Min semester i Grekland (My vacation in Greece)

Greece was lovely, to say the least. How does one describe a week's worth of sailing, swimming, snorkeling, and soaking up sun? :) I even spent some time learning Swedish! (Wow, notice the ridiculous amount of "s" words I used in the last two sentences). Perhaps the coolest thing was snorkeling because I had never done it before. Let me say, it was an experience that everyone should have! I saw little fish dig in the sand dunes of the ocean floor and I even saw a squid that could change the colors of its "skin". SO cool. I wish I had a camera that could survive underwater because the images I saw cannot be adquately described in words. One day, I'm going to go to the Caribbean or Australia and snorkel my eyes out staring at the coral reefs.

However, I managed to get some of Methoni (the town where I was). The photos are pretty self-explanatory... but they include the beach, the castle, and the town center.

So as you can imagine, I'm not super thrilled to be back in Sweden, where it substantially colder, cloudier, and less colorful. Actually, I don't know about the colorful part. Autumn has started and leaves are turning wild yellow, orange, and red!! Anyway, it's back to real life and real work :(

Busy bee

Fear not, blog followers, I'm still here! You may have been wondering from the lack of updates, what is she doing? Or perhaps not, but I suppose if you're reading this blog, you'll find out soon. 

After my few days of sickness, I became swamped with work. It started around Friday afternoon with a few emails from my US colleagues requesting me to look at some files and soon exploded into an avalanche of emails. At the office this week, I've been fervently typing out papers and reports. Thankfully, I got a nice break today when I got to do a small amount of work in the lab. Wow, did that feel good! (And yes, I did in fact say that lab work felt good).

My non-work life also kicked up a notch. This past weekend, while the Stockholm half-marathon took place, I attended an outdoor FoxTrot and ChaCha dance lesson. What a great experience it was to dance by the riverside and to have all the runners go by us probably wishing they were dancing instead of running their 20th kilometer... Then, motivated by all this exercise, I decided to get a membership at a gym and went on Monday night. I'm still exhausted from the weight-lifting. Oh well, it's supposed to suck in the beginning.

Tuesday night was choir practice, and we've been loaded with even more songs (I think we have around 15 now and we'll probably get more). Then I found out that our concert in October is going to be 4 hours long. Seriously, I ask myself now, into what have I gotten myself? Fun times, that's what. :-)

And tonight, I have my first Lind-Hop class and I'm super excited for it. Hopefully, I don't pass out from exhaustion before it..

Then Friday, vacation in Greece for a week. WOOOOOoooooHOOOOoooooo!!!!!!!!!

I'm really glad that I have so many things going on again. I realized a few days ago that it's been a month since I arrived. Time sure does go by fast!  The only thing that confuses me is the weather. Autumn is already here, as in leaves are already changing colors. As lovely as the environment looks, the weather is definitely getting crummier and I can already feel the light disappearing.. When I first arrived, the sun set at around 9 pm, but now it's setting at 8 pm. And as weeks go by, that time will soon become 3:30 pm. I. can't. wait.

Supplies, at last!

Woo hoo! My research supplies finally arrived yesterday. It felt like Christmas had come early. I don't remember the last time I felt so giddy opening a box full of stuff!! Now that I have all my stuff, you'd think I could start working, right? Wrong. Obtaining the tissue samples I need for my research is a bigger hassle than I had anticipated. Too many ethical permits and applications need to be filled out... but luckily, someone else in the lab who has an ethical permit to collect tissue samples will help me. Whew.

After barely avoiding this obstacle, I became re-excited about commencing work... only to be brought down by some Swedish cold virus... Now, all I can do is stay at home and hope my immune system does its job. I know everyone gets sick at some point in a foreign country, so I was expecting this... but I have to ask the virus this: why now?  Why not two weeks ago when I had absolutely NOTHING to do? boo.

Other than my non-existent research, I'm starting to enjoy life out here. (I'm not sure if this is a result of the weather being sunny and warm all week). The acapella choir is really fun, but I should really start taking those Swedish lessons soon if I want to start understanding more than 2% of rehearsal. In addition to choir, I signed up for a Lindy Hop course. Why? Well, this form of swing dance is extremely popular in Sweden, and when in Sweden, do as the Swedes do?? So, I went to a trial course last week, it was incredibly fun, and now I'm hooked. :) This weekend, there's an outdoor Lindy Hop event. I will attend said event on two conditions: the weather and my health. So here's to good weather and a speedy recovery!!

By the way, a picture album of Stockholm will be coming your way very soon.  I just have to remember to start carrying around my camera everywhere I go.

Best class photo ever

While perusing Facebook, I stumbled upon this photo. It's from my kindergarten class. I seriously love the expression of the kid front center with his tongue out! Turns out this fellow was one of my good friends/neighbors back in the day... haha. :)

By the way, can you find me?

Big day!

First, I'd like to wish some special people a happy birthday and a happy anniversary! : ) I love you guys very much!! They know who they are...

Today was a long day. After work was a 3 hour practice session for the choir. After auditions, I found out that apparently only 5 women were selected for the choir, basically one extra person for each voice part. I can't tell you how even more shocked I am that I got selected! Maybe the director has a soft spot for people in Karolinska because she is a surgeon there (talk about talented woman!!). But apparently, I made soprano 2 (woo hoo), which is a first for me because I can't remember the last time I was assigned a soprano part.

You can check out the website of the group: http://www.damkorensalt.se/index.php and click on "Lysnna" to hear some music samples!

Anyway, the practice was fun. Everyone was wondering what I was doing there because I don't speak Swedish (yet), but when I introduced myself, the director chimed in and said, "but she sings in Swedish!" lol. It was pretty cute. Although we were learned English songs (yay for words I can pronounce) today, the  practice was in Swedish. By the end, I decided that if I ever wanted to get "instant immersion in Swedish", this was the place to be! I learned several numbers and even how to say "first alto" and "second alto" etc. :)

We have 7 weeks till our first concert in October (most likely the 24th). And I have to learn 8 songs by memory. This is going to be intense!! But I'm so excited!

Double post today! This one is short :)

I just had to make note of this.

It's 7 degrees C (or 45 F) in Stockholm. Yes, it is night, but I'd like to point out that the date is August 28.

AUGUST.

Is this for real?? Or did I end up in Antarctica?

Audition...

Today I auditioned for an all female choir. It was actually a fun audition, but I wasn't expecting it to be (guess I have low expectations). When I walked into the room, I saw the director and three other girls.

Great. As if auditioning for one person wasn't scary, I have to audition for four! 

And the audition began.

First, some scales. Starting with these was pretty entertaining because the director had me sing silly vowels and consonants together. At some point, my tongue started to screw up the vowels, and I started laughing while singing. The director was amused too that I couldn't sing the tongue twister vowels. Fortunately, all this smiling and laughing made me less nervous.

Second, I sang my song of choice.. but started an octave too high. Oops. The director then told me to sing the song much lower.. haha. After that, she remarked, "yes, that's much better." lol. Ya think? ;-)

Lastly, I sang in a quartet with the three other girls. I had to sing two different parts, and I learned both of them quite well (I definitely had my notes down). But there was a catch: the lyrics were Swedish... ha. This was hilarious to me because I didn't even know how to begin pronouncing the words! The good news is, I didn't get punched or slapped, which means that I didn't end up swearing or insulting anybody.. (offending someone is possibly one of the worst fears a foreigner has when learning a new language. My brief experience learning Chinese is a great example of this... but I digress.)

Well, the audition ended and I was skeptical they'd want me because of my lack of Swedish knowledge. The director said she would call me this afternoon with her decision...

So I waited.
1 pm. No call.
2 pm. No call.
3 pm. No call.
4 pm. No call.
Oh sadness. They don't want me. :(


5 pm. Call?

Director: "I've been calling all afternoon and couldn't get through"
Me: "Oh no! I'm sorry. My cell phone reception in my apartment is horrible!" AGGG. What's your decision. I think I stopped breathing! Eek!
Director: "We would love to have you!"
M: Wow. Seriously? Oh wait, I can breathe again! YEAH!


So starting next Tuesday, I'm going to be in a Swedish choir where all rehearsals will be in Swedish and I will sing in Swedish too. Uhh.. I'm not entirely sure what I got myself into...