Today at work I decided to create a list of new blog topics and realized that I had fallen pretty far behind in my writing. I wanted to log into blogger and begin typing immediately, but I had just enough willpower to refrain from writing anything more than the list.
Now I have a notecard full of ideas to write about, so hopefully I'll be able to post regularly in the coming week. To begin, here's a not-so-brief briefing of what's been going on in the past few weeks.
First, there were signs up all over town for the Rix FM Festivalen. I didn't take much away from the posters other than the fact that it was a radio station party. Then by some act of God, I picked an unusual running route that took me through the middle of Kungsträdgården, the big public plaza in the heart of the city, and noticed that the city stage was being outfitted for a major concert with Rix FM posters hanging everywhere. I checked up Rix FM the next morning, found out the free concert started at 7:00 that night, emailed Miranda, and next thing I knew we had a party planned. We didn't know much about the lineup, other than the fact that it included some of our favorite Melodifestivalen stars (Amy Diamond, Sanna Nielsen, Linda Bengtzting, Ola and BWO), as I found out later a few Idol (Swedish version) stars, and a name I knew, Jason Mraz. Ín total there were about ten groups performing two or three songs each, totaling three and a half hours. Most of the songs were a type of music referred to in Europe as "schlager," the German word for "hit." It's a fun type of music. Upbeat...makes you want to dance, but also draws a lot of teenagers. Then Jason Mraz took the stage. He was quite refreshing...real talent that could just stand on stage and groove. He threw a few covers into the middle of his two songs and somehow managed to blow me away. After seeing a few hours of perfectly choreographed dance steps I couldn't help but smile from ear-to-ear. I had no idea how good Jason Mraz could be, but now that I've gotten a taste of his live performance, I'm craving for more. We looked for a follow-up concert but I guess he was just in England to promote a CD release, in Sweden to play two songs, then he was on his way back to America. Oh well, I'll just keep my eyes open and hope to catch a full concert at another time.
The weekend was spent checking out the universities in the area. As Miranda mentioned earlier, she was accepted into Uppsala University, a town about 40 minutes north by train (door-to-door commute would probably take closer to 60-70 minutes), and still has a shot at getting into Stockholm University, (door-to-door commute closer to 30-40 minutes). The catch is that if she's accepted into Stockholm, she must attend Stockholm (weird rules, I know), so if she definitely wants to go to Uppsala, her best bet is to withdraw her application from Stockholm. We're planning to move on September 1, so location isn't a big deal, we'll just move closer to her school and hopefully cut down on those commute times. As for now we just need to decide which school is a better fit.
Stockholm University has a nice campus. I believe the campus was built sometime in the 60s and it was planned in a park area of the city. It is mostly surrounded by wooded parks with a large lake about a half mile to the west. The buildings are separated by large lawns and few trees. Campus housing is about a mile off to the East and from what I understand, only a few percent of the student population rents student housing...most students continue to live at home or rent in Stockholm. As a downside, because the campus is so isolated, it was completely dead. Everything was shut down on the Saturday we were there. Few people were walking around, and even the student housing block seemed like a stereotypically empty street in Eastern Europe. I guess the lively college campuses of America are the exception in Europe, but from what I've heard, Stockholm University might be more extreme than most.
The next day we hopped a train up to Uppsala. The train ride was comfortable and went fairly quickly, and right off the train we were in the middle of a busy shopping area. At about two miles by two miles, the city limits would lead you to think the city is pretty small, but apparently there are about 120,000 people within the borders. The Church of Sweden is centered in Uppsala, so the skyline is dominated by two impressive church towers, and there is also an intimidating fortress/castle dominating the hill in the center of town. Uppsala University is the oldest university in the Nordics (1477) and the most respected university in Sweden. There are about 40,000 students, and from what we could tell, it's spread across the entire west side of town. Because the campus was mixed into the town it naturally had more life than Stockholm University. The town was dissected by a small river that reminded us both of San Antonio's river walk. In reality the rivers didn't compare at all except for a few large cafes right on the riverfront, but it was cute. There are other interesting things about the university and the town, but I'll write about those if Miranda ends up in Uppsala. As for now, I've already shown too much pro-Uppsala bias, so it's about time to wrap it up.
So yeah, she's got a tough choice ahead. Join Uppsala on her own terms, or take a chance on Stockholm and hope she likes what she gets. The decsion has to be made in the next couple of days, so wish her luck.
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