What a Month

The last three weeks have consisted of only reading, writing, and sleeping! Now that I have finished the fist class (which means 6.25% done with school), I finally have a few days break. Priority # 1 is finding a permanent apartment. Fun times lie ahead...

The Ericsson Globe

Ericsson Globe

Today I went to the 'Globen' in Stockholm for a career fair.  The fair was great, but it was some facts about the building that I found very interesting:

• Took two and a half years to build.
• Currently the largest hemispherical building in the world.
• Has a diameter of 110 meters (361 feet), Inner height of 85 meters (279 feet).
• Seating capacity for 16,000 spectators for shows and concerts, and 13,850 for ice hockey.
• It represents the Sun in the Sweden Solar System.

The last fact was the one I found most interesting.  It turns out that Sweden has the world's largest scale model of the Solar System.  Click on the solar system picture below to read more about this!

1 Down, Countless to go!

4 Authors, over 120 pages read, over 2000 words typed, I finally handed in my first assignment (with my group I was working with) today at school!  Talk about a relief... Today I took it easy the rest of the day so that I would have the energy to start up on the next assignment tomorrow.  Hopefully, as time goes on my school skills will return and this stuff will come easier to me.  All I can really say is that I am so thankful I worked with such a fantastic group on my first assignment!

The Daily Journey

     Wow, I am tired.  Today I removed a tree stump from my Uncles yard.  It provided a good four hours worth of fight, but in the end I prevailed!  Now in its place is just dirt that is ready to be planted with grass.
     As I was reviewing my blog I realized that I have not posted my trip I make every time I go up to the University. The University (marked as B on the map) is about 45 miles (70 km) away from my current residence (marked A).  It takes between 1 hr 20 min - 2 hours depending on how well I catch the bus, train, and subway.  Sometimes due to a late bus, or too many people I will miss a train or a bus will be too full...  It has already happened on a couple occasions!  So, to play it safe, I give myself 2 hours.

     Notice all the islands on the map (click on the map for a larger image). I found out today that inner-city Stockholm is built on 14 separate islands.  However, the area around Stockholm has about 30000 islands in total!  There are day cruises that you can take that go around a bunch of the islands so you can enjoy the water and scenery.  I think I will check one of these out next summer...

A Century Worth of Reading

First of all, due to multiple requests I have changed the font on my page to be easier on the eyes! Hopefully this font works out better for you that care to read this blog.

As I have been  obtaining my books  / materials to read for this first class, I have found something very fascinating!  In the past, the materials I have read for school have been relatively new - written within the last 20 years or so...  Not the case with my first class here at Stockholm University!  The first book I purchased was first published 100 years ago.  I thought that it would be a very difficult read being so old, but it actually has turned out to be quite pleasant and interesting so far. The book is shown below.

Other materials I am reading for this class are dated from 1930, 1933, 1947, 1949, 1970, 1984, 2003, and 2007. The text literally spans just about a century.  I think it is going to quite interesting to see what principles / ideas are similar / different today then in the past.  Already in the beginning stages of my readings I am finding principles that were written a century ago, but are still being seen today.  Somethings in this world seem to never change - I guess depending on what it is, that could be a good or bad thing.