ABBA/Grease dance party). I had a lot of fun meeting new people and making new friends on this trip.

Sundmans Fjällgård (Our hotel, or is it a lodge?)

On the first full day of the trip, we settled into our rooms at the lodge and went out for a walk to a frozen waterfall. I wore my boots that don't have sturdy soles with a lot of traction, so I slipped and fell maybe 20 different times on the walk both to and from the waterfall. Embarassing. The frozen waterfall was definitely worth the walk, though. 

Frozen Waterfall.

The hotel had a large living room and a fireplace which made for some relaxing evenings after long days of skiing. There was also a game room downstairs with a pool table and ping pong table, and a sauna. The sauna wasn't in the game room, but you get the point. Every morning, a large charter bus arrived at 8:45 to pick us up and it was about a 20 minute drive between the hotel and the ski resort. The bus rides were often entertaining with loud music ,yelling, and lots of laughter. Anytime you put 34 exchange students in one place it's going to get loud and crazy.

On the bus.

Jiul (South Korea) and me. Bus buddies!

Overall I thought our accomodations were just fine. But enough of the hotel and the bus...now for the reason we were in Åre in the first place: THE SKIING.

Map of the Åre ski resort.

Skiing!

On Monday morning, we stopped at a rental shop and rented everyone's skis, boots, helmets, poles, snowboards etc. Then we headed over to Rödkullen, an area of the Åre ski resort. We went inside the värmestuga  (ski lodge) which was where we put on our boots, relaxed, and ate lunch everyday. For our first two days skiing at Åre (Monday and Tuesday) we spent the morning in ski school, with lessons and instructors. I was in a very small ski school group. There was just Mai (Japan) and I, and our two instructors Linus and Adam.

From the left: Linus, me, Mai, and Adam.

On our first day with the ski instructors we worked mostly on our technique since both Mai and I already knew how to ski. We worked on technique with turns, as well as learning two new skills: doing a pirouette on skis, and skiing backwards. Monday afternoon was free skiing, so I just went out skiing with a group of exchange students and had fun.

Selfie with our instructors, they were so funny.

On our second (and last) day with our ski instructors we decided to explore the mountain and we just did the runs we wanted to do, rode different chair lifts impulsively, and overall had a great time. Adam and Linus took us to a part of the mountain with fresh powder which was a lot of fun, and I spent a better part of the morning trying to throw snow on Linus every time we stopped (just with the force of my skis, like a hockey stop).  I had a lot of fun skiing on Tuesday afternoon with Miyeon and Jiul (South Korea) and Mai (Japan). 

I had so much fun skiing with Linus, Mai, and Adam on Monday and Tuesday.

On Wednesday and Thursday we didn't  have any ski school, so we had two full days of free skiing. I skied with too many people to remember really, but I know that I skied with Natalie (Australia) and Mai (Japan) on Thursday. The weather was pretty good the whole time we were in Åre and it snowed while we were there as well.

During our ski lesson on Tuesday.

Skiing with Mai on Wednesday.

Skiing with Mai.

Mai and I found some trees that looked like frozen elephants.

Reading the map. We may or may not have been completely lost at this point. (Okay, we were lost).

Ski lift selfie: Mai, Natalie, and me.

Selfie with the Swedish flag: Mai, Natalie and me.

On Wednesday night, about 10 Rotarians came over to our hotel for dinner. We had a three-course meal with delightful chocolate cake and raspberries for dessert. The dinner was great and it was really interesting to meet the Rotarians who organized this trip and made it possible.

At the Rotary dinner: Ashley (California), Bronte (New Zealand), and me.

After the dinner, all of the exchange students divided themselves  into country groups and each group did a presentation about their country. The Americans performed the Pledge of Allegiance. The Australians sang a song called Give Me a home among the Gumtrees. The Canadians sang a sort of joke national anthem. The New Zealanders showed a video of the traditonal haka dance. Fish presented a powerpoint about his country, India. The Latinos (Argentina, Mexico and Brazil) danced and played the harmonica. The South Koreans explained Gangnam Style and performed the dance. And the girls from France, Italy, and Japan did a short skit using sterotypical accents from their countries. The presentations were ridiculously funny. 

The Americans performing the Pledge of Allegiance (I still know it by heart, thanks elementary school).

After the presentations ended, we took two of the greatest group photos ever taken.

The group.

Completely serious. ;)

On Thursday night, we got to the train station about 30 minutes before our train departed, so to pass the time we took selfies with our wonderful group leaders: Rolland, Madde, and Agnes.

From the left: Sofia (Italy), me, Agnes (our group leader, wearing the sombrero), and Mili (Argentina).

Sofia, me, Agnes, and Mili.

From the left: Sofia (Italy), Ashley (California), Madde, Bronte (New Zealand), me, Rolland, Mili (Argentina), and Agnes.

My International Family. 

We had four really great days of skiing at Åre. I had so much fun getting to know new people. I also had a blast skiing with friends from all over the world. I am so happy that I decided to go on Rotary's Åre trip this year, and I am very thankful for that opportunity. I've made memories I'll never forget. I just want to give a special thanks to our three group leaders: Madde,Agnes, and Rolland, the Åre Rotaryklubb, Sundmans Fjällgård, the Åre ski resort, the internet Mai and Sofia for providing all of these photos, and last but not least, to all of you 34 exchange students for making this a trip that I will always cherish and never forget. :)

<3 Åre Ski Trip 2014 <3