Welcome to Sweden

As a student of journalism I should start with: who, what, where, when and why. The first 4 are easy. Who am I? My name is Luisa I am a senior in the journalism department at UAF. What am I doing and where am I doing it? I’m spending a semester aboard in Ostersund Sweden. When? Right now.
The “why” part gets a little more tricky. On a particularly cold and windy Fairbanks day five months ago, I found the perfect way to postpone my entry into Americas less than enticing job market. I decided to study abroad. Months of preparation, mountains of paper work, and a 19-hour flight later, I arrived in Ostersund, Sweden. The magnitude of my journey didn’t sink in until I set foot in the winter city. The picturesque buildings dusted with snow gave off the impression that I had accidentally wondered in to a commercial for coke-a-cola at Christmas. It was surreal to say the least.
Five months suddenly seemed an eternity. I have conferred with other exchange students and discovered that the “oh no, what have I gotten my self into” moment passes quickly.
In this case, cultural distinctions crept up on me; I wasn’t hit with a wave of new sounds and smells that signaled a radical departure from my country to another. It’s been a series of small things: he taste of the coffee; how the toilets flushed; the way the lights take a second or two to turn on after the light is switched on.
Of course the most note worthy difference, was the language; Swedish is a Germanic language, however, it has a soft singsong quality that isn’t found in its linguistic cousin German. It’s beautiful to hear but hard as hell to learn. The grammar, as far as I can tell, is arbitrary, and the tonal changes make correct pronunciations particularly difficult. Embarrassingly enough my vocabulary is currently is limited to “tack” witch means thank you, and “Tallar du engelska?” meaning, do you speak English.
Here are some basic, yet important, facts about the town of Ostersund and Sweden in general. Contrary to popular belief, is not the land of blond haired and blue-eyed people. In this area the norm is dark hair and brown eyes. Like any western nation there has been an influx of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East resulting in a veritable rainbow ethnicities.
The kingdom of Sweden, according to the country’s Lonely Planet Guide, holds an estimated population of 9 million. Yes it’s still a kingdom but the king, whose name is King Carl XVI Gustaf, has no real power. The government is run by the parliament.
The town of Ostersund is located in middle of the state of Jemtland, it has been owned at different times in history by both Russia and Norway, and the influences of this can be seen in the architecture.
Ostersund is similar to Fairbanks in at least two ways; first of all its geographic location it is a northern inland city, which makes it good for comparing weather patterns and climate change. Second the populations are roughly the same, Ostersund is estimated at 60,000. Fairbanks’s surrounding urban population is perhaps slightly larger. The Interior Alaska city took root along a river. Ostersund is built around the lake of Storsjons, the fifth largest in Sweden.
According to local lore the lake is supposed to contain a monster similar the Lockness monster. If it suddenly feels like big game hunting in Alaska is so last week, you might want to think twice before taking up because hunting mythical lake dwelling monsters. The town has passed a law that it is illegal to hunt the lake monster. This is posted at the tourism and information building.