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.