On Wednesday, we
got to go out to the university bar Akademia, which is Aka for short. Evidently
the big party night for the students is Wednesday night, so we decided to test
it out for ourselves. We also got to visit the Jonkoping Farmer's Market on
Saturday morning. The market was packed with people, but the longest line by
far was for the new potatoes. New potatoes are a delicacy in Sweden.
Since my study abroad program is focusing on health care
we've had a ton of lectures on Swedish health care and made a couple visits to
some clinics. Swedish health care is majority run by the state, so basically
that means everything is really cheap. For one night in the hospital the cost
only reaches a maximum of 80 crowns which is about $12, and all health care for
children and teenagers is free. There is a trade-off, however. Swedish taxes
are really high! The Swedish government took a survey though, and most Swedish
people said they don't mind paying high taxes if they know it is going to
health care and other good things.
Another interesting thing about Sweden is that the Swedish
haven't been in a war since 1812! They decided to stay neutral in WWI and WWII,
but the Swedish have been involved in Afghanistan. As a result though, the
Swedish have very few if any veterans, so we got some pretty confused looks
when we asked about veterans insurance.
We also got to visit the second largest city in Sweden:
Gothenburg. It's a coastal city with a lot of sites and attractions. Some of
the more interesting sites include the giant "lipstick" building that
locals say looks like a tube of lipstick, the national art museum, and the
famous statue of Poseidon. We also stumbled upon a parade where a ton of people
were dressed up like their favorite fictional character! I think it was like
the Swedish version of comic-con. I got my picture with batman.
It's been a fun week, but we still have two weeks to
go!
