I thought of this interesting swedish phrase few days ago --
Jag har hår här nu.
come on, you all english-users admit it, this looks like a screwed up sentence,
you all probably read it as -- Jar har har har nu.
check out the dots above the 'a' in those har's... it does have difference, that swedish phrase roughly translated into english means "I have hair here now".
When I typed "Jag har hår här nu" to elisabet on msn, I told her that I thought it was a funny sentence, and she was confused, wondering what I meant by "funny"... I had to point out that "har" was repeated three consecutive times yet those words carried different meanings. Then she was like "oh my god, I didn't notice that!!"...
jeez,... it's interesting to see how the swedes' brain and their perspective on their own language works, they automatically see the 'ö' 'ä' 'å' in their words, they are able to tell the difference from the 'o' and 'a' without any effort and lacks the identifying process to understand that those words här hår and har looks at the first glance.
That is one classic example of my struggle identifying those tiny dots above the a's and o's... I hope this example illustrates my problem clearly.
Have a good day :)
Brandon
P.S. for those who doesnt believe me... check out the msn conversation between me and elisabet.
19:49:38 bg0ur3 - jag har hår här nu :)...
19:49:41 bg0ur3 - looks funny :)
19:50:24 e- ohhh?
19:50:32 e- hair there? where? :S
19:50:39 bg0ur3 - no i mean.. har har har..
19:50:40 bg0ur3 - looks funny
19:50:58 bg0ur3 - i guess to a true swede har, här and hår looks completely different
19:51:01 bg0ur3 - but to me its the same :)
19:51:09 e- HAHA
19:51:13 e- of course i didnt notice that
19:51:27 e- jag har hår här... i truly didnt notice..
19:51:32 bg0ur3 - hehe
19:51:34 e- its a big difference u know : )
19:51:45 bg0ur3 - i know its a big difference but it takes me an extra second to realize it :)
26 January 2006
24 January 2006
5 Months and 1 week since leaving Canada
Hey.
(Dont think I am counting the days everyday, there is a bar on the bottom of this blog that keeps the count of how long I have been away from Canada, I use it as a handy reference from time to time :p)
dang, yeah I have passed the halfway point of my year here and I am starting my second semester this week. I thought I would add a "reflection" of what has happened throughout the year here.
I have to admit, Tammy was right that I couldnt possibly become an "expert" in swedish sign language by January (now)... but I don't feel as nervous or lost when talking to the deaf swedes anymore because I understand them 99% of the time now and I guess I have gotten alot better with the sign language however there is still a big need for improvement in that area (especially with my lip movements) :p
The school here, don't get me wrong, I think this town -- Jönköping -- is one of the most beautiful town I have ever seen in my life, the school campus and design is amazing but I do not really like their system. There is no consistency with the assignments, deadline dates, teaching session/workshop/lecture/labs or whatever... I have different school schedule every week forcing me to juggle my times with Stockholm/Work and Jönköping/School even more. And, whenever I get my assignments, I always feel that the assignments requirements are so vague which makes it hard for me to get started when I don't know which direction I should take to complete the assignment. I don't know if it is Sweden's general system or just Jönköping Högskolan itself.
If you fail a test, or an assignment, you are allowed to re-take the exams or re-do the assignments, I am totally against that idea because to me, I feel like that my motivation for studying or working on the assignments has been greatly depelted because I always know that there will be another "go" at it if I fail the exam. And one of my courses had a paper, programming assignment that was due AFTER the final exam. It's those things that makes me confused with the normal pattern of how a semester's schedule flow should be like.
Despite those negative things, I am still learning alot just like I would be if I was in Ryerson right now. I think it's just that when I came here, I was fully expecting the culture, lifestyle and social change but I guess I did not fully grasp the possiblity that the educational system would also require some adapting.
I thought it would be fun for me to make a list of things that I would miss and would NOT miss from Sweden and Canada. Since it is something that everybody usually asks me so here goes...
What I miss from Canada...
What I will miss from Sweden when I return in the summer
Also, another question I have been seeing lately.... "when will you be home?"... Myself, I am not even sure, but I know I will have to decide for sure by mid-april because that is when I have to pick the return date for the flight home.
So far, I have several options that would impact my decision on when to return;
Option 1) End of the May - I have been in contact with Toronto CIBC bank headquarters, it seems like that I have a good opportunity to work there however there is one problem. They require all summer students to start working for them on the first week of may which is impossible for me because the second semester here does not end until first week of June. I am able to take the final exam at Ryerson so the earliest I can be in Canada would be in third or fourth week of May that is if CIBC is willing to be more flexible for me (hopefully)
Option 2) Mid-August - The current job I have right now pays very well, I am planning to talk with my boss to see if he would like me to continue working until mid-August if my "option #1) doesn't work out. But one problem, my Student Visa expires at the end of June, so I would also have to apply for an extension to my student visa and then return to Canada in mid-august to get ready for my LAST year at ryerson :D
Option 3) Last Week of June or First week of July - If I dont work at CIBC and I cannot get my visa extension or cannot work at Omnitor in the summer then I guess I don't have much of choice but to return back home and hopefully I find some nice coop employment for few months otherwise I will be back to my old routine working with BRAD... I must be back with BRAD before mid-august before my 1-year Leave of Absence expires otherwise I would have to re-apply for the job all over again which is somehting I want to avoid doing.
so as you can see, my return date to Canada has a buffer zone of almost 4 months so I can't really give you a definite answer right now but you all will find out in a good time, I am sure most of you would be eager to see me in person to see if I look the same or if I have became too swedishized :p (right Megan? :p)
As for my immediate future, I am trying to find a time where I can go to Italy for a long weekend or something to visit Tara before my Dad, Andrew and Valerie visits me and Sweden. Yup, I said dad is visiting me, for those who don't understand how significant this is, my dad is a 50 year old man who has never flown in a plane before, I'm hoping that it will be a safe trip for him, not like those american lunatics that I see on news too often jumping off the plane screaming :) Anyway, they will visit me from March 10-19, I think i might have an exam that week but it was the only time they could come so.... If I fail the exam, theres always that re-exam (I still dont like that concept though).
I guess thats it for now, but, I know how much you guys dislike reading blogs without some kind of pictures so I was nice enough to find a picture :)
This picture is of me and my 4 other roommates from last semester, from left to right (Kingsley (Ghana), Peter (Slovakia), Alister (Australia), Kingsley (Ghana), Brandon (Canada) )
Yup, I said Kingsley twice, they both are cousins and have same name, the one on the left didnt have any apartment available so he lived with us until few weeks ago when he found another apartment and moved out. Peter and Alister went to school for just one semester and they have moved out.
I have two new roommates now, Frank... from Ghana also, Kingsley had him move in taking Peter's room... and second roommate Zoltan from Hungary.
anyway... thats all for now... more to come later
Have fun
bg0ur3
(Dont think I am counting the days everyday, there is a bar on the bottom of this blog that keeps the count of how long I have been away from Canada, I use it as a handy reference from time to time :p)
dang, yeah I have passed the halfway point of my year here and I am starting my second semester this week. I thought I would add a "reflection" of what has happened throughout the year here.
I have to admit, Tammy was right that I couldnt possibly become an "expert" in swedish sign language by January (now)... but I don't feel as nervous or lost when talking to the deaf swedes anymore because I understand them 99% of the time now and I guess I have gotten alot better with the sign language however there is still a big need for improvement in that area (especially with my lip movements) :p
The school here, don't get me wrong, I think this town -- Jönköping -- is one of the most beautiful town I have ever seen in my life, the school campus and design is amazing but I do not really like their system. There is no consistency with the assignments, deadline dates, teaching session/workshop/lecture/labs or whatever... I have different school schedule every week forcing me to juggle my times with Stockholm/Work and Jönköping/School even more. And, whenever I get my assignments, I always feel that the assignments requirements are so vague which makes it hard for me to get started when I don't know which direction I should take to complete the assignment. I don't know if it is Sweden's general system or just Jönköping Högskolan itself.
If you fail a test, or an assignment, you are allowed to re-take the exams or re-do the assignments, I am totally against that idea because to me, I feel like that my motivation for studying or working on the assignments has been greatly depelted because I always know that there will be another "go" at it if I fail the exam. And one of my courses had a paper, programming assignment that was due AFTER the final exam. It's those things that makes me confused with the normal pattern of how a semester's schedule flow should be like.
Despite those negative things, I am still learning alot just like I would be if I was in Ryerson right now. I think it's just that when I came here, I was fully expecting the culture, lifestyle and social change but I guess I did not fully grasp the possiblity that the educational system would also require some adapting.
I thought it would be fun for me to make a list of things that I would miss and would NOT miss from Sweden and Canada. Since it is something that everybody usually asks me so here goes...
What I miss from Canada...
- Cheap gasoline.
- Conventional transportation with my personal car.
- English captions on tv.
- NHL, MLB, NFL, and even NBA on the tv.
- My pets, (I do not think I have even touched a single animal since I came here eh)
- Abundance of access of ATM machines.
- The couch in my living room at home (the furniture here are too ikea-ish)
- Stores open until 9pm or 10pm.
- Nestea Iced Tea (the powder mix)
- Playing ball hockey, baseball, basketball or volleyball
- Pepperoni Pizza (here, they have just salami, it doesnt taste the same)
- Rush hour traffic.
- Driving at least 1-3 hours everyday
- Working and School 16 hours everyday
- Fast Food restaurants/Junk Food (I probably eat fast food just once in 1-2 months now and my junk food intake have been cut in half when compared to canada)
- ASL (yup just because I know I probably would be using it for rest of my life)
What I will miss from Sweden when I return in the summer
- Elisabet
- the vibrant deaf community
- the sense of closeness within the deaf culture (I dont see much of that at my home)
- 3G video mobile phones
- the constant learning of new words/signs
- tap water (no difference from spring water bottles)
- great public transportation especially the subway system (however there are times where a car would be useful)
- great bike/walking paths (not sidewalks)
- their "white" sauce
- early darkness during the winter season
- expensive gas
- lack of ATM machines or when they only have 500kr bills available (about 80 dollars)
- almost all sporting events on tv are NOT captioned
- Innebandy
- their tv/dvd/vcr system, I never have learned how to work with them, seems like that their tv has some kind of "Sleep mode", gonna have to teach myself soon :)
Also, another question I have been seeing lately.... "when will you be home?"... Myself, I am not even sure, but I know I will have to decide for sure by mid-april because that is when I have to pick the return date for the flight home.
So far, I have several options that would impact my decision on when to return;
Option 1) End of the May - I have been in contact with Toronto CIBC bank headquarters, it seems like that I have a good opportunity to work there however there is one problem. They require all summer students to start working for them on the first week of may which is impossible for me because the second semester here does not end until first week of June. I am able to take the final exam at Ryerson so the earliest I can be in Canada would be in third or fourth week of May that is if CIBC is willing to be more flexible for me (hopefully)
Option 2) Mid-August - The current job I have right now pays very well, I am planning to talk with my boss to see if he would like me to continue working until mid-August if my "option #1) doesn't work out. But one problem, my Student Visa expires at the end of June, so I would also have to apply for an extension to my student visa and then return to Canada in mid-august to get ready for my LAST year at ryerson :D
Option 3) Last Week of June or First week of July - If I dont work at CIBC and I cannot get my visa extension or cannot work at Omnitor in the summer then I guess I don't have much of choice but to return back home and hopefully I find some nice coop employment for few months otherwise I will be back to my old routine working with BRAD... I must be back with BRAD before mid-august before my 1-year Leave of Absence expires otherwise I would have to re-apply for the job all over again which is somehting I want to avoid doing.
so as you can see, my return date to Canada has a buffer zone of almost 4 months so I can't really give you a definite answer right now but you all will find out in a good time, I am sure most of you would be eager to see me in person to see if I look the same or if I have became too swedishized :p (right Megan? :p)
As for my immediate future, I am trying to find a time where I can go to Italy for a long weekend or something to visit Tara before my Dad, Andrew and Valerie visits me and Sweden. Yup, I said dad is visiting me, for those who don't understand how significant this is, my dad is a 50 year old man who has never flown in a plane before, I'm hoping that it will be a safe trip for him, not like those american lunatics that I see on news too often jumping off the plane screaming :) Anyway, they will visit me from March 10-19, I think i might have an exam that week but it was the only time they could come so.... If I fail the exam, theres always that re-exam (I still dont like that concept though).
I guess thats it for now, but, I know how much you guys dislike reading blogs without some kind of pictures so I was nice enough to find a picture :)
This picture is of me and my 4 other roommates from last semester, from left to right (Kingsley (Ghana), Peter (Slovakia), Alister (Australia), Kingsley (Ghana), Brandon (Canada) )
Yup, I said Kingsley twice, they both are cousins and have same name, the one on the left didnt have any apartment available so he lived with us until few weeks ago when he found another apartment and moved out. Peter and Alister went to school for just one semester and they have moved out.
I have two new roommates now, Frank... from Ghana also, Kingsley had him move in taking Peter's room... and second roommate Zoltan from Hungary.
anyway... thats all for now... more to come later
Have fun
bg0ur3
10 January 2006
Gott Nytt År!!
Yeah, after christmas, seems like every second sentence I said was "Gott Nytt År!..."
"How are you doing?.."
"Gott Nytt År!..."
"yup, I saw that tv show yesterday"
"Gott Nytt År!..."
"I'm gonna read a book now"
"Gott Nytt År!"
"I need a drink"
"but first gotta go to the bathroom..."
*OOPS!*... almost forgot..."GOTT NYTT ÅR!"
heh... if you havent figured it out yet... Gott Nytt År = Happy New Year...
remember when I said that the swedes said "merry christmas" far too often?... I think they worship the celebration of a new year far more than "I-never-met-that-person's" birthday or maybe if you say it in swedish (spoken swedish) its fun to say the words... I dunno... or maybe they just feel the need to inform everybody that it is not 2005 anymore to prevent any misunderstanding when they make plans to meet or whatever... I'm just throwing in some made-up theories, feel free to add yours if you want :)
Some examples, on December 31st or morning of January first, I noticed that on my MSN buddy list... I had about 7 swedes online on my msn, EVERY SINGLE ONE of them had a nickname with "gott nytt år" or something related to "happy new year" on their msn nicknames.... and I had maybe 20 canadians online, NONE of them even made the effort to acknowledge that it's 2006 now... actually one did... but that person was an american... so that person doesnt count :p... If that's not enough for you, I compared my msn buddy list with Elisabet's. The evidence of eagerness to introduce 2006 was overwhelming... Elisabet probably had 20-something swedes online on her list, and only ONE person did not say happy new year... I know I am just making a pointless point... (by the way is there a such thing as a pointless point? heh)
Anyway, I after christmas, moving to Gullmarsplan, it started snowing here non-stop for like 2-3 days giving Stockholm a thick blanket of snow everywhere, it has not melted away yet (it is January 10 now...) Elisabet and I went shopping few times, I thought there would be something similar to Boxing Day Sale, I went shopping on 26th of December, I saw in newspapers that there would be some sale in some stores.... I went to the mall.. and went "huh? that's all?"... it looked like a normal saturday afternoon at the mall... oh well...
For the new year's eve, instead of going to a big party or something else that required alot of "Gott Nytt År!!" that I wasn't in the mood for, Elisabet and some other girls organized a small, more sophiscated and refined New Year's eve gathering. Consisting of only four couples, 8 people in all (I said 8 in case you couldnt do the math). Semi-formal dress, elegant three course dinner and so on. Yeah pictures are coming up at the end, but let me tell the story first :).
On the afternoon of the December 31st, I realized that I wanted a new shirt that I could wear to those type of parties, (an impulse encouraged by my FIRST paycheque since August heh)... So I decided to go to Åhlens City (a clothing and accessories store) with Elisabet and get a shirt.... Elisabet saw a tie that she wanted me to have, I didn't like it at first but I guess I got used to it... (I bet Elisabet is smiling while shes reading this now)... you know, I made a sacred commitment to myself that I would never wear anything pink.... and the tie was 1/3 purple... too close to pink for me but but but... oh well..
After buying a black shirt, I immediately put it on and went to the party I was actually wearing the shirt when buying it :)
8 of us at the NYE party, Elisabet, Jenny, Camilla, Carro, Jesper, Mikko, Magnus and Me. Interesting fact about this select group of people, all 4 sweden women had boyfriend of different nationalities... Magnus is a swede and his girlfriend is Jenny. Jesper moved to Sweden last year from Denmark because of his girlfriend Camilla, Mikko from Finland moved to Sweden also last year and also because of his girlfriend. and of course, me, a Canadian moving to Sweden because of my girl :)... Seems like that men are more likely to move for their girls or is it because Sweden is a better country?... you can argue that idea in my comments :)
We ate porkfillets with fancy dressings on it, played some games and so... am not in mood to go into details for that. Let's skip ahead to the fireworks part... Other difference I noticed is when it becomes 12.00am January 1st, in Canada everbody usually huddle around the tv and wait until the specific second and begin hollering and celebrating. In Sweden, they do it differently, they just wait until it's 10 minutes before midnight and go outside and light fireworks. They don't care about the precise second when it becomes midnight, strange, with all of the "Gott Nytt År!!"s you would be inclined to think they would be more enthusiastic when they know exactly when it is the new year? oh well..... I thought it was fun to go outside and light fireworks and I also thought that we would be the only ones lighting the fireworks... but actuall when we got outside, there was already dozens of people from their own parties gathering around a field lighting fireworks. I think all 8 of us had an opportunity to light a firework, but my firework was a screwed up firework!!...
allow me to explain further... when I received my firework thingy, it looked like a yellow/blue cubic box, about 15cm in length on each sides, and I noticed that the firework would blast off from two opposing sides of the box, I thought it was strange and how was I supposed to light it?. I certainly couldn't light it upright otherwise the other end would shoot right into the ground. I checked the pictorial instructions and it said to lay the box on the ground with the opposing "firework" sides on the side. I still thought it was strange, nevertheless I went ahead and placed the firework on the ground and attempted to light it, at my first attempt, Elisabet, while taking a pictuer of me, noticed that the firework was placed horizontally instead of vertically, she ran to me telling me to STOP!!.. she thought I was stupid enough to light it while it was positioned horizionally... I showed her the instructions... she stared at it with disbelief... we had no idea how the firework looks like but since I was following the instructions then I should be doing it right?.... I also placed it so that all of us were facing the "non blasting" sides just in case... and you won't believe how luckily we were that I did it...
"Gott Nytt År!..."
"yup, I saw that tv show yesterday"
"Gott Nytt År!..."
"I'm gonna read a book now"
"Gott Nytt År!"
"I need a drink"
"but first gotta go to the bathroom..."
*OOPS!*... almost forgot..."GOTT NYTT ÅR!"
heh... if you havent figured it out yet... Gott Nytt År = Happy New Year...
remember when I said that the swedes said "merry christmas" far too often?... I think they worship the celebration of a new year far more than "I-never-met-that-person's" birthday or maybe if you say it in swedish (spoken swedish) its fun to say the words... I dunno... or maybe they just feel the need to inform everybody that it is not 2005 anymore to prevent any misunderstanding when they make plans to meet or whatever... I'm just throwing in some made-up theories, feel free to add yours if you want :)
Some examples, on December 31st or morning of January first, I noticed that on my MSN buddy list... I had about 7 swedes online on my msn, EVERY SINGLE ONE of them had a nickname with "gott nytt år" or something related to "happy new year" on their msn nicknames.... and I had maybe 20 canadians online, NONE of them even made the effort to acknowledge that it's 2006 now... actually one did... but that person was an american... so that person doesnt count :p... If that's not enough for you, I compared my msn buddy list with Elisabet's. The evidence of eagerness to introduce 2006 was overwhelming... Elisabet probably had 20-something swedes online on her list, and only ONE person did not say happy new year... I know I am just making a pointless point... (by the way is there a such thing as a pointless point? heh)
Anyway, I after christmas, moving to Gullmarsplan, it started snowing here non-stop for like 2-3 days giving Stockholm a thick blanket of snow everywhere, it has not melted away yet (it is January 10 now...) Elisabet and I went shopping few times, I thought there would be something similar to Boxing Day Sale, I went shopping on 26th of December, I saw in newspapers that there would be some sale in some stores.... I went to the mall.. and went "huh? that's all?"... it looked like a normal saturday afternoon at the mall... oh well...
For the new year's eve, instead of going to a big party or something else that required alot of "Gott Nytt År!!" that I wasn't in the mood for, Elisabet and some other girls organized a small, more sophiscated and refined New Year's eve gathering. Consisting of only four couples, 8 people in all (I said 8 in case you couldnt do the math). Semi-formal dress, elegant three course dinner and so on. Yeah pictures are coming up at the end, but let me tell the story first :).
On the afternoon of the December 31st, I realized that I wanted a new shirt that I could wear to those type of parties, (an impulse encouraged by my FIRST paycheque since August heh)... So I decided to go to Åhlens City (a clothing and accessories store) with Elisabet and get a shirt.... Elisabet saw a tie that she wanted me to have, I didn't like it at first but I guess I got used to it... (I bet Elisabet is smiling while shes reading this now)... you know, I made a sacred commitment to myself that I would never wear anything pink.... and the tie was 1/3 purple... too close to pink for me but but but... oh well..
After buying a black shirt, I immediately put it on and went to the party I was actually wearing the shirt when buying it :)
8 of us at the NYE party, Elisabet, Jenny, Camilla, Carro, Jesper, Mikko, Magnus and Me. Interesting fact about this select group of people, all 4 sweden women had boyfriend of different nationalities... Magnus is a swede and his girlfriend is Jenny. Jesper moved to Sweden last year from Denmark because of his girlfriend Camilla, Mikko from Finland moved to Sweden also last year and also because of his girlfriend. and of course, me, a Canadian moving to Sweden because of my girl :)... Seems like that men are more likely to move for their girls or is it because Sweden is a better country?... you can argue that idea in my comments :)
We ate porkfillets with fancy dressings on it, played some games and so... am not in mood to go into details for that. Let's skip ahead to the fireworks part... Other difference I noticed is when it becomes 12.00am January 1st, in Canada everbody usually huddle around the tv and wait until the specific second and begin hollering and celebrating. In Sweden, they do it differently, they just wait until it's 10 minutes before midnight and go outside and light fireworks. They don't care about the precise second when it becomes midnight, strange, with all of the "Gott Nytt År!!"s you would be inclined to think they would be more enthusiastic when they know exactly when it is the new year? oh well..... I thought it was fun to go outside and light fireworks and I also thought that we would be the only ones lighting the fireworks... but actuall when we got outside, there was already dozens of people from their own parties gathering around a field lighting fireworks. I think all 8 of us had an opportunity to light a firework, but my firework was a screwed up firework!!...
allow me to explain further... when I received my firework thingy, it looked like a yellow/blue cubic box, about 15cm in length on each sides, and I noticed that the firework would blast off from two opposing sides of the box, I thought it was strange and how was I supposed to light it?. I certainly couldn't light it upright otherwise the other end would shoot right into the ground. I checked the pictorial instructions and it said to lay the box on the ground with the opposing "firework" sides on the side. I still thought it was strange, nevertheless I went ahead and placed the firework on the ground and attempted to light it, at my first attempt, Elisabet, while taking a pictuer of me, noticed that the firework was placed horizontally instead of vertically, she ran to me telling me to STOP!!.. she thought I was stupid enough to light it while it was positioned horizionally... I showed her the instructions... she stared at it with disbelief... we had no idea how the firework looks like but since I was following the instructions then I should be doing it right?.... I also placed it so that all of us were facing the "non blasting" sides just in case... and you won't believe how luckily we were that I did it...
My First Attempt
Second attempt at lighting it up, I still felt uneasy, I rushed back at a safe distance after lighting the fuse (15 meters or so)... then as the fuse disappeared, BOOM! the fireworks went off!!... to my amazement, it ACTUALLY BLASTED SIDEWAYS!!!... we were on a field with at least 40 people gathered around in a circle but LUCKILY on one side, there was nobody in the direction of the blast, and on the other side, the people like 100 meters from the firework so the firework blast did not reach them that far... Everybody in our group was looking at me as if I never had lighted a firework before, I was quick to defend myself and tell them that the instructions said to place it sideways and luckily I wasnt the only one to read the instructions, Elisabet agreed with me so... not my fault :)
My Second Attempt
It had to be the dumbest firework design I've ever seen, who would want to see fireworks flying sideways?... one of the blasts actually went through a tree... ah... dumb firework but it was certainly enteraining :)...
After the fireworks, we got back to Camilla/Jesper's apartment (thats where the party was)... and stayed there until like 4am, by then the Subway was closed (they close about 3am and reopen at 6am), Elisabet and I didn't want to wait until 6am, so we took the night bus, it ended up taking us an hour and half to reach our home!!... an average subway ride would have taken us 15 minutes max. But in all, the night was a fun experience.
The Appetizer, crayfish salad... Like I said in my blog about the crayfish festival, I was never eating it again, and I was true to my word that night. Mikko didnt like it either, so I wasn't the only loser eating Crayfish-less salad :)
Camilla, Brandon and Elisabet
Jesper, Jenny and Mikko
Me, sporting my new purple tie :)
Magnus, after finally opening a bottle of Champagne.. (it took him few minutes heh)
All of us outside lighting fireworks, and I think Jenny is saying "Gott Nytt År!"
Magnus and Mikko inspecting an firework that didn't go off.
Camilla, Jenny, Carro and Elisabet.
Mikko (Finland), Brandon (Canada), Jesper (Denmark)and Magnus (Sweden)
Brandon and Magnus
Gott Nytt År 2006!
08 January 2006
Gullmarsplan and Djugården vs HV71
Hey :)
Shortly after Christmas, Mattias and Maria went to Venezuela (South America) for a three week vacation. And guess what?... They were nice enough to offer us (Elisabet and I) to live in their apartment in Gullmarsplan while they were vacationing. I realize that this might not seem like a big deal to you guys but allow me to explain further about the benefits of living here.
It's only 4-5 minutes ride on the subway to the downtown, less than 1 minute subway ride to where Elisabet and I work. Compared to the 17-19 minutes subway ride to the downtown and 25-30 minutes to where I work from Bredäng (Elisabet's parents place). Alas, I realize that we're not going to be here forever, but a good three weeks here is better than nothing! :)
It's small but a nice single bedroom apartment with all of the necessary amenities :) The walk to the subway station takes just a minute, in fact you can see the station when you get out of the apartment building and the view from the apartment, you can see the downtown area. Since living here, Elisabet has became envious of this great location and now the thoughts of purchasing an apartment in the city is coming up more often now :p
Yup, like Bezaire (the dude from "dude, the where's my frog??"), Elisabet and I went to see Sweden Elite League hockey match during the holidays (Dec 27, the day after we moved into Gullmarsplan). The teams; HV71 and Djugårdens. Djugårdens has been Elisabet's favorite team ever since she was little, Mats Sundin and many NHL greats have came from Djugårdens. Unfortunately this year the team sucks, near the bottom of the standing. Djugårdens were facing the visiting Jönköping/Huskvarna HV71s. I have no idea why they are called HV71 (I believed I also mentioned that in one of my blogs in September or about that time). The HV71 is the best team in the Elite League, they have either won the championship or been at least in the Finals several times in the past few years and this year they are in first place with only 3 losses afte 30 games. I assumed that it would be somewhat unbalanced game with HV71 destroying Djugårdens.
But it turned out that Djugårdens had the game of their year! They matched Hv71s on every move, the goaltenders on the both sides were AMAZING, first two goals were just fluke goals making it a 1-1 game... after 2 periods it was 2-2, then Djugårdens made a great slapshot from the board near the blueline through the traffic into the net, the Goaltender never knew where the puck were. The jubliant-filled crowd went crazy, with a minute to go, Djugårdens scored an empty netter to insure their win with the final score of 4-2 for Djugårdens. The announced attendance was almost 11,000 people, the record for this year :)
The game was played in the Globen, one of Stockholm's architectural masterpiece, while searching for information about the Globen, some of the information said that it was designed with the idea of creating a perfect acoustics environment. I had seen the outside of Globen so many times (its beside the Deaf House, near where I work, and near where I am currently living in now, theres also a mall beside it) but I never had seen the inside. Now I can cross off one more thing from my "things to-do" list.
Here is what Globen looks on the outside...
Yup here are pictures of the game inside the Globe :)...
Shortly after Christmas, Mattias and Maria went to Venezuela (South America) for a three week vacation. And guess what?... They were nice enough to offer us (Elisabet and I) to live in their apartment in Gullmarsplan while they were vacationing. I realize that this might not seem like a big deal to you guys but allow me to explain further about the benefits of living here.
It's only 4-5 minutes ride on the subway to the downtown, less than 1 minute subway ride to where Elisabet and I work. Compared to the 17-19 minutes subway ride to the downtown and 25-30 minutes to where I work from Bredäng (Elisabet's parents place). Alas, I realize that we're not going to be here forever, but a good three weeks here is better than nothing! :)
It's small but a nice single bedroom apartment with all of the necessary amenities :) The walk to the subway station takes just a minute, in fact you can see the station when you get out of the apartment building and the view from the apartment, you can see the downtown area. Since living here, Elisabet has became envious of this great location and now the thoughts of purchasing an apartment in the city is coming up more often now :p
Yup, like Bezaire (the dude from "dude, the where's my frog??"), Elisabet and I went to see Sweden Elite League hockey match during the holidays (Dec 27, the day after we moved into Gullmarsplan). The teams; HV71 and Djugårdens. Djugårdens has been Elisabet's favorite team ever since she was little, Mats Sundin and many NHL greats have came from Djugårdens. Unfortunately this year the team sucks, near the bottom of the standing. Djugårdens were facing the visiting Jönköping/Huskvarna HV71s. I have no idea why they are called HV71 (I believed I also mentioned that in one of my blogs in September or about that time). The HV71 is the best team in the Elite League, they have either won the championship or been at least in the Finals several times in the past few years and this year they are in first place with only 3 losses afte 30 games. I assumed that it would be somewhat unbalanced game with HV71 destroying Djugårdens.
But it turned out that Djugårdens had the game of their year! They matched Hv71s on every move, the goaltenders on the both sides were AMAZING, first two goals were just fluke goals making it a 1-1 game... after 2 periods it was 2-2, then Djugårdens made a great slapshot from the board near the blueline through the traffic into the net, the Goaltender never knew where the puck were. The jubliant-filled crowd went crazy, with a minute to go, Djugårdens scored an empty netter to insure their win with the final score of 4-2 for Djugårdens. The announced attendance was almost 11,000 people, the record for this year :)
The game was played in the Globen, one of Stockholm's architectural masterpiece, while searching for information about the Globen, some of the information said that it was designed with the idea of creating a perfect acoustics environment. I had seen the outside of Globen so many times (its beside the Deaf House, near where I work, and near where I am currently living in now, theres also a mall beside it) but I never had seen the inside. Now I can cross off one more thing from my "things to-do" list.
Here is what Globen looks on the outside...
Yup here are pictures of the game inside the Globe :)...
Ok that's all for now, keep your eyes open for the NYE blog coming up in few days then I will be finally "caught" up on blogging :p
bg0ur3
06 January 2006
The Swedish Christmas
jupp... my first ever christmas away from home.
my first christmas where I didn't go on a 2-3 hour ride to Chatham for family gatherings.
my first chirstmas where I celebrated it on the 24th, instead of 25th...
my first christmas without a 25lb stuffed turkey
since, this past year has been one big learning experience for me, and of course the christmas season was no exception either. As I said in my post about a month ago, Swedish people's perspective on christmas are much more traditional when it comes to food, decorations and and more...
Right after I got back from Belgium, everyday was just Christmas this and Christmas that. Everytime I met someone or left someone's house or whatever, I was obligated to say "God Jul" (in swedish it means " Merry Christmas"). I know back home, we do say Merry Christmas to eachother but I just feel that the swedes say it so much more often than we do or maybe it's just me?
Yah, the day after I returned from Belgium, I went to this Saint Lucia ceremony.... Saint Lucia is one of Sweden's biggest tradition, before I explain what Saint Lucia is all about I should warn you that I have gotten many different stories about how Saint Lucia became a big tradition. Something about her becoming a Saint in Italy after saving children during the Christmas eve and some other strange stories but there is one story that seems far more plausible than others so that is the story I will explain here; You know how I have complained about how early it gets dark here during the winter season... and of course you know how weather affects the people... centuries ago there was a special woman that had candles on top of something similar to a tiara (or a crown) on her head with a white robe and red sash wrapped around her and sang songs while walking around to brighten up her village, to ward off the darkness and some more blasphemy :S you can read more about it on this website. Anyway, this tradition still is very important to this day and the Stockholm Deaf House usually hosts a St. Lucia day, they have elections of who should become the Saint Lucia for each year, this year Jenny Ingvarsson (Elisabet's friend) won it. I saw the ceremony, to be honest, I thought it was kinda pointless but but but, I applaud and respect the fact that Sweden are doing everything it takes to preserve their country's historical and culture values. I just can't imagine Canada having something like that since Canada's a baby country when compared to these countries in Europe.
Ah, i just tried to find some pictures for the St.Lucia ceremony, and there isnt any on this computer... oh well... :)
Julbord... a rough translation would be "christmas dinner", is very different here... they worship meatballs, salmon, minihotdogs, cold ham, herrings with potatoes, red cabbage with rice and some bright pink food thingy that I don't know what was in it..... I know I should have asked but... yup I got pictures of the food coming up! :) (you can see the pink food in front of me)
After that, it was gifts time! :D... One other traditional difference is that Swedes usually have a friend or pick someone within a family to dress up and act as a Santa, giving out gifts under the tree... Since christmas are celebrated on the 24th evenings, they dont have that "children-waking-up-at-5am-and-running-down-the-stairs-to-see-the-presents" thing but in effort to uphold the Santa Claus belief, they get someone to dress up and visit the family then the children will think they actually met santa claus on christmas!! ... :)... This year, Maria (Elisabet's sister) had the honour of being the Santa Claus, even though there wasn't any children in the family anymore but they wanted to keep the tradition going... as they say, it wouldnt be christmas without santa claus visiting...
I got some nice stuff, gym shoes, movie tickets, hockey tickets and some more stuff but my best gift would be getting a new Swedish ID from Elisabet :)... its an official identification card like those in Canada for people who doesnt have drivers license. I think I am becoming more Swedish as each month goes by, I live here, I go to school here, I work here, I pay taxes (income and sales tax) here, I have a bank account here, I have a personnummer (similar to SIN), and now I have a swedish ID :D
I gave Elisabet exercise clothes, a bag (she later exchanged it for a better bag -- i liked the new bag than the one I gave her though heh), a book and a "scrap book" that I had been working on for days, it consists of 30 pages each with a single photo of nothing but Elisabet and me in it chronciling our life together since we first met. The first page had the very first photo of us from Rochester and the last page had the most recent photo of us and each pages were in chronological order. I think Elisabet liked the scrap book the best :p Here is a picture of me with Elisabet reading the book I gave her for xmas.
After the gifts, there was non-stop supply of sweets, candies, pastries... u name it, it was on the table... I think I have gained so much weight during the week of christmas.... jeez, come spring, I will have to work hard again hehe :)
Anyway, one of the gifts Elisabet and I got were a poker set from her uncle... even though I loathe card games I thought it was fun to just "have" it :D heh... then everybody wanted to put the poker set into use immediately so we played poker for few hours... I bowed out early (possibly intentionally heh...).
Christmas here is different, just as many things I have encountered during the year... I think I've learned alot especially how to appreciate the different things in life. Not everything has to be "just so" in life.... everybody needs to leave lots of room from flexiblity and of course I'm not talking about just Christmas... everything in life is different depending on the time and place of where you are. Ah before the chrismas sensibilities gets to me and I start blabbing incohrently, I better upload some random images and log off :)
Here are Elisabet and I making meatballs for the dinner later that night.
Me and Ellie
Mattias and Maria
Sandor (Pappa), Nadi (Mamma), Dave
Maria, Elisabet
Morfar (Grandpa) and Mormor (Grandma) with Maria, Dave and Elisabet
Check out all of these sweets, you're only looking at the beginning :)...
Come back later to read more about my experiences in my next posts about Globen, Gullmarsplan and the News Year eve :)...
bg0ur3
01 January 2006
Belgium
Hey...
When I thought I was bad with keeping up the blog posts, apparently, I got worse at it now... anyhow better late than never. This post will focus on my Belgium trip (I know its almost a month ago since I made that trip but better late than never :p)... and next two separate posts, I will add some stuff about my Christmas and NewYears eve experience here.
To refresh your memories, I went to Belgium to meet Megan who had been in Kenya for years and she was going to be in europe for a week so I thought I would grab the chance to meet her and do some sightseeing along the way. Unfortunately, Tara was supposed to come but at the last minute she was unable to come, I should visit her in Italy sometime later this year anyway :)
I can't exactly remember which date I went to Belgium but I know it was on a tuesday. I finally took advantage of RyanAir.com's insanely cheap fares... it cost me only about 40 dollars canadian for the roundtrip airfare to Charleroi, Belgium. The first night in Belgium was one of my most unpleasant experience I've ever had...
When I landed in Charleroi, it was about 45 minutes drive from Brussels, the capital city of Belgium where I was to meet a friend of Elisabet who actually lives in Brussels. The plane arrived like 8pm in the evening and there was a bus leaving for Brussels by 830pm... I figured I should be there well before 9:30pm which was good since that friend agreed to meet me at 930pm and that person told explicitly to get off on the LAST stop on the bus and the last stop would be the Central Station. The bus driver did not speak/read/write any english so I asked a lady sitting near me on the bus to tell him to let me know when the LAST stop was so I can get off... the bus driver made a "no problem" gesture... after few stops, that lady who helped me translate got off the bus... then little after 9:15pm, the bus got into Brussells. That was the beginning of my most craziest bus trip I've ever had in my life, the bus driver, some foreign french dude just started driving like a maniac, he was going like 70kmh on 30kmh limit streets (and let me add, the bus was one of the biggest bus I've ever seen, you know those bus with accordoin centre -- double the length of a normal coachline bus)... the bus was very nice and poshy but the driver didn't seem to care about the well-being of the bus or the passengers in the bus. He just cut everybody off zigging and zagging through the CITY streets, those streets were very narrow and the bus driver decided to use the sidewalk as a road whenever he felt like it. I think that bus trip was one of the most scariest roller coaster ride I've ever been on, the driver went through red lights few times without even stopping, drove towards the opposite side of a one way street because the router was more shorter. I don't think I've ever seen so many drivers swearing in a single night.
Anyway, once he finally stopped at a train station that seemed like a central station, I motioned to him if this was the place I should get off he said "no no... wait", I sat down patiently wondering what more I would experience on the bus... I looked back of the bus and noticed that there was stil a group of 20 people at the end of the bus so I figured it wasnt the last stop... after another 25 mintues of WILD driving, and WILD doesnt even justify the description of the experience but I'm not in the mood to check out a thesaurus... anyhow the bus finally stopped in front of a 5 star hotel... the 20 people in the back got off and paid the bus driver with a large sum of cash. "oh no" i thought, since I was the last person on the bus I assumed the driver must have misunderstood me... the driver approached me and asked me "where would you like to go" in some strange french gestures...
I went.. "huh?"...
Driver: *pointing his finger in different directions*
Brandon: *sigh* wrote down *Central Station* on a piece of paper
Driver: *eyes widened* *pissed off expression on face*
Brandon: *damn*
Apparently, the bus doesnt have Central Station on its route and it was already on OTHER side of the city, the driver was clearly agigtated and drove like a maniac again, zippping on streets that I thought was so narrow that even my car couldnt fit the width of the street (i drive a neon by the way) and the worse was to come, he made a sharp left turn and bumped up towards a frigging BIKE PATH and still went like 60kmh or something... while driving he motioned that he wanted some money for the out of the way route. I gave the classic "Pretending-I-am-deaf-and-did-not-understand-anything" expression because I only had 5euros in my wallet and I didn't want to know what would happen if he asked for 50 euros or something. Luckily, he wanted just 5 euros.... then he made another crazy turn towards on an opposite way of one-way street and just stopped there. Told me to get off, I was like "huh??" wheres the central station... he pointed a finger in a direction that just looked like Yonge Street in Torono, nothing indicative of a station... but I had enough of the life-threatening experience, I reluctantly smiled and got off the bus and there I was. Stranded in a strange country, strange city with languages that I do not speak (Dutch or French) and I had no idea what I should do.
I found a subway station, I looked at the map (it was 1030pm by now, I knew i was very late but I was hoping that the "friend" would still wait for me) I didn't find any Central STation on the subway map but I saw "Midi Station" and it seemed to be the main station of Brussels and the bus did stop by there... I was assuming that the Midi Station was the stop I was supposed to get off at. So I snuck in the subway without paying anything cuz I had NO cash on me and ATM machines was almost impossible to find in Brussels especially so late at night. I got to Midi Station and it was HUGE, that "friend" was not there... I walked and walked searching for him... I decided to ask a stranger to send him a sms because my mobile phone didnt work in Belgium.
Basically the whole night was a screw up... in the end, I ended up paying 15euros for internet, then about 1am I went to almost 10 different hotels before finding one and paid 50 euros to stay in a fleabag hostel, I didn't have any other options all of the other hostels were full and I wasnt going to sleep on the street because Brussels didnt seem like a friendly place at night (at least where I was in at the moment)
I never met that "friend" for the rest of the week... so I dont know if that "Friend" is a "friend" to me now... but ah oh well...
now, pushing all of the unfortunate events aside, I finally met Megan on the following morning in CENTRAL station, apparently its a small station and not as easibly recognizable on the subway map. Megan was one hour late because she got on the wrong train, I almost thought I was having flashbacks of the previous night but then I finally saw her... everything went smoothly after that :D...
It was fun meeting megan, and fun to use nothing but ASL with a native ASL user... although I must admit, after several days, I was getting somewhat anxietic with using ASL... feels like I had to think about which selection of signs I should use at the specific moment... oh well...
Megan and I went sightseeing Brussels, I think we almost saw everything in just 24 hours or so including the pissing boy, EU headquarters, many churches, castles, courthouse (it was humongous) . In the end, I did not really like Brussels, so far i think Stockholm is the most nice city I've seen (so far...). Even though Brussels had so much old buildings, most of them were ugly and not well maintained but then Megan and I went to Brugge (a town west of Belgium) and stayed few nights with Kat, Megan's friend from Gallaudet. I thought Brugge was much more nicer... I'm assuming its because that it wasnt tampered with during the world wars by the germans.
I ate beglian waffles, belgian fries with mayo (by the way I learned that fries came from Belgium not France :), so it should not be french fries, it should be Belgian Fries)... I saw Jesus' blood... there is a catherdal in Brugge that claims to hold a vial of Jesus' Blood. I thought it was silly but... I'll let them think that its the blood of christ. That catherdal has a specifc time everyday or something like that where tourists can come in and watch a short presentation and touch the vial of the jesus blood... some of them kissed the vial and the priest didnt seem´to appreciate the kissing on the vial since Kat said that people are supposed to just touch it with their hands. hehe oh well...
Overall, I thought Belgium was interesting, but not the most pretty or fun country to visit. My recommendation would be to visit there when you have a reason to do like I did to see Megan.
On the way back to Stockholm, I took a 45 min train to the airport, then 2 hour flight to sweden, then 1 hour bus trip to stockholm centralen then 15 minutes subway then walked 10 minutes before finally arriving to Elisabet/Jenny's birthday party :) at just before 1am in the morning. Yeah I knew I would be late for the party... Elisabet looked so happy to see me again :p after just few minutes, everybody left the party... and of course know what I was going to do now?... help with the clean up of the party heh... then finally got home in bed just before 5am.
It was a strange, exhausting but fun week for me. I hope to be able to meet some more friends somewhere in europe later this year (this means you guys! heh...)
Yup here is some pictures of me in Beligum... I don't think I'll type something about Xmas and New YEars until later this week if I ever get around to it :)..
Happy new 2006 :)
Brandon
When I thought I was bad with keeping up the blog posts, apparently, I got worse at it now... anyhow better late than never. This post will focus on my Belgium trip (I know its almost a month ago since I made that trip but better late than never :p)... and next two separate posts, I will add some stuff about my Christmas and NewYears eve experience here.
To refresh your memories, I went to Belgium to meet Megan who had been in Kenya for years and she was going to be in europe for a week so I thought I would grab the chance to meet her and do some sightseeing along the way. Unfortunately, Tara was supposed to come but at the last minute she was unable to come, I should visit her in Italy sometime later this year anyway :)
I can't exactly remember which date I went to Belgium but I know it was on a tuesday. I finally took advantage of RyanAir.com's insanely cheap fares... it cost me only about 40 dollars canadian for the roundtrip airfare to Charleroi, Belgium. The first night in Belgium was one of my most unpleasant experience I've ever had...
When I landed in Charleroi, it was about 45 minutes drive from Brussels, the capital city of Belgium where I was to meet a friend of Elisabet who actually lives in Brussels. The plane arrived like 8pm in the evening and there was a bus leaving for Brussels by 830pm... I figured I should be there well before 9:30pm which was good since that friend agreed to meet me at 930pm and that person told explicitly to get off on the LAST stop on the bus and the last stop would be the Central Station. The bus driver did not speak/read/write any english so I asked a lady sitting near me on the bus to tell him to let me know when the LAST stop was so I can get off... the bus driver made a "no problem" gesture... after few stops, that lady who helped me translate got off the bus... then little after 9:15pm, the bus got into Brussells. That was the beginning of my most craziest bus trip I've ever had in my life, the bus driver, some foreign french dude just started driving like a maniac, he was going like 70kmh on 30kmh limit streets (and let me add, the bus was one of the biggest bus I've ever seen, you know those bus with accordoin centre -- double the length of a normal coachline bus)... the bus was very nice and poshy but the driver didn't seem to care about the well-being of the bus or the passengers in the bus. He just cut everybody off zigging and zagging through the CITY streets, those streets were very narrow and the bus driver decided to use the sidewalk as a road whenever he felt like it. I think that bus trip was one of the most scariest roller coaster ride I've ever been on, the driver went through red lights few times without even stopping, drove towards the opposite side of a one way street because the router was more shorter. I don't think I've ever seen so many drivers swearing in a single night.
Anyway, once he finally stopped at a train station that seemed like a central station, I motioned to him if this was the place I should get off he said "no no... wait", I sat down patiently wondering what more I would experience on the bus... I looked back of the bus and noticed that there was stil a group of 20 people at the end of the bus so I figured it wasnt the last stop... after another 25 mintues of WILD driving, and WILD doesnt even justify the description of the experience but I'm not in the mood to check out a thesaurus... anyhow the bus finally stopped in front of a 5 star hotel... the 20 people in the back got off and paid the bus driver with a large sum of cash. "oh no" i thought, since I was the last person on the bus I assumed the driver must have misunderstood me... the driver approached me and asked me "where would you like to go" in some strange french gestures...
I went.. "huh?"...
Driver: *pointing his finger in different directions*
Brandon: *sigh* wrote down *Central Station* on a piece of paper
Driver: *eyes widened* *pissed off expression on face*
Brandon: *damn*
Apparently, the bus doesnt have Central Station on its route and it was already on OTHER side of the city, the driver was clearly agigtated and drove like a maniac again, zippping on streets that I thought was so narrow that even my car couldnt fit the width of the street (i drive a neon by the way) and the worse was to come, he made a sharp left turn and bumped up towards a frigging BIKE PATH and still went like 60kmh or something... while driving he motioned that he wanted some money for the out of the way route. I gave the classic "Pretending-I-am-deaf-and-did-not-understand-anything" expression because I only had 5euros in my wallet and I didn't want to know what would happen if he asked for 50 euros or something. Luckily, he wanted just 5 euros.... then he made another crazy turn towards on an opposite way of one-way street and just stopped there. Told me to get off, I was like "huh??" wheres the central station... he pointed a finger in a direction that just looked like Yonge Street in Torono, nothing indicative of a station... but I had enough of the life-threatening experience, I reluctantly smiled and got off the bus and there I was. Stranded in a strange country, strange city with languages that I do not speak (Dutch or French) and I had no idea what I should do.
I found a subway station, I looked at the map (it was 1030pm by now, I knew i was very late but I was hoping that the "friend" would still wait for me) I didn't find any Central STation on the subway map but I saw "Midi Station" and it seemed to be the main station of Brussels and the bus did stop by there... I was assuming that the Midi Station was the stop I was supposed to get off at. So I snuck in the subway without paying anything cuz I had NO cash on me and ATM machines was almost impossible to find in Brussels especially so late at night. I got to Midi Station and it was HUGE, that "friend" was not there... I walked and walked searching for him... I decided to ask a stranger to send him a sms because my mobile phone didnt work in Belgium.
Basically the whole night was a screw up... in the end, I ended up paying 15euros for internet, then about 1am I went to almost 10 different hotels before finding one and paid 50 euros to stay in a fleabag hostel, I didn't have any other options all of the other hostels were full and I wasnt going to sleep on the street because Brussels didnt seem like a friendly place at night (at least where I was in at the moment)
I never met that "friend" for the rest of the week... so I dont know if that "Friend" is a "friend" to me now... but ah oh well...
now, pushing all of the unfortunate events aside, I finally met Megan on the following morning in CENTRAL station, apparently its a small station and not as easibly recognizable on the subway map. Megan was one hour late because she got on the wrong train, I almost thought I was having flashbacks of the previous night but then I finally saw her... everything went smoothly after that :D...
It was fun meeting megan, and fun to use nothing but ASL with a native ASL user... although I must admit, after several days, I was getting somewhat anxietic with using ASL... feels like I had to think about which selection of signs I should use at the specific moment... oh well...
Megan and I went sightseeing Brussels, I think we almost saw everything in just 24 hours or so including the pissing boy, EU headquarters, many churches, castles, courthouse (it was humongous) . In the end, I did not really like Brussels, so far i think Stockholm is the most nice city I've seen (so far...). Even though Brussels had so much old buildings, most of them were ugly and not well maintained but then Megan and I went to Brugge (a town west of Belgium) and stayed few nights with Kat, Megan's friend from Gallaudet. I thought Brugge was much more nicer... I'm assuming its because that it wasnt tampered with during the world wars by the germans.
I ate beglian waffles, belgian fries with mayo (by the way I learned that fries came from Belgium not France :), so it should not be french fries, it should be Belgian Fries)... I saw Jesus' blood... there is a catherdal in Brugge that claims to hold a vial of Jesus' Blood. I thought it was silly but... I'll let them think that its the blood of christ. That catherdal has a specifc time everyday or something like that where tourists can come in and watch a short presentation and touch the vial of the jesus blood... some of them kissed the vial and the priest didnt seem´to appreciate the kissing on the vial since Kat said that people are supposed to just touch it with their hands. hehe oh well...
Overall, I thought Belgium was interesting, but not the most pretty or fun country to visit. My recommendation would be to visit there when you have a reason to do like I did to see Megan.
On the way back to Stockholm, I took a 45 min train to the airport, then 2 hour flight to sweden, then 1 hour bus trip to stockholm centralen then 15 minutes subway then walked 10 minutes before finally arriving to Elisabet/Jenny's birthday party :) at just before 1am in the morning. Yeah I knew I would be late for the party... Elisabet looked so happy to see me again :p after just few minutes, everybody left the party... and of course know what I was going to do now?... help with the clean up of the party heh... then finally got home in bed just before 5am.
It was a strange, exhausting but fun week for me. I hope to be able to meet some more friends somewhere in europe later this year (this means you guys! heh...)
Yup here is some pictures of me in Beligum... I don't think I'll type something about Xmas and New YEars until later this week if I ever get around to it :)..
Happy new 2006 :)
Brandon
This is the "Grand Palace", basically the Centre of the Brussels, those plastic balls are set up as a part of christmas decoration.
Here is Megan and I in the reflection on one of the silver balls in Grand Palace
Belgian waffle with Chocolate and Bananas... tasted good!
Me in Brugge :)
This is what Brugge looks like, a nice quaint old town with buildings dating back to 12th century.
Megan and Kat (stayed at her place for few nights) and the behind of them is one of the "must-take" photos in Brugge (according to Kat)
A Drunken moose sculpture made out of 100% Belgian chocolate... very creative eh? :)
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