It's Been a While 9/12/07

Hello. Sorry that it's been so long since I last blogged, but the new hotel in Sweden didn't have internet access and I just started the German culture class, which severely limits my available internet time. First: Sweden.

Absolutely loved it. On Friday we found the new hotel and then went to the Nationalmusseum, which was mostly an art museum. They had an excellent collection (I was just generally impressed, but Amanda, who has taken classes on such things, was really impressed with the diversity of the collection). It was pretty exciting. Then we got lasagne for dinner and walked around for a while. The new hotel was much, much nicer than the Hostel, even though it was not on a boat. It even had a television, which was good because I have very limited access to that as well. We watched BBC a lot.

On Saturday we went to the Nobel Prize Museum, which I thought was amazing because one of the laureates that they did a video portrait of was Barbara McClintock, who we read about in my Women in Biology class. She won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for her work with 'Jumping Genes' in Maize. That made me happy. Random Trivia. Fewer than 40 women have won the Nobel Prize, and only one of them won twice. Guess who, and which prize? Marie Curie for Physics and then for Chemistry. Did you guess that? Bet not... After that we went to the Royal Palace to see the crowned jewels and the antiqities etc. Very cool. I got carded for the first time ever and had to show my passport. It was very exciting. Sadly, the computers here are going to shut down in about three minutes, so I have to get off, and can't relay much more now. We did manage to get home though.

Exchange Rates

$1=.72€
€1=$1.38

Dollar is down... that's not good. More later!

Greetings From Sweden! 9/7/07

Hello, hello. We have made it to Sweden. A few valuable tips for future travelers (particularly if any of you are planning on traveling with either of us). First: When you buy train tickets to the airport, make sure that you are going to the correct airport. Strike one for us. Second, when you book rooms in a hostel, make sure that you're booking them for the correct year. Strike two for us. Hey, we're learning, and these are easy mistakes to make.

So, we ended up taking a cab from one airport to the other in Dusseldorf. Not a huge deal, a little expensive, but we saved a lot on the plane tickets, so it could have been worse. We were able to stay at the Hostel for one night (it's very cool... I like boats). Then, we were able to find a hotel not too far away that is actually cheaper than the hostel, by about $10 per night. Success has been ours, clearly, though it was a tad stressful. I'll write more later (like after we find the new hotel).

New Plan! 9/3/07

Alright. It ended up raining just about all weekend, so I wasn't especially sad about not going to Nuremburg. We'll get there, have no fear. I finally met a few of the people in the IUSP program, which is what I'm in. They all seem nice enough. It's all Americans and Canadians. The only other person I've found from the East Coast actually goes to Bridgewater, which is kinda cool. Today is orientation, so we haven't done very much so far. Although they did finally give me a schedule, which I didn't get before because I didn't arrive with everyone else. Schedules are helpful things. We're going to call that a 'First-Movers Disadvantage.' Amanda has run into quite a bit of that as well.

Now I know that everyone is eagerly awaiting details on our upcoming trip to Switzerland. Well, we have had a minor change of plans regarding that. Nothing really huge, we're just not going to Switzerland any more. Instead, we're going to Sweden. They both start with the same two letters-small change. As it turns out, going to Switzerland right now would cost us €275 each for plane tickets and about €35 per night in a hostel. This would be in addition to the train tickets to get from Marburg to Frankfurt. Now that we're going to Stockholm, the plane tickets are €126 each for a round trip, and the hostels are €22 per night. And the hostel is on a ship. It's like a bonus cruise! Well, we weighed the marginal benefits of each, and decided that we like being fiscally responsible people. We will reconsider Switzerland at a later date. As in, when the tickets are cheaper.

So. Before I tell you loyal readers about the exchange rates, I'd like to wish my Dad a happy birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!

$1= €.73; €1=$1.36

$1 = 6.85 Swedish Kronas; 1 Swedish Krona = $.16