Last Days in Mora

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I have spent three more days in Mora, and sadly these are my last days here. Unfortunately, the weather has been bad this entire time and the rain has hardly stopped.

I spent two of those days at the hospital. Thursday was a very uneventful but relaxing day. I did not watch any surgeries and instead spent the time in the outpatient clinic. I spent the day with Torbjorn Blixt, an intern at the hospital whose name translates to 'God of thunder bear flash'. The other doctors call him Dr. Flash. Anyways, Dr. Flash spoke excellent English and explained everything in such minute detail that I had a hard time paying attention. We looked at a few of his favorite x-rays from really interesting cases and he had my identify the injuries on each of the pictures. I finished early and biked to the grocery store to get some food to last me the rest of my stay. Then I returned home and watched a few episodes of 24 on my computer, read, and talked on Skype.

On Friday I spent the day with Dr. Pierre Campenfeldt again and we had very good conversations. I am happy that I have gotten to know a few people here that I am comfortable with. And I am so thankful that they are so nice to me and take time out of their very busy days to explain everything to me. The hospital is pretty quiet on Fridays and the staff seem to enjoy their day. They had fika in the morning, where everyone gets together and drinks coffee and eats bread with caviar and cheese. Later they brought out ice cream with chocolate for everyone to eat. I had lunch with Pierre and we talked about why being a doctor is a good profession as well as other topics such as evolution, hunter's safety, and Gustavus.

Friday night Oskar and Anna invited me to their friend's house for dinner. Their friends are Emma and Johannes and they have a two-month old baby. They were very excited to practice their English with me (which was flawless) and I enjoyed talked to them. After dinner and dessert we sat in the living room and everyone showed their favorite youtube videos. I thought it was funny that they are as obsessed with youtube as we are and their favorite were all ones that I had seen before. We also watched the season finale of Sweden's Got Talent, which the Swedes were the first to admit was more comedy than serious because it doesn't compare to American Idol or Britain's Got Talent.

Today I spent the entire day with Oskar and Anna. We went to Nusnas, a tiny town 10 km from Mora, where they make all of the Dalahorses that Sweden is so famous for. We went through the workshop where they carve and paint them and then I picked out my own Dalahorse to buy. I also bought handpainted Swedish clogs and got my name painted along the side.

After we drove through a couple small towns and did a little shopping before heading to Ica Maxi, their giant grocery store. It is fascinating to look at their food. I am very amused by how everything seems to come in a tube in Sweden. They have mustard, caviar, fish, jam, cheese, and just about anything else you could think of in a tube. You also use scanners when you shop so that you scan your own food as you shop so that you just show the scanner to the checkout person and pay the total at the end without taking everything out of your cart.

Oskar and Anna invited Emma and Johannes over for dinner so we all ate, talked, and looked at youtube videos again. Tomorrow morning I will pack everything up and Anna and Oskar will take me to the train station. And then I am headed to Uppsala, to a new hospital and a new place to stay. I hope it will be as nice as it is here!

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