this place.

Today is my last day in Gothenburg and as much as I don't want to leave this place, I know that it is time to leave. How do I know? The plant that I bought when I first came here has died and the bag of coffee that I've been using all semester has finally come to an end. I know these are sort of superficial indications, but they're real and I'm leaving in any case.

Really though, it has been so nice and I can say without a doubt that this has been the most valuable experience of my life so far and I wouldn't change anything about how my time here in Europe has played out. I've learned so many valuable lessons about life, learned so many new skills, and learned much more about who I really am and what I'm really made of. Hopefully all of my new life and energy is not suppressed when I get home, but instead I hope it grows and blossoms and I hope to share with my community, the people around me, everything I've learned and everything I am.

Further, I hope that I will be energized through the time I've spent here... enough to push through my last year at the University of Washington. I hope that I haven't become mentally lazy and I hope that there won't be too severe of a reverse-culture shock. Lastly, I hope to come back to a new-and-improved or at least a new-and-improving America. I want to be able to be proud of my country again... or well, maybe for the first time.

More traveling!

Recently, my mom, sister, and cousin came to visit me in Sweden and we spent a good 10 days together in Europe. We spent three days in Gothenburg so I could show them how I've been living and how awesome it is here. Then we flew to Paris and then to Rome and finally to Ostia, which is a beach area in the outskirts of Rome.

It was really pretty cool to have them in Gothenburg because I was able to introduce them to some of my new friends and take them to places that I've gotten so used to having around, such as Vrångö and Nordstan.

I took them to the airport this morning and now I have a lot of great memories and pictures to share. There are so many of these things though... I will have to limit myself.

Five best memories (I'll write descriptions as I find time)

1. Dinner in Arisa's Kitchen
Arisa, Mira, my family and I had dinner in Arisa's kitchen one night. It was a lot of fun to see how my family interacted with my new friends and we had lots of great food and had a good time.

2. 'Romeo and Julia'
I took my family to the opera house to see the final performance of 'Romeo and Julia.' It was amazing, Göteborgs Symphony Orchestra was phenomenal and I hope to never forget the show.

3. Dance lesson with Joscha
Joscha came to Helmuts to teach Mira, me, and my family how to dance. We learned some basic steps for cha cha cha, rumba, samba, and jive. It was really a lot of fun.

4. On the beach in Ostia
My and my family hung out all day on the beach in Ostia for one day on this trip. The beach was great, the water wasn't too cold and it was pretty clean. I fell asleep in the sun a little bit and burned, but not too bad. It was good to get some sun.

5.

Ten best pictures

a few video clips

Little kids picking leaves off a potted plant next to the owner of the store:


Conga player from Liseberg's Big band:


Flying water jets:

Liseberg

Yes, so I live walking distance from an Amusement park called Liseberg which I think is considered to be the biggest amusement park in Scandinavia. I went there the other day with some friends and it wasn't really that big, but it was still fun and I thought I'd post some pictures.

We went there the day after these same friends and I stayed the night at Elin's place before heading to a small beach area in/near the Majorna area across from Eriksberg to watch the sunrise and eat Swedish pancakes. We only got one or two hours of sleep that night before going to the beach and then heading to Liseberg, so we were pretty spent. In any case, here are some pictures:

Karnevalen i Hammarkullen!

Oh, there was a carnival in Hammarkullen this past weekend and it was pretty amazing. I had never been to a carnival before so it was a lot of fun to see all of the costumes and hear all of the samba music go down the streets. I was surprised to see so many people there. Here are some pictures:


























































































































I also took a few interesting video clips. Here's one of a guy playing a cuica:


Here's another of another group. I thought it was cool because they had masks, and some of their drums had heads with real fur on them: