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.