Summertime, and the living's easy (or at least easier)

Well, I have survived exams. Sorry about the long break since the last post, but I was a bit (or rather a lot) distracted by trying to finish up everything to end the year. I actually didn't quite manage; I have a few assignments I still need to do, as well as a 3 credit project, so I've got some work to do over the summer. Luckily, as I've said before, the Swedish are very relaxed about deadlines, so I just need to finish this stuff up "before September" because my teacher/supervisor is leaving Uppsala that month.

The project I'm doing is actually part of the initial Introduction to the Physics Master Programme course that every master student does in the first semester. I'm using it to build up a bit of a foundational knowledge base that should help me for my thesis. I'm not totally sure where I'm going to do my thesis yet (it's very easy to go abroad for a thesis from UU, you just need to sort out the details yourself), but I'm hoping to get a project relating to the AdS/CFT correspondence. So far I only have experience on one side of the duality which is also what my little project will be about (large-N gauge theories), but I'll get some exposure to the string theory side next semester from the string theory courses, which I'm planning on taking.

A nice summer shot of Ångström.

Valborg and bike theft

So yesterday was Valborg (aka Walpurgis Eve, aka Sista April) here in Sweden. As it turns out, this is a pretty big deal here in Uppsala. So much so that people come from Stockholm to join in the celebrations! Apparently the actual holiday has to do with saying goodbye to the winter and welcoming in the spring, but realistically it's just an excuse to have a huge party all across the city.

One of the big events of the day is the river rafting. Teams of about 3-5 people make rafts out of Styrofoam and ride on them in front of as many spectators as can fit along the river. There is a big rush in the morning to get a spot near one of the little waterfalls, where many rafts capsize. All of the rafts were built outside Ångström the week before which was an event in itself: there were big party tents set up with a temporary pub and other activities surrounding the building of the rafts. For the big event there were also stalls all along the river selling food, balloons, sunglasses, and all sorts of other things.

A Game of Thrones themed raft sailing on the river

Easter time!

As most people probably know, there was a solar eclipse about two weeks ago visible from Northern Europe. It was quite cloudy in Uppsala, which meant anyone who had bought special viewing glasses was disappointed. However, the clouds did provide enough protection to look at the sun for a short time without hurting yourself, and I did get a few good looks at the eclipse. I was actually in class while it was happening, but the nice thing about being in physics is that your teachers are likely to also be interested in this sort of thing, so we had a break during the lecture to go check it out.

My brother Callum got this shot through the clouds in Maastricht.
This is pretty much what it looked like in Uppsala too.

In other moon-related news, it's Easter this weekend (the date of Easter is based on the lunar cycle)! Good Friday and Easter Monday are both holidays in Sweden, so that makes for a nice long weekend. A lot of students seem to also have the entire next week free, but I still have class, albeit only for four hours. I was planning on going back to Amsterdam for the break, but I waited too long and flights got super expensive, so I decided I'm going to go next weekend instead.