The Capital of Norrbotten

Situated an hour north of Piteå, we have the lovely city of Luleå where my exchange friend, Jaymie, is spending her year. The funny thing about Sweden is that the population of 9.7 million is heavily concentrated in the very south of the country. This means that the northerners are rather spread about throughout the beautiful forestlands, and of course, leaves me quite a fair distance from most other exchange students (majority placed in Stockholm). This is why I'm so thankful to have an amazing friend who is merely an hour away. The next closest exchange student is about 3 hours drive. This won't stop us from organising things together though!

So this weekend was a trip to Luleå with my wonderful tour guide, Jaymie! Despite the fact that this was actually only the 4th time we had caught up with each other in our whole lives (this includes the plane trip to Sweden which was spent acting somewhat like zombies due to the lack of sleep), I still see her as an ultimate friend that I feel like I have known my whole life! So of course, once I arrived in Lueå, it was nonstop talking for the next couple of days. This is one of the best parts about exchange - the instant connection you have with others in the same boat as you. We can all truly understand each other's feelings and we are all open to new ideas and pushing ourselves past our comfort zones. They are some of the best people ever, and I'm so glad to have such wonderful people to share this year abroad with.

Anyway, back to Luleå! Jaymie made sure to show me the best parts of town (Max's, lolly stores, favourite cafes...yes, food in general). Our first night in the town consisted of a surprise movie at the cinemas. Without knowing anything, we chose the next movie showing, titled 'The Wedding Ringer', and took our seats in a very cute theatre consisting of about 8 rows of seats. I have to say it was definitely a hilarious movie! It was a very different storyline which consisted of some crazy adventures and a very sweet ending. Much better than what the trailer portrayed, which we watched after the movie. Us exchange students like to mix up the order of things sometimes. 

One of the greatest memories during my time in Luleå would have to be the adventure across a frozen lake to an island which supposedly had waffles for sale. Of course, we chose the windiest day to take on this challenge, finding ourselves almost carried away by the wind. I promise you, if it had been any windier, I would have been walking backwards. As it was, it took us about half an hour to reach this island that was probably less than 1km away. Unfortunately, there were no waffles. On the return home we had the wind on our side, but we also managed to slip through the first layer of ice. Don't worry though, the second layer wasn't far down. We returned back to the solid ground safely, and continued on.

These are just a few highlights of my long weekend in Luleå with Jaymie! We have had such a great time, and have so many good stories from it. I am now in Piteå again, back with my host family who has just returned from an awesome trip to South Africa! So it seems like we have a lot of catching up to do. Talk later!