Just a quick one this... not much going on right now, and it looks like being a quiet weekend, for the most part (minus Outi's birthday!), as I have 150 pages of a Swedish book to read. In other news, my internet at home is now out of action...i don't fully understand why, but i must be the only person in history whose Internet access has been decreased by buying a wireless reception extender....anyway, updates will be whenever possible, but hopefully fairly consistent and snappy. Plenty new stuff to be happening soon...

Stockholm, en gång till...

From Stockholm 2 a...

Yesterday we were cordially invited to return to Stockholm with the International Committee, so all of us (even the Spanish!) dutifully arose in time to set off from Kåren at 8 in the morning, which was nice. By half 9 we were outside the central train station in the captial, where we assigned ourselves guides from the selection offered and were led merrily around the city, being told jovial tales of invasion, relgious scandal and much erection of buildings. Our tour guide, Åse, was quite a chirpy and interesting lady, though once she discovered I was English, she did begin to single me out for special references to my homeland, and was particularly pleased to tell me that the Swedish royal palace has one more room than that of our good Queen Lizzie (it's true, she rang up Buckingham Palace herself. They only have 107 rooms!). After this rather informative excursion and a hefty lunch, we found ourselves quite tired and beyond visiting museums etc., but (quite besides the fact I saw a lot there when I was 8) I'm sure I'll have chance another time while I'm here. Besides, we did managed to go to the ice cream shop where they make their own waffle cones, which was good fun. We also went back to the dungeonesque tea room (though this time opted to sit outside) and generally chilled out a bit.

Upon returning to Västerås, we had all become a little tired due to our early start, though personally I was determined to experience some of the City's Kulturnatt (Culture Night, of course), as it's the only time I expect anything to be happening on a Saturday night in Västerås for pretty much the whole time I'm here. We'd actually missed some of it, but there were all kinds of dance, music, art and theater, amogst other things, going on all over the city, and the atmosphere was great, kind of like bonfire night (except with hot sugared almonds instead of parkin). In the Konserthus we caught part of the set of what seemed to be an acoustic guitar orchestra, which impressed me, though the sound was quite bad - they weren't mic'ed up, nor were they in the best place for acoustics, as I can only assume there were "more important" things going on in the main halls. After this we nearly got some Pytt i Panna, and indeed were foiled only by the price, before we moved to the library (I did say there were events everywhere) to catch some of Howlin' Wolf and the Leftovers, if only for the name. They actually turned out to be quite a good blues-soul outfit, and had I had more energy, I'd have hung around for longer. Indeed, my only complaint was that there weren't many of them - I'd expected at least eight from the name, but was faced with only three musicians. Anyway, we were all flagging somewhat, so at this point we indulged in the aforementioned hot, sweet nuts (insert your own jokes here) before finally calling it a day and lumbering our various different ways home for a (possibly) well-deserved sleep. I have personally never provided a better definition of the phrase "crashing out". Good day all round :)

From Stockholm 2 a...

Helsinki!

From Helsinki

Oooooooooooo!

This weekend has been the most fun I've had for quite a while :) My Finnish friend Outi managed recently to get 8 free tickets for a cruise to and from Helsinki with a day spent there in between, so on Saturday myself, Jane, Outi, Raquel (from Spain), Dorian (from France), Mike (from the Netherlands - I can't pronounce his real name, let alone spell it!), Julian and Johannes (beide aus Deutschland) sailed out from Stockholm on the good ship Gabriella, and that night was largely spent partying courtesy of the duty free shop (It's been over a month since i last saw cheap alcohol!). Having never been on a "booze cruise" before, and not really knowing the group apart from Jane and Outi, these were pretty much new people for me, and it was great fun getting to know everyone and exchanging bits of languages, cultures and sayings. Of particular note from the first evening are the phrases "Qué pasa i ton menté?" and "Sieben Bier sind auch ein Schnitzel!". Make of these what you will... :)

From Helsinki

After a relatively meagre amount of sleep and an inversely proportional amount of breakfast, we arrived in Helsinki at about 10, and, leaving Outi to spend the day with family and friends, the rest of us bought ourselves a natty little Helsinki Card and hopped on a coach for a tour of the city's main sights. The audio tour was available in 10 languages, including Latin and "underground Helsinki Finnish". The former particularly confused me, due to the unsurprising lack of Roman centurions on board, but I was also highly amused at the idea of a dialogue essentially describing the Finns as being "down with" Tsar Alexander II "cos he wus chilled out, innit". Despite these little eccentricities, the tour was rather interesting, and included such gems as "In days gone by, Finnish women often gave birth in a sauna [...] followed by a pint of beer and a sausage!" and "You can't beat a good sausage". Ah, foreigners.

From Helsinki

After the tour, we took a quick closer look at some of the sights for ourselves, including the stunning white cathedral in the square (see attached), then took a spot of lunch before hopping on a boat over to a neighbouring island, Suomalinnen. Previously fortified by the Swedes when they were in charge, it's full of cannon and big walls, but is also a lovely island with some great scenery. When we got back to the mainland, we had a peek around the market and a bite to eat (a bowl of what was simply and accurately described as "fried small white fish") before boarding the boat for the journey back.

From Helsinki

Unfortunately, the past 24 hours had taken their toll, and we had to have a nap before the fun started. Even then, it was a little more subdued then the previous night, but nice and chilled out, and the early night did me the power of good.

What with it being over 10 years since I've been to Helsinki, I was pleased I still like it as much as I remember doing. There's definitely a different atmosphere in Finland to Sweden, and I'd like to spend some more time there in the future. Overall t'was a most excellent weekend, great to meet more new friends and a big thanks to Outi for organising the whole thing and inviting us all on it :)

Eskilstuna

From Eskilstuna

Yesterday we were at a little of a loose end post-lecture, and as such decided to take a trip to Västerås' sister city, Eskilstuna. This is where the other campus of my current university lies, and as such it's free for us to travel on the train there. To be honest, there's not much there, and is in fact smaller than Västerås, but I was pleasantly surprised by how...pleasant the place was. Spent a couple of hours there, took advantage of Netto (there isn't actually one in Västerås!) then bobbed home. A rather nice little excursion. One thing Eskilstuna does have to offer, though, is a Zoo. Didn't have the money or the time to visit it on this trip, but once we've found out a bit more about it a few of us are planning to go down there.

In other news, we're getting the late straggles of summer here, so we went down to the beach again today.

In other other news, I'm now making desperate attempts to communicate with as many Germans as possible, as my increased exposure to Swedish has accidentally addled my brain, and I no longer speak German. Not even bad German. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still. luckily there are plenty German and Austrian types here for me to practice with, if i can persuade them to stop speaking English. This is my next mission.

Week 4...

Things are beginning to settle into a routine now, though there’s still plenty of new and interesting stuff going on. On Monday 4th September it was my German friend Konrad’s birthday, so I had a bit of a mosey on down to the appropriate halls, where there was a bit of a gathering. Drunk Germans are funny.

Also this week I have discovered many a new place. During a wandering through the town, I discovered an actual CD shop! These boutiques have been noticeable by their absence thus far, so I was pleasantly surprised not just to find one, but actually a good one! A good range of many types of music, bargain sections, t-shirts and freebies can be found here. This week alone I have acquired 2 cds for the equivalent of £1.50 each (one by the laughably-monikered “Snakegod”) and a free Amon Amarth banner. I am happy with this place, and shall visit more when I have das Geld.

On Tuesday 5th I moseyed on down to the town library to get me a book for my new project. In a little over a month, we are expected to read a Swedish book and do a 15 minute presentation on it. Now, personally I’m capable of this, having studied for 2 years and done the same number of oral exams, but I can see it being a real problem for the complete beginners, especially those who haven’t done languages before. I could be proven wrong, but I rather think they need to adapt their system here. Anyway, I got a book about the dead coming back to life in Lappland, though that was partly by chance because Henning Mankell was proving too difficult.

On the same day, I could be found watching a Swedish film in an effort to improve my language. While this wasn’t as successful as it could have been, I was kept amused by the fact that Garfield is called Gustav in Sweden. No-one knows why.

This week I have also taken a long walk up the river, just to see where it goes, which was nice and peaceful, and made for a very relaxing afternoon :)

Last night, Saturday 9th, I persuaded a few people to come with me to Taj Mahal, the only rock club in Västerås. Well, I say club, it turned out to be more of a bar. And an Indian Restaurant (which explains the name). With goldfish. I quite liked the atmosphere though, and I’d happily go there again, though preferably on an actual rock night; as the band on last night were a reggae band (the rather impressive Dick Diamond), the whole night was themed in that direction. All the same, a good night, methinks.Especially as we saw a hedgehog on the way home!

From Sweden 1

Mainly this week it’s been quite quiet though, which is why I’ve finally got round to updating this. Ta for the patience (if any of you were actually bothered) and from now on updates will be both reasonably regular and fairly current. :)

Week 3

For much of this week, not much happened. Lectures started on Monday 28th August, and they basically involve me being in 9-12, 4 days a week. This week it’s been mainly stuff I know, but it does seem to be moving quite fast, so hopefully it’ll become interesting soon.

In other news, they have Midsomer Murders in Sweden! Of all the murder series…It amused me greatly to watch this in the common room with a number of foreigners, as they now believe that England is exactly like this show. Awesome!

On Wednesday 30th I went to Pluto for the first time. Yes, I know that sounds funny, but actually it’s a nightclub particularly popular with international students. This is kind of a good thing, as I knew people there, and it’s a nice place (with dragons!) and the music wasn’t too bad, but as I’m primarily here to speak Swedish, and I’m not getting much exposure to real Swedes in class or in my accommodation, I was kind of disappointed, as going out is one of my few outlets for real Swedish contact. All the same, I had a reasonable night, and it was good to get out after my last day of lectures for the week.

From Sweden 1

Thursday 31st was the day I went swimming twice! Upon returning from my usual spell in the pool, Mikel asked if I wanted to go down to the (tiny) beach at the lake and go swimming…so we picked up our Estonian chum Ingrid and did just that. We also met some of the Germans there, completely by accident. Ah, what japes! The water hadn’t got any warmer, either. But the whole experience was so good that I went back the day after with Jane, Zubin, Danielle and Erik, and even had a Lion bar ice-cream, which was spiffing and crunchy. No sign of fish and chips though, much to our disdain.

From Västerås sights

This day was however marred by the fact that around teatime, some chaps came and drilled the doors of our common room shut. Apparently were not allowed in it because some furniture was broken LAST YEAR, when 95% of the people here now weren’t here. So that’s crappy, but complaints are being made and we shall see. Friday night we went out with the English speakers and my fadders, Sophia and Tina, eventually to Pitchers, a semi-english pub, after not being let in myriad other places due to them springing the 23 thing on us.

Saturday 2nd September saw the Student Olympics hit town. Nowhere near as professional as it may sound, this in fact involved evens such as mock sumo wrestling and trying to knock each other off a bench using heavy things. The International team looked to be doing quite well most of the day, but were apparently disqualified from the grand finale (by which time I’d had my fill and gone home), which involved racing down the river on air mattresses. Ah well!

From Student Olympics

Week 2

Monday 21st August

From Stockholm

A lovely sunny day in Västerås, perfect for our trip to Stockholm! About 20 of us met at uni and trundled down to the train station, frolicking merrily at our luck with the weather. This luck changed immediately as we arrived in Stockholm, where it was raining. Proper raining. Like in Germany (see day 1 of “Wacken”). After slackening off for about 10 minutes, the rain then turned back on full blast for about 2 hours, an experience which prompted me to comment that while English rain merely loiters and gets you wet if you walk into it, Swedish rain actively and viciously seeks you out in order to mug you and murder your family. However, being tourists, we didn’t let this put us off (although we did shelter in a shopping centre and an eatery for a while, and we did get to see quite a bit of the city, including much of the gamla stan, or old town. Stockholm’s a nice place, and we had a good time in spite of the weather, generally seeing sights and taking coffee in dungeons. Though why they have a statue of St. George and the Dragon I’m still not sure…I think the sign said it had something to do with wiccans…

Tuesday 22nd

Being in possession of one more free day before my lectures officially started, I decided to sort out another part of my routine – exercise. After a brief bit of arithmetic at the counter, I decided that for the amount I was likely to be swimming, my cheapest option was to actually join the gym. This is good, because it means I’ve already spent the money and want to go as much as I can to get good value for it, as opposed to not going as often because I want to spend the money elsewhere. My aim is to swim 2-3 times a week, starting at a kilometre (40 lengths) and going up 5 or ten lengths a week. This way I should stay fairly healthy :) At the moment this is all going quite well, surprisingly! The pool’s quite nice too, and unless there’s a school party in, it’s usually very quiet during the week, which is good and relaxing.

In the evening it transpired that our flat was now full, with a Turkish chap, Faruk, and a Georgian lady, Katuna making up the full complement.

Wednesday

Not a great deal happened today, but for one thing of note – rollcall for our course, Svensk språk och kultur för utlandiska studenter (Swedish language and culture for foreign students). This lasted a couple of hours, we met our teachers then did a couple of quick tests for them to get an idea of our level. There’s quite a few complete beginners, but some people who’ve done a fair bit before like me too, so there’s quite a range in the class, but it’s meant to progress quite quickly, so it should start to challenge me sometime soonish.


Thursday 24th August

The official opening of Kåren! Although us international types had already naughtily been in, the real live Swedish students didn’t arrive until this week, so this was the official opening. Starting mid-afternoon, it consisted of more silly games (which many of us wisely abstained from), some pizza, a bit of a pre-party at Jane and Zubin’s halls and then the disco night at Kåren. Had much more fun in Kåren this time, with lots of Swedish students there it was very busy, and I mainly amused myself outside speaking to Swedes, Germans, Danes, Finns and whoever else crossed my path, including Werner, real life Austrian and my sole metal friend here, who spent a lot of the night trying to convince me to go to a gig in Stockholm with him, which I’m not actually that fussed about. But shh.


Friday 25th August

Being as proper lectures didn’t start until next week, this was quite a relaxing day. Myself, Jane and Zubin (one of the Americans) had a day wandering about town, getting to know it a bit better, then a few of us went to Sky Bar in the evening, as many people hadn’t experienced it yet, so that was fun.

From Västerås sights

From Västerås sights

Saturday 26th August

The day of the big party at our halls, Timmermannen. Actually, although many people were there, this proved to be something of an anticlimax, and most people left to go to a club at one point or another. The younger ones amongst us (English, Americans and Estonian, mainly) found this to be something of a problem, as it turns out that although by law, 18 is the drinking age in Sweden, most clubs and bars choose to raise the age of entry to 23 (sometimes 25) on a Saturday, and sometimes on a Friday. So after a rather unsuccessful trip out, some of us returned to the party to eat some spiffingly spicy fish the Africans had baked, and some moved on to Kåren. I was one of the former, and after a short time in a large room with 4 other people, opted to call it a night.

Sverige!

From Sweden 1

Alright, so this has been a long time coming (I’ve been here nearly a month now), but as you’re about to read, I’ve been somewhat busy. What follows is the beginning of my journal for the first part of my year abroad – the Autumn Semester (Hösttermin), spent at Mälardalens Högskola in Västerås, Sweden. Each week will be posted separately for ease of navigation (and so my more recent adventures don’t and up at the bottom of the page). After I’ve got this lot up and running, updates will be fairly regular. Enjoy!

Week 1

Monday 14th August

In keeping with tradition, this was the day I spent doing some mad last-minute packing. Due to the recent terror scares in the UK, and the fact I flatly refused to go away for over 4 months without a guitar, this was quite an interesting experience. Eventually, and with much squeezing and removal of “non-essential” items, I managed (with help from my parents) to get my case shut and down to a weight not too much over the limit allowed by the airline. This done, we went out for a farewell meal to the Blundell Arms. It’s changed hands since I last ate there and gone upmarket a bit, but the food was delicious, (I even had a dessert!). Then paid a quick visit to Shirezy to return some things to him and give him the remainder of my Eternal Recurrence albums to distribute as he saw necessary, before getting an early night in preparation for the long day ahead…

Tuesday 15th August.

The Big Day began at 5 in the morning. We eventually met my travelling companion Jane (big shout to Jane!) at Manchester Airport, and after a little (not entirely unexpected) hassle checking in our baggage we took a last coffee with our parents (sob) before boarding the plane. The flight was relatively without incident, as was the bus from Stockholm Arlanda airport to Västerås, and after picking up our keys and introduction packs at the University we parted ways to be taken to our different accommodations. Upon arriving, I met two of my flatmates – Lideep from Ghana and Jorgé from Spain (my halls are entirely international, but I’ll get to that later, probably). I also took a brief wander round my immediate surroundings, as I’m pretty much in the city centre, unpacked and crashed for the night.

Wednesday 16th

In a pattern soon to become disturbingly familiar, I was in university at 9 in the morning. Most of the day consisted of introductory lectures and registration stuff, the highlight of which was a policeman accidentally informing us that pretty much anything is legal as long as you’re on a bike at the time (I have since seen said law enforcer in a popular student nightclub here, looking slightly on the wrong side of sober).

After the lectures, we met the international committee properly for the first time and were introduced to our fadders and fadder groups. A fadder is a student who helps run a society/committee, and all the new international students have been assigned groups with 2 fadders each. Mine, Sofia and Tina, are nice and friendly, even if they do disappear into their own mad world every now and then. Our fadders proceeded to take us on a tour of the university and the city, ending in one of the numerous coffee shops on offer. Here I was thrilled to purchase my first Köttbullar baguette, an experience marred only by two things: the neon pink beetroot salad on it and the fact the Swedish clearly don’t know how to make a sandwich. It’s nice to have a lot of filling, but you’re not meant to need a knife and fork to eat it…

Upon my arrival home, I was mildly surprised to discover another Spanish chap, Mikel (not Miguel) had moved into the room next door the kitchen. But he’s cool, so it’s alright.


Thursday 17th

The break of dawn on Thursday heralded more early lectures, so I staggered into uni to rendezvous with Jane and some of the Americans we’d met at 9 again. At lunchtime I discovered that the 42 Kr. I’d paid the previous day for Dagens Rätt (dish of the day) in the restaurant could in fact get me at least twice as much, as you’re pretty much allowed as much as you can fit on your plate, plus salad and bread. This was a most hearty (and spherical) meal.

The evening was the first real social event of the international calendar. We were all invited to a most excellent meal at Kåren (the students’ union) which later transformed into a club night. My first experience of Swedish drinking, the drinks were actually fairly reasonably priced, if smaller than the measures I’m used to, and we all had a good night meeting new people :)


Friday 18th

From Sweden 1

Finally being allowed a lie-in after the first night of festivities, I trundled into uni at about 3 to join the international trip to IKEA (well, when in Sweden…). Actually, this was much needed, as my room was pretty much completely bare, and being quite a big affair with no carpet, it was muchly useful to get things to make it look more like a home. Even if the patterns do hurt my eyes…

In the evening we met back up with our fadders for the ceremonial “Pub Tour”. Yes, tour. Much more civilised than a crawl…Actually, it did turn out to be rather low-key, encompassing all of 3 (albeit quite good) pubs then a bar/club thing at the end. I was mightily impressed with Sky Bar, Sweden’s highest bar at 24 floors up the skyscraper (“Skrapan”) at the end of my road, with a fantastic view over the city (which will be in my photos at some point). I was, however, mightily unimpressed with the “Traditional English Pub” Oliver Twist, where I was served my beer in a vessel which resembled the English pint glass in neither shape nor capacity. Also, in the club I was rather unimpressed with the Swedish people’s inability to acknowledge the presence of another person in their intended path when walking. They really do try to go straight through you. How rude! Despite all this it a pretty good night, good to get to know some places and people better.


Saturday 19th August

Today we went to an island. You see, Västerås borders a rather large lake, which extends some 100km away all the way to Stockholm. And in this lake are islands. We went to a rather lovely one called Björnö with the International Committee. There we played a few of what the President, Johanna, referred to as “fun games”, an idea which reeked to me of the phrase “team building exercise” (what? I’m English, I’m meant to be critical of everything). They were a bit of a laugh, although completely pointless when I’d rather have just explored the island a bit…either way, it’s a nice place so it was good. And after our packed lunches (bless!) some of us went for a swim in the lake. Which was cold. I merrily jumped straight in off the pier and couldn’t actually breathe! Once I’d got used to it, it was ok though, especially as the weather was so clement.

After we’d caught the bus back we met a couple of hours later for what the Swedish call a “pre-party”, which basically consists of drinking before you go out because alcohol’s so damn expensive. Not that it’s cheap in the shops (or shop. Only the state-owned shop Systembolaget can sell alcohol above 3.5% here); it translates as about English pub prices in Systembolaget for many things, most clubs and pubs are about twice that). But anyway, we had this pre-party, learned some American drinking games then went to Kåren, which was a larf.


Sunday 20th August

Today I decided to take a day off from the IC activities, as a) I didn’t feel like bowling, b) (possibly related) I was fed up of being treated like a child and c) I wanted to put the strings back on my guitar. Don’t get me wrong, the international committee are all lovely, it’s just that their idea of fun doesn’t always translate as mine, and they seem to have an inability to realise this. Societies at universities often function the same way in England. And anyway, going 5 days without having strings on my guitar was quite long enough. I also took the liberty of having a wander round the town for a bit and getting a couple of posters for my room, which made me happy and a little less surrounded by off-white. Then I played my guitar a lot. This was a much needed relaxing day :)