Wednesday, September 26, 2007 – 10:47
Our course in Linear algebra has been very interesting so far with a new world of mathematics unfolding in front of us. The last lecture dealt with vector spaces and subspaces. The abstraction of polynomials that we just started with this morning seems to be a very powerful way of attacking the problem of solving polynomials.
Yesterday we had the test of German strong verbs. The test was a lot easier and less complicated than what we believed, it was all over in fifteen minutes and not two hours. Either way I got some neccessary repetition of the verbs and now I am a lot more confident using them. After the test we starting going through conjunctions and how they differ from their Swedish counterparts. Swedish is quite similar to the German language when it comes to grammatical constructions, but you have to be careful when it comes to conjunctions. The German language is more precise and therefore requires some more learning.
I have a lot of German studying to do. I really want to improve this mother tongue of mine from the time I lived in Switzerland. Grammar is where I am really lacking, so these formal studies are just what I need. I will hopefully spend the year 2009/2010 in Switzerland at the ETH in Zürich studying natural science.
Friday, September 21, 2007 – 14:45
I have been away from blogging for a few weeks. I passed the the first two math examinations and am therefore finished with my first course at the university. 6 points secured, 294 to go.
Several courses have begun the last month. Linear algebra is probably the most interesting math course right now, with a new discipline of math that I have never worked with before. Digital electronics is another course that we recently begun with. I already read several digital electronics courses in high school, so I relax during the lectures and lessons. This blog entry is written from the lecture hall while the professor discusses sequential circuits. Yawn.
In other news, I have finally bought a new mobile phone. With special greetings to Karin, I now have a fully up-to-date and (yes it’s true) a working phone now. The Ericsson K550i is one of the more slick phones I have seen, I can barely feel it in my pocket. If only I had a computer with integrated bluetooth circuits…
A while ago, I ordered a bunch of German books for me and my German-studying classmates. In a total of thirty-four books, of which four are truly brick-sized, the order I placed cost me almost €700. Of these, the huge Duden Deutsches Universalwörterbuch and Duden Die Grammatik which are almost complete references of the German language, plus a workbook, are for me. The Duden books have become my favourite bookshelf friends. On Tuesday we have a test in all 200 Germanic strong verbs.
Of the ~24 people in the international engineering physics class, I and Christopher are the only two studying German. Yesterday we two plus Hanna and Li from the international class class went to buy some food the “Chinese Bus” that visits Linköping every week. Stepping into the bus is really like visiting a different country. In shelves all along the rebuilt city bus there are shelves packed with exotic foods and products. We bought some essential Chinese ingredients and then went home to Christopher to prepare some delicious Chinese chicken with black bean sauce. Spicy and good.