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 :)

First week @ University

Well, I survived the first week at University. As I wrote on Monday - it was really crowded and I have a lot of lessons. So far I really like it.

Web Design is good, although I already know most of the stuff we're doing right now - but I think this will change as soon as we start working with Photoshop CS 3 and Java Script. This is my main course and I have it 4 days a week...which is quite much, compared to the other courses. But I hope we won't get many assignments to do at home...
Swedish as a foreign language - well, we didn't learn much yet, because we were split into 4 different groups - that's all we did. Tomorrow I have my first real Swedish class.
Aspects of Sweden - hm, well...what shall I say...we talked about politics in Sweden, which is quite interesting, but it was a bit too long and I was too tired to follow every word the teacher said...But this course will be finished in 4 weeks, so it won't be that long...

The University is cool - a lot of buildings, a huge library and 3 cafeterias that serve delicious coffee and good food. You can also bring your own food and put it in the fridge and warm it in the microwave - I've never seen this before in a university, but I think it's a cool idea. All in all the food there is quite healthy, compared to other universities I know.

On Wednesday my "Survival Package" from Austria arrived - When I packed my suitcase, I went out of space (obviously) so I bought a big cardboard box where I put all the things in, that I need in Sweden, but didn't fit in the suitcase. After I've arrived in Sweden I told my father to send it to me. It contains all the important stuff I need to survive, like winter jacket, a second blanket, a flat iron(!!), pictures...and my running shoes (I have some resolutions to become more sportive...).


Jonathan (the canadian guy, remember?) moved into his new apartment on Wednesday and invited Elisabeth, me and a friend over for dinner. We ate Köttbullar & Potatis (meat balls with potatoes), a typical swedish dish. It was really tasty :) Afterwards we went to a small party at a host student's apartment, where we met some other exchange students. Some people went to a nightclub later, but I decided to go home, because I was tired and had classes the next day. Nevertheless, it was a really nice evening...
The rest of the week was quite calm - except for Saturday:
We went to the "Värmland Trip" - it's part of the Orientation week. We drove to a beautiful lake in Hagfors. There we were able to make some activities like Mountainbiking, Canoeing, walking...or just sitting there and relax. In the morning I went canoeing - it was really funny and exhausting (who would have thought that it is so hard to move a small boat through the water?!). The weather was just perfect for this... In the afternoon it started to rain (thank god Eva helped me out with a shelter*g*), nevertheless I joined some people on a "GPS Tour" - we got a small GPS device and had to search coordinates. It was like a scavenger hunt - if we found a coordinate, there was a paper telling us the next coordinate and so on... Absolutely no sense, but it was fun, though.
Back home I was so tired that I wanted to go to bed immediately. Since it was too early to go to bed I joined Sophia and some other guys from my corridor in the kitchen, where we watched Oceans 13 and Dirty Dancing (*lol*)...

Well, that's it, this was my week...thanks for reading ;) some pics will follow soon.
Manuel

First course...

Today I had my first course at University. "Web Design and Digital Imaging" - today we learned some basic stuff about HTML and the Internet - nothing new to me, but still, it was really interesting and I think we'll do some cool projects during the semester. I have a lot of lessons, I was really surprised about that...
I wasn't nervous, when I woke up today - but when I went to the university and saw all the people and hundreds of bikes and cars I really got excited. Compared to the University of Applied Sciences in Austria, this University is huge. Someone told me that there are 10.000 students, which seems kind of unbelievable...

On Saturday everybody was really tired because of the party on Friday...nobody was in the mood for partying. Nevertheless, I went to town, where I met Matias - a cool Swedish guy I've met on facebook. He took me to a birthday party and to some pubs. It was really strange, going on a birthday party where I knew absolutely nobody, but it was cool, though. I met a lot of nice swedish people and had a lot of fun. I even learned some new Swedish words (although I've forgot most of them already...).

Sunday started with a big breakfast that Andreas, a fellow-austrian, prepared for us. He made bacon, eggs, coffee...everything that's important for a good english breakfast. Afterwards we decided to go to the lake. So we went to the beach - although it was really really cold and very cloudy. But we thought that it might be the last chance to go to the lake (soon it will be much colder and who knows how much time we'll have when the courses start...). Although it was quite cold, we had a good time on the Vänern lake. The last few days I was on a smaller lake near the Campus but this time I went for the big one ;). We found a nice Bay with rocks and sand and enjoyed the sun (luckily the clouds were gone quite soon).

So, that's it for now...I write again soon (prob. tomorrow when I had more classes...).
I also uploaded some pics of the first Week in Karlstad on Flickr (click here)...
cu

Party, Relaxing, Party...

Tjena!

Well, where shall I start…the last few days have been really good. On Thursday we had some more lectures and were introduced to the sports program of the university. I think I’ll going to do some “Martial Arts” stuff, like “Caiopeira”. Some guys played “Floorball” – definitely no game for me ;)

In the evening I did nothing…yes, you read right, I did nothing at all. I had dinner and went to my room, watched some sitcom-episodes, went for a walk in the sunset and went to bed quite early. After 3 evenings of partying until break-down, I needed some rest. I think most people needed it, because you couldn’t hear any loud music or loud talking on the Campus on Thursday night.

The next day, on Friday, I finally went swimming in a Swedish lake (I’ve been looking forward to doing it for quite a long time). Some people went to a lake nearby the Campus (30 minutes walk) and I joined them – it was a beautiful lake and actually I was surprised of how warm the water was. It felt good swimming there and relaxing on the shores – finally a day where we had free time, no lectures or information about anything.

In the evening there was an “International Party” – everyone should wear something that represents his/her nationality. Well, too bad that I forgot my Lederhosen at home…So I just wore a red T-Shirt and put some (white) letters on it, that say “Austria”. Very creative, I know, but I didn’t know what else to do. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t have anything to wear, so it didn’t really matter. Before we went to the party, Elisabeth (another Austrian student from the Burgenland) and I went to another party of some Swedish people. We wanted to meet some Swedes and Alex (another Swede, he lives in the same floor as I) told us to go there – and he also told us, that we had to make the first step, because Swedish people don’t start talking to strangers. And it’s true – if you want to get to know someone who is Swedish, you have to start talking with them. At first we were just standing there, not knowing what to do (we’re both not the “hi, what’s your name? start talking to me now!” type…I guess, we have some Swedish blood ;) ). Nevertheless, after some minutes of embarrassing standing there and not knowing what do to, we finally went up to a guy and said “Hej!” and “Skåne” (Prost!). And then he started talking to us (unbelievable) in Swedish (even more unbelievable) but when he recognized that we didn’t understand a single word he was saying, he spoke English. We ended up talking for more than 1,5 hours, which was really nice, because we talked about really interesting stuff like the differences of the Swedish and Austrian culture, politics, our studies…stuff like that. Afterwards Elisabeth and I went to the international party. It was really crowded and funny and I met a lot of people there.

Tonight there's another party...and I'm going to meet some guys downtown, they'll show me some cool Pubs and Bars - I'm already looking forward to that, although I think I'll be quite tired...

Well, see you soon :)

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!

Hello World :)

I'm still alive...;)
I'm in the University again - finally managed to get my ID for the wireless network, so now I can work with my own laptop.
The last few days have been really good, although it was quite strange living without internet. I'm not used to it anymore. I explored Karlstad and the area around the campus. Yesterday I went for a walk on the "Vänern", the biggest lake in Sweden. It's really nice there, although it's different than I expected it to be. I don't know how to explain it, but I imagined it to look somehow like the "Bodensee" or any other lake in Austria. But no, it's different. There are many islands in the lake, so you can only guess how big it is, because you don't actually see far. I hope you know what I mean... The picture above shows the lake - the thing on the right is such an island, so the lake is much bigger than it appears.
Enough of the geography-lesson ;)
Today I'm going to make a new bank account and call some internet providers - there MUST be a chance to get internet access without a swedish ID.
The orientation days start tomorrow - some lectures about sweden, swedish habits/customs and some other stuff.
So, that's it so far...writing again soon
Manuel

Here I am...

Finally - I'm in Sweden. And finally - I have access to the internet ;) I'm sitting in the university right now, trying to type on the swedish keyboard (the Z and the Y are switched). I don't have any internet in my room yet :(
Well, my journey was nice and as promised, I used Gregor's "RFOL" technique...

Zurich Airport:
Ok, I'm feeling excited now. I'm sitting in front of the gate, waiting for it to open. My heart beats fast. I*m excited, afraid and sad.
Excited because of what's going to happen to me. Afraid because I hope that everything goes well with my flight (and that my suitcase won't get lost). Sad because of all the people I had to leave behind.
Well, the gate opens soon, I write again late...

Some time later...
I'm sitting in the plane, somewhere over Germany (Frankfurt I guess). Honestly, I don't know what to write...so far it's a nice flight. I watched some funny Tom&Jerry Cartoons, ate a tasty muffin and now I'm calm and relaxed. The pilot just announced that there might be some turbulences du to heavy winds, but I guess (and hope) we'll survive it...
later :)

9.10
I'm in Copenhagen now, waiting for the Gate to open (again...). I really really hope that everything's ok with my baggage and that it's on the same plane as me.
Denmark seems to be a beautiful country - at least it looks nice from above. Note to myself - visit Denmark soon. So far I just know that it's flat. Really flat.
I know that some other students will arrive in Karlstad at the same time as me - I wonder if I'll meet them here...although it would be a big coincidence.
The airport in Copenhagen is really nice - it's quite big and there are lots and lots of stores. If I had time (and money) I'd stroll around a bit.
Boarding starts, cu later

9.40
Ok, I'm sitting in the plane - if that's the correct expression for this "thing". this must be the smallest plane I've ever travelled with. 20 people were on the bus to the plane - and the plane is nearly full. But it's cool, I feel like a guy in one of these adventure movies on their way to "treasure Island" ;)

10.05
We're flying...and it's wonderful watching the landscape on the ground, it's completelty different from anything I know. The flight itself is a bit "bumpy" and loud, but it's ok.

10.30
Sweden looks really nice from above. I'm already in love with the small islands in the lakes. Really cool. Unbelievable how many lakes there are...! So far I've counted more than 60 lakes.

Soon after this last entry I arrived in Karlstad. And those must be the most boring entries ever written ;)
I picked up my suitcase (it didn't get lost ;) ) and a met 3 other exchange students, who I've already seen on the plane. We were picked up and brought to the campus - there I unpacked my suitcase, called my parents and tried to realize that I'm actually here...in Sweden...away from home.
Björn, a Host Student with whom I already had some contact (StudiVZ...) came by for a short visit and answered some of my questions.
The rest of the day I explored the area around my room, went shopping (more about that later...) and in the evening there was a small sitting-together-and-having-some-drinks in the kitchen, where I met some nice people from the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, Germany and America.
So, my first day in Sweden was really nice...
Sorry for NOT posting any pics right now, but I'm using one of the computers from the University...
Manuel