« No Internet for Me | Main | Another Week »
September 10, 2004
Salsa
Yesterday, we had a full 5 hours of class—including 2 hours of presentations from the SLS students. Each of us stood up and gave a 2 minute presentation about ourselves. I had jotted some notes down, but ended up just speaking spontaneously about my background and my observations of the class. I was amazed to hear everyone's story—however brief—and it made me realize how fortunate I am to be here in this program.
After class, I went to a meeting to discuss my orientation experience with others. We came up with a rather long list of structural changes the University needs to make for next year's international students (furniture in the apartments, class schedules, better notification of the housing situation, etc.), which will be compiled by the group and forwarded to the school administration.
Our meeting took just over two hours (there was a BUNCH of "constructive criticism"), after which a bunch of us walked up to Jo's apartment at Minervavägen—the on-campus housing. We had coffee (yum, caffeine!) and discussed differences in pronunciation between British and American English (for heaven's sake—just admit that it's procEss, not prOcess.)
And then, the highlight of my day: salsa class. That's right—I spent two and a half hours learning how to dance the salsa. Of course, the instruction was entirely in Swedish, and the girls outnumber the guys 2-1, but it was all worth it. I discovered that I am an excellent pseudo-man when it comes to leading. In fact, having danced with 3 girls and 3 guys, I can say without a doubt that the girls were significantly better dancers than the guys. No wonder the guys in our program refused to come (except for Alvaro, who was bullied into it by the SLS girls). It was the first class in a series of 6, so my Thursday evenings are booked for the next month or so.
Today, I slept in (it's hard to believe that 9 a.m. now qualifies as sleeping in) and missed the bus—not because I slept in, but because I couldn't find my bus pass in time. At any rate, I made it to class late, but not too late since we got bogged down in administrative crap. As always. We got our assignments for next week—this time, we're responsible for forming groups of 6-8 and presenting a 5 minutes explanation of the "ABCD" process (the "Backcasting from Principles). It's like a mini-exam that takes place on Friday, but it seems so simple that I'm not sure why classes are cancelled for next week so that we can practice. Initially, I was really excited, thinking that I could make a quick trip to Copenhagen. But no, our group has decided to meet bright and early Monday morning to begin the project.
After class broke for the day, I stopped by the school library (the bibliotek, if you please) and got a library card, which allowed me to check out a new fun book (anything but more sustainability reading!!) "Possession" by A.S. Byatt. It won the 1990 Booker Prize, and was made into a tedious movie starring Gwynth Paltrow (which I didn't see). Anyway, I was very excited about it, and have promised myself that I won't start reading it until I have finished the assigned reading in the program coursebook.
Then I went and had lunch with Kerily and Ronan at a Chinese buffet (cheap, but average food). Then it was off to Ahlens to pick up a shower curtain, a shower rack (to organize all our shower products), and a blanket (for when I need a little something while reading).
With my new purchases in tow, I skipped off to the Park, where I sat in the afternoon sun and read my coursebook, which is becoming painfully repetitive. I managed to plow through another couple dozen pages before the sun went behind the trees and I got too cold to continue. I hopped back on the bus back to my place, where I ran into Kerily again. She invited me along to dinner at Karl's place, which I happily accepted.
Dinner was great—I got to chat with a bunch of people I don't really know that well. It was 6 of us in all—Karl, Ronan, Archie, Kerily, Amy and me. Karl made an amazing chicken curry with an eggplant side dish that was delicious. We drank wine, played rummy (with some crazy Canadian rules), and heard stories about the guys blowing up pipe bombs and hotwiring cars in their youth. Good times. It was a beautiful night, so we walked back to campus, and then I caught a bus the rest of the way back to my place. I'm thinking that I definitely need to get a bike—this waiting around for the bus all the time is wretched.
