my last day of International Relations

So get this: my International Relations course was only half a semester long (same amount of course hours though because it was twice as long as the rest of my classes... and added to that he often ran 45 minutes over- and the class was supposed to end at six- so sometimes I wasn't getting home to 8:15). And today was the last day. Now don't get me wrong, the class wasn't that bad... I just think that there was a cultural difference between how American teachers teach and how Swedish Teachers teach. It meant that at times there were crossed wires and miss communications. And well, the subject matter could have been presented in a more interesting way. But the class itself was informative, and the evaluations were papers, so I'm pretty happy, because that's my preferred method of learning.

Anyway, with the exception of a final paper, the class is done, which means I now only have three classes, that happen mostly in the mornings. It's actually quite exciting, because I'll have my afternoons entirely FREE! *dreams of going to museums dance in my head* And my course load is going to drop considerably now. It was really hard to keep up with all the reading with the class moving at double pace, but now that it's done I'm quite happy. It also means I'll be able to take advantage of the sunlight more often!

I had a particular Swedish observation I wanted to point out... AH!

So big news in one of the local papers today... a new cafe opened in Södermalm (I think that's how it's spelled), or near there. It has entirely white walls, and it's really bright in there. Apparently the lights are special ones that simulate sunlight. See, many Swedes go to have light therapy during the winter to counteract seasonal depression, 'cause it gets dark here (the sun's been going down just after five now... or somewhere close to there). Well, this guy had it really bad, and decided to invest in his own lights. Well, then he thought of how nice it would be if people could go to a place where they normally spent time to get the doses of light, without having to spend time out of their day going and just sitting in the light.

Thus, this cafe is born.

I think even if I have to pay a cover charge it might be worth it to go once a week. I'm starting to get really nervous about this whole dark thing. Although, I think the Swedish version of Daylight Savings Time is starting to come up, so I'm looking forward to that a bit.

In other news, Halloween is coming up in the US, and it is greatly saddening to me that I'm not there for it, because it's one of my favorite holidays. I know the precise costume I would use though... involving hot glue guns, feathers and leaves. *evil grin* I'm debating if I want to do that here, or just pay a smaller tribute to Halloween in Sweden. The Swedes might not take my attempt at American Pride in stride, and I'm afraid there's not as many crazy harmless people as there seem to be in other cities. I would actually attract attention dressing wired, where in other American cities it would just be like, eh!

My last and final thing- I've noticed wandering around the city occasionally these knit or crochet... objects wrapped around lamp posts or other places. Finally, I took a close look at one, realized there was a tag that went to a blog. This neat a frivolous (yet in a serious way) site is about knit graffiti. I have to say, I might be in love. Check it out: Masquerade.

Feeling like a fish in a fishbowl

So today in International Relations we were debating World Poverty, and our obligations as moral citizens on what we have to do about it. We were looking at two arguments, and one of them argued that we should give as much time and money as we can give, and keep on giving, until we come to a moral consequence that is of equal or greater value to the moral consequence of world hunger. Aka: give until it adversely affects your life.

This argument is oversimplified, but for the purposes of this post it works.

Anyway, we started talking about moral obligation, and somehow we got into Slavery and reparations. The funny thing is, we have one black guy (we're all from the US, by the way) and he was against Slavery reparations, yet there were several whites who were for it. And well, the discussion got heated, with one of the people saying "What, are you calling me a slave driver?" *Blinks* To be fair, he stopped after he said it he stopped and said, "That came out totally wrong." And the whole class laughed.

But the whole time our teacher just watched us, and he had a slightly quizzical expression on his face, as if he didn't quite "get" us Americans (he's Swedish). Now this happens more often than I'm always comfortable with. There are times I swear he just sets us up for these discussions just so he can see how those "crazy ignorant Americans" act. Now, I'm sure that isn't entirely true, but it felt that way.

In other news, both of my papers are in. Now I must begin Studying for my Swedish test coming up soon, and back to working on my proposal.