End of an era - Dawn of a new one?

Keeping it short. I do not have a lot of things to write about anymore. Maybe I do, but i find it hard to motivate myself to do more or write more. The financial limitations of my stay in Sweden have started to hold me back severely. I spend my time mostly at home and whenever i leave the house it has to be the supermarket, a lecture or lurking at Jaime's house for more weird stories with his dad, Poortugal (pun intended) and stalking a poor guy called Gannon Fodder in Guild Wars 2 and being a shitty manager for Malmo FF in Football Manager 2015. I also tend to watch full Metal Gear marathons on Twitch whenever they are up, because they keep me company and wash my loneliness away.

By no means i have given up, but i do work with what i am given. I had a rather refreshing break in Finland where i went to a traditional summer cottage, i slept endlessly, consumed massive amounts of Pepsi and ate half the Tutti Frutti from a shop called Candy Land. Yay!...

I was back and got thrust straight into classes. I had an unpleasant exam on Saturday where i didn't sleep and i had to endure painful statistics questions. One of them had a diagram but apparently the professor forgot to print it so the question was rendered invalid. And i knew the answer to it....

So here's what i want to do. I will put it in bold and underlined so hopefully it can reach someone. I have stopped begging for shares and likes as it is clearly not working. But i will do it for the last time for the sake of it. Please help me maintain my blog by sharing this. I am looking for a few individuals, preferably 2-3 but even 1 is a good start. They can live in Uppsala, Sweden, or any part of the world. The task is the same as mine. To write an article from time to time and describe their life, student life, experiences, past, stories, character or their troubles. Please assist me into maintaining this blog, i have actually put quite some effort into it for the past year. A simple share in facebook, a forum or through word of mouth for you creative people that want to write a piece of text every now and then and express themselves freely is much appreciated.

Lastly, i have been getting some ridiculous large numbers of traffic from Russia. I checked what people searched to find my blog and i saw that some people googled stuff like rape and sex stories. What is wrong with you people???

Leaving you with the last fragment of post i wrote. How ironic it was during the one year anniversary and the 100th post of this blog. Any comment  or support is appreciated. Thanks for now!

***Below is the last thing i wrote before this post***
Another week, another landmark approaching.

In the 27th of March i am having 3 things. One year has passed since i learned that i got accepted in Uppsala Universitet. It also marks one year from the birth of this story blog. I am not sure what it is anymore though. I also visit Finland for the third time to see someone i care about.

Regarding the blog i am not so sure. It sure has grown to unthinkable levels for me with 21.000 views in its short lifespan and with a very debatable topic to boot like my daily struggles and challenges. It has also culminated into something more than that as you can find recollections of my memories, my dreams, my experiences, interviews, reviews and bad humor.

The last week was a weird one. My sister visited me. I notified my landlord 2 weeks earlier that she is coming and also a few days before she arrived as well. And then all the weird stuff started. She said there is no problem so i let my sister sleep in Davide's room who she let me know that he left 2 months earlier. Good timing thanks for letting me know soon...

And then she started asking my sister when she is leaving. And then 2 days later the same she barged into her room while she was sleeping. I explained again. She seemed irritated and she said its because of her bad memory. And  then she said she will shut up and not bother us again. Guess what, the day after she entered my room while i was sleeping saying that she wants her ID and that i should inform her if i bring guests. Fucking shit i tell you. And yesterday after my sister left she had the nerve to casually ask me to borrow my phone to call her daughter. I will avoid her as much as possible for the rest of my stay here.

I'm too old for this gasque

It's Saturday already.

Thursday and Friday went down fast. But everything you do here is a reflection of the vivid, fast-paced life you should expect when moving in a student city like Uppsala.

Thursday was really casual, with the exception of waking up in Silent Hill and waiting for a monster to attack you in any corner.

Welcome to Silent Hills..

We had our second GIS lab around 8:15, where the teacher just threw us a paper with instructions and we had to follow them and make a workflow model in arcMap. It was not that hard in the end but the info lacked cohesion at some points. I did good and had some nice collaboration with Isabelle and Cecilia.

I stayed a bit longer than normal to send the required files. Everyone left at around 12:00, which is the essential lunch break for Swedes. There could be a meteorite striking earth but they will have their lunch break. Remember that and respect it.

I went home and just did my homework, studied Swedish and finished my first "test" even writing my first essay in swedish talking about myself. Wow that is going pretty fast huh?

I chatted a bit with my angel because it's been almost a week since i saw her. I watched some CS:GO videos and around 30 times Captain America kicking the Winter Soldier into a van. I also listened to a lot of music, which has been a recurring trend since i moved here and i like it. I sent my angel the world's sweetest kisses and slept like a baby.

From dusk till dawn, it's Friday. I still need to pay the dentist. I wake up at 8:28, quickly get dressed and clean my fabulous new teeth. It's time to enter the Matrix again and pick up Marley.

Biking to the tunes of my random library i heard from Drums n Bass to Melodic Death to Pop. I struggle at the hill towards the GeoCentrum but i finally pretend to lock Marley. Cecilia is there and we greet eachother, me with a massive struggle for air and breathing. Heavy legs and the weight of 26 turbulent years on my back. A glare directed to Marley.

Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity. I wear my nicest smile and regain my composure and enter the GeoCentrum. Oh there's Jaime, let's head up towards the Earth System's lab. Christian is there and he gives us a nice introduction to the Cryosphere lab.

I am together with Isabelle and a guy called Ahmed, who has not shown up for the master's program. So we have to do double the work compared to the others. Sarah is next to me. Isabelle is really easy going and smart and hard-working, i like working with her. Which is a stark contrast with how pretty she is, by greek standards of course.

After a barrage of questions and Christian accusing me of stealing Holger's wallet that was pretty funny, we manage to get to the lunch break around 12:00. I stay in the lab untill 13:00 to finish most of the stuff. Izie gets part one and i get part two.

I go out with Jaime and we head towards the professor in charge of our GIS project, Caterina. She is not there and i draw a sad face emoticon outside her drawing board. Jaime laughs and we continue making hideous jokes about the people that pass by, like the woman with the jelly butt. We eventually go to Rickard, the head professor of the course. He tells us with his usual soothing calm voice that we need to mail the Caterina and set up a meeting.

Going out the first word to come out of Jaime's mouth towards the other people waiting outside for the same reason is "Go home". I burst into laughter and we go in the GIS computer room to finish some exercise.

Actually Jaime did all of my work, which was to create a watershed map model of a lake basin around Kiruna. My map was tilted and horrible, and it had some weird flag-resembling drawing in the upper corner. I laughed so hard for the following hour with Jaime and we managed to make it look like some sort of map.

I thanked him for helping me because i was/am clueless and promised him to wash the dishes for the following 10 years, which was not probably a good idea. We go out and pick up his bike and Marley, who was still there sadly. Then i figure out he lives next to me in Gottsunda.

We bike together and he throws a million kg of sand from his bike. I get bamboozled but i soon understand, because he drags me through a construction site to get home. It's the same construction the three swedes took me inside in my previous adventures.

I make it home and by bread, a coke and cheese from Lidl for around 31 crowns. I'm living quite cheaply here so far, eating outside, having fun and drinking a bit. Stockholm is way more expensive, i made the right choice.

I sleep for a bit and message my russian angel for a meeting. Elizabeth can't go to the gasque so she has a pre-drink party at Flogsta. I message her i'm not going as i will meet my Vitalina at Pop...ehm Upplands to try and sneak in the gasque or something around 7.

I get up at 6:40, bathe until 6:44, get ready and leave the house at 6:57. Marley is my biggest bane, we make it to the Upplands nation around 19:15. I race inside and look for my princess.

Guess what, she is nowhere. I wander aimlessly and without purpose in the yard seeing boring people eating boring burgers. There is a girl that looks like her, i stare and my heart pumps faster with anticipation. It's not her.

I end up picking up a chair calling 4 times and sending an sms. I guess i never learn. You know it's soul crushing waiting for someone you like so much and being powerless to do anything. But call me an idiot, i don't care in the end, it will be worth it. She's finally there after 35 minutes.

I lay down clutching my face while she gets to me and gives me a hug. Damn you Vitalina for being so pretty, you wash all my trouble away in an instant.

We try to get in the gasque, but we have no invitation and we are not dressed formally. So we sit and have some fun in Upplands, then move to Varmlands, which is equally boring. We end up sitting in a table with two boring swedish women sharing half a Cider. There is a guy behind us in the table chopping paper and napkins into pieces like mad all night, some disgusting Jack Daniels bottles with candles inside and a woman dressed as a zebra behind me.

On the other side of the room at the couches, the most sad recollection i have so far from sweden. A guy with his girlfriend, looking so depressed and facepalming himself, while his girl is laughing watching at her iphone screen all the time. In the end she just leaves him, he waits for 5 minutes and then he leaves too with the look of a thousand wars and famine and plague in his face.

We have a great discussion with my angel and a lot of fun. Time flies by and it's around 10 now. I don't have to share what we talked about, it was mostly about our past, our future and the occasional "you make me feel happy and special" speech. Oh we had a great laugh about Mattias and his pervert hugs too.

Did i mention that she left her bike by luck right next to Marley? Of all the hundreds of bikes there. I get her safely home as she makes fun of Marley. We exchange hugs and i hope i see her again soon.

I get to Snerikes, where there is no entrance that day. It's empty and quiet, mostly due to the gasques around the city. I find Elizabeth and Catherine along with around 20000 men around them. There are a bit smashed, so i don't really bother. We sit, and i exchange a friendly hug with Elizabeth, because she is in the friend zone now, say goodbye and leave with Kostas, another greek.

We go to the line in Varmlands. Nikos and a swedish girl i don't care to remember join us, but the club is closing in 1 hour and i am not paying 80 crowns for that. I follow those two towards OG nation, we get in, we manage to get some beers and watch sad people dance to tunes unheard off by me.

I end up alone in the room below, sitting with a broad smile on my face watching everyone dance like they have no bones or their limbs are about to leave their bodies. It's just not my style anymore. I am past that phase. I casually drink my beer thinking about leaving. Then out of the dancefloor comes Danika and Natalie.

Danika is looking absolutely dazzling. I literally caught myself with my jaw dropping at times. We have some fun with Natalie, who is a pretty cool girl too.

Time for me to go though. I get Marley and reluctantly bike home. It's cold as usual. It's becoming a cliche, me saying that it pierces through my soul and bones.

But i make it home around 2 am. There are 2 things left to do. Say goodnight to my angel and tell her i had a great time. And send a message to Danika telling her she was the most beautiful woman in that room.

Goodnight Sweden, or maybe, Hej prepare for another busy weekend!

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!

Go go power rangers

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Leaving the classroom with a smile on my face like i was on magic mushrooms i stood there in the university yard and gazed upon hundreds of students casually sitting on the grass, reading, playing, having fun and listening to crap pop music. It was a joy to behold, like the day today. The sun rays pierced the clouds and reached within my very soul.

Almost 4 hours of lectures had passed, hearing about the solar system, cosmic rays, water and icebergs. I had studied so hard before i knew all the material. I remember the teacher asking a question that i already knew the answer and raised my hand. She gave me a cheeky smile and winked at me. I lowered my hand in satisfaction.

Just outside campus.

I took some pictures and listened to some music passing by the 1477 campus and library as well as the fantastic botanical garden. I don't recall seeing such beauty condensed in such a majestic city.

It's all lighted during the night. Breathtaking.

I walk towards town. Crap my temporary id expired. No cheap norrlands beer for me. Oh wait, the register office is closed too. Back on my way.

In Max's. Let's eat crap because i am bored. I am supposed to call someone at 6 to set up a meeting and it's still only 5:30. I watch outside the window and see weird people dressed in all kinds of uniforms. When you see a woman dressed as Pocahontas taking pictures of girls dressed as some sort of B-movie superheroes while a group of people passes by with plastic garbage bags for outfits you know something is really wrong. Or amazing. Or Swedish.

Go go power rangers.

I go outside the Norrlands building and sit. I learn from my sis that my mom is in the hospital. I feel depressed. She is not responding to my calls and i just sit there for 3 hours. I doubt many guys would sit 3 hours waiting for someone. I am very proud of my self.

There and back again...

I talk with my new bestie a bit and i head for the bus station. I get in the bus and she keeps me company while i head in the house. The landlord is 70 years old doing yoga. Fun times.

I go up in my room and have a discussion with the person i was supposed to meet. It did not go so well, she thought i was angry. I am not angry. A bit let down but angry? Nahhhh. I eat half a kg of yogurt. I shower. I need to study and sleep.

Goodnight Sweden

PS. If you follow this blog, if you stumble upon it, if you actually like what i write and managed to read through all this crap, send me a message in Facebook or leave me a comment here. I don't care from where you are, i don't care if i know you. Send me a hug or a kiss or a smilie and show me that you care and that you believe in human relations.

Wake me up when september ends

New month, same trouble :D

This is more like a 4 day recap since i was falling behind and now with the start of my lectures it's becoming increasingly difficult to do it every night with only 4 hours rest.

Friday was the last exciting day actually, since i rested on saturday (more on that later), i casually went out on sunday and today was my first experience in my new university.

I had an invite to go to Varmlands for clubbing but i guessed the queue would be big, so i decided to crash into Snerikes for their last "summer" party. The area was big, the music was meh and when i got there at approx 9:20 there were not many people yet. I paid 80 kronor for the entrance fee and 20 kronor to let them keep my coat safe because i am a rich idiot. I had my extra peacock belt with me anyways.

So i did not see anyone i knew. Strangely. Oh wait, there was Despoina from Thessaloniki. We talked and talked and talked and complained, made fun of some fail dancers and after 20 minutes she introduced me to her company, 3 italians, an irish girl and a german dude. Don't ask me their names, all i know is that they made fun of gay people.

Then Ridhima came, with her trusty Pleb in her bag. I teased her about her humongous mouth. She looked very pretty too. Then we went a bit inside, where i got a shitty Heineken beer from New York for 33 crowns. It was crowded, with many dancing monkeys and unheard music that everyone seemed to know but me.

I went to the bathroom. It was intimidating. It was like being in the "Blue Lagoon" bar from the Police Academy series. 10 men with their tiny junks out pissing on the ground, the wall and occasionally in the right hole. So i said to my self "You will piss in 5 hours Kostas, it's ok!" and i washed my face. Half a meter on my left there were two black people, one with a black vest and a fedora hat.

"Al muhajir toulseman mastur", he seemed to say. Twice towards me.

"English??", i replied casually.

He laughs.

"Pissing is like fucking", he says.

"Whatever makes your day dude. You can piss, i can fuck".

"NOoo" he says.

And i left.

Went back, picked Ridhima, and Wacko Kevin from Illinois joined us. I taught him some stuff about women and pick up, he started shaking my hand, asked my friend if she is bisexual and then started saying "Fuck the cops, fuck the government". I got a nice picture of him too.

Atomic mustache on the right.

More people join us. It's Gregor, Amy (luv u!), King Harmeet, Danika, Alice, Natalie, Raymon, Phoebe, Kevin Falafel, Cecilia, Laura. It screamed like fun. We went to the upper floor where they had 2 separate rooms each with wannabe hip hop rnb and electro music.It was so hot we were dancing for a bit then went outside for some air every 5 minutes. It smelled like sweat and really bad cheesy lines. Some of our friends got some action, good joooob :D

Guess the Swede....hint, she is on the left.

Took Kev and we went downstairs to diffuse some sort of situation, he ordered one beer, he got two, we drank a bit and went back up. Alice danced her ass off, i danced a bit with Danika before i broke her heart (sorry love) and we took approximately 25 thousand selfies.

Everyone's here! I told you the King is the coolest dude ever.

As i was dancing a woman approached me and told me "I am so hot right now".

"Go boil an egg", i tell her.

Finally we went down for some air and we decided to get foooood :D I grabbed my coat, number 116, and the guys said let's go to McDonalds. They had bikes. Bastards.

So me and Natalie ran, yes ran at 1am with Phoeb's as support until she gave her bike to Nat.

We reached McDonald's, people ordered and we sat there on a big table messing around. I am on a diet and Danika started feeding me potatoes from what was like whale oil and chicken something. On the table there was some leftover rat-burger that i called 7-week-old guacamole and Kevin almost choked from laughter.

German Engineering.

I threw some potatoes to the flat-ass "seemybracozmyasssucks" swedish lady then asked 2 swedish girls on the table to take photos of us.

"No" she says.

"You suck, let me buy you a glass of bitch" i tell her and move with a smile.

Without the mustache.

We made a tower out of leftovers, took more photos, we tried to guess how many times everyone had sex and we also made Gregor uncomfortable. Bad Danika.

I went for the last bus. There was none. I followed Nat, Raymon, Danika with bus number 11 for the first time. It said Gottsunda central. I hoped.

I sat with Danika, we chatted about our past lives. Raymon slept. Twice. Like 15 more people. A guy actually shook him to see if he was breathing.

So they eventually go down and we continue. It's me and a swedish girl with big headsets sleeping. Suddenly, in the vast nothingness of space the driver stops, asks me to wake her up, which took me 1 minute and tells us it's the last stop.

Good job Kostas. Welcome to adventureland. I ask the driver, he points me to a direction. The woman follows me and i hear her coughing on way. I asked her if she is ok. She says yes but she is cold. I offer her my coat and we have some small talk. I accompany her because i am a proper gentleman. But another gorgeous woman occupies my mind so i don't care. I keep walking. For 20 minutes in the woods in an empty road purely by instinct. I want to pee but i would probably set things on fire.

I finally see something resembling a mall. I am there. I am so tired. I make it home. I pee 25 litters of beer and drop dead on my bed. Goodnight Sweden.

It's saturday. I am trying to set up a meeting with my angel. Time passes and i am eager to see her for a movie. I got Need for Speed. I get dressed with a smile on my face. We cancel. I am a sad panda. It's ok, i will survive..

So i take it out all on the Colombian Coffee. Σε μισώ. I make Kelly lose 35 pounds from laughter and i sleep.

It's Sunday. I do nothing until 5. I talk with my angel. I set up a meeting with Dimitris to fix my phone and find the BMC faculty. He is 15 minutes late so i fix my phone and call my sweetie and tell her not to read so much and come for a walk.

Me and Mitsos go in a park, we walk for 3km back and forth and we are lost. We suck. We go back to Norrlands pub and we get beers and a nice burger. I am so hungry here i ate it with tomatoes and eggs. Yes it was my first time eating eggs. I actually video called my mother and told her there, i was that proud.

Vita's coming and we sit there for 40-50 minutes. Dimitris goes home and i walk her back to her place. I am never washing my right cheek again!

Monday babies. I wake up at 6:30, get out of bed in 6:48. I am ready by 7:27 and i got to pick up the bus that leaves at 7:39.

Intro class with info in the Geocentrum. Easy stuff, cool professor, straightforward class. We finish at 09:00. I manipulate the printing room guy (nah he was so helpful, thanks!), i get my student card, my student account id, my library card. I meet more Greek's, i ate a sandwich for 16 crowns and a classic fika cake for 20 crowns. I download my pdf's and lectures and i decide to go home at 10:54. I pick up the bus, i am at home by 10:18. I start studying at 12:12 after entertaining Kelly. I finish at 14:24. I am dressed and back to the Evolutionsmuseet for my first lecture. We find the room after some trouble. I sit with the video-game addicted french girl. Colombian coffee is absent.

I type all of my notes and then we got a movie called "Sun". It was not so sunny because the professor's netbook made the movie get stuck and out of sync. So we used mine. I was so sleepy.

It's over. I get home. I go to the nearest ICA, buy bread, yogurt, redbull, and some liquid death because i am tired. I am at home. The landlady has Alzheimer's because she double booked the same room to two guys. Davide will be homeless. I am tired.

Goodnight Sweden. Goodnight Uppsala.

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.

Oops, i Uppsala'd again

Wednesday 27 August 2014

"Grrrspssss"

I get startled and increasingly worried that something will ruin my perfect day. It sounded like a bomb or someone puking out his intestines.

"Grrrspssss"

For the love of god where is this coming from. I look around in agony. Who is trying to ruin my perfect swedish day?

"Grrrspssss"

It sounds closer. Doom and gloom. Oh there he is. He is actually sneezing. Can you go die in another corner please? Oh wait?! What is that?!

This looks fishy...

Let's take a closer look.

Run, the fashion police is coming!

So he is sneezing like his heart stopped for 10 seconds and he is wearing two different types, and colors, of shoes. Good job!

So it's 12:24 and i am on my trusty 7. Doors close and we start moving. "Grrrspssss". I must have heard that from 50 meters away. Weird shoe guy.

We get past sommaro and there is a bridge nearby that goes under, and i see a guy with a bike and a hat coming with loads of momentum down the hill. His hat falls down from the speed and that reveals a big bald head that was shiny like it was polished, i could see my reflection and my eyes were burning. His forehead was so big a Boeing 737 could take off from there. He luckily picked up his hat and my adventure continued.

I had planned to meet Andrea from Romania (she actually lives in Sala and is in great need of housing here so please help her. She also has a cute and obedient dog.) at 12:45 so i went to the University main building for the Welcome ceremony outside, near the statue. Cute girls passed by, then Andrea came and we finally met after months of talking.

The main building.

So we met some more people and we took some more photos, i tried to talk to Maria from Saint Petersburg but she looked disinterested so i moved on. Oh we also met a weird urban legend guy called Mattias or something. You can also spot Vasilis and Gregor behind.

Fun times. Stealing the show.

I spot my angel somewhere with a guy called Anton, who just vanished shortly after and we go inside the building. I think it was scary i knew so many people inside. The building was astonishing. More on it's history later. For now let's move around the tables with the various Nation info and see some more pictures.

Starting to get full.

And some more.

Gotlands nation had a nice ram head. On a stick.

I could spot my angel from the other side of the room without even trying. So i went up to her and told her we should take a picture with this girl.

Awww, so sweet.

I started taking pictures with everywhere, because i can. I also saw Roland and Anoud and she started like giving me challenges "talk to these people", "you are crazy", "you are a player", "take a photo with these girls". Funny i tell you. More photos incoming.

Just look at the building.

 And a view from the balcony.

People from all over the world flocking in the reception.

So i kept doing my thing and went in a boring master's students meeting about basic information, which i left shortly after. Oh a guy was so bored he was playing Texas Hold'em. On a 17 inch laptop on the ground. Because he can.

I looked for Vita so many times and each time we did something funny, like promoting some sort of bus tour to the Laplands. We were the admissions couple and when she was touching my hand or my back i felt a jolt going up my spine. Awwww so sweet. She had a scholarship meeting so i told her i will meet her after. We never saw each other again that day. I am a sad panda.

We go in the reception and the view is amazing. The building was presented as a government gift but when they finished it it was considered too luxurious so they refused to pay 2/3 of the cost. The builder paid for it. And died bankrupt and poor. But i guess he left a legacy. Tack.

Ridhima's mouth is humongous! That's Crystal and that's Jose.

 Oh i also met Madle from Estonia finally. We were supposed to live together in a caravan if we were homeless. Oh and A-nuuuuude!

My smile is contageous.

 Then i picked up a bunch of girls and told them to smile. I said "Mascarpone!" and all of them laughed! They are also Italian so it was extra belissimo! I met Cecilia, Laura and Nicoletta!

Cecilia, Laura and Nicky.

The are studying business in the Ekonomikum. Cecilia's skin is so soft and tanned and she is so cute in different circumstances i would have asked her out in a heartbeat.

Getting ready for the reception.

What an amazing architecture!

Some traditional dudes smiling with a uniform.

So the reception is fantastic. There was some royal orchestra that was off-tune, with the maestro glaring one of the violin players like all hell broke loose.

Him on the right next to dimitris!

The vice-chancellor of the University spoke, the Mayor wearing some sneakers, a girl from the student union and my favorite, the international student guide. He was a bit chubby, with a suit and a beard, really big cheeks and a red color like he drank too much red wine. He looked so boring but his voice was absorbing and mesmerizing. He was so funny. Every time he walked to talk i cheered and clap like a baboon.

"Yannis. 100% pure Colombian coffee."

 In the seats we also had King Harmeet, Kevin Falafel and many more Asians.

All hail King Harmeet. Coolest dude ever.

So Anoud tells me to meet some more girls. I talk to a cute one and she started running towards the exit. At least she would survive a caveat or a fire. I ran after her i think she felt scared. I also managed to take the picture with her friends.

Don't run away??

 More people everywhere. I only spoke to Caroline and Melissa, most of them were from the USA.

This is unreal!

We are done with the reception. I go with Cecilia and Laura, they get their bikes and we go towards Norrlands pub, Orvags Krog. Well they were strolling in their bikes, i was catching my breath because i was running. Tack.

So they lock their bikes and i meet some more people, Tobbias from Germany and Catherine from Wales. We teased her all night because she is from Great Britain, but she is actually really nice and funny and she is dressed so well. Classy. Oh she drinks cider too, like a sir.

Hey there sweetie.

We sit around a big table, were we have so much fun and see even more strange people and the waitress was actually greek. More people join us. We are like King Harmeet, General Kostas (meeee), Vasilis, Katherine, Tobbias, Cecilia, Laura, Alberto and three more Korean people.

So we are soooo hungry. I ate some sort of arabic pie but we decided we want pizza. So we went to Papa Something's pizza that nobody speaked italian, so we went instead to Pinocchio's. The owner's nose was bigger because he was also lying that the pizza was italian.

Hmmm what to get..

 We had such an amazing conversation and i was king of the house, entertaining everyone. I told them stories from the dark village and about the lumberjack with the small penis my friend was dating in the woods. Scary. Also i remember Alberto gave us a moment of fun.

"So we take a deck of cards" he says.

"A dick of cards? Wth??" i say.

"A DECK"

"A DICK??"

"A DEEEECK".

"Oh a deck."

We laughed so hard and ate our pizza's. We also learned 35 ways to call someone gay in Italian. Thank you Laura. The bottom line was that the water was sh$t, while the pizza was not so sh$t.

Back to Norrlands walking along the river. We sit in the pub on a massive desk, i spot two more cute swedish girls and they take a photo of us. We are so many, Raymon joined us with two more girls, Francesca from Italy, and a million other people from Greece and Spain. Ohhhh let's not forget Phoebe from Melbourne.

To infinity, and beyond!

More weirdly dressed people walked by, including this.

Harmeet also felt strange i guess when he saw Cruela DeVil.

So i am going back home, reflecting on all this. It's 23:17 and i am entering the door. I go up and collapse on my bed after talking to my huggie buddie Kelly. I hugged the pillow and dreamed of Vita's silky touch and hair.

Goodnight Uppsala.

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.