Uppsala


Spending summer here in Uppsala proves to be more rewarding that I anticipated. I was kicking myself earlier for agreeing to do a summer internship instead of a fall one because that pretty much means im stuck here for the whole duration of the season and not be able to travel like everyone else is doing.

But guess what, it's a harsh summer this year and the thermometer is showing high 20's and low 30's. Not a good time to sweat yourself globe trotting if you asked me, I'd spend my time chilling here in this brilliant weather anytime and hangout with them who are also around.

We've celebrated Midsummer during the longest day of the year and now just try to avoid reminding ourselves that shorter days are ahead of us. So what have I been doing all this time? Well, I TRY to do some research for my thesis when I get up from bed every day, and if the sky is blue (which has been for the last month or so), we'll often just hop to the lake for a bath, followed by grills and drinking till late.

People will gradually start coming back when August arrives, and I look forward to seeing some new faces when the new intake comes in. I will be doing my job as International Secretary and will be baby seating some newbies until they are settled down.

There will be a change of scenery come September when the leaves start falling and we will be done picking blueberries and apples and pears by that time. If I have it my way, I will be doing a little bit of traveling to Spain to see some friends and perhaps postpone my study for a month or so.

Time flies when you are having fun, and soon my study will be over, but guess what, im beginning to plan for a one year trip to ozzy when im through Europe. Life is just too short to be caught in a ratrace if you know what I mean. And yes that is meant for ALL OF YOU who's reading. Talk bout rubbing it in.

:p

the swedes love dressing up

celebrating Sweden Day

Buck's Fizz as pre-drink

Our favorite place: Sushi Buffet

Grill@Phil's

Korean dinner@Kitty's

drinks@Snerikes

Picnic@CityPark

Camilla

Snapps for Midsummer

setting up Maypole for Midsummer

Grill@Christian's

Sandstrom, Christian and Will

Coaster ride@GronaLund

Sandstrom and Jenni (Stockholm)

another Grill@Chris'

Daniel and his dogs

The farewell Gasque was a real success, with the weather shining brilliantly despite a bleak forcast. Turned out that the rain came a day late, and we all did appreciate the blessing. Everyone was happy and expressed much gratitude for us to organize the dinner party, and it lasted pretty much the whole night at my home student nation, whereby four different bars were in operation and we had four bands playing.

Chris was a great toast master, he entertained the guests throughout the night with his quirky jokes and boyish charm and people were pleased. I especially liked the part where he summed up the whole academic year with a mention of series of events that had taken place, and threw in a few anecdotes here and there for the laughter effect. SooJeong made a great video of us asking what we live for in life, and it was all very meaningful.

My two German couchsurfers were with us that night, joining us for the afterparty. I was kept busy bringing them around introducing them while trying to also socialize at the same time. It was all good and they found the student life in Uppsala amusing.

Brought them to play soccer with some classmates yesterday and we had a bbq at Lise's later on. We also managed to catch the cultural carnival that was happening at the city park and saw some very good performances from talented musicians.

Will have my final presentation tomorrow for my paper and then we're done for the year. Should start my summer internship pretty much right after and it does not involve too much workload, I will be a researcher, so that means I can still do a little bit of traveling from time to time, i manage my own time!

Summer is looking up to be really good, everyone will be going away but there are still a few of us that will stay back in Uppsala and will continue to hangout as per usual. Won't be seeing some of the other classmates for a long long time but we'll find each other at some other part of the world, at some point.

Until then...

Javi

Sandstrom and Corina

Jenni Nylander

Appetizer is served

The Organizing Committee with Chris as the toastmaster

The award winners

After Party

Official Class photo (not everyone is in it)

Uppsala


Wow, it sure has been a long while since I last posted. Was I busy? Well not so much, just generally spending way too much time watching online TV, and as you have already guessed, Summer is here! So lotsa outdoor activities and drinking-in-the-park.

Year one is rapidly coming to an end, and the lunch committees (including me) are, as the name implies, spending time planning for class activities over lunch. We have so far organized everything from baseball tourney to poker nights, movie nights, pub crawl and such. And the most anticipated event of the year is none other than the farewell gasque which will take place next friday, it's gonna be spectacular to say the least!

And because I'm so good with the international students, I've been elected to be the International Secretary of Uplands Nation! I look forward to the new term this fall, and will have lotsa new students under my wing. I love doing that, getting to know new people and help them find their bearing in town. My swedish is getting better too (I hope), will be taking the exam next month and hopefully get certified.

Summer will be awesome in Sweden. I haven't made any travel plans yet simply because I'm doing the summer internship stint here in Uppsala. I have however been invited to at least two mid summer parties in the swedish countryside. It'd be nice to get out in the woods and do some horseback riding!

simply lovely...

Sunday brunch at Luna's

Traveling on ferry over melting ice in Stockholm

Jenny and Cecilia

Lunch time at the campus

Poker night in session

Fika@Uplands

Fika@Sana's

Mich and Me

Blizzard on the first day of spring

Uppsala twilight

egg painting on Easter

Camila on Shisha night

Sunday brunch at Flogsta

Branboll tourney

Boat race on Valborg

hanging out with classmates

Massive festival of Valborg

BBQ in session

Bon Fire at night

Here's some updates:

The boat trip was a real success, everybody let themselves go and partied immensely as planned. It was real quality time that we spent together, a total of 40 hours, including the six hours sojourn in Riga where we did the obligatory city tour under thick snow and ongoing blizzard. All in all, no complaints! except perhaps there was slightly too much alcohol consumption, but hey, it was duty free, so that has to be done!

Coming back to Uppsala we laid low for a while, attending schools and get the group project going. My team will be conducting research on Vancouver City and its sustainability pledges, and how the Olympic Games have failed in several occasions to honour that pledge, truth is the games aren't as green as claimed in the media.

Nevertheless I have been keeping myself busy with some of the winter games and last night we saw the final event of Ice Hockey whereby Canada beat USA 3-2, way to go Canada!

Luna also invited everybody to her beautiful home for Fika on Saturday, it was a really nice gesture on her part, as our time together as a class is numbered and come Summer it's everyone on their own. It is a saddening thought but life moves on, we will be doing our own thing and realize our own plans, and it's hardly the end.

Luna cooked us some scrumptious taiwanese food, among them the fish and vegetable soup, which is totally good for this weather, and everyone brought sweets and puddings so it was a real Fika!

The last couple of days have seen the weather gone for the worst, snow storm aplenty and some of our scheduled excursions are canceled. Temperature increases slightly when the sky is overcast and drops drastically when the sky is clear and blue, and the cold gets into your skin and bites mercilessly. That happened last weekend when we were stranded in Stockholm for a good four hours because the train wont go on icy tracks, for obvious reason.

I would like to go away somewhere for Easter but the prospect of only traveling for a week doesn't appeal to me at all, I normally go for a one month travel at least if I'm backpacking, but we'll see if I could hook myself up with cheap flights.

As you know there weren't much celebration for the Chinese New Year, we celebrated on the first day and that's it, even then it wasn't real traditional kind. I contributed by wrapping dumplings and I cooked the chow mein which got back positive reviews. I didn't hangout with the chinese as these days I spent more time at the nation and it's only popular with the swedes.

next item on the calendar: St.Patrick's!

 

My Couchsurfer from Austria

 

Cooking for CNY

 

Wrapping dumplings

 

My Chow Mein

 

Excursion for nature appreciation

 

glorious view

 

I joined the kids for some sledging

 

Beautiful day

 

Christian making a snow angel

 

Happy

 

Eco-Village

 

The Professor's home