moose (elk) farm

Today I went with my mentor group and other friends to the moose farm, 60km outside of Umeå. It was lots of fun and we could even touch one of them. Did you know that a moose can be up to 1000kg? Quite impressive... We could hold their antlers and they are quite heavy so they need to be strong to carry those on their heads!!! They lose their antlers every year and within three months new ones grow. Up to 3cm per day!

I drived here the first time on snow. Here they don't clear the streets of the snow - not even in the city. They put grit on the street and on the bike paths. So I'm still cycling and it's not too bad! Although I know of other people who made some experiences with ice and cycling...

You might wonder how dark it is. The picture below was taken at1.30pm... When we drove back at around 4pm I thought it's already night! But as there has been snow for three weeks now it doesn't really matter.

Reto... snow.... rain... snow

Hello again!

Thanks for the comment, Alain! It's always nice to see that people are interested. Time is flying and I'm a bit lazy with my blog... But it's time to update you a bit.
Two weeks ago Reto arrived here and stayed with me for one week. It was lovely to have him here with me and show him my life here. We had a great time together and it was hard to let him go. But I was quickly adapted to my life here.
In a nutshell I think I can say that he enjoyed his time with me but is not so keen on living here. :) (I love it here :D). On the first day we made a winter walk through the snow with my mentor group looking for a lake to have some BBQ (Yes, you can have BBQ also in winter!). Unfortunately we did not find the lake (the shortcut led to a swamp) and so we returned to the area where most students live and had a BBQ there (outside, that goes without saying). It was fun anyway!
We explored a bit the city and I certainly had to show him the lake! I borrowed a second bike and so it was quite easy to get around.
The good thing here is that if it snows, the snow sets immediately. But you can come home at nine in the evening with temperature below zero and 10cm of snow and the next morning all snow is gone! We had lots of snow and rain last week. And I think even Reto enjoyed the snow! :)
Considering the temperatures at home you must be thinking that I'm freezing here. Well, it can be minus 10 degrees but generally it's around the same temperatures as at home! Just a bit darker... :) Sunset today: 14.34. It's not that bad especially when there is snow. You just get tired a bit earlier and have the feeling you have already worked to long when it's four o'clock.
This weekend is quite quiet because most international students are on a trip in St.Petersburg or Tallin. Yesterday I had dinner at my tandem partner's place and then we went to the movies together. Was nice and good to practice my Swedish.
You might be interesting how my Swedish is progressing. Well, I think I have made progress just not in a pace that I wish (but as you might know my expectations are often above reality :D). With patient people I can survive an evening just in Swedish but my vocabulary is still far from sufficient!
Have a good time and ENJOY THE BEAUTIFUL SNOW IN SWITZERLAND! And don't let it melt - I want white Christmas! :)

snow...

Finally, the first snow is here!!!! The ground is all white... Oooooohhh... It's probably not gonna stay for long but it's soooo nice. I've already seen two snow mans :) Not yet built my own though.

Last weekend we had clock-change too so in the meanwhile the sun is setting quite early: 15.20 But it's still exciting so I don't really mind (yet). But you wouldn't think that it's so often dark here: most people don't have a light on their bike!!!! I counted once, only about one third of the people ride with lights. (In the meanwhile I belong to the minority). Well, there is not sooo much traffic - but it IS dark.