Another week has flown by! To be honest, I didn't really do too many activities this last week. I'm still going to post, however, because I need to stay up to date! Tuesday's I do not have class, so I usually just hang out and catch up on homework or run errands. This last Tuesday I went searching for a comfy chair for my room. Went to a small IKEA-like store and found one. So now my room is a little more comfy for my next 4 months. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I had class. In my Economics of Innovations class, we were assigned groups for a "group task" which is to be completed in one week and there is a possible presentation involved also. For some details to bore you with, our task is to pick a country and determine 10 variables that contribute to the country being strong through technology, science, and innovations. There is also a 10 minute presentation on the following Wednesday, but the professor chooses the groups, so we might not have to present.
That group project has taken most of my time the last 3 days. My group is with 3 other students, all male, 2 from Sweden, the other from Turkey. Has been very fun working with them so far. Have another meeting on Sunday to (hopefully) put everything together!
On Wednesday night, Dane's dad and grandpa came over to our place. Dane's dad is from Denmark and so he came over to see Denmark again, along with visiting Sweden. Dane's dad has a friend that is rather wealthy and apparently owns a private jet and to make it even better, has a runway at his house! So the friend was coming over to Gothenburg to pick up Dane and Brennan and they were going to Copenhagen from Thursday afternoon to Monday....on the private jet. Sounds pretty neat to me!
Friday night, Nik and I went to a Swedish Sittning that CIRC was hosting. A sittning is a dinner and there is a lot of singing involved - - both the hosts and everyone eating. So...it wasn't a traditional Swedish sittning because we didn't exactly sing many songs in Swedish. However, ABBA is Swedish, and we did sing a few of their songs, along with Queen and Creedence Clearwater. The food was really different and very delicious. Three courses, first was a slice of traditional Swedish bread with some sort of cheese spread on top. Second was a very traditional meal of some sort of hot dog-like meat and pasta with ketchup. Sounds basic, but it's very good and the meat is different. The third was ice cream with a little wafer cookie in it. Ice cream seems to be a big thing here, too. There are so many little ice cream shops all over and always are busy.
Today (Saturday), I kind of hung low. Went out exploring to find my textbooks for the "Swedish for Beginners" course that starts Tuesday! I'm very excited for it! I really want to learn some Swedish because I always feel like everyone "has" to speak English. Most do now, but it will be nice to be able to maybe respond a little.
Now to be a little random, I don't know if I made this clear before, but trams are above ground trains. They run pretty much just in the center of Gothenburg, but they do reach out to the larger suburbs, like where I'm at. Very fast and convenient transportation.
Now a few more pieces of information. Chalmers just started this Bachelor's and Master's Programme where you can get both within 5 years. It's all very well planned out for whatever major you are interested in and it is very basic. There aren't a lot of extra classes like we have at the U, just all your tech classes that have to get done. I actually really like their setup here.
They also started the Master's Programme where every class is in English. That is why there are so many international students now attending Chalmers for 2 -3 years. Most that I've met here are in the master's programme. Also, most students start college when they are 20. They have 5 years in high school and then are encouraged to take a year off before college. So in my two classes, which are both in the master's programme, I have classmates that are mostly 23 years old or older. Kind of funny being that I am 20. I feel very young!
There is a girl I met in my project management class who is 24 and she has been very helpful. Her name is Janne and she's originally from Hamburg, Germany and has been living in Sweden for the last 10 years. She studied in Seattle for a year, which has made it fun when talking with her. She understands our way of life as well as the change she had to make when being abroad. Also has perfect English! She's a lot of fun and hopefully I'll be able to hang out with her more outside of class!
Well...I think I'm done for the evening. Sort of falling asleep as I'm writing! Probably should hit the sack, so til next time!
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