My flight to Copenhagen, Denmark is only four days away and now the pressure is on. I am finally starting to feel the anticipation leading up to my departure. I still have so many things to do before I leave for Sweden! I have yet to pack my suitcase entirely and move out all of my belongings from Sherman Hall, the CoOp I am staying in for the first session of summer, to storage. Despite all of the pre-departure plans and to-do lists I need to complete, it seems like things are running pretty smoothly.
I've been working out my finances and healthcare-related pre-departure plans so that I don't run into any hiccups abroad. That has really been the crux of all the planning: so many things related to travel insurance, healthcare, and paying bills while abroad are very complicated and time consuming.
On a lighter note, I found out today that my application for the Reach the World Travel Correspondent was accepted! I received an offer to blog about my travel experiences in Sweden and share them with under-resourced schools and children in Harlem and New York. Reach the World (RTW)'s main purpose is to serve underprivileged communities and teach kids about geography, ultimately helping young public school children to broaden their global horizons, succeed in school, and learn more about the world in which they live. As part of the position as a Travel Correspondent, I will create a public profile on their website, blog, write travel journals, and communicate with young students and kids via Skype and their website. This organization is in partnership with the Gilman International Scholarship Program, which sent out the offer to me to work for them. It is a volunteer position (i.e. unpaid), but I do genuinely want to blog and share my experiences with a larger audience. I think the experience will improve my writing abilities and my blogging skills. It also sounds really fun! I will also get to Skype with the kids in the classrooms occasionally and complete various assignments related to my study abroad program. Maybe I can even teach them a little bit of Swedish? Either way, I think it will be a very enriching experience for everyone involved--myself and the kids!
Another thing I have been doing the past week and today is researching activities for Midsummer. What is "Midsummer", you might ask? Midsummer is a traditional Swedish celebration that happens right after I arrive in Lund, Sweden. The celebration welcomes the summer solstice by dancing around a decorated Maypole, making flower hair wreaths, drinking, and sometimes wearing traditional Swedish costumes. Below are some pictures so you can get a better idea of what it is like:
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons - June 2005 by Mikael Häggström
Midsummer celebration at Årsnäs, by the coast from Kode, Solberga församling.
After some deliberation, I have decided to go to this event in Skansen, Stockholm: http://www.skansen.se/en/tema/midsummer-programme-2013
Events will be taking place for three days: Friday, June 21st; Saturday, June 22nd; and Sunday, June 23rd. It looks like one of the more promising locations where I will actually have a chance to participate in the celebrations, take some photos for my blog, and shoot some video. Most Swedes apparently celebrate with their families outdoors, so this event is perfect for me because it is catered to the public. I plan on posting my photos here on the blog, so keep a lookout for that soon. Here is a short video about the event so you can get a better idea of what it would be like. It sort of reminds me of some of the May Day celebrations I did as a kid in daycare. We would dance around a pole we constructed outside on the grass with colorful streamers. It looks kind of similar and it sounds fun!
I am hoping I can get some good videos and photos to show to the kids in Reach the World of the event. I'll definitely be bringing my Canon EOS T3i DSLR camera.
If you want to find out more about the Swedish Midsummer, you can check out the official Sweden website for more information: http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Lifestyle/Traditions/Celebrating-the-Swedish-way/Midsummer/
Or you can check this recent article about Midsummer in Sweden that was just published by the New York Times:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/travel/a-midsummer-days-dream-in-sweden.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Keep following this blog if you want to learn more about my study abroad program, Sweden, and my travels! Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about my trip or any comments, feel free to post below.
Safe Travels,
Jenna
