h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I do think that your Sweidsh is good, JJ. Okay, so you may shuffle the words around a bit, and some of the spelling is a bit weird, but other than that, you're doing fine.

I have to say that I don't really keep myself very informed about what happens at home. If I decide to check what's happened, I either go to Aftonbladet's home page to see the headlines, or just have a chat with my family back home.
They had some pretty rough floods in Sweden about a month ago. They actually had to burn houses to prevent them from plummeting down into the rivers and blocking them up even more.

I would think that you could find Der Spiegel or some other German newspaper at one of the libraries. That's one of the good things about being in Sweden as a foreigner. You can get most of the large newspapers, like Der Spiegel, USAToday, The Guardian, The Times and other big news papers from around the world in the shops or you can find them in the libraries. HOwever, you can never find any Swedish newspapers anywhere but Sweden, unless you're on some Greek holiday resort that is frequented by a lot of Swedes.

Oh well...

Checking the Headlines via Internet? Damned! What a simple idea! Sure this might be the cure for my little Problem around here! I really don*t know, why I didn't have a look on www.zeit.de.

OK - not much time left, I got to lern Swedish and drink Beer on the ferryboat that leaves about 20.10.

Och du tycker att jag maste får bättre min ordfölj och att jag använda konstigt ortografie? Jå, det tror ja ochså - då har vi samma åsikt.

got to get off!

ahoi jj

Using your work tool to find out information about things you need, or just want, to know is great. Especially since we're pretty much chained to the work stations here, we can't do much else than check the headlines of the Swedish Newspapers and in other ways surf the web (As I use it to check the H2G2, for instance)...

Have a good trip to Finland.

I'm perfectly fine, it was a weak hurricane, so nothing much happened, just a day off from school Thanks for your concern anyway I've been in at least 7 hurricanes in about 5 years, a couple major ones too, so I'm pretty much used to it, although they still scare me....
Anyways, I'll try to get you guys a full report on my summer sometime this weekend, as I still haven't answered JJ's question on who I left behind in Holland *shame on me*
Greets,
Miriam

Hejejej,

jag har precis skrivit min först tentamen här - Swedish for advanced beginners. Jättetrakig...

Min resa till Finnland var - well... at least strange. I intendendet just to do this boat trip, but then my wonderful companion invited me to her parents place, in a small town near Abo. Looking for adventures I took this chance of course.

Fryday was quite calm, saturday was hard.

I can't write it all down, but back on the ferryboat I felt not really all healthy.

Now, I am free for one week, till the courses start, perhaps I won't be back before monday.

So see you then,

Enjoy your lives

jj

Hmm... so Christian, we are really curious what he's talking about now, aren't we?

Anyway, to put my story in short:
I fell in love with this guy I met on icq and hadn't spoken to for half a year...
He didn't have internet connection for the past half year, so I phoned him to ask how he was doing, he then invited me to go to a movie with him, and was actually there to pick me up within 24 hours after that And well, it was love at first sight... so I spent as much time with him as possible during my vacation...
It was awfully hard to have to go home and leave him behind, and it still is I really, really miss him so much
*sigh*

Miriam

Sorry that I haven't replied in a couple of days. Been a bit hectic at work, me having to train a new addition to our desk, and therefor I have barely had time to get in here at H2G2 at all...

I think I can understand why JJ didn't feel quite well on the way back from Finland. Usually, those trips consists of a lot of alcohol, and although those trips are considered to be recreational, it takes longer to recover from them, than the trip itself.
And the mentality of the Finns is that if they get visitors, they like to offer them a few drinks.
That about right, JJ?

Hmmm.. I can understand how much leaving that guy behind must've felt like. It's never easy to leave someone you love, and if it's a relatively newly found love, then it's even harder to leave. You'll have to try to stay in touch with him as best you can, through e-mail, ICQ and maybe even the occasional phone call. That could ease it a little, if it doesn't remind you that you had to leave him, and you get even more sad and miss him even more because of it.. It's going to be fine though....

Thanks
Yes, we'll be fine...

In Denmark we probably have the weirdest grading system in the world! Its basically 0-13, but 0 is only if you hasn't done anything right at all (Spelled your name wrong or something), then the next is 03 (the worst of the ordinary grades), 4 doesn't exist, and then it goes from 5 to 11, and then there's 13 as the best! You need at least 6 to pass!

What kind of whacked out grading system is that then, Sbonk?
That makes no sense whatsoever.

Miriam, how's everything? How was the weekend? Getting back into the swing of things at school again?

Heiho folks!

Back at good ol' KTH Datorterminalen. I spend the last week till Sunday in the forrests of Värmland - (ingen tjejer, bara poikar) on Canoe tour. Great weahter, good feeling, but! No mooses! I only found their excrements on the ground.

And now back in the civilisation, my courses started. This is really early in the year for me. I would rather have some holliday for two month...

see you around

jj

Sorry for yesterdays enthusiasm.

Today is more calm.

I have to straighten my thoughts and focus on what really matters, which I have to figure out first by focusing on my inside, which is impossible, because I am only alone when I sleep - which is by the way way unfair...

...Yesterday evening, while the washing machine was runnig, I was on my own reading a book (War and Peace) and I nearly cried while reading a highly emotional scene - does this mean I'm getting old and sentimental? No! I hope it is only symptomatic for my position now.

Have a nice day and trie to succeed your way...

hej-jj

I'm fine, thanks
Actually I'm not fine at all, why did I say that?! I'm going totally insane at school... they seem to think that we're some kind of miracleworkers, or that our days *are* 36 hours long... *sigh*

War and Peace, wow JJ! Are you getting through it, and do you get it? I got a lovely leatherbound copy (in Dutch) from my grandmother this summer, but didn't get any further than the first time Pierre appears (yup, the boyfriend's name is Pierre), and then I leafed through the book to see how long Pierre stays around, and he seems to be there throughout the whole book... ouch , and then realized I shouldn't waste my time on reading for my own pleasure but should do some maths or something instead... I'm going to read it though... sometime

I'm awfully tired, and I'm afraid I won't recover from that tiredness within a year time.... Keep smiling

Take care guys..

PS Isn't it odd that we've kept up this conversation for so long, while we really have very few things in common? On the other hand, we *are* all living away from our homecountries This was just a random thought from Miriam's mind

Hejdå!

PS again My next goal is finishing Madame Curie in German!!

Greets!
Miriam

Ich wusste schon immer, dass die Holländer gut in Fremdsprachen sind. Englisch, Deutsch, Schwedisch - kannst Du vielleicht auch noch Franösisch, Griechisch und Latein?

I have even problems with my mothertongue... But todays course in Swedish was fine so far, I think I got the main issues.

"War and Peace" is highly interesting when you wan't to learn about history of the Napolonian time AND if you like romance. Pierre stays arround for al the time and he is a very dynamic charakter which developes during the story. But it's a large amount of work to get through it - it took me more then two month to get through 3/4 of it.

But say Miriam, you do not feel like home in the caribean sea? I have no idea how long you did stay there before.

I feel fine around here, but not really home. Especially I miss my own kitchen with my own fridge (did I mention it before?).

got to go now: you here from me!

yours sincerly jj

Things always seem more interesting when you don't have to learn them in school I speak Dutch and English, I learned Spanish and French in school, but didn't get much out of it.. and well, I learned a bit of Swedish for fun, and am now trying to figure out some German... They don't teach Greek or Latin in our school because our school is too small for that...
Most languages have the same basis, so it's just a matter of mixing and matching
It's a pity that I really don't have much time to read this year, there's so much I want to read right now
I hate this schoolyear already!!

Miriam

Mea culpa, folks..
Sorry I haven't said anything for a while. Haven't been at my computer at work for a while due to a cold and some vacation.

Miriam, I can relate to what you were saying about not learning languages because you're "supposed to" but rather because you want to.
I studied German for three years in school, but I can't speak it or write it at all well. I do understand quite a bit of it, as we once had a satellite dish at home, and the only channels we could get were Eurosport and Sky News in English and then a whole heap of German channels, like RTL, SAT1, DSF and a heap more that I can't remember. That meant that I have spent a bunch of hours in front of the TV watching and listening to German tv. Strange how different Arnold Schwartzenegger sounds in German.

Bad thing about me not being here at work last week was that a guy from the local college was here to let us enroll in the college for language classes. I was considering English, just to get it down on paper that I do know how to speak English a bit. And a college degree or diploma or whatever you get from an English college would probably look pretty good.

JJ, isn't it a bit weird that one of the things one misses most from home is the kitchen? I am the same way, most likely because the kitchens I have encountered here are really small, and I like to have a lot of space in my kitchen, so that I can make a bigger mess. After all, a spread out mess over a large area in the kitchen is more impressive than a compact mess in a small kitchen.

I also miss living on my own. I wouldn't mind having a flat of my own now. To be able to do what you please, when you please and noone can say anything about it, cause it's your place. You can even walk around naked, if that's something you feel like doing, not saying that I feel like it or anything, just mentioning it....

This week is the last week of Big Brother here in the UK. And they are going to open a phone-in help line for people who will get depressed that they can't watch other people on the telly like they've been able to do for the last 9 weeks. They started Big Brother in Sweden a while back as well, and from what I heard, one of the guys only lasted 40 hours, because he had gotten married just three or four days previous to their moving into the house.

Only 70 days left until my next vacation...

The Kitchen!

In German living communities, the Kitchen is always the room, where most people hang around during parties. It is also the room, where you drink large ammounts of Coffee and smoke and have one beer or two at night, it is the social center of your live. A small crumpy edge of paradies, a biotop for urban wallflowers and paradiesbirds at the same time. *sigh*

Here, in my dormitory, you sure meet a lot of people, but you don't have the controle - you are not the owner, you cannot even drill a hole in the wall. And the cupboards are labeled with the roomnumbers to which they belong and you can lock them (which is in deed very practical).
And the holy grale of a well equiped kitchen misses: The Coffeemachine.

OK, but there are other things in live. E.g. walking around naked (sorry) but if you feel like here, you can just go to the sauna - which is for free.

But anyway I'm enjoiing my time.

Schooltime: I think, most people make a major misstake (perhaps the misstake is in the system, anyway). They do not enjoy their time in school, but later (in 10-15 years) they whish they could go back, when it shoul be like having a good time in school, and to say later "it's ok that it's over...

so far vi hörs

jjjj

I think one of the reasons why so many people end up in the kitchen during parties is because it's so close to the fridge, and in the fridge, you have cold alcoholic beverages. That way, you don't have to make your way back to the kitchen to get another drink after you've finished your current one, because you're already there. Saves time.

The only time I lived in a dorm, we didn't have locked cupboards or anything. We just (more or less) respected each other's propersties, and because of that, people usually shared willingly their stuff with others. All they had to do was ask. After all, no one felt that it was very nice to send someone out into the cold to go buy pasta for one meal, just to protect their own food. Sure, that was a small school with about 15 people on the same floor, sharing a kitchen, but still.

It's good to hear that you're enjoying your stay in Sweden. It also seems as if you've seen quite a bit of the country already, due to your trips here and there.

I am one of those people that never really liked school. And when I decided I wanted to go back to get some further education after a few years, it hadn't improved much. I think it could have been because it was just an evening course with classes spread far apart, so there was no real sense of class spirit. I think it could be different if it was a full-time course where you could bond a bit more with the class mates than just at one weekly class.
For now, I like what I do, and I see no reason why I should do anything else right now.

School's out forever... (who was this, Allice Cooper or Twisted Sister?)

On how many bad parties have you been in your life? I guess you don't want to count them, because you don't love to be remembed of the time you wasted on those events.
A bad party starts for you at nine or ten, it ends 6 hours later either in desaster or in deep depression.

Desaster: You drink way to much, so that you don't care what you talk anymoreand do something what the Germans call "sich um Kopf und Kragen reden" (to talk until you get hung), or you gave the wrong person(s) your number, or worst: you insult people badly, or more worst: you shout fashist stuff in public, or most worst: you start up a fight with a bunge of people who shout fashist stuff. (the last points are to be noted in the category "worst case scenario")

Depression: You talked with some nice people, you had one or two drinks, ate something, and: after two hours it's boaring! You stay TROTTS DETTA until it's 4 a.m.. And home in your bed you got the feeling that the wild days are now over, and noone understands you anymore...

Well it was not so bad this weekend.

On friday I visited a kräftskiva here at KTH, comeing home, I felt quite drunk, but they didn't hung me.
On saturday there was a dormitory area party, wich left me quite depressed, because i tried to tell some people that I felt really boared while they really seemed to enjoy it.
Sunday was nice again...

But i reallyreally hate this "after-party-depressions" "psychological hangovers" call it what you will...

I totally know what you mean.

I have to say that I'm not very much for parties and going out. Sure, I like to go out and have a few drinks with my friends every now and then, but going out just for the sake of going out? I don't think so. Doesn't appeal to me at all.
What happens then is that you fall into some sort of a dilemma. Go out, have a few drinks with the possibility of getting really bored, really fast and getting depressed about that, or stay home and be regarded as boring by your colleagues and "friends" (strange situation this about being stuck in a foreign country where your "closest friends" are your colleagues/class mates).

I also find it strange that so many people that work here regard this whole thing as not much more than a prolonged vacation away from home where you can do anything and no one will care, and even if they do care, you don't have to, because when you leave after a certain time, you most probably won't see your colleagues/"friends"/class mates ever again.

I don't know.. I guess I'm getting too old for my own good...

Saturday was one of those nights where I went to a colleagues birthday party because my flat mate wanted me to join him to have a little fun on a saturday night. It ended up with awhole lot of drunken people and me, not very drunk because as soon as the heavy starters, who downed a pint glass of vodka and coke in about 2 minutes before refilling again, started getting drunk, it lost it's appeal at all to me at around 10:30pm, and I ended up staying until about 1:30am. Why do we do that? Is it because we think that if we do leave when we start getting bored, people will think us rude?

I dunno.. Oh well.. I spent the remainder of that night watching the olympics.....