the long-awaited post

*sigh* I know there have not been new posts lately... but at least theres one now :)

I can't really remember everything that happened since my last post but I'll do my best to recall them. Oh yeah I said something about the difficulty of me understanding Swedish, I just thought I have something else interesting.... recently I realized that in English, we use the word "for" often, when simply translated into swedish it means "för" but it can also mean "till" or "åt".

"I will buy a drink for you" = In swedish, they use "till" instead of "for" essentially saying "I will buy a drink to you"
"Can you drop off Billy for me?" = In Swedish, they use "åt" instead of "for", I'm not 100% clear on why "åt" is used...
"Thanks for loaning me the money" = In this case, "för" is used. (I think?... you swedes who read this blog, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)

buy my point, you can see how confusing it is... I'm sure from Swedes' perspective English has some unnecessary words that confuses them when compared to their native Swedish :)

Anyway enough with the swedish :)....like I said before my school schedule is sooooo light, I'm used to a heavy academic schedule and working 30-40 hours a week with just few hours left to do homework and being tired everynight... right now I just have maybe 6-8 hours worth of classes during the week and almost never get any homework to do (but of course theres always lots of heavy reading) I feel that my time here is being wasted.... so yeah I've started job hunting... I got in touch with this company, Omnitor (www.omnitor.se) there is an english version of that page, just click on the United Kingdom flag... anyway, that company works with videophone technology, somewhat similar to what Sorenson is doing right now. The boss there were intrigued by my email and wanted to meet me on the next day, so I did... I don't know if I would call it an interview but it was a very informal meeting and I think it was the first time I've ever tried a full hour-long conversation in teckenspråk (swedish sign) with a hearing person who signs swedish.... you all know how it is harder to understand a hearing person signing ASL (if they arent an interpreter) in Canada or USA, imagine me with a swedish man :) but I think the meeting went smoothly.... he needs someone to work as a Project Assistant or some Java programmer... I told him I would be very interested working with him on a part-time basis. Hopefully everything works out well soon.

Last weekend, Elisabet and I went to Elisabet's friend Cissi's 25th birthday party. Her birthday was actually in January but she didnt have a party so she decided to host it last weekend... Yeah, in Sweden, people who turns 25 years old (or any other age but more often when 25) tend to host their own birthday party... that's something that we don't see often in Canada unless I'm missing something? :p The party was full of women but yeah there was few guys there too...Cissi decided that the party would be more fun with formal attire... I don't know if it was more fun that way but everybody sure looked nice heh... maybe for my 25th birthday party I'll make tuxedos mandatory ;) Anyway, here's a picture of me and Elisabet at the party.

On the next day Elisabet and I went to a Theatre in KTH, a university theatre, there were 5 actors - all deaf - there was also like 150 deaf people in the audience watching the play. The play was pretty good but it had some "uhhh?" moments :)... probably because I didn't understand it 100%, of course the actors signed in Swedish but I understood the overall story plot... it's about an alcoholic father trying to hide his habit from his family, a passive and over-accepting wife, a son struggling with his homosexuality identity and another son who is over burdened with the responsiblity of keeping the family together and keeping his father's business intact. The play had some moments that included some sign language in unison that cannot simply be sufficently explained in English, so remember to ask me about the play when you see me in person next time :) After the play, I rushed to Centralen and caught my bus to Jönköping with just 10 minutes to spare :p

Now, I'm back in Jönköping, and since I had some extra time I decided to experiment with Linux, I created a dual boot with my PC but stupid me, I made my WindowsXP parition inactive so after I installed Fedora 4.0 I can't boot up WindowsXP now, I'm stuck with Linux for now... I hope Laing will come online soon so he can send me some files that I need to fix my computer! :)

I had just one class last monday and will have just one more class this week, this friday... then just 2 or 3 classes on monday and tuesday next week before my A1 term is finished then focus on studying for the exams... actually I've been doing some extra studying lately because I have no idea what Sweden exams' expectations are like and I don't intend to disappoint anybody :)... yeah, I've seen some old exams but still, I prefer to continue some extra studying until I am more comfortable about what the expectation level the teachers has on us when we write exams. Tomorrow, I'll bike to the school and study there, try to finish up all of my macroeconomics textbook, 7 chapters to go :).... oh yeah, did I mention that I have a bike here now?... Elisabet lent me her bike... made my life easier without having to pay for the bus and giving me some well-deserved exercise :).

Dad and Andrew told me that theres been some mini-heat wave in southwest ontario? temperature in high 20s?... I haven't seen any days warmer than 15c since the first or second week of September :)... and I like it that way... I need a break from Ontario's infamous humidity eh!

Allrighty, enough for now :), have fun...

bg0ur3