ABBA Dabba Do!
Hej!
Well I made it to Sweden. It was a fairly uneventful flight from
Minneapolis to Stockholm, it is actually not that long of a flight over
the Atlantic, 6 or 7 hours. I did get to ride in first class since I was
using my Dad's frequent flyer miles and we couldn't get a coach seat. It
is pretty rough up there, I caught myself refusing additional food a few
times!
My friend Johan, who I lived with in Australia, lives here in Linöping so
he drove up to Stockholm to pick me up from the airport. This was a very
good thing since I was travelling pretty heavy. I had my bike in a big
box along with 9 pounds of peanut butter and 20 packs of Mentos. My other
checked bag weighed in a 66 lbs out of a possible 70, plus I had a big
duffel as carryon.
Johan showed me around Stockholm and then we drove to Linköping where my
university is. The university has 14,000 students but the campus is
quite small (bigger than Morris though). I put my bike back together
(I'm an ace bike mechanic now :)). There are dedicated bike trails that
criss cross the city, it is really nice. Even when you ride on the
streets, cars don't try and run you over. I spent my second day getting
my room key and exploring the town on bike. Actually I spend most of the
day completely lost, I could ride for a hour and end up in the same
spot. I was looking for the computer science building and next thing I
knew I was 6 km outside of town.
Swedish flag flying in front of Johan's grandma's barn.
There are quite a few other international students here. I think around
40 right now, more are coming at the end of August. They are mostly
French and German, a few odd Americans, a Lithuanian and a Czechian (?).
We all live in a student housing area called Ryd. I have my own room
with a private bathroom and shower. I have more closet space then I have
stuff to put in them. There are 7 other rooms in my corridor, with a
shared kitchen and living room. Only one of the rooms is occupied right
now, by a Swedish student Per. More students will start moving in a few
weeks from now.
Most of us are taking the four week intensive Swedish course. We have
had 6 days of it now, about 5 hours a day. I am having quite a difficult
time since my brain doesn't seem to absorb information very well, I think
it is full. I can't pronounce any of the words, and I can't usually
understand what the teacher is saying most of the time. A lot of the
other students have studied Swedish before so it is a bit unfair. It is
a good thing all my courses are in English and everybody speaks English
very well. I'd like to be able to read it though, I have to take my
dictionary every time I go shopping.
The prices here are certainly as expensive as their reputation. A loaf of
bread will cost you around $2, gallon of gas $4, a can of coke $2 (and
they are smaller than our cans!), beer at a pub $5, lunch at the campus
restaurant $9, pack of 100 index cards $5 (they better jump out of the
package and dance for that price).
Another American, Michael, a brit Rob, and I went to a crawfish party at
some Swede's flat. It was great, we had a first course of Swedish
meatballs, an egg dish, some beats and some sausages. Then the star
attraction arrived, a big basket of crawfish. They taught us the method
of sucking out the salty juice and how to dissect the crawfish to get at
the tasty meat. Mmmmm, good.
Hej då!
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