I'm starting to like the Swedes even more. They're just such cool people, helping out everyone in need etc, especially their exchange student flatmate. (NOT)

This morning I got the weirdest wake-up I've pretty much ever had. At first I thought I had forgot to lock my door and that my door had slid open which it does sometimes (hence I lock it) and that my flatmates we're just being really loud outside. But then, at 0850hrs, two tough looking guys just pranced into my room and started speaking to me in Swedish. I had just woke up and couldn't make any sense of what they were saying. After a while they realised I wasn't speaking the same language, and told me in plain English that they were supposed to clear the room. What? One of the guys had a stupid smile on his face so I thought they had to be kidding (that, or I just look funny when I wake up? Thank god I don't sleep naked.) I kept telling them that they've got to be kidding and that they're not taking anything away, so after some minutes of conversation (who knows, might've been 30 seconds, I was a bit confused) they backed out of the room telling me that they were calling "Veronika" too see what was the problem. They went outside back to their car (took a picture of it, just in case), and in 5 minutes they were leaving. No apologies, nothing. Meanwhile, one of my flatmates (the only one I've talked to) happened to walk by my room and I told him that I was having trouble with some guys who wanted to take away all my stuff, meaning of course that should they come back, I might require some back-up assistance. Guess what he said?! "Well I hope they don't take all your stuff", went to his room and locked the door.






What is a girl supposed to do? These guys have a key to my room (well I suppose it's a key to everyone's room), they've had a good look around, know that I have a laptop and other valuables here. I might be paranoid here, but better safe than sorry. So my plan is to go to the International Office (they're actually open today, yay), ask people to help me there, maybe just some reassurance that this happens every day and there's nothing to worry about. We'll see how it goes...

So I'm very grateful for my flatmates. I believe one of them was sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast, with a clear view of the door, and he didn't do anything about strange people coming into the flat, with their own key. As far as I remember, these guys didn't have any sort of company overalls or anything to identify themselves as workers of the "Allt i transport". I guess he wouldn't have said anything if they had just started to drag stuff out, including all my dirty laundry. What worries me is that this could've happened during the weekend when I was actually away or yesterday morning when I was at the university; I would've come back to an empty room, with no clue where my things are or who took them. Nice.. exactly what I needed to feel safe in this country.

I HATE THESE PEOPLE!!

Also, been here for 4 weeks already!! o_O

So the gasque... boring. The food was okay I guess, except that you don't go there to eat but to socialise and sing, neither of which I could really do. We didn't sing that much and my table was pretty boring; a German couple all over each other, a French guy who disappeared halfway through the first dish and some Swedes who didn't understand my Swedish so decided not to talk to me. But it seems quite a few other people had a boring time too. So it took up all my afternoon, from 3pm (started with a speech and an official welcome at the university main building, which was nice enough since all the nations went there in a profession (is that a word?) and it was the first time I was inside the building and it's so much grander than McEwan Hall) up until about 11.30 in the evening when the dinner was over and I decided to go home. The party would've gone on until 2am I suppose but I didn't feel like it. Didn't really impress me that much. Or maybe I just didn't get drunk enough...

And this time, I want last week back. I want to go somewhere, do something. I went to the streetdance class they have at the gym and it was absolute shit. The teacher is about 35, big and not hiphop at all. But tries to be, that's the point. I could do better classes than her. I would've walked out in the middle of it (some people actually did) if it wasn't for the poweryoga afterwards and thank god that was nice. I can feel my muscles growing, yay!

It's too bad I don't have classes tomorrow, I feel like I shouldn't waste a good evening... Maybe I should just get to bed early and try not to sleep until 3 in the afternoon again. But I don't want to sleep alone. I guess it's hormones. Damn them.

I want my old boring life back... I don't want to leave my room today but I have to go to this gasque because I've already paid for it and all. I've been out every night since Monday and this morning I woke up hating myself for it. Not a nice feeling to wake up to. But after tonight, I'm gonna have to do some serious detoxing, it feels like I've got alcohol in my blood 24/7, horrible. Might even start tonight... Come home early and stuff.
/self-hatred

I hate the days when you don't have anything to do but feel like you should be doing something but just can't be arsed. Yesterday was one of those days (although in retrospect, I did quite a lot); woke up at three in the afternoon (fair enough, went to bed at 7 in the morning), met a friend half an hour later and went shopping (and found out that don't need to buy new clothes for the gasque (a dinner party) after all) then went on to an international fika (coffee and cakes) at Norrlands after which I tagged along to V-Dala pub and onwards to GH pub. And was home at midnight. Well at least I had plans for that evening; knew I wanted to go out and would find someone to go out with from the fika but still... today's turning into one of those days. I have a lecture at 4 but it's about the Finno-Ugric people and languages, so in theory it's about me too. Nothing too interesting, plus I can't really understand what the lecturer is saying so I might give it a miss. So I really don't have anything I have to do, except study o_O Can't really go out tonight since I have a class at ten in the morning tomorrow. I don't even have a tv! What am I supposed to do?

I like Australians.

I always forget how far away Lilla Sunnersta is. You just think, right, I'll go see some of my friends who live there and maybe have dinner as well. Then you start cycling and about halfway there you realise you still have good 5kms to go. Although this happened to me when I was coming back in the middle of the night... Took me good 45 mins to get home. But I got aussie-burritos for it. Not a bad deal. And I was also invited to a economics pub crawl tomorrow. Cool.

And I was active and joined the gym. Went there for the Streetdance class they have, turned up too late (was damn hard to find the place) and went to Poweryoga instead. It was fine I suppose, not really the sort of yoga I'm used to; the sort where the teacher actually cares if you do things right or if you fuck up your own body. But my arms hurt so it was good. Need to get there more often now that I have a three-month pass.. eep. Need to build up some muscles if I really want to learn more breakdancing.

I'm in love with O'hoj Kolasås.

I came back from a really bad night out (well, evening rather, I was home before 9) and to drown my sorrows I got some ice cream with an indecent amount of this lovely caramel sauce. It's too good.

And it works wonders, now I don't even remember why I didn't have any fun... oh yeah, went out with the wrong people. I don't like being ignored so I left. There's a culture night going on tonight so lots and lots of people out but when I get upset I stay upset so I thought it best to come home. That's I stay upset until I get this kolasås, of course. Wellwell, you learn new things every day.

Last night was fun tho, and I realised that I can drink a bottle of red again without losing bits of my life. Met some really nice Swedish guys too and they are now official the first Swedes in my phonebook. Not counting Maja of course. Went to Värmlands nation's party, had to pay 60kr to get in but it was still nice. Better than Norrland's Puss-band. LOL. I vaguely remember discussing the Finnish politics during the WW2 with a German guy. Yes. And cycling when you're drunk is so scary! But I'm still alive, so maybe not so dangerous. hmm.

so, since i've been here in sweden for over two weeks now, i decided it's finally to open this blog. and since it's raining outside what better to do than make some popcorn and sit down to write about my life here so far (okay, so maybe i should be practising hungarian pronounciation instead, but can't be arsed, really.. and can't eat the popcorn at the same time)

and what an interesting life it has been... the weekend before i came here, i met the stupid finnish band called lordi. why would a pretty petite blond girl want to dress up as a monster? and she was so nice too. i talked to mr. lordi himself too when he had his mask on but i still have to say i have no idea what he looks like really. i could probably point out two of the band in their regular faces but that's it. oh, i got autographs too (imagine me screaming fan-girlishly if you will). their tourmanager was so impressed with my food serving skills (worked at the festival where they were playing at) that at the end of the night (i was pretty much the only worker left at that point, even the security was nowhere to be found if i may add..grr.) he brought me a piece of paper with all five autographs. well, gee, thanks, this is what i've always wanted. maybe i should sell it on ebay...

so thanks to this festival and early morning flight on monday, i arrived in sweden pretty tired. got my keys without hassle, signed the lease and hopped on a bus, got to kantorsgatan and my flat. they call them corridors here, and that's what they are really; it feels like living in a hotel really. luckily there's only 5 of us in this corridor, i've seen longer ones too. the corridor-mates are all way boring, they don't do anything together, they all even have their own dishwashing liquids and all. one of them is a fourth year law student writing her dissertation now, the second one is a second year law students, in his "hardest semester of the whole degree" and the other two i've only ever said hello to. right, what a nice place for an exchange student to get into the society and swedish way of living. i bet they were expecting something more exotic but got a finn. poor them. a plus is that i have my own bathroom, so i don't really have to talk to them or anything.

the first week went quite quickly, going to the stuff organised for the exchange students (not too much to do, i have to say tho) and sorting out things. most of the people i met were finns, germans or australians, kept in touch with only the finns. i also met two other riikkas. so strange! there's not that many people with that name in finland, and i guess we're all here now :) it's really hard to meet new people and make friends when there's not that many meetings or things organised for us. and all that was organised was for exchange students only. so i could forget about meeting swedes there too.

and what else... been to ikea three times now, getting really tired of the place, robbing all my money! annoying swedes won't share anything in the kitchen so i had to get everything from corkscrews to knives. someone had left some plates and spoons in the cupboard, but that's pretty much it. i also bought a bike. everyone cycles everywhere here. it's about 20 min walk to the centre but it feels like it's too far away to walk when everyone else is whirling past you on a cycle. my bike was 700kr (about 75€), it's light blue and 20 years old. will sell it on once i get out of here. but it works and that's the most important thing. the second important thing is that it has lights, you could get fined cycling without lights in the dark. and i think that's right, it's scary when people suddenly appear out of thin air right in front of you, going fast. wellwell.

went to göteborg on sunday to see maja. got a train there early in the morning and took a night bus back to stockholm, then a train to uppsala. it was fun, both seeing a new city and meeting maja again. had a nice day walking around göteborg, seeing where she grew up and all. :) i was back in uppsala at 7am on monday morning and went to my first hungarian class at 10. slept about 3 hours that night, so i was fresh as a daisy and awake and eager to learn new things. after 4 hours of hungarian grammar (just letters and pronouncing them, but damn so hard) and språkfärdighet (speaking, i assume) my brain was really in a twist. it's unbelievable how something can mess up your head so badly. teaching was in swedish, we were learning hungarian and all my brain was trying to do was to use english. yay.

i joined the norrlands nation, they are the biggest one and have a pub that's open every night of the week. they also say they have the best burgers, but that's what every nation says. so me and my friend are going to look into it. so far we've been to norrlands and v-dala and norrlands' burgers seem better. they also have club nights, in the first one they had a cover band called puss playing kiss and other stuff. lordi too. shit. i'm thinking of working at the pub, they're only paying 36kr or something per hour but at least you'd get to meet people. and maybe practise some swedish. o_O

my passive swedish has got better, but speaking is still a bit difficult. when people see that i can't really speak swedish that well they change to english. no! when that happens i don't even try in swedish anymore. i've been to some dance and yoga classes and i can follow them just fine, but whenever they ask me anything my mind goes blank. fun, that. but i still decided to pick up breakdancing again and try and really concentrate on it this time, maybe i'll learn to do stuff. i was also looking for a good yoga school but all they seem to do is some western forms of yoga and not stuff like ashtanga so i might as well join a gym where i can do poweryoga and streetdance and work out all at the same price. oh, and they have a swimming pool and a climbing wall too. might try that out as well. so, weather permitting, i'm going to sign up for that tomorrow. i also need to buy a coursebook tomorrow, only it's about 70€! i really really don't want to spend that sort of money on a book i might never use again... wellwell.

what else... been planning some trips for this year. might as well travel since i'm in scandinavia now... i want to see åland, northern sweden and the border between the three countries, estonia, norway, denmark, home maybe a few times since i can do weekend trips now too, and places in sweden of course. might also go to amsterdam and helsinki for esn stuff, who knows. all very exciting. come early october, my schedule will change so that i only have classes on tuesdays and thursdays, perfect! i predict long weekend trips ahead, yippee.