Update from Linz

2009-11-30
It is the last day of November 2009, this year is slowly coming to an end. I have soon spent three months in Austria and I am feeling slightly homesick. The last weeks before the Christmas break usually means a lot of stress, exams, deadlines etc. Hopefully it will blow over soon.

Ever since I arrived here, I have had the opportunity to confront new cultures that I have interacted with. I have been forced to deal with my own prejudice and stereotyping, and I have been forced to lead others into dealing with theirs. I have been exposed to xenophobia in its purest form, to justify my right to exist and to live in "their" country - and I have had to prove to people that I am not a terrorist, nor in possession of highly enriched Uranium (or kryptonite as one moron believed). However, I have had positive experiences as well. I have had the chance to attend a prom in southern Austria, and I have seen locals fanatically enjoying the polka music while dancing to it. It was an interesting experience, far from anything I have ever seen before. To me it looked like as if dressed up people were wrestling to the tunes of circus music, but it was of course more than that ;).

After having seen Assyrian weddings (and danced their traditional dances), I feel that there are many similarities between these experiences. I remember that I felt the same (as an outsider, far away from home) when I attended my first (and until now only) Assyrian wedding.

In other words, I had a nice time while learning something new.

Anyway, despite my enhanced cultural sensitivity and anticipation, I still miss things from home (as well as despising things in my presence here). I am pretty disgusted by the absence of AC. I hate that the water temperature shifts when I am taking shower. I hate the cleaning lady. Today she (and her self righteous colleagues) managed to collectively cause more mess than usual. To make a long story short, they like moving stuff around (I fucking hate that!!!), and they have a strange predilection for putting dirty furniture/objects on my bed. This is called sadism. May they burn in hell!

I spent a couple of hours at the local IKEA store a few days ago. I took the chance to have some Swedish food while being there. It's nothing fancy, rather simple - but still brilliant.

I promised to post a "review" of my room soon, and I will, I promise. I just need to get a few tasks out of the way and then I can dedicate myself more into posting updates of my life in Austria.

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.