Gothenburg Study Abroad Winter 2012

2014 Update

2014-10-18T09:40:00.000+02:00

Working Dat 9-5

I was looking through my old blog here and thought I'd update what has been going on since I got back.

It was a tough road but I ended up getting a job full time in Perth's biggest Advertising agency, Marketforce. I was there for 6 months before getting let go of, which was probably the best thing that ever happened to me (I realise this now, not at the time).

Right now, I'm working in a top Digital Marketing Agency doing Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click campaigns. I manage up to 40 clients and I really like what I'm doing now.

Even better, I'm gaining some real skills that I can take with me from this job. When I was unemployed for two months after Marketforce I realised I had no skills to sell afterwards, I had learned so much about how to do nothing. Now I'm learning skills that I could freelance with and as a result I'm already starting a website to start a Search Engine Marketing business in case of a rainy day. It's called Doyle Digital and you're more than welcome to check it out at http://doyledigital.com.au

Thanks to everyone who has read this blog and was interested enough to learn what I was up to these days.

Har det bra!

End of the journey :-(

2013-01-07T15:12:00.002+01:00

Wow it's been a while since I've had a chance to update this. Mainly because I'm now back in Australia after my Lappland trip. I finished up all my 4 units, all in as good of a standing as required to get the pass mark and gearing up for my last semester at Uni!

So where did we leave off, Lappland? Okay! Well I didn't freeze to death but I wasn't far off. Little tip if you are going up there, make sure you stay away from "warm" sports attire like Helly Hansen or North Face and invest in some thick wool attire, it's cheaper too! One major mistake I made was wearing gloves with fingers, I know it doesn't look cool but those mittens allow your fingers to build up warmth together rather than freezing individually. Anyway now we have the cold tips out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff.

The bus journey was to be around 26 hours or so, yeah that's right, 26 hours. Luckily the bus we went in has seats that convert to beds so you can actually get a decent sleep during the night. On the right hand side there is Nik and Jonas geting "comfortable" for the long bus ride. The journey heads east first to pick up students from Linköping University, then continues east before finally heading north (in the right direction) just before getting into Stockholm.

Finally, after many aches and pains we arrive in the mining town of Kiruna, we are finally in Lappland! Kiruna is a very small yet very charming little town and is fairly modern looking for something that is so remote and designed as a mining community. So what was there for us to do here, well I wasn't interested in checking out an iron mine, but I was interested in dog sledging and snowmobiling!

The dog sledging is damn cold, I had every piece of clothing I owned on as well as a ski mask AND an extra outside overall layer that the tour company supplies AAAAND these massively thick snow boots...still not enough! With the wind chill on the moving sledge we were dealing with -30C of toe and finger freezing degrees! Because of that damn overall I couldn't easily access my camera so I only have some after pictures.

The next day we head out to Arbisko, a town that apparently has the best chances possible of seeing the Northern Lights and is our playground for Cross Country Skiing. Now this was my first time doing this "sport" but it's pretty easy to get the hang of after about 10/15minutes. Kind of the same principal as ice skating but you keep the foot movement straight and you have sticks to help you slide along.

Just outside of Arbisko we visited a remote Sami family. The Sami are the native/aboriginal people of this northern strip of land that stretches over Norway, Sweden, Finland and a small part of Russia. They are nomadic people who follow their Reindeer which is their livestock, currency and provides them with everything they need to live. Asking a Sami person how many reindeer they have is the equivalent of asking you how much money you have sitting in your bank account, so we were asking politely not to ask that! So you could imagine what the running joke was every time we were asked if there were any questions. I know it's immature but when you are told not to do something you REALLY want to do it when you would never have thought of it in the first place!

Over the border to Norway where we head to Narvik. Narvik is the (apparently) third best skiing spot in the world. However we were not there for the skiing but for the awesome view...and it was awesome!

I can't remember if this was before or after Narvik but we did stop off at the Ice Hotel...annoyingly it was a few days from it's official opening so we couldn't actually go in there. But we were allowed a "exclusive" look behind the scenes of the factory and the museum of old Ice Hotel sculptures. I honestly would rather have just looked in the hotel itself, okay it was still cool but I really had my heart set on seeing the lobby and a room there.

There is a lot I have probably left out, and since this was over a month ago I will probably have to come back and edit this post a few times but the main thing is it is up and that took a rather large crane to lift me off my arse in order this alone to happen :-)

So what am I up to right now?

Well it's back to the normal life in Perth for me. I am back in the same apartment my girlfriend did such a nice job of keeping warm for me and I've had to do the "grown up" thing and get another job. It's just a duty manager position at a coffee chain but it is close to home, pays me money (which I so desperately need right now). Basically, it will do for now. I'm getting my units organised for my final semester and also getting the ones I did in GU transferred to their equivalents here at ECU.

Other than that, I am just enjoying the seeing the sun again as well as the weather and relaxed lifestyle that is on offer here in the West.

Maybe this will be my last blog entry, maybe not. We shall see!

Journey to the Turk Land!

2012-12-01T09:04:00.002+01:00

With time to fit in extra travel running out, I contacted my friend Onurçan who I met in Austria last year and arranged to meet up with him in his home of Istanbul!

(Onurçan on the right of me back in Halstatt, Austria)

I was really excited to venture over to Turkey as it's just completely different to the rest of Europe which can start to feel same old same old at times. You know immediately at 6am hearing the chanting from the Mosques inviting Muslims to come and pray that you are away from what you know. There are a lot of Mosques in Istanbul, looking over the city you honestly cannot miss them! Each one massive in stature and beautifully crafted.

This city is huge, no joke. The estimated population of Istanbul is thought to be around 23million which is more than the entire country of Australia! It is crazy to see how being so overpopulated makes the locals act. People are more than okay to be squished like shrimps on a bus that drives like a racing car, and cars seem to take little notice of the white lines that divide the lanes as people will cut in between just to get through quicker.

It was really great seeing Istanbul with a local, Onur knew so much about the city of Istanbul it makes me want to have the same level of knowledge about my own home of Perth. Obviously Turkey has a much more elaborate and varied history than that of Australia but still, knowing a story behind everything made the trip a hell of a lot better!

There are so many sides to Istanbul, there are the old bazaars and gathering points with the wealthier modern parts not too far away.

The different food in Turkey was really great, so much flavour in each meal and the Turkish coffee was quite interesting too. I usually cannot stand coffee without milk but this was quite nice! They serve the coffee with water as well since it leaves you really thirsty afterwards!

(Oldest bazaar in Istanbul)

Cats are everywhere in this city! They usually come up begging for food and don't mind a bit of affection either, except for the little bastard that took a swipe at me after I gave it two pieces of meat!

There were so many cool museums and mosques to check out around the city. I cannot even remember how many different places we checked out but all of them were so beautifully designed and built. The wealth of these Sultans during the Ottoman/Byzantine era was truly ridiculous!

It was highly irritating that in most of the museums you could not take any pictures. There was some seriously cool pieces of armour, weapons and clothing. On visit to the archeological museum was 6 of the Chinese terracotta warriors, I was determined to get a picture but typically there was at least 3 guards in that room ensuring I didn't do exactly that. I did however manage to sneak a picture of Onur with these massive Hungarian swords, I don't think you can quite see how large they are on the picture to the right but they were stupidly big. Surly they were for decoration purposes since it would be so impractical to actually use such a thing in battle?

So! Next on the agenda is Lappland! I am somewhat petrified of the cold that I am about to endure. I went to the Helly Hansen store and dropped some serious coin on thermals, midlayers, etc. However it seems to keep me just comfortable here in Gothenburg now we are getting temperature around the -4C mark and dropping as low as -9C at night. For now, I have to smash out one last paper for Opinions in a Mediatized Society which I honestly cannot be bothered doing but as usual I have equipped myself with a nice large Red Bull to help power through it.

So tune in next time to see wether or not I manage to come back alive from the frozen land of Lappland! Until then!

Dark dark Gothenburg + Liseberg

2012-11-23T22:02:00.000+01:00

This is the somewhat depressing side of Gothenburg now. It is getting so dark so early and by 5pm it feels almost like it is 10pm so it feels as if your day is almost over already. It still isn't getting too cold though, staying around 5 to 8 degrees. So basically all the trees are bare with no leaves, it's cold and there has been no snow to compensate for it :-( To the left is the dark and drizzly view from my room at only 4pm.

Views like this (image to the right) during class are now a thing of the past unfortunately.

Class is fairly boring at the moment. Opinions in a Mediatized Society is almost like English Literature where you take news articles and analyse the bias, what is emphasised, what is included, what is excluded, etc. Up until now I have actually had very little (well, actually none) coursework to do and even now the workload is so light and it seems like such an effort to do something so small when you have been inactive. I find you are usually at your most efficient when flooded with work and still somehow manage to fit more into your day. Even though my days are filled with almost nothing to do I still seem to be busy...? Either way, I'm seriously pondering if a finger painting will be enough to pass the unit? Come on it is Erasmus after all! :-D

Overlooking Anvenyn on the awesome Götaplatsen.

All the Christmas lights are up in the city now. Maybe I should say Julafton lights? The whole city is lit up on a small scale but it just adds a nice bit of warmth and light to a city that is so dark at the moment. Liseberg (the theme park) is all light up and should be going there on Saturday for a Christmas festival.

The days are likely to be even shorter when we go up to Lapland which is much further up north in Sweden which is going to absolutely awesome. I really cannot wait! It's gonna be a big blog post, let's put it that way ;-) Just to let you know how far this Lapland region is, I've marked Kiruna (which is a small mining town in the Lapland province) on a Google Map image to the right. I just managed to fit Gothenburg into the image which you'll see on the very bottom left of the image. I think Sweden could be as tall as Australia is wide which is pretty astonishing.

Little fun fact about Kiruna that I learned in Swedish classes is that they are mining so close to the town and are about to dig underneath it, because they fear of the town collapsing they are actually going to move (yes, physically move) the whole town brick by brick a kilometer over to the...well some direction! So I would figure they are making a few kronor up there to justify doing that!

However, I still have to go to Turkey on Monday first! A warmer country! Yes! Yeah okay, they are heading into Winter too but compared to Sweden, it will be nice to head outdoors with only a long sleeved shirt or maybe just a light jacket.

At the moment, my days are filled with going to the gym, going for a walk around the scenic parts of Gothenburg with a coffee in hand, clocking up some YouTube hours and that is pretty much it. Not too much to update on. Yet.

Update 24th November 2012 - Liseberg

So tonight after over three and a half months I finally venture to Sweden's most popular tourist attraction which also happens to be situated only two trams stops away from my place. Liseberg, the big theme park of Sweden. Tonight we went to see the Christmas lights and I have to say straight away it was definitely worth going. The place is lit up so beautifully, there is a few small waterfalls, the trees are all wrapped up with lights, typical Swedish Christmas food and drink and even a little Lappland area that is meant to look like a mini Sami settlement.

As usual, the pictures cannot do the place justice. It feels very typically Swedish (apart from the English Christmas carols) yet it is a bit frustrating just how many people you have to squeeze through just to move anywhere which makes walking in an average sized group more difficult than it needs to be.

The lighting wasn't just limited to tacky tinsel but even small waterfalls, the ferris wheel and the reindeer island were illuminated nicely in blue. There was a few different areas with different themes, one of them was the North Pole where you could go into Santa's workshop. It had this big machine that you could write what you want for Christmas and feed it into the machine...okay it's not really for adults but we didn't know that at the time! :-P

In short, it is a nice place to spend the evening. I can't really go on about it much more to be honest so I'll just dump a few pictures on here. Take it easy, everyone!

Helmutsrogatan Student Housing, Gothenburg

2012-11-18T16:21:00.002+01:00

Most people find my blog searching Google for Helmutsrogatan (Helmutsrogatan 13 & Helmutsrogatan 15). This is a random blog post but I figured since a lot of people are looking for information, I'd add something on here to offer something more relevant for what people are searching for. I myself had to choose blindly to what student accommodation I was supposed to choose due to almost no good information online.

Helmutsrogatan is arguably the best student housing that you will get offered at GU. The location is great and the living conditions are superb. The only housing that is located better than Helmuts is Olofshjöd which is one tram stop away, but you don't get a kitchen or fridge - you have to share with about 14 people. Plus Olofs is a bit like living in an old fashioned council block, I personally would hate it. The other housing options are apparently good but they are kind of in the middle of nowhere.

When you first arrive / Getting to the SGS Office

From Landvetter Airport: There is a 'Flygbuss' that will take you from Landvetter airport to a tram station called Korsvägen. From there, jump on Tram 2 (Mölndal) or Tram 4 (Mölndal) and stop at Almedal

From Centralstationen: You just catch the 2 or 4 to Möldnal to Almedal. Look for the signs to Spårvagn (Trams).

At Almedal: The SGS Studentbostäder Office is somewhere in Olofshöjd, I don't know the easiest way to get there on foot since I drove in, but I've put a map up to make it a bit easier. I'll ask one of the other guys later on how they get there, I know it looks confusing. There are lots of stairs and paths that are unmarked in this area and should be easier than the maps makes it looks.

(Don't worry, I didn't use Apple Maps!)

Now to get to Helmuts: Now jump back on the Tram and get off at the next stop which is Elisidal. The student housing is across the road from the Shell/7-11 petrol station.

Finding your room and shops at Helmuts

Building 13 and 15 are in the same place and there is no difference in the rooms, 13 is closest to the petrol station and 15 is on the other side.

Finding your room: Some people may think this a stupid thing to put on here but when I first came I could not for the life of me see the numbers on the doors. They are up on the top left corner and are extremely small. If your room is 1xxx your are on the second floor, 2xxx the third floor, etc.

Getting home: Catch either Tram 2 or Tram 4 to Mölndal again. These two Trams will always get you back home.

Food Shopping: There are two food stores close by, Willy's is your normal food store and then a bit further down the road is ICA Maxi, which is a food store plus a general goods store so you are able to buy some basic bedding (which you will need since non are supplied in your room) and will have a better selection of pots, pans and containers if the person before you did not leave any.

Mölndalsvägen is basically Mölndals Road, everything you need is on this street and within 5-10 minutes walking from the student housing. Both these photos below were taken from Mölndalsvagen.

ICA Maxi (Left) and Willy's (Right)

Furniture: The best idea is to make your way to IKEA but there is a nice second hand store in the same area of shops that Willy's is in that is pretty cheap. It's nice to get a rug or something to cosy up the room a little.

Gym: There is a Sportlife on Möldnalsvägen before you turn to into Willy's. They offer student discounts.

Gothenburg: Tram 2 will take you to Brunnsparken which is where you will likely want to go to be in the centre of Gothenburg. It takes roughly 10 minutes.

Getting to your Uni Faculty

Handelshögskolan (Left) or Social Sciences (Right): Tram 2 will take you straight to Handels' tram stop, but the quickest and nicest way is to take tram 4 to Valand and walk up Vasagatan until it ends. To your left will be Handels and in front of you, cross the raod (Sprängskullsgatan) to get into the faculty.

Campus Linné: Catch Tram 2 to Linnéplatsen and keep walking in the direction that the tram would be going. You will see it.

Main Building: Is on Vasagatan, you will see it on your left walking up from Valand if you take the number 4. For orientation you are likely to end up in Bethlehem's Church which is directly across the road.

I think that's all I can think of for now. I hope this helps give you some sort of bearing to what will be your new home for the next 6 months, year, or however long you decide to stay :-)

Throw a comment down below if you like this info or you think something else needs to be added!

Cruise to Riga!

2012-11-16T00:25:00.003+01:00

It's been a while since anything has been put up here. I haven't been up to much but somehow you can end up incredibly short of time when you are doing nothing. Luckily the course load is a joke at the moment so I am able to finally take it easy.

Off to Stockholm we went, on the train from Gothenburg that only took roughly 4 hours to reach the other side of the country in pretty good comfort. Power sockets, WiFi and cushy reclining seats make it a very bearable journey. It seemed not many people were keen on sightseeing around Stockholm so it is really a good thing I had seen the place before, and also in good weather too. Big difference seeing the capital at this time of the year, gloomy and rainy with not many hours of sunlight. It is still a beautiful city mind you.

I must admit though it was a nice change being in another city and not rushing around to see all the sights and just taking it easy with a few light pub sessions and a Sunday Funday of Bowling which is always a laugh, especially when things start getting competitive.

These cruise liners are actually quite good value for money. I mean the cabins are far from spacious but the beds are ready made, and looks quite nice and has a few restaurants, clubs and bars. The only thing I just couldn't take is the constant rocking of the boat once we were out of the port, I think I was one of the only people on the boat not really drinking and thought I could possibly be the only one to throw up!

Once in Lativa, the sight was not exactly majestic. You straight away get this feeling that "Yep...I'm in Eastern Europe" and obviously the locals feel it too. All of them are so silent in public, look depressed and stare at you if you show those white squarish things that appear when you open your mouth.

One thing I was very surprised of is the local currency (Lati) is stronger than the Euro is. 10Lati is roughly 12Euros, but of course everything in Riga was still fairly cheap. For 11 of us to have a decent meal in a nice restaurant was 90Lati (100Euro).

There was undeniably beautiful parts of Riga, and construction on the other side of the city looks like the country is really trying hard to establish itself. Apparently the city has a good reputation for nightlife too, but for me it's more or less all the same. There are some streets of the city that couldn't hide its Communist past where it is poorly maintained and locals have propped up open air stores with cheap, fake products.

Apart from a last minute sprint to the train to Gothenburg, due to waiting for the girls to get off the boat, the return journey was more or less the same and uneventful. The benefits of not being a big drinker showed through that morning since everyone looked like death while I was feeling quite fresh and awake.

As usual, glad to be back in the comforts of my familiar little Gothenburg. There is more yet to come though. I've just booked a trip to Istanbul to meet an old friend I met in Austria, then only a few days later I travel up to Lapland with dog-sledging and snowmobile activities booked! It's gonna be more than awesome and will look forward writing that blog, I will just have to remember to take plenty of photos since I never thought to take any of the boat to Latvia.

Berlin & Paris!

2012-10-28T19:39:00.003+01:00

So my girlfriend arrived on the 15th October for two weeks here in Sweden. Naturally, her coming all the way from Australia it would be a shame to only stay in Sweden, so it's time to hit the continent!

I still had (and have) work to do at this point so three days worth of travel was all we could really fit in unless I was prepared to work non stop on a red bull only diet with the last few days of my assignments due. Anyway we start by flying to Berlin to our hostel at night, sleep there and go back to Tegel Airport early in the morning to start our day trip in Paris.

You hear a lot about Paris. Some people build it up to sound like the most magical city in the world while others say its not as good as those people say it is. In my opinion, it was a pretty damn impressive city. There is a lot of huge and imposing buildings close together and the sheer size of the city itself is massive. Of course, there are the main attractions that we had to see: The Eiffel tower, the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe.

While the city was no doubt amazing there are a few things that I didn't like. For a start there are parts of the city that can be a bit smelly, you will guaranteed be intercepted by some form of beggar every 15 minutes around the tourist traps, they ask you if you speak English first and even if you say no they will still try to pester you. You almost have to shout at them to get them to leave you alone. The pollution levels are evident, too. For a start you often get the smell of exhaust fumes from cars and then you can see it in the greenery in the city. Some of the leaves and plants look like they have almost corroded from it and look seriously unhealthy.

Anyhow, later that evening it was back to Berlin to our hostel for another night in the city...where we don't actually see the city. Next day though we did more or less the same thing, rush to see as much as we could. It's a bit exhausting but fun at the same time, however Berlin is no where near as a beautiful city as Paris is. You can tell there is a lot to do and reasonably cheap if you lived there - but as a tourist attraction, it's not really the best.

There was a lot of cool architecture in the city and the main strip of shops near Zoologischer Garten train station was pretty impressive. Almost American styled with the giant Europa Centre. Apparently it was one of the first American styled shopping malls in Europe in a city? A bit hard to believe though since it is pretty modern looking. Inside there was a cool little chemistry looking feature that gave the exact time!

It was a fairly decent effort seeing two major/capital cities in the space of three days. It is really good seeing all these different cities because you begin to realise that there really is a compromise for everything in terms of size, tourist attractions and levels of development. I think we were both glad to get back to Gothenburg. As fun as traveling is, it can get pretty exhausting and quickly too! The hard life, huh?

Speaking of Gothenburg, since I've had so much work to do my girlfriend and I have just been spending the days having short trips into the centre and showing her the University. It is still, even after two and a half months, an amazing city to chill out and relax in. I'm really glad I chose to come to Gothenburg.

It's Sunday now, and I have a short paper for Mass Media due tomorrow and a larger course paper due for Swedish Politics on Wednesday. After this week I will be starting up with Opinions in a Mediatized Society, hopefully I will know what it's like for everyone else to only have one subject at a time for a change! I will also have to take my girlfriend back to Landvetter airport to wave goodbye on Monday and not see her again until I am back in Australia late January :-(

Until next time!

Copenhagen Road Trip!

2012-10-09T22:28:00.001+02:00

It's time for another road trip, this time to Copenhagen! So I found it was cheaper to hire a car and split the costs between the 5 of us going than taking an overnight bus or a train. Only 1100SEK to rent this nice big Volvo XC70 from Friday to Monday! You could never hire a car that cheap back home.

It also a bit of fun driving here in Scandinavia again. People drive quite fast over here but because the roads are so smooth it doesn't feel like you are flying along at 140km/h. Okay so it's hardly Autobahn speeds but it's enough to get you in a bit of trouble back on Perth freeways.

This time I was traveling with a car full of Australians. It was actually quite nice to be able to speak English quickly and with a bit of slang words here and there which you get forced out of when abroad, since no one will be able to understand you. Although I have to say that isn't a bad thing at all, it's good to get out of those habits for when you have to enter a professional environment, it's less of a struggle.

The highlight of the road trip without any doubt was the Øresund bridge which connects Sweden (Malmö) and Denmark (Copenhagen) over nearly 8kms over the Swedish coast, onto an artificial Danish island where you enter a tunnel to come out the Danish mainland.
The first time we drove over it the weather was extremely bad so you couldn't see Denmark or Sweden on the bridge so it felt as if you were floating over the ocean and driving into nothing. Really spooky but just amazing. It's expensive to cost at around 370SEK (around AU$50) but it was worth it.

(This picture is off the internet. We couldn't get a good photo of the bridge itself.)

Once in Copenhagen we checked into the Danhostel which was cheap, clean and had a great view of the City! On the way back from ditching the car in a free parking area, we stumbled upon this new part of Copenhagen which is super modern and just a fantastic place to be. Even in the older part of Copenhagen there was a few modern buildings mixed in with the old grand buildings from the Danish glory days.

I guess one thing Copenhagen is well known for is being the most bicycle friendly city in the world and from my experience, it's true. There is a really great network of bike paths that are wide, safe and disconnected from the main roads mostly. They are considered a viable mode of transport and you will witness rush hour with bikes just like you would with cars at peak times. Even at midnight, there are plenty of cyclists filling the cycle lanes.

However the city is absolutely littered with bicycles. It has a certain charm I guess but I feel it looks a bit tacky at times.

Another great service offered by the Danish capital is free bicycle hire. You slot a 20DKK coin in like a Supermarket trolley and get it back when you lock the bike up again.
In theory, fantastic. In practice, David and I had to go to about 8 different locations to actually find a second bike for him to ride after I managed to score one straight away. In fact when we first found a bike rack of these 'freebies' there were three bikes, mine (which worked fine) another which wouldn't unlock for David, then he managed to get the other one unlocked but the pedals wouldn't move the bike! Funny now but at the time it was frustrating going from rack to rack to find others vandalized locked up with someones bike lock or completely empty whilst I was walking the bike along.

One of the major attractions in is to see the Little Mermaid statue. It has a level of significance since the author of the popular children's story was from Copenhagen. Honestly, it's a bit lame...but then walk along the coast a little bit further and one of the best statues I've ever seen. Pictures just don't do this thing justice but it was massive and extremely powerful to look at.

Architecture was amazing in Copenhagen, it didn't take long walking through the city before you find something to turn your head. You really get the feel that this was once a powerful empire that conquered and ruled most of Scandinavia. In fact, I understand the Danes actually burned Gothenburg down to a crisp at least twice during their fight to become independent of Danish rule again.

(Floating house in the middle of Copenhagen)

Finally, Christiania. What is it? It's this little area in Copenhagen that is self Governed. Which basically means you can go in there and smoke weed and space out. Getting a picture outside of the gate is one of those must-do touristy things but they do not allow you to take pictures inside. I think we spent about 5 minutes in total in this place before we got the idea. I don't really know what I was expecting but yeah, it's a complete dump filled with hippies and clothing stands for you to look homeless and blend in.

Overall Copenhagen is an awesome place to go to for the weekend and living in Gothenburg we are really lucky to have it so close. This will more than likely be the last of the road trips now since I've hit up both neighbouring countries on the West Coast of Sweden.

Now, I am absolutely flooded with course work. Monday (yesterday) I had to be up to drop the car off at Hertz, get to class by 8am, work on a presentation to present at 2pm. Then off to the Swedish exam at 6pm which I think went pretty well, hopefully I managed to get into that top group for the next group of lessons. Then once I was home, I had to work on another presentation on Swedish Civil Society that I presented this morning. Understandably, I got back home at midday and slept until 6pm.

The work still doesn't stop since I have a paper in Mass Media in Sweden due next week as well as a take home exam which will come online for Swedish Politics tomorrow afternoon.

...I guess the holiday had to stop and the study begin at some point. Schedules are not supposed to jam like this normally, I just got unlucky with the way I selected my courses. Although it won't be too bad after these next 4 weeks since I will have a lot of gaps in my schedule so lots and lots of time will be on my hands then.

What I'm basically saying is that I probably won't be doing much substantial blogger for a little while. Though I know some people have found my blog searching for 'Helmutsrogatan' or 'Study Abroad Gothenburg' so I may do a little entry about the student accommodation, what's around it and accessibility to the City.

Until then! Hej då!

Oh and one last thing. When we were getting some food and drinks for the road trip back to Sweden, the guys managed to find a beer with 10.5% alcohol! I thought Sweden was crazy with the 7% beers. No wonder why Danes are such rowdy people! :-P

Norwegian Weekend!

2012-09-24T16:00:00.001+02:00

This weekend was a trip to Oslo but before that, a little trouble in paradise. Another nice sunny yet cold morning in Gothenburg on Friday, I walk out to get my bike with plenty of time for a meeting with someone from my class to work on a presentation of comparing politics from Israel to Sweden and I think "Oh, where did I park my bike?"...then not too far from where I did park it, I find this:

It was locked, from the front wheel, through the frame and around the back wheel. These guys had obviously come with a nice little tool and cleaned a nice and precise slit in the chain and these things are not easy to cut off. Now I know why these Swedes have these giant steel locks that weight more than the bike itself does. God, it upset me so much...I was almost furious! Not just that my bike was stolen but that it happened at the student accommodation. I mean lets face it, we are all exchange students here and 95% of us come from countries that are not as well off as people living in Sweden. Luckily it didn't ruin the day completely. Still managed to have a good study session and was able to not be an asshole to anyone which sadly is very easy to give in to doing when you are mad.

On to the good stuff though. A lovely 5.15am alarm rings and I scurry to pack and organise myself for a 6am meet in the carpark to get on the road to Oslo. So let's do this!

Thanks to Nik's Autobahn skills we were in Oslo just after 10am. We stayed in a student apartment in this rather ghetto area thanks to Matthieu's connection from back in his home University in France. It was a good thing too, because DAMN, Norway is expensive. I mean Sweden in comparison is to the rest of the world is an expensive country but even still I felt I had crossed the Mexican border into the USA with a handful of Peso. I mean seriously, a bottle of coca-cola was literally double! The guys paid around 11Euros or AU$15 for one pint in a pub, just a regular pub, nothing special about it.

Even with Norway being the Qatar of Scandinavia with all it's oil money and expensive costs of living, it really doesn't seem to be much better off than Sweden is. If anything I think Sweden is just a little bit cleaner, a little bit nicer. Gothenburg is much more relaxed too but I guess it's unfair to compare Norway's capital city with the World's largest town. I much preferred Stockholm too, that city is amazing.

One of the coolest structures I have seen is the Oslo Opera House. The roof is slanted and is designed for you to walk over it all the way up to the top and you get a pretty good view all over Oslo and at night, it was simply breathtaking. If it wasn't so damn cold I could have stayed there from sunset to sunrise with the good company that I had.

There was also a large park on an outer side of the city full of sculptures. I'm not really sure what to think of it to be honest, is it art or is it just weird? Lots of naked sculptures but a lot of them were children, it made me a bit uncomfortable and some of the positions they were in...I just didn't understand.

Overall it was a great weekend trip. I think though if you are going to travel to Norway it is better to go into the north in the Summer for the stunning nature and countryside. However, the sheer cost of Norway would probably stop me from going back again, which is a shame. It was a really good way to forget about the loss of my bike too! :-D

Until next time!

Update + Swedish Course

2012-09-16T15:15:00.000+02:00

What's up everyone? It seems here that every single day something is going on in terms of parties or events. I've not even been going to half of these things and still it is exhausting. There was a joint birthday party going on last night and I just had to sit this one out and have a quite night in as I heard everyone partying from outside my door. My limit of being around large groups of people is not too high I guess.

The weather here is getting progressively colder. Had a few nasty rainy days but as it does in Gothenburg, the day does a complete 180 and brings the sunshine out again. There is seriously never any point in looking at the weather forecast here. I don't even bother with a weather app on my phone anymore (just so you know I'm serious :-P ).

Student Kick-Off Gothenburg was on the other night at Trädgård'n. There were apparently some pretty big names playing (big 'Swedish' names). The only one I had actually heard of before was Iconica Pop who didn't even bother to show up, so that was nice. They know students like to come to these sort of things quite late so they really tried to get people there by 7pm indicating that people that come much later wouldn't get in and it kind of ruins the night doing things that way. By 11pm the club had cleared half of itself out from people who had gotten there earlier.

Even late at night it feels safe in Gothenburg. Even at around 2am I've never felt unsafe at a tram stop waiting to get home. There is no drunk people spilling out onto the streets, shouting or violence it seems. I'm sure there are dodgey spots over here but it's nice to be able to feel safe in the city centre and on public transport where you often can't avoid being.

What I really want to start doing is a bit of travel around the rest of the continent. I'm surprised no one else here has mentioned getting away for a weekend, especially since going out here in Sweden is mega expensive compared to the rest of Europe (not compared to Australia though, it's actually a little cheaper). We did book a cruise from Stockholm to Riga, Latvia and planning a trip to Lapland but these are a bit later in the semester. I wanna go somewhere now!

17 Sept 2012 UPDATE: I thought I would just edit the above entry since there isn't much new to add and the previous entry could use a bit of bulking up of content anyway.

So I literally just got back from Swedish language for beginners and I have to say, learning this language is really fun! Yeah okay so I'm a nerd, whatever. Seriously though it's just got such a nice sound to it and I love the way you sort of jump up and down with the tone. It's a pretty simple language too in the way it is structured so I'm really gonna give it a go to get as good at this as I possibly can.

It was in another section of the University near Körsvagen (tram stop which is three stops from outside my apartment) which I had never been to before but had walked past it so many times. Really beautiful little garden outside too. I love this place more the longer I stay and the more I see. So funny how I was worried if this place was going to be any good when I first arrived.

So my first real entry in Swedish:
Hej! Jag heter Andrew. Jag kommer från Australien och jag bor i Göteborg.
(Hey! I'm called Andrew. I come from Australia and I live in Gothenburg)

Learning Swedish like a boss! Yeah! Jag gillar min språkkurs :-)

Oops! One more thing I will add is that I actually ran out of mobile data today. Got a text from Halebop saying that I can still use it, but it's just going to be slower. Haha, even on my exhausted pre-paid card this downgraded internet is still faster than Vodafone in Perth. How bad is that? Anyway, just thought I'd throw that in.

Back to School

2012-09-06T12:40:00.001+02:00

Getting back into the swing of Uni now. It's good having to have some form of structure to the week again. So the way the schedule at Uni works here is you focus more or less on one subject at a time, so at the moment I'm doing Swedish Politics in a Comparative Society and that's it! The contact time is only like 4 hours as well so it's a really relaxed lifestyle.

The only thing I wonder with this structure, is if it give Swedes much of an opportunity to learn how to multi-task? Or does that type of stress go against their beliefs of what a healthy lifestyle and work/life balance is? I mean I hate the crunch at Uni where you are getting attacked by all four units at the same time but I still think it is good for you to be able to really knuckle down and pull through when you can...however, this is an exchange semester, so the more cruisey it is for me, the better!

A group of us ended up checking out the archipelago on Saturday which was lucky, a lot of us planned to do it on Sunday and the weather would have been awful for it! Was a nice day out but it's the countryside, a lot of nothing to do. Then again after all the nights out it was actually a nice change.

It was quite funny how the walking paths were just rocks embedded in muddy grass and some planks of wood and the path is indicated by a little blue dot on a rock every 100meters or so. I would be sure someone would have hurt themselves here before and back in Australia that would have prompted clear signage, a proper walking path and signs saying that you stray from the path at your own risk. It makes you feel like you get treated as a bunch of retards, really.

It is quite nice that you can access the rather large boats with a small cafeteria in them with your daily tram card/ticket. I would have expected to have to pay an extra fee for that. One thing I must say about the public transport here is that they put a fair bit of trust in you to do the right thing. I haven't once been checked to see if I had a valid ticket here in Gothenburg.

I wonder how many people take advantage of it? Then again apparently if they do catch you it's a 2,000SEK fine (roughly $350) which is pretty hefty. However I remember in Perth when security wasn't so tight, daily commuters would risk not getting the ticket and even if they were caught once per week they still ended up around $20 better off than paying the fare.

(A calm change compared to one of two pub crawls in two consecutive nights)

I really am so grateful to be living here in Helmutsrogatan. I went to someone's apartment for pre-drinks in Olofshöjd and, damn, the place was almost like a prison. Tiny rooms with no kitchens or even a little fridge in them, around 18 people have to share a kitchen which is roughly the same size as the one I have in my room here. So unless you are eating out all the time then the place is almost unlivable. I guess at least they would be grateful for a place to live? There were some students who were still looking for a place to live when we were going through the University Inductions.

It's getting pretty exciting as a few people are already talking about trips to Oslo and some to Lapland and Russia. Looks like I'd better manage my time well since there obviously is not going to be much of it left over for studying. For now though, it's Swedish National Identity to go over.

Let's do this! Pass with Distinction style!

Better and better!

2012-08-31T12:16:00.001+02:00

I currently have time to update this blog as I was a bit of a retard this morning. Other GU faculties had their induction days at 10.00, which I thought was the same for Social Sciences, it wasn't...it was at 1500 which I only found out sifting through my e-mails while wondering where the other international students are.

I could really have used the sleep in this morning, even though I got back to my room at quarter to midnight, the other guys were partying on to past 2AM. I'm so happy knowing how they will have to suffer today at their inductions...so happy :-) Yeah, it's a bit evil but I think it's valid.

This city just keeps getting better and better. You keep finding more cool places in Gothenburg to go to and hang out in. I've made a little group of friends since the last blog entry, our little group consists of an English girl, a Swiss German, a German living in Switzerland another Australia, and myself of course.

(Niklas, Jonas and Rhian)

We have already had a general induction to GU in terms of what is expected of us, rules and regulations, all the boring stuff. However where we had it was pretty nice. It's not actually a part of the University, it's the Bethlehem Church on Vasagatan because the GU auditorium hall isn't big enough anymore to seat all the International Students they take in now.

I thought the student life was good in Australia but in Sweden it's even better. The welcome reception by the major of Gothenburg was awesome! We were all invited to the Old Stock Exchange building and honestly the place is magnificent! There was free (good quality) food and wine as well, I not really a wine drinker usually but whatever that bottle of red was, I love it! I felt so under dressed but at least I wasn't the worst one there by any measure, there as one guy in a singlet.

The general buzz in Gothenburg is really cool. It's a huge city really and there is a lot of it I still haven't covered yet, but it's got this chilled out vibe that you never get in any other big cities around the world. You can walk at your own pace and not going to get in anyone's way or irritated anyone, there is so much space here and plenty of it consists of little parks and gardens. Really enjoying this Fika culture too. Fika is like coffee, cake and some good conversation which is something I'm always up for. You hear about Sweden being expensive, and it is, but this place called Pour Bon (I think that means For Good in French?) which is pretty classy but cost 50SEK for a large coffee and a meringue. Not bad at all! There are street musicians around as well so you always have something nice to listen to at the same time. It's so easy to relax here. I have to say, Gothenburg is awesome!

The language is slowly coming on as well. I still don't really understand too much or can say anything in Swedish but each day you pick up words here and there and getting used to the way they pronounce things. It may not be as difficult of a language as I once thought :-)

I'm looking forward to getting accustomed to the University and getting some sort of routine back. It's been really good though having all this time off to get accustomed to the city. Still don't quite know my way around off by heart but I have a pretty good idea which is just going to make life as a student a heap easier.

'Till next time, thumbs up!

Settling In

2012-08-25T18:46:00.002+02:00

It's the weekend and I think it's time for another blog entry!

Not much has happened really, just been getting used to my surroundings having quite nights in watching movies/episodes on the laptop and heading to the gym. With the exception of today, the weather has been mostly light rain. However that hasn't stopped me from going into the centre each day.

Gothenburg definitely has it's charm and I have to say I wasn't that impressed when I first got here...but it's really growing on me and you find the little gems here.

I've gotten to know where the important things in the city are for me for when I start studying, like where my faculty is and the main building of GU. I've never studied at an inner-city University before but I think it's gonna be cool. As they (GU) say on their website, it is pretty much like the whole city is the campus. I thought it was gonna be quite confusing or inconvenient having the University spread across the city but it's all fairly close together and from what I can gather it's just the faculties that are in separate locations. So thankfully it doesn't look like I'll have one class on Aksjashfgatan or Kjsdfhtorget (my comical impression of what Swedish road names look like).

I'm actually really looking forward for the semester to begin. I am keen to see how different Uni will be here compared to ECU back in Perth and I'm really happy to be doing Social Science units and getting some PR/Advertising ones marked off in their place. It's not to say that the PR/Advertising units are bad at ECU, but for me personally I don't feel like they challenge me to think differently the way the Marketing units have.

(Main GU building on Vasagatan)

Since most people seem to get around here by Bicycle, I thought it would be best to get one of my own. I was searching blocket.se, it's more or less the Gumtree/Craigslist of Sweden. So from what I have found is that the amount of used bikes is few and the pricing is not great unless you are happy with a rusted hipster ride, and new bikes are stupidly expensive. However I did manage to finally find a descent bike in Team Sportlia in the shopping complex between Centralstation and the Opera House for 2,500kr! It's an Australian brand as well (Peak) so why not, hey? I will have to fiddle with it a little bit as the gears seem to slip around a bit, but a little visit to the University of YouTube I guess I just have to fiddle with the rear derailleur a bit.

(My new bike on the left. The right, showing how heavy the use of bikes is in Gothenburg)

So what about the culture here then? Well so far I've found everyone really friendly and willing to help out and have no problem switching over to English for you. There is a structure of how everything should work and the Swedish like to follow it. There is an order of priority: Pedestrians >Cyclists>Cars and everyone understands who they have to give way to and there is no aggression about it.

I'm yet to really see anything in Sweden that is cheaper than what they would be in Australia. I knew people said Scandinavia was expensive but I thought that was just to the standards of the rest of the continent. Apparently Norway is meant to be even more expensive than Sweden is so on one hand I want to avoid it like the plague but then I hear about the stunning scenery there so I may just get suckered in yet.

I also ran into an old housemate from Australia midweek. I knew he lived in Gothenburg but I didn't think I would bump into him around this more southern part of the area. Even he was saying he never shops at that centre but he was working in the area. It was really good to see a familiar face in what at the moment is an unfamiliar place.

This is the arrival week for most International Students, so it will nice to meet who I'm going to be studying with and have some people to hang out with more regularly. It's all pretty well organised here, On Wednesday there is a Student Fair at the main GU building to get to know everyone and then apparently all International Students are greeted by the Mayor of Gothenburg which I think is pretty cool.

I think that's it for now. Will probably update in a week when there is something to report. Later!

Journey to Gothenburg

2012-08-22T11:03:00.001+02:00

Okay so a bit to catch up on. My last day in Stockholm was pretty much uneventful, just had a cycle around Djurgarden. The island is nice and full of museums, I went into the Nordea Museum planning to go on to Vasa next but to be honest these museums are really not my sort of thing.

(Nordea Museum. It was better on the outside I felt.)

It was almost a shame to leave Stockholm. On one hand I was all Stockholm'd out as I had pretty much seen and done everything there is (within my interests and patience) to do. Then I had also familiarised myself with the City quite well and in Sodermalm I found some favorite places to eat. This really nice Malaysian guy who has been in Sweden for 30 years now owned this little coffee shop and would always give me a jumbo cuppacino for the regular price...maybe because I said we are practically neighbours? Then there was this place called Dragon Sushi where I could get a really good and filling meal and a relaxing area to eat too, where as some places when you sit outside were practically on the road.

(Some local beggars after my meal in Sodermalm)

So, next day I get up early to go to Hertz hoping for a snazzy little Volvo to head over to Gothenburg...I ended up with a Kia Cee'd. After I had done the deal, I realised it was a manual as well, normally not a problem if I didn't have to drive on the wrong side of the road. Getting out of Stockholm was easy yet stressful, I felt like the right hand side of the car was hanging off the side of the road ready to hit anything I pass, and I tried to take off in 3rd gear...twice.

(The little Korean missile)

Once on the motorway (E4 to Gothenburg) I got a chance to just get comfortable with the different setup.

Driving here in Sweden is really nice in comparison to Australia. People use the overtaking lane to overtake and then slot back into the right hand side, where as back home people will just pick a lane and sit in it regardless if someone wants to go past you or not.

(Little delay outside Jonkoping. Stopping traffic and allowing a segment of traffic to drive on the one open lane.)

It was a pretty uneventful journey over to Gothenburg. Took me roughly 5.5 hours with two toilet and red bull breaks. Once in Gothenburg it was a bit of a nightmare trying to find my way to where the student housing office was. Renting the car was a more expensive option to get to Gothenburg but wow am I glad I did it, I would not have gotten to the office had I not. There was a slight issue that I was supposed to go somewhere else to sign the rental agreement first before picking up the keys. Luckily they let me just have the keys and told me to sign the agreement the next day.

So, after getting to the block of apartments it took me ages to even see where the door numbers where located. The numbers are small little stickers on the corner of the door frame, I was looking for at least 10minutes. Anyway, at least when I opened the door it was a pleasant surprise to see the room. It's actually quite nice and I have a little kitchenette with four hotplates and a little oven and a pretty decent size fridge - actually it's pretty big considering it's just for one person.

(Impossibly difficult door numbers to find)

(Got pretty much everything here apart from a laundry)

It was bliss to be able to sleep in a room on my own. After three nights in that hostel in Stockholm, I was getting a bit tired of other people's company even though most people were quite nice. I actually met another person from Perth in the hostel, he was there for a day but then he was off to travel through Russia and down to Asia and then eventually fly back to Australia.

I haven't really had the chance to see Gothenburg properly yet as I've just passed through it to give the car back to Hertz and go get my rental agreement signed. It's defiantly not as beautiful or impressive as Stockholm is but it feels like a nice place to live. There were times in Stockholm I felt like I got in the way of people because I wasn't walking fast enough for them, Gamla Stan was the exception but that island is a tourist hotspot so I guess the locals keep out of there then?

So far I've managed to buy some bedding, get a descent food shop and sign up a gym membership just around the corner. Right now, it's looking pretty gloomy outside, grey skies with some light rain. I guess I might head down to the University and pick up my student ID and familiarise myself with where the Social Sciences faculty is and the best way to get there. I want to buy a bicycle realistically since the public transport system, while incredibly efficient and frequent, is terribly expensive. I'm gonna have to find a used bike since this store close by sells bikes at around 4,500kr (maybe $600) and they are pretty basic too. I may also try and open a bank account today here, I have no idea how much I am being charged using my Australian debit card and since everything is going through as Credit transactions over here it takes a while for my balance to update.

Overall, everything is going well. There does appear to be some form of laundry war going on since someone was kind enough to remove my washing from the dryer to replace it with one towel. I will learn the rules of this game and crush whoever did this like a puny American ant under the boot of mighty Stalin.

(Bye KimmyYong, it hertz to give you back!)

Första dagen

2012-08-18T15:31:00.005+02:00

Right! My first real day in Sweden! I was planning on doing a bit of a blog at Doha and then another update when I got to the hostel but you know how it is. You never feel like doing anything fresh off a plane.

So yesterday I just caught the Arlanda express to Stockholm, the train was so cool. Free fast Wi-Fi, looks like it was decorated by IKEA and most of all, a toilet where a heads up display in the mirror telling you how fast you are serving up (like in tennis)...or it could be how fast the train is going...? :-P

Once in Stockholm I just caught a Taxi straight to the Hostel, I just wanted to sleep and it was raining like hell. Driving through Stockholm was nice, it's so cool how all these little islands are just connected up into one big city. There are 14 islands connected by I think 59 bridges. The effect is just amazing. I've never seen anything like it. I mean Perth has quite a beautiful view from Kings Park but this is something else.

(Pictures above in Sodermalm)

Once at the hostel and before sleeping I had a little walk around Sodermalm and everything seemed complicated. Today, rested, Stockholm is the easiest place to get around! It's amazing how big of a task things seem when you are tired. You can either walk between all the islands (in decent time too) or you can take the T-Bana (Metro), you can take ferries and trams too but I will keep it cheap and simple for now :-) Once you know how to get around on the Metro you are never waiting more than 5 minutes for a train.

So walking around I accidentally ended up in Gamla Stan (Old Town) to the Kings Palace where a military march was about to begin. It was a little bit funny actually since some of the horses took a nice dump right in the centre of where many of the soldiers had to march...or maybe it's meant to be like that for the King's entertainment. He must get bored like the rest of us do?

From there wound up in the city centre of Stockholm. I have to say this city is really beautiful. Everything is so clean and well kept. People are quite friendly too and all speak English. I do want to learn Swedish eventually but right now I'm so grateful everyone can speak to me in my language. However I do think I underestimated how difficult Swedish is going to be to learn. I'll just take it easy and learn it when I'm getting those introductory courses in Gothenburg.

Tonight there is some festival going on so I'll check it out to see what is happening. Other than that, dunno what I'm gonna do tomorrow. Might get on TripAdvisor and see what else there is to do other than the regular tourist traps. Getting pretty excited for Monday to go over to Gothenburg and get settled in.

Life in Australia

2012-08-10T11:39:00.002+02:00

I thought before I started blogging about my experiences to come in Sweden I would post up a little something of my life here in Western Australia, to give some level of contrast to what I'm coming from and where I am going.

So for the last few years I've been living in Joondalup, it's supposed to be a city outside of Perth (our capital) in the Northern Suburbs. It's home to Edith Cowan University, TAFE, WA Police Academy and everything is within walking distance from the train station, shops and industrial centre. It's a really convenient place to live. Even to get to Perth it is only 25/30minutes on the train.

Joondalup is pretty quick to get around by bicycle and most of the roads in this area have a designated lane for cyclists.

Perth, and Western Australia is quite an expensive place to live even in comparison to the rest of Australia. Joondalup is a bit cheaper as it is more or less a student town, however with the cheaper rents you also get in much of the lower income working class, who can often be a little bit on the dodgy side.

I suppose you have to take the negatives with the positives, though. If you want a completely safe area you are always going to have to pay a lot more rent or you wouldn't have such easy access to the train station. So all in all this area works pretty well for me :-) Even though I would normally travel into Perth for work, it's good living so close to Uni where you can pop in and out as you please.

It's less than a week now 'till I set off to Sweden. I got my invoice for advanced rent payments from Gothenburg and at first my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw 8,600...but then I realised it is in Swedish Krona (SEK) and not Australian Dollars (AUD). So that's just over $1,000 for two months rent. Don't know what that means for Swedes but for Australians that is dirt cheap!

The excitement is starting to come but the reality hasn't really sunk in yet, maybe it will at the airport? We'll see! Maybe in the meantime I should start learning a bit more Swedish?

Trevligt att träffas!

2012-08-07T14:50:00.004+02:00

So I've never done a blog before so I guess I will start off with who I am.

I'm Andrew, I'm a 24 year old student at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia studying Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations and I am just over a week away from heading off to Sweden to do a Semester Abroad at the University of Gothenburg.

It's a bit of a goofy picture but it's the only one I have of myself at Uni. ECU is a pretty modern and beautiful campus, plenty of trees and grass everywhere and we even have our own little lake. My course is pretty cool too, I've really enjoyed it and because of it I've never felt like I've had to work too hard at it to get good marks. The Marketing units at ECU are awesome, we have a few really strong lecturers there who really challenge and change the way you think about how business, marketing and customers relationships should work. I'm pretty lucky in a way to know that I'm studying what I want to do in the real world, I've never really thought that I should have chosen another course or have doubts wether I wanna be in Marketing/Advertising/PR. I could see myself doing any of the three careers, it will really come down to what is the best opportunity after I graduate.

Why am I going to Sweden? Well I have learned a lot from my course at ECU, and I feel now it's time to go out and live in another country to get a wider world view, especially a non-English speaking country...even though I understand pretty much everyone can speak at least some level of English...but close enough. Scandinavians also seems like one of those regions where they are quite advanced in terms of environmental issues and have a high standard of living despite earning less than Australians and paying significantly more tax so it's going to be interesting to see how it all works over there.

I fly out of Perth on the 16th (August) to Stockholm Arlanda, stopping off in Doha, Qatar. I'll be spending 3 nights in Stockholm first, purely by accident, as I arrive Friday afternoon and won't be able to get to Gothenburg to pick my key up for my accommodation on time. Works out well though, a little holiday before I settle into what will be my new home for the next 5 months.

I'm not really too sure what I expect over there, apart from some serious cold that I will have never experienced in Australia. I have tried to learn a little bit of Swedish from a little pocket guide book but I'm still very much at level 0, but it should be fine, I'll learn as I go.

Alright then, I guess that's it for now until I leave. This blog is just to keep track of my trip for memories but if anyone else out there is reading or following, take care and I hope you enjoy what I have to share!