23:02 Thu.
29 Aug, 2013

Learning Swedish

Day 21 , 126 remain
Lulea , Sweden
11 °C
Fair
4:55 am
8:04 pm

On Tuesday we started our first lessons in Swedish. There are around 25 people in the class from all nationalities, so it’s really different than then language courses in Slovenia (/mother tongue). The Swedish language is a bit weird at some points as some words are written in the same way but pronounced differently based on their meaning (expl. Japan and Japanese). Other than that I think I’m managing to follow the lessons much better than French ones back in high school. The program is really intense as we’ll have oral exam next Friday and written exam the Monday after. And the course is worth 3 CET, so it’s about half of the normal Slovenian course taken in 2 weeks instead 2.5 months.

Lately I’ve realised that I’m not that cold anymore. Guess I have gotten used to a colder climate. In the day if the sun is shining I’m able to go outside in t-shirt. Although locals are saying that normally temperatures aren’t so high at the end of August.

On Tuesday evening we had another aurora. This one was bigger/stronger and lasted much longer than the previous one. I was able to go outside to a close by bridge, which has a bit less light than surroundings of my building. I haven’t talked about this yet, but the city is really well lit, even the smallest roads through outskirts of the city (forests) have lights. Anyway back to aurora, it was really beautiful, sadly this time I forgot my tripod, so no pictures, but I’m sure there will be many more to come. Here is a picture of sunset I took few hours earlier.

Another sunset over the lake
Another sunset over the lake

Yesterday afternoon we went to a nearby forest to pick up blueberries. We were picking them for about ¾ of an hour and even while I ate every second one I picked, I still managed to pick about 0.5kg of them. They are really big and sweet. Maybe I’ll try to bake something with them, maybe…

Picking blueberries with Sofi and friends.
Picking blueberries with Sofi and friends.
I haven't seen so many blueberries before. This is from a half an hour of picking and eating at least as much.
I haven’t seen so many blueberries before. This is from a half an hour of picking and eating at least as much.

Today I’ve been working some more on the blog. I’ve managed to create and fill my expenses so far. You can see them on the right side slider. If you hover over price with your mouse, it will show approximate price in €. Although exchange rates change etc. so this is really approximation. So far expenses are quite high, although I’ve paid rent for 2 months, so I expect next month to be much less.

Today has been 3 weeks since I left Slovenia. Although I miss my folks really much, time flies here. We are busy all the time so I sure don’t feel like it’s been 3 weeks. Maybe one and half. If it will continue at this paste it will be time to go home really really soon.

23:55 Mon.
26 Aug, 2013

Swedish games ...

Day 18 , 129 remain
Lulea , Sweden
15 °C
Fair
4:46 am
8:17 pm

So I should probably start where I ended last time. Student union up here has its own “club” at the university. You need LTU student card to get inside and drinks are approximately 3 times cheaper than in a normal club. Somehow I managed to go to the BBQ, before going to STUK (name of the club: student something something something) at 11’o clock. I’m not sure if it’s just prejudice or is it real but it felt like Swedes on a dance floor are further apart than what I’m used to in Slovenia. You could almost walk right through the thickest crowd and almost didn’t have to touch anyone.
The drinks are still very expensive a beer is around 35SEK (4€), spirits start from around 100 SEK (10€) per shot. We have a saying in Slovenia “Rola se mi tudi brez alkohola” (quick translation: You can have fun without alcohol) I guess we’ll be practising this a lot. We went home at around 2 am.

On Sunday morning we had a trip planned to a close by shopping centre. Everything still hurt from previous day but somehow I managed to rode a bike for 20min to get to the shopping centre. After forgetting to buy half the stuff I should have bought we went home. This was pretty much it for Sunday as I was too tired to do anything else.

Today morning we had a “welcoming” event at the university. Vice chancellor and all other staff from university gave speeches. The chancellor had a really interesting speech. It was something like this “Don’t forget to study, but while you’re up here go out, have fun, go skiing, on trips, you’re not likely to come to this environment ever again.”.

In the afternoon we played some fun Swedish games.

Swedish games
Swedish games

In the evening we had another BBQ this time near the university. Here we firstly played some kind of Swedish baseball. It’s OK I guess but I prefer normal baseball. After that we went to eat something and play the game with the sticks (see post #11). We also met with a lot of new people. It’s really fun, you just go around and talk to strangers, and you are strangers no more.

20:41 Sat.
24 Aug, 2013

BBQ & Hike

Day 16 , 131 remain
Lulea , Sweden
17 °C
Fair
4:40 am
8:23 pm

Yesterday I managed to do enough work on gallery that I can say it’s finished (for now). Currently there is only one album (pictures from blog) but I will (soon) post some other albums as well.

Yesterday evening we had a get to know each other BBQ. It was in a different part of tow so we had to walk for about 30minutes to get there. It was really fun meeting and chatting with all those people from all over the world. There was a guy from Korea, Argentina, USA and of course most countries of Europe. There are really a lot of French and Germans and we are 4 Slovenians (although I still don’t know who the 4th person is). Later in the night we split in to two groups some went to a party in the centre of Lulea others stayed at BBQ area.

Today we were scheduled for a hike to the old town (Gammelstad). We walked through the forest for about 1.5 hours. The track was really narrow and through some swamps again but this time there were wooden boards on the ground so we didn’t sink in to the mud. At the midpoint we came across a (bird) watch tower. I’m sure this will be my favourite destination in winter for watching northern lights.

Swamp in Luleå
Swamp in Luleå
Swamp in Luleå
Swamp in Luleå
Watch tower
Watch tower

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we arrived to the old town we went to see the church (again), this time there was a girl singing and playing organ pipes. It was really cool. Later we went to the same coffee place as last time. Today I had this cake (see picture). It was really good but I liked the last one better.

Cupcake in old town
Cupcake in old town

Soon after we split in to two groups. Most went back with the bus, few of us walked back through the forest. When we arrived to the university we were just in time to go on a campus tour. The campus is divided in to several buildings that are interlinked with underground hallways. These will come in very handy when there will be -30 degrees outside, because you don’t have to go outside to come from one building to another

Toilet in the middle of the forest
Toilet in the middle of the forest
Different buildings around the campus are connected with underground tunnels. This comes in handy when it's -30 C outside.
Different buildings around the campus are connected with underground tunnels. This comes in handy when it’s -30 C outside.

The university is beautifully build with a lot of wood and windows. I will try and take some better pictures of it later and maybe describe it a bit more in to details. So far I’m really impressed with it and it is much better than in Slovenia (until they build us new one next year (I hope)).

After I finally came home I grabbed something to eat and took a shower. It was nice to sit down after a whole day of walking. I almost forgot. Today the last roommate arrived. So now we are Slovenian, German, Spanish and 2 French guys. There was another French here before, but he exchanged place with Spaniard because there was some mix-up with papers and contracts at the beginning so they were in wrong dorms until now.

Now we have another BBQ, but this one I’ll skip because I’m too tired from walking whole day long. Later I will probably go to a welcoming party at the university, if I’ll manage to get up from this chair.

01:19 Fri.
23 Aug, 2013

Aurora borealis

Day 15 , 132 remain
Lulea , Sweden
9 °C
Fair
4:36 am
8:27 pm

I was preparing to go to sleep. Before I went to the bathroom I gave a quick look out of the window and what a sight. Northern lights, a bit dim but still noticeable from my dorm room despite all the lights on the parking lot below. When I saw them I took my camera with light speed and took couple of shots. Here is a taste of it. My only regret is that I didn’t go with other guys out of the city lights to watch them. I wasn’t expecting them this early in the summer (there is a bit of horizon still visible at this hour).

First sight of northern lights.
First sight of northern lights.
23:58 Thu.
22 Aug, 2013

To see the princess

Day 14 , 133 remain
Lulea , Sweden
11 °C
Fair
4:34 am
8:32 pm

Today we had an academic workshop class at university. It was an information class for Erasmus students, where they told us basic information that we’ll need while studying here. After this class we went to another building to get our LTU cards. This are something like Slovenian student’s cards except here you can actually enter university with it. If I’m not mistaken, here you can come to university at 3 am in the morning, unlock it with the card and study or do whatever… There is only one problem with this cards, they took our pictures on the spot (in front of a desk) with web-cam (that couldn’t be HD) so we are all weird on this photos now.

After we got the LTU cards we (me, roommate and some friends) went to the city. The crown princess of Sweden was coming to Lulea on an old boat (buoyancy operated aquatic transport). The ship is a remake of 18th century Swedish East Indiaman. It’s the largest sailing wooden ship in the world.

East Indiaman
East Indiaman, 18th century ship.

When the ship came close to the harbour it fired few cannon shots. I managed to get a picture of it, although the sun was just behind the ship so I had terrible lighting conditions. I think Nejc managed to film the event so you can probably check it out on his blog when he’ll post it.

Canon action from 18th century ship.
Canon action from 18th century ship.

The sailors on the ship were all dressed in period clothing and when the ship docked they began to sing (in English) some pirate song. It was really cool to see. The crew was also manning the sails and running all over the place.

East Indiaman
East Indiaman 18th century ship.

When ship finally docked the princess came off the ship and to the main stage on land. Where they (city officials) told something in Swedish. Later she spoke 3 words (I was actually expecting a speech) and then she laid some memorial stone on the ground. After that she went back to the ship. She was there just to look good for the photos, I think.

Swedish princess
Swedish princess

Almost forgot; this time I went to the city with bike it took me around 15 minutes which is remarkably faster than walking (1h).

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