It’s been a busy month. After finishing up the projects we were working on in December with our presentations in Malmo and here, I headed down to Barcelona to meet up with Danielle for a few days there before Christmas.
What an incredible city! After spending some time exploring around the Gothic Quarter and Las Ramblas, we picked up the scooter I rented to explore the city a little better. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we spent the evening enjoying some tapas and the lights in the city. We spent the next day seeing some of the famous sites. The Sagrada Familia is an incredible cathedral, and it was fascinating to see some great wonder like that still under construction. We spent the next day exploring the closer vicinity, and checked out the Picasso museum, which was incredible as well. I particularly enjoyed the part showing how many paintings he could make out of just one scene. The next day we headed out to the Gaudi Park, and picnicked at the top of the hill overlooking the city. A little rainstorm came in, so we headed down and hopped back on the scooter. By the time we were back to the hotel, we were in the middle of a downpour, and dripping, but laughing it off.
We arrived home (a day late thanks to a bit of a train mishap and missing the flight) just in time to catch the end of Christmas dinner here at my house. We spent the next few days enjoying the frozen land of Karlskrona and hanging out with my wonderful friends from here.
After Danielle left, we hit the ground running hard again for classes. After finals, we moved on to full time thesis mode, and I’m excited at the direction ours is taking. We work on our thesis project in groups of 3, and we’re looking at electronic waste in developing nations and how it can be addressed on the ground there, as well as in the design of new electronics.
As a part of our thesis, we’ve been given the very exciting opportunity of working with the National University of Rwanda on a project funded by the Swedish International Development Agency. We’ll be heading down to Butare, Rwanda on March 20th for a site visit and to work with NUR staff to start setting up a pilot project for e-waste management. We’re all looking forward to seeing a new place, working with some new people, and some warm weather, as well as getting to practice some of the skills we've learned through the training here from the program and from Art of Hosting. (see the next few pictures for the gorgeous and freezing last few weeks we've had)
But I’ve made sure to be enjoying myself here in Sweden as well. A group of us went cross country skiing a few weeks ago, and then made it to the local downhill slope the weekend before last. That sure was an experience! One small hill serviced by a rope tow was all it was, but it kept us entertained all day long, and it felt good just to be out there.
And for the hockey match to finish the Olympics, we had a good group over to watch the game. The mostly Canadian crowd was quite happy with the outcome.
Anyways, I’ll do my best to keep this more up to date, and let you all know how the progress is coming on the Rwanda project.
I'll post a link to some Picasa albums with more pictures from Barcelona and Sweden shortly.
Ciao for now,
Wyeth
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