The Rest of Week 32

Tjena! I apologise for the lengthy wait on my next post, but I've been busy with homeworks and such. I promised I would tell a bit about the nyckelharpa, or the Swedish key fiddle, in this post as well. So I've got a lot of catching up to do here, and I might as well start! Except for with the nyckelharpa, I will likely post photos more than text, with only brief captions, so I can fit everything into one post here. I also have yet to finish the summaries (or at least photos) of days 2, 3 and 4, so I'll work on that if I have time after my assignment this weekend.

day 7

Nyckelharpa lessons were after my Swedish class. Luckily, it wasn't too hard for me to get to Stockholm Central Station from T-Centralen, since they're connected to each other. But trying to find the right platform was a bit difficult, as the platforms changed as the train was coming in- twice.

There's been a raging firestorm in Central Sweden. Since I happened to be going toward Sala that day, there was increasingly thick smoke as we headed north and west on the train. You can read more about what's now one of the largest- if not the largest- fires in Swedish history in most of the newspapers and online articles. http://www.thelocal.se/20140805/five-day-forest-fire-rages-out-of-control

It wasn't so bad on Wednesday, as the fire had started on Tuesday. My teacher told me that there was smoke everywhere, and it filled everyone's lungs and eyes with that stinging sensation it gives.

The window was a bit foggy on the train, but there's some smoke in the distance. This was taken somewhere between Stockholm and Uppsala.

This was from Uppsala around the train station area, once we had slowed down for the stop.

Somehow, my finger ended up in the bottom half of this photo.

As we approached Sala, the smoke thickened. It wasn't as bad as I'd heard it was the day before, but it seemed thick to me. The fire had left the area, but the smoke still drifted south and a bit east. We had a thin haze over Stockholm on Thursday, actually, although it quickly dissipated.

You can really see the effect of the smoke in the background of this picture. Maybe not so much in the foreground, since there are no trees or buildings to compare for clarity.

Sala Central Station was completely quiet. I also took a panoramic shot of it (the weird rectangular picture that seems to bubble in the middle). There were a few people who got off along with me, but it was dead silent on the return back, except for one family who caught the train at the last minute.

The Swedish impression of what Burger King is- it's apparently more important that it is the "Home of the Whopper", than it is that it's called Burger King :P This was taken in Stockholm Central Station upon my return.

I have yet to figure out how the food on the train works. I paid for food on both legs of the trip, and yet I never received anything. I didn't return to Sthlm until 20.00, and then I ate at a restaurant at Sthlm C Station before leaving for my dorm. I was too tired to seek out someone who could explain about the food, so I doubt I'll get a refund now. I at least managed to get a cup of coffee from the first train, but I dropped my US-to-EU plug adapter under the seat somewhere and my phone recharging cable broke as well.

On the bright side, I have a nyckelharpa now- I'm renting it for the month from my teacher :)

Rather artsy perspectives, instead of an actually clear picture of the instrument, so I'll post a diagram here as well. I forget the source, but I found it on one of the European nyckelharpa association webpages. I know it looks complicated with all the part names, besides the fact that they're each listed eight times in different languages, but it's not that bad!

And here, you have the anatomy of a nyckelharpa! It's held similarly to a guitar (although not very), the strings are played with a bow, like a violin... and the keys on the side are played pretty much exactly like a piano! So it's a funny instrument, but I really like it :)

day 8, day 9

I really don't have so much to post for these days, as I was studying and doing homework and such. But some of you have mentioned that you wanted to see what the Swedish names on Coke bottles look like. I've already shown most of you who follow this blog, but here are the photos for those of you who didn't get to see them!

The one to the left says "brorsan", which is "share a Coke with your brother". The one to the right is either Jens or Jenny... I wasn't paying attention, and both names were there in separate coils. Can't recall which one this was.

"Dela er Coke light med:

Gubben (the old guy), Per, Torsten, Emma"

"Gubben" could literally mean something along the lines of "old geezer". It could also be used as an affectionate term for a husband, or even a small boy "lille gubben"... I always thought that seemed a weird thing to say to a kid, but okej-

"Dela en Coke med

Karin, Per, Kaj, Divan (the diva), Anders"

"Dela en Coke med

Jakob, Jane, Malin, Gösta"

I think the one in the back is Susanna, but I'm not positive. xD

"Dela en Coke med

Ulf, Annika, Linus, Marina, Per, Anna, Bengt, Sven, Mamma (lol), Leif, Stefan, Per, Anna, Elias, Hans, Jimmy, Håkan, Magnus"

Found my own. It's actually a common enough name that there was more than one bottle with my name on it.

The one my dad bought when he was here. A very Swedish name, right there. :P

It poured on Thursday, such that my shoes got completely soaked as I waded to the tunnelbana station. It floods in the town square, and right in front of the stairway to the tunnelbana, the puddles form in such a way that there's no way around them. So I had small lakes in my shoes by the time I walked in to class, despite having an umbrella, and I took off my shoes and wandered around the classroom in socks that day. I had to dry my shoes and socks once I got home.

Friday, on the other hand, was nice. The rain from the day before had cooled off the air, and it was definitely not as hot as before. It was still a bit humid, but with slightly colder air.

The skies above the campus were a clear blue with the occasional wisp of cloud. I wandered around for a bit as I went around to solve the technical issues with the laundry room booking (which thankfully works now), as well as asking for the receipt of the activities I'd signed up for. I dropped the receipt somewhere in my room, and I knew what I'd signed up for anyhow, but not on which dates. So I got a copy of it, and today (Saturday 9 Aug) I plan to go on the kayaking event, if the places aren't full!

It's quiet in the evenings around the town square where I live near. People emerge from their apartments around dinnertime, and they file in and out of the grocery store before it closes. The Thai restaurant gets a good amount of business for the number of people who live here, so I'm happy for them. They really do make good food- I ordered takeout from them, and it definitely met my standards.

I'll keep up with this blog a bit later! I still haven't gotten around to posting for the arrival days when I settled in, but I'll get to it tomorrow if the assignment for Swedish gets done. Otherwise, you'll hear from me later. It's a KONA written assignment, worth 1,5 credit points out of 7,5 total for the course, so I don't want to slack off on it.

Some Chinese children came running up to me at the bus stop and hopping up and down, babbling away in rapid Chinese as they determined whether or not I was Chinese, until they decided they didn't care whether or not I understood them, and proceeded to explain (in Mandarin) that they were looking for which bus line to take to a certain location. I wasn't exactly super helpful, but I pointed in a general direction on a map and somehow ended up speaking Swedish, which they didn't understand. So I then threw in some English and some Mandarin, and the bus arrived and they left. The boy bowed to me in jest and said, "thank you!" in English. Hopefully, they found where they were headed!

Oh, and also, a random gubbe came up to me in the tunnelbana station last night on the platform, asked me in Swedish if I spoke Chinese, switched to English before I could answer, and then I ended up answering in Swedish because I was so confused. All he wanted was to hand me a brochure on Christianity and finding God. I didn't even know there were people who gave those out to random people outside of an actual church, but maybe I just haven't been here long enough to notice.

I can't figure out whether I look like a devilish Chinese person or more generally a lost soul. :P

Vi hörs!
/The Swedish Fish