Orienteering (Oct. 12)

Orienteering is an exercise that is quite popular in Sweden. It’s normally administered in the Spring or Fall of the year. The point of it is to teach kids how to orient themselves using a map and compass, be able to read a map and be able to find things using the said map. The gist of how it works is you have a course set in a wooded area. Then you give the kids a punch card (will explain for what later), compass, and a map of the course (should be very detailed with elevations and such). The kids, normally in pairs for safety, have to use the map and compass to find points on the map. At these points or stations, as they are sometimes referred to as, there are uniquely shaped hole punches. On the punch cards, there are numbered boxes to match the numbers of stations on the map. When at each station you then have to use the punch that is there to mark you were at the station in the correct box. You have two hours to complete the course this includes the turning in of your card to the administrators. Once turned in they score your card by making sure that you matched the right stations to numbered square and didn’t get lost. Afterward, you normally get to eat free food. We had sausages, juice, apples, and chips. My partner a, German exchange student, and I manage to score perfectly. 

What's more stereotypical than a German
and a sausage?

Sweden knows what's the best

Night at the Opera (Oct. 9)

As part of cultural enrichment, the students in District 2350 were presented with the opportunity to attend an opera and have a fancy dinner for free. The food was exceptionally well prepared, and I think everyone enjoyed it greatly. This was the first time some of us has the chance to meet some of the new arrives in Sweden who came maybe a month later than us. When we entered the opera hall, it finally gave us to do the most important thing Rotary students can do (exchange pins). We then entered the auditorium where the actual performance would take place. The Italian and French students were so excited when the singers started singing, and the opera songs were in their language. The opera was very pleasant, and I would defiantly attend it again. Afterward, when the actors had their little spiel, all the exchange students realized that the lady singer had to be from Skåne because of her very distinct accent that you can only find in the south of Sweden (it sounds like Danish….). 

The Biggest Nordic Derby: (Sept. 21)

In Stockholm, there are three clubs the two biggest, most popular, and successful being AIK and Djurgården. These two teams also have what is considered the biggest rivalry between any two clubs in the Nordic countries. Their rivalry often even ranks in the European lists for best rivalries. According to Wikipedia

"They are historically Stockholm's biggest and most successful clubs with both having won a total of 11 Swedish Championships each. The rivalry has existed since 1891, the year which both clubs were founded in, separated by just three weeks. Thereby known as Tvillingderbyt (the Twinderby). Since 1891, 220 fixtures have been contested in all competitions with both clubs winning 80 games each. Both clubs have gained a large amount of support throughout the city. Though there is a certain geographical divide as well, with AIK's heartland being in the Northwestern part and Djurgården's heartland being in the Eastern part of the city. This rivalry is also found in ice hockey which further aggravates tensions between both sets of fans and shapes the rivalry as quite unique in Swedish sport. In general, the supporters of these two clubs consider the other team to be their biggest rival."

So with this rivalry, there is obviously a lot of tensions when it comes to this game. This causes there to be a lot of precautions. For example, the respective fans of each team are told to go to different metros stops, entrances, and parts of the stands. The police are also out in full force for this game. They had riot police, canines, mounties, etc. you name it they had it at the game to keep the peace. 

I went to the game with my host brother, his friend, and another exchange student who is really into soccer, and really wanted to go, like me, to experience the crazy rivalry. We all met at the metro station not too far from the stadium. Even from here you could already hear the massive chants and yelling going on between the two supporters. As we got closer and closer to the arena, there were more and more police and more evidence of unrest in the area. Once we finally got to the ticket admission area everyone had to be thoroughly searched, imagine TSA style search. They were looking for weapons, anything that could be a makeshift weapon, flares (will make sense later), etc. Once emitted we made the way to our standing area and waited for the chaos to erupt. 

The pre-game was ridiculous with the opposite sides of the arena screaming back and forth to each other, chatting slurs about the other team, and waving enormous flags at each other. The first half didn't go very well for our team, Djurgården. Halftime was when the real madness erupted. All of a sudden on my side of the stands blue smoke was coming from everywhere, this is what the police were looking for. Some people then started to light flares to add to the scene. Afterward a giant picture of hoisted up in front of us. I found out later this was to hide the people with the flares changing of clothes from the police. Once we were done with our demonstration AIK did the same on their side. The smoke was so bad in the arena that they had to postpone the game after halftime warmups because of all the smoke. 

Eventually, the game resumed, and we played as poorly as we did the first half and ended up losing

0-3. I luckily brought clothes to cover up after the game otherwise I would have been subjected to harassment from the AIK fans on my way home.

6540 Reunion: (Sept. 10)

I thought it was around time that I had a little 6540 reunion with Linn, the exchange student from Sweden that was in one of my imbounds last year. She lives in a small town call Eskilstuna which is about a 1-2hr train ride outside of Stockholm. When I arrived in the morning, we had a quick fika at a restaurant that her friend's parents own. Afterward, she showed me some of the sights of the main part of the city. Once, we were done seeing the sight we took a quick bus to her mother's house. There I had the pleasure of meeting her lovely mother, stepfather, and brother. We had lunch, fika, and some nice discussions.

After lunch and fika, her mother drove us to another part of town where a festival was going on. We shopped around the stalls that we set up. We then proceed to go home for the night. The next morning and afternoon we met up with a couple of her friends. They stressed that I need to come back and visit hopefully I will soon.

Åre Wild Camp Part 4 [Up the Mountain] (Sept 1-5)

The next day was the day we actually got to go up the actual mountain in Åre. This mountain range is quite famous and holds many competitions in the winter and spring months and has even been nominated to maybe hold the Winter Olympics some day because of its world class facilities. It will hold the World Alpine Ski Championship in 2019. However there is was obviously no snow in September, so we were going to hike the mountain and take the ski lifts for other parts. We loaded the cars and drove to the mountain after completing the now daily ritual of breakfast and making lunch.

Photos can't do Åre justice as we were going up the ski lifts, that they run in the summer to take mountain bikers to the top, we were nearly silent which is almost impossible for exchange students.

After having a photo session on the top of the mountain. We headed down to the lunch place on this peak, which isn't even the highest, to eat our packed lunches. Next came the hard part, we had to hike down the mountain without using any of the trails because those were reserved for the mountain bikers.

We being exchange students and always being hungry decided to go to MAX for a second lunch once we were at the bottom of the mountain. Needing to kill even more time me and a group decided to explore the town a bit and then go bowling because why not.

This was our last day of the trip the next day was spent running people to the train station and or airport.