Entry #6: September 23, 2008

Dobry wieczor!

For the past few days, I have been learning some Polish from Ewelina (my roommate) and Asia (you can also consider her my roommate), and some German from Christina and Florian. So by the end of the semester, I should be able to say some phrases! Might I add, pronoucing these languages are super hard, especially when it's Polish! So the good thing is that my "teachers" are very, and I mean extremely, patient.

Yesterday night, Florian, Christina, Asia, Ewelina, Adam and I made (as we would call them) Ice Cream Crepes. It was absolutely delicious! Afterward we played some card games, which included KENT (Signs or Signals), UNO!, and Cheat (Bullshit). Well technically, for the past three days, we've been playing card games.

GUESS WHAT V! THEY ALSO PLAY 31!!!! well a bit differently, but the idea and the objective are the same! Crazy!

On a different note, I may be going to Stockholm for a day trip with Kaddy and Ina. So we shall see. That should be fun. My roommate, Shizuka, just got back from Goteland, which is a small island and she said it was really beautiful. So perhaps I'll get there.

The class system here in Sweden is very different. Smaller classes and whatnot. But also, we have 3-4 different teachers for a course. Yesterday we had a teacher who was born in the USA but did her doctor degree in Canada. Guess which insitute... UVIC! Crazy eh. Small world. We had to tell her where we're from so after class, she asked me, "So which school do you go to? UBC? SFU?" I was like nope.... UVIC! Her class included studies that were done in Vancouver and Victoria, so that was interesting. She was a fun teacher, using a lot of slang so for foreign students, it was pretty difficult to understand her jokes. She said something like "Have anyone ever tried getting tanked the night before and then go to work the next day? Well it's impossible to get anything done. I've done it before." I think about only 4 of us who understood what tanked mean. And the four people were 3 americans and me.

Every Tuesday, Tybble Hall hosts a party revolving around different countries. Us, Canadians, have signed up for the 21st of October. So that should be a ton of fun. Today, it's the Uruguay party!

Well I should probably get back to studying some more Swedish.
Toodles.

Ytam.

Entry #5 - September 8th, 2008

Hej,

So I've been in Sweden for two weeks. Boy! Does it feel like I've been here longer and have known my friends for a much longer time. Nonetheless, life in Sweden has been going terrifically well!

So I'm not sure if I've told you all about my possible travel plans. Our school have trips up to Russia, a cruise ship to Finland and a possible trip to Lapland. However, the Lapland trip (which consist of dog sledding and the well-known ice hotel) might not have the green lights because of the lack of snow which create a problem of not knowing what we can do when there's limited amount of snow. So Kaddy suggested the idea that maybe we'll just go on our own. So I believe that's the plan for us. Secondly, I believe we (Florian and Adam) will be planning short trips to Stockholm, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, and somewhere in Norway. Thirdly, I think I've said this already, but I have been invited to visit Linz, Austria where two of my friends, Florian and Christina lives. So I might just take this opportunity to visit Austria. Also I've been invited to go to Poland, where my roommate and her best friend lives. So that could also be another choice for me. I might stop by in England to visit Amber and Hayley and of course my uncle. Lastly, I got invited to visit Hamburg, Germany in February or March by Kaddy. That would be an absolutely fun trip! So many choices, Such limited amount of money, So little time. Any other suggestions on which cities I should visit, let me know! And perhaps I'll make YOUR dream place into MY travel place! ;)

Sundays are "clean-up the flat" days. The three of us, Ewelina, Shizuka and I band together and make our flat look pretty. Yesterday, we had to take out the trash. Ewelina and I went to the compound room, where the only way you can enter, is to unlock it with our key swiped across the pad. When that was completed, Ewelina turns to me and said, "Ready?" And I replied back, "Let's go!" We ran into the room, she unlocked the garbage bin and we threw our bag into the bin and ran off! Slammed the door and laughed our heads off. We had to go in with one breath because of the overwhelming disgusting smell of garbage. Needless to say, we're a team ;)

I've been watching movies with friends for the past week, tons and tons of movies. Blazing Saddles, The Benchwarmers, Accepted, Catch Me If You Can, American Beauty, O Brother! Where Art Thou?, Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Get Smart (in theaters). We watched Get Smart at the Filmstaten, which you can see in one of my photo albums on facebook. The seatings are pretty sweet. The very last row consists of seats of two. It was fabulous!

Yesterday was the first real rain I've experience here in Sweden. It was raining cats and dogs. I went over to Adam's and thank goodness I brought Storms (my bike) with me. Other news, you might have already seen my pictures, but I have taken some snap shots of hedgehogs and a very cool mushroom!

Also, ever since I've met Florian, we have been eating ice cream every other day! But hey! I'm not complaining, ice cream is sooooooooo good! :D Even when it's cold here, and we have agreed on IT'S NEVER TOO COLD TO EAT ICE CREAM! :D Florian was eating a popsicle and we were walking towards downtown and suddenly he drops his popsicle! We looked at him and he just bended down and picked it up. But before he put it back into his mouth he asked us "Do you think it's dirty? Like this is also the bike lane, do you think there's a lot of dirt and dust?" And I replied back, "Of course, it's going to be dirty and gross!" And he said "Well I'm sure it won't kill me, it'll only make me stronger!" lol hahaha and he just kept eating his popsicle like nothing happened! But I'm sure I'll be fat when I get home, Ice cream and chocolate......

Lastly for today's blog, I played basketball again. This time, it was way more intense than the first day I played. We had about 10 players so we played full court. But it was a lot of fun, good exercise, for we played more than 2 hours!

Well I think that's it for this blog, if I've missed anything, I'll post it on the next blog whenever I get to it.

Auf Weindersehen, Baby!
Ytam.

Entry # 4 - September 1st, 2008

Hej,

First of all, I hope you guys will all have a nice start to a brand new semester.

Secondly, on my last blog I have given you all my address where you can send mail. I have finally found the address where you can send me packages or anything larger than the size of a letter.
The address is the following:

Orebro University
International Office
Yvette Tam
Godsmottagning F
SE-701 82 Orebro, Sweden

Please make sure you put my name under International Office. Very important.

Also, here's my school schedule for the next few months:

Week 36
Sept 2: 14-17

Week 37
Sept 8: 13-16
Sept 9: 14-17
Sept 10: 13-16
Sept 12: 13-16

Week 38
Sept 15: 13-16
Sept 16: 14-17
Sept 17: 13-16
Sept 19: 13-16

Week 39
Sept 22: 13-16
Sept 23: 14-17
Sept 24: 13-16
Sept 26: 13-16

Week 40
Sept 30: 14-17
Oct 4: 9-12

Week 41
Oct 6: 10-13
Oct 7: 14-17

Week 42
Oct 14: 10 - 12, 14-17
Oct 16: 10-12

Week 43
Oct 21: 14-17
Oct 22: 10-14
Oct 23: 10-14
Oct 24: 10-12

Week 44
Oct 28: 14 -17
Oct 29: 8-17
Oct 30: 8-17

Week 45
Nov 4: 14-17

Week 46
Nov 12: 12.30-15.30

Week 47
Nov 19: 12:30-15:30

Week 48
Nov 26: 12.30-15.30

Week 49
Dec 3: 12.30-15.30

Week 50
Dec 10: 12.30-15.30

Week 51
Dec 17: 12.30-15.30

Week 2
Jan 7: 12.30-15.30
Jan 8: 12.30-15.30

Week 3
Jan 14: 12.30-15.30
Jan 15: 12.30-15.30

There you have it.
School starts tomorow for me. I'll let you all know how the Swedish class goes!
Later Gator,
Ytam.