Friday, March 13th – by the way, yesterday was a fairly big day in Sweden – it was Crown Princess Victoria’s name day. Her engagement is quite the news in Sweden. Apparently, this is the first time Sweden has had a female in line to the crown. Historically, the firstborn son was the Crown Prince in-line for the King of Sweden crown but after Victoria was born, the King asked to change the tradition. It has also been tradition for the prince and princesses to marry someone from another royal family but Crown Princess Victoria is engaged to a “man of the people.”
Before dropping me off at the hotel for my day to start, Jens and I stopped down by the water just below their house. I took a couple of pictures because the snow was still clinging to everything and looked just breathe-taking. As we were driving away, we were talking about how much fun it is to kayak and then he noticed someone kayaking in the freezing cold water just ahead of us…
What I love most about Uddevalla is its location and use of the landscape - - it is close to the sea, houses are nestled in amongst the rocks & forestry and you are always near a walking path. To me, it seems like a wonderful community with much to offer. Before starting our day, we went down by the water and took a little walk along a path - it was VERY relaxing.
One of our visits today was to Uddevalla Energi company and it’s newly opened Lillesjö plant. This plant is unique because it receives the “red bags” from many communities and turns them into both power AND heat for the Kommun. This facility runs 24 hours per day and creates enough heat to supply about 16,000 houses per year. The by-products of the combustion process (about 15-20%
of the starting weight) are also able to be utilized easily and are taken to another recycling plant where glass & other recyclable materials are removing for further recycling. Then, the remaining sludge is taken to Norway where it too has an environmental purpose. It is taken to a mining area where it is combined with some acidic waste like paint and other chemicals to fill in the landscape and “reclaim” the environment. (the neutral sludge is mixed with the acidic waste and they balance each other out to create gypsum.) I thought this entire process was really neat because they have found a way to utilize every bit of the garbage and make money doing it.
The Uddevalla Energi building impressed me as well. It was completed in August 2008 but represents a lot of what I’ve noticed in many of the businesses that we have visited. They take great pride in running a first class operation - - artwork is common, clean lines and neat facilities along with exceptional break areas for their employees seem to be very common in Swedish communities.
We also visited a day center for individuals with disabilities that afternoon and I was impressed by two computer based offerings they had - - one was a flex-board program where (based on the individuals capacity) they were able to create a sheet with an identification setting in the bottom corner and pieces of fabric and other items in various sizes and shapes. As the person presses one of them, each one has been set up for that person on the computer with one of their favorite songs playing & a picture pops up on the screen. When they press another “spot,” the picture and song changes.
The second piece of equipment was purchased with
the help of Ron Trimming (our GSE coordinator in Uddevalla) and his Rotary Club. This was also a pc-based system and is hooked up to a projector along with several small touchpads and a couple of microphone-like components. The microphone-like components project a sound beam and can be set up to be very sensitive to movements or not so sensitive based on the individual. Pre-set visuals can be projected on the screen and can be set up to change with every different sound. They haven’t had much time to play with it all yet to see what it can do but right now, they have put together a couple of stories that they can read to their clients. We read Little Red Riding Hood – Kara was red, Jennifer was the wolf, Dan was the forest, Ron was the woodcutter and I got to play Red’s mom and grandma. Each time our character is mentioned in the story, we either pressed the touchpad or put our hand through the beam to make a noise / show a picture.
We took a quick trip with Rotary Governor Bo Westling to see one of the houses that he sells just outside of Uddevalla. The outside walls of the structure are pre-fabricated off-site and then moved onto a concrete foundation. Then it typically takes another 600-700 manhours to complete the structure.
For dinner tonight (Friday), Jens and Jessica had invited
Alison and her host family (Christian and Maja) for Indonesia Chicken that I got to help make (well, at least I cut up the red pepper and bananas and drank some wine….) - - it was fantastic!!! Jessica translated the recipe for me and I can’t wait to try to make it at home for Kevin and Tyler (and whoever else wants to come over to try it). While we were waiting for our guests to arrive, the girls had set up a song game on their Playstation and were singing songs from Abba – Tilda likes to sing “Mama Mia.” I haven’t seen this game before but it was fun to watch and do. After dinner and some group pictures, Alison and her
family returned home so she could catch up on some more sleep as she still wasn’t feeling well. Jens, Jessica and I talked a bit more and had some more wine (for some odd reason, our wine glasses NEVER seemed to get empty – thanks Jens!)before we decided to put in the movie Mama Mia with Swedish sub-titles. By the end of the movie at about 1 Am, we were down to just me, Jessica and Melina. It had been a VERY enjoyable evening and a great way to cap off my stay in Uddevalla.
Saturday March 14th – Preparing to leave a host family is always difficult and it just seems like you start to get to know them and enjoy spending time with them when you have to move on. As we drive into each new town, I’m always wondering what the host family will be like and so far, every single one has been a unique adventure and I have been fortunate to meet some really terrific people with whom I hope to one day see again by returning to this area or having them visit us in Minnesota. Sometime soon, I need to take some time to go through all of the business cards I’ve received and send off some pictures.
Anyway, as I’m packing my last bag and getting ready to give Hanna back her room, Jens comes in with a bottle of red wine to help me enjoy the weekend at the hotel…..he and Jessica have been terrific hosts! Some time during my stay, we had talked about their decision to host a GSE visitor and I thought it was pretty great that they let their kids have a say in the decision as well. From what we’ve learned, letting strangers come and stay with your family is a rather rare occurrence in Sweden but I think that once people make the decision to try it; they enjoy the experience as much as we do and are more willing to do it again.
After some time at the Bohuslan Museum and lunch in
a small restaurant there, it was time to load up the mini-bus one more time for the drive to Trollhatten and our two-day rest break at the Swania hotel. In all of the commotion once we arrived at the hotel, I realized about 10 minutes after Ron had left that my purse was on the floor in the back seat. I knew that it would be returned safely but you never really relax until something like that is back in your arms…. Luckily, we were able to reach him and someone from the Trollhattan Rotary drove back to retrieve it for me (which I 
REALLY appreciated!!!!!)
After settling into our rooms (Alison and I are sharing a REALLY small room for the next two nights), we met in the lobby to find some dinner. We decided (mostly by consensus) that we really needed a break from Swedish food - - I was MAJORLY craving a hamburger and french fries. So, we found this little bar / restaurant that Anna had recommended called Bishops Arm and enjoyed a nice meal together. (Some of you will realize how odd this is for me but…) I actually enjoyed a glass of local draft beer with my meal.
Before dropping me off at the hotel for my day to start, Jens and I stopped down by the water just below their house. I took a couple of pictures because the snow was still clinging to everything and looked just breathe-taking. As we were driving away, we were talking about how much fun it is to kayak and then he noticed someone kayaking in the freezing cold water just ahead of us…
What I love most about Uddevalla is its location and use of the landscape - - it is close to the sea, houses are nestled in amongst the rocks & forestry and you are always near a walking path. To me, it seems like a wonderful community with much to offer. Before starting our day, we went down by the water and took a little walk along a path - it was VERY relaxing.
One of our visits today was to Uddevalla Energi company and it’s newly opened Lillesjö plant. This plant is unique because it receives the “red bags” from many communities and turns them into both power AND heat for the Kommun. This facility runs 24 hours per day and creates enough heat to supply about 16,000 houses per year. The by-products of the combustion process (about 15-20%
of the starting weight) are also able to be utilized easily and are taken to another recycling plant where glass & other recyclable materials are removing for further recycling. Then, the remaining sludge is taken to Norway where it too has an environmental purpose. It is taken to a mining area where it is combined with some acidic waste like paint and other chemicals to fill in the landscape and “reclaim” the environment. (the neutral sludge is mixed with the acidic waste and they balance each other out to create gypsum.) I thought this entire process was really neat because they have found a way to utilize every bit of the garbage and make money doing it.The Uddevalla Energi building impressed me as well. It was completed in August 2008 but represents a lot of what I’ve noticed in many of the businesses that we have visited. They take great pride in running a first class operation - - artwork is common, clean lines and neat facilities along with exceptional break areas for their employees seem to be very common in Swedish communities.
We also visited a day center for individuals with disabilities that afternoon and I was impressed by two computer based offerings they had - - one was a flex-board program where (based on the individuals capacity) they were able to create a sheet with an identification setting in the bottom corner and pieces of fabric and other items in various sizes and shapes. As the person presses one of them, each one has been set up for that person on the computer with one of their favorite songs playing & a picture pops up on the screen. When they press another “spot,” the picture and song changes.
The second piece of equipment was purchased with
the help of Ron Trimming (our GSE coordinator in Uddevalla) and his Rotary Club. This was also a pc-based system and is hooked up to a projector along with several small touchpads and a couple of microphone-like components. The microphone-like components project a sound beam and can be set up to be very sensitive to movements or not so sensitive based on the individual. Pre-set visuals can be projected on the screen and can be set up to change with every different sound. They haven’t had much time to play with it all yet to see what it can do but right now, they have put together a couple of stories that they can read to their clients. We read Little Red Riding Hood – Kara was red, Jennifer was the wolf, Dan was the forest, Ron was the woodcutter and I got to play Red’s mom and grandma. Each time our character is mentioned in the story, we either pressed the touchpad or put our hand through the beam to make a noise / show a picture.We took a quick trip with Rotary Governor Bo Westling to see one of the houses that he sells just outside of Uddevalla. The outside walls of the structure are pre-fabricated off-site and then moved onto a concrete foundation. Then it typically takes another 600-700 manhours to complete the structure.
For dinner tonight (Friday), Jens and Jessica had invited
Alison and her host family (Christian and Maja) for Indonesia Chicken that I got to help make (well, at least I cut up the red pepper and bananas and drank some wine….) - - it was fantastic!!! Jessica translated the recipe for me and I can’t wait to try to make it at home for Kevin and Tyler (and whoever else wants to come over to try it). While we were waiting for our guests to arrive, the girls had set up a song game on their Playstation and were singing songs from Abba – Tilda likes to sing “Mama Mia.” I haven’t seen this game before but it was fun to watch and do. After dinner and some group pictures, Alison and her
family returned home so she could catch up on some more sleep as she still wasn’t feeling well. Jens, Jessica and I talked a bit more and had some more wine (for some odd reason, our wine glasses NEVER seemed to get empty – thanks Jens!)before we decided to put in the movie Mama Mia with Swedish sub-titles. By the end of the movie at about 1 Am, we were down to just me, Jessica and Melina. It had been a VERY enjoyable evening and a great way to cap off my stay in Uddevalla.Saturday March 14th – Preparing to leave a host family is always difficult and it just seems like you start to get to know them and enjoy spending time with them when you have to move on. As we drive into each new town, I’m always wondering what the host family will be like and so far, every single one has been a unique adventure and I have been fortunate to meet some really terrific people with whom I hope to one day see again by returning to this area or having them visit us in Minnesota. Sometime soon, I need to take some time to go through all of the business cards I’ve received and send off some pictures.
Anyway, as I’m packing my last bag and getting ready to give Hanna back her room, Jens comes in with a bottle of red wine to help me enjoy the weekend at the hotel…..he and Jessica have been terrific hosts! Some time during my stay, we had talked about their decision to host a GSE visitor and I thought it was pretty great that they let their kids have a say in the decision as well. From what we’ve learned, letting strangers come and stay with your family is a rather rare occurrence in Sweden but I think that once people make the decision to try it; they enjoy the experience as much as we do and are more willing to do it again.
After some time at the Bohuslan Museum and lunch in
a small restaurant there, it was time to load up the mini-bus one more time for the drive to Trollhatten and our two-day rest break at the Swania hotel. In all of the commotion once we arrived at the hotel, I realized about 10 minutes after Ron had left that my purse was on the floor in the back seat. I knew that it would be returned safely but you never really relax until something like that is back in your arms…. Luckily, we were able to reach him and someone from the Trollhattan Rotary drove back to retrieve it for me (which I 
REALLY appreciated!!!!!)After settling into our rooms (Alison and I are sharing a REALLY small room for the next two nights), we met in the lobby to find some dinner. We decided (mostly by consensus) that we really needed a break from Swedish food - - I was MAJORLY craving a hamburger and french fries. So, we found this little bar / restaurant that Anna had recommended called Bishops Arm and enjoyed a nice meal together. (Some of you will realize how odd this is for me but…) I actually enjoyed a glass of local draft beer with my meal.
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