Sverige – Welcome to Kalmar

Wow you guys it seems like ages since I last blogged, even though it’s not. What, like three days? Ha. I just felt like writing about today (well, tonight) because it was incredibly amazing, but I’ll start with earlier in the week.

Sunday night I went to the sauna again, but not for long. Three out of the four of us had colds, so we weren’t up to a big night. Mind you, the fourth now has a cold. Saying something?

Monday night I went to some ‘Welcome’ function for exchange students in the main university building. It was pretty lame, except the building itself it really nice and we got free alcohol. Yes, what?! University here is weird, apparently.

I keep trying to think what I did Tuesday, but apparently it’s Tuesday right now. I went to class today, which was pretty good except I’m still not properly enrolled, and we got groups for our first assignments (due Thursday!) but I didn’t get one because I’m still not properly enrolled. Woo. At least I have a good excuse though, right?

Tonight was, as I said, amazingly good. It was the Kalmar welcome thing for… Well, I’m not sure, actually. I would say exchange students, but there were Swedes there too, so maybe just new students? I think so. We found out all about the different activities (speed dating, anyone?) and I signed up for some, and then we went downstairs to the pub for a nice dinner and drinks and songs (so many songs!) and what have you. I went knowing two people, and came out knowing… A lot more than two people. Kalmar is really nice you guys! So glad I joined it, and not silly old Stockholms or Värmlands or something.

Anyway so yeah I’m going out for dinner at their vegetarian/vegan restaurant and then on the pub crawl Friday night, which should be very fun! I will let you know how it goes probably.

Fika och Rearranging Furniture

I’ve been told, after complaining about nobody blogging / tweeting about things back in Australia, that the reason for this is that nothing exciting is happening, and that I have all the excitement. I guess I can’t argue with that logic too much, but I still want to know!

My life has actually not been awfully exciting since Friday night, as I’ve come down with some sort of cold, but it hasn’t stopped me too much. I can’t work out what it’s from, but my best guess is actually second-hand airplane sickness. It’s too late for it to be from my flight, but one of the other Australians here was pretty sick last week and I spent a fair bit of time with him. Grrr.

Oh well, it didn’t stop me from going to fika at Kalmar this afternoon with Julika, which was really nice. I like Kalmar a lot, it’s nice a quiet and cosy and relaxed, and the food was delicious and cheap (can’t say the same about the coffee though). We spent a couple of hours just sitting around and chatting. She’s better company than the other Australians I’ve been hanging out with (not so into the whole drink-party-drink-party-drink thing).

Back on the subject of names from last time, though, I don’t like to say Julika out loud. Not because it’s a bad name or anything, I just keep screwing it up and laughing. I want to say it in the Spanish way (with an ‘h’ sound for the ‘j’), even though it’s a ‘y’ sound, and to me both sound really odd. At least I can pronounce it.

I spent yesterday sitting around and organising my room. It’s surprisingly hard, as I can’t get the furniture arranged in a way that feels ‘right’. Maybe there are too many bookshelves or something. My plan was to put photos up of how it currently is and ask for advice, but I can’t seem to get them off my phone. Stupid Bluetooth.

Anyway, dinner time! Catch you later.

Hey Boy, How’s It Going?

Two days ago I had a day which I can only describe as ’sucky’. Today has been what I can only describe as ‘awesome’. Pretty good improvement, huh? The sucky day was just one of those days, I think. I was feeling a bit off because I had to rush to get to class, and then spent the whole time not talking to anybody.

Then yesterday I went to class again (on time), and made sure I did talk to people, even though it’s scary! I met some Spaniards and hung out with them at lunch, and they said I could be in their group for the class and then the lecturer said we got assigned groups. Oh well, not sucky enough to get me down.

This morning I woke up with a sucky throat (still there a little bit), and was tempted to go ‘oh no another sucky day’ but then I decided against it and decided to have an awesome day. So… I did. I went into town to grab a few things (slightly sucky because I bought a mouse and it turned out to be PS/2, but eh it was cheap), took some photos (coming soon, probably to FB), got scared by large explosions (seriously massive, but I think they were maybe firing cannons), saw a group of students wandering around chanting (not sure what about, but a while later I heard them yell ‘aussie, aussie, aussie, oi, oi, oi’ a few times, so who knows who they were. They had some Norwegian flags?). And then, best of all, I met Ylsa. Which is extraordinarily hard to pronounce being Australian, apparently.

Actually, I went to Kalmar nation to join up, because they sounded the coolest. Live music, 80s disco, vegetarian restaurant, etc. Cool! So I found my way in (complicated) and said hi to Ylsa, who was the girl signing people up. We got chatting, and it was just nice to finally have a really nice conversation with a Swede (besides my flatmates), and she seemed really lovely. Turned out I forgot most of the stuff I needed to sign up, though, so I had to pop home and then back again. Eh. So now I am officially part of Kalmar!

Oh! Last but not least, I ordered some food in Swedish properly today! First time! Up until now, I’ve been like “En ***, tack”, which is okay, but not great. So today I said “Kan jag få en ***, tack”, which is like ‘may I have’. I’m not sure if I got it entirely right, and it was really slow, but I got my food fine. The girl didn’t say anything odd, so I have to assume she either realised I was foreign or thought I was retarded. Pretty sure I didn’t fool her for being Swedish, but it feels pretty good. I do feel terrible about not knowing the language, but I’m slowly starting to get the absolute basics.

Hej då! (not 100% sure about the spelling there)

Mjölk

Something interesting I’ve learned about Sweden is that the ‘ekologisk’ milk is the same price or cheaper than normal milk. Ekologisk translates to ‘organic’, and as far as I can tell it’s otherwise the same as normal milk (homogenised, pasteurised, etc). Pretty good, huh? Furthermore, this particular ekologisk milk I have is from the Upplands region, which is where Uppsala is. So it’s very local, too!

Sverige – Getting Organised

Spent most of last night in the sauna on top of building 3 (there’s one on every building in Flogsta) with AU+NZ+US friends, it was super fun. I’d never been in a sauna before, and it was pretty hot, but we drank beer and laid around in the snow a bit and had cold showers in between bouts so it was nice. I have a feeling it may become a fairly regular occurrence.

It’s 4pm and already dark. Crazy, but at least apparently it’s a lot better this time of year than November and whatnot, because the snow now brightens everything up during the day, whereas before all the snow it’s just really dark and miserable all the time. Picked the right semester!

Bought a bike today. Messaged a few people who put notes up on billboards around Flogsta advertising second-hand bikes. Checked one out, and it had non-working back brakes and only semi-working front brakes. I declined, and instead went into town and got a pretty okay yellow mountain bike. It says ‘Mt Hotham’ on the side, which I was pretty excited about. I was also excited about the brakes working (even though the levers are opposite, so the back brake is on the right). When I go higher than first front gear it screws up a bit, but the seven on the back work fine, so it’s not a big issue. Cost me 900 kronor though (including new lights and a lock). Bikes here are all excessively priced and broken. But it should get me out to the Polacksbacken – where my classes are – just fine, once I find the right path.

When I went out there today, to organise my subjects, I walked a few kilometres because I didn’t know what bus to catch. Awkward, but it’s not too bad walking when it’s lightly snowing and you have a good jacket. Except the snow kinda gets in your eyes and it’s cold. Also the Polacksbacken is so incredibly pretty, I’m excited to be going there regularly! I’ll post photos soon, maybe.

Last but not least, kiwi accents are really cool! I’ve met three since being here, and they all have super accents. A girl last night had such a strong accent none of us could understand her sometimes, though. Yeah.

Oh, and the photo above is the view from my window. You might be able to see the Domkyrkan (cathedral) and Uppsala Castle in the background.

Sverige!

Yup yup, I am currently sitting at my desk in Flogsta, Uppsala, Sweden. Actually, that reminds me. For anybody who’s interested, my new address is:

Sernandersväg 10 – 617
752 61 Uppsala
Sweden

And my mobile number is:

+46 704 050 159

I’ll probably chuck my Australian SIM in every once in a while, but don’t count on it. Internet is the best way to contact me!

Anyway, back to the interesting stuff. Flight? Flight was pretty good. I would recommend Thai Airways to anyone any time, with the only exception being that my flight from Bangkok to Stockholm didn’t have video players in the backs of the seats. The first flight did, though, and was excellent. The whole journey took almost exactly 24 hours, not including the trips to and from the airport.

As I was getting off the plane at Arlanda, I heard a guy about my age say bye and thanks and “mate”, so I figured I’d say hi to see if he was somehow in a similar situation to me.

Me: “Hey, are you Australian?”
Chris: “Nah mate, I’m a kiwi.”
Me: *slaps forehead “Oh man, sorry, I didn’t hear you speak enough.”

Thankfully he brushed it off, and turns out he’s studying in Uppsala too! In the other university though. He had also met a fellow New Zealander on the plane, Bella, who is studying in Stockholm. We hung about the airport for a couple of hours, recuperating and playing in the snow (Bella and I made snow angels; photos pending). When it was time to leave, Chris and I caught the train to Uppsala and I headed to Flogsta and Chris to his hostel.

When I was collecting my keys, I happened across Patrick, who also goes to UTS, so we hung out a fair bit and explored. Uppsala is so pretty! And so cold! Actually the cold has been a lot less severe than I thought; that was my main fear leaving home. It’s been fine, really, although it’s considerably warmer than it has been the last few weeks. I did buy a new jacket, though. It seems really nice, and was only $120! (SEK 750).

I’m a little bummed that I haven’t met many Swedes yet (just my flatmates), but I’m sure I’ll meet plenty at Uni and stuff. So far it’s mostly been Australians (there’s a lot of us!), Kiwis, an American girl and a couple of Scots. They’re very nice, but, you know, not the same. Or too much of the same.

My Swedish has got to the point where I can say hi, yes, no, thankyou, sorry, and “I don’t speak Swedish”. I feel terrible and rude, and I’ve been told Swedish classes don’t start until February. I’ll have to make do with my phrasebook for the time being, and check pronunciation with my flatmates.

Anyway, I’d better go cook some dinner. Tomorrow is a big day! I get to figure out my subjects and timetable and whatnot. Hopefully it all works out nicely.

Adjö!

Our Hearts of Stone

Man, this weekend has been pretty awesome. It’s the first in a long time where I’ve been able to just chill out, with not a great deal of pressure to do things. Friday I went to Tom’s, where we had a ‘man’ afternoon with other Steve, playing Xbox and drinking beer. While Tom was making his computer, Steve and I were playing this Sonic tennis game which Tom had got for $9 and never played, and we got really good at it, and then Tom came back and kept losing, so then he didn’t want to play any more and threatened to play it a lot from now on so he can beat us next time. He wishes.

One of the reasons this was so good, though, is that it seems that lately all our time spent together (normal Steve included now) is work time, and it’s not so fun as it used to be! Hopefully the holidays can provide lots of fun and chillin’.

Yesterday was so lazy and nice, although I played a little too much Assassin’s Creed II in the afternoon (finished it!). I did go out, though, and had three nice encounters with random people. One of them I can’t remember, but I remember there was three. The first one was an old lady who probably should not have been going to the shops by herself, but I guess that’s her thing, and the second was some other person going to the Carols in Vic park.

Speaking of Vic park, I went there again today, just because it’s nice to get out of my apartment every now and then, even though I often wish I could just go to my (non-existent) backyard instead of a public park. Still, Vic park is nice, and I talked to the birds a little more and read my book and ate lunch. My book is really fascinating, actually. It’s The Outsider by Albert Camus, and it was a gift from Alex for my birthday. She apparently has excellent taste in books. It’s a strange read, though. I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying the story, per se, but I’m definitely enjoying the read, and it’s interesting to think about.

Now I’m just listening to records, and I did some work earlier. Successfully, even. I am the bug master! The master of finding and fixing bugs, that is, not making them. I also make them sometimes, but I would hope that I am not a master of that. Or at least I hope (think) I’m more of a master at finding and fixing them, which I did today. Yup yup.

Polacksbacken

So I’m up at, uh, just after 4am, because I can’t sleep, because I’m stressing about getting my Swedish visa organised in time. I have to make a lot of phonecalls and get a lot of documents together, all in the next week or so. Eek.

I already tried 30 Rocking myself to sleep, but it hasn’t worked yet. Might try again now (I’m on season 3, what will I do next?).

As for the photo, it is, from what I can tell (I don’t understand Swedish very well), the IT faculty of Uppsala Universitet, where I’m studying. I’m assuming it’s more than just the IT faculty (it’s rather big!), but still pretty cool. The photo above was taken January 5. I’m arriving on January 16, so I’m guessing it will be similar. I have never seen anywhere near that much snow before. Exciting, but scary. I’ve been studying the photos with people in them to try to see what they’re wearing, because I really have no idea.

Link for more pretty photos (sad I’m missing autumn).

Last (Australian) Exam

Today I had my last ever exam in Australia (assuming all goes according to plan); the only ones now are in Sweden.

So what did I do? Well, we went to the Lansdowne for cheap lunch and drinks, then proceeded to play Rock Band all afternoon, followed by more food and drink, this time at the delicious German restaurant Essen.

A rather fitting end, I would say, given the amount of German beer we’ve consumed over the past semester/year(s). And the amount of schnitzel we’ve consumed and Rock Band we’ve played, for that matter. Wow, we’re a creative bunch.

Jag talar inte svenska

I finally got around to booking flights to Sweden today, after much delaying and procrastinating. I’m kind of glad, though – my flight is pretty much perfect.

It’s on Thai Airways with only one stop (Bangkok) – pretty much everything else had two – and excellent timing. See, I move into my accommodation on January 16th, and I will get into Stockholm at 6am on that day, so can just wander up to Uppsala and say hello and move in right away! Also it leaves Melbourne at 4pm on the 15th, which seems a very reasonable time.

Pretty excited! (Just don’t ask how much it cost (thanks for the loan, Mum)(actually, just don’t tell Dad how much it cost)).