Heads up

I am here, alive and fairly well. This is my last post on this blog for a while.

A few days ago I was urgently operated twice due to massive pain. Yesterday I finally found out why. I was diagnosed with cancer.

It will take me time and energy to get through this, and I am determined to get through this, healthy and strong. What I need is time and support.

Thank you all for following this blog the last three years, and keep stopping by - I will be back. Life is filled with many surprises, some are good, others not.

Finally, I would like to thank one person that has been helping me and standing by my side ever since I first had to visit the hospital in Linz. Nicole - you are my guardian angel. You saved my life.

Sunday night/Monday morning

Feel my anger, understand my frustration, sense my fury. The zoo is back in town and they brought all the other monkeys from their tree to our apartment. So far so good. But when strangers start running in and out of the apartment it is not OK. They are using our fridge, no harm done. But it pisses me off when they move my stuff (and not the stuff belonging to the monkeys that I share this place with) in order to fit their cheap beers in there. And it is absolutely not OK to spill beer on my tomatoes. Shoot me. Please.

There's this girl running in and out, and she is pretty vane I guess. She has a reputation of being lighthearted, if you know what I mean. Every guy I have talked to has revealed his desire to engage in various types of intercourses with that girl. Why the fuck is she running around here? I've already threatened her and her friends to throw them out (during an afterparty on a Tuesday night, see earlier posts from October). I don't want to be unfriendly and especially not to a lady.

Anyhow, it's a little more than a week of this left. Then I'm going home. This is the longest time I've been away from home, and it feels surreal that three months have passed already. Returning here won't be dramatic, I already feel determined about the last six months of this adventure. The best part is that the zoo will go on tour elsewhere. Amen for that.

Friday night without action

First of all, thank You for two wonderful months. You are my number one.

Secondly, I am thinking of attending this with Sara tomorrow :P!


The Stammtisch the other day was a success. I had a blast and people appreciated it. Thanks to everyone to who made it a great night!

It's Friday night and I am closing down the shop. Tomorrow and Sunday are fully scheduled with work.

Thank you for reading.

December is here

December is here and the sun is shining. I got back from my midterm exam (after a short stop at my girlfriend's). I don't know how it went but hopefully well.

Anyhow, December is as I mentioned earlier here and it feels surreal. One year has passed since Dalia's wedding (congratulations again!) and Francisco turned 21 yesterday (congratulations again). Grande!

I have less and less scheduled lectures and seminars, but I still have a lot of work to do. Papers in particular. I find it inspiring despite the heavy workload.

Tonight we are arranging the Nordic Stammtisch, meaning that the Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and the Dutch exchange students are preparing food at the student pub. The Dutch exchange student joined us because of.... I can't remember why, but nevertheless, it will be nice to have her with us.

I am planning to wear my Sweden jersey, I mean who could guess that I represent Sweden? Sara will borrow my other Sweden jersey. It's extremely amusing that we both represent Sweden while none of us are native Swedes. I guess we are great representatives of the new Sweden. People here refer to me as either "Roger" or "Zlatan"...


Nevertheless, I am extremely proud to be a representative of Sverige. I am looking forward to enjoy a cold one tonight, celebrating my A paper from last week.

Thank you for reading.

Course dropped

I had a new course that began a few days ago and it was a continuing course of another one that I recently passed. Anyhow, the workload seemed very heavy in relation to the ECTS credits one would obtain by taking it. We were however asked to form groups the first lecture, and I ended up with my Norwegian friend J, a Spanish girl and an Austrian guy (who had blood running out of his nose). I told my colleagues that there was a possibility that I would drop the course due to the heavy workload, but they insisted on having me in the team anyhow, accepting that I might contribute less than the others. We received this e-mail from our Austrian colleague on Thursday:

From: "L"
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 20:35 PM
To: "J" ; "S"
Cc: "M"
Subject: ........

hey...

i'm sorry... but i'm forced to quit the course because i can not write the final exam. In the first week of february i am on a workshop and it does not really make much sense to put so much effort in a course when i may have no possibility to write the exam.

best wishes

L

... And then, shortly after that I received this hilarious e-mail from the Norwegian guy:

From: "J"
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2008 20:35 PM
To: "S"
Cc: "M"
Subject: Strategy

Okey... Now, what do we do? I'm not going to be able to write the whole case by myself!! I was even sceptical about writing half of it... Fuck. That little whore teacher. She should have given us some time to plan. Like a couple of weeks...

... And three hours later this one:

From: "J"
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 15:49 PM
To: "S"
Cc:
Subject: Re: Strategy

Faen. Jeg dropper kurset... Brenn jævla X hora! Jeg orker ikke å lese så mye for å få 3 ECTS... Det er ikke verdt det! Jeg får heller ta et ekstra fag hjemme i Norge. Så da sitter M igjen med sin egen gruppe! Haha. Stakkars...

Those of you who understand Swedish/Norwegian/Danish can probably see why I find this story funny :).

Back from one of the planet's greatest cities

Sorry for the late update but it has been a lot to do ever since I set my foot back in Austria.

• Paris was wonderful to begin with. It felt great to finally be there and to enjoy the culture and history that lies upon the city like a blanket. It is a place I would love to go back to, just like London and to some extent Rome.
  
  
  
  
• One interesting and entertaining detail during my stay in Paris was the fashion and elegance that was so evident. After having been in Linz for almost eleven weeks, I am slowly getting used to see all types of funny beards, funny clothes and pink hairstyles. I saw nothing of that in Paris. I wish to think that even the homeless were elegantly dressed.
  
  
• We arrived in Paris early on Saturday morning, and we headed towards our hotel. We were not going to be able to check in directly and we knew it, but we already had three friends that were staying at the same hotel so we went to wake them up and to go sightseeing. The last thing the hotel receptionist said was "A bientôt monsieur" (meaning "see you later sir"). He also told us that we could check in later during the day, and we kindly accepted that without any problems. After a long day of sightseeing we returned to the hotel to check in, only now there was another man standing in the reception, telling us that our room had "plumbing problems". I felt a strong and unpleasant moment of déjà vu (mid September, Linz, Kolpinghaus). I was too experienced in this field to even react in a "customer oriented" way. I knew that this battle was lost from the very beginning. The room did not have plumbing problems, the idiot on the other side of the counter had double booked the room. We even offered him to stay there without using the restroom and the shower, but he refused. He also refused to show us the room (I was "curious" to know about the standard of the place). He redirected us to another hotel around the block, a complete joke. I have been to some shitholes through the years, but this place was worse than anything I had ever seen. No door to the showers (I was sharing room with two girls) and the toilet seat was located in a separate room, without direct accessibility to a zinc.
  Bottom line: Stay the hell away from Hôtel Darcet!!
  
  However, one of the girls in the company had a brilliant solution to our problem. She started bidding through an Internet service on an unbooked hotel room in a 4-star hotel in another part of Paris instead, and we ended up there an hour or two later. The normal price per night in that hotel (or the equivalent) was somewhere around €200 - €250 per night. We paid €30. That is €3 more than what we were supposed to pay at the other place.
  
  
• The hotel was (as I mentioned earlier) brilliant, and we checked in right in time to see Sully Muntari score 1-0 for Inter vs. Juventus in Derby d'Italia. Fantastic.
  
  
• I did not see the whole game, only 15 minutes or something. Before we left the hotel to have dinner in the city, we scrolled through the titles of adult content that the hotel had to offer for enthusiastic guests. The titles were absolutely hilarious, but what struck me the most was that almost all of them were in German. Doesn't that tell you something?
  
  
  
  
  

• The weekend is almost here and it has almost been one week since I left. I have one more deadline this weekend and my midterm exam on Tuesday. Tough luck. I handed in some bureaucratic masterpieces today at the international office. It's amazing how complicated everything gets.
  

• I am looking forward to a fantastic evening with reading, writing and more reading... NOT.

• No classes tomorrow I believe, I am looking forward to more reading writing and even more reading.
  
  
• My friends that I travelled to Paris with are leaving for Rome in a couple of hours. I am pretty tired of being a traveller (considering my situation as an exchange student), but it would really feel good to see new places every week (just like they have been doing the last two months).
  

Thank you for reading.

Ready for take-off

I am currently sitting in class, bored listening to the same lecturer for the last three hours (out of 21 totally during the last week). I am leaving for Paris in a few hours, a simultaneous decision.


First I need to take care of a few practical things before I leave. It is going to be a very interesting trip. Updates are hopefully to be posted either Monday or Tuesday.

Thank you for reading.

Update

A few updates from the last week:

• My anger about Rikard Norling's departure from AIK is almost gone, left is solely disappointment.
  
  
• Mikael Stahre could maybe do well at AIK, but he still has a lot to prove before I will be praising him. I remember when Zlatan Ibrahimovic joined Inter in the summer of 2006. Check the blog archive for my thoughts at that point, and compare them to what I have to say today. Boy was I wrong...
  

• The exam was shorter than I thought it would be, and hopefully I passed.
  

• I am currently taking a break from a case analysis of Intel Corporation. The last week has been one of the most busy ones. Somehow I am toughened by the challenges and responsibilities I faced during my year in the student association.
  
  
• I attended a seminar on Friday which was scheduled between 10.00 to 18.00. We ended up leaving three hours earlier, but given a writing task about the current financial crisis. 4 ECTS credits of work is to be handed in just like that. I have never experienced a shorter course, being worth so many credits at the same.
  
  
• I must say that I (ironically) admire the Austrians innovation and sense of furnishing. I saw this brilliant idea at the seminar:

• Later on the same day (Friday) I attended a concert with my girlfriend and some of her friends. One of their pals plays in a band and they were performing in a small, cozy, underground place. I am not a fan of punk music, and especially not German/Austrian punk music, but this was good stuff. They were organized, loud and talented! Thank you for the entertainment.

• The lecturers keep bringing their dogs to campus and they are free to run around the place. It's hilarious to see the lecturer speaking in front of the class, waving and gesticulating with one hand and feeding the dog with the other one.
  

• I visited Sara in the middle of the week for some coffee. I decided to bring some bakery and i stopped by at the supermarket (the prices are more fair there). I found something that looked tasty and that had an almost delicious touch on its name - Mohnstrudel. Fuck, never try that shit. I took the first bite at Sara's and she was trying to judge the taste of the damn thing by looking at my face expression. She ended up laughing out loud at my disgusted expression.
  

I have to get back to my books now. Thank you for reading.

Thank you for everything Rikard

I am disgusted and outraged. I feel betrayed. I feel disappointed. I am pissed off. The board of AIK finally decided to fire headcoach Rikard Norling, after three seasons in the Swedish premier league.


I am so disappointed right now that it's hard for me to find words. He was contracted until the end of 2011, he was a part of the plan to create peace and calm at AIK. He was our 7th coach in ten years. That says everything. He is in my eyes one of Sweden's most talented and ambitious managers, and he did not deserve this kind of treatment. I know that he will find a new club soon, and when he does, I really hope that he gets to prove those who fired him that it was a huge mistake.



AIK's new manager is a hillbilly with no experience of the elite whatsoever. I just want him to fail, and I have never felt like this about my own favorite club before. I know that if he fails, things will go sour for the whole company, but I feel that the club is filled with inexperienced people with no feeling about football anyhow.


Unprofessional businesspeople who decide what is right and what is wrong on the pitch. Disgusting (once again). It is truly disgusting.
What will happen to the rest of the coaching staff? What will happen to the players that Rikard brought to AIK? I am seriously considering to boycott the games once I'm home from my exchange year down here. I know that a lot of fans are doing the same thing, not renewing their season tickets. And then the board members claim that they made this decision because they wanted to boost the turnover (which in turn is dependant on the sport related results). I have lost my faith in the current board and I feel run over. The board can forget about my individual support the coming seasons. It hurts and it breaks my heart, AIK is my team, my club. It feels good to know that I am not the only one feeling like this. Rikard was our man, our coach. He was a true gentleman who always spent time with fans, answering questions, taking photos, signing autographs. He loves the club, and he was forced away. If Mikael Stahre (the new hillbilly coach) makes AIK a balanced team that wins titles I will be very surprised. I will in fact shut up and never complain about him again, I will admit that I was wrong. But come on now, we all know that isn't going to happen. He will:

a) make us a mid table team filled with mediocre players from Sweden's lower divisions
b) get us relegated
c) not have the time to make an impact, after three losses in the first three games next season he will be fired anyhow.

The flipside with option c) is that if that happens, we will experience another crisis similar to the one in the beginning of the 2000's. Rikard was AIK's 7th coach in ten years! He was hired to create stability. The only problem is that those who hired him eventually backstabbed him.

The board is in my opinion filled with ignorant and snobby businesspeople from different corners of the Swedish industries. The fans made it quite clear a few weeks ago that they would not approve on a decision like this, and I thought the board was smart enough to realize that the fans (which form the club to what it is) are important and that it is vital to respect their interests. The boardmembers have no idea what they are doing. If they think that Mikael Stahre will ever manage to make this club no 1, they are mistaking. So, that brings me to my (and everyone else's) questions, WHY DID YOU FIRE RIKARD NORLING?


AVGÅ STYRELSEN!!!!!!!

Fathers' day

• It's fathers' day today, the second Sunday of November. Isn't it amazing? A year ago I wrote the TOEFL test in order to prove the people at the International Office of Linköping University that I am fully capable of going to the United States of America to pursue my academic studies. My result on the TOEFL test were high and I was far above the lowest acceptance levels. I still didn't make it due to fierce competition. It's OK though, life took another path and I can't say that I am unhappy about it right now.

• We spent the evening at Barolo, congratulating my dad. The dinner was great and it was a pleasant evening. It feels like six months ago, not 12. I had to return to Linköping that same evening so shortly after we had finished our meals, dad drove me to Södertälje Syd train station for the late train back to "Camp Bad Accent". The following weeks were calm compared to the rest of 2007, I saw a light at the end of a very long tunnel.

• The meeting with the former exchange student on Friday night was cool, nothing special though. He was very nice and he liked to drink a lot of beer. He emptied three Stiegl bottles while I was struggling with one. Sara told me that he had four beers altogether that night, we only had one each. Anyhow, the bar (or whatever the fuck it was) was situated on the top floor of a student dorm. The building was a typical soviet-like, spartan and ugly concrete block. Ten tenants were supposed to share toilet and showers, and the walls (including the very scary elevators) reminded me of a prison. We'll see if we meet again.

• AIK finished 5th in the league this season after a 2-0 victory over GAIS (stupid name).

• I am currently taking a break from a very long and exhausting chapter about "Customer Centric Organizations". I am supposed to present Nokia from a customer centric viewpoint in a couple of days but I am not very motivated about it. It is a lot of reading...

• Something that actually does motivate me to continue, despite the enormous amount of text that I need to read, is the fact that things are going well. My grades have been hight this far, and if I can manage to nail the exam on Wednesday, it means that I have passed my second course down here.

• The coming weeks are stuffed with lectures, seminars and deadlines/exams. After that things will hopefully cool down a few notches.

• Quantum of Solace was impressive, but I saw it in German so I don't have much of a clue what the story is about. I feel obliged to watch the English version, but the question is if it is worthwhile, I have already seen all the scenes and nothing will surprise me. I am mentally cleft. Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant evening, and I would like to this again. Thank you Nicole!

I am heading back towards the books. Thank you for reading!

Resumé

• Dinner is being prepared.
• Dinner will be eaten.
• Sara will stop by later tonight, we are going out for a beer and to meet a former Austrian exchange student who spent one year in Linköping. He speaks Swedish fluently.
• I have an exam in a few days time, this weekend will be packed with studying hours.
• Quantum of Solace tomorrow night, finally!!
• No focus on football whatsoever this weekend.
• The zoo has left town (praise the lord!!). Helsinki was their destination.
  
• The MENSA party was nice, but it will require a lot of incentives for me to visit one again.
  
• It's eight weeks since I got here today. Pretty fucking amazing.
• The seminar today was interesting (like always), but it is not nice to have class between 15.30 - 18.45 on a Friday.
• Dinner is almost done, time to go.

Thank you for reading.

Feeling like home

It struck me the other day that the air and and climate in Linz reminds me a lot of Tehran, as corny as it sounds. Linz is an industrial city, so is Tehran. Tehran is surrounded by the mountains of the Alborz mountain chain, Linz is surrounded by plateaus (in lack of a better word). The conclusion is thus that the air is not in motion (as in Linköping, where you always have to fight head wind). Smog can be seen often, and after a few hours of rain, the sky is clear again. Just like Tehran. The industries contribute to the heavy smell, and pollution can easily be tasted as it is a flavour in the tap water.

This is the view from my window in Linz.














This is the view from "Tappe-ye Sa'aadat-Abad" in Tehran (if that makes any sense...). I know that Tehran is a much more polluted city and by watching the picture from Linz, it doesn't look smoggy at all, but it actually is!





It has been relatively warm the last few days. When I first arrived here about eight weeks ago, it was raining constantly and it was rather cold. the last few days I went to the university without my jacket on, only with a polo t-shirt. The sun was really burning yesterday and i skipped an hour from a boring lecture just to get to sit in the sun for a while. It felt as if it was the last days of May back home, that's how warm it was!


My first exam is coming up and I feel good about it. The courses down here differ from how it is in Linköping in regards of pace, workload and scheduling. Everything here is supposed to be made by yourself exclusively, the administrators help you out whenever you end up in trouble (with this I mainly mean overlapping courses). In Sweden you usually don't experience such problems, if you have chosen your major, you will be able to take whatever courses you want without having to fear that they will collide in the timetable. Everything has been worked out in advance so that you can pick one road initially, and finish it without having to change lines simultaneously.

It's Thursday afternoon and I'm hungry. My roomies are cooking so I'll have to wait for them to finish their work in the kitchen. I have one seminar left this week and I must say that these seminars are the most interesting ones I've attended this far of my academic life. The professor is American and knows a lot about our subject (varied aspects of global business). I handed in my first paper to him the other day and I am eagerly anticipating his response. I am curious to know what level I am on and what I need to improve.

Later tonight I'm heading out, a MENSA party (a more brief explanation of this subject is to come in the near future!), but it will most probably be a calm evening for me. I have class tomorrow. I doubt that there will be many exchange student out tonight because many seem to be going to the movies to see Quantum of Solace. I almost feel a little jealous.

Thank you Mats Rubarth

A hero left the big scene last night. Mats Rubarth will not play in AIK's black jersey on the pitch of Råsunda stadium. He arrived in 2001 and after eight seasons and numerous magical goals he will forever be remembered as a true hero. He never complained through the rough times, and he always tried to give the fans something special. Nobody who saw him throughout the years will forget his raids, his dribbles, his technical numbers that made him the special player he was. I grew up loving this player, I grew up defending him in school when kids picked on me for being a fan of Sweden's biggest club. I saw the game against Helsingborg last night (victory, 3-1) and I enjoyed seing one of my childhood heroes bidding farewell from our home. Thank you for everything Mats!

I have uploaded some favorites from YouTube and some images. Enjoy.
(Photos by Magnus Neck!)

Vienna

I spent a day in Vienna with my girlfriend. It was a pleasant daytrip and I am happy to finally have seen this wellknown city. When I arrived to Austria we didn’t really have the time to stay in Vienna and look around, we headed from the airport directly to Westbahnhof and eventually Linz.

Anyway, here are some images from the short trip to Vienna.On the way we passed Fritzl’s hometown. Pretty awkward. The trip itself did not take long, a little less than two hours, and that is approximately how long it takes to go from Stockholm to Linköping.

 

 

 

 

The Danube. It looks much better in Vienna than in Linz. The color is different and it doesn’t smell as bad as in Linz.

Quantum of Solace

The new Bond movie has its premiere tonight (in Sweden) and I was hoping that it would be out in Austria at the same day, but unfortunately it wasn’t. I usually joke about Austria being a developing country (considering the somehow bizarre experiences I have had during the last seven weeks), but this goes even beyond. I had to comfort myself by passing by the watch shops’ windows and drool in front of their monters with elegant portraits of Daniel Craig showing off his Omega. This picture turns me on in a morbid way.

Anyhow, I couldn’t see Quantum of Solace and I will have to wait a few weeks due to heavy workload, but I saw another movie instead. I saw Burn After Reading with Brad Pitt, George Clooney and John Malkovich. Short reflection: Funny scenes, funny characters (but with the wrong set of actors) and horrific story. It was hurtful to see Brad Pitt in that kind of role, he is too good for that. It was tragic to see George Clooney in his role too because it was unworthy. John Malkovich was funny though, but all in all, it was as if Jim Carrey would start acting in drama movies, it just doesn’t sit right.

In a few weeks time…

Gonads

I am taking a course called "Global Accounting down here in Linz, and we are playing a business strategy game online in the course in groups. Our group/company name was named "Gonads" (meaning "balls" in American slang). Another group had named itself “Fuck” or “Fuckers”. One of their groupmembers obviously logged on to their corporate lobby and changed the company name when he was drunk. I am still laughing when I think about this story. Anyhow, our American professor forwarded this e-mail to us:

"XXX,

Please advise Team "F" that they need to change their company name immediately.  In addition, I would recommend that they apologize to you, their classmates, and the administrators of the X game for their use of the offensive word in a professional class setting.  Failure to do so immediately, will result in my recommendation for a failing grade for this exercise, removal from the simulation, and if they are X University undergraduate students a recommendation for disciplinary action.

I also recommend that Team "G" change its name.  It is both unprofessional and inappropriate.  Thank you."

Then we received this directly from our professor:

“Team F and Team G Members.

Unless these company names are changed immediately, I will withdraw you from the course.

You should also apologize to Dr. X.”

The funny thing is that this came to their attention because we did well in the last round of the game. We finished 37 on the global top 100 highscore list after the first round, and the game is obviously played by thousand of students around the world. Hilarious, nevertheless!

This day has been long and it is unfortunately not over yet. I have a deadline, a short test and 90 pages to read due tomorrow. The best part is that I have classes from 8.30 to 17.00. Our teacher just handed us 90 pages to read a couple of hours ago and I have absolutely no chance of finishing that shit in time. I had to cancel a “Stammtisch” party tonight, where the English-speaking students brought food from their native countries. The Americans made peanutbutter-jelly sandwiches alongside cheeseburgers, and I really wanted to go there and have a taste, but as I mentioned the other day, 24 hours a day is not enough for me, I need at least ten more hours!

We are almost there, November is one of the most boring months of the year. I hate it and I remember how anxious I was about it last year. I had an exam on the first or second in microeconomic theory, and I still feel bad when I see the book cover. I recently found it in my girlfriend’s shelf, she has taken that course too. Maybe that’s the reason why we are together now, we are both deeply traumatized by that course.
Jokes aside, the course was interesting but the teacher was mediocre.

So, I have to get back to work. It doesn’t matter that it’s almost 22.00 hrs.

The zoo is back in town

They are back. This means no more peace and quiet. This means no more relaxed cooking. This means that someone will be standing over my shoulder again, asking me when I'm finished. This means that the medieval demeanor and behavior is back around me. Shoot me please.

I went out last night with my girl and it was a pleasure as always. My friend Sara from back home visited me today. We had some lunch and we talked about pretty much everything. She was out last night too, and she told me this funny (and at the same time disturbing) story about an acquaintance she had last night on the streets of central Linz. Apparently, we (me, Sara and a few of our Scandinavian peers) have got ourselves some heavy reputations down here. Bullshitting and intrigues... Jesus, I thought I left that shit back home in Sweden. Obviously not.

It's Sunday evening and I am very tired. I am going to bed soon. The coming week is (just like every other week...) filled with a lot of work and a few deadlines. Stress is slowly reaching me from behind. I can feel how it approaches me, I can hear the sound of stress, the smell of stress, the taste of stress. Sometimes I feel that the days should be longer. 24 hours is simply not enough.

Thank you for reading.

Six weeks

TGIF. Too bad they don't have one in Linz.

I have been studying today and finding more inspiration about the courses that I am taking. I realized that my first exam is coming up pretty soon, I need to start working more efficiently in other words.

Earlier today I met Sara for lunch and later some coffee at one of the cafés at campus. It's amazing how much the people down here smoke. I might have mentioned this earlier but I have heard that about 50 % of the population are smokers. After 15 minutes at a public place you smell worse than cancerman.


Anyhow, it was nice seeing her again and talking about the first six weeks down here. We laughed about what we have been through and about people that we have met during this period of time.

This weekend will be calm. My roommates are in Hungary over the weekend (praise the lord) and I am home alone! I am in big need of finishing off some work now that I have a few days without distractions (oh well....). We'll see how it goes.

It's Friday afternoon and the sun has been shining all day long, that is great. But for me it feels like any other day - I have something to be happy about even though there's a storm outside. Nobody can take that away from me.

The day after a Caribbean party in Austria

It's Thursday and we've almost made it to the weekend. My sixth in this country. Words can not describe how much I miss home right now, although I am very lucky at the moment. I am absolutely not sad about my stay.

There was a Caribbean party at one of the cafés at campus last night. They served exotic drinks (without alcohol for men, with alcohol for women) and played some kind of undefinable Caribbean music.


The place was pretty packed but not overcrowded, for that I am grateful. We had a few drinks and then we left.

Deadline yesterday, a case was handed in and hopefully it went well. My short test from last week did on the other hand not turn out to be a success, but I wasn't surprised to tell the truth. I didn't even know about the damn test so I wasn't prepared. I'll have to make up for that by performing exceptionally well in other fields of that course. Just watch me.

I'm currently reading a text about government trade relations and how specific decisions made by governments can affect markets, companies and consumers. This is interesting shit.

Later on I need to go to the city for some minor errands. I need new headphones, Sony's preferably. My current ones died on me the minute I started running on the treadmill yesterday. That was a huge blow!!

Champions League is running on and Inter won over the Cypriot team Anorthosis Famagusta (don't ask me what the hell it means). Adriano "l'imperatore" scored the only goal of that game and we are hopefully set for the playoffs by now.


I need to get back to the books, I is a lot of reading to do.
Thank you for reading.

A few words on a sunny Sunday

The sun is shining and it's Sunday. I am taking a break from the books and I am currently enjoying this moment.

The first night here in Linz was special. I have already written about the incident at Kolpinghaus. But something else happened that night. I met someone. I was just too tired to see who she really was.

Here we are, a little more than five weeks later, and I think that I have finally found out who she really is. She is my girlfriend.

We went out last night, and we had a few drinks around pubs in the old town of Linz. It was cold outside, it was dark and I felt really far away from what I refer to as "home". It didn't matter. It didn't matter at all. She was there.

This Sunday has been pleasant. People who know me, know very well that I hate Sundays. I never liked them and I probably never will. Exceptions have taken place, but usually during summers. Now I feel like every day is Friday. I am doing well.

"Five minutes or I'll kick them out"

Mid-week already and time flies faster than ever. We're in the middle of October and I have been here in Linz for almost five weeks.

I may have told you about my roomies and their habits in earlier posts. Anyway: they are very loud at night. It has happened several times that they come home some time after 2 am and start making noise instead of shutting up. If they are hungry, they start cooking. Forget about sandwiches, they actually start cooking. It's not wrong, only very different.

Anyhow, last night they got home around 2 or 3 am and this time they brought 7-8 other students into our small apartment. They started shouting and they started singing, piss drunk as they were (or at least what they seemed to be). I woke up sometime around 3 am, and instantly I felt that "here we go again"- feeling. I've asked these guys kindly to be quiet in the middle of the night when I am asleep. I am always careful not to wake them up but this does obviously not go in to their heads. When I heard the zoo in the other room singing "I kissed a girl and I liked it" 3:20 am it really pissed me off. I jumped out of my bed, went straight up to one of my roomies and said: "I give you five minutes to get rid of these people or I will personally get them out of here, physically".

Note that it is not my intention to brag about this. Nobody can expect me to be nice in that situation. Who would be nice in such situation anyway? This isn't the first time they do this and it's not the first time it happens in the middle of the week. I mean OK, if it was a Friday or a Saturday it would be easier to accept and to move on. But not for me on a Tuesday night, the night before an 11-hour day (!!!) filled with lessons, seminars and studies at campus.

They were apparently offended by my somehow offensive demeanor. I was in no position to be pissed off about being bounced out of bed from the horrific tunes of that stupid song.

Fuck it, I don't even want to think about it. I am currently enjoying success in other areas of life, and I couldn't be happier.

Rainy Sunday

I've actually needed to remain silent for one week, that's why I haven't posted anything since last Sunday. I have been through something significant and beautiful. It is perhaps too early to label this experience, so I'll wait.

My throat hurts and I am sick, but it's OK. This week went fast and my business courses finally begun. You can't miss your first lecture in a course here, because if you will, you lose your spot. Missing any random lecture throughout the whole course could mean a failed grade. New experiences all the time. Nevertheless: It is interesting and inspiring!

Sweden played Portugal last night at Råsunda and the game ended 0 - 0. I am proud because Sweden played well against a strong team like Portugal, but I wish we had won.



Iran is to play North Korea and one of our best players throughout history has now declared that he retires from his international football career. Ali Karimi will not be wearing the Iranian jersey. After more than 100 caps and some 40 goals he is throwing in the towel. I can understand him. He has been in the service of the national team for over a decade and the federation has not been run be proper people once during this period. He has been banned by his own federation several times for violations that don't exist anywhere else in the world. It's a huge blow for Iranian football to not be having Ali in the team anymore, but I hope that his retirement won't be in vain. I hope that people realize that this is the price we have to pay if the current kind of people are to runt one of the holiest and most appreciated assets of the Iranian people.


It's Sunday morning and I am looking forward to a rainy day consisting of studying and a walk along the Danube. I think I'll make that a routine from now on. Last week it was truly beautiful.

13 hours of something undefinable

Let's just say that the last 13 hours have been really odd. Enough said.

Trip to Mauthausen

I spent a few hours at the former concentration camp of Mauthausen today. It was an arranged tour and I am happy that I decided to join this trip. I have had the opportunity to visit former important places of WW2, but this one was a little special. We were first shown a short movie about the history of the camp and later on we were guided by guides with very poor english skills. It was very interesting and special to see all the monuments and to walk in the baracks, the gas chamber and to the oven where they burned the bodies of the victims. I can see why the movie was shown directly as we entered the camp. It's much easier to make an impression if you introduce the history with a 22-year old movie.
















-------------------------------------
It's Saturday night and I am hopeful of some action. I am not intending to stay home.
Thank you for reading.