The imminent end of summer

It has been almost a week since my last post, but I wanted to wait until I had some new pictures and thoughts to share before sitting down to write. Tomorrow will be our first day of classes so I can't stay up too late, but there's time enough to relate what I've been doing since last Tuesday. The pictures are night views of Ronnebygatan, the street below our apartment.

After finding the apartment, the rest of the week was consumed with getting settled in... buying furniture from the Red Cross thrift store, getting the internet connected, even venturing out of Karlskrona on a bus to find a proper department store for some essentials, since most of the stores in the downtown area are full of expensive designer goods. In the evenings we have had a succession of parties, dinners, and other meet-and-greet events, and I have continued to get to know new classmates, some of whom have only arrived in the last few days.

We had amazing luck buying furniture at the Red Cross... everything we found was of very high quality. The kind of cheap, barely functional particleboard and veneer furniture that is ubiquitous in the U.S. apparently doesn't exist here. We bought a beautiful solid oak sofa with carvings and arms that fold down for sleeping that is in great condition, without even a stain or rip in the upholstery, for 190 crowns, or $27. For about $12 I found a solid maple secretary for my room that I am using to write this post on. At home I would expect it to cost at least $300. We got a huge coffee table for the equivalent of $5.70- again, solid wood, very solid and well made, and in great condition. In all, we furnished the whole place for less than $300, including beds, lamps, even the delivery fee. About all we need now is a kitchen table and chairs, and a few more pots and pans.

The Red Cross is definitely the way to go, as I discovered on my trip to Vedeby outside of town, where there is a collection of big-box stores much like those in the U.S. Here the goods were still of high quality, but the prices were high also. I got some much needed essentials, such as a towel and a shower curtain, that couldn't be found at the Red Cross, but they were more expensive than they would have been in the States. After enjoying the picturesque town with it's historical architecture and bicycle culture, it was disheartening to see that Sweden has the same landscapes of consumption that we have at home, complete with giant parking lots, pedestrian-unfriendly roadways, and characterless franchise stores.

If housewares were expensive, even more so were the beers that I had at the Fox and Anchor on Thursday night. One of our orientation week events was a gathering at this pub, which is only a few steps from our apartment. It was karaoke night and some of my classmates got up to sing. It was fun to see everyone cut loose but after a while the noise level started to get to me and I had to retreat back across Ronnebygatan. Hickory and Jeannie did a great version of La Bamba and there were some other memorable moments as well. I had a very good English dark beer called Hobgoblin followed by a Pilsner Urquell, each of which set me back almost $10 U.S. At those prices I expect I will mostly be drinking the inexpensive 3.5 % beer that they sell in the grocery stores back in my apartment.

I will write more as soon as I can, now it is time to get some sleep so I can make it to class on time in the morning!

The most amazing apartment

When I first found out I had been accepted into the MSLS program, I knew that I wanted to come to Karlskrona but I was worried about finding the funds to support myself for a year here. I kept hearing people talk about how expensive Europe was, how disadvantageous the exchange rates were for Americans, and how small the apartments were. When I imagined what it would be like living here, I pictured myself in a tiny grey room somewhere, with no windows and only a mattress on the floor and my laptop. I would eat only dried food because there was no kitchen and have to go outside in the snow to walk to the shared bathrooms.

Imagine how pleased I am then, to announce that I have found an absolutely amazing, stupendously huge and beautiful apartment that overlooks the main street in Karlskrona, which is cobbled and closed to automobiles. It is in the heart of downtown Trossö, and has giant windows more than 7 feet high which let in floods of light. It has 14 foot ceilings, a large kitchen with a full size fridge, full size freezer and dishwasher, and a balcony where one can sit outside and have a cup of tea. Included in the rent are the heat and hot water and use of the on-premises laundry facility.
The large common room in the apartment is more than 10 meters long and would be more than adequate for a good sized dance or yoga class. There are giant closets, a fully tiled bathroom, triple-pane windows, and hardwood floors throughout. It is mind boggling, ridiculous, and easily the fanciest place I have ever lived. I rented it with two Canadians, Maurita and Laura, who I just met yesterday but liked immediately. They are even into music and they both play the guitar!

For all of this splendor and ridiculous opulence I will pay the grand sum of 2983 Kroner, or $426 a month.

I don't really understand how this came to be... I feel like there must be a catch somewhere, but no, it all seems to be legit. The woman from the property management office was super nice and with extreme Swedish efficiency, when we left the apartment after signing the contract and receiving the keys, we discovered that she had already had our names put on the mailbox! She even had the electricity turned on for us! The same afternoon she told us we could have the place! It is really amazing how on top of things people are here.

So, here it is only Tuesday and my desperate search has already ended... far more fortuitously than I ever imagined. The pictures don't do it justice, or really show it's grand scale. It's time to celebrate folks... and tomorrow I'm going to the beach.

Still un-domiciled

On Sunday all of the rental offices were closed. I spent a leisurely morning at the cabin in Dragsö setting up this blog and searching for apartments on Blocket, the Swedish equivalent of Craigslist. Around noon I got a text message from Kara Stonehouse... she and a few other people from the program had come up to Dragsö for the afternoon. I walked outside and found them just as they were renting a canoe. I decided to go with them and so together we rented another one. Kara and Matt Mayer (both from Canada) took one boat and Sophia, Carlotta and myself set off in the other one. It was a beautiful afternoon and I would have loved to have taken some pictures, but mindful of what happened to Elizabeth when she lost her camera in the water in Costa Rica, I left my expensive SLR back in the cabin. We were after all setting across the open water of a small bay in two fairly tippy aluminum canoes. So, gentle readers, you will have to content yourselves with pictures from my earlier jaunts around Karlskrona, because I have no new ones to offer you.



We rounded the point that protects the campground beach and then we were really out in the open in a wide space populated by a wide variety of sailboats and yachts. There was a strong tailwind so we made good time going down towards the college campus. More or less across from the campus is a small uninhabited island where we made landfall. We climbed out and had some snacks and explored a bit, although it only to about 5 minutes to walk around the entire perimeter. There were stands of pine trees and a few excellent camping spots, and also stands of purple gorse. Wild roses with giant rose hips tangled along the coast above the smooth granite bolders that protected this scrap of land from the sea.

There were many interesting plants, making me wish I had an identification book of Swedish fauna. I also found the broken egg of a very large bird, as well as the skull of another avian.

Going back we had to fight a strong headwind, so the journey took more than twice as long as on the way down and proved to be a real workout. I enjoyed hearing about Sophia's experience as organizing sustainability programs and where her and Carlotta's backgrounds. We eventually made it back to the campground about half an hour past the allotted time for the canoe rental. Fortunately, the ladies at the reception only scolded us and did not make us pay for an extra hour.



On Monday, I got up and out fairly early so that I could make it up to school in time for the first of our orientation meetings. I power-walked down to Trossö (downtown Karlskrona) and caught a bus up to Högskala Grasvik, as the campus is called. I checked in first at the international reception, which is now open, but found that I would have to wait a few days to get my student PIN number which will allow me to access the internet on campus and get into the buildings. Then I went to the orientation meeting and heard some of my classmates introduce themselves and met the campus Nurse and Priest. The latter seems to be a pretty jovial fellow who likes to dispense spiritual guidance from down at the campus bar from time to time. The nurse clued us in about a type of Swedish health insurance we can get which only costs a dollar a day and covers everything in case we need medical treatment. Sounds great, but why in that case did I have to pay $500 for a probably useless policy with a high deductible just to meet the Visa requirements?


After the meeting I helped drag the bicycles donated by previous classes out into the light of day to assess their condition. There is talk of forming a “bike co-op” that would handle the maintenance of the bikes and lease them to students. The problem is that currently few of the bikes are really in rideable condition and many of them need quite a lot of work, or even complete rebuilds. The unsustainable fact of the matter is that it is often cheaper to buy a used bike in decent working condition than to buy all the parts and contribute all the labor to rebuild one that has been neglected. It will be interesting to see how this problem is resolved in the coming months.

At any rate, I was able to temporarily borrow a lovely bicycle to ease my commute from Dragsö. It is orange in color and was originally a three speed, although only one gear is currently functioning. The front brake lever dangles at an awkward and ineffectual angle from the handlebars, but the pedal brakes do work after a fashion. The handlebars are cocked in one direction and the seat in another, so that I sort of feel that I am steering around in a circle even when I'm going straight. It does go, though, and I'm very pleased to have it since it makes the long walk down from my cabin a thing of history.

After the bike clinic I stopped by an apartment complex that is close to town. The lady in the office said to come back after a half hour and I could tag along with another group when she showed the vacancies.

While I was waiting I ran into AJ who is from Turkey, but once lived in Myrtle Beach. She is really lovely and fun and I had a good time talking to her. We went down to the office and when the other apartment seekers came in, they were all other folks from the MSLS program! I thought the apartments that we saw were really nice... modern, clean, very large and attractive, and in a great location just by the school and close to shopping and downtown. They were a little on the high side of my budget, except for one that had three bedrooms and was about 10,200 kroner per month. Split three ways this would be less than $500 per person, which doesn't seem bad considering the advantages of the location. No one else seemed ready to jump on it though, so the hunt continues.

Beginning to Explore

On Saturday, I rented a bicycle and went downtown to Trosso. I managed to find the youth hostel where many of the other MSLS people in town are staying, although it was locked up the first few times I went by there. I also found an ATM and was able to withdraw some money from my account at home. It was a relief that there were no difficulties with the process, since otherwise I would have run the risk of running out of cash before I could open a bank account and get money transferred here.

The town is very picturesque and fronts on the water in many places. The architecture is interesting and buildings are painted in attractive pale colors. Everything is very clean here, it is rare to see any kind of trash or debris on the streets. Perhaps that is why it is somewhat shocking to see grafitti on the sides of buildings and walls... not something one would even notice in many cities but here it looks out of place.

I took a bus up to the campus (Hogskola Grasvik), hoping to sign in, but no one was there on Saturday and the buildings were locked. Since I was there, I wandered around a bit and took some photos. The campus is not very big but seems quite nice, although like college campuses everywhere there is a lot of construction going on.

I spent much of the rest of the day getting my internet working... I needed to update the drivers for the wireless reciever that I use with my laptop, but I couldn't do this without already being online! Finally I asked the extremely nice Swedish girl at the campground reception desk for help, and she let me use their computer to download the file.

Once I was finally online I saw that Rebecca Dahl had organized a cookout for incoming MSLS students, so I walked down to Trosso and met up with Matt, Spud and Lea. I also met Kati Thompson who had just come from Australia and was sharing a room with them at the Trosso Hostel. Together we walked up to campus and then to a beach just north of there where we found the party. There were about 30 people there, or maybe half of the incoming class. It was great to meet everyone and I really enjoyed hearing about everyones backgrounds and where they are from. I stayed until about fairly late and then had to walk all the way back to Dragso... about an hour and 20 minutes in all. In total I probably walked 10 or 12 miles yesterday.

Arrival in Karlskrona

Hello everyone, I thought I would start this blog so that I could keep you all informed on what I'm doing in the coming year and share some photos of Karlskrona and anywhere else that I get to go in Sweden or the rest of this region.

Today is Sunday and most of the businesses and all of the rental offices are closed, so it is a good time to rest up a bit and reflect on what has happened in the last few days. Tomorrow I will begin a frantic search for housing, since the camping cabin where I am temporarily staying is only rented until next Friday. That gives me 5 days to find a place during the busiest time of the year, just when all of the students are arriving. I'm going to try and make as many new friends as I can this week, in the hopes that, should I fail in my search, some kind soul will let me sleep on their floor for a while.

I arrived here on Friday afternoon, after taking the train from Copenhagen along with Matt Lobach and Spud Marshall, two fellow Americans who flew in a few hours after I did. The trains are very efficient here, so much so that you really have to jump to get aboard one as it seems they only stop for about 45 seconds at a time. This is not easy when you are carrying / dragging 150 lbs of luggage.

Another peculiarity of the trains is that they sometimes split into two pieces, each of which goes off in a seperate direction. We found this out just in time to get on the part that was going to Karlskrona, which was fortunate since otherwise we would have ended up miles away in some other town.

It is interesting that after all of the work we did to get our official Swedish student Visa, so far no one has actually looked at or asked for our passports since we have been inside Sweden. At least when coming in on the train, there seemed to be no border formalities at all between Denmark and Sweden.

When I arrived here I took a taxi from the train station to the little cabin I am renting at Dragso. I was exhausted by the time I got here, and though I tried to stay awake to fight off jet lag, I ended up going to sleep by about 6 pm. I did prepare my first meal in Sweden first... pasta pesto with tomatoes that I bought from the little camp store. It was neat to find the ingredients for this since it was also the first meal that Jessica and I cooked when we moved to California in 1993... a similar foray into a strange land.

The little cabin I am staying in is small and just one room, but has a fridge, sink and stove so I can prepare meals here. I have been reading a lot about the tiny house movement lately and staying here I feel like I get to experience what it is like to live in one. There are showers and bathrooms in a seperate building nearby. Everything here is extremely neat and tidy... and also expensive. The showers are coin operated and for 5 Kroner (about 75 cents) you get exactly 3 minutes of high pressure, steaming hot water. If you haven't finished by then, you have to deposit another 5 crowns.