||||Hacking Europe

Alright, lots of things have been going on. First off, moving in is finally done. I have a desk, a sweet IKEA bed and Johan … the awesome Swedish roommate took care of most of the other furniture that we needed. The other day before our intensive Swedish course started we had a short greeting with Peter the head administrator for the Atlantis project here in Sweden and got a short tour of the typical campus building. We also saw the draft for our degrees which are titled as International Business. So that’s pretty amazing.

We had the first day of our Swedish class and it’s really not that bad. It’s a Germanic based language and the structure is more similar to English when compared to French. There are some weird pronunciations like in any language but I think picking this up maybe a bit easier. Linkoping is a real school. It’s a large campus, so definitely pick up bikes as soon as you can. The atmosphere is more college. Almost more then DePaul. Very cozy and simple but has everything you need. The gym here is pretty awesome too, just as new as the Ray and maybe a bit smaller but couple it with all the activities they have you’ll be more then busy. The 4month “gold do everything card” is 1500 krona or so which isn’t that bad at all.

Oh and the internet here is DIVINE! 24mbit to the HOUSE and so much cheaper then in the states. I was pulling like 16mbit from my server in the states. Insane from overseas. I can’t wait to see how the school’s network is.

You know how public bathrooms in the states are absolutely disgusting? Couple this with a fear of going to the bathroom in public I very rarely would use a restroom outside my house. However almost *all* of the places I’ve been in Sweden have immaculate bathrooms.

All in all the program is really turning upward. And from what I heard the administration really pulled some strings for us in getting things kosher. The issues in France should be fixed, they’ve had more then enough people complain about it. I’m very serious when I say Sweden will take over the world. So far the only thing I have a problem with is having to goto the “SystemBlogjet” to buy real alcohol otherwise it’s almost perfect here.

Today was my first time in Linkoping where I’ll be spending the next 6 months. It’s a small quaint town but has that college town atmosphere. If anything it reminds me of the Virginia Tech campus I visited before going to DePaul. The thing that is really scary is the whole bike thing. It’s freezing, literally riding a bike on ice … I can go straight but turning … scary. Anyways not much else other then deciding wallpaper colors for our apartment and looking up beds in IKEA.

Well I spent some time Gotenborg and it’s a really nice city by the sea. I would really like to go back in the spring. I came back for a new years party and I found out that I was cooking the main course. So I had 2 or so days to prepare and then executed it. It wasn’t all that bad or that great. But it worked out … still it was pretty interesting cooking when there was only one other American in the room and they were all trusting this stranger with their food.

Anyways the party was pretty good, amazing music ( Joel rocks ) and the girls don’t ignore me .. you can actually attempt to have a conversation with them. Now I just need to find a cute, sophisticated, wine loving, movie loving, book loving and intelligent girl.

Well outright there are some serious differences out of the gate here in Sweden in comparison to France. I haven’t seen the “bad” side of Sweden yet so these are just initial thoughts and perceptions rather then something more meaningful. So don’t call me out on it just yet or hold me to them because they will probably change. I think the biggest and most noticeable is how everyone is so orderly and systematic. When I was in this crowded major department store I didn’t feel like I was mosh pitting like how I felt in France. France was like being in a pinball machine when trying to walk through a crowed area. Another astonishing difference is how people line or queue up. In France it’s just a cow herd of people to the front of the line with cutting and butting etc. In Sweden it’s much more civilized. If there isn’t a number system then there is a straight and obvious line with no cutting. In the rare occurrence that someone does cut you don’t say anything about them until they can no longer hear you and then they are open to verbal abuse (thanks Johan and Joel for explaining this). So far and yes I know this is only my opinion and may change but everyone I have interacted with has been excessively nice. It maybe that I’m starting to see the cup half full from the torture I endured in France but I’ll keep an eye on this one. Also it seems that the people here seem to be more humble then the French. Both people have things to be very proud of but the Swedes tend to be more humble and do not flaunt what they are good at. Also going along with the whole Swedes are more communal from some of my posts earlier in the trip I see that it’s very true. Almost all of the vehicles here are Volvo or Saab, McDonalds major competition is not Burger King , it’s the Swedish franchise MaX Burger (which is pretty good) ,most of the road signs are the national colors blue and yellow and there are many company names like “Swedco”, “SwedBank” and “Swedol”. What do we have … Bank of America and American Outfitters? Another weird thing is that I can barely pick out my name spoken with the Swedish pronouncing were as in French you can kinda pick things out and understand. I’m at a total loss when it comes to the language here … but yet I feel much more comfortable here then I did in France. One thing that is weird is the money. Specifically the coinage, the 1 krona is about the same size as a quarter and the 2 euro. The 5 krona is about the size of the 50 cent. But the 10 krona is the size of a dime, 4 times as thick. Just a tad misleading and confusing, I guess the dime and the nickel confuse an equal amount of people.

So after I got off the train, found my friend and did the currency exchange. We met up with another friend and got a small bite to eat and went back to get his Grandfather. I did get to drive the car around to the front of the train station, which was nice since I hadn’t driven in a little over 4 months. When we got back Christmas dinner was just about ready. I met the rest of the family and got a tour of the house (saw the sauna!). The first course was an assortment of salmon and herring. Both were absolutely amazing. The second course was meat! There was the mustard glazed ham, along with spare ribs, a few assortments of sausages, baked beans, turnip sauerkraut, more Christmas bread, sweet and strong mustard, meatballs, and a few other traditional dishes. All in all it was really good. Many flavors I haven’t dreamed of putting together. Then we moved downstairs to watch a movie. I’m convinced that projectors are the only true way to watch movies. Then we moved back upstairs after the movie to open gifts. One thing that is obviously different is when they hand out the gifts is that they say a rhyme relating to the gift. I thought it was quite interesting and provided to be a ton of entertainment throughout the evening. After that things slowed down and we all pretty much retired. Arriving last minute and not a part of the family didn’t leave me out of the fun either. The family presented me with a Swedish to English dictionary and a very nice frying pan. Now this doesn’t seem like much on this blog, but considering they knew I spoke English and knew I am a “cooking enthusiast” still means they took the time to give me these gifts. With this in mind, I’ve received even more amazing hospitality. I am extremely impressed and I look forward to the rest of my stay in Sweden.

So far things have been great. The only problems I’ve had are that people are too nice. I flew in with Per from Lyon. That was an experience because most of the flights were delayed or canceled due to excessive fog. But somehow City Airline was able to land the plane and got us on in a timely fashion. It was a pretty sweet flight since there were only 7 on a 50 person Embearer plane. These planes were very similar to the CRJ-45’s we few with Independence Air. It was quite bumpy throughout the ride but I was so excited sleep was out of the question anyway. I was also surprised that the airline served a meal for such a short flight. According to Per it was an assortment of Swedish Christmas food. Many of the flavors in the plate I had never tasted before nor ever thought to combine. Oh I forgot the free beer! Although the ride was clear and we could see some cities from the sky, when we got into Gothenborg it was again extremely foggy and we were worried about more delays. However we landed fine with only minimal delays. Adrian was right there to pick me up and we were off to his place for the night. When we got in I was greeted first by the family’s black lab. It was nice to see a nice big dog, it had been awhile. Most of the dogs throughout France were small little toy dogs, poodles terriers etc. After I met the rest of the family we chatted a bit and then they invited me to have a little snack with them. It was a little after mid-night and it didn’t occur to me until now that may have been a little odd, especially since the entire family partook. I didn’t think much of it since they had lured me into trying all the different herring. The dishes they had were an assortment of bread, an assortment of herring in different herbs, spices and sauces, some excellent ham, this puréed liver, a creamy potato and herring casserole, and a smooth but spicy mustard. There is a special Christmas bread, it’s dark and looks like a chocolate bagel with a dried fruit like raisins but it’s not as strong since I don’t like raisins. Then there was the herring. They had three different types the first was a really wild mint, peppermint and dill hearing in a sweet vinegar sauce. It was amazing, never would I have thought about such a combination. To me, herring has a fishy flavor, but this sauce balanced it out very well. I know this sounds weird but it was allot like wine with an initial taste, mid palet flavors and finishing taste. The first thing that hits you is the mint, not very strong but subtle. Then the slight fishy herring balanced well with the dill in the mid palet. Then there is a slight sweet peppermint flavor to finish off the bite. Absolutely amazing and I swear I will figure it out and incorporate it into my cooking. It was amazing to have such a tiered flavor system in such a simple food. The next herring was in a red onion sauce. I couldn’t get a whole lot from this but it reminded me of the sweet onion sauce you get at Subway … just kinda red. The last of the herring was a sweet mustard dill herring. Not as deep as the “peppery minty dill herring” but overall I think my favorite. It was smooth, sweet with a little bit of tartness from the mustard as well as some heat from the mustard and some sweet dill with the herring fishy taste. I could put this on a lot of things, but I think it goes best on bread as a type of sandwich. Then there was the ham. The ham is cooked very much the same as we do although instead of glazing it in a caramel or sweet brown sugar glaze they have a sweet mustard glaze which is neat. Then there is this puréed liver which is really good for liver. Most liver has the weird softer then meat but not quite fat texture but the Swedes puree it and add something to it to get rid of that weird look and flavor but it still tastes like liver, I don’t know it’s hard to explain you just have to see for yourself. The casserole was also very interesting, it reminded me of the cheesy potato casserole we have back in the states, just instead of cheese it is a creamy and light herring flavor. As you can see the Swedes are very big on mustard. They served me a nice spicy but yet smooth mustard similar to Dijon but not nearly as hot. It was quite pleasant. Again I can’t wait to get my hands into some of these combinations and I hope to integrate this into my cooking. Before I get off into another tangent I wanted to thank Adrian and this family for their incomparable hospitality. I really appreciate it and I hope to figure out a respectable gift to show that appreciation. Although it may because of the holidays, I was impressed with the collectiveness of the family. They ate together, and when they finished they cleaned up like a well oiled machine. It was like watching a pit crew for racing team. Then at the train station there was a line for currency exchange. They had one of those little number systems like at the DMV or the deli where you take a number and then they call your number. Finally a PROPER QUEUING SYSTEM! So far things are really looking good considering I’ve only been in the country 11 or 12 hours.

Well I’m pretty sure my one of my servers got owned. I got an email from my host saying it’s been cranking out 8mbit for awhile now and I have some overage charges. I actually pretty much forgot about since I couldn’t use it here in France, the internet sucks sooo bad. So I had been lax on updating it. I scanned it from my box and port 25, smtp was open on it. I specifically closed mail on it so that leads me to believe it was spamming. I crashed it and will have some one check it out later when I’m in Sweden … when I can actually work on it.

So things are wrapping up here. Finals are over. Oh man did I bomb that Finance final. I think that was the first open book, open note, open everything exam I failed. And I’m not saying barely failed, I mean like totally and utterly failed. It was rough. I was expecting a exam like all the others we’ve had so far, one that covers the entire course. This exam covered only the last 2 months of class and even a few things I’ve never heard of before. Anyways I paid my rent and thats all done and out of the way, paid the school so I’m good there … I’m pretty much ready to go. Although it’s like -1C I’ve been spending a lot of time on my balcony enjoying the last views of Lyon I’ll have. It’s funny, I love the town, the food, and especially the wine. But man I’m glad to be done with that school. I’ll have a few days to relax in Sweden with my future roommate and his crew. I also bought my self a little gift for finishing the semester alive! Can you say XBOX 360 Elite? Anyways I’ve gotta run, going to cook for some of the other people and relax.

So I’m back to my insomnia and now it’s apparent that it’s not going away. So I decided to start following up and get some descent content up.

Check this out, I’m starting to compile a list of food that I miss back in the states and I urge the other students to post something. Then when you get back you can post if it was worth it!

.Food you miss back in the states.

We are nearing our end here in France. Many are leaving if not this week … next. I’ve been super busy with class/studying. So you probably will not see anything else for this week. I’ll try and post something about these upcoming status report interviews.