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A week before Easter, I got a message from my friend Josh. The situation: an empty cottage on Lake Constance (Bodensee) over Easter Weekend. A few days later I booked my ticket. Josh, Dane and I arrived in Hagnau, Germany … Continue reading
I have settled quite well into a routine. Since I last blogged (in December, I know), there haven’t been any big changes in life. The last few months have been a moderate but consistent mental transition back to working full time. It was fun to be a student again for 25 months but now I can say that I’m happy to be working.
My first couple of months at work involved a lot of learning. The research projects I work with deal with energy use from a social science perspective, which is different from my master’s thesis (which was about food) and my old job (which had to do with energy use, but as an engineer). My work is also predominantly in Swedish and that took a bit of adjustment, but I feel quite comfortable with it now.
In the spirit of everyday life (which is also what I study at work), I decided to resurrect my helmet-cam and put together a video of my bike ride to work. Check it out!
I recorded this video last week, my fourth attempt over the course of two weeks. (The first three attempts failed due to camera settings, battery dying and shakiness.) It looks a bit spring-like there but the next day it snowed again…and it will snow again tomorrow too. Spring is a while away.
Mom has mentioned that people have been asking my blog so, to all my fans, sorry! My goal from now on is to write once a month. Inspiration (such a questions about life in Sweden) are always welcome in the comments or by email! (Or through Mom.)
November was probably my busiest month since I moved to Linköping. I’ve been working…full-time!
Life moved quickly in October. In two weeks I went from finalizing my master’s thesis to working full-time at the university as a research assistant. I’m part of a five-year project about reducing energy use in rental apartments. It’s a cooperation between Linköping University and Stångåstaden, the municipal housing company that owns about 60% of the apartments in Linköping.
As a research assistant, I am involved in different stages of several projects. My main focus now is interviewing tenants who answered a survey about energy use last winter. We are interviewing them to find out more about how they use energy at home and to come up with new ideas about how to save energy. Other projects I’ve been working with are analyzing some of the data from last year’s survey and preparing a similar survey for all students living in student housing, which we’ll send out in January.
Working at the university is a lot different than studying. For starters, I have my very own office. It’s not big or fancy and my computer is extremely old, but it’s my own and it means that I don’t have to carry my life in my backpack every day. It feels luxurious.
The atmosphere at the university is pretty good. I work in the Department of Thematic Studies (which also ran my master’s program), in the unit for Technology and Social Change. Our unit has its own “fika room” (break room) where everyone meets twice a day, and there’s a lunch room for the whole department where I see some of my old teachers and other friends who work in different units.
In other news, I also moved out of student housing into my very own apartment. I will show it off once my internet finally gets connected!
