His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy

The world around me begun to buzz like a thousand bees humming and stinging accompanied by the booming voice of a million drums echoing in his ears. Something was wrong. My legs began to numb and they froze mid-air. My heart was slammed into my throat. The floor scooped me up where I stood, and I blinked as it hit me. Then i succumbed to a dark slumber, lost somewhere in space and time, afloat. Dead, but also alive. There was way out. The next few seconds took forever. I was not sure if minutes or hours had passed. Blank spots and the endless void, took me away into a lethe that was terrifying yet astonishing. Then...silence got blown apart.

I opened my eyes and i was lying on the bathroom floor. I vaguely remember a hard noise of my head smashed against the wooden door, but there was no pain. Could it be my imagination? Could that also be a part of my dream? My hands were shaking and my nervous system was in some kind of shock.

Standing up i unlocked the door and trembled towards my room. Nobody had noticed me crashing down. I open my door and i fall face down on the bed. I have class in 1 hour. I try to rest as my head spins like after the worst hangover. I close my eyes and the light of a thousand suns pierces my eyes. Everything around me feels crimson red and the bed is shaking like an earthquake. The aftershock is strong. But it finally stops and i feel in peace again.

I drag my heavy body down the stairs and i walk towards the bus stop. I feel drowsy and trapped within two dimensions. I make it to the university and i get something to eat. Yu keeps me some company and i enter the classroom. The seminar is complicated and so hard and i find myself frequently looking at the snow torturing the trees outside, smashing softly into the thick glass.

Class ends. I make it to the bus stop again. I have a bad feeling about this. My bus card expired. I walk for 30 minutes, harnessing all the power and strength i can muster and i walk towards the center. I get my card recharged and I am safely at home. That is the last recollection of memories i have from today, a great way to start the month and week.

Have you ever been in such a situation? Please share your thoughts and experiences.

Goodnight Sweden.

The only bright light of my day.

 

Lights, camera, action!

I have been thinking today. Our lives is like a live scripted play. Or a tv series. Full of changes, twists, expansion and it keeps you on your toes for what will follow.

But have you ever felt that you are an extra or a body double in your own script? That the script is just linear and you  simply follow it around and play no real role? That is so interesting.

I certainly felt like this until i moved to Sweden. My life was scripted and linear. Go to school, stay with that boring girl from Thessaloniki, go to the dog park, back home, eat, finish university for no reason, go to the army, help in the family business without having any say in all this.

When i finally realized how stagnant and boring my life had been i decided it is time for a change. But how do you do that when you are just an extra? You know what? You are the writer, you are the main focus of your own script, or you should be at least. And this is an ongoing process so what should you do?

It's fairly simple, even though harder to execute. I wrote myself into a new storyline. This time it was different, this time it was mine. I am done chasing my tail. Embrace change.

Today i went to the International Students Office here in Olofsgatan 10A. If you live in Uppsala and you need information about Erasmus or scholarships pay them a visit Monday-Friday 09:30-12:00 and 16:00-18:00. They were essentially the same people from the swedish seminar yesterday and they were pretty helpful. They answered all my questions in detail and now i am sitting happy with a 99% complete application to finally move to Turku in September. Yay! See, its like a spin off of my script! I want to write a new chapter!

On the way back the bus was full and there was a cute young lady with her baby on a carrier and she smiled and made space for an incoming man with his baby. Or so we both thought. As it turns out the man had filled his carriage with supermarket products and bags and during one turn it slipped to the door and everything crashed down. There was also a very old man that looked at me with a strange look i guess because of my loud music, but then i caught him staring at the butts of young girls.

I also feel a little of an outcast in one of my new classes. I don't know why again. I just don't feel like i want to get to know people and they don't want to know more about me. I tried to talk to some of the people from my group but after a few phrases its like they want to run away or i run out of topics and i can't/don't want to think of any.

Regarding to the events of friendship, i am pretty happy and i sleep well at night. Riding the bus home though i was thinking that i should have known the storm was coming when the clouds are big and black. And you know what? In the end i may as well let the rain come down and enjoy the circus of people.

You can sense sometimes when something is changing or you know when people can help you but they just don't fucking want to. I am sick of chasing, as i said, this is my time to shine and i will make the most out of it. I will set myself ablaze and i will take off like a shinning star, writing my own spectacular script, the way i want to, with the people i want to. And i have enough of them.

I like this one very much.

Along that bombshell, have a good day Sweden!

Update: Have you ever got so angry that you started saying things you don't mean? Or you made that racist joke just because your friend laughs at them? Do you always ignore warnings and take everything 100% seriously? Do you consider social skills a woman shitting in the forest in front of everyone in Sweden? Deal with it and take everything with a grain of salt.

You left footprints all along the beaches of my heart..

It's the middle of the week and i am briefly home for 1.5 hours.

Thousands of thoughts move like a whirlwind and consume my mind each moment. I should do some yoga and sign up for boxing again to relieve some stress.

I got a new bike, i am picking it up tomorrow, for 500 crowns. I hope it does not fall apart.

I woke up a bit tired, my eye was hurting from the contact lenses and i ate all my chips. I casually prepared and sent some Colombian coffee love to my bestie. I fired up my favorite song and sang along the way to the bus stop. I should give it a name.

I will call it the "Hidden Passenger", no idea why. Maybe because i am a passenger of this strange train of multi-culture in the area i live.

Oh, for the very few that actually read what i wrote yesterday and the even fewer that actually cared to do it, thank you very much. Amy (<3), Danika, Harmeet, Kevin, Fani, all of you in the chatroom i will be there for you if you need me. Same applies to the rest actually, i am here for everyone. No need to mention Afroditi, and my wonderful παντρουγκιτσες from Greece that miss me and give me strength to continue!

That includes you, the lady that left footprints all along the beaches of my heart over the past week :)

From 10-12, then 13:00-15:00 i had lectures about fluid and ocean dynamics. The terms in english, vastly different from the ones i am used to. But it's alright, i always manage to get out of the bottom of the barrel.

We organized to meet with Fabian from Chile to grab some beers from the store and head towards Flogsta for a pre-drink party in Evelina's house around 7pm.

I walked to the center to register for Norrlands and of course the internet was broken so i had to waiting drinking some black coffee while the Asians drank milk. I paid 280 crowns for the register, got my temp card and headed out to buy ice cream for 18 crowns.

Which should i get....

It's a beautiful day, full of sunlight and warm feelings, much better than yesterday.

I am sitting in the bus station at Stora Torget. I am listening to some melodic death and the guy sitting next to me is moving to the drum rhythm. I get in the bus and i sit somewhere in the back.

A woman with her head covered by traditional arabic/muslim band sits across me. I can only see her face. She is smiling all the time, she has perfect, untouched velvet skin, a bit darkish and incredible features, that leave me staring at her for 15 minutes. She saw me of course, i am not that discreet when i like something. It was like she featured in the National Geographic magazine.

I am home. I am cooking some weird delicious mix of pasta, creme du lait and chicken. Pounding them.

The lady downstairs is making some creepy ghost noises. If you don't hear from me, come film Paranormal Activity 26, at least you will make some money!

Hello Sweden!

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!