ユリアのブログ: I miss Sweden.

Its been just over a year since I started my 3 months research project (ERASMUS) in Uppsala, Sweden, and I miss it alot. From time to time I'll think about the little town, the beautiful scenery, the Biomedical center (BMC) of the university, how I used to bike around the town and to university, shopping at ICA, buying jordgubbar (strawberries) from stands when they came into season, visiting IKEA in its origin country where everyone seems unable to escape from having at least a few IKEA items in their house, being where Carl Linneas was once (his house, garden), frequent fikas in university and around town, feeling lucky to have great tasting water just out of the tap, having a nice big room with my own toilet for rent cheaper than London's with a view, the pretty cemetery near halls whose trees surprisingly revealed themselves to be cherry blossom trees in spring, getting addicted to eating kanelbullar (cinnamon rolls), kladdkaka and even their frozen salmon tastes particularly flavourful. The dinners where they burst into song randomly and have table competitions and singing on chairs.

Awesome supervisors and great project results giving me an 80%(!) and such an easy time presenting and writing the report because it was fun and not mundane at all. Not to mention the department I was in was great fun with really nice mix of people and beautiful plants lining the hallway and a homely feel. I like how everyone brings their own lunch and heat them up on one of the many, many microwaves available. I still have my sturdy red IKEA lunchbox. The canteen food is awesome compared to LSOP's. Even spending time in the lab was fun cause I liked what I was doing (biotech and PCR), and listening to the radio that has the same few songs which grew on me.

The times we spent exploring town, visiting the lake, eating at every single Indian restaurant in the town (there were only 3). Going to the nations and their club nights. So many nations with their own houses scattered around town like fraternities in the US which UCL lacks (london space constraints...). They hire students to work there and they prepare awesome brunches on certain days. Awesome festivals like VALBORG DAY, which was massive and surreal cause the whole town's out and celebrating. I miss the pretty river and cathedral, we even went down the river in a boating race which ended in epic fail when we clung/got stuck on the safety rope adjacent to the river flow for what seemed like an eternity. Meeting all sorts of awesome people from different countries, watching eurovision and being excited about it (Sweden won this year). The witnessing the amazingly transition from winter to spring with just enough snow and cold days while escaping the harsh winter. I still miss biking in the bike friendly town. There's no overcrowding, intense competition, the standard of living is high, and English gets you by well enough. I went with good friends, and met more great ones who brought us around.

Of course sometimes my memory fails, such as when friends from Sweden came to visit, I realized I forgot even how to say Yes, No, Hi, Bye, Thank you in Swedish then.

Its just a little rant i had to write because I have such a great wave of nostalgia right now, which was brought about when I saw videos I recorded of the place when clearing out my camera. There is nothing like videos to jot memories compared to photos. We might not look at videos as often, but they tell a great deal more. With the sounds recorded, closing your eyes can transport you back there. I've traveled to many countries during these few years, but there is nothing like falling in love with a place after you've lived there for a while (though arguably I lived during its best time/season). I don't know if I liked London more or less in the first few months I was here. Perhaps not as much actually, though it still is a pretty awesome well-rounded city.

Come to think of it, I'll be graduating in 2-3months time and saying goodbye to a life I've known for 4 years to return to Singapore. I guess I would be even more nostalgic and sad then now. Flying so often in the past few years became something I got used to (yadda yadda 14hours flight..feels as routine as taking a long bus trip), and to think it was something my younger self would never imagine doing since we rarely go on long haul trips. Studying overseas has given me so many memories, so many experiences, so much independence. I've probably learnt more than I would have if I stayed in Singapore. It was indeed a life changing experience I'm very greatful for. Thinking back I wished I had chronicled alot more of my time overseas so that if I ever forget I can come back to the memories which are only as existent as the lifespan of your neurons. Ideally I would want to do a photolog to accompany this post, but its a little late now and I'm tired lol. So imma put this off. XD So this is why I didn't have regular postings huh.

I'll end off with a random selection of photos in roughly chronogical order. I'm missing alot of photos which I'm hoping its cause I cut it to my hard drive and not that its lost forever!