Cornell University

Hey guys,

I am coming at you this last time sitting on my parents sofa recovering from the jet lag of flying (and from celebrating my last week in Uppsala).  I originally wanted to put my last post in Sweden but I had no time to sit at my computer in such fashion.

I am going to make this last post sort and sweet because I have a lot to do today including making my way out to Cornell.  I would like to use this last post to make a few final words about my time abroad.

Deciding to study abroad has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life.  It has open up my perspective on the world drastically.  I know have a network of friends that spans the globe.  It is impossible to have gone abroad for a semester and have it not change your life.  It’s easy to see myself, how, later down the road, my decision to go abroad will continue to affect my life and I am excited for this.

I would like to thank Cornell, CALS, and those around me who have given me the ability to pursue this amazing opportunity.

Cheers

Hey Readers,

I coming back to you experienced.  Since my last post I have done a lot of traveling and have seen a lot of Europe.  Thanks to a good friend from Austria that I met at Cornell last semester, I was able to see a lot of Austria and then some of Northern Italy.  Soon after I came back to Uppsala from this trip I went on a cruise to Riga, the Capital of Latvia.  Very interesting and I will try to let you in on a little of my experiences.  Also, yesterday, a few friends and I did a quick little jaunt to the small historic town of Sigtuna, Sweden.

The rest of the exchange group in Sweden as well as myself have got an unsettling because we see our time here coming to a close.  We do not want it to be over.  The weather is getting better and we want to spend every minute of good weather enjoying Sweden a bit more.  Its funny that I say the weather is getting better because I am currently looking at a wintery mix falling from the sky.  The nasty weather is really the reason I am able to put up a post today because I would otherwise be doing something else.  Actually,  this afternoon I am being hooked up with a baseball connection and I will be able to play some of my favorite sport.  I look forward to playing baseball in a nation where the sport and I are both aliens from the same origin.

My first experience of Central Europe:

I left at the end of March for Vienna, Austria.  Landing there, I could immediately tell that I was in a new land.  It was warm!  and green! The flowers were blooming and the new leaves were coming out.

Ulrike, my Austrian friend that I met at Cornell, gave me a wonderful tour of Vienna, which is her hometown.  I saw many things and got a good taste of Vienna.  Even the sausage.  Vienna is really a gorgeous city.

However, I didn’t really see one part of Austria that wasn’t pleasing to the eye.

From Vienna, we started our journey out.  Our next stop was Graz, Austria to spend Easter with Ulrike’s mother.

A very memorable Easter for sure.  The “Mommys Hotel”  was a 5 star (heart) stay for sure.  Danke shön.

Graz is also very attractive.

After our stay in Graz we went down to Italy.  First stop:  Padova

Not even a two hour drive from Graz and it seemed like a completely different world.  Seemingly like I crossed another ocean.  They spoke a different language, all the buildings had a different style to them, and a warmer climate lent the viability of tropical plant species that I had never seen before.  One thing that stayed the same from Austria was the scenic backdrop of the Alps.

Here you can see the artistic style of Italy. Note the winged lion- a popular statue and mythical creature in italian folklore.

We also made our way to a couple Italian Villa’s.  These historic buildings were the homes of the very wealthy.

Called villas because of the beautiful views they would have as they often sit atop a hill.  We could not take pictures inside but it was sometimes amazing to see some of the art inside- Painted ceiling/walls depicting biblical and greek mythology scenes as well as marble flooring.

Italians love wine and as we passed the countryside, there was always a vineyard to see.

Next Stop- Venice- the city on stilts

A very neat town and yes, I did do a little gondola.  The city seemed very congested and this makes sense- a lot of tourist, concentrated on an island, and the streets are small.

Note: I did not get there consent for the photo but I will put the photo into the blog anyways because my photo was taken a number of times without my permission.  There is a strong likelihood that I am in someone else’s’ blog in a photo.

Next stop- Verona, Italy.  Neat northern Italy city and setting of Romeo and Juliet.  A fundamentally romantic Italian town.

We got to see the Juliet’s home and the setting of the famous “balcony scene”.

But I am not a romantic of course.

While in Italy, I really enjoyed their Dairy marketing.  The italian ice cream is some of the best ice cream I have ever had. Great flavors and very rich and creamy.  The best way to describe it is that it is very good quality soft serve ice cream.  Gelateria, which means ice cream shop in Italian, can be found on any block in Italy because it is so popular (for good reason).  Another cool part of the dairy marketing in Italy are roadside milk dispensers that you can fill up your containers with fresh milk.  I love these things.

And I got some of my own- it is very good, ice cold milk.

A great time in Northern Italy but now we were going to head back up to Austria and stop in Innsbruck- a two time host of the Winter Olympics.  It was a very scenic drive the way up there in the Alps.  I enjoyed seeing the many quaint small towns thriving along the alps.  A beautiful autobahn.

Innsbruck is an awesome town to be in because it is surrounded by the snow-capped mountains of the Alps.

This is also a city that is heavily trafficked by tourists and this town hosts the concept of lederhosen and yodeling.  Looked into buying some gear for myself but it cost too much.  A serious hobby.

The last stop on our journey was Salzburg, Austria.  Home of Mozart and yet another beautiful and historic city.

The city makes a strong effort to maintain its historic image and style and McDonalds must also conform to its style.

The trip was wonderful and many thanks go out to Ulrike and her boyfriend for taking me along with them.

The Cruise to Riga:

A blur….

haha.  No, it was a good time with many friends.  We left on a Sunday night and got back on Tuesday morning.  Spent 6 hours in Riga.  Six hours was enough I think.  The city was interesting and gave off a unique vibe.  It was the feeling of eastern europe and powerful gov’t.  The people of Riga made it most interesting.  Straight faces with little optimism in their eyes. Evidently a poorer country with more beggars, homeless, and addicts around.  The country was recently freed from Russian occupation and I was told the Russian influence is still quite strong.  Latvia will be the closest I will get to Russia because of the difficulty to enter Russia (especially for an American.)

Riga is nice where tourism is the main industry.

The water did not look so appealing however.

The marketplace was really neat to see.  It seemed as though the place would not pass sanitary inspections at times however the food looked really good.

The indoor marketplace was massive and you could find anything you wanted as long as you spoke Latvian.

And here is a video PEDA may have trouble with…

P4120088

Overall it was a great trip but I have some friends over now to have some fika.

Cheers

Hey all,
Its been awhile since I last posted so I am going to try and fill you in on what has happened since my trip to the Lappland (the north region of Sweden. A lot has happened so I will try my best to be comprehensive in my reflection (with certain censorship). I will also reflect a bit on my lifestyle since I have been here long enough (2 months already!) to develop patterns to my routines.

School:

Oh yeah, school- with the lectures over with both of my classes I am taking the first half of the semester, we are now into project work and final exam preparation.  This means that I no longer have to bike the 4 miles to class everyday (I sort of miss because it was a good workout).  Instead, I can stay out late and wake up even later and, of course, work on projects and exam prep.  I took an exam last week for one class and presented my project to the other the previous week.  I should be studying for an exam I have on Thursday or working on a project due next Monday but I would rather be doing something else like “blogging”- sounds bad but it is more productive than what I might  be doing otherwise:”watching movies”.

I have had fun doing work for these classes and it’s because they are quite different from what I was used to.  For the group project, we were told to defend the vegan diet with a report and presentation for a debate about livestock’s role in climate change.  It ended up being kind of fun defending a position I didn’t believe in and I was told that the instructors liked our presentations best.  The test I took in my Agricultural Cropping Systems course was quite different but I guess was the norm for SLU.  They had us write out long hand the answers to 5 different extended response questions.  I haven’t had to write out a sentence in the past years let alone the answers to these questions.  Wrist sore, I handed in my test after about two hours.  I felt bad for the non-native speakers as they were fretting the test because of the language barrier-not the long hand writing like I was.

Food:

I go to Willy’s for all of my grocery needs.

It is by far the cheapest I have seen and they have a pretty good selection of products.  It is on the other side of Uppsala but again a good exercise with my bike.  Actually, I will probably be heading over there after this blog post because I just ran out of milk.  I am always running out of milk.  I am going to go ethnocentric here and say that they need to adopt the gallon size milk container.  I may be a bit biased being from a dairy farm and America but I am always running out of milk!  The largest size sold is 1.5 liters and I will always get two of this size when I am at Willy’s but even this doesn’t equal a gallon!  I am a bit excited over this because I tried to fix myself the American classic before writing this- pb and j with a glass of milk but I was all out of the milk.  Btw, I have served the pb and j with many Europeans because they have never heard of it and they love it.  Making friends with pb and j.

I started the semester getting a wide array of groceries so that I could prepare great meals for myself in the kitchen but I soon realized that it was not appropriate for me.  Taking 20-30 minutes to prepare a meal just for me was not worth my time so I went to more basic food items that I could prepare quickly and hold me over.  I could get more variety in my diet by going out to eat places with friends.  My basics- Milk, bread, yoghurt, cheese, muesli, frozen vegetables, oranges, bananas, honey, peanut butter, jelly, frozen pizzas, eggs, pasta, butter, and hot peppers.  I bought so much pasta at the beginning of the semester because I didn’t realize how far it goes and so I think I won’t have to buy it again in Sweden.

I have discovered that I do have a bit of knack for cooking.  I have never really had to cook in my life before but now that I have the opportunity through slight necessity, I have picked up a new hobby.  The group of exchange students have been hosting food nights where you represent your country with something and I have made corn bread to everyone’s delight.

Bike:

My bike has been doing great.  I have grown somewhat attached to it.  It will be hard to get rid of it when I go (hope to get 800 swedish crowns for it).  Only slight vandalism since the Viking night incident.  Someone pushed it over when parked (I am guessing in an effort to get their own bike out) and it put the handlebars off center but I fixed it.

I put a couple mods on to the bike.  I raised the sit to its highest capacity because it was sitting a little low for me.  By luck, I found a saddle carriage for my bike in the bushes and I quickly grabbed it up and put it on my bike.  I can bring much more back from Willy’s now- maybe 4-1.5 liter milk jugs?!

Camping out:

Six of us in total went out one Sunday afternoon on our bikes to a cabin we had heard of that is stocked with firewood and can be stayed in overnight at no cost.

It is funded by the nation of Sweden or some

thing and welcomes all visitors for free.  It was unknown what we were going to but we had heard from friends that it was a great.  After a 8 kilometer bike ride and then a 5 km hike through the woods we finally came upon the cabin.  It was a wonderful night.  We brought the food and had two fireplaces going to keep the cabin warm.  Luckily, we had the cabin to ourselves that night and thankfully so because there are only 6 cots in the place.

Language:

Language has been by far the most interesting cultural topic during my stay in Europe.  A good portion of the conversations had with people by myself or with a group of people have talked about the concept of language.  It makes sense in a way because people from all over the world are coming together to a place whose own language is a fairly minor one on a world scale.  If english is your native language then feel lucky that you were born into it because it is the universal language used around the world by academic and educated people.  Even if you think that you do not know the language that well- you do relative to most non-native speakers that will converse with you in your native language.

This blessing comes with some misfortune at the same time.  I am jealous of the non-native speakers in that they know another language altogether from english.  It seems as though they are geniuses being bilingual and all.  I realize the cultural importance of language and to have my language (english) shared with the whole world waters down the cultural significance of the language.   I do not share the language with just the people of my country but rather the whole world.

I do notice certain things amongst my European friends with respect to their spoken english and their ability to do so.  Their is a certain disparity between countries and their generalized abilities to speak the language and this is a result from societal differences.  Swedes and the inhabitants of the other nordic lands are some of the best Europeans to speak the language.  The Dutch are argued to be the best, however.  They say it is because the Netherlands is the harbor port to Central Europe and therefore is full of non-native people who do not speak Dutch.  The worst of the Europeans I would say are the Italians followed by the French.  The german speakers are in the middle of the pack as far as being able to converse in the language.  The differences to speak english amongst the countries is a direct result of the institutions set in place as well as geographic position and international relations.  A big factor in the level of english ability is how their entertainment is given to them- subtitles or overdubbing.

Music:

Most of the popular music here is the same popular music in the states.  Sweden does have this awesome music program that is sort of a mix between iTunes and Pandora but better than both of them.  It is called Spotify.  It is trying to work its way into the states but is having a hard time getting through artists’ contract rights.  It is an on demand music player.  I can search any song a play it fully and immediately.  I did not have to pay for the program just invited by someone who paid for the premium program.  I am listening to it now.  The music artists are paid by how much there music is played.  There is a 20 sec ad between every three or four songs but it is great otherwise.

I guess Swedes are known for their software programming abilities.  They are also the creaters of Skype that we all know well.

Nightlife:

I feel like I should keep this one short and sweet but I must comment on it a little bit.  I have had a lot of fun going out at night.  The nations in Uppsala make life a lot of fun for its students.  Uppsala is a very much a student town like Ithaca is if not more so.  Every night the students make their way the nation bars and clubs to have a good time.  The nights out here start out really early and end early as well.  In order to make it to the club without waiting in a line you must leave by 9 at the latest.  Most everything is done by by 1 or 2 am.  It is fun to ride your bike downtown at 3 or 4 in the morning because it is absolutely dead.  Not anyone to be seen.

I have been to 2 gasques now and they are quite some fun.  It is a formal dinner with a lot of singing followed by an afterparty “slopp”.

ABSOLUT abroad.

Hi All.  It has been awhile since my last post but things around me have been getting hot (busy) all while the temperature has stayed way too cold.   This winter has been a record setting one for Sweden as temperatures have not been this cold since the 80s.  Its giving me a bad perception of winter in Scandinavia- probably the same to what you may think of when I say, “Winter in Scandinavia”.

However, I should not complain too much because the purpose of this post is to describe the trip I had last week to northern Sweden- 200km north of the arctic circle latitude and part of a land that is referred to as “Europe’s Last Wilderness”.

I had in mind three tasks to complete while up there.  They were to (1)go visit the Ice Hotel (2) go on a dogsledding tour and (3) hopefully be lucky enough to see the northern lights.  Not only did I accomplish these three goals but we did so much more.  It was certainly one of the best trips I have ever been on and definitely one that I won’t soon forget.

We left Uppsala on tuesday morning and there were six of us: Sarah and Kara from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, Anne from Quebec, Angela from Germany, and Nick and I from Cornell.  The group was very fun.   The plane ride to the north may have been our one hiccup in the whole trip.  It was an hour late and then on top of it we had to make and emergency landing halfway through it to drop off a plane part in Umea.  We landed in Kiruna two hours behind schedule.  It did not damper our mood too much- our first time in the arctic circle.

The late plane through off our plans slightly.  We had planned to take a train immediately from the plane to Abisko where the national park is and our best chance to see the northern lights.  Missing the train because of the late flight, we instead ended up taking a taxi which cost a bit more but we had fun nonetheless.  The taxi ended up being a vw bus with a total party theme inside- not what we were expecting our first experience of the north to be.

By the time we got to Abisko it was already dark and overcast so there was no hope for seeing the northern lights so instead we found a warm tavern and had some drinks and watched the olympics- a cozy finish to a long day of travel.

The next day we set out for a hike through Abisko national park.  It was truly beautiful to say the least but I will let the pictures do the talking…..

A great hike.  I have many more pictures- my best souvenirs however I also bought at thermos and a winter scarf (“functional souvenirs”).  We walked approximately 14km on the hike and 24 on the day because our accommodation was actually a couple kilometers outside of Abisko.  The sky was clear that day and we were hopeful that it would stay that into the night.  At dusk, I noticed the sky was still clear and I had a feeling that night would bring some excitement.

My feelings were not in vain.

It was an amazing night.  We were able to see the northern lights in full affect.  The sky that night left all in awe.  We saw the lights from the Aurora Sky Station atop one of the mountains in the park.  The sky station boasts that they are the best place to see the Aurora Borealis on Earth.  Probably the best place I will ever see them from.  Also, the the ski lift off the mountain was probably the coldest I got in the Arctic Circle let alone Sweden.  It was -25C that night and after 4 hours on top of the mountain I was already about ice but then I hide to ride the lift down with nothing to do but try and twiddle my thumbs.  Once off, it was a km to where we were staying.  Nick and I tried our best to run back but it felt more like running on pegs our ice cubes because we could not feel anything from the calf down.

The next day we went back to Kiruna to visit the Ice Hotel.  It was really cool to see all the artwork.

And all the rooms of different themes.

The Ice Bar was fun.

Don’t worry mom- I just had one drink.  It was far to expensive; a drink cost 110 krona which is like $15 and it was barely anything at all but we had to get one so that we say we did.  The ice glass are fun but kind of clumsy to drink out off “use both hands”.

Many, many more pictures were taken to save our memories of the place.

The next day we travelled got to see Kiruna a bit more and by chance got to go into the mine via a tour of a mushroom farm within the mine?!  The city of Kiruna was built up started in the beginning of the twentieth century with discovery of the iron ore deposits.  The mine is now the largest underground iron ore mine in all of the world.

Driving in the mine was an experience in itself.

The mine had its own network of highways and to look behind the vehicle was to look at nothing because it was pitch black at times.  We were not in the mine to get a tour of it but to see this man’s shiitake mushroom growing setup.

This man has been an employee of the mine since the fifties and that has given him the esteem to set up the mushroom growing business.  He realized that the mine offered the perfect atmosphere for the fungi to live and grow.  The guy was personable and it was just our group he was giving the tour to and he also told us much about the history of the city of Kiruna.

That night we accomplished the last activity on our agenda- dogsledding. There was nothing quite like it.  When we first arrived at the kennel, the dogs were literally going off the wall (or fence as it were) as they were full of energy and excitement.  The excitement only grew as we were put into winter gear and the dogs were harnessed up.  This video gives you idea of the pre-ride feeling.

Excited Dogs Before the Sled Ride

Once the dogs started to pull us they instantly quieted and nothing could be heard but the creaking of the sleigh and the crunching snow.  Definitely something special.  This is a shot I managed to get while the dogs were in action and I was seated on the sleigh.

A very cool night but our trip was not over even though all we had planned on was done with great success.  During the day, stumbled upon a free concert that night by a ninety year old man that was going to be held at the Kiruna Church that night.

The concert was great and I have never seen somebody that was so intertwined with their instrument as this man is with his piano.  His piano and music is his lifeblood.  After dogsledding, we were able to catch most of his concert and we were all enthralled with his playing.  It fascinating to see this man play the greats- Mozart, Beethoven and likes with virtuosic abilities and with NO music.  The man had so much presence while playing.  We stumbled upon him earlier in the day when we visited the church to see it and saw him practicing.  We then learned about the concert and I was able to capture of video of him practicing and panned around the church a bit.

Virtuoso practices inside Kiruna Church

I hope these videos turn out.

After the concert, we spent our last night inside the hostel and made an appointment with the sauna and then made shiitake mushroom soup with the mushrooms Sven had given us.

We had to get up at 5:30 the next morning to catch a 6am taxi to the airport on Saturday morning.  The trip had left us exhausted but satisfied.  The rest of saturday was spent in my room where I slept.

A great trip.

Immigrant Song (Audio Link)

We come from the land of the ice and snow
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow

The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde and sing and cry, Valhalla, I am coming

On we sweep with, with threshing oar
Our only goal will be the western shore

Ah-ah-ahh-ah, ah-ah-ahh-ah
We come from the land of the ice and snow
from the midnight sun where the hot springs FLOW
How soft your fields, so green
can whisper tales of gore, of how we calmed the tides of war
We are your overlords

On we sweep with, with threshing oar
Our only goal will be the western shore

S-so now you better stop and rebuild all your ruins
for peace and trust can winthe day despite of all you’re losin’