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.