Sauna, Crayfish & Uni

Hey there again, It's week 4 of uni here in Sweden. Even though I have 2 assessments every week at the moment, I have managed to get in a couple of cool events in the last week. The (compulsory) student union in Chalmers owns a cute little property by a lake 45mins from Göteborg. This includes the biggest woodfired sauna in Scandinavia, seating 50people! 

Above is the smaller half of the sauna. After 15mins of 80degrees it is time to walk 3metres outside and jump in the lake

In winter the lake freezes over, and they dig a hole in the ice for 'cooling down'.

The Lake is definitely needed when it gets very steamy up the top from wetting the stones.

This night also included some Swedish songs, Swedish food and games.

I also went to a crayfish dinner organised for the civil engineers, in the on-campus party room (aka. a hollowed out train carriage). As expected it involved eating crayfish. It is a tradditional celebration for the ending of Summer.

So some might be wondering what uni is like over here? Well not that different to back home, except that the timetable is messed up and you can resit exams! Like back home there are some really good teachers and some average ones. 

My project management teacher is very funny, and great at getting his messages across. After we submit our assessment task each week for PM, we come together as a class and have a seminar regarding the case study. It is really interesting to see all the different interpretations and considerations from classmates, and is a VERY effective tool in learning project management skills including communicating your ideas and active listening.

My other subject is Wastewater engineering. To relate what we where learning in class to real scale, we got to visit the local wastewater treatment plant. What really struck me was the architectural and artistic design of the facility. I think investing in a nice workplace and taking pride in your work is such an import thing. I think if people like where they work they are more likely to drive process improvements.

This is where waste sludge is anaerobically digested at 36degrees for many days, producing biogas.

This is a trickling filter used for nitrification of wastewater. The packing material is special plastic with high surface are to allow many microorganisms to attach and process the nitrogen. The problem with ammonia and nitrates in water bodies is that it can lead to eutrification (rapid growth of algae which removes the oxygen needed for plants and animals).