Lucia, Eldkonst and Good-Byes

Tjena :)

Before I write anything I have to tell you that this will be the last entry for at least 3 weeks. I will go to Austria tomorrow and I guess I won't write anything during my time there - I'll give you an update when I'm back in Sweden.

However, last thursday the Swedes celebrated St. Lucia - I think nobody celebrates it, beside Italy. Basically it's a nice ceremony with a girl wearing candles on her head and Swedish people seem to love it - ever since I came here people kept telling me that this is a very special day. The ceremony was in the university - it was quite nice, but nothing special. Just a choir singing some St. Lucia/Christmas Songs (some of them are damn catchy "Santa luciaaaa*sings*") and afterwards we got free Julmust (some hot drink) and lussekatter...and a small present which I haven't opened yet (feels like a book...and it is a book which I won't be able to read*lol*).
On Friday there was another "event" called "Eldkonst" (Fire Art). Students of the University danced, symbolizing the different elements - since it was outside (and in the evening) it was really cold (I think it was one of the coldest days in Karlstad this winter). In the end they burned some wooden sculptures..it was quite cool, especially the "location" and the decoration was nice. Since it was so cold all the people I went there with wanted to go to some warm place as soon as possible and we weren't really able to enjoy it because we were freezing so much ;)

Well, those were the nice things that happened - the sad things are that many many people left or will leave soon. Elisabeth left on Thursday (Jonathan and I drove her to the station) and it's soooo strange that she isn't here anymore. On Thursday and Friday I had those typical "oh, let's ask Elisabeth what she's up to" moments, when I realized that she's already in Austria. Claudia left on Saturday, Harry today...Lena will leave tomorrow (I will bring her to the station) and so am I... And when I come back in January most of the people I got to know will be gone. This will be weird, I guess, because I have to start from the beginning with the new exchange students. I'm so glad that Jonathan and some other people stay next semester...

I hope/know that I will keep in touch with some people I met here, and I'm already looking forward to meeting them again in some months/years...

God Jul & gott nytt år :)
Manuel

...tell the northern lights to keep shining

Hej :)

Some hours ago I came back from Kiruna. Some people asked me where and what Kiruna is, so I'll give you a very short description - Kiruna is in the far north, approx. 1200 km away from Stockholm and sweden's biggest town up in the north. It's a really nice town that lives of the mining and tourism.

However, we went there to see the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi and to make some tours with sledge dogs, snow mobiles and snow shoes. Of course we also hoped to see the northern light...
We arrived on Friday around 1 o'clock - it was not that cold but already getting dark. A taxi drove us to our hostel (which was really good - it was like a small apartment with our own kitchen and bathroom). Later we went downtown to go to the tourist office and look around the town. On Saturday we were picked up from the hostel to get to the snow mobile tour - it was quite far away from Kiruna.
Driving with the snow mobile was really cool - it wasn't that cold (around 0 degrees, which is really warm ;) ) but we got warm clothes before we jumped on the snow mobiles. With the snow mobiles we drove through the forest, over frozen lakes, streets...until we arrived at the Icehotel. There we had time to look at it - and I must say that it's pretty amazing. It wasn't that special, in my opinion, but it was nice to see. I wouldn't necessarily want to spend a night there - it's much cheaper to go camping somewhere in Sweden's wilderness - and it has the same effect. Nevertheless, it's really cool to look at all the ice figures and the rooms. It isn't finished yet, so we couldn't see everything - but it was enough ;) Afterwards we drove back to the "camp" and had some reindeer meat with potatos.
The next day we went to church - oh yes. We wanted to have a look at the church and since our timing was perfect we were able to attend mass. Mass is probably the wrong expression - it was a christmas mass with christmas carols and Jesus-Story - played by adults, who sang some songs. It was interesting to watch - and to listen to the swedish ;)
In the evening we went for a walk - on snow shoes. It was nice...but since I'm not a huge fan of winter sports it wasn't my favourite activity - although I must say that it was fun to do. And we saw our first northern light - the sky was clear so we saw many many stars - and the northern light. The guide took us to a small hut where we had coffee, sandwiches (of course with reindeer meat) and cake.
On Monday, our last full day in Kiruna, we had time to do whatever we wanted. I decided to stroll around the city and go inside the town hall. In the evening we made a dog sledge tour - which was my personal highlight of the weekend. The dogs were really beautiful and well trained - they really had fun doing this. It was a very unique feeling to sit on the sledge, hearing the dogs and the sound of the sledge, watching the stars and the snowy landscape...it was really cool, I enjoyed it a lot. It was freezing cold (around minus 20 degrees) but we got good clothes there, so it didn't feel too cold. After the sledge tour we went for a walk - and we saw some more northern lights. It is so fascinating to watch them, I guess you can't believe it unless you see them yourself. We stood there for more than 1 hour to watch them in the sky. Most of them were green, but some of them changed their colour from yellow to red to green...fascinating.
However, today - Tuesday - we left Kiruna and came back here. I really enjoyed the weekend and if I ever have the change to go there again - I will do it. It was an amazing experience :)

So, that was my travel-report ;) Sorry if it's quite boring to read, but I'm tired - and I wanted to write it before I fall asleep.
I will write again later this week...
cu
manuel

OH YES - Of course you can watch pictures of Kiruna...here ;)

and btw - the headline is taken from a Tori Amos Song ("Amber Waves")

Rufus + Kiruna

Well, until tuesday I will be in Kiruna - this means no messages etc. before tuesday evening. But feel free to write me, I'll answer as soon as I am back.
Here's a short video of Rufus performing "14th street" not in Stockholm, but he sang the song in Stockholm too ;) (oh yes, I'm still amazed and in awe ;) )
greetings from Sweden,
manuel

forget all your troubles, come on GET HAPPY :)

Hejhej :)

I'm speechless. In awe. Unbelievable.
The past weekend was absolutely amazing - mainly because of the Rufus Wainwright concert, but also because of Stockholm. This time I had the chance to see some not-so-touristic parts of Stockholm and it was amazing. All the tourists go to the (boring) palace and shopping in the Gamla Stan where you find one tourist shop after another but the swedish people are somewhere else. I discovered some really nice cafés and a really cool independent bookstore that sells all kind of books - in english ("New York Stories" - Odengatan 100). The shop owner is a really nice woman who comes from NY but has been living in Stockholm for 25 years now... and the shop is really small and cosy, I almost forgot that bookstores like this exist (nowadays you mostly see these huge bookstores without personal contact and so-sophisticated-and-cool-looking reading cornes everywhere...that sell paperbacks and sheepworld-stuff).
However, I spend the whole saturday afternoon shopping for christmas presents and discovering some parts of Stockholm. In the evening I went to a small and really cool looking coffee house ("Chokladkoppen", Stor Torget 18, Gamla Stan) and had the best hot chocolate...
Afterwards I went to a bar and back to the hostel.
On Sunday morning I went to the Museum of Modern Art which was...OK. Nothing too special, in my opinion. There were some really good pictures (some Picassos ;) ) but nothing too extraordinary. They showed some movies of Gunvor Nelson, a swedish film maker/artist who made some interesting art-movies - mostly in the 70s and 80s up to today.
In the afternoon I met Linda, a swedish girl I know from a Rufus Wainwright Message Board. Together we went to the concert arena and waited for the concert to begin...and that was the Highlight of the whole weekend! The concert was amazing and the audience was in the perfect mood. Believe it or not, but Rufus is a much better entertainer than Robbie Williams. He's sincere, honest and really charming.
At half past 7 Rufus and his 7 bandmembers entered the stage and started the show which ended up being an amazing night full of surprises and greatness. He wore a green suit which glowed in the dark (*lol*) and after a 10 minutes break he changed to his fabulous Lederhosen from Austria ;). The encore was amazing...for the last 2 songs Rufus got dressed on stage - he was wearing a bath robe sat down and started putting on lipstick, high heels,... I know, this sounds freaky, but the crowed went wild. Then it got dark, the music started and his band members came on stage, wearing black suits and dancing a funny choreography...Rufus sang Judy Garland's "Get Happy" (original Judy Version... RUFUS VERSION). He ended the show singing "Gay Messiah"...
It was an amazing show (oh, I think I already mentioned that several times*lol*).
However, I could go on forever about the show... but I think I won't waste your time any longer ;)
Tonight we have a big christmas-dinner in my corridor, since this will be one of the last evenings where everybody is here... :(
On Friday we'll fly to Kiruna (that's in the far north) and I'm really looking forward to that. Although it will be really cold (today it has -12 degrees) but we will get warm clothes up there...

bye
manuel
PS: As always - you can watch some pictures HERE (I didn't take many pictures on the concert since they always end up looking blurry...)