new blog

My time in Sweden as a student for now is over, so my blog changes as well.
Find it here!

Rot zu Grün

Sorry for writing in German now, but it's a songtext of the Band Willenlos from Magdeburg, Germany, singing in German. Musik is available here!
And sorry for writing again only a songtext in here, stories about our trip from Stockholm to Milano and finally to our home countries are coming soon. Promised!

Damals als ich ankam, war alles noch so neu
Damals als ich ankam, war alles noch so gross
Ich wollte niemand kennen, kein Schlüssel passt ins Schloss

Doch dann wurde rot zu grün
Und ich konnte weiter sehn
Doch dann wurde Fremd zu Freund
Und glaub mir, das hab ich nie bereut

Damals als ich ankam, da war ich richtig grün
Die Leute war'n beschissen, ich glaub ich mach mich dünn
Damals als ich ankam, da war ich Hans im Glück
Doch jetzt ihr lieben Leute, seh ich mit Schmerz zurück

Doch dann wurde rot zu grün
Und ich konnte weiter sehn
Doch dann wurde Fremd zu Freund
Und glaub mir, das hab ich nie bereut!

Heute wo ich weggeh, da will ich gar nicht fort
Verdammt ich kann's nicht fassen, ich liebe diesen Ort
Ich liebe diesen Ort!

Doch dann wurde rot zu grün
Und ich konnte weiter sehn
Doch dann wurde Fremd zu Freund
Und glaub mir, das hab ich nie bereut!

Das hab ich nie bereut!!!!!!

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go

I'm standing here outside the door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin' it's early morn
The taxi's waitin' he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go!

some thoughts

Is it possible to pack one room and a life into two bags? No, it's not. How should it be possible? Not only clothes for two seasons (summer and swedish winter), but also university stuff which means some books and seminar notes and what else people need to live.But there are always possibilities to get it somehow back: supporting friends, the mail system (which is not that cheap but cheaper than paying at the airport because of more luggage than allowed), and the memories which don't weight anything, physically seen.

So let's continue packing the bags...

my july

I just want to shortly mention what's going to happen after I left Sweden. A lot of stuff to do and a lot of things to see:

• 3.7. Stockholm, Sweden
• 4. & 5.7. Berlin, Germany
• 6. & 7.7. Stendal, Germany (picking up my furnitures)
• 8.7. journey from Stendal to Bad Saulgau, Germany
• 9.7. Bad Saulgau, Germany: Home, sweet home!
• 10.-13.7. Milano, Italy
• 14.-29.7. Bad Saulgau, visiting friends in Southern Germany
• from 30.7. Graz, Austria

my july (Graz is missing)

a sommer day in Sweden

A day with thirty degrees, yes, it was in Sweden!
The day started with a wake-up-coffee on the balcony of our accomodation.
After we walked to the lake,had breakfast there:Later, in the afternoon, we drove to the place we already were for midsommar. Because of several cars, we continued driving till it happened that we were close to Pottskärsvägen again so that we decided to go to that place. There we had a barbecue, swam in the lake, fished more or less successful but at least for fun, slept, took pictures and else...

for more pictures click on the photo

7 days in Sweden left...

Maybe I should better not write that post now... Sitting here, alone, knowing that in exactly 7days I'm already in Eskilstuna, all the stuff with me, ready to fly to Germany. Physically ready at least, maybe, probably, definitely not mentally.
But that's what's in my mind now...

I met nice people to who I don't want to say goodbye, but people always meet twice in their life! That's my hope. And the first person I'm already going to meet again in Berlin, right after leaving Sweden!
Thanks for all the nice people I met and thanks for the time I had here!
And: nobody can delate the memories of that year!

Midsommardagen i Sverige

Midsommardagen, one of the most important events in Sweden. But where are all the Swedish people? Driving through the town, seeing nobody not even one single car? But right, dancing around the maypole (in Swedish: majstång or midsommarstång) is not possible in the city, so every person moved to the countryside.

midsommarstång
(source: http://www.noresten.se/midsommar2008/)

Our plan was similar and different: Go to a nice place and take pictures the whole night long. The reason: 21 of June is the shortest night. And because we already were amazed by the brightness and night. We took a car, drove from Västerås to Eskilstuna and stoped somewhere in between. It was a maybe even magic place. No noise at all... Just the lake and the sunset and sunrise. And it was cold, unbelievable cold, till we managed to get some spirit and coal.

time 22:46
(click on the photo for more pictures)

Dating in Sweden: sex, booze and mobile phones

As American blogger Kommissarie F. Curiosa prepares to wrap up her almost seven-year sojourn in Sweden, she shares her revised reflections on Swedish mating and dating with The Local. This guide may not help you find your Swedish Valentine, but it might just shed some light on the tantalizing mystery known as the strong, silent Nordic type.

With one of the highest birth rates in Europe, the Swedes seem to be pretty prolific when it comes to making babies, but even after six plus years of living in Stockholm, I'm still not sure how Swedish relationships actually happen.

The only obvious explanation seems to be massive quantities of alcohol. In other words, Swedish babies wouldn't exist without Finnish booze cruises and Systembolaget.

In recent months, The Local has reported that Swedes are much less inclined than their European counterparts to spend vast sums of cash in their efforts to find a mate. This didn't surprise me at all. That's because they spend it all on alcohol trying to get themselves drunk enough to talk to a member of the opposite sex.

I know that it will seem ungrateful to be accusing my host country of being a nation of stingy alcoholics, and I'll be the first to admit that a few drinks can be a fantastic social lubricant. It's probably also a case of “it's not the Swedes, it's me,” but Swedish mating and dating rituals (and usually in that order) appear to be a very slow process that go nowhere (except the bedroom) fast.

In a nutshell, it goes something like this:

A) Meet at a mutual friend's party.

B) Get really, really drunk.

C) Make out. Sex is optional.

D) If you're lucky, you are sober enough to save the other person's telephone number in your mobile, AND to put it under the correct name.

E) Send a text message along the lines of "last night was nice. Shall we have a coffee sometime?"

F) Spend hours analyzing the various ways in which aforementioned text message could be misinterpreted. Get your friends involved.

G) Have a "fika." *(see below for an explanation of this uniquely Swedish institution)

*A "fika" is a Swedish word for an ambiguous meeting that may or may not be a date, or better explained as a non-date, or a date that is pretending-not-to-be-a-date.

It is also worth mentioning that one can also have a fika with a friend, colleague, family member, or neighbor. Hence the ambiguity of the whole affair.

During this "fika" Swedish non-date, things are a little stilted and awkward as both parties pretend that nothing happened last Saturday night, and politely and awkwardly ask questions about the other person, usually beginning with "Where do you live?," descending into a discussion about the difficulty and frustration of the Stockholm housing market, and complaining that you have had to move seven times in the course of six months.

Now, where were we...oh yes:

H) At the end of this date pretending not to be a date, give each other an awkward hug, or possibly a handshake, ended with the statement, "Vi hörs!" or "Hoppas vi ses snart!" ("I'll talk to you soon." or "Hope we see each other soon!")

I) Spend the entire next week pondering over who should make the next move. A WORD OF WARNING: It is not assumed here that the guy will take the lead. More likely, the opposite is expected. If the Swedish guy is brave enough open his mouth and say something at all during this date, he may feel that it is now the girl's turn to put herself out on a limb.

J) Spend many more hours analyzing your feeble attempts at text message"flirting," agonizing over whether you should or should not use the word "mysig" (cozy) or "trevlig" (nice), fearing the former may be too much, and the latter may not be enough. Once again, enlist the help of your friends.

K) Repeat Step A.

L) Repeat Step B.

M) Repeat Step C, all the while pretending it never happened the first time.

N) Sometime after several more renditions of Steps B and C, go out to dinner.

O) Since it's a little harder to pretend you are not on a real date in the formal atmosphere of a restaurant, drink massive amounts of the house wine.

P) At the end of dinner, closely examine the bill to make sure each person pays for his or her appropriate share, including the extra five kronor for dressing on the side.

Q) Get kicked out of your way-too-expensive second-hand rental contract because the person you were subletting from didn't take 10 study points and lost his/her contract for student housing.

R) Get drunk again, and commiserate on the horrors of the Stockholm housing market.

S) Move in together.

T) Go shopping at Ikea.

U) Take a romantic trip to the Canary Islands.

V) Move to the suburbs, buy a Volvo and start collecting “Vuxenpoäng” (see Stockholm Sydrome for more on the ‘adult points’ systems).

W) Have a child.

X) Name it Johan, Erik, Fredrik, or Henrik if it’s a boy or Sara, Anna, Lisa, or Emma if it’s a girl.

Y) Two months after you go back to work after having Johan/Erik/Fredrik/Henrik/Sara/Anna/Lisa/Emma, repeat Step W.

Z) Enjoy an additional 18 months of parental leave.

Å) Get married for your 20th wedding anniversary.

(Retrieved on 22. June 2009 from The Local)

Highschool Graduates in Västerås

out of Junior window

Finishing Highschool means in Sweden following:

1. write last exams
2. drink, drink, drink
   
3. rent or organize a truck or tractors with tumbril (driver included)
4. get dressed: females wear white dresses (in Sweden and with the actual in-fashion: very short); males "suit up"
5. drink
   
6. climb on the trucks, tractors and else
7. put the music on whil dirnking
8. drink
9. drive through the town and drink and party and drink

one truck after the other...

young brown bear hustles baby buggy

A Swedish woman is for a walk in the forest with her 19 months old daughter and a dog when a young brown bear comes and hustles the baby buggy. While the mother dees not know what to do, screaming, running to the next house, the daughter reacts much cooler. She just follows the bear with big eyes when it left doing anything more.

Here the two articles:
Hela Hälsingland (in Swedish) and
Spiegel Online (in German)

four days in Stockholm

heart over the royal appartements

Thursday to Sunday in Stockholm thanks to a friend, having a room there but not needing it!
The weather could have been better, but I have never seen so many people on the streets, not even in Stockholm. The reason:Probably whole Sweden meeting in Stockholm for celebrating the National Day of Sweden on June 6.We walked around, enjoyed seening so many people even after 7PM, ate huge amounts of unbelievable tasty, hand-made cornets, drove t-bana, visited the royal appartements, met Niki de Saint Phalle's sculptures,...

Niki de Saint Phalle sculptures at Moderna Museet

and more fotos here

turning one year older

Getting one year older... In this post I just want to say thank you to Aurora, Cem, Batu, Burak, Jane, Inta and Cihan for a great evening! Thank you so much!

vegetarian life goodbye

Thanks to a wonderful barbecue cook, I ate meat yesterday. I myself still can't believe it. Already in the car, when I saw the meat, I started to rethink about my vegetarian life. Why?

The Past
How did it start? On a boat to Helsinki. It was gammon, which was smelling delicious but I resisted. I even didn't recognize how close I was to eat it. Cihan told me after.
Then, again I was close. Somebody went to McDonalds after partying and bought a Happy Meal. On the way the three not vegetarian people started to eat the french fries. When coming to my place, the fries where half empty, I was hungry and this somebody asked me: "Are you hungry? I brought you something from McDonalds. I asked for a fish burger, but they said, they don't sell it at that time. So I bought a cheeseburger for you." Should I say thanks now? But I was close to eat it, because of being hungry and too lazy.
The Present
And then I saw the meat in the car, it was Irish meat (which maybe also was a reason to finally eat it), looked delicious. Later, I saw it on the barbecue, it was marinaded, smelled good, everybody eating it liked it.Then I was asked: "Do you want to eat?" I know Cihan was just joking, he always tries. But his and Buraks face was totally astonished when I said: "Yes". Cihan didn't want to be responsible if I maybe would regret it the day after. Burak also asked: "Are you sure" I was! And I tried a small piece, and I ate another piece, because it was delicious! Thanks to Burak the barbecue-master!The Future
I know that I'm not going to eat all kind of meat now, I just choose,.. Chicken maybe, some very low fat meat, no burger-meat... We'll see... Or better: I'll see!

summer at the lake

pictures see here!
25degrees, sunshine, no clouds, and no lectures anymore. So what should we do? Go to the lake, forget about thesis, papers and else which maybe has to be handled in, and enjoy a summer, which none of us expected to be like that. At least not in Sweden...

barbecue

should we go swimming?

yes!!!

22h day - 2h night

Sleeping is getting harder and harder... Not because of uncomfortability (I'm not going to complain about comfortability, I should better not do that), but because of the brightness. The longest day is somewhen in the middle of June, but anyhow. My Swedish timer says for next Monday:

Stockholm: sunrise at 3:43 and sunset at 21:49
Whereas sunrise means, that it's getting brighter long time before. Actually it's not getting dark at all. Yesterday, when going out to a club, I took some pictures, as well when coming back.

time 23:03

time 23:41

time 01:15

an evening at the lake

After eating delicious pasta salad next to the lake, we went to the lake, and enjoyed the time there. Interesting: the pictures where taken between 9PM and 10PM. It was warm, even though my feet started ti be cold after long time outside. Here just some impressions from a relaxing evening with friends:

astonishing: north warmer than south?

After days, weeks, nearly months in which the weather forecast always was making me jealous about the weather in my hometown Bad Saulgau, I was pretty much surprised to see that:EIGHT degrees more in cold Sweden than in the warm south :) Ok, warm south is not southern Italy, but anyhow. Sunday: 24degrees!
- Beach, I'm coming...
- Which beach?
- I'll find one to go to!

BBQ with Max

Here some impressions from a wonderful BBQ at the lake, even though the occasion was not that nice: Max left today. But I'll see him again in a week and probably also in Graz.

More pictures here!

preparations for the BBQ

Max playing the guitar

relax and enjoy

Sunday in Västerås

Sunday, between four and five o'clock. Nobody is on the streets, even not before it started to rain. Is that a ghost town? Where do all Swedish people go on Sundays? Just sitting at home?

And then there is the weather confusing me. The morning: sunny, blue sky. Half an hour before: still sunshine. And then, when I left the bus stop, going back to Junior, all at a sudden it started to rain. Where did the clouds come from? And how much can it rain? I was completely showered. I heard that this is Swedish summer. Is it really? is it going to rain today again, after hours of sunshine and over 20degrees? But I'm not complaining, I love summer rain, the smell of the rain, the warm raindrops falling down on me,... But sunshine on the skin also feels good, and makes happy...

Prata bara svenska i Eskilstuna!

What a great time in Eskilstuna!
After the swedish exam, which we hopefully all passed after learning more or less intensive, strang ideas came into our minds... "Let's go to Eskilstuna!" Why not, I have never been there, so let's go! An hour later, Burak, Cihan and me we were sitting in the train (Aurora and Cem followed soon). The weather: great, only sunshine, even though sometimes a little bit cold for some turkish guys :)
Actually, we did nothing special: walking around, enjoying the sun, sitting at the river, eating godis,...

crazy in Eskilstuna
(for more photos click on the photo)

Mode in Schweden

Beim Lesen diverser Blogs bin ich über Folgendes gestolpert:

"Dafür bekommt man aber mal einen Eindruck von der Rocklänge die hier (auch im Winter) üblich ist. Untypisch ist allerdings, dass die Mädels auch noch ‘ne Strumpfhose anhaben. Die Mode hier ist wirklich eigen. Der aktuelle Trend bei den Mädels geht zur Ausgehjogginghose. Kann man sich vorstellen wie die Art Jogginghose die deutsche Oberlippenbartträger Sonntagmorgens zu den Adiletten und weißen Tennissocken anziehen um mal eben zum Kiosk an der Ecke Kippen, Korn und Bildzeitung holen zu gehen - vornehmlich in grau-meliert."

Gefunden auf Jonas' Blog. Hinzuzufügen gibt es nichts. Außer: Respekt Jonas für so eine treffende Beschreibung!

BBQ on Björnö

at the beach again

Sun, warm temperatures, BBQ, and some friends... What do people need more to be happy?
Take your bikes, drive to Björnö, have a barbecue there, play Kubb, enjoy the sun, and have a great time!

That's what we did yesterday! We means: Dede, Jonas, Natxo and our visitors Pia, Elisa, Kaja, the sisters of Dede and their partners. We just drove to Björnö, enjoyed the sun, had a BBQ, played Kubb and had a great time doing more or less nothing at all. The result: Being kissed by the sun (that means sunburn) and falling asleep at a saturday evening at ten o'clock. Unbelievable, but true. Check the pictures here.

Summer is coming!

Valborg in Uppsala

All Swedish universities celebrate the last day in April (in Swedish sista April or Valborgsmässoafton), but the biggest student party is in Uppsala. So we went there to be part of the party which startes early in the morning and ends late at night. We arrived in Uppsala at about half past two so we missed champagne breakfast with strawberries, the speach of the university president and the livebands performing on the stage.

Having fun in the sun

But anyhow we spend an amazing time sitting in the sun, having fun and ate terrible expensive Kebab and Falafel after waiting for it for at least half an hour...

Waiting for the expensive (special price) Kebab and Falafel

And the result: rubbish everywhere... All the white parts are rubbish, bags, dirt, whatever,... And normally there is green gras... Unbelievable! But is it possible to clean all that stuff in one night? Probably not...

"at the beach" on Björnö

Dede in action

"The Beach"

Last saturday was amazing weather: sunshine, at least 22 degrees and no clouds and no wind. So Dede, Jonas, Nils and me drove to Björnö (an island in the lake Mälaren) with the bikes and played Kubb in the sand. The first time playing Kubb in the sand. Snow, gravel, grass, tar,... and finally sand. It was amazing: short trousers, shirts, bare-footed,...

Nils and Jonas

That's like being in Holidays!