Hej!
Our only excursion today was to the Volvo campus to tour an assembly facility and view a crash test. But first, we had to get there. Once again, we had some difficulties with having a student navigate to the destination. Today, we almost got off the tram at the wrong stop when someone finally realized we weren’t in the right place after most everyone had already gotten off. After about an hour of tram and bus transportation, we finally arrived at Volvo. We were told to not take photos in certain locations or talk about specific information in this blog. Our guides for the day, Morgan and his fiancé Silvia, met us and first invited us to an early 10:30 a.m. lunch. The cafeteria was very nice and had a variety of vegan and vegetarian options to choose from. I found it interesting how all types of people came together in one space; there were those in immaculate suits and then other in jeans and a sweatshirt.
After lunch, we went to a different building for the crash test. We had to drive to a separate location with one of the employees. It was crazy that my car’s driver had never seen a crash test, and she had been working at the company for more than 30 years. This made me realize just how special this opportunity truly was. The sounds of impact as the car hit the wall and the damage was done definitely woke me up when I was starting to doze off during the pre-crash presentation. Jet lag, limited sleep, and busy days make it difficult to stay awake sometimes when you’re sitting for long periods of time.
Next, we got back in the cars and I got the passenger seat even though I was the smallest one in the car. We then drove to the assembly plant. Steel-toed shoes that gave my left ankle a blister and fashionable navy blue lab coats were acquired and fika was served. The wafer cookies had the same idea of an Oreo, except for a soft chocolate center and one chocolate and one plain cookie.
The plant tour began at the end: we saw fully assembled vehicles that were being driven out of the plant for shipment. Volvo Cars (not the truck company) produces 60 cars in an hour, which sounded like a significant amount to me, but Morgan didn’t seem very impressed because he said Volvo is actually a small producer. It was very cool to see that processes involved in putting a car together. The mechanics involved in bringing car doors down to the floor for assembly on the conveyer belt was very reminiscent of the movie Monsters Inc. where all the closet doors are carried around overhead then lowered when needed. It was surprising to see so many people working in a plant after visiting SKF, but it makes sense because Volvo is a huge employment provider in the area. I loved walking through the plant and seeing the reverse engineering of the different car parts to make the finished product.
After our amazing time at Volvo, 15 minutes of watching buses we should have gotten on pass us by, a quick nap on the bus, and a tram ride, we stopped at Tin-tins for a snack before the cooking class at Aveqia. Chef Daniel and sous-chef Michael helped us prepare a four-course dinner. It was a very fun atmosphere and a fun way to spend a night. My group prepared the second course of beats, cheese, pistachios, mayonnaise, and fruit leather. While not all the prepared courses were vegetarian, substitutes were prepared when needed, like tofu instead of the Swish classic: reindeer.
The dessert was very delicious, consisting of almond cake, puffed rice, chocolate almond crumble, cloudberry sauce, mushroom powder, and star anise. Oh, and fun fact, Chef Daniel had cooked for the King of Sweden twice!
Daily Reflections:
- Some of those robots are huge.
- Fine dining = eat slowly.
- Wear your seat belt.
- Eat a decent meal when you get the chance, otherwise you might get hangry.
- Beets can taste delicious when paired with the right ingredients.
Adventures in Sweden 