Back to the places you will be from

The last day in Sweden went pretty well. After the morning I was finished with everything I had to fix. I brought back all my books to the library, picked up my copies of my diploma thesis, picked up the last stuff from my office, said good bye to Aron, changed my address at the Skatteverket, canceled my bank account and was back at Nacksta before 2pm.

At 7pm I've been at Norrmalms and helped Marlies and Annemiek baking appelflappen. But I was rather useless than an effective support. Especially at half past 7 when my last Friends episode in Sweden started. The last for me. Since 8 I was sitting in the basement waiting for people. I do not know exactly when, but I think the first arrived at 9. And it was really nice. And I got the nicest present I could imagine. Well, I could not imagine it before! It is a memory game with pictures of all student from last semester. No picture is twice, so the game is about finding two different pictures of the same person. It even has a box titled "My first Swedish memory". A present I have never expected. And it is so original. I love it. And I forgot it in Norrmalms!!! My bag was behind the bar and when the lights went off I was so busy to say good bye to everybody that I forgot my bag in the basement. And after 12am you cannot enter it anymore. Damn... I am still mad, because I forgot it. We took a cab back to Nacksta and did a small afterparty, but we ended it soon, because I was very very tired. I slept my last night on the couch.
The next morning was weird. My head was busy with all things I have to do and what I could forget. We drove to Norrmalms, but the basement was still not opened, so I had to leave my beloved present there. Sitting in the train was a weird feeling. Don't know how to describe it. You slowly realize that you really lived there. Everything seems like a small holiday, but in fact it has been one and a half years. You start to remember that there have been much more than just the last semester. I started with the language course in Härnösand and then came 3 semesters in Sundsvall. A lot of things happened, but still the first time I did when I arrived home was leaving again to Aachen. I was only three hours at my parents place and left again by train to Aachen to sleep at a friends place.
This morning I drove with my friend to Aachen were he dropped me at the university. There I waited two hours until the office opened where I handed in my thesis. While waiting I did what I did the last 24 hours: counting the time backwards. "Yesterday at that time...". When I handed in my thesis I visited my professor. He tried to make me confident for the final presentation. I should no be afraid for standing in front. Well, I do not think I will, I had enough "presentations" last semester in Sundsvall. The presentation I believe to get through somehow. But after that follows a nice talk about computer science in general. Man... I did not seriously deal with it since one and a half years. It is no problem to get back into the topics, but answering general questions out of nothing... guess I will check some computer-science summeries just to get the important words again. But I was never good in just talking generally. Solving problems ok, but just talking about methods... I never liked it. When I talked with my friend about what jobs they offer in his company I was excited and thought, maybe I studied the right thing. But when I heard about talking about general topics, I thought, maybe it wasn't. But maybe it won't be that bad at all.
Being bad is not bad, too. I do not know exactly why, but I feel pretty well here. There is so much to do and everything is interesting. Maybe, because I prepared so long for coming home in my mind. But most likely, because it is not Sundsvall that is important. The city itself is not that exciting. The people make you want to stay. But they will be or are already spread over the whole world. And we still keep in touch - and we will stay. Over the time the world has become much smaller. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. I won't stay here for long and the most exciting is that I do not know where I will be in two weeks. And for later there are plans for Den Haag, Valencia, Brescia, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and, of course, good old Sundsvall. Maybe we will meet again there at Midsommar. Hard to catch in words, but until then: Thanks for a great time! It is the most amazing I have ever experienced.

Bags are packed

Now it is almost a week ago since I moved into the living room. On Thursday we had valentine party in Kårhuset. Heineken was 19 SEK cheap, so I had to take the Friday off to prepare for the weekend. On Saturday we went to Kåren again. The DJ was not really talented, but at least they played some music you listen and dance to. It were several times the same songs and several times ABBA. But still better than the usual crap. The night was great and after we discovered that even Becks cost only 19SEK, we bought every bottle they could sell. At 2 we went to Norrmalms for the afterparty. Except of Doris and Marlies and some drunken Swedish people, Nacksta was dominating in the Norrmalms kitchen. At 4am I finally into my bed, skipping the after-after parties that started at Nacksta.

But instead of sleeping long, I head to get up two hours later. I even woke up before my alarm, because at half past 6 we wanted to drive to Östersund watching the finals of Biathlon world championship. I ate quickly breakfast and walked to Nacksta 18 where Ole was waiting for Maren, Johanna, Eileen and me. While waiting with him, I thought it might be pretty cold only in jeans, so I followed a wise advise (dank je) and picked up my skitrousers. Good I did, because from time to time it was quite cold in Östersund. Most of the time we had something to do like dancing and shouting, but sometimes in the breakes there was nothing left to do except waiting. In this time, I wished a little bit for a second pair of socks. The first race was men mass start. The Germans were not among the best. While russia and Norway shared the first 10 places, Germany took its seats together with the Austrian team between 10 and 20. Two hours later women relay started and that was expected to be a good race for Germany. And it was. The cool thing with a team that leads with a big time advantage is, that everybody is looking at them at the shooting. And when thousands of people are quite, waiting for the first shot of the shooter is an amazing atmosphere. And when then thousands of voices yell at the same time for the first hit, it is even more amazing. In the end Germany won with a comfortable advantage, but France overtook at the last 300 meters Russia and raced on the 3rd place. The anthem was sang by a primary school class who had exercised the anthems of every participating nation. Respect. After the races we went to a small restaurant and drove home afterwards. We were finally back home at half past 8. During the trip I have been so tired that I even managed to sleep in the car. I uploaded my pictures at picasa:

Biathlon World Championship 2008

Yesterday was my last working day for the thesis. We send it for printing I felt great, because it was the first time since 6 months that I did not have to think about it anymore. Now it is done and it has to be read like it is. I also started to pack my luggage. Looks like I will leave a lot of clothes here. Somebody needs some? Everything is washed. 16b, 4th floor. Today I picked up my thesis from the printing shop. I also brought all my books back to the library, gave back my laptop, changed my address at the Swedish finance department, cancelled my bank account etc. Now I have no room, no address and no bank account anymore. Everything is done and it seems a little bit like you are on a balloon trip. It is the moment when you release all ropes from the ground and wait for the wind to bring you up. The wind will take me off from Sundsvall tomorrow morning at 8. The funniest thing is: I do not exactly know where I will come down again.
Tonight will be the good bye dinner at Norrmalms. Where I will have dinner tomorrow evening - I do not know exactly. Thursday morning I have to be in Aachen at half past 9 for handing in my thesis. At 29th will be presentation.

Ut

Emptying the room you spend your erasmus studies in is a strange feeling. My room I had for 50 weeks, after having lived 6 months in 20A. Almost one year in this little cabin. Seeing the room finally empty is not that strange. It even holds something exciting, since it means you move on. But carrying your stuff piece by piece out of the room is like watching a picture book from old times. It is not really a sad feeling, but you remember a lot of small things that seemed to be forgotten.

But all my stuff did not vanish, of course. It just moved further to the living room, a place where almost every leaving exchange student has to spend some time. For me it will be a week. And it is not such a mess as it should be used for me. All in all I do not have so much stuff as I had expected. I guess it will fit all in this old crappy suitcase I have. However, I look forward to packing, for it means I will have to sort a lot of things out I would not look at again, anyway. And the stuff that remains is the really important stuff.
Leaving my room also means that I will get back my deposition. So, for a short time, I will be a little bit rich. Until Tuesday, when I will print my thesis. Never expected that to be expensive. 3 copies, each 80 pages. Colored pages 5 SEK, black-white 50 Öre.
This morning the most likely only stroopwafel of whole Nacksta decided to take a bath in my tea so had to eat it with a spoon. So much for breakfast. The inspection had been shifted from 9 to 12 and was uncomplicated. This evening Sebastian will move into the room that was mine this morning.

Top 10...

..that you recognise you are an ERASMUS student at the MIUN (not too serious ;) )

10. You have no idea about the weekday, luckily the ICA is open 7 days a week.

9. You know 5 different words for wasted, but you need 20 seconds before you remember the word sober.

8. You need a map to find the university because you know i t only from pictures and the introduction week. But you know every shortcut between Normalm, Nacksta and Tornvillan.

7. You complain about a download stream lower th an 4 MB/s and your personal computer nerd at home is jealous about the possibility of a 100Mbit/s internet connection.

6. Your diurnal rhythm consists of pre-, main- and after-party.

5. You wake up and you don't know the room or the person next to you. But it is no problem for you to make your breakfast in the kitchen.

4. You learn that moonshine could be a bigger threat to your eyes than st aring at the sun.

3. You recognise to study media is a good excuse watching videos all night.

2. You know the cashier at the System Bolaget better than your flatmate.

1. Since days you are searching dictionary's for the right definition of “free time stress” and try to explain your friends at home how hard it is to schedule all the party, dinner, and video evening invitations. But it seems as if they don't understand how important these cultural exchange is.

Masked party and first time in Tornvillan

The last week was passing quickly. During the days I worked on my thesis. In the end it even made some fun. I am only rewriting it at the moment trying to get a link between all chapters and finish ideas that I had in early chapters but never mentioned later again. The evenings became a lot quieter than they have been only two weeks before. I already start thinking about what I pack into my luggage in a week and what I leave here. That is fun. However, imagine to leave this room in two days is sad somehow.

During the week Peppo had the great idea for having a mask-party. Because our neighbours have small children we moved the party to the old party flat (former italian flat), since we never had any problems with the neighbours. Until now. Already after 11 the police aksed us to calm down, since the drunken old lady from 18b had complained about the noise. Strange. The party was really cool, but not as loud as the partys before, since nobody was singing. So, we moved already before midnight to 16d, but already in the staircase a neighbour asked us to go somewhere else. In the end our carneval parade ended in Pontus' appartment. However, it was great. Everybody did something wearing a costume, a mask or both. We even danced the Sirtaki. Long time ago since Nacksta has seen that (greetings to Valencia!!). Jens and I went home something after 3am and ate a pizza. Pictures of the party by Aurèlie.
On Saturday we only hang around. A most lazy day. In the evening was the first party in Tornvillan I heard about. So, I took the chance to go there. It is even a quite nice place to party. It is only far away from everything. Supermarket, Nacksta, City. But they have a big sauna. And a party room that does not loose power at midnight. The party was announced to be a pre-valentine-party. A pity only a few people showed up. Well, still I guess 30, but that's almost only half of the people from the mask party. I guess, it was too much for some. But anyway, it was nice and I finally know this hidden place. Again at 3am I've been home.
So, tomorrow I will start moving stuff out of my room. And maybe starting first test packing my luggage. I have the strong feeling that I won't have space for "serious" stuff. I think, I will only bring a few of my clothes home. They will be wrapped around the souvenirs which I have collected over the months.

2nd bbq at Sidsjön

I did not do so much these days. I called StuBo for an inspection date. On Wednesday the 13th my room will be locked. Only to be opened again by Sebastian a few hours later. From that day on I will leave in the living room. A fortune almost everybody has to share when he leaves. I also negotiated a date for the final presentation of my thesis. Either 25th or 29th everything will be over. The one or the other way.

On Saturday night we went to Norrmalms for Doris' birthday party and Kåren afterwards. Because of the cold wind we took the bus. And while standing at the busstop, Nadja phoned me (international committee's president of my first semester)! She was back in Sundsvall for two days. We met in Oscars that night, but only for a few minutes, because we went back to Kåren. So that was my first and most likely only time Oscars. But it does not look really special.
Today we had a barbeque at Sidsjön. Similar to the one last September. Only colder. -7 degress, but not windy. Sidsjön is frozen so we could take a shortcut over the lake. But because of the cold the barbeque did not take that long. We (old students) were a little bit late, but I think the bbq was already finished 20 minutes after our arrival. But the walk was nice.