New Week and Winter Wonderland Excursion

Hey everyone!

I hope that you all had a pleasant and relaxing weekend. I certainly did. I originally was going to travel to Stockholm over the weekend, but due to some predicted cold temperatures, I did not want to die of the cold and decided to remain in the warmth and nearness of the Gälbo apartments, my student home here. Still, it was a very good weekend. I met some friends and we had some drinks and played some card games. It was lots of fun and very relaxing, after a busy week at uni.

Today we had a class excursion. I'm currently taking the 15 credit class, Forest Environment and Conservation. We visit various forest patches and discuss different silvicultural and conservation methods. Today we had an excursion to forests and historic sites, such as iron smelting, agricultural and other sites. This was a full-day excursion in some very cold and snowy Swedish weather. The temperatures ranged between -10°C and -15°C, so this was very chilly. Despite this, the scenery was absolutely amazing and it was really nice to get out and hike in some Swedish forests during a chilly winter day. 

Pic. 1: This was a picture from the road onto a farm and a forest on the opposite side. The temperature was -15°C at the time.

Pic. 2: My Forest Environment and Conservation class hiking through the knee-deep snow to an archaeological site. People were laughing, having snowball fights and of course learning at the same time.

Pic. 3: View of the Swedish winter sky at dusk (around 15:20) and a clearcut forest. Conservation measures can be seen: forest retention patches, retention of Birch Betula spp. patches and high stumps. These are all kept for purposes of biodiversity (flora and fauna) and natural resource management (e.g. water quality protection) and other ecosystem services.

Pic. 4: This was our class hiking to another site. The sky was really beautiful.

Pic. 5: Another view of my class hiking. The camera never really catches the true mood of the surroundings.

I hope that you enjoy these pictures. I may insert more images of our class excursion into my blog. Before I do that, I would like to ask my classmates for permission to publish their photos.

The take home message of this blog is, COME TO SWEDEN IF YOU LIKE THE COLD AND WINTER CONDITIONS!!!! For other people, MAKE SURE YOU BRING WARM CLOTHES!!!! The expected low temperatures tonight are around -20°C.

The good news, Fika (coffee or tea) is almost always present and houses are cozy and warm! Take care all!

Julian