Picture Time

Hej!

As promised, a picture update! But first, I have three things I would like to mention

1) Making Cookies
I decided this afternoon, I as do often at home, that I would much rather make cookies than do my homework; I had done my best to prepare myself for just such an occasion the last time I went to the grocery store. But I discovered today that not even making cookies, something I could do in my sleep at home, had escaped the study abroad transformations. Measuring cups in metric, oven temperatures labeled in Celsius, and of course ingredients labeled in Swedish all contributed to the confusion.

I have since learned that 1 cup = 250g, ¾ cup = about 2.5 dL, and I completely guessed on the oven temp. (As my Granny knows, I never measure teaspoons anyway.) I have also learned I mistook regular baking flour for whole wheat flour, dark brown sugar for light, and my chocolate chips are a chopped up bar of baking chocolate. My cookies are baking in a glass casserole dish because I don’t have cookie sheets.

But you know what? They still taste like chocolate chip cookies.

2) Searching for the Sun
As you already know, there is significantly less daylight in Uppsala at the moment than there is in Colorado. It’s also been mostly cloudy the first two weeks of my stay here, further limiting my sunshine. I hadn’t noticed that I missed the sun until today, when it was a beautiful bluebird day and I was sitting in lecture from eight to two. Needless to say my attention span was slightly less today than on previous days of class.

Riding my bike back from class was an absolute delight; I deliberately dragged the trip out to stay out in the sunshine longer. Everything looks a little different in daylight. The cathedral looked completely different; not as stark. I noticed as I waited at a stoplight that the public library was slightly less enthralling than normal, and across the street was The English Bookshop, which I’ve had recommended to me but completely forgot about.

This is when it hit me. I was noticing things again, the same way I had the first weekend of wandering around town. Though I make a point of looking up at the cathedral as I blast past it on my bike, I was forgetting to look at everything else. All it took was the sunlight to remind me, luckily, and now I can try to remember to see what’s in front of me again.

3) Partying
This weekend I was invited out to a little get together with several of the students from my class, just to hang out and drink German wine and vodka. One of the Germans in particular was enthusiastic for me to hang out with them because I’ve been rather quiet and studious in class. I thought it was a lot of fun; it was three Germans, three Swedes, a Canadian, and me. I spent most of my time listening to everyone’s stories; the Swedes and the Canadian were in a dissection-based lab last semester and were well down memory lane on that topic when I arrived. Later the conversation ranged from questions like “Is South Park a real place?” to “Why are Americans so friendly to people they’ve just met?” (This is rather uncommon in Germany and Europe, and our Canadian friend was undecided. Usually Germans and Swedes are rather formal with the people they’ve just met.) We hung around until about midnight before we parted ways, most of us to get ourselves home and go to bed.

It wasn’t until the next morning I found the text the German student had sent me just after everyone had left: “I really have some trouble to cope with you. Normally one gets drunk and then it is a lot easier but it’s hard for me to interact with you now.” I was a little frustrated with this. I had been rather proud of myself for doing something social (and even trying the vodka) and yet I was still apparently the oddball out because I didn’t drink enough.

Now, don’t expect my next post to be about the raging party I went to; I don’t plan on changing myself and my comfort levels that drastically. But it does leave me wondering about alcohol, college students, and social activity. Is it really that similar the world over?

Now, that is quite enough of me blabbing. Picture time!

First up, my beautiful bike! Between the bright red frame and the teal seat cover, I never lose this thing. It's served me very well so far, trekking through snow and ice and a lot of other bikers to the Biomedical center and back every day.

For those of you who were interested, above are pictures of a light switch (top) and a magic button (bottom). This magic button is special enough to have a sticker next to it that tells me what to do in both English and Swedish; most don't. Note the little blue key though; that's the ID for a magic button. And now when you go to Sweden you'll be able to open the doors too!

The following pictures are taken of the cathedral in the middle of town at 7:45 in the morning (about forty minutes before the sun came up). As I mentioned before, the cathedral looks like a painting instead of a real building.

Henri tells me the cathedrals in Paris are even more incredible, but I will continue to savor this one for as long as I live in Uppsala.

The sun today inspired me to think about doing a lot of things (none of them related to homework) so I'm planning on taking more pictures of the town and the places I'm loving more and more to show you. Maybe I'll even have them by the next post! Until then,

Hej då!

There's a transmitter for that!

Hej everyone!

Well, I'm back at writing again after a long week of reading. I don't think I've ever been quite so dedicated to a single class, but neuroscience is absolutely fascinating. I've also joined a Nation and made some new friends. Most importantly, I have a bike!!! I've cut my travel time to the Biomedical Center in half, which saves me a half hour of sleep in the morning and lets me get home before the sun is all the way down most days. But let me take everything in turn instead of jumping around.

As I hinted above, a goodly portion of my time has been dedicated to my neuroscience course. This week we covered the development of the nervous system, the classes and subclasses of receptors, the electrical and chemical basis of signalling, and we've started on learning and memory. I now know how IcyHot works, which might be the most random interesting factoid I've learned yet. (It has to do with receptors that send a temperature sensory signal no matter what triggers them.)

It's incredible that every single thing I've ever learned in biology comes back to neuroscience if that's the focus you have. The class is a whirlwind of information, and sometimes I feel like there is no way I can keep up. Then I remember that this is the only class I have at the moment, which makes it much easier to focus.

As part of the class we also do a research project about an assigned topic that includes a paper and presentation at the end of the class with a partner. My partner's name is Christine, from Singapore, and we're studying the effects of music on the brain and the genetics of musical ability. We both play the piano, so we found the subject very interesting. I've also made some friends in the class who can study with me; Oliver and Lisa, from Germany, are pretty quiet but really funny, and Susannah (Dutch) and Diana (Aussie) love to party together and then regale us with their tales the next day. Chen, from India, comes up to my shoulder but acts like the perfect gentleman, and Matilda, who is actually from Sweden, likes to check up on all of us exchangers every once in a while. We like to compare our universities (and in Susannah's case, party habits) from home and share stories of trying to figure out a new country.

I've started the habit of having "reading parties" with Henri, my friend from Paris. We make tea and settle in for a solid few hours. His stack of physics readings is even bigger than mine, but he only has class a few hours a week. We usually manage to read about half the time before we degenerate into sharing stories and asking questions. This week I tried to explain exactly why prom is such a big deal in high school, and learned about the metro system of Paris (which I hope I never have to navigate myself).

But I promise I haven't been studying the entire time I've been here! I joined Kalmar Nation last Friday, which means I received my official student ID and that I now have a second home in the center of town. Kalmar is a mid-sized nation with a ton of activities going on. Wednesday nights are usually open mic nights, and I've heard the talent is incredible. Saturday nights are clubs, with an ever-changing music scene. Kalmar is also known for its good food in the pub downstairs. I haven't participated in anything much yet, but I have already checked out their library.

My other excitement this week was having a dinner with my corridor-mates. Mia, Charlotte, Farkonda, and Emelie are the four girls I share my corridor with, and they're all Swedish. Sometimes it can be a little intimidating to be in the kitchen with them when the Swedish is going full-force, but they've been very welcoming to me. (Mia told everyone I bought roast garnish instead of jam, and now they all want to take me shopping so I do it properly.) This evening we all contributed to a pasta salad dinner and ate together. Emelie, unfortunately, couldn't be there.

Not only was the dinner really tasty, I loved getting a chance to know the other girls. Mia is studing agriculure, and Charlotte and Farkonda are studying law. They're all a bit older than I am, late twenties, and they love telling me stories about their "prime-time" when they were my age. Of course, being girls, we started sharing stories about the various boys in our lives, and they were thrilled I was single so they could give me all their advice. I didn't mention that being in love is, neurologically, closer to having OCD than any other neurological state; it didn't quite fit the romantic mood.

And of course, the other big news of the weeks is the red hunk of metal currently locked to a rack outside. I finally have a bike! It took a little love before I was satisfied with it (the handlebars were crooked, the back break squeaked horribly and had a pretty loose cable, and it was ornery about shifting down) but it wasn't anything too tricky and it's got good winter tires, fenders, and a solid chain. I've changed my path through downtown Uppsala slightly to avoid the steepest hill, which also allows me to ride right in front of the cathedral every morning. In the predawn light when I ride to class, it looks like someone painted there it against the sky. I hope I never get used to it.

And before you ask, Mom, I did take pictures this morning (and was on time to class!) I have a couple of more I want to collect tomorrow when the sun is out, and then I plan on posting a special update just for pictures this weekend. That is, if I move that thought from my working memory to the to-do list that is resting in a diffuse but localized manner in my long-term memory. And yes, that sentence is supposed to make sense. The rest of the memory lecture is tomorrow, so I'll work on it.

Until next time, keep your receptors open! (Or closed, whichever they're supposed to be. Open can be bad too.)

Hej då!

Vecka Ett (Week One)

Hej!

I absolutely cannot believe that I have nearly been in Uppsala for a whole week! It feels like much, much longer than that. I've accomplished a lot in that week; classes, meeting people, and figuring out a lot of different interesting things.

Uppsala University operates on a block schedule, so I'm only taking one or two courses at a time. Right now that course is Neurology. I'm taking it in a class with about twenty-four other students; it's split just about half Swedish students and half exchange students. It's an incredibly demanding course; this week I will have spent eighteen hours in the classroom. Each morning is a two to three hour lecture with the main professor, Dan Larhammer. In the afternoons we have a variety of different things, including lectures from other professors and PhD students, labs, and literature seminars. So far we've covered the history of neurobiology, neuroanatomy, classification of the specialized cells in the nervous system, mechanisms of the chemical synapses, and the function and mechanisms associated with the classical neurotransmitter molecules. (This is chapters 1-6 of the textbook.) We've also had our first lab, which was a demonstration of four dissected human brains to complete the neuroanatomy section of the course.

This could be part of why I feel like I've been here for a month; this is the most information on one subject I've ever tried to cram into my head in this time frame! Unsurprisingly, there is a large part of me that really loves it. It's incredible to see all of the biology courses I've ever taken coming together the way they are; we're discussing the anatomy, physiology, organic chemistry, genetics, molecular and cell biology of the nervous system, and there are even references to immunology thrown in. Later we'll get more into the biology behind modern psychology to tie in yet another field. If I ever needed any confirmation that I'm an interdisciplinary person, I have it now.

When I haven't been pouring over my neuro text, I've been wandering around the town of Uppsala, figuring out how to go grocery shopping in Swedish, and (surprise surprise!) socializing. There have been a lot of orientation activities this week, all hosted by the thirteen different Nations of Uppsala University.

And here, of course, I should explain a little about the Nations. When the school was founded in 1477 (old has a completely different meaning here!) the Nations were founded as clubs for some of the more homesick students. The Nations are based on the geographic provinces of Sweden. Until the 1960s students were required to join the Nation that represented the province they grew up in, and until 2006 it was required that every student in Uppsala University join a nation. While neither of these requirements still exist, it is very popular to join a Nation. Nations are intended to be your second living room while a student here; they all have libraries upstairs, pubs downstairs, and lots of activities for their members. Most of the student clubs are run through the various Nations instead of through a main student union.

The orientation activities are designed to give you a chance to meet other international students as well as a chance to scope out the different Nations. Norrlands Nation is the biggest, with over 5000 members, and Gotelands Nation is the smallest, with just about 500 members. Some Nations have dance clubs every week, and some have movie nights and board games. I'm in the process of choosing a Nation right now, but I'm leaning towards one of the smaller, more mellow Nations. I'll let you know next time which one I've joined!

I've also had a chance to meet my corridor mates. For the most part, they are very polite and kind, but more distant and private than I'm used to. Mia is by far the most outgoing; she's offered to take me to the grocery store next time she goes and show me how to shop properly! Last time we were in the kitchen she saw my jar of jelly, which I've been delighted with, and just about died laughing at me. I was puzzled until she stopped long enough to explain to me that what I was using wasn't jelly you put on toast, but a relish they use for cooking roasts. Most Swedes think it's much too bitter to be used on bread! I still think it's delicious, but next time I think I'll try marmelad, which is what I'm supposed to be putting on toast. She also offered to teach me the colors and some other food words in Swedish, which will be a big help.
My current project (besides memorizing the first third of my neuro book) is finding a bike. Everyone in Uppsala bikes, regardless of the fact that most of the sidewalks and streets are sheet ice at the moment. I have yet to see anyone crash, or even slide. It would also be a big time saver; it's just about five kilometers (3 miles) from my apartment in Kantorsgatan to the Biomedical Center, where I have my course. It's a beautiful walk; I took pictures this morning on the way to class. Note the position of the sun; this was about a half hour after sunrise this morning, and it was 9:15 or so!

This is one of the many bridges that spans the river running through Uppsala, and the path running along it I walk everyday. It's an incredibly beautiful walk along the river and then through town. In the background you can just see the spires of the cathedral above the trees. Between the river, the cathedral, and the castle sitting up on the hill, it's actually very difficult to get yourself lost in the downtown area (although finding anything is quite another story!)

This another shot looking downriver just as I walk into downtown. The cathedral is easy to see in this picture. It's easily the most dominating building in town, and it is absolutely beautiful. I love walking past it each day. It's the biggest cathedral in Scandinavia, and it is as tall as it is long. There is actually a law in Uppsala that no building be built taller than it. To the right of the cathedral (in this picture) is the hill above town, at the top of which sits the castle of Uppsala and the main university building.

This is the main university building. As you can see, they're doing some reconstruction of the outer facade, but then again, the building was constructed in 1876. (The same year CU was founded!) The street I'm looking up is St. Olafsgatan, off of which you can find the international office and six of the thirteen Nations, as well as the student bookstore.

This is the backside of the castle that sits on top of the hill. The Governor of Uppsala lives in the castle, which also holds a museum. It's a bit hard to tell in this picture because of the sun rising, but the castle is decidedly pink, which I find rather amusing.

This picture, taken from the same spot, is of another important university building; the main academic library: the Carolina Rediviva. It's the largest academic library in northern Europe, and it's home to a wide variety of incredible artifacts, including the Vasa Bible, the first to be written in Swedish. (The Vasas were the monarchy in power at the time.) I haven't yet been brave enough to venture inside yet, but I won't be able to resist the lure for much longer!

And this wonderful, official-looking building marks the end of my trek every morning. This is the Biomedical Center, one of the premier scientific research and learning institutions in Europe. It's an incredibly large building (I've heard rumors of ten kilometers of corridors, and a basement worthy of the MCDB/Porter/Muenzinger complex back home) but one that I really enjoy being in. There are lots of study nooks scattered around, a medical library, a dining hall-style cafeteria, and it's actually very well organized from what I've seen so far.

I think one main reason I like this building so much is that despite the Swedish I hear all around me and the various things that are incredibly different, it's still clearly a university building with classrooms and lecture halls and students; it's an environment I'm familiar with operating in. It's very relaxing to be somewhat closer to my comfort zone when everything else is so incredibly different.

My favorite illustration of this: All of the more modern doors require you to push a button on the wall to unlock them so you can open them. The first time I encountered this I thought I was locked out of the international office, and someone had to show me how to open the door. Talk about feeling like an idiot. The secomd time I encountered this style of door was even better; confident in my new knowledge of the magic button, I went up to the door and proceeded to turn off all of the lights in the lobby of the biology department office instead of opening the door. (The light switches and the magic buttons are the same shape.) Needless to say, I now stop and consider all of the magic buttons before I try to open a door, and I've figured out the Swedish word for "magic button" (which my dictionary says literally translates to "open"). When one must learn how to open doors, one takes comfort in anything that is familiar.

Overall, my experience thus far has been exhilerating, exhausting, frustrating, heartwarming, confidence-building, incredibly busy and good for all of the muscles in my feet and ankles. (There are muscles in the feet, and they can get SORE when you walk six miles a day on sheet ice!)

On the list for next week: choosing a Nation, finding a bike, catching up on my neuro reading, and exploring the Carolina Rediviva. There might even be some window shoe shopping over the weekend; while it sounds completely girly I've had major boot envy ever since I stepped off the plane. Swedish girls wear the most incredibly beautiful boots, but every pair I've seen have not only been highly stylish but also completely functional, unlike most of the fashionable things I've come across at home. And of course, whatever other adventures I get caught up in will certainly be included!

Until then,
hej då!

Ankomst!

Hej!

I finally made it! (Ankomst is a word I learned in the airport; it means arrival.) The journey was kind of nuts in an uneventful, going smoothly sort of way. Easy flight to Frankfurt, where I only got slightly lost in the airport, and then a much shorter jump to Arlanda, which is the Stockholm airport. I'm not quite sure why they call it the Stockholm airport, because it's actually about 30km north of Stockholm, but that's what goes on all of the arrival and departure boards. I landed in Sweden at 6:00 last night, wandered through bag check and customs, and then proceeded to crash in the hotel in Arlanda.

 

This was actually something worth mentioning. The whole idea of the hotel, which is called Rest and Fly, is to give a traveller what they really need, a dark room with a bed and a place to shower, at a minimum cost. At night you can book the rooms for ten hours and add hours at an extra charge from there, and during the day you can book by the hour if you have a really long layover or something like that. When you arrive, you're given your own linens.The rooms are pretty small; my duffle bag fit neatly between the wall and the bed. There is a common women's bathroom (Euro alert: one shower room with several shower heads!) with the most glorious showers you've ever felt after sitting on planes and in airports for over twelve hours. It's very simple, and utterly perfect for what I needed.

 

This morning I checked out and took the bus to Uppsala, where my buddy Amandus met me. He volunteered, as a UU student, to mentor an incoming exchange student, and he got me. He also by chance picked up Selias, who was on the bus from the airport with me and figured by all my luggage I must be another exchange student. Amandus helped us drag our stuff to Akademihotellet, where we picked up our room keys, and then to VG Nation, which is the international student union of sorts. There we got our welcome packet (with a LOT of information!) and temporary student IDs. VG Nation also provided a shuttle (in the form of a student driving around a van) to help us get to our rooms.

 

In the shuttle I met Henri, who is from Paris and studying physics, and Leah, who is from Germany and studying media and IT. The four of us made plans to meet up tomorrow. It's definitely interesting to see how when you're completely on your own you glom onto the first person or people you meet. Henri and I live in the same apartment complex, which is called Kantorsgatan, so we spent most of the rest of the day together as well. He's been here for a couple of days, so he showed me where the grocery store was and how to use the bus to get back to the city center, where we picked up our bedding. He's so very French sometimes it makes me laugh. He wanted very honestly to know what on earth peanut butter was for, and why we celebrated Thanksgiving, and he can't stand being cold. He likes to cook, and doesn't like to eat any "rushed" food like sandwiches. I'm thinking that this is a pretty good start on the international experience!

 

I still at some level can't even believe I'm here. The sun really does go down at 2:30, and it's dark by four. I knew this was going to happen, but it still kind of surprised me. Logic has little to do with your circadian clock. I haven't met any of my corridor mates yet, but then I haven't actually been in my room much. Hopefully I'll meet them sometime tonight when I go to check out the kitchen.

 

I plan on spending the rest of the evening unpacking and reading through some of the materials I gathered today. Up next: officially registering for my courses, setting up my own internet (I'm borrowing Henri's access code at the moment), and going out for a beer with Amandus and some guys. (I know, totally not my style. But I'm taking advantage of my opportunities!)

 

Until next time, hej då!

 

 

Allt om Sverige (Everything about Sweden)

Hej!

Today is the official one week mark until I fly to Sweden. I'm still mostly excited but I defintely have moments when I'm not quite sure what I got my self into. Right now I'm mostly trying to soak up as much Steamboat as I can; I know I'm going to miss everyone and everything here like crazy.

The other thing I've been doing is learning all kinds of random Swedish trivia. For instance, next to Stockholm is an archipelago of approximately 24,000 islands. Can anyone say canoe trip?! The opening paragraph of my guidebook also briefly mentioned Swedish stereotypes and mindsets. While not everyone is blonde, blue eyed, and reserved, most swedes do prescribe to two mindsets: lagom, which mean just right (think Goldilocks), and ordning och reda, everything in its proper place.

Other interesting things I've learned:
-swedes eat a lot of pickled herring. I'll let you know how I feel about that once I try it...
-midsummer (the Saturday between June 21-26) is the biggest festival in the country. It makes sense when you think about how much the daylight hours vary...I'll have just under six hours of daylight when I arrive in Uppsala, and just about 18 during midsummer!
-about a third of the country lies above the Arctic Circle, which means it has several days in the winter of no light at all, and several days in the summer when the sun doesn't ever set. This region is famous for their reindeer, the ice hotel, and the northernmost ski area in the world.
-Gamla Uppsala (old Uppsala), was the Viking cultural center of Sweden until Christianity came and created their own center in Uppsala.
-Uppsala University is the oldest university in Scandinavia. It's been home to famous names like Celcius, Ångstrom, and Linnaeus.

I'm sure I'll come up with more interesting factoids when I actually arrive, but these are my favorites for now. Now I'm just trying to make sure I remember to do everything that needs to get done before I leave! One other note; so far I've been posting on Wednesdays. I'll keep that up for now, so expect to hear from me agan on departure day!

Hej då!