Hejsan allihoppas.
It has been a long time since I have had written the last post within that blog. The last two month in 2008 were rather busy for me but I hope that I can fix this in the future. I'm really hard working on that issue now :) Since I don't want to bore you with an endless posting I will write down this as a rather short summary about the most important dates and contents from Oktober until I have left Sweden for my christmas holidays in late December. (This is kind of odd... I have to look back to my calculation on google to remember the dates correctly - however):
2008/10/04: My first work as a waiter during the "Knally Goes Green" Gasque (see the older post below "min första gång").
2008/10/18: The choir day for HT 2008. A special gasque for choir members only and really nice. I have enjoyed it really really much.
2008/10/26: My first "kryssning", a short trip to Tallin. These trips are however called "booz-trips" but I did not know this before I have been there. After departure we have checked out our cabbin but afterwards I had looked for my friends and encountered lots of people coming from only one direction - the duty free shop - loaded with cans of beer and bottles of wine. To summarize, Tallin is an interesting place to visit with a cute little "hanse-like" oldtown in the innermost circle. They have some really nice churches there and the weather became better and better as long as we have been stayed there. Before going back on the ferry we checked out the local supermarket to buy some "booz" and return it to sweden. Unfortunately we were really late and arrived on the wrong pier at the harbour... It was very close but we made it - on time back on the ferry to Stockholm and afterwards a beautiful view to the "skärgården"- the tiny islands in front of Stockholm area. That trip indicated also the end of the first period here in Uppsala.
2008/11/08: Since Sarah was unable to work in the restaurant "Småka" I decided to help out there. It was nice to socialize with new people and interesting to learn new things... Especially how Swedes order their drinks and pronounce the names of the beer...
2008/11/15: Shortly before my trip to Helsinki I managed to send in all necessary papers for my application at DAAD to stay longer and finish my masters here in Uppsala. Hopefully they accept me...
2008/11/16: just a few weeks after the trip to Tallin we made a second trip - this time to the capital of Finland, Helsinki or på Svenska 'Helsingfors'. Since it were raining constantly through the day the city was not half as impressing for me as Tallin but in comparison the trip has been awesome... We enjoyed trying to fly through the wind during the tide in the night. We crossed some borders - and get finally at the very front of the ship - it was great - definitely! And during the next beautiful sunrising day we enjoyed viewing the "skärgården" once again.
2008/11/30: A journey back to ancient viking history. My first visit of "Gamla Uppsala", the ancient viking capital just 10 minutes by bus from my current living place. And we had some "snow"...
2008/11/30: After many rehearsals of Kalmar nations choir we had our first performance - on the Christmas market at Öffreslottsgatan. Eventhough we were not really placed on a certain position the people were addicted to us... And we enjoyed it giving them joy. Later on I have been walking around with friends through the various christmas markets and got some "julklappar" for christmas there. Finally the great ending was a beautiful firework performed within the botanicgarden and with music from - of course, it's Sweden - ABBA...
2008/12/05: The final exam for Svenska II för Utbytestudenter. My swedish exam. Interesting and challenging one which have been passed by me. Yupp... Now I can apply for Svenska III, the most advanced level for exchange students.
2008/12/08: The second physics exam during my stay here in Sweden. Astrophysics I, nice but boring course, which i only had followed halfways since I did too many courses then... The result was not as bad but not as good as I expected it to be- but shit happens...
2008/12/13: Lussegasken - the famous swedish Lucia-gasque but it was more a Lucia-weekend since we sung first during the official gasque, were we also performed the "luciatåg", later then we had our own lussegask and were finally invited to the after-party. After singing for the kitchen for the wonderful meal we went all together singing to Smålands and enjoyed life... On the next day, sunday we gave our concert during lucia-fika, within the pub and with except of a little mistake done by the male voices this have been a great event, too. Finally almost exhausted but joyful we did our "avslutningssittning", the final sit-together with the choir and then say Good Bye to some friends which were about to leave and God Jul to the other ones... The next rehearsal is on Jan, 14th and it will be great to see everybody again.
2008/12/18: Julgodstjänsten i Domkyrkan. The christmas service within the big cathedral. I sung there within a multi-nation choir guided by Stefan Parkman. It was somehow a great opportunity eventhough I dislike some of the social aspects and were very very tired during the service. Unfortunately none of my friends had joined me during that time, so I can't present any pictures. Later on this day we were celebrating Miriams birthday party... It was great and really nice... especially since our italian friend was completely drunken and was singing "o sole mio" the whole time... very funny!!!
2008/12/21: Busy day to buy missing christmas gifts. On sunday I will leave Sweden for Christmas. But I get some really nice stuff for everybody of my family and friends - or at least I hope so...
2008/12/22: 8.40 p.m. with 20 minutes ahead time schedule I arrived at Berlin-Schönefeld and my family picked me up for returning home. See you again in 2009!
