My first few days here

Hey all,

I have safely been in Sweden for a frew days, and I'm already loving it here!  The city I live in,

 Uppsala, is very beautiful.  The buildings seem to all be yellow or pink, and it makes everything look picturesque and sweet.  The university buildings are just as pretty as all the town buildings, and it's sometimes hard to tell where a university building is if it is unmarked.  Just a few blocks away from my housing, there is a river (in the picture) than runs through the city.  The river looks so pretty at night because the buildings and trees around it are all lit up.

For the past couple of days I've just been settling in.  It hasn't been hard to get used t

o the weather because it's actually been a lot warmer here than it's been in Chicago!  As for the daylight, I really don't notice a significant difference between here and Chicago, either.  The biggest struggle so far has been food shopping.  I just have to follow all of the pictures to know what I'm buying!  When it comes to cooking the food following the directions, I have to go down the hall and ask some people if they have any idea!

The people in my housing are all very friendly.  I live in a dormitory/ apartment type setting with about 60 or so other international students.  So far I've befriended several French people and people from Morrocco, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, England, and Mexico.  It's great to talk to a lot of the other students because many of them have already been here a semester, so they know the "ins and outs" of a lot of things here.

Since my class has not started yet (it starts Wednesday), I've been doing a lot of the International Office orientation activities.  Most of the activities include looking at different nations.  Nations here are like clubs that contain a restaurant, pub, library, sports center, music equipment and stages, and more.  All students who go to this university are required to join a nation, so it's a very big deal to figure out which of the 13 nations is most fitting for a person.  So far I've been to several nations for a variety of things like table tennis, fika (the swedish midday snack/dessert), open mic night.  Tonight I'm going to a karaoke night, but I plan on watching only!!

I hope everyone has been well!!

Summary of my pictures:

1- The river that runs through Uppsala

2- One of the entrances to the university's botanical gardens

3- Part of the beautiful cathedral, Domkyrka, located in my town center