Ok, you guys asked for it. Here is some photo's of me in Uppsala (not the best, but it will do temporarily!). These were just a few random shots taken around town today with Iselin.




This photo below was also taken today about 4pm . It is pitch black by that time here. It is so bizarre!





Uni Life

I started uni late last week and there is already so much work! I did my first major presentation today, I have another Monday and then again Friday. This is all for one subject. You only study one subject at a time here and it goes for about 4 weeks then you have an exam. Everyone who knows me would understand that my poor brain is in meltdown mode.....i'm not really into doing much in the way of uni work, so this is quite a battle for me!

Below is a picture of Ekonomikium, it's basically the business studies building where I have all my classes. It is so close to where I live, it's great. I can leave my room 5 minutes before class starts and still make it on time...a little different from the 40min/1.5 hour drive to Caulfield!

I just read this list that some Aussies wrote about their time in Sweden and it is so true! It just gives you a bit of an idea of how things really are here and may make you laugh a little as well!

You know you’ve been in Sweden too long when…..

1. You think that riding a bicycle in the snow is a perfectly sensible thing to do.
2. You regard it as sensible that the ice cream van comes around playing that annoying song when it is -15C.
3. The first thing you do upon entering a bank/post office/chemist (anywhere really!) is to look for the queue number machine. You accept that you will have to queue to take a queue number.
4. You accept that if someone wants to “follow” you home you don’t need to be afraid. They actually just want to walk you home.
5. Hugging is reserved for sexual foreplay
6. You've come to expect Sunday morning sidewalk vomit dodging.
7. Someone calls you a ”good moron” first thing in the morning and you smile acknowledgement.
8. When a stranger asks you a question in the streets, you think it's normal to just keep walking, saying nothing.
9. You think that people who wear other colours apart from black, grey, white or blue are exhibitionists.
10. Trousers/pants tucked into all shoes, including low-top sneakers, seem like reasonable fashion sense.

Well, I've officially been freezing my butt off for one week now. Sooo much has already happened, I don't even know where to begin!

Firstly, everyone has been asking about where i'm staying. I'm living in this student housing area called Rackarbergsgatan (yes, they have the longest words in the world over here!). I live in a dorm with 4 other people(3 swedes and a german guy). Living with everyone has been really easy to adjust to. The whole BYO toilet paper is a little strange. Everytime you want to go to the toilet, you have to take your own toilet roll.

The first photo is of our shared kitchen, it's really squashy! The next photo is the corridor that we live in(yes, you guys get the complete guided tour!)






These next 2 photos are of my room here. It's not very exciting, my backpack didn't really allow for me to bring much. Iselin actually bought 4 massive bags, each one bigger than my backpack. She seriously has everything you could ever imagine, she even bought rugs and cushions! Somehow she also scored a tv and stereo....i'm seriously going to battle without any tv for 6 months! I have to share a shower and toilet but i have my own sink in my room.



This is the view from my window. You can see what the housing looks like from the outside..and yes...that is snow....everywhere!





I went to Stockholm for the first time last night. It's about 40min south of Uppsala. Stockholm has a massive reputation as being a very stylish city. I actually don't understand how anyone can be stylish, it's too bloody cold!

This is a picture of my friends that i went to Stockholm with. On the left is Drew, a guy from Sydney living at Rackarbergsgatan with me. Next is Iselin who many of you guys have met. In the middle is Nina, a swedish girl that was in Australia last semester and lived with Hampus and Eric. Next is Stephen who is also from Sydney and on the end is a random American girl that i don't really know.


Below is a picture of drew with a banana protector (yes seriously, it protects bananas from getting bruised!). They were actually selling these in a shop and we thought it was a photo opportunity too good to miss!




Last night I was invited to my swedish friend Eric's birtday party in Stockholm. I met Eric last semester in Melbourne, he lived with Hampus and Nina.

There were a few little weird things about this party....firstly when you get there you have to take your shoes off. It is so strange to be at this party and everyone is standing around drinking and dancing in their socks. All the swedes were clearly aware of this rule and being very stylish knew to wear really cool socks. Me, however, had on 3 pairs of socks and the outermost pair were these massive ugly, kathmandu explorer socks that i'd tucked my pants into. i was looknhg hot!

The other thing that was really weird was the food. They served this finger food that was rockmelon wrapped in ham. It was bizarre! I felt the need to take a photo! I was clearly standing out as quite the tourist at the party by this stage!



The other thing that was weird was that they stored all the slabs of beer out on the balcony to keep them cold. it was -17 last night so it was actually much colder outside than in the freezer.

Anyway, that pretty much brings you guys up to date. Anything you want to see pictures of, let me know. i haven't really taken any photosaof the town (it is really beautiful and old, so unbelieably differnt from home!). I'm always too cold to even take my hands out of my pockets to take tpictures but i will muster up the courage soon.

Cheers!