Running in Uppsala

It is that time of the year when the weather starts getting warmer (it was 10 ºC yesterday!) and I like to go running outside, either in the woods or near the river. Uppsala is a great city for outdoor activities and Swedes love running and they do it regardless of the weather! I've seen people run on the rain and the snow, and to me that's probably too much commitment.  Still, if you would like to experience a running event while you're in Uppsala, here are a few that I have ran. All of them are 10K but most of them have a 5K option:

Uppsala Blodomloppet (May)
Stockholm Midnattsloppet (August)
Tjejmilen (September)
Uppsala Studentlopp (October)

You can find more running events in Lazy Runner

My next goal is a half marathon! But it will have to be next year... no time to properly train right now...

Oh! And this is me, training in Uppsala! :-)

International Women's Day

Well, first of all, I hope you don't think I'm turning the blog into a girls club. Gender inequality is sort of a big issue in IT and I'm happy to see that people at Uppsala University are aware of it. More importantly, people here actually care and want to do something about it! So, in my humble opinion, celebrating international women's day with a networking event might not make a difference for everyone, but hopefully some of the people on the event now feel less alone. At least I hate to hear these stories about women who didn't (or couldn't) study computer science because people made them feel less capable and not adequate.

Anyway, regardless of the gender inequality angle, it was a great event! I had the opportunity to meet many people, I enjoyed discussing different points of views about Sweden and computer science, as well as planning activities that the UU ACM-W student chapter can (and want to) organise. And we did all these with fruits, bullar, coffee and tea! :-)

Flash Mob in Ångström

I know I've been so busy that I haven't written much around here but I just got this video and I couldn't help but share it with all of you thinking about coming to Uppsala! I didn't see it myself so maybe it's not so frequent but I do have seen other fun stuff around here. Really guys, not everything is about studying!

Enjoy :-)

A bit about Swedes

Hello everyone!

I just read this great comment on an older post and I think these answers could help many of you out there... I must say, as usual, that Uppsala is a great city. Yes, it is not so big and it might seem calm from time to time but the student life is great here! There are so many events and things to do here. It is always nice to meet your friends for fika, meeting them at the nations for a couple of drinks, food, concerts, parties... You can find students associations or groups for almost everything here: practicing a language, dancing, acting, reading... The hard part is finding time to actually go to class!

I must say that, at least for me, the cultural shock was not so big. I believe it is important to know a few things about Sweden and Swedes in order to be prepare and reduce the shock as much as possible:

• Swedes are EXTREMELY punctual! Their definition of meeting at 13:00 is meeting at 13:00 and arriving at 13:05 will be consider late. You can actually see teachers looking at their watch (or the room's clock) before the class so they can start exactly on time. Be prepare for any teacher to tell you that if you arrived 5 minutes late you'll have to reschedule the meeting.
• Swedes are very helpful, nice and friendly. Still, it's not common for them to start talking to you on the streets or a line for no reason. Maybe they'll talk to you to practice your language (many of them speak another language besides English and Swedish) but they consider saying "hi" for no reason as an intrusion. Still, if you say "hi" to them it's fine because they think that's part of YOUR culture and they think it's nice. So... you'll be OK being yourself, but don't expect them to act as someone from your country. They'll be themselves...
• It's OK to call teachers by their given name. Actually everyone uses just given names and that's OK.
• They all have lunch at 12:00 and you won't be able to explain that's also possible to eat at 11:30 or 13:00.
• They are really really friendly and eager to help.

In my opinion if you're planing to come here as an exchange student, a year would be better than only one semester. I think there are many things to do and there are great things whole year round. Drinking champagne and making boats for Valborg in Spring is great. Skating from Uppsala to Stockholm and playing with the snow during the winter is also great. So, it's really hard to pick. There are many international students here and we all enjoy Uppsala the whole year!

How's the weather here? Well, that's hard to say... 2 years ago was one of the coldest winters in Uppsala, and last winter was the coldest on record! So... From my experience, winter is COOOOOLD!!!!!!!!! Usually around -10 C with lots and lots of snow. Swedes say that usually there was not that much snow and that it hardly was colder than 0 C... I guess I'll have to see this winter to let you know more.

If any of you finally decides to come to Uppsala, let me know! :-)

Uppsala Ice Festival 2011!!

From February 12-20 2011, Uppsala celebrated its very first Ice Festival. During this week you could see many ice sculptures around the city, but the biggest collection was located in the City Park.

During the festival week, the Svandammen pond was lit up and open to the public for ice skating to music, which apparently is an old tradition from the 1890s.

I think the festival really brought light and happiness to the city. It is one of those things that takes the dark winter days and makes them a little happier. There were lots of people taking pictures of the sculptures and you could even see the artists finishing some of them. Every time I decided to enjoy the sculptures the day started with a typical Swedish tradition: fika. Either at the nations or at any of the many coffee shops in the city it is always a good plan to meet for fika and talk for a while.

Of course, I wasn’t going to be the only one without taking pictures so I hope you enjoy them!

For more information you can visit the Ice Festival website: www.isfestivalen.se/

Going to the movies in Uppsala

Well, as you might now by now I'm back in Uppsala! Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't like living in Shanghai (because it is an awesome city), but I did miss the peaceful atmosphere that you can find in Uppsala, and the snow!!!!!!

I want to start saying that Uppsala is covered with snow this time of the year and it is lovely. I find very relaxing the idea of walking on the streets breathing the cold air and looking at the trees and ceilings covered with snow. So, last night my boyfriend and I decided to go and watch Harry Potter 7 (which btw is a lot better that the previous one) and walk around a little bit. The walk was as I remembered it from last year. The cinema was nice, small and cozy as we watched the movie in the smallest room (about 60 seats). The thing that amused me the most was the price: 2 tickets, 2 sodas and a big ball of popcorns = 299 SEK. Yes, it might seem pretty normal to everyone, it was actually pretty normal for me, until I went to China and got used to the idea that it was a lot of money!

I hope that all of you get to come to Uppsala (if that is what you want of course) and enjoy walking around the river in the city center as much as I do :-)

Uppsala University Nations

Until last year, being a member of any of the student nations was mandatory so, there was no way you didn't visit them at least once! Now this is optional, which means there are a lot of students who doesn't join and doesn't enjoy this great part of the student life in Sweden. Taking part on the different activities organized by the nations is a great and cheap way of having a lot of fun! You'll make a lot of friends and specially it is a good way to meet more Swedish students that otherwise might be hard to meet in the international masters (I'm saying it's hard, not impossible)

I just want to leave you here a list with the links to the nations' websites. I REALLY encourage you to check them out and join any of them once you're in Uppsala! You can choose one based on your interests, hobbies, scholarships, housing needs... (yes, some of them even offer housing!) and don't worry, it's not a life-time commitment! After you join any of them you can take part in others nations activities and you can even change your membership from one nation to another.

• Gotlands nation
• Gästrike-Hälsinge nation
• Göteborgs nation
• Kalmar nation
• Norrlands nation
• Smålands nation
• Stockholms nation
• Södermanlands-Nerikes nation
• Uplands nation
• Värmlands nation
• Västgöta nation
• Västmanlands-Dala nation
• Östgöta nation

In case you were wondering... I'm a member of SNerikes nation! :-)