Juni

1st of June. Pinch, punch, and all that. It means that my time in the kingdom of Sweden has now spanned through 4 months (even though the actual time overall only adds up to 2 and a half months).

In other news, I sold my guitar back to the shop today, which was very sad. No more playing and singing for the next week. I'm very happy though, that I managed to sell it back at quite a reasonable price. I bought it originally for 550kr (£42.30) including a flimsy case for 100kr. The guy at the shop wrote on the receipt that I could sell it back to them for 40-50% within 2 months. So I was preparing myself for the worst case scenario - that they'd give me 40% of only the guitar (not the case), which would get me 180kr (£13.85), or maybe even a bit less if they noticed that one of the strings was a bit... eroded. But the guy (not the same one who sold me the guitar), just took it out of the case, gave it a quick look, and immediately gave me 50% back of the guitar+case - 275kr (£21.15). So I'm pretty happy with that. I had to give my phone back to Carolien (my Swedish phone that is - I still have my English phone), meaning that I've essentially saved 200kr (£15.38) on credit which I had already budgeted for. So those two little profits are almost enough to pay for my ticket to go to the Canterbury summer ball. So yay!

Argument

So recently, as I believe I've mentioned a few times, there have been a lot of people coming into our kitchen who don't live here. Mostly (OK, completely) they've been friends of the Chinese people. Now, let me just make this clear - yesterday, I complained about one guy having his friends in there and them cooking together. Even though I complained, and they made it smell horrible for an evening, this is still fine - he was with them, cooking and eating with them, there was nothing actually objectionable about what he was doing. But the other Chinese guy, Rui, is being more of a... how should I put this? A dickhead, about things. Friends of his keep coming into our kitchen, and cooking and eating, when they don't live here; I consider this that much more objectionable when Rui isn't with them. Essentially, they're just randomers using our kitchen. Today, two of them were in there, a guy and a girl, cooking a meal without Rui; Carolien, Janneke and I were sitting on the sofa watching the TV, deciding whether or not to say anything. Then the guy took my chopping board which I had left underneath my cupboard, and started using it. So I'm like:
"Hey, wait - that's my chopping board"
He apologised.
So I said, "Do either of you actually live here, by the way?"
The guy: "Oh no, I live downstairs."
Me: "Oh right... so why are you here?"
The guy: "We're revising for an exam in 2 days."
It was at this point that Janneke got up to start questioning him. Janneke is quite similar to Juliette (sporty, argumentative, Dutch? Yeah, it might as well be Juliette). And she was really going at him, saying "It's just a bit strange that you're here - why don't you cook in your own kitchen? I mean, I'm not saying it's you, but food has been going missing recently; we've had a lot of people that don't live here coming in and using the kitchen. It's just a bit strange that's all. Why don't you go and cook in your own kitchen?"
The guy's answer was "I don't want to."
Also, with Janneke's aggressive questioning, she managed to find out that Rui doesn't even live there anymore, and that he's given his key to the girl. But no one had told us that - from our point of view, we've just had a lot of random people on our floor And stuff really has been going missing recently as well. Apparently, Rui went on holiday about a month ago, and some other guy was in his flat; and that other guy was inviting his friends round. So like, there's just been this network of random people that no one knows, using up our space and utensils.
In stark contrast, a new guy has moved into Dmytro's room (who left earlier this week), and as soon as he got here, he introduced himself to us, and let us know that he was the guy living in Dmytro's room now.

Not Fun

So like, I've got to do this long-ish Stockholm assignment (about 3,000 words) by Wednesday June 6th, cos that's when mum comes (it's actually due in the next day, so it doesn't make a huge amount of difference). Then, we fly back to England on June 9th, and I've got to be in Canterbury on the 11th, to hand in the English journal (which totals 4,400 words) and the Professional Studies thing (which I guess is about 1,500 words, since I can use this Stockholm assignment for part of it). So in one week, I need to have written 9,000 words. Is it me, or is that actually pretty unfair? No, no, it's not been my laziness this time! There literally has not been any other chance to do them - I had 3 Canterbury assignments and a Stockholm presentation due in the day Tamsin came; she stayed for 4 days, then the day after she left, I started placement, which only finished 2 days ago. So really, I've not had the chance to do this work. I e-mailed the Stockholm people asking for an extension, saying everything I just said there; their response? "You can hand it on on June the 9th instead of the 7th if you want". Well, since I'm leaving on June 9th, and I'll probably spend a fair part of the 8th packing and cleaning my room, that's actually not an extension at all. I e-mailed saying that, and they've given me until the 15th. Which is good of them, I guess, except that between the 11th-15th, I'll be in Canterbury going to pointless lectures and seminars there as well. I don't have too much right to complain either, because I think I've preeetty much been given the same amount of work as everyone else in Canterbury - it's just been spaced out MUCH worse for me. Also, I've been on a 3week placement, while in Canterbury they've had 2 lectures a week, and then this week off. Oh, and the reason I'm not asking Canterbury for an extension on all this? I got 2 extensions on the last set of assignments; again though, with good cause - one week cos of going to the hospital, and another week for getting 3 weeks less holiday than my peers. Still, I don't want to push it.

So anyway, I'm trying to do this work, and the drilling starts again. I'm starting to wonder if I'm imagining it, because I ONLY hear it when I need to get stuff done. I'm pretty hungry at the moment. I went into the kitchen to get a snack, but the Chinese guy (the one who cooks eggs in black liquid, and defrosts swine limbs in the sink) is in there with some friends. Predictably, they've taken up the whole kitchen, cooking foul-smelling food. The offensive smell though, is nothing compared to the outrageous ugliness of his compatriots. I suppose I should admire the sense of community, but really - get out of my kitchen, you're aesthetically displeasing, and I'm hungry.
In the end, I had 3 satsumas. I'm still hungry.

EDIT: They had already been cooking for a good 30 minutes when I posted earlier. It's more than 2 hours later, and they're still not even eating. Why won't they leave?

Haircut

So I went through with it, and got myself a haircut from this Nicole woman who advertised in the lift. She wasn't very talkative, but I should maybe have guessed that from how she textededed: "you r wellcome at 18 pm tomorow at strix armegatan 32.apt 107.nicole" (Strix is another name for this building - no idea why). She was an Indian woman, and no matter how hard I tried to create SOME form of dialogue, she resisted quite wilfully and rather impressively. After a while, I just gave up and sat in silence. She used quite a strange word to describe how she could cut it; I think it was 'decent'. "You could look like a decent guy, like this." Looking 'decent', basically involved looking like a twat; i.e. having my hair in a side-parting like an 80s businessman. A bit like this guy: http://support.vsm.net/businessman%20181.gif. Also, she waited until about halfway through to tell me that I was the very first man whose hair she had cut. So how did it turn out? Well (Tamsin, look away now), the front is pretty short, showing off my gargantuan forehead. Apart from that, it looks fine. Maybe not as good as Shane or Sarah would have done it, but no one will see it for 2 weeks, and by then it'll have grown a considerable amount. Still, at £8.46, it's the most expensive haircut I've ever paid for. That mad Italian "You say you want spaghetti, but you no want spaghetti?!" man charged £7.50. If you don't know what I'm talking about then... well, good.

In other news, y'know that annoying advert for hair dye with Davina McCall? The one where she's calling her mum? They have that same advert here, but with an annoying Swedish celebrity. Pernilla something. It's strange watching it, and feeling a familiar irritation.
Also, I had a nosebleed on Monday, and since then, there's been blood on the tissue every time I've blown my nose. I've also been feeling kinda ill since Tamsin was here - never terribly sick, just always with a bit of a sore throat and a bit of a sniffle.

This week, on 'Tim In Sweden':

Sorry I haven’t updated much recently – fortunately, it’s because I’ve actually been busy and gone out doing stuff, so it’s been good. On Monday, I had to stay for an extra 2 and a half hours after placement, to go to a staff meeting. It was all in Swedish, so it was completely pointless for me to be there. I just sat there trying not to fall asleep.

On Tuesday, I went to the University pub with Camilla – the idea was that we’d invite the people we like from our class, but we left it too late and in the end, everyone was busy. But we didn’t find that out until we were already there. Still, it was alright, Camilla’s a good person; we managed to have a conversation that wasn’t about death or mutilation, which is the first time that has happened.

On Wednesday, I went to a gay café (say it out loud, it’s fun) with Carolien and Janneke, to try out this white chocolate cheesecake that they said had looked nice. And... it was rubbish. Well, it wasn’t TERRIBLE, but it was too creamy – it was a HUGE slice, and was basically like eating a mountain of whipped cream on a biscuit. It was just too much, I couldn’t finish it. But it was in a really nice area in Gamla Stan, so I could probably go there with mum; it was quite a nice café, but we didn’t go inside – it was warm enough to sit outside, even at 8pm.

On Thursday, the international committee from Uni organised a trip to Gröna Lund – a theme park on Djurgården. It was really cool, the international committee paid for us to get in, and then paid for our booklets of tickets, which you use to play the games and go on rides and stuff. Obviously, I didn’t go on any rides, but they have an excellent Fun House and a really good Haunted House. The teacher of the class I’m in at pre-school said she’s genuinely scared of the haunted house there, and won’t ever go back in. I would show pictures, but my camera won’t upload to the computer; I don’t know if it’s a problem with the camera, the lead, or the computer, so I’ll have to wait until I’m home. I think it might be the camera, because I dropped it a few weeks ago. It means I’ve got a backlog of pictures on the camera since before Tamsin was here.

On Friday, yesterday, I went to this gorgeous outdoors pub thingy with Camilla and a few others, including one of her friends who I met last week. This place was really nice, and it felt so summery; you have to walk up quite a lot of steps to get there, but you end up with a nice view, overlooking Gamla Stan and Djurgården. Again, would have pictures, but... I managed to get an OK whiskey.

Not much has really happened today. The most exciting thing is that some old man knocked on Rui’s door, then when Rui opened the door, the man shouted “TWO-THIRTY!” and walked in. It was quite strange. Also, I saw a homemade advert in the lift, by a girl advertising cheap haircuts, in this building. I’ve textededed her enquiring about one – that’s a bad idea, isn’t it? I mean, if this haircut turns out badly, it’s not like I’m gonna say “How surprising, it was such a professional advert!” The advert, by the way, was just a printed word document saying “Cheap haircuts in Armégatan 32” then a quick run through of prices (including ‘eyebrow threading’ and ‘whole face threading’, if anyone wants to tell me what the hell that might be?) and her phone number. I would wait until I get home, but I just look so rubbish at the moment.

Anyway, that’s been this week! For the next week and a half, I have lots of assignments to be getting on with; then mumsy arrives, and then I leave a few days later.

Flatmates

As I look out of my window at 11am, watching the flurry of dandelion seeds blowing about in every direction across the sky, it crosses my mind that I haven't really talked much about the people I'm living with. Just to set the scene - everyone's room is en-suite, and we all share a kitchen.

Mohsin - A CREEPY guy from Bangladesh; if you walked into the kitchen and he was there, he'd just stare at you. You'd say "Hi", and he would just continue to fix you with his cold, hard stare. I don't think he was a psycho, it's just how he was. Although, saying that, one girl told me that she went to the police about him because he "showed part of his body" to her friend. Mohsin moved out 2 weeks ago, and a Swedish guy moved in, in his place; I can't remember his name though. Mohsin, by the way, is not to be confused with...
Mahshid - An outrageously attractive girl from Iran. She's only ever in the kitchen to make cups of coffee - I've never seen her make or eat food. Her family were down a week or two ago, including a girl who I guess is her sister - and I thought this sister was Mahshid, and started talking to her, until she said "Oh... I don't live here" - I was thoroughly confused.
Dmytro - I've mentioned him a few times; he's nice, chatty and Ukrainian. He can speak Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, English and Swedish fluently, and he's learning Norwegian now. Although, Norwegian and Swedish are pretty similar - I saw a thing on TV with a Norwegian singer, and as usual it had the subtitles in Swedish; for the most part, it looked like she was just singing what was written, except for a few words. The only difference between the languages that I know, is that in Norwegian, they use ø, where in Swedish they use ö (pronounced like the 'ur' in 'hurt' - which I think can be written Englishly as ə).
Rui - A Chinese guy who is nearly impossible to understand. He's had a friend down for about a month now, and that friend is now inviting friends round. Which I think is a bit annoying when they're using our kitchen - Rui's friend and his friend were cooking a meal yesterday, without Rui, and I was like "Hang on - do either of you actually live here?" I didn't say it out loud though.
Shen - A Chinese girl, who is perfectly pleasant. She's the one, in fact, who told me that she complained about Mohsin.
Carolien and Janneke - I'd love to put them individually, but I wouldn't be able to say enough about either of them. They're the two Dutch girls; they're both really nice, I probably talk to them the next most, after Dmytro (the next most? Is that a phrase?)
Kenan - He seems kinda scary, but he's alright; he's lived in Sweden for 15 years, but he's originally from Bosnia&Herzegovina (he didn't specify which one...), and doesn't really talk that much.
Viktor & Andrew - They shared a room, cos Andrew needed somewhere to stay for a while. Viktor is from Nigeria, and Andrew from Ghana - Andrew is the one who went with me to the hospital. They moved out about a month ago, to be replaced by...
Some Guy - Absolutely no idea what his name might be. He's Chinese as well, and he seems alright, but he cooks the most ridiculous meals. I say meals, but really I mean feasts - he'll always have like, a whole pig's leg defrosting in the sink; one time he was using 7 of the 8 available hobs in our kitchen. And the one thing he does more than anything else, is put eggs in black liquid in a saucepan, which he then leaves on a medium heat for around 5 hours. Maybe more, come to think of it. It's so horrible, it smells disgusting, and stinks out the whole kitchen. But the weird thing? I never see him eating anything. Oh yeah, I also feel like I have beef with him cos of the cleaning rota - it's one person's duty to clean the kitchen for a week; if it's your turn, you have to clean the hobs and the floors and empty the bins, and you get a little piece of paper stuck to your kitchen cupboard door, to remind you (we each have our own individual little cupboards, with locks). It was his turn last week, and for the last two days he's let the bins fill up without emptying them - then this morning, he put the cleaning rota thing on my door, meaning it's my responsibility to do it.

Anyway, that's that - I'll talk about my craaaazy classmates at a later date - Camilla told me that she found this blog, by googling my name, which I've only just realised is potentially frightening. Time to see what "Camilla Segerlund" throws up. And in fact, there are two pictures on the image search - she's in one of them, but I'll let you guess which one...

Camumu

So after complaining to a fair few people that I've not met anyone, and I have nothing to do here, Camilla from Uni (who I have humorously, and affectionately nicknamed 'Camumu') textedededed me this evening to say "Hey, are you still coming to that free concert?" Seemed I'd completely forgotten about the free concert she mentioned on Moodle (Moodle being the laughably-named internet forum our Uni uses. Like Blackboard, Canterbury people), which heavily featured an inordinate amount of awful Swedish pop music. Still, it was free (that's the 3rd time I've said that in this post, I need another word. 'Priceless' should mean 'free'), and it was nice to go somewhere, and to see people. Hopefully we'll do something on Tuesday as well, and her friends who were there tonight were talking about going to a pub on Friday. I'll feel fully satisfied with my trip to this country if I can go out a few more times in the remaining 3 weeks. That's mental, only 3 weeks to go; it's not that long at all. Although, it does seem like an age ago that I was living with E in Newham, and it seems like a different time entirely that I was sharing a house with D and A. I'm looking quite forward to being back in England again, partly to see people, but mostly (let's be honest here) to get myself some good cheesecake.