My e-mail from August 18th

Greetings from Sweden!

Hey all, I hope everyone’s been doing well in the 36 hours or so since I tookoff, headed for Lund. I’m writing now from my hotel, where I'll be staying for the next 2 days. So before I begin my tale of excitement, danger, and wizardry, I wanna quickly say that if I didn’t see you, call you or whatever like I promised depending on the circumstance, I apologize. Leaving was pretty rough on me, and even though I just got here, I miss everyone (one person in particular) terribly. Anyways, I landed in Copenhagen at about 1 pm local time. I then, after a little effort, but minimal drama, located my train, boarded it for Malmo, the nearest big city in Sweden, and then transferred for the 15 minute trip to Lund.The most challenging part of this was that I was carrying my laptop bag, another hand bag and 2 huge bags.After getting off the train in Lund I located my hostel. The hostel is a converted train right next to the train station.

It was pretty cramped, so I was actually excited at the prospect of lugging my stuff outta there and going to the hotel I'm staying at now. I spent the rest of the day wandering around town. It’s a super cute town, filled with all sorts of old pretty architecture (mom you would love it), as you can see.

From the little I know about the town, the biggest landmark appears to be the church I went around town searching for food, because a few Canadians I met at the hostel said there were some good kebab places around, but I couldn’t find what they were looking at, and instead had authentic Swedish Burger King. Ever heard of a Garlic Whopper? Me neither! But it sure was gross! Plus, it ended up costing me like 9 bucks. After that I went and had a beer at a bar, chatted with the local bar tender, and that’s about it. After a day of travelling, I ended up crashing at about 8.

The next morning was filled with talking to a few of the people in the hostel, having breakfast there, and then I went on my way to a bus stop. On my way to the bus stop, it immediately became apparant that I wouldn't be able to lug all my stuff there myself. This German couple made the mistake of being friendly and chatting with me and I responded by enlisting them to help. It almost ended in disaster as we took an elevator, and it shut off mid trip, leaving us stuck in it for almost 5 minutes before it miraculously started again. They were good sports though, as they walked me all the way to the bus stop. We talked about how much George Bush sucks and became fast friends. And by fast friends, I mean I will never see them again.

Anyways, I won’t be giving you daily updates, but I’m feeling super lazy and I thought I’d write something before too long. After the 2 days of moving 120lbs of luggage around I am happy to be in my hotel before I have to lug it backto the campus to get into my apartment. In attempting to charge my computer up, I started using an adapter that was given to me by Adam who was here before, and to test it I plugged my surge protector in, and pop, the lights went out. I had to call the front desk, who must by now be annoyed at the dumb American and all his dumb American questions. I'm glad I didn't put my computer in first as I almost did. That would have sucked. Not sure what the problem is with it (if you have any experience with these, your input would help. I really don't know what I did), but I am hoping that my battery lasts for a little longer, at least until I get settled in. I hope everyone is doing well. My e-mail may be touch and go. But I’ll try to be good about staying in touch when I reestablish a sense of normalcy … it still weirds me out that I’m over here. It’s a very unreal feeling.

Again, I miss you all, except for those that I don't miss (You know who you are).

Much love,

~blake