My Field Trip to the City Hall

So today the whole of the Swedish Program got up really early to go see Stockholm's City Hall- the place where the Nobel Prizes are awarded. It's coming up soon, and already people are starting to get excited and talk about it.

This first video is of the courtyard. The City Hall is actually only just over 80 years old, even though it looks older. They made it to look and fit in with the other historical buildings in the city. And while they succeeded in some areas, they did not in others (some of the rooms are quite modern looking, or quite... other country looking. You'll see what I mean, later)



*EDIT: MY ORIGONAL POST HAD THE "COURTYARD" AS MY DINNER FROM LAST NIGHT. IT HAS BEEN CHANGED. MY APOLOGIES. I hope you have been amused.

This is of the view of Gamla Stan and the sorrounding area that can be seen from the City Hall. The Bridge goes over the island that was once the prison, and is now a Youth Hostel.



This the the Blue Room- which was supposed to be blue, but the architect decided at the last moment that he liked the natural brick better. Originally this room was supposed to represent the sea- with the green-blue tiles being the sea bottom, the walls being the sea, and the open ceiling being the sky. It was also supposed to be like a courtyard, but because of heating problems, the roof got changed from glass to a solid ceiling.



This is the view of the organ. Ideally Organs should be place 3/4 to 2/3 of the way up on a wall to get the right resonance. Here however they have been placed at the top- which means when there are a lot of people in the room and it gets warm, the organ sounds funny. Another interesting fact- when changes had to be made a while back, the keyboard had to be removed, and was changed to a remote system, where the organist is on the floor. This results in a HALF SECOND delay between what the organist plays and what comes out. (For those who don't sing- that's a noticeable difference- it's got to be confusing as heck.)

For your Viewer Entertainment

On impulse, because I had the camera with me the other day in Swedish when we were working in the language lab, I decided to take some video of me Singing in Swedish, just so you could see how far I've come!

So, with no further ado, I bring to you, JEN Singing in Swedish! (also, take note that I've only had barely two months of Swedish so my pronunciation is TERRIBLE. If your a Swede, please don't get offended.)

The song is about the days of the week, and how the person doesn't do anything on any of the days because of various reasons.


And yes, there is a second song, as if the first wasn't embarrassing enough... It's a love song, but a lighthearted one. The lines proceed something like this, Do you like me? Yes, I do. (another question) (another affirmative) It's cute, and it's an ear-worm.


In other news, I FINALLY managed to send the package off. Now, you might think this isn't that hard of thing to do, but consider this: In Sweden there are no post offices. You're local grocery store or novelty shop could be part of the postal service. Now, this is great because there are better hours and it's more efficient now that the government isn't funding it, but it also means for us Ignorant Americans who can't read Swedish, Finding these places is rather difficult, seeing as the indication that they are a post office is normally a small sign which I CAN'T READ. So I go into different places asking for directions to the local post office. And well... me and directions... let's just say that it made the whole thing an adventure.



PS: Just got finished looking at my blog counter, and yesterday was a record-breaking day with 28 Views by 17 individual computers. That breaks the day we had 20 views with 15 individual computers. *does dance* How cool is that?

Also, just a reminder, if you feel any type of urge, go ahead and comment in the comments section. I fixed it to people can actually comment now.

Even more of me

Yeah, so here's the last of them, for now.



And my view from the wall, plus my face way too close and a rather halfhearted wave...

More adventures in Visby, Video Style

This video is of the Medieval dinner we had. Short and Sweet.


This is of a skeleton of a Female Viking that they dug up. All I could think of when I saw her jewelry, keys and knife is that for a Viking Woman, she was pretty rich to be buried with that stuff. I thought of Gangsters today.

But on a different note, I've always had this strange fascination with bones, with the graceful curve of skull and hip.

So here we go.



Last one here is of my favorite standing stone... made about the time Egyptians were alive, I think. They think there is some Egyptian influence in the boat, presumably to take people to the underworld.

My adventures in Visby

So this first one is of a grave we saw in one of the churches. I'm trying this post out with this one to see if it works before I get to the meatier stuff.