Eating an ice cream at 3°C? Done. ✓

Yes, you heard it well. Last days in Sweden were extremely cold (for me, obviously). I was able, from my window in the old house, to see in the morning the ice on the roof in front of me. It was INCREDIBLE.
I will show you the picture because one friend of mine wasn't believing it.

I mean, if you are a Scandinavian reader it is nothing but for me, as Italian, in the first days of October see something like that was completely blow-minding.
Today it is quite okay, like 7°C in the morning, but like three days before we were at 1°C. Just 1. And I was freezing while I was waiting the bus that terrific morning. In my hometown in Italy there were the same day minimum 16°C. Checking in the last month, I had been able to see that usually there is a difference of 10°C. An thank god i'm from North Italy.
But i am surviving. I had been one day with a light fever because of someone that "infected" me in the library, but i am surviving. And generally i'm really a sickly person.
Few days ago, during the lunch break i met a friend of mine and she was excited because outside there were different promotional stands, giving stuff for free.
So, as we say in Italy, "to a donated horse you don't look in the mouth", and we went outside.
The day was one of the coldest one I experienced from my arrive in Karlstad, but at the same time because we are in the "sunny city" there was an amazing sun (it is normal in here, it's for a reason that they called the city like that).
I'm starting to think that swedish sun is like the Teletubbies' one, made with photoshop or something like that. It like this sun but when it comes to what it should do (heating) it is totally fake!
Btw, these were the stands (yeah, people is not dying freezing but i checked the weather in real time).

The funny thing of that is that there was a guy distributing ice creams... yes, ice creams. And we took them. I was like "okay, i have it in my head, but can I eat it?", i checked the temperature and it was 3°C, but it was so tempting that I decided to dig in! I swear that my mouth, staying outside, in contact with the ice cream, was an ice cube but it totally worth it. I love Algida brand (in Sweden it changes name in GB Glace), and there is nothing that could distract me from eating one of its ice creams, also in January, also if there are -20*.
So, between the things we got, there is a 4 colors: now, finally, i will have the chance to feel like Paolo Bitta (italian Camera Café's character).
My life is complete now.
That's it.
I want to clarify that Algida or spanish Frigo or GB Glace, whatever is its name, didn't payed me for the promotion (joking again, get used to it).
See you guys, and if you need info about Sweden or would you like to know more just ask me in a comment.
Bye!

Moving to campus - part 2

As I told you I moved to the campus, and the same day I went to Ikea. I have here a friend that has a car, so he would have been able to help me out with all the furniture but he was out of the town in these days, so... how to do that? My plan was: buy the mattress, the  and the pillow and nothing more. Wait two days and he is going to help you with everything else. You have to know that I could ask Ikea to do that but it could take 4/6 days. And in the meanwhile? What could I do? Nothing. I brought everything in the bus with me. The mattress was rolled, and the rest (i do not know how) I was able to put in the backpack. So, you can imagine how I was looking to people but I am not the kind of person who cares about what people could think. So, I bought everything to my room (thank God it is really close to the campus bus stop) and waited 2 days. My friend returned and on Friday, after handing our assignment, free as birds, ready for the weekend, we went to Ikea. We bought table, bad (the structure), curtains, and what I need for the kitchen. It was nice and funny. 

Outside Ikea, we survived!

                         

Stuff arrived safe and sound in my room

It was the first time I was really buying real furniture from Ikea and I was feeling excited. When he left I was like jumping in the room. I could be childish but it is true. I was finally starting to create my room, my personal space. And I was excited to buid the furniture on my own. But... as it happens in the best tales, nothing last for to long.... and after 1 hour spent in assembling the chair you can imagine how tired & upset I was feeling.

                    The delirium after I started to "create" the chair

But I really wanted to finish it... so, I started to "dig in" but at 1.30am the bed wasn't done. And I gave up. I slept on the floor for the 3rd night. The following morning at 7am I woke up and I finally made it. It was thought and I realized after to have forgotten some pieces like the strips I should be supposed to use to asset the slats. But... who cares, not a lot I think could change. And I am not going to destroy everything for some bad quality strips, sorry. I tried to jump in it, to see how resistant it is and it worked out: i am alive, writing to you, so without jumping again should be super okay.  

The same day we went to different second hand shops. He also moved recently and he needed to buy the furniture. Here in Karlstad there are a lot, they are quite popular (in Italy not really much). And I was looking for something to decorate my room, something funny, simple and colorful. And I spotted a really wonderful (for me) painting. My God, i saw it and I was OH MY GOD, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I am not really an "art fan". 

The purchase of the century (lol)

Never bought one painting before in my life but that one was for me wonderful and it was costing 50 kronor (something like 5 euros). As you can see, it is really simple and so "swedish", just a nature landscape, but the colors are so well assorted and I love how the light was painted in the trees... I am really ignorant about art, and probably some art exspert could say it is the worst painting ever. I do not care, I really like it. It gives me a really quite and relaxing "state of mind". You can't see it in the picture but in the left corner there is the name of the author. 

Thank you Micael, no matter who are you.

Moving to campus - part 1

Hi everybody,
sorry for the long absence but in these days I had to move to the campus, go to the language course and i have a group assignment to hand-in and I didn't have a lot of time to write.
Yeah, you heard well. Finally I have the room in the university campus. The type of the room I have chosen is the one in the corridor, shared flat with other thirteen people.
After one month in a Swedish family, i obtained the room from the 1st of October. But because the office was closed on Saturday - because the 1st October was Saturday - i had been able to pick up the 3rd.
If you are a free mover, as me, in Karlstad university, your room is empty. That's means that for the furniture is the student that has to pay for it.
So, because the 3rd was a delicate study day, I did not have time to go to Ikea or whatever to buy it and I didn't want to sleep on the floor at the end i decided to move the 5th of October staying few days more with the family.
The 3rd I picked up the keys in the lunch break and I visited for the first time my new room, that is going to be mine for the next two years (hopefully).
Good sizes:
1. quite cozy and new;
2. two windows, so a lot of light (only the rooms in the corner have them);
3. my private bathroom (it is the first time in my life that i don't have to share it, i feel like a queen now!);
4. little private fridge, that is confusion because all the time you go to the common kitchen you have to bring in and bring back the food. But at the same time you have your fridge, you put whatever you want and if you want something to eat you do not have to move your ass;
5. you can choose the furniture you want and personalize it
6. quite, never heard screaming or people partying in my corridor for now (lets hope for the best in the future)
7. almost all my friends are studying in the university and obviously they live in the campus, and finally I can meet easily with them without any drama as before
8. now i'm like 7 minutes by walk from the university (before 20 mins BY BUS)

Bad sizes:
1. quite small because of the private bath but to be a corridor and for the price I am paying it is fair
2. you have to buy everything by your own (bed, table, chair, and also the internet router...) and it is a lot of money here
3. 14 people in a corridor is a lot (but in 3 days i was able to glimpse five of my flatmates, and I was able to present myself to one of them but I do not even remember his name, and the kitchen is literally empty almost all the day. People just make food there and they leave. And also on Friday no people in the kitchen screaming, no a sound from the kitchen, really. I was living with 4 people in Pisa and it was much more messy that these corridor, and we were really quite girls! I'm amazed by Swedish people!
4. it is far from the center (if you want to go by walk you can take 1 hour, so you need always the bus)

Pictures fom the first day:

Entrance

The "fridge" side

View to the room from the entrance side (no the window is not crooked, it's just me in a hurry)

Bath (mmm, yeah, interesting!)

As you can see it is nice and the good sizes overcome the bad ones!
So, that's my new room. I am more than happy now here, I really feel excited for my new space, and I can not wait to settle down definitely.
I will create a post (moving to campus 2) in which I will show you how I furnished it... and i hope you are going to give me good suggestions.
See u!

First month in Sweden: summary & new goals

Credits: theaccidentalextrovert.com © 

Hi guys!
Hope you're enjoying the Friday :)
I'm going to! Finally today me & my colleagues reviewed for the last time our assignment and we handed it to the professor.
So, yeah of course i will have to study but my weekend will be quite without any deadline in mind or stuff like that.
The first month in Karlstad and in Sweden is done! I arrived the 21st of August. Today is 1 month and 2 days. Wow.
And it's time to celebrate and made a some sort of summary.
In this first month several things happened: in the early days i had been staying for few time in the flat of a lovely Bulgarian girl, i moved to a host family (first time), i started the university, i had my first two written assignment in my entire life (in Italy not really common), i have been meeting people from India, Thailandia and Reunion Island, i learned by heart the n.1 bus line schedule and i have been seeing a of forests, i fed a moose, i payed 35 kr for a bus ticket (>3,5 euros) and a lot of other stuff. Positive and negative, but i think that the positive ones were many many many more!
Karlstad is the city i was expecting for? I can not say I totally fall in love with the city, that i cry as a Bieber's fans when I go to the center. I have to be honest. But i really like it and enjoy a lot the nature and its amazing and outstanding landscapes. I love the city when it's quite but not to much, i love the color of the sky in the afternoon, i love the Hej of the bus driver every time i get on the bus, the fika breaks, the student friendly environment, the kindness of the people, the singing Swedish melody when they talk to each other.
Yeah, Swedish people are kind and nice. I love them. They could look shy but i rarely see a Swede that don't openly smile to me when we start talking or don't try to help when you look like having troubles, also the most stupid one. They have dinner with open windows, because they don't have fear that the neighbor look to them or try to do the businesses... i love Swedish attitude and i love their culture.
I do not regret anything, for the second time in my life after the polish experience (yeah, i had been living in Cracow for more than one year). That's what i needed, i think.
Sometimes you obtain what you want without knowing what you really want.
Because, yeah, of course my goal was to study in Sweden and i wanted to get in contact with Scandinavian culture but i didn't really know what to expect but i think it is overcoming my expectations.
The only problem is, as Abba teach, money, money, money. Sweden is expensive for a medium class Italian like me and i am really a person emotionally attached to money. So, when i start to calculate how much i spended or how much i am going to spend here i do not really like it, and i do not really know if the money that i earned in Poland is going to be really enough in order to support my all study period of 2 years. I made a lot of sacrifices in order to have as much money as i could and now to see that is not enough is not a good feeling. After almost 2 years in which i didn't ask my parents anything, in which i was able to provide for myself everything it is not a good feeling. I know my parents are totally okay with that, they love me, and they would give me all their savings, how cares!
They were prepare to pay for me everything, so you can imagine but I don't want to.
I though about looking for a part time job but here it is practically impossible to find a job without knowing the language, so it is not a possible solution for now, unfortunately.
We will see, sometimes i just foresee too much and at the end it is not necessary and I also think that how much i am going to spend doesn't have to be a metric in order to calculate my success in this pattern. I'm learning a lot, i'm happy here and i'm improving myself and this is what matters.
So, because the first month is gone I would like to set new goals:
1. Start to seriously learn Swedish. In the next days i will have to the office for enrol myself for the SFI, a free swedish course offered by the kommun.
2. Try to foresee less. I will try in the next month to be more "daily person". It's years i'm trying, i hope it's the right time.
3. To partecipate more to the activities around the city and the one organized by the university. A lot I have been missing because I'm a lazy person, and with that i mean that basically I  like to lay in the bed during the weekend. There is the craft evening , the language café, the pub events, the waffle friday... and I never take part in this events.
4. To celebrate a nice birthday. The 27th is my birthday and few days ago i didn't really want to celebrate it because i live far from the center and even more far from the campus where everybody that i know lives and i do not have my place to host them. But thanks to the really nice girls I met in the university and their enthusiasm, i think I will organize a massive italian dinner for everybody in their common kitchen. I hope to do my best and represent Italy in the best way!
So, that is for this time. Outside it's heavily raining (it's two days that the weather is shitty) so i will take the chance to start my 1° goals of the month.
I hope you like it. If yes, i let you know you can subscribe to the blog.
See you soon!

First day at University + Skatteverket

Hello, it's me... again!
Today it was my first real day in the university. Also if the lessons start tomorrow morning, today there was the introduction meeting at the master/bachelor's programmes.
Unfortunately i would loved to make some nice photos around the city but the weather wasn't really good. Just 12°C degrees and rain (wasn't really heavy but the little one that put your never under pressure). And obviously I've risked to be late, so i've forgotten the umbrella in my room and i've choosen the wrong pair of shoes, so my feet had been wet for almost 4-5 hours. Yeah, and now i'm feeling sick (what a surprise!). Sometimes it seems like i'm looking for it, but it's not true, i swear.
The university was overcrowded, and full of life. I've loved it!
We have met with the professor and the career conselour. We are not going to have a lot of lessons. In Italy you have 6-7 hours per day, but here just 1 and an half, sometimes 3 hours max. I'ts mostly individual studying. And i'm going to be confused, i'm sure about that: i was so used to spend such a long time in the classes that now after one hour and an half I will say to myself "and now what i have to do?". Study, com'on. I will need to stay focused, if not i'm going to waste a lot of free time in doing other things.
I've just to get used to it. It's not going to be impossible.
After the introduction i had been trying to get the university card or al least register myself to the student union but there were crazy queue, so i gave up.
So, why not to try to get the personummer?
If you don't know personnumer it's really important in Sweden. You regolarize your "position", also because without it you can't do anything, litterally. It's really important and because i'm going to stay two years for studying reasons i have the right to receive it. I was a little waiting because with the refugee's issue they are constantly changing the rules and you never know what it's going on.
In order to ask for it you have to go to Skatteverket (Tax Office). There is also one in every city. Maybe i was lucky but there wasn't a really long queue. After 10 minutes it was my turn. They were really nice to me, and after 15 minutes they told me i was going to gain the personnumer and they are going to send to my address within 6-8 weeks.
I'm hearing all the time people complain about how is hard to have it, but hopefully it's not going to be problem for me. And you don't know how i'm happy.
So, I returned home, i finally wore dry shoes and i relaxed myself a little bit.
I'm really excited about tomorrow, can't wait to start, even being sick.
So, let's pray for good weather and i hope to be able to post nice pics of this lovely city.
Vi ses! See you!