after 2 months...

• A1 term almost finished
• 5 roundtrips between Stockholm and Jönköping
• better understanding of basic Swedish
• dramatic improvement in teckenspråk
• biked countless kilometres
• 2 computer mishaps (virus & mis-installation of linux)
• improved capability of getting around in Stockholm on my own :)
• diminished english skills :(
• met many new swedish people

Yeah, today (october 16th), I've been away from Canada for 2 months... and it doesnt feel like 2 months... time has gone by too fast!... Looking back two months, I've realized that I've gone through the "oh okay, I am supposed to do that" and "oh, I should not do that?" phase. I feel that I've learned everything I need to know about living here, but of course everybody will tell me that one never stop learning in his/her lifetime... what I really meant was, I feel that I have gained much better understanding in the social, law, political, academic facets of swedish life/culture. Everyday, I feel like I say "oh i see" less in my mind...
In other words, I am beginning to feel like home despite the fact I don't have all of the luxuries here that I have in Cambridge :)

What I expect from myself for the next two months is -

• have a job
• study more (as my courses in A2 term will be much more difficult)
• see much more improvement in my written swedish
• possibly travel to another country at least once? I should take advantage of ryanair.com!!
• have more people thinking I'm actually a Swedish by my teckenspråk :)

Hopefully by December 16th, I can look back and say I've achieved all of these expectations I have placed upon myself.

Anyway, here's whats up with me so far... I've been in Jönköping for a week now... I will be going back to Stockholm this tuesday morning since for next week I only have classes on monday and nothing for the rest of the week... also, this monday is my last day of regular classes before I take exams for the A1 term. I forgot my shaving razors in Stockholm, and before I left Stockholm I hadn't shaved for like a week, so yeah its been 2 weeks so far :) I'm developing this so-called beard and my neck is constantly itchy :( I can't wait to go back to Stockholm and shave! :)

In the past week I've ran for 6-7km twice, biked total of 60km... 30 km in a single day once... this might be nothing to some of you guys but my legs feels like huge pieces of rubber flopping around now :) I hope to keep up my exercise regime since you all know how much free time I have here... It's funny, in Stockholm, there is not many deaf people with my size... I've seen probably 2 or 3... and when I tell someone that I just ran for 6km, and they will say "YOU?!?"... I don't think they have ever seen someone like me run that far... :)

Yesterday, I made this nice dinner... a wok mixed with chopped chicken this medley of vegetables including green & red pepper, green beans, broccoli, onions and then sweet & sour sauce to top it off... my roommate from Ghana, Kingsley, saw what I made and asked me if I could teach him how to make it today... Of course, I was willing to do so,... he was so excited learning how to make different food... his daily meals always had pork and rice everday...
I was curious and asked him, who does the cooking at his home in Ghana?... turns out he has a wife and a daughter... he said that in Ghana its his job to provide the money, everything else the Wife does... childbearing, cooking, cleaning and everything else... heh... Although, he has admitted that he realizes that this generation is changing so he occasionally helps out in the kitchen with his wife but his society basically frowns on that. He owned a communications business in Ghana, but he wanted to pursue a Masters degree so he decided to come to Sweden for his Masters so his business can benefit from more education.

hmm... last week I realized something,... when I talk with Elisabet and there is some people around or everybody else other than Elisabet in Stockholm I always use teckenspråk, nothing else... but when Elisabet and I are alone or when we talk about something really important, we always revere to ASL... it's only first language, its the language we gain most understanding from eachother... but there was this one time late in the night, Elisabet and I was discussing about.. uh.. i dont remember the topic... but it was important... we talked in ASL but my swedish signs tried to take over ASL, I was actually thinking in English but expressing in Swedish signs... I wondered if this was the beginning of a transformation since teckenspråk is becoming a less of struggle everyday for me.... although being in Jönköping doesn't help since theres no deaf people around here and of course I always use ASL with Marcia and Laura otherwise they will kill me :) But, yeah... I'm hoping that I can evolve from being too dependable on ASL into being able to switch to both language at my own natural will given appropriate time, place and person. Although I don't think this transformation will happen anytime soon.

Anyway, I guess thats all... I still don't have WindowsXP... and am struggling with Linux, the new operating system is a learning experience for me :) I figured in my field of profession I should be open to all computing aspects... hopefully one day I will have 3 computers devoted to windows, mac, linux :)... would be fun eh?... ah thats the geeky side of me talking now :)

ok, shutting up now :) see ya all later...
bg0ur3