April 10th: Stockholm

I have lots of great pics, but it wont let me upload them, so be sure to check back for those, and another long blog entry!

“… Our brave voyagers have finished their time in Stockholm and now depart for all corners of Europe. The break comes at a critical time; will this help them last the remainder of the trip or will they come back more independent than before they left?…”

Hej Blog Buddies,

I feel like this section has just become a perpetual apology, and each time I have a different excuse. So why should this time be any different? Since arriving in Stockholm, our schedule has been extremely busy, so I haven’t really had the time to write one of these. Hopefully you’ll forgive me!

Wednesday, March 25th:

On this day, we had our first Stockholm meeting of our Nordic Politics class. The guy teaching the course Lennart, is a member of the Swedish parliament. When we arrived, Lennart’s political secretary, Ola, greeted us. After taking us through security, he gave us a brief tour of the Riksdag building. He eventually took us to the actual parliamentary chamber, where the committee on taxation was having a debate. Our teacher is a part of that committee; we were able to watch the ongoing debate.

After his legislative duties were completed, Lennart took us to a building a few blocks away, where his party (Christian Democrats) headquarters were located. We had a paper on the current events and happenings of Sweden due on this day, so we spent the remainder of out class time discussing the articles we wrote about. I had written about the claims of anti-Semitism in Malmö (in response to the governments decision to not allow fans to attend the David Cup tennis match against Israel), the current situation of SAAB, nuclear power in Sweden, among several other things.

After class had ended we were scheduled to go meet with Anders Wall, a wealthy Swedish philanthropist who had made a sizable donation (I think around $25,000) to the program that I am currently on, in order to make the cost significantly more reasonable and affordable. However, when we arrived at his luxury penthouse office, we learned that he was violently ill, and could therefore not meet with us. Instead, we met with the president/manager of his foundation, which gives out more than 2million Swedish kronor in scholarships every year. The guy we met was curious about several things, such as why we had chosen this program, how we will use the knowledge that we’ve gained, and our impressions of Sweden thus far. Because Anders and his foundation were instrumental in the feasibility of this trip, we thought that we should do something for him, so we each took two passages from either our blogs or our journals and compiled them to give a snapshot of our trip so far.

After lunch, we met at the Nobel Museum in Gamla Stan, which is the Old City part of Stockholm (also where we had most of our activities). At the museum, we briefly met with the director of the Nobel foundation, who told us about the history of the foundation, and the work that they do.

The museum was pretty cool, it featured a moving display of all 800-some Nobel winners throughout history and their accomplishments, two movie theatres each showing short (under 10 minute) clips that depicted the works that had won the prizes or an artistic short film about various subjects, and a display on freedom of speech, which I found to be the most interesting. It had a short description of people who have/had been censored, imprisoned, or punished because they have said something unpopular. While each story was very interesting to read about (there were close to 200 different cases) two of the more memorable ones were Jesus and Socrates.

After the museum, where I was for nearly two hours, I wandered around Gamla Stan looking at and going into the various shops, restaurants, and stores. This has probably been my favorite place in Sweden so far. The buildings are all very old and have a lot of history behind them, the architecture was very unique, the streets were all cobblestone and narrow, and there are quite a few interesting statues and sculptures in the area.



Thursday, March 26th:

On this day, we had class with Lennart on this day. However, calling it “class” might not be the most accurate description. Again, Ola met us, and took us to a conference room in the parliament building. After taking Fika, and briefly chatting with Lennart about what we were going to see, we went back into the chamber, where there was to be a full vote of the parliament.

The way the government in Sweden is set up is very different than the US, and quite unique. There is the governing coalition and the opposition. The current ruling coalition is made up of the Conservative/moderates, liberals, Christian Democrats, and the Center party, who have the majority of the 349 seats (by a margin of 7). The opposition is made up of the Social Democrats, Greens, Socialist left, and communists. Of the 349 politicians, probably only 270 were at the vote. One interesting point is that the two sides have an agreement that however many people from one side cant make it, that many will miss the vote on the other side (to keep the margin of vote difference at 7). So for example, if 30 people are gone from the governing coalition, an equal number, in this case 30, will sit out from the opposition.

Actually watching the vote was pretty impressive. The chairwoman would read what the vote was on, and the representatives had less than 10 seconds to cast their vote. They voted on probably 20 different things, and the entire process took less than 15 minutes. The chairwoman spoke faster than anyone I have ever heard. (If she is not reelected, she could double as an auctioneer…) I sat next to Roland, and asked him what she was saying, and even he, who is obviously perfectly fluent in Swedish said that he couldn’t understand her, she spoke so quickly.

After the vote, and the representatives had left the chamber, we met up with Lennart. He give us a quite long tour of the parliament building and told us about the history behind (almost everything) and showed us some interesting things that we otherwise would have never been able to see. These included, the old parliamentary chamber, various rooms, statues, and sculptures.


Friday, March 27th:

This was toted to be our “big day” in Stockholm, which it was. In the morning we went to Royal Palace, which was just across the water, about an eight-minute walk, from our hostel. We were greeted by the “Master of the Realm,” who gave us an hour-long presentation about the Swedish Monarchy, the King and Queen, and the hierarchy of the people within the Palace. The “Master of the Realm” actually ranks quite high (slightly above the title of Mistress of the Wardrobe…). After his presentation, we were given a private tour of the Palace. I guess I was slightly disappointed, our tour, like the normal tours of the Palace, only consisted of going through the former “apartment” of the king and queen. There were a lot of cool paintings, tapestries, and ornate things, but no throne or crowned jewels, which were what I had hoped to see. However, I did learn that the Palace is one of the largest in Europe at 40,000m2

After the Palace, we went to the Swedish Academy (of literature). We got a tour of the building where the winner of the Nobel prize in literature is decided and announced. This institution was founded by Gustav III Adolph, and has remained the same since the early 18th century. They are governed by very specific regulations and guidelines written by the former king himself. The board is made up of 18 of the most prominent names in Swedish literature. They perform a lot of random tasks, but the most important is the deciding of the Nobel Prize. They were located in Gamla Stan, in a very historic building the overlooked the place where the Stockholm Bloodbath occurred. (In 1520, around 120 nobility and royalty of Sweden were killed at the request of the Danish king).

When we were done at the Swedish Academy, we went to Stora Kyrkan (the big church) of Stockholm, where Åke Bonnier, a current member of the Board of Trustees at Gustavus serves as “Dean of the Cathedreal.” He gave us a tour of the church and as usually, told us the history behind many of the things we saw. But then he showed us something that very few people get to experience. After giving us all hardhats (which came in handy…especially when they saved my head from the low hanging ceilings), we climbed up over 200 old, rickety steps to the top of the steeple on the church. This is in the very center of Stockholm, and provided a great view of the city. It was extremely windy at the top and it had just started snowing, so we couldn’t see as far as we would have been able to on a clear day, but it was still a spectacular view nonetheless.

After the church, we went out to Åke’s house, outside of Stockholm, for dinner. By this point, it was near blizzard conditions, and snow was quickly accumulating. When we finally found his house, the melting snow had me soaked. But we enjoyed some very good homemade food, good conversations, and good company.

After hearing from various people, and then doing a bit of my own research, it turns out the Bonnier family is one of the wealthiest families in all of Scandinavia. (Their money comes from publishing.) It was really interesting to visit their house; it was very nice, and by Swedish standards quite large, but by U.S. standards, very modest. It was nicely decorated, but didn’t scream, “Look how much money we have!”


Saturday, March 28th:

Stockholm is made up of a bunch of small islands, all connected by bridges. Gamla Stan is its own island, our hostel is on the water just off of the island Skeppsholmen, other major islands are Östermalm, Södermalm, and Djurgården.

This was our first day off in Stockholm. We finally had a chance to explore the city on our own. I spent most of my time on Gamla Stand and Östermalm. There are a ton of little shops, restaurants, and store in these areas. It was just really fun to be out and see more of the city. There wasn’t too much to note from this day.


Sunday, March 29th:

Just like the day before, this day was used mostly as an exploration day. However, on Monday (the following day), we had our research paper due. So after spending some significant time looking around the city. Had to work hard to finish my paper comparing the educational systems of Sweden and the U.S. to each other. There actually were a lot of interesting analyses to be drawn. This project dominated most of the evening for me.


Monday, March 30th:

On this day, we had our research papers due, as well as a presentation to give on our topic of research. Each presentation was roughly 20-30 minutes. The topics included things like, “Gender questions in Sweden,” “Military Defense Policies,” and “the Criminal Justice System.” We haven’t yet received our grades for the current events paper, the presentation, the research paper, (the final test), or the class… so how it went is still up in the air, I assume it went pretty good, though.

After three hours of presentations, we went to the Saint Clara church, where we met with the pastor who talked about the social service work that he and his parishioners do in the community, specifically including outreach to prostitutes and drug addicts.

After we were done meeting with him, we had a one-hour long final test review. We had this chance to ask Lennart questions about things that were going to be on the final test and his expectations from us.


Tuesday, March 31st:

On this day, we took a tour of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which has five different stages and performs several different shows at a time, including a children’s theatre. The theatre has been in existence and performing for over one hundred years. The woman who gave us the tour took us up to the costume department, where there were over 10,000 costumes. She showed us some of the more memorable ones, including the costume of a “just born” baby troll, of a Victorian queen, and a “soaking wet” suit.

It was really interesting to get a tour of the facilities. The top balcony, looking down on the stage, is not a place for someone with any sort of fear of heights. We were probably close to 75 feet up, and it was a completely vertical drop down to the lower areas. We also went under the stage and saw that the stage can be rotated, which allows for easier set changes.


After visiting “Dramaten,” as its known by, we went to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a huge war ship that sank in the Stockholm harbor in 1628 on its maiden voyage. It was constructed in a manner than was too heavy and the weight wasn’t counter-balanced well enough, so slightly after leaving the dock for the first time, it sank, killing ~30 people.

The ship was found in the late 1950s, and was raised in 1961 with the hull still largely in tact. In the 80s, it was moved to its current home and dedicated building, at the Vasa Museum. The ship is huge, 230 feet long and 172 feet high. And it is completely contained within one building. It is the most popular tourist destinations in all of Sweden, attracting more then 25 millions visitors since 1987. At the time, the ship was extremely ornately decorated, and even now, most of the decorations have been salvaged, restored, or recreated. There were also exhibits about how the ship was raised, the people on board, as well as the artifacts found on the ship.

It was really impressive to see this ship. I am amazed by the fact that they were able to raise it in the 1960s, as well as they did. Also by how good of condition the ship is in, after more than 300 years at the bottom of the Stockholm Harbor…



Wednesday, April 1st:

Like almost all of our days in Stockholm, this one was just as busy. We started in the morning at the Swedish Institute, which is right across from the Palace. Their tagline is “Swedish, in your language!” and features books about Sweden, by Swedish authors, or language books in more than 30 different languages. There, we also met with three women who work there, who were curious about our trip, and wanted to feature our program in an international publication that they produce. Most Swedes, including the women at SI, that I’ve met, or that have met with our group are always so intrigued as to why we chose to learn Swedish, “of all places, why Sweden?” they often ask.

At the Swedish Institute, they spoke to us about possibilities for people with knowledge of Sweden and of Swedish to work there after graduation (perhaps…)

When we had finished with the Swedish institute, we went to Karolinska Institute where we met a former Gustie, who is working on getting her Ph. D. in… I forget the specific area, but she focuses on Type I Diabetes research. She talked a lot about the specific things that she has worked on, and also a little bit about Karolinska, which is a medicine school that is consistently ranked in the top 100 universities worldwide. This school also determines who will receive the Nobel Prize in medicine each year.

After Karolinska, we took a trip to one of the headquarters of Vattenfall, one of the largest energy producers in all of Europe. We met with two former Gusties who are now quite prominent members of the corporation. They spoke a lot about Vattenfall’s commitment to renewable, green, energy sources. They said that currently they get about 50% of their electricity from nuclear and 50% from hydroelectricity (Wind power only constitutes a small majority of energy produces in Sweden).

One thing I’ve noticed from this trip, is how many ties Gustavus actually has to Sweden, and how many distinguished former Gusties there are living and working here. It seems that each day we meet several more, each more successful or accomplished than the last. Perhaps someday, future Gusties will think the same things about me… : )


Thursday, April 2nd:

TEST DAY!

On this day, we had our final examination for our Nordic Politics class. The test began at 4:30pm, so I spent the majority of the morning preparing and studying for this exam. I was a little bit nervous because the book we had been reading from was really dense and complicated, and I was worried that I wouldn’t retain the information as well as I would have hoped, but upon receiving the test, these fears were put to rest. There, in fact, wasn’t a single question on the book that we read… something very frustrating (to have spent all of that time reading it but then not be tested on it) but also very relieving, in case I didn’t have as good of comprehension as he would of liked.

The test was quite long, and required a lot of writing – my hand was sore from all of that writing – but was very manageable. I should think that I did quite well on it.

After the test was over, Aaron and I got dinner, and rushed to the Royal Opera House, where we saw an opera performance of MacBeth. The day before we had purchased tickets, student tickets were actually pretty cheap, though we were quite high up.

The show was performed in Italian, and above the stage there was a small screen that had the translation into Swedish. It was difficult, because I either had to focus intently on the translation screen to see what was being said/sung or I could just watch the show and listen to the music and appreciate it for what it was. Because the translation screen was small and far away, it was difficult to read, and even if I could have read it clearly, I would have struggled to keep up with the Swedish translation, so I opted to just enjoy the show and the music. It wasn’t that difficult to follow the plot, and I just kind of made up what I thought they might be saying to make it fit my mental idea of the show.



Well that’s all I have to write for now. On Friday, April 3rd, Shawn came to Sweden, so that will be the next blog entry, probably within a few days.

I hope all is well with everyone. I am missing you all a lot. Hopefully I’ll have internet that works well enough to make skype calls soon.

Feel free to send me an email, at anelso10@gac.edu

Allt Gott,

Andrew