What is the hell is The Big Apple?? Just some New shit! You have to see the original of course! So yesterday I killed two birds with one stone and got the chance to see the old city of York and also catch up with a friend again and get some nice company for the day.The city is not more than a 40 min train ride south from Durham and shares many features. They both have really big old cathedrals (although the one in Durham is free of charge to enter, and the one in York is not) and other old buildings and streets. Basically just a very nice and charming city to walk around in with lots of small original shops and stone walls etc. And again the weather was much better than expected, just started to rain in the afternoon when it was time for a Frappuccino.
Of course I took the time to do some shopping when I was in a new town. I don't have that many real souvenirs from England so I decided to shop a pair of Union Jack boxers, which I actually thought of buying when I was in Cambridge two years ago, so now I have the UK up my arse! I had also looked at a pair of jeans, but only just week ago, at H&M from their new guest designer line. They are blue (like almost sky blue) with some extra things on them, and after being finally convinced to take them I decided to buy them as well, and £20 for a pair of designer jeans is nothing less than a real bargain! As this "Word of the day" is No X it gets a bit x-rated:
Stud: Nit
(Note: 'Stud' refers to the metal things around the waist on the jeans, and not the guy that drops the jeans, even though he can be referred to as one as well but with a different meaning.)
Yesterday I finally had my last exam! Had 5 in 9 days, quite hectic...! But now it is all over, and I'm free from everything that has to do with studies, and very conveniently the sun decided to sun the whole day! At first it felt very weird to have really nothing you had to do, but I went out in the sun and read a good book and worked on my tan. In the afternoon me and Felix walked down to town to just walk around, buy some small stuff, and have ice cream in the sun. Loads of people were sitting along the river and had picnics and just relaxing, and in town there were people all over and an outdoor market on the market place. After we got back to college I went down to the gym, where I spent quite some time this month, so I could get away from the books and clear my head. Also, I think I can count the beer and drinks I had this month on my fingers, so haven't been in this good shape since I did my military service. Feels like a bit of shame to "ruin" it all now when you can have a drink whenever you want, but there's still plenty of time to keep up the good condition, and I don't really have problem with gaining weight, I somehow stay slim like Iggy Pop almost no matter how much I eat and so. Tonight I hope to top this amazing start of the summer with a good party night at Revolver tonight and rock out! Tomorrow will probably look the same, at least the sun is supposed to shine!
Today has been like most days now for a bit more than a week. Going up at 8am (today Bibo knocked on my door since I overslept a bit yesterday), take a quick shower, eat breakfast, and then head to the main library with some of my fellow Erasmus-students to be there at 9am for a full day of studies.Even though we were there pretty early today there were hardly any places left to sit in the whole building, but found some eventually. Crazy! I wonder when some people go there, like 8??! I'm still a (Erasmus-)student, no way I get up that early!I can't describe how tired I am of just revising and revising everything before my exams, but it helps that everyone is in the same position, and also the really nice lunch breaks we have together in the sunny grass outside with lots of laughs helps a lot. The lunch consists of a double sandwich with egg, tuna, chicken, BLT etc, a chocolate buscuit and some fruits. Kind of actually like it now, and a bit fun to compare with the others and see what sandwich they had. The only negative thing about the break is that it is so hard to get back in again to the books and papers. Well, now you know what I will do for another week from today when my first exam is.
Two nights ago I was in my friend and corridor neighbour Tom's room, when I all of a sudden see this big disgusting insect flying around and climbing on the ceiling. I knew very well what kind it was, just didn't know the name in English. I remember when I used to have my mom or dad come into my room and kill them before I could go to sleep, I hated those long creepy legs! I still do, but not so much anymore that I need others to take care of them. Well, in this case though Tom tried to save it by force it towards the window, but I handled him a rolled up tourist folder and told him to smash it. What happened to it, and the proud warrior, you can see below.
Been two busy weeks since I came back here to Durham again. Brought my boys, Joel and Aron, over with me for the first week. We left a sunny Stockholm and arrived to a rainy Durham. But the sun finally showed up after two days of rain (think I never actually experienced heavy rain two days in a row here before that), and no matter the weather we had some great days and even better nights together!After that it's been all about revision, just repeating everything I've studied (and not studied) this year, so just imagine there's loads to do. But as always you find tons of stuff that you think is more important to do, so think it's about time to start up this beautiful blog again for real, and see where it might going!
This Saturday I had a reunion with my former senior level school class, since it was 10 years ago we finished school. I've got good contact with around half a dozen of my former class mates, but still quite a couple I haven't seen in some years, and also fun to see everyone since most people live other where now. I met up with Joel, Johan, Isak and Aron to start off the night a bit at Joel's place. As always, very cool to see the guys again and be all together. Then we headed off to the place where we were going to have dinner with the rest of the people that had signed up for the reunion. It was really enjoyable from the start and there were lots of things to talk about without feeling like it was forced. After the dinner and desert we went down to the ground floor where there was a nightclub for everyone (not just us at the reunion), and some more old class mates joined in. All in all I think we were around 15 of us, and I think everyone had a really great time!
In England I used to have Arsenal as my favourite football team. Mostly I think because they had a some Swedish players during the 90s. But more or less just had it as my team if someone asked who I supported, didn't really knew that much about them. However, now I think I found a team that I really like. After the amazing Champions League-game on Tuesday between Chelsea and Liverpool I consider myself more and more of a Liverpool-fan. Can never count them out, The Kings of Comebacks! Very likely I will be even more of a fan after I visited the city in June. Still, not a team in the world can compete with my home town team Örebro SK. After have lost two games with 1-0 we really needed to win last night. I went down to a sports bar, which was packed, with Per, Tomas and Jakob to see the game and down a few pints. Of course the boys on the field finally won their first game and played quite well too, and I think we have Sweden's finest between the posts! Went to another bar after the game for some more beer and chat with my mates, and that always cheers me up when there's too much other things passing through my head, with the revision and everything.
Now I'm back home from home (hard to say where I feel most at home right now, kind of got three homes at the moment, which is mostly a good thing) in Örebro after a few days visit to Uppsala. Since my brother, who now lives there, needed to get some things I could take mom's car, and drove the 175 km over there Sunday evening. After some difficulties to find where he lives (not as far outside the city centre as I thought) I arrived and then got a ride to Tobias where I would spend the night. I left my bags in his room and then me, him and David went downtown to GH's pub for a couple pints since Cathy, who I know from Durham, would be over from Stockholm and keep her working friend company behind the bar. The place was empty except two other people, who left not long after we arrived, and none of us really expected anything else than a few beers, a nice chat, and then home. However, since the girls had nothing to do other than serving us beers they joined in and we got to try out the large selection of beers in the pub, like 8-10 % Belgian Trappist beers. Soon it was after midnight and closing time, but then we got the offer to head along to an afterparty, which we did. It was a group of people from the student nation who enjoyed some cold beers and a hot sauna, so we quite quickly joined in since I really like to sit in a steamy sauna. Me and Toby headed back to his place at 2am. Who could ever know a Sunday could be so much fun!Even though I woke up a quite much later than I had planned Monday morning I still got some work done at uni. Maybe not as much as I would need, but still better than nothing and compared to what I've done before in Örebro. After a couple hours there I met up with my sister and her boyfriend coming from Stockholm to have dinner at my brother's place with his girlfriend. It was very nice to meet all together and cook and eat together, especially since I had to rush away the night before. Also went for a walk around the neighbourhood, which ended up as a funny photoshot.
Tuesday morning I went downtown to have a bit of look in the shops in Uppsala. Had some friendly company and fashion advices (although we don't share likes that often) from my tenant Karoline. Found a cheap, just ordinary but still cool, white piqué shirt with a blue lines on the collar and on the end of the sleeves at H&M, and a pair of black classic sunglasses from Cheap Monday that together with my outfit for the day, black tshirt and black jeans, made me look a bit like Glasvegas-singer James Allan. Studied a bit in the afternoon, before I got ready to head over to Daniel's place for a party, where I found out I apparently and surprisingly, and much appreciated, was the guest of honour since I made a bit of homecoming, before going out to more than packed Snerikes for the night.Left the city late afternoon yesterday. It was gread to be back, and had a couple of great days in good company of old (and new) friends. Kind of look forward to be back in Uppsala for autumn, but now I look forward to head back to Durham again.
Haven't been much study time lately, just looked through some books. Haven't really done much at all. But Friday night I got my ass out of the sofa and met up with Tom and Jake to go out and grab some pints. Drank two, one Örebro Bitter and one Newcastle Brown Ale, paid £10. Not exactly college prices. The two pubs we went to were both really busy, and saw some old familiar faces, but after we had sit down for a while we decided to head back to Tom's. The night wasn't really anything special, but doesn't have to be when you're seeing your mates again after a bit more than two months, still cool. Last night I just stayed home and relaxed with a film. Saw Woody Allen's latest one, "Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona". Really great acting from everyone in it, and it made you wanna go to Barcelona to see all the cool architecture, art and stuff in the city (and find some good looking American tourists too), but I don't think the film itself was anything special, worth seeing though. So now it's time to get busy, and as I did during the last term break I'm gonna pack my bag and head over to Uppsala. Leave you with a great song from Primal Scream's latest album:
I'm back! Haven't written anything in a week now, so time for an update. Came back to Sweden late Thursday night. The flight went really well, hardly any turbulence, so I read about Ewan McGregor's adventures, tried to relax, and even managed to sleep a bit. As there were unforseen troubles with picking me up, and there aren't many connections from the small airport, I decided to take a bus to my sister in Stockholm instead of waiting 1,5 hour to get to Örebro. Left from a cold but clear city at noon the day after with a train. Fell asleep, and became shockingly surprised to look out and see cm of snow and more still falling. Not what I expected or wanted. It's great being home though with everything about it. Still a bit weird though, don't really know what to do, think it will take a day or two to really settle down. Can't talk about any jet-lag, but the one hour time difference made me stay up an extra hour late last night since I forgot to change the time zone on my laptop, so lost an hour there. The snow is said to go way ina few days, but can't say I made a change for the better going from a sunny 14°C Durham to an almost as good London to this. Talking about London. I came there in the afternoon on Saturday and was met by Nicklas, with whom I was gonna stay at the upcoming days. He lives (temporarily) in a burough called Clapton, which looked like most other smaller areas outside the city central. As Nicklas was working during the days I spent the mornings either sleeping, reading or watching Scrubs, and then went downtown in the afternoon walking around by myself looking in shops, and then catched up with him for a bit of after work or so at some pub. Would of course had been better to have someone to spend the days with, but I kind of like to just walking around and try to feel like a Londoner, although I mostly walked around in the central tourist areas like Oxford Street and down to Covent Garden. The evenings and nights were cool though, and I met quite a lot new nice people. Also surprisingly bumped in to Marie from college outside British Museum the last full day so had well appreciated company, after have been alone all day, walking around there looking at statues of (the cool looking) Ganesha and Buddha among other things from South-East Asia. The last night I went out eating with Nicklas and some of his co-workers at Nando's, and after a beer at a pub next to it we went on to the pub where his friends worked for some fun partying although the place was closed. Have yet bought a new camera so got no pictures from London, although I saw some cool stuff I would had wanted to photoed. Hope to get one as soon as possible. Tonight I will meet up with friends and watch Sweden probably get there asses kicked by Portugal. Will be much fun, no matter the result.
Tonight has been the last night for this term here. For some of the Erasmus-students it's the last night for there time here. So we went out to eat a big group of us, which was very nice. This time when we I leave Durham and all the friends here for a bit more than a month it doesn't feel as weird as last time when you just kind of had really got to know everyone. Now you know more or less everyone is coming back after Easter. It also doesn't really feel like it's maybe the last time I've seen some friends here, or for a long long time, so haven't really thought about that I'm going back to Sweden soon. Well, first it's London, baby!
While being here in England, a bit on and off, for about nine months I want of course to do and see as much as possible. So far I've done a lot and crazy much fun, no talk about it, but I haven't travelled so much as I maybe wanted, although there is plenty of time for it after the exam. But in the last two weeks I've been much better at taking the opportunities to see other cities than Durham, and as they it's said; better late than never. First I got to see a little of lovely Leeds the Saturday before the last one. Just a bit more than an hour away on the train it is one of the biggest cities in England, and more colourful than grey Newcastle. Had a great day in good company with Italian food and American ice cream, and looked in a lot of shops in really old elegant gallerias with really fashionable clothes but that were of course expensive, but still found some good looking clothes that more fitted my wallet. Then this last Saturday I did something that is most of the times quite unlike me, and were very spontaneous. At the beginning of the that week Bibo asked around if anyone wanted to go to Manchester the upcoming weekend, and there were some interest but as often nothing really happened in the end. But after waking up from the Informal Ball Bibo rushed into my room saying "Let's go to Manchester, there's a train leaving in one and a half hour and the price is still the same!" So after first thinking in my normal way that it was not time enough and stuff, I thought why not and packed a small backpack, ate quick and took of towards the train station to Madchester where Enrica and Valentina already where on their way to. As I said, it was very spontaneous, so we hadn't booked a room but thought that would be no problem to find. But as we went to the tourist information we were told there was almost not a single bed left in the whole city due to Man Utd playing Liverpool, a boxing fight, and the Irish festival. So in the end we ended up sneaking in and sleeping on the floor in the girls' double room at a hostel in the Northern Quarter. The Northern Quarter is the area of Manchester where you can find a lot of cool small independent vintage stores, book and record shops, and small cafés, bars and clubs. I really liked to hang around there. The rest of the city centre is really nice as well, not as industrial as I thought, with parks and just a urban atmosphere. Even though we were only there 24 hours we saw a lot of the city. We partied a bit in the gay village, then in the entertainment centre, and then in a quite cool basement club near the hostel, passed through Chinatown the day after, went into an art museum where they had a small Da Vinci exhibition among other things, and saw the Irish parade, on our way to the canal side. I really liked the city, and will definitely go back in june after the exams and spend some more time looking in all the great shops, and then head further west to Liverpool. The only bad thing about the weekend was that I dropped my camera quite early during the night so have to buy a new one, but I still managed to take some photos and get the others too. Next stop: London, from Saturday to Thursday, and then back to good ol' Sweden.
I've made the longest break in this blog's history, for no real reason, so now I will do a full update of the weekend in two separate posts. The past Friday it was the Informal Ball, which is more or less like a normal formal (rhyme not intended) but bigger and better. So after my afternoon lecture I hooked up with Bibo, Phil, Felix and the captain of his water polo team at New Inn for an afterwork beer. After that we went back to college for some pizza (since we hadn't tickets for the dinner, only for the entertainment after) and drinks, and I drank my bingo prize. As always there was a theme for the formal, and for this it was "we're going on a gap year". Mind the singular form of the last word. Taking three gap years like me don't exist here. I dressed up as a surfer, since I spent almost half of one of my years off in Australia. The entertainment was really well planned with a live band and other fun stuff you could try, and you could also get a fake tattoo (which is, even though I want one, probably the closest I get to have one). It was a really fun night, that lasted until I passed out with my top and surf-shorts on in my bed really tired.
Yesterday evening Bibo, Phil and Tom arranged a bingo party to raise money for their charity challenge where they gonna climb the five highest peak in the UK in 48 hours (climb is maybe to exaggerate, more like walking up for, but still quite a challenge to do it in two days). Of course I was there to support them, and I bought 7 cards for £5 with hope of winning the top prize; a ticket for the Summer Ball in June. The first numbers really went my way, and the girl next to me noticed and told me "oh look, we both need the same number to complete a row, how exiting!". A few minutes later Tom said the lucky number, so I jump up from my seat and yell "line!!" while the poor girl next to me was just about to stand up. I felt a bit bad first on one hand, but hey, rules are rules and it's a game so somebody has to win. The prize was a bottle of wine, which is still in my room but I told her that she would get a glas or so of it when I'm gonna drink it on Friday in the bar.
The winning line was the second from above on the card at the bottom in the middle, and the lucky number was 69.
As I told in my last blog post, I went to Ikea to buy some food to make a dinner for some of the friends here, to give something back since I have got to try so much nice food from them and also just to have a good time all together. So on Friday night we all went to one of the kitchens in the brand new buildings where Felix is lucky to live. As there was quite many things to do at the same time I was immidiately asked, mostly by the girls, if I needed some help, which I did. In the end they had taken over all of the cooking, and even though I tried to contribute with something they didn't let me, and I've learned here not to go against an Italian woman in the kitchen. So I arranged the plates and the small aperitifs that consisted of schnapps cheese, pickled cucumber and reindeer salami on a piece of crisp bread, and the main dish of Swedish meatballs and potato in cream sauce with lingonberry jam. I must say it was a big success, and all of the food was gone when we left to go out clubbing.
Felix also took on the deadly challenge of eating a knäckebröd in less than ten seconds. Something a Dutch man has never ever done before! How it went you can see in the video below:
Of course I took the time to do some shopping when I was in a new town. I don't have that many real souvenirs from England so I decided to shop a pair of Union Jack boxers, which I actually thought of buying when I was in Cambridge two years ago, so now I have the UK up my arse! I had also looked at a pair of jeans, but only just week ago, at H&M from their new guest designer line. They are blue (like almost sky blue) with some extra things on them, and after being finally convinced to take them I decided to buy them as well, and £20 for a pair of designer jeans is nothing less than a real bargain! As this "Word of the day" is No X it gets a bit x-rated:
