Settled In

After the initial adjustment period of being here in Stockholm, I have now been taking the time to explore the city and try new things. For the first couple of weeks, I have been actively trying to stay within Stockholm before I start traveling for my class (along with making personal trips!)

I am part of the Outdoor Adventure LLC where we go on weekly trips exploring the outdoors within the greater Stockholm area. Last week we went to a reserve called Judarskogen naturreservat (The Judar Forest Nature Reserve), where we walked around the lake and built a campfire. Even though sunset was at 16:45, I managed to take this photo with my iPhone well past 20:00:

However, this week’s trip was an ~interesting~ experience, to say the least. We went to this place called Hellasgården, which is known as a “gateway to nature.” There are several activities to choose from, but our leader had us partake in the sauna experience.

This experience wasn’t just about sitting in the sauna and then going home. The whole point of this experience was to plunge into the *FREEZING* lake after the sauna so that you can reap all the health benefits that come with shocking every single part of your body with cold water. The first time we went outside to the lake, the Miami in me screamed to not jump, but after the second time I forced myself to jump! It was the craziest thing that I have ever done, but with the encouragement of my friends, I can say that I have now (skinny) dipped in Europe!

Of course, in typical European fashion, this entire experience was done without a swimsuit, making this experience at first pretty uncomfortable for an American. But just learning to let go and understand that the culture in Europe regarding body image is much different than in the US just made the experience that much more enjoyable. Besides, I don’t think I have made a better bond with my floormates until going through that experience!

Other activities that I have done include visiting the museums within the city. Over the weekend I met up with my host family and we explored the Nordiska Museet, or as you may have guessed, the Nordic Museum.

The biggest takeaway that I got from that museum was learning about the Sámi people, the group of indigenous people within Sweden. On a similar basis that is comparable to indigenous Native Americans, Sámis have been the subject of discrimination for centuries. It was hard to believe that a country like Sweden has long been discriminatory towards a group of people. This gave me the realization that no country could ever be perfect, no matter how much you want or wish it to be.

On a happy note, I’ve mentioned in a previous post about how Swedes LOVE their fika. Even though I was never a coffee drinker before coming here, I have really started to partake and enjoy in this cultural phenomenon. Something that I did yesterday was combining fika with one of my favorite things on this planet: cats! I went to a cat cafe and just spent the lunch hour playing with cats while having some kaffe och kanelbullar (coffee with a type of Swedish cinnamon roll). Here is what a typical fika looks like (sans cats):

Ses snart, hej då! (see you soon, bye!)