The Return from a Long Hiatus...

I'm still alive, not to worry...

Has it really been two months already?? Time is flying by far too fast.... where to even begin?

Firstly, I got married, which is fantastic, of course :) then I went through the nightmare that is the accommodation hunt here in Uppsala, or all of Sweden, for that matter... But we eventually found somewhere by pure luck - a response from an ad a family placed on studentboet.se. A lot of people have had success there so if you're hunting for somewhere, it's a good place to start. Better than blocket.se in my opinion, but since my first place was found through blocket.se, I can't really judge...

Right now I'm crazily busy with college work. It's never ending, unfortunately, or otherwise... (or I would be without things to do, right?). I took Analytical Mechanics & Special Relativity in the first period, a course I should have taken last year but what harm. It was good enough but I felt it wasn't thought through as clearly as it could have been. It was a little bit... messy, for want of a better word. Particularly the Special Relativity section but I enjoyed reading Joeseph Minehan's notes and I learnt that Maxwell's equations are magically and manifestly Lorentz invariant (and how to derive them based on the principle of minimal substitution and demanding Lorentz invariance, which is pretty cool!).

I also took Joe's course on String Theory. Really interesting! Really hard... Despite the fact there were only 3 assignments, they were tough. I'm only finishing it now and even though I don't regret taking it in the slightest (despite having no interest in studying it academically), it soaked up more time and energy than a black hole, (lame) pun fully intended ;) But I would recommend taking it (or his course on General Relativity) if you're interested in that area because he's a really talented lecturer; very enthusiastic and interesting to listen to. And it's fun to see where smart people are trying to combine and progress different areas of Physics. And then compare it with more established theories, like the Standard Model.

Which brings me to Stefan Leupold's course on Hadron & Quark Physics. Pretty challenging, but he's another excellent lecturer so, despite the work, his classes are enjoyable to attend. And the material is so fundamental and the theory (Quantum Chromodynamics) so fascinating, it's a joy to study. So definitely consider those two :) I must say after this course, I have a new found appreciation for the Standard Model, which I gave far too little credit previously. I also have less appreciation for String Theory but that's probably because I didn't understand it very well :P

So that's the gist of what's been going on with me lately, mainly college-stuff and marriage-stuff, so only "stuff" that is exciting to me, really :P but the Nobel lectures should be coming up soon, "sometime in December" where hopefully we'll hear Peter Higgs give a lecture on winning his Nobel Prize :) They're broadcast online so I'll hunt down the link and post it here :)

Edit: I'm trying to fix that header but no luck so far :( The options seem somewhat limited here so I have no idea how it "broke". Thoughts anyone?

Aaaand back to reality!

A new semester has begun and the usual yearly stresses settle in. Courses? Accommodation? Winter? For help in finding accommodation, I recommend a blog post I just came across: http://studyingatuppsala.blogspot.se/2009/09/how-to-get-roof-over-your-head-in.html. It's just a list of different housing companies and sites to check out if you're stuck for somewhere to stay. Have hope! You will find something, and "something" is always good enough for now :) It is really frustrating so I recommend to anyone who either is here or is even thinking of coming here, to create accounts with all the housing companies to collect queue points (köpoäng). Even if you never use them, they're good to have just in case. And scan www.blocket.se a lot. But enough about that, there is plenty of information on accommodation online (you need more perseverance than information), unfortunately.

But about some Physics! This year I should say for anyone who doesn't know (I didn't until recently) is that Uppsala University has changed their timetabling software system. You used to have to go to http://www.schema.uu.se/ but it seems okay now. Anyway, if something goes wrong, that site should have all your timetable provided you input the courses (it's important anyway if you intend to do courses you aren't currently registered for).

A funny thing about that, actually.

According to antagning.se (or universityadmissions.se), I apparently don't meet the requirements for Analytical Mechanics & Special Relativity (Linear Algebra II, Calculus II, etc) and Space Physics (Mechanics III, I think). So, formally, I didn't get accepted to those courses. But I do  meet the requirements for String Theory and Hadron & Quark Physics (courses which you would expect to be more demanding)!

But it's usually not an issue, at least for Physics courses, which don't really fill up. I just have to go to the first lecture and sign up there and it's not a problem. Though there may be some scheduling conflicts because of this but again, those can usually be resolved relatively easily. It was pretty funny though... My guess is that the whole process is automated and is meant to "translate" the requirements from other universities into the Swedish equivalent, but since the naming of courses rests on the whims of the one teaching it, the system can become easily confused.

Before I forget, I finally discovered the lake (Lake Mälaren, the 3rd largest in Sweden) this summer everyone keeps talking about! It's really easy to get there. Go south on Dag Hammarskjöldsväg until you see a bridge over a river - take a right just before that bridge and left at the bustop Mälarvägen. You can also take the no.20 bus there directly from Uppsala centre. It will take 20-30 minutes. Why is it so reveled, you ask?? Well, during summer (or "summer", as my Italian friends like to joke...), it's a great place to swim, sun bathe, hike and cycle around. Then during winter, it freezes over so you can go ice skating on it (which I have never done but definitely doing this winter). So if you're reading this, the forecast is rain this weekend, which pretty much guarantees sun (always do the opposite of the Swedish forecast).

Lastly, I should mention that I will be giving a 20-minute talk on a student's perspective of the Master's programme sometime in September. So if anyone reading this wants to come along (and ask really awkward, mentally challenging and morally ambiguous questions), feel free! I will leave details here when I know more :)

First Time in Uppsala (Part 2) (the much anticipated sequel)

Okay, as I said before, I'll be going over classes, winter, administration and food this time :) So first of all...

• Classes: The wonderful thing about this university and this Master's programme, is the freedom you have to choose whatever it is you want to study. You are generally required to choose a specialisation from the onset, be it Nuclear & Particle Physics (as I did), or Geophysics, Theoretical Physics or Astrophysics. And they then recommend classes within these specialisations. And you can follow it, not follow it, or mix it! Whatever makes you happy :) For your first semester, it's definitely recommended to take Group Theory and Advanced Quantum Mechanics if you haven't studied them before because they cover a lot of things you will need to understand for further courses. One thing that may be a bit of shock to some students (it was for me, anyway!), are the 08:00 lectures (which meant I had to get up at 06:00 during Sweden's famous winter... not fun...!). Also, all lectures are "2 hours" long. I put this in quotes because of the interesting "Academic Quarter" they have in Sweden. Anything academic will typically state a time on the hour, such as 11:00, or 14:00, but this actually means that the lecture will start 11:15 or 14:15. For your typical classes, this means that your "2 hour" class is in reality, 1:30 hr, and goes from 08:15 -> 09:00, fika time!, and 09:15 -> 10:00, which is a little nicer :)  
• Winter: Brace yourself!! ... Okay, maybe that's too dramatic, even from an un-acclimatised Irishman, but they can be pretty damn harsh at times. I actually do like winter quite a lot, but it's really the fact it drags on for so long that makes it so tough. Last year, snow began to fall around the 5th of December and that continued for non-stop for well over a week. The temperature dropped from a cool 8 degrees Celsius to -10 pretty quickly. If you're not familiar with cold winters, then buy a decent winter jacket (approximately 1000 sek), decent winter boots (I bought a pair of Echo winter boots for around 1200 sek but they're awesome-ly warm and comfortable and will certainly last many years), reasonably decent gloves (I bought a basic winter pair for around 200 sek and they were perfect), and a hat (a warm one... whichever makes you happy). After that, just wear layers. If it's particularly cold (one weekend it dropped to -25... I chose not to leave the house that weekend), then just wear a hoodie underneath your jacket. It's really not too bad if you have a pretty good winter jacket and boots. Those are definitely the main ones, though gloves and hat will make a pretty big difference as well. Oh, and it's dark a lot. From 16:00 to 08:00 or 09:00. So prepared to sleep a lot :) The last of the snow disappeared around the first week or two of April and it gradually got warmer and warmer :) 
• Administration: I know some people have had some issues with it but in my experience, it's been fantastic. The only frustrating thing with it is is that so many administrative offices are closed so much of the time! For example, the Migration Board (migrationverket) opens 3 days a week (Monday-Wednesday), for 3 hours a day (12:00-15:00)! But on the up-side, they're usually extremely helpful and competent. Besides the initial things you must to do when first moving here, there aren't that many other reasons to see them, which is maybe why they don't stay open as much... 
• Food: is expensive in Sweden. Probably a good deal more expensive than where you come from. It is of good quality though, though in Uppsala, I found that vegetables and fruit tend to be a little bland. The best way to save money is to avoid the large Swedish Ica stores that are within Uppsala centre (centrum). Those are much dearer than the ones a bit further from the centre (particularly avoid Ica Nära - Ica "Near"). Ica does tend to have nicer brands and their stores are laid out better. They also often have their own butcher so you can buy really good quality, though stupidly expensive, meat. Your best bet is to avoid Ica within town and go to Willys instead. Much of the sameness but much cheaper. Coop is maybe a little cheaper than Ica but usually about the same. City Gross is a huge supermarket out in Boländerna that will have pretty much everything you could want, and is also the cheapest, though the most inconvenient. And there's also Lidl, out in Gottsunda, and ÖoB in Boländerna (it's a cheap everything-store. For home products like kitchenware and body products). What's nice is that there's often a market in Vaksala Torg during the summer, with pretty cheap and tasty fruit and vegetables! Beware though: hg means hectogram, or 100 gram. I saw this and by the scrawled handwriting, figured it to be kg, not hg, leading me to buy a lot of expensive cherries (800 sek worth)... Whoops :)

Anyway, that's it for now :) I promise the next update won't be such a long gap from the previous :)

First Time in Uppsala (Part 1)

Okay, here's a list of things I wish I had known when I first came to Uppsala to make life a little easier. It's quickly becoming much longer than I thought it would be so it's going to have to be split up into several parts. Oh, I thought it might be useful to put in brackets Swedish translations of common words :)

So here it goes...

• Mobile(Cell) Phone/Mobile Broadband: There are 4 main mobile phone networks in Sweden and all of them offer mobile broadband as well. These are: Telia, Telenor, Tele2 (which encompasses Comviq, a prepaid only network) and 3. You'll probably get a free SIM card as part of your Student Starter package so it may be easiest to stick with that for a time. But if you're the kind who wants to pick the best one for themselves, then here's a very quick summary of what I know about them. 
• Telia is the largest network and formerly had a monopoly in Sweden so you can expect the best coverage with them, though in my experience, the coverage has generally been very good with all networks in Sweden.Their  prepaid service is meant to be good but I wasn't particularly impressed with their contract (abonnemang) because it only had 3 options which were expensive and pretty limited in data, minutes and texts. So, I would say they're reliable but not very competitive. 
• Telenor have good rates, good coverage and good offers. They also own Comviq which only offers prepaid packages with lots of different offers depending how much you text or call or use data a month and how much you want to pay. For your free SIM, it'll probably be Comviq as they tend to market heavily towards the student/informal crowd.
• Tele2 I have just joined and they seem alright so far. I seem to have continuously low 4G signal but the speed (hastighet) I'm getting is pretty nice, maybe 16 Mbit :) Their site is also really easy to use if you know some Swedish but if not, they're really helpful in store. There's one in Uppsala Centralstation.
• 3 I have no knowledge or experience with but I know they're pretty new and seem a bit behind other networks in mobile coverage and offers. 
• Personnummer (Personal Identity Number): This is really important to sort out right away! You will use it for absolutely everything in Sweden. It's a 10(12) digit number consisting of your date of birth and 4 other digits unique to you. For example, if your date of birth is 17th June 1998, then your personnumer would be (19)980617-xxxx, where the x's refer to those assigned digits. You will have to go to the tax office (skatteverket) with ID and all the information you have to show you are legally allowed to live and study here in order to get one (they will give you a temporary one to begin with). Unfortunately, I can't help more with this as it depends on the country you're coming from and your purpose here (exchange student, free-mover, etc), but it's reasonably straight-forward, just time consuming (I was there 3 hours in queue... bring a book!).
• Nation/Student Union: There are 13 nations in Uppsala corresponding roughly to the different provinces/counties of Sweden. Historically they represent a time when students had far to travel from their own county or town and weren't able to return home very often. As such, they would naturally become lonely and homesick, so the nations were formed to counteract this where students from the same or similar place could eat local food, drink local beer, converse in their local dialect, and so on. Now, they're just a place to meet other students in their far cheaper pubs and clubs (a glass of 40 cl beer might be 50 or 60 SEK in a "normal" Swedish pub, but can be as low as 25 SEK in a nation). You pay a fee per semester to join one, around 250 SEK, which includes membership of the student union (studentkår). They give you your student card which you will need along with a valid ID (legitimation or leg for short) in order to enter the nations. You can go into any nation during office hours and they will sort this out for you. From a list of nations(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Uppsala_University_nations), you can then decide which one to join (they all have websites). It doesn't really matter which one you choose because you can go into any nation you want if you're part of one, though you may get discounts in some nations if you're a member of their one (for example, Stockholm nation has a club and its entry is free for their members). Oh, and if you have a friend from back home somewhere who is also a student, you can go into a nation and buy a guest pass for a week for around 100 SEK, which allows them to enter the nations with their student card, ID, and guest pass. Which is pretty cool :) 

This was a pretty information-dense post so I think I will stop here and continue in the next one, where I'll go over classes, winter, food, and administration :)

A short introduction

Hej!

My name is Rob and I have recently taken over managing this blog from Omid, whose posts I recommend reading if you haven't already :)

A little bit about myself....

I'm a second year Physics Master's student in Uppsala University with a "sort of" speciality in Nuclear & Particle Physics, though I tend to enrol in courses I find interesting for their own sake rather than any tied to a particular area of Physics. I come from Ireland, where I did a degree in Applied Maths & Physics (solve hard problems with maths) and a master's in Mathematical Modelling & Scientific Computing (solve hard problems with computers), though my mother is Swedish so I spent a lot of time here growing up and always dreamed of moving here to study.

And if Physics is your interest, then I completely recommend Uppsala. Its Physics department is fantastic and their Master's programme is unbelievably open-ended. The courses I chose for my first semester where chosen on a whim because the possibilities were so large and diverse! And you can take courses from other departments and use them as credits towards your degree if you can argue their relevancy... Amazing!

What I find really cool here is that you have a lot of free reign on what you want to study and how (i.e. you can take courses with just an exam and no coursework, only coursework, with/without seminars, labs, etc.). I personally have come to love the traditional approach of lectures and assignments, because I love spending hours trying to figure out difficult problems, which you can't really do in an exam or seminar. So I tend to avoid classes too far from this approach, unless it's worth it (though it might be the complete opposite for you!)

Oh, a quick bit about first arriving here... The Swedish administration tends not work very often (in terms of hours/day) but works well when you can catch them. Just be sure to come over early and get your personnummer (social security number) sorted immediately... And your 2 or 3 hour wait in skatteverket (tax office) to do so to look forward to :) And definitely join a nation (about 250 sek or €28 per semester)... Doesn't really matter which to begin with, but if you want substantially cheaper food and alcohol and a nice and varied settings (13 nations, with at least one pub & club per nation), it's a must have :)

Anyway, to summarise this "short" introduction: my first year was genuinely amazing. Experienced a whole different way of learning in wonderful university, had a lot of fun in the process, met an amazing girl, travelled to Tallinn, Rome and Paris (more about that later), improved my Swedish enough to feel really comfortable speaking and hearing it (and learnt not to care too much if I didn't understand everything right away), all in a new country, far from friends and family... A valuable experience everyone should go through I believe :)

Till next time :)

The time has come...for administrative duties.

So you remember when I said that you are released and have to basically fend for yourself and make a name for yourself at Uppsala. The same goes for when you have finished. Now that I have finished my presentation, which went excellent by the way, I have to do the administrative tasks required to apply for my degree. That means chasing down teachers to get my grades reported, getting signatures indicating my thesis has been approved and I passed, and then I wait. Wait!? What for? Well, now I have to wait till all the grades are put into the system. Once that is done, then I have the points to apply for my degree. Well everything is done so now I wait. Once the points have been put into the system, and I submit the application, then I am completely done. It is ok though. It basically gives me a reason to come by and see what is happening within the walls of Ångström and talk to people about current and future projects. Hopefully to see if there is something I would be interested in doing as a future Ph.D. project. That is for next week though. As for now, the day is done so I am going home to relax and enjoy the fact that I have completed my M.Sc. from Uppsala University. Good luck to all the future students, perhaprs we will see each other walking the halls one day.

The time is near and I am almost ready

So in the past two weeks I have been running around trying to get my thesis to a point where it satisfies my supervisor, Jan-Erik.Today, I got the thumbs up. I have booked a time and place for my final presentation and now am working on finishing up the presentation. I have been in this home stretch longer than I imagined I would, but making sure the small details are taken care of is important. I am fortunate that my supervisors are readily accessible to ensure my work is as complete as possible. However, upon finishing,there were some interesting questions that arose and a slight rework of some my analysis was done. Technically, I did a new data analysis lowering my data's altitude ceiling from 1,400km to 1,150km. This changed the shape and distribution of my final plot indicating that there were other processes going on below the density peak (density peak is the point in Titan's ionosphere that has the largest concentration of particles). I am sure that there this requires some further analysis and I have been given a direction to pursue to see what happens.

In other news, now that my work has been completed and final steps are in the works, it is time to turn my attention to the future. Specifically speaking, PhD positions. There has been one advertised as of this moment and I have to complete it by the end of February. It is in Stockholm, not in Uppsala, so I am cautious. However, if they are 10% of what is here at Uppsala, then it would be a great place to study. Perhaps not as good as Uppsala, but...can't really think of something to say here. Uppsala is great.

As my time at Uppsala draws to a close, I have begun to reflect and become wistful. All in all,I am reminded of a poem by Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken". For those not familiar, here is the link.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Thank you to all the people at Uppsala University; the ladies in the registration office, the people that work the access card/key counter, the cashier at Jalla that asked how I was doing every time I visited, the lady at the front counter who reluctantly smiled back at me, and all the people in IRF and the astro corridor that have made this experience more than anyone could have possibly asked for. Specifically naming people and saying what they have done would take forever, so I will just list those that have made a significant influence during my time here.

Thank you Andreas Korn.
Thank you Anders Eriksson.
Thank you Mats André.
Thank you Nikolai Piskunov.
Thank you Jan-Erik Wahlund.
Thank you Jan Bergman.
Thank you Sven-Erik Jansson.
Thank you Lennart Åhlén.
Thank you Karin Ågrin.
Thank you Nils Bergvall.

And in case I forgot, which is quite possible, Thank you (insert name here). :)

Ok, now I have to do a small bit of analysis. I will let every one know how the presentation went. Till then, don't stop striving for success.

The date has been set!

So as the final work on my thesis is being completed, I had to spend some time working out a date for my final presentation. February 14, 2013 at 10:30am. At some time in the afternoon in some location within Ångström, I will stand and present the work that I have done. I am excited and a bit nervous. It is also a bittersweet feeling. As wonderful as it is to have finished my work and put the icing on the cake, so to speak, there is a part of me that is going to miss what I have enjoyed the past few years. All things change, and I will always have a fondness for Uppsala and I only hope that the work I have done here will be enough to warrant a future career in astronomy or space physics. Currently I am putting the finishing touches on my thesis based on comments I received from my supervisor, crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's to make sure that the paperwork is completed so I am ready to move on to the next chapter and challenge of my life. Now don't go and think this is the end, I still have three weeks before everything is said and done and it will be a busy time. So keep up, we are at the home stretch but there is always more to do. :) --> ok, so maybe more than a little excited.

Nearing an end...

So I received an email today from Jan-Erik telling me that he had finished reading my thesis. Tomorrow I will go and we will discuss the changes he has suggested and possibly move forward even deeper into the project. Again, my project is determining electron temperature distributions within Titan's lower ionosphere. Well, with the results that I have gotten, I have decided that I want to take a bold step and see if it is possible to start making predictions of electron temperatures. If that works, then that will go a long way in helping to explain the processes that control the temperatures in this region. It is a long shot, but those are what I like. Being able to find the connections and draw conclusions that most do not expect is a wonderful thing. In any case, we will find out tomorrow what his thoughts are. After that, I will set up a final presentation and then my master's work here at Uppsala will be finished. The only thing that will remain after my presentation will be to run around,dot my i's and cross my t's so as to ensure there will be no problem transitioning to the next step, whatever that may be. Just in time for the next round of PhD position announcements. Because of my personal matter, I was unable to secure myself a position last year. Oh well,if at first you do not succeed, try, try again.

After a long absence, a welcome return

Hej alla!

After an unfortunate and personal leave of absence, I have returned to finish my master's work. The people here in the physics department were extremely understanding especially given the circumstances of my "disappearance". Now that everything has come to a close in that area, I can focus wholly on my studies. Of course, my return to Sweden was a bit cold. I left Mississippi at 20 plus and landed in Sweden at 20 below. It took a while but I have adjusted well enough. Now that my thesis is written, I have to wait eagerly for the comments from my supervisor (just a bit scared), and in the meantime prepare for my presentation. Then my master's work will be finished. I have also been practicing some Swedish in my free time. It will make the jokes funny if I can understand what is being said. Now it is time to do some more reading and prepare for tomorrow, another day doing what I enjoy most, trying to understand the universe I am a part of. Hej då.