3 more albums to wrap up my blog:
Kiruna, Sweden
Stockholm in the Wintertime
Amsterdam
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Goodbye Stockholm :(
Last weekend I went to Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden, located 145 km ABOVE the Arctic Circle. It's really a must for all exchange students that come to Sweden. The highlight of the trip was definitely dogsledding. We spent 2 hours on a dog sled (I think around 14 huskies pulling it), and I even got to help drive it! We even stopped halfway at a teepee like thing (the Sami people are the indigenous people that live up there) for coffee and sandwiches. We also went cross-country skiing, which was fun. It was my first time and it was quite a bit more difficult that I thought it would be (considering I know how to normal ski)...your heels aren't attached and you feel like you have no control! It was a nice weekend filled with lots and lots of snow and it was a great last trip. Sorry I don't have pictures of it posted...I ran out of space on Picasa. I even tried to make another gmail account to get more free space, but Google is too smart and disabled my account! I'll have to figure some other way to post them, so check back later.
We came back from Kiruna and had a final exam two days later and then another exam a few days after that, so most of my last days here were filled with studying indoors. I did take a few breaks and hit up two of the big christmas markets here in Stockholm, which really got me in the christmas mood! And I've had 2 whole days after I finishing exams to enjoy my last bit of Stockholm. And perfect timing because the Christmas weather just arrived! On Monday it started snowing and it hasn't stopped! It must have snowed 10 inches or so...it's so beautiful outside! It's really amazing how much brighter the city is covered with snow. In November when it got dark it was just so dark and rainy and gloomy, but white snow goes a long way at reflecting light and making the city still feel bright and cheery even though its dark by 3 pm! I've done a good bit of playing in the snow. Unfortunately I missed the big snow ball fight my complex had, but I did get a small taste of it when I came home and one of my roommates surprised me with a snowball shoved in my face in the middle of our kitchen. Last night we went to this really cool bar that had a really fun 'big band' playing a mix of christmas music and other fun stuff. It turned into a very fun last night out in the city! And as soon as we left, snowballs started getting thrown and it was basically an ongoing snowball fight our whole way home. And let me tell you, Germans take snowball fights very seriously! I had my face shoved in the snow and then was cornered and literally picked up and thrown in the snow, apparently being a girl does not give you in any take it easy points!
Two nights ago I cooked a huge Tex-Mex meal for my roommates and some others...there were 15 people so it was quite the cooking ordeal. I made guacamole, pineapple salsa, chicken tortilla soup, and a black bean/spinach/mushroom/veggie with green chili sauce enchilada casserole type thing...all the dishes were a hit! I spent my last day today having lunch at an adorable cafe in Sodermalm, walking around Gamla Stan, and then ended with a winter wonderland walk along the water of Djurgarden and Ladugardsgardet. It was my favorite place to run here, and it looked so beautiful covered in a thick layer of snow!
I leave Stockholm tomorrow, I really can't believe it. Then I'll spend about a day in half in Amsterdam and then fly home. Will be a long journey...4 flights in about 2 days, so hopefully I make it back!
We came back from Kiruna and had a final exam two days later and then another exam a few days after that, so most of my last days here were filled with studying indoors. I did take a few breaks and hit up two of the big christmas markets here in Stockholm, which really got me in the christmas mood! And I've had 2 whole days after I finishing exams to enjoy my last bit of Stockholm. And perfect timing because the Christmas weather just arrived! On Monday it started snowing and it hasn't stopped! It must have snowed 10 inches or so...it's so beautiful outside! It's really amazing how much brighter the city is covered with snow. In November when it got dark it was just so dark and rainy and gloomy, but white snow goes a long way at reflecting light and making the city still feel bright and cheery even though its dark by 3 pm! I've done a good bit of playing in the snow. Unfortunately I missed the big snow ball fight my complex had, but I did get a small taste of it when I came home and one of my roommates surprised me with a snowball shoved in my face in the middle of our kitchen. Last night we went to this really cool bar that had a really fun 'big band' playing a mix of christmas music and other fun stuff. It turned into a very fun last night out in the city! And as soon as we left, snowballs started getting thrown and it was basically an ongoing snowball fight our whole way home. And let me tell you, Germans take snowball fights very seriously! I had my face shoved in the snow and then was cornered and literally picked up and thrown in the snow, apparently being a girl does not give you in any take it easy points!
Two nights ago I cooked a huge Tex-Mex meal for my roommates and some others...there were 15 people so it was quite the cooking ordeal. I made guacamole, pineapple salsa, chicken tortilla soup, and a black bean/spinach/mushroom/veggie with green chili sauce enchilada casserole type thing...all the dishes were a hit! I spent my last day today having lunch at an adorable cafe in Sodermalm, walking around Gamla Stan, and then ended with a winter wonderland walk along the water of Djurgarden and Ladugardsgardet. It was my favorite place to run here, and it looked so beautiful covered in a thick layer of snow!
I leave Stockholm tomorrow, I really can't believe it. Then I'll spend about a day in half in Amsterdam and then fly home. Will be a long journey...4 flights in about 2 days, so hopefully I make it back!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Russia
Got back from Russia last week...fun trip. I went there with two of my German roommates, Daniel and Alex, another German that lives in my complex, Johannes, and a Dutch exchange student, Julius. We spent the first 3 days in Moscow. Moscow is huge, estimated to have around 12 million people...their subway system was crazy and had 12 different colored lines (Stockholm only has 3)! As you can expect with so many people, the pollution was pretty terrible. I've never seen cars covered in such thick layers of gray/brown dust...it really makes you wonder what your lungs would look like after living there your whole life. Our hostel was really nice and run by this 50-something pony-tailed guy from Carson City, Nevada...always interesting running into Americans. We of course saw the Kremlin, Red Square, St. Basil's Cathedral (colorful onion dome church everyone should recognize), and Lenin's tomb. Seeing Lenin's tomb and embalmed body was pretty bizarre...he's been preserved and on public display since 1924 (against is own adamant wishes to be buried next to his mother in St. Petersburg). Before the fall of the USSR, the chemical process used to preserve his body was a highly guarded secret, but now we know that he's washed and moisturized on a daily basis, and receives a chemical bath every 18 months (my guide book says you yourself can recieve the same treatment, for a mear $1 million!). Anyways the body looked really small and almost waxy (sorry, no pics allowed inside), but I suppose in pretty good shape considering it's been 85 years since his death. Moscow is also known for its elaborate subway stations and we did our own little tour of the big ones...they are all quite ornate, most of them including images of happy communists farmers, Lenin, victorious battles, etc. And on our last night we went to the circus! I can only remember going to see Barnum & Bailey's once when I was little, so it was really cool for me to see. Moscow is apparently famous for its circus...the one we saw was all on ice skates with really neat costumes, trapeze stuff, seals, etc. (again sorry, no pics allowed inside).
Then we headed to St. Petersburg for the last 2 days. We took an overnight train that left Moscow at about 1 am and arrived in St. Petersburg a little before 10 am. We took 3rd (lowest) class - open cars crammed with beds - hoping for a little adventure, or atleast some drunk Russians, but sadly almost everyone went to bed immediately. We brought a little beer with us and had another in the restaraunt on the train, then headed to bed ourselves. St. Petersburg itself is a really beautiful city. It's got rivers and canals that run through it, reminding me a bit of Stockholm with so much water around. At 4.6 million residents, it's also much smaller than Moscow and had a much more European feel. St. Petersburg's founder, Peter the Great, was interested in European culture and modernizing Russia, hiring architects from western Europe help build it. A funny side note about Peter the Great: after traveling through western Europe and noticing that beards had grown out of fashion, he ordered men in Russia to shave their beards and even created a tax on beards in 1705. Anyways, we of course went to the Hermitage Museum and spent a few hours inside. It was really impressive...it used to be the winter palace of Peter the Great and is now one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world (has largest collection of paintings)...it was HUGE! We also walked around the Peter and Paul Fortress, the original fortified city of St. Petersburg. Other than that, we did a lot of walking around and enjoying the city and water views, went in a couple of cool churches, etc.
It was pretty interesting traveling through Russia as almost no one speaks English and there are very few signs with English. In Moscow, outside of our hostel, we didn't encounter anyone that spoke even one word of English, but St. Petersburg was a tiny bit more English-friendly and had a few more English signs. It was really difficult to see a totally foreign alphabet (Cyrillic) and try to remember any words or match sounds with letters. I learned the difficulties of different alphabets a bit from Greece, but there I was at least a bit familiar with the Greek alphabet from all my years of math class!
It also makes for quite a different trip traveling with all guys...they all need at leats 10 hours of sleep a night and I think noon was the earliest we managed to leave the hostel. We also had to stop and eat very often (and certainly not the healthy choices) to satisfy their hunger...but in their defense, they are big boys, 3 of them being over 6'5". Mealtimes were actually quite frustrating for me, mostly because Germans as a whole are extremely critical (they'll tell you that they are the least satisfied people in the whole world), and if the food wasn't bad then it was too expensive or wasn't enough or it took too long to get or the service was terrible. I would never travel to another country and expect to have the same kind of food I eat at home, in the same portion size, and at the same prices, with the same level of service, so all the complaining was quite a mood downer for me, but I guess it can all be chalked up to cultural differences.
Well I'm off to Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden, on Friday. It should be very cold and I'll get to see plenty of snow. We're even going dogsledding and will hopefully get a glimpse of the northern lights!
Russia pics here
Then we headed to St. Petersburg for the last 2 days. We took an overnight train that left Moscow at about 1 am and arrived in St. Petersburg a little before 10 am. We took 3rd (lowest) class - open cars crammed with beds - hoping for a little adventure, or atleast some drunk Russians, but sadly almost everyone went to bed immediately. We brought a little beer with us and had another in the restaraunt on the train, then headed to bed ourselves. St. Petersburg itself is a really beautiful city. It's got rivers and canals that run through it, reminding me a bit of Stockholm with so much water around. At 4.6 million residents, it's also much smaller than Moscow and had a much more European feel. St. Petersburg's founder, Peter the Great, was interested in European culture and modernizing Russia, hiring architects from western Europe help build it. A funny side note about Peter the Great: after traveling through western Europe and noticing that beards had grown out of fashion, he ordered men in Russia to shave their beards and even created a tax on beards in 1705. Anyways, we of course went to the Hermitage Museum and spent a few hours inside. It was really impressive...it used to be the winter palace of Peter the Great and is now one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world (has largest collection of paintings)...it was HUGE! We also walked around the Peter and Paul Fortress, the original fortified city of St. Petersburg. Other than that, we did a lot of walking around and enjoying the city and water views, went in a couple of cool churches, etc.
It was pretty interesting traveling through Russia as almost no one speaks English and there are very few signs with English. In Moscow, outside of our hostel, we didn't encounter anyone that spoke even one word of English, but St. Petersburg was a tiny bit more English-friendly and had a few more English signs. It was really difficult to see a totally foreign alphabet (Cyrillic) and try to remember any words or match sounds with letters. I learned the difficulties of different alphabets a bit from Greece, but there I was at least a bit familiar with the Greek alphabet from all my years of math class!
It also makes for quite a different trip traveling with all guys...they all need at leats 10 hours of sleep a night and I think noon was the earliest we managed to leave the hostel. We also had to stop and eat very often (and certainly not the healthy choices) to satisfy their hunger...but in their defense, they are big boys, 3 of them being over 6'5". Mealtimes were actually quite frustrating for me, mostly because Germans as a whole are extremely critical (they'll tell you that they are the least satisfied people in the whole world), and if the food wasn't bad then it was too expensive or wasn't enough or it took too long to get or the service was terrible. I would never travel to another country and expect to have the same kind of food I eat at home, in the same portion size, and at the same prices, with the same level of service, so all the complaining was quite a mood downer for me, but I guess it can all be chalked up to cultural differences.
Interestingly enough, less than a week after we took the train from Moscow to St. Petersburg, there was a bomb planted that resulted in 26 people dead and many more injured. While it was the day train (we took the night train), the news was quite shocking. It's thought to be a terrorist attack carried about by the "Caucasian Mujahadeen", the Islamic insurgency in North Caucasus. Another sad day for religion and humanity as a whole; maybe some day people will learn that killing innocent people can never be justified nor used as a means to power.
I was supposed to leave 2 days after getting back from Russia to go to Krakow, Poland for 5 days, but decided to stay home instead. I would have had 1.5 days of rest between Russia and Poland and then just 2 days before Kiruna and then exams right after coming home from there. So I sacrificed the $46 my round trip flight cost in order to not spend my entire last month away from Stockholm and catch up on some schoolwork.
Other than that, the weather in Stockholm has been shit. Everyone keeps saying that this was an unusually bad November, but that November is always the worst month. We only had 17.5 hours of sunlight for the entire month...quite depressing...combined with nearly constant rain or drizzle. On the few days where the sun peaked its head out, I swear the whole city was outside, faces pointed up to the sky with eyes closed and this content grin. Today we had a couple of hours of sun and I went for a nice run on my favorite trail that runs along the water through pretty trees. It also got significantly colder today, in the low 20s, and for the first time the ground was covered in frost and glistening white...it looked like some sprinkled white sparkles all over the ground!Well I'm off to Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden, on Friday. It should be very cold and I'll get to see plenty of snow. We're even going dogsledding and will hopefully get a glimpse of the northern lights!
Russia pics here
Friday, November 13, 2009
Athens Marathon
Well I completed the marathon, and it feels great to be done with it! As you probably already know, it was original course run from the town of Marathon to Athens. According to legend, a Greek soldier named Pheidippides was sent to run to the 42.195 km (26.219 miles) to Athens to proclaim the Greek victory over Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC; he declared "Nenikekamen!" ("we were victorious!") upon arrival, afterwhich he oh-so-dramatically collapsed and died from exhaustion. Luckily for me, I didn't die...although I'm sure Pheidi was running quite a bit faster than me, and not on a paved road, and not wearing modern running shoes! But how crazy to run the course exactly 2500 years later?!
Other than the marathon, Athens was pretty cool. Athens itself is pretty huge, crowded, and dirty (actually reminded me a bit of Mexico), but it was a nice change of scenery from Stockholm. The area our hostel was in was pretty happenin', and I even got to see some prostitutes and people shooting up heroine in the middle of street. But of course it was really fascinating to see landmarks like the Parthenon that are so old; it completely blows my mind trying to comprehend all the time and history that have passed and it really puts your teeny-tiney life into perspective. The 2.5 days before the race we did some sight-seeing (Acropolis, etc.), but tried to limit our walking the day before in order to rest our legs. Then we spent the day after the marathon relaxing at the beach...it was the perfect last day for the trip and such a treat to be soaking up sun and warm weather (~75degF) before going back to cold and dark Stockholm. Oh yeah, and I love Greek food, although I already knew that!
It was pouring down rain for the couple hours before the race, which was pretty miserable to be waiting in, not to mention it meant running the whole thing with wet, soggy feet. There was a light rain through maybe half of the race, but by the end the sun started shining. My perception of the race is significantly more pleasant a week removed from it, but at the time I recall it not being very fun. But it did feel really neat to be a part of it, and the whole time I was running I kept trying to motivate myself by saying "Kathryn, you are in GREECE, running the ORIGINAL marathon course, this is a once in a lifetime experience so you better keep your ass MOVING and try and make the most of it!" The route was actually not was pretty as you'd think, aside from some mountains...but let's be honest, mountains get really old after 26 miles. The course was also a lot hillier than I expected...I could have sworn I looked at the elevation map and saw that the highest grade was 2%...completely false...~km 12 to 31 were filled with hills and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were at a 20% incline. I pretty much went into the race with no idea of what to expect after all my shin problems and the fact that the longest I'd run was 12 miles a whopping 7 weeks prior. I really had no idea how my body would handle it, but I sort of had a finish time of 5 hours in my head as a goal. Not surprisingly I had to do some walking and my final time was 5 hours, 21 minutes, and 50 seconds...so not too far off. Surprisingly my shins didn't hurt at all. However, around the 12 km mark I started having some pain where the top of my hamstring connects with my butt muscle, and by the 25 km mark it was pretty bad to the point that I was mostly walking with spurts of a retarded one-legged running. So the middle part of my race (also coinciding with all the hills) consisted of quite a bit of walking. Towards the end of the race I started feeling quite a bit better and was able to get back into a more normal running pace, not sure what pumped me up...I suppose just the adrenaline of running into Athens and knowing it wasn't almost over. I actually did enjoy running the last 11 km, slightly downhill (I was SO excited once the hills were over) into Athens. The race finish was really neat - getting to run into the Panathinaiko Stadium, the white marble stadium built in 329 BC which held the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896 as well as the 2004 Olympics. Of course afterwards I felt like shit and my legs were completely dead. But after lots of water, gatorade, food, a hot shower, and a nap, I felt pretty okay. I was pretty sore for the next 2 days, but I had expected that. My time/pace results:
Kyle and Eleanor (both from UT) and Alex (a fellow KTH exchange student from Australia) also ran it and they did awesome! Their times were approximately 4:03, 4:31, and 4:06, respectively. It was Kyle's 2nd marathon and El and Alex's first marathons. It was really cool to experience it with friends and I ran with them for the first 8 or so km.
Other than the marathon, Athens was pretty cool. Athens itself is pretty huge, crowded, and dirty (actually reminded me a bit of Mexico), but it was a nice change of scenery from Stockholm. The area our hostel was in was pretty happenin', and I even got to see some prostitutes and people shooting up heroine in the middle of street. But of course it was really fascinating to see landmarks like the Parthenon that are so old; it completely blows my mind trying to comprehend all the time and history that have passed and it really puts your teeny-tiney life into perspective. The 2.5 days before the race we did some sight-seeing (Acropolis, etc.), but tried to limit our walking the day before in order to rest our legs. Then we spent the day after the marathon relaxing at the beach...it was the perfect last day for the trip and such a treat to be soaking up sun and warm weather (~75degF) before going back to cold and dark Stockholm. Oh yeah, and I love Greek food, although I already knew that!
Headed to Russia on Thursday...can't wait! In the meantime, I'll be trying to catch up/get ahead with school work.
Check out my Athens pictures here!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Prague, exams, Uppsala, Russian visa, Halloween, marathon
So Prague was wonderful. The cold and snow followed us down there, which was really nice until we had been walking around all day cold and wet. It is really a beautiful city, and I'd like to go back someday and experience it in the summertime. One of the best parts was how cheap it is compared to Stockholm (it's really not that cheap and is comparable to most of Europe), so you better believe we ate and drank like kings! For example, one evening we went to a Czech restaraunt/micro-brewery, where I consumed half of an 8-beer sampler plate (wheat, lite, dark, coffee, blueberry, banana, cherry, nettle), a giant meal, half of a yummy dessert, followed by a blueberry and a coffee beer (LOVE coffee beer, who knew my favorite morning beverage and my favorite evening beverage could be combined so well?), and I'm pretty sure my total was under $20...what a treat!
I came home from Prague to exam week, and had to jump right into studying. I just had one test for my Renewable Energy Technology class, but there was so much information to learn/memorize. Just to give you an idea of the ridiculousness, I printed out appoximately 300 pages (I know, how wrong of me to be killing trees in the name of studying sustainable energy, but I couldn't stare at the computer any longer), each one double-sided with 4 powerpoint slides per side...so if you do the math, we're talking about 2400 powerpoint slides worth of information! On the bright side, that class and another are finished, which leaves me with just 2 classes for the 2nd period (semester is divided into 2 periods).
In celebration of our exam being over, me and 2 of my roommates (who were also in the above class) decided to take make a spontaneous road trip to Uppsala, which is the 4th largest city in Sweden at 145K residents and it also happens to be just 70 km from Stockholm. It was a short trip (arrived around 4:30 pm and left around 11 pm), but we did some walking around and soaked in its quaintness and ended the night with dinner and drinks. Uppsala is also home to a beautiful cathedral, one of the largest in northern Europe that was built in 1425. By the way, only in an old Swedish cathedral can you donate with a credit card (the machine would have accepted up to $10,000...if only I were more charitable)!
In other news, it looks like I'll be headed to Russia for a week-long trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg...I'm quite excited! If you ever want to plan a trip to Russia, be warned that getting a tourist visa (yes, you need a tourist visa to get in) is a nightmare. Aside from the expected visa application, photo, passport, you also need a "visa support letter" and a "tourist voucher" from an authorized Russian travel agency inviting you to come (i.e. pay a travel agency to do this). But the real kicker is that you have to have fully paid for your accomodations before you can get a visa, which is really difficult because it's standard for hostels to take a 10% deposit for a reservation and you don't pay the other 90% until arrival (and of course they could still deny you a visa after paying for your entire trip). According to the internet, obtaining a Russian tourist visa in Sweden has become extremely difficult since we got a new consulate in 2006 who is "looking for spies". On my second trip to the Russian embassy last week (because my first visa support letter was "not specific enough"), their Russian security guard recognized me and actually told me it's so difficult here in Sweden that I'd be better of going to Finland (overnight ferry) to get a visa from their Russian embassy instead (generally not a good sign when their own employee is telling you to go elsewhere!). But anyways, after a few visits to the Russian embassy here they finally accepted my paperwork, and I got my visa this morning! All in all this visa bullshit set me back $200 and caused quite a bit of stress with having to make sure I got my passport back in time for my flight to Greece...who knew planning a vacation would be the most stressful part of studying abroad?
Update on running: Countdown to Athens Marathon: 4 days (HOLY SHIT!). Flying out bright and early on Thursday morning. I ran again last Sunday, after taking 11 whole days off from running in hopes of ridding me of those terrible shin splints. I've run a few times since, just 3-6 miles at a time, and am happy to report that my shin splints are mostly gone. I can still feel a little pain, but nothing like it was before. The bigger issue now is a huge loss of strength in my muscles since I've basically done very little training in the last 6 weeks (no long runs). My legs felt fatigued from just 6 miles, so I certainly don't have the muscle strength I had even 6 weeks ago when I was able to run 12 miles fairly easily. So I've accepted the fact that, unless a Greek god bestows a miracle on me during the race, I'm not in the shape I need to be in to run all 26.2 miles (unfortunately there is no half-marathon or I'd choose to drop down). But I've already paid for the race and the trip, so at this point I am planning on starting the race. I'll walk when I need to and stop if my body tells me to, and just be happy with that.
Greece marks the beginning of pretty much constant travel for me until I arrive home on Dec 20:
Greece: Nov 5-10
Russia: Nov 19-25
Krakow, Poland: Nov 27-Dec 2
Kiruna (northernmost city in Sweden): early Dec?
Amsterdam: Dec 18-20
Not quite sure how I'll manage to fit in classes, schoolwork, and studying for exams...
What else? Well I celebrated my first Halloween abroad. I never realized that Halloween wasn't such a big deal in Europe (it only became really commercialized within the last 10 years or so). One of the apartments in my building had a big party, and there were actually a lot more people in costumes that I expected. Of course all the Americans I know got pretty into it, because of course drinking in costumes is so much more fun than drinking in normal clothes. I must say that figuring out a cheap, easy, quick, DIY costume is much harder away from home without all my clothes, carft supplies, local craftstores, etc. The day before Halloween I decided on the grapes, which I must say was the cheapest and easiest costume I've ever done, and might just be my favorite....a big statement for just 20 big purple balloons, safety pins, a little green felt and cardboard, glue, and a headband. However, it wasn't a very well thought out costume, and was not compatible with a crowded dance party, walking through doorways, bring a drink up to my mouth (straw was needed), using the bathroom, etc. But all in all, a very fun Halloween.
The morning after Halloween we even had a traditional Bavarian breakfast - Weisswurst Fruhstuck - which consists of white sausage, sweet mustard, pretzel, and hefeweissen beer. The parents of one my Bavarian roommate, Daniel, brought the sausages and mustard all the way from Germany when they visited this week. This was our 2nd international corridor meal; the first was a fondue night from my Swiss (French) roommate, Diane, with cheese brought from her parents on their visit to Stockholm. Luckily my mom brought me some green chili sauce when she came, and I plan on making green chili enchiladas, tortilla soup, and chips with guacamole and pineapple salsa for a Tex-Mex night...can't wait!
I came home from Prague to exam week, and had to jump right into studying. I just had one test for my Renewable Energy Technology class, but there was so much information to learn/memorize. Just to give you an idea of the ridiculousness, I printed out appoximately 300 pages (I know, how wrong of me to be killing trees in the name of studying sustainable energy, but I couldn't stare at the computer any longer), each one double-sided with 4 powerpoint slides per side...so if you do the math, we're talking about 2400 powerpoint slides worth of information! On the bright side, that class and another are finished, which leaves me with just 2 classes for the 2nd period (semester is divided into 2 periods).
In celebration of our exam being over, me and 2 of my roommates (who were also in the above class) decided to take make a spontaneous road trip to Uppsala, which is the 4th largest city in Sweden at 145K residents and it also happens to be just 70 km from Stockholm. It was a short trip (arrived around 4:30 pm and left around 11 pm), but we did some walking around and soaked in its quaintness and ended the night with dinner and drinks. Uppsala is also home to a beautiful cathedral, one of the largest in northern Europe that was built in 1425. By the way, only in an old Swedish cathedral can you donate with a credit card (the machine would have accepted up to $10,000...if only I were more charitable)!
In other news, it looks like I'll be headed to Russia for a week-long trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg...I'm quite excited! If you ever want to plan a trip to Russia, be warned that getting a tourist visa (yes, you need a tourist visa to get in) is a nightmare. Aside from the expected visa application, photo, passport, you also need a "visa support letter" and a "tourist voucher" from an authorized Russian travel agency inviting you to come (i.e. pay a travel agency to do this). But the real kicker is that you have to have fully paid for your accomodations before you can get a visa, which is really difficult because it's standard for hostels to take a 10% deposit for a reservation and you don't pay the other 90% until arrival (and of course they could still deny you a visa after paying for your entire trip). According to the internet, obtaining a Russian tourist visa in Sweden has become extremely difficult since we got a new consulate in 2006 who is "looking for spies". On my second trip to the Russian embassy last week (because my first visa support letter was "not specific enough"), their Russian security guard recognized me and actually told me it's so difficult here in Sweden that I'd be better of going to Finland (overnight ferry) to get a visa from their Russian embassy instead (generally not a good sign when their own employee is telling you to go elsewhere!). But anyways, after a few visits to the Russian embassy here they finally accepted my paperwork, and I got my visa this morning! All in all this visa bullshit set me back $200 and caused quite a bit of stress with having to make sure I got my passport back in time for my flight to Greece...who knew planning a vacation would be the most stressful part of studying abroad?
Update on running: Countdown to Athens Marathon: 4 days (HOLY SHIT!). Flying out bright and early on Thursday morning. I ran again last Sunday, after taking 11 whole days off from running in hopes of ridding me of those terrible shin splints. I've run a few times since, just 3-6 miles at a time, and am happy to report that my shin splints are mostly gone. I can still feel a little pain, but nothing like it was before. The bigger issue now is a huge loss of strength in my muscles since I've basically done very little training in the last 6 weeks (no long runs). My legs felt fatigued from just 6 miles, so I certainly don't have the muscle strength I had even 6 weeks ago when I was able to run 12 miles fairly easily. So I've accepted the fact that, unless a Greek god bestows a miracle on me during the race, I'm not in the shape I need to be in to run all 26.2 miles (unfortunately there is no half-marathon or I'd choose to drop down). But I've already paid for the race and the trip, so at this point I am planning on starting the race. I'll walk when I need to and stop if my body tells me to, and just be happy with that.
Greece marks the beginning of pretty much constant travel for me until I arrive home on Dec 20:
Greece: Nov 5-10
Russia: Nov 19-25
Krakow, Poland: Nov 27-Dec 2
Kiruna (northernmost city in Sweden): early Dec?
Amsterdam: Dec 18-20
Not quite sure how I'll manage to fit in classes, schoolwork, and studying for exams...
What else? Well I celebrated my first Halloween abroad. I never realized that Halloween wasn't such a big deal in Europe (it only became really commercialized within the last 10 years or so). One of the apartments in my building had a big party, and there were actually a lot more people in costumes that I expected. Of course all the Americans I know got pretty into it, because of course drinking in costumes is so much more fun than drinking in normal clothes. I must say that figuring out a cheap, easy, quick, DIY costume is much harder away from home without all my clothes, carft supplies, local craftstores, etc. The day before Halloween I decided on the grapes, which I must say was the cheapest and easiest costume I've ever done, and might just be my favorite....a big statement for just 20 big purple balloons, safety pins, a little green felt and cardboard, glue, and a headband. However, it wasn't a very well thought out costume, and was not compatible with a crowded dance party, walking through doorways, bring a drink up to my mouth (straw was needed), using the bathroom, etc. But all in all, a very fun Halloween.
The morning after Halloween we even had a traditional Bavarian breakfast - Weisswurst Fruhstuck - which consists of white sausage, sweet mustard, pretzel, and hefeweissen beer. The parents of one my Bavarian roommate, Daniel, brought the sausages and mustard all the way from Germany when they visited this week. This was our 2nd international corridor meal; the first was a fondue night from my Swiss (French) roommate, Diane, with cheese brought from her parents on their visit to Stockholm. Luckily my mom brought me some green chili sauce when she came, and I plan on making green chili enchiladas, tortilla soup, and chips with guacamole and pineapple salsa for a Tex-Mex night...can't wait!
Oh ya, the clocks got set back an about a week ago, so now it gets dark at 4:30 PM...so strange!
New pictures:
Prague: 1-141
Stockholm (album 2): 1-112
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Vasa museum, cold weather, shin splints, etc.
Hej hej! Sorry to keep you waiting in suspense, but nothing too exciting has been happening around here. My mom was here for a week, and it was nice to see her and also spend some more time exploring all the touristy things to do in Stockholm. Oh ya and I ate a lot of really good food and drank a lot of good alcohol (Thanks again, Mom!). One of the things I enjoyed most was walking around Sodermalm (the south island). It used to be where all the working class and poor people lived, but is now a very young and trendy area (think East Village in NYC). I've been there many times at night (where most of the bars and clubs are), but I thoroughly enjoyed exploring it in the daylight and sober.
One of my favorite things we saw was the Vasa museum. I must say it was the coolest museum I have ever been in, and I'm pretty sure I could have spent an entire day in there...So now for a brief history lesson on the Vasa: it was Swedish King's pride and joy; a huge warship built in the 17th century. Unfortunately it sank on its maiden voyage, not even making it out of Stockholm's harbor(oopsies). It sat underwater for the next 333 years, but stayed extremely well preserved; the cold temperature and low salinity of the Baltic as well as the high levels of toxic pollutants in the harbor at the time meant the organisms that normally breakdown wood couldn't survive. In 1961 the ship was lifted out of the water and began undergoing a very extensive conservation process that included spraying it with a chemical multiple times a day for the next 17 years, followed by 9 years of drying. For me learning about the whole conservation process was the most interesting part, because no one had ever really done this before. They're still learning about better ways to preserve/treat the wood, and the conservation efforts are an on-going process (any of you mechanical or chemical engineers out there interested in material science, jump on that!). So anyways, a permanent museum built around the ship opened in 1990...of which I took way too many pictures, but you should check them out.
Hmm what else? Oh ya, there's this little thing called cold weather, and it is a bitch. Highs around 40, lows around 30, and don't forget to throw lots of wind and rain in the mix for added fun. Not quite sure how I'll manage to make it through December...
And since I've started ranting, I'm going to move on to shin splints. I've had shin splints for about the last 3 weeks now, which has really screwed up my marathon training. One month ago I was able to run 12 miles, and now I can barely run 2 without terrible pain...all of my recent runs have turned into long walks, and even walking can be painful, especially right after a run. If I were on track with my training, I'd supposed to peak with a 20 mile run in about week and a half, which will clearly not happen. For now I'm taking a whole week off in hopes that my shin splints magically disappear, and then I'll see how it goes from there.
Moving on to better news, I leave for Prague tomorrow morning! It will be a short trip (Wed to Fri), but I'm really looking forward to it.
New pictures: 304-493
Oh yes, and if you are out there reading my blog, you should comment! It'd be nice to know I'm not just writing to myself!
One of my favorite things we saw was the Vasa museum. I must say it was the coolest museum I have ever been in, and I'm pretty sure I could have spent an entire day in there...So now for a brief history lesson on the Vasa: it was Swedish King's pride and joy; a huge warship built in the 17th century. Unfortunately it sank on its maiden voyage, not even making it out of Stockholm's harbor(oopsies). It sat underwater for the next 333 years, but stayed extremely well preserved; the cold temperature and low salinity of the Baltic as well as the high levels of toxic pollutants in the harbor at the time meant the organisms that normally breakdown wood couldn't survive. In 1961 the ship was lifted out of the water and began undergoing a very extensive conservation process that included spraying it with a chemical multiple times a day for the next 17 years, followed by 9 years of drying. For me learning about the whole conservation process was the most interesting part, because no one had ever really done this before. They're still learning about better ways to preserve/treat the wood, and the conservation efforts are an on-going process (any of you mechanical or chemical engineers out there interested in material science, jump on that!). So anyways, a permanent museum built around the ship opened in 1990...of which I took way too many pictures, but you should check them out.
Hmm what else? Oh ya, there's this little thing called cold weather, and it is a bitch. Highs around 40, lows around 30, and don't forget to throw lots of wind and rain in the mix for added fun. Not quite sure how I'll manage to make it through December...
And since I've started ranting, I'm going to move on to shin splints. I've had shin splints for about the last 3 weeks now, which has really screwed up my marathon training. One month ago I was able to run 12 miles, and now I can barely run 2 without terrible pain...all of my recent runs have turned into long walks, and even walking can be painful, especially right after a run. If I were on track with my training, I'd supposed to peak with a 20 mile run in about week and a half, which will clearly not happen. For now I'm taking a whole week off in hopes that my shin splints magically disappear, and then I'll see how it goes from there.
Moving on to better news, I leave for Prague tomorrow morning! It will be a short trip (Wed to Fri), but I'm really looking forward to it.
New pictures: 304-493
Oh yes, and if you are out there reading my blog, you should comment! It'd be nice to know I'm not just writing to myself!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
