Kiruna, Abisko

Hey all!

Survived -15 C in Kiruna... here's the link to our photos! HERE

:D

More from us later.

F & M

Mommy's here

Mom arrived alive! We leave tomorrow at 10am :)

Photo of the week :) Mexican mustache party

Here is a lovely photo that I took this week. My stick-on fuzzy mustache was worth every penny, I think.

The home stretch of period 3

Hi family and friends!

Right now I'm in the home stretch of my 3rd period of school in Uppsala. Four more days til I'm done with Geographic Information Systems and Watershed Management... of course that means finishing my 20-page paper, presenting it, and creating a group report.

I don't have too many interesting stories to tell at the moment, as I've been pretty much holed up in my room or in Carolina Rediviva's reading room or in Ekonomikum's library for the past two weeks, researching and writing my term paper.

BUT, there is less than ONE WEEK before dear mommy comes to take me on a Scandinavian adventure!! Or I take her on a Scandinavian adventure?
We're first heading up to Kiruna (about 100km from Abisko) in the Arctic to experience freezing temperatures, tour the Ice Hotel, and see northern lights (please?). Next, it's to Bergen, where we will take a tour of some Norwegian fjords, and take a scenic train ride across Norway to Oslo. Next we head in to Stockholm and take a ferry to Visby, on the largest Swedish island of Gotland, and hopefully see some ancient ruins. Then we take a ferry in another direction and head down towards Malmo, and take the train across the Baltic to Copenhagen. Finally, back to good old Uppsala to check out the thrilling sights of my small university town.

Swedish spring has begun here. Three days ago, it was sunny/partly cloudy and about 7 C, which it had been for about two weeks. Two days ago, I woke up to a snowstorm. This afternoon, my thermometer reads 18 C, and I am outside in my T-shirt in the glorious sun. I really notice the long days... yesterday I was up just after 6am for my GIS exam, and it was already bright and sunny?! In June it will be difficult to get ANY sleep, I think.

Side note, my youtube video of Top Gear Live video has 671 views!! I'm famous on the internet!!

I'm going to look back in my video archives and find those gask clips I promised so long ago... at least until my supervisor sends back my paper with a thousand revisions. He published most of the studies on my topic, so I'm not entirely exaggerating...
 

Snowstorm, March 19th 2012

Sunny 18 C, March 21st 2012

Top Gear Live

Took a zillion videos of Top Gear Live last night! If it interests you, I clipped the best parts into an 8 minute video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wNj7oAuiN8

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Upptagen (busy!)

Kalmar nation with buds!

Hello!!
I am taking a short break from paper-writing and exam-studying.
Not too much happening these days except for school and study... the term end is near!!
Last week our class went on a field trip to Norvatten, the company who purifies tap water for Stockholm, and Käppala, the wastewater treatment plant. I visited a wastewater treatment plant in Langley when studying at TWU, and WOW the difference! The treatment plant (I think on Annacis island?) was very low-tech and plain... the Swedish one? Underground, high-tech, decorated with mosaics and artwork. Yes, artwork, in the wastewater treatment plant. One of the operating sheds was painted to look like a house, and had flowers in the window. Underground. Amazing.
This week, we took a trip to Nynäshamn (an hour south or so of Stockholm) to look at some man-made wetlands, designed to trap nitrogen and phosphorus to prevent eutrophication (nutrient buildup) in the Baltic sea. Really interesting stuff!! Unfortunately all the paths were covered in ice, and it was a warm day so the top layer was water... ever tried walking uphill and ending up further down than you started?? Not fun!!
Lectures have finished up and we're meeting now and then to finish up our GIS project on Stadsskogen (city forest) park in Uppsala.

Some new Swedish pronunciations for you!
Jello - probably means yellow...
Washing - could definitely mean watching...  
Cash crops vs. catch crops... you will never know which one they mean.


Also, trips booked to the Netherlands (April 20-23) to visit friends from last term at Wageningen University, and to Reykjavik (May 5-9) hopefully to see a volcano!! Luckily the summer season doesn't start in most places til May 16, so prices are really cheap!

Hope you're all doing great!!