Quick summary of Belgium: went to visit a coworker from a few summers back, Mira, who lives in a little town St-Katelijne-Waver near Mechelen, which is basically between Antwerp and Brussels. She took me sightseeing around her favourite places, including an outlet mall ( yess ), had me try some Kriek 'beer', took a wrong turn and took me to the Netherlands (for about two minutes), went to a museum on genever (basically gin), through Brussels (we even saw a famous Belgian minister of something or other), and to Gent, where my downstairs neighbour in Uppsala is from. She showed us both around and took us out for some real flemish pancaks (picture De Dutch, but actually Dutch). The best part of Ghent was seeing the castle. I saw it in the distance and freaked, because it looked EXACTLY like every toy castle I have seen, just how I always thought a castle should look. Gravesteen. Turrets and towers and slits for archers... right on the water, flags and everything.
Next day, I met Michela in Krakow. I had spent a few minutes on Google Translate trying to figure out basics like "thank you" in Polish... but considering it's spelled "dziękuję" and pronounced something in the neighbourhood of "deen koo yong" I gave up very quickly. I am convinced we picked the best hostel out there... I arrived to a big pot of (free&delicious) kielbasa and egg soup. The next night they had a 'Polish vodka tasting' (tried cherry vodka and something oddly white...) and the last night was movie and popcorn night. The whole stay only cost about $30 too. We discovered you could get a nice restaurant meal (pierogies... REAL ONES!) for about $3.50... the same thing in Sweden would likely cost you around $13.50... even the entry and a four hour long guided tour to the country's most famous museum, Auschwitz-Birkenau, only cost $8.75. I'm sure you can tell, one of the most exciting things about Poland was how cheap everything was.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was an experience. I heard many people say it wasn't as emotionally overwhelming as they expected it to be. I think because our guide was quite matter of fact, these are the barracks, this was a gas chamber, these roads are made of the cremated remains of the victims and the rest were shipped to local factories... She told us the victims were told they were going to the showers for 'sanitary reasons'. They hung up their clothes in the 'dressing room', were given towels and soap, and were locked in a freshly painted white room complete with fake faucets. Then a container of Cyclon B was dropped through a hole in the ceiling.
The prisoners living in the work camps didn't get soap or towels...
It was quite surreal, almost to the point of emotional detachment. Until we saw to the pile of empty Cyclon B canisters, the enormous stack of shoes, the piles of women's braids chopped off after death and shipped to factories making felt, and finally the hallway full of mugshots, each featuring name, date of arrival, and date of death. I will never ever forget that hallway. The single most overwhelming thing I have seen in my entire life. And it probably only contained a thousand or so photos.
I've captioned the rest of the photos, but we didn't do much else other than check out old castles and churches, and go shopping.
Well, now most of my exchange student friends have gone back to their respective countries. Time to make some new friends and figure out my new classes... and figure out who taught Swedes to say "quite much" !! I heard that phrase six or seven times today....
Anyway, here are the photos from my recent trips.
Belgium
Krakow
Monday, January 16, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Yep, I'm still alive!
Just a quick update so you know I'm alive! Had a really great time in Belgium with Mira and her (non-english-speaking) dad, and even got to see one of my classmates' hometown, Gent. Saw Hasselt, Massmechelen, Mechelen, Brussels, Liers... crazy stormy weather at night but it was always sunny in the afternoons :)
Now I'm in Krakow, had an excellent tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau today, really freaky... tomorrow I'll go do some extra cheap shopping (Krakow is so cheap!!!) and check out the university where Copernicus worked... and the oldest shopping mall in the world (1555!) Very excited. I won't put up photos til I get home because I'm using the hostel's computer.
Hope everyone is well at home! I will be back in Uppsala on Jan 11 then madly writing up my final project.
Tata~!
Now I'm in Krakow, had an excellent tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau today, really freaky... tomorrow I'll go do some extra cheap shopping (Krakow is so cheap!!!) and check out the university where Copernicus worked... and the oldest shopping mall in the world (1555!) Very excited. I won't put up photos til I get home because I'm using the hostel's computer.
Hope everyone is well at home! I will be back in Uppsala on Jan 11 then madly writing up my final project.
Tata~!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Hej då Matt !!
Took Matt to the airport this morning :( sad to see him go... but it's good he left before we started driving each other crazy!!
Bandy on boxing day was super fun. The stadium was packed when we got there, and we managed to find the section where the Uppsala/Sirius fans were (spied the blue and black striped toques and scarves) so we got to hear the cheers all through the game. I videoed some of them, eventually I will get around to putting up some of my videos of the year~! It was quite an exciting game, Sirius led right to the end, but they ended up tying... 5-5 though so plenty of chances to jump up and down and wave Matt's scarf around.
Next day we left for Helsinki on the Viking line. Same cruise I did with my friends back in October, but on their other ship. Wednesday we visited the (of course overpriced) market square and market hall, but some of the fur stuff was so gorgeously soft I vaguely considered buying some...
Then we got on the bus to go to the zoo (ironic?). They have an amazing setup for wildcats. Big exhibits but set up SO well to be able to actually SEE the cats. Most of them even walked right up to the glass to show off for us. I have never been so excited at a zoo before. Plus we saw a couple of animals I've never even heard of, which doesn't happen often!!
We only had a couple of hours off the ship in Helsinki, so we wandered around and did a bit of souvenir shopping/Matt waiting around while I looked through the boxing day "ale"s (apparently ale means sale in Finnish..?)
Last night, it being Matt's last night in Scandinavia, I made him try some herring (mustard flavour and dill flavour) and some beet 'salad' (Rödbetssallad). He didn't like any of them, but I wasn't really expecting him to...
HERE are photos from the second half of his trip.
Bandy on boxing day was super fun. The stadium was packed when we got there, and we managed to find the section where the Uppsala/Sirius fans were (spied the blue and black striped toques and scarves) so we got to hear the cheers all through the game. I videoed some of them, eventually I will get around to putting up some of my videos of the year~! It was quite an exciting game, Sirius led right to the end, but they ended up tying... 5-5 though so plenty of chances to jump up and down and wave Matt's scarf around.
Next day we left for Helsinki on the Viking line. Same cruise I did with my friends back in October, but on their other ship. Wednesday we visited the (of course overpriced) market square and market hall, but some of the fur stuff was so gorgeously soft I vaguely considered buying some...
Then we got on the bus to go to the zoo (ironic?). They have an amazing setup for wildcats. Big exhibits but set up SO well to be able to actually SEE the cats. Most of them even walked right up to the glass to show off for us. I have never been so excited at a zoo before. Plus we saw a couple of animals I've never even heard of, which doesn't happen often!!
We only had a couple of hours off the ship in Helsinki, so we wandered around and did a bit of souvenir shopping/Matt waiting around while I looked through the boxing day "ale"s (apparently ale means sale in Finnish..?)
Last night, it being Matt's last night in Scandinavia, I made him try some herring (mustard flavour and dill flavour) and some beet 'salad' (Rödbetssallad). He didn't like any of them, but I wasn't really expecting him to...
HERE are photos from the second half of his trip.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Really??
Today it was a balmy 6 C ...
Sweden's 'warmest December in 250 years' http://www.thelocal.se/38186/
Sweden's 'warmest December in 250 years' http://www.thelocal.se/38186/
Sunday, December 25, 2011
God Jul från Sverige!
Merry Christmas to everyone from myself and Matthew! I hope it's lovely and snowy and full of turkey and other delicious things!
Lots of things to briefly catch up on.
The day after I arrived back home from Deutschland, a bunch of our exchange student friends organized a 'Running Dinner', in which you split into pairs and are assigned one part of a meal to prepare, appetizer, main course, or dessert. We had quite a lot of people, 15 teams, which made for a really nice evening. We started out in Kronasvagen and had some crazy delicious homemade guacamole (made by mexicans). Myself and Jane then 'ran' to my place to warm up our crustless quiche and Taiwanese fried rice to share with many Germans, then headed across the path to eat the best brownie I have ever eaten with some Finns. I really love the community here... I don't know what I'll do when I get back home and don't have 30+ friends living within a 10-minute walk from me!! I try not to think about that and just remember I still have 5 more months here...
That Friday we all went to the Uppsala University Royal Academic Orchestra's performance of Mahler's second symphony, as one of our friends (Timo) happens to be a genius on clarinet. It has been a long time since I've been to a classical concert... it was quite long, but really beautiful. The orchestra had a dress code of black, white, and red, and there was a really entertaining Swede at the end of the violin row with a tuxedo and red socks on. He was really into his violining and his (classic Swedish) hair kept flapping up and down, we tried hard not to giggle (with somewhat limited success)...
13 December is St. Lucia day, an unusual holiday with a very unusual history. In the evening, a few friends and I went to the V-Dala nation for some sweet things and a Lucia concert.
The next week was full of dinners and goodbye fikas, and a big highly entertaining German goodbye party with some glühwein, fencing, and a nativity scene made of bratwurst and bacon.
Matthew arrived here in Uppsala on Tuesday afternoon after my exam for Forest Environment and Conservation. The first day, we just explored Uppsala... got a kebab, did a bit of shopping (of course went to H&M), then went to Flogsta and had some tacos with my Spanish and Mexican friends to celebrate the end of studying before Christmas. The next two days me and Matt took the train to Stockholm, visiting the Vasa museum and Skansen one day, and IKEA Kungens Kurva and Gamla Stan the next day. Skansen was supposed to have an excellent Christmas market... but when we got there, all the stalls were closed... apparently it had closed the previous Sunday. Why??? It's a Christmas market!! We were pretty disappointed. We did get to see some interesting replicas of historical nordic buildings (I thought they were interesting anyway) but the best part was the "Nordic Animals" section. We got to see reindeer, moose, lynx, bison, owls, Icelandic horses, and wolverines!
IKEA Kungens Kurva is the biggest IKEA in the world. They offer a free shuttle bus on weekdays running from the Stockholm central station (which we took of course). It even has free Wifi. Needless to say Matt loves Sweden. Gamla Stan, at least, still had their Christmas market open, but it was quite small. At least Matt got to try some (overpriced) glögg, complete with raisins and almonds and accompanying pepparkakor.
Christmas eve was spent creating two masterpieces, Ponderosa cake and Apple bacon stuffing for 12. Finally my kitchen was empty (all the roommates have gone home for Christmas) so we actually had clean utensils to use. We packed everything into paper IKEA bags and took the bus out to Jane's place in Ultuna, and had a very non-traditional Christmas dinner. Two girls from Slovenia made a potato and onion dish with chicken fried in egg and fried salmon (MMM), the three Italian guys made the best lasagna I have ever tasted, Jane made some really interesting green bean noodles and dumplings, Pien and Carina made a dutch cream vegetable dish (complete with brussel sprouts)... LOTS of food in any case.
Around 10:30pm we went to the cathedral for midnight mass (packed of course). Lots of Swedish songs and Swedish words. I think Matt was woken up by the bells signaling the end of the service... zzz after lots of food and a lot of stuff you can't understand!
This morning we opened our stockings sent over to us by our lovely mum, and watched Frosty the Snowman :) And of course, I made Matt try julmust, traditional Swedish christmas soda that just tastes like Dr. Pepper mixed with coke. I must say I am not a fan... but they sell tons of it at Christmas! Stacks and stacks of cases in every grocery store and in cafeterias.
Me and Matthew also went to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Hollywood version) this week on opening night. It was fantastic, despite terrible choices for most of the main characters. Plenty of Swedish brand placements, but unfortunately the few spoken words in Swedish were cringeworthy. And cringe the (Swedish) audience did. However most people jumped up and down (or whispered excitedly) at the scene filmed in Uppsala's main street!! I certainly did. Every time I saw something I recognized, whether it was the brand on a coffee cup or the fridge contents of the characters, I was whispering to Matt "Look!! I have that!!" But overall, I must say that I prefer the original Swedish film.
This week me and Matthew will go see a Sirius bandy game, and go on a two night ferry to Helsinki, then it's already time for him to go home!! :(
HERE is a link to this round of photos!
Lots of things to briefly catch up on.
The day after I arrived back home from Deutschland, a bunch of our exchange student friends organized a 'Running Dinner', in which you split into pairs and are assigned one part of a meal to prepare, appetizer, main course, or dessert. We had quite a lot of people, 15 teams, which made for a really nice evening. We started out in Kronasvagen and had some crazy delicious homemade guacamole (made by mexicans). Myself and Jane then 'ran' to my place to warm up our crustless quiche and Taiwanese fried rice to share with many Germans, then headed across the path to eat the best brownie I have ever eaten with some Finns. I really love the community here... I don't know what I'll do when I get back home and don't have 30+ friends living within a 10-minute walk from me!! I try not to think about that and just remember I still have 5 more months here...
That Friday we all went to the Uppsala University Royal Academic Orchestra's performance of Mahler's second symphony, as one of our friends (Timo) happens to be a genius on clarinet. It has been a long time since I've been to a classical concert... it was quite long, but really beautiful. The orchestra had a dress code of black, white, and red, and there was a really entertaining Swede at the end of the violin row with a tuxedo and red socks on. He was really into his violining and his (classic Swedish) hair kept flapping up and down, we tried hard not to giggle (with somewhat limited success)...
 |
| photo stolen from my roommate's facebook page... depicting typical young Swedish male hairstyle :P |
 |
| inside the Uppsala University concert hall |
13 December is St. Lucia day, an unusual holiday with a very unusual history. In the evening, a few friends and I went to the V-Dala nation for some sweet things and a Lucia concert.
 | |
| Glögg with almonds and raisins, lussekatter (saffron bun), pepparkakor (thin gingerbread), and some toffees |
The next week was full of dinners and goodbye fikas, and a big highly entertaining German goodbye party with some glühwein, fencing, and a nativity scene made of bratwurst and bacon.
 | |
| Florian's landlord fencing with Andrea |
 | |
| Nativity scene reproduced from an internet photo... impressive!! |
Matthew arrived here in Uppsala on Tuesday afternoon after my exam for Forest Environment and Conservation. The first day, we just explored Uppsala... got a kebab, did a bit of shopping (of course went to H&M), then went to Flogsta and had some tacos with my Spanish and Mexican friends to celebrate the end of studying before Christmas. The next two days me and Matt took the train to Stockholm, visiting the Vasa museum and Skansen one day, and IKEA Kungens Kurva and Gamla Stan the next day. Skansen was supposed to have an excellent Christmas market... but when we got there, all the stalls were closed... apparently it had closed the previous Sunday. Why??? It's a Christmas market!! We were pretty disappointed. We did get to see some interesting replicas of historical nordic buildings (I thought they were interesting anyway) but the best part was the "Nordic Animals" section. We got to see reindeer, moose, lynx, bison, owls, Icelandic horses, and wolverines!
IKEA Kungens Kurva is the biggest IKEA in the world. They offer a free shuttle bus on weekdays running from the Stockholm central station (which we took of course). It even has free Wifi. Needless to say Matt loves Sweden. Gamla Stan, at least, still had their Christmas market open, but it was quite small. At least Matt got to try some (overpriced) glögg, complete with raisins and almonds and accompanying pepparkakor.
Christmas eve was spent creating two masterpieces, Ponderosa cake and Apple bacon stuffing for 12. Finally my kitchen was empty (all the roommates have gone home for Christmas) so we actually had clean utensils to use. We packed everything into paper IKEA bags and took the bus out to Jane's place in Ultuna, and had a very non-traditional Christmas dinner. Two girls from Slovenia made a potato and onion dish with chicken fried in egg and fried salmon (MMM), the three Italian guys made the best lasagna I have ever tasted, Jane made some really interesting green bean noodles and dumplings, Pien and Carina made a dutch cream vegetable dish (complete with brussel sprouts)... LOTS of food in any case.
Around 10:30pm we went to the cathedral for midnight mass (packed of course). Lots of Swedish songs and Swedish words. I think Matt was woken up by the bells signaling the end of the service... zzz after lots of food and a lot of stuff you can't understand!
This morning we opened our stockings sent over to us by our lovely mum, and watched Frosty the Snowman :) And of course, I made Matt try julmust, traditional Swedish christmas soda that just tastes like Dr. Pepper mixed with coke. I must say I am not a fan... but they sell tons of it at Christmas! Stacks and stacks of cases in every grocery store and in cafeterias.
Me and Matthew also went to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Hollywood version) this week on opening night. It was fantastic, despite terrible choices for most of the main characters. Plenty of Swedish brand placements, but unfortunately the few spoken words in Swedish were cringeworthy. And cringe the (Swedish) audience did. However most people jumped up and down (or whispered excitedly) at the scene filmed in Uppsala's main street!! I certainly did. Every time I saw something I recognized, whether it was the brand on a coffee cup or the fridge contents of the characters, I was whispering to Matt "Look!! I have that!!" But overall, I must say that I prefer the original Swedish film.
 |
| "LOOK! Wayne's Coffee!!! We have that here!!" |
This week me and Matthew will go see a Sirius bandy game, and go on a two night ferry to Helsinki, then it's already time for him to go home!! :(
HERE is a link to this round of photos!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Düsseldorf/Cologne/Olpe.
Getting back on track! After getting home from Germany, I was quite sick for a few days, and had madly itchy bed bug bites from the hostel :( Don't worry, washed everything the second I got home and informed the hostel... today has been catching up on readings and freaking out a little that in less than two weeks, A) I have an exam, B) Half my friends are leaving forever, and C) Little bro is coming to visit!
It was SO exciting to be able to see Sabrina in Dusseldorf! Couldn't believe she literally lived one block away from where I was... and she was free!! We went and checked out some of the Christmas markets (or parts of one giant market?) and got some gluhwein. The next day while waiting for Sabrina to get off work, I wandered along the Rhine, and came across the World Cup of cross country skiing!! It was quite surprising... there was no snow in Dusseldorf so they had packed fake snow into a great big course set up by the river. It was a really big event, with a stage, booths, even a merry-go-round... not sure why they needed one of those, but Germans seem to like them. Saw at least four of them in the city.
Met up with Sabrina later and had my first Starbucks drink in four months!! I do like Swedish coffee, but sometimes I just want a gingerbread latte with whipped cream and those little sprinkles on top. We spent pretty much the rest of the day exploring the markets, saw an outdoor skating rink, had some currywurst, then after dinner met up with her friend and back into town. Apparently Dusseldorf is home to the 'longest bar in the world', which is not really just one bar but the streets in a certain area are bar after bar after bar... quite weird to see people drinking in the streets. Saw the same thing in Berlin, but since we were out on a Saturday, there were LOADS of people in the streets. Bottlecaps are literally embedded in the asphalt and cobblestones.
Saturday morning I said goodbye to Sabrina and hopped on a train from Dusseldorf Hbf (hauptbahnhof=central station) to Cologne, to meet Gina on her way back from her Rotary weekend. After a bit of confusion, we managed to get everybody on the right train in the general direction of Olpe, and were picked up by somebody's host parent.
Gina's host family were so sweet!! When we arrived, only her host mom Monica was there, and she speaks zero English. She understands a word or two, but really Gina was playing interpreter. She was SUPER nice, let Gina skip school on Monday so we could hang out, drove us to two Christmas markets, and drove me all the way to the Weeze (Ryainair) airport, which of course is in the middle of nowhere, practically on the border with the Netherlands!! But, I got to spend a lovely Sunday evening and Monday morning with my lovely cousin, who is now basically fluent in German :) Proud.
Heeeeeere are some photos from my trip!
It was SO exciting to be able to see Sabrina in Dusseldorf! Couldn't believe she literally lived one block away from where I was... and she was free!! We went and checked out some of the Christmas markets (or parts of one giant market?) and got some gluhwein. The next day while waiting for Sabrina to get off work, I wandered along the Rhine, and came across the World Cup of cross country skiing!! It was quite surprising... there was no snow in Dusseldorf so they had packed fake snow into a great big course set up by the river. It was a really big event, with a stage, booths, even a merry-go-round... not sure why they needed one of those, but Germans seem to like them. Saw at least four of them in the city.
Met up with Sabrina later and had my first Starbucks drink in four months!! I do like Swedish coffee, but sometimes I just want a gingerbread latte with whipped cream and those little sprinkles on top. We spent pretty much the rest of the day exploring the markets, saw an outdoor skating rink, had some currywurst, then after dinner met up with her friend and back into town. Apparently Dusseldorf is home to the 'longest bar in the world', which is not really just one bar but the streets in a certain area are bar after bar after bar... quite weird to see people drinking in the streets. Saw the same thing in Berlin, but since we were out on a Saturday, there were LOADS of people in the streets. Bottlecaps are literally embedded in the asphalt and cobblestones.
Saturday morning I said goodbye to Sabrina and hopped on a train from Dusseldorf Hbf (hauptbahnhof=central station) to Cologne, to meet Gina on her way back from her Rotary weekend. After a bit of confusion, we managed to get everybody on the right train in the general direction of Olpe, and were picked up by somebody's host parent.
Gina's host family were so sweet!! When we arrived, only her host mom Monica was there, and she speaks zero English. She understands a word or two, but really Gina was playing interpreter. She was SUPER nice, let Gina skip school on Monday so we could hang out, drove us to two Christmas markets, and drove me all the way to the Weeze (Ryainair) airport, which of course is in the middle of nowhere, practically on the border with the Netherlands!! But, I got to spend a lovely Sunday evening and Monday morning with my lovely cousin, who is now basically fluent in German :) Proud.
Heeeeeere are some photos from my trip!
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