Det gör lite bättre nu
Hey everybody, welcome to the second update of my invasion of Scandinavia.
A lot has happened in the last couple days. For those who didn't get my last mail, the journey here went off without a hitch, besides the whole O'Hare-Airport-sucks thing. I sat next to someone my age for once, an attractive girl who was moving to Uppsala for a couple months to play soccer with a semi-professional team. When I arrived I stood in the customs line with several other 20somethings who were all doing various study-abroad programs, so we commiserated about transatlantic flights and how difficult Swedish is to understand. I was also greeted at the airport train station by this:
Yes, it's a vending machine for books.
Fortunately, I only have a hard time understanding spoken Swedish. Written Swedish isn't hard, particularly if you know German and English. The grammar is really simple, and in general there are lots of words that resemble their translations in either language, and the rest you can usually figure out from context. So I had no trouble with figuring out how to take a fast train to downtown Stockholm. I had the address of my hostel written down, and so I decided the best thing to do when I got into town was to walk to it and drop off my luggage. Now this is not as short a walk as it looks on the map, so I was sweating pretty good by the time I made it there.
Now, I mentioned it to some of you, but for those who don't know, my hostel was actually a boat. I think it was originally used for fishing or something like that, but in any case it was sitting on the water, bobbing up and down in the waves, which I can tell you is very pleasant to fall asleep on. Here are a few pictures of it:
The view from out my room's window. I had a single room all to myself the first night, since all the 12-room dorms were full up.
From across the water - my hostel is the second boat to the right of the red one.
The hostel only lets you move in at 3, so I figured that I was going to have to just ask them if I could stow my stuff in their baggage room until later that afternoon, but fortunately the room was all ready for me, so the nice girl at the desk just let me check in right then. That out of the way, I thought it would be a good idea to get in touch with the people at the Fulbright Commission so I could get my welcome package and, most importantly, my money. This involved a trek back to where I got off the train, but it was much easier without two stuffed backpacks and a suitcase. Cobblestones, I had forgotten, are really annoying to navigate if you have a suitcase with wheels. Fortunately, I had remembered to take my camera with me.
Stockholm is incredibly picturesque, and the weather was beautiful when I arrived. Sunny, slight breeze, 70 degrees, basically perfect. The city itself is like none other to which I have been. It has a mixture of modern and old buildings that actually works, unlike, say, many cities in Germany who seem not to have understood the fact that 18th and 19th century aesthetic clashes horribly with 60s and 70s modernism. There is water everywhere, because the entire city is built on an archipelago formed by the draining of Lake Mälaren into the Baltic Sea. Stockholm is also a fairly green city, with an incredibly well-coordinated public transit system (buses, subways, ferries, etc.), so the whole effect is one of clean, pristine dignity. The abundance of water also makes the cool Scandinavian air smell fresh and clean all the time, and there's a slight tinge of salt from the nearby coastline. There are a lot of parks and forests round about the area, which makes for nice walking opportunities as well.
Gamla Stan and Riddarholmen
Tyska Kirkan
St. George slaying a dragon.
Part of the Royal Palace, later in the afternoon. It was replete with cannon and Swedish Guard, one of whom yelled at me to stay away from the cannon.
The Royal Church. I'm planning to go see a performance of Mozart's Requiem here in November. Old people play Bocce Ball out on the stones in front of it.
Södermalm at sunset, with boat-hostels in front.
Once I got the the Fulbright office (which took some doing), they knew right away who I was, and lost no time in welcoming me and helping me as much as they could, including handing me a check for 11000 kronor and setting up an appointment with a nearby bank so that I could go set up an account that very day. I was really relieved to know that they keep such careful track of their grantees, because I don't know how I'd manage if I had to do this whole thing entirely on my own. Almost everyone in this country does speak English, but still. They also called Martin Ingvar, my boss at the Karolinska Institute, and we learned, to my VAST relief, that he had an apartment available for me to move into at any time, and I just needed to call him so that he'd know when to pick me up and take me there. I decided that since I had already paid for a night on a boat, though, that I'd just go ahead and take that, particularly since there was a Swedish breakfast buffet that came with it.
The next morning, after a large and delicious breakfast and conversation with a pleasant Dutch girl (I was supposed to send her a text message about exploring the city if I wasn't doing anything else that afternoon - I haven't yet. Oops.), Dr. Ingvar picked me up and took me to this apartment he owns in Östermalm. It is way bigger than I need - it has a kitchen, separate (albeit tiny) dining room, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, and it came fully furnished, including cleaning materials, pots and pans, and sheets. All the utilities are included as well, so that's one less thing that I need to worry about. It's about as big as Niki's and my place from sophomore year, if you took away his bedroom.
Park across the street
Kitchen
Living room (a little bare right now, but I'll find some decorations soon)
Bathroom
Bedroom
He took me over to his lab to introduce me to the people who were there, and to have his secretary take care of some of my administrative details (getting a photo ID, for instance, so that I can scan myself into the lab). He also, very kindly, invited me to his house for dinner, along with the rest of the lab, so I got a free meal out of the whole thing. Basically, he's really awesome - laid-back, understanding and accomodating, and really entertaining. He has an abusive relationship with his secretary, which is hilarious to watch. I also got along well with everyone in the lab that evening; they all seem really cool, and it was fairly easy to get conversations going. I also met my boss's wife, who is both very nice and an excellent cook, and his youngest daughter, who is, unfortunately, really hot. Even if she weren't 18, that's one of those things that is not a good idea under any circumstances.
The apartment (located off a street called Vallhallavägen, which translates to "The Road to Valhalla") is just a short way away from the Karolinska Institute, which is where I work. Mimmi, the secretary, lives nearby and she says that it takes just under an hour to walk there, and part of it is through a forest, which sounds really pleasant.
My address, should any of you for some reason decide to mail me anything, is 54 Strindbergsgatan #33, 11553 Stockholm.
So now I'm pretty much just settling in. I've enjoyed the last couple days of work - I got my head MRI'd yesterday, and I'd post pictures of my brain if my Gayintosh would read them. Right now I'm just learning the ropes of the brain imaging business; I'll eventually be operating the machines myself, and my boss wants to have me head up a research project during the last couple months of my scholarship period. I may even get to publish something. All the people in my lab are really friendly, and they all speak excellent English, and are surprised that I speak any Swedish at all ("You learned Swedish? Why?"). The Swedes have a pretty civilized way of going about the work schedule. I can come in pretty much whenever I want (within reason - I've been doing 10:30), and I can stay however long I need to. There's a strong tradition of taking a break in the afternoon for snacks and coffee, and the lounge area has free coffee, hot chocolate, biscuits, and fresh fruit. At the beginning of next week (Monday and Tuesday) I'll be going on a two-day retreat with the lab to an island called Sandhamn, which is part of the Stockholm Archipelago, the collection of 20000 or so islands scattered along the Baltic Coast east of Stockholm. We're obviously going by boat, and all the food and drink (!) is provided for. One of the nice things about working in a high-profile unit of one of the most famous, well-funded scientific institutions in Europe, I guess. I'll be sure to post pictures once I get them.
That's about all for now. Mainly, I'm just glad that things are settling in as quickly as they have been. The Fulbright people tell me not to mention my apartment situation to anyone else, because apparently getting a big, furnished apartment in such a good location is extremely hard to do here, let alone for the price I'm paying (4000 kronor per month, about $650 or so). Food is fucking expensive here, but I was expecting that, and I'm sure I'll be able to save up enough to do a good amount of traveling while I'm here. I'm still a little concerned about meeting people, but that will hopefully resolve itself in not too very long. So until I next talk to you all, I hope things are going well, and I miss you guys. Hälsnignar, as they say here.
A lot has happened in the last couple days. For those who didn't get my last mail, the journey here went off without a hitch, besides the whole O'Hare-Airport-sucks thing. I sat next to someone my age for once, an attractive girl who was moving to Uppsala for a couple months to play soccer with a semi-professional team. When I arrived I stood in the customs line with several other 20somethings who were all doing various study-abroad programs, so we commiserated about transatlantic flights and how difficult Swedish is to understand. I was also greeted at the airport train station by this:
Yes, it's a vending machine for books.
Fortunately, I only have a hard time understanding spoken Swedish. Written Swedish isn't hard, particularly if you know German and English. The grammar is really simple, and in general there are lots of words that resemble their translations in either language, and the rest you can usually figure out from context. So I had no trouble with figuring out how to take a fast train to downtown Stockholm. I had the address of my hostel written down, and so I decided the best thing to do when I got into town was to walk to it and drop off my luggage. Now this is not as short a walk as it looks on the map, so I was sweating pretty good by the time I made it there.
Now, I mentioned it to some of you, but for those who don't know, my hostel was actually a boat. I think it was originally used for fishing or something like that, but in any case it was sitting on the water, bobbing up and down in the waves, which I can tell you is very pleasant to fall asleep on. Here are a few pictures of it:
The view from out my room's window. I had a single room all to myself the first night, since all the 12-room dorms were full up.
From across the water - my hostel is the second boat to the right of the red one.
The hostel only lets you move in at 3, so I figured that I was going to have to just ask them if I could stow my stuff in their baggage room until later that afternoon, but fortunately the room was all ready for me, so the nice girl at the desk just let me check in right then. That out of the way, I thought it would be a good idea to get in touch with the people at the Fulbright Commission so I could get my welcome package and, most importantly, my money. This involved a trek back to where I got off the train, but it was much easier without two stuffed backpacks and a suitcase. Cobblestones, I had forgotten, are really annoying to navigate if you have a suitcase with wheels. Fortunately, I had remembered to take my camera with me.
Stockholm is incredibly picturesque, and the weather was beautiful when I arrived. Sunny, slight breeze, 70 degrees, basically perfect. The city itself is like none other to which I have been. It has a mixture of modern and old buildings that actually works, unlike, say, many cities in Germany who seem not to have understood the fact that 18th and 19th century aesthetic clashes horribly with 60s and 70s modernism. There is water everywhere, because the entire city is built on an archipelago formed by the draining of Lake Mälaren into the Baltic Sea. Stockholm is also a fairly green city, with an incredibly well-coordinated public transit system (buses, subways, ferries, etc.), so the whole effect is one of clean, pristine dignity. The abundance of water also makes the cool Scandinavian air smell fresh and clean all the time, and there's a slight tinge of salt from the nearby coastline. There are a lot of parks and forests round about the area, which makes for nice walking opportunities as well.
Gamla Stan and Riddarholmen
Tyska Kirkan
St. George slaying a dragon.
Part of the Royal Palace, later in the afternoon. It was replete with cannon and Swedish Guard, one of whom yelled at me to stay away from the cannon.
The Royal Church. I'm planning to go see a performance of Mozart's Requiem here in November. Old people play Bocce Ball out on the stones in front of it.
Södermalm at sunset, with boat-hostels in front.
Once I got the the Fulbright office (which took some doing), they knew right away who I was, and lost no time in welcoming me and helping me as much as they could, including handing me a check for 11000 kronor and setting up an appointment with a nearby bank so that I could go set up an account that very day. I was really relieved to know that they keep such careful track of their grantees, because I don't know how I'd manage if I had to do this whole thing entirely on my own. Almost everyone in this country does speak English, but still. They also called Martin Ingvar, my boss at the Karolinska Institute, and we learned, to my VAST relief, that he had an apartment available for me to move into at any time, and I just needed to call him so that he'd know when to pick me up and take me there. I decided that since I had already paid for a night on a boat, though, that I'd just go ahead and take that, particularly since there was a Swedish breakfast buffet that came with it.
The next morning, after a large and delicious breakfast and conversation with a pleasant Dutch girl (I was supposed to send her a text message about exploring the city if I wasn't doing anything else that afternoon - I haven't yet. Oops.), Dr. Ingvar picked me up and took me to this apartment he owns in Östermalm. It is way bigger than I need - it has a kitchen, separate (albeit tiny) dining room, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, and it came fully furnished, including cleaning materials, pots and pans, and sheets. All the utilities are included as well, so that's one less thing that I need to worry about. It's about as big as Niki's and my place from sophomore year, if you took away his bedroom.
Park across the street
Kitchen
Living room (a little bare right now, but I'll find some decorations soon)
Bathroom
Bedroom
He took me over to his lab to introduce me to the people who were there, and to have his secretary take care of some of my administrative details (getting a photo ID, for instance, so that I can scan myself into the lab). He also, very kindly, invited me to his house for dinner, along with the rest of the lab, so I got a free meal out of the whole thing. Basically, he's really awesome - laid-back, understanding and accomodating, and really entertaining. He has an abusive relationship with his secretary, which is hilarious to watch. I also got along well with everyone in the lab that evening; they all seem really cool, and it was fairly easy to get conversations going. I also met my boss's wife, who is both very nice and an excellent cook, and his youngest daughter, who is, unfortunately, really hot. Even if she weren't 18, that's one of those things that is not a good idea under any circumstances.
The apartment (located off a street called Vallhallavägen, which translates to "The Road to Valhalla") is just a short way away from the Karolinska Institute, which is where I work. Mimmi, the secretary, lives nearby and she says that it takes just under an hour to walk there, and part of it is through a forest, which sounds really pleasant.
My address, should any of you for some reason decide to mail me anything, is 54 Strindbergsgatan #33, 11553 Stockholm.
So now I'm pretty much just settling in. I've enjoyed the last couple days of work - I got my head MRI'd yesterday, and I'd post pictures of my brain if my Gayintosh would read them. Right now I'm just learning the ropes of the brain imaging business; I'll eventually be operating the machines myself, and my boss wants to have me head up a research project during the last couple months of my scholarship period. I may even get to publish something. All the people in my lab are really friendly, and they all speak excellent English, and are surprised that I speak any Swedish at all ("You learned Swedish? Why?"). The Swedes have a pretty civilized way of going about the work schedule. I can come in pretty much whenever I want (within reason - I've been doing 10:30), and I can stay however long I need to. There's a strong tradition of taking a break in the afternoon for snacks and coffee, and the lounge area has free coffee, hot chocolate, biscuits, and fresh fruit. At the beginning of next week (Monday and Tuesday) I'll be going on a two-day retreat with the lab to an island called Sandhamn, which is part of the Stockholm Archipelago, the collection of 20000 or so islands scattered along the Baltic Coast east of Stockholm. We're obviously going by boat, and all the food and drink (!) is provided for. One of the nice things about working in a high-profile unit of one of the most famous, well-funded scientific institutions in Europe, I guess. I'll be sure to post pictures once I get them.
That's about all for now. Mainly, I'm just glad that things are settling in as quickly as they have been. The Fulbright people tell me not to mention my apartment situation to anyone else, because apparently getting a big, furnished apartment in such a good location is extremely hard to do here, let alone for the price I'm paying (4000 kronor per month, about $650 or so). Food is fucking expensive here, but I was expecting that, and I'm sure I'll be able to save up enough to do a good amount of traveling while I'm here. I'm still a little concerned about meeting people, but that will hopefully resolve itself in not too very long. So until I next talk to you all, I hope things are going well, and I miss you guys. Hälsnignar, as they say here.