2 hours ago
Monday, September 28, 2009
Nya foton
Kolla på nya foton via Picasa genom att klicka på länken till höger "View My Gallery". Där kan man se fotona i full screen storlek!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
BILDER / PICTURES
Nu finns alla bilder från min vistelse uppladdade till Picasa Web Albums. En länk finns på högra fliken av bloggen. Klicka på View My Gallery för att se alla bilder. Jag kommer att ladda upp alla bilder under året dit.
I've uploaded every single picture from my time in the US to Picasa. You can find a link to all my pictures on the right side. I will be uploading all my pictures during the year.
/ Patrik
I've uploaded every single picture from my time in the US to Picasa. You can find a link to all my pictures on the right side. I will be uploading all my pictures during the year.
/ Patrik
Allmänna tankar och St. Louis
Tänkte nu ta och skriva på svenska också så att min kära bror inte får hjärtattack. Förra veckan handlade mest om skolgrejer, fastän kurserna här i regel är ganska lätta krävs det ändå en hel del arbete, framförallt när det kommer till mängden böcker att läsa. I de två kurserna i statsvetenskap jag har den här terminen har jag tillsammans ca 5000 att läsa + en hel del artiklar och dylikt. Utlärningsmetoderna här är mycket annorlunda än det jag vant mig med i den finska universitetsvärlden. Här påminner undervisningsmetoderna mycket mera om det finska gymnasiet, med mycket hemläxor och små "pop-quiz" och mindre vikt på tentamen medan det i Finland oftast är endast, eller åtminstone till hög grad, tentamen som avgör kursvitsordet.
Mentaliteten bland studerandena skiljer sig också jämfört med Finland. Medeltalet av kursvitsorden är allsmäktigt när det kommer till jobbsökning och det lägger en otrolig press på studenterna, åtminstone de ambitiösa, att få top resultat i varje kurs. Om man slappar hårt första året blir det lätt så att det är näst intill omöjligt att höja sitt GPA (Grade Point Average) för hela universitetstiden. Många arbetsgivare, speciellt i det nuvarande ekonomiska läget, tar inte ens emot ansökningar med lägre GPA än 3,5 (skala 1-4). Kanske det är just det som påverkar utlärningsmetoderna.
Även professorerna skiljer sig skarpt från de finska. För det första så inleder de flesta doktoranderna sina doktorsstudier genast efter avklarad kandidatsexamen, och utför magistersexamen som en del av doktorsstudierna. Redan det första året (gäller säkert inte alla ämnen men jag vet att systemet är sådant i bl a aerospace engineering, political science och economics) väljer de ifall de vill vara research assistant eller teaching assistant (TA). I de flesta kurserna har man en-två föreläsningar i veckan, med profesorer, och en diskussiontimme med en TA. Alltså väljer doktoranderna (varav en del är blviande professorer) i ett mycket tidigt skede ifall de vill lägga större betoning på undervisning eller forskning. Jag vet inte om de professorer jag haft här som jag tycker att varit otroliga föreläsare "valt" den banan tidigt eller ej men tycker att det låter logiskt att ju tidigare man välje destu tidigare utvecklas man till en bra föreläsare/forskare.
Var inte oroliga, jag har gjort annat än varit i skolan också. Förra veckans onsdag (16.9) kom Nicole (Viking som bor i Milwaukee) till Madison och då nalkades det ju naturligtvis fest igen. Efter en hel del öl och yrsel i Viking huset åkte vi till Johnny O's, för 5,50 dollar pitchers (NICE). I baren har de några beer pong bord så till allas stora överraskning tog vi (random vikingar, kanske 8-9 st) över ett bord och spelade tills det var dags att bekanta sig med allas favorit amerikanske vänner, Jack and Jim. Efter att bekantat oss NOGA med dem kommer jag inte ihåg vad som hände utan vet endas att jag inte mådde särskilt bra följande dag.
På fredagen den 18.9 var det dags att packa the Viking Van. Louise, Eskil, Nathan och jag skulle åka och hälsa på Anna, Nathans flickvän, till St. Louis, Missouri. Hon jobbar för ett program som heter Teach for America. Idén är i princip att nyutexaminerade (alltså med kand. examen) personer jobbar som lärare i två år i usla, statliga skolor med nästan obefintliga budgeter. Det är mycket svårt att komma in i programmet eftersom det anses vara en mycket bra sak att ha på sin CV och dessutom delas det ut en hel del stipendier åt personer som deltagit i programmet, för fortsatt utbildning (Anna vill börja studera juridik) i de bästa universitetena i landet.
Nathan, Eskil, jag och Louise
Vi åkte i väg på fredagen på dagen och anlände till St. Louis ungefär klockan 8 på kvällen. Färden var ca 580 km lång och tog oss ungefär 7 timmar, eftersom vi stannade i Springfield, Illinois på vägen. Springfield är Illinois huvudstad och det var där Barack Obama meddelade att han ställer upp i presidentvalet i februari 2007.
Jag och Obama på samma ställe
När vi väl kommit fram blev vi direkt bjudna på en hel del dricka och hemlagad pizza. Efter några timmars festande blev det dags att gå ut och festen fortsatte till slut till en nattklubb som var byggd i ett vanlig egnahemshus. Utifrån såg det ut som vilket hus som helst men inuti var det inrett precis som vilken nattklubb som helst.
På lördagen när vi äntligen vaknat och fått i oss morgonmål på en kvartersrestaurang körde vi till downtown St. Louis för att se the Gateway Arch WIKIPEDIA. Efter att ha promenerat igenom en park bredvid bågen kom vi äntligen fram till den. Jag hade alltid trott att den var ganska smal och fick först reda på att man kan fara upp i den dagen före vi åkte till St. Louis och jag blev således mycekt imponerad av storleken. Den är den högsta av människa byggda monument i USA. Intressant för oss finnar är att arkitekten som ritade den heter Eero Saarinen, Eliels son.
Vid bågens rot och utanför dörren till den lilla podden vi åkte upp i
Vi ställde oss i kö och efter diverse säkerhetskontroller och biljettköp ställde vi oss i en ny kö. Sakta men säkert närmade vi oss den intressanta spårvagns-linbane konstruktionen som tog oss upp till toppen av bågen. Det var inte ett särskilt stort utrymme och för att kunna se någonting måste man luta sig över en liten kant och se ut ur mycket små fönster. Vi fick åtminstone se en del av en St. Louis Cardinals - Chicago Cubs match.
Baseball stadion och vyn snett neråt från toppen av bågen
Efter bågen åkte vi till Anna och tog det lugnt en stund före det var dags att gå ut och äta och dylikt ända in på småtimmarna. På söndagen startade vi ca halv fyra och var äntligen hemma kring halv tio tiden. Det var väldigt roligt att åka till St. Louis och förutom mitt försök att argumentera med en halvdum typ som var övertygad att Obama nog troligtvis är en kommunist-marxist-fascist-nazist-muslim med planer om att döda hans mormor så var det en genom trevlig upplevelse. Det var dessutom skojigt att åka dit eftersom det är en typisk stad man troligtvis aldrig skulle besöka utan att någon man känner bor där.
Uppe i mitten av bågen synns de små fönstren man kunde se ut från (clicka på bilden för att förstora den)
Till nästa gång!
/Pepe
P.S. För att se alla foton från St. Louis klicka HÄR
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Badger game and Wautoma
Another few weeks and many new stories. We have met many new Vikings and unsurprisingly have been out partying with them and have had a great time. This organization just keeps on giving, allowing us to meet incredible people who invite us to their homes and make sure that our calendars are filled with things to do.
One of the highlights of the past few weeks was experiencing the American sports culture that surrounds a football (the American type) game. Two weekends ago, on September the 5th, the Badgers played North Illinois University in the season opener and a week later Fresno State.
Before the first game we (other Scandinavian Vikings + me) headed over to Zachs (Copenhagen Viking summer 2009) house to celebrate his 21st birthday. Finally I got to experience what every European has only seen in bad college movies, a beer keg.
The birthday hero and his keg
The entire day the city was painted red and traffic was bad. The Viking House is located a bit outside of the city and usually traffic flows pretty evenly outside the house but when we left it about three hours before the game, cars were barely moving on the street. The concept of school pride, which in some sense is the underlying reason to this kind of fan culture, is something that is very foreign to me, I don't own any University of Helsinki apparel. In Madison, especially on game day, EVERYBODY wears some Wisconsin Badgers gear.
After partying for a few hours at Zachs house and looking for tickets to the game we headed to the stadium. The walk was not far and about ten minutes later we reached Camp Randall and Camp Randall Stadium. It doesn't look too big from the outside but once I entered the stadium and saw it from the inside I was stunned. 80 000 people chearing for their school team is pretty impressive.
Zach and the student section
On Sunday the 6th we went to a Camp site about 90 minutes to the north from Madison, near a small town called Wautoma. Nathan (Helsinki Viking, spring 2009) has worked at the camp many years so we went there with him, his girlfriend, his friend Quincy and the other Scandos (Weldons name for Louise, Eskil and I). It was a beautiful place that reminded me very much of my family's summer home in Finland. The nature and the general feel of the place was eerily similar to a lakeside camp site in Finland.
Me, Eskil, Quincy, Nathan, Anna & Louise
We arrived back on Monday the 7th, Labor Day. The week that started was rather uneventful until Thursday when we started another real three day bender that is mostly blurry but does include many fun memories thanks to me carrying my camera with me almost all the time. On Thursday we were supposed to play poker but because of a limited interest shown, we instead watched the season opener of NFL, and had a few drinks. On Friday we had another legendary beer pong tournament at the Viking House.
At Jeremiahs place
On Saturday we had to wake up early because the football game against Fresno State was at 11 and we, naturally, had to get a few drinks in us before the game. Louise and I headed over to Jeremiahs (Helsinki Viking spring 2008) place to play some AM beer pong. Then we headed to the game, and ended up loosing Jeremiah and going to the game with Weldon (Oslo Viking summer 2008?), his roommates, Louise and Jeremiahs parents. And once I finally got my breakfast (a hotdog) I felt a lot better (don't recommend drinking about 6-7 beers before breakfast).
Weldon at the Fresno State game on September 12th
After the game we eventually came back to the Viking House, decided to rent canoes from the James Madison Park right next to the VH and went to visit Nathan at his fraternity house were we had some brats and got a tour of their house. The whole fraternity culture is another thing that is really foreign to me. The houses they live in are incredibly big and nice and it is a really interesting set up where you live with a large group of guys in a huge house by the lake, it sounds pretty good.
Louise & Weldon with the James Madison park and the Capitol Building in the background
At Nathans fraternity house
Later that night we went out to dinner and continued the party until early hours, again. The theme on Sunday was recovery, which was painful and slow...
-Patrik
P.S. The videos in the last post are from the season opener against NIU
P.S. 2 To view more pictures, click here (you don't have to have a Facebook account), working on fixing a picasa account...
One of the highlights of the past few weeks was experiencing the American sports culture that surrounds a football (the American type) game. Two weekends ago, on September the 5th, the Badgers played North Illinois University in the season opener and a week later Fresno State.
Before the first game we (other Scandinavian Vikings + me) headed over to Zachs (Copenhagen Viking summer 2009) house to celebrate his 21st birthday. Finally I got to experience what every European has only seen in bad college movies, a beer keg.
The birthday hero and his keg
The entire day the city was painted red and traffic was bad. The Viking House is located a bit outside of the city and usually traffic flows pretty evenly outside the house but when we left it about three hours before the game, cars were barely moving on the street. The concept of school pride, which in some sense is the underlying reason to this kind of fan culture, is something that is very foreign to me, I don't own any University of Helsinki apparel. In Madison, especially on game day, EVERYBODY wears some Wisconsin Badgers gear.
After partying for a few hours at Zachs house and looking for tickets to the game we headed to the stadium. The walk was not far and about ten minutes later we reached Camp Randall and Camp Randall Stadium. It doesn't look too big from the outside but once I entered the stadium and saw it from the inside I was stunned. 80 000 people chearing for their school team is pretty impressive.
Zach and the student section
On Sunday the 6th we went to a Camp site about 90 minutes to the north from Madison, near a small town called Wautoma. Nathan (Helsinki Viking, spring 2009) has worked at the camp many years so we went there with him, his girlfriend, his friend Quincy and the other Scandos (Weldons name for Louise, Eskil and I). It was a beautiful place that reminded me very much of my family's summer home in Finland. The nature and the general feel of the place was eerily similar to a lakeside camp site in Finland.
Me, Eskil, Quincy, Nathan, Anna & Louise
We arrived back on Monday the 7th, Labor Day. The week that started was rather uneventful until Thursday when we started another real three day bender that is mostly blurry but does include many fun memories thanks to me carrying my camera with me almost all the time. On Thursday we were supposed to play poker but because of a limited interest shown, we instead watched the season opener of NFL, and had a few drinks. On Friday we had another legendary beer pong tournament at the Viking House.
At Jeremiahs place
On Saturday we had to wake up early because the football game against Fresno State was at 11 and we, naturally, had to get a few drinks in us before the game. Louise and I headed over to Jeremiahs (Helsinki Viking spring 2008) place to play some AM beer pong. Then we headed to the game, and ended up loosing Jeremiah and going to the game with Weldon (Oslo Viking summer 2008?), his roommates, Louise and Jeremiahs parents. And once I finally got my breakfast (a hotdog) I felt a lot better (don't recommend drinking about 6-7 beers before breakfast).
Weldon at the Fresno State game on September 12th
After the game we eventually came back to the Viking House, decided to rent canoes from the James Madison Park right next to the VH and went to visit Nathan at his fraternity house were we had some brats and got a tour of their house. The whole fraternity culture is another thing that is really foreign to me. The houses they live in are incredibly big and nice and it is a really interesting set up where you live with a large group of guys in a huge house by the lake, it sounds pretty good.
Louise & Weldon with the James Madison park and the Capitol Building in the background
At Nathans fraternity house
Later that night we went out to dinner and continued the party until early hours, again. The theme on Sunday was recovery, which was painful and slow...
-Patrik
P.S. The videos in the last post are from the season opener against NIU
P.S. 2 To view more pictures, click here (you don't have to have a Facebook account), working on fixing a picasa account...
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
2nd post
So now almost two weeks have gone by and it has been a rough, in a good way. There have been very few boring days and I must express my gratitude to everyone for really helping make these first weeks great. I thought I would give a small background to why I am here in Madison. I am here on a Brittingham Viking Organization scholarship. The organization rewards scholarships to students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study in Fennoscandia and vice versa. So I will be studying this entire year in Madison!
For the most part the days have been filled with getting to know new people and seeing new places. I must say that, over the past two weeks, I have come to love this city already. It is the perfect size, big enough so that there will always be things to do, but small enough so that people are still friendly and everything is easily accessible and it is located right between two lakes.
Pete was trying to take a picture of me and the Capitol Building but some homeless dude wanted to sell me a bus pass
We were supposed to go sailing but it was to windy so we (from left: Brad, Me, Pete and Louise) just had Mimosas by the lake all afternoon in stead
Many days have not gone by without us playing the magical game of beer pong. The Scandinavians have really surprised the local with some good games but we're still not consistent enough... (Me and Dustin playing, ed. note: he is not Scandinavian)
Last Saturday we hosted what was hopefully the first of many Viking dinners at the Viking House. After a slow start the party really got going and everybody seemed to be having a good time. Present were Vikings who have not yet been on there scholarship experience, vikings that are on it now and vikings from previous years, so it was a very good mix of old and new.
School will start this Wednesday and I am really looking forward to that almost as much as to the first American football game on Saturday, GO BADGERS
Until next time,
/Patrik
For the most part the days have been filled with getting to know new people and seeing new places. I must say that, over the past two weeks, I have come to love this city already. It is the perfect size, big enough so that there will always be things to do, but small enough so that people are still friendly and everything is easily accessible and it is located right between two lakes.
Pete was trying to take a picture of me and the Capitol Building but some homeless dude wanted to sell me a bus pass
We were supposed to go sailing but it was to windy so we (from left: Brad, Me, Pete and Louise) just had Mimosas by the lake all afternoon in stead
Many days have not gone by without us playing the magical game of beer pong. The Scandinavians have really surprised the local with some good games but we're still not consistent enough... (Me and Dustin playing, ed. note: he is not Scandinavian)
Last Saturday we hosted what was hopefully the first of many Viking dinners at the Viking House. After a slow start the party really got going and everybody seemed to be having a good time. Present were Vikings who have not yet been on there scholarship experience, vikings that are on it now and vikings from previous years, so it was a very good mix of old and new.
School will start this Wednesday and I am really looking forward to that almost as much as to the first American football game on Saturday, GO BADGERS
Until next time,
/Patrik
Friday, August 21, 2009
My first days in Madison
I wasn't sure about starting a blog about my year in the US but it seems like a good way of giving people back home and other Vikings an idea of what I'm doing over here. I'm going to try to post as often as possible, at least every two weeks and I will also try to add pictures (click them to see bigger versions). So here goes nothing.
I arrived in the US on August the 18th after a somewhat interesting journey that started early morning Helsinki time. I flew through London/Heathrow and landed at O'Hare in Chicago about an hour late at around 3 p.m. local time. Upon entering the customs area I understood that I was not going to make the bus that I had planned on taking to Madison because the lines were extremely long. After waiting in line for about 90 minutes and finally reaching a Customs officer it became clear that I had forgotten an important form back at home. So in to a room were a Homeland Security officer interviewed me and after first telling I probably need to fly back to Finland helped me sort things out. I arrived in Madison at about 8.30 p.m. and waiting for me was the Finnish summer viking Tuija along with two local vikings, Pete and Dustin. They had to introduce me to the best spot to grab a beer at in Madison right a way so we went to the Memorial Union terrace for a few beers.
My room
On Wednesday the 19th my fellow viking Eskil arrived from Norway and since it was Tuijas last day in Madison we of course had to through an impromptu party at the beautiful Viking House. Before the party it self we enjoyed a healthy American dinner in the form om the two largest pizzas I've ever seen. All the aforementioned vikings plus another Pete (Helsinki viking, spring 2009) and Weldon took part in a party that left none of the attending vikings' throats dry. We also got the play the national sport of the US, beer pong.
Tuija, Me and Eskil
Me outside Bascom hall chilling with Abe
On Thursday me and Eskil set out to fix some practical thing such as student id:s, car ownership papers, car insurance and bank accounts, which brings me to the warmest welcome I've ever received to a new place of residence. Eskil and I walked in to the UW Credit Union to get Eskils bank account set up thinking we were just going to experience pretty much nothing spectacular. But how wrong we were. While Eskil was sitting at a desk getting helped and yours truly was surfing the internet on one of the banks free internet stations the bank got robbed. The funny thing is that we didn't notice this until a few minutes after it had happened when police officers started flooding the bank, taking all the employees in to a back room and locking the doors. Most customers had already left before this and all of a sudden two Scandinavians were sitting almost alone inside a bank neither of us had visited before (well actually I had once, the day before to set up my bank account). The Eskil asked one of the employees what had happened and she whispered "we just got robbed". Soon after I was being interviewed first by a bank employee and then a police officer who told me that this apparently does not happen everyday in America.
Check out these links to news stories about the robbery:
http://badgerherald.com/news/2009/08/20/uw_credit_union_robb.php
http://www.nbc15.com/news/headlines/53829377.html
After this rather interesting experience we sorted everything regarding our new car out and we are now proud owners of the Viking van.
Cultural experience: Abortion protesters
On Friday Eskil and I decided to take a road trip to Milwaukee but since we had seen some unidentified fluid dripping out of the engine we first had to get it checked out. After finding out that everything was fine with the car we got on the road. It is about an hour long ride to Milwaukee and it went smoothly. Finally there we set our sights on finding cell-phones. After some thorough research we settled on T-Mobile and some sweet 30 dollar Nokias.
The Miller park were the Brewers play there home games and me in downtown Milwaukee
So that is about what has happened so far. I will be trying to update the blog again sometime next week or when I get my laptop (thanks Pete for letting me borrow your computer).
So until next time!
/Patrik
I arrived in the US on August the 18th after a somewhat interesting journey that started early morning Helsinki time. I flew through London/Heathrow and landed at O'Hare in Chicago about an hour late at around 3 p.m. local time. Upon entering the customs area I understood that I was not going to make the bus that I had planned on taking to Madison because the lines were extremely long. After waiting in line for about 90 minutes and finally reaching a Customs officer it became clear that I had forgotten an important form back at home. So in to a room were a Homeland Security officer interviewed me and after first telling I probably need to fly back to Finland helped me sort things out. I arrived in Madison at about 8.30 p.m. and waiting for me was the Finnish summer viking Tuija along with two local vikings, Pete and Dustin. They had to introduce me to the best spot to grab a beer at in Madison right a way so we went to the Memorial Union terrace for a few beers.
My room
On Wednesday the 19th my fellow viking Eskil arrived from Norway and since it was Tuijas last day in Madison we of course had to through an impromptu party at the beautiful Viking House. Before the party it self we enjoyed a healthy American dinner in the form om the two largest pizzas I've ever seen. All the aforementioned vikings plus another Pete (Helsinki viking, spring 2009) and Weldon took part in a party that left none of the attending vikings' throats dry. We also got the play the national sport of the US, beer pong.
Tuija, Me and Eskil
Me outside Bascom hall chilling with Abe
On Thursday me and Eskil set out to fix some practical thing such as student id:s, car ownership papers, car insurance and bank accounts, which brings me to the warmest welcome I've ever received to a new place of residence. Eskil and I walked in to the UW Credit Union to get Eskils bank account set up thinking we were just going to experience pretty much nothing spectacular. But how wrong we were. While Eskil was sitting at a desk getting helped and yours truly was surfing the internet on one of the banks free internet stations the bank got robbed. The funny thing is that we didn't notice this until a few minutes after it had happened when police officers started flooding the bank, taking all the employees in to a back room and locking the doors. Most customers had already left before this and all of a sudden two Scandinavians were sitting almost alone inside a bank neither of us had visited before (well actually I had once, the day before to set up my bank account). The Eskil asked one of the employees what had happened and she whispered "we just got robbed". Soon after I was being interviewed first by a bank employee and then a police officer who told me that this apparently does not happen everyday in America.
Check out these links to news stories about the robbery:
http://badgerherald.com/ne
http://www.nbc15.com/news/
After this rather interesting experience we sorted everything regarding our new car out and we are now proud owners of the Viking van.
Cultural experience: Abortion protesters
On Friday Eskil and I decided to take a road trip to Milwaukee but since we had seen some unidentified fluid dripping out of the engine we first had to get it checked out. After finding out that everything was fine with the car we got on the road. It is about an hour long ride to Milwaukee and it went smoothly. Finally there we set our sights on finding cell-phones. After some thorough research we settled on T-Mobile and some sweet 30 dollar Nokias.
The Miller park were the Brewers play there home games and me in downtown Milwaukee
So that is about what has happened so far. I will be trying to update the blog again sometime next week or when I get my laptop (thanks Pete for letting me borrow your computer).
So until next time!
/Patrik
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