Will you buy me a drink? No.

Strange stuff happen lately. But i should probably take one thing at a time right?

Monday was just a casual day in the office. I just exchanged random funny stuff with Jaime and Holger at the Dynamic Earth systems class. The hot topic was hydrosphere and the teacher was a PhD student.

His lecture was ok, but every sentence was followed by a yoga-like "OOoooohmmmm".

Jaime kept staring at me every time he did that and i saw him with the corner of my eye trying to hold my self from laughing. I cracked once and the teacher, who was talking about hydrophobic stuff asked me if i need anything.

Think fast Kostas. And the most stupid question came out.

"I actually do have a question, what is the opposite of hydrophobic in English?". Like i didn't know it's hydrophile. It was embarrassing, but i never laughed again because it was disrespectful and the teacher was actually pulling a good job.

So we finish at 15:00 and i go for a Fika with Elizabeth, the cute american lady. We are the usual place at stora torget and there is also Andrew and two others. I get a bullar and an amazing chocolate cake. The others leave because they have swedish class and it's just me and Elizabeth. We chat a bit more, i unleash my weird usual self and we take Marley towards the park next to Carolina Rediviva, so she can continue to Flogsta and i can go for swedish at 6 pm.

We sat to a table in the middle of the park, so much green and fresh air, sun rays piercing through the leaves and trees. We talked more, we had fun. I like being around her she is always smiley and a great person.We also have the following exchange of words:

"Do you like it rough or gentle?", i ask.

"It depends how good you are, both are good!", she replies.

Funny how talking about massage can sound so funny and weird. She leaves at around 5:13 and i go to building 3L.

I sit outside, talk to my beloved friends Maria and Viktoria through skype and listen to some much needed metal music.

I get inside, we are like less people from last time. Gregor is missing, he turned out to be sick. I sit in my usual spot next to Anton, we exchange some russian and class starts.

Fast forward 2 hours of jattebra and i am biking home. I send some messages to my lovely russian lady and i study for my seminar on wednesday.

I need to wake up at 6:30, class starts at 8:15. Ι manage to get out of bed at 7:33 after postponing the alarm 13 times. I quickly get dressed and bike towards the lab with Jesus from Nazareth. Biking quickly is a metaphor, because marley is useless.

The professor still has his slow voice but he is good in the lab. Really helpful and explaining things and always willing to give a hand. We didn't finish all of the project but we got until the end with some teamwork.

I really like the educational system here. I don't really feel pressure so far, but i always have something to do, something to read, motivation not to skip class. Something interesting to do, to discuss, which is further enhanced by the seminars who are an exchange of opinions, a debate and a way to sharpen our minds and critical thoughts.

I go home at 12:37 after buying bread, cheese and yogurt for 47 crowns. I am meeting Despoina and Vassilis around 19:30 at Norrlands pub. I sleep a bit and skype with my finnish beautiful friend Carita.

I take Marley and i make it to Norrlands. I see Despoina like a zombie focus on brainssssss. That means her phone. I sit there for 15 seconds staring at her and when she looks up she gets startled and i laugh like a maniac :D

We go in and find Vassilis who was there already with an icelander Garðar and an Australian. Vassilis drinks 2 beers while i decimate my burger, while Despoina slowly makes a surgery to her burger to remove stuff she doesn't like.

We leave and walk a bit around town. It's 21:00 and we are supposed to meet her friends at 21:30, Patrizia and Orla. I am supposed to meet Amy and some others later.

We take 10 minutes to find where on earth to put Marley, which ends up to be around Upplands nation. We go in, i pay my 60 crowns and the Snerikes club is packed. With weird people dressed as superman, batman, spiderman, lobster man, ancient greeks. Pity i forgot my camera.

We meet some more greeks and a crazy italian guy. Oh remember the girl i was looking for? I found her and her equally pretty friend Maja, who was drunk as everyone and apparently she became sober later and she turned cold.

But the funniest part of the night was coming. Oh look, there is Caitlin and her friend zoey, joey, whatever.

"Will you buy me a shot?", Caitlin asks me. Literally first word.

"No", i reply.

"You are so mean!"

"I am".

"Will you let me go broke????".

"Fuck you", i reply.

Scumbag Steve knows better.

So the other snobish one tells me i forgot her name, when i don't care and the other hag is telling me to buy her a drink while i just want to know where are the others. Oh i liked the point where they told me that i am attracted to Elizabeth and i write about her in my blog. Fuck you. Or wait, that's a big wish.

Amy, who looks stunning once more arrives, Ridhima, Kevin Fuckthegoverment, Steffen, Harmeet and many people i probably forgot. We have some fun, they dance, Catherine gets smashed and we end up talking to random people, me saving Amy from boring wannabe Casanova's and her underwear being shown three times on the bench after her confirmation of a sober date. Moving around with Harmeet who is like the king of the kings here and saying random crap to girls was hilarious. Coolest dude ever, all the ladies flock to him.

We leave, i get Marley, who is still there sadly and i bike through the cold that pierces my bones and crushes my soul.

I crawl into bed and die again.

I got class at 8:15. It's with Jesus and i will skip it. Instead i just go to the seminar @ 10:15 for the DES course. It's fairly interesting and our team is quite strong. Sara is brilliant, Erik is methodical, smart and a really great guy, Paulo doesn't talk that much but when he does, he has something worthwhile to say. Well apart from the tongue twister with the tigers :D. Marie is french and is more quiet, but i am sure she understands more than she says.

Holger is about to gouge his eyes out and i make fun of him and his future wife/daughter. We joke about getting married and her being his daughter. The professor is hearing all this and he passes by saying congratulations on the marriage. I burst into tears of laughter. He is a great professor that knows his stuff, has a great sense of humor and explains everything great. The seminar was a success.

I go home, Holger loses another bus card along with his wallet, i text my russian angel. I eat a yogurt and i reluctantly go to swedish class after my bath. It takes ages for me to get there, or so it feels.

I sit next to Anton and Gregor, who is like the coolest german ever. Polite, funny, tidy with his homework and nightlife balance. Fast forward 2 more hours of Jatterbra and i find myself holding my fake phone-light to pretend i have a light on my bike and Marley takes me home like the wind. Literally like the wind, because i took all of it in the face.

I skype with my finnish miss and i send some supporting messages to my russian angel, because she had a rough time today with something personal. I will be there for her as for my friends whenever she needs me. Because i care.

Here is a song dedicated to her:

Champions league was boring. I need to sleep because we got Jesus tomorrow again. Don't buy drinks to anyone like this. Think if you would buy your friends, your girlfriends, your mates a drink in the same situation. She has to earn it. Don't try to cheaply buy her love either.

I am tired. Amy i love you sis. Goodnight Sweden.

7 billion smiles, and yours is my favorite

Waking up with excruciating pains all over my body and way too many iron man dreams later i crawled out of bed. I had to pick up Marley's twin sister, Salmonela. She is red and more dirty than you can imagine. She would probably weight 10 kg less if i washed her. But the seat was deceiving, comfortable. I had to bike to Geocentrum and thought it would be a good idea to try not using Marley.

Oh wait, what happened during the last 3 days?

Not much, so i will just give a quick recap. I went for class every day and restarted boxing, a new course began, i started learning swedish and i ran more than 50km. Let's not add the 50km i biked with Marley. Good job Gottsunda boy.

Class was ok, the new course about GIS was so boring. The teacher was speaking so slow, i could not keep concentration and felt sleepy. Which is a bit sad to admit, but i am always honest in what i write or i could just hire someone else to write in here. But i hope it gets better because some people told me that he is great during lab work, where the true work of GIS happens.

About boxing? It was like i never left the ring. I might make it to the fight in Stockholm next month. The training was intense enough for my liking, though there was no feedback from the coach. So you did not know if you were doing it correctly or wrongly. I was pretty much being the teacher to Olivier, who liked our training and wants to spar more with me.

Tomorrow i got my first seminar too, which was fairly easy (we got a 5 min presentation).

She is just so beautiful. Running with her and slowly revealing things about each others past is amazing. I got her some traditional Greek Pasteli that i saved for the first few special people that i would meet in Sweden. The other one is for my little sis Amy. We ran and ran and ran and walked and swung on the seesaw like little kids again.

Then we made it back to Rackatatatataburger. I crashed on her floor and gave her the gifts, she was so happy and i got a kiss on the cheek and the world's warmest hug.

7 billion smiles in this Planet and yours is my favorite...

I got two more kisses and i went home happy as usual. I hope i am going towards the right direction. I think she is special and that it can lead to something amazing.

Yesterday was so tough... New boring class, from 8:15 am until 15:00 with a 3 hour gap in between, which i used to make my fancy 2 page report assignment regarding global climate change by toying with the Solar Constant or the ice albedo. But you don't want to hear about that. Then i spent 1 hour waiting for Amy and the rest of the guys, like Harmeet, Raymon and some new people and we went for a fika downtown. I ate some chocolate pie and we had a really weird conversation about horses. I met a feisty young australian/russian girl and a little american sweetie/beautiful girl Elisabeth.

Why am i always waiting for a woman?

I went for Swedish class, disoriented and tired, legs crumbling and begging for me to stop. I found Jim who found me the class, 16-2043. I got there and i knew Gregor, Kostas, and a few more people.

Then came this amazing robot-like old lady Tulia or so that was going to teach us. She seemed happy, energetic and always shouting Jatter-bra!

We learned some basic stuff and when she asked which languages do i know i replied, Greek, English, French, Russian and sexiga svenska sprok, because i am an idiot. Thank you Queen V for that line, it brought a laugh on everyone's face :D

Then i went to Norrlands with a bunch of people and Jim. A greek guy Spyros was all the time on his phone and i was teasing the Austrian woman Lisie (somewhere along these lines). I waited 1 hour for my burger, devoured it and crawled back home like a lizard. Literally went on my bed on all 4.

Today after finishing the weirdest presentation i just dumped Salmonela (she is so filthy jesus) outside the Geocentrum and walked with Holger downtown. I sent some messages to my gorgeous angel and went for a fika with the usual suspects. I devoured a muffin and greeted Phoebe and the war-torn Danika who fell off her bike. Poor baby, big hug <3.

We joked a bit, i died some more and went on foot to Blasenhus to get Salmonela back. Oh it was a long way home. Because the filthy b@#ch had a flat tire. I listened to my favorite playlist 2 times and the relief was carved in my face when i saw my garage. In goes Salmonela, next to Marley.

I will study and go out for a drink since my angel is tired and will go see a movie. We are not dating (that was a punch below the belt for you stalkers :D) but who knows, maybe one day her heart will be mine!

Hej da Sweden!

Indiana skinny and the lost silvemine

Thursday 28 August 2014

It feels like impossible to express within a few pages what is actually going on here in Uppsala. And even more impossible to post all 474 photos that i have taken in the span of a week. Wow a week? I am already here for 7 days. I feel like i just returned home, let alone moved to a new country.

I will keep things more compact for now since i need to cover 2-3 days of partying and resting. Photo wise...i will think along the way.

Waking up at 7:08 i wanted to gouge my eyes out with a fork. But no, we had to make a field trip. I still didn't know where we would go but they said to be outside the faculty at 8:50. So as usual i managed to crawl outside the bed, wore my isothermic pants and shirt, got a nice warm sweater and my sneakers and i just ran to the bus stop. Oh i forgot to take food, money, my mind. Good job Kostas. Also the day was hot for my clothing so i said i will probably die somewhere from heat or a stroke or epilepsia.

With no clue what to expect i arrive at the Geocentrum and i see some collegues, we chat a bit and some more arrive. We find out we are taking a bus trip to the Sala Silvergruva, an old silver mine around 1 hour away from Uppsala.

I sat down in the front with Fabian, a guy from Chile, who is very polite and a really nice guy. He also sent me some of the first lecture material since i don't have my student account yet. Tack Fabian!

It was SO hot. I could not sleep so i took some photos and talked to Abi and Fabian and listened to some music. Phoebe was next to me sitting with the other Kostas casually talking. The Colombian coffee was somewhere behind under a skirt. Behind me i think there was Ezre who is a very kind and polite guy from Ethiopia.

We reached Sala, i took way more photos than i should and we split into teams of two, around 19-20 each. A short, skinny Indiana Jones dressed swedish man, Joel led us to grab some gear after we had a stroll in the museum, gave us some information about the mine and we started our descend to the depths of the earth, 155 meters down. With an elevator. It was fascinating seeing how old meets modern. The shaky elevator went down for 5 minutes and i felt really reassured when Indy told us that we should open the other door or we would fall to the abyss.

Indy had a torch and a nice hat and he led us through the mind, showing us the wooden reinforcements, the cracks on the wall, where people rested and ate, the tiny corridors where up to 150 people spent 12 hours a day working in hideous work conditions and 2-4 degrees Celsius.

Indiana Skinny and the lost torch.

 The guided tour was like 1 hour plus and i actually expected to feel colder. I was amazed when Indy started singing in the concert room, a place that your echo was 12 seconds long. I might upload a video of that some time. More like audio but whatever. Also i loved the rest room, where there was actually heat and i could feel my hands which were so cold from holding the flashlight. Oh funny how there was a room with a bed and a table that you could spend one night for 400 euros. Alone. In the depths of the earth. Spooky. But awesome.

We started our ascend to civilization. I was starving. We gathered around some round tables and had a great discussion with everyone, we had people from Spain, Brazil, Chile, Australia, Sweden, Greece, Netherlands, Germany. Amazing multicultural meeting. #lovesweden.

Like a picnic. Foooood!

I ate a nice wannabe-greek sandwich with wannabe-Feta again, drank a coke and felt refreshed. I changed tables with some of our swedish friends, Sanne and Evelina and afterwards we went on the bus again to complete our tour. I sat with the program coordinator Suzanne and we talked and talked until we reached our destination, which was a place in the forests we could walk in. We failed miserably since there was a no-pass sign so we turned back and took another route for like 30 minutes until the bus. In the meantime i was talking with a swedish guy, Holger, who is very cool and funny and we shared stories about football, greece, sweden, women, video games, his parents that work in China and his ankle problems.

Really atmospheric pic from the mine.

Fika time!

So we have a second round of picnic, this time with leftover sandwiches and tasty swedish cinnamon buns and cakes.

Oh i slept for 30 minutes in the bus, i was invigorated. I am an ignorant baboon so i left my ipad open and had no battery. We reached campus and some people were making a safari. Dressed and painted like cats.

Dat ass.

I managed to reach home around 5:23. I opened my laptop had a quick shower and talked to my Красивый Ангел to set up a meeting. I was dead tired. I felt i could barely move. But my desire to see her overcame my obstacles. Even if it was for one minute, i would travel to the other side of Uppsala. We set up a meeting outside Gothenburg's nation at 8:30. I am there at 8:27 like the gentleman and apparent punctual idiot that i am. I ran to the bus station, i ran to the nation so i was there in time, hoping to be greeted by that miraculous warm smile. So i stood there for 20 minutes, throwing stones and counting sheep, feeling alone and depressed thinking if i should name my next post "20 minutes in the rain". Having no phone all that kept me going were my thoughts. She finally showed up from the corner and washed all my doubts and pain away with an innocent smile and puppy eyes. Brace your self Kostas. Snap back to reality.

We decided to go to Norrlands as usual since Gothenburg was empty. She talked about her jogging today and the marathon she wants to participate. I told her outside the church there is a theater play and horses. We both love horses so she grabbed me by the hand and we raced until there. I didn't care i'd collapse later in my bed. I ceased the moment, trying to freeze it and own it (woah there eminem). We took photos with the horses, patted them and kept going to the pub.

There i was my usual crazy self and we had a blast. Everyone was so quiet and i was so loud. I started stealing people's hats. Because i can. Some girls we didn't know joined us (Alessia and Angela) and i entertained them for like 45 minutes. Then we were bored. I could get into more details about how i felt when she touched me but let's leave it at that :)

First hat i stole that night.

 Yarr, Tortuga mate, savvy?

I am a proper gentleman so i walked her home. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and walked home happy. I had a great day Uppsala.

Goodnight to you with another amazing picture taken by a black rasta man that was so impolite and angry that i asked him to take a photo of us. Thank you kind sir. Depression suits you well.

Me and my new friends.

30 minutes in the rain

Tuesday 26 August 2014

Waking up from last night, i checked out if i was at the right place or the right bed. I expected to be in a worse shape but i picked up my pieces quite fast. I'm impressed with my self. I would regain my composure and be a good boy tonight.

Yea right.

But let cut to the chase and start over. New day, new plans, new party.

So. It's like 11pm and i need to be at the Geocentrum. I take my trusty number 7 bus and stop at the Blasenhus, which is pretty much the Uppsala University main science/engineering campus. I see a map sign that shows the location of the centrum, trying to decode it because i'm slow in the morning.

Oh wait, two people are coming my way. Let's stop them because it's raining and i like to get wet.

"Do you know where the geocentrum is?"

"No! Do you know where is the department for nordic languages?"

"No, bye!"

So i keep moving and i ask some worker with a bald head like a globe, he points me to the wrong direction. Tack. I then see and older man that tells me where the correct building is but sends me to the wrong entrance. Tack. So i do a 200 meter walk around until i finally get to the correct way.

Oh wait! I see someone. He is with 2 others. He wears a checkered shirt, jeans and has a beard. He is Greek so i say "Geia sou!" and i met Yannis, a PhD student that takes me to the entrance.

Speechless.

So i enter the premises with some automatic doors opening while i walk. I felt like David Coperfield. I enter the room Norrlands 1 and meet my new colleagues. We are two greeks, spreading like a virus. I met the program helper Aby and the program coordinator Susanne. We did the basic stuff, i registered for my program, asked all the questions i had and received my welcome package.

I ate a nice sandwich with something that resembled greek feta. We were briefed on the campus's training facilities 1477 and the student mental support group. There was also a brief intro about Grus and Unt.

Then we divided in 4 groups or so and we had a short tour of the facilities, which are frankly, amazing. Massive library, clean places, microwaves and kitchen, study rooms that you can book to study quietly, 3 computer room and a biology lab, as well as 5-6 lecture rooms.

We have some students from Sweden following up from their batchelor's, one with a scholarship from Ethiopia, Ezre, Kate from the Netherlands, Kostas and Yannis from Greece, Lena from Germany, Stephanie from the USA, etc.

During our first meet.

We set up a meeting in Thursday @ 8:50 outside the faculty building for a bus tour/excursion and we went to the printing shop to get our student access. It was me, Alex and one more from Iceland. He got is access and then i went home like a sad panda because i am stupid and i did not have my driver's license with me so we could not complete, more or less start the register. Tack.

So i'm going back home, it's raining slightly and i am listening to some soothing drums and bass. I get on the bus with a weird granpa holding eggs like it's the precious one ring.

Oh i am so relaxed on my bed, talking to my buddy Kelly from Stockholm. I tell her dirty and stupid jokes and she laughs maniacally.

I get a message from Vita, my russian angel. The time is 5:44 and we set up a meeting at 6:15. The bus is leaving at 5:50 and i want to be there fast so i see her more...I forgot my umbrella, my ipad, my phone, my mind. I was not even sure of the nation i had to be at...So i found the Gotlands Nation where they had a crash course about sweden. It sucked because it lasted 10 minutes and they only asked 5 questions. I am outside speaking to some random dude and Maria from Ukraine.

She is nowhere to be seen. The time is 6:35. I see Roland and Anoud (A-nude. muahahaha). He sends a message for me to Vita in hope she sees it. I am off to the Gotlands pub which has a massive queue and i talk to James, a tall dude that works in the nation. And then Vita enters with Jose from Spain/USA. Everytime i look at her my heart stands still and so does time and space. I greet her warmly. She smells so nice and is so sweet. I play the sad panda face because she is late and we pretty much met by luck there.

Time to go to Norrlands pub. We sit there inside and we see Dimitris with his buddy program. We have some fun and i keep teasing Vita because i love her laugh and beaming smile. She makes me want to smile too. So we need some action and we talk to two random guys next to us. One is called Henrick (me thinks) and his half-swedish, half-greek (!) friend Andreas. We had the best of times, they actually bought us beers and we stayed there for 3-4 hours. It was amazing. I loved the part where they said that we make a nice couple ("blush mode on").

Dimitris, Jose, Henrich, Andreas and Vita.

So that was it, a fairly quieter night that the previous one, but get ready, because the storm is coming. Tomorrow is the Welcome Ceremony!

Welcome in Uppsala.

Destination Uppsala - The journey begins

Pack your things and move here.

Like seriously.

The weather is crap. I admit. But i expected it to be worse actually. It's the 23rd of August and i'm sitting here in my cozy new house preparing for a beer in the Norrlands Nation. And i am reflecting on what i saw so far today. Let's make a recap of what to expect.

I sat there on the single-gate terminal of Kalamata, waiting for flight 438 to commence boarding. Around me there were mostly swedish people, exactly what i expected of them too. Polite, low-profile but very loving with their children. There was also a guy that looked like the last samurai making changes in a 3d house in some sort of program. Blondes, blue eyes, generally skinny and tall.

I chatted a bit with some greek people i met there and i did not even think that the moment i stepped my foot outside i was an immigrant, that there was the point of no return.

The aircraft was an Airbus 319 with around 138 passengers and was like 99% full. Pretty impressive for a town of 60000 people like Kalamata.

I sat next to a swedish couple that were cuddling during the whole flight while i was watching outside the window, watching half of the Avengers movie, eating some half-baked wannabe bread with strawberry, listening to some music.

When i heard about the upcoming landing i dropped everything i was doing and was staggered from what i witnessed from the window.

Breathtaking landscapes, vast forests with tall trees, a lung of fresh air and escape from normality, so wild yet so tamed and peaceful. There were no wolves in this picture, apart from a few ravaged pieces of land attacked by mankind.

Then we landed at Arlanda Airport. It reminded me of an older version of Eleutherios Venizelos airport of Greece. I saw a big Ethiopian airliner and thought i would be scared to fly with it. Our aircraft actually made a very annoying noise from the left engine, but the flight was one of the smoothest i have been in. Thanks Cap.

I went at terminal 5 to pick up my luggage, they arrived around 10 minutes in and i was the only one left since i had to exchange my money into SEK from Euros. The old lady in the cashier seemed annoyed and confounded that i had only an ID card and not a passport.

I took the wrong turn, fired up my trusty tablet, sent a few messages and went outside to the welcome committee. Two girls, one swedish and one German, joined later by an Australian one. I took the necessary info, got to the cafe next and picked up my first Swedish filter coffee for 35 SEK. Quite cheap for an airport compared to our prices if you want my opinion.

My first fika!

So i met two exchange students, Phillip from Singapore and Maddie from Midlands in England. We had some friendly banter and then proceeded to the van that would take us to one of the nations to get started. They call the vans shuttles actually.

We got in and there we were, like 10 greeks, waiting in line for an internet account (which i did not need), a temporary ID student card, some information, a welcome package and a telephone sim card.

I signed up for the shuttle to take me home, then went a small walk into town to pick up a bus refillable card. You cant buy tickets here, nor pay with cash. So buy a ticket!

The town was staggering, the architecture of the buildings, giving a medieval look to the town. The streets were clean, bike lanes in both ways, a couple of beggars a stark contrast to the misery of Athens.

The whole town is like this. Breathtaking.

I bought my ticket, went back to the nation, and got in with some people into the shuttle to drive us home. All but me disembarked in Flogsta. I only remember one Bulgarian woman and one from Australia, Perth, where my favorite band, Pendulum resides. A dude called Alexander was driving us around, he is originated from a small swedish town of 5000 people, but he also has greek roots, from his uncles side methinks.

He told me some stories about the Flogsta scream and how it was used to relieve stress from the exams every Wednesday at 10 pm, but now they do it every night, while he also made fun of the stress factor since everything is way too "xalara" here.

So he dropped me at my new house, where an old lady with memory issues opened the door and had no recollection of my impending arrival. She was polite and nice, i showed her an email that confirmed my room and started unpacking. A nice room, a clean house.

Now i m all set, about to go for a beer. Because i can.

Laters! Welcome to Uppsala!