Waiting For School to Start . . .

Hey, everyone! I figured I would do one more blog post before things picked up here in Mullsjö. School starts Monday and I AM SO EXCITED. Students won't be here until tomorrow, so I'm equally excited to meet all of them!! With all our extra time, Luke and I have been hiking through the local trails and walking into town almost every day, usually to pick up some groceries.

The trails are absolutely beautiful. Like I said in my last blog post, so many tall trees, bushes, and greenery everywhere. It's almost overwhelming at times! Yesterday, we walked a shorter trail (about 3.5 miles) that went around a couple lakes and had a lot of hills . . . almost too many hills . . . But we survived! And got to see some breathtaking views while we were at it. Today, we walked a longer trail (about 6 miles) that was more flat and very wild. The paths were overgrown in a lot of parts, but that's what made it exciting! We were sometimes up to our waists in overgrown fields, which meant that lots of ticks were hitching rides on us. Despite insects and a few wrong turns, we had some really fun and relaxing hiking adventures.

Another awesome thing about today was that we had pizza. PIZZA. My favorite food above all my other favorite foods. The cafeteria doesn't serve meals after Friday's lunch so we're on our own for the weekend, which gives us the opportunity to get food elsewhere- even though the cafeteria food here is actually pretty amazing. Well-balanced meals with fresh ingredients and lots of fruits and vegetables. There's also always a vegetarian option, which is great for this aspiring vegetarian! It's so different from meals in US schools, where hardly anything is prepared fresh and well-balanced meals can be hard to find. But here, it seems like people are more health conscious, and they understand that eating healthy is extremely important to a person's well-being. But anyway. Back to pizza.

Luke and I went to Pizzeria Viking, one of the two pizza places here in town. Luke has been here before, so he suggested we try a kebab pizza (also, the entire menu was in Swedish, so we went with what we knew). Kebab pizza is apparently a very popular pizza here in Sweden; it has lamb and kebab sauce on it, made out of a yogurt/sour cream type mixture with spices (source: Google). There was no cheese and very little tomato sauce, so it was pretty different from your typical American pizza. But it was definitely just as delicious.

Well, hopefully that's enough of an update to last til next weekend or so! I'm ready to spend time at school, in the studio, and meet lots of new people. Thanks for reading!

Off the Plane!

Though it took 15 hours in three separate planes and an hour car ride, I'm finally here at the Mullsjö Folhögskola! It's safe to say that my travel buddy, Luke, and I were ready for a looooong nap once we got to the school. It's so easy to underestimate how exhausting traveling can be. Sitting in a plane for so long takes a lot out of you, but I shouldn't complain because overall, our traveling went smoothly. Thankfully, we were able to manoeuver the airports easily (shout out to Tom Klein, a family friend, for being so gracious and helpful at the Atlanta airport!), and we didn't have to wait longer than an hour during any of our layovers. The worst part was an eight hour ride from Atlanta to Amsterdam. As someone who is terrified of flying, sitting for eight hours on a plane isn't my favorite thing to do, so I was glad there were some good in-flight movies to pass the time (I finally got to see Big Hero 6- it was amazing!!). After flying to Gothenburg, we were picked up at the airport by our professor, Örjan, and we had an easy hour and a half car ride, which I was mostly able to sleep through. :)

The parts of the drive I did see were BEAUTIFUL! So many tall trees and grass and wild flowers everywhere, unlike anything I've ever seen. Picturesque scenery all around you. Like nature in such a pure state that you just want to stare at it for a long, long time. A surprising part of that beauty was that there were no bilboards along the roads. There were no big, ugly signs distracting you from looking out the window at the landscape. Interesting comparison to Missouri highways, where it seems like bilboards are never out of sight.

We arrived at the school very tired, but very happy to be at our destination. The school is surrounded by tons of trees and on one side, a beautiful lake. The lake has a walking trail around it and I've been told that there are lots of trails in the forest, which I am very excited to explore! Campus is tiny and compact, with only about 150-200 students, I think. All classes and dorms are close to one another, which makes finding your way around the campus very easy. The town we are in, Mullsjö, is also tiny, but cute! Lots of little, adorable houses next to the lake, and trees and greenery everywhere. It's been 60s-70s and sunny here everyday so far, which feels amazing. Not too hot, and not too cold. Perfect weather!

Classes start next Monday, so there aren't many students here yet. Luke and I have been trying to fill up the time with walks around the lake, visits into town, and today, a visit to a bigger city nearby, Jönköping! We traveled to Ikea, ate Swedish Chinese food (different, but still delicious), and got lost trying to find the train back to Mullsjö (no worries, we are back safe and sound!). All in all, an awesome day, and a good start to our first week here. Thank you to everyone who has sent me nice messages or well-wishes; you all are awesome!

Will update in another week or so. Thanks for reading. :) Hej då! (Bye!)

First Post!

Hi, everyone! Thanks for checking out my blog. Every week or two, I'll be posting about my adventures from the Mullsjö Folkhogskola art school in Mullsjö, Sweden. Keep an eye out for my posts on Facebook and Instagram, too! More to come soon. :)