Spring is in full bloom in Gothenburg, and at the end of a nice four-day weekend due to some Christian holiday that nobody in Sweden really seems to know much about, it's about time I update the old blog. I am now a month past the two-year mark of being here, and some of you may be wondering why I'm still here. Well, if you came to Sweden, you would understand. Beautiful people, nearly endless sunshine (this time of year), and fika. I extended my contract so I could stay longer, but then a couple of things came up that will bring me back to the US at the end of the summer.
The first of these "things" is a one-year fellowship in Washington, D.C. Starting in September, I will have the opportunity to work in Congress, basically as an advisor on how science and technology can be used in policy-making. I'll either be on the staff of a Senator or Congressperson, or working on a Congressional committee. Which person or committee? Well, that won't be decided until after I start, so you can hold that question until October.
The second is a faculty position at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, where I'll start as an Assistant Professor after the fellowship. My position is in the School of Systems and Enterprises, where I'll continue doing research and teaching that focuses on product design, systems thinking, and sustainability.
So what have I been up to since my last post? Well, in February I took a snowboarding trip to the Italian Alps, followed by a business/pleasure trip up to northern Sweden in Luleå. March included two trips to the US for faculty interviews at three different schools. In April and May I attended conferences in Milan (Italy), Hangzhou (China), and Dubrovnik (Croatia), made yet another trip to the US for a wedding, ran two awesome races in Gothenburg, and taught a Ph.D. course. Now, I am looking forward to spending June in Sweden, enjoying the sunshine and wrapping up my work here, perhaps tacking on some final European travels in July, and then heading back stateside in mid-August.
I have lots of big, exciting changes ahead! Leaving Gothenburg will be sad, and I will miss the friends and colleagues that I have gotten to know over here. However, modern technology will help me keep up with my Swedish brethren in much the same way that I have kept up with my American life over the last two years. Tack till er, Internet and Google!
Also, check out the new 2014 album for some visual enjoyment.
Ses senare,
Steven
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
An Icelandic New Year
My latest travel adventure took me to Iceland for a week-long New Year's extravaganza. I had never really thought much about going to Iceland, but when my sister told me a couple of months ago that she was planning a trip with some friends and friends-of-friends I thought, "that sounds pretty cool". So, I joined her group and brought a friend from Sweden, and the 13 of us had an awesome week in Iceland. Those of you who are visual learners can skip straight to the photos at the end of my 2013 album...
We rented some apartments and based ourselves in Reykjavik, which is about the population of Ann Arbor but by far the biggest city in the country. From there, we took a bunch of bus/van tours to see as many of the sites as we could: the Blue Lagoon, the Golden Circle, the Northern Lights, and the South Coast.
Day 1 we went to the "Blue Lagoon", which is a naturally-heated pool/spa/tourist trap that's open year-round. It was really windy and cold the day that we were there, so the goal seemed to be to keep as much of one's body submerged in the warm water as possible. The surroundings were absolutely beautiful (check out the pictures), and despite chilly noses and ears it was a really awesome place. Day 2 we took the popular "Golden Circle" tour, which was a van ride out to a number of natural wonders outside of the city. Due to a lack of abundant daylight at that latitude and time of year, we left Reykjavik when it was pitch dark at 8am, and finally started to see some sites once it got light out around 10:30/11. We stopped at a couple of very impressive waterfalls, saw an active geyser (Strokkur), hung out with some furry Icelandic horses, and walked through a national park at the rift between the North American and Eurasian continental plates.
That night we also did a Northern Lights tour, where the 13 of us plus 2 random Australians got driven around in a van in search of the aurora borealis. The forecast that night was a 2 on the scale of 1-9 (though apparently it rarely goes above 4), so our chances of seeing anything and the intensity of the lights weren't super high, but our driver/guide was determined and we spent around 6 hours driving around with him and chasing the lights. We made four stops and stared at the sky for long periods of time, but it wasn't until the third stop that we really felt like we saw anything, which was just a greenish glow in the sky. At one point, for about 10-20 seconds, there was a brighter spot that sort of seemed like some dancing lights, but that seemed to be about it, and the driver said he was going to take us home. We started to doze in the back of the van thinking we were on our way to bed, but then the driver decided to give it one more shot. He drove us somewhere, went outside, and proclaimed that in 20 minutes the clouds would be gone and we would see it. So, we waited like 45 minutes, and at the end we could really see some much more noticeable green glowing in the sky. It was pretty cool, but also very exhausting (recall: 6 hours), creepy (recall: driver without much of a plan), and mildly disappointing (while we saw the lights, they weren't very strong or as beautiful as the photos we've all seen). However, I'm really glad for the experience, and the long-exposure photos came out way better than what the eyes could see!
The next day was New Years Eve, and part of group did a South Coast tour while the rest of us took a tour of Reykjavik. We reunited in the evening, made and ate dinner together, had some drinks, and went for a walk out to the top of a hill where we could see fireworks and bonfires being lit. Apparently from 9-10:30pm, however, everything goes dark as all the Icelanders watch a comedy show on tv. Not knowing Icelandic, we didn't watch it, but instead we went back to our place and continued the party, and at midnight we went to the main church on a hill in the middle of the city and saw ridiculous amounts of fireworks going off all around the city. It was probably the most impressive display of disorganized pyrotechnics I've ever seen.
New Years Day was for recovery, plus a lot of tours and stores were closed, so we slept in and hung out in the apartments. The next day, a few people left, and the rest of us did the South Coast tour. There were a bunch of options with this tour - we could have gone snowmobiling, taken a glacier hike, done some ice climbing, or seen a city and some black sand beaches. We opted for the glacier hike, and we got to put on crampons and walk around on the glacier Sólheimajökull, which was very cool. That took up the bulk of the day, and after that we saw the sunset over the sea and a bunch of impressive waterfalls, then headed back to the city. The next day was our last full day, and having done all of the tours we wanted and being reduced from 13 to around 6 remaining people, we spent the day in Reykjavik and then went home the following morning.
All in all, this was a really cool experience, I made a bunch of new friends, and I got the chance to see some of the natural beauty of the small country of Iceland. I'd really recommend a trip there. You can find some pictures, some taken by me and some "borrowed" from others, in the 2013 album (even though some of these were technically in 2014...) linked on the right or here: https://picasaweb.google.com/115872916923607849736/SwedenTravels2013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNa0m8etr8_gWA&feat=directlink).
Happy 2014!
Steven
We rented some apartments and based ourselves in Reykjavik, which is about the population of Ann Arbor but by far the biggest city in the country. From there, we took a bunch of bus/van tours to see as many of the sites as we could: the Blue Lagoon, the Golden Circle, the Northern Lights, and the South Coast.
Day 1 we went to the "Blue Lagoon", which is a naturally-heated pool/spa/tourist trap that's open year-round. It was really windy and cold the day that we were there, so the goal seemed to be to keep as much of one's body submerged in the warm water as possible. The surroundings were absolutely beautiful (check out the pictures), and despite chilly noses and ears it was a really awesome place. Day 2 we took the popular "Golden Circle" tour, which was a van ride out to a number of natural wonders outside of the city. Due to a lack of abundant daylight at that latitude and time of year, we left Reykjavik when it was pitch dark at 8am, and finally started to see some sites once it got light out around 10:30/11. We stopped at a couple of very impressive waterfalls, saw an active geyser (Strokkur), hung out with some furry Icelandic horses, and walked through a national park at the rift between the North American and Eurasian continental plates.
That night we also did a Northern Lights tour, where the 13 of us plus 2 random Australians got driven around in a van in search of the aurora borealis. The forecast that night was a 2 on the scale of 1-9 (though apparently it rarely goes above 4), so our chances of seeing anything and the intensity of the lights weren't super high, but our driver/guide was determined and we spent around 6 hours driving around with him and chasing the lights. We made four stops and stared at the sky for long periods of time, but it wasn't until the third stop that we really felt like we saw anything, which was just a greenish glow in the sky. At one point, for about 10-20 seconds, there was a brighter spot that sort of seemed like some dancing lights, but that seemed to be about it, and the driver said he was going to take us home. We started to doze in the back of the van thinking we were on our way to bed, but then the driver decided to give it one more shot. He drove us somewhere, went outside, and proclaimed that in 20 minutes the clouds would be gone and we would see it. So, we waited like 45 minutes, and at the end we could really see some much more noticeable green glowing in the sky. It was pretty cool, but also very exhausting (recall: 6 hours), creepy (recall: driver without much of a plan), and mildly disappointing (while we saw the lights, they weren't very strong or as beautiful as the photos we've all seen). However, I'm really glad for the experience, and the long-exposure photos came out way better than what the eyes could see!
The next day was New Years Eve, and part of group did a South Coast tour while the rest of us took a tour of Reykjavik. We reunited in the evening, made and ate dinner together, had some drinks, and went for a walk out to the top of a hill where we could see fireworks and bonfires being lit. Apparently from 9-10:30pm, however, everything goes dark as all the Icelanders watch a comedy show on tv. Not knowing Icelandic, we didn't watch it, but instead we went back to our place and continued the party, and at midnight we went to the main church on a hill in the middle of the city and saw ridiculous amounts of fireworks going off all around the city. It was probably the most impressive display of disorganized pyrotechnics I've ever seen.
New Years Day was for recovery, plus a lot of tours and stores were closed, so we slept in and hung out in the apartments. The next day, a few people left, and the rest of us did the South Coast tour. There were a bunch of options with this tour - we could have gone snowmobiling, taken a glacier hike, done some ice climbing, or seen a city and some black sand beaches. We opted for the glacier hike, and we got to put on crampons and walk around on the glacier Sólheimajökull, which was very cool. That took up the bulk of the day, and after that we saw the sunset over the sea and a bunch of impressive waterfalls, then headed back to the city. The next day was our last full day, and having done all of the tours we wanted and being reduced from 13 to around 6 remaining people, we spent the day in Reykjavik and then went home the following morning.
All in all, this was a really cool experience, I made a bunch of new friends, and I got the chance to see some of the natural beauty of the small country of Iceland. I'd really recommend a trip there. You can find some pictures, some taken by me and some "borrowed" from others, in the 2013 album (even though some of these were technically in 2014...) linked on the right or here: https://picasaweb.google.com/115872916923607849736/SwedenTravels2013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNa0m8etr8_gWA&feat=directlink).
Happy 2014!
Steven
Monday, November 4, 2013
Sommar galenskapen
Alright, well my promise to keep this blog updated "as the summer progresses" was obviously a lie, since we are into full-blown autumn here, but I will try to catch you up on all that's happened. The summer travels were amazing, though by the end of it I certainly needed a vacation from all the vacationing, which came in the form of binge-working for the past two months.
I won't go into detail on each of the cities I'm about to list, so instead I'll put a one-word description of my experience or impression of each city in parentheses after its name. Some of these probably won't make sense to everyone reading, so feel free to ask if you want clarification on any of them. Anyway, right after Midsummer, my parents and sister came out to visit, and in the spirit of making the most of their Euro-trip we went on a cruise around the Baltic Sea. This was a nice way to see 8 different cities without having to change hotels every day. The weather was usually too cold and windy to be hanging out on the deck or at the pools of the floating resort, but that was okay because we were busy seeing Scandinavia all but two of the 11 days on board. The trip started and ended in Copenhagen (take-four) and along the way stopped in Oslo (rainy), Aarhus (Gammeldansk), Berlin (historical), Tallin (medieval), St. Petersburg ("democracy"), Helsinki (modern), and Stockholm (take-five). After the cruise, we took the train up to Gothenburg (sunny) and they spent a few days here before heading back. All-in-all, it was a really nice visit, and I was glad to finally be able to show my family where I've been living for the past year and a half.
A couple of days after they left, my friend Anna from Michigan came out to visit Europe for the first time. I met up with her in Rome (overrated), and then we flew to Krakow (underrated), took an overnight train to Bratislava (formerly-communist), made a day-trip to Vienna (beautiful), took a train to Prague (again), another train to Berlin (take-four), and then flew back to Gothenburg (beachy) to spend a couple of days. We then conveniently took the same flights back to Michigan as I started my summer U.S. trip, where I went to Ann Arbor (good-times), Baltimore (wedding-y), Atlanta (family-times), Portland (conference-y), and Atlanta again (reunion-y). This was an absolutely awesome trip - it was great to catch up with so many people from most of the major phases of my life, and I can't wait to see all of you (and those of you I missed) again soon.
So, I came back to Sweden, and then four days later left for another conference in Seoul (Hyundai-ful). This time, I was with 3 colleagues from here, and we spent three days before and three days after exploring the city, climbing a mountain, visiting the DMZ, and hanging out in a Buddhist temple. The day that I returned to Gothenburg another conference began, but this time it was local, and at the end of it I was finally done with my summer madness.
However, the following week classes began, and I was heavily involved in teaching and organizing a new course on design optimization. This was a really cool experience, although I underestimated how incredibly time-consuming it would be - between booking rooms, organizing the schedule and several guest speakers/lecturers, writing/planning lectures, creating assignments, designing and grading exams, and answering students' questions, I had very little time for any work outside of the course. However, I think it was a really awesome experience, and now that I've done it once it should be easier to teach the same course in future years. Now that my teaching obligations are over for the moment, I'm able to spend my time working on the research papers that I've been neglecting ever since the start of summer...
Alright, well that's enough for now. I've posted more pictures to the album to illustrate these adventures (link on the left or here), and I'd love to hear what you're all up to!
Vi hörs,
Steven
I won't go into detail on each of the cities I'm about to list, so instead I'll put a one-word description of my experience or impression of each city in parentheses after its name. Some of these probably won't make sense to everyone reading, so feel free to ask if you want clarification on any of them. Anyway, right after Midsummer, my parents and sister came out to visit, and in the spirit of making the most of their Euro-trip we went on a cruise around the Baltic Sea. This was a nice way to see 8 different cities without having to change hotels every day. The weather was usually too cold and windy to be hanging out on the deck or at the pools of the floating resort, but that was okay because we were busy seeing Scandinavia all but two of the 11 days on board. The trip started and ended in Copenhagen (take-four) and along the way stopped in Oslo (rainy), Aarhus (Gammeldansk), Berlin (historical), Tallin (medieval), St. Petersburg ("democracy"), Helsinki (modern), and Stockholm (take-five). After the cruise, we took the train up to Gothenburg (sunny) and they spent a few days here before heading back. All-in-all, it was a really nice visit, and I was glad to finally be able to show my family where I've been living for the past year and a half.
A couple of days after they left, my friend Anna from Michigan came out to visit Europe for the first time. I met up with her in Rome (overrated), and then we flew to Krakow (underrated), took an overnight train to Bratislava (formerly-communist), made a day-trip to Vienna (beautiful), took a train to Prague (again), another train to Berlin (take-four), and then flew back to Gothenburg (beachy) to spend a couple of days. We then conveniently took the same flights back to Michigan as I started my summer U.S. trip, where I went to Ann Arbor (good-times), Baltimore (wedding-y), Atlanta (family-times), Portland (conference-y), and Atlanta again (reunion-y). This was an absolutely awesome trip - it was great to catch up with so many people from most of the major phases of my life, and I can't wait to see all of you (and those of you I missed) again soon.
So, I came back to Sweden, and then four days later left for another conference in Seoul (Hyundai-ful). This time, I was with 3 colleagues from here, and we spent three days before and three days after exploring the city, climbing a mountain, visiting the DMZ, and hanging out in a Buddhist temple. The day that I returned to Gothenburg another conference began, but this time it was local, and at the end of it I was finally done with my summer madness.
However, the following week classes began, and I was heavily involved in teaching and organizing a new course on design optimization. This was a really cool experience, although I underestimated how incredibly time-consuming it would be - between booking rooms, organizing the schedule and several guest speakers/lecturers, writing/planning lectures, creating assignments, designing and grading exams, and answering students' questions, I had very little time for any work outside of the course. However, I think it was a really awesome experience, and now that I've done it once it should be easier to teach the same course in future years. Now that my teaching obligations are over for the moment, I'm able to spend my time working on the research papers that I've been neglecting ever since the start of summer...
Alright, well that's enough for now. I've posted more pictures to the album to illustrate these adventures (link on the left or here), and I'd love to hear what you're all up to!
Vi hörs,
Steven
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Beginning of Year Två
The last few weeks have been full of beautiful weather, lots of work, a few work-related short trips, and some Swedish springtime holidays (new photos added to the link on the right of the page). I really don't remember the weather last spring/summer being this nice, and I think part of the reason is that last year I didn't participate in the long, cold, dark Swedish winter. This year, it feels absolutely glorious to have sunlight and temperatures right around 20C/70F, and on several occasions in the last month or so I've had picnics/barbecues outside (which is apparently a very Swedish thing to do when the sun is shining). In terms of my work, I have been working hard to write and finalize a few conference papers (which are sending me to the US in August, South Korea in August, and hopefully the US again in November) and a couple of journal papers, as well as developing a course that I will be co-teaching in the fall. I also for the second time ran Göteborgsvarvet, the annual Gothenburg half-marathon which is apparently the largest (participation-wise, not length-wise) half-marathon in the world, which was somewhat painful, but still rewarding.
In the middle of May, I went with a bunch of people in my department to a research-related trip/meeting in Prague. While almost everyone flew there, four of us decided to rent a car and drive down to Prague, which is about 13 hours if done non-stop and closer to 18-20 if you're not in a hurry like us. We left on a Saturday evening right after I finished Göteborgsvarvet, stopped in Malmö (Sweden) for dinner at a famous falafel place, drove across the bridge to Denmark, took a ferry to Germany, and spent the night in Lübeck (Germany). We then finished the drive on Sunday, stopping for an unnecessarily-long three-hour detour in Berlin for a currywurst lunch and arriving in Prague in the evening. The road trip gave me a nice opportunity to see the European countryside and take a few stops along the way. On the way down, one of the guys in the car decided we should play a game where we go around in a circle and name famous Czech people until we can't name any more. It was then that I realized how totally unknowledgeable about the Czech Republic I was, as I couldn't think of a single person. (If any of you find yourselves in this situation in the future, Franz Kafka was Czech.) Anyway, once we got to Prague, there was a program arranged for us, and we as a group of about 60 researchers toured Skoda (a Czech car company); drank, ate, and toured a brewery; toured a sewage treatment plant; took a river-dinner cruise, and went on a walking tour of the city. We went out in the evenings to experience Czech life, which mostly involved drinking the local beer (Czechs are the highest per-capita consumers of beer in the world, by a lot). Prague is a beautiful old European city, but to me it seems a bit too touristy and lacks some of the charm of other cities I've been to. After three days in Prague, we drove all the way back to Sweden in a single day, making only a couple of stops for food in Germany and Denmark.
Yesterday was Midsummer's Eve here in Sweden, which is basically tied with Christmas for being the biggest holiday in Sweden. It always falls on a Friday, and this year it happened to be my birthday, so it was a double celebration. This typically involves eating copious amounts of food (a smörgåsbord), drinking snaps, and going to a park to dance around a big, leafy pole (for more details on the holiday, check this video out). So, yesterday that's pretty much what I did with a few friends. This day also marks the beginning of what I call "vacation season", because from now through the middle of August, pretty much everybody goes on vacation. Last year I didn't know that, and I was one of the only people in the office, but this year I will be observing it fully and taking advantage of my five-weeks' vacation (hooray working in Sweden!). So, I will have more to report on some fun travels as the summer progresses.
Ha en bra sommar!
Steven
In the middle of May, I went with a bunch of people in my department to a research-related trip/meeting in Prague. While almost everyone flew there, four of us decided to rent a car and drive down to Prague, which is about 13 hours if done non-stop and closer to 18-20 if you're not in a hurry like us. We left on a Saturday evening right after I finished Göteborgsvarvet, stopped in Malmö (Sweden) for dinner at a famous falafel place, drove across the bridge to Denmark, took a ferry to Germany, and spent the night in Lübeck (Germany). We then finished the drive on Sunday, stopping for an unnecessarily-long three-hour detour in Berlin for a currywurst lunch and arriving in Prague in the evening. The road trip gave me a nice opportunity to see the European countryside and take a few stops along the way. On the way down, one of the guys in the car decided we should play a game where we go around in a circle and name famous Czech people until we can't name any more. It was then that I realized how totally unknowledgeable about the Czech Republic I was, as I couldn't think of a single person. (If any of you find yourselves in this situation in the future, Franz Kafka was Czech.) Anyway, once we got to Prague, there was a program arranged for us, and we as a group of about 60 researchers toured Skoda (a Czech car company); drank, ate, and toured a brewery; toured a sewage treatment plant; took a river-dinner cruise, and went on a walking tour of the city. We went out in the evenings to experience Czech life, which mostly involved drinking the local beer (Czechs are the highest per-capita consumers of beer in the world, by a lot). Prague is a beautiful old European city, but to me it seems a bit too touristy and lacks some of the charm of other cities I've been to. After three days in Prague, we drove all the way back to Sweden in a single day, making only a couple of stops for food in Germany and Denmark.
Yesterday was Midsummer's Eve here in Sweden, which is basically tied with Christmas for being the biggest holiday in Sweden. It always falls on a Friday, and this year it happened to be my birthday, so it was a double celebration. This typically involves eating copious amounts of food (a smörgåsbord), drinking snaps, and going to a park to dance around a big, leafy pole (for more details on the holiday, check this video out). So, yesterday that's pretty much what I did with a few friends. This day also marks the beginning of what I call "vacation season", because from now through the middle of August, pretty much everybody goes on vacation. Last year I didn't know that, and I was one of the only people in the office, but this year I will be observing it fully and taking advantage of my five-weeks' vacation (hooray working in Sweden!). So, I will have more to report on some fun travels as the summer progresses.
Ha en bra sommar!
Steven
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Ettårsdagen
One year ago today, I stepped off an airplane to begin a new chapter of my life in Sweden. I cannot believe how quickly this first year has gone by, but so far it has been an incredible experience that has truly broadened my perspectives. Of course, the question that is slowly becoming more important is: What's next? Although my current contract only has one year left on it, there seems to be a strong possibility that I could extend it.
This is something that I've been thinking a lot about lately - whether I should stay here or head back to the good ol' U. S. of A. Both hold amazing opportunities, and I'm really not sure of where I want to be. So, I thought I'd write a relatively short post today reflecting on the things that I like about living in Sweden vs. those that I like about living in America*. Consider this a brief "pros and pros" list:
Sweden: Great job (my own office with a view, flexible working hours, travel opportunities, awesome colleagues, self-led work). Opportunities to travel Europe. Five weeks vacation, which extends to six when I turn 30. Free healthcare. Free education. Strong economy. Public transportation. Fika.
America: Hamburgers. Opportunities to easily travel to see friends and family. English-speaking. Alcohol prices. Everything prices. American sports. Lower taxes & higher wages. Climate (most parts). Chipotle. Housing/space. Trader Joe's. Liberty.
So, where will I be a year from now? I'll let you know when I figure it out myself...
Happy May Day,
Steven
*whenever I hear James Brown's "Living in America", this seems like a no-brainer
Monday, April 29, 2013
Berlin and Singapore
What do Berlin and Singapore have in common? Not much, besides the fact that I recently traveled to both. I went to Berlin a couple of weeks ago for a workshop and conference on survey methods, and I spent the following week in Singapore for a conference on Life Cycle Engineering, where I presented some of my work.
We will go chronologically and start with Berlin. While I've been to Germany a couple of times, including my 3-week study abroad program in Kassel during college and last month's dalliance in the North Rhine-Westphalia region (see my last post), I had never been to the capital city. After spending four days there, I must say that this is one of my favorite European cities. There is so much recent history, with Napoleon, World War I, Nazi rule, World War II, the Cold War, and the relatively recent reunification and modernization of East Berlin, each of which left its mark on the city. I went with one of my colleagues, and we arrived about a half-day early so that we could see a little bit of the city. Our plane landed at noon, and at 1pm we had checked into our hotel and were starting a 3.5-hour walking tour around the center of the city. I was amazed at how much there was to see and hear about in such a small area - we saw the Reichstag (Parliament building), the Brandenburg Gate (which was constructed in the 1700s), a large memorial to the murdered Jews in Europe during WWII (built just a few years ago), the place where Hitler shot himself (now a parking lot), the former headquarters of the Luftwaffe, one of the few remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall, the site of the old Gestapo and SS headquarters buildings, Checkpoint Charlie, the city concert hall, Bebelplatz (where the famous Nazi book burning took place), and Museum Island (where 4 or 5 museums are located - on an island). I could have easily spent a week in Berlin to look through the museums and explore all of the other parts of town, but I guess that will have to wait for another visit. We met up with a friend of my colleague the first two nights, and the third night we had a conference dinner at a rotating restaurant on the top of the TV tower, which gave us a really nice view of the city. Oh, and we drank beer every night, as one feels obliged to do in Germany. For some reason that I may never comprehend, beer always tastes better there.
Upon returning from Berlin, I had 30 hours in Gothenburg before departing to Singapore. Unlike Sweden and Germany, Singapore's primary language is English. While this might not be evident from communicating with some of the cab drivers, in general I felt less out-of-place approaching people and speaking English than I do in Sweden or Germany. Singapore is quite a diverse city, with many of the people having Chinese origins, the culture bearing strong British influences, and about a third of the population having moved there for work. The city is very clean and safe, and the architecture is strikingly modern and beautiful. Aside from the conference, I had an extra day on each end to sightsee, so I did a lot of walking around the city and taking pictures (see the album link to the right). At the conference, I met a lot of people, nearly all of whom were European, as well as an American guy who is also living in Sweden and working at Chalmers. The first night of the conference, a group of us went out for dinner and drinks, and I counted that five out of six of us were living in a different country than our homelands: We had two Americans living in Sweden, a Brazilian living in France, a French person living in England, an a Finn living in the US. And we all had to go halfway around the world to Singapore to meet. The ironic thing was that this was a conference focusing on sustainability, and few people mentioned the fact that over a hundred westerners took highly carbon dioxide-emitting flights to Singapore to talk about reducing carbon emissions and other sustainability issues. While there were some moments of guilt about this, it was still a very cool experience, and hopefully we all learned some things that will more than compensate for the ill environmental effects of the trip.
After the conference ended on Friday night, a few of us decided to check out the famous "Night Safari", which is basically a zoo centered around nocturnal animals that is open after dark. By the time we were ready to go, our group had grown to nine people, and so we took a large van-taxi there. Upon arrival, we immediately and unintentionally lost half of the group, so we were split into a group of 4 and a group of 5. Unfortunately, we had not anticipated this and had no meeting plan, it was crowded and dark, and since we were foreigners, most of our group members were not using cell phones (nor had we exchanged numbers). So, the four of us walked around the zoo, saw the animals, took a tram ride, and saw a couple of shows, all the while searching and yelling out for our friends to try and find them. We started to make up stories about how they had gotten eaten by the lions, tigers, and hippos at the zoo, and I even asked some of the staff if any Europeans had been eaten that night. They told us "no", but we figured that they just didn't want to scare us. Finally, about three hours after we arrived at the zoo, just after we had given up on any chance of them still being alive, I got a call on my cell phone (I had given my business card to some of the others) - they were alive, well, and waiting for us at the entrance! It was a miraculous reunion, and we all went out for drinks afterward to celebrate life.
One more fun fact: Singapore is the farthest south I have ever been in my life, being just 85 miles north of the equator. My recent trips to Norway took me the farthest north I have ever been, being about 350 miles south of the arctic circle. I am truly broadening my scope of world travels this year!
In all, these were two amazing trips to very cool places that I hope all of you have a chance to see at some point in your lives. Just watch out for the man-eating hippos at the Night Safari.
Until next time,
Steven
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Brighter weather and travels
Spring is springing, work is chugging along, and my travels are beginning to escalate as we head into my second summer living in Gothenburg. I have to say "living" in Gothenburg, because it seems like I won't be spending a whole lot of time here during the summer with all of my vacation and conference plans, but hopefully there will still be opportunities to enjoy the city, the weather, and the coast during the nicest part of the year here.
Today we have about 13 hours of sunlight, which is truly a glorious feeling after the nadir of 5-ish hours per day in the peak of winter. Temperatures seem to be hitting the positive numbers on the celsius scale on a daily basis, and it almost feels like I should be going outside in a t-shirt (until I remember that I tried that and it is still way too cold for such attire). Anyway, I've taken a couple of short trips since my last post, so I thought I'd make some short written accounts for posterity and whatnot. Photos have been added to the album from the last post.
A few weeks ago, I went to my first conference that involved presenting my work from Sweden (see the 3 January post), which was located in Bochum, Germany. Where? Bochum. It's a relatively small college-y town in the industrial area of western Germany, near Essen and not far from Cologne and Dusseldorf. Since I had heard more of the latter two cities, I decided to spend a day in each to explore. The first stop was Cologne (Köln for all you Deutschlanders out there), which I visited for 7-ish hours on my way from the Frankfurt airport to Bochum. The main attraction there is a giant cathedral, which is quite impressive and apparently took about 630 years to build. If you think about the history of the U.S., 630 years is more than two and a half of that. From there, I went by train to Bochum, where I stayed and conferenced for three and a half days. Three of my colleagues from Chalmers were also there for different parts of the conference (two came for the first two days and a third came for the last two days), and I presented my paper on Wednesday, which I think went well. Bochum was actually a really nice town, with some cool areas for shopping and going out to eat and drink, and we went out one of the nights with some people from the conference. The conference and accompanying activities occupied the majority of the time there - the first night we went to a design museum in Essen, the second night to a mining museum in Bochum, and the third on a city tour of Dusseldorf. The day after the conference, I spent some hours in Dusseldorf touring around before flying back to Gothenburg. Apparently Dusseldorf and Cologne have somewhat of a city-sibling rivalry going on, which is interesting - both are located on the Rheine river and are centers for fashion, art, shopping, and Karnival celebrations, but they have different beer specialties (Kölsch in Cologne and Alt in Dusseldorf), rival football teams, and they sort of compete as the cultural center of the North Rhine-Westphalia state. Both had a street called Hohe Straße (High Street, for my former roomies back in Ann Arbor), which made me feel somewhat at home, so I'm not going to pick sides here.
My second recent trip was back to Norway for another ski weekend - this time for cross-country skiing. I had never done this before, but it was surprisingly not too difficult and rather enjoyable. This was with the same group that I went to Hafjell with (see the 25 February post), but this time we went to someplace in the middle-of-nowhere Norway rather than a resort mountain. Literally, the directions we were given for the drive from Oslo was something like "take this road until you are no longer in civilization, and then turn left three times". We actually thought we were out of "civilization" about an hour prior to what the direction-provider intended, but we eventually figured it out somehow and made it to the cabin. The cabin belonged to one of the girls in the group, and it didn't have electricity or running water, so we had to keep the fire going for heat (it got down to around -20 C at night) and fill some tanks with water from a pump every morning for all of the water-requiring activities. On Saturday we took a ski trip through the beautiful, snowy landscape, the destination of which was the top of a hill with a nice overlook. On the way back, we stopped and made a fire in the snow (didn't know that could be done) and cooked hot dogs for lunch. On Sunday before we left the cabin, we shoveled about a meter's worth of snow off the roof, which took the eight of us about 2 hours to complete. That was a LOT of snow, but fortunately the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day, and at the end we got to jump off the roof into all the snow we had dumped on the ground. Afterward, we made our way back to civilization and home.
I have a new batch of traveling coming up, which will take me to Berlin for a workshop in a little over a week, followed immediately by a week in Singapore for a conference, and then I'll have a couple of months in Gothenburg before midsummer and the next whirlwind of voyages. I'm looking forward to it all, and I'll do my best to keep the blog updated!
Glad påsk (Happy Easter)!
Steven
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