Epilogue

10 months ago, I arrived in Sweden. 10 beautiful, interesting, amazing months...
My first intention was to write a report about Karlstad, the University, Sweden, and so on. Sounds nice, but I think the outcome would be either very boring and full of facts or very sentimental - which isn't useful for people who have no connection at all to Karlstad or Sweden. Instead I think it's better to skip that - everything can be found on this blog. If you want information about Karlstad, click on Karlstad under the "Label" Headline on the right hand side. The same goes for University, Sweden etc. This will bring you to all the entries that are relevant for this "label"...more or less. And of course there are a lot of pictures...

As I wrote in one of my earlier posts - the main reason for this Blog was to build a good research diary for people interested in Sweden...but more and more entries started to become "Manuel's personal life" but still, I managed to bring some useful information into it (at least I hope so). So, if anybody wants to have more information about Karlstad and/or Sweden, feel free to contact me - just comment with your question on THIS post and leave your e-mail or blog profile, and I will answer.

Anyway...I think I said most of the things already... I really enjoyed the time in Karlstad, Sweden. Going abroad was one of the best things I have done so far and I'm glad I did it. Yes, I was a bit afraid (see the "before departure" posts) but everything turned out to be great...!
I don't know what else to write - everything sounds really cheesy and I think I've already said everything in the last few entries...

So, I guess that's it...the "Manuel i Sverige" Blog is closed - but my life continues on http://sentimental-valiums.blogspot.com/ - just in case if somebody's interested.

Vi hörs & vi ses!
Manuel

Back in austria...

Hej!
I'm back in Austria - sorry for the long absence, but I've been in the hospital for the last few days (my arm, again...but this time it's ok, hopefully).
Anyway, leaving Sweden/Karlstad was weird - it didn't feel like "goodbye", more like "see you soon" - and I definitely want to come back soon!The last few days in Karlstad were really nice - I enjoyed the weather (grilling and a chaotic boat tour), packed my things, cleaned my room and said goodbye to friends - some of them were really close friends, others were "new" friends that I've just met during the last few days/weeks ("bättre sen än aldrig" ;) )...anyway, goodbyes are never easy, but in some cases I'm sure that I will meet the people again...
However - I plan to write my "final conclusion" as soon as I have some more time/motivation to write it with one hand :P

For now - the last pictures I took in Karlstad/Sweden - the one on the bottom is my favourite I guess...the Swedish coast with malmö in the background - and the öresund bridge leading to sweden - I'll be back soon :)

PICTURES












and before I forget:
HEJA SVERIGE!!!

Best of...

WARNING! This post will include a lot of pictures...sorry for that, but I think that's the best way to present them. My first intention was to present the most beautiful/funny pictures but somehow I ended up making a collection of pictures that remind me of the good times in Sweden/Karlstad...a lot of pictures are missing, since I tried to keep it as "short" as possible...Also - it will be a bit sentimental :(
This won't be my last entry..I plan to write a final conclusion in the next few days - and I'm sure I will post some random stuff before flying back home...for now, enjoy the pitures...

Lena, Elisabeth and me...we had a great time, I miss them! But I'm going to meet Elisabeth back in Austria :) and Lena hopefully in Munich...

Sandra, Theresa, me and Christoph on the Värmland trip...seems like years ago, but it was last autumn...and it was a great trip! (picture from Theresa)

One of my favourite Oslo shots...again, it was a great trip and actually I wanted to go back to Oslo in spring...well, next time ;)

Me, Elisabeth and Mathieu in front of the Munch Museum... THE SCREAM :P

When my best friend from Austria came to visit me...it was great! I'm so glad that he came! I'm really looking forward to seeing him again!

Alster lake..one of my favourite Spots here...

The Westcoast-trip with Lena, Harry, Claudia and Elisabeth...this must have been the most beautiful trip ever!

A jumping picture during the westcoast trip (picture from Harry)Claudia and me in the Icehotel...it was so cool! Kiruna was a very special and amazing trip... (picture from Claudia)

the last "group picture" (sadly Elisabeth and Jonathan are missing)

Stockholm in December..that's when my love for this city started...and it was the first time I saw Rufus live, which was truly amazing! And it was realy nice to meet Linda, a fellow-rufus fan :)
2nd term in Karlstad...the winter was dark and without much snow...but the sky looked really cool sometimes...

Sofia, Carl, Ilana and me...all of them are great people and I'm so happy that I met them!
*lol* on a lazy afternoon in February- the TV was running and Sofia, Ilana and Jimmy were cuddled up in our kitchen and sleeping...
Me, Ilana, Sofia, Carl and Jonathan...the Bangers :D I'll miss them all, but I know that we will meet again! Probably not this year (Carl and Ilana), but definitely within the next 2 years... (picture from Ilana)
Stockholm, again...in spring I REALLY fell in love with this city. Partly because of all the nice people I met there (Niklas, Mike, Freddy, Linda...to name a few) but also because of the beauty of the city and the surrounding islands...
Sofia..a very beautiful picture...We were the "hard core" in our corridor and I really enjoyed the time with her...We became really good friends and will definitely stay in touch...
Gothenburg/Göteborg - another amazing trip and another beautiful city...Jonathan, Hong and I stayed at Sanna's place (Jonathan's girlfriend) and the whole family has been so kind to us...! It was a great time...
Malmö with Hong and Jonathan...I will never forget this trip... (picture from Hong)
Jonathan and Hong...two really dear and close friends and I'm so glad that I've met them! Again, we are going to stay in touch and meet again...Hong will come to Austria soon (for the Eurocup) and Jonathan plans to come to Austria in autumn...and I plan to fly to Canada next summer (it's really on top of my list).
I'm going to miss both of them a lot...but as Jonathan said this morning when we brought him to the station- this was just the beginning...

Getting started...

Hej everybody!
Today I wrote my last exam! I've hope everything went okay... anyway, now I can focus on packing and enjoying my last days in Karlstad.
Sofia just left :( It was/is sad, but I know that we will meet again - on the Oktoberfest or when I come back to sweden (what I definitely plan to do). - that's me & her in the pic ;) I will miss her...hanging out, talking, joking, gossiping, working out at the gym, partying...but as I said, I know we will do that again soon :) And we always have the good memories...(that sounds kitschy, but it's true).
Yesterday Jonathan, Hong, Sofia and I had a small goodbye dinner which was really nice - I even cooked Wiener Schnitzel - with one hand :P
Anyway, today we will go to the lake and make a fire, and in the evening I will meet a friend to bake a cake (we were talking about this for a long time ago, so finally we do it :P - or he will do it and I will eat it ;) )

So, as promised, here is a list of things and I'm going to miss in Sweden (except all my friends here, who I will miss a lot): [random order]
- Sweden, the country
- Swedish television (American tv shows such as Project Runway - I'm addicted :P or swedish programs)
- Lakes (so many of them! And all of them are beautiful!)
- Cakes (soooo delicious!)
- "Fika" (I've got so used to going for a coffee with friends)
- the Swedish way of life (quite similar to our way of life, but still so different)
- Swedish blokes (niiiice ;P )
- the nature (beautiful!!)
- Stockholm (I fell in love with this city...)
- and many many more things, I can't think of right now...

Of course, there are some things I will not miss this much - Swedish sausages for example :P however, I'm really glad that I did this exchange year :)
before I go back home, I will upload some more pictures - the best of the best of all 10 months, so check back before Saturday :)
I uploaded some random pics of Karlstad..if you're interested, click Here...
vi ses :)

5 days left...

Hello!
Well, five days left in Sweden... it's unbelievable.
On the one hand, I'm really looking forward to going home, on the other hand, I want to stay here. I know that I will miss Sweden. A full list of the things I'm going to miss will follow later this week ;)
For now I will focus on the last few days. On Friday we had a big goodbye party, which was a lot of fun. People were dancing, talking and sitting outside, and enjoying the bright night (it doesn't get really dark anymore...).
I bought a T-shirt which I had signed by everybody - it looks really cool and it is a nice souvenir :) (thanks Julia for the picture)
Saturday and Sunday were rather calm days - studying, doing my
laundry, and meeting friends for an ice cream :P and saying goodbye :(

Since it's really annoying to type with one hand, this entry is rather short - hope you can forgive me ;)
But I uploaded some pictures from the last party - click here!
kram
manuel

Packing...

Hi everybody!
It's 11 p.m., I'm sitting in my room and I have just finished packing three parcels to Austria. My room is really empty now and am a bit sad that I have to leave so soon :( I kind of feel like last year, when I left my room in Salzburg.
Anyway, tomorrow and will bring the parcels to the post office which will be damn expensive - 11 kg, for example, cost around 510 KR. I'm not looking forward to that...
goodnight everybody,
Manuel
P.S.: my Arm is okay :) the plaster is just very annoying...

Campusfesten...kudde kriget...eurovision

Hello everybody!

The big party is over - and it was completely different from what I expected, but I'll start from the beginning.
On thursday we had the Goodbye Dinner which was really nice, since there were so many people and everybody was in a good mood. The food was good too, but not enough (at least for me...).
However, on friday the first exchange students from last term arrived in Karlstad - we had a small but cool Party in our kitchen and it was really nice to see everybody again. On saturday morning, the day of the real party, people took sofas and chairs outside, listened to music and had a good time. It was pretty cool and funny, Lene (Norwegian girl from last term) and Björn had a water fight, people were dancing and BBQing...and at 4 o'clock everybody went to the parking place in front of Rumpan Bar (a bar at campus) for the big pillow fight...and that was when everything changed... People who know me know that I'm careful, at least most of the time. And I was careful during the fight - I never was "in the middle", I stayed outside and goofed around with friends...and suddenly I saw Harry, the austrian from last term. I said "HI!" and we started a small pillow fight...and somehow, I don't know how, our two underarms crashed together - and I broke my arm. Ouch. I lost the pillow fight, so to say...and I realized it immediately, holding my arm, looking at Harry and mumbling "oh no, please no...not now...". Poor Harry, he was shocked too...Anyway, Björn called the ambulance and after they asked for my birthday, name, social number etc. they finally said that I should call a cab...which I did, and Sabrina came with me. Marco took his car and followed us.
Together we waited in the hospital..forget everything you've heard about the swedish health system, it's really not THAT good. We were waiting for more than 1 hour before I could go to the x-ray and another hour before they put the cast on...all in all we waited a bit more than 3 hours... Well, the nurses are on a strike (understandable, because the nurse salary is ridiculously low) and that didn't help...
Anyway, my left arm is in plaster now...so I'm typing this with my right hand...hope you appreciate this :P
The rest of the evening was nice...I came back from the hospital, everybody took pictures and was drunk..I called my family and went to Jonathan's place to watch the eurovision...Although I was in a party mood I figured that it's best to have a calm evening. I didn't want to risk more injuries or drunken people running me over, especially because of my arm... Anyway, about Eurovision - Russia won, definitely not my favourite - a bland, Timbaland-produced ballad (why does he have to be EVERYWHERE??)..at least the Ukraine got 2nd...
Sunday was calm - dinner with Sabrina and Marco, since Sabrina left today...
Well, that's it so far...
Pictures of the weekend - including goodbye dinner, hospital,...

Eurovision&Campusfesten

Hello world!

Well, yesterday Sofia and I watched the first Semi-Final for the Eurovision 2008 and although my favourite (San Marino) didn't make it to the final, I'm quite satisfied with the result... tomorrow is the second semi-final and I hope all of you vote for Sweden...or the Switzerland ;)

Anyway, on Saturday there's the huge CAMPUSPARTY, as I wrote in my last entry. Everybody's looking forward to that and as you can see in the pictures, people start to get prepared ;) Even I have already bought some lemonade, sirup and mineral water ;)
I just hope the weather will be fine... During the day there are various games where you can win something, at 4 o'clock is a huge pillow fight and afterwards the "real party" starts with music, DJs etc...I'm looking forward to that and hope that it will be fun :)
So, my next entry will probably be on Sunday...hopefully with a detail report about the campusparty :)
and for all the people who "have the power to vote" - here's Sweden's song for this year's Eurovision:

Music makes the people come together... Part 2

In march I posted some swedish songs/songs by swedish artists and I think it's time for a new part... click here for part 1
Again, this is just a small selection...there are many many more artists that make good music. I could posts hundreds of videos...but I won't ;) If you want more recommendations, feel free to contact me. And as always - feedback is appreciated (for example in that little shoutbox-thing on the right hand side...).

Salem Al Fakir - It's true
Nice pop-music. He's really talented - he played every instrument himself and produced the cd.



Lykke Li - I'm good, I'm gone
Quite cool...at first I thought "wtf?" but after hearing the song a few times I got used to it...and her Album is really good!


Johnossi - Man must dance
I saw them live last month :P


Björn Rosenström - Pojkarna som busar
Something swedish!! Really cool...I know that it's somebody's favourite artist ;P


The Perishers - Trouble Sleeping
Martin, the other austrian in my corridor, recommended this band to me...and they are really good :)


Peter, Björn & John - Young Folks
A friend asked me about this song recently...and I re-discovered this great band. A very catchy song :)


The Knife - Pass this on
Anders recommended this song/band to me...funny video ;P

Flight

Just a short entry...
I booked my flight back home today - in 3 weeks, on the 7th of June, I'll fly back home...I'll be in Zürich at 21.45 o'clock.
I'm happy, but sad at the same time...

oh, and I started to label/tag all my entries - for future reference, so that people who find my blogg and want to read something about Karlstad can filter the postings to find a certain topic... Annoying work, since I never labeled my postings :-/

I put my new shoes on...

Hello everybody :)

Well, not much has happened since my last entry, but I thought it's time for a small update. First of all - I finally bought new shows - and they are white! Oh yes, no black shoes, white ones! It feels strange to walk with them, because they are so shiny and bright...but they look nice.
(*lol* total random information and nobody cares...see how exciting my life is right now? ;) ).
I guess the swedish fashion/style/lifestyle really influenced me - first I bought a scarf, then big sunglasses, then new shirts and jeans..and now white shoes. What's next, dyed blond hair? (hmmm.... ;) )

Other than that - Sofia (the nicest girl in my corridor ;D ) brought some of her Disney video cassettes from her home and we started to watch them. On Tuesday we watched Lejonkungen (The Lion King) - in swedish, of course, and VHS quality *rofl* (so 90's, isn't it?). In my opinion, you're never too old for Disney movies and I really enjoy watching all those movies of my childhood again - and watching it in swedish is a really good practice ;)

Anyway...next week is a huge week, so many things are going to happen. Well, Jonathan and many others are looking forward to the Champions League final on...Wednesday (I think). It will be exciting, that's for sure. I keep my fingers crossed for ManU, because Chelsea is bad and nobody likes Chelsea (that something I've learned this term ;) ).
Sofia and I are looking forward to THE EUROVISION on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. We've been looking forward to that since september :P and the Melodifestivalen was a first taste of it :) If I were in Austria (and if we participated) I'd vote for Sweden and Charlotte Perelli ;)
But - on Saturday, the 24th, the day of the Eurovision final is the Campusfesten/Campusparty, another huge event we've been looking forward to. Many exchange students from last term will come to Karlstad, specially for this day. It's a huge party on the campus with a full program and a pillow fight (you can read about it here - in swedish). So, we will watch the Eurovision on Sunday, the day after the party (either a recording of it or the re-run).
On Thursday, the day of the second pre-final of the Eurovision, we have the Good-Bye Dinner of the university, and afterwards Sabrina, a girl who has been here for 2 terms (like me) is having a small good bye party.
So, as you can see - it will be a very busy week... After next week I have to start to cut some strings of my life in Karlstad - cancelling my bank account, quitting my gym membership, getting some signatures from the university,...Not looking forward to that...
But it's good to know that I already have plans for my life after Sweden. In the middle of June, Hong will come to Austria and I will go to Innsbruck and Vienna with him - mainly to attend some public viewings (EuroCup in Austria), but also to show him my beautiful homeland. And on the 30th of June I already start my internship in Munich. I didn't write about it earlier because I wasn't sure if it will work out...but I just called them and they told me that everything's fine. :)

Anyway, I'll probably write something on sunday...depending on how much news I have ;)
manuel

PS: Sorry for this picture...but what else fits to this entry?

Stockholm again ;)

Hej :)

4 more weeks to go!! Unbelievable how fast time goes by :(
Anyway, last weekend I went to Stockholm and it was great. The weather was perfect - warm and sunny. I arrived there on friday afternoon, met a friend and we had dinner with another friend of his. Afterwards we played Guitar Hero, which was quite funny but I prefer SingStar ;)
Anyway, it was nice but not very exciting. On Saturday I went do "Drottningholm", the royal castle, which is located a bit outside of Stockholm. It was really beautiful - the castle has a huge garden and it's a very popular place - not just for tourists, also a lot of Swedes go there to relax since the garden is really peaceful and beautiful.
Afterwards I went shopping for some spring clothes, then I met Niklas and some other people at Tantolunden (a Park in Södermalm). Afterwards we had a small BBQ in another Park which was really nice.
I guess I never had so many BBQs as in the last few weeks ;)

However, that was my trip to Stockholm - it was quite calm, but I enjoyed it a lot. Though it was a bit sad to say "good bye" to the people there and Stockholm...But I hope it's more like a "See you", because I really want to come back.
I don't know why, but I love Stockholm. Sure, it's not a huge city and some people there are probably a bit "snobby" but the town itself is so beautiful and the atmosphere is great. All the small islands that are connected with each other give it a "special feeling". I definitely want to come back...

Well, I came back home yesterday afternoon, then I met two friends for ice cream and a walk around the town. Afterwards I had to clean up my room, because I have my room inspection today - an obvious sign that I'm going to leave soon...

So, that's it for now. Sorry, that was a very boring entry - but I'll try to make the next one a bit more exciting ;)

As always, click here for some pictures from Stockholm :)

This time I took a lot of random pictures, because that's how I want to remember Stockholm, and I already have tons of pictures of the Royal Palace and so on ;)

Manuel

...sleeping on the balcony after class

(once again the title is taken from a song - Vampire Weekend - "Campus")

Spring is in the air - and it's beautiful! The flowers and trees are in full bloom, the temperatures are perfect and the sun is shining. I really enjoy the few days off from university - after this weekend I need to study again, until then I try to enjoy the nice weather.
Tomorrow I'll go to Stockholm, I'm really looking forward to that. I'll meet some friends, go shopping and MAYBE I will go on a tourist-boat tour to the archipelagos (if they are already offered).
I love the swedish summer/spring - the days are so long.The sun rises around 5 o'clock a.m (which is a bit annoying, since I wake up because it's so bright outside). Yesterday we made a spontaneous BBQ - we started at 9 o'clock p.m and it was still light outside. When I went home, around 11 p.m it was dark, but the horizon was still a bit bright.
Well, this information is totally random ;)

Anyway, that was a short posting...a longer one will come when I'm back from Stockholm :)
manuel

Göteborg, Malmö and the swedishness

Hello :)

I'm back from my trip - Jonathan, Hong and I went to Gothenburg and Malmö and it was a very nice and adventurous trip. But I'll start from the beginning.

First of all, on friday afternoon I had a group presentation in the media class. It went quite well, I guess...at least the teacher said that it was a good presentation, but you never know... After the class I caught the bus downtown, were I met Jonathan and Hong. We got on the train to Gothenburg and 3 hours later we were there. Since Jonathan's girlfriend Sanna is from Gothenburg, we could stay with her and her family. They live in a cosy little House close to the sea and it was really nice to stay there. All the family members were very nice - Thanks again for everything :) ...they even made a BBQ for us, when we arrived there. The sunset-picture was taken by the sea close to the house...

The next day we strolled around Gothenburg - we watched the sights and did a boat trip around the city and the harbour. It was cool because the boat goes underneath those small bridges and sometimes you have to duck your head because it's so low. It was interesting - and we were really lucky with the weather...
Anyway, after a few hours in Gothenburg we took the train to Malmö (Malmö is in the south of sweden, close to Denmark...). There we went to our Hotel and had dinner - we were too tired to check out Malmö's nightlife.
The next morning, after a delicious Hotel breakfast (I LOVE hotel breakfast buffets ;) ), we went to the train station to buy a ticket to Karlstad. I think I wrote it earlier, but the swedish train system is quite different from the austrian system. If you buy tickets early in advance they are quite cheap, but if you buy them shortly before the trip, they are really expensive. But there is a certain amount of "Last Minute Tickets", that are available 24 hours before the train leaves - they are really cheap...and since our Malmö trip was quite spontaneous we wanted to buy a Last Minute ticket to Karlstad. But there weren't any left. And paying more than 900 krones (around 100 euros) for the train (without a seat reservation) was a bit too much for us...so we decided to take the train to Gothenburg in the evening and stay there one more night at Sanna's place. Surprisingly I wasn't angry at all...Usually I hate it, when something doesn't work out and I usually plan everything before I make a trip (I buy the tickets 2 months in advance, book the hotel etc ;) ) but this time it was very unscheduled. But it was OK, I enjoyed the extra day in Gothenburg.

Anyway, Malmö is a really nice city and the weather was really beautiful. We went to the beach and the old town - the thing is, that Malmö's old town is really beautiful, but the outside area is quite industrial and not so nice. My Lonely-Planet guide said, that Malmö is Sweden's most european city - and I see why. It's close to Denmark and thanks to the Öresund bridge it's easy to get there. The "feeling" in the city is very european...it's very hard to explain, but Stockholm or Gothenburg just have a certain "swedish-ness", which is missing in Malmö (at least partly). It's not necessarily the architecture, it's just the "feeling" you get when you walk around... Anyway, I enjoyed Malmö.
Back in Gothenburg we went shopping - I bought some nice clothes and just for fun we dressed up "swedish" - a fancy scarf, tight pants (see picture)...just the hair is wrong, but I've already booked my appointment with the hairdresser ;)

Well, I came back on monday evening and I had to study for my exam today - that was actually the main reason why the extra day in Gothenburg was a bit bad, because I planned to study on monday... However, I already had the exam and I think it went OK...I answered all the questions and I'm sure I missed some things that the teacher wanted to hear...but all in all I think it's OK...hopefully.

So, on Friday I'll go to Stockholm...one last time, to say goodbye to some friends and Stockholm. The end of my Sweden stay is approaching, and it's not a nice feeling at all...but let's not think about leaving now - as always I uploaded some pictures, you can watch them here (I decided that the slide show [in my last post] is too distracting if you want to read something):
Göteborg Pictures
Malmö Pictures

Feel free to leave comments...
Manuel

PS: Oh, I just remembered...the big question, which town is better, Stockholm or Gothenburg... It's a hard question, that's for sure, because both cities are different. For now, I'd say that I like Stockholm more - BUT I've been there more often and I saw it from a different side. In Gothenburg I just saw the tourist places. I didn't go out there and haven't met "Gothenburg people". So, although I say that I like Stockholm more, it doesn't mean that I don't like Gothenburg. I want to go there again (and hopefully I will)...

Picturetime

Well, this entry is totally useless, but some months ago I found this new tool and I wanted to try it out...but I always forgot about it. So, here it is, a slide show for my blog :P
Some recent pictures of BBQs and parties...enjoy and let me know what you think of the slideshow...I'm not sure if it's that good/useful or if the flickr link is better...

Grillfest

Hi everybody :)

Well, as I wrote in my last entry, spring arrived in Karlstad. Spring means - the days are getting longer and swedish people come out of their houses, wear summer clothes (IF they wear any clothes), lie in the sun...and make BBQs!

Alex, a Swede in my corridor, invited some working colleagues over for a huge grilling party. Of course our corridor was invited too - everybody prepared something, they bought the meat and in the end there were about 30-40 people outside our kitchen, eating, talking and having fun. It was a relaxed and nice atmosphere, the food was delicious - some mexican starters, salad, meat-on-sticks (no idea what the english word for that is?!), potatoes casserole...and brownies, chocolate cake, ice cream and cookies for dessert. It was de-li-cious!
Afterwards we played SingStar, talked, danced,...and had a good time. It was really nice. I hope we'll do something like that again. Sofia and I decided to have at least 1 more corridor-dinner before everyone's leaving. It was some kind of tradition last term - we cooked together at least once 1 month, but this term it's different.

Anyway, today I have to do some reading for a course, drive downtown to check if I can find the new Portishead CD..and in the evening we'll probably have another BBQ at Jonathan's place.
The interesting thing is that I totally adapted to the swedish temperatures. Although it's just about 10 - 15 degrees it feels warm enough to run around in a t-shirt. I love it :)

On Wednesday Jonathan had his birthday-party - well, kind of. Hong, Sofia and I went to his place to hang out and afterwards we met some more people in a sports bar downtown. We watched the Manchester United game there (Jonathan is a huge supporter ;) ). It was nice, though football is not my favourite thing. The Liverpool match in tuesday, ManU on wednesday...it was a football overdose, really ;)

So, maybe I'll write again tomorrow...
manuel

PS: pictures can be found HERE

That's life...

Hej :)

Wow, the 3rd entry in 7 days - that's a new record for me ;)
Anyway, my week/weekend wasn't that exciting, but I'm in the mood for writing something. It's shocking how much I got used to everything here. I started to realize that I will go home soon (in 1,5 months...) and it's really weird. Last term, everything was new and exciting, I did a lot of trips and didn't really settle down here. Of course I arranged and decorated my room, but it seems that I never really lay my heart into settling down. This term it's different. When I came back after christmas, I felt "at home". I knew all the people, knew the area/Karlstad...it wasn't exciting anymore. It really was like coming back home after a short vacation. I got so used to everything, especially the people here. I know that I will be very sad when I have to go back to Austria.
Don't misunderstand me, of course I'm looking forward to seeing all of my friends/family again, but it's sad to leave friends back in Karlstad.
Anyway, I don't want to start thinking about it now...

This weekend was a very lazy weekend, full of very sophisticated TV programs ;)
Sofia and I (and, well, Hong and John) watched "A shot at love with Tila Tequila" - a MTV show about a bisexual bachelorette (Tila Tequila...sounds like a porn star name, doesn't it? ;) ) and 16 blokes and 16 girls are competing against each other to win hear heart. In the end she has to choose for a guy or a girl... It's the "ultimate war of the sexes" as one contestant put it. Yes, it is a very freaky show and yes, it's a very cheap way to attract attention - but it's fun to watch. Hong enjoyed it a lot, especially the kissing girls ;) It was weird to watch it - on the one hand it's so cheap and silly but on the other hand it's fun to watch. Especially with some chocolate cake and ice cream ;)

Other than that I did some editing for a birthday-video and went to the swimming pool - and I will never go there again on a SUNDAY. I forgot that Sunday is "family day" and it's really awkward swimming next to all those families with yelling little kids.
All in all the last week was a real "sporty week" - I went to the gym 3 times (as usual), swimming and I walked a lot...as a result I felt every single muscle on Sunday. Nice feeling ;)

So, what's up next? On Wednesday it's Jonathan's birthday, I guess we will watch some football game in the evening and celebrate a bit. The first weekend in may I plan to go to Gothenburg (finally!) and Malmö with Jonathan and the second weekend in May I'll go to Stockholm again, probably the last time for a long time :(
Anyway, I'm looking forward to visiting Gothenburg - some friends told me that there are two kind of people - either you like Stockholm and hate Gothenburg, or you love Gothenburg but hate Stockholm...

Well, that's it for now...sorry, no pics just text. Next time I'll post some pics, I promise :)

Spring is in the air... :)

Well, kind of ;)
At least I pretend that it's spring. The sun is shining, I'm listening to Belle&Sebastian (perfect spring music) and imagine how it would feel like to wear just shorts and a T-Shirt... but it's still a bit too cold for that...Anyway, yesterday we (Jonathan, Hong, Maria, Lenka) went to the lake to have a small bonfire and grill some sausages (and a frozen chicken in Hong's case :P as you can see in the picture).
When we walked to the lake it was really sunny and warm - but as soon as we managed to light a fire it started to rain! Our luck... But we didn't leave, we went to a small cottage nearby and waited under a small roof for the rain to stop. Around 15 minutes later the rain stopped and we went back to our fire - which was extinguished by now. So we tried to collect some dry wood/grass and started all over again. Luckily the sun decided to honor us with her company and we had a really nice time at the lake.
I'm really looking forward to doing that again when the weather is warmer...
Apart from that the last few days weren't that exciting....

anyway, that was just a quick update on what's going on right now... Comments and stuff like that are always welcome :)
manuel

Short entry

Well, just to let you know - I had a calm weekend. I watched some movies, went for a coffee with Anders, was invited for dinner at Hong's and watched another Disney movie with Sofia...that's all I did. Exciting, eh?
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to that:

It's Portishead, for the people who don't know the logo ;) Their first album in 10 years...now, THAT'S exciting :))

Var nöjd med allt som livet ger :)

Hej!

Well, it's friday - finally weekend!! But compared to last weekend, when I was in Stockholm, this one is going to be quite boring. Everybody is away (trips to somewhere) - at least the people I usually hang out with. Looks like this will be a very calm and relaxing (boring?) weekend ;) but I'm looking forward to it, in a weird way. I haven't had time for myself in the last few weeks. Somehow there was always something happening, which is nice, but it can be a bit exhausting sometimes. Tonight I'll watch a movie - completely on my own, something I haven't done for a long time (and usually I enjoy watching something on my own). Of course I'd rather be in Stockholm and repeat last weekend, but that's not possible ;)

Anyway, this week I found a new way of learning swedish - DISNEY MOVIES! YAY! As you might now, movies in Sweden are in the original language - except children's movies, they are translated into Swedish. Sofia and I watched "The Jungle Book" and "The Little Mermaid" - in Swedish with English subtitles. So funny to hear those songs in Swedish! I grew up with the German versions, know some of them by heart...but the Swedish songs sound not too bad. I understood quite a lot of the dialogues between the songs, since they spoke a very nice&clear Swedish. I think I'll buy some Swedish Disney movies before I go back to Austria :D
Other than that, my week was quite normal, nothing too exciting happened.
Maybe I'll write again on sunday - in the meantime Var nöjd med allt som livet ger :)



ps - my "band of the moment" - Hercules and Love Affair - genius album! With Antony Hegarty (from Antony and the Johnsons) singing on some songs... Check their single "Blind" out

The ultimate experience...

Hej everbody :)
I'll excuse in advance for a very Rufus-related entry. I'm sure I'll write something like "it was so great" for about 30 times in this entry.
However, for all the people who are not interested in reading a loooong breakdown of my weekend in Stockholm (which had more to offer than just Rufus [though Rufus was the main thing ;) ]) here are the hard facts:
it was great; I met a lot of nice people; I had fun (in every sense); Rufus was amazing-both times!;

So, let's start..with thursday, because that was when my weekend started. You could call it the "Pre-weekend-Party". We had a very tasty Schnitzel-dinner in our corridor (Dominik, an exchange student from last term was here to visit us..and he made the Schnitzel) and afterwards Martin, Lukas, Maria and I went downtown to see a concert. The Swedish band "Johnossi" played at a local club and since I really enjoy their first CD I didn't want to miss them. However, the concert was nice but not too special. Actually, it was quite "loud", but I enjoyed it anyway. The small picture shows the band.

On Friday I finally drove to STOCKHOLM, something I had been looking forward to for more than 2 months... I arrived there around 4 o'clock, went to the Hostel, grabbed something to eat, strolled around the city and looked at expensive, but perfectly fitting jeans - but I didn't buy them (now I wish I did...). Then I went back to the hostel, had a shower and went to a Party I was invited to.
The Party was on Södermalm (an island that's part of Stockholm) and started around 7 p.m. I was quite nervous, because I just (kind of) knew the host (Niklas) and nobody else. But it turned out to be really good, because I met a lot of really nice people (Swedes only ;) ). Since it was a swedish Party it (obviously) was a "Pre-Party" and around half past 11 we went to a Nightclub nearby. And well, what can I say? It was great, I had a real blast there - dancing, talking,...and so on ;) (this is the wrong place for more details)

The next day I met some people from the night before. We had brunch at a nice cafe (String) and afterwars we strolled around Södermalm and Djurgården. At 4 o'clock I met Linda - I know her from the last Rufus concert and she bought my ticket for this Rufus concert. We walked around (you see, I walked a lot in Stockholm) and waited for the concert to begin. We were really nervous and looking forward to it...The concert was at "Dramaten", the Royal Theater, a really beautiful place with a very nice flair.
It's hard to describe the concert itself, because it's something that you have to experience yourself to believe it. It was amazing and really special - and we had tickets for the second row! Rufus came without his band, so he sang and played the piano or the guitar himself and although his music is quite opera-like with a lot of orchestration and instruments, his songs worked really well "stripped down" like that. And once again, he proofed that he is a great entertainer. He really rocked the place with his witty comments about Sweden/Stockholm, Sylvester Stallone and other things. He's just so authentic when he is on stage. He makes mistakes and laughs about it - and the audience laughs with him and he means every single word he says. He doesn't have a script with jokes he tells every night, because he tells something different every single time.
After the concert Linda and I went to the backentrance to wait for Rufus to come out. We met some other Rufus fans (mostly people from the off. Rufus Messageboard) and together we waited for him. He came out and was really nice - he tried to talk to everybody and signed CDs, tickets, pictures... Since there were so many people we couldn't take a picture WITH him but I took plenty of pictures OF him. It was really nice meeting him - finally. Though I was quite nervous and I didn't know what to say...but he told me that he loves Austria and that it's so beautiful there :D *faint* Obviously I needed some time to calm down afterwards..I was really tired and just went Downtown to meet a friend at a bar but I left quite quickly because I was so sleepy...

The second concert on Sunday was even better, although the first concert was really hard to top. Rufus played different songs, talked a lot and told many funny stories - and he recognized some people in the audience who were there on the night before. It was really special and amazing...I had goosebumps on both evenings, especially during "Ready to Love", "The art teacher" and "This love affair"...AMAZING!

On Sunday (before the concert) I met Niklas again, for a trip through Stockholm. We went to the TV tower (but the weather wasn't that nice, so the view wasn't as impressive as it should be ;) ) and afterwards we went shopping. His boyfriend came back from work and we went to have lunch at a wok restaurant and shopped some more...But I didn't buy anything, because I really should save some money. It was hard, but I resisted buying some really good looking and perfectly fitting clothes - I didn't even buy a CD! Nothing! I spend my money on food (and the entrance to the nightclub) and nothing else. I'm surprised of myself, though I wish I had bought some clothes...hopefully next time.

It was a perfect weekend in Stockholm...and I really want to go there at least one more time before I leave Sweden...
More pictures of Stockholm
More pictures of RUFUS
Anyway, here's a Video of Rufus - not from Stockholm though. Listen to the song - or at least the awesome piano part around minute 2.45...

Farewells...

Hej!

Sooner than I planned to - my new entry.
Ilana and Carl have left :( They had a big Goodbye Party on Tuesday and yesterday we had a big "fika" (coffee/tea time) in our kitchen and a lot of people showed up to say goodbye to them.
It's really sad... It's hard to realize that they are not here anymore. I got so used to seeing them nearly every day, hanging out with them, going out, laughing,..just having a good time.
But I hope we'll meet again. Maybe not this year, but hopefully next year - I really want to go to South Africa. The picture shows me, Ilana, Sofia, Carl and Jonathan - hopefully there will be a re-union :)

What else is there to say... something went wrong with my course registration and I missed the first class yesterday, because I didn't know about it (haven't got any information). It was just a 20 minutes class to get some basic information about the course, but still, I hate the feeling of having missed something. Anyway, the next class is on Tuesday and I'll be there - with or without registration.
I'm heading to Stockholm tomorrow - Party on Friday, concert on Saturday (and maybe even on Sunday...) :) And hopefully the weather will be nice...Last time I went there, it was cold, dark and rainy. At least it won't be dark this time (sunset around 7.30 p.m) :)

Nice weekend, everyone!

Things I have learned in Sweden so far...

01. Swedes like to drink (a lot of) alcohol, although it's expensive.

02. Swedish people are handsome/pretty...and innocent, to quote Sofia. For more information about that, contact me ;)

03. Nightlife is quite different - most Clubs (in Karlstad) close at 2 o'clock. Going to the club is just something you do to kill time between the Pre-/After-party.

04. Personal number. That's all you need to survive in Sweden.

05. Moral Courage is very important here. People expect others to behave.

06. Moose don't just walk around on the streets and you can't find them in every corner of Sweden.

07. Swedes love their Schlager. For a country that has such a good reputation when it comes to music (Mando Diao, The Cardigans, The Hives,...ABBA...!) they have a surprisingly "bad" taste when it comes to partymusic.

08. Swedish TV rocks! Nothing is dubbed, everything is shown as it should be - in the original language. And they show all those cool TV Shows that you can't see in Austria. And Swedish TV Shows...great! (well, not all of them...)

09. Paying with your cash card is very common - even when you buy a coke at McDonalds you don't need to look for money - just use your cash card.

10. Sweden Rocks!

Maybe some of those things sound as if I don't like it here - but the opposite is the case! I really DO enjoy living here and I want to come back...
It's a bit too early to get sentimental, I know...but Carl and Ilana are leaving in a few days and I realized that I'll be in the same situation in some weeks...2 more months, then I'll go back go Austria.
Anyway, there are much more reasons why I like it here...maybe I'll post a "TIHLISSF part 2" (Things I Have Learned...) in some weeks.

Well, what else is there to say? I'm in Stockholm over the weekend and I'm so looking forward to that! I guess I'll write a report when I'm back. Until then - bye :)

PS: Some clever clogs surely realized that I stole the title for this entry - shameless as I am. The original title is "things I have learned in my life so far", by austrian art designer Stefan Sagmeister.

in the sea there is a fish...

a fish that has a secret wish; A wish to be a big cactus; With a pink flower on it... (from "Tree Hugger" by Antsy Pants)

Don't know why I start this post with this line...well, one explanation could be that I'm just listening to the Juno Soundtrack (which is genius and I recommend it to everyone - this kind of music gives you a funny warm feeling inside, exactly what you need on a cold day like this ;) and WATCH THE MOVIE!).
However, I had my swedish exam today - and I think it went ok. I know that I did some (stupid) mistakes, but I hope/beg/pray that it will be positive. On Friday we have the "Hörförståelse" (listening comprehension) part for which I can't prepare anyway. So I finally have some days off...
Yesterday we had the presentation for the film course (we had to analyse a short movie - an avantgarde short movie, which made everything a bit harder ;) ). It went well, I guess. Could have been worse...
But as always - I have to wait for the results before being happy and start partying ;)

So, what else is there to say... On Monday we had a really nice easter dinner at Jonathan's place and there was so much food it was impossible to eat everything. Köttbullar [meat balls], potatoes, sausages, meat pie, vegetables, tomato/mozzarella salad, asparagus, brownies and milk tart - it was delicious, but I couldn't move afterwards. The picture just shows a small selection of the food ;)
Tomorrow we'll continue with our "eating marathon" and have a pancake breakfast (you could say it's "pancake 2.0" since it's the second time we do something like that). Pancakes with all kinds of things - Nutella (mmmhhh), jam, honey, ice cream, cream, vanilla cream,... I'm so looking forward to feeling sick all day - but well, that's worth it ;)

So, that's it for now...not too exciting, but I thought I should update my Blogg more often ;) Feel free to leave comments ;)

bye,
manuel