Thur Jan 26th 2012

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Ah thursday....one day closer to friday! Got to sleep in this morning YAY! Had class at 1pm till 4:45, my Micro class obviously since no other class lasts this long lol. So we had another lecture...and I must admit my mind wandered a bit but for the most part it was the same ol same ol. We had a break abour 2pm and most the class actually just stayed and we began to chit chat. Elsa (swedish girl in class), Landon (guy from US), and my professor Tommy all talked about politics. This is one of the first real conversations I have had about the political system of Sweden. Tommy and Elsa were both inquiring about the differenes in health care and why the US is so....stingy. We also talked about the quality of education. I of course brought up how nice it is that students pay attention here and Elsa and Tommy laughed....Elsa simply responded its because WE WANT TO BE HERE! So its all quite interesting. I hope that while I am here I get to talk to many people about politics. So far the Swedish seem very reserved on the subject and I have been told to be careful about bringing the topic up. But there are many exchange students here and some, for instance a few of the german guys, are much more open to talking politcs. So more on that as it comes up!

During the second half of class we got introduced to our "project". I am literally shaking in my boots...this is going to be SOOOO F'ING HARD! So basically Tommy plopped down a 1 gallon jug of biowaste or sewer sludge (meaning literally a gallon of sewer water from the waste water treatment plant) and told us to fashion several tests/expiriments to produce the highest yield of methane. Now I know this is a very good field to be studying because many countries are expirimenting with this. Trying to produce methane from our waste. If a high yeild of methane can be achieved then it could be very beneficial! BUT SERIOUSLY....IM A STUDENT....GEESH! My professor is expirimenting with this...literally he has zillions of little bottles full of sludge trying to proudce a high yield of methane....the smartest people in each country are working on this! When i went to ARPA-e convention there were several proposals about this....SO WHY AS A STUDENT HAVE I BEEN ASIGNED THIS TASK! BAH!? So to say the least im pretty scared...but i guess ill start research tonight and see what I can come up with 😞

Hey if there are any BIOWASTE experts reading my blog by all means throw some ideas my way! lol

So the night is hopefully going to end with dinner at Isabels, with Santi and Charlen.

A few notes for myself...i want to make a point to write about this later

1) Door opening difficulties --seriously push/pull every door is different and uber confusing...and my theory is that they are out to make me look like a moron...mission accomplished doors :-/ .....more on this later

2) THE BUTTER HERE IS AMAZING!

3) THE CHOCOLATE HERE IS MORE THAN AMAZING!

4) The keyboards here suck and i feel like a first grader when i try to type on them lol

5) If it is only -5 or -15 out its a warm day!

6) Where is my computer 😞 its lost in the mail system and I miss my imac!

7) Girls here are nuts...they where super high heels and leggings everywhere....they have to be freazing

8) Guys can really dress here! They always look snazzy its pretty awesome...and although they are shy they are very polite!

So maybe I will write more on these subjects later 😊

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