The Beginning: from STDs to Sour Milk!

It's about 10:30pm here in Uppsala and I've officially been overseas for 5 days!! I must admit these have been some of the most terrifying and exciting days at the same time. I'm living in what they call 'dorms,' however the living situation is way different from dorm life back at CU. First of all, my building is  called Rackarbergsgatan (I know, quite the mouthful!), so anytime someone asks what building I'm in its a struggle to pronounce! I live in a corridor with 4 other rooms, but at this point I've only met one other girl in the corridor and she's originally from Sweden. Overall my dorm is a little lonely at the moment, so I spend most of my time on campus or in town where people actually exist haha.

Uppsala's campus is very different from CU. Instead of having all the class buildings and dorms in one central location, the town of Uppsala itself is the campus. So all the school's buildings are spread throughout the town. I'm pretty happy with the location of my dorm though because it's centrally located to a lot of the class buildings and the main part of town!

Uppsala is also very different in that I'm only taking one class at a time. On top of that, I only have the class for a couple hours, 3 days a week! So there's tons of free time which naturally means sleeping in!! (that is if I ever get rid of this jet lag! waking up at 4am every night since I've been here is getting a little old...) Overall, a very different school environment. But that's why I'm studying abroad in the first place, right??

The school definitely requires you to be more independent and does not hold your hand through the adjustment process, so I ended up missing the first hour-in-a-half of the first day of class on Monday. Let's just say direct communication from the university is not its strong point haha. 

Later on Monday, we had our exchange student orientation where we learned all about the basics of Uppsala. One of the first things they told us is how prominent STDs are throughout the town, specifically Chlamydia! Basically my first impression of Swedish boys is that they drink a TON and just wanna get in your pants (not exactly that different from American boys haha!)

They also explained to us how introverted Swedish people tend to be...and believe me they weren't kidding. Your typical Swede is very non-confrontational and will usually only talk to you if you say something to them first. And this only applies if you ask them more than just a yes or no question. Otherwise, they answer you with a direct yes or no and then just stare at you awkwardly. I personally find it somewhat humorous because the main bulk of the international population here come from either America, Canada, or Australia, all of which breed very outspoken and energetic personalities!

My first trip to the grocery store was an adventure in itself. I bought what I thought was water...and was not. Learned pretty quick that carbonated water is very popular over here and its actually quite difficult to find regular bottled water. I also bought what I thought was milk...and most definitely was not! Apparently 'sour' milk is very popular over here and I can say from personal experience that it does not make a good bowl of cereal! It's much thicker than regular milk and smells real funky. Also, their mayonnaise comes in a tube...need I say more??

Lots more to tell but I think this is long enough for now...promise I'll post pics very soon!