Big and Small Adventures

Hej san,

Spring has continued to make spotty appearances in Uppsala; the last week has included snow, buds on the trees along the river, and flowers blooming all through downtown. It seems very incongruous to me that it can snow when the sun is around for so long. Living so far north brings you to many extremes. Yesterday when I got out of my philosophy class at eight in the evening, the sun was just about to touch the horizon, and it wasn't fully dark until nearly nine thirty! I'm not sure when it's coming up, but it's earlier than six. Such long days at home means June (although I think I've already surpassed maximum Colorado daylight) so it seems very strange that it's still mildly cool and occasionally snows.

My philosophy class is going smoothly, if not always the way I expected it to. The class is structured around interviewing different people, and it's very student-driven. We choose the readings for each week, and we also ask all of the interview questions. While this allows us to be involved and learn what we really want to learn, it also seems very unstructured to me. This class could be completely different every semester. I wonder sometimes what the learning goals of the class are, since we seem to just be wandering through our personal thoughts on happiness. Despite my occasional frustrations with the class, it's been hugely interesting and a good chance to reflect on what makes me happy.

This week has mostly been about small adventures; learning different embroidery stitches, buying strawberries at a farm stand on main street (in Swedish!), and a day-long spring cleaning inspired by the warm weather. That wasn't totally a fun adventure, I have to admit; discovering the state of the tiles behind the free-standing tub in my bathroom was one of the less-pleasant surprises I've gotten here. It hadn't been cleaned in a VERY long time. But my room is now beautifully clean and well-organized, and that makes me feel good every time I walk in.

Next week, however, is a big adventure. Henri and I are off on another round of travel, this time with a student tour group called Scanbelt. They do tours in northern Europe, and ours will go to Helsinki, the capital of Finland, and to St. Petersburg, Russia. I'm thrilled to see both cities! Normally you need a visa to enter Russia, but as we're going to be staying inside the principality of St. Petersburg and we're with a tour group, I don't need one. I've spent the last several days reading up on the history of the cities and (very briefly) the countries; hopefully I feel better informed than I did in Rome. We'll spend four nights on ferries going to the different cities, (Helsinki, St. Petersburg, back to Helsinki, and finally back to Stockholm) and two nights in a hostel in St. Petersburg. I'll be returning on Tuesday, so next Wednesday look for lots of stories about Finland and Russia.

I have not, however, quite finished packing my backpack for the trip, and as I'm departing in a half-hour I'll sign off here for now.

Until next time,
hej då!