Holidays in Umeå

In the meanwhile I've finished university in Umeå which means that I'm kind of on holidays here. :) I'm still here because on the 10th February there is a winter market in Jokkmokk which is "near" from here. Let me explain "near". It's four hundred kilometers, so more than from St.Gallen to Geneva which I think is veeeery far. But as I'm already that close (who knows when I'm next time in Northern Sweden in February...) it would be a pity to miss this market. I'll visit someone in Luleå and from there it's not that far anymore.

If you're interested in the market, visit www.jokkmokksmarknad.com. It's a market about Sami culture and they sell handcrafts, have exhibitions, organise dog seldding trips, concerts...

The pictures are updated again on http://franziska.luthiger.googlepages.com/pictureoftheday-overview

See you soon at home....

Kiruna, Goodbyes, moving, snow, rain and hopefully soon more snow

Yes, I'm still alive and my blog still exists... Sorry, for keeping you waiting.

Let's start from the beginning... Over Christmas I was for one week home. I expected the days to be much longer at home as they were. No surprise. But what I did not expect was how bright the days are! Daylight in Zurich is much brighter than up here!!!! Well, sounds logic but it never felt like that when I was there...

After a wonderful week over Christmas at home I went with five friends to Kiruna which is at the very north of Sweden - 600km from Umeå. It seems that I don't live in the north... :)
We stayed 15km outside of Kiruna in a cabin near a lake. We went on a two-day dog sledding trip, visited the ice hotell, drove ski-scooters, went to the sauna, chopped wood...
The snow-scooter tour to the ice-hotell we booked from the camp we stayed in. Equipped with our Swiss winter outfits we arrived where the tour was supposed to start. But our guide didn´t trust our cloths and so we had to put on another ski suit over our ski suits that we were already wearing! In the end we were happy about having two ski suits... :) When we started the dog sledding tour two days later we expected the same - of course. But that guide thought that our outfit was just fine and so we got neither another suit nor better shoes. By the time we started the dog sledding (after having been standing outside for over an hour) we were already freezing... But the whole trip was awesome and unforgettable.
Get inspired in the photo section... A selection out of over 600 pictures... :)

Since the beginning of January I´m back in Umeå. This was the last week for most exchange students that only stay for one semester. So a lot of goodbye parties... As I extended my stage a bit I´m still left. :) But I had to leave my room and so I live now with Ulrika, a Swedish friend. It´s in a flat only about 100 meters from my old room. Which was good because I got quite some stuff to move (how did that happen and how do I get home??????). I booked my flight this week and I´m coming home the 12th February. The last month has started...

We still wait for the real cold weather. Where are the minus 20 degrees everyone was talking about????? We had wonderful snow one week ago and then it started to rain the whole time... Sorry, no pictures of that. I guess in a few years I have a completly wrong memory when I look at my pictures. They give the impression as it was sunny all the time... :)
We´ll see how it goes on...

Keep me up to date with your lives!

Back in Umeå

I'm back in Umeå! Lots of new pictures on
http://franziska.luthiger.googlepages.com/pictureoftheday-overview

I was one week at home and almost one week in Kiruna. It was wonderful! I'll tell you more soon...

Time to go home... for a first time

I'll leave Umeå today and will be back here on the 4th of January... Wish you all a wonderful Christmas time and all the best for 2008!!!!!

When the sun is so weak that you can almost not feel it - but it can warm you like no summer sun ever can

You might wonder how I keep up with the dark days... The hardest part is the mornings - the sun rises at 9.25am in the meanwhile. And then after lunch it's getting dark and at three o'clock it looks like night... It must sound horrible. Mut actually it's not at all! Last Sunday was beautiful weather and I was on the frozen lake. The sky was clear and the sun was shining. I think it can not be much nicer than that - anywhere!!! And when you know that you only have so little sunshine then you really want to enjoy that and you try to catch every sunbeam... sais a romantic winter lover :)

Lucia - 13 December

Yesterday was in Sweden Santa Lucia day. It's always celebrated on the 13 of December in remembrance of Lucia from Syrakus. It's a day with a lot of nice tradition. There is a Luciatåg with is a group of often children or other young people with one girl (the lucia) wearing candels on her head. Everyone wears a white long dress or is dressed as a figure such as "pepparkakorgubbe" (gingerbread boy). They go to different places and thing Swedish songs.
I started the day at 6.30 watching the Luciatåg on TV with my corridor mate and having a huge lucia breakfast that he prepared for us. Later in the library there was another group singing (picture) and over lunch there was a big thing in the aula of the university followed by a fika. It was a very nice day with a lot of light and nice music... Christmas mood...

julkalender

On Swedish tv they have a very cool thing: an advent calender! It's a great idea - every day a 15min part of a Christmas story. Perfect for me (as I like everything for children ;D) and good for my Swedish too.

I've done my baking for this year: on Wednesday I baked "Grittibänz" with Ulrika. She was as an au-pair in Zurich but has never baked Grittibänz - so it was time for her to learn it! On Saturday was a Swedish baking day: be made pepparkakor and lussekatter. The latter is what you it on Lucia (13th December). And yesterday I baked with Jassi - cute gingerbread house. Now baking is finished - eating till Christmas....