Alex's Sweden Expedition

Day 3- A Call of the Wild

Yikes! Tomorrow is going to be a rough one. After this day of exploring and adventuring, I am going to be very sore tomorrow. Waking up and heading to one of many islands Gothenburg has to offer. The Island that we decided to adventure does not allow privately owned vehicles so there are only bikes. The island name was Brännö.

In order to get to the island, we had to take 2 trams, bus, and a ferry. This took roughly an hour. We packed into the bus like a can of sardines and that seemed like we were in that bus forever but as soon as we stepped onto the ferry it took off for the island. The ferry moved quickly and in maybe 5-10 minutes we were at the island ready to explore.

Adventure was in the air as we stepped out of the ferry. We were instructed to walk across the whole island so we could have some sandwiches that we made before we left the hostel. As we walked across the island, we took lots of pictures and soaked in all of the beautiful scenery and nice green grass.

After making the trip across the island, we walking into “Susie’s Cove” which JJ deemed it after a student from a former class found it. We all climbed around on the rocks and decided to explore the off the trail part of the island. We took about a half hour to just climb over some small rocks by “Susie’s Cove” but we finally made it back to the main road and headed toward the harbor.

About half way down the main road we decided to go on a trail for the nature reserve. After we got to a sign that said 1.4 km most of the people turned around but Cameron Rath, Robby Schneider, and I decided to push forward with the trail. The trail had some beautiful view. It was a trail but it was almost a off the beaten path trail as you could easily go a different section and still be on the trail. We had a time limit before we had to leave the island and did not know when we would make it back so we rushed through the trail.

The trail was rocky, muddy, and woody. So we stuck to the rocks the best we could but some times there was no option. We did see some sheep in a far out field and some swan in a lake that we came across. With about 20 ft left on the trail, I stepped on a rock that was not sturdy and my foot and ankle decided to meet some mud. My shoe was caked with some mud but my pants weren’t bad.

After we got off the path and back to the harbor, we waited for the ferry. JJ picked a specific time to leave so we could get a nice sunset. He did pick a good time to leave because it did look nice.

After we got back, everyone went out to Karlson’s Garage for dinner. I ordered swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. The food was great and very filling that it was putting me into a food coma. Before we got food though our waiter got every one a swedish shot that tasted like licorice.

Daily Reflection

The hiking trails are fun in Sweden.
Public transportation is nice but can not be very fun sometimes.
You need more than 2 hours to go hiking on the islands.

Day 2- Exploring at its Finest

Get ready for a fun first full day of exploring Gothenburg, Sweden. It was not hard to wake up this morning at all. Naturally woke up at 8:00 am Swedish time, which is 1:00 am back in the Midwest. I enjoyed the nice light breakfast that its interesting to see the difference in breakfast foods from the United States to Sweden. We have a heavy full breakfast and they have light with little to eat.

The next step into our day was taking a bus tour around Gothenburg. We loaded up on the bus and headed out. We passed by Slottskogan park and went down a busy road. I will say the way the stoplight system works is interesting. They do the opposite as the stop lights in the US. Starting with red then yellow and finishing with green, however the colors have the same meaning. With the tour we would get out and explore the location we were at a little. First stop was at the fish market or Fish Church depending on who you talk with. Inside there were fish vendors with a variety of fish which one we tried was smoked salmon. The picture above is of the fish market.

After the fish market, we rolled on to the arts area with a museum, symphony building, and theater. The theater was not a movie theater as they have plays and performances there. There was also a statue of Poseidon and Viktor Hasselblad. It is cool because for the reveal of the Hasselblad statue, Buzz Aldrin was there and his footprint is also part of the statue. This also started their commercial area of Gothenburg that they call Avenue. Comparing this to other main street it would be Michigan Ave., Broadway, and Rodeo Dr.

After we left the plaza we came right next to Nordstan, that is the biggest shopping center in Europe. We found our way into this German church that has this giant organ that is pictured. Also there was a buried general in a sarcophagus that was blocked off from people to get to it but we were able to view it. Our tour guide also said that the general made it through fire without a scratch.

This is a church at the top of a really high hill.

This was a nice over view of the river and port that comes into Gothenburg.

We then made a travel to one of the first neighborhoods in Gothenburg. Haga is this neighborhood. The neighborhood was really unique and did not allow cars to drive through with all brick walkways. While in Haga, we made our way to Cafe Husaren to eat a hagabullen. Hagabullen is a plate-sized cinnamon bun.

As we near the end of the night, a group of us ended up at O’Leary’s. This is an Irish bar & restaurant. The food was good as I ate a nice jalapeno bacon burger with fries and coleslaw. It was all good but I am not a big fan of coleslaw so I stayed away from that after trying it once.

Daily Reflection

Gothenburg looks like a really big city but it is quick and easy to get around.
Sweden is turning to a cashless society and some places do not accept cash.
Many Swedish people speak many different languages and we get confused with British people.

Day-1 Up, Up, and Away

Wow! What a way to spend last 24 hours. Waking up at 6 am Thursday morning, I start travel day going to breakfast with the class. We had the Caf so the food was the best college food could be. Moving on from breakfast we made our way to class for our company presentations and to finish up some lose ends. After class, I spent my time relaxing, finish packing, and talking with family before I leave.

So 5:30 comes around and we are on our way to O’hare international airport. We get there go through check-in and speed through security very easily with probably the nicest TSA agents. We sat for 2 hours before boarding the plane to Copenhagen, Denmark. While on the plane I watched 2 movies, one was Deadpool 2 and Stuber. I fell in and out of sleep for the majority of the flight which helped it go by somewhat quicker. Luckily we were able to have a breakfast snack.

Our flight did get in 30 minutes early so it gave us some time to get to our connecting flight. Somehow 2 classmates had a different connecting flight to Gothenburg. This flight left a whole hour before everyone else. Good thing they caught the error before it left so they could make the flight by running across the entire airport. We boarded our flight to Gothenburg and took a nice 30 minutes to hop over. Once we were in Gothenburg, we got in taxis and headed to the hostel. In my opinion, We were flying down the road but we were only going about 68 mph. I think it was because I was facing the opposite way the van was going down the road.

We also have landed in sweden now. We have unpacked somewhat. The rooms are small to a closet size almost. Going to dinner was also fun. I had gotten a coke and they put lemons in their coke. I ate a pizza that had ham and mushrooms and the crust was not overbearing. It was light and enjoyable. I would get that again. Get ready for some more sweden action and we will start our first full day in Sweden tomorrow.

Daily Reflection

Make sure that you double check everything when traveling.
I am really big when it comes to small spaces especially on a plane.
Traveling in groups is fun but also stressful.

It Begins with Bruno

Welcome to my very first blog post! Starting this blog with the first company visit to Bruno, which is still in the United States. Bruno makes living aids such as straight stair lifts, curved stair lift, vertical platform lift, and scooter/power chair lift. Their mission statement is “Bruno is the Leading Provider of Solutions for an Independent Lifestyle.” Bruno is a family run company with about 450 employees. After a presentation and taking a tour of their facilities, I would say they follow this within their everyday life. Bill Benson, Director of Engineering took time out of his day to speak and show us around Bruno. As he said many people say his voice can put you to sleep I did not want to fall asleep as his presentation was very informative about Bruno and what they have done to improve the company. It was also a special day for him as he has spent the last 31 years committed to Bruno. Safety is a high priority as many precautions and test are done to secure safety in every situation. They use about 5-6 different test to make sure that the equipment is going to work properly so there will not be any harm. They also keep the lifts quiet because if there is a sound that is louder and unfamiliar people may get paranoid and they need the lift to get around in their home or in everyday life. The high praise to give Bruno is their ability to adapt and to become more efficient with every move they make. Every lift is not the same so they have all custom jobs which means they can not keep a solid inventory. With that being said they are able to have every lift ready to be shipped in 20-30 hours from the placement of the order. Bruno also has advance the way the dealers measure and handle a clients situation. They use programming, which cuts time from about half a day to about 15 minutes. That allows for more time getting more clients and to prepare for set up. There is a lot of moving parts in that short period of time. Starting in the manufacturing plant, making all the cuts and tracks ready for assembly with laser cutters and welding and every little detail that goes into making a lift. Continuous improvement is something that is followed to make some of these run smoothly. Some of the improvement points are error proofing, waste elimination, identify value, identify and solve problems. I believe that they are on the right path in following these things to improve the company more and more everyday. On time shipments are 97% for the year as there were some valid points for missing the deadline but they are looking to do better year after year. I found it helpful and interesting to see that they display graphs and goals on boards around the factory and warehouse. This is a great idea to do because this give value to the employees and to show them that their hard work is not going unknown. I think more places should do this in warehouses and factories. Bill did a great job with the presentation and answering all of our questions with the 31 years of experience. The lunch was fabulous with the Jimmy John’s.

Daily Reflection

There is a lot of research and thought that goes into making decisions that effect a whole company.
Do not be content with a situation if you do not like what you are doing.
Set goals and when they are achieved set higher goals and keep moving forward.