Australien Dag

With a bunch of Aussies as big as the group residing in Råslätt, and beyond, we were obligated to throw an Australia Day bash. It began in Sockertoppen, the Råslätt local common room slash sauna. We had a few beers and the Aussies flooded in. Of course we invited all others to join us, some Swedes, Dutch folk, and everything else. Mykolas joined us too (hes reading my blog religiously now so i will give him this shout out!). Tim and Dan, other Aussies, joined us from Graashagen (its not an Australia Day party without ignorant bogans!). Anyways we had heaps of beer (under 4 percent from Willy:s), and bad taste clothing as a national dress. We got drunker, played pool, and headed up to Daves for some snags (more like weiners) and tom sauce. Its funny as I never feel patriotic at home, but for that one night it seemed ok to be an idiot, enjoying the company of other ocker freaks such as myself. All in all it was a fucking good night, and listen to as much of the triple j hottest 100 until it was too early and we fell asleep.

After that Perri (who was crahing at mine), Mykolas and I went back to mine. I was on facebook and Jasper (Dutch guy), invited me up to his place for some wine. It was nice to hang out with him, having had no other gay company since arriving. It was funny as I spent my Australia day with other Aussies, and then other gays!! Japser is an intensly cool guy, we traded stories about our past relationships and played eachother our favourite songs on YouTube.

Today, after a painful wake up (at 8!!) I headed off to school for Web Design class. It was our showcase of our first project. We had to design a website encouraging youth to brush thier teeth, approapiate and i'm living out of home for the first time, hey? I was in a group with Dave, and Marion, who is an incredible French girl who i've been tight with for a while. Our website rocked man, and Johan (our strange nerdy swedish design teacher) loved it. Of course he gave some critisim but whatever, it was perfect. The ticker sales for Kiruna opened today as well. there were literally hundreds of students queing up in the cold for a chance to spend 4000:- on a trip to snowy Lappland (north sweden), organized by the school. After about 45 minutes my toes were frozen, so some of us are planning to organize a similar trip by ourselfs. I have just returned from laundry times, and dinner party at Dan the Canadians. And i'm buggered! So i'm gonna make this a shorty.

Till next time.

(sneak peak! we bought tickets to Copenhagen and we are going for the weekend! I'll send you all my love when I return!)

And I want comments bitches.

Sp-rung!

So. Its been a few days since I blogged. On Wednesday night (i'll kick it off from there), The crew and went to a pre-party at Linda's (awesome swede) place. She lives with a few other girls who were all towering over us in thee heels and who out dressed us all with there Swedish fashion skillz. This party was a lot of fun though, I contibuted to thier chalk board in the kitchen by writing "BITCH PLEASE - Sam" on it, and we drank this horrible faux Australian wine called "Great White" which came in a very classy litre size juice style carton. Ew. Then we headed off to Akademien, which i found out is called Kåren by the swedes (as Eline was teaching me some swedish). But Kåren was shit. I was waaay to drunk and I coulnt find anyone. Myk and Jalena had a fight about nothing and I wish they would make up soon coz I love having Jalena at our place. :(. And Anya and Lauri (amazing Helsinki City Boy) were flirting so he kept buying me and her Finnish beer! Eventually Anya dragged me home with a crazy Polish taxi driver, Maccas was closed due to a translation error (who new "7-24" ment open till 12 and not 7 days a week?), and we ended up spending un-nessicary money. Bad.

Thursday morning I wke up feeling terrible. I needed more sleep and the hangover was intense. We had Swedish language class at 3 so I got my ss out of bed. Anya and I had hangover Maccas (to make up for the night before) and then we discovered this incredible clothes shop called Bobbys. So we ended up being late to class. Thursday night was just for chillin and MTV at Perri's place.

Then, Last night. the After Ski party at Åtta Glas. We pre-parties (swedish style again) at Petronella and Aarons place. Its a cute little apartment in town. I met some more awsome swedes and we partied with a cool french guy Gabriel. then I met Ala. Ala is a Iranian born Swede who is all sass. She divalicious and she took a liking to me (aparently i'm the new Ben from Melbourne who was there last semester!!) She said "do you like watermelon".. which i replied yes too. "OMG good, coz i cant be friends with you if we cant eat watermelon at my place in spring.. its my fave thing to do". She staged a photo shoot with us.. heres proof.



So anyway. We headed to Åtta Glas at around 23:30. Our posse was incresing. And the connections just keep connecting. Ive decided Jönköping is like Gossip Girl, you have all this drama and its such a small town. Perri left early (i dont blame her, it was getting a bit shit) so we decicded to move the party onwards. To a really cool place called Bongo. We'de heard about it a lot but never been.. yet. they played actually good music, stuff that me and Anya went crazy too, like M.I.A and Dizzee n shit. So we were going off tap. Mads and The Finns came with us and Dan the Canadian who was my partner in crime .. if crime means rippin up the D-floor! So then i needed to go to the little boys room really bad. So I waited in line with some way too cool Swedes. Im talking Cheap Monday times 500. They were tattooed, with awsome Scandinavian hair cuts and accsessories. Anyway. Im waiting and then A toilet is free so I go in. Im on the toilet about to do number 2. And then some bitch opens the door! theres about 5 blonde girls laughing histerically at me. i was wasnt slightly sedated I would have been upset, but when in Sweden.. it was hilarious. So i made the walk of shame out of the bathroom and onto the D-floor where I continued to break it down. Ah what a night.

This is around the time where we learnt that Lauri and Peter were sergeants in the Finnish Army.

Then we bused it on home and watched Death Becomes Her with Myk.

Now i'm off to get some HW done.

Food, Bills, and Basic Domestic Duties

Hej All


fig. 1

Not a whole lot has occurred since my last post. I'm still hot, still young, and i'm ready to take on New York Fashion Week! But seriously.. I've been laying low, catching up with my sleep (and episodes of 'The City', as you can probably tell), and basically being a housewife. Last night Jelena came over (Mykolas' BFF) and we all watches Desperate Housewife, had super fast ciggie breaks inbetween (the cold does that to you) and we had about 5 goody cups of tea each. You see there is a diffeence between a goody cup and a shitty cup. Infact theres now even a slutty cup (thaks to be). This is how much Lithuanian I am learning.

Besides from my domestic duties (we did have a whole girly day of cleaning the other day), I've bee going to school! Thats right! My web design class has kicked off and we already have our first project. We have to design a web site that will encourage youth to brush thier teeth. My group is me, Dave (from Canberra), and Marion (from France). Its due tisdag so us bitches will probably start it on måndag.

Tonight is a big one at Akademien. I'm going to a pre party with Anya and P-dizzle to these awsome Swedish girls place. I dunno how to get there so they opted to meet us at McDonalds .. the one near Handelsbanken, not the one near Max. There names are Eline (half Belgian and from Gothernburg) and Linda (from Stockholm, a real blondie). That should be good, everybody whos anybody is going to be there and I have a feeling it will go off!

Anya bought a G-tar today and the guy who approached us in the store was aussie! he's names Matt, from Canberra and he was all like "you guys having a part on Australia Day?". So we invited him to our triple J's hottest 100 party.. which we havent planned yet, but in Råslätt, its not hard to start a party. this shit just happens. We went to Systembolaget to pick up some grog too. Mmmm. I have to wait out the front tho, as im not 20 and they ID you even if you are standing in the shop.

Oh yeah, my sushi's always Lax (Salmon) and I at it EVERYDAAAYY! (refer to fig 1.). Btw that photo is from like a week ago.

Big Fish, Small Pond

I had my first actual class today. University here is amazing. The teacher, Johan, for the first Web Design class just told us what we will be doing (very little) and then he asked us when we are free for classes! The teachers here can reschedule a class if they have a hair appointment and its very flexible. So we, as a class, decided our next class should be on Wednesday (Onsdag). i could get used to this. Then me and dave went for coffee with this AWSOME AWSOME swede named Petronella. Shes been really nice to us and hasnt been treating us like total international students which is a relif. We met her out last night at the International students welcome dinner.

So lets rewind to that shall we? Last night we all got (semi) dressed up and went over to this faux-greek area style buffet bar (they are HUGE on buffet here.. Laurence you would die). It was so cheesylicious i loved it. We were chatting to these really funny Finnish guys called Lauri and Peter, who drove here after getting a ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm. They told us about this song called "Helsinki city boooy" which we found hilarious (you kinda had to be there i think). Petronella and her boyfriend from Mexico, Aaron. they are a hot couple. fwoof!





After the dinner we went to the after party at Karlsons. There seemed to be a big emphasis on hooking up and couples etc. Infact since we have been here there has been this. Hollands answer to Heath Ledger aproached me and sympathetically asked.. "how is fishing in your small pond?". to this question I had many answers in my head. Some are violent and others involve waging war against Romania (its a long story). No its not a long story. There are these horrible Romanians that keep hitting on everyone and they stole the cute frenchy that I wrote about a few blogs ago. Bitches. Seriosly though they arent even hot. Anyway were was I? Yes! He asked me this question. To which, in real life (or RL as us web design nerds would say), i think I said "oh good good. I hooked up with a swedish guy the other night". It just slipped out. I mean I didnt really but hey, stupid questions deserve stupid answers. Or lies. Either way I am not fussed as this guy seriosly needs a hair cut and some lessons in politeness.

As you may have noticed my English is getting worse. And my Euro-english is strenthening. You see, here you find yourself simplifying your words or using other expressions so those who dont have english as a mother tounge can understand on the first attempt. But belive me there is usually more than 1 attempt. The swedes usually have the best english. French and German, not so much. The Mexians are fine but you know. And for the rest (Lithuanian included) i dont even know. I think I may be turning part Lithuanian. As me and Mykolas spend so much time together. We went to A6 (the mall) today with Anya and i scored an amazing polar strength jacket for 300:- (fucking cheap), and we toatally got sodas.

I think thats enough for now. I am having the best time ever and i think i needed this sooo much. Not a regretfully bone in my body. LEAVE COMMENTS BITCHES!

Oreintation Almost Over

Its almost time to start classes. The snow has been falling, the crazy health students have been dancing (if you can call rolling on the floor dancing) and i have been sick! Yes! I have this gross mucous chesty cough thing. I think my roommates have been woken up by my constant nose blowing and throat clearing. I havent been taking enough photos, so for purposes of this blog I will borrow some photos from Anya.




Yesterday I didnt do much, I was recovering from a big night at Akademien the night before. I met this really cute Swedish boy. I was cruising him out for a bit and then it was time to just go for it and talk to him! he was amazing! he loved Australia when he visited and we chatted about that for a bit. We exchanged numbers and now hes gonna show me around town one day. :) Who knows what the go is with that though. Knowing me its all in my head!!



I don't know If I've explained to overalls or not yet but I will now. At Akademien you can wear your School's colour of overalls (more kinda like jumpsuit thingies). Red is the teaching students, green id the business (JIBS) students, and white is the health etc. Mine (if i ever get them) would be blue (Kommunication). I should also point out that if you have sex with someone from another school you put a band of that colour around your ankle. So that's that. Now. A few days ago perri, Anya and I went to the Lake and check it out in its frozen state. This was heaps of fun, throwing rocks on it and watching the ducks walking on top of it instead of swimming. As my sickness is hindering me the last couple nights ive had chill ones watching GG and making nice dinners with friends instead of going out. i expect a full recovery by tomorrow. I better be better!



Thats really all for now. I'm feeling good about everything and getting my head around the idea of living here for 6 months and stuff. Please comment on these entries, im so not satisfied on the level of updates from Melbourne!! rrr! Love ya guys.

First Snow

So last night was a mess! I spent way too much on drinks and spent most of the night looking for people that I said id talk to at Akademien. But it was still a blast. I met a whole bunch of people on the HLK (communication school) Pub Crawl and got some sweet couch crashing spots in Holland and Germany! There are definatly way too many aussies here tho, its like.. um fuck off. But they are nice also, so its like a big melting pot up in here. I met a very sexy French guy, which i'm usually got into but something about his Lyon accent and fashion sense made it right. aahaha. We ended up on the last bus this time, around 2:30 and had some more drinks back at mine (and chicken nuggets.) But ah yeah. its snowy and nice today (well it dandruffed for about 10 minutes before).

I think im getting into the swing of stuff now. I love my roomies, its homey and there's always someone to talk to if you need. Råslätt is amazing, and im getting used to the weather a lot now, having high speed internet helps. I can still download Gossip Girl which is fucking good as i thought id have to wait till i got home and catch up! I am very hungover right now tho, i mean i woke up and felt sooo discusing so i stood on the balcony for like 5 seocnds in just my pj's and then it kinda woke me up, but seeing the snow before made me so excited i snapped out of it a bit. The europeans are awsome here, i really like these german girls Anke and Kira who are from B-lin and are really rads. Anya hooked up with this awsome Dutch guy who looks like Heath Ledger, so we call him Dutch Heath Ledger (its a great nick). Buit seriosly his name is Ruud. Then theres this awsome guy from mexico city who is obsessed with the Midnight Juggernaughts, he loves all the Melbournites here. Micheal my roomie got his foot stepped on and he was in pain last night. he likes to drink the Lithuanian way, were u just keeeep going. I'm pretty good at it.

Last night there were crazy Swedes dancing to crazy Swedish pop, which is ok, and we were poll dancing for a bit (as Akademien has a poll!) And I met heaps of swedes last night which rocked, including an awsome gurl called Jasmin who loves The Hills and The City! (the ciiiittyy) So J-Money, i think everyone in sweden loves the city. ;) .. hey i made an awsome BLT before. was good. with this nice swedish sauce. mm.

I need sleeep before we go to Aka tonight for Guitar Hero and karaoke!

One Night in Jönköping

Hej Hej!



I've been shown most of the ropes already! Its only my 3rd or 4th day in Jönköping and I'm almost sorted. I have high speed internet, a mobile and sim card and my room has been deck out with some neat IKEA stuff. Yesterday we had orientation which consisted of some people telling us everything we need to know (all that and a bag 'o chips), followed by an hour long wait in the JuNet line to get our internet, which was a one off payment of 99:-!! Then me, Perri and Anya (from swinny) went to "Willy's" and prepared a faboulous Salmon meal which was fucking good, accompanied by this berry flavoured cider (oh yeh guys i am in CIDER HEAVEN in Sweden, but they love the pear one the most in Jönköping.



Then we went upstairs in building 84 (my builing) to Mads' apartment. Mads is a Dansih guy that everyones favourite Canadian jock, Daniel introduced us too. Mads' aparetment is deck out in a way that puts all our rooms to shame. he has a plasma screen TV, a cow skins rug, wooden floors, a private balcony, and self done pop-art paintings on the walls. Its hot. So anyways he was having a pre's party before we were going to go out to Akademien, which is a student night club (and the only place to get cheap drinks in Jönköping for students). Jessica (also from swinny) and Dave rocked up, and Mads' roommate Burak who is a Swedish born Turk that has lived in america (so he has a real yanky accent, but very cool guy) was joinin' in on the action.



Then Perri, Anya and I head off for Akademien, via some moudly old snow, Maccas and this crazy Swedish fastfood place called Max (where you get a free toothbrush with your "MaxBox"). We rocked up at Aka late as all hell, and were greeted by an increasing drunk group of friends, i met some swedes and Micheal my Lithuanian roommate was there with his old friend Elaina. We danced like crazy drunk swedes for a bit and then at around 2 (which is when we THOUGHT the last bus left) we decided to get the bus. But it wasnt there!! So we ran around for a bit and then we ended up grabbing a cab. but there was 7 of us, and Scandiavian taxis are well designed and compact. so.. um.. WTF?! This driver was awsome though, he let us cran 7 into the space for 4 and he drove us all the way to Råslätt (about 15 mins) for only 300:- (which we drunkenly split between us) Then Anya was flirting with this guy from Boston and he was all like "come to my room" and I was all like "BP shes watching GG with me in 84, fuck off!"

Then i fell asleep during GG. :)

Photos From Gothenburg

Ghetto Life

So I made it. my 27 or so hours of non-stop train, car, plane and bus rides are over. I have a home away from home, a place to rest my hat. So lets go chronologically as not to get confused. I went for a cruise down the main streets of G-burg on Saturday morning, followed by a confusing walk to G-burg Train station, which was a beautiful old vs. new building still with christmas decorations (most streets here still have xmas lights up!). but I was about to discover.. that everything was about to change.

My adventure really warmed up when i arrived in Jonkoping. It was a smooth scandinavian (on-time) train trip, and when i arrived i was finally feeling nervous, it took a while to kick in. I couldn't see any other student looking people until i was in the 7-11 buying a youghty drink.. The man behind the counter was serving up a hotdog with mashed potato and ketchup (they fucking love this stuff!) and i heard this thick Aussie accent ask him "wooow! what are yew doein'?". I looked over to see a short blonde girl questioning this respective citizen, abusing him for simple information about the clearly obvious procedure of placing mashed potatoes onto a sausage. I had had enough. i looked at her .. "excuse me" i asked.. "are you.. aussie?". "Yeh!, you too?" she replied. i was then introduced to 2 more bogans and a rally nice guy from Montreal. the 4 of them were swamped in IKEA bags. it was their second day in Jonkoping, which apparently is the day you go to IKEA, as thats what I'm planning to do today. They had spent around 500 krona each on pillows, mats etc.

But I was about to discover.. that my apartment had already been pimped... After leaving that group on students I saw a familiar face on the street, it was Perri from Swinburne. I had met her once before the trip. We got talking and she was giving me the LD on Sim-cards, accommodation and the whole happenings upon signup. It was getting to around 4:30pm, so naturally it was pitch black outside. I was then taken to my accommodation.. or my crib, as i'm calling it (MTV would love that shit). So begins another chapter, Ghetto life. In Jonkoping, as in most cities, there is an area you associate with fear, starvation, commission flats, stabbings, and rape. this my friends is the sleepy suburb of Raslatt (Rraw-slett). about 10 minutes from the main city, this place is totally the ghetto of Jonkoping, but thats what makes it great. On the bus over i was with a Canadian (Daniel) and another Aussie (Dave, yes they are everywhere). But i'll get to them in detail later. They were talking about ice-hockey, football, and other manly things with our driver. thats when I decided to look for anyone but these guys on arrival. But i was about to discover that those that you have nothing in common with, are about to change.

We hop off the bus. Its freezing, the first time i actually noticed as before i was too excited to feel cold. Raslatt has about 50 buildings, and i mean full on high-rise flats. probably even more actually. There were clumps of melting snow on the ground (i missed the snow by a few days :( ) Anyways i walk into my building (84) and i look on the board for my name. it says "Cremean, Sam : 84 67-3".. and i'm like "ok". So anyways i go up in the ol' skool lift and enter the apartment. The climax of walking into my apartment and having Lauren and Heidi squealing with joy by my side was a sick fantasy that i shouldnt have used to get my hopes up. there were 2 guys starring at me. "hey" i say. Its my roomies. A Lithuanian guy whose name i cant pronounce but now i discover its just Michael, good news is he's been here for a semester already so he was telling us the ropes, including suing the term ghetto to describe Raslatt. He explained that most of the local Swedes that live in Raslatt are migrants from Turkey and Iraq, and that young kids try to crash the University parties. Then there's Guilliem, from Paris. he's really polite and seems quite young. his parents helped him settle in the day before. His room is kitted out with all this sweet IKEA stuff, like a pimpin rug, and these shelves and stuff, nd his laptop is always, quietly, playing slim shady or some nineties stuff. So he's really just a 90's guy. then there is a Tanzanian guy who i have barely spoken to, but sexy African men keep letting themselves into the apartment. They show me my room, its the smallest in the apartment they say, but it has a walk in wardrobe!! so they knew i was coming.

Then, 6 feet of Ontario jock-trash waltz into my room after i had barley put my bag down. It was Daniel, the Canadian. "Hey buddy, i remember you said you were in 84 so i just looked for your name on the door.. I wanna go out tonight get me some broads, man." This guy thought i'd be good "broad smashing" company. Anyway, we got talking and decided to check out the supermarket. We eventually found "Willys" the local place (btw Johanna i dont know how you deal with our shitty Australian supermarkets, coz this place was amasin'). So anyway, the whole time Daniel had only spoken about pickin up girls (apparently he is a guru and please many women in Stockholm, the night before) So we buying pasta and cereal and shit and then we see Dave, the Aussie (from Canberra). We chat to him and we all decided to make some pasta at my place (which btw is notorious for being very luxurious compared to there's). We did and we looked through the IKEA catalogue sitting on the table. Daniel kept talking "aboot" going out later, even though 8:00pm feels like 1:00am. So i said to myself , fuck it, and we hit the streets. the bus fare was about a 50c (AUS) a minute to get into the city which is ridiculous, but this is without the student pass, which we get on Monday. We went to Student Haus, to talk to the guide people about where we should hit up first. They were helpful, even though Daniel was badly hitting on them. then she offered s a lift to this club called Harry's. As this place had a 100 krona cover charge we decided to go to the Pipes of Scotland, a scottish themed pub. the crowd was mixed, mainly swedes and mainly older swedes, very drunk old swedes. it was crazy. i could only really afford one beer so i made it a nice swedish one, which was very tasty, and then we head back (well i head back to sleep, but Dan and Dave continued the night on!).

oh yeah and a 60 year old drunk guy at the bus stop told me he loved me and that he was anti-racist.

Till next time.

Göteborg

Hej!

I'm here in Göteborg just for the day. After over 24 hours in airports and planes it was a relief to sleep in a comfy bed last night. I woke up this morning and looked out the winodow to find some early morning ice-hockey practice taking place in a park across the road, it was awsome, i just sat there and watched them go at it for a while.

This city is really beautiful.. i mean it aint the ghetto of North Melbourne which i know and love but it is so clean and well-functining (what i was expecting from a Scandinavian city). the public transport seems to be really well organised and I cant get over how everything is SO well designed, from lamp posts to the cup i had my coffee in this morning. I took 2 photos and then my fucking camera ran out of batteries! It was a bit crushing as i saw some cool stuffs walking around the streets. I went to a 7-11 and got some, so expect to see photos here shortly.

I definalty do not have enough black to fit in with the well dressed swedes but i've had some "omg" glances at my yellow Schwipe scarf already (they fuckin love it!) But i've seen 2 H&M stores already (as Johanna pointed out its probably my best bet for cheap clothes). But i'm too scared to spend any money yet coz i havent got my head around the exchange rate fully.

Long story short bitches, i feel like.. i'm.. on top of the world, to paraphrase Whitey Port. And I'm totally ready to go to Jönköping and make friends with a couple with lots of problems to i can give them advice like "If you feel like its right.. then its totally right." and then tell them i need my own space and end up in a massive feud involving black mailing them with the sextape i stole.

So, hows the Melbs goin? Leave omments, send me e-mails, i really wanna hear from you all!

xoxo
Göteborg Girl