The snow is so deep here....I just had to jump in! It was very refreshing
Friday, February 5, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
I Almost Got Away With It
So I leave class today and head to System Bolaget before hopping on the bus for Lappis. I am standing in the store debating my choice, even though I know it will be Lord Calvert, and a lady walks up to me and says "Var ligger en starkol." Having just learned from Frida that this means "where is the beer," I point to the beer section. When I walk to the counter, a lady says "urseckta" (excuse me) to which I reply "Nye, du" (no, you go). I then go to the counter and the lady says "Hej" to which I reply "Hej." She rings me up and says "Tre hundra trettifyra kroner" and I pull out my credit card. She asks for my ID, and I give it to her. I am 99% of the way to getting out of this building with nobody knowing that I suck at Swedish. I calmly wink at the cute Swedish girl behind me, and I go to bag up my good. As I am bagging, the checkout lady looks at me and says something like "Kan jå min penna" I stare blankly and think....oh shit, I am screwed, run before they know that you don't speak Swedish. I just reply, "Nye" thinking she is asking if I want my receipt. She then gets upset...."Ge mig min penna" I look down, and I have a pen in my hand that I certainly did not come in with.....F*$k. Everbody is laughing at me as I run out in nonSwedishspeakingshame.....so close
I will get it tomorrow
Drew
This post goes out to my short friend back in the Thrill....MC. Tell Gary, I will be back soon, and I will look younger than ever.
I will get it tomorrow
Drew
This post goes out to my short friend back in the Thrill....MC. Tell Gary, I will be back soon, and I will look younger than ever.
Doing Some Actual Studying....
Joe and I are actually doing some work in the Studentpalatset near school. (Student Palace) It is just a huge building for all students from nearby schools to study in. There are rooms for group meetings and then all kinds of individual tables to study at. We had Swedish class yesterday, and we learned how to ask for and give directions. I can successfully now ask how to get most common places in Swedish, however, I fear that this will cause the person I ask to think I actually speak Swedish, and the response will leave me no closer to my final destination. At least I can shake my head and that person will go on there way believing I speak Swedish. Unless, I head in the complete wrong direction....
We received another heavy snowfall last night. The snow has risen quite a bit, however, during the day, it has been warm enough that some of it is definitely turning to mush. I can only imagine in March, when it all melts, how the sidewalks will fare. In other news, Joe and I booked our trip to the UK. We fly out on March 22nd to Dublin for the nice price of $22. This is on RyanAir, so we might be flying in the cargo space, but regardless, it is cheap. We then fly from Dublin to Edinburgh on the 25th. We are hoping to make a day trip either to Glasgow or the Highlands, but this is contingent on being able to function a manual automobile on the left side of the road without killing ourselves and/or many sheep. The Edinburgh distilleries are also very much on the agenda. Hopefully, there is enough room left in our bags for a little duty free Scotch to bring back. We fly back to Scotland on March 28th for 3 final days in Stockholm before we depart. Our original plan was to fly out right after our last class on the 16th, to be in Dublin for St. Patty's Day, but our good Norwegian friend Oyvind is joining us in Stockholm for a KFBS reunion the weekend of the 18th-21st. Saunas and cruises to take place during said reunion.
Weekend Plans So Far:
Friday 19:00 - The Bandy World Championships are going on, so we are going to watch a Bandy game. For those of you that don't know what Bandy is (mentioned earlier), and since it is only played in Scandinavia, I imagine that is everybody but Gustav, it is basically a hybrid of Ice Hockey and Futbol. The players wear skates and have mini hockey sticks and they pass around a rubber ball. It is played on ice, but the field is the size of a futbol field. Also, the goals are the same size as a futbol goal. As you can imagine, this makes the goalie all but useless. The game is played at an insanely fast pace, and it sounds very fun as long as you bundle up properly. Below is a clip of some of previous World Championships. Luckily, it is supposed to be significantly warmer than last weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5C2Rdz6Mik&feature=related
The only other set plan we have is the SSE Super Bowl Party from Sunday 21:00 - Monday 4:00. I am going to attempt to run a SuperBowl Squares Pool. However, I fear the Swedish students will just see this as me collecting money from everybody and randomly giving it back to people after each quarter....this may discourage them from participating. At least for a four hour block of time, I will be receiving questions instead of asking them. Should be a nice change of pace, if only briefly.
Alright, back to work
Sturecompanient Tonight
Drew
We received another heavy snowfall last night. The snow has risen quite a bit, however, during the day, it has been warm enough that some of it is definitely turning to mush. I can only imagine in March, when it all melts, how the sidewalks will fare. In other news, Joe and I booked our trip to the UK. We fly out on March 22nd to Dublin for the nice price of $22. This is on RyanAir, so we might be flying in the cargo space, but regardless, it is cheap. We then fly from Dublin to Edinburgh on the 25th. We are hoping to make a day trip either to Glasgow or the Highlands, but this is contingent on being able to function a manual automobile on the left side of the road without killing ourselves and/or many sheep. The Edinburgh distilleries are also very much on the agenda. Hopefully, there is enough room left in our bags for a little duty free Scotch to bring back. We fly back to Scotland on March 28th for 3 final days in Stockholm before we depart. Our original plan was to fly out right after our last class on the 16th, to be in Dublin for St. Patty's Day, but our good Norwegian friend Oyvind is joining us in Stockholm for a KFBS reunion the weekend of the 18th-21st. Saunas and cruises to take place during said reunion.
Weekend Plans So Far:
Friday 19:00 - The Bandy World Championships are going on, so we are going to watch a Bandy game. For those of you that don't know what Bandy is (mentioned earlier), and since it is only played in Scandinavia, I imagine that is everybody but Gustav, it is basically a hybrid of Ice Hockey and Futbol. The players wear skates and have mini hockey sticks and they pass around a rubber ball. It is played on ice, but the field is the size of a futbol field. Also, the goals are the same size as a futbol goal. As you can imagine, this makes the goalie all but useless. The game is played at an insanely fast pace, and it sounds very fun as long as you bundle up properly. Below is a clip of some of previous World Championships. Luckily, it is supposed to be significantly warmer than last weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5C2Rdz6Mik&feature=related
The only other set plan we have is the SSE Super Bowl Party from Sunday 21:00 - Monday 4:00. I am going to attempt to run a SuperBowl Squares Pool. However, I fear the Swedish students will just see this as me collecting money from everybody and randomly giving it back to people after each quarter....this may discourage them from participating. At least for a four hour block of time, I will be receiving questions instead of asking them. Should be a nice change of pace, if only briefly.
Alright, back to work
Sturecompanient Tonight
Drew
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Sofias BDay Party
We celebrated one of Oskar's Roommate's Bday by going out to a ship-bar called Patricia. It was snowing and very cold, and we finished the night off with a Swedish tradition, McDonald's late night and snow angels.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Stockholm Updates
It has been about a week since my last update, so I won't bore you with absolutely everything, but I wanted to let you know what Joe and I have been up to in the past 7 days. So I will dip into some highlights.
The week started with a little bit of a late Monday morning as we had stayed up to watch the Vikings and Saints battle it out in overtime. While I like an exciting football game, the one thing that a game that started at 12:30 am local time didn't need was overtime.....I would blame Favre, but the reality is that Peterson needs to hold on to the football, and Childress needs to hire a VP of Common Sense for the end of game decisions. The only class we have on Monday is our Swedish class at 5:00, but we have a meeting with our finance group, so we hop on the bus towards school at 2:00. We get to Swedish class and there are only 6 of us. The bad news is that it is very intense and your blank stares are much easier to pick out of a smaller crowd. The good news however is two fold: 1) we learn quite a bit from the individual attention that we get from Frida 2) well....individual attention from Frida
On Tuesday, we had our two classes, and I had a meeting with my Leadership group. We start to put together our project that we have due at the end which is on the auditing industry. It is starting to get very cold as we prepare for what is supposed to be the coldest weekend in Stockholm since we have been here. -20 degrees.....so I buy a scarf. The prettiest one is the Celtic FC team from Scotland....so I am now a Celtic fan. This has the added bonus of being a country from which I look like those that live there. So now I look like a wandering Scotsman that is lost instead of a wandering American that is lost....just need an accent. I head home to study the Celtics and find out that they are 7 back of the Rangers with a game in hand.....damn you Rangers. I hope I don't meet any Rangers fans while I am here, or I will be forced to be mad at them before they pummel me. Also, they signed young sensation Robbie Keane; I am very happy about this!
Wednesday is another day that has Cafe Opera on the menu. After Swedish class, which unfortunately had more people in it this time, we head to NSee bar for some food and a beer with Corne and Yogesh (one of the Darden School kids). In Swedish, btw, we have to perform dialogs. I can actually make out a decent amount of what everybody is saying, and hopefully ours made at least a little bit of sense. After the NSee bouncer/bartender/busboy/cook/owner made us feel like we didn't belong there at all, we head back home to get ready to go out. I think he was just having a tough day as he was wearing many hats, but when I asked him for a beer, I thought he was going to go all Vasa Warship on me. We head over to pregame at Saltis before we head out. Corne hands Joe and I the first beer that I think I have ever had to set down and not finish. Apparently the most awful temperature to keep beer is about 5 degrees below room temperature as this sat in the fridge for just long enough to get there. Also, many of the exchange students have gotten very caught up in the Jersey Shore mania that has swept the USA. As a result the following things happen: a) they think we are even more retarded b) much fist pumping goes on at Cafe Opera. The nice thing is that they look to me for fist pump tutelage. I glady oblige......we rock the night away. A cab ride home awaits as public transportation shuts down early on the weekdays. Luckily, we have Corne, Dana, and Kamilla to share one home with us. Ahh, correction, Corne got swept up by a German lady and is not in the cab with us. Poor Corne, I hope he is alright.....Germans have not been historically nice to the Netherlandish....
On Thursday, AnneChristine (Danish girl that was in Chapel Hill), has invited us over for beer and pizza. Apparently, it is very clear to everybody that the fastest way to an American's heart is beer and pizza. We are set to meet Oskar over there at 7:00. We get out of class at 5:00 and decide to kill time at the computer lab. We get over to AC's apartment at just after 7:00 and it is dumping snow. It has been snowing all day, (really the first real snowfall we have had) but now it is just pouring down. AC's has a very nice apartment off of the metro stop St. Eriksplan. After a couple danish beers, we order pizza from the local pizza place.....there are lots of those. I get three different kinds of salami on my pizza, two of which are very tasty.....We also get served a helping of "pizza salad." As best I can tell, pizza salad is an even cheaper form of coleslaw. Oskar inhales his like the plane is going down....I try a bite and then head for the pizza. For dessert, we try one of the salty chocolate candies that Frida Mol has told us we won't like. Once again, Frida is correct, and she gets another point in my overflowing point book.
After dinner, we head out to meet up with Gustav at Stureplan (sp?). He is with shipdriver Martin from previous posts. SDM is entertaining a young lady, so Gustav and us grab a drink at the bar. Once again, I am torn by the instinction to tip when I am told not to. So I tip a little...apparently this is worse than tipping none as I am somehow insulting the bartender. I have got to learn not to tip. Apparently SDM is leaving for a 3 month trip on an oil tanker down to Mexico on Monday, so he is throwing down hard this weekend. I have no idea how a man that woke up, drank bloody marys, and went to Finland...on a SUNDAY "throws down hard," but I am scared for the city. We are smart enough this time to leave before the bus shuts down but too dumb to actually have checked the bus schedule. We get to the bus stop at 12:04 for a 12:30 bus....26 minutes waiting in about that much negative temperature. Oh well, good night all around. Also, Oskar had one of the funniest/wittiest comments I have ever heard tonight. I can't replicate it, but it was amazing.
Friday, we have some great things to look forward to. First, we meet Gustav and some of his work friends after they are done working around 5:30. It is absolutely freezing outside.....-18 degrees Celsius. Luckily, the new scarf is keeping me extremely warm. After work drinks, we stop at a burger place and then head to Gustav's to watch.....ESPN America! At the burger place, I order ice cream to go. The guy ringing me up looks at me like I am an absolute alien. Gustav laughs and says "it is going to melt"...to which i reply "you live 5 minutes away and it is -18 degrees outside....if anything, it will just freeze even more." Apparently nobody in the history of this restaurant has ordered ice cream to go. As they are packing up our orders, you see the guy say something to the kid preparing our orders and he makes a weird face to which Gustav says "that was him telling him to add an ice cream to go." Starting trends baby. We flip on ESPN America and low and behold, hockey is on. Seems like ESPN Sweden to me, but nice to hear english announcers.
We head to Gustav's friends place who is turning 30. As we walk in, we realize that everybody is very excited about Rock Band Hero being played. There is actually a Rock Band Hero tournament scheduled.....awesome. There are about 30 people there and we are having enough fun that we end up not going out. Also, it is harder to go out when it is cold enough to freeze a shot of vodka before SDM has a chance to even take it. Also, SDM and his brother show up and turn the party up a couple notches....at 3, as we leave, he invites me to his place at 7 am for hockey on his big screen.....i politely decline as that is about 3 hours from the earliest that I will possibly get to bed.
On Saturday morning we have been invited to brunch at Joe's old Opares house. He apparently had a Swedish Opare growing up, and they are being reunited in Stockholm. They live at one of the highest points in the city, and it is a beautiful view. Their young children do not speak English, and I believe they are terrified of us. Who are these giants that speak gibberish? After a nice meal, we think to stop at System Bolaget as it closes at 3, and we have a party at Oskars place tonight. We are full on Swedes. Back at our place, we get a nice nap in before waking up for some pregame college basketball. We watch as Georgetown and Duke squareoff in the "We are not an Ivy League School but think we are with twice the arrogance and dorkiness" semifinals. Winner plays "The Darden School"....still don't know what state that is in. Then we head to the old town to meet up with Oskar.
Oskar is hosting a party for his roommate who is turning 27 today. We have been to Oskar's before, so we are familiar with all of his roommates. In addition, there are many new faces here to celebrate. One of them is a guy who is working here for the next couple months from Portugal. The amount that this guy looks like Tim Fraraccio astounds me. He is an exact replica of Tim with a slight Portuguese twist. I can't think of anything else as I chat with him. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture as there was no easy way to ask for a one on one picture with a guy, and I didn't think that "you look like a portuguese version of a friend of mine" would be kosher to a stranger. Oskar has us in stitches most of the party. The kid was funny in Chapel Hill, but now that he is in his own environment...he is on another level. He also mentions that he was proud enough of his thursday joke, that he emailed it to his friends. Awesome
We head to a bar called Patricia's. This is a ship that has been converted to a bar. It is very similar to the other places we have been. Lights, dancing, expensive drinks. We head back out into the cold, and the group declares that we are going to McDonald's before we head home. Apparently this is very common as McDonald's is absolutely slammed from wall to wall. We head home after another great night, and I prepare for a productive day of laundry and kitchen mastering tomorrow.
Sunday is relatively boring....laundry (of which i stumble through as the machines are all in swedish and Frida has not taught us common laundromat words yet.) I go for lunch while my clothes are being cleaned and I run into my corridor mates. We chat and get to know each other a bit better, and then I head to grab my clothes. I am praying that they have not shrunk to 60% their former size as I have no idea what I picked for a drying cycle. They seem to be ok, and I head back to wrap up my kitchen duties. I was kitchen master for the week, so on Sunday I have to sweep, mop, and take out the 40 different recycling bins. I finish my duties, watch a little Family Guy with some people on my hall, (this show is always on), and hit the hay. Another big week in Sweden ahead. Super Bowl Sunday on the agenda!
Drew
The week started with a little bit of a late Monday morning as we had stayed up to watch the Vikings and Saints battle it out in overtime. While I like an exciting football game, the one thing that a game that started at 12:30 am local time didn't need was overtime.....I would blame Favre, but the reality is that Peterson needs to hold on to the football, and Childress needs to hire a VP of Common Sense for the end of game decisions. The only class we have on Monday is our Swedish class at 5:00, but we have a meeting with our finance group, so we hop on the bus towards school at 2:00. We get to Swedish class and there are only 6 of us. The bad news is that it is very intense and your blank stares are much easier to pick out of a smaller crowd. The good news however is two fold: 1) we learn quite a bit from the individual attention that we get from Frida 2) well....individual attention from Frida
On Tuesday, we had our two classes, and I had a meeting with my Leadership group. We start to put together our project that we have due at the end which is on the auditing industry. It is starting to get very cold as we prepare for what is supposed to be the coldest weekend in Stockholm since we have been here. -20 degrees.....so I buy a scarf. The prettiest one is the Celtic FC team from Scotland....so I am now a Celtic fan. This has the added bonus of being a country from which I look like those that live there. So now I look like a wandering Scotsman that is lost instead of a wandering American that is lost....just need an accent. I head home to study the Celtics and find out that they are 7 back of the Rangers with a game in hand.....damn you Rangers. I hope I don't meet any Rangers fans while I am here, or I will be forced to be mad at them before they pummel me. Also, they signed young sensation Robbie Keane; I am very happy about this!
Wednesday is another day that has Cafe Opera on the menu. After Swedish class, which unfortunately had more people in it this time, we head to NSee bar for some food and a beer with Corne and Yogesh (one of the Darden School kids). In Swedish, btw, we have to perform dialogs. I can actually make out a decent amount of what everybody is saying, and hopefully ours made at least a little bit of sense. After the NSee bouncer/bartender/busboy/cook/owner made us feel like we didn't belong there at all, we head back home to get ready to go out. I think he was just having a tough day as he was wearing many hats, but when I asked him for a beer, I thought he was going to go all Vasa Warship on me. We head over to pregame at Saltis before we head out. Corne hands Joe and I the first beer that I think I have ever had to set down and not finish. Apparently the most awful temperature to keep beer is about 5 degrees below room temperature as this sat in the fridge for just long enough to get there. Also, many of the exchange students have gotten very caught up in the Jersey Shore mania that has swept the USA. As a result the following things happen: a) they think we are even more retarded b) much fist pumping goes on at Cafe Opera. The nice thing is that they look to me for fist pump tutelage. I glady oblige......we rock the night away. A cab ride home awaits as public transportation shuts down early on the weekdays. Luckily, we have Corne, Dana, and Kamilla to share one home with us. Ahh, correction, Corne got swept up by a German lady and is not in the cab with us. Poor Corne, I hope he is alright.....Germans have not been historically nice to the Netherlandish....
On Thursday, AnneChristine (Danish girl that was in Chapel Hill), has invited us over for beer and pizza. Apparently, it is very clear to everybody that the fastest way to an American's heart is beer and pizza. We are set to meet Oskar over there at 7:00. We get out of class at 5:00 and decide to kill time at the computer lab. We get over to AC's apartment at just after 7:00 and it is dumping snow. It has been snowing all day, (really the first real snowfall we have had) but now it is just pouring down. AC's has a very nice apartment off of the metro stop St. Eriksplan. After a couple danish beers, we order pizza from the local pizza place.....there are lots of those. I get three different kinds of salami on my pizza, two of which are very tasty.....We also get served a helping of "pizza salad." As best I can tell, pizza salad is an even cheaper form of coleslaw. Oskar inhales his like the plane is going down....I try a bite and then head for the pizza. For dessert, we try one of the salty chocolate candies that Frida Mol has told us we won't like. Once again, Frida is correct, and she gets another point in my overflowing point book.
After dinner, we head out to meet up with Gustav at Stureplan (sp?). He is with shipdriver Martin from previous posts. SDM is entertaining a young lady, so Gustav and us grab a drink at the bar. Once again, I am torn by the instinction to tip when I am told not to. So I tip a little...apparently this is worse than tipping none as I am somehow insulting the bartender. I have got to learn not to tip. Apparently SDM is leaving for a 3 month trip on an oil tanker down to Mexico on Monday, so he is throwing down hard this weekend. I have no idea how a man that woke up, drank bloody marys, and went to Finland...on a SUNDAY "throws down hard," but I am scared for the city. We are smart enough this time to leave before the bus shuts down but too dumb to actually have checked the bus schedule. We get to the bus stop at 12:04 for a 12:30 bus....26 minutes waiting in about that much negative temperature. Oh well, good night all around. Also, Oskar had one of the funniest/wittiest comments I have ever heard tonight. I can't replicate it, but it was amazing.
Friday, we have some great things to look forward to. First, we meet Gustav and some of his work friends after they are done working around 5:30. It is absolutely freezing outside.....-18 degrees Celsius. Luckily, the new scarf is keeping me extremely warm. After work drinks, we stop at a burger place and then head to Gustav's to watch.....ESPN America! At the burger place, I order ice cream to go. The guy ringing me up looks at me like I am an absolute alien. Gustav laughs and says "it is going to melt"...to which i reply "you live 5 minutes away and it is -18 degrees outside....if anything, it will just freeze even more." Apparently nobody in the history of this restaurant has ordered ice cream to go. As they are packing up our orders, you see the guy say something to the kid preparing our orders and he makes a weird face to which Gustav says "that was him telling him to add an ice cream to go." Starting trends baby. We flip on ESPN America and low and behold, hockey is on. Seems like ESPN Sweden to me, but nice to hear english announcers.
We head to Gustav's friends place who is turning 30. As we walk in, we realize that everybody is very excited about Rock Band Hero being played. There is actually a Rock Band Hero tournament scheduled.....awesome. There are about 30 people there and we are having enough fun that we end up not going out. Also, it is harder to go out when it is cold enough to freeze a shot of vodka before SDM has a chance to even take it. Also, SDM and his brother show up and turn the party up a couple notches....at 3, as we leave, he invites me to his place at 7 am for hockey on his big screen.....i politely decline as that is about 3 hours from the earliest that I will possibly get to bed.
On Saturday morning we have been invited to brunch at Joe's old Opares house. He apparently had a Swedish Opare growing up, and they are being reunited in Stockholm. They live at one of the highest points in the city, and it is a beautiful view. Their young children do not speak English, and I believe they are terrified of us. Who are these giants that speak gibberish? After a nice meal, we think to stop at System Bolaget as it closes at 3, and we have a party at Oskars place tonight. We are full on Swedes. Back at our place, we get a nice nap in before waking up for some pregame college basketball. We watch as Georgetown and Duke squareoff in the "We are not an Ivy League School but think we are with twice the arrogance and dorkiness" semifinals. Winner plays "The Darden School"....still don't know what state that is in. Then we head to the old town to meet up with Oskar.
Oskar is hosting a party for his roommate who is turning 27 today. We have been to Oskar's before, so we are familiar with all of his roommates. In addition, there are many new faces here to celebrate. One of them is a guy who is working here for the next couple months from Portugal. The amount that this guy looks like Tim Fraraccio astounds me. He is an exact replica of Tim with a slight Portuguese twist. I can't think of anything else as I chat with him. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture as there was no easy way to ask for a one on one picture with a guy, and I didn't think that "you look like a portuguese version of a friend of mine" would be kosher to a stranger. Oskar has us in stitches most of the party. The kid was funny in Chapel Hill, but now that he is in his own environment...he is on another level. He also mentions that he was proud enough of his thursday joke, that he emailed it to his friends. Awesome
We head to a bar called Patricia's. This is a ship that has been converted to a bar. It is very similar to the other places we have been. Lights, dancing, expensive drinks. We head back out into the cold, and the group declares that we are going to McDonald's before we head home. Apparently this is very common as McDonald's is absolutely slammed from wall to wall. We head home after another great night, and I prepare for a productive day of laundry and kitchen mastering tomorrow.
Sunday is relatively boring....laundry (of which i stumble through as the machines are all in swedish and Frida has not taught us common laundromat words yet.) I go for lunch while my clothes are being cleaned and I run into my corridor mates. We chat and get to know each other a bit better, and then I head to grab my clothes. I am praying that they have not shrunk to 60% their former size as I have no idea what I picked for a drying cycle. They seem to be ok, and I head back to wrap up my kitchen duties. I was kitchen master for the week, so on Sunday I have to sweep, mop, and take out the 40 different recycling bins. I finish my duties, watch a little Family Guy with some people on my hall, (this show is always on), and hit the hay. Another big week in Sweden ahead. Super Bowl Sunday on the agenda!
Drew
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