Friday was a day of change all around. Although I planned a walkabout today, the weather decided against it. I did some iTunes work and watched some Jeff Dunham ventriloquism on my laptop. On TV, the family shows of the afternoon were The Simpsons and early versions of Married with Children. So, Homer and Al Bundy are images of great fathers. So this is what the world sees as American families. I ate some great cheese, had some dark coffee, and stared out the window a few times wondering about life's twists and turns. Although it was a Friday afternoon, you could hear the rain drops and birds' flapping the water off their wings. I longed to get online to chat with Rose and others, but everyone was still sleeping or getting ready for work.

Lennart came home exhausted from an anticipated short day that turned into a long meeting day. He graciously cooked a family recipe that caused me to have two full healthy plates. We then spent some coffee time chatting about a multitude of subjects. I probably should apologize for talking his ear off. LOL. However, I really had my family heavily on my mind today, and I am sure I repeated a few things over and over. After a long week of work, I usually spend time with family doing something goofy, shopping, or sports-like and I felt that pull today. Lennart generously let me use his office to work on the internet and I video-chatted for quite awhile with Rose, Sean, Meg & David Coons, and some classes. Nothing official, just talking, laughing, showing silly pictures, and whatever else flashed on the screen. I still want to see Allie on camera, but our time zones are really out of sync on her schedule. I tried creating a wireless network here, but their aDSL router does not expand with a switch very well. I had it working once this morning, but that was it. I have one more trick to try tomorrow, but it is more of a manual move; we shall see.

I feel better after this evening catching up with Rose in a not so official classroom capacity. I am bit of a sensitive person, and I needed that time. Sometimes, the simple things in life are the most important. Family is a way of life here in Sweden without a second thought. I know the feeling well, and it hit home a little harder today... and that's a good thing.

We send our thoughts and prayers to Mrs. Harding and her family in Minnesota.

Tomorrow we will try snow-mobiling in the mountains. It started to snow with heavy flakes around 9pm or so, so tomorrow looks better than having it rain. I also checked British Airways about the luggage, and we have two more bags with the status of "we think we found it, but it will take some time to confirm this" so cross your fingers. And Sunday evening, Dave Nygren arrives. I sure hope he has a decent trip out here. I know he needs it! Last thing: channel 2 here is showing the Latin Grammy Awards and channel 6 is showing Scrubs. Go figure.

I woke up around 8:30am this morning wanting to stay under the warm covers. I eventually got myself started. Right now, I am trying to add a networking switch to Lennart's DSL, but it is being stubborn. If I can get it to work, I would like to add my Airport Express for temporary wireless. The switch sees all the components, but the DSL modem is being stubborn.



I may just go back to my room and have some breakfast and coffee.

Well, even in Sweden, waking up early can be hard to do on a grey, rainy morning. Dave also had a sleepy issue to getting to school on time. LOL. I needed three cups of STRONG coffee just to get going! This morning started a little slow, as you can imagine by my description. I completed some personal internet-based items -- like bills, email, work email, setting up iChat video appointments, etc, but struggled just to do that much.

I finally got into a small rhythm and followed Dave and Tommy into the school's new Body Shop area. There was a class going on with 6 students putting a school van back together and working with Tommy in straightening out the frame on a 90's Mazda Miata. These students were in the Junior year (they call it 2nd grade at VTC), but they had a lot work to do. I took some interesting video and pictures.



I think I have about 16 minutes left of video battery (I have no charger, and British Airways still has not given me back my luggage and claims that over 15,000 lost bags were shipped to Milan, Italy to be sorted). Go ahead and read the article and come back to this blog.

After fika, Tommy, Dave and I went to visit our paired students among different places in Östersund, where they went to work for the day; not school, but actual jobs in different places. Robert and Stefan went to a Vehicle Inspection Center, where all people have to have their cars thoroughly inspected twice a year -- brakes, tires, etc -- and the drivers get quite nervous about their potential results. I let Robert take the video camera and give his own description. The pride in his explanation was impressive. Nate and Christoffer went to a special garage for electrical work. Part of the VTC program is to get students experience in the workplace for a day, week, or two weeks, then bring them back for more school. This goes back and forth in their later school years.


Dave and I then took a drive to where I am staying to get more wires for my computer system. I actually gave him correct directions and then he found his inner-GPS and we went to Tommy's house a different way -- a scenic, relaxing drive. On the way, we picked up Kokosbollar treats -- those in Auto Shop, ask Dave about it. It was a nice little tiny one room house with the honor system built in to buy this candy. I have not seen one of these since my trip to an Ostrich farm in Almond, Wisconsin a number of years ago.

When we arrived, Tommy was taking a power nap and I finally met his delightful and enthralling family. [PAUSE]

Time for Auto Shop to visit with the teacher via internet video!


Returning from all the video iChats and dinner... I helped Tommy secure his wireless network and update one of his computers. I also demonstrated the full power of iChat to everyone via Mrs. Urbz and Garret -- not just video, but slideshows, remote access, audio, etc. It was quite the demonstration on our end here. Even Pete Ferrera looked me up via iChat from Wood Shop. For Dave's video session with his Advanced Auto Shop combined with my Networking Management class, we sure had a crowd on our end of the camera. Sofia made all of us incredibly delicious waffles. Garret and Todd saw them over the iChat and were drooling. Well, let me tell you, everyone who has cooked for us have been nothing but great chefs! We all finally had one final fika break and yes, I walked away from my computer stuff, even though I did not finish. Spending time with people is more important. This is something I must continue to work on for myself. No?

***

My 2nd period TV-Production class.
Faith always looks sooooo happy (left corner).

***

This weekend, there is a car show where Tommy and Dave are taking the dragster. Lennart is taking me and some of the students snow-mobiling in the mountains. Dave Nygren is due out here at the end of the weekend, and a whole new week begins. I am taking tomorrow off to just enjoy the day around the apartment. I will walk around and just breathe the crisp, clean, air. I will work on Lennart's DSL network (a switch died), and I will try to create a temporary wireless network for myself. (Oh, you know I have to find SOME technology to fix!) But most of the day will be one of simplicity, eating of cheese and buttered bread, and drinking of more coffee.

Ja.

Wednesday came and went quite quickly. Goodness, what a full day it was. The weather was mostly sunny. We arrived at school, had our coffee, and caught up with students. Shortly afterward, the local press -- newspaper and online TV, called OP.se -- showed up for interviews. The links posted here are mostly in Svenska; however, the TV has some English in it. I also posted a bunch of pictures, of which most do not have any comments or titles yet, but bear with me. The gallery is a mix of everything just to catch you up. They say a picture is a 1000 words... well, I cannot find much time to keep writing, so enjoy the pictures!



Anyways, after the media event, we had time for fika (alá Nutrition time at school). Then a few instructors on the Rally Car project took their classes out to the BIG lake to race on the ice (and some slush). It was about an hour ride to get to this area, most of of it on a dirt-sand-slush road with ice -- sort of the back of 173 in Lake Arrowhead!



These carts are called Cross-Carts. It was a bit slushy, so getting a bath while driving like a maniac on a rally course was quite the exhilarating experience. Oh, this was BIG fun. Yes, even the instructors, Dave and I drove.



After the long ride back to the school, we all went back with our families to have dinner. Later in the evening, the adults returned to school to watch a presentation on a state of the art Rack, Re-aligninment system, and Paint Room in the new Body Shop area of the VTC school. Although the presentation was in Svenska, I learned enough to ask intelligent questions about the system and how it was being implemented in the school.

Finally... and I mean finally, I made it to bed around 11pm and passed out hard. No ipod, no music, no coffee... just *OUT*

We all spent the day at the VTC Auto School with our respective areas. Lennart picked me up from his home around 11:30am so I could join Tommy, Dave, and other teachers for lunch. So I hurried in getting my equipment ready. After lunch, I tried getting on the internet at the school, but there were some restrictions, so most of my work will be done when I have the opportunity at Lennart's house in the evenings. I did post a long blog post earlier, but it had some small mistakes, so this update should fix most of those errors. I finally got the nerve to explore the school's areas, which are wide open. At first, students were wondering about my cameras upon them; but soon, the conversations took hold. From fellow teachers to students, I found everyone to be engaging and thoroughly interesting on every level of discussion: politics, tv, technology, muscle cars (it helped that i have owned quite a few muscle cars through the years), electricity, and more. By the time Lennart found me to go home, it was 4:30pm -- which means I got lost while sharing many thoughts among everyone I visited. It sure left a smile on my face and I feel much more comfortable with further exploring and visited with VTC students and staff alike.


I did observe our RIM students fitting right in perfectly with their respective teams and classes. Dave, himself, fits in everywhere. Even today, after 3 years, they still talk to him about his "short pants" and that he might have something wrong with legs, since they are too hot for long pants. LOL. I wonder what they will say about me when I start wearing my Hawai'ian shirts again. (Update: still no update about our lost luggage.)



Well, I am off to have dinner with Lennart and his family. He will be taking me out to different areas of Östersund for night photos. I do wish I had my tripod with to do this (lost with luggage). I also do not have a charger for my Sony video camera either. It is about 9:20am at RIM now -- ahh... Nutrition. I could use some Café now.

Good morning. It is 10:14am here in Östersund, Sweden. The sun is bright amongst the crystals in the snow from the window I am sitting in front of -- just a glorious morning. Today, I am took a half-day off from going to work at VTC Gymnasiet so I could catch up on some sleep from all the traveling. (This is a long post, so have a cup of coffee as you read this.)

To fill in the blanks since leaving LAX – the British Airways delayed flight was 11 hours long direct to London Heathrow. The last 3 hours were pretty miserable. My body was not used to be confined to a small Southwest Airlines coach seat for that long. There was always a line to the restrooms and I was in a window seat, so it was difficult to get out and stretch my legs. My iPod would not work, no room to use the small laptop; however, the seats had a small LCD screen and some media (BBC TV-shows, movies, music) for us to enjoy at no extra cost. The crew also gave us decent beverages and interesting food. Around sundown, everyone had to shut the window shades until after sunrise, as to not awake the business travelers. We finally arrived in Heathrow, trying to find our legs and thought we could use the new high-speed train to London for a few photo-ops. Well, due to the flight being late, helpful BA people throughout the airport advised us not to go due to time constraints. The only train we could use was the one taking us to the Baggage Claim area. It is like stuffing a Chicago "EL" train during rush hour. The airport itself was FULL of advertisements for perfume, Virgin, technology, Beckham -- LOTS of Beckham, but there were no garbage cans or other useful things to do. We finally sat at a Smoothie Bar, relaxed a bit, trying to find out what to do next. The youngsters went off to find some Tea & Crumpets, while the adults went shopping. (BTW, Rose, I should have bought that little wheeled baggage carrier -- my computer bag was 30-something pounds!) And of course, the US Dollar holds no weight much more in Europe and is about 50 cents. I did find a tiny Apple Store amidst everything. LOL. Alas, no free internet to work with though.

I got a couple of trinkets for m'ladies (Rose & Allie) that cost a couple of pretty pounds (terrible pun!), found the youngsters who lost track of time and walked briskly to the next gate. All customers boarded at the same time on this full flight. The length of this BA flight was about 2.5 hours, but took some time on the taxi to up and abroad to Stockholm. Let me tell you, both landings of these flights were like riding an old wooden rollercoaster -- side to side even while touching the ground and braking. Sheesh! While there were MANY BA employees throughout the planes and airport, and all of them were British friendly -- I think some of the buns in their hair were a bit too tight. When they said "lovely," it was a with a tight molar-to-molar grin.

We made it to Stockholm in the later evening. We stood in line to get our passport checked, where no one smiled and when they saw the US colored passport, the flow stopped like during the VISA checkcard commercials, where someone pulls out cash. You also get the stink-eye. Finally moseying on over to the Baggage claim, we waited.... and waitied... and waited... watched a young airport tech walk down the baggage belt area, disappear, pop back up and then the announcements came -- technical difficulties with the baggage. Then after 3 more rounds of this, none of our stuff came up (except for one our students' bag) and then the airport started to shut down. Dave had to fill out this big form and listen to the fact that BA's Terminal 5 (opened up 5 days ago) continues to screw up baggage across the world. (We called the next day, and no one at Stockholm Arlenda -- airport -- had a clue of where are stuff is). Dave finally found a train ticket office and purchased tickets to get to Stockholm City, where are night stay was. Tickets are not cheap! The rest of us converted some USD to Kronnors (about a .6 rate, give or take). We took a very nice high-speed train (205 k/h) to Stockholm City, where the temperature was a brisk -9 degreees Celsius.



We checked into this VERY nice hotel right next to the train station: The Nordic Sea. We stayed in the express rooms -- with bunk beds. (L'Urbz's CSUF dorm room is bigger!). However, the desk attendant was extremely pleasant and we all felt a certain sense of relief to actually stand and walk outside (not at an airport). All of us freshened up and explored the streets of Stockholm for about 2 hours. We found a 7-11, McD's, Burger King, Subway, and other places of the like. We also found people yelling on their cell phones outside of pubs. Luckily, 7-11 carried some personal items (perspirent, tootbrushes, shavers, etc) that cost too much.



We finally settled on a burger place, where combo meals were dependent on Mayo or Big Mac like sauce. The sodas were Coke Zero and Sprite Zero. The food was ok. Dave told us not to eat at McD's -- it is not the same wonderful quality as in the US.



Around 11pm local time, we finally all hit the sack, or I should say, we hit the bunks -- I had to ask Dave to sleep on the top bunk since I weigh a bit more than him. We had to get up around 7am to get going. When the wake-up call rung, we thought it was for the luggage. Alas, it was time to get up and go. The hotel provided a very nice breakfast buffet and we were off to see a few sites of Stockholm. All of us brought our cameras and walked via Dave's fast pace to downtown Stockholm. It was a Monday morning workday, and it was bustling of people. (I will post more pictures later.)




After about 90 minutes, we quickly walked back to the hotel to check out, walked on over to get our train tickets, hopped on within minutes, and we were off to our SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) flight. This airport is about half the size of Ontario. We guess because it was a local flight, security was not as scrutinizing as the bigger airports. We grabbed a few drinks and waited a bit for the plane to board. We practiced our Svenska. (I can pickup reading, understanding a lot of the vowels and words, but speaking it has been difficult for me due to the emphasis on vowels. The others are doing much better than me with the phrases.) This was about an hour flight to Östersund. Flying over the pristine countryside was beautiful -- snow covered mountains and farmlands. Another windy landing, and this time, we get to exit the plane outside to the tiny airport. Magnus (left in the picture below) and Lennart (right in the picture) awaited us. They were probably the first people to smile at us in terms of being happy to see us!




They graciously took us to the Electric Company's water tower to have lunch. It was a buffet of salad, veggies, beans, moose-meat, and lots of coffee. For myself, enjoying most Polish food all these years is making it easier for me to adjust to some of the tastes here. The view from the restaurant was spectacular. I let the students use my camera with the zoom lens and they went to town with it. As we drove by, you could see where the paths were for bicycles, walking, cross-country skiing. Everything in this city is close enough for everyone to get around without driving. (You can see some of this in the gallery I will be posting.) We then went shopping at a place that resembled a Target store (even the logo was a red dot surrounded by a sea monster dragon around it in a circle) to look for some clothes. I struggled here to find my sizes and such. I even used the dressing room to make sure what fitted. Thank goodness I did! So, today I am wearing a brand new outfit (black polo and grey slacks). I will share more on this adventure with Mrs. Urbz later.



Late afternoon, the families arrived to meet us and pair up with our students.



I went grocery shopping with Lennart and met his family. They graciously let me use their home and accompanying apartment. They made a marvelous chili dinner, and their welcoming of me was even warmer. I was a a bit nervous and extremely tired, so I am slightly self-conscious in how I came across. Hopefully, not too bad. But wearing a Chicago Cubs T-Shirt (it was opening day in the US), a big jacket, equipment everywhere, and being short and plump with 2+ day old clothes... it was not quite feeling comfortable with myself. (Today has been better.) We had a very pleasant conversation during and after dinner about family life. After dinner, Leonnart generously let me plug my Mac into his house network and I found Rose online. The quality of our iChat video was surprisingly clean, and so she hooked her connection up with my 4th period class and Mrs. Harding was there to join the across-the-world discussion. The lag time was quite minimal.

After all that, I finally retired to the apartment, organized and charged all my equipment and clothes. It took my mind quite some hours to finally unwind. It was so quiet that I could hear the ticking of the light timer on the wall. Finally, after about 3am, I finally rested.

Rose, Allie and I left around 10am this morning to meet Justin at CSUF (Fullerton) for breakfast at Denny's. IHOP was packed. Then we drove through some busy traffic to LAX and found ourselves in line. Dave Meigide and the other travelers found us to check in baggage and we are waiting for a few hours to board. I believe it is a 14 hour flight (delayed already for 30 minutes). So I dropped $6 for an hour of internet access to start this blog.