A lot has happened since my last post.  Let me try to do a quick recap of my experiences over the past week.

I had my first experience in a sauna and it was intense.  I was in a finnish sauna so the temp got up to about 90 degrees celsius!  If you breathed in through your nose it would feel like your nose hairs were singeing.  I did it naked because thats how you do and I also rolled around in the snow naked because that is also how you do.  Quite the experience.

I got to see the SLU campus and have my first week of classes under the belt.  The campus is small and feels especially small for me because I am used to being far above Cayuga’s waters.  Being here allows me to appreciate what Cornell has to offer even more.   Its not to say the campus is bad or anything.  It has a cozy feel because of the smaller size and a lot of the buildings have more of a rustic look to them.  The campus is growing as well.  I would say a quarter of campus is under construction and they will have three new, sizable buildings by 2011.  The classes are very laid back.  I am taking two courses now and they both have about ten people in them.  I think that the courses are easier here because they are taught in english and english is not the native language to most people in the class so the intensity of the subject matter does not match Cornell’s.  We will have to do a project in both courses and the grade we get from that will be the majority of the grade we get for the course.   I am enjoying the classes and I really like being in a classroom of people from around the world.  It is really neat.

I got my room and it is awesome.  I am very happy with it.  I have my own bathroom!  It is new to me to have to keep up with a bathroom.  I had to go out and buy tp and soap.  These new expenses are definitely worth have a bathroom to myself directly connected to my room.  I have no meal plan and going out to eat every time I need to eat is far too expensive so I have started to cook for myself.  Although I have never really done this myself, I feel that I am a natural at it.  Cooking for yourself is really enjoyable and satisfying.  By the time I am out of here I hope to learn some nice swedish dishes to take home.

The group of international students are really fun.  For the most part, the group is from Europe but there is also a Kiwi and a couple Canadian girls.  The four of us that came from Cornell this semester I believe are the only ones from the States at SLU.   There are about 30 students in the international group.  France, Austria, and Germany are all well represented in the group and there are also some from Italy, Holland, Portugal, and others as well.  It is great to be apart of such a diverse group.  We have gone out together at night and it has been a blast time spend time with the group.

I went out to IKEA today to try spruce up my room a bit and it was pretty cool.  I am not sure if we have IKEA furniture stores in the States but I know we have the brand name in furnishing.  In Sweden, it is the place to go if you want to get furniture or anything of the sort.  The place is huge and sits out in the country a bit where they have space for bigger stores.  The store is set up to promote the customer walk the whole store to check out; passing by all they have to offer.  The store starts with a cafeteria style restaurant to let the customer sit and eat before they start shopping and at the same time check out deals they have to offer in the store.  The IKEA was quite a nice and interesting experience but I do not want to spend to much more on my room since I will be leaving it in 5 months.

Everything cost more here which I here is different from the rest of Europe.  I have a grocery store located but 20 meters from the building I am living in (really convenient).  You usually will not see an item for less than approximately $2.  The grocery sort of jacks up it prices because of its proximity to all the college students without any personal vehicles.  I feel that the convenience of the shop is worth the slightly higher prices.   Everything, not just food, seems to cost more here than it would back home.

I have class tomorrow morning at 8:15 so I am thinking I will head to sleep soon because it will mean that I will have to leave my room by like 7:40 to bike down there.  It takes me about 20-30 minutes to get down there.  It seems like I am not going down the easiest way but it is hard to find you way around when everything is white and all the signs are in a foreign language.  The other morning I headed out of Uppsala west (as opposed to south for SLU) and I took about 20 min bike ride out of my way.  Quite annoying but I still enjoy biking very much.  It will be even better when it gets warmer.  Tomorrow will be the earliest class I have had since high school.

Signing out from Sweden