Dear readers,
It's the end of the week!!! Whooooo!! Do you have plans for the weekend yet? Tonight I will hang out with one of my room mates and relax and Saturday night it looks as though I will be attending a party that I was invited to with some friends.
I have one point of critique towards the Swedish train service, SJ.
Why are we not allowed to bring bikes aboard the X2000 trains? I understand that they are new and look good and everything, but why isn't there a place for bikes?
Every time I travel to Copenhagen I prefer to bring my wonderful bicycle with me. I can ride around the city and I save quite a bit of money by not having to buy expensive public transportation tickets, and also time by not having to wait for slow busses. The last time I brought by bike onboard the X2000, of course the bike frame with the wheels taken off, the SJ staff gave me soooooooo much stress! Totally uncool.
The Swedish train service portrays themselves as environmentally friendly, but bikes are NOT allowed on the long-distance trains! Even in the USA where very few people use bikes as a means of transportation, AMTRAK (the U.S. train service) allows you to bring a bike onboard! C'mon SJ pick it up, and allow us people that are trying to be even more environmentally friendly to bring a bike onboard (or have a place to store the bikes) and promote bikes as a means of transportation! I love the Swedish train service, and I've never had a problem with them.
I would love them even more if bikes were allowed aboard the long distance trains. In Denmark, Germany and in the USA (the countries that I've lived in for a while) you can take bikes aboard long distance trains without any problems.
SJ, bikes on trains are cool and environmentally friendly!!!!
Anyways, that's my rant.
Have a great weekend everyone, and I look forward to a new week of working on my Master's and blogging!
Julian
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Part 2 of My Weekend a.k.a. You Will NOT Believe This!!!
Dear readers,
I hope that you are all doing well and today has been a pleasant day so far. My day has been pretty productive. I woke up, had breakfast, wrote some e-mails and this blog, and will be going to read background information for my Master's shortly.
As promised, I want to tell you, my fellow readers, what happened on Monday night on my well planned trip back from Copenhagen. A small but crucial mistake that I made, turned my well-planned trip into an adventure and a little bit of compromising and a loooooong (but nice) bike ride home! :-)
So it all began at Stockholm Central Station. My itinerary was the following:
Copenhagen -> Stockholm Central Station
Stockholm Central Station -> Upplands Väsby
Upplands Väsby -> Uppsala.
I know that this itinerary seems a little inconvenient as I had to switch trains three times, but it was a cheap ticket and late at night, that's why I booked it. I prefer to travel later during the evening as the trains are emptier and there is more space to spread out.
I got off my train from Copenhagen at Stockholm Central Station. I had to walk to another track to catch the 00:20 train to Upplands Väsby. I had my travel bag with me and my bike.
I walked to the right track where I was supposed to catch my train. It was around 00:12 and a train pulled in. Of course not knowing which train I should take, and my train also leaving the same track at 00:20, I got on the train. NOOOOOO!!!! I didn't realise that instead of going to Upplands Väsby, the station that I had to go to, I was on my way to the more western town of Bålsta. Of course before my litte excursion, I had never heard of Bålsta. Not like this town is really large or really apparent on maps! :-) (No offense to people from Bålsta).
Anyways, I got off the train and realised that I was not in Upplands Väsby. I then asked security guards where I was. They were extremely friendly and really helped me alot. Long story short, it was the last train and I ultimately had three options:
In the end, I think biking was the best idea. I got home in less than two hours, the roads were good and it being 02:00, I met about 5 cars along the entire 40 Km of riding. It was cheaper than taking the taxi and warmer and faster than waiting for the next train in the morning. Below is my route:
http://maps.google.de/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Ultuna,+Uppsala,+Schweden&daddr=Ulleviv%C3%A4gen&geocode=FRTKkAMdlWQNASnHT19xZslfRjERDs9V3WYvgQ%3BFTr1jAMdJn8LAQ&hl=de&mra=ltm&sll=59.69009,17.629885&sspn=0.355543,0.874786&ie=UTF8&ll=59.568419,17.560272&spn=0.356832,0.874786&z=10
So, a little word of advice, PLEASE TAKE THE RIGHT TRAIN!!!! :-D I thought it was the right train, but it wasn't. TAKE THE RIGHT TRAIN!!!!
Anyways, have a pleasant day and take care!
Julian
I hope that you are all doing well and today has been a pleasant day so far. My day has been pretty productive. I woke up, had breakfast, wrote some e-mails and this blog, and will be going to read background information for my Master's shortly.
As promised, I want to tell you, my fellow readers, what happened on Monday night on my well planned trip back from Copenhagen. A small but crucial mistake that I made, turned my well-planned trip into an adventure and a little bit of compromising and a loooooong (but nice) bike ride home! :-)
So it all began at Stockholm Central Station. My itinerary was the following:
Copenhagen -> Stockholm Central Station
Stockholm Central Station -> Upplands Väsby
Upplands Väsby -> Uppsala.
I know that this itinerary seems a little inconvenient as I had to switch trains three times, but it was a cheap ticket and late at night, that's why I booked it. I prefer to travel later during the evening as the trains are emptier and there is more space to spread out.
I got off my train from Copenhagen at Stockholm Central Station. I had to walk to another track to catch the 00:20 train to Upplands Väsby. I had my travel bag with me and my bike.
I walked to the right track where I was supposed to catch my train. It was around 00:12 and a train pulled in. Of course not knowing which train I should take, and my train also leaving the same track at 00:20, I got on the train. NOOOOOO!!!! I didn't realise that instead of going to Upplands Väsby, the station that I had to go to, I was on my way to the more western town of Bålsta. Of course before my litte excursion, I had never heard of Bålsta. Not like this town is really large or really apparent on maps! :-) (No offense to people from Bålsta).
Anyways, I got off the train and realised that I was not in Upplands Väsby. I then asked security guards where I was. They were extremely friendly and really helped me alot. Long story short, it was the last train and I ultimately had three options:
- Wait in the cold for 4.5 hours for the first morning train
- Take a taxi home for around €80 (waaayyy to expensive for a student!!!)
- Build my bike together, pump up the tires and ride the 40 Km home!!!! :-)
In the end, I think biking was the best idea. I got home in less than two hours, the roads were good and it being 02:00, I met about 5 cars along the entire 40 Km of riding. It was cheaper than taking the taxi and warmer and faster than waiting for the next train in the morning. Below is my route:
http://maps.google.de/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Ultuna,+Uppsala,+Schweden&daddr=Ulleviv%C3%A4gen&geocode=FRTKkAMdlWQNASnHT19xZslfRjERDs9V3WYvgQ%3BFTr1jAMdJn8LAQ&hl=de&mra=ltm&sll=59.69009,17.629885&sspn=0.355543,0.874786&ie=UTF8&ll=59.568419,17.560272&spn=0.356832,0.874786&z=10
So, a little word of advice, PLEASE TAKE THE RIGHT TRAIN!!!! :-D I thought it was the right train, but it wasn't. TAKE THE RIGHT TRAIN!!!!
Anyways, have a pleasant day and take care!
Julian
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Lighter Days, Part 1 of My Weekend...
Hey people!
I hope that all of you are doing well and enjoying your week.
Finally the days are beginning to grow noticeably longer here in Sweden. It seems like forever since the sun set so late during the day. Sunset is still at around 16:00 or so, which is still really early, but it's amazing how much extra light there is. In comparison, during December sunset was around 14:30 and it was basically night by 15:15. This is one thing I'd like to warn you about Sweden. If you're a person that needs light, remember the winters are very dark here. Winter gloom can be easily overcome by doing sports, going into the sauna and having good friends and people around. In contrast though, the summer here will be amazing. Then the sun will go down closer to 23:00 and will rise around 03:00 again! That will be awesome! Here is a link to a website that will tell you sunrise and sunset times for any day during the year.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=1376&month=1&year=2011&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1
What I also want to mention is my weekend. I had an AMAZING weekend. I went to Copenhagen to visit my friends that I made during my first year of my program. (Just as background information, I study ENVEURO MSc, European Master of Environmental Science. During my first year, I studied at University of Copenhagen and now I'm completing my MSc. as an ERASMUS student at here at SLU in Sweden). For more information on my program and the program's university network, check out:
http://www.enveuro.eu/
It was alot of fun to see my buddies from last year. We partied and had a good time. I strongly recommend that you stay in contact with your fellow classmates and friends that you make during your international studies. It's really great to see them again and hear about their life journeys!
On Monday night I took the train back from Copenhagen to Uppsala. I arrived at Stockholm Central Station, and got on a train that was supposed to take me to Uppsala! :-)
...and here the story ends, it did not go as smoothly as you may imagine!...
...to be continued... :-)
I hope that all of you are doing well and enjoying your week.
Finally the days are beginning to grow noticeably longer here in Sweden. It seems like forever since the sun set so late during the day. Sunset is still at around 16:00 or so, which is still really early, but it's amazing how much extra light there is. In comparison, during December sunset was around 14:30 and it was basically night by 15:15. This is one thing I'd like to warn you about Sweden. If you're a person that needs light, remember the winters are very dark here. Winter gloom can be easily overcome by doing sports, going into the sauna and having good friends and people around. In contrast though, the summer here will be amazing. Then the sun will go down closer to 23:00 and will rise around 03:00 again! That will be awesome! Here is a link to a website that will tell you sunrise and sunset times for any day during the year.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=1376&month=1&year=2011&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1
What I also want to mention is my weekend. I had an AMAZING weekend. I went to Copenhagen to visit my friends that I made during my first year of my program. (Just as background information, I study ENVEURO MSc, European Master of Environmental Science. During my first year, I studied at University of Copenhagen and now I'm completing my MSc. as an ERASMUS student at here at SLU in Sweden). For more information on my program and the program's university network, check out:
http://www.enveuro.eu/
It was alot of fun to see my buddies from last year. We partied and had a good time. I strongly recommend that you stay in contact with your fellow classmates and friends that you make during your international studies. It's really great to see them again and hear about their life journeys!
On Monday night I took the train back from Copenhagen to Uppsala. I arrived at Stockholm Central Station, and got on a train that was supposed to take me to Uppsala! :-)
...and here the story ends, it did not go as smoothly as you may imagine!...
...to be continued... :-)
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
I'm beginning to enjoy these days quite a bit!
Dear readers,
Happy hump day! Yes, it's the middle of the week and we're half way (passed the hump) through the working week! Got any weekend plans yet? This weekend I plan on visiting my friends in Copenhagen. I'll be taking the train down to Denmark. The nice thing about the Swedish train service called SJ is that if you book well in advance, you can get quite an affordable ticket to your destination. You can check out their website at: www.http://www.sj.se/sj/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=10&l=en .
Otherwise, I've been enjoying my past few days. I'm beginning to enjoy this time while I work on my Master's Thesis. I wake up in the late morning, eat, go train for rowing, come back home, eat and finally go work on my Master's Thesis after.
Right now I'm looking at my data sets, reading research papers and collecting background information. Of course I'm also filling out plenty of required paperwork. The next thing I must do is come up with hypotheses. One thing I think is challenging and interesting is making sense of the data presented to me in the form of Excel spreadsheets. Numbers at one glance don't mean very much to me. What I think is interesting is making sense of them. That's what I'm trying to do right now. My supervisors have been very helpful, and this makes my work much easier. I like knowing that I can always ask my supervisors, which are professors here at SLU, for help on my Master's Project.
So far I've experienced excellent support from my supervisors here at SLU!
I hope that all of you have a pleasant remainder of the week!
Julian
Happy hump day! Yes, it's the middle of the week and we're half way (passed the hump) through the working week! Got any weekend plans yet? This weekend I plan on visiting my friends in Copenhagen. I'll be taking the train down to Denmark. The nice thing about the Swedish train service called SJ is that if you book well in advance, you can get quite an affordable ticket to your destination. You can check out their website at: www.http://www.sj.se/sj/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=10&l=en .
Otherwise, I've been enjoying my past few days. I'm beginning to enjoy this time while I work on my Master's Thesis. I wake up in the late morning, eat, go train for rowing, come back home, eat and finally go work on my Master's Thesis after.
Right now I'm looking at my data sets, reading research papers and collecting background information. Of course I'm also filling out plenty of required paperwork. The next thing I must do is come up with hypotheses. One thing I think is challenging and interesting is making sense of the data presented to me in the form of Excel spreadsheets. Numbers at one glance don't mean very much to me. What I think is interesting is making sense of them. That's what I'm trying to do right now. My supervisors have been very helpful, and this makes my work much easier. I like knowing that I can always ask my supervisors, which are professors here at SLU, for help on my Master's Project.
So far I've experienced excellent support from my supervisors here at SLU!
I hope that all of you have a pleasant remainder of the week!
Julian
Monday, January 17, 2011
Great Weekend and I Did Something Swedish :-)
Dear readers,
I hope that all of you had nice and relaxing weekend again. This weekend I met with some of my friends from rowing and other people that I hadn't seen since before the Christmas holidays. We had a great time.
The end of last week was busy for me. I met with my Master's Thesis supervisor and we discussed our work, timelines, co-supervisors and other organisation matters regarding my Thesis. Things are starting to get serious! I look forward to all the work for the Master's, but I must say I'm slightly nervous about all the statistics that we will be doing for our statistical analysis part.
For my Thesis, we will be comparing Micarea globulusella (a formerly Swedish red-listed lichen species) growth, frequency and distribution in old-growth forests and younger forests. I will work on more concrete information as my work on the project progresses. Right now I'm in the starting phase, reading papers and developing hypotheses that we want to test. Also, there will be many questions to answer. I look forward!
Otherwise, last Thursday I did something extremely Swedish. Every Thursday I join circuit training sessions organised by members of my UARS Rowing Club. You might ask what circuit training is. Basically it's working out without weights. You just use your body weight. This sort of training really exercises your body control and core muscle groups.
Circuit training is part of our winter training program, and is also free of charge for whoever wants to participate. Circuit training is offered every Thursday at 17:30 at the Sylthallen gym here on Ultuna Campus. Anyways, after training we always go to the sauna (also located inside the gym). Normally after the sauna, we go under a cold shower, but not this time!
This time we ran outside in the snow and rolled around in it! :-D Supposedly this is a very Swedish thing to do, go into the sauna, get very hot and run outside into frigid temperatures and roll around in the snow. At first it was a shock, but once you're back indoors it feels really good. Try it! :-D
Anyways, these were the interesting points of my last days here in Sweden. Have a great next few days!
Julian
I hope that all of you had nice and relaxing weekend again. This weekend I met with some of my friends from rowing and other people that I hadn't seen since before the Christmas holidays. We had a great time.
The end of last week was busy for me. I met with my Master's Thesis supervisor and we discussed our work, timelines, co-supervisors and other organisation matters regarding my Thesis. Things are starting to get serious! I look forward to all the work for the Master's, but I must say I'm slightly nervous about all the statistics that we will be doing for our statistical analysis part.
For my Thesis, we will be comparing Micarea globulusella (a formerly Swedish red-listed lichen species) growth, frequency and distribution in old-growth forests and younger forests. I will work on more concrete information as my work on the project progresses. Right now I'm in the starting phase, reading papers and developing hypotheses that we want to test. Also, there will be many questions to answer. I look forward!
Otherwise, last Thursday I did something extremely Swedish. Every Thursday I join circuit training sessions organised by members of my UARS Rowing Club. You might ask what circuit training is. Basically it's working out without weights. You just use your body weight. This sort of training really exercises your body control and core muscle groups.
Circuit training is part of our winter training program, and is also free of charge for whoever wants to participate. Circuit training is offered every Thursday at 17:30 at the Sylthallen gym here on Ultuna Campus. Anyways, after training we always go to the sauna (also located inside the gym). Normally after the sauna, we go under a cold shower, but not this time!
This time we ran outside in the snow and rolled around in it! :-D Supposedly this is a very Swedish thing to do, go into the sauna, get very hot and run outside into frigid temperatures and roll around in the snow. At first it was a shock, but once you're back indoors it feels really good. Try it! :-D
Anyways, these were the interesting points of my last days here in Sweden. Have a great next few days!
Julian
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Return to Uppsala, Great Start of the New Year, Many Positive Comments
Dear readers,
I hope that all of you are doing well and just jumping through this week with joy and positive vibrations (as Bob Marley put it).
All is well here. I returned to Uppsala late last night. The connection between Uppsala and Stockholm Arlanda Airport is really good. I took the bus, but supposedly taking the train is just as easy, and the ticket costs between 70 and 120 Swedish Crowns, which is around €7 - €12. I think that's a really good price.
The bus driver that I had was very nice. I actually arrived in Sweden a little earlier than I expected, so I was able to catch the earlier bus back to Uppsala. I originally had bought a ticket for a later bus, but the bus driver was nice enough to allow me in his earlier bus. Taking the earlier bus to Uppsala was very practical, as I still had enough time to catch the last bus at 00:30 to Ultuna. (Ultuna is the name of the town where SLU campus and my student dorm, including all the other on-campus student residencies are located).
I was very satisfied with the way yesterday went. Cool bus driver! I hope that you all get back to school safely and enjoy the first school days of the year.
Also, I would like to thank all of my readers for their positive comments they have left me. Thank you very much and your feedback is making my blogging for SLU an enjoyable and exciting experience! Keep up the comments. Also please remember, if you don't agree with something I write or you would like to see something else, please feel free to comment on that too. I will respond by altering my blog text accordingly. :-)
All the best for 2011!!!
Julian
I hope that all of you are doing well and just jumping through this week with joy and positive vibrations (as Bob Marley put it).
All is well here. I returned to Uppsala late last night. The connection between Uppsala and Stockholm Arlanda Airport is really good. I took the bus, but supposedly taking the train is just as easy, and the ticket costs between 70 and 120 Swedish Crowns, which is around €7 - €12. I think that's a really good price.
The bus driver that I had was very nice. I actually arrived in Sweden a little earlier than I expected, so I was able to catch the earlier bus back to Uppsala. I originally had bought a ticket for a later bus, but the bus driver was nice enough to allow me in his earlier bus. Taking the earlier bus to Uppsala was very practical, as I still had enough time to catch the last bus at 00:30 to Ultuna. (Ultuna is the name of the town where SLU campus and my student dorm, including all the other on-campus student residencies are located).
I was very satisfied with the way yesterday went. Cool bus driver! I hope that you all get back to school safely and enjoy the first school days of the year.
Also, I would like to thank all of my readers for their positive comments they have left me. Thank you very much and your feedback is making my blogging for SLU an enjoyable and exciting experience! Keep up the comments. Also please remember, if you don't agree with something I write or you would like to see something else, please feel free to comment on that too. I will respond by altering my blog text accordingly. :-)
All the best for 2011!!!
Julian
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Happy New Year
Dear readers,
I would like to wish all of you a happy new year and much success for 2011. Where did you guys celebrate new year's eve?
Currently I'm back at home in Berlin and celebrated with friends. I hope that everyone had a good evening and a not too painful morning after all the New Year's Eve parties! :-)
I will resume blogging about my experiences in Sweden next week when I arrive in Uppsala again.
This upcoming semester should be an interesting one, as I'm getting ready to begin working on my Master's Thesis. Currently I'm in the process of filling out all the required paperwork for SLU and working on other organisational issues related to the Thesis. I will keep you up to date on how the entire Thesis process is going for me.
So far, I've had a very good experience with the SLU administration and my supervisor for my thesis. Everyone (administration, supervising professor) seems very helpful and motivated to help me begin working on my Thesis. One of my supervising professors has already provided me with reading material, and I began reading the research papers and articles yesterday. I look forward to continuing my Master's Thesis work!
Take care everyone, and you'll either hear from me again another time this week or early next week!
Julian
I would like to wish all of you a happy new year and much success for 2011. Where did you guys celebrate new year's eve?
Currently I'm back at home in Berlin and celebrated with friends. I hope that everyone had a good evening and a not too painful morning after all the New Year's Eve parties! :-)
I will resume blogging about my experiences in Sweden next week when I arrive in Uppsala again.
This upcoming semester should be an interesting one, as I'm getting ready to begin working on my Master's Thesis. Currently I'm in the process of filling out all the required paperwork for SLU and working on other organisational issues related to the Thesis. I will keep you up to date on how the entire Thesis process is going for me.
So far, I've had a very good experience with the SLU administration and my supervisor for my thesis. Everyone (administration, supervising professor) seems very helpful and motivated to help me begin working on my Thesis. One of my supervising professors has already provided me with reading material, and I began reading the research papers and articles yesterday. I look forward to continuing my Master's Thesis work!
Take care everyone, and you'll either hear from me again another time this week or early next week!
Julian
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