Traveling

This past week I’ve been throughout Sweden and it’s only the beginning of my travel adventures. 

First, it was our Outdoor LLC weekend, so all ten of us traveled to Tyresö, a municipality within Stockholm located about an hour outside the city. We arrived bright and early Saturday morning and divided into two groups. I was in the group that went hiking that day. It was a beautiful view from both the top of the mountain as well as the trail that we were on.

After reuniting for lunch, I got to hear some accounts of the activity that the other group just went through. I wanted to ask details, but they were keeping their lips sealed. The only thing they kept mentioning without any context was to look out for the “friendly room.” I could only imagine what that was supposed to mean. 

Later on in the day, we went to the cabin to drop off our belongings before exploring the area. Casually, we stayed in a place right next to Tyresö slott, a beautiful palace built in the 17th century. We didn’t get the chance to take a tour of the inside, but the fact that these structures exist reminds me how different the US is in terms of never having an aristocratic system in place. It also reminded me of the Highclere Castle shown in Downton Abbey and how I need to visit it one day 😀

The next day came around and we switched group activities. I will not lie, going caving sounded a bit eerie given the reaction from the other group, but I was still excited to try something new. We geared up by putting on gloves, helmets, and headlamps, and we were off. 

The first part of the cave was the hardest since I kept slipping. My shoes didn’t have the best grip and the first obstacle we had to tackle was to climb up a steep piece of rock. With the help of our guide, he was able to use (almost all of) his bodyweight to lift me. 

Some people may think that going through a cave means that you will be able to stand up inside the cave and walk around while appreciating the geological phenomenon from an upright position. Yes, I was fascinated with the rocks and how this has been around for over ten thousand years. But this experience was not done standing. No, no, no, sweetie. When I tell you that I was crawling my way through the cave, I was on all fours navigating through some very tight spaces. Granted, I had an advantage getting around since I have a background in dance, but nothing before this has taught me how I needed to use my body to get between the nooks and crevices of the cave. 

To show you an example of what I’m talking about, here is a picture that shows just how tight the rocks were:

When there was light at the end of the tunnel *ahem* I mean cave, I thought we were done. But we had yet to go through this so-called “friendly room.” Our guide instructed us that it was right before the exit, and was encouraging all of us to go. I did not dare go first, so my friend Hannah did. After a few seconds of losing sight of her, we all heard her shout “OH MY GOD” over and over again. 

So naturally, I went in after her.

The light was dim while navigating through the first part. After reaching the ground, the guide told me not to touch the walls before turning on the light. What I ended up realizing was that the walls were COVERED in spiders. They weren’t poisonous or dangerous in any way, but these spiders were pretty damn close to me. And I was low-key flipping out. For every drop of water that fell on me, I thought a spider fell from the ceiling and landed on me. It was pretty terrifying. The reason why all these spiders are in this particular area is that this room is really damp, and these creatures thrive that kind of environment. 

All in all, my LLC weekend was such a fantastic experience, and it was worth waking up the next day covered in bruises in addition to having very sore muscles. I pushed myself while trying something new, and got up close and personal with a certain kind of animal that I am not particularly fond of (just a PSA, these spiders weren’t some baby spiders, but they were some big boys.)

Next up, I traveled with my Affective Neuroscience class to a city called Umeå, located in northern Sweden. We all woke up bright and early before the sunrise to catch the six-hour train ride north. We arrived at our hostel, ran to find food, and hurried off to our first workshop. 

Discussing emotions from a classroom setting is very different from working with emotions from a theatrical perspective. This workshop was designed to show us how actors used emotions to convey their message to an audience and how there are different approaches that an actor can take to approach this. Ultimately this was a great experience to learn about emotions from a non-academic setting while also getting in touch with my own emotions and how they can be perceived. 

Timing our trip with National Sámi Day (6 February), we learned a lot about the culture of the indigenous group of people that live in northern Europe.

We watched Sámi Blood, a movie about a teenage Sámi who attends a Swedish boarding school where students are forced to assimilate into normal society, all while being shamed for being who they are. Seeing what the protagonist had to go through brakes my heart, knowing that this true story is one of the thousands of stories out there where people are prosecuted for not being acceptable by society’s standards and try so hard to give up their identity in order to fit in. Only until recently has Sweden been changing the laws about the Sámi people, but this indigenous group had to go through hundreds of years of persecution before being recognized by the State. And yet they still have a long way to go…

In addition to learning about Sámi culture, we also went to a workshop and learned about joiking, a traditional form of song that is performed by Sámi people. It was a great experience to learn this tradition from a Sámi who is a professor at Umeå University. Joiking is truly an art, where each individual uses their emotions to create a unique joik. We were able to hear this singing by Sámi people when the university hosted an event in honor of National Sámi day. 

To sum up my time in Umeå, one of the fun activities we did while there was taking advantage of the snow and going cross-country skiing. All I’m going to say is that cross-country sking is NOT a natural sport, but I had fun falling down a million times nonetheless. I learned my lesson not to go down a mountain in skis that aren’t designed for three-dimensional landscaping (at least for beginners!)

I know I wrote a lot in this post, but that’s what happens when it’s 2 am and I had more coffee than I should have. I blame fika for my growing liking towards kaffe.

I am signing off with a gorgeous sunrise in Umeå. Hej då!