Tomteland ~ Santaland Mora, Sweden

On Thursday, Nov 16th we decided to go ahead and go on a weekend trip. This trip was to Mora, Sweden. Mora is about halfway up the country and is situated on Lake Siljan. Mora is home to the cross-country ski race, the Vasaloppet, which from meagre beginnings in 1922 has grown to become one of world's largest ski events. In the winter, there are several excellent tracks for skiers. Those who don't fill curageous enough to ski or snowboard but still want to experience the great outdoors can go by snowmobile instead. Mora is also home to the original Dalecarlian or Dala horse. Unfortuanately our trip was too short to enjoy the ski slopes. Maybe we will get another ski chance before we leave Sweden.

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Santa Claus lives here, too. At Mt Gesunda, he has his own park—Santaworld—where you can see his house, his workshop and all his animals and helpers. Mt. Gesunda is about 17 kilometers (just under 11 miles) north of the town of Mora. At Santa World you are right in the middle of the adventure. Maybe the Trolls have made a mess of things; so then you can follow Santa’s Elves in an exciting Troll hunt. Luckily there’s the Troll School where you can learn everything from the language of the Trolls to how to turn a Troll into stone.The Witch just loves to tease all the mums and dads. The gingerbread lady helps you to bake your own cookies. Father Christmas has a lot to tell and share. Come and join him in his world and participate in Santa's school and other exciting and fun activities at Santaworld.

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Santa´s House When you enter Santa’s House you’ll feel immediately at home as soon as youre in the little hallway where Santa’s skis are standing. By the big fireplace Santa's favourite chair is standing. A feeling of peace and quiet spreads through the room as you look at Santa’s things. In the Kitchen, it smells of cinnamon and vanilla. You might try Santa’s chair and table, then wander into his workroom. The Christmas tree shines as does the beautiful wrapping-paper by Santa’s bench. You can write in his large guest book, if you want. On the way out, you can sneak into Santa’s bedroom and lay down for a little rest under the rainbow canopy.

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The workshop At Santa’s Workshop there’s a Coffee Shop where you can enjoy scrumptious sandwiches, pies, pan-pizzas, newly baked cinnamon buns and hot chocolate. If you feel like something sweet, The Candy Shed is close by. Crispy, yummy Troll sweets, soft chocolate fudge, sticks of toffee, The Fairy’s cotton candy and much, much more. At Santa’s Post Office you can get your postcards stamped by Santa himself. Up stairs is also a Shop full of handicrafts, toys, Christmas gifts and all sorts of souvenirs. Before you leave, take a look at The Mechanical Elves. They show how it looks when the real Elves work through the night making Christmas presents. Maybe tonight is the night when your present is being made. The workshop is the largest building at Santaworld. It is actually the largest log cabin in Europe. In the workshop you will find Santa‘s store, museum, snacks, exhibits and more.

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Winter season Winter in Santaland means adventures in the snow, the smell of ginger bread cookies and cinamon, the sparkling candles and the open fire places.In the winter, if it's cold enough, Santaworld tuns in to a white fairytale land. Lake Aurora, is covered with ice and the fountains from the summer turns in to proude ice sculptures. Take a ride with the horse and sleigh ride in Santa's forrest. Then it’s time for more adventures. A play on the second floor in Santas house, Help santas helpers sort out the mischief of the playful trolls. If you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of the Lady of the Woods and the fairies. The winter is lovely at Santa World!

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Mariah had such a great time at Santaland. She got to spend one on one time with Santa several different times. She is no longer afraid of Santa either. She told him everything that she wanted for Christmas, including a Pony.... hmmm. That's going to be a hard one. Oh well, atleast Santa discouraged the pony idea by telling her he can't fit a pony in the sleigh or down the chimney. Mariah enjoyed speaking with Santa and of course he can speak all languages (at least English, Spanish, Swedish, German, French, and Japaneese). He is a smart Santa.

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While we were there, it didn't snow. The temperature in Mora was up to the low to mid 40's however on the mountain it was cooler. The snow from the previous week was still around. There was roughly 1.5-2 foot of snow depending on the location. The lake was begining to freeze over. There was a coat of ice all the way across, however towards the middle it was not thick enough for skating yet. Santa's helpers said it would need about 2 more weeks. The snow was not the best packing snow for snowballs. It did have a thin hard shell of frozen ice on the top but once you walked on it for a minute you could make snow angels and could play!

The snow was lots of fun. The snow was thick enough for the horse pulled sleigh ride up to see Santa's newest reindeer. Rudolf was away teaching other reindeers to fly (atleast that is what Santa told Mariah). The sleigh ride was quite an experience; especially when I had to explain to Mariah that the fur "blanket" she was sitting on and liked so much was actually reindeer hide. It was comfy though.

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We both had a great time. Also on this trip we went to Sweden's capital city, Stockholm. That was a great time too.. However, I will post later this week about it. I don't want the post to be to long and I am limited to how many pictures I can put into a post. Mariah wanted me to add, that she told Santa to bring her friends lots of presents this year too! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We miss you all and can't wait to see you. Its exactly one month from today. I can not beleive how fast the time has rolled by. It seems almost like yesterday when this experience was just a possible thought and not even close to being definite. We close by sending our love! God Bless You each and everyday.

Update from Växjö ~ Weeks 13 & 14

Okay, well I guess I have gotten lazy when it comes to updating. Once again, it has been two weeks since my last post. However, not much has happened.

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School:

My classes are ending. Yeah!!! I had my first exam on Nov. 8th. This exam was for my social work class. It consisted of a ten page research paper and a ten minute presentation. My topic was the effects of foster care on children worldwide, especially the United States and Sweden. I received a pass with distinction for my grade. Its hard to get used to no letter grades. My second exam was on Nov. 10th. This exam was for my Optional Content Health Class. The exam consisted of another ten page research paper, including field research, and a twenty minute presentation with critical review. Once again I received a pass with distinction. Yeah!! My third exam was a doozie on Nov 14th. This night Mariah stayed with friends until my exam was over at seven o'clock. I have never had a written exam this hard. It was twelve pages all in Swedish, even the instructions were in swedish. The last part of the exam was a 100 word essay about my family in Swedish. I am not sure of my score yet, we get that back on Tuesday. I don't think I did well; I am not sure if I even passed. If I didn't pass, I will retake the exam on Nov. 30th.

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My Birthday:

Since my last update my birthday has come and gone. I had a good birthday. Mariah woke me up singing Happy Birthday to me. She had also colored me some pictures. We had a special breakfast with french toast and the works. We spent the whole day together. That evening she was suppose to spend the night with Paula and Louvis; while I went out with some friends. However, I ended picking her up and bringing her home after we went out. We went to the Bishop's Arms. It is a british pub in downtown Växjö. Kira brought me a birthday cake, but cake doesn't go well with the Guiness I had at the Pub. Mariah enjoyed the cake and I did the next day. Some of my friends that went to the pub are Amanda (a local from Växjö), Ulricka (a local from Växjö and my buddy), Gina (a master student from Illinois), and Kira (from ECU). I am also posting the picture of the cool earrings Amanda suprised me with.

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Mariah:

She is doing good. She had her last piano lesson yesterday. She made the comment the other day that she didn't want to leave Sweden. That she wants everyone to move here. Although, I think she has changed her mind again. This morning she wanted to know how soon we could go home. She has made lots of friends at school. She gets upset when I come to pick her up early. They get sooo excited when we get there in the morning. Her school pictures came back! They are pretty good, I think but I am a little biased. The ones I have added here are pictures of teh pictures so they probally won't show up very good.

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Travel:

We haven't been anywhere lately due to my class schedule and field work schedule. However, we leave tonight to go to Mora, Sweden. It is quite a bit more north than Växjö though it is not in the northern tip. It has been snowing there for several weeks. The reason we are going there is Santa Claus and the elves live there. Here is a link if you would like to check it out. www.santaworld.se and here is a link to the webcam for Mora http://kamera.mora.se/ you can check out the current weather and see the snow on the ground. When we leave Mora, we are headed to Stockholm. Stockholm is in central Sweden and is the capital. We will be back here on Tuesday in time for my class.

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We love and miss you all. Thank you for thinking of us and remembering us while we are gone. We can't wait to see everyone in December. There are only 37 days left in our amazingly wonderful trip of a lifetime. Thank you God, mom, and dad, for this oppurtunity, for your love and support.

A Prolonged Update from Växjö Sweden (weeks 11 & 12)

Wow, time does fly when your having fun or atleast when you have a jam packed schedule. The picture to the right is one Mariah took after our shopping day last week. Mom sent me money for my birthday, early so we went shopping. I got the sunglasses, the scarf, the necklace, and the brown leather belt that doesn't show. The belt and sunglasses match my purse I got a few weeks ago and the necklace matches the earrings and bracelet I got in Gothenborg. The belt was a must though...I couldn't keep my khakis up anymore, they were falling off. The past two weeks have been really crazy. I have had a busy class schedule on top of a full time field study schedule. My classes are quickly coming to an end. All the lectures and seminars are over, with the exception of my last to Swedish classes that are this week. . Now we are down to the final examinations, which here are not test like at home. Here the final examination is turning in your research report and presenting it to the class. During the presentation, your classmates can ask questions, debate your research methods, or try to dispute your research results. These are also not small papers. I am still in the processs of writing them, however my shortest one right now is 9 pages. The minimum is 6 pages, but the average we were told is 10-15 pages. Lots and lots of work, especially since the papers have to be thoroughly research from the US perspective and Swedish perspective. My first presentation is Wednesday and my second presentation is on Friday. Please keep me in your prayers those days, pray that I will do good and get a passing grade! . Now to what has happened in the past two weeks. On Saturday, Oct. 21, we went to Malmo Sweden. It is the third largest city in Sweden and it is on the southern tip, the beach! It was just way to cold and rainy to try and find the beach. Oh well. We did have fun. My friend, Gina, went with us. She is studying abroad here from Charleston Illinois. She is working on her masters in business. She is also the youth minister at her home church. On this short day trip, we did a lot of walking and looking at buildings and the castle. However, our main reason for going was Gray's American Food Store. It is one of the 3 places in Sweden that we can find American Food. The prices are astronomical. We purchased bisquick pancake mix, pancake syrup, root beer, peanut butter, and goldfish. What a wonderful combination but you can not find those items at any local grocery stores and they were only twice what you would pay at the highest priced grocery store in the states. Just for a comparision: a small box of poptarts $9.00, a box of betty crocker cake mix and a container of betty crocker icing $15.00, a six pack of mountain dew $12.00 (you have to purchase 1 can at the time at 2.00 per can). When I get old and retire, I moving back to Sweden to open an American Food store....I would make a fortune at those prices!!! . On Saturday the 28th, we had our first snow fall. It was just a dusting but it was nice to see. On Sunday the 29th, we tried to make it to the moosefarm in Kosta Sweden. Its only just over an hour away by bus, so a good day trip. It just didn't work out. We waited until after lunch to leave due to the light snow on the ground. When we arrived in Kosta, we were informed that the brochure on was wrong about the distance to the moosepark from the last bus stop. It was a 3 kilometer walk. We started to walk it but it was very cold, windy, and beginning to get dark. There was no lights on the road to the moosepark just open forest with signs that say no pictures. I am not sure why, but the sunset was too pretty; I took a picture any way. . Monday, October 30th, I registered for my spring classes at ECU. It is not the schedule I had planned on. I am going to go ahead and take a tough spring semester, so I don't have to take classes over the summer. I will be going to G'ville on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 8am until 4 pm. I will be taking Organic Chemistry with lab, Physics with lab, Statistics, and two health classes. . Then it was halloween. Halloween here is not anything like the states. The Swedish are just now trying to bring in the halloween traditions we have celebrated for many years. So, no trick or treating. :( However, we purchased a pumpkin cake at the local bakery to celebrate in the Swedish class I had that night. Mariah wore here halloween outfit and carried the pumpkin bag Nana Shue sent her. . Then the other big event this week was the snow. It starting snowing on Tuesday evening late. When it finally stopped on Wednesday lunchtime, we had 3 inches in most places. This morning when the rain started, there was still some snow on the ground in shaded places. The picture on the left is during the afternoon after the snow had stopped falling. The picture on the right is from our walk to school in the morning when it was still snowing, the foggy look to the picture is actually the snow. . I am going to close for now. I will write later this week to tell you all about my hospital field studies. Its getting late and I want to add pictures. I hope you are all doing well. We miss you very much. We are counting down the days until we come home; eventhough Mariah did say the other day that she wants to stay. We send our love and we keep you all in our prayers. Only 47 days until we board the planes to come home!