Åre Ski Trip

The definition of spring in Sweden is when the average temperature is between 0 and 10 (just a little something I learnt in my Swedish geography class) and I'm pleased to report that things are finally starting to warm up here. The roads and paths are no longer covered in snow, I can actually see what color the ground is and there are patches of green grass appearing everywhere. However, there are still signs of the past couple of months in the form of huge snow piles that are slowly melting. 


Unfortunately the falling snow has been replaced by rain and a small part of me really preferred the snow as it seems to be wet all the time now, but trust me I'm not complaining. It is nice to feel the warmth of the sun on my face as I walk to class, oh ja...Mr Sun is back too and oh how I missed him! 


This picture of a Swedish spring is however not the case in all parts of the country and for that I am truly grateful because it meant I was able to join 40 Rotary Youth Exchange Students from all over the world on a 5 day skiing adventure at the best (and only) skiing mountain in Sweden, Åre! 


Åre is situated in the middle of Sweden only about 100km's from the Norwegian border and is one of the few high mountain peaks in the country. You see, even though Sweden was blessed (or cursed, depending on your point of view) with ample amounts of snow, it has almost no mountains. They are all in Norway, and together with the oil, are the things that the Sweden really lost out on when Norway got it independence all those years ago. It is the reason why Sweden is so good with cross country skiing, but I'm getting side tracked.


On our arrival we spent the morning meeting all the other students while we waited for everyone to arrive from all over the country. Then it was time for a tour of the town, which did not take very long because it is not very big. However, what it lacks in size is made up for in beauty. It is a quaint little village at the foot of the mountain right next too a rather large river. It was really something to see.

After the tour we spent the afternoon at an indoor swimming pool and sauna world. A perfect way to relax after all our long train rides, chat and prepare for the week ahead. That evening I helped co-ordinate a few ice breaker activities and I'm pleased to report that I am now an expert fire starter with only a battery and steel wool...

Now that I've got all that out of the way let me tell you about skiing because that is pretty much all we did for the next four days. Wake up at the crack of dawn, ski, lunch, ski, supper, activity, sleep, wake up and repeat! It was awesome!

As I have never skied before in my life I was really excited about trying it, but thank goodness for ski school because to start with I was horribly uncoordinated. I say in the start because that quickly changed as after only half a day I soon realized that I LOVE skiing and that I was pretty good at it (if I do say so myself). I picked it up quickly and I soon found myself off the kiddies slope and tackling the more advanced slopes. By the end of the week I was also skiing amongst the trees (off pist), doing jumps and I even tried a rail (although that did not end well and my thumb is still kind of sore).

I have never felt anything like it before in my life. Flying down a the slope with the cold wind on your face, you are completely at the mercy of the mountain and your only thought is please let me stop when I want to and not when the mountain decides it is time. That happened more often than I'd care to admit, but all you do is get back up and start again because you aren't finished until you are at the bottom and the only way to get there is on your ski's.

Another highlight of skiing is getting to the top of the mountain and just taking a second to look out over everything, you can see for miles and the only sound is the wind blowing the snow off the peak. I loved to just take a second, take it all in, wait for the feeling of peace to overwhelm me and then just plunge head first down the mountain.

In the evenings we surprisingly still had energy to do a few fun activities (must be all the chocolate we ate and drank to keep warm.) We went to a frozern waterfall with a mini ice cave at its base. I really enjoyed this because I'd wanted to see the ice hotel in Kiruna, but it was open when we were there and this kind of made up for that. One night we also had a dinner with the Åre Rotary Club, the hosts of the camp. We all got dressed up in out blazers and each country had to give a short presentation about another country, but here is the catch, in Swedish!

Myself and Zoe (another South African from Durban, who is on exchange in Sweden...I had no idea there was another South African, so it came as a pleasant surprise.) did our talk on Canada. It was very funny as neither of our Swedish is any good. Something that I'm rather embarrassed about. It has been 7 months and I'm still convinced my Swedish is getting worse, but that is another story. We also got the  opportunity to swap banners and of course pins, I was with youth exchange students after all.

All to quickly the week came to an end, but I think secretly some people were grateful because after 4 days on the slopes your body really takes a hammering. I was sorry to see everybody go their separate ways because it is nice to spend sometime with people who are going through the same things you are and understand what it's like to be a foreign student in a far away land.

However, it seems I've barely had time to recover after arriving back in Linköping. I have been busy with group assignments, presentations, classes, Rotary and Scout meetings and of course the odd party. Silke came to visit for a few days from Germany and we could not miss the opportunity to fika and party like in the good old days. Honestly, can anybody resist a 70's themed Kravall? I just had to put on a pair of skinny red jeans, show a lot of chest hair and dance the night away.

Hej då
=)