Göteborg

Göteborg was fun, on friday I took the Swebus Express (a coach bus) to Göteborg, I left about 12:30pm and arrived just before 3pm... Charlotte Gustavsson (one of Elisabet's friends) met me at the bus station and gave me a brief tour of "downtown" Göteborg. About an hour later, I met Elisabet (she drove from Stockholm with her mother)... we hadn't seen eachother for almost two weeks, the longest we have been apart since I've been in Sweden (or maybe since july of 2004? heh) Anyway, we had dinner with Maria and Mattias at some Thailand Restaurant. Then later that night, Elisabet and I went to a pub in Fölkshuset (if I spelled it correctly?) and there was sooooo many deaf people there. Getting a beer wasn't easy, I felt like one of those 12 new puppies trying to drink milk from their mother dog's nipples but there is only 8 nipples :) Marcia and Laura (my interpreters) went to Göteborg for the Dövas Dag too, I saw them that night, I'm sure it was an interesting experience for them to meet some new deaf people that didnt sign ASL heh... anyway the pub closed at midnight, go figure... Elisabet and I stayed at Britta (Charlotte's friend)'s apartment for the weekend, she was so nice, gave us her own bed and provided light breakfast and didn't really expect anything in return. Yeah, Charlotte's got a nice friend! :)

Saturday morning, Elisabet wanted to walk from Britta's apartment to the Centrum (downtown) Göteborg, ugh... but I decided to make her happy :p, yup it took almost 2 hours but we saw some interesting sights including the Liseberg along the way (supposedly, the biggest amusement park of all Scandinavia)... passed by the scandinavium, a Göteborg's hockey team plays there part of the Swedish Elite League. (Jönköping has a team by the way, they are called HV71) Arriving the downtown, we had lunch with Charlotte at some cafe then we met some people hanging outside the Fölkshuset where the Dövas Dag (Deaf Day) event were being held. We only checked out the booths area for like 45 minutes... it wasn't anything too spectacular but it was defintely much more clean and hi-tech than the Mayfest. There was information sessions about Interpreters in Pocket -- really it was about having access to interpreters via video conference on the mobile phones, you can just call an interpreter and have some hearing person speak into the mobile phone and you can watch the interpreter sign... that and along with several more stuff that would require sometime to explain, unfortunately I'm not in the mood :p
Then later on the night, there was a formal-attire party with limited tickets -only 900 tickets were sold- and the event was sold out! (luckily Elisabet got tickets for both of us few days before) but I saw some deaf people who couldnt get a ticket... oh well... Before the party, Mattias and I had dinner at some fancy Swedish restaurant along with Mattias' friend... the food was awesome, cabbage rolls and potaotes along with swedish lingonberries. There was this 2 for 1 deal that night because that restaurant was celebrating its 2nd birthday or something so mattias and I didnt really pay much for the fancy dinner. Then we all walked to the Fölkshuset again for the evening party, sure enough, the place was jammed with deaf people, some from Finland, Germany, England and other countries... Yeah, I was sooo tired by that time... signing nothing but teckenspråk (swedish sign language) takes alot of energy out of me... but yeah, I still had fun that night. It was interesting to see so many people around but the dance floor was almost empty most of the time heh... There were even two interpreters on the stage interpreting the music :)... I thought it was cool even though I think they didnt do a good job... oh well.

Sunday, didn't do much... just woke up at 11am or something and left at noon for Jönköping, I joined Elisabet's car this time and drove to Jönköping, the drive was only lil over 1 hour long.

This week didn't do much, just relaxed, Elisabet is staying with me until tomorrow, then on thursday I will go to Stockholm for the weekend.

Wanted to mention this... I just realized that Jönköping has some strange names... such as the mall Elisabet and I went to today is called "A6 Center"... and the Jönköping hockey team is called "HV71"... hmm?... I wonder why...

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. Sorry I didn't take any more interesting pictures... most of the weekend I either forgot that Elisabet had a camera with her or I forgot that I had a camera in my pocket :)... oh well... don't worry, you all have a whole year to see more pictures from me :)

have fun,
bg0ur3