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.