Goal 56: Eat a Swedish Dish

Swedish roll at Fika

Fika is the Swedish coffee break time. It's nice, especially when the health center sponsors it by feeding the international students these delicious rolls. They are basically cinnamon rolls that aren't smothered in sugar syrup, rather just sprinkled with it.

Traditional Swedish Meatballs at IKEA

This plate of traditional style meatballs may look like regurgitation, when actually it is a half eaten plate of swedish meatballs covered in sauce with a side of lingonberry jam, and parsley.

"Did he just say parsley?"

HELLZ YES, DAT BE PARSLEY ALL UP IN HEHAR!

Lingonberry seems to cover the food of Sweden. Between juice, and sauce, and jam, lingonberries can make any food more Swedish. And the meatballs... come on, it's in the name: Swedish meatballs.

Black and Green Rumcake Dessert (also at IKEA)

This started out in the form of a green spring roll with chocolate caps on both ends. It had a chocolate, fudge center that had a light rum taste. Although the flavor was a bit bland beyond that, it was a good finish to this Swedish meal at a Swedish furniture store, IKEA.

100 to go.

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Travel to Sweden - Settle in Västrås

Depart from Albuquerque Sunport (ABQ) - 12:32pm MST 10/01/13

6-Hour Layover in Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD) 10/01/13

Vodka Shots at "Skybridge Restaurant and Bar" ~6:12 pm CST 10/01/13

Depart Chicago O'Hare (ORD) - 10:05 pm CST 10/01/13

Depart Copenhagen (CPH) - 17:10 CET 10/01/14

Upon arriving to Scandinavia I realize something very quickly:

It's much better here.

The Copenhagen airport was a monument to interior design and architectural beauty. The dark wood floors and glass walls set this place apart.

Arrive Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) ~ 18:10 CET 10/01/14

Notice the Swan chairs and design prints at the SAS gates.

Stockholm for the night and half of the day - 2010/01/14-15

Train to Västerås and Hike to Mälardalen University. Arrive ~ 17:14 CET 10/01/15

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Welcome to Sweden

This has been quite a lengthy trip so far, but we've settled at last. A total trip of about 22 hours, with total time from doorstep to doorstep being about 47 hours. I've since moved into my good sized, 10 square meter bedroom. Luckily, I somehow managed to sheist my way into an excellent room. Not only does my radiator have fins, but my previous occupier left me a bed full of blankets, a desk covered in lamps, and a bottle filled with pee.

The building we live in, Junior, is completely occupied by international students. Of which I've met folks from Mexico, Finland, Lithuania, Thailand, Pakistan, Romania, and Spain. Life will take a little adjustment, but not much.

• The toilets have two settings: Piss or Dump.
• The showers have two knobs: Power and Temperature.
• The outlets will blow if you try to plug in an 85W computer to a 50W adapter.
• The markets all close at 18:00.

The town is riddled with skybridges. We found this out when we went to buy food. While in Stockholm, we decided that we must rid ourselves of the SEK (Krowns) to USD (Dollahs) conversion at every transaction (7 SEK ~ 1 USD). So we took some notes:

• Nice restaurant lunch = 99 Krowns
• Lunch buffet = 79 Krowns
• McDonalds Hamburger = 10 Krowns

Bingo on the hamburger find. A nice, easy amount that gives a good benchmark for everything else. From now on, everything will be measured in how many hamburgers we can buy with the same amount of krowns. That being said, we purchased the basic food's we'll need for the next few weeks for a mere 364 Krowns (36 Hamburgers). That included a 1 krown mortgage on Kenneth's Orangina Soda.

Studying begins this week, at which point I will be able to complete my first task of the 101 goals I have for the next 1001 days. More to come then.

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Shedding My New Mexican Skin

The time has come for me to move from this country (and another by coincidence).

I took my final American shower, and washed clean the silt and grime that I've collected here. In a chilling finale, I emerged from the stream ready for what comes next.

I'm leaving a lot behind here. I shall return to tidy up if death can be kept at bay.

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01/10/10-101/1001

Today I've established a list of goals to be completed before October 7th, 2012. 101 goals in 1001 days. They can be seen, along with my progress as to which have been completed here:

Day Zero Project

Today is day zero. I am in Durango, CO, about to head back to Albuquerque, NM. The list is heavy with places to visit and things to do, especially places to see while I'm studying in Sweden (and even a goal to study in a foreign country). It also includes many goals that I currently have, and that I've had for a while now. But it also has personal goals based on family and love too.

I'm a man of lists, but oftentimes a man of many uncompleted lists. I typically jot down weekly or daily to-dos with about a 75% completion rate. This provides a nice chance to have some of my biggest goals, some of the biggest pieces to my five year plan, put down for everyone to see, and ready for me to check off when appropriate.

It's a good thing to embark on this mission just days before I embark on one of the biggest events of my life (so far). Three days to go. I'll be driving miles to see the one that I love, I'll be finishing my engineering paper, and I'll be saying goodbye to my family and friends (oh yeah, and packing and getting ready to leave the United States of America).

In addition, I feel that it's appropriate that the time period ends days after my 25th birthday. I am aware of what Einstein once said about personal gain:

"You will become everything you will ever be by the time you're 25" (or something like that)

I can't say for sure, but I do believe this will be true. As people grow older, their ideas become more concreted in their mind, and unless they are able to find themselves in the habit of growth and progress, they will discontinue development after age 25. It seems easy to tell how people will turn out when they are young, but people do change. I just don't think many people change much after 25.

It's been a fast paced few weeks, errr, few months. It'll be an accomplished next 1001 days.

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