Partying...and Ikea ;)

Hej!

Another week has passed...it was quite a busy week, lots of courses and quite a lot of work - but it was fun doing it. On Wednesday I went shopping - Swedish style - IKEA - yeah ;)
But I can tell you - Swedish Ikeas don't look different than the ones in Austria. Except that you don't understand anything and you don't know if that strange thing in your hand is supposed to be a carpet or a blanket. You just know that it's called "Ludde" and that it could work as a carpet but also as a blanket...well, those are the huge problems you have to cope with when you're in Ikea ;) Nevertheless, I found some nice things for my room - for example "Lykta", my beautiful "70s-like-retro" lamp. Or my new "I cost just 50 kr, so buy me and throw me away after 1 year" carpet called "Agger"...Finally my room is more comfortable and cosier than before.

On Thursday we had a big "Welcome Dinner" - it was the last part of the Orientation Days. A big dinner at K6 - it was funny and I met quite a lot new people, because you couldn't choose were to sit (you got a number for the seat and you had to sit there). So you couldn't stay with your friends, which was - of course - a bit sad, but also quite good, because so you had to talk to new people. The Host Students planned the whole evening and sang various songs, which was quite funny. Afterwards every nation had to go on stage and perform one song from their home countries. It was really funny when all the Germans (it must have been at least 60 people) entered the stage and sang a Sportfreunde Stiller song...and of course Austria had to sing too. We were just 6 people and sang "I am from Austria"...well, or at least we pretended to sing it, because only a few people knew the lyrics to it...I was just humming along, singing some words I knew. I guess I'm a bad bad Austrian for not knowing the lyrics of the unofficial Austrian hymn...

Afterwards most of the exchange students went to a nightclub nearby (ARENA) and of course I joined them ;) It was quite cool there, although the music was really really strange. People who know me know that I like dancing to almost every type of music, as long as the DJ is good and knows which songs go well together... But I think the DJ at the Arena was on drugs, because he played songs like "I'm a gummibear" and other Aprés Ski Hits, followed by Rhianna's "Umbrella" (in a cool Umbrella/Cinderella version [I found it (free&LEGAL) on last.fm (I [Right click - save target as...]) and some Techno and Rock stuff...My musical brain was really confused by all this style-jumping. Still, I had quite a lot of fun there, danced and laughed a lot.
On Saturday I went to the Nöjesfabriken ("Fun Fabric") - another big Nightclub in Kalrstad.

Before I tell you how I liked it, I'll tell something about Karlstad's Nightlife.
There are several bars and 3 Nightclubs - "Arena" (for people 18+), Nöjesfabriken (entrance for people 20+) and BlueMoon (23+). And - that's the most disturbing thing here in Sweden - ALL the Bars & Clubs close at 2 o'clock a.m. It's really strange compared to other countries (especially Spain/Ibiza, because there the party starts at 2...*g*). Of course this doesn't mean that the party is over after 2 o'clock,because a lot of people go to private parties afterwards...

The Nöjesfabriken - it's huge - really huge. There are 3 dancefloors (House/R'n'B, Rock/Alternative[with live bands], Swedish Schlager), a bowling alley, several Bars, Go-Kart, and a Restaurant - all in one building. It's massive...almost too big. Of course I had most fun in the House/R'n'B room - the dancefloor was really big and crowded, everybody was dancing and having fun. The "Schlager Room" was strange - I think you can compare it to the Aprés Ski Rooms in Discos like "Nachtschicht" or A14 - just without the kitschy plastic cottages.
Although the Nöjesfabriken is so huge, it was quite crowded - it seems as if everyone between 18 and 40 goes there to have fun. And of course all the fun costs something...80 Krones (about 8 €) for the entrance. One beer costs 50 krones (~5 €) - but thank god, I only drink coke (20 krones = ~2 €).
So, it was really cool and I think I'll go there again soon...

That's it for now...I've added a new gallery (click here )with some beautiful pictures from the Värmland-trip & some other party pictures...Enjoy :)

Jag talar lite svenska...!

Hello again...or should I say "Hej!"?
It's really strange if you live in a country where you don't understand the language. At first I thought it was an interesting experience, but by now I'm quite annoyed, because it's not funny at all, if you don't understand a word (or, let's say, you don't understand any important words. Just basic smalltalk stuff like "how are you"). If I go somewhere, my first question is "Hej! Talar du engelska?" (Hi! Do you speak english?). Of course most people here speak english (quite well, too) but I really hope that I can speak at least some swedish soon. I try to remember all the swedish words I read somewhere (on the street, supermarket,...) but I forget most of them...I hope this will change soon.

Well, yesterday we had our first day of orientation - some interesting informations about the University, Sweden, Karlstad...and of course lots and lots of new people. All in all there are about 190 exchange students, most of them from Germany...some US-Americans, Canadians, Italians, also some people from Thailand and many many other countries. And - so far I've met 5 other Austrians. But I try NOT to stick together with german-speaking people, because I want to speak english (and swedish ;) ) and so far it really works well.
I've also met Jonathan, a Canadian guy - we had some contact before, through Facebook and met yesterday for the first time. He's really nice and he has a girlfriend in Gothenburg. He's a "free-mover", which means that he doesn't have the support of an exchange program, so he has to organize everything by himself, but I think he's doing fine so far.
So, as you can imagine, I met a lot of people, heard a lot of different names and spoke a lot. Gladly, I spoke in english, most of the time. In the evening we went to a student's Pub called "K6" and had some drinks (all the international students and some host students were invited to join). It was really nice, everyone was talking to everyone and I met some nice people from Sweden and Norway.

The people who live in my corridor are quite nice, too. More about them a bit later, when I know them better (I think you can't really judge someone after a few days...especially if everything is new and overwhelming).

Today we had a guided tour through the town and some swedish games, like "Brännboll" (it's similar to Baseball) and "Kubb" (a very strange game where you have to throw wooden sticks on other wooden sticks and...well, let's not get started with that). It was really funny, but now I'm really exhausted and tired.
By the way - the picture you can see above shows the Monument on the "Stora Torget" (Main Square) of Karlstad...but nobody here likes it and it was voted for the "ugliest place in Sweden" twice.

And - I'm really proud of that - I managed to make a bank account, finally. If anyone wants to give me some money - just ask for my account number ;)
So one more thing I can delete from my "Thing's to do" list. No news on the internet problem, though. I hope this will change soon.

So, that's it so far - I promise that I'll upload some pictures and make a flickr-diashow, but I forgot my camera yesterday, so I haven't taken a lot of photos yet (stupid me, I know ;) ).
Hej då!