Swedish Adventure

I'm back home in Austria!

It was a nice journey home, everything worked out fine (despite a short flight delay - Ryanair of course! ) and guess what - we have sun in austria, muuuuch sun

My family, friends and Tobi welcomed me very lovely - nice to be back.

I'm looking forward to celebrate christmas tomorrow and I wish you all

GOD JUL and nice holidays

see pics of the journey and my first pics of austria...

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Marie and Karin (the two lectures of our HRM course) made a lot of pictures during the different theme days and preparations, if you are interested in them click here.

A great party with almost all of our friends in order to feast one last time together before we leave next week. It's a really strange feeling if you leave all these great people knowing that you will probably never see them again. I will really miss you guys.

But it was a brilliant party and we had great fun! A perfect farewell!

HG closes this week on saturday, so yesterday was the last international evening for this year - and the last time for us anyway

We will really miss the bad music

Today Gamla Linköping was extremly crowdy, because a Christmas market took place there - with a lot of stands selling elk and rendeer sausages, wooden toys, salmon or woolen caps. Nothing useful at all
Of course they also sold glogg - but only with a breath of alcohol.
But the atmosphere was very nice - with choirs, christmas music, christmas aroma and these nice typical swedish houses. Looked great!

After that we participated at the lucia celebration in Karallen, where Folkungagillet (a folk dance team) showed typical swedish folk dances (which was suprisingly real fun and soooo cute to look at) and the Linnea University womens choir sang a couple of lucia songs (which also was amazing!!! ).

Conclusion of the day: Swedes should really learn a little bit more about real christmas markets, good glogg and good cookies. But so we learn to appreciate Austrian christmas markets even more and will really enjoy in 13 days.

Party in Rydsvägen 252, because Matze turned 25 ysterday.
Congratulation

We made jelly shots using wodka instead of water to prepare the jelly. You have to try it once, but never again

Besides that we are all in preparations for the Training Day next Wednesday, when we have to prepare and manage a whole day, teaching our colleagues about 5 different topics thematising Human Resource Management. Lot of work to do!

Yes!!! Great!
My last exam "New Business Development - Entrepreneurship" is over. I cancelled my Swedish Course because I have neither the time nor the motivation for the exams next week and I don't need the credits... jippie

Now it's really winter in Sweden with snow everywhere and -5°C. It soooooooooo cold
But watch yesterdays pictures to convince yourself. You have to know that we made the pics at 2 o'clock and the sun is going down already

After this cold fotosession we've been to IKEA - kind of relaxing with shopping
We made great taccos afterwards and partied in HG.

Great pics, great fun, great day!

Today our new course "Human Resource Mangement" has started, which will also be a lot of work, but at least no exam - just a lot of assignments and team works...

Besides studying our loved Kirby and developing our (really gread and creative) BusinessPlan, there must be time for HG.

Watch yesterday's images.... >>>

After a little delay of one hour on the flight, we landed successfully in the capital of Latvia at Saturday afternoon. It was kind of bothersome, because we paid soooo much for the flight (€ 18,- for both ways thanks to Ryanair), but we are not unforgiving. Thus our trip started with a free beer in the bar of FriendlyFunFranks Backpackers Hostel, located directly in the old town on the waterfront of Daugava River. Really nice Hostel, friendly staff, always helpful tips and party-excursions every night.

After a loud night Martina and me started the exploration of the old town, which is really beautiful. There are a lot of old classy mansions and churches, but also a lot of derelict ruins and horrible houses. Unfortunately the most obvious thing about Riga was that people in general (with exceptions - of course) are very unfriendly. If you need help on the street, you should be prepared to ask many people to get a real answer.

Monday was my favorite day. We made an excursion to Livu Akvapark a huge waterpark outside of Riga with a lot of slides, saunas, jacuzzis, etc. That was real fun and we all felt great after it. In the evening we went to an Irish pub, where Caspar (one guy from the hostel) arranged a Curry-All-you-can-eat-dinner for everybody who wanted to join, with a lot of (very very very very) spicy curry and a lot of cheap beer (a liter with get-2-buy-1-coupons for 1,65 Lats - that is about 2€).

On Tuesday we spent the forenoon in a great shopping mall outside of Riga (Spice) and flown back to Stockholm in the afternoon.

It was a (veeeeeeeeeeery) funny, interesting but exhausting trip... and now I need some sleep


Watch my pics and also Dave's pics and Martina's pics

Big corridor party at Thom's place and celebration of Emil's birthday.
Happy Birthday once more.

Best party of the week!!!

You have to watch the pics!!

Yesterday we started a typical swedish day - with eating Köttbullar and shopping in IKEA.

My little sister and her boyfriend arrived at monday night in Linköping. At their first day in Sweden, we showed them the university and and the campus, the sauna in Ryd and HG - of course

Yes it's learning-time again, on saturday the final exam of our second course "International Business" will take place. Yesterday we had additionally to hand in and present our final assignment (my topic: Future pathways of the European automotive market instancing on general motors). Due to the fact that we are 12 teams in this course, we had to listen to 12 presentations - really boring

Hence in the evening we took a little break of learning and celebrated thomas' birthday, which he had 12 days ago . Ending in HG once more...

<< PICTURES >>
Our present for Thomas No.1: "all ingredients for a romantic sauna-evening with Anja" thus Thomas No.2 tinkered a symbolic sauna out of a beer-pallet... nice work!

After a little Good-Bye-Tobi-Dinner at Sunday we started our journey to Stockholm at 5 o'clock in the morning. Our first stop was the Red Boad Malären Hostel - a houseboat in the centre of Stockholm - to lighten our baggage. We took the ferry to Djurgardstaden, where we wanted to visit Aquaria - a water museum - but it was closed on Monday, so we visited the near Vasamuseum. This famous museum is about a huuuge viking ship, which was perished in the 17th century and was salvaged few years ago. It is really impressing to see what these people had built up at that time. They also found skelletons(or parts of it), clothes, tools, and other stuff - really interesting, no joke!

Following we went back to the city: lunch at Pong (great Asian buffet), shopping, sightseeing, drinking coffee, window-shopping, dinner in the same Pizzera as last time and a good-night-drink at the house-boot's terrace. A very long and exhausting day!

Today I had to say good-bye to Tobi in the morning I would have wanted him to stay, but he will have gratuation ceremnoy at friday and some job interviews the next days...

Two very nice days in Stockholm, but the end was sad.

Yesterday we arranged a Mega-Corridor-Party in our Corridor. Why? Just for fun! Everybody (Catherine, Mathias, Matthias, Hanna and me) had to invite at least 10 people, thus the common room was full
And by the way we celebrated Thomas' Birthday! Gratulations!

For evident-reasons - to see who have generally been here - we hanged up a poster, which every guest has to sign.

Great night (until 5 o'clock in the morning), great people and great mass in the morning -> you can say a really successful party!

<< Sunday >>
Tobi and me had a really lazy sunday this week. The highlight of the day was that we found elephant's bull during a walk trough the wood.

<< Monday >>
After a lecture in the morning we enjoyed the sun, played tennis and went to the sauna. That was a really fine day! If you live in Ryd you can easily rent one of the saunas from Studentbostäder, you only need to pick up the keys and fire the sauna yourselves. For free!! Of course the saunas aren't the most wonderful ones, but you can enjoy it anyway. mhmh...

<< Tuesday >>
Yesterday we've been to Norrköping and this time I also saw the beautiful part of it (which I haven't seen last time). Now I can also make my choice: Norrköping is more pleasant than Linköping! Because it has a lot of these great old beautiful villas in the city, a lot of park resources and is very very clean. In the evening we've been to HG - of course - after a Sangriaparty at Ana's place.

PICTURES

In Ryd there are a few tennis courts from FRRyd, which you can use for free, you only need rackets and balls. Great opportunity! So Tobi and me took advantage of the nice weather yesterday. Although it's not real warm any more, it was ok

In the evening Petra and her corridor-mate(s) (I'm not sure who actually invited people besides Petra and Christian ) made a party, which was really funny

<< watch the pictures >>

Friday: a little bit preparty at Ana's place - without real party for ill-manu

Saturday: movie-evening with Cuba Libre and a lot of sweets with Anja & Thomas

Sunday: Birthday-dinner for granny Martina - 24 years old now, almost 30
. ......... bussaaaaaaaaale:star: << happy birthday once more >>


...see birthday girl's pics here

What have you learnt about Tuesdays in Ryd?

Right! HG-Time!!


<< NEWS >>
Martina and Manu are the new HG cover-models, see our first appearance at www.studentnatt.se

Continuation of the last entry

Party at Martina's place
cannot be described in words

... the headline means "final"-exam - of course

We've been to the capital of Sweden yesterday. It was a looong, exhausting day, but it was great!
Our day looked like this:

05:45 departure from Ryd to the Resecentrum (central station) by bike | sooo early
06:25 departure from Linköping Resecentrum by bus (swebusexpress)
09:15 arrival at the central station in Stockholm | weather= cloudy and coooold
...... walk through Drottninggattan (the main shopping street in Stockholm) | yes, just a walk - no shopping, the shops are closed until 10
10:00 walk through Gamla Stan (the old city on the island in the center of stockholm) and the harbour
11:00 coffee time in a lovely café named Chokladkoppen with Kanelbulle and blueberry pie mhmh
12:00 change of guards at the king's palace, big tam-tam with the military music | was nice to see, but it was soooooooooooo cold
13:00 visit the german church - really typically german!
14:00 again to the harbour - direction södermalm, we were walking through the side streets to see the REAL stockholm
...... view place Mosebacke, where you can see the old city and the harbour from above
15:00 walk to Södermalm, an alternative part of the city
16:00 walk back to Drottninggattan through Gamla Stan | now it's shopping time!!
...... unfortunately most shops close at 17:00, thus it wasn't a long shopping pleasure
18:00 slow walk to Radmansgatan, with a little down-hill action in a park (stupid city map )
19:00 meeting with the others at McDonals to brief the dinner-plan
20:30 dinner at Pizzeria Buena Sierra at a sidestreeet of Radmansgatan
21:30 walk to the harbour and Gamla Stan to see the city by night
22:00 back to the central station
22:50 departure from Stockholm to Linköping by bus
01:40 arrival in Linköping resecentrum
...... back to Ryd by bike | soooooooo tired, sooooooo cold

It was a long day and we walked about 10.000 km (at least gg), but we have seen a lot of Stockholm and it's really a beautiful city!! We will come back soon

Today's riddle: which image is the original one??

Martina's pictures HERE

After a little bit quequing for a 2€-LIU-Sweater (you know you have to keep on training ) at noon we decided to go to Norrköping. The university in Norrköping belongs to the uni in Linköping, so LIU-students have the possibility to use a free Campusbus to the Campus in Norrköping, which is about 40 km northeast. The weather was great and also the city was nice - but not really extraordinary. I cannot say whether Linköping or Norrköping is better - they are quite the same for me. Watch the pictures for impressions...

Yep it's true, we are in Sweden for 4 weeks now. And No we can't decide, if it's a long or a short time. On the one hand we really get used to everything and settle down, on the other hand everything's still exciting and new. You meet so many new faces and get to know so many strange swedish traditions

And it was Tuesday anyway -> conclusion = preparty + HG

Kalasmottagningen (a combination of the Swedish words "Kalas", meaning party, and "mottagning", meaning reception) is a way to welcome new student to Linköping University. It's a popular event amongst the students of the university. More than 5000 students join this event down in Cloetta Center every year. It starts off with a fair at 3 pm where you can meet representatives from local companies and student organizations.

There were some performances from different students groups - f.e. a dance group and orchestra - and a The Sounds - concert afterwards. That's not my cup of tea , but it was fun anyway!

As if we haven't known that sweds are crazy, there was a very strange homo/transsexual parade in the city yesterday. Unfortunately I hadn't my camera with me.

Yes, we've been to the city - shopping of course!
Shopping in Linköping is really fun, because there are a loooot of nice clothing stores [f.ex. BikBok, JC, Gina Tricot , Indiska, Cubus , MQ and of course H&M, Vero Moda and others... - you have to know: Sweds are very very very stylish!! You will not find anybody without a pair of leggins at home - doesn't matter if man or woman Besides clothes we've also found a cheaper supermarket than Willy:s there: Netto. Not very big, but mostly important cheap! (Not Austrian cheap - Swedish cheap ).

In the evening we wanted to go to Michaels Birthday Party at half past 10. But Christian, Emma and Daniel rang my bell at 10 and teached me, that we "are not allowed" to be at home that time, because Sweds generally start to drink at about 6 o'clock. So we had a little Pre-party at Emma's place [you cannot counter them gg]. Next we went to Michaels corridor to sing "Happy Birthday" and drink german beer. After a little pit stop at my place (Schnaps time ) we ended up in HG once more, where we were dancing until closing time (that's sadly at 3 o'clock anywhere in Sweden). -> One good thing about Ryd is that there is always a pre- or after-party somewhere, so we went to a after-party at Petra's house. That evening was a lot of fun!!!

You can find photos here.

As a little Thank-you Petra and I cooked Pizza for our Swedish friends at my corridor. Also some of my corridor-neighbours and the Mechatronic guys joined us. After playing drinking games we wanted to go to the HG (of course Tuesday is International Evening there), but it was too crowdy and we decided to make a party for ourselves. So we landed in Davids corridor together with the Australians and continued our drinking and chatting... it was a lot of fun

Yesterday ESN teached us how to play the typically swedish games Brännboll and Kubb. Brännboll is what we know as Brennball - a version of Baseball. Kubb is played with wooden sticks and blocks and is kind of familiar with Boccia, but more difficult.

As soon as Opera fixes its server, you will get the pictures!

Today ESN has sold the tickets for the first kravall of the year - the München Hoben on Wednesday. As Swedish students told us there will be a lot of people and too little tickets, we've been at the Colosseum (where they always sell tickets for events) two hours in advance. Despite three hours waiting time we haven't got tickets - that sucks!!!
Afterwards we had our first lecture in "Advanced Organisation theory" and were really shocked of the workload. We had to buy the book "Classics of organization theory" for €53 (!!), which contains the whole history of organization theory and a lot of hard-to-understand articles. We will have to prepare assignments in teams every week (which will be a lot of work), read chapters of the book (which will be really much to read), pass an examination every week and will have a final examination at the end of the course. That's hard!! No trips, no HG, no freetime any more

Stupid Monday!!!
So long... I have to learn now!

In Sweden you have to buy alcohol with more than 3,5% in Systembolaget (a special store owned by the government, because it has a monopoly to sell alcohol) and it's really really really expensive there. Wine costs at least € 5 and beer in cans at least about 90 Cents. The higher the percentage of alcohol - the higher the tax following the price. A bottle of Eristoff costs about 23 €. And you are allowed to shop in Systembolaget only if you are older than 20.

Furthermore it's prescribed to drink and drive - not only by government but also by people. Advanced system dear Swedes - THUMPS UP!

After 2 hours flight and 3 hours by train we successfully arrived in Linköping at 13th august in the evening, where Emma (Petra's peer student) waited for us with self-made tacos and a welcome-drink... nice!!!

Unfortunately my room wasn't ready the first days (because of a renovation) and the alternative key I got didn't fit to the alternative room. So I slept at Petra's room the first night and got the keys to a really nice guest flat the other morning (which I would have kept, if it would have been possible - sooo nice )

The second day:
We've been to IKEA, Willy:s ("cheap" food and drinks) and the Systembolaget (Alcohol Store), where we spent a loooooot of money.
We signed our Learning Agreements at the university and payed the student union fee. The second evening we spent at the BBQ-Place near our rooms, where always a lot of people drink, eat and meet.

The third day:
I finally got my originally room! I was the first of my corridor, who moved in - Everything is new and unused - that's great!
We also have bought bikes today and were at the university again to activate our e-mail accounts.

In the evening we were drinking wine at Emma's place and ended up in Herrgard (in the centre of Ryd), where we celebrated Emma's Birthday.


Petra, Kenneth, Christian, Dennis and Emma


... to be continued