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!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
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!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Autumn in Stockholm
Nothing too exciting has been going on here, except that I am experiencing my very first Autumn! It really hit me last weekend when I was on a run...it was really windy and leaves were falling like crazy. Aside from it getting colder (lows in the mid-to-upper 30s) and darker (there are 5 minutes less light each day), it's really pretty to see all the leaves changing colors.
Yesterday I spent the day with El and Kyle (2 of the other UT students here) at Bornsjön natureservat, a nature reserve southwest of Stockholm. The bus stopped at Salem Kyrka, a really old church built in like 1100. We walked around there a bit and then headed down the road to the nature reserve. Then we just spent the day just hiking and wondering through nature, and the perfect sunny and cool weather made it all the more enjoyable. In the middle of the reserve are large rock mounds that are actually graves from between 500 BC and 500 AD, where the inhabitants were cremated together and then buried under massive piles of granite...crazy stuff.
Oh ya and I obviously didn't end up going to Dublin for a half-marathon this weekend as you may remember me mentioning; flights just turned out to be too expensive. But here's an update on my semester travel plans: so far I've got a trip to Prague planned in mid-October, a week-long roadtrip in late October to the northernmost city in Sweden to see the northern lights, Greece/marathon plans in the works for early November, and also hoping to get in weekend trips to Copenhagen and/or Oslo in late November. Then I'll be flying home through Amsterdam so I'll spend a couple of days there as my last big hoorah. And mark your calendars - I arrive back in Austin at 10:45 pm on Sunday, December 20th!
My mom arrives here tomorrow morning and will stay for a week, so it will be nice to see her and do some more touristy things that I haven't really done since first arriving.
New pictures: 252 - 303
Yesterday I spent the day with El and Kyle (2 of the other UT students here) at Bornsjön natureservat, a nature reserve southwest of Stockholm. The bus stopped at Salem Kyrka, a really old church built in like 1100. We walked around there a bit and then headed down the road to the nature reserve. Then we just spent the day just hiking and wondering through nature, and the perfect sunny and cool weather made it all the more enjoyable. In the middle of the reserve are large rock mounds that are actually graves from between 500 BC and 500 AD, where the inhabitants were cremated together and then buried under massive piles of granite...crazy stuff.
Oh ya and I obviously didn't end up going to Dublin for a half-marathon this weekend as you may remember me mentioning; flights just turned out to be too expensive. But here's an update on my semester travel plans: so far I've got a trip to Prague planned in mid-October, a week-long roadtrip in late October to the northernmost city in Sweden to see the northern lights, Greece/marathon plans in the works for early November, and also hoping to get in weekend trips to Copenhagen and/or Oslo in late November. Then I'll be flying home through Amsterdam so I'll spend a couple of days there as my last big hoorah. And mark your calendars - I arrive back in Austin at 10:45 pm on Sunday, December 20th!
My mom arrives here tomorrow morning and will stay for a week, so it will be nice to see her and do some more touristy things that I haven't really done since first arriving.
New pictures: 252 - 303
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
more videos of international student sing-a-longs
My german roommates singing a german Karnival song
And again...
Meet Miguel from Portugal and Sebastian from Germany, two students that live in my apartment complex. We were headed out to a bar (they'd already had quite a bit to drink) and they really wanted to sing Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back", but were unable to remember any words. I tried to teach them the first two lines, and this is the best they could do. (I also had to explain what the phrase "when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waste and a round thing in your face you get sprung" means). They now have the lyrics to the whole song taped to their kitchen wall, in hopes of learning it better.
And I have two more that it's not letting me post for some reason; maybe i'll try again later.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Hello!
I've been trying to enjoy the nice weather while it still lasts (last week was exceptionally nice), but of course the nicest weather mostly comes out when I'm in class. Last Thursday was especially sunny, so after I got out of class around 5, a few of my roommates and I went explore a nearby park we hadn't been to yet. It was really nice and we walked a bit through some trails along the water and then settled in a sunny spot of grass with a bottle of wine and a soccer ball. Saturday was also nice, so I packed a sandwich, apple, and tomato, grabbed a book, and headed out to find somewhere nice to picnic and read that I hadn't been. I first went to a nice square called Karlaplan, sat around its big fountain, and people watched for a few minutes. Then I headed to a park nearby in search of some nice grass, and sure enough, I found the perfect spot! I ate my picnic lunch and read (laying in the grass under the sun = the ideal reading conditions) for an hour or so . Then the sun went away and I started to get a bit chilly, so I moved over to a little open cafe in the park and cozied up in one of their complementary blankets to continue my reading with a coffee and kanelbulle (famous Swedish cinnamon roll)...perfect Saturday afternoon!
Friday night a big group went out to celebrate the 21st birthday of one of the students in my building, Adam from Seattle. We went to a club, which was my first time here in Stockholm because they usually charge a pretty hefty cover to get in. After the cover charge (~$18 USD) and 3 beers (~$24 USD), my wallet was not very happy, but we had a great time dancing so at least the money was well spent!
On Sunday I went with one of my roommates, Daniel, to an amusement park in Stockholm called Grona Lund. It was the last day open for the season, so it was pretty packed with cute little blonde children. It's right on the water, and so there are great views of the city from on top of the rides (if I wasn't so chicken I would have tried to take some pictures while I was up there). The weather wasn't very nice, and we got rained on a bit, but it was still fun...I don't think I'd been on a roller coaster in at least 5 years! We followed the day with a yummy dinner at...can you believe it...a restaurant! Because restaurants here are so expensive (but food at the grocery store is pretty equivalent to US prices), I usually cook at home; after almost 4 weeks in Stockholm, I actually hadn't eaten a real meal at a real restaurant. So I treated myself to a beer and a classic Swedish dish, pytt i panna (a hash of meat, onions, and potatoes)...cost me approx. $30 USD but it was pretty tasty!
CLASSES: I ended up dropping one of my courses, which freed up my schedule a bit. It was the equivalent of a class I took at UT last year, and so I decided that since I was getting no credit and learning nothing new, it wasn't worth the time. I took great pleasure in crossing out 6 hours of lecture a week from my class schedule...hooray! Last night I had my second Swedish language course. It's been good so far, it just stinks that it's from 5-9PM every Monday evening, so it's a bit hard to stay focused for 4 whole hours (especially during dinner time). Writing and reading Swedish is really not too difficult because there aren't very many grammar rules and many of the words are similar to either English or German. However, pronunciation is a whole different story! You would never guess that what is written is the same as what you hear because they drop the ends of a bunch of words so it all runs together, have a very specific intonations and rhythm when speaking, etc. In general, it is also difficult for English speakers to say a couple of the vowel sounds (I can hear the subtle difference if my teacher says them, but I can't make them myself). So all in all, it's great to finally be learning some Swedish vocabulary, but I don't have any expectations of being able to have an actual conversation with a native Swede on the street (also EVERY Swede speaks perfect English, and I've heard they will immediately switch to English so it's not so easy to practice conversation). Oh yeah, and I still haven't met a single Swedish person (everyone I interact with in my classes and in my building are international students), so that also makes it more difficult! Therefore,
SLEEP: My sleep schedule here is really screwed up. And the fact that my class schedule changes every day/week, is making it even more difficult to get into a normal sleep routine. But the real root of the problem is that on any given night, at least one of my 8 roommates will be in the mood to drink, and I just don't have the self control to not join in on the fun. I've spent more than one school night up until 6AM, then will go to bed at 9PM on the next night, etc. So...
I've been trying to enjoy the nice weather while it still lasts (last week was exceptionally nice), but of course the nicest weather mostly comes out when I'm in class. Last Thursday was especially sunny, so after I got out of class around 5, a few of my roommates and I went explore a nearby park we hadn't been to yet. It was really nice and we walked a bit through some trails along the water and then settled in a sunny spot of grass with a bottle of wine and a soccer ball. Saturday was also nice, so I packed a sandwich, apple, and tomato, grabbed a book, and headed out to find somewhere nice to picnic and read that I hadn't been. I first went to a nice square called Karlaplan, sat around its big fountain, and people watched for a few minutes. Then I headed to a park nearby in search of some nice grass, and sure enough, I found the perfect spot! I ate my picnic lunch and read (laying in the grass under the sun = the ideal reading conditions) for an hour or so . Then the sun went away and I started to get a bit chilly, so I moved over to a little open cafe in the park and cozied up in one of their complementary blankets to continue my reading with a coffee and kanelbulle (famous Swedish cinnamon roll)...perfect Saturday afternoon!
Friday night a big group went out to celebrate the 21st birthday of one of the students in my building, Adam from Seattle. We went to a club, which was my first time here in Stockholm because they usually charge a pretty hefty cover to get in. After the cover charge (~$18 USD) and 3 beers (~$24 USD), my wallet was not very happy, but we had a great time dancing so at least the money was well spent!
On Sunday I went with one of my roommates, Daniel, to an amusement park in Stockholm called Grona Lund. It was the last day open for the season, so it was pretty packed with cute little blonde children. It's right on the water, and so there are great views of the city from on top of the rides (if I wasn't so chicken I would have tried to take some pictures while I was up there). The weather wasn't very nice, and we got rained on a bit, but it was still fun...I don't think I'd been on a roller coaster in at least 5 years! We followed the day with a yummy dinner at...can you believe it...a restaurant! Because restaurants here are so expensive (but food at the grocery store is pretty equivalent to US prices), I usually cook at home; after almost 4 weeks in Stockholm, I actually hadn't eaten a real meal at a real restaurant. So I treated myself to a beer and a classic Swedish dish, pytt i panna (a hash of meat, onions, and potatoes)...cost me approx. $30 USD but it was pretty tasty!
CLASSES: I ended up dropping one of my courses, which freed up my schedule a bit. It was the equivalent of a class I took at UT last year, and so I decided that since I was getting no credit and learning nothing new, it wasn't worth the time. I took great pleasure in crossing out 6 hours of lecture a week from my class schedule...hooray! Last night I had my second Swedish language course. It's been good so far, it just stinks that it's from 5-9PM every Monday evening, so it's a bit hard to stay focused for 4 whole hours (especially during dinner time). Writing and reading Swedish is really not too difficult because there aren't very many grammar rules and many of the words are similar to either English or German. However, pronunciation is a whole different story! You would never guess that what is written is the same as what you hear because they drop the ends of a bunch of words so it all runs together, have a very specific intonations and rhythm when speaking, etc. In general, it is also difficult for English speakers to say a couple of the vowel sounds (I can hear the subtle difference if my teacher says them, but I can't make them myself). So all in all, it's great to finally be learning some Swedish vocabulary, but I don't have any expectations of being able to have an actual conversation with a native Swede on the street (also EVERY Swede speaks perfect English, and I've heard they will immediately switch to English so it's not so easy to practice conversation). Oh yeah, and I still haven't met a single Swedish person (everyone I interact with in my classes and in my building are international students), so that also makes it more difficult! Therefore,
semester goal #1: befriend a real Swedish person (but frankly, I'd settle for even meet/have a conversation with)
SLEEP: My sleep schedule here is really screwed up. And the fact that my class schedule changes every day/week, is making it even more difficult to get into a normal sleep routine. But the real root of the problem is that on any given night, at least one of my 8 roommates will be in the mood to drink, and I just don't have the self control to not join in on the fun. I've spent more than one school night up until 6AM, then will go to bed at 9PM on the next night, etc. So...
semester goal #2: stop drinking and go to bed at a reasonable time (on school nights)!
Well that's enough goal setting for now, and I'm sure you'd rather just view my new pictures (#217-251). And for a special treat, here are some videos from Friday night, complete with singing Germans and Portugese!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
a Hell-uva-Sinki good time!
I got back from Helsinki this morning...fun trip. Helsinki itself is no Stockholm (much smaller and less beautiful), but I suppose any European city is nice to see compared to a U.S. city. We mostly just walked around and explored, ate lunch, went to an open air market for some delish homeade dessert, and ended the day at a beautiful park overlooking the city. I must say that Helsinki was eerily quiet...it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and there were almost no people walking around except for on the main street...very strange! View my pictures of Helsinki here
The ship ride was an experience in itself (I've never been on a cruise or anything), and we had a pretty good time partying the first night with the many other KTH students that also went on the trip. We ended up drinking a bottle of wine each, and singing karaoke (even funnier with a bunch of international students that speak a variety of languages). A big reason people go on these things is to shop at the tax-free store on the ship, where you can get things significantly cheaper than in Stockholm (Sweden has a 25% sales tax). Alcohol is especially cheap, because it can only be sold in Systembologet stores in Sweden (the Swedish government's alcohol monopoly); only beer with very low alcohol content (< 3.5%) can be bought in normal stores. So, as you can imagine, most students walked off the ship with the maximum allowed alcohol per person...1 liter of liquor, two 24-packs of (real) beer, and 6 bottles of wine...hopefully it lasts awhile!
Unfortunately, I think I'm getting sick - I've had a bit of a sore throat the last couple of days, and this morning when I woke up it was much worse. Something has been spreading through my apartment (6 of my roommates are/have been sick, and several others in the complex) for the last week or so, and it looks like it's finally my turn. One of my roommates went to the hospital yesterday to see what it was/get medicine, and it seems he has a sinus infection. I'm fixing to run to the store to get some soup, pudding, fluids, etc...hopefully it doesn't last too long, and hopefully it's not the swine flu!
Oh and I'm also not looking forward to this week because I have a report and presentation due to tomorrow and I also start my language class...Monday through Thursday is packed with 30 hours of lectures alone (tomorrow I have classes straight from 10 am to 9 pm, with just an hour break for lunch).
The ship ride was an experience in itself (I've never been on a cruise or anything), and we had a pretty good time partying the first night with the many other KTH students that also went on the trip. We ended up drinking a bottle of wine each, and singing karaoke (even funnier with a bunch of international students that speak a variety of languages). A big reason people go on these things is to shop at the tax-free store on the ship, where you can get things significantly cheaper than in Stockholm (Sweden has a 25% sales tax). Alcohol is especially cheap, because it can only be sold in Systembologet stores in Sweden (the Swedish government's alcohol monopoly); only beer with very low alcohol content (< 3.5%) can be bought in normal stores. So, as you can imagine, most students walked off the ship with the maximum allowed alcohol per person...1 liter of liquor, two 24-packs of (real) beer, and 6 bottles of wine...hopefully it lasts awhile!
Unfortunately, I think I'm getting sick - I've had a bit of a sore throat the last couple of days, and this morning when I woke up it was much worse. Something has been spreading through my apartment (6 of my roommates are/have been sick, and several others in the complex) for the last week or so, and it looks like it's finally my turn. One of my roommates went to the hospital yesterday to see what it was/get medicine, and it seems he has a sinus infection. I'm fixing to run to the store to get some soup, pudding, fluids, etc...hopefully it doesn't last too long, and hopefully it's not the swine flu!
Oh and I'm also not looking forward to this week because I have a report and presentation due to tomorrow and I also start my language class...Monday through Thursday is packed with 30 hours of lectures alone (tomorrow I have classes straight from 10 am to 9 pm, with just an hour break for lunch).
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Bike trip
Hello, it's me again!
On Sunday a big group of us took a ferry out to an island south of Stockholm, called Utö. There we rented bikes and spent a wonderful 8 hours on the island. The weather was nice, and it was such a beautiful ride along the water, through trees, past cute little houses, and we even saw some sheep! We packed a picnic and hiked up a hill for lunch and then ended at beach where 3 people were actually brave enough to jump in the freezing water. On the ride back, my bike broke, and after putting the chain back on 3 times in less than 5 minutes, we ended up calling the bike rental place and they drove me out a new one. The delay was going to cause us to miss the ferry we had planned to take back, so most of the group left but 5 of us stayed behind and waited 2 more hours for the next one. But in the end it turned out better, because we ended up at a cafe on the water, enjoying an after biking beer and snack and just sitting and talking in the sun. What a perfect Sunday!
On Friday afternoon, I'll leave on overnight ferry to Helsinki, Finland. We'll arrive on Saturday morning and then leave Saturday evening to be back in Stockholm by Sunday morning, so it will be a short trip, but I'm looking forward to it (AND the ferry is only costing me 180 kronor ~= $25!).
In other news, marathon training hadn't been going so well (i.e. I hadn't been able to get back into training mode and actually train). But I decided to turn it all around September 1st and ran 8 miles yesterday and 10 miles today (very slowly, but 10 nonetheless), so I'm back on track I hope! We're planning on going to Dublin for a long weekend in late September...so far the itinerary includes a half-marathon on the 26th and a tour the Guiness brewery (in that order, I hope).
New pictures: 187-216
On Sunday a big group of us took a ferry out to an island south of Stockholm, called Utö. There we rented bikes and spent a wonderful 8 hours on the island. The weather was nice, and it was such a beautiful ride along the water, through trees, past cute little houses, and we even saw some sheep! We packed a picnic and hiked up a hill for lunch and then ended at beach where 3 people were actually brave enough to jump in the freezing water. On the ride back, my bike broke, and after putting the chain back on 3 times in less than 5 minutes, we ended up calling the bike rental place and they drove me out a new one. The delay was going to cause us to miss the ferry we had planned to take back, so most of the group left but 5 of us stayed behind and waited 2 more hours for the next one. But in the end it turned out better, because we ended up at a cafe on the water, enjoying an after biking beer and snack and just sitting and talking in the sun. What a perfect Sunday!
On Friday afternoon, I'll leave on overnight ferry to Helsinki, Finland. We'll arrive on Saturday morning and then leave Saturday evening to be back in Stockholm by Sunday morning, so it will be a short trip, but I'm looking forward to it (AND the ferry is only costing me 180 kronor ~= $25!).
In other news, marathon training hadn't been going so well (i.e. I hadn't been able to get back into training mode and actually train). But I decided to turn it all around September 1st and ran 8 miles yesterday and 10 miles today (very slowly, but 10 nonetheless), so I'm back on track I hope! We're planning on going to Dublin for a long weekend in late September...so far the itinerary includes a half-marathon on the 26th and a tour the Guiness brewery (in that order, I hope).
New pictures: 187-216
Thursday, August 27, 2009
because I know everyone was dying to see my "flat"...
...see pics 178 -186 of my Stockholm album
The most exciting thing that happened today was...wait for it...instead of going to my afternoon class...
...I went to the Stockholm public library, got my very own library card, and checked out 3 books...yeah! And then I went for a nice run with El and Kyle (the 2 other UT students training for the marathon).
6 hours of class tomorrow, but then the weekend!
The most exciting thing that happened today was...wait for it...instead of going to my afternoon class...
...I went to the Stockholm public library, got my very own library card, and checked out 3 books...yeah! And then I went for a nice run with El and Kyle (the 2 other UT students training for the marathon).
6 hours of class tomorrow, but then the weekend!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
canoing :) school :(
Hello again!
On Sunday a group of 12 of us took a bus about 30 minutes outside of Stockholm to a little place to rent canoes. We spent 5 or 6 hours out on the water, and it was absolutely amazing! It was perfect weather, too! The water is too cold for swimming (I know its hard to Texans to imagine being on a boat all day and NOT wanting to jump in the water), at least for us non-Swedes (there were plenty of Swedes of all ages splashing around). The scenery was just amazing, and we stopped off at a tiny little island to eat the sandwiches and such we brought. You can see new pictures added to my Stockholm album, pictures 152-177.
So after a wonderful Sunday, I woke up early Monday morning to meet with my KTH exchange coordinator to figure out this course registration nonsense. During creating a class schedule, we found out that classes actually started that day. Our exchange coordinator was also surprised since classes don't officially start until Friday and most not until next Monday, and said that our professors must have got special permission to start class early (lucky us!). So completely unprepared for classes both physically (I only brought one pen and a tiny notepad with me to Stockholm) and mentally (Wait a minute, I'm supposed to have another week of exploring Stockholm!), I started my classes. We (the 4 UT students) ended up leaving halfway through the first lecture because a lot of it was just orientation stuff that applied to the students actually doing the 2 year masters program. Yesterday we had a 3 hour thermodynamics review (the teacher was as entertaining as possible, but the material is boring) and today we were supposed to have a 4 hour heat transfer review. We left after 2 hours because both the teacher and the material was boring, and anyways they gave us the notes and will post the lecture online. So anyways, not off to a great start school-wise, but hopefully I'll get out of the these-classes-are-ruining-my-vacation mindset soon and the lectures will start getting more interesting following the review material.
Last night the international student association arranged a movie night to go see Tarantino's new movie, Inglourious Basterds. It was in English with Swedish subtitles, which doesn't sound like a problem until you consider that about 1/4 of the film was in French (with Swedish subtitles), and 1/3 of it was in German (with Swedish subtitles). So aside from a very small percentage of the German, I only able to understand the parts that were in English. It was interesting, but I'd really like to see it again with English subtitles. After that, Kyle, Eric, and I (UT students minus the other girl El) went and ate at a Kebab restaraunt near the theater. Then I returned home to lots of drinking Germans, and it's difficult to not join lots of drinking Germans. It started with a couple of innocent beers, and turned into shots of Jagermeister (of course a second bottle had to be opened, an off brand to compare with the name brand). Needless to say, living with Germans for over 4 months is going to greatly increase my alcohol tolerance. I also live with the perfect stereotype of a German engineer, who everyone lovingly calls "Papa" because he is like our apartment father; he organizes "family" meetings to discuss how to sort the trash (we have like 8 categories to sort it in) and how to keep the apartment clean (he created a rotating weekly chore chart, in excel of course), and he also organized our canoe trip last weekend. And did I mention he has the strongest German accent I've ever heard and looks so German...ahh funny stuff.
Hmmm...what else is going on...the other girl from UT, El, is planning a boat trip on Sunday out to an island, which should be fun. And we've got trip planning in the works to Helsinki, Finland the weekend after next. I guess that's it for now.
On Sunday a group of 12 of us took a bus about 30 minutes outside of Stockholm to a little place to rent canoes. We spent 5 or 6 hours out on the water, and it was absolutely amazing! It was perfect weather, too! The water is too cold for swimming (I know its hard to Texans to imagine being on a boat all day and NOT wanting to jump in the water), at least for us non-Swedes (there were plenty of Swedes of all ages splashing around). The scenery was just amazing, and we stopped off at a tiny little island to eat the sandwiches and such we brought. You can see new pictures added to my Stockholm album, pictures 152-177.
So after a wonderful Sunday, I woke up early Monday morning to meet with my KTH exchange coordinator to figure out this course registration nonsense. During creating a class schedule, we found out that classes actually started that day. Our exchange coordinator was also surprised since classes don't officially start until Friday and most not until next Monday, and said that our professors must have got special permission to start class early (lucky us!). So completely unprepared for classes both physically (I only brought one pen and a tiny notepad with me to Stockholm) and mentally (Wait a minute, I'm supposed to have another week of exploring Stockholm!), I started my classes. We (the 4 UT students) ended up leaving halfway through the first lecture because a lot of it was just orientation stuff that applied to the students actually doing the 2 year masters program. Yesterday we had a 3 hour thermodynamics review (the teacher was as entertaining as possible, but the material is boring) and today we were supposed to have a 4 hour heat transfer review. We left after 2 hours because both the teacher and the material was boring, and anyways they gave us the notes and will post the lecture online. So anyways, not off to a great start school-wise, but hopefully I'll get out of the these-classes-are-ruining-my-vacation mindset soon and the lectures will start getting more interesting following the review material.
Last night the international student association arranged a movie night to go see Tarantino's new movie, Inglourious Basterds. It was in English with Swedish subtitles, which doesn't sound like a problem until you consider that about 1/4 of the film was in French (with Swedish subtitles), and 1/3 of it was in German (with Swedish subtitles). So aside from a very small percentage of the German, I only able to understand the parts that were in English. It was interesting, but I'd really like to see it again with English subtitles. After that, Kyle, Eric, and I (UT students minus the other girl El) went and ate at a Kebab restaraunt near the theater. Then I returned home to lots of drinking Germans, and it's difficult to not join lots of drinking Germans. It started with a couple of innocent beers, and turned into shots of Jagermeister (of course a second bottle had to be opened, an off brand to compare with the name brand). Needless to say, living with Germans for over 4 months is going to greatly increase my alcohol tolerance. I also live with the perfect stereotype of a German engineer, who everyone lovingly calls "Papa" because he is like our apartment father; he organizes "family" meetings to discuss how to sort the trash (we have like 8 categories to sort it in) and how to keep the apartment clean (he created a rotating weekly chore chart, in excel of course), and he also organized our canoe trip last weekend. And did I mention he has the strongest German accent I've ever heard and looks so German...ahh funny stuff.
Hmmm...what else is going on...the other girl from UT, El, is planning a boat trip on Sunday out to an island, which should be fun. And we've got trip planning in the works to Helsinki, Finland the weekend after next. I guess that's it for now.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
First days in Stockholm
So first of all, I LOVE this city. My pictures (see link at end of post) really don't do it justice. It is really beautiful with water everywhere (it is made up of several islands, with approximately 30,000 more included in it's archipelago).
So after Berlin, Meike and I flew to Stockholm. The first day was a bit of a weather shock, after coming from the very hot and sunny Berlin, as it was pretty chilly (high in the mid-sixties), windy, and rainy. But since then the weather has been really nice, hot and sunny during the day, but much colder at night.
I live in a pretty central part of the city, which is nice, although I actually haven't done much exploring of the area around my university. There is a subway stop for my university, and is only 2 stops from the central subway station. The subway system is pretty easy to navigate, as there are just 3 colored lines that meet up in the central station. My dorm is on-campus (~10 min walk to the subway stop) and is really nice. I've heard I got pretty lucky to be living here (housing is assigned randomly). It's a huge apartment (one floor of the building) that has 8 rooms in it, each with it's own bathroom. In the middle is a large shared kitchen, dining table, couch, and laundry room. Eventually I'll take some pictures of my place. I really like my roommates so far, and it's neat to be with all international students. I live with 4 German guys (Germans are seriously everywhere), a Swiss girl, a Japanese guy, and a Latvian guy. Most of them arrived 2 weeks before me, so it was helpful to have people that had already done a bunch of the logistical stuff of getting settled in. One of the other 4 mechanical engineering students from UT that came here, Eric, also lives in the apartment right next door. Directly outside of my dorm is a large park with 3 different running trails, which is really convenient. After not running for nearly 2 weeks, I went running there yesterday with Diane, my Swiss roommate. Now it's time to start my training schedule to get ready for the Athens marathon on Nov. 8!
So the first 4 days I mostly did touristy stuff since Meike was here. But she left yesterday, so I'm starting to do more of the boring stuff I need to do to get settled in. I actually just found out that I wasn't registered for classes, so I'll have to take care of that on Monday. But anyways, back to this amazing city. Meike and I did an open-top bus tour our first full day, because we thought everything was more spread out and we wouldn't be able to walk to everything. But since doing it and walking around the city more, I think it's very walkable. But anyways, we saw some of the main attractions by bus, and everytime it stops we could get off and explore and just hop on the next bus. With the nice weather, walking around the city and all it's harbors was so nice (sorry if all my pics of buildings + water look the same). Gamla Stan is the island with the Old City, and was especially neat to walk around and see all the cute old buildings and narrow streets. Stockholm is also really green, and there are so many parks and areas to just sit, or nap, or have a coffee, and I plan to take full advantage of every opportunity while the weather is still nice. We also spent a whole afternoon on the island of Djurgarden (used to be the royal hunting grounds, I think), which is basically one huge park. Meike and I spent almost 3 hours walking around the edge of it along with water and it was so nice. We even stopped and ate apples and pears off the trees...yummy! There were tons of runners along the trail, and I will probably go back there soon for a run. The next day, Meike and one of my German roommates, Daniel, took a ferry out to one of the small islands, Vaxholm. It was nice, small and quiet, but nothing very special. Hmmm I'm having trouble remembering what else we've done. I've gone out to bars with my roommates and some of their friends the last two nights which has been fun, and brings me to...
...Stockholm Observation #1: this city is expensive! For example, a CHEAP beer at a bar costs around $7.50 USD. And to top it off, the exchange rate is really bad for the dollar right now. Goodbye my hard-earned savings!
Stockholm Observation #2: there are definitely a lot of tall, blonde, well-dressed Swedes here. Every baby has white-blonde hair, pretty cute! Which brings me to my next observation...
Stockholm Observation #3: babies must be the trend right now...every Swedish woman walking around is either pregnant or walking with a stroller...it's nuts! Maybe because everyone (man or woman) gets a year paid maternity leave?
And lastly, on a completely unrelated note, after I arrived I got a voicemail from the Peace Corps office. Right before I left the states I found out I got nominated, but on the voicemail they gave more information. So, pending lots of paperwork, it looks like I'll be teaching secondary math in sub-saharan Africa for 27 months, leaving August 2010. While I was hoping for Latin America, I'm really excited to learn more about Africa.
I guess that's it for now. This morning was the first time I've been able to sleep in, and I took full advantage and didn't wake up until noon. I'm planning on taking a relaxing day, and then will meet up with the other 3 UT students later this evening (the other 2 have been here since Aug 3rd and live elsewhere in the city, but I haven't seen them yet). Tomorrow there's a big group of my roommates and others renting canoes for the day, so that should be really fun...hopefully the weather cooperates!
Oh ya and view my pictures of Stockholm
So after Berlin, Meike and I flew to Stockholm. The first day was a bit of a weather shock, after coming from the very hot and sunny Berlin, as it was pretty chilly (high in the mid-sixties), windy, and rainy. But since then the weather has been really nice, hot and sunny during the day, but much colder at night.
I live in a pretty central part of the city, which is nice, although I actually haven't done much exploring of the area around my university. There is a subway stop for my university, and is only 2 stops from the central subway station. The subway system is pretty easy to navigate, as there are just 3 colored lines that meet up in the central station. My dorm is on-campus (~10 min walk to the subway stop) and is really nice. I've heard I got pretty lucky to be living here (housing is assigned randomly). It's a huge apartment (one floor of the building) that has 8 rooms in it, each with it's own bathroom. In the middle is a large shared kitchen, dining table, couch, and laundry room. Eventually I'll take some pictures of my place. I really like my roommates so far, and it's neat to be with all international students. I live with 4 German guys (Germans are seriously everywhere), a Swiss girl, a Japanese guy, and a Latvian guy. Most of them arrived 2 weeks before me, so it was helpful to have people that had already done a bunch of the logistical stuff of getting settled in. One of the other 4 mechanical engineering students from UT that came here, Eric, also lives in the apartment right next door. Directly outside of my dorm is a large park with 3 different running trails, which is really convenient. After not running for nearly 2 weeks, I went running there yesterday with Diane, my Swiss roommate. Now it's time to start my training schedule to get ready for the Athens marathon on Nov. 8!
So the first 4 days I mostly did touristy stuff since Meike was here. But she left yesterday, so I'm starting to do more of the boring stuff I need to do to get settled in. I actually just found out that I wasn't registered for classes, so I'll have to take care of that on Monday. But anyways, back to this amazing city. Meike and I did an open-top bus tour our first full day, because we thought everything was more spread out and we wouldn't be able to walk to everything. But since doing it and walking around the city more, I think it's very walkable. But anyways, we saw some of the main attractions by bus, and everytime it stops we could get off and explore and just hop on the next bus. With the nice weather, walking around the city and all it's harbors was so nice (sorry if all my pics of buildings + water look the same). Gamla Stan is the island with the Old City, and was especially neat to walk around and see all the cute old buildings and narrow streets. Stockholm is also really green, and there are so many parks and areas to just sit, or nap, or have a coffee, and I plan to take full advantage of every opportunity while the weather is still nice. We also spent a whole afternoon on the island of Djurgarden (used to be the royal hunting grounds, I think), which is basically one huge park. Meike and I spent almost 3 hours walking around the edge of it along with water and it was so nice. We even stopped and ate apples and pears off the trees...yummy! There were tons of runners along the trail, and I will probably go back there soon for a run. The next day, Meike and one of my German roommates, Daniel, took a ferry out to one of the small islands, Vaxholm. It was nice, small and quiet, but nothing very special. Hmmm I'm having trouble remembering what else we've done. I've gone out to bars with my roommates and some of their friends the last two nights which has been fun, and brings me to...
...Stockholm Observation #1: this city is expensive! For example, a CHEAP beer at a bar costs around $7.50 USD. And to top it off, the exchange rate is really bad for the dollar right now. Goodbye my hard-earned savings!
Stockholm Observation #2: there are definitely a lot of tall, blonde, well-dressed Swedes here. Every baby has white-blonde hair, pretty cute! Which brings me to my next observation...
Stockholm Observation #3: babies must be the trend right now...every Swedish woman walking around is either pregnant or walking with a stroller...it's nuts! Maybe because everyone (man or woman) gets a year paid maternity leave?
And lastly, on a completely unrelated note, after I arrived I got a voicemail from the Peace Corps office. Right before I left the states I found out I got nominated, but on the voicemail they gave more information. So, pending lots of paperwork, it looks like I'll be teaching secondary math in sub-saharan Africa for 27 months, leaving August 2010. While I was hoping for Latin America, I'm really excited to learn more about Africa.
I guess that's it for now. This morning was the first time I've been able to sleep in, and I took full advantage and didn't wake up until noon. I'm planning on taking a relaxing day, and then will meet up with the other 3 UT students later this evening (the other 2 have been here since Aug 3rd and live elsewhere in the city, but I haven't seen them yet). Tomorrow there's a big group of my roommates and others renting canoes for the day, so that should be really fun...hopefully the weather cooperates!
Oh ya and view my pictures of Stockholm
Berlin
Sorry for the delay, but I just got my internet all set up. Meike and I went to Berlin for 5 days, and it is a really cool city. It's different because even though it has a long and interesting history, it is almost entirely modern. Most of the city was completely destroyed from World War II and had to be rebuilt. It's a bit hard for me to remember now everything we did, but we started our first full day doing a walking tour of the city. It was pretty cool because we really got to see most of the touristy things by walking in 3.5 hours, and it was free (minus tipping the guide at the end)! It was nice to have a guide too, because we were able to hear a lot of the history and stories of the buildings we stopped at.
The rest of the trip is already kind of a blur, we did a ton of walking and just exploring the city. I was surprised with how much green space was in the city; there were so many nice parks and areas to just lay down in the grass. Most days we bought bread, cheese, tomatoes, etc. and just ate lunch outside somewhere nice. The weather was also really nice the whole time, sunny and it got pretty hot towards the end. We also met up with my friend Kevin, a fellow Engineers Without Borders member from UT, who had been studying architecture in Berlin over the last month. It was nice to see him and also know someone that could take us to some cool and less touristy spots of the city. One night Kevin and I went and met up with some of his friends at a Biergarten, which I suppose is a must if you come to Germany. I also had the best post-beer snack after that, a Döner kebab (kind of like a greek gyros). There is a huge Turkish immigrant population and so there are tons of cheap stands everywhere. Since I hadn't actually eaten anything traditionally German, we went to a traditional German restaraunt on our last evening there. The atmosphere was really nice, as it was in a huge open square, with tons of open cafes and people walking around. I had some kind of pork roast in a yummy sauce, potato dumplings, cabbage salad, a large beer, and ofcourse apple strudel to top it all off. It was tasty, but not something I could eat regularly! On our last day we went to a flea market in this huge park, and it had a really cool atmosphere. I didn't buy anything because I literally had no weight or space to spare in my luggage, but it was neat just wandering around and seeing the interesting mix of stuff being sold. We also took a tour of the Reichstag (German parliament building) which was pretty neat. The inside has been completely rebuilt in a modern style, with the outer shell restored in its traditional style. There is a big glass dome on top that you can walk through and get a nice view of the city.
All in all, Berlin was very cool city!
View my Berlin pictures
View my Muelheim-Kaerlich/Winningen pictures (previous post)
The rest of the trip is already kind of a blur, we did a ton of walking and just exploring the city. I was surprised with how much green space was in the city; there were so many nice parks and areas to just lay down in the grass. Most days we bought bread, cheese, tomatoes, etc. and just ate lunch outside somewhere nice. The weather was also really nice the whole time, sunny and it got pretty hot towards the end. We also met up with my friend Kevin, a fellow Engineers Without Borders member from UT, who had been studying architecture in Berlin over the last month. It was nice to see him and also know someone that could take us to some cool and less touristy spots of the city. One night Kevin and I went and met up with some of his friends at a Biergarten, which I suppose is a must if you come to Germany. I also had the best post-beer snack after that, a Döner kebab (kind of like a greek gyros). There is a huge Turkish immigrant population and so there are tons of cheap stands everywhere. Since I hadn't actually eaten anything traditionally German, we went to a traditional German restaraunt on our last evening there. The atmosphere was really nice, as it was in a huge open square, with tons of open cafes and people walking around. I had some kind of pork roast in a yummy sauce, potato dumplings, cabbage salad, a large beer, and ofcourse apple strudel to top it all off. It was tasty, but not something I could eat regularly! On our last day we went to a flea market in this huge park, and it had a really cool atmosphere. I didn't buy anything because I literally had no weight or space to spare in my luggage, but it was neat just wandering around and seeing the interesting mix of stuff being sold. We also took a tour of the Reichstag (German parliament building) which was pretty neat. The inside has been completely rebuilt in a modern style, with the outer shell restored in its traditional style. There is a big glass dome on top that you can walk through and get a nice view of the city.
All in all, Berlin was very cool city!
View my Berlin pictures
View my Muelheim-Kaerlich/Winningen pictures (previous post)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Arrival in Deutschland
Well I've been in Germany for about a day and a half now. I arrived in Frankfurt at 7:30 AM (12:30 AM Texas time) on Tuesday. Meike and her mom picked me up at the airport and we drove about an hour to where they live, a town called Muelheim-Kaerlich which is close to the city Koblenz. It was great to see them, as it has been 4 years since I've seen Meike (she came to Austin for the second time in summer '05) and 5 years since I saw her mom Gisela (I lived with them in June '04). After relaxing for a bit at their house, we headed to a nearby town called Winningen to visit a winery and have a wine tasting. This area of Germany is very famous for a kind of wine called Riesling white, made from grapes grown on the very steep slopes of the Mosel river. Winningen is very cute and quaint, and I enjoyed walking through and looking at all the buildings. We also stopped at a little cafe and had a cappucino on our walk to the winery. Here Meike's mom instructed us to act very interested in different wines, so we could taste a variety for free :). We tried 4 different wines (2 whites, 1 rose, 1 red) and all were very good. Then they showed us through the winery and we saw the barrels they stored the wine in, the grape press, etc. which was very neat because I've never been to a winery before. After that we headed home and between the wine and the lack of sleep, I was ready for a nap. When I woke up from my 2 hour nap, Meike's dad Gunter was home from work. We all sat out on their porch (they have the most beautiful Japanese-style garden I've ever seen) and chatted and then ate dinner. We had some of the wine that we bought at the winery with dinner and then Meike's dad found out that I liked beer so the beer quickly came out after dinner. I guess it is just my luck that Meike's mom is a wine connoisseur and Meike's dad is a beer connoisseur! I have no idea how much I drank, because everytime I was half way through with my glass, he filled me back up. I drank a very good dark beer, but unfortunately I can't remember the name of it at the moment. By 10:30 PM, I was feeling a bit tipsy and still very tired from my long day of traveling, and happily went to bed.
The next morning I slept in and did a bit of reading. We took the day easy, sitting on the porch and talking and then Meike and I got ready to leave at 2 pm for our flight to Berlin. We arrived in our hostel tonight around 8 pm, had some dinner, and talked about our plans for the next four days. Which brings me to right now, sitting on my laptop in the hostel bar (but no beer for me tonight). Tomorrow we plan to go to a free 3.5 hour walking tour of Berlin, which should be a great introduction to the city.
Well I was hoping to get some pictures embedded in here, but it doesn't seem to want to cooperate and my laptop is about to die, so I will try again later and a description will just have to be sufficient for now. Goodbye until next time...
The next morning I slept in and did a bit of reading. We took the day easy, sitting on the porch and talking and then Meike and I got ready to leave at 2 pm for our flight to Berlin. We arrived in our hostel tonight around 8 pm, had some dinner, and talked about our plans for the next four days. Which brings me to right now, sitting on my laptop in the hostel bar (but no beer for me tonight). Tomorrow we plan to go to a free 3.5 hour walking tour of Berlin, which should be a great introduction to the city.
Well I was hoping to get some pictures embedded in here, but it doesn't seem to want to cooperate and my laptop is about to die, so I will try again later and a description will just have to be sufficient for now. Goodbye until next time...
Monday, August 10, 2009
Welcome to my blog!
Sorry, I wish I had an exciting story to start off with, but aside from the great opportunity for people watching in O'Hare's international terminal, I'm currently extremely bored (only 2 hours into my 5 hour layover in Chicago en route to Frankfurt).
But on the bright side, I'll be in Germany very soon and in Stockholm in a week!
But on the bright side, I'll be in Germany very soon and in Stockholm in a week!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
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