My room, albeit not that interesting.
And my one of my new pot plants (the other is a red geranium and they make me trés excited about impending good weather): inspired by Spring! Daffodils are Påsklilja- Easter Lilies, but I'm convinced that easter here is all about chickens (more about that to come if I can take some photos of shop windows without getting strange looks from the shop keepers...) Apologies for the whole horizontal aspect it's got going there, not really sure what happened but I can't get it to stand up.
Johan and Jonte, not huge fans of posing for the camera...
..and Max, a big fan of posing for the camera though perhaps not seen at his best in this one.
Pretzels made by me because it was such a nice day that we felt and urge for baking yeasty goods (Kristen made bread).
And, oh my! The weather was gorgeous today: clear blue sky, people on bicycles, charcoal barbeques, ducks quacking and chickens in every shop, as far as the eye could see.
And my one of my new pot plants (the other is a red geranium and they make me trés excited about impending good weather): inspired by Spring! Daffodils are Påsklilja- Easter Lilies, but I'm convinced that easter here is all about chickens (more about that to come if I can take some photos of shop windows without getting strange looks from the shop keepers...) Apologies for the whole horizontal aspect it's got going there, not really sure what happened but I can't get it to stand up.
Johan and Jonte, not huge fans of posing for the camera...
..and Max, a big fan of posing for the camera though perhaps not seen at his best in this one.
Pretzels made by me because it was such a nice day that we felt and urge for baking yeasty goods (Kristen made bread).
And, oh my! The weather was gorgeous today: clear blue sky, people on bicycles, charcoal barbeques, ducks quacking and chickens in every shop, as far as the eye could see.
I came out of my exam last Thursday feeling not great on the whole, I knew that to pass I had to pick up almost full marks in the 70-mark short answer because the multiple choice had negative marking and well...I screwed them up. The only thing I had to look forward to was our weekend trip to Oslo because at least there I could push out any feelings of depression about having to study for the immuno exam again and have a good time. Luckily it was really great, and I've decided that on a scale of 1 to 10 for discomfort, busses score a 6 while long distance trains to the Arctic Circle score at least an 8 or a 9. Although, on second thought, at least the toilets on the train flushed...
Anyway, we arrived in Oslo at 6am and Robert came to get me from the bus. His place is about 10 minutes walk from the bus station so I didn't have to stumble very far to make it into bed and collapse, where I slept for another 6 hours. The girls on the other hand, were not quite so lucky. They made it to the hotel, but couldn't check in until 2pm, so from what I can gather they spent a large part of that time slumped on the couches in the hotel lobby, a bit of wandering in some museums, some loitering in a cafe, and then another few hours in the lobby. So, when Robert went to work at 2.30 I went to the hotel to meet the others and our energy levels weren't really equal. Oh well. We had a wander around the Palace and some of the rich parts of town, and then went down to Aker Brygge- the harbour- and ended up having a pretty chilled out afternoon.
On Saturday Robert and I went to IKEA! Hooray! Somehow ended up spending quite a long time there (there's a free shuttle!!!) before heading back into the city and meeting up with his mum for coffee. Norway was playing Bosnia to qualify for the European Championship football or something that night and so while we put together some flat-pack we watched that and just chilled (although I did at one point get a little distraught about my exam...). That piece of information in itself is really boring, but I had mentioned to the girls the day before that the game was going to be on, and so on Saturday they decided to head out there and see if they could get tickets... After waiting in line for a really long time they got to the window only to be told that because they didn't hold Norwegian passports they couldn't get tickets (?? it was a security thing, the game was almost cancelled because of a group of non-Bosnian-supporter Bosnians throwing firecrackers at the Bosnian team one minute in). There they sat outside the stadium, dejected and deflated, and had just decided to walk back into the city when a man came up to them and said, "do you speak English?" "Yes," they replied, and he gave them three tickets for free. Just like that.
But then, worried about getting past security as non-Norwegians, they decided they'd better look the part and so decked themselves out in Norwegian scarves and painted flags on their faces, and said not a peep as they went through the gates.
Crazy.
On Sunday we went to Vigelandsparken, a massive sculpture park in a suburb called Frogner. It was so amazing, so many statues all made by the same guy and all naked. It's been there since around the 1920s I think, so the nakedness was fairly controversial at the time.
We saw some other stuff that afternoon and then had dinner in the city before I met up with the others on the bus and travelled through the night again to Stockholm and then on to Uppsala in the morning in time for class. I have to admit, all this long distance public tranport is starting to wear a bit thin. Also, the language thing gets me down a bit sometimes; we were in a 7/11 and Robert was getting money out while I bought some drinks and the guy behind the counter asked me a question in Norwegian. When I looked confused he repeated it again in, but I still didn't know what he was saying so I said "Engelska?"- the Swedish for "English". So he repeated the question in Swedish. He looked a bit confused when I still had no idea what he was saying, sigh. I thought that Norway had a much nicer vibe than Sweden, not as cold and the people just seemed more comfortable to be around.
On a side note, my exam had already been marked when I got back on Monday morning and I got a VG, which is like an HD, so that surprised me a lot. Like I thought I lost a lot of marks in the multi choice, but only 5 in the short answer, so not having to do the exam again is a big relief!
Well, so this big ass immuno exam is tomorrow, and to be perfectly honest I never want to hear anyone at UNSW complain about an exam again. Ever. Five hours and 100%; what more can I say?
More than anything I want it to be over so I never have to look at lists of cytokines or membrane bound receptors again, and if someone reading this figures out at some point what a 7-transmembrane alpha-helical toll-like receptor is, I'd love if you could sort of... contextualise it for me. The only problem about this exam is that if I fail I can retake it without penalty, which does for sure sound like a fabulous idea in theory. But for someone who only really studies well under the pressure of impending doom it hasn't helped overly much, and the only thing that's been getting me out of bed in the morning for the past two weeks has been the thought that I never want to even think about my notes again after tomorrow. Well, that and the glimmering hope of fika at some point in the day...
But more to the point, I miss Mel! This has been an on-going long distance relationship for more than two years now. Her enquiring little face as she follows me around the house; her cheeky but confused grin when she gets caught on the couch, but thinks she's doing nothing wrong; her ability to get under the covers of a bed and look like a pillow without leaving a wrinkle; the shivers when she knows she's about to get put outside. Sigh.
And for some reason, her obsession with getting into cars is still endearing, even if it is a little odd and means the car fills up with white hairs.
I wonder if perhaps there's someway Mum could post her over for a visit?
More than anything I want it to be over so I never have to look at lists of cytokines or membrane bound receptors again, and if someone reading this figures out at some point what a 7-transmembrane alpha-helical toll-like receptor is, I'd love if you could sort of... contextualise it for me. The only problem about this exam is that if I fail I can retake it without penalty, which does for sure sound like a fabulous idea in theory. But for someone who only really studies well under the pressure of impending doom it hasn't helped overly much, and the only thing that's been getting me out of bed in the morning for the past two weeks has been the thought that I never want to even think about my notes again after tomorrow. Well, that and the glimmering hope of fika at some point in the day...
But more to the point, I miss Mel! This has been an on-going long distance relationship for more than two years now. Her enquiring little face as she follows me around the house; her cheeky but confused grin when she gets caught on the couch, but thinks she's doing nothing wrong; her ability to get under the covers of a bed and look like a pillow without leaving a wrinkle; the shivers when she knows she's about to get put outside. Sigh.
And for some reason, her obsession with getting into cars is still endearing, even if it is a little odd and means the car fills up with white hairs.
I wonder if perhaps there's someway Mum could post her over for a visit?
Ok, this first one is not that impressive, but hopefully you can see that there are two bands of light arcing over the whole sky. The photo can't really show how amazing they were because the lines of light were actually moving and dancing as we watched them. You can't imagine the colour either, sort of an unearthly bright green that was transparent at the same time. Surreal.
This is just an altered version of the same with the contrast really amped up. You loose the size of the horizontal arc, but can kinda see the two bands and their position in the sky. The green is not the same as we saw (and we were lucky enough to see some blue-ish and yellow-ish light too!) but it's not too far off. It wasn't vivd in the same way as I've made it here, but it was vivid all the same. All I can say really is...surreal.
Oh and PS...did I mention I PATTED A HUSKY!?!?!?!?!??!
...and got quite cold.
This is just an altered version of the same with the contrast really amped up. You loose the size of the horizontal arc, but can kinda see the two bands and their position in the sky. The green is not the same as we saw (and we were lucky enough to see some blue-ish and yellow-ish light too!) but it's not too far off. It wasn't vivd in the same way as I've made it here, but it was vivid all the same. All I can say really is...surreal.
Oh and PS...did I mention I PATTED A HUSKY!?!?!?!?!??!
...and got quite cold.
To be fair, we were trying to make it up a hill at the time.
I have my immunology final on Thursday and a huge pile of revision to do for it. Never in my life have I had a exam that was worth 100%. I'm also not used to having almost two weeks with no class to prepare for it, so the motivation to study aforementioned huge pile of revision is somewhat lacking. Hopefully my stress response will kick in by early Monday and I'll start freaking out enough to actually get somewhere.
Also on Thursday is my first outside Sweden adventure since I got here: we're catching to night bus to Oslo. Hooray! Oslo!
And to make things even better, it's only 7 and a half hours, which, compared to last weekend's little soiree up north, seems like a walk in the park. I think I might spend the afternoon in Stockholm, but there's not really much there that's different to Uppsala (I'm thinking clothes shopping, scope for which is sadly-and unexpectedly- limited in Sweden) so I haven't decided yet.
I'm definitely going to bully Robert into an IKEA trip; he's moving into a new one bedroom place on Monday and going to IKEA should give me some much needed retail therapy and bring me one step closer to my dream of setting foot in an IKEA in every Scandinavian country. Actually, the guys we were sitting with on the train back from Kiruna didn't really get my IKEA obsession...it's just that..it's IKEA: what's not to love? Ooh, and I'm so excited that in Swedish IKEA they sell bathrobes and inflatable neck pillows: I really copped a beating on the train for that pillow, but it was so soft and fuzzy and blue, I couldn't say no!
I'm one step closer to buying a bike too, which has pros and cons:
Pro: It won't take me 45 minutes to get to class in the morning anymore, or alternatively, it'll save me the 20 kroner bus ticket..which is kinda related to the Con: I'm a fatty boombahlada and haven't ridden a bike for at least 6 or 7 years, so if there are any hills involved, the time saving on 45 minutes could be questionable.
Lauren and I rode out to Maxi ICA last week which was an interesting reintroduction to bike riding. At first it was trés scary and wobbly, but once I got into the swing it was ok. It's just that there's a very slight incline the whole way there, and even though it looks flat, I had to stop for a breather half way. Things can only get better.. surely?
Which really brings us back to the cross country skiing that this whole post was originally about. As far as endurance goes, it really wasn't too bad (but now that I think about it, maybe the reason I wasn't puffing like a chimney and sweating was because I wasn't really moving that fast..), and apart from the moments I stared death in the face it was a lot of fun. Perhaps I will really get into bike riding and get all sporty and go on long bike rides to lakes and have picnics and stuff.
Or then again, maybe not.
Oh, and before I forget, here are the cupcakes we made last week for the birthdays of Trevaaah and Rob. Art in motion.
I was really just testing my decorating skills with that last one :D
The long long train trip home from Kiruna.
We left Uppsala last Friday night for 17 hours on a train up north, 32 hours above the Arctic Circle, 19 hours coming back down (the train broke down) and most of Monday and Tuesday napping.
Dogsledding never eventuated but I did PAT a huski. We went cross-country skiing instead and while I have bruises the size and shape of various fruits all over my legs, I only thought I was going to die twice. We went to the Ice Hotel (and the klepto in me came out, so not being able to steal a shot glass, Kristen and I took pillowcases instead) and then walked down into Jukkasjärvi to have a look at the oldest church in Sweden. And despite the weather forecast, and it being overcast and sleety all day on Saturday...we saw the Northern Lights!
I've been having some trouble with my internet connection, so I've put some of the photos on my Flickr account in an album called, originally enough, Arctic Circle. You can access it directly here.
Dogsledding never eventuated but I did PAT a huski. We went cross-country skiing instead and while I have bruises the size and shape of various fruits all over my legs, I only thought I was going to die twice. We went to the Ice Hotel (and the klepto in me came out, so not being able to steal a shot glass, Kristen and I took pillowcases instead) and then walked down into Jukkasjärvi to have a look at the oldest church in Sweden. And despite the weather forecast, and it being overcast and sleety all day on Saturday...we saw the Northern Lights!
I've been having some trouble with my internet connection, so I've put some of the photos on my Flickr account in an album called, originally enough, Arctic Circle. You can access it directly here.
Went to Stockholm again a couple of weeks ago with Taka.
I wasn't really expecting to see Chinese New Year in Stockholm, and it was a bit surreal because the rest of the dragon, which the head in this photo is trying to catch up to, had not an Asian person in sight.
And it was reaaaaaally cold that night!
I wasn't really expecting to see Chinese New Year in Stockholm, and it was a bit surreal because the rest of the dragon, which the head in this photo is trying to catch up to, had not an Asian person in sight.
And it was reaaaaaally cold that night!
Gasque noun: A gasque is a formal dinner that involves large quantities of alcohol, dancing, and men singing Swedish folk songs while waving large flags and wearing silly hats.
The International Gasque was last Saturday night, and while aspects of it were a little disappointing (the lack of food and distance between courses, the fact that we had to pay extra for schnapps etc), I was still sick and in a tequila and champagne filled couple of hours we all got a little snap happy, drank some wine, sang some songs, and ate burgers (well, Kristen and me at least).
I wish that I'd gone to the Reccegasque week before last because that apparently had better entertainment- choirs, bands, dancing cheer-leader girls (no joke there)- but I didn't so..oh well. I guess the saddest thing about not going to the Reccegasque is that in the two and a half hours of speeches, not a single word was uttered in english, and despite the pomp, circumstance and tradition, Kristen, Lauren and Meredith got a little overcome with an uncontrollable and very audible fit of the giggles. Ah, I always miss the fun stuff.
Anyway, I posted more photos on Facebook, the link to which is in the sidebar there, but here's a few to keep you going for now.
The International Gasque was last Saturday night, and while aspects of it were a little disappointing (the lack of food and distance between courses, the fact that we had to pay extra for schnapps etc), I was still sick and in a tequila and champagne filled couple of hours we all got a little snap happy, drank some wine, sang some songs, and ate burgers (well, Kristen and me at least).
I wish that I'd gone to the Reccegasque week before last because that apparently had better entertainment- choirs, bands, dancing cheer-leader girls (no joke there)- but I didn't so..oh well. I guess the saddest thing about not going to the Reccegasque is that in the two and a half hours of speeches, not a single word was uttered in english, and despite the pomp, circumstance and tradition, Kristen, Lauren and Meredith got a little overcome with an uncontrollable and very audible fit of the giggles. Ah, I always miss the fun stuff.
Anyway, I posted more photos on Facebook, the link to which is in the sidebar there, but here's a few to keep you going for now.
