Tour guide report

Well my friend has made it back to her home in Milan and it seems like she survived the somewhat chilly weekend in Stockholm. In the end I played tour guide to just her and her boyfriend, which is slightly easier than trying to coordinate a larger group of people. After some flight delays (for them) and some cancelled trains (for me) we managed to meet up and I got a chance to show them around.

Thankfully these two people are just like me, and we all agreed that there is no way you can say you truly experienced a country without having experienced its food. Somehow on their first night here they ended up eating something like kebabs, which although perfectly fine, can hardly be called Swedish. Understandably they were keen to try some local food, so I took them to a cosy place in Gamla Stan which serves very good food and equally good drinks (I’ve added a link to their website below), and between us we managed to eat meatballs, salmon and reindeer. Reasonably Swedish I think.

After lunch we walked around Gamla Stan and visited the Christmas market that is set up in Stortorget (a square near the royal palace). If visiting the market, or if you come across it anywhere else, I strongly suggest trying the Glögg, a hot, spiced wine drink (mulled wine I think it is called in English). Being sliiiiightly cold outside, we parked ourselves next to the Glögg stand and ordered a few to get warm. My only complaint is the tiny cups it’s served in....seriously, it’s -5°C outside, those cups should be at least five times bigger than they are.

We then walked past the palace and over the bridge to Kungsträdgården where we watched the ice-skaters in the ice-skating rink set up there and walked though another Christmas market. This one, unfortunately, had Christmas music playing on an endless loop...only so many times one can hear “Walking in a winter wonderland”  before it starts making you homicidal.

The following day it was a little harder to get around, with slightly lower temperatures and snow. Although I’m glad my friends got to see Stockholm on such a perfect winter day, they weren’t exactly prepared for the cold and snow, and although I did warn them that it was cold and to come in warm clothes, I probably should have been a little more specific as to just how cold it was. So in the morning while they saw the royal palace, I went to a little bakery to get some Kanelbullar (Cinnamon buns) and Saffransbullar (Saffron bunns) for them to try.

They wanted to see the Stadshuset (Town Hall) but unfortunately it was closed.Thankfully they managed to see the Vasa museum, which really is something you can’t miss when visiting Stockholm. I’ve added a photo below, but my amateur camera doesn’t do it justice.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Traipsing through Stockholm was always going to be fun, but in the end it’s the company you keep that makes all the difference, and showing these two around (not that I did much) was a total pleasure.

Some (hopefully) helpful links:

Food in Gamla Stan:

http://www.glenfiddichwarehouse.se/

Bakery:

http://www.fabrique.se/

Vasa museum:

http://www.vasamuseet.se/

Christmas market, Stortorget

Ice-skating rink, Kungsträdgården

Snowy Stockholm

Vasa

Tour guide duties

Firstly, let me apologise for my previous post. Pointless early morning wake-up calls leave me in a bad mood and completely uninspired for writing.

I am now thankfully back to my overly cheerful self, especially after learning that a friend of mine will be in Stockholm over the weekend. We’ve known each other since I was born, and she’s like my sister from another mother. She’s the kind of friend that no matter how much time has passed, it always seems like we’ve never been apart.

She’ll be visiting Stockholm with some friends, so I guess I get to play tour guide. I don’t know how good I'll be, but at least I don’t charge for tours...and ultimately you get what you pay for. I’m not sure where to take them yet, I don’t know if they’re the type of group who prefer museums and cultural sights, or outdoor activities (maybe a little hard given the snow outside...) or shopping and bar hopping. I guess I’ll meet them tomorrow and see.

Some things are always the same

Seems like maintenance men are exactly the same here as they are everywhere else in the world. I was nicely informed yesterday that in order to repair the ventilation system, access to my apartment would be needed between 7:30 and 15:00 (yup, nice narrow time frame there...). This was also timed with a day I have no class, so my hopes of a cosy sleep-in while the snow fell outside were quickly shattered.

So this morning I sleepily answered the door to a very cheerful man who came in, turned the ventilation above the stove on, said “We’ll be back in twenty minutes”, and left...it has now been 3 hours and 20 minutes.

Farm visit

A good thing about being at SLU is that we get to have some practical view of what we’re learning by making study visits/field trips/excursions/whatever you call them in English. It’s always nice to have some animal contact and also to hear from the producers who work with these animals every day.

Today we had an exercise with some dairy cows in a herd near Uppsala which was somewhat interesting. The only thing is that the smell on the way home is not so pleasant for the others around us, especially when on some kind of public transport. On the positive side, the bad smell usually means that no one sits next to you, so there’s often extra room.

Weirdly enough after spending all morning with cows, all I can think about is having steak. Evil right?

An ode to Swedish hot dogs

Best. Hot dogs. In. The. World. Seriously. No joke.

I will be eternally grateful to my Swedish friend for introducing me to these when I was first here (also grateful for the many years of wonderful friendship, but mostly for the hot dogs...). Now, I love food, so I’ve eaten a lot of things in a lot of places, but Swedish hot dogs have no equivalent.

I don’t know what makes them so good, the bread and sausage look innocent enough, and there’s nothing outrageous about the mustard or ketchup that go on top. So maybe it’s something in the Swedish air that makes them so delicious.

When it comes to hot dogs I’m traditional, bread + sausage + ketchup + mustard = perfection. No fancy breads or sauces needed (as a side note, do those ketchup and mustard dispensers remind anyone else of cow teats or is it just my animal science brain at work?).

Quality doesn’t seem to vary thaaaaat much, so when in places like Stockholm my tip is to pick a hot dog stand with a good view. If the issue is price, then go to Ikea, there they’re about one third the usual price and just as good.

Over the weekend I spent some time roaming around Stockholm (one great thing about being in Uppsala is that Stockholm is an easy 40 minutes away on the train), so what follows is a photo of my very yummy afternoon hot dog break.



Hot dog and a view



Getting lucky

The mighty gods of group projects have smiled upon me and placed me with another nice group! It seems like one can indeed get lucky twice. Coincidentally, one of the people who was in my great project group in my last course is my group again. At least I know that this part of the course will be easy to get through.

One thing that is hard is when you find teachers who just can’t...teach. Ask them questions or engage them in a discussion and they are amazing. They know what they’re talking about, they somehow manage to hold an obscene amount of information in their heads and they’re passionate about the subject. Unfortunately, when giving lectures they’re difficult to listen to. I had one of these types of teacher in a lecture last week, but so far most of the others have been good.

Comments...yay!

It’s great to see people slowly starting to comment! It’s a good feeling to know that someone is reading, especially other students at SLU.

To the old-school blogger who commented on my first post, maybe I should follow your lead: today I had beef curry for lunch (taken with my very nice classmates), the fridge is well stocked and laundry was done last night so everything is clean. Unfortunately I have no husband who can fix what I wrote...so I’ll just have to hope this is okay.

Thanks and keep the comments coming!

Why Sweden...Take 2

Well, it seems like some offense has been taken by me not mentioning the other Swedish influence in my life. As well as my very lovely aunt, one of my closest friends also happens to be Swedish.

Coming to Sweden with my aunt didn’t work out, but my friend served as an equally wonderful tour guide and translator when I made my first visit here a couple of years ago.

We took in some typical cultural sites such as the Vasa museum, some childishly cultural sights such as Skansen, as well as a great mix of pubs and hot dog stands.

Those two perfect weeks in Stockholm only added to how much I wanted to be here. Also, this meant that for a long time I really liked all the Swedes I knew (hey, 100% success rate is pretty good, no matter how small the sample size...).

The photos are from that first visit and show a little of Stockholm as well as a random reindeer from Skansen (as an animal science student I thought I should make an effort to include at least one animal photo).

 

Gamla Stan seen from Södermalm

 

Nordiska Museet, just next to the Vasa Museet



Some ice-skaters, seen from Skansen



Gamla Stan

  

Reindeer, friendliness unknown



So...how do you like it?

No no, thankfully that’s not some bad pick-up line I’ve heard recently. After “Why Sweden?” this is the next question I get from most people.

Well...so far, I’ve been loving it. Uppsala now feels like...home. I can find my way around town (mostly) and slowly but surely I’m picking up words and phrases in Swedish.

Also, to those who told me that Swedes are cold, I’m sorry, but you’ve been to a different Sweden than I have. All the Swedes I’ve met until now have been warm, very friendly and welcoming. The one exception being the psycho who almost ran over me (and five other people) with her way-too-large suitcase at Stockholm Central Station...but I can somewhat forgive her since it was Friday afternoon and she probably had somewhere reeeaaaally important to be. Not to mention that in most countries that’s the kind of behaviour you can expect at a major train station during peak hour.

I can’t believe that I’m already past the halfway point of my time here, and right now...I really don’t want to have to leave.

Snow!

Okay, so technically it snowed a few weeks ago, but that doesn’t count since it snowed everywhere except here.

Those who know me know that I’m a complete snow bunny, so I’ve been outside enjoying the snow. It seems like all the normal people preferred to stay inside.

To me there’s something quite...magical...about how still and quiet everything goes when it snows, and how it makes everything shimmer on even the darkest night.

So to all the freaks like me who are out there and who currently have their noses pressed to their windows and are staring outside with wide-eyed wonder as frozen water falls from the sky...enjoy!!!

New week, new class

Now that the thrill and delight of exam week has passed, it’s time to begin a new course at SLU.

Some of my classmates from my previous course are taking this one as well, so it’s nice to have some lecture-buddies around for general company, pointless chat when the lecture is too boring and for picking up a copy of the lecture notes when bed is just too good to get out of in the morning...whoops, I mean for picking up a copy of the lecture notes when some debilitating illness prevents you from getting out of bed and going to the class you really wanted to go to in the morning...

The first day of new class typically also involves two of the words I dislike the most: group project. I don’t know why teachers love these so much. Maybe it’s because they then have less work to grade...or because they enjoy seeing students squirm at the thought of having to meet outside of class for hours to put together a project. I suspect that ultimately they derive some form of sadistic pleasure from it, but that’s just a theory.

The thing is, in my last course we also had a group project to do, and I got supremely lucky with the group I was placed with. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer, more fun group. I met some nice people and actually didn’t mind meeting with them to do the project. Somehow I just don’t think I can get that lucky twice.

Hopefully this new course goes well and I won’t be sitting in class for the next ten weeks wishing I had picked something else!

So...why Sweden?

This is the question I get asked the most, and it is usually coupled with a puzzled face and some statement relating to how cold it is here (Yes, I was born in Brazil. No, that doesn’t automatically mean that I enjoy tropical weather...).

So why Sweden? Well...my answer is always that my love affair with this country began long ago.

Once upon a time there was a Swedish girl and a Brazilian boy, they both travelled far away from their home countries on exchange, they met, fell in love, and have been together ever since (all together now: naaawwwww!). That is the extremely short version of how I ended up with a very lovely, and very Swedish, aunt.

In a family of Brazilians where brown hair and brown eyes reign, this blonde and blue eyed “creature” fascinated me. As a child, hearing stories of a far-away land so different to my own thrilled me, and I couldn’t wait for the day when she would take me for a visit. Unfortunately having her as a free tour-guide and translator never quite worked out, but the desire to be here was always in the back of my mind.

A few years ago my home university was promoting studying abroad, and I had the opportunity to meet a representative from SLU. By being so sweet, so charming, so nice and providing me with Swedish candy to take home (take note people, that is marketing at its best!), this person easily convinced me that this was the place to be. It took me a while to get myself together, but here I am. Finally!

First post

Hello there!

I am one of SLU’s new international student bloggers and I’ll be writing here about my life in Sweden while I study at SLU in Uppsala.

I guess it would be good to begin with a little about me: I am Brazilian by birth, but have been living in Australia for the past 15 years. I came to SLU as an exchange student and will be completing the final semester of my master’s degree in Animal Science here in Sweden. A stylish way to finish, I think.

This is my first attempt at blogging, so please be patient with me! Comments, suggestions, questions and critiques are very welcome, and guidance from any master bloggers wanting to pass on the secrets of their art will also be much appreciated...

Unfortunately it is final exam week at SLU, so I’ll be keeping this debut post short.

I’ll be back with more soon...