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