Another Month...

Another month is coming to an end and with it, half of my time in Sweden will be over soon. Time is running as fast as it always is here and days are still changing quickly. At the moment sunset time in Västerås is 4 pm, also thanks to the change to daylight saving time last weekend. At least dusk and dawn are also longer here (so that it takes until 4.45 to be completely dark) than in Switzerland. But nevertheless the days here are already shorter than the shortest day of the year in Switzerland and it is hard to imagine at the moment how it will be in december when the sun is setting at 3 pm and it will be completely dark by 4 pm.

Also in terms of my studies half time is achieved and the first course has finished with another five hour written exam of which the outcome is still unknown and very uncertain. The other two parts of this 15 ECTS course are passed however. After the exam was done thursday last week and the start of the next course next monday I had a week of free time and thought I should use this for a little journey to different scandinavian cities. So two friends and me booked some hostels and went to the train station to get an interrail ticket for Sweden and went off to Copenhagen, with a short stop in Malmö, Gothenburg and Oslo. So within six days we discovered and experienced three countries, three languages, three currencies, four cultures and a lot of other great things. A more detailed post about this trip will hopefully follow soon.

Until then have a good time and vi ses snart från Västerås

Feeling like winter

Already a lot of time has passed since my last blog entry although it does not feel like it at all. Time is running really fast at the moment here and it is hard to believe for me that the end of October is coming nearer quickly.

Of course a lot has happened during the past weeks, for example my first exam here in Sweden; a five hour written exam about Service Management and Marketing and International Business Culture. Luckily the exam was followed by a birthday party at Park which was of course the right place to celebrate after a hard day. By today I did also get the results of the exam and know that I have passed.

In the mean time I also spent a weekend in Stockholm including an ice hockey game of DIF against MODO hockey on Saturday, including a top game on the ice and a little brawl within the supporters, which was followed by applause from all 8000 visitors in the arena when they were removed by the police. The game was followed by some partying in the evening and sightseeing on Sunday. On Monday then my family, who arrived in Sweden on Saturday to stay for one week, came to visit Stockholm and I did some more sightseeing with them. And in the evening then another highlight of the trip: A football derby between AIK and DIF at Råsunda, the Swedish national stadium.

The police presence was high but the game not really on a high level (the football section of DIF is struggling against relegation). But at least the performance of the fans was good and I enjoyed it.

Two weeks later there was another trip scheduled: one of the legendary ferry trips to Helsinki including a big dinner buffet, two beautiful sunsets, party on a moving dancefloor because of the relatively high waves, seven hours in the Finnish capital and duty free shopping on the way back. It was a really great trip and also being back in Helsinki after three years was really great!
Now, just one week later, we just had a presentation of a case study we had to do as a group work and passed that without problems. The next things on my plan are another exam in one week and a trip to Kopenhagen, Göteborg and Oslo during the week after the exam. Also, a trip to Finnish Lapland in the beginning of December is already booked, hope to see some polar lights up there...

Vi ses snart från Västerås

Västerås, the first four weeks

It is now four weeks since I arrived in Västerås, four weeks with many new things to explore, with a lot of stuff to do and a lot of new people to meet. Especially the first two weeks were full with cleaning my room, getting settled, buying a lot of stuff like pans, dishes, a pillow and a cover and so on as well as the introduction days at the university, registration for the courses and of course a lot of parties to get to know the hundreds of other foreign students that had arrived in the same time.

I can still remember very well the last weeks and days before leaving Switzerland. I was looking forward a lot to my semester in Sweden but I was also quite nervous about what would wait for me there. And the happiness of looking forward to Sweden also mixed with some "heavy-heartedness" when thinking about not seeing many of my friends and family for such a long time. Still, I enjoyed these last days at home and after I arrived in Västerås the nervousness was also gone quickly and the life of an exchange student started.

Now, after four weeks I can say that I really arrived in Sweden very well, I can say I'm living in Västerås and I feel at home here. On the other hand, although I can say I do not miss Switzerland in general, I start to miss some other things. Like living in a house for example which is quite different from the 19 square meter of room that I live in now and it is still strange for me to live in such a flat area with absolutely no mountains around. But also my family and friends although it is of course very easy to find new friends here when living in the same building with 150 foreign students as well as getting in contact with Swedish people. There are also some good ways to forget all the things you miss. I am for example often cooking and eating together with other people and so had the joy to eat real austrian-bavarian "knödel", wiener schnitzel and cooked älplermakkronen and berner rösti myself, with the support of another Swiss living on the same floor.

Concerning the university I am shortly before the first milestone as we will write our first exam next Tuesday. These exams are a bit different than at home as they usually take five hours. But after the exam I am looking forward to Saturday when I will go to Stockholm for a weekend including an ice hockey game and a football derby. Also at the same weekend my family will arrive in Sweden for a week of holiday and I am of course looking forward to that as well.

Now it is time to continue preparing for the exam...

Vi ses snart från Västerås

Västerås Part II

My second week in Västerås is slowly, or let's better say with an unbelievable pace, coming to an end. And as here in Sweden the semester starts two weeks earlier than back home in Switzerland, we had the first classes this week. The first one was an introduction to the only course I will attend for the next ten weeks apart from the Swedish course. It is called "Nordic Perspectives on Marketing and Management" and I hope it will be as interesting as it sounds and it will not be too much work (we have our first exam in three weeks!). The positive thing is that there are maximum three lectures every week for the course and almost all of them are in the afternoon.

This leads us to the second important part of the last week: the student parties. Because I am living in the biggest student accommodation in Västerås with 150 other students, it is impossible to avoid them (and to be honest I'm not really trying to avoid them). Usually a good party starts with a pre-party at "Park Hotel" and because the clubs all close a 2 in the morning here in Sweden it usually ends with an after-party at "Park Hotel". So there is also a lot happening here and up to now I enjoy that, but let's see how hard it will make it to prepare for exams.

Also this week, I went on a short trip to Eskilstuna, a city on the other side of lake Mälaren where Mälardalens Högskola has its second campus and therefore students travel for free between the two cities. The weather was perfect and we found a nice café in the old part of the city and a small park to enjoy the sun. Pictures will follow on facebook.

Västerås Part I

It is now more than a week ago that I was sitting in a plane heading north, to start my exchange semester in Västerås, Sweden, together with a fellow student from my home university who is also spending her exchange semester at Mälardalens Högskola. At Arlanda Airport while waiting for the bus to Västerås we then already met another exchange student on his way to Västerås, and we also encountered the first problems when the bus arrived and the bus driver told us he could not take us on board because it did not have enough space for our luggage. He drove away and we had to wait for the next one and had a new problem. The next bus was scheduled to arrive in Västerås too late to go to the university and pick up the key to our accommodation, so that we would have had to spend the night in a hostel. Luckily, this was solved after two phone calls to the university and we only had to hope now that the bus was on time, which of course it wasn't. But thanks to the, in contrary to the one on the first bus, very friendly bus driver who organised a taxi to pick us up after the arrival in Västerås we made it to the university with five minutes left on the clock.

The next days were not that full of problems anymore. Most of the time I was busy with cleaning my room, buying kitchen utensils or other stuff for my accomodation (at IKEA of course) and a bike, meeting a lot of new people and exploring Västerås (which is very nice to do by bike if you are lucky with the weather). We also had two days of introduction at the university and some activities with the rest of the exchange students organised by the students union, like a visit to IKEA (with around four coaches full of people) as well as a trip to Björnö, an island in lake Mälaren just near the city. They also organised a Swedish welcome dinner (with Köttbullar of course) and a pub tour in the city.

All in all it was a busy first week with also a bit of stress but we already had a lot of fun and I really enjoy meeting all the new people here. We are also already planning some first trips including a football and ice hockey trip to Stockholm at the end of September to see the last football city derby of the season and hockey game of Djurgården. Well, that's all for the moment, you will hopefully hear more from me soon. If you want to see more pictures, visit my facebook profile.

my room when I moved in

the view from the top of our accommodation building

at lake Mälaren

the main building of our Mälardalens Högskola

the oldest party of the Västerås city center

ERASMUS

It was a long long time ago that the last entry in this blog was written but now it's time to "reactivate" it as tomorrow will be the day that I leave Switzerland. Direction: North. I will be studying in Sweden for one semester and of course I'm very much looking forward to it. Even though I'm also a bit nervous...
Anyway, you will hear from me some days after I arrived in Sweden. Then I might have some things more interesting to tell than just now.

Thrice

Den Anfang macht ein Feueralarm. Den Anfang eines musikalischen Meisterwerks auf vier Plastikscheiben. Die vier Scheiben mit je sechs Tracks gehören zur Konzept-EP-Serie "The Alchemy Index" der Amerikanischen Band Thrice, verteilt auf zwei Doppel-EP Releases. Die Band selbst hat begonnen mit hartem Post-hardcore und sich über die letzten Jahre immer mehr zu einer der innovativsten und extrem wandlungsfähigen Experimental Rock Band entwickelt.

Zum Konzept dieser EP-Serie gehört denn auch die Wandlungsfähigkeit, welche sich durch die grosse Unterschiedlichkeit der vier EP's ausdrückt, ohne jedoch dass Thrice von ihrem typischen Sound abweichen würde. Dies vier Scheiben sind nach den vier Elementen benannt, die beiden des ersten Releases nennen sich "Fire and Water", die des zweiten "Air and Earth". Damit wäre auch der einleitende Feueralarm erklärt. Die sechs Tracks der ersten Scheibe ähneln vom Sound her am ehesten den früheren Werken der Band und sind hart und feurig aggressiv und gleichzeitig, typisch für Thrice, sehr melodiös. Der Wechsel ins pure Gegenteil folgt auf der zweiten Scheibe, Water. Diese Entführt den Hörer in die Tiefen des Ozeans, ist für Thrice ungewöhnlich ruhig und trotzdem irgendwie typisch. Wenig Gitarre und mehr Synthesizer und elektronische Beats, die einen eintauchen lassen ins Wasser, einen fast ertrinken lassen. Wunderschöne, nachdenkliche Stücke für ruhige Stunden.

Auf dem zweiten Release geht es dann auf "Air" mit luftiger Leichtigkeit weiter, in die sich jedoch stürmische Winde einmischen. Die Texte bleiben nachdenklich wie schon auf "Water", es wird jedoch wieder mit mehr Gitarre und mehr, härterem Schlagzeug gearbeitet und einem weniger dominanten Synthesizer. Nach den sechs "Air" Tracks folgt mit "Earth" das letzte Element und schliesst so den Kreis des "Alchemy Index" und bereitet dem ganzen ein staubiges Ende. Die Akkustische Gitarre in einer Ballade im Singer-Songwriter-Stil den Anfang und die spezielle Wahl der Musikinstrumente zieht sich durch alle sechs Songs. Nur ganz wenig Schlagzeug ist zu hören, dafür wird oft das Klavier eingesetzt und von Perkussion, Orgel und Akkordeon begleitet.

Diese vier EP's sind ein Werk, das jeder Fan innovativer Musik unbedingt einmal gehört haben sollte. Man sollte sich dabei jedoch bewusst sein, dass es keine Musik ist, welche man ab und zu nebenbei hört; es handelt sich um Musik, für die man sich Zeit nehmen muss, auf die man sich einlassen muss und welche man auf sich wirken lassen soll. Dann jedoch wird man sie um so mehr geniessen.

Eine kleine Bemerkung nebenbei auch noch zum nutzen dieser vier EP's für diejenigen auf unserem Planeten, welche sich diese Platten selber niemals leisten könnten. Wie mittlerweile für Thrice üblich, unterstützen sie mit dem Verkauf der Platten wohltätige Projekte: Ein Teil der Einnahmen aus "The Alchemy Index" geht an die Blood:Water Mission, welche in Afrika Brunnen errichtet und so vielen Dörfern den Zugang zu sauberem Trinkwasser ermöglicht.

In diesem Sinne: "I'm starting to believe the ocean's much like you, 'cause it gives and it takes away!"