Stockholm

Hey,

I'm writing to you all from Stockholm. My time at Vassaro has finally come to an end. The Mystery camp ended on Saturday, and we spent the last two days cleaning all the staff cabins and moving the big boats out of the water into the boathouse for winter storage. It was a lot of work, and we were busy all the way up to when the ferry left at 1:30 on Sunday. On Saturday night, they had this really nice dinner for all the staff. It was like the Konfirmand dinner, with good food and great people.

It was weird to step off the bus and back into civilization. I found a place to stay with a friend, Anna, so I didn't have to spend any money on a hostel. She left a day early because she had to start her freshman year at the Royal Institute of Technology. The bus dropped me off right at the school, so she met me there and took me to her orientation dinner. It reminded me so much of Pitt orientation, with a bunch of people who don't know each other talking and eating and awkwardly standing around. I guess they thought I was a student, even though I had my U.S. Army canvas bag with me, so I ended up getting a free (and delicious) dinner.

On Monday, I spent my day doing all the tourist things. I started off at the Nobel Museum, which displays the history of the Nobel prize and the recipients. I thought it would have a lot of cool stuff, like lab equipment used by the winners of the chemistry and medicine awards. It was actually really lame, and it was basically 2 showing somewhat irrelevant and confusing short films and one hallway with some information about a few winners. There was also a really large exhibit about the freedom of expression. It was really strange, and I kind of expected a lot more. I wouldn't recommend it. The 0nly thing I liked was that they had the original penicillin mold that proved penicillin as an antibiotic. I spent the rest of the day visiting the Stockholm Cathedral, which was built in the 1200's. It's an amazing building and has been kept in fantastic condition. The Royal family even goes there every now and then for a Lutheran (boo) service. I also ran into the other 2 Americans while at the subway, which was neat. We hung out for a few hours and wandered into a rave store where I tried on some pretty fashionable clothing. For dinner, I met a few Vassaro people at McDonald's for a good meal. It was the cleanest McDonald's I've ever seen. Everything was also in really small portions, and they had hamburgers with extra vegetables. Plus, each food container had *all* the nutrition facts on it, something you would never, ever find in America. After dinner, we walked around for Stockholm, and then I waited for Anna finish her school activities. She said it was supposed to around 9, but it was 11:30 before she finally appeared. Girls...

On Tuesday, I continued more of my American tourist activites. I went to the Moderna Museet, which is Stocholm's modern art museum. Being a fan of art, I thought it was really cool, and it was a great collection including works by Warhol, Pollock, and Picasso. I really enjoyed it, and it is something that I highly recommend. After lunch at Max (which is like the Swedish McDonald's), I went to the Nationalmuseum, which is a collection of more historical and classical paintings. It had works by a bunch of Swedish artists and works by Degas, Monet, Renoir, Reubens, and Rembrandt. I didn't like it quite as much, because after a while, all the portraits of people start to look exactly the same. I then met Anna for dinner, and we had some pretty good pizza. Tomorrow, I'll complete my tour of Stockholm, and hopefully visit all the places I have marked off on my map.

Some final thoughts about Vassaro: It was probably tied with the World Scout Jamboree as my best scouting experience, if not better. It was so different from a regular Boy Scout camp, but I think that's what made it so great. The lack of strict regulations and people giving orders really made a huge difference. If you are a scout and reading this, I highly recommend it. The whole program is called the European Scout Voluntary Programme, and you can apply to camps all across Europe. It is not expensive either since the Boy Scouts covers half of all travel costs. It is an incredible way to spend 6 weeks.

I hope you all have enjoyed reading my blog. The next (and probably last) time I'll post will when I'm back home in the states. Until then...

-Lukas