God Morgon! (Good morning)

The last few days have been great. I've met many of the teachers I'll be working with this year. I'm looking forward to beginning my first year of teaching!

We start in-service August 7th. All the details will start becoming more clear and I can begin to finalize some planning for the year.

I'm looking forward to travelling during my down time. Many of the teachers have been to various places across Europe, a few have yet to return. Visiting Croatia is definitely a priority this year and I'd also love to visit Barcelona. Other than that, I'm open to suggestions! On my window sill sit coins from the Czech Republic, Norway, Turkey, and Switzerland amongst others.

Various currencies collected by the others that lived in my apartment.

Chloe (a friend from home) has been visiting since Friday afternoon as she completes her half a year of travels around the world! We've come full circle since her goodbye dinner in March as I become settled in Eskilstuna. It's been a nice transition into a new country having a friend from home visit. She of course has had so many wonderful stories to share about here adventures.

On Friday, we headed downtown for some dinner and to check out the night life. People in Sweden are very social. Currently most people are enjoying their 6 weeks of mandatory summer holidays so many locals are travelling or spending time at their summer homes on the lake. Downtown was still quite busy. The high standard of living is a bit noticeable when out for dinner but it doesn't differ all that much from Canada in my opinion.

Lauren, Myself and Chloe

I took advantage of Saturday and Sunday to explore Eskilstuna. There are beautiful running paths through the forest nearby. The paths are even lined with lighting to accommodate for the dark fall/winter months. Currently the sun sets around 10:30pm and begins to rise again it seems around 3:30am - pretty crazy! I'm not looking forward to the opposite. The wild blueberry bushes that line the paths are a nice touch (delicious too). 

I finally finished unpacking by Monday afternoon. It shouldn't have taken so long but there were many more exciting things to do it seems. Chloe and I headed on an excursion with Lauren and Margarita. We spent the afternoon at Vilsta which I'd describe as a park with a small sandy beach. The natural elements of Sweden are very similar to Canada! I felt as though I was at tiny beach up along a lake in Ontario's cottage country.

Feeding the ducks!

Beautiful Sunset!

Near the running path

Most recently, I set aside Tuesday to take care of administrative things. I travelled to Västerås albeit not so smoothly (we missed the train, had to take a +45 mins detour) to head to the migration board. The detour wasn't so bad as we got to explore Arbogo, a tiny little town with a beautiful church built in the 1200's and a real medieval feel. Afterwards Chloe and I explored the main sights as we ran through the rain. Västerås is the 6th largest city in Sweden with a population of 130 000. It is surrounded by lakes.

Arboga

Tunnel @ Västerås Castle 

Looking into the city centre - Västerås

Along a canal

Today is Chloe's last day in Sweden. We're heading to Stockholm this afternoon to check out the city and spend the day exploring. Hopefully we make our train this time!!