It’s St. Patrick’s Day! Found out rather quickly that this does not mean much in Sweden. People are aware of the holiday, the green, the drinking and everything else that goes on. Yet, not many Swedes celebrate it like we do in the US, perhaps even this now very secular holiday is too religious for the most secular country in the world. Of course for the US and many other English-speaking countries it is the beer and whisky drinker’s holiday to give thanks in the only fitting way possible, bringing out and exaggerating every possible Irish stereotype (wearing green, leprechauns, red hair, shamrocks, and of course copious amounts of alcohol). My sustainable design class happened to be moved to today instead of its usual Wednesday time slot. It was a very boring lecture of the history of design and I ducked out early during our 15-minute break. Other international students were on a nation pub-crawl while I was in class, but I skipped the end of the pub-crawl and met many of them later at Stockholms nation for their club night. Not many people were wearing green and you could bet that those who were wearing green like me and my friends were most likely international students from English speaking countries. Stockholms is still under some construction, probably for an upcoming gasque, and the dance floor is much smaller as a result. It was a good night as Stockholms usually is, but nothing special in terms of a St. Patty’s Day celebration.
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| Stockholms Nation |
It was cooler today and started to snow in the afternoon and kept up for some of the night. About 4 cm (1-2 inches) fell and it was a little bit of a set back to the feeling of spring that had been growing in Uppsala. Nick and I went to Varmlands early to avoid any line, but the snow seemed to have put a damper on students’ will to go out that night and it was not a very crowded club, but still fun. I stayed up late after Varmlands and listened to the Buffs blowout our new Pac-12 rival Cal in the NIT to move onto the quarterfinals and one last game in Boulder.
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| Varmlands Nation |
Boulder University Hill Shooting
Saturday
Some of the snow has already started to melt as the weather started to warm up. Nick and I booked a flight to Zadar, Croatia for March 30th to April 2nd. Other friends may join us, but are on the fence right now. Zadar is on the Mediterranean coast across the Adriatic from Italy and has some Roman ruins as well as beautiful scenery and I’m really looking forward to the Mediterranean weather! Went out for a third night in a row, this time to Östgöta (ÖG) nations post gasque party. It was a pretty big disappointment despite being open until 4AM. Watched more of the NCAA tournament on demand, which kept me up entirely too late.
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| Östgöta (ÖG) Nation |
A group of us went out to try to play soccer again, but the only clear field that we know of was being used for league soccer matches. This field is a nice artificial turf field and the only field we know of that is kept clear of snow. It was a very pleasant 7 (45 F) degrees out which is the warmest it has been since I have arrived. After walking around to try to find any fields clear of snow that we could use and failing to do so, Nick and I each got a pizza at a little restaurant right by our corridor (my Hawaiian pizza was amazing). I forgot I had promised to video chat with the family that afternoon, but was able to video chat later that night with Mom and Dad, I missed Kels though as she had just left for Moab for a few days as CU’s spring break had just started. Mom and Dad tried to call my cell phone after I missed the first video chat to make sure I was okay and I think the call actually did get through to my phone, but I didn’t have it with me while out trying to play soccer. I’m sure the international call would have drained my pay as you go credits extremely fast anyway though. Again watched some good NCAA tourney games and my brackets are very much broken now as I’m sure many peoples are! Butler, Marquette and Richmond?! Wow
Monday
Had class including an interesting lecture about corporate social responsibility and its pros and cons. After class I worked on my section of the group paper for sustainable design. I looked into previous solutions in sustainable urban communities in regards to transportation and community aspects. I again stayed up late to watch basketball this time the Nuggets who blew out the Raptors to improve to 10-4 since the Melo trade. The Nuggets are more fun to watch now and I hope they can keep up this momentum and preserve most of this team through the off -season! These games are keeping me up until 3 or 4 in the morning, but luckily I don’t have class until 1 at the earliest, still this sleep pattern will need to get better at some point.
Tuesday
It was the nicest day by far since I’ve been in Sweden. It got up to an amazing 11 degrees (52 F) and was so nice I opened my bedroom window to let some fresh air in. After class I met up with some of the guys to play some soccer. I got surprisingly sore very fast even though we didn’t play as fast or hard. I think I need to stretch better beforehand. Made myself a rather Swedish meal for dinner. It consisted of mashed potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, some fried sausage and a piece of bread with jam. Stayed up late again, but was more productive as I completed and emailed in a make up assignment for sustainable design and then thoroughly cleaned my extremely messy room. By the time I had finished cleaning the Buffs were playing Kent State in the NIT quarterfinal in Boulder. I was able to stream video of the game live and watched the Buff prevail in a great game to head to the semifinals in Madison Square Garden! Go Buffs!
Wednesday
The weather was rather nice again besides the wind, but the snow is shrink faster everyday. I was at class from 1 until 7:30. Seminar for climate change leadership was very interesting and fun as we were divided into groups and then debated various issues from assigned standpoints. I always enjoy a good debate. Later I met with my group in sustainable design to discuss our paper and presentation. I volunteered to compile, edit and submit the final paper by this Sunday since I will miss the presentation date flying to Croatia. Sustainable design lecture was rather interesting about how to better utilize space in urban centers to be more multi-use and incorporate urban agriculture. Now I’m just finishing up the blog update and think I might add more to my other pages about My Impression of Sweden and Uppsala.
Side note: My hair is probably as long as it has been since high school primarily because getting a haircut here is expensive like most everything else and would cost about 35 dollars. If I find a friend with some clippers I will buzz my hair when it is a little warmer otherwise I may return home rather scraggly haired.
Next update either right before I head off to Croatia or immediately after! Come on spring weather and I’m ready for some Mediterranean weather, traveling, a dip in the sea, and cheap food!
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