Tentative trip schedule

Here is the tentative schedule that we received on Sunday. It's in a word document that I couldn't attach, so I'm going to try to make this as easy to read as possible! We have lots of different people presenting all these sessions, some from the programs we'll visit and professors from universities. We will be traveling with a group from Penn State and will be with them throughout most of these programs and visits. Most of these sessions will be held at Jonkoping University (about a 15 minute walk from our hostel in Jonkoping).

Friday, May 9- Monday, May 12
Arrival in Stockholm at 7:45 am on Friday.
Another grad student and I will either spend the weekend in Stockholm or Jonkoping.

Monday, May 12
Arrivals and reception at 6:00 pm

Tuesday, May 13
8:30-9:00 am- Introduction
9:15-10:30- Sweden- A general overview
10:45-12:00- Old age care in Sweden
1:30-2:30- Social Services Department
4:30-10:00- Evening patrol (this is a program that does home visits to older adults during the night. We will only be doing this a few nights)

Wednesday, May 14
8:30-9:00- Discussions from yesterdays site visit
9:15-11:00- Social networks and loneliness
11:15-12:00- Family and respite care
1:30-4:00- The geriatric clinic at Ryhov hospital
4:30-10:00- Evening patrol

Thursday, May 15
8:30-9:00- Discussions from yesterdays site visit
9:00-10:30- Training and education in public old age care
10:45-12:00- Complaints and attitudes in old age care
1:30-4:00- Solstickan care home
4:30-10:00- Evening patrol and possibly meeting with Swedish students

Friday, May 16
8:30-9:00- Discussions from yesterdays site visit
9:00-10:30- Passion for life
11:00-12:00- Various schools --- I think we will be traveling to Gotenburg this day, which is on west coast of the country. We will have a free weekend and we are considering taking a day trip (by train) to Copenhagen, Denmark or Oslo,Norway, or taking the train back to Stockholm and taking a night cruise to Helsinki, Finland.

Monday, May19
8:30-9:00- Discussions from Friday's site visits
9:15-10:30- Dementia research
10:45-12:00- Discharge planning in a Swedish context
1:30-4:00- Ramsaygarden; Day care rehabilitation
4:30-10:00- Evening patrol

Tuesday, May 20
8:30-9:00- Discussions from yesterdays site visits
9:15-12:00- Research at the Institute of Gerontology
1:30-4:00- Ekhagens guest house (palliative care)
4:30-10:00- Evening patrol

Wednesday, May 21
Bus to Granna (manufacturer of Polkapigs)
Grevegarden Dementia Care Home in Granna
Ferry to Visingso
Bicycle tour to Annero Care Home for the elderly
Dinner
Ferry to Granna
Bus back to Jonkoping

Thursday, May 22
8:30-9:00- Discussions from Tuesday and Wednesday site visits
9:45-12:00- Old age care- Why?
1:00- Summary and evaluation

Friday, May 23- Tuesday, May 27
We are probably going to explore Stockholm and other surrounding areas. I might also look into another day trip, maybe to the north part of Sweden.
Departure at 10:15 am on Tuesday.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new foreign blog! The purpose of this blog is to keep family and friends updated on my fundraising efforts (before I leave) and then to let everyone know what is going on while I'm actually in Sweden. Since international calling is not so popular anymore, I figure a blog is simple and convenient for me and anyone reading it! For those who don't know the details yet, I'm doing a 2-week study abroad trip mostly in Jonkoping, Sweden. It's titled "Health and Human Services: Cradle to the Grave Care in Sweden." We will be doing a lot of work with various elder care programs in the area. We had a pre-trip planning meeting on Sunday and received a tentative schedule that I will soon post on here. I also already booked my ticket and have paid a deposit so everything is pretty set in stone! On May 8th, I will fly out of Roanoke around noon, have a three hour layover in Chicago and then go directly from Chicago to Stockholm overnight. I'm flying with another grad. student and we're getting into Stockholm at 7:45 am! I will be returning on May 27th to Roanoke, sometime in the early evening. I'm really excited about this opportunity and have so much more to say but I'm going to try to ration out my excitement slowly over time!

The primary goal of this blog before I leave, will be to track my fundraising efforts and let everyone see how I am doing and how much I still need. I will post a cost breakdown in my next post so you can still see exactly where I'm at. Any contribution helps me out tremendously, whether it be covering a train ticket or paying for a night in a youth hostel. I am desperately trying to raise all money needed for this trip by encouraging friends and family to contribute, and also by speaking with various groups in the community here to see if they will donate in return for me giving a presentation to their group when I return. At the end of every post, I will indicate how much has been raised so far.

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Fundraising effort as of 03/18/08

$4450 total cost
-1060 (tuition that I had reduced)
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$3390 still needed