Branäs

Antje was experimenting with my camera...

Lovely day.

Värmland

Rentals...

Branäs

Today a group of the international students went on a day trip to Branäs, Värmland! Every semester, the international office organizes a trip to a town somewhere in Värmland, so that we can become more familiar with the province that Karlstad is located in. This semester, they decided to take us skiing! I was so excited :)

We met at the University at about 7:00 this morning, and got on the bus for a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Branäs. The ride was beautiful. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera on the bus (it was underneath), so you will just have to use your imagination. Everything was covered in snow and we drove through a valley alongside a creek almost the entire journey. The sun was rising over the east, and it resulted in a pinkish/purple hue on the edges of the sky. Gorgeous. Plus, along side the road there were too many red and white wooden houses to count. I felt like I was in a storybook. 

When we arrived, it was -7 C, which isn't too terrible, but it was chilly. After what seemed like an eternity waiting in line to rent boots, skis, poles, etc, we got on the gondola to the top. We quickly discovered that Branäs is not a huge ski resort, in that we successfully completed every run, some multiple times, in the first half of the day. In addition, apart from the gondola, all of the lifts were T-bars :) Nonetheless, we were able to have a great time just cruising down the slopes and soaking in the beautiful surroundings...and sun! 

It was a wonderful day, to say the least!

Stereotypes

So one thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is stereotypes. Being from America, I knew for a fact that when I came abroad, I would be thought of as an American. That's obvious, right? But it is different, because while I am in no way ashamed of being an American, I knew that there would be certain stereotypes floating about in people's minds the moment they learned where I came from. 

(I want to add, I am not suggesting there are not stereotypes about other countries, or that I do not/did not have any false stereotypes of my own, there certainly are, and I have entertained some in my own mind as well, I just want to comment on the stereotypes of "typical Americans"--hopefully you all understand!)

Anyway, one of my goals that I set for myself before coming to Sweden was to do the best I could to both represent America well, and possibly terminate some stereotypes...at least in a few people's minds.

In a discussion with some international friends the other day, we were talking about what we first think of when we think of another country. For the US, there were a few that I found to be universal: fast food, importance of money, trying to be "cool", over-weight, emotionally and relationally "fake", self-centered, and huge portion sizes. 

This made me so distressed! I mean really, I felt like I had this huge weight on my shoulders, as if I were expected to be able to justify and explain each of these stereotypes. One thing that I often tell people is that America is so diverse in itself. I tell them that yes, there are people who eat at McDonalds every day, who are relationally "fake", and who only care about money, and for that, I am sad. But there are also people who are nothing like that; there are so many different kinds of people, and they cannot be all clumped together. 

After feeling distraught about the whole conversation for a couple hours, I decided that the only thing I could do was to be the best representation of what Americans can be like, and hope that the next time a stereotype pops into their head about Americans they might think, "Oh wait...there was that one girl from America...and she wasn't so bad."

A little encouragement came today on the bus when I was riding back to the University with a group of German students. Martin, a fellow international student and classmate from Germany told me that he thought I was a really nice American. He said, "I usually don't like Americans. They are so fake, and never 'real' with their emotions. Everything is always COOL! or AWESOME! never just normal. But I think you are really nice. And that is a major compliment coming from me....plus you are good at futboll."

So if that's the best I can do, then its better than nothing! :o)

Intercultural Communications

I know this picture has nothing to do with intercultural communications, but I always like to give you guys something to look at too :) On Monday, there was not a cloud in the sky and it was absolutely beautiful. I spent two hours walking around enjoying the snowy scenery and taking pictures. I will put some of them up soon! This picture is from Monday night. The moon was huge that night. It was almost as big as the night before I left for Sweden...Patti, do you remember that?! The stars were shining brilliantly, and we spent about 15 minutes outside in the bitter cold trying to soak it in. It was beautiful.

Hej hej!

Well, I have now completed two weeks of my "full" course load. My newest class, Intercultural Communications, has been so great. I was not sure if I would enjoy it very much since I have already take intercultural communications at North Park, but I have loved it so far. If anything, it has shown me how much of an interest I have in communications, especially intercultural communications. Plus, the number of cultures that are represented in the class makes it incredibly interesting. 

We were all put into "cross-cultural" groups for the first part of the term, and within my group there is an American (me), a guy from Hong Kong, a girl from Finland, a guy from France, and a guy from Germany. I love our discussions. They are not particularly deep or philosophical or anything, they are just enjoyable. It is just so interesting to see different people interacting together in a different culture from their own. I love learning about different cultures and seeing which things are similar and different not only to my own culture, but to others as well.

When deciding to come to Sweden, I never would have guessed I would learn so much from such different cultures around Europe and the world. It has been amazing. I am loving every moment.