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!

Paul Stanley from KISS caught partying with Amy Winehouse in Sweden!

On arrival Saturday night. A new & improved look! Here I am with a Mexican & an Aussie!

With cat woman & a priest!

One of my favorite Germans, Luise! :-)

It wasn't fun @ the end of the night taking all the paint off :-(

Turkey & London Recap w/ Pictures!

Sorry for the lack of blogging! So much has happened since my last post (including a great Halloween in Sweden) but I'll start with the Turkey/London trip, which we left for on Oct. 20 and returned from on Oct. 27. I apologize in advance for how long this blog is...

Istanbul has to be one of the best places so far and definitely the most different. We spent 4 days in the city at two different hostels. Our first one, the Sydney Hostel, was basically a hotel. The three of us (Ghazal, Rochelle, & I) had our own room and bathroom. There was an upstairs outdoor area on the roof with views of the city & Black Sea. The day we arrived we grabbed lunch and then cleaned up since we had just slept 6 hours in the London/Gatwick airport before boarding the 3.5 hour long flight to Istanbul. We then visited the famous Blue Mosque & Hagia Sophia which are right across from each other and were only a few minutes from our hostel. A guy we ran into gave us an informal free tour before trying to sell us things from his shop. At night we walked down one of the main streets in Istanbul and found a good, authentic looking restaurant to eat at. I had Turkish ravioli and a crepe.

One of the sad features of the city was the amount of homeless women and children that we'd see on the sidewalks trying to collect money. At times there might only be a 2-3 year old girl with a little bowl for change. At one point Ghazal put a couple coins in a girl's bowl which were then taken immediately out and put into her pocket. The whole situation was sad.

On our second day we visited the famed Grand Bazaar where there were hundreds of shops and endless souvenir options. It was quite a site. The annoying part of this was that every vendor would try to sell you his items, even if it meant following after you. One man tried to appeal to Rochelle by saying "You want a rug?" while another would try to start conversation with Ghazal by asking if she was Turkish. Another followed me down an entire street trying to get me to buy his knock-off cologne. When he finally got the point that I didn't want it he shared a few choice words for us. This must sound so negative! Overall the Turkish people were amazing and very helpful. They would go out of their way to try and find answers for us. We had lunch at a local restaurant along one of the streets. As I mentioned in my last blog there were cats everywhere! One of them joined us for lunch and was given some food :-) Afterwards we wandered through more streets, finding more vendors, a spice market, and other hidden-away stores which never seemed to end. Finally we reached another mosque located near the Galata Bridge, where we had views of much of Istanbul. At night we returned back to our hostel and then had dinner at a local restaurant where we had a very nice waiter who twice gave us all free tea. Later we went into town and got some dessert...Baklava...the famous dessert from the region!

The next morning we moved to our second hostel named Harmony. Here we had an enormous room accompanied by a shower that would overflow into the entire bathroom. Our third full day in Istanbul included a trip to nearby Princes Island. There didn't seem to be too much to do but we did have lunch on the shore with views of the Black Sea and the Istanbul coastline. It definitely beautiful. After a short walk around we cruised back to the mainland and got ready for a night of clubbing in the Taksim area! Upon arriving to this area we found out that the nightlife didn't really pick up until 1-2AM! All the clubs we were going to were so empty but eventually we found one with some good Turkish house music. We stayed for awhile and made it home around 4-5AM.

On our final day we visited the Topkapi Palace which was the home of the Ottoman Sultans for some 400 years. It had elaborate grounds but due to time constraints and money we decided not to do the indoor tour. Later in the day we traveled across the bridge to the Galeta Tower from which we had views of all of Istanbul. This was great! While it did cost 10 liras (the Turkish currency...about $6.50 USD) just to go to the top, it was well worth it! Afterwards we went back to town and had fresh squeezed pomegranate juice! Fresh squeezed juice stands along the streets were common place and would just just over $1. That night Ghazal and I visited one of the famed Turkish Hammams, or bathhouses. Many of these were built in the 1300-1700s. A bath and massage was a nice, relaxing way to end the trip. We did some final walking around after before heading back to the hostel. The next morning we woke up and took the bus to the Sabiha Gokcen International Airport before heading to London.

This is getting too long! I'll make London brief. We had about a day and a half there which began with our arrival at our hostel after a 1 hour bus ride from Gatwick to central London. We had dinner at KFC...how American! The next day was probably the longest, most tiring, yet productive day so far. In the one day we visited: Buckingham Palace, The Green Park, 10 Downing, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Tower of London, London Bridge, The Monument, the Swiss RE Tower, Bank of England, St. Paul's Cathedral, Royal Courts of Justice, Royal Opera House, Covent Gardens, and Piccadilly Circus! We were pretty tired by the time the day was over! Highlights were Buckingham where we arrived during a various elaborate changing of the guard ceremony...the Queen must have been home; Houses of Parliament were quite a site; and Piccadilly was like a mini NYC! Something we noticed that was odd was that in London when there was a delay on one of the subways, instead of saying there had just been an incident (as I'm guessing would be done in the US), at the time they said the delays were due to "person under track" which was quite frightening. It was also weird witnessing the whole driving on the opposite side thing! The British people were very nice & helpful in addition to their amazing accents! :-)

Our trip flew by but was amazing! Here are the highlights in pictures (in reverse order, starting with London):

In Piccadilly Circus!

A side view of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

The Swiss RE Tower in London. Such a neat looking building!

The Monument, London. In remembrance of the victims of the Great Fire of London in 1666.

London Bridge.

View of the Houses of Parliament from the Westminster Bridge.

In front of the Houses of Parliament. They were so much more elaborate looking in person!

Rochelle, Ghazal, & I with Big Ben in the background.

In front of Westminster Abbey in London.

A fall view of The Green Park in London which is directly to the side of Buckingham Palace.

Ghazal, Rochelle, & I in front of Buckingham Palace in London. Behind us you can see many of the people gathered for the changing of the guard ceremony.

View of Istanbul, Turkey from the Galata Tower.

The three of us on top of the Galata Tower. From here we had amazing views of all of Istanbul.

A Turkish guard at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. This palace was the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for some 400 years.

In the Taksim district in Istanbul. This is the center of Turkish nightlife.

I mentioned that cats were everywhere in Istanbul...

Sunset in Istanbul while leaving Princes Island.

Ghazal & I after arriving at Princes Island. You can see views of Istanbul in the background.

A black & white night shot of the Blue Mosque (AKA Sultan Ahmed Mosque).

One of my dinners! Here we have a beef kebab dish with veggies, served with tortillas.

With Ghazal inside the Yeni Mosque in Istanbul.

With Rochelle & Ghazal with views of Istanbul in the background. You can see the Galata Tower, which we visited, to the left of my head.

View of the bustling Spice Market with views of the Istanbul skyline in the background.

The three of us inside the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. There were thousands of shops and people in what seemed like a never-ending array of streets.

Here we are in front of the Hagia Sophia which was once the largest cathedral in the world. It went from a cathedral, to a mosque, and now to a museum and is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture.

Hello from Istanbul, Turkey!

Hi all! Im usıng a computer ın our hostel here ın Istanbul rıght now! Its amazıng here! I apologıze ın advance for the typos...theır computers are weırd here! haha. Im wıth my frıends Ghazal and Rochelle and we arrıved here thıs mornıng after travelıng from Copenhagen to London Gatwıck yesterday, and then from London to Istanbul thıs mornıng. EasyJet flıght took just over 3 hours.

Our hostel ıs rıght by the world famous Blue Mosque and Hagıa Sofıa cathedral. Today we went ınsıde the Mosque whıch was beautıful. We had to remove our shoes and there were some people prayıng at the tıme, but we were allowed to take pıctures and all so ıt was great! We also heard the calls to prayer about 3 tımes today...ıts custom for Muslıms to pray 5 tımes a day.

Tomorrow (actual later today...ıts just past mıdnıght rıght now, 10 hrs later than CA tıme) were goıng to go ınsıde the Hagıa Sofıa and walk around the surroundıng areas. It was once the bıggest cathedral ın the world untıl one ın Spaın (ı thınk) overtook ıt. We'll also check out the Grand Bazzar (spellıng mıght be off) whıch ıs numerous streets wıth HUNDREDS of outdoor stores and booths wıth a lot of tradıtıonal Turkısh ıtems...ıts goıng to take some self restraınt!

It ıs so neat how much hıstory ıs here, datıng back to the Roman and Ottoman empıres and the Byzantıne perıod. So much of the stuff here I learned about ın my art hıstory class a few years ago. Its also great to be explorıng such a dıfferent place. My bank actually told me ıts consıdered (at least for them) a Mıddle Eastern country! So cool! Everyones been so nıce and have spoken better Englısh than I had ımagıned. Goıng to head to bed now...busy day tomorrow! G'nıght!

Oh! PS...there are cats EVERYWHERE here. ıts ıncredıble! theyre walkıng the streets. clımbıng on top of buıldıngs. comıng up to your table as you eat outdoors...everywhere! and theyre pretty much all kıttens! ıts so though because most of them ım sure are wıthout owners and dont get proper food. also, havent really seen any people walkıng dogs here but there are a lot of stray dogs ın the street whıch ıs sad. today we were on top of our hostels buıldıng for a bıt and a kıtten came up to us so we played wıth ıt for a bıt =)

Kristianstad & Today!

Darn, I'm really bad at this whole "blogging" thing. Last time I wrote was 10 days ago...Anyways, I'm up early this morning (its 8:10AM right now) all ready to go present a group seminar in about an hour- our topic is the democratization of Portugal and my part is to give a brief comparative view of Portugal's democratic process with that of neighboring Spain. I'm a bit nervous...hope they don't ask us any questions!

But while I'm nervous about that, I'm also very excited because tonight two other friends and myself leave for Istanbul, Turkey & London for a few days. Very excited! Turkey should be the most interesting and unique so far. Also heard its pretty cheap so that should be nice. And of course, London...just as excited because I feel like I'm going to visit my roots. And the accents! Love the British accents.

Yesterday I went on a mini one day trip to Kristianstad, a small town of around 30,000 or so about an hour away from Lund. Had a nice day there...got some work done and did some exploring. They had a real nice park with lots of beautiful scenery. Spent some time walking around there. They had a town square, church, train station, lots of nice shops...a typical nice town here!

That's it for now...I'll try to blog while I'm away. And right when I get back pictures will be posted! I've been bad at putting them up here so definitely next time pictures from Finland, Poland, Kristianstad, and then my latest adventures will be up. Have a good day everyone!

Krakow, Poland!

Hello from Poland! Right now its 245AM and the other friends I am with have gone to bed but I'm using the free internet here in the hostel. It's been an adventurous day. It began with a few of us heading to the Auschwitz concentration camp this morning which was quite an experience. It was definitely a surreal experience. After going there we came back and met up with our other two friends and went to dinner @ a vegetarian restaurant. Then we wandered the city and supposedly went to the "Jewish Ghetto" where we hung out at a club/bar/lounge. After getting some late night Chinese food, we picked up a taxi and headed back.

Tomorrow some of us may be checking out the salt mines nearby or just exploring the city...nearby are sites related to former Pope John Paul II as well as sites that were scenes in the movie Schindler's List. We arrived late Thursday night and went straight to our hostel. Today has been busy and tomorrow will be too, until we leave around 4PM back to Malmo. Things so far have been super cheap, its so nice! I have yet to find an authentic Polish sausage! Perhaps tomorrow will be the day...goodnight!

Helsinki, Finland & Stockholm!

Just got back from making Mexican food for dinner with some friends & watching the season premiere of Desperate Housewives! They show the big shows on Tuesday here. I thought it'd be a good time to blog about my rather crazy weekend in Finland and Stockholm (Oct. 3-5)...

Ghazal, Jasmine, & I got on the train early Saturday morning bound for Stockholm. The station wasn't open in the morning for some reason so we got on the train without making seat reservations but luckily they had room left...in the area where they allow pets! So we got to sit by a lot of cool dogs which was fun. Met and had a nice talk with a Swedish lady who offered to show us around her small town which is just a bit north of us. I think we're going to accept her offer and she said there are lots of moose there! Got into Stockholm around 3PM and headed to the area where the ferries depart and got on the Mariella which is part of the Viking Line. The ship departed for Helsinki, Finland at 5PM. After getting settled we went down to the dinning room for a buffet dinner and ate up! The food was terrific and drinks & wine were even included!

The trip across the Baltic started off great and it was Ghazal's 21st birthday so we had a fun night ahead and planned to go to the Disco later that night. Before leaving our room, Jasmine and I got Ghazal a couple desserts for her birthday and sang to her! And that is when the rocking began, and not the rocking we had hoped for in the club. The weather has gotten a lot worse in the past month and once the ship got out on the Baltic it was quite noticeable. Instead of going to the disco we sat in the lobby for hours as people lined up to get motion sickness pills, etc. We all felt the affect of the ship's movement, but other people clearly felt it more...At one point some guy came up to us and asked if he could "ask us a couple questions". He was beyond intoxicated and didn't seem to get the hint that it wasn't the time. There were so many drunk & crazy Finns on board! Another one walked towards me and tried to poke my head. We were all getting pretty annoyed. Guess the only good thing for them is they didn't remember the ferry ride...it was definitely one to forget and they probably just thought it was them rocking side to side! After trying to sleep for awhile in one of the lobby's, we went back to our room at about 6AM when the motion subsided. We got 4 hours of rest in before getting off in Helsinki!

Helsinki was a lot of fun. It was the opening day of a herring festival. The weather wasn't so good as it rained a large part of the day and HARD. It would start without warning, though the sun shined through at times which was nice. We visited a Roman Orthodox Church and saw a baptism taking place! (It was Sunday...) We also visited another Church and watched an orchestra and opera singer practicing. It was a nice few minutes. We walked around the town a lot and along a harbor where there were TONS of ships and sails. For lunch we ate at an Asian restaurant which was quite good! Scandinavia seems to have their Asian food down. I enjoyed the capital a lot and took many pictures, though I think 1 day is about all we needed. Ghazal and Jasmine wanted to look into flights back to Stockholm to avoid the dreaded ferry back, but finding no affordable ones as I anticipated, we re-boarded the Mariella at around 5PM.

First thing we did was pick up motion sickness pills to help ease the ride back. We hung out in our rooms for a bit and then had some Princess cake (a Swedish must!) and tea before heading in to play Bingo! Ghazal won 12 Euros! Woo Hoo. Jasmine and I walked around a bit after and then went to bed...early...it was only 9:30PM! Had a good night's sleep and woke up the next morning ready to explore Stockholm.

Jasmine and I had been but not Ghazal so we walked around the city, explored old town, visited the shops along Drottingatan, saw the Royal Palace, walked through the middle of town, and eventually back to the train station by the end of the day. We left at just after 6 in the evening and again found ourselves in the company of some of man's best friends, including a German Shepperd. It was a fun and eventful couple of days.

Random Things on My Mind @ 3AM

I was originally going to make this post about the awesome home cooked meals my friends & I have been makin here but I'll save that for next time. Though, right now I'm eating the leftovers of the last one I made...pasta with a tomato basil sauce, oregano, chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, & tomatoes!

Tomorrow (actually later today) a few of us are going to Stockholm and then hopefully taking the ferry over to Helsinki, Finland! We'll be going for a couple of days and then come back Monday. Its Ghazal's 21st birthday so we're going to celebrate it on the Baltic Sea!

Tonight I had a nice, low-key Friday night. Hung out @ a friend's place and played monopoly with a few of her friends. Met an American from Atlanta (still gotta visit there sometime)! It was a good break from the crazy clubbing nights yesterday & Wednesday. Though, they were fun! Wednesday we went to Västgöta Nation (aka "VG's") and last night we hit up Östgöta Nation (aka "OG's"). Both were fun, though not very crowded! It was the first time I had been to either. For those reading that haven't heard yet, Lund University has 13 student nations which are basically social clubs that serve lunch and dinner most days for discounted prices and have club nights during the weekend. Every student @ Lund is required to join one. Last week I finally, after much procrastination, joined Sydskånska nationen. I've been there a couple times and really like it...plus, its close & a lot of other friends joined it, too. It is known as the music nation since they have a variety of club nights all with different music (reggae, hip hop, electro...my favorite!).

Another thing I've been keepin up pretty well with here is the gym! I have a pass for the classes and weight room portion of it and so far have been using both...which is a very good thing considering some of the food I've been eating (lots of sweets). The gym here is called Gerdahallen and is super nice. I've been to two classes: the first was a mix of cardio, stretching, different movements, and weight training using a bar. The second was yoga! I think trying out the one yoga class is all I need for a looooooong time. It was more difficult than I had imagined and at the end of the class we took like a 5 minute nap with blankets! haha

Back on September 19 there was a Culture Night in Lund which was awesome! The UC students had originally thought we'd be in Copenhagen for our mixer with the students there but it was canceled and a few of us found ourselves amongst the most people we've seen yet around the city on a Saturday night. It was a fun night with bands performing all around the small city, with all kinds of food, entertainment, vendors, etc. Fun night!

That's it for now...Stockholm & Finland tomorrow! Better start packing!