Sweden Day 2- Walking around
My prediction was partially correct. I didn't get to bed until after 4 AM, and woke up before 7. Ravished with hunger (as I missed dinner) I wandered out to find a grocery store. Even by 8 AM, it was still dark out. There's something depressing about the weather. I'm from Minnesota, so I'm used to a cold and dark winter, but this seems bleaker than that. I can't quite put my finger on it. Anyways, found a convenience mart that didn't open until 9 (decidedly inconvenient), and later a gas station. I got the essentials, OJ, milk, and cereal. Prices are slightly higher than in America. Kind of annoying.
Today was a day of meeting all sorts of people. It's like O-week of 1st year all over again. Everybody's very friendly and open to talking with no pretext. In my dorm there are two floors of forefingers with a total of 24 people (there are also two floors of Swedes, but they keep to themselves apparently.) Maybe a quarter of the people were here last semester as well, so they tell us newbies what's what. Of those I know there is a German, 3 Australians (Australians are everywhere, it's crazy), a Belgian, 2 French, a Singaporean, a person from Hong Kong, and two other Americans. One American is from Rochester U, the other is one of the other folk from the U of Minnesota Law school (Dylan Kytola). More are yet to come.
I and 4 girls from the dorm went to go on a campus tour. We met many other internationals. The tour was like one big social event. You walk up to people as the tour guide yammers on and ask "What's your name? Where are you from?" I met all kinds of people. One of them was a Swedish girl named Annayota who was much better at explaining the university than the tour guide was. She gave me the inside scoop. The nations still seem a pretty prominent fixture on campus, but Annayota told me it doesn't really matter which one you join.
So I went on the tour and say lots of stuff, where the bank is and where the pedestrian mall is. It's a quaint European kind of town, but a college town at the same time. I went to look for a plug adaptor but was unsuccessful. I may have to order one via the internet. Then I did lots of waiting in lines for various burocratic reasons. Say that reminds me, my postal address is
Sebastian Ellefson
Ekebyvägen 13, Rm 84
752 63 Uppsala
Sweden
Feel free to send me stuff.
I got back to the dorm at 4 but it felt like 10. It's dark and I'm super tired. But I must resist napping or I'll never shake the jet lag.
Tomorrow there is a reception at the faculty of law, and a pub crawl hosted by all the nations. Everyone is excited about this. Friday we must choose our nation, and classes begin.
-The Wandering Norseman-
3 comments:
Just to let you know, if you end up choosing a loser nation (i.e., one that does not win the big annual Inter-National Obstacle Course, preferably as part of a team of ragtag misfits with names like "Gooch" and "The Brain"), I will lose all respect I ever had for you.
-Christian
Please explain "nations". Is it like dorms? Maybe I missed something obvious but I am confused.
- Sarah
Nations are a uniquely Uppsala institution. They are social clubs of sorts. I think the closest equivilant in the states would be a frat, but only slightly. For one, every student in the entire university is a memeber of a nation. Each nation 'represents' a different region of Sweden, but you don't have to join the nation which represents you, that's just how they began. They've been around for hundreds of years (I think the first one started in the 1650s).
The nations have sports teams, choirs, bands, they go on trips, have parties, have formal dinners, movie nights, band nights, and more. Most every nation has a pub, a cafe, a library. Everything is student run. the nations are actually headed by "curators", who are students who have taken the semester off just to run the nation.
Post a Comment