Bastille Day

I am in Paris, France. I am working at ENS Ulm (paris) doing applied math research (or neroscience research - whichever you prefer). I am living in the 14th district near Montsouris park.

I am really enjoying the work - the research - and my co-workers and newly found friends. They are all very helpful and understanding (I don't speak French, but hope to learn a little while I am here).

The other weekend I went with some friends that I had meant in Uppsala University to their hometown Caen in Normandy. I was taken all over and was shown the beaches, calvados, little cute villages and a ton of cows. It only rained for about two hours once... I am enjoying the area a lot! I really like my friends and am happy to have met them (the new ones here in France and the ones I meant in Uppsala). It seems that a large part of life is about connecting to others and networking. I enjoy participating in this part quite a bit!

The other day I went to see the fireworks from the Pantheon. You have a straight view of the tour eiffel and the show was nice. - as many French friends would say too costly, but eh... c'est la vie when you have a president like sarkozy :-D

Oh yeah, today after work I had a Swedish workout and played futbol!

That's all for now... more later!

au revoir.

In Paris working

Hi everyone! So I probably owe another post by now. I've been to Morocco for a week after my trip to Norway (loved the trip to Morocco). Now I am in Paris living near Montsouris Park and going to work five days a week! Pictures for later!

Best,

Joe

Finals are over and trip to Lofoten, Narvik Norway

So finals are over and I am soo happy that I am done with the semester! I will be getting 13 math credits in Advanced Linear Algebra, Number Theory (should be algebraic number theory at the graduate level :-( ), and Complex Analysis (cute course - didn't find it too interesting)...

Afterwards, my friend Kristen and I met up (she flew over to Sweden to eventually continue on to France) to travel a bit. We decided that Lofoten Islands would be a great place to see. They are apparently voted in the top three islands to visit by National Geographic Travel magazine. And I am not suprised.

To get here we took a 17 hour train ride from Uppsala to Narvik, Norway. We stayed there the night and continued on to Lofoten Islands (specifically Svolvaer) via a 4 hour bus.

Once there I rested a bit and the view from everywhere was simply amazing - some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. We continued on to see the trollfjords and some seahawks and fed seagulls (they out of my hand - almost from my hand). The fjords were simply breathtaking - some of the most fake looking mountains ever.

In a couple of days I will be heading on over to Morocco....

That's my update for now.

here are some pictures of the area (don't look at me - I look bad in these pictures - but the scenery is splendid as I have already stated multiple times)...

http://picasaweb.google.com/ksmark87/Europe200902# (this is Kristen's european picture archive so not all of them pertain to me or trips that I have been/will be on)

Finals!

So I am taking some finals - already found out I passed one course and am just waiting for another...

For some more updates I am getting ready for a trip to northern Norway... Afterwards, I have hopes to travel to Morocco. 

In July and August I start work at École normale supérieure doing math research... more on that later...

That's all for now....

Politically, I have nothing much to say...

Helsinki Cruise!

Yes, well the other day I managed to find myself on a boat full of drunk people wandering around.

But as the cruise was so long ago I find myself having trouble recalling the events too clearly myself....

In all it was a very pleasant experience seeing this capital - a capital of only ~600,000 reisdents and one that has a history of being under Swedish rule (not sure of the politics there, and how much antagonism was present, and under Russian rule and within the last 100 years or so independence.

Helsinki is still the smallest city to have held an olympics....

Well in any case in recent events the pirate bay trial is big news here and after dishing out a terrible sentence some of the pirate bay owner's lawyers are petitioning for a retrial.

http://www.thelocal.se/19028/20090423/

Till next time.

Hejda

My trip to Eastern Europe

I just came back from a booze cruise on Viking line. But that is another post...

Last week I traveled to Prague, Vienna and then Budapest. I took a flight with 6 corridor mates to Prague. In Prague I stayed with the one other guy out of our group of 7. We ate massive hot dogs and saw all of the main attractions including the national musuem, the astronomical clock, and the old Jewish quarter. I took a guided tour throughout the entire city and learned much about the fascinating history that began in the 9th century. Too much to actually write about.

Two days later, early in the morning, we took off via train to our next destination minus my friend Trent from my corridor. Arriving

in Vienna, we set out to take the clean and highly organized / efficient public transportation to our youth hostel. In Vienna I left the five girls and met up with my friend Alexander Olti - a highschool friend from Budapest, but studying in Vienna. He gave me another wonderful tour - not knowing as much about the history - but still I was able to learn much about the city and see a clear distinction between Vienna and Prague. Later that night I had some of the original world-famous Sacher torte and went to the Opera (I saw the Romeo and Juliet ballet). After another day of touring around I made sure to hang out with the camera crazy girls and we went around seeing the sites we had missed - and eating the traditional schnizel (DELICIOUS!!!). The morning after we took another early train to our final destination - Budapest.

As my friend was from Budapest he was able to give us a list of the must sees and dos. We went to the Parliament, Chain bridge, the fortress, and some other neat places including the largest synagogue in Europe. We ran into some interesting things along the way and enjoyed ourselves. After all this fun a couple of us felt that we needed to get in a couple more ounces of fun in so we went out to a nightclub my friend recommended. We chose not to party too much though as we had a flight the next day back home.

I truly enjoyed the different cities. Prague and its architecture, Vienna and the theaters, and Budapest and its lively feel. I hope to visit each of the cities again and partake in the joys that I enjoyed there once more.

Sorry I have so little time I can't fully describe everything in detail, but each city and site is amazing!

Next post will talk about the cruise!

Till then,

Adios

Quick Update

Quick update of all that's been going on.

I recently went to Prague, Vienna and Budapest in 6 days.

It was amazing. I loved the cities and will describe in my next post all that took place.

Unfortunately I can't write about the experience now as my two week easter break just started... meaning I am leaving for Helsinki in a couple of hours and haven't packed yet. 

During the break I will undoubtably study and not travel that much to catch up!

Well until the next post, see you in Helsinki!

PS. Take a look at the clocks in the background ;-) (any guesses where this is?)

I passed!! and Madrid!

So I was mistaken in my previous post when I said that I needed five points to pass. I actually needed only three! As such, I took the exam and was the first one from my class out! Suffice it to say I actually passed!

The next day I woke up early and caught a train to the airport! After a 4 hour flight I was in Madrid! I never realized how much of a Spanish influence there is in America (at least linguistically). From watching Dora the Explorer I was somehow able to get by! (as in order food... pay for my 1 star hostal accomodation, etc...) The first day I simply walked around and toured a bit. I stumbled upon the Chinese quarter and am convinced all the stores there are simply fronts for drug dealing or other nefarious acts.

The second day I went to Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía which was very close (10 meters) from my hostel. It had many, many Picassos and Dalis and I am quite fond of them both. I of course toured around the rest of the city (finding an internet cafe and some restaurants that had menus del dia (cheaper 2-3 course meals!) before going to the Sofia as the Sofia was free after 2.30. I visited the Royal Palace of Madrid and saw part of the Stradivari collection. And I visited the Almudena Cathedral to the the south? of the Palace. 

The next day I went to the Prado, a wonderful art museum with a great collection of Diego Velázquez and Francisco Goya, as well as El Greco. After spending many hours in the museum I went out to some gardens, stumbled upon a collection of Rodin sculptures, and at night visited a Spanish friend from highschool. Guillermo ordered the food, and I just ate...

In all it was a wonderful experience and I must admit I love the city (especially the weather coming from Uppsala...)! I definitely will make my way back there one day. I didn't have a full Madrid experience as I never went out to any clubs, which I hear they quite good... The night I was going to go out, Sunday - my friend Guillermo told me he wouldn't take me - only strange people go out Sunday nights he said...

I wanted to be strange, but alas, it gives me more reason to go back soon!

Adios till next time,

Joe

No longer the 13th!

My test is no longer Friday the 13th as I had once thought! Instead it is Thursday the 12th....

As such I have started studying, but listen to this! The test is out of 40 points. Having done the homework (and will be finishing the last homework tomorrow) I automatically receive 15 points as I scored above a 70% on all the homework assignments.

And listen to this... to pass with degree 3 (the passing scores here are 3-5 and I only need to pass as my transcript only shows P-F) I need 20 points. Meaning I only have to answer one question and part of another (6 questions).  In short, I will be passing my first course at Uppsala University. I do hope that I get a 5 though as I have decided to start studying now. :-)

Other than that, yesterday night there was a large geek/nerd dinner that I took part in. I didn't understand more than half of what was going on, but I was surrounded by a bunch of guys, was forced to drink and write on little hearts what I thought about each person at my table.... Also, I did understand some of the slides/jokes or at least the type of humor... it was very sexual in nature and as such I am sure I would have thought it was quite funny though everyone told me that it was just the awkward type of humor.

Not much else is new, other than I decided between Israel and Spain. I will be going to Madrid and hopefully get to see my friend Guillermo. 

Until next time,

Joseph

Afterwards......

So the days following the gasque...

Saturday was quite busy. I had two fikas, a church visit to watch/listen to a compilation of French pieces for the Organ, and a musuem. The day was quite nice. Then came Saturday night and a place called salluhalen (open market). I had a lot of fun, but my friend wanted to stay much later than I - and so I was very tired when we came back so late. 

Tuesday I met up with a friend and we went rock climbing! It was quite fun and free as it was my first try!!! I do believe I will continue to go there - hopefully every week, except when I am gone off touring the world. 

March 14th I am making plans to go... somewhere. I haven't decided yet and my plans are between Israel and Spain. Depends on where I can stay for less!

Other than that life is good and I have a lot of plans for more parties that I have been invited for this week. And then next week is study time for my exam on the 13th!

Wish me luck!

Joe

International Gasque!

Sorry everyone that I haven't posted recently. I will attempt to keep my blog posts coming more frequently from today.  For those that don't know, on the top left corner of this blog there is a "follow this blog" button which if clicked you can automatically be informed via email that I have posted a new informative synopsis of my somewhat interesting experiences over here in Sweden.  

Being an exchange student is a wonderful experience. And it helps that I am not going for just a month, I am truly only starting to appreciate the culture after a full month.  I am enjoying my inundation of Swedish culture. Right now I am actually at a cafe in the city center and I just had a small fikarast before beginning this post and eventually start reading for my class. This weekend was of particular interest too in understanding Swedish culture and meeting more foreign (to my own of course) cultures.

On Friday I participated in my first gasque, for which I had to dress up in a suit. A gasque for those not interested on clicking on gasque is essentially just a formal Swedish student dinner party.  This particular gasque was a little less formal as it was the international student gasque. I met exchange students from all over! Gasque's are quite the experience as there are three ladies placed on all sides of the gentlemen (as are there three gentlemen on each side of each lady) and the lady to your right is 'your lady' for the evening.  Every couple of minute we had to Skål pronounced (Skol) which is a toast (interesting tradition there too, we first lift the glass with the left hand, toast to 'your lady', to the lady of the left, then finally to the lady in front - after which you drink and do the reverse toast.  My lady actually left the table almost after meeting me, (I was dressed nicely so it couldn't have been me!); she was from Finland. The lady in front was from Sweden (very international), and the lady to the left was from France). Of course I met a bunch of guys too and unfortunately there are too many countries to even try to recount. It's quite interesting to see how strongly Swedish formalities or traditions cling (yet in some aspects don't at all - as it would seem the language is constantly changing and they are very unreserved in certain situations).  

After the dinner (in which reindeer .... poor bambi was served) we had a dance party and karaoke (which I participated in for one song with three wonderful ladies from Iceland that live in my corridor). 

Saturday was interesting, I had fika with a friend and then went to a free organ concert at the Uppsala church (which is the largest in scandinavia). Hurried to a local musuem at the Gustavianum (located right next to the church and about5 minutes walk from my apartment).  More fika, partying, and return to study and sleep. And that brings us to today! Next post I will talk more about the Swedish education system (one of my favorite pieces of Sweden).

Ahh, a minor update on last week, I am continuing with Swedish classes and will incorporate words here and there - as one of my Math classes is following notes that are only in Swedish... meaning I must learn it now!

Till then,

hejdå! (hey doh)

ps. click on the links to learn more about the place ~~ they are links to wikipedia pages on the particular topic.

pss. For some reason my SD card isn't working currently so I will post pictures (especially of the fika place) later this evening.

Fashion Weekend

So last weekend I found myself in the middle of Copenhagen. It was quite the trip. I stayed in an area that was full of drug dealers, and many prostitutes. Not my ideal living situation, given I was in Copenhagen for a couple of days and hoped to see a lighter side, but still it was an enjoyable quite stay while I slept (which I did rarely) and the nights were pretty fun scouring the town. (The days were okay too seeing tourist attractions, going along the main shopping street and to an interesting musuem.) It happened to be fashion week so there were electronic billboards atop of Mercedes everywhere with clips from runway shows. I ended up going to quite a few clubs (10pm-6am can make you bored of one place) and made friends (or rather my friend that I traveled with made friends) with a couple of people from the Netherlands. I of course came back with some new jeans and a profound understanding of fashion.... er, yeah.

Big homework assignment due... which I just turned in on Friday... and now I have two more for next week! Everyone is right, I should have taken History of Sweden and Swedish Culture for exchange students :-). Oh well! Here are pictures of my classroom and classroom building. The two guys are fellow American friends taking math classes with me! And of course the first photo is of me and a couple of friends/corridor mates going out Thursday night to one of the 13 nations to party (this is at Stockholm nation). They have several different floors, each with different music (my favorites are the hip-hop and the house floors). Speaking of partying, I went to Copenhagen with a friend this weekend and just got back and will write a new blog post later about the parties there... They stay up till 6 am, it's quite fun!  

I haven't done much at all recently except party and go to class... I should be studying more the topology of discs on the complex plane, but it seems so distant and removed from the life's actual issues facing me here in Sweden, like where to steal food, how to find a free bike from the train station, how to get to country x during weekend y.... tons of important questions like that. 

I'm sorry for not posting recently so in honor of my several weeks here you can take a look at my room!

NOTE: The room is dirty today as I have a friend visiting from the states and the room is typically very clean.

ps. That is not beer and in the corner its definitely not a bottle of scotch

Stockholm Weekend

This weekend I traveled to Stockholm for a day just to explore.  I traveled with a whole bunch of corridor mates.  All of them are really cool and everyone here is an exchange student (most not from America), so I have been making friends from everywhere. 

In Stockholm I saw a big castle and the old city... Everything in Stockholm and Sweden in general is pretty expensive, but c'est la vie!

First class was today:

 Complex Analysis.

Time to Class:

50 minutes walk

Arrived:

1.5 hours early.

Professor:

Was nice. I can't repeat or even attempt to spell his name.

Also spoke in Swedish half of the course. Syllabus also in Swedish....

Thankfully exams are repeatable and the textbook is in English. (and failure never shows up!)

In Sweden

So the other day I went to the cliffs of moher and some other place that was very interesting. It was on the west coast of Ireland so I had to take a bus over to over there and it was a LONG ride.....

Afterwards went to bed and woke up at 4:30, caught a taxi to the airport and flew into Sweden! After four more hours once in sweden of traveling I arrived in Uppsala and registered for classes! 

I am still confused about where everything is and how I am going to get from place A to B but so far it has been a blast. At Uppsala you are recommended to join one of 13 nations, which seem to remind me Hogwarts and their four houses. I am thinking of joining Värmlands nation which parties every Thursday or so night!

While here I met an Afghani guy that I spoke to in Persian for a good 20 minutes while buying candy from him :-).

And just earlier tonight I met a lot of my floor mates and they all were really nice and from different countries or different places, so it was pretty cool. After we all met and everyone made their own dinner (mine consisted of overcooked scramble eggs ... I need to learn to cook better, sooner - before I starve) we almost all went out to a nearby house/trance club which was a lot of fun and I just got back with half of the guys while the rest stayed out. Unfortunately I have to wake up early for some international brunch, more shopping and figuring out where classes are!

So till next time,

Joe