Feeling Lucky

After only a week in Sweden, a group of international students that I had become friends with and I decided to go to Kiruna, Sweden, which is in the Arctic Circle. That weekend turned out to be the best that I have ever had. I took my first train, which was fifteen hours long and made awesome friends along the way. When we arrived at three in the afternoon, it was already dark and soooo cold! That night, we went dog sledding on a frozen river, and as I heard the wooden sleds scraping over the snow, and the dogs' paws padding along, someone in the sled behind us said, “Look behind!” The two Australians and myself, who were sitting in the front sled, glanced back simultaneously and caught our first glimpse of Aurora Borealis!

It was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined, and danced smoothly across the sky in eerie green hues. The three of us, who were all from warm climates, talked later about how we were so lucky to have chosen Sweden. The next day, before we went snow mobiling, we had to put on huge snowsuits and boots, covering ever inch of our bodies except our eyes, so that we wouldn’t get frostbite! Even with all those precautions, I couldn’t feel my toes or fingers after riding on the powdery snow for four hours. Afterwards, while thawing ourselves, we were again amazed at how lucky we were to be in Sweden!