...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!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
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!
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