Christmas and arriving in Sälen

On stage @Nordstan...

It’s a couple of days before new year’s eve. I am currently in Sälen, a ski resort located in the Swedish alps, close-ish to Norway. We’re here to do some high class skiing/snowboarding/cross country skiing (’langlaufen’). I have snowboarded twice in my life, both indoors, since my father does not like having cold toes(fact). We made one attempt to go skiing in Germany a couple of years ago, which was quite promising the first day, being the slopes being a merry white colour and snow was abundant. We arrived at 7 a.m that day, and went to bed early with excitement and joy just to wake up early to see the snow melted down, changing the slopes in a muddy brown disaster. I kept on raining for 2 weeks. I did not snowboard.

Now however there is snow. It’s shitty snow, yes, but it is snow. Snowboarding on ice is maybe not the best, but at least there is a downwards motion including both a snowboard and a mountain. And perhaps that summarizes my first day. I’m not quite a natural. At the moment I’m lying in my bed, bruises everywhere, sorrow fills my body. I’ve made a lot of face plants, I laughed, I cried (I didn’t, men don’t cry, though sometimes I felt like it), I fell with my snowboard, without my snowboards, I fell on ice, snow, solid ground, a lift. Lots of bruises prove my story. I cannot sit. Well I can, but it’s not really comfortable. Sleeping shall be quite a task too, even though I’m already fighting to keep my eyes open, it will resemble hell, or at least be rather uncomfortable. 

In the mean time I’ve been doing a lot, went out a bit and had some great times with some of my exchange buddies. It’s quite fun to hang around with people from all around the world, and those people are more social and warm. That’s a nice change sometimes, escaping the less social swedes. 

STS seems to have rather special policies, since some of my exchange friends return at home at christmas, and I’m not even allowed to travel more than 20 km from my house without asking permission. One of them, for example, will make a short tour through Europe, with friends. I cannot sleep alone at the house, even though I’m 18 years old. I mean, I can vote…..I can get my driver’s license…I can buy weed in Holland(legal)…I’m considered to be fully adult. But I, I need a babysitter here. 

My ’Jul’ has been good, spending time with my host family’s grandparents of mother’s side once, but did not go to the other side cause I was very tired that day + overslept. That was slightly depressing, spending time alone in an empty house. Luckily they came home soon, and I had some idiot coming over to give me company. Never met an idiot like that before. Good for my spanish though.

Liseberg @christmas (Lapland)

As far as I’ve seen, Sälen is a small village up in the mountains in Sweden. I haven’t seen Sälen . I actually think my daily business will consist of snowboarding and returning home, to do some lovely practice of my swedish. My goal is to be fluent when we return in Mölndal. We shall see. I hope for the best. (but realize that that goal might be a bit too much)[Probably not] {9GAG}

Note: Apparently laptops/gameboys/nintendos are one of the most important things in life. Everyone is always playing a game or doing something with their electronic devices. Society has become truly addicted to this. We can’t spend time with family without these, in my opinion, unnecessary things. But I can’t judge, guess what I’m writing on right now…ironic.

18? Nah that's not the topic. Well maybe a bit. I dunno...now my title is too long..ffs

December always was my favorite month in Holland. Sinterklaas at the 3th, birthday at the 12th, and christmas and new year's eve. And yeah, it's a good month. And a frkn expensive one! I'm broke.

I've reached the age of 18. This means I've received some privileges for example voting(1), being able to buy overpriced low-alcoholic beers in Sweden(2)(FUKYEEEH), being able to buy weed in Holland(3) and getting a drivers license(4).

1.Okay.
2.Can't!
3. I'm in Sweden
4. Can't

How exciting is that?

Besides this lovely event, I can honestly say I'm enjoying my time in Sweden. It's been tough, especially the first months, but now I've settled down here. Adapting to a culture is not an easy thing to do. Trust me. I thought it would be much easier. Waaaay easier. And you wouldn't understand if you did not experience this yourself. And I know that sounds corny. Really corny. Corny things are true.

The more people I meet in Sweden the better Sweden gets. Not only meeting Swedes, but meeting other exchange students is amazing. Imagine walking in the city, somebody asks you something, discovers you are not swedish and asks you where you are from. 'Eh...Well I'm Dutch, he is Chilean, he is Italian, he's German and he's from Hungary...'. 'Okay'. (typical swedish answer)

A couple of days ago we had a 'jullunch' (christmas lunch)at school. That was one of those moments that you realize something. Like in movies. They do that in movies a lot. Or in scrubs. I realized I was part of the class. I wasn't that strange guy from that country next to germany any more. One of the things people told me about Swedes was that they need time to accept strangers, proved to be so true. They needed time, in my view too much, but now, I am. I've learnt to not give up, even though I have been close often, I have not. Queen moment.

So. Christmas is near. I do not really know what we will, my host family and I, and they don't seem to know either. Planning is not a quality given to them. I will go to Sälen for 2 weeks to go skiing with my host family. That's gonna be good. Even though I will probably break all my bones. At least I'll go down kickin'
 

Some Useless Facts & Comments.

Recently I've discovered Kid Cudi. That was better than losing my virginity. This guy is in fact one of the most talented artists I have ever had the pleasure to listening to. Just saying.

Besides this I have been thinking. Or actually, right now I'm forcing myself to think of smart things to say. The thing is that I have a lot to tell and share, but my problem is that I forget that shit. So I will just entertain you with some random stuff I found on the internet.

Did you know that there are a lot of different languages? About 6 to 7 thousand. Actually that is not that much if you consider there are 7 billion people on earth. That amount is too abstract. Imagine the Amsterdam Arena, football stadion for those whom are not Dutch or idiots. Fill this up 135357246 times with people. Oh. That's much.

And in this crowd alone, are probably nice people, bad people, annoying people, good people, shitty people, boring people, interesting people, people, people, people. And how many people will you meet, talk to, hang out with, flirt with, make out with, sit in the tram with, ignore, look at, shake hands with or just laugh at? Now that's a question. I'm just gonna guess you'll meet about less then one stadium, maybe if you try hard 2.

7 billion different personalities, appearances, handshakes. You won't even meet 1% of the people in the world. Somehow that makes one humble. Maybe even sad. I mean, of those 7 billion people, there must be the perfect girl. And don't tell me shit about faith, you'll never meet her. You'll suit yourself with something kinda close to her.

But if you travel, you will probably meet more people than average. Oh wait, let me define 'meet'.




1. (sometimes foll by up or (US) with) to come together (with), either by design or by accident; encounter I met him unexpectedly we met at the station
2. to come into or be in conjunction or contact with (something or each other) the roads meet in the town the sea meets the sky


(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/meet)

Meeting is defined as a coming together, or have some kind of contact. Still a bit vague to my taste. 'Contact?'

1. a. A coming together or touching, as of objects or surfaces. b. The state or condition of touching or of immediate proximity: Litmus paper turns red on contact with an acid. 2. a. Connection or interaction; communication: still in contact with my former employer.

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/contact)

Okay. Got it?

Sure?

Let's roll.

Last check.

Remember what the first definition was?

And the second?

Cool.

As I said one will meet more people when traveling. Unique people that is. Living in one city your entire life will inevitably lead to meeting people more than once, making them useless for this example. Maybe they were really nice, but I don't give a shit. You will effectively enlarge the odds of finding more interesting people, hot girls, nice people, drunk people, stupid people, fat people, stupid/fat people(A.K.A Amer...ns), emo's, nerds, people x^y.

To be continued...

Did you know that in the state of Louisiana (USA), french is one of the official languages? And that there is no official language in the USA? And in some parts of the USA, roadsigns are written in spanish only? Or that the USA has one of the biggest spanish speaking communities, the 5th in the world. The state of Pennsylvania was bilingual, speaking English and Pennsylvanian Dutch until the 50's. This was actually not Dutch, but German. And the state of New York wrote their official documents in Dutch(the real one) until the 20's. The Swedes had a colony in the states, which was taken over by the Dutch. Ha-Ha. Oh, and George Bush probably had Swedish ancestors. Now that's something to be proud of!

To be continued(^2)

It's been a while ago since I updated my blog. Consequently, a lot has happened, but I won't go back in time too much since my memory is limited, and my inspiration to write decreased.

When I started writing this 2 days ago, I had quite a different concept. I'm starting to realize I have some pregnant-women-like mood swings or something, cause my original concept was dark tainted and pessimistic. Somehow there are 2 parts battling inside me, read pessimistic/optimistic, and the last couple of weeks the pessimistic side had taken over control, partly strengthened by several things going on in my life, but strongly enforced by the weather and the hangover-like tiredness that is a inevitably a case of 'glandular fever'. It should've been dealt with a while ago, but sometimes it still kicks in, resulting in waking up at 6.20 a.m, deciding to put the snooze mode on, and waking up at 2 o'clock in the day. Since that leads to having 1,5 hours of sunshine a day, that is not really motivating.

My swedish is, prepare for an understatement, rather creative/pathetic. If everything went according to plan, I would've been speaking swedish all the time, being as fluent as one could be in a different tongue. My expectations were that everything will just work out, putting practically no effort in, and gaining maximum result. This is, obviously, not attainable. One could actually say I'm doing (relatively) bad in mastering swedish. This week will be the kick-off for a new season, a season of swedish speech.

It's hard to apply my swedish in everyday situations. Purchasing items is still being done in English only. And I know I shouldn't. But the thing is that if you address someone in creative swedish, they assume you do not speak english. The swedes love everyone from english speaking countries (no clue why) and I'd prefer to be loved then looked at silly.

I have commenced doing tests and essays at school. As far as I know, I've done okay, not wanting to brag about grades. I have noticed that the swedish schools are not as strict in grading, and there is a lot of space to express your own opinion. That actually seems to be extremely important for the swedish school system. They actually try to raise reasonable and independent people. That's their main focus. For example, your grade is related to you being present often(it's not obligatory to be at school) From that angle, I should've received crappy grades, but I guess they just don't me to feel bad or something.

It's still hard to get accustomed to the swedish culture. Where making friends in Holland was just a matter of being somewhere, you have to earn your spot here. It takes time. I might remember I told you patience isn't one of my strongest points. It's hard to tell what people want, and nobody dares to take the first step. Asking to hang out seems to be a violation of one's privacy. Makes me want to smash my head to random things sometimes.

One of my recent events has been dancing with 80 swedes circling around a fire, singing about a pig and a wolf, honouring some christmas tradition. That was....interesting and fun. First we lit torches and walked a bit through the forest, then had some (fake) glögg and pepparkakor(for the Dutchies, pepernoten maar dan in een hartje gevormd) It actually was fun. These events bind people for just a small period, making them one collective body and mind. According to my host mother, the grown-ups like to do the dancing part even more than the kids, using them as a excuse to act like an idiot. Good stuff.

Last weekend we had a meeting of exchange students living in, or close by, Gothenburg. After some casual fika, we went iceskating and I can honestly say it was fun. It's a strange idea to be with about 40 people, but almost everybody came from a different country. I realized at that time I was doing what I love, meeting people from all around the world. Some things are universal.

My 18th birthday is coming soon, and to be honest, I feared for the worst. Let's just say the celebration is going to be slightly different then in Holland. One could say it will be slightly less wild then in Holland.

Tomorrow I will visit the dentist, and figuring things out with the insurance might become challenging. Though European law is on my side, it's going to be interesting. Let's just hope the dentist speaks english. Oh god.

From now on I will update my blog more often, and try to keep you guys updated/entertained.

That's it for now!

Grass and other green stuff.

It's halloween today, which meant that last weekend the weekend was slightly different than usual. People were obviously dressed up. The rest was the same, Swedes getting drunk, puking their guts out, you know the deal.

Whilst standing in the train, some small kids were looking at me. I guess it had something to do with having a blood trail on my neck and t-shirt. I have to say that I loved the parties. Somehow people are so much funnier when dressed up, in appearance and speech. The last could be blamed on the booze by the way...

I'm beginning to get used to life here. I am becoming swedish. And that terrifies me in a way. Recently I heard a fellow dutch exchange student in the bus(the accent is easy to recognize), and 2 months ago, I would've walked to him, and spoken with him. But now, now I feel that that would be strange.

While listening to swedish music, I realize how difficult swedish actually is. And for me, being Dutch, it should be easy. At least easier. Swedish sounds like singing, and I'm not such a great singer. You get the problem. I can understand some swedish, as long as it's small talk. My accent is grand and vocabulary small.

The question of 'Why the hell are you is Sweden whilst you could be smoking...' is one I heard a lot. I answered a lot. But somehow people don't see what they have. I mean that as in one's country. It's like a trend to not like your country, and want to go to either America,Australia, New Zealand, etc. And I'm doing the same thing, right now. I have never realized how nice we Dutchies are, till I got here. We are open, interested and kind. But there are some negative things as well, I never realized we are aggressive, stupid and unintelligent. I thought Holland is boring, and Sweden interesting. The Swedes find Holland more interesting than Sweden. And now, I finally know why the hell everyone in the world knows Amsterdam, and wants to go there. It is, in fact, quite good. Holland ain't that bad, but it's just different. (it rains more often here, imagine that) Somehow living abroad lives up to it's cheesy expectations, and you actually do learn more about your own culture, yourself, and a new culture of course...

And actually it's the same thing with the rest of your life. Whilst thinking about how other people's grass is greener than yours, you forget how good your life is in fact. We humans are whiners, complaining all the time. People are starving in Africa, and we complain about a bad hair day...One should open his eyes more often, and realize that (one's) life isn't that bad. Seriously, do it.

The Patriot Inside Me

Cycling


How often have I thought of Holland while cycling up the hill. Every time I take the bike to the station, I ride through the lonely darkness of Mölndal. I feel the cold wind of the morning dawn while cruising downhill, see the depressed people waiting for their busses, trams or trains, and smell the night. The nights are long, cold and short (in my case). When I meet up with my bike in the day again, I already feel a bit deprived. That is because I life, of course, on top of a hill. The road is steep, long and trough fully depressing. And that is when I think of Holland and it's flatness.


Flatness


People seem to be shocked when they hear the highest mountain(or preferably hill) in holland is 332,7 meters high. When I mention the number of inhabitants, they stare at me, looking as if I just told them I like Bush(read it with or without capital, what ever suits you). Sweden is 11 times as big as Holland, though there are only 9,x million Swedes. Holland has 16,4 million inhabitants.


3-2


The wounds of losing from the Swedish national football team haven't healed yet. I feel ashamed of MY 'lions'. We were the 2th best team of the world. And we lost against Sweden. I remember sitting on the couch with my orange shirt on, completely confident that Holland would win. We would've humiliated them, played around with them, made fun of them. And, oh, I couldn't have been more wrong. The 3-2 gestures sting me every time. But let's forget about it, shall we?

70-year-olds

A thing that is often related to Holland is drugs. But somehow people think that the Dutch practice the art of smoking marihuana every single day, no matter what age. Like you will find 70 year olds walking down the streets in Amsterdam, left hand strapped tightly on their walker, right hand holding a joint. You won't. Well they are there, but you probably won't find them. Let's just say it's not that common. We're not druggies!

My name is Jelle and I'm an immigrant.

Though it might not be political correct, I am proud of what our tiny country accomplished a couple of centuries ago. And I find myself talking about it. Often. The thing is that I wasn't that proud of those accomplishments before. Somehow it feels comforting to hold on to your culture. And that made me realize something. I am foreign here. Wait, don't get me wrong, I knew that before. But here, I am the odd one, the minority. And that IS something new. I think that everybody should do something that resembles what I am doing right now. Cause it makes some things so clear. In Holland, we love to complain a lot. Especially about immigrants. 'They don't want to be part of the society, they won't learn the language, they form an own society within a society, etc'. But now I completely understand. I know.

Deutsch

People often confuse the fact them I'm from Holland, and therefor speak Dutch. Dutch sounds like 'Deutsch'. So some people think I'm german. And with such a bold statement, the patriot inside me rises. I remember them about Amsterdam, marihuana, the DJs, New York,(we found it!)[and sold it], bicycles, football. And they will never forget, but they will. The queen should be proud with me, defending one's country. Or at least attempting to.

Pick pick pick

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. And nothing seems to be sure in the end. I guess it has something to do with myself, I want to do EVERYTHING. And preferably at the same time. You could say that patience has never been one of my highlights. And that doesn't have to be bad. But usually its side effects aren't that positive.

Every time I make a decision, I change my mind again. I'll go to Sweden! Oh no, wait I want to go to France. No let's go to Australia, China,Spain,Italy, or  you know what, I'll stick with Sweden . Guess that has something to do with the fact that I rush my decisions. Inevitably, that has to do with me having no patience. It makes things quite hard.

How regretfully this sometimes is, how good it is in some occasions. Like with shopping. With your girlfriend. Every guy that ever had a girlfriend, was forced to join in on ahuntforthatcutepairofjeans. And they want it exactly how they imagined it, perfect. They dream of that pair of jeans every single night. They can visualize it, see every small detail in their mind. And these evil female creatures aren't afraid to share this with you. And we don't want to know. Seriously, we don't care.

As we enter a shop together, I feel my brain going to sleep mode already. 'Yeah, that's cute, looks great', I automatically tell her, while watching at the mirror. 'But my ass is so huge...' You get the idea. And it makes no difference what you tell them. 'You always say it's cute!', is the accusation. Like guys give a shit. I really don't care wether those jeans mis a certain detail. I have no clue if this is universal, but I guess it is.

I need just one shop to buy everything. If I see something I like, I buy it. I don't think about it, I just buy. I won't go to an other shop, to see if they have thatoneperfectpieceofcloth. If I can't find it in that one shop that I am in, it wasn't meant to be. It's just faith.

But I know it's stupid. But it's a guy's thing. I can't help it. Every time I went shopping, I realized that I missed all the 'sale' signs. And every single time I see an identical item, half the price. The reason for my impatience probably has to do something with evolution. I love the evolution theory. Imagine yourselves to go back in time a couple of generations, and you're hungry. So you pick up your spear, and exit your cave to look for some game. Why waste time on picking the most nutritious game? Just take the first rabbit you see.

And woman gathered plants, nuts, swamps etc. They had to be sharp. Dangers as poisonous swamps made them more aware what to pick, what to harvest. And now, in the 21th century, it pays of.

This was just some random doodling of the mind,

I'm off!

Introducing Me, Myself and I

You might have seen me, spoken to me, laughing at/with me. You might have seen me walking the streets of Amsterdam, New Castle, London, Rhodes, Berlin, Madrid, x^y, or my latest project, Göteborg of course. But I guess the odds are that you have never seen me. No hard feelings though.

So, do give me the chance to introduce myself. My name is Jelle, 17 years old. I'm from a shitty town close to Amsterdam. Nothing worth mentioning. I currently live in Mölndal, Göteborg, Sweden. I'm an exchange student in Sweden. Sweden? Yeah Sweden. That country next to Denmark(Denmark is next to Germany)[And Germany is next to France]. And all of those countries are in Europe. (Europe is not one country)[That was for the Americans]. 

The school that I'm attending at the moment is not considered to be an university. It's not a high school though, it's something in between. It's Swedish, it's different. Schools is Sweden are informal, one could give a teacher a nickname, and use it, for example. If you feel like getting some water, you can go get some water, without asking of course. That's quite a shock.

In Holland, we're obligated to address our teachers with either Sir or Madam, and if you're not sure which one to use, you would use 'U', the Dutch variant of the french 'Vous'. I forgot to use that once, which resulted in detention for 1 week. And detention in Holland isn't fun. I have a thing for being late. Not as in stylish late, but just being late in general. That didn't suit the Dutch school system, which means I spent lots of time cleaning my dear school. Now however, it's no big deal. Not even a comment. They don't care if you're late. At all. I love it.

My first day at school was epic. First of all, I was late. No surprises there. My host father was so kind to give me a ride to school. The level of stress was high, first days are always exciting. Did I mention that I knew nobody at the school? And had never been in Sweden before? Didn't speak Swedish? It was my first day? 

My school is located in downtown Gothenburg. It's build inside a building and it consists of a couple of apartments. Our school doesn't have a wardrobe or a lunch area and has kitchens in some of the classrooms. On the ground floor there's a bar. You could say my school is a bit strange. As I entered the school, I had to go to the 2th floor(which is the 1th floor of the school). Well, that's what I thought, after checking my timetable I realized I had to go to the 3th floor, and had to be in the 'Kemi' classroom. That was my timetable told me to do! I entered the class and somehow everybody looked funny at me. After this class, my principal told me I was in the wrong classroom. That explained a lot. Still feeling the thrill of being late, joining the wrong class, I meet my (real) fellow students.

Swedes like their space from monday to friday. On saturday they get nuts. When they get their medicine(alcohol), they loosen up. From monday to friday everybody tries to avoid as many strangers as possible, for example the seats in the trams are a battlefield. People don't prefer to sit alone, they DEMAND the seat next to them. Just put a bag next to your seat, and nobody will sit next to you. And if you end up sitting next to somebody, people actually brace themselves to get the first empty bench. they don't want to sit next to you. And that makes me uncomfortable. I mean, do I smell bad or something? Am I THAT scary?

I've been here for about 7 weeks now, and I like it. Got my shit together, starting to get used to the city. And the city, the city is great. Take a random tram or bus after 12 o'clock in the weekends, it's such a happy place. People singing, drinking, shouting. It's lovely

As I said, Swedes go mental on saturday. When they drink, they drink. Not for the refreshing taste of a lovely cold beer, no. That want to get so pissed that they are crawling on the ground, rolling around in their own vomit. That's the way they like it.

That's it for now, hope I didn't bore you too much!