Aug 2006

Well where was I.... think last time I was one and a bit week into Swedish classes, so let's keep going....

Swedish classes were becoming quite the routine, up at 7.30am every morning to get to class by 9am, it's nice to live 5 minutes from uni! So I probably could have got up later, but it's nice not to have to rush. Classes went really well, have been practising as much as possible, in particular with the people who live in the same corridor as me. I am avoiding speaking English with them at all, so it means I get to practise my Swedish, however this also means that our conversations are also very limited. But I would rather it this way for the time being, and it seems to be helping me a lot!

I should really keep up with this more often, or write notes of what I have been doing, cause it all seems to be blending into one big event.... Actually remember one cool thing, we had a big party the other week to celebrate a birthday, lots of us crowded into a small living room, was a lot of fun. I will put the pics from it up soon. Then after I went to the BBQ at the uni for the new international students, where I met my Swedish peer student Frida, so that was nice to put a face to the friend I had made over the past couple of months whilst making my preparations to attend LiU.

The next evening, after helping Frida and some others to paint a big banner for the uni ski club, we all travelled down to a local lake to go swimming. It wasn't really hot, but the water was nice enough, even though we didn't get there until it was about 10pm and dark. But it was quite a nice setting and very peaceful, I enjoyed it!

Over the weekend I travelled to Stockholm on the Saturday and caught up with a local friend there, so we just hung out for the most of the day and explored parts of the city. It is such a great city and I can't wait to get back there as often as possible!

During the past week, we had our oral exam on Monday, so I had to talk about a topic of my choice for five or so minutes, so I talked about Adelaide and all it has to offer. That went well, and we also had our written exam today, finished in about 25 minutes, most of us were done in an hour, funny considering there were 4 hours allocated to it. But that is one topic finished now, and 7 to go! But looking forward to the next ones. Apart from that, we had quite a random party on Monday night, hanging around the washing house (where all the washers and dryers are). Worked well actually since there were no other roommmates to disturb and not have to worry about cleaning too much. Was a fun evening, followed by a visit to the local (HG) then some late night pasta! Fun and games, often when least expected!

On Wednesday night we were introduced to a Swedish student tradition, the kravall. They are big parties with 1000 or more students, with bands playing and lots of beer to be had, especially at this one since it was German-themed. Was quite a fun night, outdoors but luckily the rain held out for most of the evening. Will put some photos of that up soon too.

That's about it for now! Have a week or so off now so stay tuned and I will let you know what I get up to in this time, it's exciting but I don't want to ruin the surprise....

Anyway hope you are well, until next time, take care
Scott