Today we flew home to Chicago and it was one of the saddest parts of the trip. I didn't want the laughter and good times to end. This was by far the best trip I've ever taken and will be very hard to top. I've never laughed so much in my life! The friends I've made on this trip will be lifelong friends. When we were in the airport waiting for the flight, we all noticed Joe was wearing khakis and a red sweater, so we joked that he worked at Target--it was pretty funny. Then, we heard a guy sit in a red chair/booth and blast music so we decided to join in and have one last dance party in the airport.
When we got on the plane from Copenhagen to Chicago the flight was basically empty so everyone got their own row (three or four seats). It was really nice that I was able to sleep on the flight then, until we hit turbulence going over Greenland. That was the scariest turbulence I've ever experienced on a flight! But we got through it and I was able to fall right back asleep...I think I slept for six out of the eight hours we flew. Then, when we got back to campus Megan, Paddy, Tyler, Alex, and I went to the student union to grab dinner with all of our luggage still in hand...people were looking at us like we were a little crazy. After, Megan, Paddy, Tyler, and I all went over to Paddy's room to hangout because we were having separation anxiety and didn't want to be apart. We started watching Wedding Crashers, but all fell asleep within the first five minutes--guess we were all pretty tired!
The next morning Tyler, Megan, and I went for Einsteins and Starbucks. We had to have fika (coffee break) and more shopping! Then it was time for our sad goodbyes...I will miss the friends I made on this trip and hope we can all stay connected.
A random fact I forgot to mention in previous posts is that one of the strangest things about Sweden is that you have to pay to use the restroom at McDonald's and Burger King and places like that...crazy!
Today we went curling at Goteborg’s Curling Klubb; our
instructor was on the Austrian Olympic curling team and is currently trying to make it on the Swedish Olympic team. Going into today I had a little bit of confidence because I did curling
in gym class in high school. I was a bit rusty when it came to throwing the
rock…I have a bruise on my knee to show for it. I should also just throw in the
fact that Megan, Paddy, Alex, and I were preparing for curling last night by
watching YouTube videos on how-to curl and learning some of their lingo…none of
which came in handy! I had a lot of fun at curling once I got the hang of it.
My team (Tyler, Quinn, Sam, and I) lost against another team 1-4, but it was a
good game.
Afterwards, we all went to the mall to get in some last minute
shopping and lunch. We caved in and went to Pizza Hut because it was
inexpensive and quick. Later on we went to group dinner at Heaven 23 in the
Svenska Massan building (it’s in two tall towers and the restaurant is on the
23rd/top floor). The views of the city were unbelievably beautiful!
King's sandwich
The city was lit up with lots of lights and the restaurant was one of the finest
dining places I’ve ever been to. It was very modern and reminded me of
something the company we visited yesterday, Stylit Trampoli, would design. I
had the king sandwich which had shrimp on it.
Afterwards, we all went to the
Radisson so Alex could play the piano. There was a larger crowd than last night
in a dining/bar type area. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful music he played even
the receptionists loved it! Then, we all went back to the hostel so we could
blog and get some sleep because tomorrow we leave to go home bright and early.
I’m secretly hoping the flight gets cancelled or delayed due to the cold
weather and snow back in Chicago so that the trip doesn’t end. I’m going to
miss the group of people on the trip and all the fun we had together! This was definitely
the best way I can imagine to end college…today/tomorrow will be my last day
and I’m not sure if it’s sunk in yet that I’m done, but I couldn’t have asked
for a better way to end.
Bert, from ABB, came to our hostel to talk to us this
morning. It was a laid back conversation, which was really nice because we were
able to ask him more personal career related questions. He touched on some main
topics: the China market, Generation Y, what it’s like to work with people in
India, and why he loves being a project manager.
He said that ABB started a factory and R&D in China a
while ago and it really upset people because they felt threatened. It’s also a
risky venture because the Chinese people could leave and go start a business
that competes with ABB. Then we talked about the generation shift; about 25% of
the workforce is Gen Y people. He discussed what it’s like working with
multiple generations in the workplace. He classified a few different groups…one
was people who aren’t good with technology and will never be good with it and
on the other end of the spectrum, people who have grown up with technology, Gen
Y. Next, he talked about working with an R&D team in India. He had a team
there and within a year everyone had left the company and he couldn’t figure it
out, until he realized that people in India aren’t motivated in the same ways
as Swedes. They like to be able to go home to their family and show them that
they’re climbing the corporate ladder so it’s important that even if it’s a
small promotion or salary increase, it is still very important. They prefer to
work hard and make the advancements than have fun. Employees value having a
leader/manager and view their co-workers as competition. Lastly, Bert talked to
us about how much he loves being a product manager. He is responsible for the
overall success of a product and loves getting involved in all the different
areas of the business. But the challenges of his job are strategic issues,
working with marketing current products, working with R&D to develop new
products, having no formal power, and not having his own team to motivate. I
really enjoyed hearing about his experience as a product manager.
Then, for lunch we went to Salladsbaren Briggen, which was a
firehouse turned into a food court type thing. I shared with Megan Swedish meatballs,
potatoes, and salmon patties. And then of course I had to get dessert…a
chocolate flourless cake with home made whipped cream. It was delicious!
Next was our trip to Stylit Trampoli to see Pär Svensson.
He’s the project manager and PR missionary. This was the most unique office
I’ve ever seen! The company is an advertising agency in the
hospitality/experience industry. Stylit Trampoli was founded in 1992 by 20-year-old
Erik. Pär showed us some of the work they’ve done and it was phenomenal! They
do restaurants, hotels, museums, amusement parks, water parks, and
destinations. There is always a story behind their products. One example he
gave was a restaurant they did called Jay Fu’s The Amasian Steakhouse. They
created a story about a fictional character, Jay Fu, and it was about his
destiny. It was a blend of Asian and American culture. Everything from the menu
to the bathroom stalls was thought of to play into the story of Jay Fu. I was
just amazed at the world-class work they do! I hope someday I can visit a place
they design or work for a company like them.
Connor playing along
Since it was one of our last nights the "Divine Nine" (Paddy, Joe, Tyler, Nick, Alex, Connor, Alycia, Megan, and I) went to Dubliner (the bar we went to for $40 burger and beers last week) because it was open mic so Alex could play the piano. We got a front row seat and Paddy got Nick and Alex signed up on the list to play. They called Nick up first to play the guitar (he has his own album on iTunes!), then Alex got up on stage to play with him on the piano (Connor also played along). The crowd loved them! Then Alex started to play "Don't Stop Believin" and Nick and the guy on stage were getting lost with some of the lyrics so I jumped on stage to help them out (and I am NOT a singer). I had such a great time! Afterwards, these two people who had sang earlier invited our group to meet up with them tomorrow night for another open mic in town..we'll see what happens!
Today could be summed up in a few words…shopping and eating.
I went shopping at Nordstan mall with ten other people, which then ended up
being three people by the end…Joe, Paddy, Megan, and I. Our mall adventure
started out at McDonald’s—it was such fine Swedish cuisine for 69 SEK...not!
The mall
had three McDonald’s and for its size, that was a lot. Most of the guys that
came to the mall were looking for Megan, Alycia, and I’s help with picking out
gifts for their moms, sisters, and/or girlfriends. So our mission at the mall
was to help them find gifts…the only person who left with a gift was Nick, so
it was slightly unsuccessful. Our group split up after about an hour of trying
to stick together that just got too difficult to shop. But while trying to help
find gifts for people I was able to find a few things for family and myself. We
were at the mall for about four and a half hours and then had to rush back to
the hostel to have our Iron Chef competition.
We split up into our groups from
Swedish Taste and went to the grocery store to buy food for our dinner. My
group was in charge of dessert. We decided to make crepes with chocolate,
bananas, whipped cream, and raspberry jam. We had to ask some of the locals how
to read the crepes box of what to add to it to make the crepes. When we all got
back to the hostel we took over the kitchen and started to cook, well everyone
but our group since we were the dessert crew. We wanted the crepes to be hot n fresh. So we basically sat and watched everyone else cook the food. :) J.J. aka DJ Jerome was playing some music for us too!
One group made
bruschetta with cheese, onion, and caviar, then for the main course we had a
shrimp pasta and steak and potatoes, which was a bit chewy so I didn’t really
eat it. But the pasta was delicious!
Then our group decided we needed to do
dishes in order for everyone to eat the crepes. After, we started making the
crepes and they were not turning out…the dough was sticking to the pan even
though we put butter in it. We tried so many different things for about fifteen
minutes, then decided to go to plan B…put the bananas, chocolate, whipped
cream, and sprinkles on plates in the shape of a smiley face. Everyone ate
theirs, but J.J. ended up going to the grocery store to buy Magnum ice cream
bars—he saved the day!!
In the end it was fun and everyone enjoyed the ice
cream bars. I had a really good day overall because we didn’t have plans
besides the dinner and were able to do what ever we want…aka go shopping.
Today was our first day shopping (I know it’s hard to
believe it’s taken me this long to go shopping here). Susie had been scoping
out all the good places to go for the past four days, so she took Megan,
Alycia, and I to a few stores across from the mall that were in an outdoor
shopping area. Then we went to the mall—it was like heaven! I couldn’t shop
fast enough. Since we were in a bit of a time crunch, we left the mall and went
to the custom handmade leather store we went to earlier in the week. As we were
walking through the square that it’s located in, I was faced with my worst
nightmare…a park full of dogs that are being trained. I conquered my fear and
walked through the sea of dogs just to get to the store so Megan could pick up
a gift. Then we went to Flower Bar to pick up flowers for the dinner party tonight as a
house warming gift.
After, we met up with the whole group to go out to Per
Norlin’s house (the Product Development Director from Getinge that we met with
yesterday) for dinner. He and his wife, Aså, graciously invited us over for
dinner. Their home was decorated with Christmas lights and is located right on
the ocean—it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! The views were breathtaking! I felt so
honored to be invited in to such a beautiful home. We had such a warm welcoming
from them. They served us an authentic Swedish meal—tons of crayfish, crab, shrimp,
lobster, pea soup, potatoes, salad, smoked fish, a potato salad with anchovies,
cake, and surstromming. It felt like I was at a Thanksgiving feast! The
surstromming was one of the most awful smelling things in the world, but
somehow Per and Aså got some people to try it. It’s a soured herring that is
very popular among the Swede’s. Then after eating surstromming people took a shot of homemade schnapps. I did NOT eat the surstromming--the smell was horrific.
After all the food, we went upstairs and Aså and Per shared stories with us—we talked for hours. There was dancing,
laughing, and more food and drinks. We were there for about eight hours and
loved every minute of it! I can’t thank Per and Aså enough for the wonderful
time, meal, and memories I made there.
Today we went curling at Goteborg’s Curling Klubb; our
instructor was on the Austrian Olympic curling team and is currently trying to make it on the Swedish Olympic team. Going into today I had a little bit of confidence because I did curling
in gym class in high school. I was a bit rusty when it came to throwing the
rock…I have a bruise on my knee to show for it. I should also just throw in the
fact that Megan, Paddy, Alex, and I were preparing for curling last night by
watching YouTube videos on how-to curl and learning some of their lingo…none of
which came in handy! I had a lot of fun at curling once I got the hang of it.
My team (Tyler, Quinn, Sam, and I) lost against another team 1-4, but it was a
good game.
Afterwards, we all went to the
Radisson so Alex could play the piano. There was a larger crowd than last night
in a dining/bar type area. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful music he played even
the receptionists loved it! Then, we all went back to the hostel so we could
blog and get some sleep because tomorrow we leave to go home bright and early.
I’m secretly hoping the flight gets cancelled or delayed due to the cold
weather and snow back in Chicago so that the trip doesn’t end. I’m going to
miss the group of people on the trip and all the fun we had together! This was definitely
the best way I can imagine to end college…today/tomorrow will be my last day
and I’m not sure if it’s sunk in yet that I’m done, but I couldn’t have asked
for a better way to end.
We split up into our groups from
Swedish Taste and went to the grocery store to buy food for our dinner. My
group was in charge of dessert. We decided to make crepes with chocolate,
bananas, whipped cream, and raspberry jam. We had to ask some of the locals how
to read the crepes box of what to add to it to make the crepes. When we all got
back to the hostel we took over the kitchen and started to cook, well everyone
but our group since we were the dessert crew. We wanted the crepes to be hot n fresh. So we basically sat and watched everyone else cook the food. :) J.J. aka DJ Jerome was playing some music for us too! 
