First Växjö Update!

Sorry, I haven’t posted. This first week has been very difficult for both me and Mariah. We had very good flights the entire way from Jacksonville, NC to Stockholm, Sweden. There was a slight delay in Charlotte due to new security measures. Upon arrival in Germany at the large Frankfurt International airport, we did get lost but eventually we found an English speaking security agent to help us. We arrived in Stockholm on Sunday August 13th at about 12.30 pm our time! Then we set off driving. After wasting almost a full hour driving around Stockholm in circles, we were on our way in the rain. Exhausted we arrived in Jönköping around 4 pm. Jönköping is a large town in central Sweden. To the north and the east the town is surrounded by large natural lakes. To the west is what we would call foothills. To the south is forest and farm land. This is the direction we would take in the morning. We were able to get a room at the Scandic Elmia Hotel at a decent last minute student rate for only one night. Monday we set off to finish our drive to Växjö. We were supposed to be only about 1.5 hours away. It took us almost 3 hours though. Driving wasn’t bad. At least they do drive on the right side of the road! Our biggest changes with driving are turnabouts, speed limits, and lack of stop signs. Turnabouts are abundant at every intersection big or small. The two intersecting roads have no stop signs, just yields. Then the roads lead into a big two lane circle with a landscaped center circle. The locals fly into and out of these, most the time without signal lights. The speed limit is always in km/hour here. On the major road from Stockholm (E4), it is like I40 or I95, the limit is only posted when the road is passing through a town. Other times people just fly. Oh well, that is enough about that. I have turned in the rental car. So, now there is no more driving just Pat (left) and Charlie (right). The university is very nice. It is under construction in certain areas. It has grown more than double in the past few years. Our apartment is on campus. It is not very old. We got very lucky; our apartment is on the back side of campus. We over look the horse ranch from all the windows. It is a much better view than construction or one of the university pubs. To the east is Trummen Lake and Teleborg Castle. To the south is our favorite horse ranch. To the west more lakes that I don’t know names of yet. To the north is the Centrum of Växjö, what we would call downtown. Everything here is located downtown. For us it would be quite a walk over 2 kilometers, so we take the bus. Luckily, the bus stops right at our apartment building. Mariah had her first day of school here on Wed. Her school is Gläntan Furutå Förskola. They focus on creativity and imagination. There are two teachers in her class, one female and one male. There are 14 students and then 2 part-time students. They play outside everyday for at least 2-3 hours no matter the weather. Have I mentioned its rainy season! Well, I am going to quite for now. Be sure to check out the pictures of our first week too! God Bless all of you. We miss everyone dearly but will see you in 126 more days!