We started our day early today, at 09:30. We made our way to Volvo which was in the middle of nowhere. We were met by a man named Morgan and his fiance, Sylvia. The first thing we did there was have an AMAZING lunch!! They had a huge selection and the vegan food was phenomenal.
After lunch, we took separate cars to another building to see a crash test. This was a really big deal; people never sit in on those, and we weren’t allowed to take photos of everything. We went up very steep stairs and then down to a big box that overlooked a warehouse full of equipment. The seating was filled up with about 50 people. We got a brief overview of testing and crash statistics. Finally, it was time for the test. Someone over the overhead speaker did a countdown and when 10 seconds hit, the lights went off and these bright lights turned on surrounding the spot the test would take place. We then saw a car drive into the building and straight into a cemented wooden board. It was honestly terrifying. It was SO loud and the car got seriously damaged. The dummy was twisted in all sorts of ways. The scariest part about it was that it wasn’t really going that fast. Imagine getting into an accident on a highway going 70. It was fascinating but terrifying. I’m grateful for that experience.
After the crash test, we got driven to another building where we changed our shoes and put “visitor” jackets on. We then got a tour of one of the factories. It was huge!! The assembly of the cars looked like it came straight out of a movie. There were also really cool robots putting parts of cars together. We found out that there are 2,000 people working in that building at a time. The factory is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. If an assembly line gets stopped (human error), Volvo loses $7,000 PER MINUTE!! My favorite thing about the factory is I noticed the men to women ratio was pretty equal, and there were employees of all ages. Not to sound sexist, but based on what’s been embedded in our brains as Americans, I never thought I would see so many young, feminine women working in a car manufacturing warehouse; and everybody looked so happy! Morgan said that gender equality is exactly what they strive for in Sweden. I think that is amazing.
After a long day at Volvo, we went back to our hostel and got ready for our gourmet cooking school visit!!! The school’s name is Aveqia. I wasn’t really excited for it because I’m vegan and I already knew there probably wouldn’t be a lot for me and I wouldn’t be excited about the food because I probably wouldn’t eat it. Looking back, it was such a fun experience and I’m so happy that we did it.
The school was so pretty and fancy. Even the bathroom was aesthetically pleasing.
For our cooking lesson, we were divided into four teams and each had a dish to prepare. We had two chefs, Michael and Daniel. They were hilarious. My team was assigned dessert! It was a lot of fun and nice to just drink wine and talk to the other people at the table. The best part is that all the dishes we made were veganized for us!!! I thought we would just have a salad and a random meal. Instead, we had a vegan version of everything that was made! It was delicious, and as always, everything is on my vegan page!!
Take aways:
- I want to live to Gothenburg…seriously.
- Sweden coincidentally uses vegan forms of typically non-vegan goods.
- Sweden is very big on composting.
till sverige 