Math and inflatable parrots

Taking a moment to reflect on the week that has passed. It’s been the first full week of classes and it’s been pretty intense. I’m the first one to willingly admit that I, perhaps a little presumptuous, thought that school here would be a breeze and that I would have an easy time adjusting to the American system.

I’m taking classes down at Scripps Institution of Oceanography which is down by the water. They have their own pier with a meteorological station on it and in my opinion it’s the best part of campus. Great views, calm and quiet and a really nice vibe. Main campus is beautiful too, but it is kind of loud and crowded and you have to queue everywhere.

I’m taking three courses this quarter. The first is ”Introduction to Marien Biology” and the title pretty much sums up the course. It’s very interesting so far and despite having attendance being part of your grade and it is taken through the use of ”clickers” (expensive little remote controls you use to answer multiple choice questions in class) and, even going for the cheapest option and renting your course book through Amazon, it makes your wallet scream in pain a little, I am enjoying it. This weeks ”wow” in class is the fact that there is a fish species in the Antarctic Ocean that has white blood. It doesn’t have any hemoglobin (what makes our blood red) to transport oxygen, as it lives in such cold and oxygen rich waters that it can just get it anyway.


The second course I’m taking is one called ”Introduction to Physical Geography”. I like the professor a lot. Showing up to the first day of class teaching about the ocean in a shirt with a fish pattern, saying things like ”what we’ll talk about today in class will be brutal torture, and I apologise for putting you through it, but unfortunately its mandatory”, and with a never ending supply of cock and bull stories, that’s how you impress me… This weeks more or less useful knowledge from class is the fact that the ocean on average is 4000 meters deep. You can thank me next time that earns you one of those little pieces in Trivial Pursuit.

Last but not least I’m taking a course called ”Fluid Dynamics”. It is mathy. Very mathy.
The professor is a fascinating woman who has lived in Hawaii for almost 25 years. She loves to say ”Today will be mellow” and then she takes off in a neck braking speed, talking and writing at the same time, barely pausing for air and if you’re not keeping up she’ll start erasing the parts of the board that you’re still frantically trying to jot down in your notebook. I have done most of the math before though (albeit a couple of years back, and in Swedish), I just need to figure out where in my head I put it away for safekeeping and bring it back again…

Apart from school taking up a lot of time this week, we went to a big hotel downtown and watched Pretty Woman on a rooftop cinema with the San Diego skyline in the background. Pretty epic.

We also celebrated one of my housemates birthday with homemade sushi and this weekend we had a brunch and poolparty at our place for a bunch of other swedes, mostly from Lund as well, and some new friends of ours. The big inflatable parrot was brilliant. We have now adopted him and he lives in our garage.

From the left: Lova, me, Frida and Josefin.

Now, time to catch up on some studying…
Wishing you a lovely week!

Surfing dogs and fancy t-shirts

Writing this from the comfort of a reclining sunbed on the patio by our new house. Yes, I know. There is a pool in the neighbourhood too that no one but us seems to use. It’s the last of September and the sun is shining and I’m slowly starting to realise that California will be my home for the upcoming months.

In the past week school has started and we’ve moved into our new house. It’s still a little bit chaotic here. We are sharing double beds while we are waiting to get single ones, I’m sleeping in a little corner just above the staircase and a friend of ours is sleeping on an inflatable bed in the living room for a couple of days until he gets to move in to his new place. But some time and a trip to IKEA (yes, of course, we have to, we’re Swedish) should sort that out. A proper house tour with pictures is coming!

Yesterday we went to an event organised by the school, ”Meet the Beach” at Scripps Beach which is pretty close to us. That is one thing they sure know how to do in this country, put on events. Yes, there was some serious queuing involved, but there was free tacos, beach towels, ice cream, live DJ’s, giveaways, surflessons, kayak tours and surfing dogs. Yep, you heard me. Surfing dogs. Photographic evidence provided below.

As a Swedish student who doesn’t pay for tuition neither back home or here on exchange one cannot help but wonder where they get the money to do all of this? (This was just one event out of several this week). And if you would have been paying (big) money for school here, would you have been excited and felt entitled to get something back (a ”free” beach towel and tacos – yay!) or would you have been annoyed that the money you paid is spent on surfing dogs as entertainment for the students? I’m not the one to answer that, but I will say that I feel very lucky to be part of the Swedish school system. It ain’t perfect, but it is pretty darn good.

After some surfing and tacos and five minutes on the beach (about as long as I last lying still) it was time to work on the karma for a bit and volunteer picking trash on the beach. I never ceases to amaze me what people leave behind in complete disregard, but this was the first time I got a fancy t-shirt for cleaning.

Now it’s time to do some preparation from school next week. Marine biology is on the schedule. This week’s youtube tip is to search for ”mimic octopus morphing” and be amazed by mother nature. Do it now and thank me later.

Thank you for reading and have a nice week!

Sand and smores and sand

I’ve now been in San Diego for a little over a week and during this time I’ve managed to eat my weight in nachos (blue/purple corn tortillas people – it’s a revelation!), been swimming in the ocean and getting sand everywhere, and I’ve almost managed to figure out how to cross the streets, some of which are as wide as a regular Swedish highway, without being hit by a car (it’s somewhat of an artform).

This weekend we visited Coronado Beach, a beautiful place full of mica minerals making the sand look like gold. The pelicans put on a show diving for fish and I still have sand in my hair and ears from bodyboarding.

We’ve been to campus for orientation day and tried to score as many free pens/tote bags/mugs/ stickers etc as  possible from all the different organisations on campus. Rubik’s Cube Club, Salsa Society, UCSD Quidditch club, Origami folders of UCSD, Pokemon League @UCSD or the TriTones A Capella group (the pun is that the school mascot is Triton, the god of the sea – brilliant, I know), we’ll see where I might end up… Campus is huge, (HUGE) and you easily get lost, but it’s very pretty and architectonically interesting. Below is the library. Not too shabby if you ask me.

We had a little beach barbecue making smores and going for a swim with the other Swedes. My sweater still smell like smoke and my bed has turned into half sandbox, half bed after that, but it was nice.  

This week school starts for real and we are moving into our new house. I’m excited to move out of my suitcase and get my own bed (we’ve been sharing in this AirBnb for the past couple of days), and I’m actually kind of excited to start classes too. That might have changed in a week though…
Have a nice one folks!

Time travel and sea lions

I climbed into a metalbird in London, was hurled across the Atlantic at 900 km/h for eleven hours and emerged in San Diego three hours after I left, according to the clock (time travel is real people!).

I made my way to the AirBnb that I and four other students from Lund University are sharing for the first couple of days while searching for a more permanent accommodation. The housing market for students in San Diego has been described as more or less nightmarish, but my fellow Lundanians had found a place and I’ve signed up to join them in a house in La Jolla Village. Thus within 2 hours of arriving in San Diego, still very jet-lagged and without having to do anything (or having seen the house…), I escaped all the nightmares and now have a new place to stay. Just like that.

The past couple of days have been spent trying to get through all the seemingly small things that are needed for life here to work smoothly. Getting a SIM card, bank account, buss pass, the right apps, transfer money, different accounts, emails etc – it takes way more time than you think it would. 

But we’ve also had some time to explore the surroundings and we’ve seen seals, pelicans and sea lions. The sea lions were my favourite. They smell terrible, and scream like fog-horns, but they look so hilarious on land and the cubs are sure to make you go ”aawww” when they try to waddle-hop their way across the beach.
So. Cute.

Now it is soon time for a break from all the logistical muddle and head to the beach for lunch – I’m not complaining…

Take-off

Suddenly it’s time.

I’m writing this from a corner of Heathrow airport where I’ve managed to get myself a seat (with a built in socket where you can charge your phone – brilliant). The British rugby team just walked by and on the big screen across Zlatan Ibrahimovic just appeared on BBC news.

It feels a bit surreal that the day when I fly to the US is suddenly here. I’ve done my very best to enjoy my last few days at home, to the extent that my parents declared me to have a severe case of the travel jitters (and they are both doctors so maybe they can claim to have the diagnostic skills to be able to tell), as I have been travelling across half of Europe and Sweden to visit friends and hug people goodbye. And when at 3pm yesterday my bag was still empty I was starting to wondering if maybe they were right.

Italy

One thing has struck me this past week, and that is how much better long hugs are compared to short ones. This might sound silly, but the number of long and really heartfelt hugs I have been so lucky to give and receive these past days have made me believe that there might be something to the science that says that the optimal hug length is 20 seconds for all the good hormones to be released.
So, now that you have finished reading here, I urge you to go and hug someone and hold on for a bit.

I’m about to get on my flight to San Diego. Big hug and take care.

Post 0 – I have a blog!

So… alas.
It has happened. I have a blog. (Dramatic faint with the hand on the forehead…)
To be honest, I didn’t think this would happen. Like ever. A blog? It’s kind of pretentious, right? Read more “Post 0 – I have a blog!” →