FRidh's blog

Today the weather was great so I decided to not go to work but instead see some more of Borås. Borås is surrounded by lakes and I live nearby a lake called Ramnasj.

In my previous post I already mentioned something about the huge snowfall these past few days, and that I hoped it would stop and some snow would be gone. Well…..it only got worse. Everywhere the snow is at least half a meter now. Roads are cleared of snow, so if you’re driving a car you’re lucky. The foot and cycle paths however….

This morning I went on bicycle to work as usual, which wasn’t a real good idea actually. Still lots of snow everywhere, not possible to cycle at all, so I walked, with bicycle next to me, hoping that the next path would be cleared of snow. Well, they weren’t. So I continued my walk……but then……giant heaps of snow over a meter high on the cycle path! And no way to get of the path! So I had to climb over those heaps of snow with my bicycle….NOT FUN!

But when I got at work it turned out that I wasn’t the only one who had sort of ‘problems’ with the snow. A colleague of my went to Norway this week and got back Saturday evening after a long trip. He walked to the door but……where’s the door…..and window? Both entirely covered with snow

Today I planned to walk through Borås and make some pictures. However, because of the amount of snow I could not really get out of the city center by foot. Hopefully tomorrow some snow will be gone again

My last blog is already a few days ago so I think it is time for a new one. So now what have I been doing these past few days…..

Saturday evening I had a Valentine party at the student union. There they had a board where everyone could write something on. Of course I wanted to read it but most I could not understand because of foreign languages. Then however, I saw the sentence ‘Poepen is fijn’. ‘Huhhh….is Dennis around here?!’, I wondered. That really would have been a terrible joke. Anyway, I found out there were two other Dutch students here on exchange.

The Sunday wasn’t really a pleasant day. Guess why. And Monday I went back to work again, continuing on learning things about thermoacoustics.

Now yesterday evening really was fun! Someone thought we should have carnival or a ‘dress as bad as you can’-party. Hmm, now that shouldn’t be that hard! Hope we get the pictures soon, because some costumes really were terrible

Just bought my ticket

Now they haven´t been confirmed yet, but if I take a look at the schedule, I think there is a big chance the Gaslight Anthem will also be there.

Just a few pictures.

Perhaps I will take some more pictures on the road to work. It is very nice to see the nearby lake all frozen with snow on top of it.

Today I had my first time ever on cross-country skies! It was fun, but I really need more practice, and that chance I have been given.

We actually had a SP cross-country evening, and after the skiing some people were awarded items, the fastest person for instance got movie tickets. I also received something, since it was my first time ever on skies, I was given a voucher for a free private lesson of cross-country skiing! Not sure when I will go, but I think perhaps this weekend.

Now today I also talked with my mentor about my thesis. Instead of developing a ‘simple’ thermoacoustic refrigerator I am to develope a thermoacoustic heat engine, which uses heat to cool something, and uses sound waves to exchange the energy.

Hmmm, that makes me wonder though, if you cool something, you call it a refrigerator. If you heat with it, you call it a heater. But if you use heat to create work, you call it an engine. Now we do use heat to creat sound waves, which actually is work, but we then convert it again to cool something. A better name would perhaps be ‘a thermoacoustic heat engine refrigerator’?

Well……I don’t know. As long as I can put the Constant of Freddy Rietdijk somewhere in my thesis, I will be happy.

Especially when you cycle to and from work through a thick pack of snow. There was just one part where I had to get of my cycle and walk because it was too slippery. Besides that part, it really was not slippery at all. The only thing you need to watch out for is that your front wheel doesn’t get stuck in the snow . Ohh….and the road back was even nicer since it had been snowing again this afternoon. And also because the trip back home is downhill.

Anyway, today at work I talked my mentor and I got some theses to read and those really helped me understanding thermoacoustics. Now tomorrow we will talk further about the goal of the project and my tasks. And…..tomorrow I will go cross-country skiing! I have never done it before but I am sure it will be fun.

Now for Thursday there is the ‘idea’ to go to some sauna just outside of Borås after which we would jump in a lake…..well…I am not sure really whether I will go!

Or perhaps a bottle of Malibu. My address is:

Balder Studenthem
Freddy Rietdijk
Yxhammarsgatan 1, 224
503 31 Borås, Sweden

The past weekend really has been fun. Yesterday I’ve been to the movie festival in Gothenburg and we watched 3 movies there, the first quite amusing, the second really intriguing and the third was a really weird but typical movie festival movie. And on our way back to the train station we of course got lost in the city.

Now I took my photocamera with me to take some pictures of Gothenburg but I actually forgot to take them. Well, I am sure I will go there more often!

Today will be my first day at SP! After I have finished my breakfast I go to the central station and take the bus there, and hope I can find my way from bus the bus stop then. I must admin though, it really is difficult too get lost here in Borås, it is not a very big city.