March 31st - A bittersweet three days left!

March 31, 2009

First of all, thank you so much to Stefan, Inger, and Viktor; I had a wonderful time at your home learning about your family and your summers, experiencing Swedish curling, and hearing new music. I can’t wait to use the beautiful Swedish crystal boat!

We met our newest (and last!) host families today. Karl-Ake, who I’m staying with, has arranged some special visits for me specially relating to architecture and building construction! His daughter Camila has already taken me on a great walking tour of Göteborg, and big dork that I am, I think I loved riding the public train the best!

Last night, Anders arranged for us as special night in Göteborg. First we went to a delicious vegetarian restaurant called Freddy’s, and then went to Artisten to see a live music show called Smask . It is basically a musical event that is a satire on the Swedish version of “American Idol,” only they make up their own funny versions of songs. Last night’s event was for the University of Goteborg’s Music Department, and the winner there competes at a national competition. Once we finally arrived at the Artisten (Kara, Steph, and I were in the wrong place and ended up frantically sprinting through Göteborg clutching coats, bags, and IKEA purchases), the show was great! The people who won sang a song called “America”!

As Stephanie said, the farewell party tonight was amazing! Thank you so much to everyone that came– I know many others wanted to be there too and we were all sad that Rachel couldn’t make it because she wasn’t feeling well. All of you were in our thoughts!! The food was fantastic (of course!). There wasn’t nearly enough time to talk to everyone, but it was so great to be able to see you all again! I feel like you’re part of my family now, and I’m really looking forward to keeping in touch. I hope we really can see each other soon!

So… it’s definitely a bittersweet symphony that we’re leaving. I’m going to be so happy to be back to Clint and my cats and my friends and family, but I also feel like I’m leaving some very special people behind. This has been an amazing experience, and would not have been possible without the great people involved with Rotary. Thanks again; this has certainly been a life-changing experience. And I plan on coming back! Jag tycker om Sverige!

So we’re not quite finished here in Sweden yet… so stay tuned for a few more days – we may just find out what the Swedes do for April Fools Day! - Alison

Our Farewell Party was AMAZING!!!!

Tuesday, March 31 – What an AMAZING evening!!!! I enjoyed the afternoon sitting around with Anni, each of us “playing” on our laptops as I put the final touches on our slideshow for tonight. This is Anni & her husband Jan and 10 year old son John (sorry if the spelling isn't correct....)

We had a going away party at Kvibergs in Partille – all of our host families and others who were involved with our GSE visit were invited to attend.

It was so much fun to see many of the people who have touched our lives during our adventures here in Sweden. There have been so many people in so many communities that we have enjoyed getting to know and can’t WAIT to have them visit us in Minnesota or to return here to Sweden some day…. Bo, the District Governor, may be visiting in April for our District Conference; Erik from Alingsas is planning to visit in October of this year to learn more about farming and I’ve promised him a tour of RWSC; Vivianne from Alingsas has planned a trip in 2011 so we know that seeing us again will keep her young and energetic; and Jens & Jessica (my hosts in Uddevalla) with some friends are planning a motorcycle trip in 2014 --- so, we’ll be sure to mark our calendars!!! We appreciate all of the open invitations to return to Sweden and you never know when the opportunity may present itself!

During the past few weeks, we have taken THOUSANDS of pictures and enjoyed putting together a slideshow of photos from our stay to share with our new friends at the Farewell Party. We each also got an opportunity to say a few words about our stay and, honestly, it was really difficult to keep from becoming emotional.

I also have to mention Alison’s thoughtfulness and humor - - she bought us each a small Dala Horse to remember our trip by. Four of them were painted the same colors and mine was a bit different to commemorate my “love” of wearing our uniforms everyday!!

I also received another un-expected gift that really touched my heart - - Jens & Jessica brought me a copy of Stieg Larssons first book in English!!! I’ve been looking for it every since I heard about him early in our trip…he was a relatively young Swedish author who died in the middle of writing his fourth book. He trilogy has sold more than 5 million copies world-wide. Thanks again – that was SO THOUGHTFUL!!

Thanks again to everyone that has touched our lives in some way during this trip - - we will NEVER forget you or our time here!!!!!

Steph

Last few days in Molndal

Monday, March 30th - Two visits today. One to AstraZeneca - Alison's host, Stefan, told us about their pharmaceutical operations in Sweden and on the site in Molndal where they do mostly R & D work. Their facility in Molndal is HUGE and the architecture is amazing! This is just a portion of two builidings on the site.

Our second visit of the day was to IKEA. There we met with the Social and Environmental Coordinator to hear about their business practices PLUS we had a little extra time to do some shopping - even though we have an IKEA in Bloomington at home, it's still more fun to shop in Sweden!

Tuesday, March 31 - We had an early start this morning at the Molndal Stadhuset where we learned more about the structure of government in Sweden and how things work. In the entryway of the building, they had this awesome photographic layout of the town of Molndal.

At lunchtime, we gave our last official presentation in Sweden.

Tonight, we have a farewell party where all of our host families have been invited to join us one last time before we leave on Friday.

Thanks again to everyone that we have come in contact with during our time in Sweden - - it has been a trip of a lifetime and I, for one, will NEVER forget the things I have seen or the people I have met during my stay!!!!

Tack så mycket!! Steph

A great day in Mölndal

March 29, 2009
We had such an amazing day today (thank you, Tomte) so I wanted to post a few photos before heading to bed. The next few days are packed as we're nearing the end of this wonderful trip so we're trying to get some rest. Get well soon, Rachel, we missed you and hope you can join us tomorrow! - Alison
(By the way, I've updated my other blog with new information on sustainable eco-communities in Sweden if you're interested!)

Royal (Purple) Soup

Kara and I made vegetable soup tonight from a bounty of fresh ingredients. One thing that we had not considered is that the purple cabbage would turn the pureed soup into...a...slightly unappealing color! Despite the color of the finished product, the flavor was fantastic.

We showed the results to our host family and they laughed heartily. They suggested we post the pictures to our blog. Just to prove that the soup tastes good, here is a picture of me enjoying the fare.

-Rachel

Molndal - Valley of the Mills

Friday, March 27 – We wrapped up our visit to the Tanum area by doing a presentation for their Rotary club and enjoying some typically Swedish food called kåldolmar (which, if I understood correctly, is basically some minced meat wrapped in cabbage) – it was really good!!

After the meeting, we had a few minutes to do some shopping at a local store owned by one of our host families (Britt who hosted Alison) and we each found a few treasures to take home to our family and friends. I found a fun little serving tray that had a painting of the area that Britt herself had painted.

Our train ride back down to Göteborg started out uneventful but about 45 minutes into it, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, one woman figured out we were American and told us what the captain had announced. Apparently, the train’s compressor had overheated and needed to cool down before we could proceed. We actually arrived in Göteborg pretty much on time and (as has become the norm) meeting our new host families, saying goodbye to each other and getting our luggage loaded happened so quickly before we were on our way to the next adventure.

My hosts in Mölndal are Sven and Anita Hilmersson along with their cat and they live in the countryside outside of Lindome. We enjoyed a quiet evening at home getting to know one another a little bit better.

Saturday, March 28 – this was a somewhat lazy morning as we really didn’t need to be anywhere until noon today. Sven took me on a little shopping excursion to a local village called Kungsbaka. We walked around and stopped into a few stores - - I got a chance to buy my son, Tyler some lingon berries to bring home to make pancakes with!

Our only event as a group today was lunch and a tour based out of the Mölndal Museum. We had a guided tour of the area and I later found out that Mölndal means the “Valley of the Mills.” During our tour, we enjoyed seeing the water falls or rapids that ran from the mill area and wound its way through many of the buildings that used hydro-power at one time for their production.

Back home, we enjoyed a quiet evening and I got a chance to Skype with Kevin and talk to him again for about a half an hour – Tyler was gone at band practice but I found out that he had quite an interesting week. There has been some serious flooding in the Fargo North Dakota / Moorhead Minnesota area this week. His band director pulled together a bus trip for the band kids to go to that area and help with the sandbagging - - I think this was AWESOME and I’m very proud of them all!! The floods in Fargo even made the news in Sweden - - I actually watched more TV tonight than I have in the past four weeks!

Sunday, March 29 – Today, we met everyone at a place called Gunnebo Slott – it is a manor that dates back to 1796 when it was completed. We were given a dramatic tour of the manor where characters from it original owners told us the story of the manor. It once belonged to the richest man in Sweden – it was said that he even borrowed money to the King! After the tour, we enjoyed lunch on the grounds - - I can only imagine how beautiful the gardens are later in the summer!

This evening, we were invited to Tottie’s house – she has been the GSE coordinator for our stay in Mölndal and was a team leader to India about a year ago. She lives on the sea and has a FANTASTIC view of the water!!! We also took a little walk and ended up climbing up some rocks to see even further out to sea!!! Of course, Alison and I typically have our heads down on, looking at the paths for cool rocks to bring home – if our luggage is overweight at the airport, we’ll have to blame the rocks!

Just a few more days to enjoy everything that Sweden has to offer us so I better get rested up for another jam-packed day tomorrow!

Steph

5 Days Left In Sweden

Today is Sunday. How strange it is to realize that our team has 5 days left in Sweden. Wow! The past 4 weeks passed quickly--and slowly--at the same time. I have made many new friends that I look forward to hosting (I hope!) or visiting in the future.

I decided to skip this day's cultural activities to recover from my cold. The team has met at the Gunnebo House (see below). With rest and lots of tea I should be ready for tomorrow's vocational visits.

On Monday, we will visit AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company, and visit IKEA to learn about the company's operations. I am really looking forward to the IKEA visit because that company has used The Natural Step framework. So, I've been reading my book The Natural Step for Businesses in preparation for the visit.

The Gunnebo House was a summer house of a wealthy merchant built in the 1780s. Kara offered to take a lot of pictures. I liked that suggestion and said that I would live vicariously through her visit. You can search on the internet for Gunnebo House or use the link I found: http://www.gunneboslott.se/index.php?id=1&L=1.

-Rachel

Needlework night in Strömstad

Rachel and I spent a lovely evening in Strömstad with our hostess, Madeleine, and several of her friends who meet regularly to work on their knitting and other needlework projects. We were both novices, but after some good instruction and a LOT of concentration, we managed to crochet a few square inches each!

We also paused during the evening for coffee and smörgås, which is a wonderful Swedish institution. Smörgås is basically an open-faced sandwich that you construct from your preferred combinations of bread, butter, cheese, jam, cucumbers, bell pepper strips, tomatoes, thinly sliced meat, etc. One of the specialties on this particular night was a sort of homemade preserve made from chantarelle mushrooms. Yum!

Our "Northern"-most visit to Tanum and Stromstad

Tuesday, March 24 – Kara and I started out the day shopping with Lotta in Goteborg. We stopped by a little handicraft shop just of The Avenue near the Art Museum – we each found a couple of items to bring home AND Lotta was kind enough to buy us each a Dala horse towel for our kitchens.

Jennifer and I are staying in a little fishing village called Grebbestad with Krister and Nina Jansson and their white cat named Champis (Sham-piece) right on the water.

Wednesday, March 25 – Two stops today on our program. The first was the Eko Park in Strömstad which was located in a relatively new facility built in 2000. Here they have developed programs to provide environmental training and conferences for everyone from 4 years old and up. The building was funded jointly through the EU, Sweden, the District and the Kommun but is now run with funding only from the Strömstad Kommun. The building was erected to be almost self-sufficient based on the technology available at the time. The displays along with Margareta’s stories are very entertaining and would certainly appeal to the younger audiences to help them learn about recycling and taking care of the environment.

The Loven Center for Marine Sciences was our second stop of the day and was located on the coast in Tjärnö. It is part of the University of Göteborg and in addition to being an educational center, they conduct quite a bit of research here and also have an aquarium to show their visitors. The various tanks in the aquarium allow the visitors to see the various fish and other animals that live at the different depths off the coast of Sweden. In the middle of the room, they have a shallow pool with animals that can be touched or even picked up by the visitors. I almost forgot - - for fika today, we got to help celebrate Waffle Day in Sweden with some waffles, fruit and cream.

Our evening plans included a boat ride out on the sea around Grebbestad with Krister & Nina’s friend Per. Their other friend, also Per, joined us and we left the harbor just after 6 PM so there wasn’t a lot of daylight left but just enough to sit on the front of the boat and soak it in for a few minutes before the sun set. As it was getting darker, we stopped by some rocks and caught a brief glimpse of two seals that were in the area. It was a delightful evening spent with some of our new Swedish friends!

Thursday, March 26 - We’ve been looking forward to today! Almost an entire day spent outside – the weather was once again sunny but a little chilly. First, we were shown some rock carvings at a location known as Litsleby. In our minds, we all thought rock carvings would be on a wall but these were actually on the ground! They’ve been painted with red paint to make them more visible for the more than 160,000 tourists EACH YEAR that visit the area! Some date back to 1600 BC. We enjoyed lunch and more information about the rock carvings at a local museum that specializes in documenting and research on rock carvings.

Next, was a walking tour of a small fishing village called Fjällbacka on the west coast of Sweden. This sleepy little town has about 1,000 residents in the winter months but comes alive in the summer with the visiting boats and people. Hans, our tour guide, told us the story of this town. It became part of Sweden from Denmark without much fanfare as Denmark thought it was a dying town but shortly after becoming part of Sweden, there was a “run of herring” that lasted 27 years and brought much wealth to the community…it was a quaint little town with a lot of character and a huge rock “mountain” that we got to climb to the top of and look over the city and towards the sea. Once we caught our breath from the climb up, the view was breath-taking!!! The descent was just as much fun as we wandered down a path through a part in the rocks.
Jennifer and I ended the day by having dinner with Krister and Per at the Nautic Restaurang. We all enjoyed a glass of Sweden-produced beer called Falcon and I tried a pizza known as Tjurpannan Pizzor. It was made of köttfärs (pronounced shurts-far and is ground beef with kind of a taco seasoning), bacon (no Swedish name for this ingredient), champinjoner (mushrooms) and I added some vitlök (garlic). It was really good but it’s been haunting me all evening! After dinner, while we waited for Nina’s movie to get done, we played Virtual Bowling…. It’s the same concept as Mark Lynch’s golf simulator where you actually throw a ball down a lane that ends about 15 feet from the line and then the ball continues down a tv screen and shows it hitting the pins. Our scores were horrible but we enjoyed it!

Friday, March 27 - We awoke to snow this morning! It is a beautiful sight on the Swedish coastline! After lunch and another Rotary presentation, it's back on the train to head "south" again and meet our next host families.

Steph

Tanum in Blue

Today, our last day in the Tanum area, we woke up to snow! Well, the picture about is actually from the marine biology center, but it was still quite a beautiful sight (vacker utsikt) even if we weren’t quite expecting it. Apparently anxiously waiting for Spring is something we Minnesotans have in common with the Swedes!
I was fortunate to stay on a dairy farm for this part of the trip with a wonderful family, and it reminded me a lot of my grandparents’ farm in Illinois. In the evenings I took long walks on the farm and played with Elvira, the family dog. One night Britt took me to look at a very interesting and energy-efficient house that reminded me of a lighthouse. I especially enjoyed the breakfasts with the family in the morning (yummy porridge!) and the long conversations over dinner with Britt and Tomas (yummy glögg!). Britt even took me to do “Friskis & Svettis” (like Kara did in Trollhättan), which was really fun! You really haven’t exercised until you’ve done an aerobics class in Swedish. :)
Like all of our trips, this trip to Tanum has been great on so many levels – we had wonderful hosts, saw beautiful scenery, and were able to learn so many interesting things. I was really impressed with the use of renewable energy in many homes in this area – Strömstad was awarded the title of “the heat pump city” (over 50% of homes use some type of heat pump), and my host family used wood from their own forest to heat their home. I’m also impressed with how the community here is working together to preserve cultural heritage and also enhance local economic development at the same time. I excited by how much we’re learning and hope we can somehow apply it in Minnesota!
Today we presented at the Tanums Rotary Klubb, where we tried a traditional Swedish dish we hadn’t tried before - kåldolmar, which is minced meat and rice wrapped in cabbage – very interesting! After the meeting we went to Britt’s store, which sells arts and handmade crafts – none of us could resist buying at least something, no matter how ridiculously gigantic our luggage is growing! :) Thank you so much to everyone in Tanum; we hope to see you again soon! Here are some more pictures... Alison