Beautiful Views, Social Entrepreneurship Camp and Great Friends

This past week hasn't been too eventful. I became a proud member of the gym in Lund (Gerdahallen). Now I'll be able to embarrass myself in aerobics more often!

I did go to a class called Gympastång (translated means drawstring rod?) that involves running, aerobics (but less crazy dance movements, thank goodness) and lifting a heavy pole. I definitely like it more than aerobics, though it is still obviously in Swedish. Alice, Linde and I just tend to follow what everyone else does about a beat late.

One of the classes we went to, I wore my leggings that I usually wear to run outside for warmth. Most of the Swedes in the aerobics class hadn't worn shorts, so I was attempting to blend in. Unfortunately, I wore them with underwear that had writing on the back (and not even a brand name, some ridiculous Victoria's Secret phrase), which Alice pointed out to me on our bike ride to the gym. I spent most of the class thinking about how everyone around me could read what was written across my butt, so that was good.

I also found some REALLY beautiful views on a run, as usual in Sweden. (I posted one of these on Facebook earlier)

The hill I ran up - hard to see how steep it was (which is VERY steep). I ran up it twice and meanwhile a middle-aged man lapped me :(

 The view from the top - unreal.

(no editing necessary :))

I decided somewhat on a whim to go to a camp on social entrepreneurship, put on by Lund University Social Innovation Center (LUSIC). It went from Friday morning to Sunday evening and took place in Ystad. I imagined we would be in the town of Ystad, but it turned out we were basically in a summer house in the countryside. I had expected the participants to be students at LU, but it turned out that people had come from all over. Some were from Lund, but others were from Malmö or were just stopping through on their travels.

The first person I met on the bus was Caroline - a girl from France a bit older than me who is traveling as a journalist for French magazines. She was very sweet and we talked about why we were going to the camp and where she would be traveling afterwards (too many countries for me to remember). I also talked to a guy named Poori from Iran - one of the few people in the camp who was my age. He had been living in Lund for three years and works with LUSIC. We talked about Lund and our conversation eventually evolved into talking about American television and the marijuana laws in Colorado. Of course.

When we arrived to where we were staying, I was surprised it was not remotely in the city, but also struck by how beautiful EVERYTHING was.

We were instructed to go inside and pick our beds; I ended up in a room with 8 bunkbeds (16 beds total). I tried to take a picture of the room but there was really no way to get everything in:

I slept in the bottom bunk against the wall (by the purple towel)

We first talked about what social entrepreneurship actually is - which was good because I didn't exactly know. A loose definition is that it is any practice that directly benefits society. Afterwards we did lots of "team-building" activities and things to learn each others names. I won't go into detail about the games, but we were outside for 2-3 hours and by the time we were finished everyone was freezing. They were nice to get to know everyone - everyone had varying degrees of experience in social entrepreneurship

 The activity I took pictures of involved throwing a ball of yarn and sharing things about ourselves.

After being outside for so long, I didn't exactly feel like venturing back into the cold, but a large group decided that we should walk to the beach (about 15 minutes away). We didn't know exactly where it was and a smaller group of us ended up taking a 20 minute detour into the woods, but we made it eventually. Both the walk there and the beach itself were unreal. 

This wasn't actually the beach - just some sand in the middle of the forest - very misleading

Forest exploring - the ground was almost bouncy

 Paradise

Incredible. One of the other campers had brought a kite which only made it more perfect. While on the beach I talked to Lydia, a girl from Serbia. We tried (and miserably failed) to get the kite to stay up in the air.

We went inside and ate a delicious dinner, then there were some presentations from various entrepreneurs.

The next morning we were up by eight eating breakfast, then we did various workshops on brainstorming ideas for social entrepreneurship projects. 

We broke up into groups to solve a social issue - my group was Marianna (from Greece), Kristian (from Sweden) and Maude (from France - also coincidentally lives on the other side of my flat). We decided to try and solve the issue of prison conditions and reintegrating prisoners into society. After talking for a long time, and consulting a social worker from Sweden who happened to be at the camp, we decided to create an organization to help youths coming out of juvenile halls instead. I was happy about this, because I had originally wanted to work with children and education, but no one else was very interested in that issue. I ended up liking the idea of an association to benefit troubled youth. 

One of our many posters - our organization was called "Youthful"

At night, we walked to get firewood to build a bonfire. People took turns playing guitar and we all just sat around the fire and talked. 

The next day, we all formally presented our pitches to a group of "investors," as well as to the rest of the group. We were nervous, but it ended up going pretty well!

Presenting! (credit Haseeb Tariq)

I met so many fascinating people - two individuals around my age living in Malmö who had created an organization called "Connectors Malmö," which creates events to connect people and inspire social change and creativity. One of the older women at the camp was the only other person from the states (though she was from Virginia). I didn't completely get a grasp on what she does - other than that she is involved in a million different organizations. At the end of the camp, we agreed to meet later just to chat - I really would like to learn more about her experiences and she said she wanted to hear my perspective of social entrepreneurship in Sweden coming from the states. 

Another woman I met was newly pursuing a project to convert waste to energy in India (where she is from). One girl was particularly passionate about Fairtrade products and workers' conditions in the clothing industry. Immigrants to Sweden seemed to be an issue that many were interested in - especially with immigrants coming from Syria soon. It's hard to list all of the people I met and stories I heard because there were so many.

I both enjoyed and didn't enjoy the camp. It did really inspire me and make me feel like I could make a difference in the world. I loved hearing the perspectives of everyone at the camp and what they had already done to help society. As an introvert, I had a hard time being around so many people I didn't know for such a long period of time - being younger and less experienced than most people in the group was a bit intimidating. It is good to push myself out of my comfort zone every once in awhile - whether or not I enjoy it. There is value in every experience (as my mom says :))

Returning to Spoletorp after the conference made me really appreciate the second "home" I have here. After getting back, I cooked some food (I am really improving heehee) and went upstairs to see everyone. I felt so much more relaxed with my friends here; even though I've only been here about a month, it's like I've known all of them for much longer. The girls were all baking and they boys had left to get food for dinner (really breaking those gender stereotypes...haha) and we all ate and watched Shawshank Redemption (AMAZING movie btw, though I feel like I'm the only person on the planet who hadn't already seen it - at least according to Anubhav). Kate gave me a bar of chocolate to cheer me up, as a sympathetic fellow introvert :) Basically, I just want to re-express how grateful I am to have met the people I have.

Not even close to everyone I'm talking about, but this is a pretty good illustration of our daily interactions (minus the viking hat) :)

LTD!

Sunset Runs, Film Class Field Trips, Swedish Aerobics Classes and København!

So much has happened in the past week! Sorry for such a long post, but I took about a million pictures in Copenhagen.

Early in the week, Linde and I decided to go out for a run in the evening. We went to a park that Linde had found previously, located about ten minutes north of our flat. In the first section of the park, there was some kind of war monument and a few fountains. After we crossed the highway, there were huge rolling hills of green grass and TONS of people exercising. Large groups of people were running up and down the hills, and others were in a circle doing squats and lunges. The sun was setting, so all of the trees were bathed in orange light. It was absolutely beautiful.

Little Swedish houses along the road to the park :)

^Not even edited. It really was this beautiful.

On the way back we picked apples as a reward for our run. I think it might've been the best apple I've ever eaten.

On Thursday, I went for a field trip with my Swedish film class. We took the train from Lund to Kristianstad (about a 50 minute train ride). I met Hikari, a girl in my class, at the train station and we ended up on a train with most of our class, including our professor. He talked to a bunch of us for awhile about where we were planning to travel and what kinds of courses we were taking. There was also a woman in our train car who had just been living in the US for two years (her daughters lived there), but was returning to Sweden again. She spoke fluent Sweden, and even translated for us what the conductor said over the speaker, but she had a completely American accent when speaking English. She got off the train at our stop and was reunited with people who hadn't seen her in two years and were bawling because they were so happy. I kept having to tell myself to keep it together, because I tend to cry at really happy things and I was standing with a huge group of my classmates. 

It was a short walk to the film museum, but we got to see a tiny bit of Kristianstad. It was a bigger city than Lund, but no where near as big as Malmo. 

The film museum (Filmmuseet) was tiny - but it contained a preserved film studio from the early 1900's. 

(This was almost as tall as me)

A list of some of the movies being shown now - notice Scooby-Doo, Hello Kitty, Madagascar, Stuart Little, Hey Arnold the movie and Chicken Little (Lilla kycklingen)

 The view from the museum's roof balcony

We watched four films - ranging between 15 and 70 minutes - all of them silent. The first two were shot in the studio located in the film museum, which was really cool. Unfortunately these films weren't great quality and they didn't have any music, so our teacher tried to narrate what was going on. I may have fallen asleep for a bit - in my defense the theater chairs were extremely comfortable.

The third film we watched was about a woman whose husband dies and she goes bankrupt. She subsequently goes mad and loses her three children. It was a bit of a depressing movie, but interesting nonetheless. We talked after about how none of her circumstances were her fault - the film was more about how the system failed her. The fourth film we watched was propaganda to discourage people from going to the states, which I found hilarious. These two innocent Swedish men move to America and are tempted by women and alcohol, robbed, and one eventually dies.

On Friday, a group of us went to an aerobics class at Gerdahallen, the gym in Lund. We arrived a bit late, which was awkward enough. The woman leading the class was extremely upbeat and was constantly shouting out instructions in Swedish along with the bouncy American pop music. Trying to participate in the class was a bit like being in a flashmob where everyone knows the dance except for you. I'm really not good at knowing where my body is in space, so unlike the extremely athletic, enthusiastic Swedish girl in front of me, I was pretty much all over the place. My only consolation was that my friends weren't having the easiest time either - Lucia and I ran into each other repeatedly during the class. By the end I almost had the hang of the grapevines, pirouettes, enthusiastic arm movements and confusing steps. Almost.


Saturday morning, we (Alice, Linde, Lucia, Kate, Regina and I) hopped on a train to Copenhagen. The train ride is about 45 minutes, and we reminisced about how the last time we had been on this train ride was a month ago going in the opposite direction to Lund for the first time.

We met up with a walking tour immediately in Copenhagen - it was absolutely wonderful. Our tour guide was fantastic and had the exact same accent and sense of humor as one of our Danish friends back in Lund. The biggest part of history I took away from the tour was that there were about a million fires in Copenhagen's history and most of the city has been restored somewhat recently. We somehow dubbed ourselves the backpack gang (BPG). I'm still not entirely sure how it started. We walked all over the city and saw too many things to really list - but there are lots of pictures below :)

The building where our walking tour met - in the middle of the city

"It's said that when a virgin walks past, the horns will sound. So let's all walk past now and see" - our tour guide

Unsuccessfully eating a Danish hotdog - it basically just spilled all over me

The changing of the guards - every day at noon

Nyhavn - surprisingly used to be a dangerous red light district Copenhagen. Now it's much safer and is beautiful. 

The backpack gang!

Hans Christian Andersen - aka terrifying

 Absolutely gorgeous

The Opera house on the left side - but also the couple unintentionally in my picture is really cute

In the middle of the Amalienborg Palace!

Frederik's Church - also known as The Marble Church - just west of the palace. Also the largest church dome in Scandinavia. 

Completely silent inside and HUGE

This is where our tour ended - afterwards we walked along the waterfront. One of the guys from our tour - James, originally from Australia but working in Germany - came along with us since he was traveling by himself. He was very nice and seemed entertained, but I suspect he thought we were all insane. We have so many inside jokes and weird quirks that I don't think he really knew what to do with us. 

Kate being a goofball

The most adorable child watching the palace guards change position

Gefion Fountain - on the harbour front of Denmark. We each threw in currency from our respective countries - I threw in a penny :)

The Little Mermaid! (Den Lille Havfrue)

Børsen - a building housing the largest stock market in Denmark

Freetown Christiana - a weird little lawless area of Denmark covering 84 acres. It was pretty much full of hippies and bums - it was like being at a festival, only you knew that the people living here didn't necessarily have normal careers and lives to return to since this was their lives. At the entrance, there were three rules listed "No Photos, Have Fun, and Don't Run (it causes panic). I sneakily took a picture of the sign above. In the "Green Light District," there were huge lines to buy hash and pre-rolled joints. We just wandered around for a bit, then sat up on a hill and watched all the smokers below. The whole experience was a bit odd. 

A little side street off the shopping area by our hostel 

At the end of the day we went to our hostel - where there were triple bunks! Definitely no competition to Hostel Ostello Bello. All the bunks were a bit awkward to get into - I slept in the middle bunk.

We had dinner at a delicious (albeit expensive - like everything in the center) Italian restaurant near our hostel. We ended up going out with some of Alice's friends from home who are abroad in Copenhagen. It was a great time - there was more of a mix of bar/clubs than in Lund and I had a lot of conversations that involved people yelling in Danish to me over the music and me nodding and smiling. I did hold a few conversations in English - I've found that about 75% of the time when I tell people that I'm from Colorado, they excitedly say "Oh, Southpark!!" Definitely what I want to identify with... Kate and I had a great time just people watching - some of the girls who had come with Alice's friends were Icelandic and they were WILD. I really can't form a generalization, because I've never met anyone else from Iceland, but I've never see anyone party as crazily as one of the girls. We were exhausted from walking all day, but we ended up staying out for awhile. These are the only pictures I have from the night: 

AMAZING french fries at McDonalds

"Arizona Dream" burgers. Apparently when people think Arizona they think of spicy food?

Alice and a weird old Danish man who sat in the booth with us briefly

After getting back to the hostel extremely late (involving Linde getting lost on her way back and taking a bike taxi - a running joke for the rest of the trip) - we got a few hours of sleep and dragged ourselves out of bed for checkout. We walked to the grocery store to buy some fruit, rye bread and cheese (our bargain lunch) and ate in the botanical gardens. They were magical.

The gigantic greenhouse off in the distance

"You are welcome to sit on the grass here"

Our lunch spot

We shopped for a bit - which involved all of us losing each other for about an hour in the biggest H&M ever - then headed over to Tivoli!

Tired and grumpy outside H&M

The Lego Store

Tivoli Gardens was right next to the train station we had arrived at and it was AMAZING. It's the second oldest amusement park in the world and everything in it is beautiful. 

A large stage right when you walk in - there was a ballet going on!

A lot of the structures seemed oriental-themed

Lunch round two...

Ice cream stand where Linde and I got cones!

Feed the scary fish!

Gardens in the middle of the park.

We didn't buy a pass for the rides since they were super expensive, but Alice and Lucia rode on one that went super high upside-down and spun around. 

Afterwards, we walked to an Irish pub so Kate could watch the Gaelic Football All-Ireland Senior Championship (Dublin vs. Mayo). I was completely exhausted and falling asleep at that point, but once the game actually started I really enjoyed it! It was easy to follow and there were a bunch of Irish people cheering for each side. We cheered for Dublin with Kate and they won by one point!

On the way home, we met a Swedish girl on the train who was extremely talkative - she told us about visiting her Mom who has cancer and her plans to move with her boyfriend to Dubai. She also asked us lots of questions and said that we could all be models, which was hilarious considered we were exhausted, unshowered and all just looked a little rough, but it was a nice way to end the trip.

Living the Dream! (With the Backpack Gang :))