Sweden & Europe Fall 2009: Update on Classes & Halloween w/ pictures!

Yesterday I attended the last two classes (of 5 total) on my schedule. They were: Scandinavian Models of Equality and an Intro course in Human Rights. The former deals with state feminism, women and politics, parenthood, work and equality, equal pay and gender segregation, sexual orientation/gender identity discrimination, sex work, assistant reproduction, the concept of 'honor killings', and xenophobia (I borrowed from the course syllabus!). The latter will explore the political, legal, historical, and ethical elements surrounding human rights. This will include exploration of concepts such as: non-discrimination, The Enlightenment, Universalism, religion, Islam, freedom of religion, colonization, and the rise of the nation-state. After the first day, both appear extremely interesting to me, yet I may only be able to choose one, as they conflict. As chances would have it, the overlap in time on the one day a week I have class!

In other news, in my Swedish Social Policy course my friend Jasmine and I received an A- on our final paper which we were exited about. We were allowed to work in pairs and that turned out to work well. My Democratization course has concluded its lectures and seminars but I am still working on a final paper due in early December. My other current class, Global Environmental Justice, is the only class that runs the whole term and has been focusing on climate change, the world-food system, and fossil fuels in recent lectures. In December we will visit the huge Climate Change debate in Copenhagen, Denmark at the same time President Obama will be there.

Of course, as a political science major and just the political junkie in general that I am, I couldn't help but watch the elections up until 4:30AM! So many important elections yet so many random, quirky ones too! Only ended up with a few hours of sleep today so I'm sure tonight will be an early one! Though the Yankee v. Phillies World Series game comes on at 2AM so that makes for another excuse to stay up!

On Saturday I had my first Halloween abroad and it was a good one! Swedish and American friends here in Sparta (the corridor where I live) had Halloween parties on Friday and Saturday night. It was hard to choose a costume- it was between a nerd, a really gory person, or a rock star! In the end I opted for the rock star...specifically, Paul Stanley from the band KISS! We all had a great time this weekend and met a lot of new people. Below are a few pictures from Halloween of my friends & I in costume! Hope you enjoy and aren't too shocked...it's not my usual look! haha :-)

Group shot on Friday (Oct. 30)!

I found my look-a-like! This is from Friday night. After meeting him, I realized my star was over the wrong eye, plus I didn't have my face painted white, that'd have to change on Saturday!