Småland Museum and Lingonberries

Friday the whole school (about 50 students so far until more arrive Monday) went on a field trip to a museum which is mainly for glass but also other Småland things in a town called Växjö.  Småland is the area of Sweden that I am in going to school.  There was an exhibit there of work made by students who had done the 3 year program here and the school at Kosta when they had finished their education called Too Hot To Handle.  It was really inspiring and made me optimistic that my time here will be well worth it! Here is the story behind the exhibit that the students wrote:

Here is a big picture of all of the work and some closeups of interesting pieces:

These trumpets are called "Blow Me" (hahaha - I think the twelve year old boy in all of us came out when we read that title)

These are some bowls that Rebecca (my advisor from New Zealand made blowing into big piles of snow and then another one with a really cool design in it.)

There was also an exhibit by an old student from Orrefors who graduated in 1996 I believe, named Claes Uvesten.  He was there and able to tell us some about the exhibit and it was really nice to see a student making it in the world.  His exhibit was a melding of traditional roman sculptures and sci-fi... it was really interesting and cool to look at but I don't think I would want the pieces in my home...  The really cool part was that inside each piece there was something computer generated like a microchip or some film.

I have always liked that Greek (maybe?) horse head sculpture.

I made this one below big so you could see the negative film in the head, look in the temple area.

Then there was also Swedish glass from famous artists in the museum and it was really nice to just walk around and be like "oh yeah, I want to learn to do that and that and that!"  Here are some of my favorite pieces:

awesome chandelier

Cinderella anyone (size 36)?

This little boy is called "The Hiker" and made me think of my mountain man in Banner Elk.

This one is not only horsey but also called something like "Success something something" I knew I should have written it down but I really like it anyway.

In the evening my Mom and Aunt arrived in Orrefors and stayed at the hotel where we had a nice Thai dinner (it is really the only restaurant or hotel in town).  We hung-out and caught up on what they have been doing in Skona (southern Sweden where my Mom grew up), showed each other a lot of pictures and went for a walk.  On the walk my Aunt showed me some edible berries, like wild blueberries (very similar to American except smaller) and then the famous lingonberries!  

I ate a few but they really need a lot of sugar.  Apparently, at Christmas time people make wreaths from the leaves because they stay green all winter.

This morning (Saturday), we went to Kalmar back to Ikea to get some stuff for my room that we didn't think of before and I think soon it will finally be all complete and I can take some pictures so you can see how I live.  It was great to see Mamma and Eva again, hard to say goodbye, this time it is for a really long time! But, I think they were glad to hear my answer when they asked if I wanted to go home now and I said "absolutely not!"  I am having a great time, making friends, and cannot wait to be able to blow amazing glass!!! 

Tonight is a girl upstair's birthday party so that should be fun.  She is Finish so I bought some whiskey to bring to the party! I will try to take some pictures so maybe you can start putting some faces to some names... OH! that reminds me I took a picture of some of my teachers:

That is Maryann on the left (I haven't had her yet), Micke in the black jacket, Orca (I don't remember how to spell his name, but he does hot glass) in the teal shirt, and Stig-Allen with the grey hair (he is the crazy old man in charge mostly), they are talking to a glassblower that we stopped to visit on the way to the museum.  Sadly, Rebecca wasn't there so you can't see her yet...