Välkommen till Sverige! (Welcome to Sweden!)

My First week:

Sunday: Flew into Arlanda where Viktor picked me up. Set up bed at Viktors and slept for the whole day. Explored the city a little bit. Ate frozen pizza with lots of wine.

Monday: Viktor dropped me off at the international office at 9:00. Found out the international office didn’t open until 10. Walked down to get my room key. Walked back down to International office, now packed with people from all over the world (map = my bible). Got my welcome packet and talked to Kerstin about classes. Found out I had to walk down to the BMC building at Pollocksbackan (far away) to talk to Rolf Bergslund about getting classes. But first I decided I should get a phone and open a bank account. Got cheap phone for 400 kronar, but had to wait to charge it. Then I went to open my bank account. I walked into Swedbank where you are supposed to take a number (instead of waiting in line…they do it all over here). I got up to the ticket area and there were two buttons: one red one green with something Swedish next to them. I didn’t know what to do so I just left to go to the BMC building. After a half an hour walk I reached the building. As I was searching for Rolf in the building a nice old man asked me if I needed help finding something. I told him I was looking for Rolf and he replied, “that’s me! How can I help you?” We figured out my credits in Chemistry and figured out a schedule (all Organic chemistry techniques and syntheses…blah). It took about an hour and half to do everything and he a line of people waiting for him. I couldn’t believe he was so nice…most Swedish people I’ve been around are more reserved and keep to themselves. They don’t seem like they want to help at all. As we were walking down the hall people were passing and after one woman passed us in the hall, Rolf told me that she was the granddaughter of Arrhenius! Crazy huh? I love this school. As we were heading to get my schedule and Rolf handed me my backpack, full of books, folders, clothes, computer, essentials, he was surprised by how heavy it was and that I was planning to walk home with it. He even offered to give me a ride home when he was done with work at 6 because he lived around that area. Sooo nice! But it was only 3 and I had a lot of stuff to do. I got my schedule (class everyday from 8:15-5:30) and headed back to see Kerstin in the international office. Once back at the international office I ran into someone I had met once through a friend visiting cal poly. We were surprised to see each other, but were able to get a group together to head out into the city. We went to the grocery store and got our temporary nation IDs. We were so exhausted by the end of the day that we took the bus instead of walking (it’s 20-30 kronas everytime to ride the bus….lame…but we now have found a little loop hole…shhh…don’t tell Sweden). Claire and I live in the same complex which is convenient! Once we got off the bus we headed back to our places to get ready for the night. But we were just so tired we ended up staying in and getting a lot of sleep.

Tuesday: Feet, hips, shoulders (from backpack) all sore from walking so much. Boring day stuff. Thenn me and Claire went out to the nation (nations are kind of sorta the frats/sororities of Uppsalsa) Södermanland-Nerikes for our first night out. We started at 19:00 and didn't get home until 3:00 AM Wednesday. It is crazy there. Lots of beer and wine, most people that don't like beer get the Somersby Pear Cider (delicious-ness) and the cheapest stuff is about 30 kroner (people spend all there money here I guess). We met a big group of people from Illinois that were really friendly and fun to get to know. We all exchanged numbers to meet up later on in the week. Claire and I decided we wanted to meet more people so we set out on a mission to go talk to random people. We would just go up to a group, introduce ourselves, and join their table/group/whatever. We always seem to get on the subject of politics when we talk to a group of Swedes. And guess what I learned from talking to them. Many Swedes do NOT like their government. We talked about how even though their school is free they still have to take out a lot of loans just to be able to live on their own and once they get a job they are taxed so much its hard to save money to put towards student loans. It was definitely interesting to hear because everyone seems to think Sweden is so perfect and really has it down, but just like in America, many people are unhappy with the way their system works. Once it got later they had a bunch of dance floors in the house all with different kinds of music. Here were learned that Swedish people are terrible dancers. They honestly dance how people make fun of white people dancing, with lots of clapping and snapping and kind of jumping and shuffling feet. It was awesome to watch. Definitely a good night, definitely too much for me to handle.


Wednesday: More boring setting up my life in Sweden stuff during the day. At night we went to Uppsland Nation, the Nation I'm thinking about joining. It's much smaller, doesn't have a club, but I like the people and the house and that it's Uppsala Nation. They're library has chemistry books that I'd be able to check out so I wouldn't have to buy chem books...yeee. While we were out eating in the deck area of Uppsala I snapped some pictures of the birds. There have been a million of them! All of a sudden a ton of black birds will fly over the sky. It's really pretty fascinating. It's hard to tell the black dots are birds...but they are. We hung out with a group of people made up generally of people from Ireland/Britain. I called mum that day and I think I even started talking with a little bit of an accent. I even caught myself off guard.


We then ended up going to the Norrlands Nation for the rest of the night and meeting up with our Illinois friends. They are a good time.



Steve, our friend from Chicago, Claire, Me. He was loud and out going which was nice at first. He kept buying people rounds of drinks (no Swedish people seem to be generous in this way) We didn't find him very much fun after awhile though...








Thursday: FINALLY WENT TO IKEA! The one in Uppsland is the second biggest in the world. I got two rugs, hangers, long mirror, a plant, two towels, a comfortor, duvet cover + pillow case annd more for just 300 kronar! So amazing! I no longer have to sleep on my sweatshirts and dry myself off with a towel! It's fantastic. We searched for a good place to have lunch and found Subway!! I have to admit I was more excited that Uppsala had a Subway because it would make Brittany so happy, but our American stomachs couldn't resist and we got a big delicious sandwhich (65 kronar for one sandwhich! RIDIC). The ducks near the river nearly attacked us for our crumbs. Afterwards I went to an completely pointless orientation and then to the internet cafe. While I was there I talked to a man who originally lived in Spain, then studied abroad at Santra Barbera and at Uppsala. He then moved to Uppsala. He invited us to a documentary/discussion night on Montera and his company and at a little cafe downtown. We decided we needed a relaxed night and went to the documentary. I'm definitely glad I went, it was really interesting, and it is definitely something I should be aware of. Overall a very good day!

Friday: Finished up our orientation programs and requirements and ran some errands. Took us most of the day. All the international students then met up for bar hopping at 6. We went to 8 different nations (...I think). People were supposed to get 1-2 drinks and each bar so it got pretty crazy. Fun nonetheless. There were many people there that I had met throughout the week which made getting to know everyone a lot easier and more fun. We were able to skip the monontonous "Whats your name" "Where are you from" "What are you studying" "When did you get here" routine. I met a girl from Finland (forgot her name though) that seemed really nice and I can't wait to get to know her. I had to give her my number and will hopefully get a new phone because mine already met its desmise in the bathroom toilet of Sneirkes (see picture of evil toilet). It fell out of my pocket and PLOP. So sad. And gross. Thankfully it was an unused toilet. Despite the phone this night was definitely the best. I met the most people and had the best conversations. I met a fellow from New Zealand that plays Rugby (he plays lock which is cool...but weird because he wasn't that tall) which of course made me overly excited. I love how surprised people are when I tell them I've played Rugby. I ended up losing my buddy for the night with the distraction of people, but I met a nice friend from Italy that also lived in the same area (I live in the dorms/apartment/student housing called Kantorsgatan...I just figured out that 'gatan' means street in Swedish and I now understand why every street ends in it) and he walked home with me.



Here is the crazy Irish group we got to hang with at Pub Crawl. I absolutely love their accents!












The first other Chemistry major I've met!! Her name is Christina and I love her because she understands my love for chemistry. And we can make SN2 jokes annd we have two classes together. Woo! She's from Australia and has the cutest Australian accent.


Oh my goodness! I also had a fabulous conversation with a security guard! He was outside Uppland Nation. When I first got there I called it "Uppsland" and corrected me, it was "Uppland" which he told me was one of the counties of Sweden, all the nations are counties of Sweden, except Stokholm which is in the countie of Uppland, but I guess they just go and make their own nation because they think they are so awesome and above people (I really don't like the people in the nations...they are jerks and honestly act like they are too good for most people). Then he told me it was 50 kronar to get in and I was like whaaaaaaaaaaat. He informed me if I didn't want to dance I could just go to the pub down stairs and I told him thats perfect because I don't even like to dance. He couldn't believe I was California and didn't like to dance. And then I started making fun of how Swedish people dance (in a loving way! I promise I wasn't being mean), and he told me that the King of Sweden is a really good dancer and he is thus "King of the dance floor." I told him I doubt he is the King OF the dance floor, but he is certainly the King ON the dance floor. We went back and forth for awhile like this. He was really entertaining and funny. And we had similar feelings about Stockholm Nation.

Okay it was probably better when it happened. I'm not a very good story teller. But it made me really happy. The end. Time to prepare for classes on Monday!