Titles are so 2011

The biggest downside about writing a blog post after 5 weeks, is that I barely remember any funny details. Everytime I experience something, I'm like: ''That'd be perfect for my blog''. Well, yeah, especially when it takes me ages to write it. Now it feels like this is going to be a boring blog post. Yeah, you can notice how overly caring I am about my blog posts.

I think I'll quickly go through the things that are weeks ago now. Like the weekend of my birthday. Before the joyful day of me turning 21 occurred, my mum and I were supposed to go to the Gangnam Style flashmob on October 26th. But we arrived 30 minutes too late and apparently this whole Style goes really fast, because everyone was gone by the time we got there. Like nothing ever happened. On October 27th, we went to a concert of The Vaccines in Lund, which is only about 15 minutes away from Malmö by bus. There were two guards who checked your bag at the entrance, and once inside, there were other people checking your ID. That never ever happens in the Netherlands, so you can say I was surprised. After showing my ID, I wandered to the wardrobe and paid 20 SEK (about 2,50 euro) for my jacket to have an ordinary safe place. Oh. My. God. Later on, while going out to places in Malmö, I found out 20 SEK is a very ordinary price here. I think it's mind-boggling expensive. The last thing I want to say about the concert, apart from the fact that the band was really nice, was that the crowd was very fascinating. Still not sure if it was fascinating in a good or bad way. A mix, I guess.

My birthday, October 28th, was fun but nothing special. We even went to IKEA, which I think is a horrendous shop because they force you to walk through the whole damn building so they can seduce you with all kinds of stuff you're absolutely not looking for. I was just looking for a mini trash can for in my bathroom. Well, that turned out to be a very impossible task. Once we were extremely fed up, we couldn't get out because the entrance was simply not an exit. So we walked as fast as we could through the masses of couples, old people and little kids who act like they're in a themepark. IKEA is like a big day out for pretty much everyone who goes there. Once we finally found the exit, we ended up with something nice to eat and drink while watching people. The latter is seriously the best thing you can do in IKEA.

The next week I went to see an ice hockey match. It's pretty fascinating to say the least, that I never went to an ice hockey match back in the days when I lived in Finland. I'm not quite sure which country is more obsessed by the sport, but I think Finland slightly beats Sweden. At least I'm more than sure I'm one of very few exchange students who didn't went to an ice hockey match during her year in Finland. Anyway, the match was between Malmö and some team from up north in Sweden. I didn't really know the rules of the game, but really enjoyed it nevertheless. It was the same story a few weeks later, when I went to see a wrestling match a friend of mine was participating in. I definitely had my fair share of new sports.

A few weeks ago I had my second exam! It was pretty tough, but we only need 10 points to pass, so... The results will be released in a few days. It always takes them 3 weeks to process everything, which is really annoying, because that leaves only one or two weeks for you to prepare for the re-exam. Last time there was only one week in between. Luckily I didn't have to retake it (I passed my first exam. I got an E, which is not that good, but it was close to a D, so at least it wasn't a close call. In the end I'm happy I at least passed). We also had to prepare a presentation in groups, which went well. Definitely way easier than the exam. Our next exam will be in a few weeks and it'll be a take home exam. We have to write a paper. I wonder how it'll go. For now I see it as a welcome change after all the past exams. At least you can check your books whenever you want during the take home exam.
Our current module is very interesting by the way, even though I know many people who think otherwise. It's about the role the media plays in war. It's way less demanding than our previous modules. The amount we have to read is nothing compared to the other modules (though people from other programmes still think it's a lot) and we're watching a lot of documentaries and films. We also have group assignments for our seminars, in which we discuss different topics. They're not mandatory, so there's no pressure, which is nice.

What else? Just meetings with friends. The most memorable one would be the evening when a friend of mine came over for dinner. The fact he has only one pan resulted in a conversation about how I'm able to cook with 4 pans and why I actually need that many pans. But that was not even the highlight of the evening. At one point he looked at my fire alarm, wondering why I still had it up there. Well, why not? Turned out he had to take it down, because it was making so much noise when he made pizza. I could not help picturing him grope through thick smoke, trying to take down the fire alarm, thinking this is something everyone experiences on a daily basis. ''But, really, your fire alarm never goes off when you're cooking?''. Uh, no, it doesn't. I gave him some aluminium foil for his birthday later on, because I found out he put his pizza in the oven without it and I simply don't want his room to burn down.

Last Thursday I celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time in my life. Pretty fascinating my first time was in Sweden and there were only 2 people from North America I think.
Earlier that day my monthly adventure to the Arab barbershop came with someone who could speak Dutch. I think I've experienced most of the oddest things possible in this neighbourhood by now. He was from Egypt, so it wasn't that strange, because there are so many Dutch tourists there, but I didn't know he was Egyptian when he started talking to me. I just walked in and one of the guys went: ''Hej, you're from Holland, right?'' and then this other guy I had not seen before, started talking some Dutch. My face must have been priceless. I didn't leave too pleased though, because the guy who cut my hair shaved my sidecuts a wee bit too short, which is not the best timing during this cold winter weather in an always windy city. At first I thought there was no hair left at all and that I'd be some sort of ''sidecut baldy''. My heart seriously stopped beating for a few seconds when I saw so much skin. But no worries, there is some hair left. I didn't like it at first though, but I got used to it, especially after so many people told me it looks so nice. I won't let the guy cut it this short next time though. I keep on bumping into the guys, so maybe I should mention it beforehand. Everyone seems to be amazingly good at memorizing everything about me anyway. The guy who cuts my hair doesn't really talk English though, which results in pretty funny situations. Especially when I'm talking in my best Swedish, saying some odd things, and he just raises an eyebrow. Or that time when I didn't recognize him while passing him on my bike, because he was dressed like an Eskimo going to defy the North Pole. So when he said ''hej'' and asked me something I couldn't quite figure out, I finally recognized him after a closer look and just overly gestured (to add something extra to my English) that I didn't recognize him earlier. I've never seen him smile, but after my surprised gesture reactions, it seemed like he really had to put some effort in not smiling and maintaining his ''cool face'', because I must have looked rather ridiculous.

I will finish this blog post with a story that might make you think about things that actually not happened at all.
Saturday night a drunk man ended up sleeping in my room and spilled beer in my kitchen. So, okay, let me explain this. My mum came here on Friday and she told me a guy she knew was also going to the oi!/punk concert we were going to on Saturday. He ended up at my place the whole afternoon and after eating some döner, we went off to the place where the concert was going to be. There was supposed to be a pre-party, but there wasn't really anything, so we ended up waiting for nearly 3 hours. After the concert, he simply went back with us and stayed the night. It was a bit weird, because he didn't knew my mum that well and I didn't knew him at all, and he didn't even tell us he was going to stay the night. He just thought it was obvious. Yeah, it was weird. So he slept on the air mattress and my mum and I slept in my bed. Together. Extremely comfortable. The next morning it turned out he had made a drunk adventure to my kitchen and spilled a shitload of beer. It even went into some cupboards and drenched some equipment. I hope I'll live to experience the day the bread I'm toasting isn't tasting like beer anymore. I guess he was too wasted to remember anything, because he didn't apologize for anything. He better be too wasted, because at least then he has some sort of excuse. Oh my. I was so pissed. And Saturday evening it even looked like I had to host two men, because one drunk guy followed us all the way to Rosengård. We tried to get rid of him by sneaking into McDonald's, but that didn't help much. Then, just a few metres before arriving at my flat, he turned right and took a cab without even saying goodbye! It really was one of the oddest things ever.

That'll do for now. I did fairly well with the funny details I think. Good. After my last blog post, someone told me that I'm having too much fun in Rosengård. This blog post doesn't prove anything different once again, so just to satisfy some people, I should mention that the entrance of the kebab/döner/pizza place I always go to was blown up a few weeks ago around 3 at night. What can I say? Swedes might be right; this place really is like Gaza.

Oh! I almost forgot...
I'd like to send my love to Vlemming, wherever she is now. Our beloved dog was put to sleep on October 24th at the age of 15. An age to be proud of. Her health was worsening and she'd suffered from multiple strokes and heart and kidney problems in the past 2 years. It was time for her to go. Rest in peace.