no exclamation point

I realized that almost all my other blog posts have been titled with an exclamation point, so I'm putting a stop to that. I will not become excited about anything else. ever.

This weekend was relaxing, I've been running some more which is really nice. And no more pain! Perhaps lots of biking has helped to strengthen muscles that need strengthening. Who knows. but I'm happy about it.

Today it was actually sunny! I went up with Giselle, a girl from Hong Kong who lives on the floor below mine, to the highest point in Lund. It's about maybe a 15-20 minute walk west, and it's absolutely gorgeous.

See that small bump right behind me? That's the tallest point. So up we walked until we were able to see...this loveliness. It's been raining a lot (have I mentioned that?) so there is a mini lake in the middle of the field, but when it's warmer and drier, I bet this is an amazing place to go and have a picnic or go running or whatever you want to do. There were some people out there playing catch, but it's way too cold and windy for me to imagine having fun with that.

Apparently you can also see Copenhagen from here, but I think Copenhagen is just about due west, and we were here when the sun was starting to go down and was blindingly shining from the west. I'll head back up there some other time and take a look :-)
It was quite windy up there, as is to be expected, but a nice walk.

But now I've got to get back to thinking about lab things. I wish weekends went on forever. Hopefully I'll get into Malmö next weekend if it's not raining on Saturday... All the shops are closed on Sundays, so there isn't too much of a point going into towns.

I'll let you guys know if I see another squirrel!

squirrels!

I keep forgetting to post this, but it is too funny. I saw my first two (and only, so far) squirrels while I was walking around, but I was too slow to get my camera out. All I could do was stand there and laugh.



Image by Ray Eye, Germany, some rights reserved.

What would you do if you saw a squirrel that looked like that! I couldn't believe it was actually a squirrel until a guy from Germany firmly informed me that all their squirrels look like that. crazy! They're kind of cute looking, once I got past the initial surprise. I haven't seen any others, though. They must be smart creatures, holing up in this gross weather.

class begins

So, after many fun days of only having Swedish classes at 13:15 (aka the ability to sleep all morning) reality has set in and I now have class 8:15-17:00 every day. but it's okay, I think I'll manage. The class hasn't been too bad so far, though I do have my moments of thinking "whoa, everyone knows more than me, and I'm being thrown into a lab tomorrow".

The first lab assignment is daunting - choose an enzyme, figure out what material to isolate it from, isolate it, and purify it. All using whatever methods you like (and find to work). I'm not sure that UNC's labs have prepared me for this. I'm used to getting a 12 step procedure and following it word by word. So this is slightly stressful, but not too bad. It does mean that I'm going to go write out glycolysis and the citric acid cycle after this so I have copies with me here. I didn't bring any of my biochem stuff with me.

I've met some very nice people in my class. One girl, Stina, is my lab partner (she's from Sweden) and there's another girl from Iran who seems quite nice, although quiet. Slowly people are starting to figure out that I'm one of the students in the course who makes the teacher speak in English, as they come up to me and say something in Swedish and I am unable to reply.

But I think that course, while challenging, will be very good for me and hopefully not too too frustrating!

Also, today, I went to the Kristianstad Nation for baking! Every Tuesday a few people (volunteers, with one foreman overseeing things and baking, too) get together and bake all the bread and cakes for the week's meals. Today I helped make a pineapple cake and I also got to help shape and boil bagels. Good times. In return for 4 hours of my afternoon and evening, they feed you while you are there, as well as offer you thank you dinner on the Friday after you work, where you get yet another free meal. Sounds pretty good to me! And it was fun. I am starting to learn a little bit of how to read Swedish recipes, but not nearly well enough to manage one on my own. I may even sign up to help cook a meal or two with the nation to improve my cooking skills (and get more free food). The people I worked with tonight were really nice.

But now I'm off to re-write biochem cycles so that I can remember exactly where these enzymes we have the opportunity to isolate are found.

Hej då!

på svenska!

Jag heter Charliss. Jag är född i Maryland, men jag flyttade till Chapel Hill när jag var åtta år. Jag studerar på UNC-Chapel Hill normalt. Just nu studerar jag på Lunds Universitetet. Jag bor på Magistratväg 55 i ett studentrum. Min rum har en säng, två stolar, ett skrivbord, en bokhylla, tre lampor, två soffbord, och ett fönster. Jag har ocksa ett litet badrum med en dusch.

Jag har en lilesyster och en lilebror. Min familj har också en mor, en far, och en farmor. Jag har en pojkvän som heter Tyler. Tyler studerar på Northeastern i Boston. Han ska flyga till Sverige! Jag är upphetsad!

Jag ska begynna min kurs i morgon. Jag läser kemi, och kursen är Biokemisk metodik. Den är på engelska.

the sun!

That's right, the sun came out today and was seen for almost the whole day! And now I have a beautiful view of the waxing gibbous moon from my window. To celebrate the sun I went out and bought a plant for my window. I think I'm going to name it Lena, though I know that Rachael will be much better at taking care of her Lena than I will likely be of mine. Good news is that I got a Kalanchoe, which seems to be similar to a cactus. Aka it will hopefully be semi hard to kill. Small steps to making this room feel like home.

I've also decided that this semester I'm going to learn to cook. So beware. I mean, so far I haven't even been able to find Parmesan cheese in the grocery store, so this might be a slow process, but I have hope/faith.

I also went running today to celebrate the sun and realized that my tendinitis has returned to my knee. oh joy. but I remember the exercises, so with luck I can beat this again and then stay in shape enough to keep it away. At least this time I'm not trying to heal in time for club regionals, so I have plenty of time. It's just frustrated that it keeps coming back. I'd like to be rid of it forever!

I also successfully did laundry, and realized that there is a tumble dryer in the laundry room, and I much prefer that to the "hot air closet" type thing that is the other drying option. My pants and socks were still wet when I had to take them away. :-(

I have gotten a lot better at looking less clumsy when I mount my slightly-too-big bike, which is a plus. Good things.

rachael!

Rachael I love you and you are amazing. Let me know when you are available and I'll give you a call from Sweden and talk to you and Eggbaby for a little bit :-) I'm sorry I'm missing this, but I'm coming back as soon as I can!

Edit: Apparently Lena came as soon as I left for bed. I'm so happy for you, and I want lots of pictures!

so far, I haven't found the fish paste

it's been a while since I've written but not too much has gone on. It's actually been pretty nice weather-wise staying dry all night and then only starting to rain today. Luckily I was only biking when it was misting, not actually raining.

That's right, folks, I have a bike now! it cost me 500 sek, which is super cheap in this town, since everyone bikes. If you go to a used bike shop, the cheapest you'll be able to get one for is 1400 sek, and that was within the first few days of arriving. Now I'm sure you could only find things for above 2000sek, if you find anything at all. so I have a slightly-too-big-but-definitely-manageable silver bike with small bits of rust. and two lights, and a basket and a platform on the back that I can strap things to. With all 3 gears and foot breaks, this bike is a machine sent from the gods. It's amazing how fast I can get to class when it used to be a 40 minute walk! Almost all bikes here have a max of 3 gears and none of them have the double handbrake. I have footbrakes and one handbrake, but I haven't determined the purpose of having a single handbrake. At first I felt like I was back in elementary school with my foot brakes, but now I've gotten used to them and they work just fine. There are so many bikes in this town, that outside of our dorm we have bike shelters with a bike rack and a space marked with a metal plate, designating a spot for each dormroom. Someone has parked their bike in my spot, so I have kindly taken my neighbor's for the time being.

Swedish lessons have been going well, and I will soon put up a post in Swedish. Mostly I can say things to introduce myself - where I'm from, what languages I speak, how many brothers and sisters I have...the basics. My vocabulary is small, but I hope to pick up a lot more over the course of the semester.

One big part of the social life at Lund are the Nations. They're student organizations that you must join and they offer cheap lunches and dinners, as well as pubs and night clubs on certain nights of the week. I'm thinking of trying to help out with the cooking and baking in the nation I will be joining, the Kristianstad Nation. I'm not sure if I'll have time to, though.

I just got the course schedule for my first class, biochemical methods. It's pretty scary. I'm either in class or lab from 8:15-17:00(aka 5:00pm) every day of the week. If I'm reading the schedule right, though, I should be able to get off for the week that Tyler comes over his spring break if I plan it right. We'll see how that falls into place!

mmm other than that, I've just been settling in and eating lots of cookies. They have some very tasty cookies over here. I also hope to get myself back into running so that I don't become too squishy from the cookies. I cooked my first non-pasta meal tonight of chicken and vegetables and it was delicious. I haven't had swedish meatballs yet over here. I also got super motivated and decided to sweep and mop all the floors in my room because the guy who lived here before me was a mess. I feel so much better for it!

Tomorrow I get to have my first laundry experience in Sweden! It should be appropriately exciting. You have to book the washing machines ahead of time, and I hear that they don't cost anything! oh the excitement. (you should also see the looks on peoples faces when I tell them that in America, you almost always have at least one roommate in the same sized room that we have over here. And you have to share a bathroom with either a hall or suite of people. They are astonished.)

That's enough for now, I'll let you know how the laundry goes ;-)

semi-pictures

I was going to write a long post with pictures in it, but blogger wasn't being very nice to me as far as formatting went. so I'll just give you the flicker links for now, and try to put some words with it later. In brief, I've been walking around a lot (it's ~35 minutes from my dorm in the north of town to the AF building, where my swedish class, the only one I have so far, is held), taking a bunch of pictures, freezing my fingers and toes off, and also going by bus to a medieval town called Ystad and a castle that doesn't look much like a castle.

Enjoy, and let me know what is going on with you!

photos of the first few days, and my room

excursion

i sverige

I have arrived! There was much travelling involved (3 planes and 2 trains to get to Lund, and then 2 12-passenger vans to get me and the other arriving students from the train station to the building where we got our dorm keys and then to get us to our dorms) but 24 hours after I left (actual hours, neglecting time zones) I arrived in my room.

It's huge. Not only do I have a single room, but I also have a mini ante-room as well as my own bathroom complete with shower. for less than a spring semesters rent at UNC ;-) Mostly yesterday I was so tired that I unpacked, talked with my corridor-mates (both Swedish) and fell asleep.

When I awoke today, the weather was again dreary and cold, and I got completely soaked as I tried to find my first information meeting. The campus is much larger than UNCs, and the campus buildings are spread out all over the place. I can see why so many people ride bikes here. it's a pain to walk! After my legs regained feeling and the first meeting was over, I joined some people (one guy was from canada, a few from France and Italy) and we ate our first Swedish meal in a cafe beneath an academic building. It was absolutely delicious. I had pasta with tomato sauce, green beans, and basil leaves. And all the bread you could eat. Unfortunately we had a time limit because we were going to be late to our Swedish language orientation sessions.

Jag heter Charliss. My name is Charliss. Vad heter du? What is your name? Jag är från USA. I am from the USA. all the good stuff. I have 2 weeks of this, and judging by the first day, I'm going to be learning a lot if I can stay awake through 3 hours of class as I watch the sun set at 3:30.

After class I walked around the whole town (in the well-dark evening) trying to find an internet cable, and then back to the grocery store so I can have something to eat for dinner. The grocery store was an experience, but definitely not a bad one. I asked a few people for help and they showed me the difference between ham and turkey and which milk was the one I wanted. Overall, the pictures on the boxes are pretty self explanatory. I was so tired from walking 2 and a half hours to get the cable and go back to the grocery store that I didn't fully examine all the strange foods, but don't worry. I will go back and find them another day.

Now I am home, with internet and happy for it, and also exhausted. Have I mentioned I need a bike? Pictures of my room and random places in Lund to follow shortly!

two days and counting

Saying good bye is always the hardest part. Tyler headed off to Boston today, so at least I get some of my good byes in stages, but really, I'm not sure that makes it much easier. It just kind of drags the tears out over two whole days.

My mom did show me a blog another guy wrote when he went off to Sweden for a year, and it had lots of pictures of the foods in it, and I must say I'm kind of excited, kind of terrified. Excited for the fact that ice cream seems to be everywhere (because really, what is better than ice cream?), but also a bit terrified because he had pictures of a TV dinner that was chicken and bananas, and also he had pictures of ...fish paste in a tube. I'm not so sure I'll be trying that stuff.

He did have a lot of pictures of hedgehogs which makes me think that they run around wild in some parts of Sweden, so I'll let you know if I come across any cute hedgehogs. You'll also get a billion pictures of them, because they're just that cute.

I finally got my residence permit and passport back on Friday after many sleepless nights of worry over whether I'd be able to leave on time, and I even have a working computer. There was only a little bit of threatening involved.

I'll write more and include some pictures when I get to the other side of the Atlantic!