Backpacking through Europe in 1994

Day 52 • October 28, 1994
Reuniting with Joakim in Lund, Sweden

I was so excited to wake up today. With the victory from yesterday fresh on my mind, I could hardly believe that in a few hours I’d be partying with Joakim — or “Joe,” as I called him.

Joe and I had become fast friends on the very first day we met in Australia back in 1989. I thought he was incredibly cool and had great energy, and I told him so. He felt the same way about me. We ended up spending a lot of time together throughout that year, and one of our earliest conversations was about my family name. I told him the story my grandmother had shared — that the Rundstrom name came from “round stream,” because my great-great-grandparents had lived on a piece of land in Sweden that had a stream running around it.

Joe loved that story. He told me it made perfect sense, and if I ever came to Sweden, he would help me try to find some of my relatives and ancestral land. That conversation created an immediate bond between us.

On top of that, we were both huge partiers. Along with Michael from Michigan and Gary from South Africa, Joe and I became known for leading the charge at just about every party during our exchange year. So when I finally made it to Sweden in 1994 — six years after our last wild night together in Australia — it felt completely natural that the first thing we would do is have another one.

Six Years Later

Joe and I hadn’t seen each other since our final wild night together in Australia six years earlier. When I arrived at his apartment in Lund and saw he had built his own bar in the living room — just like we had in The Dome — I knew we were about to pick up right where we left off. This photo was taken moments after we reunited, and you can see how happy I was to be back with my old friend.

My Photographs from today in lund, sweden

DAY 52 / 10-28-94
Reuniting with Joakim in Lund, Sweden

I woke up at 8:30, ate a breakfast of cereal & tea, then went back to sleep ‘till 10.

I walked to the train station and wrote a letter to Tracy and some other writing before calling Joe at 12. He came with his friend and roommate Sebastian to pick me up, and we came back to his apartment.

It’s the closest thing to the Dome that I’ve ever seen. There are four guys that live here, and they are all big partiers.

Joe had rented a movie, Bad Lieutenant, which was absolutely terrible. But it was so good to be with Joe that I didn’t care.

For dinner Sebastian made a Swedish dinner of white pea soup that wasn’t half-bad. After that Joe got out some pictures from Down Under. I’d almost forgotten how much fun we had together. It still doesn’t seem real that it is six years later and I’m here.

We spent the rest of the night just talking & watching TV. They have a lot of American programs here, and the nice thing is they are subtitled, not dubbed. Joe told me how the Swedish people think it’s important to leave the shows & movies in their original language, unlike the French.

This was a quiet but meaningful day.

After the emotional weight of the past week, spending a low-key evening with Joe and Sebastian felt like exactly what I needed. We didn’t go out. We didn’t party. We just stayed in, watched a terrible movie, looked through old photos from Australia, ate dinner together, and talked. It was simple, but it was good.

Seeing those pictures from six years earlier hit me harder than I expected. It didn’t feel real that so much time had passed since our wild days Down Under. At the same time, it was comforting to realize that some friendships can pick up right where they left off, even after years apart.

Joe’s apartment, with its bar and constant stream of friends coming and going, felt like the closest thing to The Dome I’d experienced since leaving Kearney. Being there gave me a sense of familiarity and ease that I hadn’t felt in a while. After everything that had happened with my dad, it was nice to just exist in a space where I felt accepted without having to explain myself.