By the way, i'm already back for half a year.... I came back in the end of December. My next project is a study tour to the USA, so you can find me in the States this winter! Check for more info www.stress.utwente.nl/e-commerica. Maybe I put some stories on my weblog about it later.
Yes, I did it. My exams are finished and I think I passed them. I'm gonna hit home soon, so now I have to start making some preperations (cleaning my room...pff). This week is pretty much overbooked with farewell parties, so I will get through it I suppose. It wil be hard to say everybody goodbye, but we'll keep in touch!
Vi ses,
kees
I came back from the trip this week and it was great!
We went on the trip with 6, 4 girls and 2 boys. The first day we catched the train of 8:20 to Kiruna. At least, we thought that we had to go to Kiruna. a trainstation employee, and she told us that it is not in Kiruna, but in Abisko, 100km more north! So we were just in time to jump on the same train again, because the train was waiting for us... When we arrived there, the hostel was easy to find. And it was a great hostel. There were more international students, so it was quite cosy. And there was a great sauna, which was heated by real wood. The best thing is to go outside in the snow, straight from the sauna, and then of course back again... it was a lot of fun.
The next day was the dogsledging activity! At first we had to prepare the sledges by ourselves, with some help from the instructors. So we had to catch some dogs and put them before our sledge. Everybody had is own sledge with a personal instructor. The dogsledging was really nice. Those huskey dogs look so small, but they were really strong. At first the instructor started to 'drive' the sledge on the back and I had to sit down in the sledge. After a while i was allowed to get on the back too and later I was managing the sledge on my own! Great experience. After dogsledging, we were walking around in Abisko around a lake, because it was still light... At 2 o'clock it was already dark. And I haven't seen any sun in north sweden, it was all pretty grey during the day. The sun will not come back earlier then februari. The day ended with some conversations with other international students and, of course, with the usual sauna.
On saturday, we got up early again. Our goal was to go to the other side of Abisko, to the tourist centre. We have been walking around there to see some canyons, but the best thing was: we saw some huge mooses (Elk or Eland). That was really impressive, because the were pretty nearby. I can tell you: you don't want to go close to a male moose. At 12 we took the train to Narvik, Norway, for our next activity: watching the killer wales! (also called: 'orca's', or in swedish: 'späckhuggare') The way to our next cabin was without big problems, so we arrived at a small village next to the Tysfjord, where the killer wales are hanging around.
The orca day started with a lecture about the killer wales. After that, we took the bus to the boat, and not much later we were floating on the Tysfjord. We heard some stories from other exchange student from Umea about their trip to the Tysfjord (including Stephanie, she was with us) and they didn't see any whale, 2 days in a row. But, as soon as we were on the water, we saw them! And not just a few... lots of! We even saw the 'feeding carroussel'. That's is the way the whales are catching their herrings. They start, with a big group, to swim around a school of herring. The herring try to protect theirselves, so they are swimming closer and closer to each other. Then the whales are jumping and slapping on the herring, so the herring dies or get in such a shock, that they cannot move anymore. Then the whales eat the herring one for one, until they are satisfied. And they eat quite a lot... about 400 herring a day! So it was another great day.
The last day existed just only of traveling. We catched the first bus at 9 am and arrived in Umea about 930 pm. But it was for sure worth the effort.
The next couple of days I have left do I need for studying and preparing my way home. Next wednesday the Dutch ambassador of Sweden comes over to Umea, so they asked me an Susan to attend the meeting with him. Is kind of interesting, I think. Further, I will go to stockholm on the 18th of december and will arrive at home ont the 21st.
I will put some pics online soon.
that's it,
kees
The beach party was great. Thanks all for coming. There are some pics online.
My plans for the next week: tomorrow, the 1st, celebrating my birthday. And the second, i'm leaving to Norway. So this is probably my last update for about a week.
kees
