Surprises in the Mansion

So it's been a few days so far in our new place and we're now at the point where we can sit on couches, rather than the floor, in our living room (quite a step up). During the past few days however, we have discovered a few secrets about our new establishment.

Upon cleaning the other day (or more accurately, just opening and looking inside the very bare cabinets) I came across an old cardboard box (well actually, I have no idea how old it was) and a pile of 'cloth' underneath it. Intrigued, and feeling like I was actually cleaning something, I removed the objects from the shelf and came across the following two items.

Item #1:
-Inside the cardboard box I found quite a few goodies that pleasently surprised me. What I discovered was that at some point before I lived here (which has really only been the past few days) there must have been a DJ who lived at this place. I believe his name was DJ Quality (and he has a pretty sweet website). And when he moved, he must have forgot to check all the cabinets and ended up leaving most of his promotional materials behind. Convenient for us, as we now have thousands of business cards and quite a few flyers and posters for various parties, events, and clubs throughout Sweden. Most of the business cards are for a place called "Club Zebra," which we have now decided to call our mansion.

Item #2:
-Beneath the cardboard box, I found what at first I thought to be a pile of fabric - which I was excited for because I needed to get some anyway to make a wall for my bedroom. However, what I found was even better. It turns out that the fabric I found was in fact a traditional Irish kilt (complete with a furry skunk-tail-like right-hand-warmer pocket on the front, at least that's my guess at what it might be used for).

So now, when we decide to advertise for our parties at Club Zebra (at least our version of it here in the mansion) with our business cards, we can come prepared in our party outfit/kilt. I'm pretty pumped and no longer bummed that I didn't bring all my halloween costumes with me to Sweden. I'm finding replacements already!

In other news, this morning Matt and I traveled to Karlshamn (about an hour train ride from Karlskrona) to try and find some used bikes and had quite the funny morning. Matt had arranged for a lady to meet him at the train station with a bike he wanted to buy and I was planning on wandering the streets and calling some lady to find another bike for sale.

Well Matt's lady was there when we got off the train, however the bike she had with her was slightly smaller than what either of us expected. It's more of a bike for a middle schooler than a masters student. But Matt had already told the lady that he wanted to buy it so we found ourselves in a funny few minutes. The lady repeatedly asked both Matt and I if the bike was actually for us or if we knew of a small child back in Karlskrona who wanted it. She seemed confused when we kept telling her it was for us. To make the moment less awkward, Matt asked if he could take it for a test ride (which consisted of him getting on the bike and riding around in a tiny circle in front of us for about 5 seconds). I guess he was sold after that and proceeded to finalize the sale. However, neither of us had any small bills on us so he ran into the convenience store and bought an ice cream cone (which wasn't the best idea because it was pretty cold outside) to break his bill.

Then we continued on (part of the time with me riding on the back because there's a little rack on top of the back wheel - pretty much imagine two clowns at a circus on a trick bike and that's what we looked like, cruzing down the street) trying to find my lady. After an hour-long search and a few phone calls, I still couldn't understand where she lived and just gave up and got back on the train.

So I arrived back to our apartment empty-handed and Matt returned with a slightly smaller bike than expected (which should work once the seat is raised, but currently it is as low as it can go and we have no tools to raise it - bummer).

So those are the latest discoveries, if anything else pops up or happens we'll be sure to let you know. Tomorrow is the start of class for both of us, which should be when the real fun begins.

-Spud

SVEN's Weekly Recap

Hey friends! Sven (Matt) here:

Events of the week:

We arrived in Sweden on Friday evening and stayed at a youth hostel for 5 nights. We came over without housing and planned to easily get housing upon arrival-WRONG. Almost no Swedish stores are open on Saturday or Sunday, which leaves the week (a typical work day is from 10am till 3pm). We met a bunch of people in the program at the youth hostel we were staying at- many of which are much older than me, but all seem pretty cool and have awesome experiences. So we decided to go house-hunting with four others in the same measly boat as myself. After getting rejected for housing by almost every landlord in town (because we’re students, or don’t have a Swedish ID number, or have too many people, or because some of use are American) we were at the lowest of lows. Sad and depressed by our new homeless condition in a foreign land we headed to lunch when we got a call that there was a huge apartment in the center of town available at one of the realtors we had stopped by earlier and they wanted to give us the place. It is 170 square meters which is incredibly large, with 12 ft. ceilings!! It has very old and very lovely European craftsmanship, is in the very center of town, and is unfurnished.

The last few days have been spent acquiring furniture, kitchen supplies, and other necessities to fill all this space. We have been going to 2^nd hand shops and asking former students if they have any donations. 2 of us now have beds and 3 of us have desks, but our point of pride must be the leather wrap-around couch in the ballroom! Tomorrow Steven and I are taking the train to go bike shopping. After that, a bed is a must!

Also, we have taken Sweden by storm and ourselves and 2 of our roommates have been interviewed and put into the Swedish paper!! We randomly were approached while sitting in the hostel. The article talks about how international students often come and stay in the hostels and find places to live here in Karlskrona. Here is the link- if it is in Swedish, go to Google Translator and enter the URL, it will translate it for you! http://www.sydostran.se/index.77749---1.html

Swedish fun fact of the Week:

Well this week I learned that going around saying “hej” (Hello) to people on the street and in the store, we think its friendly, but the Swedish people find it overly friendly and rude because they feel like it is intruding on their personal space and you are being too nosey- so Watch Out! (Don’t know if it was the thought or the awkward non-Swedish speaking deliverer that turned them off)

Swedish Dish of the Week:

Ice Cream from local shops are said to be some of the best ice cream in the world. Of course when you go in to order, you have no idea how to say any of the flavors, or know what the description says, so its basically a look and point system. However, they make their own waffle cones and the ice cream scopes they give you creates a hog-podge of yummy goodness the size of your head!

Swedish Word of the Week:

Korv means hotdog. Hotdogs are served with mashed potatoes and greens on top. Often in food you can find a mayonnaise- like sauce. Very delicious! We have a farmers market in the center of town each Saturday so we can load up on fresh local veggies and fruits. One of the other attractions of the farmers market is the street venders serving kebabs, korvs, and falafels.

The Mansion and Newspaper

Alrighty folks, time for update number two! So since our last posting, we have been quite busy scouring the streets of Sweden looking for housing. It’s been quite the challenge, far more difficult than either of us expected – but nonetheless, we were successful!

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s back up a bit and set the stage. So on Sunday, Matt and I woke up a bit later and I pulled my laptop out to start working on some stuff. After about 20 mins, my computer started warning me of it’s critically low battery level and as anyone would naturally do, I plugged the power cord into the wall to recharge it. A few minutes later, I realized I had to charge my phone as well. Being prepared, I had packed a powerstrip from back home and was going to just use an adapter to switch the prongs and then plug everything into the powerstip – brilliant idea so I thought. Well I plugged everything in and then switched the power button. Holding the powerstrip fairly close to Matt’s head as he slept, when the button was flipped, the powerstrip suddenly made a loud crack, released a flash of light, and proceeded to smoke slightly until I pulled the plug abruptly from the wall.

Unsure exactly what had happened, I soon discovered that in fact powerstrips have to match the same voltage as well, and as I tried to send 240 V through a 120 V device, I easily destroyed it. What I didn’t realize though was that with that flip of the button, I had managed to knock the power out of most of the hostel. I found this out 10 min later when a Swedish girl staying in our room walked in distressed and informed me that the lights just randomly went off on her in the shower – whoops.

The rest of Sunday was not nearly as adventurous, and was spent mostly researching landlords and housing possibilities.

On Monday, we then started the housing adventure. After an orientation at the school, we decided to tour through a bunch of apartments in the area. Most of them were the same as all the others and nothing too special, but that all changed when we decided to look at a random place in downtown Karlskrona (Trosso Centrum) with a smaller landlord. We toured the place and immediately fell for it, but had to wait for another family to look through it and see if they wanted it.

For the next day, we continued to look but found nothing, until on Tuesday afternoon we received the phone call. There were five of us in the program interested in splitting the place and we all sat dead quiet as the one girl answered the phone and talked with the landlord. After a series of confusing facial expressions, she screamed ‘We got it!’ and we all proceeded to jump around in the streets screaming and hugging each other.

The older Swedish gentleman who happened to be walking by on the street at the time just walked on by as if he didn’t even see us acting as fools. Oh well, we didn’t care.

So, to explain why we were so excited, let me describe our ‘pad’ to you. First, to enter our new home (which happens to be located in the dead center of downtown Karlskrona at the heart of the city), we have to enter a combination to enter the main bank through an old set of wooden doors. Rather than walking straight into the bank, we head to the right into a spiral staircase stairwell. The stairs are marble and the walls are lined with stained-glass windows. Our apartment is located on the second floor.

To enter our place, which we are tentatively referring to as the mansion, you walk through a set of double doors. You are greeted by a long, wide hallway with 13 foot ceilings. Scattered throughout our 1800 sq ft of space our a series of rooms, including three bedrooms, a massive kitchen, 1.5 bathrooms, and a ballroom (yep, a ballroom). All the floors are hardwood with fancy patterns and the walls and ceilings are covered in fancy crown and decorative molding, Our windows are 8 ft tall and overlook the main street below. The place has nearly 20 doors in it!

It’s pretty fantastic, and we are currently sitting on the floor in the massive place because we have no furniture. But that’s ok, because we have a sweet place!!

So after receiving the keys to the place on Tuesday, we skipped back to the hostel elated at our find. And that’s when our next adventure began. As one of the guys in our group was sitting working on his computer, a reporter approached him and began asking him a series of questions. After the interview, the reporter grabbed her photographer and headed to our hostel room. A few minutes later, the four of us staying in the hostel were digesting what just happened, and realized that we had just been interviewed and photographed for the Swedish newspaper. A bit unsure about what all had just happened, we made a point the next morning to get up and try and find the newspaper company.

Sure enough, when we walked into the grocery story this morning, scattered throughout the newspaper stand was the Sydostran Newspaper. As we opened it up, there we all were with a center-spread story stretching across the paper. Granted we had no idea what they were saying about us because it was all in Swedish, but we didn’t care. We bought 4 copies and were on our way!

Then a half hour later, a Swedish lady walking by us on the street stopped and turned around and pointed at us and asked us how our new apartment was treating us. She welcomed us to Karlskrona and congratulated us on being famous so quickly. So now all of Karlskrona knows that Matt and I are here and even where we live – pretty sweet, that didn’t take long!

So that was the activity for the last few days, both productive and highly entertaining. We are going to start up a Picasa website to post pics - a lot easier to upload for us - which includes pics from our place. In addition, here's a video of when we first got into our apartment. For the newspaper story, you can check out the article in Swedish here and English here. The actual pic of the article is below - to prove that our story is true! Also, if you want to see where we are living, visit Google Earth and type in our address: Ronnebygatan 47, Karlskrona, Sweden.

-Spud

The cover story for the local newspaper involves a spread picture of Matt and I along with two of our other roomates

Difficult Doors

Well, our first full day here in Sweden has begun - and along with it, the many stories that will soon quickly add up.

The past few days have involved mostly traveling and getting settled at our hostel in the center of the town. Last night we then toured the town and tried to make sure we didn’t get too lost. Fortunately it doesn’t get dark until 8:30 so we had a good amount of time to explore. We ended up searching for a few of the potential housing options and came across some really cool possibilities.

This morning, Matt and I woke up and had breakfast at the hostel. Everything went pretty smoothly until Matt discovered an unusual ‘spread’ made from fish ovaries. We had both read about this stuff before coming to Sweden and decided that it would just be best if we tried it here rather than in front of a larger group. So we each had our helping, slightly smaller than the size of a pea, and afterwards decided that we didn’t want any more helpings. Fish ovaries (at least in the paste form) are extremely salty and not something either of us want to be spreading on our toast every morning. Lesson one learned.

After breakfast, we walked up to the University and attempted to register ourselves, to make sure we were legitimate students and not just some random kids wandering around Sweden for a year. Well it turns out we were there an hour early so we wandered through some more of the town for a bit. We ended up getting stuck in a fairly well off neighborhood and had to walk through someone’s backyard and hop a big stonewall to get to the campus. After making it to the campus, we were confused by someone as two Swedish dudes (awesome) and then tried to get into the building. However, even though it was 10:10, the doors were still locked.

So we waited around until eventually Matt had the clever idea of trying to follow someone else into the building (which has a card-swipe) and then try to wander through the hallways to find the actual building we wanted. The plan was working beautifully until he realized that not only did the card-swipe work to get you into the building, but it also allows you to get out of the building. So Matt was locked inside. After some searching around for a while and trying to communicate to each other through the glass with sign language, we realized that the University isn’t even open on Saturday, so we wouldn’t even be able to check-in. A few more minutes passed when someone who went to school there walked by us. He was kind enough to explain to Matt that in fact you don’t need to swipe a card to get out, you just need to hit the large (and I mean really large) button directly beside the door, and then they automatically open. Problem solved – and lesson two learned.

So after not succeeding at registering at the school, we proceeded back to the center of town where we knew we could find free Internet. Along the way we asked a few people if there were other locations for free Internet, but sadly found only people who don’t speak any English. After making it down to the café with free internet (it’s now our local hang-out spot and primary location for feeding ourselves) we ended up running into another girl from the program. For the rest of the day, the three of us wandered around the city checking out the coast and marine culture. However, throughout this whole day of busyness, I had forgotten to go the bathroom and by this point, was on the lookout for a toilet. I eventually found one that looked like a large, fancy, brick port-a-potty. Sadly, it was so fancy that I couldn’t figure out how to use it.

As I was standing in line, I waited for the gentleman in front of me to leave before entering the single-room structure. The door shut behind him and as I went to pull on it, it wouldn’t budge. I tried a few more times trying to act like I knew what I was doing before having to call for Matt to try and help me. We pushed all the buttons and bricks around it hoping that one would make it unlock but nothing worked. A little light beside the door was red which I assumed meant I couldn’t enter.

After causing a bit of a ruckus, one of the locals saw I was having trouble and came to assist. He proceeded to kick the door, which unfortunately for my bladder, still did nothing. Then the three of us went over to the bathroom on the other side of the port-a-potty and stood guard beside it waiting for his wife to come out (not Matt’s wife, the local man’s wife). She came out, we quickly caught the door, and I went in. The door shut behind me, as it should, I pulled my pants down, and luckily before I started to go, the lights all went off and left me in the pitch black. I pulled my pants back up and tried to open the door but I soon discovered that I was locked in. I proceeded to push every button before finding the one that opened the door (fortunately I didn’t hit the two buttons labeled ‘alarm’ – the only ones labeled in English as well) and then asked Matt to help again. After a failed search to find the light switch, Matt decided to stand in the doorway and hold the door open with his foot while I went. Needless to say, it was definitely one of the more difficult bathroom situations I have had in quite some time. And with that, lesson three was learned.

Other than those instances however, things went pretty smoothly and we got to see some cool stuff, a few of the pictures are posted below. Now we’re back in the hostel taking a bit of a breather. Tonight we are heading out to a BBQ with a few other students from the program and hopefully will get some better ideas figured out for the apartment search. As usual, I’m sure the stories will continue to follow, we’ll try to post them as soon as possible.

-Spud