Nobel Priset

We watched the Swedish Academy Awards last night and it's called the Nobel Banquet. All the information you could ever hope to know about the Nobel Prize is here. It is broadcast on the Swedish public TV channels and you get to see it all. From stunning dresses, tiaras, nerdy scientists, and even a king and queen. The fashion is rated the next day in the papers. You also get to see them eat. It is a banquet afterall. It is mostly in Swedish with a little English. There is also some dancing in the gold room at the stadshuset. Very exciting stuff.

Roger Kornberg, the nobel prize winner in Chemistry, visited our lab today and got to hear about some of the stuff we work on. Unfortunatly his time was short and I didn't get to discuss my specific project as was planned.

I also noticed that there were students at the banquet. You can see them wearing their mössa (hat). We noticed these our first month in the city and thought everyone was going yachting. As I understand it they get to wear these upon graduation of High School and as long as they're students they wear them to formal events.

A couple examples for you



Saniya is sick and has been throwing up all over the house. Apparently, this is a common thing that happens to you for a day in the winter. Hopefully, it will be gone tomorrow. If you need some medicine you can't run to the closest grocery store. You have to go to the apoteket. Most close quite early and there are a couple open 24 hours in the city. So I was there tonight picking up some stuff. You take a number and then wait to go request what you need from the pharmacist. You can't even browse at night. During the day you can check out the over the counter medicine. A little different than in the US.

There are also differences in celebrating Christmas that I'll discuss in a future entry.

Rob