Well with the current issues with transport from and to the UK, my flight has been delayed by an hour and a half, so I shall use this time to write another blog entry and fill you guys in.
Well the last few weeks have been quite sad as the time has been drawing to a close. People have been slowly disappearing one by one. The rush round to say goodbye to all my new friends has been quite something and sadly I have not been totally successful. Sp for all those I couldn’t say goodbye to, forgive me. I wish all my new friends every bit of luck in the world. It has been an amazing adventure this past semester. Making friends from all over the world is great but sadly I won’t see you as much as I’m used to anymore. I feel like a family is being broken up. I hope to one day visit you all in your home countries and I hope to come visit you in yours. I already have plans to go to the Netherlands to meet up with my Austrian friend Max for Queens Day, (A royal holiday, cheeky!) Also I have an invite to go to a beer fest in Germany in Fabians home town. My leaving book is filled with offers of a place to stay should I come out. It has been valuable experience but luckily for me I get to do it all again in January.
January is a bit daunting with most of my Fadders going on their exchanges around the world I wont have as many people around however I am leaving suburban life behind and moving to a flat in the city. Plenty of new people to be met and of course I still have Jake, Anna and Thomas plus the locals around.
I’m currently waiting on one exam result in particular. Swedish 1. I need to pass this to continue my Swedish studies next semester. The grammar is quite tough but I have a feeling it has gone better than the first time round just need to get 60% to pass! 60%!
I am looking forward to going home, sad it may be to leave this time behind, but I gather my family are missing me and I them. Plus it is the Xmas break and I love spending it with family.
Well that’s all I shall write for now as I’m hoping the plane taking me to Gatwick will be here in a few minutes, (Delayed take off from Gatwick!) I then have a flight from Gatwick to LeedsBradford, last minute booking as the snow has caused rail problems.
I shall give a full update and summary of this semester in my next blog once I get home.
God Jul & Gott Nytt År
(Especially my Nordic friends who celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve)
Wednesday 22 December 2010
Monday 29 November 2010
Update, Reunion, Culture, Elections & an annoying street entertainer
Well it’s been a while and sadly no more travels to report on. The money is running out for this semester so I shall spend the rest of the time in Jönköping. Sucks I know but I look forward to the budget airline January sales. I still want to get to Iceland at some point but the prices are quite high atm.
Start off with the bad news. I didn’t make it back in time for the trip to Kiruna in North Sweden, which is where the Ice hotel is and is spot for the Northern Lights, however I have been told it is better to go in January/Feb time as that is when the Northern Lights are more commonly seen (plus the ice hotel hasn’t been constructed yet!) I’m not paying £500 for that lol. Anyway people have been organising their own trips up there, flying instead of the 24hr train ride up north! So I shall hear back from them when they return and take on advice from them.
Yes Christmas season is finally upon us here in Sweden. I loved the fact they didn’t do the British thing of stocking Christmas stock until after Halloween. The city streets have their lights up and the City’s Christmas tree has also been put up. The university also has one on campus.
As I write this we are on day 7 of snowfall, not continuous though but it snows at least once a day, if not all day. I absolutely love the weather atm. I’m glad I managed to find some snow boots in my size otherwise my trainers would be ruined. We constantly have snow plows out and about clearing the roads and sometimes pavements, this does lead to some places being covered with more snow than others. I have had snow to the top of my boots! Yes the temperature has been falling. 2 weeks ago the temperature didn’t rise above 5C and got as low as -3C Now however it is constantly in the negative numbers I’ve seen a high of -1C to a low of -11C. Now when the wind isn’t blowing this is fine however the wind chill burns the face.
Cultural Days:
Now I haven’t mentioned these before so I shall fill you in. Every Wednesday a group of international students make some food, posters, facts and powerpoint presentations representing their home Nation. We’ve had Iran day, Russia Day, Canada day and this week it was the turn of the Australians. (I know ironic Australia and culture! Joke) So I went along found out I still don’t like Vegimite, question a few of their Aussie slang words (because I’m pretty sure some they had in the list are British) but never mind. Then of course was the most un Australian thing, Aussie football in the snow!
Space Jam Reunion:
This was a really good night I co-organised. If you remember we were split into groups in kick off week and our groups theme was space jam. So the majority of the group was reunited for a big night out with drinking games and banter. It was really good to see everyone again especially the Swedes, as we only see them briefly in between lectures. It is probably the last time we will all be together as exchanges are coming to an end and the senior Swedish students are about to start their exchanges.
JIBS Student Association (JSA) Elections:
It was the time of the year to vote for a new board of JSA. As stated in a previous blog I got a seat on the election committee (EC). So this last week I have been busy with this. The ECs role was to go through the applications from the candidates, interview them and then make the recommendations at the conference. Some recommendation decisions were straight forward, others not so straight forward. We only refused to nominate on one position due to the belief that the only candidate standing was not suited to the role. Luckily however a challenger put themselves forward at the meeting, and so the position was filled. No one had applied for Vice President of the board and I had considered it however on advice I did not stand due to the role needing a knowledge/ability of reading Swedish law. That position was also filled at the meeting, by a chap who was born in Plymouth but his family relocated to Sweden when he was 6. The EC had a 75% success rate in getting our nominated candidates elected. A lot higher than previous years I am told (particularly last year where no candidates nominated by the EC were approved)
This coming week:
Well the main event of this week is the goodbye dinner. This will be a gathering of exchange students for a meal before heading on to Aka. I imagine it will be quite a moving night as we come to terms with the fact that we only have weeks rather than months left together. I know of a few exchange students who are staying on for the 2nd semester, Jake in particular who I have gotten to know really well and then of course the Programme students who have to stay here, so I won’t be totally alone, however it is annoying that we have to go through the whole process again of meeting people. It will feel like the family is being broken up.
Swedish re-sit:
Well as this is the only exam that poses any value this year I am determined to pass it. I have been working on the grammar, trying to read the newspapers and of course this gives me an excuse to listen to the Swedish music of Carola.
Broken phone:
I am absolutely furious at that street entertainer. Let me fill you in. Walking through Stockholm we passed a statue street entertainer, and as I was walking past him I was texting someone back, he then chooses this point to move and he makes me jump, my phone goes flying out of my hand and lands in a puddle! It worked for 2 mins and then died. I sent it off to be fixed and there is nothing they can do but they were going to charge me £47 to have the broken phone returned. So I just decided to get another cheap phone, luckily I found one for £20 as the phone i had originaly had gone up to £70. Not a happy bunny bout that.
Well I do believe you are now up to date, I shall write next after goodbye dinner I imagine
Cheerio
Start off with the bad news. I didn’t make it back in time for the trip to Kiruna in North Sweden, which is where the Ice hotel is and is spot for the Northern Lights, however I have been told it is better to go in January/Feb time as that is when the Northern Lights are more commonly seen (plus the ice hotel hasn’t been constructed yet!) I’m not paying £500 for that lol. Anyway people have been organising their own trips up there, flying instead of the 24hr train ride up north! So I shall hear back from them when they return and take on advice from them.
Yes Christmas season is finally upon us here in Sweden. I loved the fact they didn’t do the British thing of stocking Christmas stock until after Halloween. The city streets have their lights up and the City’s Christmas tree has also been put up. The university also has one on campus.
As I write this we are on day 7 of snowfall, not continuous though but it snows at least once a day, if not all day. I absolutely love the weather atm. I’m glad I managed to find some snow boots in my size otherwise my trainers would be ruined. We constantly have snow plows out and about clearing the roads and sometimes pavements, this does lead to some places being covered with more snow than others. I have had snow to the top of my boots! Yes the temperature has been falling. 2 weeks ago the temperature didn’t rise above 5C and got as low as -3C Now however it is constantly in the negative numbers I’ve seen a high of -1C to a low of -11C. Now when the wind isn’t blowing this is fine however the wind chill burns the face.
Cultural Days:
Now I haven’t mentioned these before so I shall fill you in. Every Wednesday a group of international students make some food, posters, facts and powerpoint presentations representing their home Nation. We’ve had Iran day, Russia Day, Canada day and this week it was the turn of the Australians. (I know ironic Australia and culture! Joke) So I went along found out I still don’t like Vegimite, question a few of their Aussie slang words (because I’m pretty sure some they had in the list are British) but never mind. Then of course was the most un Australian thing, Aussie football in the snow!
Space Jam Reunion:
This was a really good night I co-organised. If you remember we were split into groups in kick off week and our groups theme was space jam. So the majority of the group was reunited for a big night out with drinking games and banter. It was really good to see everyone again especially the Swedes, as we only see them briefly in between lectures. It is probably the last time we will all be together as exchanges are coming to an end and the senior Swedish students are about to start their exchanges.
JIBS Student Association (JSA) Elections:
It was the time of the year to vote for a new board of JSA. As stated in a previous blog I got a seat on the election committee (EC). So this last week I have been busy with this. The ECs role was to go through the applications from the candidates, interview them and then make the recommendations at the conference. Some recommendation decisions were straight forward, others not so straight forward. We only refused to nominate on one position due to the belief that the only candidate standing was not suited to the role. Luckily however a challenger put themselves forward at the meeting, and so the position was filled. No one had applied for Vice President of the board and I had considered it however on advice I did not stand due to the role needing a knowledge/ability of reading Swedish law. That position was also filled at the meeting, by a chap who was born in Plymouth but his family relocated to Sweden when he was 6. The EC had a 75% success rate in getting our nominated candidates elected. A lot higher than previous years I am told (particularly last year where no candidates nominated by the EC were approved)
This coming week:
Well the main event of this week is the goodbye dinner. This will be a gathering of exchange students for a meal before heading on to Aka. I imagine it will be quite a moving night as we come to terms with the fact that we only have weeks rather than months left together. I know of a few exchange students who are staying on for the 2nd semester, Jake in particular who I have gotten to know really well and then of course the Programme students who have to stay here, so I won’t be totally alone, however it is annoying that we have to go through the whole process again of meeting people. It will feel like the family is being broken up.
Swedish re-sit:
Well as this is the only exam that poses any value this year I am determined to pass it. I have been working on the grammar, trying to read the newspapers and of course this gives me an excuse to listen to the Swedish music of Carola.
Broken phone:
I am absolutely furious at that street entertainer. Let me fill you in. Walking through Stockholm we passed a statue street entertainer, and as I was walking past him I was texting someone back, he then chooses this point to move and he makes me jump, my phone goes flying out of my hand and lands in a puddle! It worked for 2 mins and then died. I sent it off to be fixed and there is nothing they can do but they were going to charge me £47 to have the broken phone returned. So I just decided to get another cheap phone, luckily I found one for £20 as the phone i had originaly had gone up to £70. Not a happy bunny bout that.
Well I do believe you are now up to date, I shall write next after goodbye dinner I imagine
Cheerio
Friday 12 November 2010
First Snowfall
It has finally happened. The first proper snowfall, incredibly exciting to open my blinds and see the big blanket of snow. Proper snow not the powdery stuff we get in the UK. I had to put my winter boots & snow jacket on. I was however saddened when as I went into Uni in the centre there was no snow, too warm in the centre. After uni we had a snowball fight between the students here in Huskvarna. Sadly only two members of the alliance here with the majority of students being from Austria-Germany. Friendly fire from my roommate.
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3 Capitals 6 Days
Stockholm
Only spent one night here however taking the 6.20am bus to Stockholm meant we had the best part of the day to go round the city. With the rest of our party joining us at around 7 that evening the rest of us went sightseeing. I have of course spent one night in Stockholm before however it was nice to see it again. This time I went to City Hall which gave us a wonderful view back on Old Town with the sunset making it picture perfect. We’d checked into the Hostel which was just around the corner from the Bus station, handy for an early morning start! The room was rather nice, 4 bunk beds 2 on either side of the room. Once the others had arrived we went to an all you can eat Thai buffet, (typical Swedish food I know) Once we’d stocked up on food we decided to go to the famous Ice Bar. This is owned by the same company that owns the Ice Hotel in the North of Sweden. For around £15 you get your entry and your first drink included, (all other drinks after cost around £9!) Your first enter a room where you put on your coat as the Ice Bar is about -5C. The sessions are limited to half an hour (and the staff rotates every 2 hours) Walking through the door into the bar, it felt like being back in the freezers at Sainsburys, just with better use of Ice! The room had a few ice sculptures standing around the room; a Jelly fish carved into a block of ice took the centre alongside a carving of an old diving suit. An octopus was carved into a table next to a seating area. The bar also made completely out of ice took up one side of the room. We had a choice of cocktails to choose from. The glasses were pretty cool (pardon the pun) being made out of ice also. You had to have your gloves on to hold it. I then took on the challenge of eating the glass after finishing my drink. I always eat the Ice when it comes in my other drinks why not this one. They only get melted down and re-sculptured. It is defiantly something worth doing, and it gives you an insight into the Ice Hotel up north which I hope to visit.
Prague
Getting up fairly early In the morning to make our way to the airport that Ryanair use. It’s apparently a Stockholm airport but is an 82 minute coach ride away in a town called Nyköping! Gotta love Ryanair. The airport is shared with the Swedish Coastguard. Anyway, first flight with this low cost airline, so let’s keep an open mind. It is only costing £10 anyway. One thing that was questionable; whilst stating the flight was non smoking they did offer an alternative, smokeless cigarettes, cigarettes you could smoke in places you weren’t allowed to smoke, clever I admit however the line “& if you don’t smoke maybe you can start with smokeless” was a bit of a legal concern! The landing on this Ryanair flight was interesting to say the least. I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to slow the plain down before you land and not just slam on the breaks when you touch the ground!
The architecture in Prague is quite unique it feels just like a stereotypical Eastern European city. There is a big emphasis on their communist past. You will find communist poster dotted around, especially ones advertising the communism museum (sadly we didn’t have time to visit it) No mention of the German occupation. The hostel was just around the corner from an old bell tower which towered up over the street. Opposite a 200 store shopping centre it was clash of old and new. The old town Square is a beautiful place to stand. The Cathedral towers over the square with the clock tower opposite. Every hour on the hour a crowd gathers at the clock tower to watch it chime. It’s quite like a giant Swiss clock with little figures signing the hour, followed by a guard in the clock tower who then plays a tune from his trumpet at all four sides of the viewing platform of the tower. You can get horse and cart rides from the old town centre which just adds to the character of the old square in the background. Prague is called the most atheist city yet it has plenty of churches. It is true in Prague beer is cheaper than water! Around £1 a pint with a bottle of water costing £2. One thing to note is the great customer service you receive in Prague! They say a smile costs nothing yet apparently that’s too expensive for some people in Prague! I should point out, English is spoken here especially in the tourist zones, with regards to eating out you can ask for a menu in English to save you working out what on earth it is you are ordering. For our first meal in Prague we went to a traditional Czech restaurant. I ordered a Goulash with a side order of dumplings (all you can eat!) Popular Czech dishes will include beef, pork & chicken. Another favourite is fried cheese.
The tourist attractions are within walking distance. The fees associated with the attractions are around £1 each, so great value. One thing I recommend as a must visit is the Castle grounds. Up at the top of a hill with an amazing view over the city is the Royal Palace. The castle itself surrounds the centre piece of the site which is a huge cathedral towering over the palace and the city. This is a wonderful piece of architecture. The front has similarities with Notre Dame.
The food stands around the tourist areas are of good quality selling things such as belly pork which was heavenly (but can be pricey). If you make it 30 Czech Crown to the pound you have a good margin of era, it’s on average about 27.4 to the pound but 30 is easier to work out. It is cheap in Prague however if you go to the shopping centre with well known stores such as Topshop, M&S etc (The Aussies wanted to go!) you will find the exchange rates a bit odd as the big stores will put their prices on the tags in many currencies. In M&S in particular the price in Swedish Krona is almost double the value when converted to Euros. So be careful.
The Old Charles Bridge is well worth a walk over, pedestrians only so you can take your time and stop at the stands selling jewellery, paintings or even get a portrait/characture done, there are plenty of them! There are plenty of tourist shops around with the majority of them selling Czech glass, ranging from affordable to expensive (as you’d expect) finding a Czech flag was quite hard but got it and it now hangs in my room along with the others I have gained.
For a night out I would recommend one of the bar crawls (plenty of them). For around £10 you can have an all you can drink pre party followed by a few bars. The pre party was in the basement of a converted church. (Interesting, see how many sins you can commit in a church!) The unlimited drinks were limited to Beer, nasty wine and watered down shots. So good thing it was all you can drink because the drinks in the bars afterwards were around £3. O not to self never have cider in Prague unless it is the Swedish one. It was really bitter, just like the wine.
Note the Czech Rep doesn’t have a smoking ban, when you are used to this in Britain and other European countries it can take a bit of getting used to again, in restaurants it can be coped with however smoking in clubs at night caused me a few breathing problems, I have no idea how the asthmatics among our party coped! Be prepared for your clothes to sting of cigarettes when you get home, so pack extra clothes is my advice.
Berlin
Our time is up in Prague and we now move on to Berlin, a city we were all excited to go & see due to its history. Having only been to Germany once for 24 hours in the north of the country I wasn’t sure what to expect. We got the train from Prague Central and were on our way. It was around a 4 hour trip. You could tell when you entered Germany because the accents on the signs suddenly changed, and then you had a changeover of train guards from Czech to German. We arrived in Berlin to a wave of confusion about how we should get to the hostel. We decided that instead of faffing about with the underground we would just get a taxi. Just under 10 Euro a bargain compared to Sweden. Although the Euro £ exchange rate wasn’t in our favour as it was about 87p to the Euro, compared to the days when it was about 70p it turns out we had two different addresses for the hostel due to a mix up with the name. Our Hostel was just around the corner from the TV tower which I fell in love with, (the tallest building in the EU, surly upsetting the French!) and also just about a 5 min walk from the Main cathedral in Berlin (Berliner Dom)
Our first night was a fairly quiet one, One of our party went off to watch a play in German by a play write who she had studied before whilst we all went off to find something to eat. We ended up in an Asian restaurant! The Aussies & Canadian were excited by the fact you can drink in the streets here. A novelty that didn’t fade over time. This was clearly man time with conversation over dinner and beyond of a masculine nature! Berlin I have to say is quite, well strange is a way of saying it, maybe different is probably more applicable. Prostitutes walk around touting for business, and there are a lot of them. Bless though Christian I have to say came up with a quote that will stick with me for a while, “Was that a Prostitute? I’ve never seen one before” O dear! After moving on from them we ended up walking down an ally (As you do in an unknown city at night!) to find open fires and drinking in a square behind some buildings, quite tense I have to say, but the others seemed to be enjoying themselves. Something I would not do normally, chat to prostitutes and go down an ally!!!! Anyway Jo saved my life and texted to say her play had finished, so I was a happy boy.
The next day we returned to more normal things of sightseeing. We started off at the Berliner Dom which is quite a grand church; the restoration of it was only finished in 1993 after it was destroyed during the final days of the War. They did a good job it looks as if it was undamaged and had stood tall throughout history, about £2.50 to enter, but worth it. Especially for the views you can get from the roof. It is very grand inside, we’d stumbled on the beginning of a service, which of course we didn’t stay for! We went on the hike to the top to get the views. After that we ended up in the well I’m sure it’s not called this but basement. Where German royalty is buried alongside one unknown. The coffins had their crowns placed on top of them.
We continued our walk towards the Brandenburg Gate. Now a game we have played throughout our trip was to spot the embassies. Russia has the grandest one in Berlin I have to say however the embassies are on the ‘Eastern side’ of Berlin. The Brandenburg gate is quite something, creating quite a buzz. You have for the tourists people dressed up in the old military uniforms of the soviets and the East Berliner and on the other side the American and West Berliner, and where the hell would you be without Star War’s very own Darth Vader at a historical sight such as this!
We then moved onto the Reichstag, fun quote from the guide book “Why is the Reichstag called the Reichstag? It is not! It is called the Bundestag” Fancy being told off by a leaflet! Also the leaflet states “The Bundestag is not built on a foundation of sand” They really struggled for things to write about this place! No mention of it being burnt down. In fact you will find a lack of history between 1933-45 here. They focus strongly on the oppression under the Berlin wall! It is a long wait at the Parliament building and you only get to go to the dome on the top to get an audio guided tour of the view of Berlin. No Signe of Chancellor Merkel sadly.
That night we went out on a bar crawl, £11 again with one free drink and free shots at the bars. Pretty good night has to be said. Anyway next day woke up at 12, all tired from the night before with still a fair few things to see.
We made our way towards Checkpoint Charlie, on our way we walked past a motorcade parked up at the University, one car had the coat of arms for Germany on a flag attached to the front. I asked a Police officer who was there. He said that the President of Germany was inside the building. So we waited around for 5 minutes and sure enough the President of Germany came out. Being a more figure head position I had no idea which of the men walking out of the building was the President. All I knew was that Merkel had trouble getting him elected. I soon worked out who was the President, and he said Gudentag to me, so I replied. We reached Checkpoint Charlie which being American was next to a McDonalds! We visited the Berlin Wall Museum which though interesting was filled with information, it will take the best part of the day to read it all. It is filled with stories of escape from East Berlin to the West. What is also interesting is they had files with the names of people who were killed or died trying to escape from the East. There were at least 8 files filled with names. We then went on in search of the remains of the Berlin Wall that was still standing. It stands next to the grounds where the Gestapo building stood, which is now an open air museum. Tired as we were we made our way to the Jewish museum. Set up as a reminder of the Holocaust. The garden set as a memorial was quite interesting. It was pillars set in a slanted ground. The Holocaust tower was a room that high ceiling with one slit in it for daylight, however when we went it was dark so no light entered the room, it was quite moving. The section on the Holocaust was very interesting. It had memos from the Gestapo & SS with regards to the ‘Jewish solution’ as the Nazis called it. It showed footage from The Hague with relation to the War trials. Letters from the camps. I have to say the rest of the Museum wasn’t interesting at all, in my opinion.
Only spent one night here however taking the 6.20am bus to Stockholm meant we had the best part of the day to go round the city. With the rest of our party joining us at around 7 that evening the rest of us went sightseeing. I have of course spent one night in Stockholm before however it was nice to see it again. This time I went to City Hall which gave us a wonderful view back on Old Town with the sunset making it picture perfect. We’d checked into the Hostel which was just around the corner from the Bus station, handy for an early morning start! The room was rather nice, 4 bunk beds 2 on either side of the room. Once the others had arrived we went to an all you can eat Thai buffet, (typical Swedish food I know) Once we’d stocked up on food we decided to go to the famous Ice Bar. This is owned by the same company that owns the Ice Hotel in the North of Sweden. For around £15 you get your entry and your first drink included, (all other drinks after cost around £9!) Your first enter a room where you put on your coat as the Ice Bar is about -5C. The sessions are limited to half an hour (and the staff rotates every 2 hours) Walking through the door into the bar, it felt like being back in the freezers at Sainsburys, just with better use of Ice! The room had a few ice sculptures standing around the room; a Jelly fish carved into a block of ice took the centre alongside a carving of an old diving suit. An octopus was carved into a table next to a seating area. The bar also made completely out of ice took up one side of the room. We had a choice of cocktails to choose from. The glasses were pretty cool (pardon the pun) being made out of ice also. You had to have your gloves on to hold it. I then took on the challenge of eating the glass after finishing my drink. I always eat the Ice when it comes in my other drinks why not this one. They only get melted down and re-sculptured. It is defiantly something worth doing, and it gives you an insight into the Ice Hotel up north which I hope to visit.
Prague
Getting up fairly early In the morning to make our way to the airport that Ryanair use. It’s apparently a Stockholm airport but is an 82 minute coach ride away in a town called Nyköping! Gotta love Ryanair. The airport is shared with the Swedish Coastguard. Anyway, first flight with this low cost airline, so let’s keep an open mind. It is only costing £10 anyway. One thing that was questionable; whilst stating the flight was non smoking they did offer an alternative, smokeless cigarettes, cigarettes you could smoke in places you weren’t allowed to smoke, clever I admit however the line “& if you don’t smoke maybe you can start with smokeless” was a bit of a legal concern! The landing on this Ryanair flight was interesting to say the least. I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to slow the plain down before you land and not just slam on the breaks when you touch the ground!
The architecture in Prague is quite unique it feels just like a stereotypical Eastern European city. There is a big emphasis on their communist past. You will find communist poster dotted around, especially ones advertising the communism museum (sadly we didn’t have time to visit it) No mention of the German occupation. The hostel was just around the corner from an old bell tower which towered up over the street. Opposite a 200 store shopping centre it was clash of old and new. The old town Square is a beautiful place to stand. The Cathedral towers over the square with the clock tower opposite. Every hour on the hour a crowd gathers at the clock tower to watch it chime. It’s quite like a giant Swiss clock with little figures signing the hour, followed by a guard in the clock tower who then plays a tune from his trumpet at all four sides of the viewing platform of the tower. You can get horse and cart rides from the old town centre which just adds to the character of the old square in the background. Prague is called the most atheist city yet it has plenty of churches. It is true in Prague beer is cheaper than water! Around £1 a pint with a bottle of water costing £2. One thing to note is the great customer service you receive in Prague! They say a smile costs nothing yet apparently that’s too expensive for some people in Prague! I should point out, English is spoken here especially in the tourist zones, with regards to eating out you can ask for a menu in English to save you working out what on earth it is you are ordering. For our first meal in Prague we went to a traditional Czech restaurant. I ordered a Goulash with a side order of dumplings (all you can eat!) Popular Czech dishes will include beef, pork & chicken. Another favourite is fried cheese.
The tourist attractions are within walking distance. The fees associated with the attractions are around £1 each, so great value. One thing I recommend as a must visit is the Castle grounds. Up at the top of a hill with an amazing view over the city is the Royal Palace. The castle itself surrounds the centre piece of the site which is a huge cathedral towering over the palace and the city. This is a wonderful piece of architecture. The front has similarities with Notre Dame.
The food stands around the tourist areas are of good quality selling things such as belly pork which was heavenly (but can be pricey). If you make it 30 Czech Crown to the pound you have a good margin of era, it’s on average about 27.4 to the pound but 30 is easier to work out. It is cheap in Prague however if you go to the shopping centre with well known stores such as Topshop, M&S etc (The Aussies wanted to go!) you will find the exchange rates a bit odd as the big stores will put their prices on the tags in many currencies. In M&S in particular the price in Swedish Krona is almost double the value when converted to Euros. So be careful.
The Old Charles Bridge is well worth a walk over, pedestrians only so you can take your time and stop at the stands selling jewellery, paintings or even get a portrait/characture done, there are plenty of them! There are plenty of tourist shops around with the majority of them selling Czech glass, ranging from affordable to expensive (as you’d expect) finding a Czech flag was quite hard but got it and it now hangs in my room along with the others I have gained.
For a night out I would recommend one of the bar crawls (plenty of them). For around £10 you can have an all you can drink pre party followed by a few bars. The pre party was in the basement of a converted church. (Interesting, see how many sins you can commit in a church!) The unlimited drinks were limited to Beer, nasty wine and watered down shots. So good thing it was all you can drink because the drinks in the bars afterwards were around £3. O not to self never have cider in Prague unless it is the Swedish one. It was really bitter, just like the wine.
Note the Czech Rep doesn’t have a smoking ban, when you are used to this in Britain and other European countries it can take a bit of getting used to again, in restaurants it can be coped with however smoking in clubs at night caused me a few breathing problems, I have no idea how the asthmatics among our party coped! Be prepared for your clothes to sting of cigarettes when you get home, so pack extra clothes is my advice.
Berlin
Our time is up in Prague and we now move on to Berlin, a city we were all excited to go & see due to its history. Having only been to Germany once for 24 hours in the north of the country I wasn’t sure what to expect. We got the train from Prague Central and were on our way. It was around a 4 hour trip. You could tell when you entered Germany because the accents on the signs suddenly changed, and then you had a changeover of train guards from Czech to German. We arrived in Berlin to a wave of confusion about how we should get to the hostel. We decided that instead of faffing about with the underground we would just get a taxi. Just under 10 Euro a bargain compared to Sweden. Although the Euro £ exchange rate wasn’t in our favour as it was about 87p to the Euro, compared to the days when it was about 70p it turns out we had two different addresses for the hostel due to a mix up with the name. Our Hostel was just around the corner from the TV tower which I fell in love with, (the tallest building in the EU, surly upsetting the French!) and also just about a 5 min walk from the Main cathedral in Berlin (Berliner Dom)
Our first night was a fairly quiet one, One of our party went off to watch a play in German by a play write who she had studied before whilst we all went off to find something to eat. We ended up in an Asian restaurant! The Aussies & Canadian were excited by the fact you can drink in the streets here. A novelty that didn’t fade over time. This was clearly man time with conversation over dinner and beyond of a masculine nature! Berlin I have to say is quite, well strange is a way of saying it, maybe different is probably more applicable. Prostitutes walk around touting for business, and there are a lot of them. Bless though Christian I have to say came up with a quote that will stick with me for a while, “Was that a Prostitute? I’ve never seen one before” O dear! After moving on from them we ended up walking down an ally (As you do in an unknown city at night!) to find open fires and drinking in a square behind some buildings, quite tense I have to say, but the others seemed to be enjoying themselves. Something I would not do normally, chat to prostitutes and go down an ally!!!! Anyway Jo saved my life and texted to say her play had finished, so I was a happy boy.
The next day we returned to more normal things of sightseeing. We started off at the Berliner Dom which is quite a grand church; the restoration of it was only finished in 1993 after it was destroyed during the final days of the War. They did a good job it looks as if it was undamaged and had stood tall throughout history, about £2.50 to enter, but worth it. Especially for the views you can get from the roof. It is very grand inside, we’d stumbled on the beginning of a service, which of course we didn’t stay for! We went on the hike to the top to get the views. After that we ended up in the well I’m sure it’s not called this but basement. Where German royalty is buried alongside one unknown. The coffins had their crowns placed on top of them.
We continued our walk towards the Brandenburg Gate. Now a game we have played throughout our trip was to spot the embassies. Russia has the grandest one in Berlin I have to say however the embassies are on the ‘Eastern side’ of Berlin. The Brandenburg gate is quite something, creating quite a buzz. You have for the tourists people dressed up in the old military uniforms of the soviets and the East Berliner and on the other side the American and West Berliner, and where the hell would you be without Star War’s very own Darth Vader at a historical sight such as this!
We then moved onto the Reichstag, fun quote from the guide book “Why is the Reichstag called the Reichstag? It is not! It is called the Bundestag” Fancy being told off by a leaflet! Also the leaflet states “The Bundestag is not built on a foundation of sand” They really struggled for things to write about this place! No mention of it being burnt down. In fact you will find a lack of history between 1933-45 here. They focus strongly on the oppression under the Berlin wall! It is a long wait at the Parliament building and you only get to go to the dome on the top to get an audio guided tour of the view of Berlin. No Signe of Chancellor Merkel sadly.
That night we went out on a bar crawl, £11 again with one free drink and free shots at the bars. Pretty good night has to be said. Anyway next day woke up at 12, all tired from the night before with still a fair few things to see.
We made our way towards Checkpoint Charlie, on our way we walked past a motorcade parked up at the University, one car had the coat of arms for Germany on a flag attached to the front. I asked a Police officer who was there. He said that the President of Germany was inside the building. So we waited around for 5 minutes and sure enough the President of Germany came out. Being a more figure head position I had no idea which of the men walking out of the building was the President. All I knew was that Merkel had trouble getting him elected. I soon worked out who was the President, and he said Gudentag to me, so I replied. We reached Checkpoint Charlie which being American was next to a McDonalds! We visited the Berlin Wall Museum which though interesting was filled with information, it will take the best part of the day to read it all. It is filled with stories of escape from East Berlin to the West. What is also interesting is they had files with the names of people who were killed or died trying to escape from the East. There were at least 8 files filled with names. We then went on in search of the remains of the Berlin Wall that was still standing. It stands next to the grounds where the Gestapo building stood, which is now an open air museum. Tired as we were we made our way to the Jewish museum. Set up as a reminder of the Holocaust. The garden set as a memorial was quite interesting. It was pillars set in a slanted ground. The Holocaust tower was a room that high ceiling with one slit in it for daylight, however when we went it was dark so no light entered the room, it was quite moving. The section on the Holocaust was very interesting. It had memos from the Gestapo & SS with regards to the ‘Jewish solution’ as the Nazis called it. It showed footage from The Hague with relation to the War trials. Letters from the camps. I have to say the rest of the Museum wasn’t interesting at all, in my opinion.
Tuesday 26 October 2010
Winter Chills & Exams (Month 2)
Well I have now been here in Sweden for 2 months. I have to say in comparison to the last month it’s not been as hectic and active. The weather is changing quickly now. We are in what the Swedes have called ‘British Winter’ It feels like a December morning. The frost is coming and with that Ice is also appearing. (Being surrounded by hills makes walking around the risky part to my day!) It has snowed a little now, not as much here in Huskvarna, I keep getting texts from friends in Råslätt (The other side of jönköping) saying they have snow. It just rains over this side.
The A1 quarter is over and I´ve just had the exams. What a contrast in exam procedures. In the UK once you enter the room you aren’t allowed to talk, you have to sit quietly and wait to be told the exam has started. In Sweden you can chat away and once you receive the exam paper away you go. Also they offer you way too much time for the exam. Apparently they don’t want students to be pressured for time in their exam. You will be given 5 hours for an exam that realistically 2-3 hours suffices. Also in the UK if you need to use the toilet during an exam, an invigilator has to follow you to ensure you don’t cheat, here in Sweden all you do is sign when you go to the loo and that’s it the amount of people that go in looking worried and stressed and come out looking happy is amazing. Such a contrast.
For a post exam break myself and a few friends are heading to Prague then Berlin, having never been to either of these cities it’s quite an exciting prospect. We leave in a few days spend 1 night in Stockholm 2 nights in Prague then 3 nights in Berlin. Not much else to report sadly, due to the exams. Much more to write about once I get back my travels.
The A1 quarter is over and I´ve just had the exams. What a contrast in exam procedures. In the UK once you enter the room you aren’t allowed to talk, you have to sit quietly and wait to be told the exam has started. In Sweden you can chat away and once you receive the exam paper away you go. Also they offer you way too much time for the exam. Apparently they don’t want students to be pressured for time in their exam. You will be given 5 hours for an exam that realistically 2-3 hours suffices. Also in the UK if you need to use the toilet during an exam, an invigilator has to follow you to ensure you don’t cheat, here in Sweden all you do is sign when you go to the loo and that’s it the amount of people that go in looking worried and stressed and come out looking happy is amazing. Such a contrast.
For a post exam break myself and a few friends are heading to Prague then Berlin, having never been to either of these cities it’s quite an exciting prospect. We leave in a few days spend 1 night in Stockholm 2 nights in Prague then 3 nights in Berlin. Not much else to report sadly, due to the exams. Much more to write about once I get back my travels.
Monday 11 October 2010
Autumn Leaves
As a stereotypical Brit I shall start by talking about the weather. It is getting colder, the Aussies are complaining and so are some of the Europeans, the Swedes are starting to wear coats and gloves, however I am still walking round with just my hoodie for warmth. I must have really good circulation. The temperature ranges from about 10C during the day to 3C at night, the other night it was supposed to have reached 0C. To me it just feels like the end of November for me, the cars start to mist up at night and in the early morning. The trees are either losing their leaves or they’re changing colour, living out here in Huskvarna surrounded by forests is actually quite beautiful and with the lake in the distance it makes for a wonderful view. I don’t think I could ever get sick of that view on my way to the bus/train stop especially on a day like today where it was clear blue sky, ice blue lake and the golden tree covered hills with the houses dotted about. If it weren’t so autumnal it would look like a Greek Island or something to that effect.
Any who as I haven’t written in a while I have a lot to fill you in on. I say a lot probably isn’t actually that much. Let’s think back:
Tallin Cruise
Well I woke up at probably half past 5 to get the train in to go and queue for tickets on this Scandinavian University’s cruise to Estonia. It was the first time I had used my Skiing coat and winter boots. Standing for over three hours in what can only be described as a free for all huddle rather than a queue (Moaning again!) by the time our part of the queue had actually managed to get into the warmth of Student House we were informed the tickets had all gone, I have to say that due to the lack of order in the queue some people who were behind us ended up getting tickets by pushing their way through, we weren’t happy. So that little trip is out of the window, lucky for me they repeat it again next semester!
Diploma in Trading
I took a two day crash course in Financial Trading, from GCMS in association with Copenhagen Business School. It was a 9-4 course for the two days covering the important parts of financial trading such as foreign exchanges and EFDs on shares etc. This was quite good as I do get a qualification out of it. During the second day we were set to work on the simulation, with a budget of 1,000,000 I made 70,000 in one day! Pretty good, When it came to the group trading this is where it went wrong. My team mates seemed to forget that the value can go up as well as down, due to some bad moves made by team mates were were down on luck, however I stepped in and made a few risky trades which managed to reduce our losses by a significant amount. We then came 2nd out of 5 groups and only lost by $30, had the group listened to me and kept our other trades for longer we would have won by $160. So there is a future in trading for me!
JSA Election Committee
Well this email looks interesting ‘Click’ “Apply now to become a member of the JSA Election Committee. You will be responsible for interviewing potential candidates to face the vote.” Now before I go further I shall explain what JSA is. Jönköping University has the main Student Union then each individual school has its own union. JSA stands for JIBS Student Association and is for the Business school. Anyway I submitted my application and have been successful in gaining a seat on the committee so looks like I will be involved in Swedish Student Politics.
Sport
Nope that isn’t a typo. I have finally joined the Student Sport Association (Its quite big here in Sweden to belong to an association) anyway I have played some badminton though there weren’t many people there. However I do intend to go back. Anyway the big news is I have finally managed to track down the Rowing squad and shall be returning to the water almost one year after my knee injury which ruled me out of last season. I can’t wait to get back into it, all be it my knee will be strapped up, I’m not risking anything this time. Lake Vättern will be really nice to row in. It goes right passed the uni.
Health and Immigration
Two areas I have recently had experience with so I thought I’d blog it. Firstly Health: Although Swedes are taxed up to their eyeballs here Healthcare still isn’t free. You have to pay the first £100 to see a Dr so that is 10 trips at £10, after that your Dr Visits are free. Prescriptions are also not cheap. You have to pay the first £9 then if you have a Swedish Identity number you pay half the remaining cost of the drugs, up to a certain level. As I am waiting on my Swedish number I had to pay full wack, not fun at all. With regards to immigration I am now registered as an EU student living in Sweden. I had to go to the immigration office across town and into the office. The set up was really weird. You got out of the lift into the office where the forms were on the wall to fill in and then a waiting area. You take a ticket and wait for your number. When your number is called this what looked like a bomb proof door opens electronically then gets shut behind you and locks itself. Interesting if that weren’t enough the office workers are behind glass screens also. Now to register as a student living here (Which you must do if you are in the country for more than 3 months) then you need your Passport, University acceptance letter and proof that you have medical insurance (in my case the EU medical card) then you need your address and to sign forms saying you can support yourself financially. I am currently waiting on my Swedish personal number to be sent through to me.
Dodgeball
Right firstly I should explain how this came about. One of the many modules here is based on Enterprise, and the students taking this course are split into groups and given 200Kr (£20) they then have to come up with an idea that will make them profit. Ideas such as jewellery, patches for overalls, Iphone covers, plenty of thermos flasks for coffees, Swedish to English shopping guide etc etc. One of the groups came up with the idea of a dogdeball tournament. 16 teams of 6 at 120Kr (£12) per team to partake. Fancy dress obviously. This was great fun to watch with all sorts of costumes, the biggest looser (which is apparently quite big here) Old Grannies, Tiger Woods and his mistresses etc. Great laugh to watch, sadly the team I threw my support behind (Team Aussie) didn’t make it through the first round. My god there was a lot of cheating going on luckily the audience wasn’t having any of it.
Exams
Yes exam season is upon us I’ve already had my first one which was Swedish and it was on a Saturday morning at 9am!!! Honestly, outrageous. Anyway I’m not sure how it went I think I did well in the reading section and the word order etc, but as per usual the grammar section threw me. I find it hard to learn grammar in this sort of scientific way, I don’t even know what some of the words are grouped into in English let alone Swedish. We shall see when the results come in. I have however had my Creative Writing test for Swedish, which is where we were given a picture and had to write about it. I was given a picture of people in a bar, so I created a dialogue between two of the characters. This got me 90% which I was chuffed to bits with.
Well I think you’re all up to date now.
Cheerio for now
Any who as I haven’t written in a while I have a lot to fill you in on. I say a lot probably isn’t actually that much. Let’s think back:
Tallin Cruise
Well I woke up at probably half past 5 to get the train in to go and queue for tickets on this Scandinavian University’s cruise to Estonia. It was the first time I had used my Skiing coat and winter boots. Standing for over three hours in what can only be described as a free for all huddle rather than a queue (Moaning again!) by the time our part of the queue had actually managed to get into the warmth of Student House we were informed the tickets had all gone, I have to say that due to the lack of order in the queue some people who were behind us ended up getting tickets by pushing their way through, we weren’t happy. So that little trip is out of the window, lucky for me they repeat it again next semester!
Diploma in Trading
I took a two day crash course in Financial Trading, from GCMS in association with Copenhagen Business School. It was a 9-4 course for the two days covering the important parts of financial trading such as foreign exchanges and EFDs on shares etc. This was quite good as I do get a qualification out of it. During the second day we were set to work on the simulation, with a budget of 1,000,000 I made 70,000 in one day! Pretty good, When it came to the group trading this is where it went wrong. My team mates seemed to forget that the value can go up as well as down, due to some bad moves made by team mates were were down on luck, however I stepped in and made a few risky trades which managed to reduce our losses by a significant amount. We then came 2nd out of 5 groups and only lost by $30, had the group listened to me and kept our other trades for longer we would have won by $160. So there is a future in trading for me!
JSA Election Committee
Well this email looks interesting ‘Click’ “Apply now to become a member of the JSA Election Committee. You will be responsible for interviewing potential candidates to face the vote.” Now before I go further I shall explain what JSA is. Jönköping University has the main Student Union then each individual school has its own union. JSA stands for JIBS Student Association and is for the Business school. Anyway I submitted my application and have been successful in gaining a seat on the committee so looks like I will be involved in Swedish Student Politics.
Sport
Nope that isn’t a typo. I have finally joined the Student Sport Association (Its quite big here in Sweden to belong to an association) anyway I have played some badminton though there weren’t many people there. However I do intend to go back. Anyway the big news is I have finally managed to track down the Rowing squad and shall be returning to the water almost one year after my knee injury which ruled me out of last season. I can’t wait to get back into it, all be it my knee will be strapped up, I’m not risking anything this time. Lake Vättern will be really nice to row in. It goes right passed the uni.
Health and Immigration
Two areas I have recently had experience with so I thought I’d blog it. Firstly Health: Although Swedes are taxed up to their eyeballs here Healthcare still isn’t free. You have to pay the first £100 to see a Dr so that is 10 trips at £10, after that your Dr Visits are free. Prescriptions are also not cheap. You have to pay the first £9 then if you have a Swedish Identity number you pay half the remaining cost of the drugs, up to a certain level. As I am waiting on my Swedish number I had to pay full wack, not fun at all. With regards to immigration I am now registered as an EU student living in Sweden. I had to go to the immigration office across town and into the office. The set up was really weird. You got out of the lift into the office where the forms were on the wall to fill in and then a waiting area. You take a ticket and wait for your number. When your number is called this what looked like a bomb proof door opens electronically then gets shut behind you and locks itself. Interesting if that weren’t enough the office workers are behind glass screens also. Now to register as a student living here (Which you must do if you are in the country for more than 3 months) then you need your Passport, University acceptance letter and proof that you have medical insurance (in my case the EU medical card) then you need your address and to sign forms saying you can support yourself financially. I am currently waiting on my Swedish personal number to be sent through to me.
Dodgeball
Right firstly I should explain how this came about. One of the many modules here is based on Enterprise, and the students taking this course are split into groups and given 200Kr (£20) they then have to come up with an idea that will make them profit. Ideas such as jewellery, patches for overalls, Iphone covers, plenty of thermos flasks for coffees, Swedish to English shopping guide etc etc. One of the groups came up with the idea of a dogdeball tournament. 16 teams of 6 at 120Kr (£12) per team to partake. Fancy dress obviously. This was great fun to watch with all sorts of costumes, the biggest looser (which is apparently quite big here) Old Grannies, Tiger Woods and his mistresses etc. Great laugh to watch, sadly the team I threw my support behind (Team Aussie) didn’t make it through the first round. My god there was a lot of cheating going on luckily the audience wasn’t having any of it.
Exams
Yes exam season is upon us I’ve already had my first one which was Swedish and it was on a Saturday morning at 9am!!! Honestly, outrageous. Anyway I’m not sure how it went I think I did well in the reading section and the word order etc, but as per usual the grammar section threw me. I find it hard to learn grammar in this sort of scientific way, I don’t even know what some of the words are grouped into in English let alone Swedish. We shall see when the results come in. I have however had my Creative Writing test for Swedish, which is where we were given a picture and had to write about it. I was given a picture of people in a bar, so I created a dialogue between two of the characters. This got me 90% which I was chuffed to bits with.
Well I think you’re all up to date now.
Cheerio for now
Thursday 30 September 2010
A sporting first
That’s right I did something sporty, well I went to watch an Ice Hockey match. It was Jönköping’s local team of HV71 against Frölunda from Göteborg. Now if you’re like me and have no prior knowledge of Ice Hockey I’ll fill you in. 3 thirds of 20 minutes if it’s a draw after the thirds then it goes to a sudden death which is 5 mins long, still failing to find a winner it then goes into shoot outs, best of 5, if it’s a draw after that it’s next one to score. Well anyway that’s what I worked out from watching. Almost anything goes, so yeah it can get rough, even for the 3 referees, who are as much an obstacle as the opposing team.
You may think that this game is incredibly rough, and its true injuries are incredibly common however there is an elegance to it I feel, watching the players glide around the arena chasing after the puck can be quite mesmerising, especially when they are skating backwards.
Anyway back to the game in hand. In the first third Frölunda took the lead halfway through. The atmosphere inside the arena was great, obvious support for the teams but with respect for the others, applauding ood efforts on both sides. Chants almost constantly. During the second third a goal from HV71 was disallowed, I’m not completely sure why. This is when the mild fights started, the sin bid was used an awful lot. The final third was when HV finally came back to draw. 2 of the opposing players were in the sin bin and thus that left Frölong with three players on the ice. They still cut it fine though as the players were only in the sin bin for a max of 2 mins. Then it went into sudden death hugely tense time with 2 fights emerging in this time alone. Then it went into penalties. In the initial 5 it was a draw so then it came down to the next goal wins. Luckily HV’s Goalkeeper was at the top of their game and held out. Finally the goal was scored and ended the game.
You may think that this game is incredibly rough, and its true injuries are incredibly common however there is an elegance to it I feel, watching the players glide around the arena chasing after the puck can be quite mesmerising, especially when they are skating backwards.
Anyway back to the game in hand. In the first third Frölunda took the lead halfway through. The atmosphere inside the arena was great, obvious support for the teams but with respect for the others, applauding ood efforts on both sides. Chants almost constantly. During the second third a goal from HV71 was disallowed, I’m not completely sure why. This is when the mild fights started, the sin bid was used an awful lot. The final third was when HV finally came back to draw. 2 of the opposing players were in the sin bin and thus that left Frölong with three players on the ice. They still cut it fine though as the players were only in the sin bin for a max of 2 mins. Then it went into sudden death hugely tense time with 2 fights emerging in this time alone. Then it went into penalties. In the initial 5 it was a draw so then it came down to the next goal wins. Luckily HV’s Goalkeeper was at the top of their game and held out. Finally the goal was scored and ended the game.
Thursday 23 September 2010
One month in Sveirge
What a month it has been, I couldn’t have foreseen such an amazing time, from my first night in Stockholm I could tell I would enjoy it here, It’s so fresh here, so pleasant (I’ll go into detail in just a sec.) Having been here a month means that I am no longer a tourist, I am a resident of Sweden, even sounds impressive. Mention this to people back home, even before I arrived you’d get similar responses, “It’s expensive there, you might not be able to afford it.” And on the other side of the scale ”Aren’t you lucky, think of the good looking Swedes you will meet” So this blog will be a reflection on what I have experienced in Sweden in the last month.
Let’s start with the important stuff, money. I grant you it is expensive here, tax on food and a fat tax. For example a litre of soy milk costs about £1.20 compared to the 55p I would spend back home. If you were to have a McDonalds meal you would expect to pay about £6.50 for a meal there, around double the UK price. Store brand items haven’t really made it in Swedish supermarkets, there’s no ICA value range, so living on a student budget can be tough, I’ve been living off Pasta, and sandwiches. There is a Lidl nearby however still not that much difference in price. No bottom price reductions, if something’s on its sell by then the reduction is likely to be between 30% and 50%, so no 10p bargains. So we’ve done food, mum will be happy to read about my o so stable diet! I’ll save the bit on alcohol prices for a bit! When it comes to items such as clothing and household stuff there isn’t really that much of a difference in price, just don’t expect to find a Primark styled shop here for clothes. (I’ve lasted one month on my small wardrobe I brought over from the UK!) One thing that does seem expensive is stationary, my god you’d be hard pushed to find a pad of A4 (70 pages or so) for under £1, this hurts I’m so used to big pads of paper (nice paper) for under £1, don’t get me started on the cost of a Bic ballpoint pen! £1 each!! My advice bring plenty of stationary with you. The paper price is ironic, all you see round Sweden are trees, a surplus of supply. Now to the expensive bit, the alcohol. The cost of alcohol is hugely expensive here, even more so in bars. In the System Blogat it’s about £1-1.50 per can. In a bar that isn’t the student bar you can expect to pay £5 for a pint. With this huge price you’d think my student nights out would cost well double that of a night out back home with the £1 drink offers and the £1.95 trebles (which I miss greatly btw) but no on the contrary, I will spend about £5 on pre-drinks then prob only buy 1 drink in the student bar for a similar price to the SU back home, so no biggy. So Nights here are cheaper in practice (I would also like to point out the Swedish taste in music, awesome. Not been to the student bar once and not heard a Eurovision song, and the Swedes love them) There is one part of Swedish culture you have to love and that is the after work buffets on a Friday. (Not seen many business people there though mainly students) Now for the price of a ready meal you get an all you can eat buffet and an alcoholic drink, now the drink normally costs more than that anyway so it’s a very happy night.
University life
Well I am here to study, so to prove that I’m not just having fun all the time! How am I coping with lectures? Answer; fine, one annoying thing is that if you have a clash of lectures the only way to catch up is to read the chapters in the book relating to the lectures. Luckily the economics lectures are at A Level standard so I prioritise Swedish then E-commerce (due to that involving a group assignment) One annoying thing is that the courses only run for about two months then you start the next set, So you pay out a lot of money for books that you only use for a few weeks. Lectures can go on for up to four hours, I hear of people starting as early as 8 in the morning! If you’re lucky you will only have one subject a day otherwise it’s a long day ending as late as 6.
Swedish life
I have to say I enjoy it, It’s not that big a culture shock. Pleasantly I have to say I’ve not seen one chav here yet, bliss. In Jönköping I haven’t seen any beggars however there were quite a few in Göteborg. It’s a bit strange getting used to the Swedish control on alcohol, after 2 on a Saturday you can’t alcohol until Monday, you can however get what’s been deemed ´emergency alcohol´ which has a small percentage as little as 0.5% to 3.5%. With regards to the Swedish language I am picking it up rather quickly, clearly I still have the British accent which I need to lose. We’ve just started looking at the grammar, this is incredibly confusing, you aren’t taught grammar in this theoretical way of imperatives etc, I have no idea what those are in English let alone in a foreign language. I now have Swedish radio on my ipod constantly to try and submerge myself in the language, the radio stations also have a camp taste in music, Lady Gaga is constantly played, Shakira’s Waka waka to name a few. So my advice to you if you don’t like a bit of cheesy music that can be as old as 10 years, then avoid Swedish radio. Huskvarna is a really nice place to live however I would say it’s more of a family town, however it is near the Kinnarps Arena (the home of the local Ice Hockey team, still yet to see a game but My allegiances are already aligned to HV71) Sweden has given new opportunities, the best if this so far being the forest party, wouldn’t be possible back home.
Well one month down and the next one has a fair amount lined up including the famous student cruise to Tallin with Students from all over Scandinavia not just Jönköping.
Let’s start with the important stuff, money. I grant you it is expensive here, tax on food and a fat tax. For example a litre of soy milk costs about £1.20 compared to the 55p I would spend back home. If you were to have a McDonalds meal you would expect to pay about £6.50 for a meal there, around double the UK price. Store brand items haven’t really made it in Swedish supermarkets, there’s no ICA value range, so living on a student budget can be tough, I’ve been living off Pasta, and sandwiches. There is a Lidl nearby however still not that much difference in price. No bottom price reductions, if something’s on its sell by then the reduction is likely to be between 30% and 50%, so no 10p bargains. So we’ve done food, mum will be happy to read about my o so stable diet! I’ll save the bit on alcohol prices for a bit! When it comes to items such as clothing and household stuff there isn’t really that much of a difference in price, just don’t expect to find a Primark styled shop here for clothes. (I’ve lasted one month on my small wardrobe I brought over from the UK!) One thing that does seem expensive is stationary, my god you’d be hard pushed to find a pad of A4 (70 pages or so) for under £1, this hurts I’m so used to big pads of paper (nice paper) for under £1, don’t get me started on the cost of a Bic ballpoint pen! £1 each!! My advice bring plenty of stationary with you. The paper price is ironic, all you see round Sweden are trees, a surplus of supply. Now to the expensive bit, the alcohol. The cost of alcohol is hugely expensive here, even more so in bars. In the System Blogat it’s about £1-1.50 per can. In a bar that isn’t the student bar you can expect to pay £5 for a pint. With this huge price you’d think my student nights out would cost well double that of a night out back home with the £1 drink offers and the £1.95 trebles (which I miss greatly btw) but no on the contrary, I will spend about £5 on pre-drinks then prob only buy 1 drink in the student bar for a similar price to the SU back home, so no biggy. So Nights here are cheaper in practice (I would also like to point out the Swedish taste in music, awesome. Not been to the student bar once and not heard a Eurovision song, and the Swedes love them) There is one part of Swedish culture you have to love and that is the after work buffets on a Friday. (Not seen many business people there though mainly students) Now for the price of a ready meal you get an all you can eat buffet and an alcoholic drink, now the drink normally costs more than that anyway so it’s a very happy night.
University life
Well I am here to study, so to prove that I’m not just having fun all the time! How am I coping with lectures? Answer; fine, one annoying thing is that if you have a clash of lectures the only way to catch up is to read the chapters in the book relating to the lectures. Luckily the economics lectures are at A Level standard so I prioritise Swedish then E-commerce (due to that involving a group assignment) One annoying thing is that the courses only run for about two months then you start the next set, So you pay out a lot of money for books that you only use for a few weeks. Lectures can go on for up to four hours, I hear of people starting as early as 8 in the morning! If you’re lucky you will only have one subject a day otherwise it’s a long day ending as late as 6.
Swedish life
I have to say I enjoy it, It’s not that big a culture shock. Pleasantly I have to say I’ve not seen one chav here yet, bliss. In Jönköping I haven’t seen any beggars however there were quite a few in Göteborg. It’s a bit strange getting used to the Swedish control on alcohol, after 2 on a Saturday you can’t alcohol until Monday, you can however get what’s been deemed ´emergency alcohol´ which has a small percentage as little as 0.5% to 3.5%. With regards to the Swedish language I am picking it up rather quickly, clearly I still have the British accent which I need to lose. We’ve just started looking at the grammar, this is incredibly confusing, you aren’t taught grammar in this theoretical way of imperatives etc, I have no idea what those are in English let alone in a foreign language. I now have Swedish radio on my ipod constantly to try and submerge myself in the language, the radio stations also have a camp taste in music, Lady Gaga is constantly played, Shakira’s Waka waka to name a few. So my advice to you if you don’t like a bit of cheesy music that can be as old as 10 years, then avoid Swedish radio. Huskvarna is a really nice place to live however I would say it’s more of a family town, however it is near the Kinnarps Arena (the home of the local Ice Hockey team, still yet to see a game but My allegiances are already aligned to HV71) Sweden has given new opportunities, the best if this so far being the forest party, wouldn’t be possible back home.
Well one month down and the next one has a fair amount lined up including the famous student cruise to Tallin with Students from all over Scandinavia not just Jönköping.
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Göteborg
I left for Göteborg with six other people, Nick, Jakob, Brit, Max, Arpad and Doug. We left by coach on Saturday afternoon. On arrival we could see the city was a lot bigger than Jönköping. Tall buildings everywhere. We got off the bus and tried to find our way to our accommodation for the night. Once settled in Max called his friend who was on exchange to Göteborg University, he was able to show us around the city. We went to the city centre, the Mayor’s office, to the theme park with the biggest wooden rollercoaster within Europe. Also here we saw people walking round with giant Toblorone, Daim bars and other sorts of chocolate bars. Sadly not for sale, you had to gamble to win them. Yes that´s how bad the fat tax is here people will gable for a huge three kilo bar of chocolate.
The city is Sweden´s second city and is a harbour city. It was incredibly windy in the city and a lot colder than Jönköping. That night we went out on the town after a few pre drinks we went to try and find a ´pink bar´ sadly we couldn´t find them so we ended up in a student bar where the drinks were cheaper than the bars in Jönköping.
The next day the group split into two half of us went shopping and the other half decided to go round a few sites. My group went down to the harbour front where there was a naval ship to look round and a submarine (sadly no chance to look round that though). Walking along the harbour we came to the Göteborg Wheel, (Their version of the London eye). You get a great view of the city and the harbour however after the fourth rotation you run out of things to look at, with the London eye it goes round slowly so you can take in everything at a nice pace, however the Göteborg Wheel went round quickly so we had about ten rotations in fifteen minutes, Kind of got boring after a while.
In the city´s shopping centre we found the polling station for the general election. A massive area with three huge circles where people went to vote and at the other end were representatives from all the party’s last minute campaigning. (More on the election in another blog). It´s quite hard to find a Swedish flag in Göteborg, the only one we could find was a two foot one for a flagpole for a house.
One night in Göteborg wasn´t enough to get around all the tourist sites. We didn´t have time to visit the Islands off Göteborg or the museums etc but the good news is I am here for the whole year, I don’t have to rush things, I can always go back with other people during the second semester.
Great weekend with a great bunch of people, what more could you ask for?
The city is Sweden´s second city and is a harbour city. It was incredibly windy in the city and a lot colder than Jönköping. That night we went out on the town after a few pre drinks we went to try and find a ´pink bar´ sadly we couldn´t find them so we ended up in a student bar where the drinks were cheaper than the bars in Jönköping.
The next day the group split into two half of us went shopping and the other half decided to go round a few sites. My group went down to the harbour front where there was a naval ship to look round and a submarine (sadly no chance to look round that though). Walking along the harbour we came to the Göteborg Wheel, (Their version of the London eye). You get a great view of the city and the harbour however after the fourth rotation you run out of things to look at, with the London eye it goes round slowly so you can take in everything at a nice pace, however the Göteborg Wheel went round quickly so we had about ten rotations in fifteen minutes, Kind of got boring after a while.
In the city´s shopping centre we found the polling station for the general election. A massive area with three huge circles where people went to vote and at the other end were representatives from all the party’s last minute campaigning. (More on the election in another blog). It´s quite hard to find a Swedish flag in Göteborg, the only one we could find was a two foot one for a flagpole for a house.
One night in Göteborg wasn´t enough to get around all the tourist sites. We didn´t have time to visit the Islands off Göteborg or the museums etc but the good news is I am here for the whole year, I don’t have to rush things, I can always go back with other people during the second semester.
Great weekend with a great bunch of people, what more could you ask for?
Thursday 16 September 2010
Letter responses
Well folks, I have received some letters and cards from family back home So Thank you for them, I shall now reply to some of the points made.
In response to where is Jönköping located, It is to the south of Lake Vättan. Jönköping isn’t near any sea so the water shown in the blog pictures are that of the lake. Jönköping has got canals flowing through also (one of which I jumped in during kick off week) I will post a picture of a map for you. Sadly now there aren´t really any reduced things in the supermarkets, not to bottom price like back in the UK but I intend to cover this matter in a blog at a later date. Yes the newly married royal couple are constantly on the front of the glossy mags here too. The merchandise has been quick to come out and there is plenty of it, especially in Stockholm. Banners were still up in Stockholm. Yes now a month has passed and I have settled in more and have most of my admin out of the way now I will start to look for a job, however there is a government funded service here to help you set up and run a business and I have a few ideas if I choose to go down that route, which is a possibility. The Mitchell Empire could start in Sweden! The trip to the artic circle and to the Northern lights I think is about six days. Still waiting for details to be published, I think I may have to queue early morning for this one though. People were queuing for the Norway trip as early as 6am. With regards to my room, yes my room mates bed is across the room from me however we have put up a sheet to give each other privacy and now it feels like a single room. Yes we are all getting along in the house really well. We have had ´cultural evenings´ Where food has been cooked from our home nations, two weeks ago we had Chinese and last week Austrian. When everyone gets back from Norway I will be doing a full English for the house and some others I have invited to join in.
I hope this answers your letters and cards, thanks again.
In response to where is Jönköping located, It is to the south of Lake Vättan. Jönköping isn’t near any sea so the water shown in the blog pictures are that of the lake. Jönköping has got canals flowing through also (one of which I jumped in during kick off week) I will post a picture of a map for you. Sadly now there aren´t really any reduced things in the supermarkets, not to bottom price like back in the UK but I intend to cover this matter in a blog at a later date. Yes the newly married royal couple are constantly on the front of the glossy mags here too. The merchandise has been quick to come out and there is plenty of it, especially in Stockholm. Banners were still up in Stockholm. Yes now a month has passed and I have settled in more and have most of my admin out of the way now I will start to look for a job, however there is a government funded service here to help you set up and run a business and I have a few ideas if I choose to go down that route, which is a possibility. The Mitchell Empire could start in Sweden! The trip to the artic circle and to the Northern lights I think is about six days. Still waiting for details to be published, I think I may have to queue early morning for this one though. People were queuing for the Norway trip as early as 6am. With regards to my room, yes my room mates bed is across the room from me however we have put up a sheet to give each other privacy and now it feels like a single room. Yes we are all getting along in the house really well. We have had ´cultural evenings´ Where food has been cooked from our home nations, two weeks ago we had Chinese and last week Austrian. When everyone gets back from Norway I will be doing a full English for the house and some others I have invited to join in.
I hope this answers your letters and cards, thanks again.
Forest Party
Forest Party:
This was the highlight of the week and a great experience. Under Swedish law we have the right to roam round the countryside etc, so a party was organised in the forest near Råslätt. We got together and headed in, stupidly I left my Nokia (with a good torch on it) at home. We found an area where we could set up a campfire, wood was gathered, the issue was that it had been raining (well Mizzle) so the surrounding wood was dam and impossible to light. Ironically in the city where matches are made, matches can’t be found in shops, we had to rely on a smoker for a lighter. After a while trying to set fire to wet branches, someone had thought to go back and get some wooden pallets. One was thrown on and the fire was going, then another and another. At this point I questioned the legality of the fire. The fire was burning, people were cooking sausages and marshmallows, others were drinking, only one log to sit on so most were standing but the banter was great. Sadly guitars were left at home so no campfire songs. Definitely a great experience, note to self bring marshmallows next time.
Now obviously I’m here to ‘study’ This week we had a ‘webcam’ lecture. We went to a lecture room and on the screen was a webcam link form the lecturer in his office, he was delivering the lecture to four Universities across Sweden. JIBS is apparently the number two business school in Sweden. In Swedish we learnt how to tell the time, and started on some verbs. Tried texting a Swedish friend in Swedish about evening plans, made a few mistakes but it’s the only way I will learn.
A downside of University here is that you have to pay Student Union fees, here it’s over £20 for the year. Failure to pay means you can’t take your exams. However the university is still amazing.
A note about the accommodation here. The ones that I have visited have a certain character. Match House is accommodation that houses 25 students, walking down the corridor puts me in mind of the corridor of a mental hospital (as did the hostel I stayed in come to think of it, even more so with people randomly walking round, some with mops not cleaning I might add, put me in mind of One flew over the cuckoo’s nest) Long hospital styled flooring in the corridor, so homely. Luckily home is what you make of it. Anyway onto Råslätt. This is based in what can only be described as a huge council estate. Also known as ‘the project’ These estates apparently appear in most of the big cities but recently they have all been renovated except Råslätt. However they do offer a communal building with pool table etc, there are sports facilities and the residents get a discount on the monthly bus passes, something which my landlord refused to comment on when I brought up this issue. Now onto Delta. This is probably the nicest of the two city residencies. Clearly they used to be offices and one assumes they were offices for the school attached because some of the windows in the rooms look into the schools canteen. Sadly these rooms won’t be available next semester so my chances of getting city centre accommodation are based on match house.
This was the highlight of the week and a great experience. Under Swedish law we have the right to roam round the countryside etc, so a party was organised in the forest near Råslätt. We got together and headed in, stupidly I left my Nokia (with a good torch on it) at home. We found an area where we could set up a campfire, wood was gathered, the issue was that it had been raining (well Mizzle) so the surrounding wood was dam and impossible to light. Ironically in the city where matches are made, matches can’t be found in shops, we had to rely on a smoker for a lighter. After a while trying to set fire to wet branches, someone had thought to go back and get some wooden pallets. One was thrown on and the fire was going, then another and another. At this point I questioned the legality of the fire. The fire was burning, people were cooking sausages and marshmallows, others were drinking, only one log to sit on so most were standing but the banter was great. Sadly guitars were left at home so no campfire songs. Definitely a great experience, note to self bring marshmallows next time.
Now obviously I’m here to ‘study’ This week we had a ‘webcam’ lecture. We went to a lecture room and on the screen was a webcam link form the lecturer in his office, he was delivering the lecture to four Universities across Sweden. JIBS is apparently the number two business school in Sweden. In Swedish we learnt how to tell the time, and started on some verbs. Tried texting a Swedish friend in Swedish about evening plans, made a few mistakes but it’s the only way I will learn.
A downside of University here is that you have to pay Student Union fees, here it’s over £20 for the year. Failure to pay means you can’t take your exams. However the university is still amazing.
A note about the accommodation here. The ones that I have visited have a certain character. Match House is accommodation that houses 25 students, walking down the corridor puts me in mind of the corridor of a mental hospital (as did the hostel I stayed in come to think of it, even more so with people randomly walking round, some with mops not cleaning I might add, put me in mind of One flew over the cuckoo’s nest) Long hospital styled flooring in the corridor, so homely. Luckily home is what you make of it. Anyway onto Råslätt. This is based in what can only be described as a huge council estate. Also known as ‘the project’ These estates apparently appear in most of the big cities but recently they have all been renovated except Råslätt. However they do offer a communal building with pool table etc, there are sports facilities and the residents get a discount on the monthly bus passes, something which my landlord refused to comment on when I brought up this issue. Now onto Delta. This is probably the nicest of the two city residencies. Clearly they used to be offices and one assumes they were offices for the school attached because some of the windows in the rooms look into the schools canteen. Sadly these rooms won’t be available next semester so my chances of getting city centre accommodation are based on match house.
Monday 6 September 2010
Studies commence
Well folks the studying has begun here in Jönköping. The academic year consist of 2 semesters each split into 2 quarters each, (A1 & A2, S1 & S2) So normally you pick to modules to take per quarter, (However I have 3 due to taking Swedish as an extra). One thing I have noticed here in Sweden is organisation is not at its best, I’m going to sound terribly British and say these people don’t know how to queue unless there is a numbered ticket system which in quite a few places there are, but not at the uni. You will be in huddles making your way to the front, the Swedes don’t like you pushing in front we were told however in practice you do get the odd few pushing in. Anyway rant over) I say it’s not organised because at Uni at home we are given an individual timetable for lectures and seminars which requires big organisation to avoid clashes, in Jönköping you are told when the lectures are and if you have any clashes you have to prioritise which lecture to go to. Seems a bit strange to me.
Anyway this quarter I am Studying Macroeconomic theory, Developing electronic capabilities for commerce (E-Commerce) and Swedish 1. What dry subjects you probably think, well I enjoy economics and I want to learn Swedish, I’m doing the E-Commerce module because of the law section but when lectures can last up to 4 hours it can become very dull, for example my second economics lecture was 3 hours of what was called ‘Mathematics for economics’ 3 hours of Algebra etc only to be told it was unlikely we would need it for the exam. Yes it was bad. E-Commerce was just an intro lecture but we already have our assignment. Yes these courses appear to be very quick, finishing in mid October.
Swedish 1: Now this subject I do enjoy, only had one lesson due to a clash with another module. The only downside to this module is you learn new stuff in class and then you go out into the big world of Sweden and then you hear people or someone asks you something and you don’t understand it. Now for me I have a fear of not being able to understand/be understood, it is why I have obsessed with learning languages, just the basics even if it’s hello and numbers. Lack of Swedish I can find to be quite isolating. You may call me nosey but when I sit on a bus at home the background noise of chatter is almost calming because you recognise if someone is going to kick off etc. On a Swedish bus people will ask you something, you can guess at what they are saying, is anyone sitting there? Etc etc but I just get this sense of isolation. You rely on your own company more. However I do listen hard to try and pick up any vocabulary.
Sweden week 3
What can I say it’s week 3 and I’m falling in love with the place. Of course there are downsides such as living so far away from campus, however the upside is Huskvarna is in a beautiful location, I just have to walk to the top of my road to see the lake and the hills, When there is a train running in the morning it only takes 8 minutes to get into the city, otherwise it’s a 20 min bus ride. Jönköping is a lovely city. The University is top quality and the central location is brilliant for after morning lectures you can just go to the city etc.
This week saw the end of the kick off week parties with our captain Ronnie Cau winning Fadder of the year, so congrats to him. With all the activity stopping it’s nice to get back to a normal routine. However Wednesdays are the big nights out here, We went to the first one this week. The dress code is the overalls we got during kick off week, so they will get some use out of them this year. Akademia is the Student Bar open every Wednesday, it’s a good night out, however restricted by bus times because taxis are incredibly expensive!!!! I have to say I miss Newcastle for it’s cheap drinks and it’s cheap taxis home.
The International Association has launched its first few trips, it’s big one going to the Fjords in Norway, people were queuing as early as 6am to get onto the trip. I however will save this one for Semester 2 if I chose to go. I am saving my money for the trip to the Northern Lights and the Ice hotel in late December. So whilst half my group of friends go to Norway I plan to go with the other half for a weekend in another Swedish city, either Göthenberg or Malmo, (details to follow)
Friday I watched a game of Australian Football with my new found Aussie friends, Can’t for the life of me remember the two teams, both from Melbourne but apparently most of them are! Later that night It was Sweden vs Hungry in the European Qualifier, Sweden winning 2-0, National allegiance changing slowly. It has been recommended to me to go to a Finland vs Sweden Ice Hockey game, this however is in the next few weeks and thus will be incredibly expensive, however the local team of HV71 will be starting their season soon as the reigning champions. With the stadium about 5 minutes away from me a game is a must whilst I’m here, it even has a curling ring so maybe I shall sign up for that. Look at me, watching Sports! Who knew it!
Anyway after a rather quiet week (In comparison to the other 2) I have run out of things to fill you in on. So I shall sign out for tonight
P.S Can’t for the life of me find Blue tack in this place!!!!
Cheerio
Anyway this quarter I am Studying Macroeconomic theory, Developing electronic capabilities for commerce (E-Commerce) and Swedish 1. What dry subjects you probably think, well I enjoy economics and I want to learn Swedish, I’m doing the E-Commerce module because of the law section but when lectures can last up to 4 hours it can become very dull, for example my second economics lecture was 3 hours of what was called ‘Mathematics for economics’ 3 hours of Algebra etc only to be told it was unlikely we would need it for the exam. Yes it was bad. E-Commerce was just an intro lecture but we already have our assignment. Yes these courses appear to be very quick, finishing in mid October.
Swedish 1: Now this subject I do enjoy, only had one lesson due to a clash with another module. The only downside to this module is you learn new stuff in class and then you go out into the big world of Sweden and then you hear people or someone asks you something and you don’t understand it. Now for me I have a fear of not being able to understand/be understood, it is why I have obsessed with learning languages, just the basics even if it’s hello and numbers. Lack of Swedish I can find to be quite isolating. You may call me nosey but when I sit on a bus at home the background noise of chatter is almost calming because you recognise if someone is going to kick off etc. On a Swedish bus people will ask you something, you can guess at what they are saying, is anyone sitting there? Etc etc but I just get this sense of isolation. You rely on your own company more. However I do listen hard to try and pick up any vocabulary.
Sweden week 3
What can I say it’s week 3 and I’m falling in love with the place. Of course there are downsides such as living so far away from campus, however the upside is Huskvarna is in a beautiful location, I just have to walk to the top of my road to see the lake and the hills, When there is a train running in the morning it only takes 8 minutes to get into the city, otherwise it’s a 20 min bus ride. Jönköping is a lovely city. The University is top quality and the central location is brilliant for after morning lectures you can just go to the city etc.
This week saw the end of the kick off week parties with our captain Ronnie Cau winning Fadder of the year, so congrats to him. With all the activity stopping it’s nice to get back to a normal routine. However Wednesdays are the big nights out here, We went to the first one this week. The dress code is the overalls we got during kick off week, so they will get some use out of them this year. Akademia is the Student Bar open every Wednesday, it’s a good night out, however restricted by bus times because taxis are incredibly expensive!!!! I have to say I miss Newcastle for it’s cheap drinks and it’s cheap taxis home.
The International Association has launched its first few trips, it’s big one going to the Fjords in Norway, people were queuing as early as 6am to get onto the trip. I however will save this one for Semester 2 if I chose to go. I am saving my money for the trip to the Northern Lights and the Ice hotel in late December. So whilst half my group of friends go to Norway I plan to go with the other half for a weekend in another Swedish city, either Göthenberg or Malmo, (details to follow)
Friday I watched a game of Australian Football with my new found Aussie friends, Can’t for the life of me remember the two teams, both from Melbourne but apparently most of them are! Later that night It was Sweden vs Hungry in the European Qualifier, Sweden winning 2-0, National allegiance changing slowly. It has been recommended to me to go to a Finland vs Sweden Ice Hockey game, this however is in the next few weeks and thus will be incredibly expensive, however the local team of HV71 will be starting their season soon as the reigning champions. With the stadium about 5 minutes away from me a game is a must whilst I’m here, it even has a curling ring so maybe I shall sign up for that. Look at me, watching Sports! Who knew it!
Anyway after a rather quiet week (In comparison to the other 2) I have run out of things to fill you in on. So I shall sign out for tonight
P.S Can’t for the life of me find Blue tack in this place!!!!
Cheerio
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Arrival in Jönköping & Kick off week
Well I arrived into Jönköping and made my way to Student house to get my accommodation. Upon arrival I was told that they had no accommodation for me, even though I had an email saying they had some for me. (Hint make sure you apply in time) At around 8.30pm I was taken to a hostel in Huskvarna where I would spend from Saturday to Wednesday. It was a cramped room with two bunk beds. Three of us in there with our luggage you can imagine the lack of space. This was a very anxious moment for me. I have never been in this situation before. When I went up to the room I was with a guy from Indonesia, who had limited English skills. Later on I would meet an Aussie who was staying in my room also. He introduced me to a chap from Spain and a lass from Canada. I started to settle in better from this point. Sunday we went to a friend of the Aussie in the city centre.
Monday morning and we had to be in Uni first thing and I mean 8am. We had a meeting with some lecturers to go through some formalities. Then we had the Kick off teams come in. Now these people scared me. They were so enthusiastic, like a group of motivational therapists. We were split into our groups and went to meet the rest of our fadders. It was really good that the academic side communicated with the SU side and organised events during the day and not just at bight between academic introductions. We then got to know the other people in our group sober as well as drunk! One thing to note the Swedes have a stereotype of being quite shy and reserved. This maybe so generally but like us Brits get a few drinks down and you’ll make friends for life. Also the Swedish students are incredibly outgoing. They are up for anything it seems, whether its swimming in the canal naked or stripping down to your undies to go run in a fountain. However if you see a person smiling in the street at people they are probably tourists! Monday night was a pre party at one of the fadders house then onto the JIBS (business school) Bar. On this note of alcohol. Sweden is an expensive night out. I certainly miss the cheap prices of Newcastle. Outside of student clubs and bars the average cost of an alcoholic drink is around £5. Student bars are around half this. There is only one store in Sweden which has the right to sell alcohol. The times are restricted. Not normally open past 6 or 7pm only open for a few hours on Sat. Honestly this system would not work in the UK. Supermarkets only sell what has been termed ‘emergency beer’ (less than 3.5% even as low as 0.5%) After the Business bar where I continued to meet new people, mainly Aussies and other commonwealth nations. We went onto a club in town. It was rammed. Probably spent over an hour there before I went home with my Aussie room mate and the Canadian. The busses don’t run so late here.
Tuesday during the day was filled with course confirmation and then a talk from the President of the University and the Business school Deane. It appears they like their tradition here so as we went into the theatre for the talk, flag bearers were standing in a semi-circle leading into the theatre. When it was time to start we were told to rise for the flag. The Swedish flag came in first being marched down the steps towards the stage followed by the flags of the university and business school then the local council I imagine. It was not marched however to the soundtrack of the Swedish National anthem. The speeches were made, (may I point out a lot of stuff is repeated throughout the week, so you do get fed up, but what’s new) Once all speeches were over we were then asked to rise again for the flags exit. The ceremony began again marching up the steps and out of the theatre. Quite different to how we were addressed in our freshers week by the Deane. Tuesday night was another pre party at a fadders house moving onto Akademia the SU club. This club is the place to be on a Wednesday normally and I can see why it’s incredible. Two rooms with different music in each. I prefer the one with ‘cheesy’ Swedish music. First time I’ve heard Carola in a club before! Loved it.
Wednesday was the day of the ‘Academic introduction’ For this we were all taken by coach to the Local Ice Hockey Stadium, home to HV71 (Sounds like a virus but never mind) We started off with a brief chat about studying in Sweden followed by a quick phrase lesson. Then after Fyka (Coffee break) We went into the main Arena where we were welcomed by all our fadders and then had a quick lesson on differences in Swedish culture. To be honest I can see alot of British in the Swedish culture, or maybe it’s the other way round. The evening was another pre party followed by a beach party at Centrum.
Thursday was a student tour around the city. At different locations we had different challenges to do within our group to earn our team points. Club Caj we had to create a 1 minute dance to a Michael Jackson song to perform for Mr Caj. City square we had a fasion show to perform for 2 members of Sexkreation (SexKreation where the judges of events and the organisers. The name stems from the old Swedish use of the word sex, meaning fun, translated it means fun creator) Swimming in the canal was another challenge.
Thursday was the day I finally moved into my permanent residence. A house in the neighbouring town of Huskvarna, 4 students sharing, 2 guys and 2 girls. There are a few of these student houses. It’s a mezzanine house with us students owning the ground and the 1st floor. I’m sharing my room with a guy from Austria. My other housemates come from China and Italy.
Thursday night was the traditional toga party. Each year JSA (JIBS Student Association) have this toga party which ends the night with a swim in the canal. I decided to go with tradition and take the plunge (pardon the pun). It was 2am, remember this is Sweden so I was expecting it to be freezing; however to my surprise it wasn’t too bad. Just made sure I reached the surface.
Friday. Nearly the end of the week by now we are all sleep deprived, hungry and our livers now take their revenge on us however we still plod along, no stranger to this being a student in Newcastle! Today’s event was rained off at the last minute, we were supposed to go to the beach on the lake and play some games but instead we did what all students do and that is to play drinking games before the Swe event. The Event of the week; this is a huge Pool party with around 1600 people attending. It starts of with a relay race between the 4 schools, this year the communication school won. The event was started with the Swedish National anthem. (Yet another song to learn) The pool party commenced with everyone jumping into the Olympic sized pool and swimming the width of it then going onto the other pool outside! Yes outside, in Sweden. They like to do that. It was this night that the Fadders had chosen me to be Zero captain of space jam because I was the Zero that showed the most enthusiasm etc towards/for the team in the previous 24 hours. The rest of the team had to swear an oath of allegiance towards me and I swore an allegiance to the team and the Fadders. I felt proud to receive this but also guilty. Proud because I had assumed the captaincy from an Aussie and with 5 Aussies in the team this was a heck of a lot of fun after 24 hours of being goaded. Guilty because It was a close call between me and another lad who I thought had more passion. For me I am quite reserved in introductions and team events however this change appears to have come upon me, where I am not afraid to get involved and support the team and take part whilst making new friends along the way. I would say the key to this week was to keep an open mind and go with the flow. Was it hard? Yes. But totally worth it. You enjoy yourself more if you go with the flow and don’t resist. The pool party went on till 11, could’ve gone on longer I think was the general feeling. We managed to break a record by getting 43 people into the Jacuzzi.
Saturday during the day was all about finally sleeping. Sleeping in until I was woken up by a certain someone calling me. Saturday night was all about using that new found energy to go out again. The lad who I beat to the captaincy the night before had succeeded me in this vote. The guilt had now gone away as I knew that he deserved it. Sunday of course is the day of rest so we all enjoyed a quiet brunch in the city (free of charge) This was just a nice time to unwind and chat to people without music or drunken antics. The rest of the day I used to just chill, sleep and write this entry.
To sum up this week.
AMAZING
Monday morning and we had to be in Uni first thing and I mean 8am. We had a meeting with some lecturers to go through some formalities. Then we had the Kick off teams come in. Now these people scared me. They were so enthusiastic, like a group of motivational therapists. We were split into our groups and went to meet the rest of our fadders. It was really good that the academic side communicated with the SU side and organised events during the day and not just at bight between academic introductions. We then got to know the other people in our group sober as well as drunk! One thing to note the Swedes have a stereotype of being quite shy and reserved. This maybe so generally but like us Brits get a few drinks down and you’ll make friends for life. Also the Swedish students are incredibly outgoing. They are up for anything it seems, whether its swimming in the canal naked or stripping down to your undies to go run in a fountain. However if you see a person smiling in the street at people they are probably tourists! Monday night was a pre party at one of the fadders house then onto the JIBS (business school) Bar. On this note of alcohol. Sweden is an expensive night out. I certainly miss the cheap prices of Newcastle. Outside of student clubs and bars the average cost of an alcoholic drink is around £5. Student bars are around half this. There is only one store in Sweden which has the right to sell alcohol. The times are restricted. Not normally open past 6 or 7pm only open for a few hours on Sat. Honestly this system would not work in the UK. Supermarkets only sell what has been termed ‘emergency beer’ (less than 3.5% even as low as 0.5%) After the Business bar where I continued to meet new people, mainly Aussies and other commonwealth nations. We went onto a club in town. It was rammed. Probably spent over an hour there before I went home with my Aussie room mate and the Canadian. The busses don’t run so late here.
Tuesday during the day was filled with course confirmation and then a talk from the President of the University and the Business school Deane. It appears they like their tradition here so as we went into the theatre for the talk, flag bearers were standing in a semi-circle leading into the theatre. When it was time to start we were told to rise for the flag. The Swedish flag came in first being marched down the steps towards the stage followed by the flags of the university and business school then the local council I imagine. It was not marched however to the soundtrack of the Swedish National anthem. The speeches were made, (may I point out a lot of stuff is repeated throughout the week, so you do get fed up, but what’s new) Once all speeches were over we were then asked to rise again for the flags exit. The ceremony began again marching up the steps and out of the theatre. Quite different to how we were addressed in our freshers week by the Deane. Tuesday night was another pre party at a fadders house moving onto Akademia the SU club. This club is the place to be on a Wednesday normally and I can see why it’s incredible. Two rooms with different music in each. I prefer the one with ‘cheesy’ Swedish music. First time I’ve heard Carola in a club before! Loved it.
Wednesday was the day of the ‘Academic introduction’ For this we were all taken by coach to the Local Ice Hockey Stadium, home to HV71 (Sounds like a virus but never mind) We started off with a brief chat about studying in Sweden followed by a quick phrase lesson. Then after Fyka (Coffee break) We went into the main Arena where we were welcomed by all our fadders and then had a quick lesson on differences in Swedish culture. To be honest I can see alot of British in the Swedish culture, or maybe it’s the other way round. The evening was another pre party followed by a beach party at Centrum.
Thursday was a student tour around the city. At different locations we had different challenges to do within our group to earn our team points. Club Caj we had to create a 1 minute dance to a Michael Jackson song to perform for Mr Caj. City square we had a fasion show to perform for 2 members of Sexkreation (SexKreation where the judges of events and the organisers. The name stems from the old Swedish use of the word sex, meaning fun, translated it means fun creator) Swimming in the canal was another challenge.
Thursday was the day I finally moved into my permanent residence. A house in the neighbouring town of Huskvarna, 4 students sharing, 2 guys and 2 girls. There are a few of these student houses. It’s a mezzanine house with us students owning the ground and the 1st floor. I’m sharing my room with a guy from Austria. My other housemates come from China and Italy.
Thursday night was the traditional toga party. Each year JSA (JIBS Student Association) have this toga party which ends the night with a swim in the canal. I decided to go with tradition and take the plunge (pardon the pun). It was 2am, remember this is Sweden so I was expecting it to be freezing; however to my surprise it wasn’t too bad. Just made sure I reached the surface.
Friday. Nearly the end of the week by now we are all sleep deprived, hungry and our livers now take their revenge on us however we still plod along, no stranger to this being a student in Newcastle! Today’s event was rained off at the last minute, we were supposed to go to the beach on the lake and play some games but instead we did what all students do and that is to play drinking games before the Swe event. The Event of the week; this is a huge Pool party with around 1600 people attending. It starts of with a relay race between the 4 schools, this year the communication school won. The event was started with the Swedish National anthem. (Yet another song to learn) The pool party commenced with everyone jumping into the Olympic sized pool and swimming the width of it then going onto the other pool outside! Yes outside, in Sweden. They like to do that. It was this night that the Fadders had chosen me to be Zero captain of space jam because I was the Zero that showed the most enthusiasm etc towards/for the team in the previous 24 hours. The rest of the team had to swear an oath of allegiance towards me and I swore an allegiance to the team and the Fadders. I felt proud to receive this but also guilty. Proud because I had assumed the captaincy from an Aussie and with 5 Aussies in the team this was a heck of a lot of fun after 24 hours of being goaded. Guilty because It was a close call between me and another lad who I thought had more passion. For me I am quite reserved in introductions and team events however this change appears to have come upon me, where I am not afraid to get involved and support the team and take part whilst making new friends along the way. I would say the key to this week was to keep an open mind and go with the flow. Was it hard? Yes. But totally worth it. You enjoy yourself more if you go with the flow and don’t resist. The pool party went on till 11, could’ve gone on longer I think was the general feeling. We managed to break a record by getting 43 people into the Jacuzzi.
Saturday during the day was all about finally sleeping. Sleeping in until I was woken up by a certain someone calling me. Saturday night was all about using that new found energy to go out again. The lad who I beat to the captaincy the night before had succeeded me in this vote. The guilt had now gone away as I knew that he deserved it. Sunday of course is the day of rest so we all enjoyed a quiet brunch in the city (free of charge) This was just a nice time to unwind and chat to people without music or drunken antics. The rest of the day I used to just chill, sleep and write this entry.
To sum up this week.
AMAZING
Saturday 21 August 2010
Välkommen till Sverige! - En natt i Stockholm (Welcome to Sweden!- 1 Night in Stockholm.
The flight: My first time in Terminal 5 Heathrow. It was incredibly quiet considering it’s the summer holidays & a Friday. You’d expect it to be filled with Holiday makers/ Weekend tripers (I know not a real word!) Maybe it’s down to all the strike action of BA and the pending strike by BAA (who operate Heathrow). One thing can be said; it’s a very smooth flow through check in & security. Hardly any waiting and you don’t have to queue at specific desks for your flight etc. My flight was called and after having a look round & browsing duty free I made my way to the gate.
The flight felt like it only took half an hour. In no time we were on our decent into Arlanda, Stockholm. The route took us over Norwich the North sea flying over the top of Denmark, over Göthenburg & towards Stockholm. We arrived 5 minutes early, the sun had almost disappeared behind the forest of trees surrounding the airport. The airport was supprisingly quiet for the nations’ capital. The next step was to get to Stockholm Central. Using the Arlanda express (1/2 Price if you have your international NUS card Worth the extra £) 20 minutes and it gave me the chance to see some locals. Of course announcements are made out in Swedish first. A good test to see if anything has gone in from the small bit of self study I have done. A sense of joy as I recognise words like welcome, ticket, left (all in Swedish of course) Made me think maybe I will be ok language wise. What a false sense of security I got myself into. I get a taxi, show him the address of where my hotel for the evening is. Uh oh!! He doesn’t know where it is???? Asks the guy controlling the taxis’. I have no idea what he’s saying. I give the taxi driver a map I printed off. Still doesn’t help him. He has a vague idea. Driving towards the water (where you’d expect to find a yacht hotel really!) I spot the yacht first. Vänster I point out (left to you non-Swedish speakers) The taxi pulls up to this Yacht, he doesn’t believe it’s a hotel but the sign above the entrance clearly states it is. Tak to the taxi driver (thanks) and I go to check in.
Room 306, up some narrow stairs, with my heavy suitcase (which by the way reader is 31.2k) O well good work out for the arms!! A single bed cabin with a desk wardrobe wetroom/toilet and 2 windows looking out over Stockholm. I had a view of the Beautiful City Hall. It’s about 9.30 (local time) pitch black and unlike other European capital cities that I’ve visited, (or any city in fact) Stockholm isn’t lit up at night as much as others are. (Showing the countries green credentials already) I ventured out within a small area of the hotel. Passing a beautiful church and what I thought to be the royal palace, (turns out It was the ministry of justice)
Morning dawns. I get up at 6 to make sure I’m ready for a mad dash around Stockholm to go sightseeing. Breakfast spread included; smoked bacon & sausages, smoked ham & cheese, bread rolls, cereal, cucumber, peppers, Swedish bread (which is more like crackers but due to the cold climate out In Sweden they need bread that can be preserved for longer, during winter Fresh bread used to be a luxury) 8 and I get my map and head towards the royal palace, (Home to King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife Queen Silvia) On the point of the Monarchy, unlike Britain where we don’t tend to show pride in our Monarchy, Sweden seem to prefer theirs. They show pride and they like their tradition over here. People have raised the argument about becoming a republic but the people have turned it down many times. There are still banners up from the recent royal wedding of Princess Victoria and her personal trainer Daniel Westling. Yes postcards are available of the happy couple already!!!. Anyway I deviate!
My walk around Stockholm was very pleasant, you’d expect a capital city to be busy even as early as 8am however this was not the case. Hardly any cars or people out. You could tell who the tourists were because we were the ones awake and about so early. Shops didn’t start opening till around 9.30, in a capital city!! In London it would be hard to shut the shops. Anyway I started of walking round old government buildings, still in use today. Finding my way I walked up towards the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag) you walk through and at the other side of the Riksdag is the Royal Palace, about twice the size of the Riksdag if not more. The Palace is a huge building in the landscape of Stockholm. The same style of architecture is used around this area of Stockholm (the Palace the Riksdag and the Royal Opera House) However this is where the similarity of building style ends in Stockholm. Each building has it’s character but I suppose that would be called the Scandinavian style of Architecture). I had enough time to go round a few of the churches and on my way back to my hotel I watched the changing of the guards ceremony at the palace. Quite different to that of Buckingham Palace. No big Marching parade or anything like that. The Barracks are within the palace grounds. Only a handful of soldiers will march with one leading. They walk round the Palace relieving each soldier on duty one by one. Continuing the circuit until all the new soldiers are in place. It’s a quiet affair apart from the commands being called. (which don’t sound as vicious as they do at Buckingham palace, yet I don’t understand that much Swedish so he could’ve been really harsh I suppose!) At this point the city was getting busy with the locals & tourist groups. The Museums at the palace were opening. The Tourist shops started to appear down old cobbled streets from where there was nothing earlier in the morning. The shops rest subtly in the city, not imposing in old town. However if you get to a high street like I did, you will find all the modern shops there including car dealerships. I counted to H&Ms within feet of eachother! Where would the world be without Mcdonalds, however Maxs is a rival to this. Surprisingly fast food seems to be cheap over here (just an observation) Adverts in the windows for £1.50 if you convert it. However Stockholm is expensive on other things. Postcards seem to retail between 40p-£1.10 each, unless you’re lucky and find that one shop that offers 10 for £1. Sorry folks but if postcards cost that much normally I won’t be sending many home!
Now I am currently making my way by coach to Jönköping. 4 hours compared to 2 by train. However the coach cost be almost 1/5 compared to the train. Surly the coach must be uncomfortable for someone as tall as you I hear you cry. Well you’d think but after a recommendation by a Swede I booked with ‘Bus 4 you’ rather than Swebus express like the University recommends. B4Y has comfy leather seats, which recline. People aren’t crowded in I’m sat on a seat on my own with 2 seats the other side of the Isle. Plenty of leg room. My knees touch nothing!!!!
Anyway I think you’re now up to date with everything so far. Till I next write
Farväl för nu
The flight: My first time in Terminal 5 Heathrow. It was incredibly quiet considering it’s the summer holidays & a Friday. You’d expect it to be filled with Holiday makers/ Weekend tripers (I know not a real word!) Maybe it’s down to all the strike action of BA and the pending strike by BAA (who operate Heathrow). One thing can be said; it’s a very smooth flow through check in & security. Hardly any waiting and you don’t have to queue at specific desks for your flight etc. My flight was called and after having a look round & browsing duty free I made my way to the gate.
The flight felt like it only took half an hour. In no time we were on our decent into Arlanda, Stockholm. The route took us over Norwich the North sea flying over the top of Denmark, over Göthenburg & towards Stockholm. We arrived 5 minutes early, the sun had almost disappeared behind the forest of trees surrounding the airport. The airport was supprisingly quiet for the nations’ capital. The next step was to get to Stockholm Central. Using the Arlanda express (1/2 Price if you have your international NUS card Worth the extra £) 20 minutes and it gave me the chance to see some locals. Of course announcements are made out in Swedish first. A good test to see if anything has gone in from the small bit of self study I have done. A sense of joy as I recognise words like welcome, ticket, left (all in Swedish of course) Made me think maybe I will be ok language wise. What a false sense of security I got myself into. I get a taxi, show him the address of where my hotel for the evening is. Uh oh!! He doesn’t know where it is???? Asks the guy controlling the taxis’. I have no idea what he’s saying. I give the taxi driver a map I printed off. Still doesn’t help him. He has a vague idea. Driving towards the water (where you’d expect to find a yacht hotel really!) I spot the yacht first. Vänster I point out (left to you non-Swedish speakers) The taxi pulls up to this Yacht, he doesn’t believe it’s a hotel but the sign above the entrance clearly states it is. Tak to the taxi driver (thanks) and I go to check in.
Room 306, up some narrow stairs, with my heavy suitcase (which by the way reader is 31.2k) O well good work out for the arms!! A single bed cabin with a desk wardrobe wetroom/toilet and 2 windows looking out over Stockholm. I had a view of the Beautiful City Hall. It’s about 9.30 (local time) pitch black and unlike other European capital cities that I’ve visited, (or any city in fact) Stockholm isn’t lit up at night as much as others are. (Showing the countries green credentials already) I ventured out within a small area of the hotel. Passing a beautiful church and what I thought to be the royal palace, (turns out It was the ministry of justice)
Morning dawns. I get up at 6 to make sure I’m ready for a mad dash around Stockholm to go sightseeing. Breakfast spread included; smoked bacon & sausages, smoked ham & cheese, bread rolls, cereal, cucumber, peppers, Swedish bread (which is more like crackers but due to the cold climate out In Sweden they need bread that can be preserved for longer, during winter Fresh bread used to be a luxury) 8 and I get my map and head towards the royal palace, (Home to King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife Queen Silvia) On the point of the Monarchy, unlike Britain where we don’t tend to show pride in our Monarchy, Sweden seem to prefer theirs. They show pride and they like their tradition over here. People have raised the argument about becoming a republic but the people have turned it down many times. There are still banners up from the recent royal wedding of Princess Victoria and her personal trainer Daniel Westling. Yes postcards are available of the happy couple already!!!. Anyway I deviate!
My walk around Stockholm was very pleasant, you’d expect a capital city to be busy even as early as 8am however this was not the case. Hardly any cars or people out. You could tell who the tourists were because we were the ones awake and about so early. Shops didn’t start opening till around 9.30, in a capital city!! In London it would be hard to shut the shops. Anyway I started of walking round old government buildings, still in use today. Finding my way I walked up towards the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag) you walk through and at the other side of the Riksdag is the Royal Palace, about twice the size of the Riksdag if not more. The Palace is a huge building in the landscape of Stockholm. The same style of architecture is used around this area of Stockholm (the Palace the Riksdag and the Royal Opera House) However this is where the similarity of building style ends in Stockholm. Each building has it’s character but I suppose that would be called the Scandinavian style of Architecture). I had enough time to go round a few of the churches and on my way back to my hotel I watched the changing of the guards ceremony at the palace. Quite different to that of Buckingham Palace. No big Marching parade or anything like that. The Barracks are within the palace grounds. Only a handful of soldiers will march with one leading. They walk round the Palace relieving each soldier on duty one by one. Continuing the circuit until all the new soldiers are in place. It’s a quiet affair apart from the commands being called. (which don’t sound as vicious as they do at Buckingham palace, yet I don’t understand that much Swedish so he could’ve been really harsh I suppose!) At this point the city was getting busy with the locals & tourist groups. The Museums at the palace were opening. The Tourist shops started to appear down old cobbled streets from where there was nothing earlier in the morning. The shops rest subtly in the city, not imposing in old town. However if you get to a high street like I did, you will find all the modern shops there including car dealerships. I counted to H&Ms within feet of eachother! Where would the world be without Mcdonalds, however Maxs is a rival to this. Surprisingly fast food seems to be cheap over here (just an observation) Adverts in the windows for £1.50 if you convert it. However Stockholm is expensive on other things. Postcards seem to retail between 40p-£1.10 each, unless you’re lucky and find that one shop that offers 10 for £1. Sorry folks but if postcards cost that much normally I won’t be sending many home!
Now I am currently making my way by coach to Jönköping. 4 hours compared to 2 by train. However the coach cost be almost 1/5 compared to the train. Surly the coach must be uncomfortable for someone as tall as you I hear you cry. Well you’d think but after a recommendation by a Swede I booked with ‘Bus 4 you’ rather than Swebus express like the University recommends. B4Y has comfy leather seats, which recline. People aren’t crowded in I’m sat on a seat on my own with 2 seats the other side of the Isle. Plenty of leg room. My knees touch nothing!!!!
Anyway I think you’re now up to date with everything so far. Till I next write
Farväl för nu
Thursday 19 August 2010
The Night Before The Beginning
It’s 9:40pm on the 19th August 2010; I have my bags packed (bar my laptop) I am feeling incredibly excited about my adventure however at the same time incredibly anxious and nervous. I keep telling myself it’s another year at Uni, no different, however in reality it is completely different. I’m not going just a few hours up the train line. I’m going over the Northern Sea to a country I’ve never been to before with a language I have never studied in school before and have only really learnt a few phrases during my summer holiday. The Swedes may well speak English but I intend to learn Swedish and become semi fluent out of respect mainly. This is probably the biggest event in my life to date, bigger than going to uni which was a huge event, but going to live abroad is so much bigger in my eyes.
Tomorrow I get the train from Leeds Central to London Kings Cross first thing in the morning, then make my way towards Heathrow for my flight. I will land in Stockholm in the evening (Sweden time) I’m spending the night in Stockholm staying at the Mälardrottningen Hotel which is a Yacht converted into a hotel right in the centre of the city. This should give me some time either in the evening or early next morning to have a quick walk around Stockholm before catching a bus for a 4 hour journey to Jönköping. I’m not sure what accommodation I am going to get until I get there it seems, thankfully I know I have some though! Sunday will probably be a day to explore my new home for the year & get to know my new flatmates before the shenanigans of welcome week.
Well I shall call it a night now internet and try and get some sleep but the excitement will probably keep me awake.
Adjö´ så lä´nge!
Tomorrow I get the train from Leeds Central to London Kings Cross first thing in the morning, then make my way towards Heathrow for my flight. I will land in Stockholm in the evening (Sweden time) I’m spending the night in Stockholm staying at the Mälardrottningen Hotel which is a Yacht converted into a hotel right in the centre of the city. This should give me some time either in the evening or early next morning to have a quick walk around Stockholm before catching a bus for a 4 hour journey to Jönköping. I’m not sure what accommodation I am going to get until I get there it seems, thankfully I know I have some though! Sunday will probably be a day to explore my new home for the year & get to know my new flatmates before the shenanigans of welcome week.
Well I shall call it a night now internet and try and get some sleep but the excitement will probably keep me awake.
Adjö´ så lä´nge!
Friday 9 July 2010
Hey with just over a month to go before I head to Sweden I thought I’d set up my blog which will keep you guys informed about what I get up to.
Now to bore you with some facts:
Sweden
Sweden is the third largest country in the EU, total population; about 9.4 million. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the middle ages. In the 17th century, the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. Today, Sweden is a constitutional Monarchy headed by King Carl XVI Gustaf with a parliamentary system of government and a highly developed economy. It ranks first in the world The two main spectator sports are football and ice hockey. Second to football, horse sports have the highest number of practitioners, mostly women. Thereafter follow golf, athletics, and the team sports of handall, floorball, basketball and bandy.
Jönköping
is a city in Småland in southern Sweden with 84,420 inhabitants in 2005. It is the 9th most populous city of Sweden. the town is situated by the southern end of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern Jönköping is known for its matchstick industry 1845-1970.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG1K5ogaMi0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xek03H_7m_A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtcQCIk3sX0&feature=related
Enjoy, make sure you click the follow button so you keep up to date.
Alex
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