Monday, January 28, 2008

economic jokes

After every course I have taken there is always a few things you will always remember. It is not really about the subject of the course, rather something interesting that happened. Those minor moments that light up your day when you are bored during class or studying for the exam. For example when you get annoyed at a student asking the teacher a stupid question - and even the teacher thinks so. Or when you are studying for the exam and you are making up and laughing at geeky economics jokes.

Today we had one of those moments that will be added to the list. In the future when we think back on the course of advanced macroeconomics, we will remember the teacher using the expression "ice creaming like crazy" (i.e. high demand for ice cream). That will be the first thing we think about, not what the course was actually about. That is university for you.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Today was just like the old days. My wife and I spent the evening together in her sofa and had the traditional baked potatoes for dinner. We're back on track.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

time for a semla

I was walking home from downtown and passed a bakery. They had a sign saying that they had started selling 'semlor'. I just had to go in and buy one. I think this was the first semla in two years, since I was in Singapore last spring. It was really good, and I'll be able to eat a couple more since they will probably sell them throughout February. I had to look up if the word semla had an English translation, I doubted it, but still had to look. Ne.se actually had a translation, but a very literal one and it made me laugh:

semla (n.) bun with whipped cream and almond paste

Thursday, January 24, 2008

a small step forward

Today I finally started. I began to read all kind of job ads to figure out in which direction I want to go. It sure ain't easy. So many different ways to go. Really have to think about if I want to go for the public or private sector. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. But it was a good thing that I finally got going, so I'm not all up in my head when trying to sleep.

And I'm happy, my cooking buddy came over today as well and we had dinner. She is probably staying in town instead of moving back home. Lovely.

no sleep yet

My plan is already failing. I'm up late although my intention was to get up early and start with the research. Why did I have to start unravel all my thoughts today?

"Restless thoughts, like a deadly swarm of hornets arm'd, no sooner found alone, but rush upon me thronging."
John Milton

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

It's been a nice first week back in town. Meeting all the friends that I haven't seen in 1-1,5 years. It feels like we were never away from Jönköping, everything is just like it was before. I'm glad that so many are staying to write their master theses, I'm not going to be alone in town.
And I've been waiting to meet my ex-roomie again, but unfortunately she is done here and will be leaving town soon. What will I do now without my cooking buddy?

get a grip

Once again I've drifted away from blogging. I guess I wanted to put my life on hold for a while. Or not my life, but my thoughts. My thoughts and worries always become real when I write them down. But this time I really need to give it a try again. I need to get all my thoughts sorted out.
Like lately, I've been feeling so restless. I've even been feeling too restless to read and watch tv. So now I've started to draw again, that always relaxes me.
Now for tomorrow, my plan is to start figuring out my topic for my thesis. Start in the easy end, not that figuring out a topic is easy, but to realize what I want to do in my future is way more difficult.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

time to move on

In some ways it feels good to be back in Jönköping, like I mentioned in the previous post. I'm on my second half of the fourth year of studies. My last semester. I've been living here for 2.5 years and been studying abroad for two semesters. Now I feel like I'm done here. Time to go somewhere else. This city doesn't really have anything to offer anymore.

Then I also realize, 2.5 years in one town is not much. What happens next time and the next city I'll be living in? Hopefully I won't get tired of the next city that fast, cause I don't want to live in a small city like Jönköping. I want a city that has more to offer. And this is me, a girl that grew up in the country in a village with about 300 habitants. 15 kilometers from the closest town, with just a couple of buses every day to go to and from the town. Maybe that's the reason, I had enough of the countryside when I was young and now I just want to experience the big city life.

But I'm here now. In Jönköping. And as always I'll just do the best of the situation, there's nothing else to do. I'll be here for just another six months. I can deal with that.

back in town

Back in Jönköping. Feels good to be back in my own apartment. My own space. My own kitchen. To get to sleep in my own bed. One year of sleeping in small beds that haven't been that comfortable. And of course it has been nice to see everybody again. Well, those that are still here which is not that many.

But on the other hand it's not like it was in the old days.
I sound old.
I also felt old, at school and when we went to Kåren yesterday. You don't really see anyone you know or recognize. It's all new people.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

two thousand and seven

2007 was an eventful year. When I think back I almost can't believe all the things that I've been through. I started off the year of 2007 in Singapore, where I lived with the best flatmates until May, and those 4.5 months in Singapore was truly great. My first time in Asia and I enjoyed it to the fullest. We partied. Ate - a lot. Pretended to study. And traveled. I managed to squeeze in five trips during that short period, Thailand two times, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Philippines. Then of course we experienced Singapore in every way. It was a perfect exchange semester, I experienced a lot and made best friends.

It was difficult to come back to Sweden. I loved my way of life in Singapore, my friends, the food, the culture. And the weather. I think I was born in the wrong climate since I had such trouble adjusting back to the Swedish weather. Of course, after a while I managed to adapt to the Swedish life again even though I occasionally longed to be back in Singapore.

The summer I spent mostly in Stockholm at my parents house, but also in Jönköping. I had a long summer, 4 months. I worked some, studied, had vacation, and wrote on my bachelor thesis. Had a great couple of summer weeks in Jönköping when working on my thesis. But of course had time to relax as well and meet my friends. It was the first time I experienced a summer in Jönköping, it was about time.

In September it was time for my next exchange semester - this time in Helsinki, Finland. My thought was to improve my Finnish and also take some interesting courses and actually learn something. Unfortunately I didn't improve my language skills that much, and regarding the courses they were quite okay. Then again, I would probably have learned more if I had studied more. I guess I can only blame all the partying, it's what happens when you go out 3-4 times a week. But we had fun, me and all my friends - all really great people. Also I managed to go on a trip to Russia and visit both Moscow and St Petersburg which was two amazing cities.

The exchange in Helsinki was of course different from the one in Singapore. Singapore was something new that I had never experienced before, and Finland I've been to every summer since I was born and it's also so similar to Sweden. The only bad thing in Finland was of course the cold weather, but sometimes you can't have everything. The semester ended and once again I had to say goodbye to all my newfound friends.

I came back to Sweden just before Christmas and the day before Christmas eve my family left for Spain. We spent the holidays in Alicante - a quiet, calm city with warmer weather was really nice. I got to see a blue sky, which wasn't that wasted on me in Helsinki.

So my year was very international. My time was spent in nine countries. I got to experience a lot. Everything from a quiet island vacation in Philippines, to live prawns for dinner in Singapore, to standing on the historical Red Square in Moscow. I made many new friends, and hopefully I'll get to see them all soon again.

The conclusion is:
A truly special and memorable year of 2007.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

back soon

Still just doing nothing.
Since I'm having such a long Christmas break, my plan was to at least try to figure something out. Like what my topic should be for the thesis. Or what I should do with my future. But have I done anything of it? Not much. I keep putting it up. Like I always do. Both questions requires a lot of time and thinking. Hopefully I'll get something done when I'm back in Jönköping.

Looking forward to that. Getting back to my apartment and all the friends. Heading down there on Tuesday, the 15th. Right now it feels nice to get the old life back again, but we'll see what I actually feel in a couple of weeks. But I guess I also will be so busy with the thesis that I won't really have time to miss all the places and people I've been to and met.
Time to look forward. At the same time that I'll be heading back to the old habits.

Monday, January 7, 2008

back to the real world

I've gone missing for a while. I guess I just needed a break from reality, to not be all up in my head for a couple of days. There are many things I need to get sorted out, but I needed a break from it.
A break from school.
A break from my future.

But of course it was difficult to do that. Even though I stop writing down my thoughts doesn't mean I stop thinking them. I guess they get more real to me when I actually write it all down.

Usually I'm really bad at planning. I always do everything in the last minute. Now on the other hand, I really need to do some serious thinking and try to plan something for my future. With only one semester in school I need to figure out what I want for my future.

How do you do that?
Where do you start?