I think I am just about ready to set off on Tuesday. I have maps, tickets, money, travel insurance, but still have to finish up reading through the papers of my fellow Ph.D. "workshoppers" (I think they will make exciting plane reading material). I noticed that Danish and Swedish currency is more colorful than U.S. Dollars. However, I don't know if this extends to smaller denominations. The exchange rate I got from Wells Fargo was 1 SEK for $0.169. This is not a particularly good exchange rate, but is largely due to the weak U.S. dollar and I do not think I can get a better exchange rate across the pond.

I was surprised about the difficulty I had in understanding the public transportation. There seems to be a million cards available or programs that seem to have various functions. While I am certain that it will be much easier when I get there, each town seems to have their own specialty card. For instance, Malm?, Sweden has the Malm?kortet for 160 SEK gives "free" access to the city buses as well as some museums. The bus system seems crazy. There seem to be a few stops that have names that do not seem to correspond to a road or landmark which I'm certain will give me huge headaches. I drew some bus routes on printed maps from Google Maps to help me get around towns. Luckily the rates are pretty reasonable and they probably beat walking around in 35 to 40 degree (Fahrenheit) weather.

I finished with all of my major packing. I wanted to avoid checking in luggage as I am changing flights in Houston, Paris, and landing in Copenhagen and then of course take a train to Malm?. This gives me a lot of chances to lose my luggage, not to mention that I will actually have to lug it around the towns, thus the need to pack efficiently. I'm pretty happy with the results (not so much the photo, but this is the best I can do with a photo on a timer). I may still try to cram in some sheets so I can save a few bucks when I go to the youth hostels (I've made room for my towel).

As a side note, iTunes free song of the week sucks. In the last couple of weeks, I thought I would pick up the songs for some fun. This weeks song is "Nike Boots" by Wale. He sings about how excited he is to still have his Nike Boots while complaining about how shitty his life is.

-Trevor