a week of adventure

i have been in this country for a few hours more than a week. it has been a rather full week, which explains why it feels much longer than 7 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes, and 36 seconds... not that i am keeping track or anything =)

having said that, i guess it is only appropriate that i summarize what, exactly, i have been doing.

during the day, i have been attending various orientation workshops. in one of them, this russian lady got up and practically read straight out of that culture shock book that i spent all summer reading (i do recall that her phrasing was verbatim from certain sections). they introduced her as some sort of expert, so maybe she wrote the book.

i have tried several "typical swedish treats," though i doubt their extreme-vegetarian-ness. the first was the kannelbullar (a sweet bun with lots of cinnamon and cardamom). it was served with coffee. the other i bought from a bakery when i went to open a bank account in huddinge. it is called havreboll (though the lady didn't know the english equivalent). i think that it tasted something like a cookie dough ball rolled in coconut. i found out later that it is simply flour, lots of sugar, butter, and a few other things rolled together. yummm....

we also took a bus tour of stockholm, had a picnic in röddinge (a beautiful little town on the lake), and had a party in the university's pub (poolen). i managed to lose my rather expensive travel card and had a not-so-amusing meeting with some drunk swedes at the flemmingsberg station where i was waiting for the pendeltåg train. when my phone card turned out not to work, i joined the crowd of technologically-driven and bought a mobile phone. my corridor mates and i attended the free park theatre production of walking mad and... oh gosh, i can't remember the other number's name... by the local baleten. it was held in vitasbergparken on their roman stadium seats =)

other than these planned activities, i've been exploring the city and the small town, bergshamra, where i live. there is a beautiful shore in ulriksdal, which is about an eight-minute jog from my room. i also braved willy's, the biggest and supposedly cheapest supermarket here. i think it took me an hour and a half to get a few necessities. i laughed at myself and my earlier notion that going to kroger's with kate takes a long time....

i have the next few days to work on some work for ETSU and to prepare for the beginning of classes next week. i start off the semester with history and swedish.

all in all, i feel like i am somewhat adapting to the lifestyle here, even though i did go for a jog this morning in a t-shirt and running shorts... a serious mistake. i can notice a sizeable difference in the temperature from just last week. the wind is already picking up the chill of autumn and making a good cup of hot chocolate more appealing every minute spent outside. it will only be a few more weeks before i will have to break down and buy a few warm sweaters and a hat. for now, though, i am content with a light sweater and jacket.

as i have been sharing all these experiences, i feel that it is only appropriate to also share some new words that i have learned, so here goes (all swedes please pardon any spelling errors):

tack su myket... thanks so much
eurshekta... excuse me
apelsiner... orange
morötter...carrot
tomater...tomato (big surprise)
koks...coconut
sötmandel...almonds
lätt... light
mjilk... milk
välkommen...welcome
hej... hey or hello or something equivalent to a greeting
goo moron...good morning
kommer...coming, or to come?
dag...day (especially useful when added to mön, tis, ons, etc.)

well, my behind has actually passed the state of being asleep and is now just sending intermittent twinges, so i best go and do something that involves some standing for a while.