This afternoon we'll be enroute to Ljungby....a mixture of emotions as we leave our first families and move on to the next....what could possibly beat this?! But before all that...........................we have our first presentation today! This morning we're off to the emigration department and the cathedral. We have an hour to buff up our 20 minutes of Canadian-American genius, and at noon we'll try it out in front of about 50 rotarians! I think I speak for all of us when I say we're looking forward to getting this first one taken care of! After that, it's free time in Växjö [View Full Entry]

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Today we had our first vocational day! I biked into the office with my host, Bjorn, where we toured his office and then went on to the local District Court a few blocks away. The experience was quite enlightening and the comparison between our two systems yielded few, if any, similarities! I could go on, but suffice it to say, their judges don't wear robes!! I am eager to hear about the other team members' experiences! I attach more photos... Thanks for checking in on us. I'll get more pictures from the team members soon! Vi ses. [View Full Entry]

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Obviously my first entry in this blog and actually my first blog entry ever. Well, there's a first for everything. In the comming entries I will describe my next two major trips, and possibly a lot of other stuff going on in my life as well. So, where am I going then? First of all, me an my friend Christian will spend two weeks on the Himalayas, taking a mountineering course. We, and seven others (some guys from India and apparently two guys from Switzerland) will join Kaushal and Above1400ft Above1400ft and climb Mount Yumun in the Himalayas. I can tell [View Full Entry]

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The team had a wonderful first full day in Sweden! We started with a tour of a papermill, then went on to lunch and Kosta Boda to the glass factory! I never realized how fascinating glass blowing is! After some wise purchases, we went on to the moose park where we saw four moose lazing about. Shana and I capped it off with a thrilling run around a local lake, Vaxjosjön... We're on to our vocational visits today and a lovely dinner in the countryside at historic estate once occupied by kings! Vi ses! [View Full Entry]

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We made it! A bit drowsy but smiley and appreciative all the same! The gracious welcome was beyond words by the GSE committee, complete with large Rotary flag and a cavalcade of vehicles!! It's gorgeous here in Växjö (with sunburns to prove it)...even though we still can't quite figure how to pronounce it! Our flights went smoothly and were on time. We all look forward to a good night's rest so we can proceed full steam ahead to tomorrow's adventures...the Kingdom of Crystal, a mill tour in Lessebo, a guided tour of a glass factory and a moose park!!!! Photos coming [View Full Entry]

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So. Not many big super duper exciting things to report, but many little nice things have been happening. I'm still going to school, it's going very very well, I even went to the shop the other day to exchange something and I wasn't lost for words at all! Yeah, Marcus was there too, but only as moral support. Spring is most definately in full bloom, and Summer is already poking it's head in, today was 22 degrees, and we're expecting to reach 25 in the not too distant future. A huge number of people are already going around in singlets and [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick entry. Hope everyone is well. After a fun ferry journey from Denmark - complete with man and guitar and dancing drunk swedish pensioners we docked in Göteborg port. We're having a great time here in Sweden with our friends, Camilla, Rick and their 3 energetic children. Having continuously glorious weather and enjoying Swedish hospitality. Götenburg is a lovely city and Camilla has an apartment right smack bang in the middle of the city centre - very convenient for sightseeing! It has been lovely seeing them and will be sad to leave tomorrow, but Denmark is calling us once [View Full Entry]

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Ok, so very behind.... Sweden for nearly 2 weeks... so well make it dot points (and I cant find the apostrophe on this keyboard, so apologies for bad punctuation). 1) Fredrik (Lottas partner) submitted his PhD and had his public thesis defence a couple of days after we arrived and it was unbelievable - 4 professors from different countries grilled him on his work (to do with maths and physics and optimization and radiotherapy - after that I get a bit vague on the details). Anyhow, he shone, Im glad I dont have to do one, and we had a great [View Full Entry]

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Adam and I officially became 'Aunt Miranda and Uncle Ham' when Maria and Luke proudly announced the birth of their first son, little Liam, at the end of January this year. I was at work in Belfast when the call came through to me that the little one had at last arrived, and I spent a good while jumping up and down in the paediatric treatment room whooping with joy whilst co-workers looked on with a mixture of concern and curiosity. Half a world away no doubt the new Aunt Kyrie and Grandma and Grandpa Odell were doing a happy dance [View Full Entry]

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So... sorry about the last few countires, and sorry also that this one might be a bit longer than I usually aim for. From Amsterdam we flew to Finland, where we promptly got on a boat to Tallinn in Estonia. It was really excellent, it has a mind-boggling old town and slightly better prices than Finland and Scandinavia! I'll try to attach a few photos of it. We had wine in an underground tunnel, some sort of local liqueur in a cave-cafe and generally soaked up the oldness. Boat back to Helsinki and a quiet night, followed by a day of [View Full Entry]

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