Difficult Doors

Well, our first full day here in Sweden has begun - and along with it, the many stories that will soon quickly add up.

The past few days have involved mostly traveling and getting settled at our hostel in the center of the town. Last night we then toured the town and tried to make sure we didn’t get too lost. Fortunately it doesn’t get dark until 8:30 so we had a good amount of time to explore. We ended up searching for a few of the potential housing options and came across some really cool possibilities.

This morning, Matt and I woke up and had breakfast at the hostel. Everything went pretty smoothly until Matt discovered an unusual ‘spread’ made from fish ovaries. We had both read about this stuff before coming to Sweden and decided that it would just be best if we tried it here rather than in front of a larger group. So we each had our helping, slightly smaller than the size of a pea, and afterwards decided that we didn’t want any more helpings. Fish ovaries (at least in the paste form) are extremely salty and not something either of us want to be spreading on our toast every morning. Lesson one learned.

After breakfast, we walked up to the University and attempted to register ourselves, to make sure we were legitimate students and not just some random kids wandering around Sweden for a year. Well it turns out we were there an hour early so we wandered through some more of the town for a bit. We ended up getting stuck in a fairly well off neighborhood and had to walk through someone’s backyard and hop a big stonewall to get to the campus. After making it to the campus, we were confused by someone as two Swedish dudes (awesome) and then tried to get into the building. However, even though it was 10:10, the doors were still locked.

So we waited around until eventually Matt had the clever idea of trying to follow someone else into the building (which has a card-swipe) and then try to wander through the hallways to find the actual building we wanted. The plan was working beautifully until he realized that not only did the card-swipe work to get you into the building, but it also allows you to get out of the building. So Matt was locked inside. After some searching around for a while and trying to communicate to each other through the glass with sign language, we realized that the University isn’t even open on Saturday, so we wouldn’t even be able to check-in. A few more minutes passed when someone who went to school there walked by us. He was kind enough to explain to Matt that in fact you don’t need to swipe a card to get out, you just need to hit the large (and I mean really large) button directly beside the door, and then they automatically open. Problem solved – and lesson two learned.

So after not succeeding at registering at the school, we proceeded back to the center of town where we knew we could find free Internet. Along the way we asked a few people if there were other locations for free Internet, but sadly found only people who don’t speak any English. After making it down to the café with free internet (it’s now our local hang-out spot and primary location for feeding ourselves) we ended up running into another girl from the program. For the rest of the day, the three of us wandered around the city checking out the coast and marine culture. However, throughout this whole day of busyness, I had forgotten to go the bathroom and by this point, was on the lookout for a toilet. I eventually found one that looked like a large, fancy, brick port-a-potty. Sadly, it was so fancy that I couldn’t figure out how to use it.

As I was standing in line, I waited for the gentleman in front of me to leave before entering the single-room structure. The door shut behind him and as I went to pull on it, it wouldn’t budge. I tried a few more times trying to act like I knew what I was doing before having to call for Matt to try and help me. We pushed all the buttons and bricks around it hoping that one would make it unlock but nothing worked. A little light beside the door was red which I assumed meant I couldn’t enter.

After causing a bit of a ruckus, one of the locals saw I was having trouble and came to assist. He proceeded to kick the door, which unfortunately for my bladder, still did nothing. Then the three of us went over to the bathroom on the other side of the port-a-potty and stood guard beside it waiting for his wife to come out (not Matt’s wife, the local man’s wife). She came out, we quickly caught the door, and I went in. The door shut behind me, as it should, I pulled my pants down, and luckily before I started to go, the lights all went off and left me in the pitch black. I pulled my pants back up and tried to open the door but I soon discovered that I was locked in. I proceeded to push every button before finding the one that opened the door (fortunately I didn’t hit the two buttons labeled ‘alarm’ – the only ones labeled in English as well) and then asked Matt to help again. After a failed search to find the light switch, Matt decided to stand in the doorway and hold the door open with his foot while I went. Needless to say, it was definitely one of the more difficult bathroom situations I have had in quite some time. And with that, lesson three was learned.

Other than those instances however, things went pretty smoothly and we got to see some cool stuff, a few of the pictures are posted below. Now we’re back in the hostel taking a bit of a breather. Tonight we are heading out to a BBQ with a few other students from the program and hopefully will get some better ideas figured out for the apartment search. As usual, I’m sure the stories will continue to follow, we’ll try to post them as soon as possible.

-Spud