Fall in Uppsala: Seminars, Skansen und Richmond Re-union (posted by Indira in Sweden)

October 5, 2012

I started understanding how busy it can get here at Uppsala University over the past couple of weeks. Papers, reading, assignments, seminars, and exams have all come with the first days of Fall.

On the bright side – I don’t think Uppsala could look any more beautiful than it does right now. Leaves are changing colors and the whole city looks very majestic in different shades of yellow, orange, and red. I don’t need to do anything more than just look out of my window to enjoy this beauty. When the weather allows and it is not raining (unfortunately , it doesn’t happen all too often here) taking a walk in the forest close to the accommodation area Flogsta (where I live) is very calming and true food for all senses.

Fall in Uppsala, a gorgeous scene of the changing leaves on the trees

Fall in Uppsala

With all the school work, it is not always easy to enjoy Uppsala. Just last week I experienced the Uppsala University education system to its fullest. As I wrote earlier, there are lectures and seminars, and in seminars you are in a group of about 15 students where you discuss specific questions and have tasks to complete. My seminars so far have involved writing papers, preparing a debate and preparing a presentation. This way the students do more work on their own (but professors and lecturers are always available in case one needs help) and get to work on the questions and issues they take interest in. All lecturers encourage group and pair work. I worked on all of my seminar assignments with Izabelle who is a freshman from Stockholm. I really like that I got to work with a Swede since it provided an opportunity to meet someone new, to understand more about Sweden and Swedish culture, possibly learn new Swedish words, and also create a stronger link with someone who can be seen as an insider. I enjoyed working with Izabelle and I feel like we learned a lot from each other. Actually, all of the members of my seminar group are amazing and I got to know them pretty well. Unfortunately, as soon as we became friends (and not just classmates), our course ended (this class was basically an intensive 5 week class where I had classes every day. I wrote about this “one class at the time” system earlier). Not having a class together makes it harder to see people. On Monday I had my exam and it went really well. Uppsala University has a specific building where all the exams are held so it all feels very official. It felt somewhat weird to walk out of that exam and realize that my first Government class is over.

A view of Stockholm from Skansen, a park/zoo that I recently visited in Sweden

A view of Stockholm from Skansen, a zoo/open air museum I recently visited

Classes here are not all about having loads of reading and being stuck in the classroom. My other class, Critical Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Sweden, tries to incorporate the fieldwork in the course as well. A week ago we took a class trip to Skansen, which is a mixture of a zoo and an open air museum in Stockholm. We got to see brown bears, lynx, and many other animals, but we also learned more about sustainability in Sweden throughout its history by visiting small settlements and houses built as examples of how people used to live in different parts of Sweden at different points in history (my group, for instance, had to learn more about Sami). My personal highlight was a visit to a bakery where there was a cook who makes the Knäckebrot the way it was made traditionally. One can watch and then enjoy the delicious Knäckebrot with some salted butter. Yummy!

A brown bear at Skansen, a park/zoo in Sweden

A brown bear at Skansen

Another exciting thing happened recently: I finally managed to meet with Carl-Johan (or CJ as he was known in Richmond), who was an exchange student at UR last year and who was a great support and source of information about Uppsala (in essence, he is the one who made me think about applying to Uppsala Uni in the first place and I am so glad he did since coming here was the best decision ever). We had a nice fika and it was great to talk about Richmond with someone in person (I am the only student from UR here this semester). I really enjoyed meeting him!

Now I’m eager to see what October brings and I am looking forward to my trip to Tallinn at the end of the month! 🙂

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The First 5 Days (posted by Jimmy in England)

October 3, 2012

In the words of Marv Levy, the Hall of Fame Buffalo Bills head coach, “Where else would you rather be than right here, right now?” I arrived in Oxford last Thursday and have been in awe ever since. I spent the first two nights living in a hostel (Central Backpackers) ten minutes from the center of the city. If you have never stayed in a hostel before, I highly suggest it. Being an American college student, I feel like I was ignorant to the way in which many people live. In the hostel, I met people from many different walks of life. I was only there for 48 hours, but I met people from Spain (southern and Basque regions), Norway, Germany, Greece, Columbia, China, Sweden, Mexico, India and Australia. Even though there were many different world views, we all shared one common interest. Whether we were studying at a university or traveling city to city to find jobs, we were all working towards what we thought would bring us happiness. After my two day stay in the hostel, I was able to move into my dorm in the city of Oxford. For those of you that do not know, Oxford is a mid-sized city with a population of more than 150,000. There are many shops, restaurants, and cafes that I plan on visiting during my stay. My room is located in Jesus College in the center of the city.

Second quad at Jesus College, Oxford University

Everybody in Oxford has been incredibly friendly. When I arrived a few days early, I was invited to attend two afternoon cream teas for postgraduate students. (Oxford runs on a trimester schedule. Trimesters run from 0th week-9th week. Last week was -1st week and this week is 0th week. Postgrads arrive in -1st week while undergraduates and exchange students arrive in 0th week. Classes start in 1st week. It’s a little confusing.) These cream teas were part of the postgrad orientation and were a chance for students to meet and listen to prominent speakers. The main speaker was Dr. Andrew Briggs, a professor of nanomaterials at Oxford. His research team is trying to build what is known as a ‘quantum nanocomputer’. I have spent the last few days trying to figure out what it is, but his talk had nothing to do with complex physics. He introduced an idea, one that I have seen is a common theme among the faculty at Oxford. He said, “When you mix the personal desire to learn with an environment like Oxford, magic happens. But the reason that we succeed is due to a combination of work and personal reflection. We spend one day in deep thought over life’s biggest questions. We leave our research labs and ask ‘who am I’ and ‘why does any of this matter’. An Oxford education is not simply about academics, but rather about finding out who you really are.” These cream teas were very helpful in understanding how people succeed at this university.

Being at Oxford has not been entirely about academics. One night I went with another American exchange student to the Turf Tavern. It is a famous pub where Bill Clinton frequently hung out while studying at Oxford. The next night I visited another famous pub called The Bear Inn, which was built in the late 17th century. They are famous for their collection of ties that they collect. Years ago, if you ran out of money at the pub you could cut off the end of your tie in exchange for a drink. The tradition became famous and the collection is still growing.

Tie collection at The Bear Inn

These last five days have helped me adjust to English life. I feel fully prepared to immerse myself in all that this city has to offer over the course of the next year. Today I start orientation. I will keep you all updated. Until next time, keep being great!

When the world knocks at your front door, clutch the knob tightly, open on up, and run forward and far into its widespread greeting arms with you hands outstretched before you. Fingertips trembling, though they may be.- Anis Mojgani

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Introduction: Why I am Studying Abroad (posted by Jimmy in England)

September 28, 2012

This is for all the dreamers out there.  Please take a seat; I want to tell you a story.  My name is Jimmy and I am from the best city in the world… Buffalo, New York.  I am in my third year at the University of Richmond and somehow I am about to board a plane for London.  This year I will be taking my talents to the University of Oxford.  It’s not South Beach and I am not Lebron James, but I feel just about as good as anybody that has the ability to move to Miami and play for the Heat.  (If you don’t get the corny joke, YouTube ‘Lebron James Decision’)   I am currently sitting in Dulles International Airport waiting to start a long journey that will end in late June.  Over the next 9 months, I will be studying in the Biochemistry department at Oxford.  But this post is not about the future, it’s about the past.  It’s about how I got here, an hour and a half away from starting a journey that will change my life.

It all started last December after I had finished my final exams.  I had just started the long ten hour drive from the beautiful UR campus back home to Buffalo, NY.  I like the long drives because it allows me to decompress after a challenging semester of college.  This time, I spent a good amount of the drive wondering if I had made the right decision.  Before I get to that decision let me explain one thing.  I had never wanted to study abroad.  I am a manager for our Men’s Basketball program, and never wanted to miss part of the season with the team.  The official season for college basketball runs from mid October to early April.  If I had planned to study abroad, it would have cut into half of the season because most study abroad programs run one semester.

So what was the decision? Last year I was an orientation advisor (OA).  As an OA, students help incoming freshmen get adjusted to college life.  The people that are in charge of OAs are called Orientation Leadership.  I had desperately wanted to be on the Orientation Leadership team since my freshman year.  So why, then, did I turn down the job when it was offered to me for this year?  Well that was because of a lesson that my parents taught me when I was growing up- Family comes first and everything else comes second.  Now this isn’t about my real family (Mom, Dad, Phil, Joey, and PJ) but about my other family.  Like I said, I am a manager for our Men’s Basketball program.  The players have made me one of their own and the coaches have taken me under their wing.  Outside of my parents, they have been some of the most important role models in my life.  That, to me, is family.  As Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned through life that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  The basketball team has made me feel like a part of the family and so  I denied a secure job for the potential of going on a two week tour of Italy and Switzerland with the team.  The dates for Orientation conflicted with the dates for the trip, so I couldn’t do both. To make the decision even harder, there was no guarantee that I’d actually go on the trip, seeing as we have 12 managers on the staff and three rising seniors.  By choosing the potential trip with the basketball team over the opportunity to be on the OA Leadership team, I inadvertently gave myself the opportunity to go abroad for a semester or year.  If I had taken the OA Leadership position, not only would I not have had a chance to go abroad with the basketball team, but I would not have been able to go abroad for a semester or year either, because members of the OA Leadership team commit to staying on campus for the remaining two years to help with orientation.  The thought of studying abroad would never have crossed my mind.

With all of that running through my head, I drove home.  It had been a long semester of 5.5 classes and I needed a break.  I had gotten caught up in lots of work that I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to be a college student. During winter break I decided that I needed to change something.  As Steve Jobs said in his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am going to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”   One day over winter break I received an email from the Office of International Education.  They send out tons of emails to sophomores telling them that they should study abroad.  Every time that they sent one, I deleted the message before opening it.  This time, I took a look.  I needed to change something.  After that I sat down with my parents and went through every program, crossing off schools one by one.  When I got it down to my final two choices I asked a few people which one I should choose and received lots of good advice.  All of the advice pointed towards Oxford, a full-year study abroad program, and the rest is history.

Over the next 9 months I hope to learn, grow and explore a different culture.  I hope to enjoy my time abroad and work hard to study some biochemistry.  But most importantly, I hope that this blog will inspire you to get up, go and follow your dreams.  Why waste your time doing anything else?  In the words of Coach Mooney, “You’ve got a chance to be great today kid!”  Go be it and I will talk to you soon.

“Sometimes you imagine that everything could have been different for you, that if only you had gone right one day when you chose to go left, you would be living a life you could never have anticipated. But at other times you think there was no other way forward–that you were always bound to end up exactly where you have.”

― Kevin Brockmeier, The View from the Seventh Layer

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Majestätisk Värmlands Reccegasque (posted by Indira in Sweden)

September 24, 2012

Last week was amazing! I don’t think I have ever had more fun and bonding time with my corridor-mates, as well as people from my nation.

I live on a corridor with 11 other people and we share a kitchen together. There are 4 other international students, and the rest are Swedish. Last week we decided to have a corridor dinner so that we could get to know each other and to discuss some corridor rules. This was truly an amazing idea! We all got together, cooked, and then had a nice meal. The best thing about the corridor dinner is that you get to know people in a way you can’t in class or at fika. Everyone is so much more relaxed and there is a sort of  positive vibe around them. It was fascinating to see how none of us study the same thing or have classes together (we even have few Master students), but we all get along really well. Student life in a residence here is very different than at UR, since the residence halls are not specific to any grade, group, major, or area of interest.  It would seem like all of the residents would be more disconnected as a result, however that is not the case. Sharing a kitchen and a corridor makes us more likely to hang out and to spend time together. I really enjoy this part of being an Uppsala student. And all of my corridor-mates are really great, which makes it all so much better!

Dinner with the 11 other students living on my hall

Dinner with my corridor-mates

The big part of my week was the Reccegasque I was so excited about. On Friday, we all got ready, dressed in cocktail dresses and suits and all gathered at our respective nations (each of the 13 nations had a Reccegasque at the same time). Uppsala never looked so fancy! We were very lucky to have clear skies and no rain (it rained in the morning). First we gathered at Värmlands Nation (my nation) and then we walked over to the University Main Building. There was a senior member of the nation who carried the nation’s flag and we followed him in a line. This entire ritual made me feel like a part of something bigger. The sense of community is on a really high level here. When we got to the University Main Building (which is conveniently 2 minutes away from our Nation’s house) other nations’ members were also gathering on a patio in front of the building. After about 10 minutes of waiting and chatting  with people standing around me, new nation members, lead by the flag bearer, started entering the building. We were seated in the Great Hall where we had the reception for international students. The program was amazing. We had representatives from the University and Student Union speak, and there was also an entertainment program. It all looked very majestic, especially with the classical music playing while the flag bearers entered the Hall. The weird thing was that most of the speeches were held in Swedish and I, along with all other international students, didn’t understand much. Luckily we had some Swedes around willing to help us. It was funny that there was an a capella group singing, and they performed “Levels” by Avicii. Does it get any more Swedish than this? 😀

Speeches and entertainment in the Great Hall of the University Main Building with all the nations

Speeches and entertainment, in the Great Hall of the University Main Building, as part of my first Reccegasque

After the program in the University Main Building we headed back to our Nations. There we had a looooooong dinner (5.30-10.30pm). The food was amazing (we had typical Swedish food like salmon and potatoes). Of course we sang a lot and heard a lot of speeches. There were also a few short performances by the Värmlands’ drama club and choir. The funniest thing for me was when we had to make a hat out of napkins, put them on our heads, sing a song, and then wave with the napkin after the song. For the last song of the night we had to get up on our chairs and sing. If, after the song, you sit down on your chair you will fail your exams. So we all stood a bit until the dinner was officially over. After the dinner we had an after-party in Värmlands’ own club “State of Mind” that was open to every student (not only the students who attended the Reccegasque). I really enjoyed the Gasque and I can’t wait for the next one (which is in October!). This is a great way to learn more about traditions, have a very formal dinner, and meet new people (the nation arranges the seating so you are almost never sitting next to your friends. I was lucky and had amazing table neighbors).

Waving the "hats" that we made out of napkins at the Gasque, our nations dinner

Waving our “napkin hats” at the Gasque

Uppsala is a place where you can experience so much and I am more and more sure of this every week. 🙂

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First Week of Classes, Culture Night and the Reccereception (posted by Indira in Sweden)

September 14, 2012

It seems like the semester (which ironically in Swedish actually means vacation) has officially started.

The first week of classes is over and I have to admit that it was a long week. At first I was really surprised by how the teaching system here operates in a completely different way than back at UR. Here, everyone usually takes one class at the time – basically you take one class for 5 weeks and you have that class every day – which means that you focus on only one field/area at a time. I think this is rather good approach. Right now I am taking two classes simultaneously (which is also one of the options), one in the Department of Government and the other in the Department of Sustainable Development. The way these classes run is very different. My Government class is very informal, and classes (lectures and seminars) are not mandatory, while the final exam is mandatory (of course!). There are lectures where we have about 50 students (mainly Swedish freshmen and exchange students) and seminars where there are about 15 students. During the seminars we discuss the class material, while during the lectures we simply listen to what the professor/lecturer has to say on a topic. My Sustainable Development class, on the other hand, is mandatory, but it is organized in essentially the same way as my other class (lectures and seminars). We also get a new lecturer for each class, so it’s rather dynamic and you learn from the experts in specific fields. In the beginning I was truly confused by this system, but now I understand it better. 🙂

After my last class on Friday I had a Reccereception. As a member of the Värmlands Nation I signed up for the Reccereception and Reccegaque which are basically a semi-formal and a formal dinner that help the new members (recce) get acquainted with the Nation.

Värmlands Nation's Big House in Uppsala

Värmlands Nation’s Big House

 

During the Reccereception we had a guided tour of the Nation houses and then we had a dinner. Dinner was more of a lesson for all of us newbies on how to act during the real formal Reccegasque. We learned about drinking snaps and singing songs (we even got special Songbooks so we can sing along with the Songmaster). I would say that the Reccereception was a real success and I had a lot of fun.

Crowded streets of Uppsala during the Culture Night in Sweden

Crowded streets of Uppsala during the Culture Night

Last week there was also the Culture Night here in Uppsala. All museums had free entrance and were open during the night. There were also a lot of various cultural events across town. It is very interesting to see how so many different cultures come together in such a small city like Uppsala. The streets were very crowded and everyone attended at least one event. My favorite part was the fire display. There were fire dancers who showed us their most mystical moves and kept us warm during the cold night. If you are ever in Uppsala during the Culture Night – make sure you take part in it, it is definitely worth it!

Fire Display at the Botaniska trädgården, at a cultural fair in Uppsala, Sweden

Fire Display at the Botaniska trädgården

Right now I am looking forward to the Reccegasque! I am sure it will be a blast 🙂

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Lively Uppsala: Orientation Week, Nollning, Värmlands and Aurora Borealis (posted by Indira in Sweden)

September 7, 2012

Just as I was walking to my class yesterday I noticed that the streets of Uppsala have never looked so lively. Beautiful sunny day (a rarity here nowadays), a lot of people (mainly students) on the streets, and all the different languages spoken in every corner – summarize the 5 minute walk I took from the Cathedral to the Department of Government. I was used to a calm and peaceful Uppsala and familiar faces everywhere. Well, I guess this makes it official – summer break is over and school just started!

Orientation Week was so much fun! The International Office, Student Nations and the Student Union put so much effort into making the past week as amusing as possible. Club nights, games in the park, barbecues and a crash course in “the Swedish” helped us all learn more about Sweden, but also bond with other exchange and international students. The official welcome reception held in the University Main Building was possibly the most breathtaking part of the Orientation. In the most amazing hall I’ve been to, the University’s vice chancellor, the City of Uppsala Mayor and other representatives welcomed 740 exchange and 400 international master students. One was truly able to see how majestic Sweden is!

Unfortunately, there is always something that can (slightly) ruin things, and in Sweden it’s usually the weather. Constant rain and relatively cold weather (55F) did their part and many of the exchange students got sick (including myself); but that is also a reason for more socializing. Forget about being in bed all sick, in Sweden we do ‘sick fika’ (usually coffee or tea with a cinnamon bun). I can’t help but notice that Sweden is a country where so much energy is focused on creating a cozy and warm atmosphere. I guess that is the best way to fight off the winter and darkness. 🙂

Last week was not only Orientation Week for the international students, Swedish freshmen also had a lot of fun. As far as I understood it, there is some sort of a ritual called ‘nollning’ (roughly translated it means zeroing) where each department at the University has a theme and all the people who participate in nollning wear costumes, sing and make music around the town. It is actually quite stunning to see how good their dance moves and chanting are. The funniest thing, of course, was their costumes. I had a chance to see the Middle Ages, Dalmatians, Super Mario, Prison Break and Lightning groups.

Nollning, essentially Freshman orientation

Nollning

I also completed another important ritual or task of becoming an Uppsala University student: I finally joined a student nation. My choice was Värmlands Nation because they have an amazing restaurant, cozy library, great Friday club and all the members I met are amazing and so helpful. This week we will have Reccereception (reception for all the new members) and next week we will have formal dinner – Reccegasque. I am looking forward to both of those!

Official School Welcome Reception as part of orientation

Official Welcome Reception

And that is not the end of the past week’s adventures in Uppsala – the most amazing thing happened last night! We were very lucky to see the Northern Lights here in Uppsala. Clear skies and time spent outdoors around midnight were more than helpful in seeing this beautiful phenomenon. After about 30 minutes we could no longer see the light. Hopefully we will have more clear skies at night soon (September is a perfect month for spotting Aurora Borealis).

Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights)

Aurora Borealis

I am excited to see what new adventures await in Uppsala!

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Week 2: Little Steps (posted by Kati In Spain)

September 4, 2012

This week has been focused on the administrative details of moving to Spain and matriculating in a university that has procedures and customs that are very different from those that I am used to. It has been a long week of ups and downs, and although Monday was a rocky start, Sunday was a perfect finish.

Ninety days before leaving for Spain I applied for a yearlong student visa via the Boston Spanish Consulate, following their directions to a T. After eight weeks of waiting, I was told that the Consulate is no longer permitted to grant yearlong student visas and that I would have to apply for residency at the local police station within thirty days of arriving in Spain, or else I would be deported. I waited a week after arriving to begin my residency application, as the director of my orientation program, the person I was told to ask for help, was on vacation until Monday. First thing Monday morning I went to the Cursos Internacionales Office to ask Carmen for guidance. She patiently explained to me her understanding of the application process, and she gave me directions to the police station. Colleen, my unconditionally supportive roommate, accompanied me.

By the time we arrived at the station it was one o’clock in the afternoon, and after being loudly hissed at and thoroughly evaluated by the male officers standing outside of the station, we were told that we would not be helped today and that we must come back early tomorrow. Feeling slightly dispirited, we continued with Carmen’s directions and made our way to the University’s International Relations Office, where my thoroughly confused advisor told me that I must have done something quite wrong on my original visa application and that I needed to fly to Madrid to speak with the U.S. embassy and bring her a written explanation as to why I did not have the correct visa. Thankfully, Michele Cox, the head of Richmond’s Study Abroad Office, was able to help me determine the best course of action, and so I returned to the police station early Tuesday morning.

My experience on Tuesday was much better than the treatment I received on Monday. The man who helped me sported a grey Canada T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, and upon realizing that I hail from Boston, he immediately started talking about the Celtics, the Red Sox, and thick Boston accents. He gently told me that my application was not complete because I did not have my permanent Spanish address yet, that I needed additional photos, and that he had to add me to a deportation watch list until we could proceed with my application. Wednesday saw me back at the International Relations Office begging for my final address, and Thursday saw me modeling for an overly enthusiastic photographer as she snapped visa headshots from every angle possible. Finally, on Friday, I returned to the police station armed with a folder of paperwork and pictures, and Sarah, a USC graduate, accompanied me to help smooth the process. The same kind man helped me again, and after waiting in line, filling out more forms, traveling to the bank for a money order, waiting in line again, and finally being seen, I was told that I could return to the station in forty days to retrieve my extended visa. Halleluiah!

Despite missing several hours of class to deal with my visa, I successfully graduated from the Cursos Internacionales intensive immersion program on Friday. It feels strange that I will not be in class with my wonderful professor Juan or my new friends again! Although my grammar did not improve very much through the course, my speaking ability and my knowledge of Spanish culture and daily life improved at lot, and I am so glad that I took the class. On Wednesday I took a placement test for another intensive immersion course that begins in October, and I have high expectations for my experience!

Also dotted throughout this week have been preparations for class registration. Class registration for international students is an arduous process that is not well understood by anyone and is confusing for everyone. As with any university, the student peruses the rich course catalog and creates a list of classes that are of interest to her and fit with her major areas of study. She then emails and receives an almost immediate response from the heads of each relevant University of Richmond department to make sure that she will be able to transfer credit from the classes she is interested in back to Richmond. The student spends a few hours arranging various possible schedules with different combinations of the classes that she might like to take, and then she pursues a meeting with her academic coordinator at the University of Santiago de Compostela.

But this is where it gets tricky: international students are not assigned an academic coordinator. The student must select a home faculty even though she is taking courses across various faculties, ask the International Relations Office staff to craft her a new acceptance letter so that professors will allow her to take classes in multiple faculties, email the faculty secretaries repeatedly over the course of a week until she finally gets a response, schedule an appointment with the coordinator of each faculty, trek all over the city for appointments with each coordinator, and then beg each coordinator to answer her questions about class schedules, the language of instruction, final exams, and the class registration process, which is different for every faculty and not at all self-explanatory. Finally, with signed learning contracts, final acceptance letters, and certificates of matriculation, the student may finally register for her classes, receive a student ID card, and gain access to the Internet in the dormitory. Needless to say, I cannot wait to be done with this process and registered for the classes that I am so excited to take!

Keeping me well fed and sane as I wade my way though these processes is Pepita, my incredible host mother. Every day has begun with a piping hot cup of English tea, toast, various yogurts, and fruit, and every evening has concluded with an overwhelming amount of delicious food and an hour or two of Spanish TV game shows. After receiving my final address and dorm room number on Wednesday, Colleen and I wandered over to the residence hall to see if we could see our rooms. Unfortunately, my room was occupied by a summer student, but after much negotiating and pleading, the man behind the desk finally agreed to show us a room. We have certainly been spoiled by the wonderful dorms at Richmond, and the stark nature of these rooms made that clear. After much deliberation and conversations with all parties involved, Colleen and I asked if it would be possible for us to remain with Pepita for the rest of the semester. Sadly, after some tense last minute negotiating, it was determined that we have to relocate to the dorm or lose all of our housing deposit. We will really miss Pepita, her grandchildren, and her wonderful cooking and caring smiles, but upon hearing the news she made us promise to visit her, and as she hugged us and patted our backs she told us that we are always welcome in her home. Even though it is sad to leave Pepita, I know that we will have an equally beneficial cultural experience by living in the dorms and by participating in the many clubs, sports programs, and social events that are planned through the residence halls, and I am looking forward to meeting even more people my age!

One of the social resources Colleen and I have taken advantage of is the ERASMUS program. ERASMUS is a student-run social and academic resource for exchange students at universities across Europe. By joining ERASMUS Colleen and I have gained access to uniquely discounted trips to important places around Spain, specially organized group outings for tapas around the city, tours of Santiago in both English and Spanish, and to the buddy program, which has partnered us with a current USC student who will help us navigate the university and the city and answer any questions we might have. Plus we get a fancy ID card…how could we pass up that opportunity?

Saturday at the food market in Santiago, fruits and vegetables

Saturday at the food market in Santiago

On Saturday we spent the morning at an amazing open-air food market in Santiago, and we concluded our week with a perfectly lazy day on a beautiful beach in A Coruña, a city located a short train ride north of Santiago. We spent the morning walking along the port and the city coast from the train station to the Plaza de Maria Pita observing the gorgeous architecture and the beautiful coast. We ate lunch at a little Mexican restaurant that was the best bang for your buck in town, and the owner was so excited to have Americans in his restaurant because he believed that we could better identify with his experiences with violence and the drug trafficking in Mexico than could the Spanish. After lunch we continued on to the Tower of Hercules. The Ancient Romans built the tower almost 2000 years ago, and it is one of the oldest lighthouses in the world.

A picture at the A Coruña coast, a gorgeous view of the sea

Kati at the A Coruña coast

From the base of the tower we got an incredible view of the city and the coast, and then we continued on to a lovely little beach that is obviously a favorite of the locals. After a few hours of relaxing in the sand, refreshing ourselves in the water, and catching up on some sleep we wandered over to a little ice cream shop before catching the bus back to the train station. We all tried turrón ice cream, which tastes like almondy burnt sugar ice cream – so delicious! A sunny day with friends, ice cream, and ocean water was the perfect anecdote to a hectic week.

A perfect Sunday at the beach in Spain

A perfect Sunday

Quote of the Week: “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day and you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Posted by katiinspain

Bike (mis)adventures and the Nations (posted by Indira in Sweden)

August 29, 2012

Last week was one of the funniest, most sleep deprived and adventurous weeks of my life.

First of all, I was busy studying and doing my Swedish homework since I had an exam this week. I can’t believe that four weeks of intensive Swedish classes are over. It just hit me today when I was walking out of the classroom saying “tack så mycket” and “hej då” that this class ends here. It is crazy how time flies when you’re enjoying something. Signing up for this course was definitely the best possible decision I could have made when it comes to my semester in Sweden. I got a chance to meet people in a smaller community and to find my way around. It is actually funny to see new exchange students who just got here walking around with maps not sure where building 7 or 3 is. Also, the smaller group of people (well, if you consider 120 people a small group) gave me an opportunity to get to know all of them better and to interact with them in a way that allowed me to learn more about their cultures, languages and personalities.

Picture of books used to study for Swedish exam

Studying for the Swedish exam

Most of the other exchange students have arrived in the last few days. It is insane how Flogsta (area where I live) became so lively in only a few days. Now I see so many people walking around and I meet new people in the corridors all the time. I also got a few new corridormates so we are now 8 (out of 12) in my corridor. It is much more fun to be around people when cooking or walking or cycling somewhere.

The arrival of the exchange students and the lively Uppsala also mean that international orientation week is starting. We already had a few events mainly related to administration, but we are also having many fun events (beer tasting, lindy hop class, live-music quiz, international fika and club nights are just some of many). I am really looking forward to meeting new exchange students and learning more about Sweden (even though I learned a lot during the past month I spent here).

A train ride with a group of exchange students

A train ride with some other exchange students

Apart from the last Swedish class and a lot of new incoming students, this week we also explored the nations. So, what are these nations everyone in Uppsala seems to be talking about? Even though I cannot come up with my own definition of them, I can summarize them in one word – AMAZING! Basically, a nation is “a place where you can feel at home with hundreds of other students – you may work there, you may have parties there, and you will definitely make friends there!”  There are 13 nations in Uppsala named after a region or city in the country and they are student unions of a kind (very similar to coed fraternities, but much more open since you can be member of one (or more) nation(s) and attend the events and activities of other nations too). Basically the entire social life of Uppsala University students in focused on the nations: There are clubs, pubs, restaurants, sport teams etc. in each nation. The whole idea behind the quest of exploring the nations was finding the one that best fits my interests. So far I have found a couple of nations I really like and I will definitely join one by the end of the week.

This has been an exhausting, yet amazing week that finished with an unfortunate, but extremely funny event.  If you are following my blog you should know that Sweden is big on bikes and that bikes and I don’t work well together. Well, I just proved that again today. I thought I was making true progress since it’s been a while since I last fell off the bike or hit someone, but no. There are more technical things about bikes that beat me. Today after the class I wanted to inflate the bike tire, but of course I overdid it. Two minutes into biking and I hear this strange noise, so I get off the bike and then a very loud “BAM!!!” happens. I was confused, amused, terrified and sad when I saw that my front tire simply exploded because I overinflated it. As I was on my way to the bike shop, I received an amazing piece of advice from my friend: “Go find someone from the Netherlands. They were born on bikes and they can definitely fix this.” And I did it! Short 2 hours later I got my bike fixed and delivered to my dorm. The Dutch are amazing! Sometimes stereotypes can be good.

Now I sail into a new adventure – orientation week and the start of real classes – with a new tire and another lesson learned. Hälsningar until the next week 🙂

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Week 1: Aprovechar: to take full advantage of (posted by Kati in Spain)

August 28, 2012

An announcement over the plane’s loudspeaker wakes me from my comatose state, “…flying south to Santiago. We will arrive in approximately one hour. The temperature at our destination is 27 degrees.”

Flying south? Santiago de Compostela is north of Madrid. I look out the window and see tan hills dotted with little green bushes, not the rolling green hills of Galicia that I was hoping to see. Panicking, I yank my overstuffed backpack free from under the seat in front of me and begin to excavate for one – any – of my three guidebooks. I find maps of Spain in all of them, but none of them have Santiago labeled. I open the airplane magazine to find a flight map, and my panic subsides as I see that Santiago de Compostela is the only Santiago that Iberia Airlines flies to from Madrid. I am on the right flight; the pilot must have misspoken. Whew.

A short hour later we descend through fluffy white clouds, soaring over the greenest countryside I have ever seen. After collecting my bags, I push my trolley out into the soft, fresh Galician air. After hours of travel, I am finally here.

PIcture out of window flying over Santiago de Compostela

Flying into Santiago de Compostela

A cabbie rolls his little white car forward to meet me. He is rocking a plaid flannel shirt, black Ray Bans, black skinny jeans, a graying mustache and matching hair, and a cigarette, which he promptly puts out. His accent rolls and lilts like the road we drive towards Santiago. His pronunciation reminds me of an Irish brogue just as the Galician song on the radio reminds me of Celtic music I have heard at home.

The cabbie drops me off outside of a heavy glass and iron door squeezed between an oriental clothing shop and what looks like a garage entrance. I ring the bell, and after a minute an older woman with brownish-red hair and a sweater draped over her shoulders carefully makes her way down a flight of stairs into the apartment lobby. With a big smile that crinkles her eyes, Pepita opens the heavy door and bustles me and my bags inside.

The apartment is spacious and filled with natural light. The floors are beautifully constructed from cherry wood, and although upon first inspection the kitchen appears to be in disarray, I quickly learn that everything has its place and its purpose. I am shown from my bedroom to the kitchen where Pepita has prepared a Spanish tortilla. It’s a solid disk the size of a frying pan created from eggs, milk, potatoes, and onions. Without pausing for breath in her story about an adventure she had in an airport, Pepita flips the whole tortilla onto a plate and sets it in front of me. Forty-five minutes later when I have only managed to eat half of it, she cuts me another quarter and insists that I finish.

Pepita reminds me a lot of my own grandmother. She is kind and gentle beyond words, but she is a force to be reckoned with. She is a teacher/administrator at a local high school, and she is full of stories and life lessons. Five minutes after welcoming me into her home, Pepita quizzed me on my beliefs about abortion, dating, and children, and she proceeded to tell me that no one, absolutely no one, should have children before they are thirty years old. In the mornings, Pepita serves me “English” tea: I am of British descent, and so I should, therefore, prefer English tea. She is always finding ways to make me more comfortable and more at home.

Colleen, a fellow Richmonder and my roommate for our two-week orientation period, arrived on Sunday. She is lovely and just as excited to be in Spain as I am. We are extremely similar, which makes living together an absolute pleasure. Our adventures are always full of laughs, and no day is complete without a somewhat uncomfortable cultural learning experience.

We have the best teacher, Juan, for our intensive Spanish immersion class. In class we practice grammar with exercises such as interviewing fictional characters, solving murder mysteries, writing fake roommate adds, completing TV scripts, and debating current events. We also learn how to imitate Spanish spoken with a thick French accent, the difference between tortas and pasteles, the best beaches in Galicia, and what not to miss in Santiago.

Traditional Santiago almond cake, the Torta de Santiago

Smiles all around after two big bites into the Torta de Santiago

In addition to our academic orientation, Colleen and I are orienting ourselves to daily life in Santiago. We spend part of every afternoon and every evening after dinner wandering the stone streets of the city, and we discover little treasures during our walks. We have fallen in love with the Torta de Santiago, which is essentially almond pound cake with powdered sugar. We have compared prices, quality, and quantity of food in supermarkets around the city. We have investigated the rates of different mobile phone companies and compared packages. We have spent time in bookshops, bakeries, little corner stores, oriental markets, parks, culture centers, and art museums. We have gone to mass, attempted Galician dancing, and toured the buildings of the university (University of Santiago de Compostela (USC)). We have experienced Santiago nightlife (until 5:30am, which is considered early!) under the protective wing of Antonio, Pepita’s son and father of two. We have become friends with students from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Italy, and South Korea, and we cannot wait for the 40,000 full-time university students to arrive on campus.

Dressed in traditional wear for a Galician dance and music class

Kati dressed in traditional wear for a Galician dance and music class

The past seven days have been a wonderful introduction to life in Spain, and I am so happy to be here.

Quote of the Week: “The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.” ~Randy Pausch (The Last Lecture)

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Exploring Sweden (posted by Indira in Sweden)

August 22, 2012

The past week was all about learning more about Sweden firsthand; through food, music, people and traveling.

Sweden is a beautiful country and when blessed with nice and sunny weather (which we were very lucky to have over the past week) it definitely reveals its vibrant and vivid side. This country is like the pieces of kaleidoscope glass – they shine and surprise you with a new image in no time.

This week I was lucky to experience so many new sides to Sweden through the cultural part of the IBS program. First of all we had a lecture (and a practical part) about the Swedish food where we learned more about the holidays in this country and how food makes them special. We also talked a lot about the differences in the diet in the north and the south of the country. Since, of course, words don’t really have a taste, especially when you use them to describe food you never had in your life, we had samples of the most typical Swedish dishes such as köttbullar (meatballs) with lingonberry jam, reindeer (yes, real Swedish reindeer), herring, salmon, and typical Swedish cookies one usually has with fika. At the end of the day I was able to say: Swedish food is amazing!

Swedish food: Köttbullar and reindeer

A few days after the Swedish food, we had a 3-hour long presentation on Swedish music by four musicians from the Uppsala region. They presented traditional, classical, as well as modern Swedish music.  The most interesting part was the performance on the nyckelharpa (traditional Swedish instrument that sounds so nice) and the ABBA impression (we had the performers dress up as the ABBA members and sing their songs). It was really fun being a part of this presentation since I learned so much about the way Swedish music evolved and developed.

Swedish music: both musicians are dressed in the traditional costume from the Uppsala region and the women is holding the nyckelharpa.

We ended the week by going to two Swedish cities on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we went to Stockholm (it’s really close, about 40 minutes by train) so we could attend the Stockholm’s Kulturfestival (you can read more about it here: http://kulturfestivalen.stockholm.se/EN/index.php). It was amazing! We saw performances by Catalan, Swedish and Finnish artists. I am really happy we made it there on Saturday since it was the last day of the festival – definitely a well spent day!

On Sunday we went to a city named Gävle. Since it is a small city and not really a popular tourist destination we had a choice of doing an individual walking tour which turned out to be quite a success! We saw an amazing park, river, old bridge, prison museum, sunning town hall and much more. I’ve noticed that Gävle and Uppsala are very alike, but they have different vibes: Uppsala is more exuberant (but not as much as Stockholm!) and yet tamed in a way, while Gävle seems to be more of a nice small town (almost a suburb) that reminds me of a mystery box that hides all the beautiful spots that have to be discovered. Either way, I really loved visiting both of the cities. 🙂

Gävle

People are also a big part of the exchange program. Not only am I meeting a lot of international students (there are not a lot of Americans, which makes Uppsala University a perfect place to make friends with people of other nationalities and backgrounds), I am also making a lot of Swedish friends. Don’t let the stereotype about Swedish coldness scare you – they are amazing people with interesting stories. And they are very funny too! There are a few Swedes who live on my corridor and I really like them; they are all so helpful and they do their best to make me feel at home. Swedes you meet at the social events are also very nice and talkative (I haven’t really experienced that famous coldness yet). After all, talking to people is the best way to learn about the country and its traditions, but also to find out more about the wonders this country hides.

Every day I am more and more happy that I have chosen Uppsala University as my study abroad destination since I am getting the best of both worlds – high quality education and amazing cultural exchange that will mark my college experience in a great way.

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Posted by indirainsweden

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