It was a long trek for me, but I am finally here. I haven’t blogged until now because I needed some time to settle in. After I arrived in Stockholm I bought a train ticket to Nybro. It was nine in the morning and the agent told me that the first train didn’t leave until noon. She also informed me that I would have to take a train, switch to a bus, take another train, and then one more bus. I was thrilled considering that I was carrying over a hundred pounds of luggage. There was nothing that I could do so I decided to make the best of it. Oh, then she told me that I wouldn’t arrive in Nybro until 9pm. Damn.
I contacted Peter, one of the instructors at Orrefors who was going to give me a ride from Nybro to Orrefors. He told me that he would pick me up in Kalmar so that the journey wouldn’t be so awful. He made my day because that meant that the long haul ended at 7pm and I didn’t have to take the last bus. It was pretty hard getting from train to train, especially when your Swedish is severely limited. I made fine tough, and reduced jet lag by sleeping a bit on each ride. It wasn’t very restful sleep though because I kept dreaming that I missed my stop.
In Kalmar Peter and his partner took me out for Sushi, my first Swedish meal was Japanese fare. It was awesome though, and they were so friendly that I felt that things would be okay here. In fact, everyone has been really helpful. I arrived at my apartment that was arranged through Stig-Allan (another amazing glassblower and instructor at Orrefors) and I was pleasantly surprised. I am taking it over for a girl (another glassblower) who is going to be working in Seattle for the year. She left me all of her furniture, kitchen supplies, cleaning supplies, and it is so cute. All IKEA’d out. It is kind of a studio with a separate kitchen and bath. I love it.
It is interesting living alone because I’ve always had roommates. To be honest it is pretty lonely. And to be more honest the second night that I was here I thought that I had made a mistake. Now I realize that my feelings were more a combination of shock and jetlag. Once I started class my mind had changed. The school is amazing. They are tailoring my education to my wants and needs. I get to work with glass all day. The school concentrates more on technical skills in glass. A lot of mold blowing and engraving. The first couple of days I was making whiskey glasses. They do things differently from what I know, but I have enough skill to learn quickly. I am also really excited about the engraving and deep carving. I told them that for the beginning I would like to spend equal time in the hotshop doing mold blowing and in the coldshop doing engraving. They split up my days so that I do one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. I love it and now I know that I made the right decision to come here.
Some of the advanced students work at the actual Orrefors glass factory. I was told that I will be up there at some point, but I am happy where I am for now. The work that the students do in the factory is more similar to the work I already do back home, so I would like to get a nice balance of education between the school and the factory. I did get a tour of the factory yesterday and it was incredible. I will post pictures soon, they will allow me to take photos in the tourist areas, not in others. Some of the glass is handmade production, but a majority is made by machines and robots. Yes, I did say robots. Seeing the robots makes glass work was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I originally thought that the majority of the work was made by hand, but this isn’t so. I was told that with the competition of other countries making such cheap glass they had to step it up. But I think the work they are doing with the machines is very innovative and still very interesting. My instructor pointed out that not only are these robots able to make the glasswork, but the metal used can stand up to the high temperatures which is quite a feat.
So this is my new life. The days are fun filled and I am figuring out what to do with my nights. I walk around the town a lot, I cook, I read, I study Swedish, I work out, I watch Swedish television which is mostly American shows with Swedish subtitles. I actually think that watching TV is helping me learn Swedish. Luckily I have started to make some friends. They are not just from Sweden, there are people from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland.
Here are some pics of my apartment and my new hood. The town is kind of like a Swedish suburb surrounded by forest. It is very pretty and I can’t wait for the leaves to change, I know it will be gorgeous.