The World Cup games are really screwing up my blogging!! The games have been at 8:30, which means I'm not getting home until 11:30 (absolutely exhausted)! Watching the games has been really fun though. Jenn, our instructor, found an Irish bar that plays the games on the English channel, so it's the first time in awhile I've been able to understand the commentators.
Now I'm home, and I can catch up! We've had a really busy week getting oriented to the city. We are doing walking tours of the city each day. Our instructors split up themes for each day this week: forest, rock, water, and sky.
MONDAY was an overview of the entire city going from new to old, and was a really interesting day. We began in an area called Tensta. It was really fascinating. We got a tour from a man named Eric Strenberg, who is an architect in Stockholm, teaches, and lives in the Tensta housing project. The area is known to be a less well desired area to live/be, but Eric believes differently. It was so interesting to hear him talk about all the issues with this type of housing and politics. I could go into depth here, but I will be brief. Architecture is very involved in many issues when developing and changing cities, and it's hard to create positive change. They have tried to help this area grow in many ways including a housing fair where Eric opened his house up to strangers to see what could be done with these standard apartments. Many people came and saw, but it's still hard to get them to live in Tensta. Even for these 'low income' housing developments, there is a great pride in the craft which has allowed for so many changes to happen in terms of expanding apartments to fit larger families, etc. The whole morning was so interesting, and I'm barely doing it justice...
TUESDAY was our first theme day! The theme of the day was FOREST. We began at the Woodland Cemetery. This collection of work (there are 3 chapels on the site done by really famous guys) is one of the most famous and renowned places we will see in Stockholm. Our time there was focused on an overview of the landscape because we are going back for a whole day later in the trip (sorry Greg, I think you will be here for that)! Here are a few images of the landscape. I also saw where Greta Garbo is buried while there.
The next stop was at the Church of St. Mark. This was the first of many Sigurd Lewerentz buildings we are about to see. I didn't love this place, but it's been really fun to see the progress of an architect's work and how they have changed through time. He will be another interesting person to do that with (like Aalto...which I had been spelling wrong, shame on me...)
The last stop of the day was at the Skansen Outdoor Museum. We were all pretty tired at that point, and I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I could have. It is a collection of old farmhouses from different time periods set up as they were originally. My favorite part was seeing the animals...
WEDNESDAY...I'm going to wait on Wednesday because I'm exhausted and a little sun burnt. The week just keeps getting better though!
Oh yeah, here is a picture of our walk to the dorm everyday. They rope off the path sometimes when the cows are grazing.
The next stop was at the Church of St. Mark. This was the first of many Sigurd Lewerentz buildings we are about to see. I didn't love this place, but it's been really fun to see the progress of an architect's work and how they have changed through time. He will be another interesting person to do that with (like Aalto...which I had been spelling wrong, shame on me...)
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