akberglund

Sorry its been a while. My days here are just not long enough.

The past week has been HOT and HUMID, like 36'C or 96'F however you prefer it. No matter what scale that is warm. I feel so bad for all guys who wears full suits all day. On the metro a few days ago in I stood next to the sweatiest guy (not working out) I have ever seen, he leaned agains a window and when he left sweat was dripping down the glass, he was so miserable and embarrased, poor thing.


Thursday we visited the Indonesian embassy, that was interesting and fun. The pictures above is from that visit.

Work is good.

This morning I went on a 85km or 53 mile bike ride, much needed and my knee felt good. Maybe a shorter but faster ride tomorrow morning.

Today Grace, my roomates and I explored downtown. We went to a quiet and uneventful folkfestival, then a more successful trip to the National American History Museum. Grace Kayla and I then went on to a bbq festival kind of thingy where there was lots of free sampling food and music.

Dad, biked Vatternrundan today, he did well. I'm gonna have to do it one day, although 180 miles on a bike in one day seems pretty far.



Today, as I believe the whole world might have has seen, the Swedish crown princess got married. I spoke to mom, she and neighboor Karin was eating their traditional Surstromming and watching the wedding reception. I am not necessarily a monarchist, but I like princess Victoria. She is down to earth, working on important issues in her job as a diplomat and is marrying a "normal" guy from Bettans hometown. I kind of wished I would have been in Sweden so I could have wittnessed this crazyness today.



Also, the events I went on on Thursday was really interesting, heartbreaking and inspiring again. As was the second gathering about the FGM issue. It is hard to understand how so many horrible things can go on in the world. I do however belive that everyone is good in nature and none of these things are going on because people are internally cruel, it is traditions and culture who guide much beahvior and in many cases, one would be rejeced from their society if they would not participate (even if the whole society secretely might be agianst whats going on).

The whole appartment went out last night. Coolest thing that happened was the "fit bar" named funxion, all the drinks were supposedly heathly and included only fresh ingredients and the "finest"alcohol. I tried a watermelon, ginger, cinnamon drink. Interestin and refreshing.

Today I spent most of the day trying to summarize some African court cases regarding the inheritance of land by a widow when her husband dies. It was interesting, and the first case and a half went pretty smoothly, it was written on computer, then the challenge started. The judgment that the court had ruled and the basis for it was written by hand and copied. It might have been the worst handwriting I have ever seen (except for the next case that I might try after this one, but that one might be impossible). By the end of the day I was pretty good and, I think I have figured out about 75% of the words, but in order to fully understand I need all of them. Its like a crossword/wordfind.


Yesterday I attended a conference on Islamic femenism, it was represenattives from many Islamic countries (Morcco, Iran, Tunis, Egypt and Turkey to name a few) who talked about womens loss and gains of status in their respective countries. It was super interesting and I learned a lot. I wish I had time to summarize all notes. One example, before some quite recent reforms in Turkey a man could get away with rape if he married the victim!!!! An important discussion was of the importance of changing the status of women through local governments, through Islam and by supporting Islamic/ Arabic women AND men working for equal rights. I learned so much and it was very interesting being at a conference full of scolars/professors and interns.


Tomorrow I am hopefully going to a shorter conference where two Afghani women currently working in the Afghani government are speaking. After work I am attending a lecture held by Amnesty International where a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo is speaking about victims of sexual violence.


The porch at home in Sweden. I like it here but one thing I miss is having summer dinners with the family on the porch.

I am really struggeling with not having training as my first priority anymore, and I am trying to get at least a short but fast run + some core in most days, however this is a once in a lifetime 10 week experience and I am sure that after 19 years if skiing, I will be back in action quite fast if I want to.

Pappa,  I just realized that I have no idea wheter have you done vatternrundan yet or if it is this coming weekend?

We have to do a civil engagement project while we are in DC. There is a project on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) put on by one of the International Affairs advisors that I have decided to do. Today the practice is illegal in the United States, however, it is still not illegal to transport minor girls abroad and have it done there. We are trying to convince congress to pass a part of The Girls protection act that makes this illegal, an act proposed by two congressmen. We are about 30 students working on this at the moment and I think this will be very interesting and engaging to me. We watch a movie about it last Friday. I volunteered to be one of the organizers for this project.

Yesterday, my whole suit slept in, then Kelli (one of my roommates) and I took the Metro downtown to explore the city. We were tourists for a day and looked at many of the monuments and the White house. Then at night we met up with our roommate Kayla and went to Dupont Circle and watched the pride parade, a very interesting and happy event.

Me in front of the White house




The Washington monument




WW2 memorial looking over the reflection pool towards Lincoln memorial.




I like this picture, it is at the WW2 memorial, water can be pretty.




Lincoln memorial




Lots of people at the pride parade

 Me and roomates Kelli and Kayla out for dinner.

After sleeping in this morning, I went for a 2 hour bike ride in what apperently is the biggest in-city park in the US; it goes by just a 5 minute bike from my apartment. I met a nice biker who showed me the places to go. I went pretty hard, and it felt so good to be moving.  After lunch, Kelli and I relaxed by the pool and worked on out tans for a while before I got into homework mode.

Work is going well, yesterday Grace (the other intern) and I researched for possible future grants.  This morning we started working on updating the membership list. There are currently over 4,000 IAWJ members worldwide!

When going to lunch I got yelled at in the overcrowded elevator by a lady who accused me of standing in her way and obstructing her view, she kept yelling even after I said I was sorry and that I hadn't realized that I had done anything wrong.  It was a crowded elevator for Christ sakes!  Thankfully, there was also a very nice guy on the elevator, who stood up for me saying that I obviously hadn't purposely done anything to offend her, and that I had done nothing wrong.

This afternoon we had a TWC program event at the Egyptian Embassy where Amr Ramadan, Deputy Chief of Mission (the guy right below the Ambassador) spoke to us. It was super interesting! He spoke about Egyptian history and their relations with the US. Other Issues that were brought up were terrorism, the Gaza conflict and others. It was super interesting.

This is at the embassy with some new friends and DCM Ramadan.

After work I went for a short but fast run, it feels great to work out, thanks Ingy for motivating me. At my run I bumped into a road full of ROADBIKERS, I happened to run by some men who were fixing a flat and they told me about the Potomac Peddlers, a DC area bike club who ride several times a week both weekends and weeknights. YAY!

Today was first day at work, it seems cool. A very small office, with just a few but very nice people. Today I mostly studied international law to get some more background before I can do the real thing.
At night I went to the Human Rights Class, we basicly covered International law there as well, but it seems interesting.

Here are some pics of the appartment.

Kitchen

My bedroom and bathroom in back

Living/diningroom

Dinig/Livingroom

View straight down from the balcony (20th floor)

Thanks for comments people, looks like I'll be blogging in English =)


As I was getting ready for the intro day this morning I realized that it will take me a while to get used to getting ready like youre supposed to in a city. I got on the subway and it was pretty weirde, here I was on a subway, overcrowded with people, and it was dead silent. No one said a word. Not like in a small town like Marquette and Solleftea.

Me and 2 of my roommates found the Washington Center building (that opened just a few weeks ago) and headed in to orientation.  Before lunch we weredivided into our programs, so I met with my fellow  international affairs people and advisors. Everyone seemed cool and we were told that our program introduction was at the newseum(news museum).

So we all headed to the Union station for lunch, and then on to the newseum. We got free tickets and went over our intro real quick, then toured the museum. It was pretty cool. They had:

• A big part of the Berlin wall
• A good view of the Capitol building
• The top of one of the World trade center buildings, and the news papers front pages from all over the word from 9/11
• A freedom of the press map with the ranking of press freedom around the world. Sweden was one of 4 countries with the lowest score.
• An electronic thing where you could see the front page of 350 of today’s newspaper around the world. There were 2 from Sweden, Expressen and SUNDSVALLS TIDNING, haha, weird to see Kjell Lonna on a Museum in DC.
• An awesome part where top journalistic photos from each year since the 50’s were presented. Relly inspiring.

 


The Capitol from the top of the Newseum (then the batteries in my little camera died, I'll try to take pics soon)


Then I did a somewhat crazy trip to a target I had heard of so now I have a pillow. Thats good because I'm getting up to run at 6.15 tomorrow. Then the real thing starts, I have to be at work at 9. I hope I can find it.

As my DC adventure is starting, I am restarting my blog for the summer. The only purpose of my blogging is so that curious family and friends can read and follow what I am up to. I am considering blogging in English over the summer since I believe there are some friends who would like to follow the blog that don’t speak Swedish?! I also believe that my Swedes would still understand. But this would only be worth it if my English speaking friends would actually visit the blog. Please post a comment/contact me so I know if it is a good idea.

I left Marquette this morning. Four years of undergraduate studies are over, and I have had the time of my life. What an adventure it has been. I am so lucky I got the chance to come over here to combine school with skiing. I still remember the day I stepped out of the plane in Marquette, and how nervous and curious I was. Little did I know what wonderful place I had gotten to and what amazing people I would meet, and how I would make memories and friends that I today know will stay with me throughout my whole life. Saying goodbye was very difficult, but I have a feeling I will be back quite soon. 

Tomorrow is an introduction day at the Washington Center and Tuesday is my first day as an int
ern at the IAWJ International Association of Women’s Judges). I will also take a class in International Human Rights through the Washington Center, do a civic engagement project (ideas anyone), and make an academic portfolio. The Washington Center also weekly presents speakers/visits for us and I believe I am going to the Egyptian Embassy on Thursday.

I have met my roommates and gotten to my apartment today, both apartment and roommates are really nice, I don’t have a blanket or a pillow however but I am planning on taking care of that tomorrow.

Also I got a niceamera from my family for graduation, something I always dreamt of having.I am trying to figure the camera out, still lots to learn but SO FUN.

Helgen som var tillbringades i Duluth, Minnesota for att Christina och Jakes skulle gifta sig. Vi var ett stort gang som bodde bra i ett stort hus. Jag var en av 6 bridesmades, det var skoj att ga pa ett amerikanskt brollop, vigseln var pa en strand, jatte vackert.

Jag fick en kamera i Examenspresent, sa har kommer lite bilder fran brollopet tagna med den nya kameran.



Brudens Bukett

Examenshelgen var lyckad, roligast var besoket av familjen. Examenproceduren var ganska lang, men skoj att vara med om. Pa eftermiddagen hade vi gradupaloza, med softboll, BBQ och Ol. Trevligt.







Dagen efter graduation for hela familjen till Chicago for nagra dagars semester, ocksa mycet trevligt. Jag inhandlade en kostym (kavaj, byxor, kjol och klanning) for att forbereda mig infor DC, vi at god mat, firade mammas fodelsedag och gick pa slutspels hockey Chicago Blackhawks vs Vancover Canucks.