Breaking in to sweden was…. entertaining, I guess?
In what was the longest tuesday, I’ve probably done more waiting than I’ve had in a while, first registering my presence and then getting my housing. A minivan proceeds to take us to our apartment, which, while really nice is a bit like living in another country altogether. The journey itself was quite harrowing, but proved to me that slightly insane drivers will exist anywhere in the world. Apparently here they drive on footpaths. In the evening, I proceeded to cook dinner with Denys and Wani. Somewhere along this process while we were trying to stir-fry sausages, I wanted to flip the sausages so I asked Denys for a spatula. So, Denys passes me to spatula after washing and not drying it. This, combined with a pan that had way too much oil for sausages(really, no innuendo here), cause a fair amount of smoke which eventually triggered the smoke alarm. We proceeded to spend a good amount of time with Denys on a chair with a napkin covering the smoke detector, me cooling the pan outside(read: just standing there shivering) and Wani laughing her ass off. Our Italian neighbour, hearing the alarm, decides to show some concern and ask what is wrong. Long story short, we proceed to have dinner with Francesco(now the name of our Italian neighbour), a guy who majors in middle eastern and arabic studies, while looking like one himself. When I asked him about this, he says:
“When I was choosing my major, I look at the mirror. I ask, ‘do I look like a doctor?’ No. I look like an Arab. So this is my major.”
Just one of the night’s many highlights, the man is a character of his own. It’s actually quite fun to watch people from foreign countries swear, because every country seems to have their own way of saying ‘fuck’.
On Wednesday, We went to ikea, but not before trying to be heroes and walking from our hostel to the train station, folding and unfolding the map along the way. My map now looks like it’s been chewed up by a beast with somewhat blunt teeth. It took us way too long. But anyway, IKEA! I used to think Ikea in Singapore was pretty huge. Ikea in Sweden dwarfs it by quite a huge amount. Honestly, if I wasn’t in a huge hurry or really bloody tired(Aside: We were at ikea to buy stuff. I slept a grand total of 2 hours the previous night because I didn’t have pillows, blankets or bedsheets and the mattress looked blooly filthy, so I slept on a chair and used a laundry basket as a legrest. I thought I was the Mcguyver of sleeping until I realised I didn’t really sleep.), we probably would have spent an age there choosing pillows, bedsheets and covers of many varieties. The end result, however, is that my bedsheet is a very sexy navy blue while my pillowcase and blanket are white with blue fowers on them. Oh dear.
To be continued with adventures on a kick scooter!
