Mythbusting and Swedish reflections

Walking alone from Gamla Uppsala to the city centre with my trusty iPad mini and one broken headset listening to the same kind of music i have immersed my self into, i reflected upon what i did and see in my first day in Uppsala.

I was staggered by the sheer beauty of the city. Me and my friend Vasilis had a long walk as i accompanied him home at Gamla Uppsala next to a football field. He stayed in a corridor room. Everyone was swedish. Oh there was another Greek too that felt relieved that heard us. He is in the biomedicine school me thinks.

The day started casually, i felt integrated with the society here like i spent my entire life. I woke up at around 11am, cleaned up, took my pills, brushed my teeth and went outside for my walk to the supermarket. I saw an ICA sign on the left so i kept going until i got to the Gottsund mall, with no ICA sign, partly because i am blind and partly because it was hidden behind another building. So i went to Lidl accross the street.

"Everything is so expensive how will you survive there?", said one ignorant baboon before i arrived here.

I was amazed by how cheep things were. I sell the best yogurt in Greece and it costs 4.11 euros per kg. Here i bough greek yogurt (good quality it turned out) for 2. So i spent 197 SKE and filled up my fridge. My worst buy was mineral water. It sucked, it was fizzy and the tap water here is amazing.

I came home and as a good old fashioned greek peasant i ate a whole chiapata bread with gouda cheese. Pounding them fats.

I spoke with relatives on skype, because my mom is a badass surfer, with friends, i found an apartment for a Ilektra and organized a beer meeting with Vasilis. It was Sunday and i forgot buses have longer intervals between them so i was late for 15 minutes. Good first impression Kostas. Very swedish of you. Keeping the greek flag high.

Vasilis is greek too so he didn't care, he was zombiefied by the mysterious flesh-eating creature known as facebook. On the bus stop i was laughing like a maniac for no apparent reason, i listened to some music and waiting in the line like a good Swede. Oh and another mythbust. An old lady came and started looking in the trash can, and found 2 cooking books! She left very happy.

So i meet Vasilis and go in O'Connor's, a very nice place to drink different kinds of beer or eat. I went for a Czech one and he got a classic Guiness. We paid 69 and 67 kronor respectively. Not bad since he didn't have a temporary id card to go to Norrlands (20-30 kronor per beer).

We chatted, saw some more blonde people walking by and went out for a walk in town and to get Vasilis back home. Oh did you know they actually still have Who wants to become a millionaire playing???

Beautiful Uppsala.

We walked towards home in roads unknown, we saw the amazing catholic church, we were confounded and surprised positively that every car stopped for us to cross the road. They also have buttons to turn the lights green for us and make a beeping noise showing the time you have to cross. Light years away.

I returned home in my trusty nr. 7 bus, walked into the forests before mordor with no lights and got home. I ate half a kg of yogurt with honey, washed the dishes, washed my self, wrote this entry and i will hit the sack like there is no tomorrow. Tomorrow is fika at the nations day. Yay. More cholesterol parties!

So majestic, like it was built today.

So keep the energy and a beaming smile, because i am coming with more irony and stories!

Take care!

Swedish as a Second Language - Preparing for the move to Sweden

Today we will talk about SaS (No you liverpool fans, i m not talking about Suarez and Sturridge). Swedish as a second language.

Quick links to my previous coverages:
Moving to Sweden - Swedish Weather Extravaganza
Moving to Sweden - Things to Bring
Moving to Sweden - Housing and Financing

Now let's delve into wikipedia for the basics.

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 8.7 million people worldwide, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish. Along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by numbers of speakers.

Great. So by learning swedish you can pretty much communicate with Finnish, Norwegian and Danish people. It is stydied by around 40000 people abroad @ university level, making it the most studied Scandinavian languaged practiced abroad.

It belongs to the branch of North Germanic language, so if you are familiar with german or even english you shouldn't have a hard time learning swedish. Though the consonants and pronunciation of some vocals will be challenging at first. But i already know russian, and that is a hard language. If you pick up languages fast like me, you should have no problem being fluent in swedish during your studies.

Swedes always want to practice their english but seem to lose patience very fast if you are inadept at speaking their language, so try to make a mutual exchange.

A friend of mine that lives in central Sweden told me:

"I can only give you one advice if you plan on staying here. Learn the language. Oh, and change your last name to Svensson!"

And i do plan to stay here. If you can ge a head start where you live and you are serious about it, do it. Check some private teachers or a local university that might offer a course in Scandinavian languages. You will also feel special if you speak a unique language spoken by 10 million people. If there is none, you can take things in your own hands and do it yourself. A friend told me Rosetta Stone's Swedish Guide is a good option. Thanks Andrea.

For the people that want to learn while living there, all these options exist. There are also swedish lessons for immigrants. If you are a student in any university, there is a high intensity class during the summer just before the semester starts (Starts 4 August and lasts 4 weeks). You receive an email prompting you to register (the deadline for Uppsala University is 15 May) and you can enroll on that class along with other students.

As i stated, swedish people are fluent in english. In fact, you will hardly find a Swede that does not speak english under the age of 45, in some cases under 60. And they want to practice all the time, just for general practice, or even show off. So if you speak broken swedish like a peasant they will stirr the conversation in english. Do not care. Continue in swedish. If you can get another foreign student that speaks or tries to learn, by all means talk with him a lot. Or offer another language you know. I can offer Russian, Greek, English, French.

In a future post i will talk about swedish culture and your need to adapt and accept it. It also involves learning swedish, you need to respect the fact that a foreign country is hosting you and nurturing you into a fledgling scientist or the next IKEA manager.

This is the punchline. Learn Swedish. Also.....

Keep calm and learn swedish.