Archive for 2013
For the Sake of the Process
This musician, by all outward appearances devoted to jazz (as opposed to classical or pop) is moved in his soul more often than not by music that is not jazz. How can it be that a jazz piano student enjoys listening to and playing music of the European masters more so than jazz? What am […]
An American in Amsterdam
This is my debut in the Amsterdam café-writing scene. Truth be told, this is my first time in any kind of establishment in Amsterdam, and I have been here for four weeks. Maybe I created an association between spending time in the city with being moderately underwhelming thanks to orientation week. This is not entirely […]
Standing on Kinekulle
Our geology field trip with Mark was a very interesting and enlightening experience. It was amazing to see all of the old rock formations and really put the earths age into perspective. One of the parts that was the most interesting which made it easy to see the history of the area was when the […]
Sheep!
Since I grew up around sheep, I was given the task of chronicling our journey to the sheep farm outside Jönköping. The farm is owned by Karin and Göte Lindström. Göte is the Vice President at the school we were staying at. Their farm is about twenty minutes outside of Jönköping in a lovely countryside starting to […]
Wood, Students, and the Greenest city in Europe. April 17-18
For years if someone wanted to build a building over 3 stories in Sweden, wood was not an option. It was not considered strong enough to safely support such weight. Recently, however, people have changed that. Wood is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than brick or cement. It can also be recycled and is easier to […]
Geology of Southwestern Sweden with Mark Johnson
On April 30th, the group headed two hours west from our dorm in Jönköping to a hostel in Gothenburg. On our afternoon of arrival, we met Mark Johnson, a former professor of Geology at Gustavus. He began teaching at Gustavus in 1985, and moved to Gothenburg in the early 2000s to teach at Gothenburg University. […]
Journey to Växjö, Kalmar and Öland
On the morning of April 15th, we departed from our hotel in Uppsala for a relaxing morning train ride to Växjö. That afternoon, we congregated at the main square before meeting our families, while some of us had fika at a nearby cafe. Matt and I would be spending the next five days with Stefan […]
Hello Hållö!
After a day of exploring the city of Göteborg, we began our first day “out in the field” of Geology with Mark on Tuesday. Mark taught at Gustavus for many years before he moved to Sweden in 2003 and began teaching at the University in Göteborg, and he is now head of his department there. […]
Our first week on the hill – Jönköping
We arrived in Jönköping after a short train ride from Växjö. The first thing we saw through the train windows as we pulled up was the enormous (2nd largest in Sweden) Lake Vättern. Jönköping is situated at the southern tip of the lake, with large hills on each side of the city. It’s actually quite similar to […]
Spring in Paris and Berlin
Over spring break I decided I would hop over to continental Europe to see Paris and Berlin. After spending 12 days in Stockholm, I thought it would give me a great opportunity to compare 3 very different cities. It’s interesting how cities have a character. Each city certainly feels different, but it’s sort of hard […]