Yesterday was my darkest day in Sweden by far. I woke at 7am and ate my breakfast in the kitchen, staring out the window of our high-rise building at the chill navy blue darkness. The lights had to be fastened to the bike before setting out.
Class was from 8am to 10am in a building connected to the law library via a complex connection of glass doors and hallways. When I got there, the teacher looked as sleep-reflective as the rest of us – unshaven and mute, gazing back out across the room from his swivel chair in which he peacefully reclined with legs stretched out.
When I emerged from class, it was only to creep up the stairs and sit at a table to review past lectures for an hour before making my way down and around through the building’s interior to the basement in the library where the computers are kept.
After printing out a few mock exams for review, I moved myself a few feet from the computer to a clear table and began to write out the exams – by the yellow light of a desk lamp and the filtered gray of the Swedish sun.
Afterwards I met with some equally concerned and bemused classmates to discuss the upcoming exam. By then I had dedicated six hours of the day to study and felt content – as content as one can be before an exam.
From the library, I walked along the canal bedecked with illuminated trees in a mist of rain. The sky was barely blue and just beginning to adopt the near black of night. I unlocked my bike, slapped on the lights, and went back home.
