Back from a crazy three days...

Well, I finally arrived back in Jönköping last night. The past three days were an absolute whirlwind. I think that I can safely say that I have mastered the art of seeing an entire city in exactly one day...and I did that three days in a row. I have a lot of photos, which I promise to post soon. I have my International Trade final tomorrow, and definitely started studying for it, oh, about three hours ago....so I probably should focus on that. I got super sunburned and windburned (how is sort of a mystery), which means that I have been lazy all day and need to get down to work ASAP.

Going South...

I am taking a quick trip because I have a few days off of class. I finished my second exam last Friday, and my last one is this coming Friday with no class in between. It does not make much sense to me but that is okay! I decided to check out Southern Sweden and Copenhagen (Denmark). I am going to Copenhagen REALLY early tomorrow morning (3:45 am...yeah!) so that I arrive at 8:00 am and have the whole day. I am going to stay overnight there and then go Malmö (back to Sweden) in the morning. I am spending Tuesday and Tuesday night in Malmö, going to Lund on Wednesday morning, and will be back in Jönköping on Wednesday night so that I can study on Thursday for my final on Friday. It will be crazy and also awesome. I am doing this trip by myself because some people still have classes, are taking tests...it's screwy. However, I am feeling good about it since I have done the bus trips/hostel stays before and know what to expect. Copenhagen is all around awesome, Malmö is Sweden's third largest city and on the coast, and Lund is the home of two of the oldest universities in Scandinavia. It was supposed to snow all three days, but I just checked the weather and it looks like rain is a possibility instead. Yippee! I am hoping to get a LOT of great pictures. Check back soon!

Glad Påsk!

It snowed a LOT last night and today is absolutely gorgeous! The question of the moment is WWJB? Yes, "What Would Jesus Bake?" I think that Easter = dessert but I cannot decide between carrot, apple, and raspberry cake. Gosh my life is tough. Haha. I am going to update this more later when I am bored tonight...long story.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

...and Happy Snow Day too! Look at what I woke up to this morning!

Yes, I do believe that it is my first time waking up to snow in Jönköping! It was absolutely beautiful yesterday, so I had no idea that it would snow today. I doubt that it will stick around long, but it was a nice surprise.

Yesterday, I went for a hike in the morning to think about my senior thesis. It was gorgeous outside and I re-sunburned my nose (I guess SPF 15 was not enough).

Spring flowers


In the forest...

I thought of quite a few thesis topics, but no specific questions. I have to submit my top three questions with a description in a week! Does this sound crazy to anyone else? I have been thinking about it non-stop for the past three weeks because a thesis topic is not exactly something that one can just choose on a whim. I definitely want to do something with environmental policy and developing countries. I am going to write my thesis with the Economics Department because I like it better than Political Science (haha!); as an IPE Major, I get a choice of options for my senior year. Also, course registration is coming up. I cannot believe that I am about to register for my last courses as an undergraduate! What happened to my undergraduate career? What happened to my LIFE?

And then there is life in Sweden...it is good! I took my BIG Swedish final on Friday and I am sure that I passed it. It was sort of difficult, which was expected, but I prepared as best as I could for it. I know that I did a lot better than the majority of my peers because I a) opened my books and b) enjoyed the course. The actual testing was a horrific experience! I am dreading all of my future examinations! Here is what I dislike about school here: lack of challenge, relationships, and trust. The challenge part I whine about all the time - school is way too easy here and some of the courses (ahem Economic Geography of Europe) are easier than those that I took my senior year of high school. I would LOVE to go to lecture more often and actually have assignments. I have learned a lot, but it has mostly been self taught, which is okay, but I did not come to Europe to home school. I honestly think that the European educational system is much easier than that in the USA. I also miss knowing my professors. I have no idea who my professors are here. For my Economic Geography course, I have a different professor every time and my International Trade course had upwards of one hundred students. I do know my Swedish teacher, which is really nice. I miss having professors that know my name and actively engage students in class. I hate being the only person that answers questions because everyone gives me weird looks and the professor looks completely surprised that someone actually answered. It makes me wonder if all of the questions here are rhetorical?

And trust. Well, I have to say that coming from CC, I am used to being highly trusted. The Honor Code is super important. I am allowed to take my examination in my room, on an airplane, in another state...and I am trusted to only use the resources specified. JIBS is the polar opposite. All of the examinations are given in special 'examination rooms' with rows of desks spaced a few feet apart on all sides. Students are required to register for the exam two weeks in advance (taking the course is apparently not good enough) and bring confirmation of registration along with TWO pieces of ID to the testing room. All belongings except a pen must be checked in at the back. I actually had to beg one of the proctors to let me keep my coat because it was freezing in that room! During that actual exam, no one is allowed to leave (there is a bathroom in the room) and two 'exam police' patrol the rows the whole time. The teacher checks in every now and then. It is so incredibly nerve wracking! The girl behind me ate an apple LOUDLY for at LEAST an hour and the boy in front of me would not quit sniffing and blowing his nose as LOUD as he possibly could. I will admit, I did not check any of my work and finished that exam in a third of the allocated time because I had to get out of there!

Okay, so that was pretty much a rant. I will give this school a little bit of credit and say that they sort of need a system like that. Last Tuesday, I had to take the other part of my Swedish exam - the essay part - in the classroom. Afterwards, I found out from the other students that I was literally the ONLY person who did not cheat on that essay! Are you kidding me? We had to write fifty to one hundred words about a picture and people cheated? Everyone had words written up and down their arms on a system with their neighbor. It was so appalling. People here have no integrity.

Now on to better news...
After the exam of death on Friday, I went to After Work with some people from my class because we thought that it was a fitting post-Swedish exam activity. On Fridays, restaurants have a special promotion where people buy drinks/pay to check their coats and then can hang out between 4:00 to 8:00 pm and eat whatever they want from the 'After Work buffet.' It is a really good way to meet people. I think that we will do it again next week! Yesterday, we had the monthly international dinner at my house and this time, the countries cooking were: Holland, Germany, and the USA. I made cruelty-free chocolate chip cookies and everyone loved them! Chocolate chips must be an American specialty because I could not find them here. I improvised and spent a good forty-five minutes chopping up dark chocolate bars into little pieces. I also ate my body weight in cookie dough, which was probably not the best idea, but also delicious. The best part about vegan cookies is, of course, the fact that they are free from exploitation, but second is the fact that the dough will not make you sick! I brought my own dinner to the dinner because I could not eat anything else there (the other American delights were mac and cheese, meatloaf, and coke/ice cream floats - the last one really freaked people out)...but it was fun anyways.

Today I have class and should probably work on that home exam for the Economic Geography (really easy, but also boring). I am making yummy potatoes and cabbage tonight. :)

Cute bunny...

Check out this adorable bunny that was RIGHT OUTSIDE MY WINDOW this afternoon! Actually, he was pretty big...about the size of a cat, but still cute. Why am I so excited about this? Well, I do love bunnies, but more importantly, this is the FIRST ANIMAL I HAVE SEEN IN SWEDEN. Sadly, I am not joking unless I count the birds and the abused moose that I saw at that gross zoo. Anyways, I am very excited about this wildlife development.

Maybe I will start leaving snacks outside and turn this bunny into a pet. Or maybe I should study for the incredibly difficult final Swedish examination that I will take tomorrow...

Ice photos, etc

Well, I have pretty much been terrible about updating this blog. My apologies to the very few people who read it! I have been spending a LOT of time outside because the weather has finally gotten much nicer. I actually got sunburned on my nose last week!

School is going well. I am entering finals phase for the first quarter, so reviewing has been taking up a lot of my time. I have the first part of my Swedish final on Tuesday and the second part on Friday. It is definitely the test I am most worried about. I think that I will be able to manage a passing grade (required for Swedish 2), but I would like to actually do well on it. I have learned so much in the past few weeks, and I am excited to start focusing more on speaking (as opposed to the basics: verb conjugation, noun forms, etc) in the next course. I have started to make flash cards and color-coded charts, which is quite enjoyable. I am also in the process of taking my Economic Geography of Europe final. It is the infamous ten-page take home final, which I have two weeks to take. I received it on Wednesday, started it about two hours ago, and am aiming to finish all of it - except for the question I need the information from next Wednesday's lecture for - by the end of the weekend. I am positive that I could have passed it without ever attending a lecture because it is one of the most basic exams I have ever seen. Interestingly enough, my International Trade exam is still two weeks away. That one is going to be interesting. Our lecturer on Wednesday taught the effects of subsidies and tariffs on trade and domestic welfare INCORRECTLY. I spent the lecture thinking how different it was from what I had learned previously, and went straight to my computer after class to verify that her graphs were incorrect. Great. At least I will be one of the few in the course with the correct information!

In random news, I am pretty much addicted to Ki Jympa. Why is it only offered twice a week? I applied for another internship position, and have been keeping up with my beloved Relay back at CC. I made some cranberry-cinnamon-oatmeal-sunflower seed cookies yesterday and idiotically baked all of them. I rarely bake all of my cookies because I would much rather eat the dough (frozen!) then the actual baked version. I guess I will have to whip up some more...haha.

I took these cool ice photos of some bushes next to Lake Vattern on Thursday. They were definitely a limited time sight...I passed by a few hours later and all of the ice had melted!

Spring is Coming