School in Sweden and Swedish school

I can't believe I'm in my second week of graduate school, let alone my second week of graduate school in Sweden! It's definitely very different from the U.S. in good and bad ways. The biggest difference to me is the number of classes you take. This applies to graduate and undergraduate students. You take one class at a time in Sweden. One class! In the U.S. I usually took four or five at once. Except somehow this one class takes up all my time. In the U.S. with five classes I would be at school for three or four hours a day, but in Sweden with one class I'm here around 7 hours. I think I like the one class better though, it allows you to put all your effort into one class. Another difference is how I get to school. I bike. In the U.S. I would either take the bus, drive, or walk. Biking never seemed like a good option. But here it is almost the only option. Buses are pretty expensive and walking would take forever. But since everyone bikes it's not a problem. Except for I start my bike ride off with ten layers of clothing and by the time I get to school I'm down to just one.

 

A picture of all the bikes, and this is when we got to school early! 

One downside of school is Sweden or any other country is not knowing anyone or anything. For example opening a door. You think that would be fairly simple, but some doors have these buttons you press first and then have to wait a certain amount of time before you open it. And I usually stand there trying it for a minute or so looking silly. Overall though I'm enjoying my class. It's only been a week and I've gotten to go out into the field three days in a row digging in the dirt, which I love. 

One of the many holes we dug for soil sampling.

I love that there is a mixture of nationalities in my class. I am now a minority, and it's really a crazy feeling. It's hard to explain. Some days it feels exciting and adventurous and some days I feel out of place. But the next thing I'm going to talk about I think will help...Swedish school!

I have been applying to many different Swedish language programs and finally got into one starting October 1 called Swedish Crash Course. Woohoo! So updates on how that goes later.

In other news, we made blueberry jam! I know, I think I'm a bit obsessed with berries. Hopefully it's yummy! Also a random thought but if anyone goes to Allstars pub, they have an amazing raspberry milkshake. It's a very American type sportsbar and restaurant. And very expensive (as are all restaurants here really). This milkshake was called the "five dollar milkshake" and it cost the equivalent of ten dollars. It just made me laugh. Worth very penny though to celebrate starting school!

Yumm.

Well that's it for now, hej då (bye)!