Jag talar lite svenska! Yipee!
Yes, Swedish courses began this Monday. I’m not officially registered to the class (yet) but hopefully things will work out and I’ll get a spot in the classroom. Swedish is a really wicked language. It sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before which is damn cool. Hearing Swedish spoken by natives kind of sounds like German with a wierd twist. I’ll record my corridor mates have a chat sometime and post it up here for your enjoyment. This may sound strange to some but it’s truely my first time learning a new language, from scratch, in a classroom with a professor. Yes, I speak two languages, but I learned English and French in such a small interval of time that both languages seem like they are both rolled into one chaotic mess of vocabulary and grammar. Seriously, my Frenglish is horrible… no French students undersand me when I speak goddamit! I find myself repeating sentences that contain “Québécois” words for them all the time due to the fact that I take my every day language’s correctness for granted. After all, when I speak the way I do back home everyone understands me perfectly! Well, almost…
It’s getting colder by the day here in Linköping. First it was jeans, then it was a sweater pulled over my t-shirt and now I rarely leave the corridor without my fleece jacket. Soon enough I’ll have to add my shell coat to the several layers I already pile on when I go out. The weather here tends to change in the blink of an eye. From bright sunshine to a total downpour, every bike ride home from school is a surprise. I’m actually quite anxious for it to start to snow.
“It’s warmer where you’re waiting, it feels more like July…”
I can’t believe it’s already Thursday.
Yesterday was Kalasmottagningen. Can you say Kalasmottagningen? After me… Calausmoutengien. Something like that anyways! Kalas is an event organized for the new Linköping University students which goes down at the Cloetta Center, the stadium which is the home of the Linköping Hockey Club. Yesterday student organisations strutted their stuff on and off stage, allowing new students to get acquainted with student life on campus as well as experience first hand what some of the organisations have to offer. We were treated to some live music by a variety of student groups and bands (dance, orchestra, big band, etc). We were also forced into listening to several extensively boring speeches… in Swedish! Monologues are already quite dreary in one’s mother tongue… imagine how bad they are in a foreign language that one understands squat of except the very basics… hello, thank you, beer and cheers.
So I was telling everyone that the band that was going to play at the end of the night, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, was going to put on a killer gig that should not be missed. I mean, this Swedish band has been to compared to Iron and Wine, The Dismemberment Plan and The Decemberists which happen to be three of my favourite bands of all time. I was totally psyched to catch a glimpse of these indie rockers, whose music I had heard little of, live from all the name dropping. Damn, was I ever disappointed. Repetitive melodies, boring lyrics and bad sound made The Soundtrack of Our Lives’ performance one that I would have gladly missed. I’m dying to see a good show lately. Somebody please send a good show my way!
Tonight is Silvia’s revenge dinner! Can’t wait!