"Le riktigt stort. Som om du var jätteglad.
Fortsätt le ett tag innan du läser vidare...sådärja, nu kan du slappna av.
Le sådär stort igen. Och håll kvar leendet, precis som du gjorde nyss...och slappna av.
Le igen och håll kvar leendet en liten stund...sådär, slappna av.
Enligt forskarna har dina just utförda "smilövningar" startat en kemisk process i din kropp! Din påhittade glädje har gjort att det just nu utsöndras alldeles äkta lyckoimpulser i dig...
Snart kommer du känna dig glad på riktigt!"
You are wondering, why is this post in Swedish?
Well, possibly my roommates from Ostkupan will remember. There was a strange, yellow postcard on the back of our door when we entered our corridor. My room was in front of this and so I would see it every time I left my room to go anywhere. However, my Swedish was not up to scratch yet I was interested in what was written, so I typed it all up and saved it somewhere, and I just happen to come across it.
Unfortunately, my Swedish is still not good enough to translate it myself yet, so if you are interested, check it out in your favourite translator. (Maybe a Swedish speaker will translate it for me into English so I can put it up?)
Enjoy!
After the application process in February 2011, the accommodation process began in May 2011. For someone like myself who had lived in England his whole life, it was difficult to choose which room I wanted. At the time, all the rooms I looked at seemed expensive in comparison to how much I had paid whilst at uni and on placement. There was also no 'small/medium/large' bedroom, it was all in square metres. That made no sense to me, but now I understand why the former makes no sense to most foreigners from outside the UK. The UK should adopt the system of square metres, it makes life so much easier. I also wanted to be reasonably close to Chalmers but not too close as I wanted to be able to cycle and get my daily dose of exercise. In the end, I chose Ostkupan which is 14 square metres and cost less than 3000 kr/month (less than £300/month). I still had no idea how big that was, but that soon became the least of my worries. This included all bills, with high speed wired internet access, laundry facilities, TV & pool room and a sauna!
I was getting ready and buzzing about my exchange year abroad, until my department said that I might not be able to go due to departmental regulations. I did not expect that less than a month before I was due to fly out, having booked the flights and paid the deposit for my room. They eventually sorted it out after a meeting with them, showing how keen I was and everything that was at stake. This was good news as it meant it was sorted for future students of my department as well, who could do it as a replacement to their placement year (a.k.a. doing an internship for a year) or make it count towards the third year of their degree, like I did.
As for most people, packing is always the difficult part. Especially as I was going for a whole year to a colder climate, it meant I needed lots of clothes to stay warm. I also did not want to buy new stuff that I would end up having to leave there, therefore I decided to pay for extra baggage and bring whatever I needed. Mum also decided to come with me and check out where I was going, etc. What was interesting was that after staying up till sometime after midnight and then waking up again in a few hours to take a flight, I had still not finished packing. Oops.
Dad drove us to the airport on Monday morning. We had managed to keep everything just under the weight limit. Once we boarded the plane and it took off, neither of us could sleep. Mum had made a few calls and found out there were some people from our community in Gothenburg. One of them had even been in the same school with my Mum in Mombasa, Kenya. It's a small world. Therefore, someone picked us up from the airport and took us to Ostkupan. It made life a lot easier knowing someone who knew the language, culture, etc. of the country. I really appreciated his help, as he and his family were going to be a lifeline in the months to come.
All I wanted to do when I arrived at Ostkupan was get the keys, go to my room and go to sleep for a few hours. However, that was not going to happen any time soon. On entering my corridor and room, I could see that some cleaning needed to be done and I did not want to risk any bed bugs or any other infestations. Luckily, Ostkupan had invested in new cleaning equipment for each corridor that year, so I opened up the new vacuum cleaner and got to work. Same situation in the kitchen, but I just wanted space for my dishes, crockery and food so sorted out my allocated cupboards and fridge space. Since the bathroom needed a bit of cleaning and my neighbour who I was sharing the bathroom with was out, I went ahead and cleaned that as I was already on cleaning duty. Once done, I went to sleep for a while since my room mates were busy or not around.
Mum flew out the next day back home as she needed to go back to work. Until Saturday I was on my own, sorting out bits and bobs, meeting up with my other room mates (we conjured up so many potential situations for one of them since we never saw him leaving his room until one day...), fasting even longer days since the days were longer in Sweden (yup, it was Ramadan then) and going to mosque each evening. I guess you are wondering, what happens on Saturday? Well, this is when all the other UNITECH students arrive to Gothenburg for the Start-up Week module. This is where you make friends that will hopefully last your whole life, as you'll spend at least three weeks with all of them and a semester or longer with those joining the same university as you. The UNITECH experience has now officially begun...
I could not miss the chance to blog on the leap year, which also coincides with 90 days being left until the end of the academic year at Chalmers. Exam week starts and ends on Saturday here at Chalmers. To have an exam on a Saturday morning is quite normal here. My second exam in the first quarter was on a Saturday afternoon. One of the last exams to take place before the beginning of the second quarter. Luckily this time, I've only got one course which has an exam next Thursday afternoon. My other course is an engineering group project which runs across the third and fourth quarter. For those of you not familiar with the terminology, a course is what you would call a module back in the UK.
In Sweden, there are a number of 'sweets' you have to try before you leave, especially if you stay the full year. The most famous one you come across is kanelbullar, also known as a cinnamon bun in English. They even have a whole day of the year dedicated to it - 4 October. I think I first had this when I was in Haga with Pierpaolo, Alex and Arno. Before you knew it, it was the season of giving - Jul (aka Christmas). Now, the Local UNITECH Chapter (LUC) Sweden held a baking event for all alumni to join. There were two alumni, Pier and I present. We had a chance to bake lussekatt (saffron bun) and knäck (translates to "break"). It was fun baking lussekatt as we all made our own designs as well as the traditional shape. Knäck is basically just a mix of sugar, which is quite unhealthy but okay for that once in a year treat. I also had the opportunity to bake lussekatt with Erik and Sven as well at Ostkupan. The next event was Shrove Tuesday, which has semla dedicated to it. Really tasty, and I had both the traditional one (sold everywhere) and the modified one (sold by 7-Eleven). I can still remember the taste - craving for one right now! Cannot wait for the next traditional Swedish sweet - I wonder what's next?
