Wow it has been way too long since I have updated the blog and as a result my memory of all that has happened this month since I returned from Croatia is a little spotty to say the least, but I'll try to give a run down of what I've been up to for the better part of April. As the title implies it is finally springtime here and it has been really amazing being in the 10-17 degree (50-63 F) weather. The snow is officially gone except for the very occasional piles of snow from plowing the streets. Everyone seems to be in a better mood and taking advantage of being outside as much as possible!
Monday April 4th
Returned to class and shared my stories from being in Croatia. It seems that Nick and I inspired at least a few of our friends to also go to Croatia now after they heard our stories and saw my awesome pictures. Got a bit of a business perspective on climate change from a panel of professionals in CCL and had a lecturer in Actors and Strategies that had already spoken to my CCL class so it was a bit repetitive.
Tuesday
It was kind of overcast and cool today particularly compared the warm weather that spoiled me in Croatia. Decided to go out to Snerikes at night for the club. We arrived early to avoid any line and had a pretty good night with many of our usual friends who frequent Snerikes and I also hung out with a Swedish girl from one of my classes. Upon telling her that I hadn’t taken shots at the clubs because I prefer beer (and shots are WAY too expensive) she insisted on buying me two very common Swedish shots, Fishermans and Mintu. The shots were surprisingly good, but still not worth their price for my future purchases.
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| Snow free view out my window! |
Wednesday
Due to a weird little schedule change I didn’t have Climate Change Leadership today so instead I spent the day relaxing before going to Sustainable Design at night. I’ve been loving that it is baseball season again and that the Rockies are off to a great start so far! I’ve even been able to catch some of their games streaming online
Thursday
Had CCL class moved to today and we discussed different policy proposals people in the class had. I brought up the idea of a renewable energy portfolio standard much like the 30% requirement that is in place in Colorado. After class I finally did a much-needed load of laundry. My clothes were still dirty from the Croatia trip from being in pubs, the sea, and just overall travelling. I skipped going to Stockholms club night to have a laid back night in.
Friday
Very laid back day, played soccer in the afternoon. The plan for the night was a nice change up from most nights in Uppsala where any party or club starts very early otherwise you have to wait in line and pay for only a couple hours in the club before it closes at 1AM. This night we were going to go the main club in Uppsala that is privately run and not part of the student nations known as BJ’s. This club doesn’t close until 3 AM and for students there is free entry on Friday nights so we took advantage of this and went there around 11:30. It was a good time, although the crowd was a bit different than the all student crowd I’m used to at the nations. The downside of it not being part of a nation is that drinks are even more expensive. I paid about 8 dollars for the one Carlsburg I got for the night and kept it at that.
Saturday
It was a truly gorgeous day and after a nice sleep in I walked around a lot of Uppsala. It was cool to see more of the city and its parks as it all came out of winter with some flowers and trees getting buds of leaves. I’ll have to go out again and take pictures of the different parts of the city now that it is snow free.
Sunday
My friend Max, another CU exchange student who has been here for the whole year, invited Nick and I to play some soccer in the afternoon. We played on a dirt field less than 5 minutes walking distance from the corridor. We initially played with our group of mainly exchange students and later played our group versus a group of Swedes. They were much better than us, but we held our own during the match. I felt a little bad when a ball deflected off of my leg and hit one of the Swedes square on the nose leaving him woozy and with a slight nosebleed.
After the game we went to Franzi’s apartment for German Food Night. Franzi and Julian prepared a delicious meal for us of bacon and onions mixed in a kind of pasta with cheese with a side of sauerkraut and for dinner we had a kind of pancake with hazelnuts and raisins. I brought my German and EU souvenir flags for the dinner to help add to the German theme. It was another good dinner party and next Nick and I are hosting our American BBQ Night.
Monday April 11th
In CCL we had a videoconference with a lecturer in Copenhagen who was talking about the school he teaches at that focuses on hands on leadership experience and entrepreneurship. He talked a lot about leadership qualities and techniques, which many in the class were unfamiliar with, but as I found, I was very well versed in. Looks like my leadership certificate from PLC taught me more than I thought! It was tough to be in class though because the weather was really amazing and people were outside as much as they could be taking in the sun. Actors and Strategies was ok, but has gotten a bit repetitive as many of the same issues of sustainability and the need to address them have been brought up many times. Grabbed a burger and beer at Norrlands pub with a group of friends after class.
Tuesday
I didn’t have any class due to another schedule change in CCL. Nick came up with the idea that we should each buy a flowering plant for our rooms and have a little competition of who could raise a better looking plant over a month or so. So in the afternoon we went to the florist shop right by our corridor and each bought a plant to brighten up our rooms for spring and to put the other’s plant to shame. Mine is going to win for sure. I had a brief meeting with my group for Sustainable Design to start working on the second part of our project. In the evening we went to Varmlands nation to watch the second leg of the Champions League Quarterfinals. Manchester United ended up advancing over Chelsea. Most of the guys went to Snerikes after the game, but I headed home since I had to get up early for another group meeting.
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| My champion flower pot |
Wednesday
I woke up perhaps the earliest I ever have in Uppsala, 9AM, to go to a meeting at 10AM with my group for CCL since we had to present our policy suggestion the next day. We proposed a policy for a US state without a renewable energy standard to create one that mirrors Colorado’s goal of 30% by 2020. It was a very fast and efficient meeting with Nanna (Swedish) and Richard (American originally from Jamaica now living in Sweden). That afternoon we played soccer again on the artificial turf field at Ekeby, near Flogsta. At night I went to Varmlands again to watch more Champions League Quarterfinals where Real Madrid advanced over Tottenham.
Thursday
Nanna, Rich and I presented our policy in class and because the class was so small for the day we got out early, which was great because the weather was amazing once again. After grabbing a bite to eat back at the corridor I walked to Flogsta to join in on a rooftop BBQ. There were a lot of exchange students there and these types of events remind me that there are a lot of exchange students here in Uppsala that I have not met. At night we went to Stockholms nation for the club night. It was the first night of the year they had their large patio and outside bar open so the feel was a bit different and the patio was quite busy despite being a little chilly.
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| Afternoon rooftop BBQ at Flogsta |
Friday
Slept in and then headed out to play soccer again at Ekeby. It was slow going at first getting teams set up, but we eventually had a game of shirts versus skins of about 10 vs 10. It was a really fun game, I got stuck as goalkeeper for my team at the end and ended up giving up the winning goal, but it was still a solid game. Back at Rackarberget a large group of people had started having a BBQ in preparation for the corridor/stairway part that was to take place later at night in building 34. We grilled with Katie, Dawn, and Anna along with many other Rackers friends.
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| BBQ on Rackarberget field |
Someone had a sound system outside too and a group of Swedes even treated the BBQ crowd to a choreographed dance to Taio Cruz’s Dynamite, a song that they love here. Check it out below.
Later the party got going in the corridor and really took off with dozens of people showing up and people opening up their corridors and even getting access to the attic and roof of the building. There was even a DJ at the base of the main spiral staircase.
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| Party spiral staircase |
It was a bit strange when I ran into one of my course coordinators at the party, but he is a student too as in the Masters program so it wasn’t quite the same as say running into a professor at a party. The party was a success in my opinion and it was really nice being in a corridor so close to the party, but not one actually hosting any of the festivities.
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| Crowd at Rackarberget 34 party |
Saturday
Mainly took it easy for the day, but did go outside to the Rackers field to kick a soccer ball around and toss a Frisbee in the once again flawless Swedish spring weather. After two nights out in a row I decided to stay in even though there was a party going on at one of the Flogsta rooftops.
Sunday
After sleeping in Nick and I went to an afternoon picnic behind the Ekeby artificial turf field. We kicked the soccer ball around and played some card games on a nice lazy afternoon with a lot of our exchange friends. In the evening we ended up hanging out on the Rackarberget field where people relaxing and there was also a group out barbequing for Dawn’s 20th birthday. At night I watched the Rockies beat the Cubs to go to 12-3 on the season!
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| Group at picnic |
Monday April 18th
I went to sleep after the Rockies game, but woke up at 4:30AM to watch the end of the Nuggets first playoff game against the Thunder. It was a good game that didn’t end until 6:30 when the sun had already been up for about an hour. Unfortunately the Nuggets lost and a very poor non-call of offensive goaltending wasn’t called on the Thunder in the last minutes was the play that put the Thunder ahead for good. The NBA later said the non-call was a mistake, but we’re still down 1-0 now. I went back to sleep after the game very disappointed. Went to CCL where the lecturer even took us outside in the nice weather and lead us in some guided meditation. It was very relaxing and peaceful as we did it in the university botanical gardens. After our meditation class I was able to sign up for Swedish Literature class that will run for the month of May and count for my upper division literature and arts requirement back at CU! Nick, Katie, Kiri, and more of my friends are going to be in the class too so it should be really fun! Our guest for Actors and Strategies was the Sustainability Director for Max Burger (Sweden’s largest homegrown burger chain). It was very interesting to hear how a business in a rather unsustainable industry is working to be a leader in the field. Max is the only fast food restaurant chain in the world that lists the CO2 emissions equivalent that goes into the production of all of their menu items. Beef is a notorious emitter of CO2 and Max has increased its offering of chicken and vegetarian products to allow for consumers to have more choices of meals that produce less CO2. For example an original Max burger creates 1.6 kg of CO2 emissions for its entire production, while their new Falafel burger only creates 0.2 kg of CO2. I’ve found many of the leaders in these kind of environmental/climate change initiatives are found in Sweden, and it is very refreshing to see that companies here can care about these things and act on them. At night we went to Norrlands Pub with a group to celebrate Katie’s 20th birthday.
Tuesday
Today I was feeling a little under the weather so I slept in and skipped out on class, I cleaned our kitchen as it was approaching disaster level. I did my part of assignment 2 for Sustainable Design a week before it was due and finally got around to updating this blog. At dusk I kicked the ball around with Nick and Lovisa outside on the Rackers field, which ensured I got out of the corridor for the day. The Internet went out for over an hour today and it really put into perspective just how much of my life revolves around it. It’s difficult to think about life without the Internet being so central even though for the first half of my life or more it was not there or was just something of occasional use. I’m thinking that the occasional self-imposed fast from the Internet will be a good thing for me in the future to help encourage other activities like (gasp!) reading a book for fun!
Miscellaneous
Its crazy to think that I have less than 2 months left in Europe as the past 3 months have gone by so fast and I have gotten so comfortable and used to living here. The amazing weather and increasingly long days here are making Sweden a completely different place than the one I came to in January and one that has lifted my spirits as it has all the inhabitants here. The gravel that was laid down on the snow and ice has been almost completely swept up now, but it has left quite a bit of dust that the cars stir up. This weekend is Easter weekend and most students have some time off from classes. I am hoping that I can go on a cruise to Riga, Latvia or Helsinki, Finland next week during my days off. Soccer has been a great activity to play and watch over here and I think I’ll try to keep up with it when I return home too. I still have a nagging quad injury from kicking the ball around though. CU was named the top party school in the country by Playboy magazine much to the chagrin of the administration. Going along with the party school theme tomorrow (Wednesday, 4/20) is the annual pot smokers holiday with its epicenter being the CU campus again something the administration is not happy about as evidenced in an email sent out to all students imploring us to not participate in the even that will probably draw about 15,000 marijuana enthusiasts to Norlin Quad. Lots of late night/early morning playoff basketball viewing is coming up in my future. It sure will be nice watching sporting events at reasonable times back in the States instead of dealing with the 8 hour difference in Sweden from the Mountain time zone. The biggest party in Uppsala is just under 2 weeks away on Saturday April 30th (also Dad’s birthday) Valborg will take place to celebrate the arrival of spring with tons of events: champagne breakfasts, boat races, choirs, gasques, parties, clubs, picnics, BBQs. Uppsala expects crowds of over 100,000 to show up for the annual event so come next update I should have plenty to write about!
Until next time,
Hej da
Jesse
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