Dag Två

Day two! This morning we woke up, pretty refreshed after a very soft nights sleep, to a wonderful frukost (breakfast) and an article about our trip in the local newspaper! It's in Swedish, so feel free to give it a look if you like. Elisabet made us amazing våfflor (waffles), granola with dried fruit and nuts, caviar, bread, meat, and vegetables, and of course delicious kaffe (coffee).
Then we drove to Alingsås, the potato capital of Sweden. It's so quaint and beautiful here! We met at the town hall and learned a lot about how the Swedish government functions on multiple levels. We also learned about Futurum, an organization that reminded me a lot of Dovetail in terms of its mission, and learned about the amazing things they are doing in Alingsås. Then we took a tour of the Passivhus school and learned how houses can be built without installing energy systems - by using only body heat and heat from appliances to heat the house. Very interesting stuff - I'll be looking into prices and feasibility in Minnesota.
Then we went to our host families. Rachel and I are staying with Anna-Karin, the local club's president. Her and her family have been wonderful and their house is amazing. She recommended we check out a local housing project with homes built within a forest, which we did later in the evening.
That's not even close to everything we did today but I best be off - hopefully more tomorrow!- Alison