The week proceeding my return from Denmark has been an excellent one. Time is flying by so quickly… I can’t believe I’ve already been in Sweden for over a month now.
This week I slept in every day; I’ve never been this lazy. Not to worry, I had plenty of time to study and to get out of the corridor and take advantage of the wonderful weather that Sweden has been offering us. Who would have ever expected that I would still be wearing shorts and sandals here up north in the month of September (clin d’oeil à tout ceux qui pensaient que j’étais fou de venir en Suède)! In spite of the fact that we are having Indian Summer here, my immune system still failed to block out the cold that has been going around here these passed weeks. Seems that no matter where I am on the globe, I can’t go without catching a cold around this time of year (I’m actually a bit early this time). Nothing that some green tea with honey and lemon can’t fix! I’m feeling much better already.
Wednesday Loïc, Dave, Silvia and I tried out the Kikkobar restaurant for some sushi. We ended up having the dinner buffet instead which happened to be quite cheap! We had some sushi as well. Dining out is great, beats pasta or pb&j any day!
Friday I had my second Programming Abstraction and Modelling test. The test was much less demanding than the suggested practice exercises so the turnout should be good. In the evening, Loïc put on a wicked fire juggling/devilstick/breathing show for a few of us in downtown Linköping near the river. I took advantage of the occasion to do some photography and practice my night exposures which is not an easy task; cameras can get a bit overwhelmed when they are suddenly forced to evaluate of huge flash of light coming from total darkness. Out of 276 shots a few came out quite well! Not too bad indeed! I’ll get them down even better next time! Below are a few of my faves, the rest can be found, as usual, on Flickr.
Saturday was another lazy morning. In the afternoon we played an alternate homebrewed version of ultimate frisbee which was lots of fun. That night there was a corridor party going on to celebrate 3 birthdays. The corridor was a disaster zone but was crowded with lots of friendly faces. The troup of determined soldiers made their way to HG afterwards to dance to some really cheesy disco music which the Swedes happen to love. Argh I can’t take much more of this crappy music.
Today I payed a visit to Nadia had to go to the hospital on Thursday because of some stomach aches she was having. Her stomache aches turned out to actually be a serious apendicitis and she had to be operated immediately. I went to the hospital on Friday to check up on her but the hospital workers did not allow me access to her room because I didn’t know her social ID number (give me a fucking break)! I was quite insulted but all is well that ends well; I got to see her today. Nadia, regardless of the pain she was having, still kept a wonderful smile and didn’t shy to tell jokes and have a laugh. Je t’admire vraiment Nadia… on va te faire une grosse lasagne!
I left the sjukhus (hospital in Swedish) to join my host family as well as Kat for traditional Swedish dinner: real freshly made köttbullar! Damn were they ever good, I would have had more but I didn’t want to make an ass out of my Canadian self. Kat made some white fish salad which is also supposedly traditionally Swedish… after all she learned how to make it in her Nordic Culture class! Nordic Culture class. Why don’t I have that class? It basically consists of learning all about tradition Swedish history, food, drink, events, holidays and legends. The best part? 15 fucking ECTS credits. 15! That’s double my hardest class! I’m so jealous of you Kat! So supper with Teresia, Aner and Kat was great. Good food, some red wine, friendly faces and wonderful discussions.
So once again another great week to add to the books. Many more to come, that I’m quite sure of.