Race against the clock

Hey everyone,

Time is running low… for the exchange students. Luckily I can say I will be here for 6 more months. Even though I experienced in South-Africa that the second half passes by after one click of the fingers. Even last month feels like yesterday, but it was over before I realised it, because it was so good.

My last blog I finished with the road trip to Lund, Malmö and Copenhagen. This blog will start with Copenhagen again. It is not going to be about the road trip again, but about the trip Student Union happened to organize only one week later. It was 5:30 AM on Saturday and I had a hard time waking up.. The day before the Copenhagen trip, the RSF happened to organize a Horror & Hoes party, totally Halloween themed. The trick was putting 10 alarms and the treat resulted into 7 people having to pay for the train because they missed the bus.

So, Copenhagen, again. As we did not have much time to see Copenhagen the first time, this time we took the whole Hop on Hop off bus route by foot. I guess all the touristic stuff Copenhagen has to offer is captured on our Chinese his phone. Saturday in the evening we went to Tivoli, which is a theme park totally in the style of Halloween. Even though this was not necessary, because for some girls the roller coasters were already scary enough. After this shot of adrenaline we went to a pub and I might be able to write a book about this night, but let’s say that we had a good time with drag queen, alter-ego and schizophrenia Gabriela. The next day we woke up early again to go sightseeing. This day we went to the market hall where they sell a lot and I mean really a lot of sweet stuff for during the fika. And after the food and the dentist we went to Kristiania again. This time it was less creepy, because of the time of the day. In the afternoon many families go there and we even went to the skating park inside Kristiania where we showed our “Rocketpower” skills. In the evening it was time to leave and guess what is the first thing to happen when we get back in Jönköping? My bad karma decided to drop my bottle of liquor.

This resulted into spending my Tuesday morning in the Systembolaget to get some drinks for my birthday. It was going to be my first birthday abroad and I invited some of my friends to celebrate with me. In the afternoon I went through the whole block to tell them that I was going to have my birthday party and I invited all of them to join me, so I would not get in any trouble with the security (if this could only be true). At 9 pm people started coming in and people from all over the world were enjoying their time… until the security came at 23:30! We had to shut down the party and some after parties and sleep later I found a letter on my table which stated that I had to pay 850 krono again and that this was my last warning before my contract would be terminated. So Vatterhem actually overloaded me with birthday presents the day after. But at least this makes my birthday memorisable for the rest of my life. Another thing that made my birthday memorisable is that I had to go to school in Gabriele’s clothes, because I lost my key so I had to find an alternative place to sleep.. “A good start is half of the work” we would say in Holland. Guess my 23th life year is starting quite epic.

Wonder above wonder the next morning I felt quite good. So even though I am 23 now, I can handle my hangovers. School decided to present me with a class in the morning and in the evening there was going to be a party again. After my class I decided to take a powernap before going to Akademien, but this made me feel terrible when I woke up. Even though, I joined the pre party in Delta house and later the Halloween party (yes, they love Halloween here) in Akademien, because some people were not able to come to my birthday party so now I could see them. After Akademien, I don’t know if I can say this, but Christopher (America), Kyle (Canada) and me pulled a wonderful prank by switching name tags throughout Raslätt.

Then it was time for the weekend again. And Pia (Germany) and Madeleine (Holland) booked a trip to Stockholm to (for me) mainly see Armin van Buuren at the November Lights Festival. On Friday after school we went to Stockholm and first I had to finish my assignment in the bus. 4 Hours later we got into our apartment, which is located in the same street as where Astrid Lindgren used to live. Furthermore there was a really good bakery and fish shop nearby. So finally some bread that is not white. In the evening we were going to Himlen, a skybar. The moment we got there, the security was asking our ages and as we are all 21+ we decided that it was more like a formality. But at the end he told us we were not allowed to go in, because we were not old enough (25+). After some talking into him, we managed to get through and on the 25th floor of the building we took one cocktail with an amazing overview over the city. Even though the cocktail was probably the most expensive one I have ever had, it was worth it. Guess what, 144 krono! If I could compare this to South-Africa I could have bought my own sky bar for this money (Euro trip). The next morning we went sightseeing and of course I couldn’t ignore the fika’s the ladies were so excited about. And then, at 4 PM, the festival was about to start and we were super excited as Pia would have said. Some random names, but also R3hab, Sick Individuals, Nervo and Knife party passed by.. At 11 PM It was finally time for the flying Dutchman “Armin van Buuren”. For 2 hours straight he made people put their legs off the dance floor and dance like the ceiling can’t hold us. A shame that at 1 AM the festival was over, because I could have been forever in that “state of trance”. The next morning we woke up really refreshed and the ladies were really excited about the activity for today, shopping. I wonder if they came for this or for the festival. But if their money grows on their backs, they can do whatever they want to do, because Stockholm is damn expensive! I made my own plans, which resulted in watching Feyenoord vs. Ajax at Giel’s place (a student I know from Holland that happens to study in Stockholm). On top of that it was nice to realise that studying in Jönköping is a better choice for me than studying in Stockholm. Everything is smaller in Jönköping and even though it is much bigger than my village, it feels like one big family with only brothers and sisters.

To shorten it up I will say that after the weekend I had a birthday party of two Spanish girls (which did not get a fine, because they were smart enough to arrange it in Sockertoppen). On Wednesday there was another food safari for which we created food in the colours of Holland and Italy. Thursday I went to an ice hockey match with Mischa (Switserland) and Hampus (Sweden) and where we did not see any fights last time, we saw two fights this time. We were located close to the field and for this reason we also saw a guy breaking his arm. In football this would have resulted in pain and emotion for 10 minutes, but here, half of the audience did not even notice this, because the player went off himself and the team kept on playing like this was the most normal thing in the world.

This weekend I will be busy doing some schoolwork, because next week Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I will be on the ESN SEA BATTLE!!!!!!

One boat, one tax-free zone, one swimming pool, three days on the boat, half a day in Tallinn, multiple parties and 3000 students enjoying their life away from any stress. Going to be ………… BEST!

Kevin