Little escap(ad)e: Stockholm

We are having another reunion this weekend for our year as exchange students in Charlotte, NC (as in 2013 and 2017) and Thomas had asked me whether I would like to come to Stockholm two days ahead of time to hang out together without the others a little bit because we haven't seen much of each other lately. So on Wednesday I traveled to Stockholm (delays, canceled train, security measures on board the plane which was a reason for late boarding) and we met at the airport and took the bus into town. Thomas had taken care of the hotel booking on board the former yacht Lady Hutton, which is now the hotel Mälardrottningen and well to be recommended for a special kind of hotel feeling! We had a room with bunk beds, but if you look at the website there might be slightly more luxurious suites available, and it is in walking distance of the Old Town.
We spent one morning at the Abba museum which is pretty good, given the fact that this is a group without any scandals or breaking news during their years of success. Just a bit of story of how the they got together, how they took their first steps, then a lot of success, and how they are now 'taking a break away from each other'.

I really liked this re-creation of the view from the little hut on an island in the sounds outside Stockholm where the guys wrote many of their songs.

In the afternoon we went to the Fotografiska museum, which currently has 4 different exhibitions going on, namely by Jessica Silversaga, Rahul Talukder, Jesper Waldersten and Alison Jackson.
Rahul Talukder photographed a whole series on the collapse of the clothing factory in Bangladesh with over 1,000 people dead and his works are very moving. Jesper Waldersten has an interesting kind of humor, but it helps if you know a little bit of Swedish for some of the pieces. This one is in English, though:

Jesper Waldersten, in his exhibition "All Over"

And I was fascinated by the simplicity of this one.

Jesper Waldersten, in his exhibition "All Over"

The restaurant on the top floor has a magnificent view across the water to the Old Town and after a little bit of waiting we even managed to secure ourselves seats right in front of the window.

The next day Thomas and I took a boat tour through the islands outside of Stockholm and picked our dream mansions. This would be mine (although it is not so much a mansion):

Stockholm is a city on the water, and reflections abound, especially when the sun is out, so I am back to taking photos of reflections on water.

And amongst other inspirational sights,

some found art is around as well.

By now the others have arrived from Norway, China, Venezuela, and the real reunion is on. So good to have friends around the world, and reasons to go somewhere to see something new!

Thirty years after

On Friday late afternoon they arrived and stayed until Sunday: I had four dear visitors from my year as an exchange student in Charlotte, North Carolina during the high school year of 1982/83. The five of us constituted almost 50% of the entire group which had taken part in the Charlotte Exchange Student Program. (Which, unfortunately, has discontinued by now.)

Admittedly, of these five, one had hardly any contact to the other four, and none after the first few years. The other four, however, had somehow been in touch, visited each other, and all four had met three times before for various anniversaries. Two had met by sheer chance at a party in a town where neither of them lived.

Thanks to facebook and our Swiss computer wizard’s insistence and competence we have recovered the addresses of another three members of the group, and it was through facebook that we had made arrangements for a meeting on this particular weekend. All in less than four weeks...

Such a meeting is part reminiscences and looking at pictures, talking about „do you remember?“ and „are you in touch with...?“ But a lot more is there: a large part of the conversations dealt with current themes, basic stuff, politics, opinions, filling in on life experiences. We were touched to realize how such a year spent together as members of an exchange group is a sound foundation for a long-enduring friendship. Which can be reconnected to after thirty years even.

All of us agreed that this year had been one of the most important ones in our entire lives, influencing our current lives still. All of us appreciate the openness towards other cultures and opinions which we met and learned during this year. All of us came out of this year with a strong internation orientation, which has been influential in choice of vocation and partners (all of us have at least tried a relationship with a partner from another country, three of us are currently in a relationship with these ‚international’ partners). All of us have been abroad for longer periods after that particular year, either traveling or living in another country for an extended period, although all of us are currently living in their countries of origin (one just returned from six years in China a few months ago). All of us could imagine packing up and moving to another country again. And it wouldn’t even really matter, which country, because you can learn a language, and it is always an enrichment to get to know cultural differences between one’s own and the host country’s habits and manners.

Conclusion thirty years after? Send your kids abroad, if they want to and are ready for it, for a whole year if possilbe. They won’t like every single experience which they will make during this year, but it will be a wonderful experience as a total year!