Hi Everyone,

I have been in Vaxjo for a few days now and im really starting to love it. The campus is beautiful, everything is green and so modern. The campus is huge. In comparison to ottawa U it has half the students but three times the campus size. And the library is unbelievable, I don't think I will have a hard time spending hours and hours in there. The Swedish people are not as friendly as i thought. They seem to keep to themselves and their groups of friends a lot. It has been hard to get to know them. The good news though there are over 400 exchange students who love meeting new people. I have already met a ton who are from all different countries: Spain, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, the US, and the list goes on.

The first weekend was very crazy. We had two days of orientation going over academic rules, Swedish laws, and much more. Lets just say there are some crazy laws here. First of all, you can only buy alcohol from a store if you are 20 but you can buy it in a bar if you are 18, the blood alcohol level is 0.2, you are allowed to drink in public but not in the centre square of town, and you are allowed to stay on any public property legally as long as its only for a night and you leave no garbage. All good things to know i guess. Other then that we had some good nights at the pubs on campus. There are three that are run by the student union. The Swedes are crazy when they go out. They get completely wasted before they get to the bar and they are done early which is good considering the bars close at 1. The only people left in the bar at the end of the night were all of the exchange students.

My roommate is very nice. She is from Germany and we are a lot alike so we get along very well. The room is quite small so i couldn't imagine living with someone I hated. So considering it has worked out very well. My first class went well, it seems like it will be a lot of work compared to the other classes but still interesting.

Em and I are having an awesome time. We have made a few trips downtown and managed to get lost only once.. Were starting to make some plans for trips throughout the year now that we have our schedules. So far we have Russia, St. Petersburg, Munich, Copenhagen, Gotland, Switzerland and the list goes on.

More to come soon... the original IKEA this weekend!

Ciao

Kristin