Where are you heading?

[Lukipela]

Er, good for you but you kind of forgot to mention what those plans are.

Dabir, glad things went well enough with your maths competition.

[Lukipela]

Ah, so your lady friend was in town. Say no more.

Well, except why you would be photographing your food instead of spending time with her.

I suppose I forgot to make an update on this, but the food thread is kind of the wrong place so I'll do it here. Since September 20th, I am once again reunited with my better half and we now live together in this miserable country the natives choose to call Sweden. It's nice to live together again after over a year of "two weeks together, three weeks apart". But it is also hard to get used to having someone else in the flat at times. All my routines have once again been updated so that they are fit to perform around someone of the fairer sex and the television sometimes shows very odd programs. Currently it's "Swedish Hollywood Wives" which I find a bit infuriating.

She's currently looking for work and has her first interview on Thursday. I'm working and still wondering if I'll manage to tough it out in a Swedish work environment all through the allotted time, up until February 2012. Time will tell I guess.

The town we live in is a small coastal one. I grew up in a place like this, and once tourist season is over it is pretty dead. By now it's also dark by five in the afternoon, and freezing cold, which doesn't really add to its charms. Luckily the capitol (of Scandinavia as the natives are fond of referring to it as) is but an hour away, so in the weekends we go out to movies, museums and other interesting activities.

Back home my company is once again going through an economic restructuring. I'm safe here, but once I return I wonder if I shouldn't start looking for something outside the consultancy sector. Or something trendier, like clean energy or bio-anything.

[Bleeding Star]

All my routines have once again been updated so that they are fit to perform around someone of the fairer sex and the television sometimes shows very odd programs. Currently it's "Swedish Hollywood Wives" which I find a bit infuriating.

Sounds intriguing. I didn't realise Sweden had a Hollywood.

The town we live in is a small coastal one. I grew up in a place like this, and once tourist season is over it is pretty dead. By now it's also dark by five in the afternoon, and freezing cold, which doesn't really add to its charms.

Sounds awful. I hate the short days during winter in this stupid country. I'm contemplating moving to a small town myself, and as a city boy I'm not sure how I feel about it. Does your small town has any compensatory features? Seaside charm? Friendly locals? (No, they're Swedish)

Luckily the capitol (of Scandinavia as the natives are fond of referring to it as) is but an hour away, so in the weekends we go out to movies, museums and other interesting activities.

Stockholm, is that? Any particular highlights?

Back home my company is once again going through an economic restructuring. I'm safe here, but once I return I wonder if I shouldn't start looking for something outside the consultancy sector. Or something trendier, like clean energy or bio-anything.

Clean bio-energy? To be honest, I'd be wary of bio-fuels, it's always seemed a bit flavour-of-the month to me.

[Lukipela]

Sounds intriguing. I didn't realise Sweden had a Hollywood.

They don't. A fairer name would be Trophy wives from Sweden now living in Hollywood, US. The most famous one is probably Anna Anka, who was married to Paul Anka.

Sounds awful. I hate the short days during winter in this stupid country. I'm contemplating moving to a small town myself, and as a city boy I'm not sure how I feel about it. Does your small town has any compensatory features? Seaside charm? Friendly locals? (No, they're Swedish)

You're in Ireland, so you still have more light then we do As for moving to a small village, I dunno. Every small town I've lived in, I've always found it hard to update my social circle. People who live there have often lived there since birth, already have set social circles and have often taken a different path through life. In bigger cities you can meet people through hobbies, interest groups and stuff like that. But in small town there's generally nothing like that. People's hobbies are "staying at home" or "drinking with your mates whom you've known since you were 12".

That sounds much better. Stockholm, is that? Any particular highlights?

Lot's of good museums, and some great restaurants. And in summer it's amazing, you can just walk around and enjoy life.

Clean bio-energy, then? To be honest, I'd be wary of bio-fuels, it's always seemed a bit flavour-of-the month to me.

Well, the Finnish company Neste oil has put a lot of money and resources in biodiesel, but in essence I agree with you. I'd prefer something more traditional i nthe enrgy sector, water/nuclear/wind being particularly interesting Oh, and natural gas work.

[Saria]

I'm heading off to building up my resume for college so that next year I can apply and get accepted to some top tier schools. Too bad I'm not my friend who scored a 35 on his ACT... I'll be taking that test. (Its the midwest's standardized test, like the SAT. Its scored out of 36) but since I'm only projected to get like a 29/30ish - which is good but not good enough - I'm in 32365336 extra circulars.

[Lukipela]

So are you hoping to go to a college close to home, or is part of the college experience going to be total independence?

I don't think we have any extracurriculars in Finland, or at east any that matter when you apply to University. There are some extra tests you can take, but I don't think anything else matters. On the other hand I went for a technical degree, so I never checked if my vast experience in the student's council would be useful for getting in somewhere else.

[Saria]

So are you hoping to go to a college close to home, or is part of the college experience going to be total independence?

I don't think we have any extracurriculars in Finland, or at east any that matter when you apply to University. There are some extra tests you can take, but I don't think anything else matters. On the other hand I went for a technical degree, so I never checked if my vast experience in the student's council would be useful for getting in somewhere else.

Let's just say out of the colleges I really want to go to, my closest choice is about a 6 hr drive away.

For some reason they matter like crazy here, along with test scores and GPA.

[Lukipela]

Let's just say out of the colleges I really want to go to, my closest choice is about a 6 hr drive away.

For some reason they matter like crazy here, along with test scores and GPA.

6 hours is pretty good, it means you can go home for weekends, but that you won't go home every weekend. Or shouldn't at any rate. When I went to Uni I had a whole bunch of classmates from a region about 5 hours away by car. Half of them would go home pretty much every weekend. Those were also the guys who complained all through our six years of school about how they didn't feel at home at the Uni or with the people there.

[Gekko]

I have 7 hours by train to see my family. It's not something I enjoy doing, and considering the prices of traveling in general I usually go there only when needed. Interestingly that almost always means weekends, and I have to be at university 8 o'clock on Mondays. After traveling so far you kind of don't want to leave immediately back (which would be the case if I left on Friday after lectures / work and then spent the entire Sunday in train again).

[Guizot]

I'm heading off to building up my resume for college so that next year I can apply and get accepted to some top tier schools. Too bad I'm not my friend who scored a 35 on his ACT... I'll be taking that test. (Its the midwest's standardized test, like the SAT. Its scored out of 36) but since I'm only projected to get like a 29/30ish - which is good but not good enough - I'm in 32365336 extra circulars.

Don't worry too much about the ACT. I fell asleep during the science portion and guessed on the last ten questions for the other subjects, but still received a decent 31 (I was projected to acquire a 23-25, I seldom take practice tests seriously). Just be sure to take the writing portion with it, because some colleges will reject your test if you don't (I had to also take the SAT for this reason). As you said though, activities are one of the first things looked at, so that should give you solace in that faltering in one of the other realms would have little effect on your acceptance.
I understand you are also taking mostly AP and honors courses, this too will be looked upon favorably. Two of the colleges I applied to only asked for four things: my GPA, my SAT/ACT, my extracurriculars, and my course load (no essay, oddly enough. They are pretty picky colleges too, 89/100 and 92/100 are their selectivity indexes). For those colleges, course load (especially that of senior year, stray away from “fluff” courses!) took precedence, but I guess it really depends on the place.