Posts
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!
