Sunday, January 16th (still retrospectively...) -
Today I had planned to meet up with Vanessa, the Vancouverite I met yesterday, for brunch at V-Dala Nation. Unfortunately, our communications fell through, making this impossible. It wasn't all that surprising that communications did fall through, as communications is something the exchange students really don't have a lot of upon arrival in Uppsala. We don't get Internet until we file an application for it (although our international buddy provided an unofficial work-around), American phones don't always want to dial numbers (international or not) in Sweden for some reason, and you have to go down to the supermarket and buy time to get your Swedish SIM card to work (it doesn't help that the instructions are completely in Swedish). And if you don't have an unlocked American phone, you have to buy a phone. Fortunately AT&T was helpful in unlocking my phone, but at this point my phone was essentially a glorified PDA. So, the way you met people was by meeting them in person, and if you didn't try to meet each other at the same time... you didn't meet. Kind of like how it was 200 years ago, only nowadays you're used to having more recent technology.
Once it became apparent that brunch probably wasn't happening, I went down to Vastgota Nation, where we picked up our temporary student IDs. I'd actually been there on Saturday, too, but they had closed before the orientation schedule said they were going to close so I couldn't pick up my ID. Sunday they were open. While there I noticed signs for a brunch at GH Nation (Gästrike-Hälsinge), and as I found their nation before V-Dala, went their for brunch. I joined a couple of Swedes for brunch, members of Stockholms Nation as it turns out, and found them to be quite friendly. Quite Swedish names, too - Magnus and Mans. I learned that apparently there's a bit of a rivalry between west and east Sweden - men from western Sweden aren't supposed to like men from eastern Sweden, and vice-versa. They said they were bridging the gap, being from opposite sides of Sweden themselves. It sounds to me that it's similar to how Ohioans aren't supposed to like Michiganders, and vice-versa, not like actual fights break out over it.
Oh yes, and the actual food. It was very good as well. Some type of apple salad, a baked potato but more flavorful than bland, boring American baked potatoes, a roll, a crepe (or perhaps the Swedish equivalent?), and orange juice on the side. Definitely would be worth going back to GH Nation for Sunday brunch again. They claimed to be the best Sunday brunch in town, and they just might be.
After brunch I trekked to the International Office, which was more difficult than it should have been because Google Maps lied to me about which side of the river it was on. After scouring pretty much the entire east side of the river along St. Olofsgatan for the international office, I asked in Hotel Uppsala where it was and my suspicions that it was actually on the other side of the river were confirmed. After crossing the river, it was easy enough to find, although the advice that it was in a yellow building was much less helpful here than it would have been in the states. Unfortunately the International Office couldn't give me my schedule, but they were able to tell me where to go to get my schedule. Here, you have to meet with your department's exchange coordinator to get your schedule. Why it can't be centralized I'm not sure, but that's the way it is. At least as helpfully, they were able to give me a map with all the university buildings highlighted on it - just the map I needed to find the International Office earlier in the afternoon!
At 4:00, as darkness descended on the town, I embarked on the Practical Tour that set off from Vastgota Nation. While searching for the meeting place (the people upstairs said it was downstairs, and the people downstairs said the people upstairs were lying), I explored a decent part of one of the Vastgota Nations buildings. The tour went to all the Nations, as well as to the main university building (the one on all the postcards), nearby banks, shopping areas, and cathedral (you can't miss it, it's the largest one in Scandinavia). This wasn't enough to ensure we knew how to get to all the Nations, of course, but it would prove to be at least somewhat helpful. When it finished, many of the tourgoers made our way to Uplands Nation for a smörgäsbord, taking a very indirect way despite the recent tour. The smörgäsbord was not as much to my taste as I'd hoped, and by the end I was feeling queasy. I'd planned to go to the movie night later in the evening, but decided to head back to Flogsta instead.
Back at Flogsta, I met my neighbor across the hall, a Canadian named Sam. By this time I'd already noticed the fairly high amount of Canadians studying abroad here. When I mentioned that I wasn't feeling well after the smörgäsbord, she said that she'd actually been sick in the morning, and as it turns out had been on the same flight across the Atlantic. Neither of us had slept on the flight over, nor eaten well on Saturday. I was sick later that evening, and once again went to sleep about 9:00. A couple days later, I met another person who had also been sick on Sunday, and had also been on the same flight over, not slept Friday, and eaten poorly on Saturday. This is why I mentioned in the previous post that the red-eye may not have been the best idea ever. Maybe it was just someone contagious on the plane, but the number of decisions we all made that weren't in the best interest of our health make it seem likely that those decisions were at least significant contributing factors.
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