Paul Georges . Alterego Construction

My first weekend since I’m back at school has officially come to an end. Fortunately the weekend was quite restful yet entertaining and memorable. Friday night after class my peer student Anders, the French enthousiast, invited the three of his protégés to his place for drinks and a little pre-party to prepare for our outting to the Flamman Club downstairs from his corridor. Flamman was nice but the music was old and cheesy. I didn’t get in very late.

The next day was a lazy morning spent researching Copenhagen and Barcelona. I’m slowly beginning to plan my trips within Europe. The more I plan the more I notice how little time is available for travelling once school has taken it’s toll on my schedule. Not to worry, where there’s a will there’s a way. If it was up to me, I would be all over the place all the time. Copenhagen, Oslo, Barcelona, Venice and Rome, Paris, Edinburgh, Helsinki, St. Petersburg… the possibilities are endless. I will get acquainted with Europe one city at a time. In fact, Oslo is actually in the works for next weekend. Two cars, one weekend. Lots of fun.

Saturday afternoon was ultimate frisbee. I’m not a great player. I tend to make a lot of faults (sorry Loic, next time I will play on your team) and I have the shittiest eye for passes. When I do see an opportunity to pass, my attempts usually turn out to be quite innacurate. Practice makes perfect.

Saturday night was supper at Loïc’s. The poor guy wasn’t expecting 14 slovenian, spanish, german, swedish and canadian guests to show up. However, he pulled off the entire thing wonderfully, filling our mouths with pasta, baguette, cheese, “profiteroles” and, last but not the least, some red wine. It’s great to find yourself at a table with such an eclectic crowd, sharing and soaking up anecdotes and fragments of international culture. I’ve come to understand that this is what student exchanges are about: the mutual sharing of personal and cultural knowledge in order to learn more about yourself as well as those surrounding you. The speakers at our orientation program said it best, Erasmus is not just about learning the skills needed to perform in one’s area of study and in the workplace, it is moreover about getting in touch with thyself through one’s peers and one’s surrounding environment. Thanks Chewbie, we owe you one mate.

I slept in this morning. Thor’s wrath did it’s best to wake me but to no avail. When the clock struck 11h00 I decided that it was time to make use of the time that the weekend offered. Through the rolling thunder and wicked blasts of lightning at my window I succeeded to do a bit of reading and some lab work; almost negligable. By the time that I had gotten hardly anything done, Emanuel was knocking at my door reminding me that Baroque Choir was going on at 16:00. Answer some e-mails, take a shower, get dressed. Off we go to the cathedral in the pouring rain.

Linköpings domkyrka was full for Sunday’s concert. The Barock was composed of 11 musicians performing before an audience of all ages; 5 violins, 1 viola, 2 flutes, 1 cello, 1 contrebass, and 1 cembalo. Everything was just so perfect… the instruments sounding out all in synchro, thunder in the background, a beautiful cathedral. I closed my eyes and so many things came to mind. A million thoughts ran through my head: Sweden, home, friends and family, travelling, school, love, work, life, standards, injustice, plans, decisions, truth, hopes, fears. Every once in a while a string would catch my attention and refocus my concentration on the music floating in the air. Music… paradoxically simple yet so complex. Truly a wonderful experience…

On our way back from the cathedral, soaked from the pouring rain, Emanuel, Camilla and I stopped into Hemköps (the local grocery store) to pick up the ingredients for our planned evening Fika session. Au menu: tea, coffee, Negerbollar (or the more politically correct Chokladbollar) and Sugercake (I can’t remember the Swedish counterpart). Camilla, Ulrike and Emanuel took care of preparing and baking the traditional Swedish treats while Harry and I just kind of admired and entertained the cooks. At 21h30 we were ready to Fika. Fika should be adopted everywhere… JR, candles, guitar, singing, and sweets. What more can a Canadian like me ask for?

So there you have it, excellent weekend. Now I’ve got to prepare for the next! I plan on studying hard this week to have the time to profit of Oslo.

Wow… I used a lot of enumerations in this post. Not too pretty, but hey, it works!

It’s a beautiful day here in Linköping Sweden. This last week’s weather has been quite drab and rainy but we finally got some sunlight today. These last two days have been quite lively. I began classes yesterday at 8h00 but students have to be seated for 8h15 (Swedish tradition thing, class is called for a certain hour but only begins 15 minutes later, complicated stuff). Now, for all of you that know me personally, you would more than likely agree that I’m very slow in the morning. As a matter of fact, I tend to be pretty slow all the time… especially when a shower is involved (best part of the day). So I was up at 6h30 in the morning in order to have breakfast: the classic corn flakes and peanut-buttered toast.

By the way, peanut butter costs a fortune here in Europe. Everyone that sees my jar in my cupboard seems obliged to point and laugh at me… supposedly Europeans think that peanut butter is peasant’s food. It’s a delicacy people, DELICACY! It ain’t for nothing that my PB is one of the most costly items on my grocery store receipts.

Yeah, so waking up yesterday wasn’t an easy task… especially after the BBQ we had the night before. Pictures can be found on my MSN spaces (thanks to Chewbie for the camera).

Another note: Europeans are scared of ground meat and are too preoccupied with presentation to make hamburger patties themselves. You know who you are!

I’ve got to stop steering off the subject. Class was great; Design Patterns. The professor is young and dynamic unlike the majority of the profs back home in Québec City. On top of that, he’s quite funny and tends to make stupid jokes to lighten up the crowd.

I can now confirm that computer nerds are the same everywhere. They smell kinda funky, they don’t look too good and seem to have very low self esteem except when it comes to talking about their field of study which is most probably the least interesting of all programs taught at university. Tronche power! Argh what am I doing in computer science… I mean I’m a bit nerdy but at least I can talk about something other than Slashdot’s hottest news! Sigh…

Yesterday I went to Systembolaget (see Sweden 101) with Loic and Dave. Loic stocked up on beer, hard stuff and wine (to have with his baguette of course) and I grabbed a few Danish and Swedish beers to taste. Conclusion: 2 out of 3 kinds were pretty gross. Our trip to the liquor store was not for anything, oh no, we had to prepare for the first Kravall of the year… Munchen Hoben! Basically, a Kravall is a huge 5000 person party with beer, cider, live music and traditional food. We were invited to a pre-party where we learned a couple of Swedish drinking games which are indentical to a bunch of drinking games that I’ve played before. Still very enjoyable. After the pre-party the crowd headed to the main site of Munchen Hoben which was happening right on campus. The night was a great success; pictures can be found on my MSN spaces page.

So no partying for me for a little while. Instead, tonight I’m going back to the cathedral in downtown Linköping to catch some Bach (I believe so) Mozart. Piano and violin if I’m not mistaken. Half our corridor should be there so I’m pretty psyched; that’s only four of us but it should be quite fun.

Other than that I had class again this morning which went well. I had to correct my class registration because a few errors occurred in the system and I was missing a one course on my student portal page. All is well that ends well! It’s almost 17h00 so I have to head back to school! More updates to come!

Language:

• skÃ¥l!: cheers!
• öl: beer
• tack: thank you
• hej: hi
• köttbullar: meatballs
• sex: six

Culture/Lifestyle:

• fika: chillax and drink tea/coffee while eating sweets and pasteries
• queues: they are everywhere, grab a ticket and get in line
• bikes: the ultimate means of transportation
• brunettes: as rare as water on mars
• kravall: huge parties organized by LiU, about 2 or 3 of them per month, tickets are scarce, literally means riot
• systembolaget: Sweden’s liquor stores, crazy expensive due to taxes, Dave suspects that the store moves place every once in a while to confuse Swedish tourists and to keep them sober (impossible task)

This post is in constant evolution…

Where to start?

So it’s almost been a week since I’ve arrived in Linköping. I have not updated the blog very much lately due to the simple fact that so much has been going on these last couple of days. I’ve adapted to a new culture and lifestyle, I’ve met so many exchange students from all over the globe and I’ve managed to survive the daily parties and activities organized by both students and student coordinators alike. Every night since I’ve arrived last Monday, there has a been a party/bbq/outing planned. I know that I told most of you that beer is expensive and hard to find here in Sweden but in fact it is found in abundance; no worries! People here are simply amazing. I don’t know if it’s because everyone is showing the best of one’s self or if everyone is just so genuinely friendly and easy-going, but I’ve never had so much ease approaching strangers and just starting up a converstation about anything whatsoever. Maybe I’ve just never really had the opportunity to do so beforehand.

Residence life here is wonderful. Everyone knows everyone in the Ryd district, so news spreads fast when activities and parties are brewing. During the day and afternoon most people take time to get their daily tasks done: groceries, bike repairs, administrative preparation, sporting activites and studying (for the lucky few who have been following the intensive Swedish class) tend to be the most popular.

At night however, all hell breaks loose. People will find any excuse to have a party. Here’s a brief list:

• corridor party
• bbq party
• pool party
• sauna party
• laundry party (yes… I’m serious… people take over the outdoor laundry complexes)
• student pub outings (on campus and downtown)

No time to be bored! Talking about boring…

Oh yeah! School! That’s what we brotherly (and sisterly) exchange studnets are all here for right? School hasn’t started quite yet for most students here at LiU, so people have been taking advantage of time off to profit of nice weather, friendly faces and good beer. However, classes start this Wednesday for most. Today I got all the bureaucratic shit done once and for all, so I am now an official Linköping Universitet student (kind of). I don’t have a schedule yet but supposedly it is up to me to take care of that matter personally.

Today, aside preparing my study period here at Linköping, I visited the Linköping cathedral situated downtown for a classical music concert. The concert was held inside the cathedral at 21h00. I arrived a bit late so my corridor mates Ulrike and Emmanuel were already seated up front (thanks for waking me guys, I wouldn’t have made it there otherwise). I’m no connaisseur of classical music but I do know that the sounds I heard once I entered the big cathedral doors caused instant goosebumps. Mozart, Bridge, 3 musicians, 3 instruments: piano, cello and violin. In a beautiful rustic cathedral decorated in a way that I’ve never seen before. Two thumbs way up… Simon et Bianca, j’aurais tellement voulu que vous y soiyez.

ESN (Erasmus Student Network) organized a lazy Sunday picnic in TrädgÃ¥rdsföreningen park this passed weekend. First day without beer since I’ve arrived which did a lot of good. À la carte: food, friends, sights and sounds, Kubb (a Swedish game which ressembles lawn bowling), frisbee and football. Make sure you check out the photos.

So briefly said, the first week here in Linköping has been crazy and excellent… to be quite honest, I’m already dreading the return to Laval University. Everything here is just so fresh and exhilerating. Furthermore, I’m convinced that the whole postive vibe that I’ve experienced this week will remain throughout the semester.

Good morning everyone! As you all know, I’ve settled into my place here in Rydsvägen, Linköping University’s student residence area. It’s wonderful here; services are closeby, the area is very green and it also happens to be very easy to get around to see other students. Yesterday I caught a brief gilmpse of what the campus ressembles. I love what I’ve seen so far. The campus is not huge, not nearly as big as that of University Laval, but that just happen to be a VERY good thing. The buildings are all very close to each other, making walking between them simple (unlike school in Québec City). Everyone living in Ryd gets to school on bike. The entrances to the buildings on campus are crowded with old shitty bicycles that look like they’re going to crap out any minute. I’m going to have one of those too soon, I can’t wait! I got the student union fee payed yesterday. For all those who thought that the obligatory contribution of 2 or 3 dollars to support student unions was unjust, try 300 kronors on for size… that’s 50 dollars back home! Yesterday night about 100 exchange students got together outside of Ryd’s pub to chat and have a drink. It was so cool to meet other students from everywhere in the world: Austrailia, Taiwan, Germany (lots of them), France (lots of them as well), Italy, Spain, Slovenia (always singing! so awesome) and more. From today on, there should be approximately 750 exchange students studying at Linköping; way too many names to remember but I’ll do my best! Tonight there is a party at HG (the pub we were outside last night) to welcome all the exchange students to Linköping. That’s going to be a lot of fun! This afternoon I have to get some cheap stuff at Ikea (yes there’s an Ikea in Linköping) and maybe a European cell phone to stay in touch with the other students here at Ryd! Here are some pictures of Ryd (the first three) and of Linköping’s campus (the last 5).

Today was our second and last day spent in Stockholm. We weren’t incredibly inspired to do another tour of the city’s sights due to the grim weather, so we decided to stick to museums. We visited the Vasa Museum, home of the Swedish Vasa ship constructed in honour of king Gustavus Adolphus. This huge battleship sunk on it’s first outing on the water, only to be recovered from the bottom of the Baltic Sea in 1956. The salvaging of the ship took over 30 years to complete. The permenant museum of the Vasa was opened in 1990. Very interesting stuff!

After the tour of the Vasa, we had a bite to eat and headed off to Linköping with Chewbie. Before I forget to mention it, I must share with all of you that the Swedes are obsessed with hot-dogs and candy. There are hotdogs for sale on like every street in Stockholm and in virtually every grocery store and corner store. They happen to be even more obsessed with candy! The sweetest (no pun intended) part is that they sell their candy really cheap (it’s probably the only cheap thing here in Sweden). Who ever knew that Swedish Fish and Swedish Berries really had a connection with the country; I know that it seems obvious but now I have concrete proof of the relationship.

The trip from Stockholm to Linköping ended up being a bit longer than expected due to a few wrong turns. We ended up going north instead of south so we kind of spent an hour and a half driving full speed in the wrong direction. We reached Linköping before dark though. Huge thanks to Chewbie; t’es vraiment trop sympa mec! By the way, the maximum speed limit that one can encounter here in Sweden is of 110 km/h. That’s 10 km/h more than in Québec. However, if you get caught speeding in Sweden you go to jail for 6 months which seems a bit odd to us Québécois… Sweden just happens to be a VERY strict country.

I’m currently writing this post from my dorm room in Rydsvägen, Linköping University’s residence. The place is a village to itself. All the essential services such as a grocery store and a pharmacy can be found at Ryds Centrum in the center of the pseudo student town. Everyone here gets around on bike which is pretty sweet. My room is located in what is called a corridor here at Ryd. Basically, there are 6 corridors per building. Every corridor has 8 rooms. Statistically speaking, 6 out of those 8 rooms are usually attributed to Swedish students; the 2 others usually house foreign students like me (I’m special). The rooms are large and well equipped. We all have our own private bathrooms but we share a kitchen and a living room which is perfect! I’ll take some pictures soon.

Things to do tomorrow:

• Buy a bike
• Do my first grocery shopping run (that’s gonna be a blast; new brands, new foods, new everything)
• Get my room set up (I might do that tonight though)
• See Linköping administration to add the introductory Swedish class to my course selection
• Pay off my credit card and fix up my financial situation (Swedish bank account or bank transfers?)
• Contact Université Laval to inform them of the number of credits I will be taking

For those of you that don’t already know, the Swedish language kind of sounds like is a mix of French (by Chewbie’s request lol!) German. Locals here obviously all speak Swedish but the vast majority speak English as well. However, there happen to be a select few that can not speak a word of the latter. For the bilingual Québécois reading this post, let me tell you that it’s the wierdest feeling not being able to communicate with another human being. I’ve always been able to communicate efficiently with people ever since I’m a lad but now I feel completely powerless when I’m spoken to in Swedish… the best I can answer is “Sorry, I only speak English” and pray that they the next words that come out of the person’s mouth sounds faintly familiar. I’m really motivated to learn Swedish, I can’t go on not being able to understand what people are trying to tell me and not being able to express myself correctly.

I need to hit the hay, I’m exhausted and I need to be rested up for tomorrow. Cheers!

Here is the promised update from yesterday’s post! I was just too tired to actually write anything interesting last night; I just wanted to let everyone know that the flight had gone well from Heathrow to Arlanda.

Let’s go back in time shall we? The first day in London ended with Indian food at our hotel, followed by an ascent into our room, exausted as we were. The very second my head hit my pillow in bed I fell asleep (just like when I was a kid Mom).We got to bed at 8:30 pm (London time) and slept all through the night until 8:00 am the next day.

The second day in London was just as hectic as the first. We started off the day with a continental breakfast served at the same restaurant we went to for Indian cuisine the night before. Rest assured, continental breakfast in London seems to closely ressemble that of anywhere in North America; orange juice, toast and coffee or tea was what we were offered. It doesn’t seem like much, but it was greatly appreciated. After a refreshing shower, we headed out to find a duffle bag that I could use to stuff my hand luggage into (laptop, ipod, digital camera, documents… basically all the expensive stuff) due to the extra security measures in place in Heathrow. We then made our way into Kensington Gardens and then into Hyde Park. Our long walk lead us to Soho and ultimately to Picadilly Circus which just happens to by London’s Times Square. Lot’s of traffic, lots of expensive stores, you get the idea. We didn’t hang around downtown very long because we knew that if we did we could possibly run into a lot of trouble at Heathrow. So by 3:00 pm we were parked in a queue at Heathrow airport. All we were allowed to carry on board with us were our passports, wallets and boarding passes. Security was incredibly tight, so we had to make our way through several levels of checks. A long story made short; we got to Stockholm safe and sound.

Highlights and deceptions of London:

• Crazy architecture
• Friendly faces
• Green (yellow) space
• Swans and other birds of the like
• Light soothing rain
• No London fog
• Expensive and far from being budget friendly
  

Pictures of London can be found here on Flickr (I already need a Flickr pro account… will make a new set soon).

We were supposed to have a student colleague of our’s, Loic (aka Chewbie), stop in at Arlanda airport to pick us up once the plane landed. Due to some miscommunication on our part, he waited 3 hours for us at terminal 5 of the airport while we were at terminal 2. We ended up taking a taxi, which just so happened to be equipped with some hot GPS technology, to our hostel in Stockholm from where I wrote last night’s post. We were greeted at the hostel by some extremely hospitable staff, by Chewbie and by some drunk fuck asleep in the reception hallway. Exciting indeed! Got to bed at 4:00 am in the morning after having a chat with some friendly folks.

We spent the entire day visiting the Stockholm’s beautiful downtown district. I did not expect Sweden’s capital to be such a charming city. As it was present in London, wonderous architecture populated the city’s streets. Stockholm is spread over several islands and peninsulas, making it a very genuine city to visit. We toured the city by foot and by boat. Stockholm is also the home of many museums that we plan on visiting tomorrow.

For those wondering, I can confirm that Sweden’s population is very blonde and yes, it’s true, the girls are bombshells. Chewbie told us that in Linköping, where we are headed tomorrow afternoon for achedemic purposes, natives are even more blonde than the Swedes we saw on Stockholm’s streets. The best is yet to come!

Pictures of Stockholm can be found here on Flickr.

Enjoy. À demain! More Stockholm to come!

Ok, I safely made my way to Stockholm in Sweden tonight. We are currently at the Backpacker’s Inn downtown in the city. I have so much to say but so little time. We had a crazy afternoon at Heathrow but 5 hours, 2 full body searches and several queues later, we were on our plane and ready to go.

I’m off to bed, I need sleep. Big update to come tomorrow, promised!

Thank you guys for the comments!

London is a wonderful city! The first thing I noticed coming out of the Underground from Heathrow was the architechture. Every single building in downtown London is crafted with incredible detail and each is kept in remarkable condition (remember, London is crazy old). There is a constant flux of tourists walking around, which was to be expected. People on the street are uber trendy and incredibly good looking (for the most part). However, the folks seem to be very friendly. We had a chat with a couple of locals who were very welcoming and good-hearted. The city’s historical background is present everywhere you look; monuments, plaques and famous landmarks are found all over downtown. Sidewalks are wide, accommodating many pedestrians and greenspace (or yelllowish space) is abundant. We visited all the classics this afternoon after our arrival at the hotel: St. James parc, Hyde parc, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, the London Eye, Big Ben, etc. Now I’m totally burned out and jet-lagged. My legs (knees and feet) are on strike. We’re off to have some indian food downstairs! I’ll post pictures before bed!

I’ve landed in London with JP. We are both alive and well! The departure from Montréal was tough… it sucks leaving loved ones behind. The wait for the plane at Trudeau went completely as planned. The flight was amazing; I love planes. I didn’t get much sleep high above the clouds but the jet lag hasn’t quite gotten to me yet but I know that tonight will be a different story. If you havn’t heard the news, crazy shit has been happening here in London at Heathrow, quote from BBC:

“It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled in hand luggage on to as many as 10 aircraft.

Police are searching premises after 21 people were arrested. Home Secretary John Reid said they believed the “main players” were accounted for.

High security is causing delays at all UK airports.

The threat level to the UK has been raised by MI5 to critical after the arrests in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham.

Critical threat level - the highest - means “an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK”.

Three US airlines are believed to have been targeted.”

Read more here.

Now, like I’ve already mentionned, I’m alive and well. We waited a good while to get off our plane once we landed at Heathrow. It took us an extra hour just to get off the plane because of delays and plane cues. Once we finally got off the plane, it took another 45 minutes just to get through customs and to claim our luggage.

I’m presently at a cute hotel in downtown London called the Montana with JP. We have wireless internet access (thank God). My feet smell. I need to shower and we need to get out and catch the sights of the city.

For those interested (François, I’m sorry for posting this so late), here is my flight plan. If everything goes as it is supposed to, we should be in Stockholm tomorrow.

Pictures and updates to come!