International students- International christians.

I LOVE EXCHANGE!!

We introduce ourselves with our names attached to our countries, like little ambassadors. The real "exchange" has begun! Bible study with Credo (their christian fellowship) was so comforting! It's so amazing when everyone read Hebrews 3 and 4 in their own language! The African guy next to me was so surprised to see chinese characters in my Bible. (As you know I used the combined chinese and english Bible.) We think it nothing in St James. But here, there are Bibles of so many languages. It really makes the truth vivid to me, that every tongue, every nation and every land will praise God in the day of His glorious appearing!

AMAZING.

The greatest trip of my life

THE GOON SAYS:

And so it shall be called: the greatest trip of my life. My 21^st year is no doubt a year of many firsts. I saw my first snow in abundance, and played like a crazy kid, I remembered thinking its even better than ikea balls.

We started out, all 5 of us, for our adventure on the 28^th of January, before the sun rose, and made our way to Malmo airport. Filled with anticipation, we boarded the plane, only to hear an announcement that we had to get off, and the flight would be delayed for a few hours because there was an oil leak. Better safe than sorry, I had no qualms about it. We went for a leisurely lunch with the meal coupons of 75SEK per person as means of compensation from the airport, and all was well and we were up in the air by 1:30pm.

Malmo Sturup Airport

To get to Kiruna, we had to transfer planes and that for me, is very exciting indeed, because it meant 2 take-offs and 2 landings. I cannot explain my fear and fascination for flying. The first of two priceless moments for me, was when the aircraft gathered enough speed to lift itself into the air, defying gravity and soaring like a free independent entity into the sky, taking all of us along for a joyride. The second of course, is when the airplane descends where we could see everything like a small toy city, when the coast approached us, and we merged into the ground, as the airplane wheels touched the runway. While the plane was about 1 kilometer away from the ground during our descent, I looked down to see a peculiar texture on the ground. It was dark, so I squinted my eyes to see: why are the waves in the ocean not moving? Are they trees? Forest perhaps? The boy turned, and in an illuminating moment whistled to me: Goon, look! Its snow.

In this manner, we reached Kiruna.

The place is an avalanche of ice and snow. I was startled to observe that snow really does glitter, especially in all that abundance. Its all white, but dotted with silver snowflakes, that reflects the light shining on it. I basked in my wonder of all that glitters, of mountains of snow next to the roads, and set off to do crazy things when we reached our cabin. I tried to make snow castles, and snow man, fell backwards to leave my imprint on the snow, stepped into loose snow which came up to knee deep.

Mounds & mounds of snow......

.......... that glitters!!!

Leaving my imprint in the snow!

Snapshot in the snow!

The snowmobiles we took to the ice hotel can go faster than a motorcycle. It was exhilarating to ride across frozen rivers and vast expanse of snow. On the way back from the ice hotel, our snow mobiles were going much too fast, and we were losing control. Suffice it to say, the boy braked and swerve, and at that speed, I was flung out onto the snow. It happened so fast, by the time, I lifted my head, there was a dull throbbing pain, and my helmet was out of place, the two snowmobiles behind me with our friends on it had also toppled and were all on the ground. The boy was on the other side of the snowmobile picking himself up. We went on our way, much slower this time round, and I was convinced never to ride a motorcycle if I can help it.

Embarking on our soon to be ill-fated ride...

The site of the accident....

Living at the Lappish hut was one of the most novel experiences one can ever have. We chopped firewood for the fireplace in the hut to keep warm, as there was no electrical heating. and realized for ourselves that it was indeed back breaking hard labour, drew water from the river, which was quite dangerous, as the ice around the ages might be thinner. So we had to go on all fours to collect water.

I still cannot believe I survived minus 20 over degree Celsius of cold. But that cold and temperature was really hard for us, our extremities, fingers and toes were cold and numb all the time. The worst biting cold, however was on the dog sleds back from the Lappish hut the following day. The sun had set, and there was no light. I went with the American couple, both of whom took takes to drive the dog sled. Every inch of our bodies was covered save for the eyes. On the way back, we had yet another accident. The boy was in the first sled, with the china couple. The Americans laughed and joked their way along, and at a particular moment, paid little attention to the down slope bend approaching. The dogs ran very fast, and the sled slid off the trek, throwing me and the American woman off, and the sled fell on top of us. It was a light wooden sled, so we were fine, but it did knock the wind out of me. The dogs rushed right ahead, with no one on it, (for the American man had lifted his foot off the brakes to help the woman) and crashed straight into the boy about 200m after. And even then they were struggling to run ahead, but the boy was the obstacle that blocked the sled, so they were prevented from it. It was a very painful experience for him.

Kiruna is a lovely lovely place. We saw reindeers and dogs, ate reindeer meat, and had a good time talking and laughing with all the companions that we met there. The man, Arne, cooking for us at the Lappish hut in particular was one interesting person. We had a good story telling time with him on the night we stayed there. On hearing that we were exchange students, he told us that he too was a student and this little place was his school, for he enjoyed talking to all the people that came here, and always learned something from them.

There is so much more to say, more pictures are posted in the boy’s post below.

I will write again soon.

The Kiruna Adventure

The BOY says:

Hey all!!!

We've just returned from our 5D4N adventure up in the north of Sweden, in a place called Kiruna, a city so far north, it lies within the arctic circle. This post would chronicle our trip highlights!

Departure from Malmo! Our jolly group of adventurers! (I'm the cameraman)

We set off from Lund to Malmo by an early morning bus hoping to take the 9.40am plane to Stockholm where we'll transfer to another plane that'll take us to Kiruna. Unfortunately, due to a major oil leakage in the plane, oue flight was cancelled and we were rebooked for another flight to depart at 1.00pm instead. Luckily, the airline gave each of us meal coupons and we were treated to a sumptuos feast on Scandinavian Airline's dime.

SAS' treat to me! This and a salad buffet with free flow drinks!

We eventually arrived at Stockholm at around 2pm and had to wait till 8.10pm for the next flight to Kiruna. Without anything to do, we decided to take an express train to Stockholm city for a short day tour.

Goon and I on the Arlanda Express, a train going at over 160km/h!

Stockholm city was a sight to behold! It was certainly a bustling metropolis compared to Lund. The city was spectacular and unique, with the many rivers running through the city, it almost looks as if the entire city was a city in the water. We spent our short afternoon there touring the palace grounds, home of King Carl XIV, current monarch of Sweden and 'Gamla Stan', also known as 'Old Town', before heading straight back to the airport for dinner (free once again thanks to SAS) and our flight to Kiruna!!!

The streets of Stockholm.

A city on water?

All 5 of us in front of the palace!

The palace front gate.

Goon riding a lion........

The night skyline of Stockholm.

We reached Kiruna at 9.40pm and was immediately whipped by the freezing cold of the North. We saw our first snow, mounds and mounds of it piled everywhere. Once we got our luggage, a taxi driver with my name on a board (we had chartered one through our hotel) came straight to us and helped load our bags into his cab and drove us to Camp Ripain, our acccomodation for the night. We arrived at around 10pm+ and was so tired we almost immediately changed and showered and just cooped up in our cabin playing card games, unaware that above our heads, the aurora borealis was performing its spectacular dance. We missed the Northern Lights over cards.........

Welcome to Kiruna!

All of us here in Kiruna!!!

View from our little cabin at Camp Ripan.



The cabin interior. Pretty small.

The next day, we were promptly picked up by Leif, the owner of Camp Alta, our designated accomodation for the next few days who took us straight there where we would begin our tour of the internationally acclaimed, Ice Hotel! The Ice hotel was 15km off though, how would we get there? SNOWMOBILES!!!!!

All dressed up and ready to go!

Our Rides!

Goon and our guide, Tomars.

On our way there, the GOON once again did extremely stupid things. While she was driving the snowmobile and me riding pillion, she went off course and crashed into a tree. Instead of squeezing the brake, she squeezed the accelerator when she saw the tree. Next, she drove us off the track and straight into a ditch filled with snow and we were stuck for quite awhile. Luckily, accidents aside, we managed to get to the Ice Hotel in 1 piece.

All of us at the Ice Hotel

The Ice Hotel was amazing. Almost everything was literally carved out of ice. The entire place was kept constantly at -5 degrees Celsius as that is the optimal temperature for the ice there to glitter. Though a hotel, the Ice Hotel is open to public tours from 10am - 6pm, with guided tours at 12 noon and 4pm.

Goon flushing an ice toilet bowl.

Goon & I, the King and Queen of the house.

Goon riding an ice chariot!

This is an ice bed. Yes, it is a dragon's head.

Another icy bed.

The main hallway of the Ice Hotel.

Same hall, different view.

The Ice bar.

The Ice Church, fancy preaching in here.

After we had our fair share of the place, we began heading back to Camp Alta for lunch by the frozen lake. On the way, the unthinkable happened. For some reason, I found myself too close to the snowmobile in front of me and unable to brake because of the slippery ice below me. When I tried to swerve out of the way, my snowmobile overturned, flinging Goon and I rolling in the snow and causing a domino effect to all the other snowmobiles behind me as well. We got ourselves pretty banged up with cuts and bruises in various places and worst of all, smashed the windshield to my snowmobile and ended having to pay 1500 SEK for the damages........

Traditional Lappish food, Reindeer Meat!

Sitting on reindeer skins around the fire eating reindeer meat!

The next day, we got up really early again to start our 2D1N wilderness tour. Our guide Henrik picked us up and brought us to the end of the road, where civilisation ended and wilderness begun to outfit us and brief us on driving a snowmobile and dog sleds to our destination. It was a 10km route to his wilderness camp and we would travel half of that by a snowmobile and the other half on dog sleds.

Some of the dogs pulling our sleds.

Henrik, our guide, a legend in Kiruna.

A view of the countryside.

A nightime view of the wild.

Nothing but ice and snow, with mountains in the far distant.

We soon arrived at our campsite in the wilderness and our hut where we'll be staying th night. The first thing we realised that this was indeed the wilderness. Things like electricity did not exist. At minus 14 degrees, the only way to keep warm was to start a fire in the fireplace in our traditional hut and so, we went straight to chopping firewood. It was really back-breaking labour but we eventually got enough wood for our fire, our sauna and our BBQ.

Our camp in the wild.

Our Lappish hut made of wood. This inspired the Hobbit's House from LOTR!

The 'living room' of the hut.

Goon wheelbarrowing the wood we chopped.

We spotted a reindeer!

After chopping the wood, we had to go to the river to fetch water. We all took the chance to play in the snow awhile before climbing to the edge of the ice and helping ourselves to the freshest and cleanest waters we've ever tasted. Drinking straight out of the river, the feeling was fantastic!

Goon lying in the snow next to our beloved water supplier, the River Torne!

Goon on the edge of the ice!!! Just scoop and drink!

The BBQ fire where we had our dinner.

Life in the wilderness was simple. Do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. We used most of our time playing. Ice skating, skiing, sliding down the snowy hill on mats, life was carefree and absolutely relaxing.

Ice Hockey!

Resting from skating and massaging our feet.

Goon and I going skiing!!

After which, we were picked by Henrik and his dogs again in the evening and that was the end of our wilderness tour. We returned to Camp Alta, to be greeted finally after days of waiting the Aurora Borealis in the sky. It was dancing there ever so faintly because of the cloud cover and we couldn't see it very clearly. It was impossible to get a picture of it, it was way too dark.

Well, that about sums up our 5D4N adventure up north! Much much more pictures are available on request!!

Check here often!!!