Orientation at Umea University

Well, the orientation for international students is over! I learned a few things about the university and Sweden. However I think since I've been to Sweden before and my sweetie is Swedish I knew more about Sweden than the average international student, but it was still very interesting! Mostly we listened to speakers in a big auditorium who discussed information such as how to use the library, how to register at the tax office, information about the Sami people, etc. Some talks such as the one about the Sami people I found very interesting. They are a group of people who used to live (and some still do) in Northern Scandinavia and are similar to Native Americans to the U.S. I liked the last post I did with pictures so I am going to do a similar post now with orientation and non orientation related things :).

In the auditorium at Umea University. There were lots of students there but it is hard to tell in this photo. We learned that most are from Germany and France with about 11 new Americans.

Yesterday was Friday and the last day of orientation. Real classes start Monday. Oh dear! To celebrate we went to the Systembolaget (Swedish alcohol shop). This store has a monopoly on alcohol in Sweden and gives you these bags to carry around, so you always know who just bought alcohol. And since it was Friday there were lots of blue bags out today.

These are the beers we bought. All Swedish types. I'll make a post a little later reviewing them. We tried three so far and will probably try the fourth one tonight. :)

Today we went to the grocery store to turn in our cans and plastic bottles. Most are worth at least 1 kr, sometimes 2. That's not very much, but they add up!

Our receipt from the bottle machine! 20 kr woohoo! That is about 3 dollars ish, but 20 kr sounds much better. We bought some cheese (on sale woohoo!) and coffee. And got a 20 kr discount. Oh yeahhh.

This was our lovely walk home from the store. Usually we bike, but it is such a beautiful day we wanted more time to enjoy it. (And to pick berries!)

 We saw this tree today near our apartment. The leaves are turning yellow! I am very excited about Fall and actually seeing seasons, but it needs to wait! I'm not ready for it to get cold yet. I need a little more summer. This video below I think represents how I feel about this.

That is all!