My Swedish Adventure Part 2: Autumn 2014 + School Life in Uppsala

Ah, autumn has arrived in Sweden.

Forget the warm yellow glow of the sun, the heat of daylight and the still cool air. Autumn has arrived with gusty winds, grey skies and damp pavements.

I thought I would like autumn.

Images of lovely red trees, warm hues of yellow and orange leaves found in photos…they are utterly misleading. 

Yes, I did manage to enjoy two weeks or three of such lovely scenes, but it is what the Swedes call brittsommar - the last days of summer in what is supposed to be autumn. That's when the air is around 11 degrees celcius in the day while the trees are in hues of brilliant orange. Walking to school and trudging along the pathways make me feel so surreal, as though I were in a beautiful dream.

Adapting to the school system is a little bit challenging, because the professor just leaves it up to you to decide whether or not you wish to be educated. Sure, there's homework, but it's merely project-based. Forget the ridiculous tutorial + class participation + project for every single module in NUS…here, it's just project work. You have time to research, to read up, to engage with your group mates. It's wonderful, when done in a proper way. By that, I mean if you actually took the time to read up.

While I did read up on things, I found the lack of motivation to do so. Maybe it is because I'm a utbytesstudent (Swedish for exchange student) where my grades are not at stake. Several of my friends whom I have met here are studying for their masters and they seem to be struggling under piles of readings and work to do…then again, H doesn't seem to be studying a lot at all but still does fairly well in school here in Sweden.

There's plenty of time for everyone to fika, take a relaxed stroll before doing some semblance of school work.. Ah, quite the life indeed.

You'd have time to run around and do photography, too.

My favourite haunt is becoming the lovely bibilotek (aka library) nearby. Rows of bookshelves arranged in a spacious manner, with modern chairs and tables all around for one to pore over a good read or assignment for the day. Plus there's a cosy little cafe cutely called Kafe Kardemunn (Cafe Cardamom) with modern classical deco and faux fire places (I'd probably pop by and review it when I have the time…).

On a side note, I bought a kånken from Fjällräven here in Sweden. It is far pricier than many online stores in Singapore, but I reckon those stocked there are fake. I never thought I'd buy this bag because of all the ah lians and beings and wannabe hipsters toting it around in Singapore. But I discovered it was Swedish and that there's tons of Swedish people of all ages toting this bag around for decades. Thus, I ended up getting one….hmmm, should review this too.

Anyway, that's all for this post.

I hope everyone (who reads this) is doing well, staying happy and awesome.
Till then.
~J