Yet another week

Hey everyone!
I apologize that I've really been neglecting this blog lately. Nothing too excited happened in the last week, so I'll blame that partly for the reason why I haven't updated recently. As I wrote before, my courses just started to pick up, and therefore this week I have been in "busy mode." My Organisations in a Global Society is actually quite interesting. We have our first seminar tomorrow where we'll be discussing Global Scientization and the transition from Government to Governance. (I would expand, but in hopes of not putting anyone to sleep, I will refrain...if you are intrigued, just ask and I'll be more than willing to discuss.) It's a masters level course here, so it's quite advanced, and the challenge is intriguing. Hopefully after this I'll have a better perspective on the global environment and the role that future organizations that I will be working in will have to play. My Swedish Politics course on the other hand, is definitely not my favorite. The concepts are pretty simple, but the reading material is very dense. We have to write a memo for next week, comparing an aspect of Swedish Politics to American Politics, which I feel totally lost on. Hopefully this will spark some interest in American Politics that I can carry forward toward the 2008 Presidential election.

But anyway...enough about all of that boring stuff. I'm not really here to learn anyway haha. This Sunday, as part of our Sunday dinner tradition, we had Italian dinner at my corridor, where with a few phone calls home to my mom for advice, I made some pretty delicious lasagna. Regardless of the food, it is a great time to sit and chat with all of the amazing people that I have met here thus far. It still amazes me to sit around the table with people from 5+ different countries and have an incredible conversation about just about anything. As different as all of the cultures are from which we come, there are so many overwhelming similarities that unite all of us. (How sentimental haha...but true.)

Alright, well before I go I'll give you a little more insight into the Swedish culture. I can't believe I forgot to write about this earlier, but it's better late than never. One of the very peculiar things about living in Flogsta, is that every night at 10:00 pm, there is the "flogsta scream." And it is exactly what it sounds like. Every night at 10:00 pm, all of the people of flogsta scream out of their windows for about 5 minutes. It's on of the craziest things I've ever witnessed...night after night. It is pretty cool though - a nice way to let out all of the frustrations that the day has brought. I laugh every time I think about it in another setting though. I can't even imagine the thousands of students in Southwest screaming out of their windows at 10:00 every night, but it would be a pretty cool occurrence. Maybe that'll be what I bring back with me to the States. ;)
Umass administration would love me.

Oh well, that's all for now. I'm off to do a bit more reading that has seemed to consume my life lately. I hope that all is well back home! Let me know how all of you are doing.

Amanda

Oh yeah...something exciting did happen this week. I bought tickets for a Dublin getaway this November to celebrate one of the New Zealanders' birthdays! It's going to be great to spend some more time in Dublin, so I'll keep you all updated on that.