Tori's European Travels: Umbrella...

The theme song of my life over the past week has become "Umbrella" by Rihanna. It has been raining every day for the past week. Here in Gothenburg it doesn't rain for the whole day, but it will downpour for 5 minutes and then be sunny and then hail and then drizzle a bit. You can't dress for the weather because it changes every five minutes. The umbrella that I brought from home is already rusted and broken because I use it so often :) Crazy, crazy weather!

Besides the crazy weather, the week has been great! I really enjoy my classes. The workload is definitely not the same as university in the U.S., but the lectures and readings are extremely interesting. Today we spent the whole three hours discussing special education in Sweden. We had some very interesting discussions about all the programs, schools and policies from the perspectives of the many different countries represented in my class.

The highlight of this week was my dad's visit to Gothenburg. He arrived on Thursday and we had dinner at his hotel, which is the biggest hotel in Scandinavia. On Friday, we had a busy day of sightseeing throughout Gothenburg. We rode the Wheel of Göteborg (like the ferris wheel at Navy Pier or the London Eye), walked all around the city center, walked along the harbor, and went on a canal tour. During the canal tour it was downpouring rain. It was raining so much that the canal water was so high that our boat almost didn't make it under the bridge. We were instructed to get on the floor and lower our heads to clear the bridge. After we were soaked from the canal tour, we went to get a cappuccino and some pastries in the famous Haga district.

The next day we took a trip out to the archipelago. We rode the ferry to the southernmost island called Vrångö. Vrångö was a really cute residential island with a huge nature preserve. Before we walked around and explored the island, we ate at this little shack on the island. We ordered the first thing on the menu, which we had no idea what it was. It ended up being the most amazing baguette sandwich I have ever had. It was like a crab salad with fresh cucumber and tomato on top. It was fantastic! Later that night my dad took my friend Carrie from Vancouver and I out to dinner at one of the best restaurants in Gothenburg. It is called Heaven 23 and is situated on the 23rd floor of the hotel my dad was staying at. There we all had delicious bread, fish appetizers, the famous shrimp sandwich, and the most amazing little dessert. After our busy weekend we slept in a bit on Sunday and then we went to brunch at the fort Skansen Kronan. We had authentic Swedish food consisting of shrimps, Swedish meatballs, hard boiled eggs with mayo, and several different salads. My favorite part were the Swedish waffles with whipped cream and lingonberry preserves. We took the tram back to his hotel and then said goodbye because he was off to business meetings in Switzerland and Germany. We had a great weekend together!

The next two weekends I am going to be super busy with travel. This weekend three of my friends and I are going to Copenhagen, Denmark and to Malmö, Sweden. We come back on Sunday and then on Tuesday I am off to Paris and Nice!!!

The arrival of my dad in Gothenburg also brought my much desired camera cord. Within the next day or two I am going to be setting up an online photo account. I will post a link to that here when I do! For now here are several pictures to show a little of Gothenburg...