Stora Hotellet Umeå

... famous Swedish desserts. Then in the afternoon my neighbors and I will have a corridor meeting, and start getting to know one another.

Also, if anyone would like to send me a letter, here is my postal address:

Stephanie Mikneus
Historiegränd 10 A: 121
907 34 Umeå

Oh, and by the way - Happy birthday to my Aunt Cathy, Uncle Alan and Stacey. I hope it was wonderful.

Time to get to bed, need to wake up in time to put my game face on!

... Bruno (Peru), Annia (Germany) and Maria (Russia). We all exchanged emails and phone numbers and it was simply just a jolly good time.

August 31st I will begin my first "module," or class on International Business Environment. Here in Sweden, students only take one class at a time - classes last (on average) about 4 hours a day.

Need to get to bed early tonight, as orientation starts at 10:15 am tomorrow!

... already European, because they keep talking to me in Swedish/German/French - which I will take as a huge compliment, as compared to when I was in Greece, they automatically spoke to me in English. The little bit of Swedish/French I do know, they are very impressed, they say my accent is very good, which also makes me happy, since it is one of the main things I focus on when learning a new language.

My bad decision ...

... brings a person great energy. Around Sweden, Elaine pointed out to me how there was so little diversity of people in Sweden. She also taste-tested snus, the tobacco pouch people wear under their upper lips. Elaine became dizzy after two minutes, called snus the grossest thing ever, and took it out. Meanwhile, I'm just now going to take out my all-new-latest version of that popular craze that makes the girls go wild and the guys dance on their heads ...

... the population - are religious. I told Anders that in the USA, alternatively, society often considers a person primitive if he DOESN'T believe in a religion. There's a lot of pressure in the States for a person to accept faith in some God. One day in Sweden, Anders and I were taking a coffee and tea break when Anders received a visitor. The visitor was a young man with a short, neat, blond haircut. He'd come to offer to sell one of his business's machines. He ...

... help-program (U-HELP) plays a deciding front role for American business-life. Our three most important objectives are: "1. U-HELP seeks a large and immediate market for U.S. products and services. "2. U-HELP stimulates the development of new, foreign markets for U.S. corporations. "3. U-HELP enriches receiving-countries' economies to a free-trade system in which U.S. companies can blossom." Black clearly wasn't concerned with HELPing any poor people. In addition ...

... home 5 extra - sleep in a Swedish home 5 - be invited to a meal 5 - cook with someone 5 - eat disgusting surströmming 5 - play a game with someone 5 extra - play soccer 5 - ride a bike 10 - ride a horse 5 - take a sauna 10 - dance to Swedish folk music 5 - write a poem 5 - earn a "kronur" (Swedish money) (-1) - for every 10 kronur spent 5 - skinny-dip 5 - wash myself in a river or lake or sea 5 - snorkel in the sea 5 - snorkel in ...

... Scrabble play**. I mean, yeah, I lose sometimes. I've lost often to this forty-year-old loudmouth guy in Delaware named Ted. Ted think he's the best Scrabble play** in the world. His name's not actually Ted, actually; it's Tim or Todd or Ned or something. I just call him "Ted" because I think it's kind of a lousy name, and I want to get und** his skin so he'll get flust**ed and accidentally set me up for a triple-lett** score. Intimidation is a big part of Scrabble. When ...

... floating around in what might be herring juice. It's totally "äcklig" (disgusting). Therefore, all the sill I can eat is none. I could also eat caviar out of a tube, if I pleased. Swedes like to smear salty caviar on their hard-boiled eggs. Superstitious Swedes believe they can increase fertility if they eat this snack before performing another act, but that part of this story is eggs-rated. Ha, ha, ha! What a great pun!? Now, let's get seriou ...

... The road's curves dipped and wound so tightly around the forests that we wouldn't have been able to tell if a car was twenty feet in front of us. Kina also told me about "allamansrättar," a great thing. There are few fences in Sweden. "Allamansrättar" means "Everyone's rights," and it means everyone has the rights to the country's forests. You're allowed to camp out anywhere you want in Sweden, for at least one night. People in Sweden aren't so defensive of ...