(translation = first day in school)
First, i would like to reply to the comments on my previous blogs... Laing - Yeah, beer is healthier but more expensive!... FrecklesFly - yup, I know what you mean... some of the words are beginning to look familiar to me now... but nothing relaxes me more than looking at some english :p Maria - yup, my english should should be easier for you to understand than my teckenspråk for now... but maybe in few months, it will be the opposite :D Ja, Elisabet will be working in Stockholm 50% and hopefully be able to do some courses at some school in sthlm. It means I will be visiting stockholm more often :)
Okay.. yup, today was my first day of school at Jönköping Högskolan, I'm not sure how Högskolan is translated into English but from my understanding so far, its an University in Jönköping that is composed with 4 colleges or högskola's similar to RIT University and its 6 or 7 colleges?...
Anyway, my first day went good... I have this German named Gunnar Warnsby teaching my Finance class, it's his first semester in Jönköping, and he scheduled all of his classes in just september, I asked him if we were gonna have any classes in october he didn't realize that the A1 (First part of the first semester) ended at the end of October... heh... I'm not sure what he will do now.. probably postpone some of the classes to October. And today, was my first time to see a teacher talking on the mobilephone during middle of the class... at Ryerson the teachers always emphasized to turn off the mobile phones or they would get really pissed off but Gunnar, the teacher, just said.. 'hang on a sec' and talked on his phone for few seconds :)
Today was also the first time I've seen a teacher ask students if he could have a coffee break... everybody was like...huh?.. sure, be my guest :)... yeah the teaching style here is more laid back and more group oriented, I feel like an equal with everybody in the classroom including the teacher... well.. yeah, it's just my first day... tomorrow could be different :) I'm gonna buy the textbooks tomorrow, I hope they aren't too expensive :s
Oh yeah, the bike ride from the apartment to the city and/or the school is far!!... I don't think I've ever biked more than 15km since 16 years old when I got my drivers license :) My legs were sure tired... yeah, since Elisabet won't be staying here it means I will stay at Råslätt for the entire school year... so I'll be doing more biking than I thought :) but yeah it's all good.
Yeah, as I said earlier, Elisabet will be going back to Stockholm... so tomorrow after my macroeconomics class Elisabet's father will be picking us up and I'll stay in Stockholm until monday morning and take a train back here...
hmm I guess that's all for now... until next time...
bg0ur3
30 August 2005
27 August 2005
party, school, life...
hello to you all again...
yeah, I'm in stockholm now at Elisabet's place... last night there was a "party" at the deaf club in stockholm... they usually have these parties on the last friday of each month. I had a good time meeting lots of new people, also lots of people that I met from my last visit last year. Many people there couldn't believe how much better I have gotten with teckenspråk (Swedish sign language), that's a big esteem booster for me since I don't really use it often seeing that my interpreters and school are based on ASL and english for me.
It will kinda suck going back to Jönköping where there's not much deaf people there but at the same time, it's good for me to focus on the school instead of partying too much :) I'll visit stockholm every other weekend or so. I think in few weeks, Elisabet and I will be going to Göteborg, there's some kind of "Deaf day" there... I don't go to those events when I'm in Canada but everybody around here said it will be fun... and it's only like an hour or so west of Jönköping, so why not. By the way, the stockholm ppl here call Jönköping the "Jesus City" heh... for some reason the town is known for their devotion to religion or something... I haven't really seen much of those around in Jönköping yet...
I just finished watching a dvd.. "Be Cool", I'm sure all of you have seen it long time ago.... well I haven't... and I can't tell you how gratifying it is for me to finally see some english on the captions (or subtitles) on the TV... I'm getting sick of seeing all of the svenska everywhere but I guess I will be getting used to it.
Anyway... I just found out my schedule for the first 10 weeks for my school... I mostly have classes on just two or three days per week. No friday classes until mid-october! :D In Sweden..(I don't know if they do this in all of europe or not) they don't have the same day and time or place every week for a specific class.... my schedule differs every week. So, that means I will have to keep my classes schedule with me all the time. I will be taking Macroeconomics and Financial Management/Business Administration. They both are 'A' courses... in Sweden they cagetorize the courses from A to D with A being the easiest course... usually an introductory class or something like that... and the D level being the hardest which usually is the Masters degree level. In the last part of the first semester (last 10 weeks)... so my first 2 classes of the 8 classes I will be taking at Jönköping university will be the easiest ones. My next 6 classes, only one will be C-Level, some I.T. course... then the other 5 courses will be D level... yeessh, yeah.. masters level.. I don't know if I am prepared for that but I'm up for the challenge!... :)
Another interesting thing is the grading system for the courses... in my Macroeconomics, the final grade criteria is based on 20% of the individual assignments and 80% on final written exam. I thought, 80% !"#¤%#!... but then I found out in my Finance class, the whole course grade is based solely on the final written exam!... it's gonna be interesting :) oh yeah, here, you can take up to 2 re-tests if you final an exam or something... gotta like that :) but don't worry... I won't have any of those re-tests heh.
yup, been here for just 10 days, I think I'm already starting to settle in just a lil bit... Everything here is soooo expensive,... I have to start drawing up a budget in kronors (Sweden Currency) so I can know how much I can or can't spend each day/month or whatever. A bottle of pepsi (500ml) costs like $2.30 CDN... biggest bottle, 1.5 liter.. costs almost $4.00 CDN... and the gasoline costs more than $2.00 per liter... enuf said? :) I guess I have to start being more like Andrew and quit drinking sugar based beverages.
Okay, I better stop talking now, don't want to bore you all guys with meticulous details. Tomorrow, I will be heading back to Jesus City for an exciting first week of school! :p...
catch y'all later,
bg0ur3
yeah, I'm in stockholm now at Elisabet's place... last night there was a "party" at the deaf club in stockholm... they usually have these parties on the last friday of each month. I had a good time meeting lots of new people, also lots of people that I met from my last visit last year. Many people there couldn't believe how much better I have gotten with teckenspråk (Swedish sign language), that's a big esteem booster for me since I don't really use it often seeing that my interpreters and school are based on ASL and english for me.
It will kinda suck going back to Jönköping where there's not much deaf people there but at the same time, it's good for me to focus on the school instead of partying too much :) I'll visit stockholm every other weekend or so. I think in few weeks, Elisabet and I will be going to Göteborg, there's some kind of "Deaf day" there... I don't go to those events when I'm in Canada but everybody around here said it will be fun... and it's only like an hour or so west of Jönköping, so why not. By the way, the stockholm ppl here call Jönköping the "Jesus City" heh... for some reason the town is known for their devotion to religion or something... I haven't really seen much of those around in Jönköping yet...
I just finished watching a dvd.. "Be Cool", I'm sure all of you have seen it long time ago.... well I haven't... and I can't tell you how gratifying it is for me to finally see some english on the captions (or subtitles) on the TV... I'm getting sick of seeing all of the svenska everywhere but I guess I will be getting used to it.
Anyway... I just found out my schedule for the first 10 weeks for my school... I mostly have classes on just two or three days per week. No friday classes until mid-october! :D In Sweden..(I don't know if they do this in all of europe or not) they don't have the same day and time or place every week for a specific class.... my schedule differs every week. So, that means I will have to keep my classes schedule with me all the time. I will be taking Macroeconomics and Financial Management/Business Administration. They both are 'A' courses... in Sweden they cagetorize the courses from A to D with A being the easiest course... usually an introductory class or something like that... and the D level being the hardest which usually is the Masters degree level. In the last part of the first semester (last 10 weeks)... so my first 2 classes of the 8 classes I will be taking at Jönköping university will be the easiest ones. My next 6 classes, only one will be C-Level, some I.T. course... then the other 5 courses will be D level... yeessh, yeah.. masters level.. I don't know if I am prepared for that but I'm up for the challenge!... :)
Another interesting thing is the grading system for the courses... in my Macroeconomics, the final grade criteria is based on 20% of the individual assignments and 80% on final written exam. I thought, 80% !"#¤%#!... but then I found out in my Finance class, the whole course grade is based solely on the final written exam!... it's gonna be interesting :) oh yeah, here, you can take up to 2 re-tests if you final an exam or something... gotta like that :) but don't worry... I won't have any of those re-tests heh.
yup, been here for just 10 days, I think I'm already starting to settle in just a lil bit... Everything here is soooo expensive,... I have to start drawing up a budget in kronors (Sweden Currency) so I can know how much I can or can't spend each day/month or whatever. A bottle of pepsi (500ml) costs like $2.30 CDN... biggest bottle, 1.5 liter.. costs almost $4.00 CDN... and the gasoline costs more than $2.00 per liter... enuf said? :) I guess I have to start being more like Andrew and quit drinking sugar based beverages.
Okay, I better stop talking now, don't want to bore you all guys with meticulous details. Tomorrow, I will be heading back to Jesus City for an exciting first week of school! :p...
catch y'all later,
bg0ur3
25 August 2005
friendly update...
yeah, just a little update with whatI've been doing in the past few days... I met my roommates, Kingsley from Ghana, Peter from Slovakia and Alister from Australia. It's funny... if someone asked me a year ago today that I would be sharing an apartment with those people from all over the world, I would have easily said "impossible"... life is full of interesting twists eh.
Anyway, the apartment.. Råslätt... is really far from the school!... like 7km... I won't be able to rollerblade that far since on the way there's sections of the road that is made out of cobblestone or whatever.. uknow.. not smooth pavement but large bricks, 1800s style. Impossible for an amateur rollerblader to handle those bumps. So, I guess i will be biking, Elisabet's brother, David, has lent me his bike so it's all good.
However, I might move into another apartment with just Elisabet right inside the city on october 2nd, the guy living there is going to U of Waterloo (yup, canada!) for exchange student program and wants someone to sublet his apartment. Its a big apartment and its just like few blocks from the school!... hopefully everything works out well :)
Yeah, still no internet at my apartment now, because it requires 3 month commitment and im not sure if i will stay that long... I'm gonna see if i can transfer the contract from my current apartment to some other apartment if i actually move...
Oh yeah, also opened a bank account here, I have personnummer (similar to SIN) now... so I guess, you guys can say I'm a swede now... :p
heh... alright, better go now.. I've got a computer workshop in few minutes, dunno what it's for...
have fun...
bg0ur3
Anyway, the apartment.. Råslätt... is really far from the school!... like 7km... I won't be able to rollerblade that far since on the way there's sections of the road that is made out of cobblestone or whatever.. uknow.. not smooth pavement but large bricks, 1800s style. Impossible for an amateur rollerblader to handle those bumps. So, I guess i will be biking, Elisabet's brother, David, has lent me his bike so it's all good.
However, I might move into another apartment with just Elisabet right inside the city on october 2nd, the guy living there is going to U of Waterloo (yup, canada!) for exchange student program and wants someone to sublet his apartment. Its a big apartment and its just like few blocks from the school!... hopefully everything works out well :)
Yeah, still no internet at my apartment now, because it requires 3 month commitment and im not sure if i will stay that long... I'm gonna see if i can transfer the contract from my current apartment to some other apartment if i actually move...
Oh yeah, also opened a bank account here, I have personnummer (similar to SIN) now... so I guess, you guys can say I'm a swede now... :p
heh... alright, better go now.. I've got a computer workshop in few minutes, dunno what it's for...
have fun...
bg0ur3
22 August 2005
jönköping nu....
I just got in Jönköping now, that's where I will be staying in mainly for the next 10 months or so... I'm staying in Råslatt apartments,... its different than what I originally thought it would be like... I have my own private room but there is 2 bathrooms that I have to share with 3 others in the apartment. The kitchen is shared with 3 others also. I haven't had the chance to meet the other 3 roommates, but I sure hope they aren't too.... well u know what I mean :)
Unforunately I have to order hi-speed internet which means I wont have any internet access in my room for few days... hopefully not much longer than that. I'm at JIBS (the school)'s library.,.. its a really nice library... from what they said in the orientation earlier this morning, its supposedly to have the largest collection of business books or something of all Europe... I dunno if they are exaggerating or not.
Overall, I think this is a nice school for me from what I've seen in my first day... theres 326 exchange students from all over the world... we all had to "introduce" ourselves this morning... yeah imagine 326 people taking turns telling about their home university, their name and why they came to JIBS... heh... like 40 of them were from Germany.. not surprisingly I guess. There's about 8 of us Canadians... none from my school or any other schools in Toronto area but theres a girl who goes to U of Windsor and her home is actually few blocks from Ryerson. And recently I just met a guy who lives in Oakville. Feels strange to meet some strangers who lives near my home on the other side of the world heh..
Anyway... I'll write more later... it sucks to type while standing up... I'm on this lil computer terminal that should be used for searching library database only but it has internet.. so why not type up a blog :)
later ppl,
bg0ur3
Unforunately I have to order hi-speed internet which means I wont have any internet access in my room for few days... hopefully not much longer than that. I'm at JIBS (the school)'s library.,.. its a really nice library... from what they said in the orientation earlier this morning, its supposedly to have the largest collection of business books or something of all Europe... I dunno if they are exaggerating or not.
Overall, I think this is a nice school for me from what I've seen in my first day... theres 326 exchange students from all over the world... we all had to "introduce" ourselves this morning... yeah imagine 326 people taking turns telling about their home university, their name and why they came to JIBS... heh... like 40 of them were from Germany.. not surprisingly I guess. There's about 8 of us Canadians... none from my school or any other schools in Toronto area but theres a girl who goes to U of Windsor and her home is actually few blocks from Ryerson. And recently I just met a guy who lives in Oakville. Feels strange to meet some strangers who lives near my home on the other side of the world heh..
Anyway... I'll write more later... it sucks to type while standing up... I'm on this lil computer terminal that should be used for searching library database only but it has internet.. so why not type up a blog :)
later ppl,
bg0ur3
18 August 2005
mitt första inlägg i sverige
(translation - "my first post in sweden")
Finally,... I'm actually in Sweden now. The trip actually took forever for me!... I arrived Pearson Airport at noon on tuesday and then got out of the Arlanda (Stockholm airport) at about 6.15pm swedish time on wednesday which is 12.15pm in Eastern time zone, so the whole orderal actually took me more than 24 hours!
In short, it was a very interesting trip... but I would be depriving you all, my loyal blog fans, of some more eventful experiences so I'm gonna enlighten you all.
A short summary - I had 2 layovers, Toronto to NYC JFK airport, then NYC to London, then London to Stockholm.
As I said, I arrived at Pearson Airport at noon.. the flight didn't leave until 2.30pm but my ticket said to be there 3 hours before... stupid airport regulatios like i said before. Anyway, after checking in, I had lunch with dad and andrew, had our tearful goodbye... as I went to get into the gate I realized I forgot my schoolbag which had all of my travel documents, health insurance, passport, wallet etc... in the middle of the airport... I hoped that nobody took it because if someone had, I wouldnt be here typing this in Sweden now. Thankful, nobody noticed an overstuffed bagpack sitting on the floor in the middle of a food court seating area. Anyway, my 2.30 flight to NYC, the plane was so small, I had to bend my neck down while finding my seat. The flight was bumpy... couldn't get any sleep... only 1.5 hours flight or something then I got out in JFK. Oh yeah, remember my overweight bag? I had a bag at 36kg, and when it was weighted at Pearson (they had a small weight scale and my bag was an oversized hockey bag so the half of the bag was hanging out of the scale) and the official weight for them was 26.5 kg or something like that.. I was surprised to see they could be that stupid :)
JFK... *sigh*... is a perfect image of what America is all about... the entire airport design is in chaos... I landed in Terminal 9 and needed to get to Terminal 8... but there was no signs or anything to direct where I should walk to... then once I found out where to go from an attendant... I went to terminal 9, had to go outside then back inside... outside was so dirty, there was people who looked as if they have been living in the airport for days, lying on the floor all raggedly-looking eating food that looked as if it came out of the trash. I'm probably exaggerating but, it was so dirty and the stench of Terminal 9 just described America perfectly,... all I could smell was Fries, Pizza, Burgers... anything that could be cooked with frying oil, I smelled it. The ads on the wall, the signs, the wall itself, was so dirty. Anyway, I think you get the idea by now... I went to the gate where my flight to London was. I decided to ask someone at the desk to see if they could upgrade me to business/first class cuz I cant hear the movies in the coach class... There was a gentleman, in his 50s or something... he was struggling with something on the computer behind the desk... I wasnt even sure if he could help me but I wrote "I called American Airlines few days ago to inquire whether there would be closed captioning or subtitles on the onflight movies and they said no, they also suggested me to ask someone at JFK to see if I could be upgraded to first class in exchange for me not understanding the enterainment on the flight"... the dude was like, no problem!... then he ordered a woman beside her to let me have that man's seat. I was like whoa?... who was that dude anyway? the woman (Flight attendant) seemed to not want to have me upgraded for some reason but that Man i was talking to was very intent on giving me his seat. Then, I simply thanked him and then as he left the desk, he put on his coat on and a hat.. ahh.. it was a captain's hat... the pilot of the flight I was taking just gave me his seat hehe...
Yup, I sat in the business class, my best flight ever... I actually had a choice of 5 different menus for dinner that was created from 8 of the best chefs in America (thats what it said on the back of the menu book) The blanket was thicker, had this fancy flight mask, had my own personal television that folded out from the seat...the seats reclined back further than I could ever imagine, and no matter how much I tried to stretch my legs out, I couldnt touch the other seat in front of me, thats how much space I had :D But sadly, I couldn't sleep at all... not even a single wink... I don't know if it was the shock from being in the business class or the same old problem of being not able to sleep in any moving vehicles.
As I got in London, the line for checking the passport was sooooo long... must have been at least 1,000 people in front of me. After finally showing my passport, I went to pick up my bag, and to my chagrin, my bag straps had been ripped off, the zipper was busted open... I knew my bag was too heavy but if handled properly it wouldnt have been damaged. I was too tired to complain so I decided to just take the bag and go to the next terminal in London which was like 20 minutes walk away. By that time, it was like 7.30am, I decided to ask someone at the British Airways to see if I could take an earlier flight to Stockholm otherwise I would be stuck in the Terminal for 7 hours before leaving... I didnt want to feel like Tom Hanks in "the terminal". Unfortunately, they couldn't do it for me... so I decided to kill some time by fixing my bag... I asked the information desk to see where I could wrap up or tape up my bag since it was damaged. The lady at the information desk urged me to go back to the AmericanAirlines and tell them to either fix it or give me a new bag. I didnt think it was possible because my bag... my dad must have bought it like 15 years ago for his snowmobile equipment.. it was so old, and it was so cheap, my dad must ahve gotten it for like 20 dollars or something,... its worthless today... but realizing that I had like 6 hours to kill,.. I decided to take the 20 minute walk back to the other terminal that I came from, asked someone at AA to see my bag. One nice guy was very sympathetic about my damaged bag, he kept saying"I'm very sorry" as if he was the one who damaged it... however his supervisior wouldn't have it after lifting my bag he said "It's too heavy!"... so the sympathetic guy took the bag to verify the weight... we had to go through some mazes or whatever and entered a small room with a weight scale that was even SMALLER than the one in the Pearson Airport... and as usual, my bag was hanging out on the both ends touching the floor... and I don't know if that guy was being on my side or that stupid... the weight was 28.6 kilograms... I was like "thank god" cuz if the bag was over 32kg, AA would not be liable for the damage. So, AA decided to cover the cost for a new bag, I told them it was a new bag, and bought it like 55 dollars... I didnt want to go higher, the guys there knew it couldnt cost too much... So, thanks to the nice lady in the information desk, I'm getting a new bag :) have to buy one here in stockholm and send in the receipt and they will wire money into my bank account or something. Then I walked all the way back to The terminal where I just came from... another 20 minutes walk... I know 20 minutes walk is nothing, but after travelling halfway around the world, being sleep deprived, carrying 2 bags and having more than 40kg worth of bags in the stroller with wheels that I kept banging my toes in... (was wearing sandals so it hurted!) heh... it was soooo tiring to walk that simple 20 minutes worth.
Then finally, time for me to check in my bags in British Airways about noon... they must have much more modern weighing technology because when I put on my bag in the weight scale it was still drooping out but it immediately registered 37kg and immediately the dude behind the desk said it was too heavy! for the health and safety of the BA staff, they wont take my bag... I thought I was done there... but I asked... I had another bag in that ridiculously oversized bag, and if I could redistribute the weight into two bags evenly and if they could take 2 bags without charging me anything... the guy behind the desk said "no problem"... then I found out why they didnt charge me even though the flight limits the passengers to only 1 checked bag.. it was because their food services staff was on strike... they didnt offer any food on the flight and they are trying their best to please their passengers as much they could so... yeah they defintely made me happy :)
So, I repacked in front everybody in Heathrow, terminal 3... then checked in 2 bags..., BA also gave me 5 £ worth of food voucher cuz there was no food on the flight... I had fries and pop at Burger King (there will be a little story about that in my next blog).... by then, I had been awake for more than 24 hours... I was so tired, my body finally gave in, I fell asleep on this hard wooden bench in front of the television where they tell u which gate to go to for your flight.
I was dreaming of something about the Burger King then I realized I was still in London and suddenly woke up, for a second there, I felt like I had slept for hours and missed my flight.. but nah, I woke up with 20 minutes to spare heh... I walked to my flight half dazed... then just found my seat and put on my sleeping mask, and tried to sleep as much as I could... must have slept just an hour or so on that flight...
Finally, Stockholm!!... home sweet home (for now).... I found my damaged bag on the baggage claim conveyor belt... I had half a mind to complain to the BA staff for damaging my bag.. but... was too tired hehe... I just wanted to get out of the Airport environment... I saw a young girl with "Jönköping International Business School" lettering on her bag... and other girl with Australia Passport and student visa with same school on it... oh well anyway, I got out of the gate... saw Elisabet in her nice red Lacoste (alligator logo) shirt that I had gotten her for her last birthday. We went home, Elisabet's sister Maria, and her boyfriend, Mattias along with Mormor and morfar (grandparents) and her parents were there... there was a little birthday dinner for me... everything that happened that night felt like a long dream... then I finally went to bed at 11pm sweden time, approximately 35 hours later after waking up on tuesday morning.
Yeah, this is a long blog, then again my flight was actually longer!! :) unless theres strange people who needs more than 24 hours to read this blog :p
alright, I'll write more later.. I promise, nothing as long as this one heh :)
have fun,
Finally,... I'm actually in Sweden now. The trip actually took forever for me!... I arrived Pearson Airport at noon on tuesday and then got out of the Arlanda (Stockholm airport) at about 6.15pm swedish time on wednesday which is 12.15pm in Eastern time zone, so the whole orderal actually took me more than 24 hours!
In short, it was a very interesting trip... but I would be depriving you all, my loyal blog fans, of some more eventful experiences so I'm gonna enlighten you all.
A short summary - I had 2 layovers, Toronto to NYC JFK airport, then NYC to London, then London to Stockholm.
As I said, I arrived at Pearson Airport at noon.. the flight didn't leave until 2.30pm but my ticket said to be there 3 hours before... stupid airport regulatios like i said before. Anyway, after checking in, I had lunch with dad and andrew, had our tearful goodbye... as I went to get into the gate I realized I forgot my schoolbag which had all of my travel documents, health insurance, passport, wallet etc... in the middle of the airport... I hoped that nobody took it because if someone had, I wouldnt be here typing this in Sweden now. Thankful, nobody noticed an overstuffed bagpack sitting on the floor in the middle of a food court seating area. Anyway, my 2.30 flight to NYC, the plane was so small, I had to bend my neck down while finding my seat. The flight was bumpy... couldn't get any sleep... only 1.5 hours flight or something then I got out in JFK. Oh yeah, remember my overweight bag? I had a bag at 36kg, and when it was weighted at Pearson (they had a small weight scale and my bag was an oversized hockey bag so the half of the bag was hanging out of the scale) and the official weight for them was 26.5 kg or something like that.. I was surprised to see they could be that stupid :)
JFK... *sigh*... is a perfect image of what America is all about... the entire airport design is in chaos... I landed in Terminal 9 and needed to get to Terminal 8... but there was no signs or anything to direct where I should walk to... then once I found out where to go from an attendant... I went to terminal 9, had to go outside then back inside... outside was so dirty, there was people who looked as if they have been living in the airport for days, lying on the floor all raggedly-looking eating food that looked as if it came out of the trash. I'm probably exaggerating but, it was so dirty and the stench of Terminal 9 just described America perfectly,... all I could smell was Fries, Pizza, Burgers... anything that could be cooked with frying oil, I smelled it. The ads on the wall, the signs, the wall itself, was so dirty. Anyway, I think you get the idea by now... I went to the gate where my flight to London was. I decided to ask someone at the desk to see if they could upgrade me to business/first class cuz I cant hear the movies in the coach class... There was a gentleman, in his 50s or something... he was struggling with something on the computer behind the desk... I wasnt even sure if he could help me but I wrote "I called American Airlines few days ago to inquire whether there would be closed captioning or subtitles on the onflight movies and they said no, they also suggested me to ask someone at JFK to see if I could be upgraded to first class in exchange for me not understanding the enterainment on the flight"... the dude was like, no problem!... then he ordered a woman beside her to let me have that man's seat. I was like whoa?... who was that dude anyway? the woman (Flight attendant) seemed to not want to have me upgraded for some reason but that Man i was talking to was very intent on giving me his seat. Then, I simply thanked him and then as he left the desk, he put on his coat on and a hat.. ahh.. it was a captain's hat... the pilot of the flight I was taking just gave me his seat hehe...
Yup, I sat in the business class, my best flight ever... I actually had a choice of 5 different menus for dinner that was created from 8 of the best chefs in America (thats what it said on the back of the menu book) The blanket was thicker, had this fancy flight mask, had my own personal television that folded out from the seat...the seats reclined back further than I could ever imagine, and no matter how much I tried to stretch my legs out, I couldnt touch the other seat in front of me, thats how much space I had :D But sadly, I couldn't sleep at all... not even a single wink... I don't know if it was the shock from being in the business class or the same old problem of being not able to sleep in any moving vehicles.
As I got in London, the line for checking the passport was sooooo long... must have been at least 1,000 people in front of me. After finally showing my passport, I went to pick up my bag, and to my chagrin, my bag straps had been ripped off, the zipper was busted open... I knew my bag was too heavy but if handled properly it wouldnt have been damaged. I was too tired to complain so I decided to just take the bag and go to the next terminal in London which was like 20 minutes walk away. By that time, it was like 7.30am, I decided to ask someone at the British Airways to see if I could take an earlier flight to Stockholm otherwise I would be stuck in the Terminal for 7 hours before leaving... I didnt want to feel like Tom Hanks in "the terminal". Unfortunately, they couldn't do it for me... so I decided to kill some time by fixing my bag... I asked the information desk to see where I could wrap up or tape up my bag since it was damaged. The lady at the information desk urged me to go back to the AmericanAirlines and tell them to either fix it or give me a new bag. I didnt think it was possible because my bag... my dad must have bought it like 15 years ago for his snowmobile equipment.. it was so old, and it was so cheap, my dad must ahve gotten it for like 20 dollars or something,... its worthless today... but realizing that I had like 6 hours to kill,.. I decided to take the 20 minute walk back to the other terminal that I came from, asked someone at AA to see my bag. One nice guy was very sympathetic about my damaged bag, he kept saying"I'm very sorry" as if he was the one who damaged it... however his supervisior wouldn't have it after lifting my bag he said "It's too heavy!"... so the sympathetic guy took the bag to verify the weight... we had to go through some mazes or whatever and entered a small room with a weight scale that was even SMALLER than the one in the Pearson Airport... and as usual, my bag was hanging out on the both ends touching the floor... and I don't know if that guy was being on my side or that stupid... the weight was 28.6 kilograms... I was like "thank god" cuz if the bag was over 32kg, AA would not be liable for the damage. So, AA decided to cover the cost for a new bag, I told them it was a new bag, and bought it like 55 dollars... I didnt want to go higher, the guys there knew it couldnt cost too much... So, thanks to the nice lady in the information desk, I'm getting a new bag :) have to buy one here in stockholm and send in the receipt and they will wire money into my bank account or something. Then I walked all the way back to The terminal where I just came from... another 20 minutes walk... I know 20 minutes walk is nothing, but after travelling halfway around the world, being sleep deprived, carrying 2 bags and having more than 40kg worth of bags in the stroller with wheels that I kept banging my toes in... (was wearing sandals so it hurted!) heh... it was soooo tiring to walk that simple 20 minutes worth.
Then finally, time for me to check in my bags in British Airways about noon... they must have much more modern weighing technology because when I put on my bag in the weight scale it was still drooping out but it immediately registered 37kg and immediately the dude behind the desk said it was too heavy! for the health and safety of the BA staff, they wont take my bag... I thought I was done there... but I asked... I had another bag in that ridiculously oversized bag, and if I could redistribute the weight into two bags evenly and if they could take 2 bags without charging me anything... the guy behind the desk said "no problem"... then I found out why they didnt charge me even though the flight limits the passengers to only 1 checked bag.. it was because their food services staff was on strike... they didnt offer any food on the flight and they are trying their best to please their passengers as much they could so... yeah they defintely made me happy :)
So, I repacked in front everybody in Heathrow, terminal 3... then checked in 2 bags..., BA also gave me 5 £ worth of food voucher cuz there was no food on the flight... I had fries and pop at Burger King (there will be a little story about that in my next blog).... by then, I had been awake for more than 24 hours... I was so tired, my body finally gave in, I fell asleep on this hard wooden bench in front of the television where they tell u which gate to go to for your flight.
I was dreaming of something about the Burger King then I realized I was still in London and suddenly woke up, for a second there, I felt like I had slept for hours and missed my flight.. but nah, I woke up with 20 minutes to spare heh... I walked to my flight half dazed... then just found my seat and put on my sleeping mask, and tried to sleep as much as I could... must have slept just an hour or so on that flight...
Finally, Stockholm!!... home sweet home (for now).... I found my damaged bag on the baggage claim conveyor belt... I had half a mind to complain to the BA staff for damaging my bag.. but... was too tired hehe... I just wanted to get out of the Airport environment... I saw a young girl with "Jönköping International Business School" lettering on her bag... and other girl with Australia Passport and student visa with same school on it... oh well anyway, I got out of the gate... saw Elisabet in her nice red Lacoste (alligator logo) shirt that I had gotten her for her last birthday. We went home, Elisabet's sister Maria, and her boyfriend, Mattias along with Mormor and morfar (grandparents) and her parents were there... there was a little birthday dinner for me... everything that happened that night felt like a long dream... then I finally went to bed at 11pm sweden time, approximately 35 hours later after waking up on tuesday morning.
Yeah, this is a long blog, then again my flight was actually longer!! :) unless theres strange people who needs more than 24 hours to read this blog :p
alright, I'll write more later.. I promise, nothing as long as this one heh :)
have fun,
16 August 2005
to sleep or not to sleep?
me is the very tired... its past midnight now... my dad tells me to sleep and get some rest for the long day tomorrow, but I opted to stay up late. Because, from my past experience, I've always had problems sleeping on the plane and I figured since the flight to London is gonna be long one and It'll be almost 7am local time when I get to London therefore I should stay up now and be more tired tomorrow and hopefully during the flight I'll be able to get some sleep.
ah well, dunno what else to say now, I'm only typing this blog as another excuse to stay up late :)... I might as well go and watch the Jays game on tv (they're on the west coast thast why they are still playing at this hour)...
later people,
ah well, dunno what else to say now, I'm only typing this blog as another excuse to stay up late :)... I might as well go and watch the Jays game on tv (they're on the west coast thast why they are still playing at this hour)...
later people,
imorgon
Its official, my last night in Canada for awhile...
It's official, my bag is 4.4 kg overweight to London and 12.4kg overweight to Stockholm...
It's official, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life.
Everytime I thought it was already hard enough, I was only kidding myself, it just keep getting tougher by each minute. I can already imagine myself being homesick for first few weeks because not only I will miss everybody in Canada but I also will have to endure with the struggles of different cultural lifestyle (not as much driving, reduced tv time etc...) those little things are really little things but they have been part of my daily routine for almost my whole life. I'm going to have give up those little things that has been the foundation for the identity ofBrandon Goure. Hopefully by the end of the year, I will be still the same ol' Brandon. God knows I'm gonna kill myself if I end up wearing a pink shirt thats two sizes too small.. heh...
Yeah,... I'm leaving tomorrow. All of the talk about going to Sweden in the past few months is becoming more of reality now. It's going to be an interesting year filled with hardships and fulfilling experience... I just have to remember that when all is said and done, I will be able to say "I had fun" :)
-- on other note, British Airways had some silly strike going on from like August 10th until yesterday. I'm glad their strike ended otherwise I would have been stuck in London with my overweight bag. :)
later,
It's official, my bag is 4.4 kg overweight to London and 12.4kg overweight to Stockholm...
It's official, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life.
Everytime I thought it was already hard enough, I was only kidding myself, it just keep getting tougher by each minute. I can already imagine myself being homesick for first few weeks because not only I will miss everybody in Canada but I also will have to endure with the struggles of different cultural lifestyle (not as much driving, reduced tv time etc...) those little things are really little things but they have been part of my daily routine for almost my whole life. I'm going to have give up those little things that has been the foundation for the identity ofBrandon Goure. Hopefully by the end of the year, I will be still the same ol' Brandon. God knows I'm gonna kill myself if I end up wearing a pink shirt thats two sizes too small.. heh...
Yeah,... I'm leaving tomorrow. All of the talk about going to Sweden in the past few months is becoming more of reality now. It's going to be an interesting year filled with hardships and fulfilling experience... I just have to remember that when all is said and done, I will be able to say "I had fun" :)
-- on other note, British Airways had some silly strike going on from like August 10th until yesterday. I'm glad their strike ended otherwise I would have been stuck in London with my overweight bag. :)
later,
13 August 2005
stupid airport regulations
I've packed up 99.9999% of the stuff I'm gonna bring to Sweden, the 0.0001% remaining is just the clothes I'm gonna wear in the next few days. I did consider packing up everything and just wear the same thing everyday for 5 days, I thought it would be easier, then I thought again, it would be more of unsanitary than easy :)
Unf, I am allowed to bring 64 kg from my flight between Toronto to London using the American Airlines... but since I bought separate ticket from London to Stockholm, British Airways consider me as a euro traveller instead of an international traveller. You might wonder what's the difference,... the difference is 40 Kilograms!! British Airways will only permit me 23-24 kg of baggage weight thats approximately 90 pounds of luggage weight difference. I've called the British Airways and pleaded my case that I would be staying in Sweden for a whole year and 24kg is just impossible to "survive" on. Their official answer were "we regret that we are unable to accompany your requirements." Oh yeah, American Airlines allows 2 bags, and British Airways will permit me only 1 checked bag.
*sigh*, here's what I've come to now... I have one huge bag that is currently 33.5 kg with 0.00001% remaining to be packed, I'm hoping that American Airlines wont give me too much hassle about it because they limit each bag to 32 kg. I might try lifting the bag with my foot while its being weighed at the check in area :) But, I just know I'm gonna face problems checking in my bag in London... I expect to pay about 100 dollars for the 10kg overweight thing.
That makes me wonder... If an adult woman, who is just tiny, like 5'1 and 100 lbs... is allowed to bring 64kg worth of stuff (mainly clothes) then an adult man who's at 6'3 and 250lbs is still imposed upon the same requirement? that's just ridiculous, the baggage weight limitation should be in proporition to the passenger's size because the bigger the person is, the more fabric is used in the clothes hence their clothes, shoes, coats or whatever will be heavier than a skinny, and short woman's clothes guaranateed!!!!
This is the kind of hassle that I defintely do not need, I have enough stuff going on in my mind on whats happening on the next few weeks.
Wish me luck while checking in my bags :)
bg0ur3
Unf, I am allowed to bring 64 kg from my flight between Toronto to London using the American Airlines... but since I bought separate ticket from London to Stockholm, British Airways consider me as a euro traveller instead of an international traveller. You might wonder what's the difference,... the difference is 40 Kilograms!! British Airways will only permit me 23-24 kg of baggage weight thats approximately 90 pounds of luggage weight difference. I've called the British Airways and pleaded my case that I would be staying in Sweden for a whole year and 24kg is just impossible to "survive" on. Their official answer were "we regret that we are unable to accompany your requirements." Oh yeah, American Airlines allows 2 bags, and British Airways will permit me only 1 checked bag.
*sigh*, here's what I've come to now... I have one huge bag that is currently 33.5 kg with 0.00001% remaining to be packed, I'm hoping that American Airlines wont give me too much hassle about it because they limit each bag to 32 kg. I might try lifting the bag with my foot while its being weighed at the check in area :) But, I just know I'm gonna face problems checking in my bag in London... I expect to pay about 100 dollars for the 10kg overweight thing.
That makes me wonder... If an adult woman, who is just tiny, like 5'1 and 100 lbs... is allowed to bring 64kg worth of stuff (mainly clothes) then an adult man who's at 6'3 and 250lbs is still imposed upon the same requirement? that's just ridiculous, the baggage weight limitation should be in proporition to the passenger's size because the bigger the person is, the more fabric is used in the clothes hence their clothes, shoes, coats or whatever will be heavier than a skinny, and short woman's clothes guaranateed!!!!
This is the kind of hassle that I defintely do not need, I have enough stuff going on in my mind on whats happening on the next few weeks.
Wish me luck while checking in my bags :)
bg0ur3
12 August 2005
the "good-bye" phase
Hey y'all... hey bezaire, guess what? no more tick tock :p
yeah... tonight I just got home from Bryden's Bar in Milton where I met some of my friends... possibly the last time I will see them before I leave this tuesday. I'm going through this "good-bye" phase where I practically say good bye to everybody I see these days because the chances of seeing them again before next week are very slim.
The "good-bye" phase is actually something new to me, I'm not usually a sentimental person where I get into tears over something superficial however, in this so-called phase,... it gets harder for me to say good bye every single time.... every single time it increasingly gets to me emotionally. I feel as if I am actually already leaving my home by saying goodbye as if I am leaving forever.
I realize that a "see you later" is probably a better term to be used at this moment however for some reason, I feel "good byes" is a better fit... I don't know how to explain it, for those who thinks that I'm never coming back to Canada again, don't get your hopes up, I will be back next summer... probably just to annoy most of you :)
during the "good bye" phase, I've noticed that there many "last time I'll do that" stuff around here, such as going to my local mall... changing my car oil, or going to work (by the way, today I worked my last shift :) )... As the frequency of the "last time" stuff happens, I begin to realize the reality of being away from home. It's really intriguing to comprenhend how many people actually take the term "home" for granted so much time. I am beginning to see how precious my "home" is, it basically is who I am, my own identity along with everything about me including my friends, my routines, my liveihood, my language and culture... Where I am going, there is almost nothing that will resembles to my "home" expect for Elisabet. I don't really have many close friends, I don't know what I will do everyday in Jonkoping, I know I will have to struggle with the language (written and sign) for a long time before I actually become fluent in it.
After the "good bye" phase, I think I'll be stuck in a void between my home and my new home for a long time before where I will finally settle down. For sure, I can count on having huge headaches on the first few weeks in Sweden because I will have to actually "THINK" and "ANALYZE" each swedish word spoken to me to just understand what it means.
For those who are wondering, Elisabet arrived Sweden sometime during early afternoon today (she left late last night)... so, I guess I'm next :)
yeah, just 5 days left... tomorrow, I'm gonna go to OHIP office and let them know I'm gonna be out of the country for some time... then later the night I'll go and visit my grandparents along with my extended family in Chatham for the weekend along with my dad and my brother and spend my birthday over there... then hopefully on sunday night I can see some more friends at Matt's trailer including ONENINEFIVE!.. he owes me a bottle of absinthe, I've got couple of bottles of rum for him if he wants it :)
within a week or so, I will be writing a summarization of what this blog is all about... my first post didnt really cover much so I thought I'd do a better job next time.
'til then
yeah... tonight I just got home from Bryden's Bar in Milton where I met some of my friends... possibly the last time I will see them before I leave this tuesday. I'm going through this "good-bye" phase where I practically say good bye to everybody I see these days because the chances of seeing them again before next week are very slim.
The "good-bye" phase is actually something new to me, I'm not usually a sentimental person where I get into tears over something superficial however, in this so-called phase,... it gets harder for me to say good bye every single time.... every single time it increasingly gets to me emotionally. I feel as if I am actually already leaving my home by saying goodbye as if I am leaving forever.
I realize that a "see you later" is probably a better term to be used at this moment however for some reason, I feel "good byes" is a better fit... I don't know how to explain it, for those who thinks that I'm never coming back to Canada again, don't get your hopes up, I will be back next summer... probably just to annoy most of you :)
during the "good bye" phase, I've noticed that there many "last time I'll do that" stuff around here, such as going to my local mall... changing my car oil, or going to work (by the way, today I worked my last shift :) )... As the frequency of the "last time" stuff happens, I begin to realize the reality of being away from home. It's really intriguing to comprenhend how many people actually take the term "home" for granted so much time. I am beginning to see how precious my "home" is, it basically is who I am, my own identity along with everything about me including my friends, my routines, my liveihood, my language and culture... Where I am going, there is almost nothing that will resembles to my "home" expect for Elisabet. I don't really have many close friends, I don't know what I will do everyday in Jonkoping, I know I will have to struggle with the language (written and sign) for a long time before I actually become fluent in it.
After the "good bye" phase, I think I'll be stuck in a void between my home and my new home for a long time before where I will finally settle down. For sure, I can count on having huge headaches on the first few weeks in Sweden because I will have to actually "THINK" and "ANALYZE" each swedish word spoken to me to just understand what it means.
For those who are wondering, Elisabet arrived Sweden sometime during early afternoon today (she left late last night)... so, I guess I'm next :)
yeah, just 5 days left... tomorrow, I'm gonna go to OHIP office and let them know I'm gonna be out of the country for some time... then later the night I'll go and visit my grandparents along with my extended family in Chatham for the weekend along with my dad and my brother and spend my birthday over there... then hopefully on sunday night I can see some more friends at Matt's trailer including ONENINEFIVE!.. he owes me a bottle of absinthe, I've got couple of bottles of rum for him if he wants it :)
within a week or so, I will be writing a summarization of what this blog is all about... my first post didnt really cover much so I thought I'd do a better job next time.
'til then
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