Beginning to Explore

On Saturday, I rented a bicycle and went downtown to Trosso. I managed to find the youth hostel where many of the other MSLS people in town are staying, although it was locked up the first few times I went by there. I also found an ATM and was able to withdraw some money from my account at home. It was a relief that there were no difficulties with the process, since otherwise I would have run the risk of running out of cash before I could open a bank account and get money transferred here.

The town is very picturesque and fronts on the water in many places. The architecture is interesting and buildings are painted in attractive pale colors. Everything is very clean here, it is rare to see any kind of trash or debris on the streets. Perhaps that is why it is somewhat shocking to see grafitti on the sides of buildings and walls... not something one would even notice in many cities but here it looks out of place.

I took a bus up to the campus (Hogskola Grasvik), hoping to sign in, but no one was there on Saturday and the buildings were locked. Since I was there, I wandered around a bit and took some photos. The campus is not very big but seems quite nice, although like college campuses everywhere there is a lot of construction going on.

I spent much of the rest of the day getting my internet working... I needed to update the drivers for the wireless reciever that I use with my laptop, but I couldn't do this without already being online! Finally I asked the extremely nice Swedish girl at the campground reception desk for help, and she let me use their computer to download the file.

Once I was finally online I saw that Rebecca Dahl had organized a cookout for incoming MSLS students, so I walked down to Trosso and met up with Matt, Spud and Lea. I also met Kati Thompson who had just come from Australia and was sharing a room with them at the Trosso Hostel. Together we walked up to campus and then to a beach just north of there where we found the party. There were about 30 people there, or maybe half of the incoming class. It was great to meet everyone and I really enjoyed hearing about everyones backgrounds and where they are from. I stayed until about fairly late and then had to walk all the way back to Dragso... about an hour and 20 minutes in all. In total I probably walked 10 or 12 miles yesterday.