I'm back!

Well, I don't know if it is fair to say I am back since I never actually went anywhere (much). Class ended last week and now I find myself practically alone in Uppsala - well, except for the 140,000 other people that live here of course. Although I expect that there are no longer 140,000 people here since the whole town has had a feeling of exodus for the past few weeks as classes in all the faculties draw to a close and students return home (whether that's elsewhere in Sweden or outside it), move away to work or go on vacation. Some of my classmates remain in Uppsala but most have gone home for the summer or to internships and a few are even working on research projects in Nepal, Bangladesh and Nicaragua.

My classmate Duaa (holding the flower) decided to do her Master's thesis this year and here we are at her graduation ceremony - from left to right Bashir, Duaa, me, Diana, Maija and Vilte

Our end of term indoor picnic (we were supposed to go to the park and dine al fresco but whether was horrid)

From the other end of the table(s)

I think with the inclusion of this picture we've got everyone including a very special little person in the lower right hand corner!

I have spent the last few days with some Greek students who will be starting here in the fall and decided to come now and try and work out accommodation (a very wise move given the housing situation in Uppsala). I am pleased to say that they have secured a very nice apartment that I think will work very nicely for them. It was fun showing them around and getting to know them. Now however I am truly alone and quite frankly loving every minute of it. Better still the Greek guys, though they flatly refused to, seem to have taken the rainy weather with them and it is glorious outside. I'm going to walk up to Stenhagen to the big box stores and treat myself to a new MP3 player if I can find a reasonably priced one.

New friends from Greece - George on the steps of the University Main Building

Panagiotis at the "welcome here, welcome home" sign at Uppsala Central Station

I was very fortunate to find a perfect little flat for the summer and I am so enjoying being on my own. I'm on the top floor (3rd), my dormer windows look out onto a green, tree-studded courtyard with picnic tables and the birds are singing lustily. The sky is a brilliant blue with just a few fluffy wisps of white cloud. It couldn't be much more perfect! Next Saturday I am off to Lithuania (boat from Stockholm to Riga and then bus from Riga to Klaipeda) to visit a classmate's mother. I hope to also make it to Copenhagen - perhaps for my birthday - and some other places in Sweden (Gothenburg/Göteborg, Gotland, Karlskrona) but plans to go further afield have been foiled by Revenue Canada who decided that since I am no longer a resident I was not entitled to as much of a refund as I anticipated. 

First breakfast in the new place

View from the window - prettier views to come later

I am hoping to do a literature review this summer that can serve as a preliminary basis for my master's thesis (if I do the 5-credit version I don't think it will be adequate as a basis for a thesis since it only references about 20-25 articles). I also should have no excuse for not posting more frequently to this blog so stay tuned for that. And of course the search for accommodation for September will continue throughout the next 2.5 months - keep your fingers crossed for me.

Signs of spring?

Perhaps I got my hopes up too high (or simply jinxed the situation) by posting what I thought were signs of spring to my Facebook page. It has been glorious for the past week or so - sunny days, blue skies and although nights were still crisp for the most part it was well above zero during the day. And then yesterday (Sunday, April 7, 2013) the skies turned gloomy and overcast and fat, fluffy, wet flakes of snow began swirling around and the temperature plummeted. But it didn't last long and today though not as warm it is once again sunny. I even saw some rather undernourished looking snowdrops (compared to those in Victoria) in the newly revealed but still completely winter-brown lawn beside one apartment building. The flowers weren't open but it's a good sign (I hope).

Happy to see the open-air fruit and vegetable seller back in Vaksala Torg

Not too many colourful flowers to be seen but there is manmade (or perhaps more accurately womanmade) colour around

I saw the woman who put this piece of guerilla knitting in place - it was the only time I've actually seen anyone in a phone booth in Uppsala - when I tried to use the one in the main square last summer it did not work as advertised (although it said I could make a toll-free call to a 1-800 number in Canada that did not work nor could I make a collect call to my credit card company)

Brain and pen for hire

In a little over 8 weeks the two remaining courses in the first year of the International Health Master's course will finish and I will be looking at three months of summer stretching ahead of me. I am going to do some touring around Europe - after all who knows when I will be this way again - but I would very much like to also make a little bit of money. Perhaps even more crucially I want to explore the International Health field with two purposes in mind - confirm what I am good at (some clues are in the title of this post) and should dig deeper into for the future (in terms of employment) as well as get some inspiration for my master's thesis which I need to have a firm idea about by the time school begins again in September 2013.

I have pretty much concluded that I need to work virtually this summer but perhaps that is a misconception on my part. On Thursday I'll be heading with several of my classmates to the Global Health Beyond 2015 event in Stockholm. Unfortunately I'm not well prepared - no stock of business cards at hand or resumes to give out. But I am hoping that perhaps I will have a chance encounter (or knowing me a purposeful one since I'm hardly shy) with someone/some organization that will show me a path to pursue. Wish me luck and if you know of someone who'd like to hire me to produce literature reviews, read and summarize research on global health topics all while keeping the coffee coming and providing home-baked treats drop me an email.

Idre Fjäll

On Valentine's Day (Thursday) a group of 10 of us headed to the mountains near the Norwegian border. Our destination was the ski resort of Idre Fjäll. Erica, one of my Swedish classmates, has a connection through her father that allowed us to stay at no cost in a lovely apartment with a gloriously large common area where we ate together, lounged on the sofas and generally enjoyed ourselves. There were two full bathrooms one of which had a sauna. We arrived late on Thursday night and departed on Sunday morning.

Some of us skied (cross country and downhill) - some for the first time (well done Mugi and Milad) - and others (that would be me!) simply walked. We ate, drank a bit of wine, watched Melodifestivalen (apparently Swedish high culture) and enjoyed the break from class and studying (though we had a literature review hanging over all our heads). Here are a few photos - hopefully some classmates will supply some of the Saturday that was the most glorious of days with blue skies and the snow sparkling like diamonds. It was a marvelous time and made coming back to Uppsala very hard.

View from the front window of the apartment

A very tame moose (that's cause he's not real, obviously)

One of the downhill runs

Norway perhaps?

Lots of snow

Sporty girls - Sofie and Maija

Where we had a waffle lunch on Saturday

View from the front window

2013 - The Year of the Sock

I am so very fortunate - I continued to be the lucky recipient of gifts long after Christmas was officially over. My roommate Zohreh gave me a 5-pack of colourful socks and a notebook (I have a bit of an addiction to notebooks since I have been keeping a journal, albeit often full of the most mundane and dreadfully dull entries, since my first trip to India in June of 1991). The notebook says 'I love you in Swedish'.

Other sock colours are peachy-orange, forest green, navy blue and a dark turquoise

Then earlier this week I received 3 pairs of socks from my dear friend Dawn in Canada. I now have enough socks that I can begin to throw away the ones that are wearing thin on the heels or actually have holes in them. Nothing makes you feel warm and cozy on a cold winter's day like a pair of comfy socks. Thanks to you both.

Canadian socks eh!

By this time tomorrow ...

This view is no longer extraordinary (this is from December 4, 2012) but thought those of you in Victoria might like to feel smug about how good the weather is where you are

I will have finished the exam for the second course in my program and will now be moving on to non-mandatory classes. The ending of these first two courses (Global Health and Research Methods for Global Health) means that a couple of people (at least) are leaving the program to either pursue other opportunities that will interrupt these studies (like taking a semester of Italian in Florence - sounds rough doesn't it!) or taking courses elsewhere that have been approved for credit within our program. It is bittersweet to say farewell to those we have become so close to so quickly.

I hope to get to a blog post this weekend and will give you the thumbs up or thumbs down then based on my perception of how the exam went.

Happy 2013!

Just a quick note to say that within a couple of weeks I will be done the second course in my program and that this means all the mandatory courses are out of the way now. After this we move onto Global Nutrition and I can't remember what's after that.

I have been feeling less than spiffy for the last 24 hours having come down with some kind of a cold or flu. It started with a sore throat and I've just felt dragged down and exhausted all day. Hoping to get it out of my system before school resumes on Monday. I went out for a walk and it was like toiling uphill in a windstorm I felt so pooped. Oh well, soon back to normal I am sure.

Here, for no particular reason, is a picture of the oldest tree in the botanical garden. It's a 300-year-old pear tree that still bears fruit. Perhaps I am posting it just to remind myself that summer will come again - I just need to be patient.