Sunday, March 9, 2014

Running in Uppsala

It is that time of the year when the weather starts getting warmer (it was 10 ºC yesterday!) and I like to go running outside, either in the woods or near the river. Uppsala is a great city for outdoor activities and Swedes love running and they do it regardless of the weather! I've seen people run on the rain and the snow, and to me that's probably too much commitment.  Still, if you would like to experience a running event while you're in Uppsala, here are a few that I have ran. All of them are 10K but most of them have a 5K option:

Uppsala Blodomloppet (May)
Stockholm Midnattsloppet (August)
Tjejmilen (September)
Uppsala Studentlopp (October)

You can find more running events in Lazy Runner

My next goal is a half marathon! But it will have to be next year... no time to properly train right now...

Oh! And this is me, training in Uppsala! :-)


Friday, March 7, 2014

International Women's Day

Well, first of all, I hope you don't think I'm turning the blog into a girls club. Gender inequality is sort of a big issue in IT and I'm happy to see that people at Uppsala University are aware of it. More importantly, people here actually care and want to do something about it! So, in my humble opinion, celebrating international women's day with a networking event might not make a difference for everyone, but hopefully some of the people on the event now feel less alone. At least I hate to hear these stories about women who didn't (or couldn't) study computer science because people made them feel less capable and not adequate.

Anyway, regardless of the gender inequality angle, it was a great event! I had the opportunity to meet many people, I enjoyed discussing different points of views about Sweden and computer science, as well as planning activities that the UU ACM-W student chapter can (and want to) organise. And we did all these with fruits, bullar, coffee and tea! :-)

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

International Women's Day (Announcement!)

I'll write more about this event after it passes, but for now I just want to advertise it! Come! Network! Propose activities! Want to form a programming club? Get a mentor? This is the time to tell chapter members about your ideas.

Learn more about the event of Facebook https://m.facebook.com/events/258232297683826


You can follow the chapter @UUACMW

Visit the chapter's website uu.acm.org

If you go to the event, please let me know what you thought about it!

Buying books in Uppsala

Studying in Uppsala requires a lot of reading. I was used to the fact that going to the classes and reading a little bit was more than enough, but here in Uppsala doesn’t always work that way. You are going to see yourself many times in the situation were you need to read almost the whole book to actually understand the class and that requires owning the book.

Buying used books is always cheaper but they are hard to find since not everyone sells their books. Also, not everyone actually gives you a good deal and many people try to sell their books in almost the full price. Anyway, books are as expensive here as in any other place (at least from what I’ve seen). If you are looking for a place to buy your books you can go to Studentbokhandeln. The books there have an acceptable price, sometimes even cheaper than amazon.com and you will get a 10% student discount if you spend more than 1000 SEK.

If you can actually wait a week or so to get your book, I would recommend buying them in bokus.com. They have a large selection, books are noticeably cheaper than in Studentbokhandeln, and if you have your student card from Mecenat.se, you earn 2.5% of what you pay as a student bonus (5% the first time), which you can use to buy books as well. I have used this page many times and, in my experience, they have a pretty good service.


View Studentbokhandeln AB in a larger map

I know there is actually at least another book store here in Uppsala, but here I’ve always find the books I’m looking for.

Update: here is a list of bookstores I found on a course website (online and offline)