Final days in Sweden and return home

Hej it's Eric! It is hard to believe that a month has passed and most of us are back at work today. I decided this evening I would update the blog with what could be our final post.

Tuesday, May 29, the team had our last individual vocational day, this lasted most of the day. In the early evening we had a guided tour of the Örebro Castle. It was a great opportunity to see many of the public spaces (such as the ballroom and dungeon). Peter Larne and the Örebro Rotarian's hosted a farewell dinner at one of the members summer lakeside home. It was a wonderful send off event.

Our final presentation was at noon on Wednesday, May 30. We had the morning and afternoon free to do last minute ‘panic’ shopping. We were treated to a champagne reception with the County Governor at the castle. The evening was spent with our host families and packing.

Our flight left Örebro at 6.05 a.m. on Thursday, May 31. We arrived in Copenhagen and had a fairly tight timeline to catch our Newark flight. Pete is staying in Europe and visiting a friend in Germany. The rest of us had an 8.5 hour flight to Newark. Following a two hour mechanical delay, we were greeted by family and friends at the Omaha airport around 6.00 p.m. CST. This made for a long day, total travel time was somewhere around 18 hours, many of us were up for over 24 hours with little naps on the plane rides!

Our first GSE presentation of our Sweden experience is June 22 at the Lincoln South Rotary Club. I am looking forward to the opportunity and hope to share what we learned.

Special thanks to all of the program coordinators, hosts, Rotarian's, Rotary Foundation and families and friends that made this awesome opportunity possible.

The mall of Örebro University. College education is free in Sweden.

Joe presenting Peter Larne Husker gear at our going away party.

Anders and Annelina Johansson where able to join us at our going away party. Anders and Annelina were from Lindesberg and were part of our welcoming committee. It was nice to see them at our farewell party. Left to right: Cassie, Eric, Pete, Kristi, Annelina, Joe and Anders.

I will think twice about complaining about the cost of gas. The 95 is the normal gas at 12 SEK per liter -- that would about 48 SEK per gallon (I know, not exactly, but close) -- that's about $6.86 a gallon.

Örebro's water tower.

Pete and Joe at our farewell party.

Jenny provided us a tour of the Örebro Castle.

One of the many large ballrooms in the Örebro Castle. Groups can rent this room for parties and dinners.

A view of Örebro from the castle.

This is one of the floors in the castle. It is amazing to see the workmanship from years ago. This is all stone.

The county governor lives in the castle and opened his private residence to us. This is one of the many rooms we were able to see.

The County Governor is in the middle of this picture.

The Swedish Judical System and our lakeside barbecue

Sunday we spent time with our host families and had a barbecue at Usken Lake -- about 45 minutes outside of Örebro. We enjoyed our time with our host families and had an opportunity to take a short boat trip around the lake.

Monday (May 28) we had an opportunity to visit the Swedish judicial system in Örebro. We spent time at the Police Authority, with the Public Prosecutor and the district court. The Swedish judicial system is very different than ours.

Sweden has a national police force were policy decisions are made in Stockholm and then carried out in the counties. While there is local police presence, there do not work for the local city like they do in the US.

The court system, with exception of trials that involve charges against the media, are not held with a jury. There are four judges, one who has professional legal training and the other three are political appointments.

Two Rotary Club Presentations today -- one at 7:30 this morning and the other over lunch.

Monday evening the Wadköping Rotary Club treated us to a "singing picnic" in "dragon boats" in Oset. It was a good time and the team enjoyed themselves.

On another note, my new camera (that I purchased a few weeks ago in Sweden) slipped right out of my hands today at the police station. I stood there and gasped as it hit the ground. Camera #2 -- dead. However, I was able to go back to the Clas Olson (the Swedish chain store I bought it from) and they were able to exchange it. Special thanks to Dan (my host) for taking me to the store and opening the conversation with their customer service department.

Pete, Kristi and Cassie enjoy their time on Lake Usken.

A view of shore around Lake Usken.

Örebro from my host's back yard. It is a beautiful city.

Cassie at our 7:30 Monday morning Rotary meeting.


A water fountain outside the Örebro castle.

The view of Joe's head and the girls from where I was sitting in the dragon boat.

A view to the back of where I was sitting on the dragon boat.

We rowed our dragon boat to a nature preserve. It was really quite nice.

Since the weather was not cooperating, we had an indoor picnic.

We are in Örebro

We are back to where we started our great Sweden trip -- Örebro. It is a city of about 130,000 people and is the home of Peter Larne (Rotary District 2340 GSE Chair), Sven-Erik Paul Sahlén (Swedish GSE Team Leader that visited Nebraska in April), and Magnus Petersson (Swedish GSE Team Member). It has been nice to meet new friends while seeing old ones.

The official transfer from the Arvika to Örebro hosts took place at Karlskoga, home of Alfred Nobel. Nobel is famous for his work with dynamite and the majority of his estate was left to fund the Nobel Prizes. We were able to tour his home and workshop to learn more about the final years of his life. One interesting thing that happened at the end of this tour was our Arvika host, Fredrik Ekman, pulled two letters out of his coat pocket and showed it to the museum staff. These were original letters from Nobel to Fredrik's relatives that he has had in his possession for over 30 years. The museum staff was amazed at this rare find.

Friday, May 25, the team had vocational days. It has been nice to meet professionals who have similar jobs to us and learn how they manage their work. The evening was spent at one of our host families home and then we attended a theatrical production at the Hjalmar Bergman Theater. Even though the entire program was in Swedish, it was a great opportunity to see and experience something different.

Saturday morning was spent with our host families. In the afternoon, we met with the District 2340 GSE Team who was in Nebraska in April at Magnus Petersson's home. We played Kupp (a traditional Swedish lawn game), enjoyed a fine dinner and time with our new friends.

Cassie meets Alfred Nobel. This was our tour guide at the Nobel museum

Joe shows off the variety of lapel pins he has collected on our trip to our Arvika hosts. From left to right: Fredrik Ekman, Roland Flack and Joe.


The Örebro Castle.

We attended a theater performance. Left to right: Kristi, Magnus Petersson (Swedish GSE Team Member and Pete's host), Pete, Joe, and Cassie.

Cassie with her host. I ran into them when I was walking around the city center with my hosts.

Örebro's Saturday morning farmer's market.

Cassie, Kristi and Susanne Nordberg (Swedish GSE Team Member) at Magnus Petersson' home.

This is the victory photo of Kubb. The piece of wood in the foreground is the king figure that the Swedish team (in the background) accidentally knocked over. This caused the American team to win (it's like they knocked the 8 ball in, in pool--otherwise we would have more than likely lost). Kupp is not an easy game to describe in a few words, but I will try -- basically, each team has knight figures separated by a king that are about 20 foot apart. You take turns throwing an object at each others knights with the goal of knocking the other teams down. At the end, you knock down the king. The team that knocks down the other teams figures first wins. It was a lot of fun to play.

We had time to visit with the GSE Sweden team and their family members. It was nice to meet everyone. Left to right: Torbjörn Nilsson (Swedish GSE Team member), Torbjörn's daughter, Myla, and wife, Marie, Joe and Kristi.

District 2340 (Sweden) and 5650 (Nebraska/Iowa) Teams. Front row (L to R): Eric, Torbjörn Nilsson, Cassie; back row: Magnus Petersson, Susanne Nordberg, Pete, Kristi, and Joe. Lotta Sylvén was not able to join us (we spent lots of time with Lotta and her family in Arvika) and Sven-Erik Paul Sahlén had already left.

Our days in Arvika (Post from Pete & Eric)

Arvika has been our western-most city visited in Sweden. It is a city of approximately 25,000 people. It's main employer is Volvo Wheel Loaders, Thermia, and Coffee Queen. Each of us had an opportunity for two vocational days this week, which was most informative. We thank everyone who took time out of their days to be with us.

Tomorrow, we are off to Örebro, but not before a quick stop back in Karlstad for a lunch Rotary meeting presentation, and another stop in Karlskoga for a tour of the Nobel Museum.

Dick Johansson, the third-generation owner of Klässbols, provided us a tour of the factory where they make pure linen textiles. They are most known for their table cloths and napkins they make for the annual Nobel prize dinner in Stockholm.

Here are Fredrik and Roland, our Arvika hosts, ourside the Thermia factory (they produce heat pumps).

One crazy fika? Fredrik Ekman, Arvika's GSE Coordinator, hosted the team for coffee and cakes (called fika in Sweden) at his home. Fredrik's family has a miltary history so Cassie and Pete tried on some of the head gear.

Tuesday evening, our team was treated to a sail boat trip from Roger and Lotta Sylvén. Lotta was a GSE team member who was in Nebraska in April.

A view from the island to the mainland.

Cassie and Kristi on the isalnd we sailed to.

Kristi and Joe on the sail boat.

Captain, Roger, and Co-Captain, Anton (Lotta & Roger's son) took us on their 38' sail boat.

Wednesday morning, we visited Brunskogs Hembygdsgård, a living museum just outside Arvika. They have brought old buildings in from around Sweden to preserve the country’s history.

For lunch, we had Nävgröt med fläsk och lingon (translated: porridge with bacon and lingonberries). This was the ‘normal’ meal the working people would have eaten. We enjoyed it with mixed reviews. It is definitely a heavier meal than we are use to.

Sandvikengården & Arvika Host Family Time

Hej! It's Cassie here...It sounds like I'll be doing most of the posts while we are in Arvika! Today is Sunday and we have now been with our host families for just about 24 hours, we left Sandvikengården on Saturday but before we did we were able to enjoy some of the scenerary and activities at Sandvikengården.

Fiday morning we all went for a canoe ride after breakfast. I (Cassie) sat on the bottom of the canoe while Pete and Eric took me around the lake. I must say they did a pretty good job, and I didn't get too wet! After we got back from the trip around the lake we called Lotta (one of the team members on the Sweden GSE Team to Nebraska & Iowa). Lotta along with her two children and mother came out to pick us up and brought us into Arvika. Here we did a little shopping and enjoyed walking around the city center. We also were treated to Fika at Lotta's house. Here Pete demonstrated his cello skills...I must say this was very impressive. Friday afternoon we all met our host families at a BBQ at Sandvikengårdens. We had a lovely meal and it was very nice to be able to meet and interact in such a relaxed atmosphere!

Pete helping to guide our canoe in the right direction!

Joe and Kristi enjoying a morning canoe ride!

Pete, Cassie & Eric out on the water.

Someone's summer home on the lake we were canoeing.

On Friday, our team was able to meet up with Lotta, one of the team members from Sweden that came to Nebraska in April. Here's Lotta with her children Lina and Anton.

Pete showing off his cello skills!

Saturday was a relaxing day...morning brought rain - good thing we canoed Friday. The afternoons were spent individually with our host families. I'm not really sure what each of the team members did, but I came home and unpacked a little, shared family pictures, had a delicious dinner and then went for a walk. The remainder of the evening was spent talking with my host family.

Sunday: Kristi & I enjoyed a late morning church service with our host families. This is the first time I've been able to make it to church while in Sweden. Though it wasn't a Catholic Mass, I did enjoy myself and still felt touched by the holy spirit! After church, we picked up Eric and Pete and went out for a little miniature golf. I think all involved had a great time! We parted ways for dinner, but met up again all host families and team members for fika at Hilde & Håkan's house to review the upcoming weeks schedule! Looks like we are in for another full week...two days of vocational visits and at least three presentations!

The non-Rotary team members enjoyed an afternoon of minature golf with Kristi and Cassie's hosts. Here we are getting our gear!

Left to right: Lotta, Josephine, Lina, Kristi, Hilde, and Eric.

Here is some of the team enjoying an afternoon of miniature golf in Arvika with our hosts. (left to right: Kristi, Hilde (Cassie's host mom), Eric, and Lina (Kristi's host sister).

Pete was so excited to see ice for drinks at Hilde & Håkan's house! We really haven't seen that much ice, this was a special treat for us!

Kristi and her host-sister, Lina.

Ready or not...Arvika here we come!