Life as Normal (or as normal as it gets)

Hej everyone!

I will, predictably, start by apologizing for the delay in this post. A variety of circumstances created it, but I promise I will hopefully now be back to posting on Wednesday or Thursday each week. With that out of the way, let me return to telling stories about my time here in Sweden.

Last week in neuroscience was as demanding as ever. We finished our second lab, which was based on a computer simulation of action potentials. I'm really glad we did this one because it really forced us to think through this rather complicated topic. We also did our third lab, which was the only one of the course that required true "lab work" with pipettes and everything. We tested two neuropeptides to determine which one binds more tightly to the receptor. It was an interesting lab, and my partner and I will analyze the results this afternoon.

In lecture we covered the intricacies of the interplay between the nervous and endocrine systems and appetite. There are definitely moments when I throw my mental hands up and I'm just glad that it all works! We also had our first literature analysis session, which is when we read an original research article and discuss questions with one of our professors. This paper was about the neurotransmitter ghrelin, which regulates hunger. I was glad that I'd had experience reading research papers before, because they can be quite daunting if you've never done it. I was once again very happy that English, and not Swedish or German or anything else, is my native language!

This week has been much lighter in terms of classroom time; we had Monday completely free, and a review session yesterday, but all because we had our first oral exam today. For the oral exams, you are given five minutes to look over the questions by yourself, and then you are paired with a classmate and assigned two of the ten questions to answer. You have twenty minutes to work out answers before you present them to the class, along with questions about any details you couldn't remember. The purpose is not to really test the students but to provide us with a check point to see how much we know and how much we need to go back and study. However, it's worthwhile to study because the last thing you want to do is sound like a fool in front of the entire group. I think today's went relatively well, though I will admit I got lucky with my assigned questions; there were a few I definitely did not want to try to answer.

Outside of neuroscience, I've had several good adventures since my last post. On Friday I attempted to ride my bike to IKEA, which is not really all that far from the BMC. For the first time since I arrived here though, I managed to get totally turned around and accidentally went for a two and a half hour bike ride instead! I visited the shores of Lake Mälaren, the third largest lake in Sweden, before turning around and heading back upriver to town. It was quite a beautiful bike ride, but it was a touch too cold, particularly in my jeans and with my school books on my back.

My other good adventure this week was to join in with the rest of the American exchange students in watching the super bowl. I've always liked watching football at home, but most of the evening games there are very late at night (or early in the morning, depending on how you count) here, so I've been following the play offs by looking up the scores the day after. However, a Canadian friend of mine organized one of the Nations to show the Swedish stream of it, and serve American football food, which turned out to be chicken wings, potato wedges, and nachos. I think they got it about right! I have to admit though, Swedes don't really do spicy; the chicken wings weren't hot by any stretch of the imagination and the salsa tasted a little more like tomato and onion sauce than anything else. Henri was just trying to figure out why we would say the salsa had no kick; "what do you mean it can't kick?" It was still great fun, particularly to try to explain football to all the non-American kids.

Football is a complicated sport! Before the game even starts, one needs to know at least a little about how the four downs work, and what a yard is (which automatically leads to a discussion about how much better the metric system is than whatever we use) and what an end zone is. Then you can begin to describe the different types of players (the quarterback stands in the middle and throws to the receivers) and plays (pass versus rush). Of course, Brady and Manning chose to start the scoring off with a safety given for an intentional grounding penalty. That one isn't difficult to explain at all, let alone the rest of the scoring for football. One can then move into the different penalties (false start, holding, personal foul, pass interference, delay of game, illegal formation) and when a play is declared over (fumble, incomplete pass). After one particular blocked pass, a defense man made the referee's signal for incomplete pass. Henri leaned over and asked, "is he supposed to be waving his arms like that? Is he hurt?" I thought I was going to die laughing.

I gave up at halftime; it was two in the morning and I had little interest in watching Madonna instead of football. Henri and I walked home, and I asked him what he thought of American football. He was very impressed by how much strategy was actually involved. "I thought they would just be punching each other for the ball the whole time," he told me. "They look like they're dressed for war!" He then declared football to be more complicated than quantum mechanics. Oh the joys of international sports.

Beyond those adventures I can safely say that I spent most of my time ensconced in my room with my neuro text. Live-timing was a great distraction, as my brother and friends raced in Telluride this weekend. Jeffrey got third and fourth, and my good friend Keeli was second and fifth! I was very proud of both of them. I'll be watching next weekend as Keeli races in Winter Park and Jeffrey competes in Steamboat at a telemark World Cup. Hopefully next time I will be able to say I FINALLY made it to IKEA, and tell you about whatever other adventures I've been wrapped up in. Until then,

Hej då!