Hello,
So far it’s going well. The school has a completely different system. Each semester (August to January) has 4 periods (one month each depending on the units of each class). So instead of working at the fast pace way of making the deadlines of one week, I’m working on the normal pace I am used to. Not so good, but I can handle it. I procrastinate last minute anyway, so it makes no difference.
I’m starting to have a routine now that I have settled down in my flat and I’m more familiar with the transportation system. It great that I don’t have to drive everywhere and Sweden is a pretty small country. They only have 9 million people living here compared to the 37 million people living in California alone. Crazy isn’t it? So everything is pretty close by and traveling is pretty easy. Usually you see the some weird people that travel on the light rail at home, but here there are so many people in business suits, the best fashion, good looking hair, and amazingly awesome shoes. I say the shoes define so much about a person. It should be a part of the 9 personality types. =) I’m feeling like I’m going to be a part of the country, I’m 30% there.
Let’s see, the people that I encounter everyday are my building mates. We all share a kitchen and people from other kitchen usually comes and cooks because we have the best kitchen ever. It’s nice and cozy and it’s where the food brings people a little closer every day.
There’s Honza and Elly, I call them Mom and Dad because they are a couple from Czech Republic and they take care of me really well. Sometimes they feed me, sometimes they wake me up, and sometimes they wait for me at the stations to make sure I’m okay. Honza is like a goofball/strict man at the same time. He’s really funny and he makes jokes that sometimes are not so funny, but it’s funny that he thinks it’s funny. Elly is beautiful, she’s nice and kind and is very responsible. She’s older than him by one year.
Taban and My. They are the Swedish girls that live on our floor and they are the girls that I feel closest to. They are very down to earth. Taban is Kurdish/Swedish and she likes to say that she will study but when you walk into her room, she’s on the phone surfing through Facebook. She’s a person that I don’t completely trust but I like talking to her. My is the stereotypical Swedish girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes, pretty and kind. We get along really well and we will be traveling to Ireland and England together in November, but more on that later.
Claudia and Silvia: Read the Heavy Death Metal “Club” blog.
Iva is another building mate and I see her every morning no matter what time I wake up. She’s awake in the kitchen at 7AM, 8AM, 9AM, or 12PM. She’s there in the kitchen studying and doing her homework. In fact, I think that she is the only person that actually do their homework diligently. She’s also from Czech and she’s kind, but I don’t talk to her much. Czech people have a really distinctive accent when they speak English. You gotta hear it.
Thomas is a little French guy. He is one of the funniest people here. He knows how to make jokes and is really kind to everyone. He’s really French and when he speaks English you just want to hug and squeeze him. Actually that sentence applies to all the French people here. They are all really nice and surprisingly hilarious. I thought they would be arrogant and mean but they are the coolest group. The French people here tend to hang out together a lot and we call it the French connection when they are together.
Marlene and Regina. Marlene is another French girl and she’s has this face of a model and a body of a goddess. She looks good in anything! I like to hang out with her because she’s very calm and mature. She’s also has a very dry sense of humor and it’s hilarious. Man, who knew French people are so funny? Regina is from Germany and she’s a rocker/tattoo/band/Hailey from Paramore kind of girl. She’s very German. She is always on time, she always knows where she is going and her accent is really fun to listen to. These two girls are staying for a year with me and I think we will be very good friends.
Ana, Leoni, Dylan, Adriana. Ana is my roommate. These gals are a group and I think if you were here, you would really get along with them. I’m serious. Their style, their humor, they taste of music, the way they are it’s just reminds me of you. However, I don’t click with them as I do with you. These people are people that would hang out on Haight Street or in Santa Cruz.
And me, I’m recognizing things that I’m starting to do. I tend to say things and not follow through with my words. For example, people ask me to go with them to travel or make a certain food or travel with them, I really want to do it, but in the end I bail out and never mention it again. I’m a big flake here. Haha. I’m working on knowing what I want.
The boys I’ve encountered here are pretty interesting. I met a guy from Café Oppra which is the best night club in Stockholm. It was really poppin when I went about two weeks ago on a Wednesday. On Wednesdays it’s called a mini Saturday in Sweden. Everyone goes out and it’s so cool. I’ve never been to New York, but I feel like I’m in a really big city like NY. Young people are walking everywhere with the best fashion and lights everywhere. Okay, so I met this Turkish guy that likes Broadway and is studying economics and looks really handsome (from what I remembered in the dark nightclub). I had to leave early right in the middle of us dancing together and so I asked for his number. He gave it to me and I couldn’t even pronounce his name. It’s been two weeks and today I texted him if we can have a fika sometime and he said, “How about tomorrow?” I wasn’t ready for that! He answered so quickly. I had plans to go to Drottningholm Palace so I asked him to come along thinking that he would want to reschedule, but he agreed and is meeting me and all my exchange student friends too. That would be very interesting because I don’t even know his name and I forgot how he looks like and now he’s going to travel with me. The next guy is a Brazilian guy who I met at the Hostel during my first 2 days in Sweden. I met this guy thinking that he was very nice and I helped him with some accommodation stuff, so I thought I would email him to see if he would like to fika because he was the first people I met in Sweden. I don’t know if he knows what a fika is but I think he thought it was sex. He said that we should watch a movie and I thought cinema, he thought movie at his place under some blankets at 12AM. Same with this guy, I don’t even know his full name and he’s thinking that we should cuddle already. I didn’t go and he text me the next day asking me if I had a roommate and if I’m alone. I asked him the same question and he said that he has a roommate and if he wasn’t there he would have invited me over to “watch a movie” already. Then the follow up text was this, “Can I come over your place really quickly?” God is there any decent man on this planet! I know we are all horny once in a while but this is crazy. I don’t even know this guy and he doesn’t even have the respect to get to know me and he wants to come over “quickly?” No decent man, just no decent man!!!
On to my events, I’m going to have a big birthday party with two other people. Their birthdays are on the 3rd and 4th of October and mine is on the 5th so we decided to have a big party for the three of us the following weekend. It will be a semi-formal party. It should be fun. Then in the same weekend, I’m going to a Sharks game here in Stockholm! My first sharks game! I had to buy the tickets because when can I ever see my hometown team in another country? I don’t follow the Sharks much but somehow being in another country just makes me more interested. After that I will be going to Estonia on a cruise with all the student in Stockholm. It’s basically a party for 2 days and it looks crazy. We get to go off the ship and travel around Tallin for a few hours. In November, I planned this really big trip with My, the Swedish girl, to Dublin and Liverpool for five days. I went into my kitchen and asked if anyone would like to travel with me and she was the one who was up for it. It’s so awesome because I don’t have class for the whole week and all the tickets including the hostel and ferry to Liverpool cost only $300 dollars. Plus, we are staying with some handsome British guys that I met at the hostel. I asked them if we can stay at their place and they said yes and willing to hang out with us and show us around Liverpool too! We might be going to a Liverpool futbal game. I don’t have solid plans yet. I won’t be coming back for the whole year so I will be spending Christmas here in Sweden and then booking my trip to Romania where I will spend New Years with them. I’m still thinking about it, but I want to go there just for the bread and sausage. It’s so good. After that, I’m going to Lapland straight away. It’s where you can see the northern lights and dog sledding and the ice hotel. Don’t ask me where I’m getting all this money, but I hope I will have a good future so I can pay off all this debt! AHHH crazy!
Other than traveling, I got in contact with AIESEC here and they are in need of an ICX for their EB and they asked me! They want me to be on their team and I’m meeting the TM person on Saturday to talk about what they will expect out of me.
dandeliontraveler 