Beyond my fellow computer scientists, I also got to meet people from all disciplines and walks of life. Those four years created a lifetime of friendships. Outside of school, I learned how to play pickleball and tried my hand at surfing in the chilly northern Californian waters.
This past June, I graduated from college! Then, the Fulbright program gave me the incredible opportunity to conduct research in the European Union for a year. Now I'm living in Umeå, a city so far north that it's just 200 miles below the Arctic Circle! Trust me, it's COLD. But it's also super exciting. For example, some people ski to work!
At Umeå University, I'm working on making artificial intelligence fairer and more accessible for everyone. Imagine designing computer systems that can help solve big problems and make the world a better place. It's turning out to be a lot harder than we thought, since both humans and computers are incredibly complicated, but that's the fun of it.
Living in Sweden has been an amazing experience so far. I've learned about traditions like fika—an afternoon break where people socialize while eating delicious pastries and drinking coffee. I've also gotten to see the Northern Lights, those colorful, dancing lights created by magnetic storms triggered by solar activity. I was nervous to live abroad at first, especially because I didn't know how to speak Swedish, but I'm learning more each day, both about the language and about what to wear here. Our first snowfall went all the way up to my knees!
My adventure here is just beginning! I'm so excited to meet you all and can't wait to share more about my life in Umeå. Hej då (that's "goodbye" in Swedish)!
