hej hej

Hej! Finally enough exciting things have happened in my life for me to write a blog entry about them. It's not that life has been boring, but it just hasn't been fun and exciting in the sense that you would want to read about it at all. Given we've cooked some very good dinners and had some very fun (and tiring) nights out dancing, but I'm not sure an audience would be quite captivated by stories of Rice Risotto and techno music. Anywho, here's a highlight of the more interesting things that have happened lately:

Swedish Elite Hockey: A group of us finally got our act together and went to a Swedish Elite League Hockey game. The game was great - I'm going through hockey withdrawals - but the arena was even better. In Stockholm, they play in the "Globe" arena, which is this massive, round, globe-like structure, which is incredible. (Check it out on wikipedia.) I had a fun night of watching/explaining hockey - many of the people we were with had never seen a game - and even though there were some crazy Swedish hockey fans, it still didn't compare to the "see ya a**hole" atmosphere of the Mullins Center during UMass Hockey games.

Halloween: Although Halloween isn't celebrated to the extent that it is back home, people here will take any excuse to dress up and party, so Halloween gave them that option. We (Me, Ella & Jodie from Australia, Hannah from Colorado, and Karin from the Netherlands) dressed up as M&Ms, which was a cute but easy costume. I was the green M&M and my slogan was (yes, we looked them up) "I melt for no one." I'm still debating whether it suits me.

Jon Barron: Jon Barron (JB), my RA from freshman year and his friend Kyle came to stay for a night during their Scandinavian adventure week. Although it was a short-lived visit, it was great to see a face from home, especially one that I haven't seen since March. It was nice to reminisce about old memories - freshman year seems SO long ago already - and just laugh about some of the crazy stories we have.

Three Courses Down, One to Go: This past Thursday marked the end of my Organizations in a Global Society course. We had a course conference where each group presented about our paper (analyzing a corporation in the current organizational environment) and then commented/asked questions on another group's paper. Ella (Australia) and I presented for our group on Coca-Cola, and it went quite well. Although it's always great to finish a course, I will miss this one. I learned a lot, especially about a different way of learning. I enjoyed the mix of lectures and seminars where we primarily discussed the material at hand instead of being told about it. It's definitely an experience that I won't forget too soon.

KPMG: This past Friday I was lucky enough to be able to visit the KPMG office in Stockholm (I will be working for KPMG this summer). I was hosted by a Senior Manager in the Stockholm office and one of his colleagues who attended Uppsala university, and it was a great experience. I was able to learn about not only the Swedish practice, but the International practice as well. Needless to say, the fact that KPMG has offices in so many locations and the prospect of being able to work almost anywhere is definitely a highlight of working for them.


Well, that's about all the exciting-ness that has happened recently. I leave for Dublin on this coming Sunday, so after that I should have some more exciting stories to re-lay. I hope that all is well back home!

Love,
Amanda