Hello all
i do not have time for a long detailed post right now as me and some of the other exchange students are about to have a communal dinner, i made sauteed chicken breast with red peppers and onions.
i am having a fun time adjusting and dealing with culture shock, today when i went to the supermarket i spent about as much time shopping as i did asking people what is what because there is no english translation on the products that thye sell here. I now know what the milk, butter, chicken breast and laudry detergent look like all very useful information to me.
today and yesterday i overslep because i was so tired and jettlagged however tommorow classes start so i am setting my alarm to get up nice and early. yesterday i woke up and went to town aimelessly wandered around looking for a skypephone form a certain company and after being redirected 3 different time to other stores was told that the phones could only be ordered on the internet. i had a good time and went to a few different nations (sort of like students clubs or to use a harry potter refrence like houses, they also look like the houses in harry potter) to have a good meal and find some work to do, on tuesday i am going to help in the kitchen of Kalymar nation to make food.
today i woke up at noon and went searching for the gym, i found it after a little gamooling about and then after a tour in broken english bought a 6 month subscription to the gym but couldnt work out because you have to bring an "inside pair" of shoes tobe used only inside the gym so that the floors dont get too dirty.
After that i went into town (a 20 minute bus ride) and did some shopping for vaious articles i needed, such as clothing, towels, pillows, and nail clippers .... all very exciting of course.
i ran into a problem finding somwhere to buy stuff however as apparently on Sundays everything in Uppsala closes at 4pm and i only got into town around 4:15. I got very lucky however and found the only department store that is open until 5 (wow how late) and then made my way back home after some serious shopping. i am now sitting at my friends desk and updating my blog but i am hungry and that food smells declicious, so i am going to go and eat it now keep your eyes peeled for a more detailed update coming soon.
PS my phone number in Uppsala is (+46) 076 2080 192 looking forward to hearing from you.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Leaving Dublin and arriving in Sweden
yesterday we left dublin at 4am in the morning and took a taxi to the airport at 4am. once we cleared security i realized that i had left my coat that my parents bought me in the taxi and got very angry, since we had talked a lot to the taxi driver we remembered his name and found his dj website on google.
I called the driver on a public telephone and he told me that once he had realized i left my coat in the taxi he turned around and left it with the information desk along with a description of what i looked like. i then spen about 40 minutes sprinting from one endof the airport to the next until i finally ran into some friendly airport police who got me special authorization to leave and re-enter the terminal. once i had my coat in hand i retured to the gate and about 15 minutes later boarding began and we were off to sweden.
the first thing i noticed once we arrived in the area was that there were a lot of lakes below the airplane and that they were all EVERY SINGLE ONE was frozen. the weather here is regularly -29 Celcius so im very glad i have my coat back, from the airport we took a bus to stockholm and a train to Uppsala, where we met my international buddy Matilda who showed us around. Then we went to take care of lots of bureaucracy which is not that interesting. we also got our first look at Uppsala which was fun.
Keep in mind the whole time we were both very sleep deprived so there will be better descriptions and pictures to follow once i have my own personal internet connection. basically Uppsala is a town and the campus is heavily incorporated into the town in the form of buildings all over the place. There is no central campus where all of the students go, rather buildings are divided by departments or colleges so Behavioral and social sciences goes to one while Mathematics go to another, these building are where all of your advisors reside and where you take classes. then i went back to my dorn and unpacked and fell asleep until 2pm the next day. me an joe are now about to go shopping for stuff so ill keep you updated later.
I called the driver on a public telephone and he told me that once he had realized i left my coat in the taxi he turned around and left it with the information desk along with a description of what i looked like. i then spen about 40 minutes sprinting from one endof the airport to the next until i finally ran into some friendly airport police who got me special authorization to leave and re-enter the terminal. once i had my coat in hand i retured to the gate and about 15 minutes later boarding began and we were off to sweden.
the first thing i noticed once we arrived in the area was that there were a lot of lakes below the airplane and that they were all EVERY SINGLE ONE was frozen. the weather here is regularly -29 Celcius so im very glad i have my coat back, from the airport we took a bus to stockholm and a train to Uppsala, where we met my international buddy Matilda who showed us around. Then we went to take care of lots of bureaucracy which is not that interesting. we also got our first look at Uppsala which was fun.
Keep in mind the whole time we were both very sleep deprived so there will be better descriptions and pictures to follow once i have my own personal internet connection. basically Uppsala is a town and the campus is heavily incorporated into the town in the form of buildings all over the place. There is no central campus where all of the students go, rather buildings are divided by departments or colleges so Behavioral and social sciences goes to one while Mathematics go to another, these building are where all of your advisors reside and where you take classes. then i went back to my dorn and unpacked and fell asleep until 2pm the next day. me an joe are now about to go shopping for stuff so ill keep you updated later.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Dublin Day 3 & 4
Once we landed and got all our stuff sorted out and caught the shuttle back to our hostel it was about 5:30 pm. we went out for a quick bite to eat and then came back to our room to meet our other roommate, Josephine from Australia.
While in Paris we had made contact with a friend of ours, Talya who had also lived in the Hebrew Cluster of Language House last semester. At 11:15 pm we met Talya right outside of the very cool and imposing front gates of Trinity, and traveled to a local bar with late license (meaning they close not at 11:30pm like most of the other bars but at 2:30am) we hung out at the bar for a little but were all very tired and busy so we decided to meet up again the next day.
Joe went on a tour of the Cliffs of Moeher today, while I met Talya and got a feel for the local Irish College student life. We ran errands, did laundry, saw her dorm and wandered the campus. Talya had class at 4pm so once she went off to class.
Then Ilja a friend of hers, and now a friend of mine too showed me the museum section of the library (which we got in to for free because he is a Trinity Student) where the Book of Kells and a whole bunch of other very old and rare manuscripts are housed. I also overheard a tour guide telling her group that the library has not 1 but 2! copies of the original Gutenberg Bibles. I also saw the oldest surviving Irish hard, the one which is displayed on the flag of Ireland which was pretty impressive.
The second part of the museum section housed what was called the long room, which is apparently the Jedi library in Star wars and had many different old and rare objects and books, at the time the theme of the exhibitions was biology so all of the books on display and not on the racks were old pictures and diagrams and latin texts regarding flowers anatomy, and other biological stuff. very cool.
After the visit to the library I said goodbye to Ilja and made my way to the internet Cafe where I am now sitting, I created this blog, called many people who had been promised phone calls and updates and had not yet received them. I am planning to meet Joe around 7 pm back at the Hostel in the common room and see where the night takes us from there.
While in Paris we had made contact with a friend of ours, Talya who had also lived in the Hebrew Cluster of Language House last semester. At 11:15 pm we met Talya right outside of the very cool and imposing front gates of Trinity, and traveled to a local bar with late license (meaning they close not at 11:30pm like most of the other bars but at 2:30am) we hung out at the bar for a little but were all very tired and busy so we decided to meet up again the next day.
Joe went on a tour of the Cliffs of Moeher today, while I met Talya and got a feel for the local Irish College student life. We ran errands, did laundry, saw her dorm and wandered the campus. Talya had class at 4pm so once she went off to class.
Then Ilja a friend of hers, and now a friend of mine too showed me the museum section of the library (which we got in to for free because he is a Trinity Student) where the Book of Kells and a whole bunch of other very old and rare manuscripts are housed. I also overheard a tour guide telling her group that the library has not 1 but 2! copies of the original Gutenberg Bibles. I also saw the oldest surviving Irish hard, the one which is displayed on the flag of Ireland which was pretty impressive.
The second part of the museum section housed what was called the long room, which is apparently the Jedi library in Star wars and had many different old and rare objects and books, at the time the theme of the exhibitions was biology so all of the books on display and not on the racks were old pictures and diagrams and latin texts regarding flowers anatomy, and other biological stuff. very cool.
After the visit to the library I said goodbye to Ilja and made my way to the internet Cafe where I am now sitting, I created this blog, called many people who had been promised phone calls and updates and had not yet received them. I am planning to meet Joe around 7 pm back at the Hostel in the common room and see where the night takes us from there.
4 Days in Paris
**** *** Disclaimer: This Post in not going to be chronological but it will detail our acitvities in what i think is a coherent manner********
As soon as we landed in Paris I had 2 misconceptions on mine shattered immediately the first was that everyone in Europe speaks a modicum of English, and the second was that the French are stuck up and dislike Americans.
The first restaurant that we went to had a menu that had (somewhat accurate) English translations of all the dishes, but the staff between them spoke maybe 2 words of english, and Joe and I between the 2 of us spoke maybe 2 words of French. After much pointing and gesturing we got our order, mine was a burger with salad and Joe got lamb something (i think ribs but i am not sure.)
** Side note for Anthropology people reading the Blog: I found that my use of the restaurant Frame was utterly misplaced and i realized that I could not impose top down mode, and had to revert to bottom up mode while creating new and more useful frames as social expectations differed significantly. **
Our Hotel (notice the lack of an S this time we got a little bit fancier... probably because Joe did the booking) was a nice 2 star hotel within walking distance of the Eiffel tower and although our room was not what you would call spacious it suited our needs and budget perfectly, and with a Bakery right across the street and a supermarket that was open until 2 am 2 blocks away i was satisfied and content.
while in Paris although we enjoyed sleeping in (which i may add we did quite frequently a little bit because of jet lag more because we were lazy) we tried to go and see many place because after all... it is Paris.
so here is a quick list and if it warrant it further explanation of the sites we visited
the sites were all very fun and the French were NOTHING BUT FRIENDLY when they found out we were American, there was no condescension or arrogance which I stereotypically expected from them. which just showed me how Ethnocentric I was being.
On our last day in Paris we woke up early showered cleaned the room went across the street to the bakery bought our last tuna baguette and caught a shuttle from our hotel to the airport where we flew back to Dublin.
As soon as we landed in Paris I had 2 misconceptions on mine shattered immediately the first was that everyone in Europe speaks a modicum of English, and the second was that the French are stuck up and dislike Americans.
The first restaurant that we went to had a menu that had (somewhat accurate) English translations of all the dishes, but the staff between them spoke maybe 2 words of english, and Joe and I between the 2 of us spoke maybe 2 words of French. After much pointing and gesturing we got our order, mine was a burger with salad and Joe got lamb something (i think ribs but i am not sure.)
** Side note for Anthropology people reading the Blog: I found that my use of the restaurant Frame was utterly misplaced and i realized that I could not impose top down mode, and had to revert to bottom up mode while creating new and more useful frames as social expectations differed significantly. **
Our Hotel (notice the lack of an S this time we got a little bit fancier... probably because Joe did the booking) was a nice 2 star hotel within walking distance of the Eiffel tower and although our room was not what you would call spacious it suited our needs and budget perfectly, and with a Bakery right across the street and a supermarket that was open until 2 am 2 blocks away i was satisfied and content.
while in Paris although we enjoyed sleeping in (which i may add we did quite frequently a little bit because of jet lag more because we were lazy) we tried to go and see many place because after all... it is Paris.
so here is a quick list and if it warrant it further explanation of the sites we visited
- The Eiffel Tower: Of course this was one of the first places we visited, it was fun, although not nearly as tall as i thought it would be, lots of tourists fun gift shop, we took an elevator to the top which cost 7 £ each.
- The Louvre: At first we were planning to go and visit the Louvre on Monday although Joe was convinced that it was closed on Monday ("its either Monday or Tuesday its closed on, but Iam pretty sure its Monday") so we went on Tuesday only to find out that in fact it was during Tuesdays that the Louvre was closed so we got to see the outside and the triangles but that was about it
- The Jewish Quarter: we had some Schwarma Pita there (more expensive than the already expensive rest of paris) and wandered around a lot, always fun to be with Members of the Tribe.
- The Arch de Triumph: we actually saw this with our luggage still in our hands as we got off of the bus from the airport
- Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris (the Home of Quasimodo and the Gargoyles): lots of fun, beautiful Gothic architecture very reminiscent to me of Westminster Abbey
- Montparnasse Section: Just another section of paris very trendy fun and late-nightish
- Pigalle: The less classy 'red-light' section of paris named by British Sailors after they discovered what was sold there
- Moulin Rouge: A world famous show, and the only show in Pigalle with a strict dress-code
- Louis Vitton Store: Just thought i should mention it since it is the headquarters of the overpriced brand
the sites were all very fun and the French were NOTHING BUT FRIENDLY when they found out we were American, there was no condescension or arrogance which I stereotypically expected from them. which just showed me how Ethnocentric I was being.
On our last day in Paris we woke up early showered cleaned the room went across the street to the bakery bought our last tuna baguette and caught a shuttle from our hotel to the airport where we flew back to Dublin.
Dublin night 1&2
the first 2 days of our trip began in Dublin, after numerous and quite frustrating delays we landed at the Dublin airport and took the free shuttle to our hostel where I had an argument with the front desk about why they had charged my credit card for a random amount which they shouldnt have done, after about 20 minutes of arguing (during which Joe was asleep on the couch) we came to an agreement and the lady handed me a key which had a sticker with a room number and told me to go to room 21.
I however did not hear/understand what she said so i looked to the room key to see what number we were in and went to room 7 which turned out to be the nicest suite at the hostel. we stayed there for a night not realizing how lucky we were until the staff told us that the room was booked for the next night and we needed to move so then we got transfered to a room with 6 other people which was nowhere near as fun or nice.
After finally figuring out the whole lodging situation we were both quite tired and although we felt like falling asleep i demanded that we first go out and get Joe his first authentically Irish Pint of Guinness. Joe hates Guinness in the States and was pleasantly surprised to find that it tastes so much better in Ireland we then each ordered some food hung out a local pub listening to a band playing lots of popular American songs for an hour or two befriended one of the bartenders and then left to go back to the hostel.
on our way back we struck up a conversation with one of the locals who told us that we needed to go and see the local nightlife and not the one geared at tourists. Alan who was an Irish football player who studies at a University in the area (cant remember which) ended up taking us to the Purdy Kitchen a local pub where drinks are relatively cheap (although EVERYTHING is more expensive in Ireland especially because i have to pay with the euro) and there was a fun disco dance floor.
we ended up hanging out with Alan and his friends until about 2:30 AM when the pub closed and then instead of taking a taxi back i manged to successfully navigate our way to the Hostel that we were staying at. thus ended night 1.
on our second day in Dublin we both overslept because we were both Jetlagged and tired we woke up around 2:30 pm were planning to go touring but decided that it wasn't worth the price to catch a bus at that point because it was so late in the day the tours would soon stop running. instead we spent about 2 hours hammering out the rest of our travel plans and deciding what we were doing and where we were going, booking tickets and the such...... minor details of course.
We then went and got some food (Breakfast/lunch) at a Japanese all-you-can-eat Buffet. After that I bought a charger for the unlocked Israeli cellphone that I own only to discover that it was broken and spent most of the next hour trying to get it fixed. Once that failed and I refused to pay 30 Euro to fix the phone we went to the shopping center next door to hang out. Joe was enjoying looking at clothes but I was not Particularly interested so we decided to split up and meet back up at the entrance to the shopping center at 6 (at least that is what i heard) I had a great time frequenting all of the little tiny bookstores and coffee shops where they had a very different more *Irishy* atmosphere. At every bookstores i walked in to i would amass a pile of at least 10 books that i wanted to buy and then just as i was about to approach the cashier i would realize how impractical it was to travel/walk with that many books when i already had enough luggage to lug around so i would sadly put all of the books back and wave goodbye.
I then made my way back to the entrance of the shopping center and got there 15 minutes early at 5:45 and saw Joe there who asked where i had been for the past 15 minutes... apparently he thought we were meeting at 5:30 and i thought we were meeting at 6 OOPS.... after that mixup we went back to the hostel and showered and prepared for the night. this night we went to a whoel different area and did not intend on even going to the pubs as they were expensive and we had a flight to catch the next day.
Since it was friday we decided to go to Chabad for a meal, and looked up their address on the internet and took a taxi there because it was about and hour and a half walk from our hostel. Once we arrived and the Taxi drove off we realized that the house which we had arrived house was a vacant house with a for sale on it (Later we learned that for security reasons chabad does not list its true address on the internet .... great help for tourists like us....) After spending money on a taxi to get all of the way to where we were we decided to save money by walking back, and on our way to the hostel. On our way i made Joe stopped at 'the pav' which is the on-campus very cheap bar at trinity which i had discovered on my last visit to Ireland, after that we stopped at temple bar (the tourist area) and ran into 3 other Students from College Park that i know, (David & Josh Goldstein and Jonathan Siegel) so we ended up going to the Purdy Kitchen with them just to show them where to go and stayed there until about 12:30 when we made our way back to the hostel because we had to wake up early to check out and catch our shuttle to the airport so we could fly to Paris.
Thus ended the first half of our trip to Dublin
I however did not hear/understand what she said so i looked to the room key to see what number we were in and went to room 7 which turned out to be the nicest suite at the hostel. we stayed there for a night not realizing how lucky we were until the staff told us that the room was booked for the next night and we needed to move so then we got transfered to a room with 6 other people which was nowhere near as fun or nice.
After finally figuring out the whole lodging situation we were both quite tired and although we felt like falling asleep i demanded that we first go out and get Joe his first authentically Irish Pint of Guinness. Joe hates Guinness in the States and was pleasantly surprised to find that it tastes so much better in Ireland we then each ordered some food hung out a local pub listening to a band playing lots of popular American songs for an hour or two befriended one of the bartenders and then left to go back to the hostel.
on our way back we struck up a conversation with one of the locals who told us that we needed to go and see the local nightlife and not the one geared at tourists. Alan who was an Irish football player who studies at a University in the area (cant remember which) ended up taking us to the Purdy Kitchen a local pub where drinks are relatively cheap (although EVERYTHING is more expensive in Ireland especially because i have to pay with the euro) and there was a fun disco dance floor.
we ended up hanging out with Alan and his friends until about 2:30 AM when the pub closed and then instead of taking a taxi back i manged to successfully navigate our way to the Hostel that we were staying at. thus ended night 1.
on our second day in Dublin we both overslept because we were both Jetlagged and tired we woke up around 2:30 pm were planning to go touring but decided that it wasn't worth the price to catch a bus at that point because it was so late in the day the tours would soon stop running. instead we spent about 2 hours hammering out the rest of our travel plans and deciding what we were doing and where we were going, booking tickets and the such...... minor details of course.
We then went and got some food (Breakfast/lunch) at a Japanese all-you-can-eat Buffet. After that I bought a charger for the unlocked Israeli cellphone that I own only to discover that it was broken and spent most of the next hour trying to get it fixed. Once that failed and I refused to pay 30 Euro to fix the phone we went to the shopping center next door to hang out. Joe was enjoying looking at clothes but I was not Particularly interested so we decided to split up and meet back up at the entrance to the shopping center at 6 (at least that is what i heard) I had a great time frequenting all of the little tiny bookstores and coffee shops where they had a very different more *Irishy* atmosphere. At every bookstores i walked in to i would amass a pile of at least 10 books that i wanted to buy and then just as i was about to approach the cashier i would realize how impractical it was to travel/walk with that many books when i already had enough luggage to lug around so i would sadly put all of the books back and wave goodbye.
I then made my way back to the entrance of the shopping center and got there 15 minutes early at 5:45 and saw Joe there who asked where i had been for the past 15 minutes... apparently he thought we were meeting at 5:30 and i thought we were meeting at 6 OOPS.... after that mixup we went back to the hostel and showered and prepared for the night. this night we went to a whoel different area and did not intend on even going to the pubs as they were expensive and we had a flight to catch the next day.
Since it was friday we decided to go to Chabad for a meal, and looked up their address on the internet and took a taxi there because it was about and hour and a half walk from our hostel. Once we arrived and the Taxi drove off we realized that the house which we had arrived house was a vacant house with a for sale on it (Later we learned that for security reasons chabad does not list its true address on the internet .... great help for tourists like us....) After spending money on a taxi to get all of the way to where we were we decided to save money by walking back, and on our way to the hostel. On our way i made Joe stopped at 'the pav' which is the on-campus very cheap bar at trinity which i had discovered on my last visit to Ireland, after that we stopped at temple bar (the tourist area) and ran into 3 other Students from College Park that i know, (David & Josh Goldstein and Jonathan Siegel) so we ended up going to the Purdy Kitchen with them just to show them where to go and stayed there until about 12:30 when we made our way back to the hostel because we had to wake up early to check out and catch our shuttle to the airport so we could fly to Paris.
Thus ended the first half of our trip to Dublin
The time has come for another EPIC adventure
Hello again everybody
the time has come for another epic adventure so this time i have teamed up with Joe Paulson and we are traveling to Sweden in order to study abroad at Uppsala University. on our trip we plan to stay in first Dublin, then Paris, then Dublin again before we make our way over to Sweden where we are staying for 6 months. post describing day 1 is on its way.
I am particularly excited as Sweden and particularly Uppsala seems like a great place to learn about a whole new anthropological technique and learn how to anthropology appreciate a culture from my very introduction to it
the time has come for another epic adventure so this time i have teamed up with Joe Paulson and we are traveling to Sweden in order to study abroad at Uppsala University. on our trip we plan to stay in first Dublin, then Paris, then Dublin again before we make our way over to Sweden where we are staying for 6 months. post describing day 1 is on its way.
I am particularly excited as Sweden and particularly Uppsala seems like a great place to learn about a whole new anthropological technique and learn how to anthropology appreciate a culture from my very introduction to it
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