11 September 2017

Sixth day in Sweden 

I woke up early as I was all nervous for the big day ,'The India Day'. I got ready as quickly as possible because I had to pack my bag with all the costumes I needed for the program. I wore a kurti to school that day because we all had to wear traditional Indian costumes on this day. I was all scared because I have stage fright and I had to perform infornt of the second year students of Tullinge gymnasium and few parents who could make it. I and Ida (my host ) had to walk for about 15 mins to school. In school we had some free time to be with our friends. Soon the history teacher, Malin Jung came to inform us that we had a small school tour at 9. After the school tour we had a lecture on flora, fauna and life in the Archipelago by Arild Lagerkvist. Then we had our lunch at 11. We also had a lecture on preservation biology by Joakim Loqvist. The nervousness was increasing during the lecture as the program was just in a few hours. After the lecture ended we had 2 hours to prepare for the program. It was not only me who was nervous for the program, but almost every student was. We practiced our dance and then the teachers told us to wear our costumes and get ready. After we were done changing, we put on our makeup, all ready and pretty for the program. We had a final program rehearsal. Five minutes before the program we all had to go backstage and wait for the students to take their place. The crowd was huge. And at 15:00 the program started with the welcome dance by Siya and Priya. We put up a beautiful performance consisting of different cultural and traditional dances such as the Punjabi, Gujarati, Goan, classical, etc. We put up a fashion show wearing all the traditional Indian costumes. We also had a Bollywood mashup at the end. The program ended with the Indian National Anthem. Goan sweets like bebinca, shev, doce were served to the Swedish students after the program. It all ended well. After this I and Ida went back home. I rested for some time and then I had dinner with Ida and her family. It was a tiring day yet an amazing one. 

Visit to health care facilities by Elrica Coutinho

The visit to the 2 health care facilities was amazing. We Began the day with a lecture on health care facilities in Sweden, in tullinge gymnasium. It was amazing to see how different it is as compared to India. The Swedish government tries as hard as possible to make the lives of disabled people, both physical and mental, as normal as possible.
The first facility we visited was more of a rehab centre for brain damaged individuals. It was amazing to see the various types of therapies used, such as music therapy, art therapy etc, to help the people cope with their daily lives. We even had a session on music therapy which was quite fun!
We even bought a few glass articles such as candle holders and necklaces, made by the clients themselves.
These below are a few pictures of the articles made by them.
We then visited another facility that was very unique as it housed each client and provided a very normal life, with supervision, to all the people there. The entire place was very well organised with colour coded charts and pictures everywhere to make it easier for them to. understand.
This day all in all was very good and fun.

By: Elrica Coutinho

Visit to Grunda Lund
This visit was an unexpected one, it wasn't even a planned one . But it turned out to be an unforgettable experience ...It all started by paying a quite an expensive pass..We all exchange students experienced an nervous as well as a scary feeling..we first experience 5 types of scary roller coaster rides and 5 other different types of crazy other expriences.. eventually some of us felt a bit uneasy.. but after having some refreshments in the middle ..we wer all fine..the spinning rollercoaster was the scariest of all.. this experience will be cherished for a lifetime..

Stockholm City Hall

14 September 2017

After our lunch at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology ,we headed towards the City Hall. It is the building of the  Municipal Council for the city of Stockholm in Sweden. Stockholm's municipal council meets in 'Radssalen' the council chamber , where anyone can walk in to attend the meeting.

The City Hall is a stately, regal structure made of eight million bricks. It is one of the Sweden's leading examples of National Romanticism in architecture. It was designed by Swedish architect Ragnar Östberg. The great Noble Banquet is held in the Blue Hall which ironically is not blue as Rognar fell in love with those huge red bricked walls and decided to not to paint them blue as it was planned before.

After the dinner in the Blue Hall, Noble Prize Laureates, Royalty, and guests dance in the Golden Hall with it's 18 million gold mosaic tiles. It received it's name when the walls were decorated by mosaics created by the artist Einar Firseth on a proposal by Rangar Östberg. The City Hall is beautiful in it's own way.

The City Hall Tower

The Blue Hall 

The Blue Hall 

Visit to Skansen

While Skansen is one of the top attractions in Stockholm, I always find it hard to describe it to visitors in just a few words. This is because Skansen is so many things in one... it is an open-air museum, park, zoo, and the official place for the celebration of the major holidays in Sweden. It was founded in 1891, making it the world's first open-air museum, and was created by Arthur Hazelius as a way to show what Sweden looked like pre Industrial Age. And a beautiful park setting, with views over Stockholm.

Animals at the zoo

Replica of ancient house

Boat trip in the Stockholm archipelago

There are 30,000 islands that make up the archipelago of Stockholm. These small islands dot the shore of Sweden. From Stockholm we took the 9:30 ferry on Cindrella 1. We sat in the ferry and got comfortable for the two hours ride to Sandhamn. Along the way we stopped at small towns, saw hundreds of rocky, forested islands and saw numerous cruise ships. We had good views along the way from our seats. After reaching the destination we first had lunch and then walked the lanes to the seashore. Red and Yellow painted wooden houses with peaked roofs stood out among greenery and windy pines. Sandhamn was charming, small yachts and sailboats filled the harbour. We spent some time at the shore and returned to the harbour, had some ice-cream and then boarded Cinderella 2 back to Stockholm.

A view of the sea

Boats, boats everywhere

Visit to PARKEN ZOO

15th September 2017

In the morning we had an early breakfast and gathered at Tullinge Gymnasium at around 8:00 am from where there was a bus arranged for all of us to go to the zoo called '' PARKEN ZOO ''.

The bus journey was around one and a half hour. At the zoo we were welcomed by the zoo guide, who then lead us over the tour through the of the zoo. The zoo was divided into different sections according to the continents where the animals belonged originally. We first entered the ASIATISKA DJUR ( World of Asian animals/ The Asian Pavillion)  , followed by AFRIKANSKA DJUR (World of African animals / The Desert House), SYDAMERIKANSKA DJUR ( World of South America Animals / Amazoonas), The world of Lemurs and ended with LILLA ZOO ( The Little Zoo). We were also provided with a very good lunch in the zoo restaurant at lunch time. We were also given a short presentation on how the zoo worked and the importance of conservation of animals. The most important feature of the zoo according to me was that it worked with all the conservation areas and zoos of Europe. The zoo had a variety of fascinating animals like the Visayan Warty Pigs, Clouded Leopards, Sand cats, Cheetahs, Fossa, Flemingos, Lemurs, Spider Monkeys and so on. The most interesting one for me were the Asiatic Lions. Overall it was an amazing visit. 

Student Exchange Programme
Sweden 2017-2018

Day 1 : 6th September

I was very excited and nervous as I was going to be traveling to a foreign country for the first time and also it was my first trip by an airplane. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 4am. We were 18 students and 3 teachers. All of us gathered at the airport at around 2am. Amidst all the excitement, the only thing I was thinking was what life will be in the next two weeks. I rarely knew the students who were accompaning me. As I was sitting in the airplane I was nervous and scared. As the airplane took off, my heart skipped a beat. At the same time the excitement of traveling by an airplane had pushed aside all the insecurities of traveling by flight. We reached Mumbai pretty fast, in a hour to be precise, from where we had to catch another flight at 7 am. Since we had two hours the teacher gave us the permission to roam the airport and told us to be at the departures at 6. Thinking we had to be at the same spot till 6am, Me and my friend waited at the same place. But to our horror the teacher had asked to come to some other gate which was way far away from where we were. And since it was my first time by flight I had no idea what to do or where to go. Somehow we managed to make it half way, but we were still lost and the time was just passing by fast. Then we saw our teachers screaming and waving to us and we hurried as soon as we can. After the bag checking we were just running towards the Gate. I was in a state of amazement as well as horror as I had no idea what was going on but I only knew that I was gonna miss my flight. Then to save our day came one of those automobiles in the airport which usually take you to your respective gates. As soon as we got on the plane, we felt so relieved. Needless to say we got a scolding from our teachers and I guess we deserved it since our Sweden Trip was going to be in the air if we had missed the flight. But then Ma'am Liesel calmed us down saying this happens with everyone and shared with us her experience on flight. We reached Delhi at 9 am and our next flight was at 11am. Needless to say, even though the teachers told us to go and see the airport we stuck with them because the Mumbai fiasco was already too much. Most of my time on the flight from Delhi to Sweden was spent on sleeping cause I was drained of energy. But I remember as soon as we were gonna land in Sweden, the view from the airplane was so beautiful. It was like heaven. There were clouds everywhere. Soon we reached the ground, did the airport routine checkup and went and met up with our hosts and went to Thier place. The first night at their place I was already feeling homesick and had no idea what was gonna be there in store the coming days. I unpacked my stuff and slept around 3am. Yes you must be wondering how 3am. But we almost had a jet lag of 24hours. So that explains it. So that was how the first day of the trip went by for me.

Day 2 of the adventurous trip to Fjärdlång

After the adventurous day (12/09/17) spent on the island, the second day commenced with the sun rays hitting the window panes of our rooms. We heard knocks on our room doors as the teachers were summoning us for breakfast. After having the delicious breakfast that offered a variety to eat and drink we went back to our rooms and started packing to go back to Tullinge. We then went to row boats which was great fun and a good learning experience too. After which we set out for Tullinge Gymnasium.

At the gymnasium we had lunch and then observed some organisms found in the water samples collected near the island under the microscope. After the interesting time spent in the lab, we went along with our hosts to a park nearby for the Swedish Fika (Fika is a concept in Swedish culture with the basic meaning "to have coffee", often accompanied with something sweet to eat) after which we had a great football match and then headed back to our hosts' houses for some sound sleep after the fantastic island stay at Fjärdlång.

LAST DAY AT SWEDEN 

Sadly the last day had come. We woke up at 5 in the morning and did our preparations for the day, we went downstairs with our luggage’s and put them beside the entrance door. We were given a surprise lunch , then finally the all gathered at our place and here the bus came, and we rushed ourselves and went inside the bus. After about 15 minutes at the bus we arrived at the station and as usual we met our buddies and followed them to the airport. Sadly the time came, we hugged our buddies and some of us got very emotional and cried, we were very sad because we had to say goodbye with our buddies. We got at the airport.. We weren’t very energetic because we were still sad that we had to leave todayWhen we arrived we immediately went to check in. Then we sat down and waited for a few minutes. Surprisingly,. We waited for our flight time for about an hour and finally it was announced that our flight was ready. We took our passports and bags and went to the plane. For about 7 hours finally we arrived at Delhi .Most of us slept during the flight because it was already late. We had to catch up another flight to Goa and had some more time to catch it so most of us spent our money on delicious chocolates and stuff from duty free and rushed to the plane.we arrived to Goa . We went to the immigration and took our baggages. We went out and we were immediately greeted by our beloved family, before going separate ways we took last pictures together. It was so hard for us to leave. We had been together for the past weeks doing literally everything together, the ten  of us. And finally, our fifteen days journey ended here.

 view outside while travelling from Sweden to Delhi.

Morning view of travelling from Delhi to Goa.

                      An Adventurous Trip To  Fjardlang Island

It was 12 September ,one of the days which science students were curiously looking forward to. It was very sunny morning and the weather was perfectly good.We took the boat to the island and the journey of approximately one hour was one of the  best boat journey of our life.We got the view of the best scenic beauty of the nature on our trip to Fjardlang, we took this     opportunity to click the best photos and selfies. 

No sooner after arriving on the island we had our lunch which was given to us by our respective hosts.We altogether were 10 students accompanied by Kumresh sir and Liesl ma'am. All students were divided into different groups consisting of 5 students each.We all  groups started with collecting water and soil samples from three different  places of the island and got the chance to visit the three extreme corners of Fjardlang island. Beauty of the island was really amazing with beautiful trees and different small animals.It was one of the best example where the balance  of biodiversity was maintained.After having our dinner we were having quiz of general science and our final destination was the highest point of the island(Last Question of the quiz).We all were really amazed  after looking the alluring view of the entire island from the highest point.The most adventurous thing was the game which we played at night.Each group was given guided instructions about the steps and the directions which they were asked to follow and collect the letters from the different places of the island and make the meaningful word.

Finally we returned to the main house after having very long  and stupendous day.It was the best ever adventure trip which we enjoyed alot and would cherish it throughout our life.

On the way to Island

Southern part of the Island

Western part of the Island

Sheeps grazing

Highest Point of the Island