Hejsan allihoppas,
As time goes by, my attempts to extend my stay in lovely Sweden might be successful. After application for a DAAD-scholarship in Nov 2008 I have been invited to the final assessment test in their office in Bonn. This assessment was last tuesday which was one reason for a short trip to my hometown in Germany. Beforehand my parents were visiting me and we spent together a few very nice days in Uppsala, Stockholm and surrounding.
My parents in Uppsala
Almost three weeks ago my parents were visiting me at my current living place in Uppsala. This was the first visit of firends and relatives but hopefully not the last. Beside very nice impressions from Uppsala one main event was our/my first visit of Stockholm - the Venice of the North. Located on 13 isles it has more than 750 bridges and with approximately 600.000 inhabitants it is the biggest city in Sweden - real city feelings for me :) We paid his majesty a visit, had a look on the castle, the "riksdag" and other famous buildings and last not least we visited the Skansen.
Skansen, located on the island of "Djurgården" is a miniature version of the whole country. On 800 ha you can find both Flora & Fauna as well as typical buildings from different sites in Sweden. And my first moose :)
A unexpected visit
One day after my parents arrival I had received my invitation to the final assessment of the german academic service. There I have applied earlier last year for a scholarship to extend my stay. After my final confirmations of courses I have done 45+x credits in the previous term- Out of the approximately 75 credits only 45 will be accepted from my home university - one reason for my attempts to extend my stay. Due to the loacl fares for travelling with Deutsche Bahn I decided to go by plane to Bonn - the typical business flights with the "penguins" in kavaj (suit) every morning from Berlin to Cologne/Bonn. In Bonn I paid a visit to some friends from the "Fachschaft" and have had a chat concerning university-politics with friends of mine which I met first on the ZaPF in Konstanz 2008. After the assessment which went rather good (from my opinion) I had a few more hours until my plane took me back to Berlin. Meanwhile Katha, a friend of mine from Bonn as well has shown me the center of Bonn and after a nice fika (I have to be careful - i got used to the price levels in Sweden) it was time to say goodbye. Hopefully in 3 weeks I will know whether the story continues or not.
Back in Berlin
Since it was a rather unexpected / unscheduled trip to Germany NOBODY except my parents, Martin (in Japan) and Katha in Bonn have known that I would stay for a week in Germany neither my reasons for that. Beside the assessment which was of course the main reason the other one was the birthday of my little brother. So it was a real surprise when I knocked at his door sunday late night one week ago. All in all this was a great time - he really enjoyed my visit as I did too ;)
At the moment I'm sitting in front of the gate doors at Schönefeld Airport (SXF). Due to local strikes from Ver.di no flight will be proceeded until 9.30 am (my flight back was scheduled at 8.35 am). Assuming a flight time of 1 hour and 20 minutes I have to go out latest 10:35 am to arrive at Stockholm/ Nyköping before my train to Uppsala (which has been paid already) leaves. Whether I have arrived in time or not I'll tell you later. :)
Cheers,
/Stephan
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