Goodness, it's been a really long time now since I've added anything to my blog! Poor bedraggled readers, who I imagine are in the thousands, staring hungrily at computer screens and getting absolutely nothing from me! Well, your ship has come in my friends, because I'm back! Looking over my posts from years ago reminds me again how much this forum has meant to me. The videos especially are so special now, six years on. I, now a most venerable Robyn, enjoy remembering those younger days.
I'm in Sweden for the summer! To explain very briefly, my dissertation research seems to be leaning towards work on medieval Scandinavia, and in order to pursue this interest, I need to acquire a Scandinavian language! This has led me here, to the picturesque town of Uppsala just north of Stockholm. Like Oxford, it was a medieval university city. The Swedes founded their university here in 1477, about two years before the Danes managed to get theirs up in Copenhagen.
Its a fairly rigorous course! I'm in class for seven hours each day, four hours in the morning (with a fika break--this is teatime for Swedes), and hour and fifteen minutes for lunch, and then two and a half more hours. That's more time spent in a classroom than I've had since my high school days, so I'm finding it a little overwhelming. I think in my PhD, I've become increasingly comfortable with brief periods of intense seminar time and then plenty of time alone to think about things, ha ha. Not so here!
I began my journey in Dallas. After a happy week spent with Alex, I flew from DFW to Heathrow, spent a twenty minute layover missing London, then on to Helsinki. I cleared customs in Helsinki, then continued on to Arlanda airport in Stockholm. I must admit, it was a pretty full-on itinerary. Two stops along the way is a bit much. But I made it safely and in good spirits to Uppsala by train, tramped down the King's road with my limited baggage, and checked in with UISS (The Uppsala International Summer Session).
My room is very nice! Internet comes to be via ethernet cable, and once I assembled a fan, I've been very comfortable. The single beds in Europe are so nice and long compared to twin beds in America. My feet never hang off the end! I have a lovely bath tub, and a big big window.
The city is very intimate, with many parks, flower pots, and trees. There's a little river that runs through the middle, separating the historic city from the newer half. Old Uppsala lies about 3 km away, and I will probably walk there in the next few days to see the old church and maybe some Viking things.
My first week was dominated by class, in which I am learning to foundations of a language I feel entirely unfamiliar with. We sing songs about little trolls, and are learning numbers, verbs in present tense, etc. In the afternoons, I'm in the Swedish art history class. Tuesday we went to see the wonderful cathedral here in town, and on Thursday we visited the university museum, home to a most amazing cabinet of curiosities. According to Johan, my art history instructor, this is the only cabinet to retain its entire original collection. We then walked up to the castle, which was horribly damaged in the 1702 fire. The surviving wing now functions as a contemporary art museum.
More to come!
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