So life has been crazy busy here in Gothenburg getting adjusted and exploring the city. Since I posted last Friday I have done so much here. Throughout the week I continued to have different events planned by the Exchange Student Services. On Saturday my friends and I competed in a City Challenge of Gothenburg. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt where we had to go around answer questions in the city. We traveled all around including visits to Skansen Kronan (an old fortress that as one of the most gorgeous views of the city), Linnéplatsen (a famous area of Gothenburg), the Avenyn (the main shopping street which ends in a square with the giant, famous statue of Poseidon) and to many other squares and canals. We had a great time going around the city and making a ton of new friends from Spain and Germany!
Sunday was a day to catch up and run some much needed errands. I purchased my new Swedish phone, bought groceries, but most importantly made my first trip to H&M! H&M is a very famous Swedish clothing store and they have recently made there appearance in the US. Here in Gothenburg (where there are no Starbucks) there is an H&M on what seems to be every corner! Fantastic shopping, but during my first trip I only bought a pair of cheap sunglasses :( Definitely more trips will be in my future though. That night my friends and I also decided to make dinner all together. We went out to the grocery store, picked up some ingredients, and made a delicious pasta dinner.
On Monday we had our welcome reception by the University of Gothenburg. We got general information about classes, buildings, and our time here in Gothenburg. There are over 500 exchange students at the university and this was the first time that we were all together in one building. After the reception my friends and I walked around, grabbed some coffee, and just enjoyed the city for a few hours. We went back to our dorms and then went out for pizza later that night.
On Tuesday we had similar receptions, but for our specific schools at the University of Gothenburg. 99% of my friends (and everyone I meet here) are in Handels School of Business. They went to their meeting and I went to mine at the Faculty of Social Sciences. I learned more specific information about my classes and my program. I went home after and started to prepare my "traditional" American meal because that night there was an international pot luck dinner. I ended up preparing homemade mac and cheese, which is really funny because I think I have had homemade mac and cheese maybe once in my life. In any case, I prepared mac and cheese not out of the box for the first time in my life and brought it to the international dinner. There were so many people there who brought fantastic food from all over the world. The food was great and we had a great time meeting new people.
Wednesday and Thursday mornings were spent running more errands and sleeping in for the first time since I arrived in Gothenburg. Everyone knows how much I can sleep and I was running on a serious lack there of. It was great to recuperate from all the go, go, go activity since I arrived. Wednesday evening my friends and I went out to this French restaurant on the main Avenyn. While Thursday evening we had the much anticipated "wine and dine" with the Mayor of Gothenburg which was run by the Exchange Student Services. The Mayor of Gothenburg was nice enough to address the international students from the university and then invite us into the gorgeous city hall. We had a wonderful seafood salad and wine all while getting to enjoy the beautiful building and meeting the mayor.
Friday morning I decided to fulfill my ultimate European fantasy. When I was home and I would envision myself studying abroad in Europe I would always imagine myself sitting in a cafe, drinking coffee, and reading a book. As we had been riding the tram all week I noticed this cute little konditori (Swedish bakery). I decided that I would walk there and then enjoy a pastry and some coffee. The morning was fantastic! I got a slice of this strawberry & rhubarb pie that is well known here and a coffee, sat outside, and read my book. The morning was absolutely perfect! After that I walked around the city for a few hours, came back, and then went out straight away to "after work." It seems that everyone is out of work here very early in between 3 and 4 even earlier on Fridays. The streets are horribly crowded and no seats are available on the tram. It is pure madness. Then all of a sudden at around 5 no one is around anymore. The streets and trams are empty. Everyone in the city after they get off work goes to "after work." Many restaurants and pubs offer specials that if you buy one drink then they provide you with free food usually in buffet style. This is a way for people to meet up with their friends, hang out for a few hours, and then go home. We decided to try the "after work" The restaurant we chose was extremely busy, but the food was great and we had a great time.
Saturday my friend decided to have all of us over to his apartment for lunch. They ended up getting ingredients to make pizza. Again this was a new "homemade" food experience. The only pizza I have ever made was originally frozen (with the exception of three weeks ago in Italy). The group consisted of me, two Canadians, one German, and about 6 people from Spain. Because of our international group we ended up having some very different pizza topping then in the US. On our pizza was a combination of pizza sauce, cheese, mushrooms, onions, tuna, hot dogs, and uncooked bacon. It was very different then pizza back home, but much better than I originally expected (with the exception of the hot dogs). We had a great lazy day hanging out in his apartment's beautiful garden. We had a great day and decided to try and make a routine of having lunch together on Saturdays.
In the weather update: we have had sun pretty much all week. There have been one or two times where it rains for 10 minutes and then stops. All in all the weather has been nice, except at night the temperature drops pretty drastically.
Classes start tomorrow and it will be nice to get into a routine of life here in Gothenburg. However, I don't think I will ever find anything routine about waking up every morning in a beautiful European city!
Until next time,
~Tori
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