Still strong in Sweden!

Yup, I'm bad at this. And I didn't read the last post. I'm also using my phone to type this. Just got the app! Woo Hoo! So I don't think I had a job the last time I wrote on this thing. I may have. Too lazy to check. Anyway, I got a job as a consultant Sigma Technology Information as a technical writer and I have my assignment here in lidköping. It takes me about 5 minutes to ride my bike here. Super nice! I've had the job for awhile; over a year now. And things are good.

Sara is still going strong in the military. Has been stationed in Halmstad the last year. But she'll be graduating in November from the school she's attending and then be stationed 30 km outside of town. She's finally moving home!

Anyway, with the app in my pocket I hope to update this thing more. You know, so all of my many followers can keep tabs.

E-cigs - Safe or Not!

Alright. I'm not trying to be an expert on this subject. I don't even own an e-cig. I do, however have brother that invests a bunch of money into his mod. Before he got into that, he would smoke a pack-a-day or something of the like. But since he switched he's been a huge advocate for the use of vaping as a cessation for smoking. When he smoked his normal cigarettes it sucked. His clothes stank, his breath stank, and he looked like he was five years older than he was. Still in his 20's, you could see the old baseball effect on his face. It was gross. Somewhere he heard of e-cigs and made the switch. It didn't take long for him to notice a difference in himself. He had more energy, his friends and family would hug him without wincing, but the biggest thing he noticed was that he could taste food! I don't smoke, but, damn.

Since then I've had a positive outlook on e-cigs and the like. Hell, I sort of thought it was cool. With the mod he had last year when I saw him last, he could do a "dragon effect" where when exhaling, a thick cloud of smoke would be blown out. Cool, huh? My brother even sent me articles to read online about the culture and use, as well as updates to government regulation.

From what I understand the "ejuice" used in these vapes is pretty simple. The formula being fairly simple: a vegetable glycerin/propylene glycol mixture (with the former being the base usually 80-90% of the mixture, with the latter being the thick smoke component, also used in fog machines [which we've all inhaled a little bit a da club. You know what's up], flavoring which is food grade (the same stuff you cook with), pharmaceutical grade nicotine, and sometimes water to dilute the stuff. Also with a shit load of flavors available from cooking supply stores, you might have a hard time deciding which flavor of ejuice to try.

So you stick this juice in your vape mod where the battery operated device heats up the juice with a cartomizer to vaper which is inhaled and exhaled, resulting in a bad-ass behavioral attitude.

The debate is over the safety of vaping. This type of inhalation of nicotine hasn't been around for very long resulting in very few studies. No chance of longitudinal studies for long term results. But the little research that is out there doesn't tell us much. The latest study the New England Journal of Medicine tells us that an unsafe amount of formaldehyde is present, as well as 10 known carcinogens.

I'm not writing this to tell everyone that these things are safe and without risk, but what I'm trying to do is put some information out there so people feel a little informed. The info that I've presented isn't documented very well, but I've read a bunch of articles, and if this information doesn't isn't read by anyone, fine, it's for me to get my thoughts out of my head.

To continue a little bit, cigarettes have 11,000 known toxins, and still a butt-load formaldehyde, and a bunch of other tar and things that get into your lungs. We've known that for a very long time. The few harmful things found in the inhaled vaper, aren't safe, and the trace amounts exposed to the human body have unknown effects. It's a risk. On the packages of cigarettes, they tell us that the cigarettes kill (at least that's what they say in Sweden).

E-cigs aren't currently regulated, but are being pushed to be regulated like tobacco even though there isn't a single ounce of tobacco in it. That's where it's a little bit stoopid. If the legislation comes down to where they are regulated like tobacco in the USA then a lot of rules change the whole market. I assume the cost of the ejuice will rise a ton because of taxes and other nonsense. I'm sure a bunch of providers of ejuice will not be able to continue for the increased overhead costs of abiding to such regulations.

Right now the movement brings about a lot of creativity with ejuice as well as the mods that people are vaping out of. I've known friends that have put down hundreds of dollars for their mods. Many of them end up looking like some kind of phalic light-saber these guys are continually sucking on. But as of now people have the ability do what they want in this non-regulated nicotine trip. That artistic creativity might also be lost to what "the man" might say.

Okay, almost done. Like I said, these things are not completely safe. Neither is fast food. Neither is alcohol, driving, walking down the street, or even risking not to slip while taking a shower. We have the right to choose how we want to live our life. Be informed and take risks to live an awesome life. So go out there and live.

Sara's Gone!

Hey all! Once again it has been awhile since I've updated. Deal with it! So here's my update:

Exciting news! Sara got into a program with the Swedish Military to become an aircraft technician. It all happened super fast. She found the offer and was scheduled for an interview the next week. This was the middle of December when this was happening. Anyway, we drove down to Gothenburg to go through the mental and physical examination to see if she would be fit for the position. She was also battling with a bunch of others for the same job. One thing that really sucked was that both of us were suffering from some pretty severe colds. So the morning of, Sara took a shit loads of meds and we left at 5 in the morning to head down to G-town. The interview stuff started around 8 or so, so we made sure that we were there on time. So basically no sleep (cause who really gets up at 4, and we're both unemployed which means that we're not used to going to bed till like midnight, and our minds were going crazy with excitement for the next day as well as fear for not waking up to our alarms) and pretty sick, we headed off to change our stars.

The weather was cold and rainy, so I spent my day in the mall. Oh, yeah. I gave a few updates then. So the follow up was that the day really sucked. I was stuck there till like 6 in the evening. And during rush hour traffic Sara slowed the car enough for me to jump in while on our way out of town. She told me that it was pretty intense and the lack of sleep and having a cold didn't affect her much. But they were pretty in depth. They told us that we would find out in a couple of weeks. Basically around St. Lucia Day which was the next weekend.

She did it!!! She was at work when she got the email. We were way excited! The next step would be starting from the ground up in the military. On Monday Sara reported for duty. Basic training would be three months in Uppsala, a bit north of Stockholm. After the initial three months she would continue being trained there for a bit longer, till August I think. Then we're not sure where next. Maybe Halmstad, South of Gothenburg. But anyway, she's gone. Doing all this training stuff. So I'm stuck here by myself, living a bachelor's life for now. She'll be able to visit every couple of weeks on the weekends. So I'll see her soon. No problem.

So that's it. We'll see where my next adventure takes me.

Still waiting!!!

So I'm still here in Gothenberg waiting for my Sweet Heart. the rain is coming down pretty steady outside and it's cold. After that last post at McDonalds I basically walked straight to Nordstan and froze my balls off. It was a short walk, but man...not fun. So now I'm stuck in Nordstan which is the big mall in this city. It's not that big, compared to American standards, but, come one, not much is, eh eh? And it sucks here. I've walked around the stores with guy clothes and I'm done. It's loud everywhere and I'm still super tired. 

I've been talking with Sara a little bit. She got a 4 on the physical part of the training, which is high enough to get into the air force, which is where she wants to go. She hasn't gotten the results to the logical written test yet. But everything is still a go and looks really well.  I'm excited for her. After that she's gonna try and find me over here.

Oh, and Mats and Susanne are here somewhere. In Nordstan. I think they're gonna call and try to find me. I'm at the espresso house with a cup of coffee and a slightly sore knee. I wonder if they'll try to find me. 

Anyway, still can't wait to go home.

UPDATE:  Oh my word. Seriously. So I'm still here at Nordstan, the same place from the post above. But get this, there: there are two small tables that are next to each other that provides seating for four people. twice, that's right, twice have a couple come and sat next to me. Both were nice and asked if the other small table was "free" but isn't that very un-Swedish? I don't know. What happens is that a complete stranger listens to your coversation. I'm not really listening, but I have been. The first pair were old, with the most interesting thing happening was the wife nagging to the husband to hold the plate they were eating off of so that it doesn't move around when he cut a piece of the cake. They then  were talking about the lovely things that were happening at home that they were going to do. The other pair that sat next to me are "friends" about high school age. Not really listening, very dull things about school, but they are still here. I'm writing this now as something of an adventure knowing that if they were to look at what I was writing might be familiar, but one wouldn't agknoledge what they saw, for they would be admitting that they were looking at a strangers screen. That would be more rude than anything. They have almost left a few times but ended up staying exactly where they are. Jesus Christ. I didn't know that it would be so hard to have some quiet time by myself without a woman nagging

We did Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!

YaY!!! I cooked Thanksgiving! All by my lonesome. It turned out really good, too. It was a lot of work but I got it done. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean cassarole, stuffing, candied yams, gravy, and pecan pie. We found a turkey farm outside of town and got a nine pounder. It fit perfectly in the small Swedish oven. Oh, and I cooked it way out at Sara's Dad's house, about 20 kilometers outside of Lidkoping. I made sure that I had everything when I went out there the first time, cause there was no running to the store to get anything forgotten. I made the pies the day before and had a good game plan for game day. We celebrated the Saturday before the real Thanksgiving cause they don't get that day off like they do back home. Go fig. But I drove out to the house around noon and kept cooking non stop till it was time to eat. I had the kitchen all to myself, which is how I like it, and with no disasters I got everything done in time, with the turkey coming out absolutely perfect. 

Guests were Mats, Sussane, Jacob, Natalie, Linda (Berto had to watch sick kids at home so he got a doggy bag), Laila, Farmor, Sara, and myself. Most of them showed up at 6 in the evening and had a really nice dinner. Farmor even went back for a second plate, which is the equivelent of an A+. The pie turned out runnier than expected but still really good. We even played board games after the eating. It turned into a really fun evening.

What I miss, though, is how we do it at home. I know that is pretty much impossible, but I'll express my feelings. Back home family would be gathered, people helping in the kitchen with the rest of the people waiting or their holiday favorites. No football on TV here in Sweden. No excitement, not much anyway. It was a nice dinner party where I fed the family food they don't normally eat. That's about it. I'll do it again, but I'll try harder to bring the Thanksgiving holiday magic next time.

Here we go again

So once again we here in Sweden, this time in Gothenberg. Sara is off to do her tests to join the military. Over here joining the military is more of a job than a status symbol like it is in the states. I'm not sure if I mean "status symbol" but the view of it as more of a job is much more accurate. In the states I think of it more like how I would view a police officer, where both are separated from the general population in a sense. Joining here is also not quite the same as the states either. Right now Sara is taking the written and physical tests and depending on how well she does is where they will offer her a job. For example, if she does really shitty she will be offered a position as a soldier where all she has to do is learn to fight and be ready to do that, I guess. But if you're smarter you get offered more of the thinking positions. Sara really wants to be part of HR for the special forces. If not that, she wants to be a weapons technician or something cool like that. She needs to score pretty high for those types of positions so we're really wishing her luck right now.

But these tests couldn't have come at a worse time. Let me explain: today is the last day that one can take these tests to be in the running for these jobs. We found out about these deadlines  a few days ago. We also were blessed with some severe colds as well. Sara even tried to postpone the tests for a later date, but the only positions that she wants need to have the tests completed today. So that sucks. We had to get here early as well. It's 9:30 right now, in the a.m. and she had me drive. Jacob and Natalie were kind enough to offer their car. Yeah, it's a manual, but I'm getting better at it. I really hate driving in the dark though, and it's dark here in the mornings. I had a little bit of a melt down driving over here, but we made it. We're okay.  Another thing. because we're both unemployed we have sleeping patterns that don't coincide with a normal working schedule. But we tried to go to bed early last night with very little success. I must have slept only a couple hours last night with Sara doing about the same, maybe less. So right now Sara is starting the tests that will determine her career for the rest of her life with almost no sleep and a strong cold.  We're really wishing her all the luck we can muster.

So while she is doing that I'm here in Gothenberg to do whatever I can to pass the day. Of course I found a McDonalds for the free internet. It took me about 2 hours of walking to find it. Because we only have one smart phone in the family, Sara has it so she could navigate to the army base. I tried to follow the light rail tracks into the center of town. I made some wrong turns but eventually found it. Damn, I gotta get a real phone. So here I am. I have no idea how long I'm going to be but I'm damn tired and mostly want to go home and sleep. And of course it's a rainy day here. The rainiest city in Sweden, am I right? 

One thing that I really want to do is find a brewery place that sells stuff to brew. The problem is that I can find it on the net, but finding in real life is a whole other thing. Thinking about it, I could probably leave it on the screen here and do my best. We'll see. I really want to get some cider yeast so I can brew some hard cider. At some point I'd like to get a nice set to start brewing beer but that'll have to wait till we find a more perminent place to live. Sara thinks she'll be stationed in Halmstad which I think is a couple hours south of here. So she's started applying for apartments here. I think she's applied for five of them so far. I think they're in really good parts of the town. We got the lure in, let's see what bites.

And I'm still lookinf for work as well. There was a position for admin assistant to some yoga place that I applied for that might be fun. They're just starting out here from the UK. It's a small job, just a few hours a day, 5 days a week. But it sounds fun. I sent them an email and they asked for my CV and stuff, which is at least an answer. I don't get many of those from the emails that I send out. We'll see.

Anyway, you're just about up to date. Oh, the next post I'll let you know how Thanksgiving went here.

Me brewin stuff

Okay, if you've talked to me face to face and we're friends you might know that there is a hobby that I've been wanting to break into, and that's the world of home brewing. A couple of reasons I want to do this is, first, it's cool to make stuff. I love cooking and looking up recipies and pouring effort into something that I can really enjoy. Another reason is from my older brother's example. He and his bestie have assembled this bad ass brewery that's worth over ten grand. Those buds are serious for beer. They also made some damn good beer too. Reason number three is that alcohol is stoopid expensive here in the nordic. The wife and I were bicycling around Europe for awhile and the stuff is way cheaper in other countries. The Swedish government loves to tax things, and while living here is pretty great, you can hardly pee without getting taxed for it (although most public toilets make you pay before you pee, but that's a whole other rage topic). So I'm ready to jump in. The first road block is needing the stuff to start. I don't having anything like that in my kitchen, and the closest home brewing store is in Gothenberg. The fact that I don't have a car doesn't help with that either. Some day.

In the meantime I've starting with something other than beer, well, it's ginger beer! way different than normal beer. Technically it's more of a ginger wine, I think. Anyway here is what it looks like:

It didn't ferment very long cause I was just experimenting. This was my first attempt at making a fermented beverage and I wanted it to go as low risk as I could. And you know what? It was awesome. All it was was shredding ginger and throw it in a pot. Add water and suger, and I think some baking powder. Boil. And when it cooled down a bit, you add some yeast and stick it in a 2 liter soda bottle. It sat there a few days and got all bubbly. It seriously took like five minutes to be able to open the cap all the way without it exploding out. But it tasted great, and I'm excited to try something else. Ginger beer was good, but I want something a little less new mom hipster. Which means I'm going back alley hobo and try making hard cider. I just need to get my hands on some cider or wine yeast.  Wish me luck!

Pic of the wife

My wife told me today that in a hundred years people would think that I was famous and no one would have any idea she existed because of the number of pics we took of each other. So here she is:

Swedish High School Graduation Day

Hey peeps. You wanna know the different between high school graduation in Sweden compared to that in the states? Well, I'm gonna write about how they do it here. So today is grad day. What I've heard is that first there's a bunch of pics taken by the family in the nice clothes that you get for graduation then you have a small meeting with your classmates and teachers, think. No family in there. Just something small. Then you're let out to the school grounds where your family is waiting. Lots of people there, so the way you find your family is that they are holding a sign up with your name and picture and possible other info. Usually an embarrassing photo. The sign is like what you would see on a picket line. with your family you get presents I think. I've only been apart of this thing once and it was a few years back cause Sara had some cousins graduating. We gave some candy leis. Some people give them alcohol, money I think is given? Not sure. After that, well, in this town, they gather with the group they studied the same program together and pile onto a trailer being pulled by a big ass tracker and get pulled around downtown and everyone lines the streets and watch. The students decorate these trailers with banners that say with program they are, some have pics, but most of them have huge sound systems blasting techno. And they're all drunk. It's still illegal for those kids to drink, but this day its okay. So it's a parade of drunk teens on trailers and it's fun. Then after that's done, they all get into comfy clothes, gather again, and visit everyones homes in turn, drinking and partying the whole time. And that's how it's done.

Today was I saw the tractors go by downtown.  Just thought I'd mention it.

Otherwize, we got more bike gear in the mail today.  Still planning on leaving the first of next month to be on our bikes for the next few months, or even longer.  If we can get jobs and stuff on the road we may stay out longer.  Sara's been playing around with the idea of getting winter jobs in the Alps. I'd have to learn to like the cold, I guess, but its still sounds fun. We're obviously not ready to settle down. And it's awesome that we have each other to do this kind of shit.

Hey internet. So Sara didn't get that job in Stockholm. Sucks. So we've been helping Sara's mom move her ELON store to the other side of town. Good thing that town takes 30 minutes to walk through. Isn't that how crocodile dundee measured distance? I digress. So by car it's a sub 5 minute ride. But moving a store is hard. Especially one that's been there for decades with a bunch of old stuff everywhere that no one has any idea why it's there. So it was a lot of work, no days off for a month, and the store finally opened. On to the next adventures then. NOW we're planning a trip. Not just any trip. A bike trip. Around Europe! Yeah, so for this special adventure we're setting up another special blog. A big apology to all those faithfully reading this stuff. I'll be diverting my time and effort towards that story. You can follow it here: http://theericandsaraadventures.blogspot.se/

First one in Sweden

Okay. Not really sure what happened the last time I wrote something here and I'm too lazy to look up the last thing. So I'm gonna just get going with this and update stuff a little and hopefully they don't overlap too much. So I'm happily married to Sara Anna Fransson. She's awesome. She's my best friend and we have shit loads of fun together. We lived in the States for a few years and helped with my family while my went through the process of having cancer and eventually dying from it. It was a sad time. Got to see my family though. My older brother, Nick, was down in Salt Lake City for a month. Which is super cool cause he hardly ever gets down there. My Mother died on September 11. And if was aweful. The night before was one of the most tramatic in my life. Not going to talk about it but it was hard and life changing. Any way, not long after that we decided to move back to Sweden and start a family and take advantage of what Sweden has to offer. Sara moved sometime during the fall. I moved back to parents place where Aled and Blair still live. It was cool to be with family a little bit before I move across the ocean. It gave me time to save up some money and get things ready. After I quite my job I went to Vegas with Greg, Seb, Nick, and Wade for 5 days. Best Vegas trip yet. Those guys know how to have a great time. So not long after that I moved to Sweden. I've been here for a little over a month now, living in Lidkoping, and so far I really like it. I now have time to really ride my bike with is great cause I gained a bunch of pounds around my body. Rode my bike only like 6 miles a day and ate microwaveable food for four months in a row. Not quite the picture of health that we were living before. I'm also meeting Sara's family again, which is fun. Although they all have their own ways of talking. Sara's dad has a hard time hearing and talks really loud. Jacob talks really fast and mumbles. Berto is by the far the worst. I should say hardest to understand. Telephones scare me to death. It's not easy to get going with a new language. I have to think of everything twice, if not more times to make sure I understand. Sometimes it doesn't go at all. Anyways, it can be hard. I did want to mention some things that I've noticed that are a bit different than the great United States of America. At least I wanted to try to remember what I had been thinking of. I've been wanted to write this shit down but just haven't. Lazy I guess. So here in Sweden the humidity is very high. Okay, so went for my first ride outside on my bike out to a small castle that was 25 kilometers away. It wasn't rainy out there but it was cloudy and the roads were wet. I figured that they would dry up. It was fucking day time. But Sweden was a different beast. I didn't put my rain pants on. So I go out to ride and the wind is pushing me away from home. Nice and fast ride out there. On my way back the wind was pushing hard and my ass got soaked with the freezing water off the road. This ride was goes up on the wall as one of the most miserable rides that I have ever done. It was so so hard. I was wishing I was home at the 2/3 part of the ride and the rest of the way was fucking hell. I was cold, tired, not sure how far to go against a relentless wind that did not want me to get home. Eventually I got there, which felt like an eternity. and stipped off all my clothes. while I was riding my bike my ass hurt but I thought that it was because it was cold and wet. It turned out that somehow it broke the skin. Not really sure how that happend. Maybe it was a small case of frostbite or something. When I was showering my ass hurt really bad. The hot water stung like a bee in the sape of a the saddle on the bike. After the shower I got to see in the mirror and I could see there was a white mark on my ass in the shape of the saddle and on the lower left and right sides there was some scabs on the outline. The white marks cleared up the day after, but the scabs took a week or so to go away. So my point to all this is that the humidity in this country sucks when you want to ride your bike and it'll bit you in the ass. I've also noticed that I have yet to find a bar to hang out at. Here they like to have nice places were you can feel a bit of luxory. So the places that I have been to so far aren't that expensive, have been nice places, but not the type that you would sit with your friends and really laugh. It's sort of hard to explain. I guess one way to explain it is that you would feel the need to dress sort of nice to go to these places. Where at a normal bar you could just go cause you wanted a drink with your friends and relax. So here you have to choose between a fancy bar which I feel is for adults of all ages, or a dance club if you wanted to pick up on people. No place in between. So if you don't want to do those two things then there are dinner parties. I got to cook for one of these not long after I had arrived. I made some kick-ass general tso's chicken and noodles. But these seem formal in a way. I'm at my own place (our own place) and I have to put on a nicer shirt and serve people. What the hell happened to just relaxing with people. I feel things here are a little too formal. We'll see how I deal with this or how crazy I'll become. Who knows. An update might be written here. Who knows indeed. I can't think of anything else at the moment. I had lists in my head, but now it's too late. Laziness strikes again. You may be wondering how I finally took the time to start writing these things now. That is a great question. the answer to this is because I'm sitting in a cafe at the moment waiting for Sara who is now undergoing an interview for a job a little ways down the street. I'm here in Stockholm now and it's March now. And no one told this place that it can stop snowing. For reals. Come on. Winter sucks, and I know I moved to a nordic country, but really? Back in Lidkoping it's about spring now. No snow and the weather gets up to 10 degrees Celcius. I was going to walk around Stockholm a little but all that damn snow pushed me into this nice little cafe with internet access. So yeah. If Sara gets this job we'll be moving to Stockholm, which I am over the moon over if she gets it. Firts of all, it's a bit more international here so I would hopefully find some North Americans. Also I would have a better chance of finding a job. And there's just more shit we could do. There's also the public transportation here that rocks. We wouldn't have to buy a car for the foreseeable future. I hate taking care of cars. They cost soo much and the expenses never seem to end. I love bikes. They're simple, I can fix them, great exercise, you can never take life fast and strenuous, and life seems more fun and enjoyable on a bike. Unless it bites you in the ass, which it very well can do. Be careful. The company that she's applying for is called Fritiden, which is one of those places that provide labor for companies. The place people in jobs for companies. I can't for the life of me remember what they're called right now. But what she would be doing is to get companies on board with them. Say a company needs an architect to architect stuff or a butler to butle. They could go to this company and say what they need, get the peronel that they wanted for the project, pay the Fritiden for what they got, and Fritiden would pay the wages, the benefits and all that paperwork to the proper authorities. Which replaces some of the stuff that HR would do, including the interviewing time and advertising the empty slot, etcetera. So she's in a unique position where she's a swede who hs some good selling experience. Hard selling experience. Sweden doesn't really push stuff on customers so much. So whe n they are asked to, I don't think many swedes would be comfortable in such a position. Sara's good on the phone and knows how to get to people, on a personal level where she can convince people of stuff. Anyways, she'll be great at this job if she gets it. I'm really hoping she does. It'd be nice to get going with life a little bit. Things would be going a little faster here. Here at this cafe Total Eclipse of the Heart is playing and it's the second time I've heard it today. I havenb't hear that song in years. Just wanted to mention it. Also I'm seeing some spelling errors on here and that's partly due to the thing in the corner that where I can't see what I'm typing. It just covers it up and sometimes I make mistakes and I can't see them when I'm writing and when I get passed it I don't want to go back and fix it, although it does piss me off a bit. So I think that may be good for now. I feel that you are a bit caught up now. Ask away if you have any questions.

Low Down on Delta House

Hi internet! I got an email from someone today asking about life in Delta House while I was doing my masters at JIBS or Jonkoping University. So I was more than happy to give him the story:


Hello Dave,

Thanks for reading my blog. I didn't know other people read it other than my friends. I don't mind the questions at all.

About Delta House: I loved being down the street from the University. It's also in the middle of downtown where the most interesting things happen. You've got a grocery store around the corner, lots of places to eat out, it's near the lake and the train station (depending on how often you want to take the train anywhere makes life very easy), the night life is...a little too close. There's a club called The Velvet Lounge in the same building on the ground floor. In fact the same entrance to Delta House is used for bringing the kegs of alcohol in for storage. Anyway, that club can blast out some solid bass that can be felt in the floors above. I knew some to of the kids who were on the next floor up and when the club starts up their things would shake. It was pretty annoying, especially if needed to study. Bring some noise canceling headphones. I was on the third floor, and we could still hear it. I don't think the fifth floor, the top floor, was affected (which only houses three people with the nicest bathroom, btw). But we used to use the top floor as a party floor because they have the most open space out of all the floors.

The other four floors open up to a long corridor connecting the 14 student rooms, kitchen, bathrooms, and common area. The kitchen size is dependent on which floor you're on, and they got bigger the high the floor was, although the top floor doen't have an oven, so they use the fourth floor's. And the kitchens are set up pretty much the same with the same stuff: sink, three microwaves, three fridges, etc. The common area is a room that used to be a student room. I know cause they kicked out (relocated) the students who lived in those rooms. They had to set these up cause kids that used to live in another dorm adjacent to the Delta House, called the Alpha House (now nonexistent) complained about the living conditions to the news agencies. The story was picked up nationally, and was a huge embarrassment to the school. So building code people came in and helped get the living conditions up to code. The main reason for the common areas was to have a place to eat. People usually ate in their rooms or wherever. Not really a problem. Most common rooms were used more or less for drinking. They had tv's but they didn't work very well. We demolished the couch in our common room.

About the rooms. They're okay furnished: bed, closet, desk, the all powerful lamp (containing all the electrical outlets, internet jacks, and the only light source in the rooms). Not so bad, but the walls are super thin. If the guy in the next room snores, you're out of luck. And the sizes are mostly the same. This was a telecommunications office building before it was converted to a dormitory. On the third floor in the middle of the corridor was the bigest room of them all. This was a shared room, one that I was staying in, and we rocked delta from there. I had speakers, TV, PS3, a couch, and lots of room to party. Our room simply kicked ass. It was the common room on our floor.

They have clothes washers and dryers in the basement, which I think they've set up a reservations system now. Now when I was there. And you get in and out of the main door and the doors to the corridor floors with an electronic key, individual rooms with a standard metal, pointy on one side, key.

Here's the lowdown. Is it worth it? Well, it depends. I loved living there. The people on my floor became my family, my best friends. We were all international students, cause they only allowed internationals in there, but we all had to figure it out with each other. We had a great time together. There was drama, and lots of other stuff with people who didn't get along, and we were living very close to each other. You could have privacy if you wanted, probably not silence on command, and you'd have to deal with a bunch of drunk people every weekend. I did notice that some floors were quieter than others. It all depends on the mixture of people on each floor. If you're a social person and want to hang our with lots of people all the time from the moment you arrive, this is the place. You can always study at the library a few minutes away, or any coffee shop (lots of coffee shops [Sweden is up there on the countries that drink the most coffee per capa]) and most offer free wifi. I think internet is extra in the dorms.

If this doesn't sound like your brand of tea, then there's Raslatt. It's a good bus ride away and where many immigrants live. There you'll have a normal apartment with a couple other people. You'll only have to deal with them, it's very quiet. Not quite as social, people there tend to become much better friends with their program students. It is harder to find friends with like interests there, but it's more like normal life where you're in control. There are parties there that are fun and they even have sockertoppen which is an activities center of sorts where there's a pool table, kitchen, and some other stuff, but they usually throw some parties there that can be pretty crazy; but living in town I usually stayed in town. No bus ride there and back.

Well, there's my one sided view. I lived in Delta for a year, then moved to an apartment across the street from Delta and continued the same type of show with a better room where I could write my thesis.

My mom's cancer is in remission. Thanks for asking. She's doing very well; getting into cycling. She did a 50 mile charity ride about a month back and is now looking for a better road bike. She has all her hair back and doing very well. She has to go to the hospital every week to get a chemo shot, but otherwise doing very very well.

Sara and I got engaged on new year's 1/1/11. and we're going through the immigrations process for her to come to the United States of America. Hopefully she'll arrive in September. She's that amazing.

Well, I've been ranting cause this was an amazing part of my life. I hope that this was enlightening to you, and if you have any other questions or need any help, please let me know. And if you do decided to live at Delta, let me know how it is now. I was in the first wave of people who got the bugs out of the poor system. If you want to really focus on your studies, go to Raslatt and ride the bus everyday, but in this school I find that unnecessary. I was a masters student, and I know of other masters students in Delta who loved being there. Others who didn't as well. But I also know of a PHD student who love it as well. It all depends on what you want.

I think I'll post this on my blog in case there are others who are googling the Delta House in Jonkoping.

Later,
Eric

Here it comes: The Weight Challenge

Good afternoon Internet family,

I'm sitting at school, JIBS 3rd floor in one of the study rooms, basically bored. I'm not studying for an exam like the other kids in the room are but waiting for my friend, Mike, to end his study session so we can walk around the lake for some exercise (the smaller lake, mjunkshon). The walk is like 5 kilometers, or 3.5 miles, and is great for the little challenge that I've accepted from Sara. Shat challenge you ask? Ready? Here I go: we've challenged each other to loose 5 kilograms in 4 weeks. And if we accomplish our goal then we do something nice or get something nice the other desires. So if she looses the weight then she gets to choose something that she would like me to do for her, whether that be buy her something nice, or give her a nice back rub, whatever. And it's not a competition cause we can both come out of this winners. So walking around the lake has been something that I've been doing to better my chances of getting her to do something that I want. I still haven't come up with anything yet, but I'll think of something good. Suggestions are welcome.

I've also been riding my back for about an hour a day (indoors cause this country still hasn't gotten the idea that spring should be warmer by this time of year) as well as getting into some pilates (I'm not gay, if that' what you're thinking) which really strengthen your core which makes everything in life a little easier, physically, including cycling.

Eating reasonably is the only is the only thing that'll hold me back from the goal. I'm into cooking for myself but I'm finding out that I do that I tend to make more that what I'm supposed to. I always start with the intention of saving the other half for another time, but it never seems to work out that way cause what I make usually turns out really good and I know that if I make it cold it'll never be the same again. Got to eat that stuff in it's prime. I've got to start sharing my meals I think. I was talking to one of my room mates about how I sort of want french toast tonight but then I have to buy a whole loaf of bread, which I don't do very often mostly because I feel obligated to eat all that bread before it goes bad, which is a lot shorter here in Europe then in the United States of America, and so I eat more than I want to. And the work for french toast isn't that much different whether I'm cooking for the whole building or just for myself. But breakfast for dinner sounds amazing right now, right?

I noticed I haven't been putting up any pics in a while and I want to fix that. If I remember to do that stuff tonight it'll happen that soon, but for now let's wish that I was better at contributing to this thing.

Later internet family.

Hello Internet,

No idea when I posted something last so here's a quick update on what's up now: thesis work is going on with Amin, a Moroccan guy, who is assigned as my thesis partner cause JIBS is too cheap to let me write it by myself (probably a good thing, though), I'm dating a very lovely Swedish girl, Sara, with whom I'm madly in love with, and I found out my mother is in the hospital with a blood infection and double pneumonia. I think my mom will be okay though. It was really bad; she almost died cause her oxygen levels were dangerously low. She's been in the hospital since friday (now tuesday) and hopefully she was being released today if some of her test's results turned out the way they are supposed to. These types of disorders usually happen to really old or really young people, or people with cancer or aids or some other immune system bad thing. I found out that she was there yesterday from my brother, greg, while he was driving from SLC to Colorado. A little upset that the news didn't come to me sooner, but I'll live with it.

As you know Easter is coming up soon and I'll be celebrating it with Sara and her family up in Lidkoping. Her dad will be back from Afghanistan with his girlfriend, Suzanne. I'm trying to get Mike to come up with us but he's needing time to decompress so he might not come even though there will not be many people left in this town that know him. It would be a nice relaxing vacation away from people though. And he could walk the lake to his hearts content and hopefully earn back a few belt holes. Which reminds me that I'm on a challenge to loose 5 kgs in 4 weeks. It seems like a lot to me now but I think I may pull through it. Sara and I are doing it together and if we succeed then we both will get one wish fulfilled. I still don't know what I want but it's gonna be good.

I started writing a song today, not sure if it'll go anywhere but I like it so far and the music is just about written. I hope the subject I chose will stick. I need to start writing again. That outlet needs to be re-opened. Too bad my guitar sucks here. This summer I'm trying to stay here in Sweden with Sara and maybe start a life here. If that happens then maybe I'll have my stuff shipped out here, at least my guitars. My other stuff can stay put at moms and dads, like the tv and speakers, although I would really like them here, but there that whole electricity thing that's not compatible. Stooopid voltage change.

That's that update, hopefully it was filling. I'm about to start another episode of weeds after I take my contacts out and brush my teeth.

Good night internet.

From Christmas Eve

Alright, so it's Christmas eve right now and I chose not to go home mostly due to financial reasons even though, now that I look back, I could've been back for like a month, which would've been cool, but anyway, I like it here in Sweden and I never really have any time by myself. So now I've been writing songs, cleaning the apartment, and doing what I will here. It's nice. And I'm not that lonely. I still have friends here. I'm dethawing a turkey right now for a Christmas party tomorrow. People drop by and we hang for a little while, plan trips and things. But this is the day that everyone celebrates Christmas in Sweden, meaning the Swedes. So those friends of mine that are Swedes or have Swedish boy or girl friends are out of town celebrating. I received such an invitation as well, but I chose to stay behind cause I don't want to be the guy in the corner, if you know what I mean. But I'm realizing that I miss my family, and I want to wish them a Merry Christmas! I'll call them tomorrow and see how everything's going. I hope they upload or at least share some pictures for me. Chatting with Blair now. Merry Christmas everyone!

check, it's cool

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Save Chuck!

Mystery Girl, where are you?

Hi Internet. So it's Friday and I'm fairly hungry now. On a normal Friday at this time I would usually be pretty full from going to an "after work" (a cheap buffet starting at 4 o'clock offered at a ton of restaurants and bars around town). It's 4:30, btw. But today I'm waiting for my bud, Mike, to finish his accounting exam which I really hope i soon. The test started at 2, so lets all wish him knowledge and luck.

So yesterday I was at the grocery store with my bud, Mike, looking for his dinner. I had already eaten fresh tortellini with red pasta sauce, olives, and cheese and went with friends to get an after dinner drink. We stopped at Hemkop and while there I saw this girl who kept making eye contact with me. She looked a little familiar; maybe I've seen her in my building; not sure though. Anyway, Mike and I were chatting about whatever while walking around and we saw her a bunch of times which I didn't think much of till we were leaving when I realized that I was really attracted to her. Since then she's been in the back of mind. I've got to find this girl again.

Sports Week?

Dear blogosphere. I haven't had any class this week nor will I have class due to a Swedish holiday called sports week. Not really sure it's a holiday, but I'm loving it. It seems my program is the only one who's celebrating it though, which means everyone else has class which also means that there aren't many people who are celebrating with me. Not that I'm doing anything for this week besides being lazy. I would like to imagine that I would sport it up were it not due to a bad right knee. It's been seriously annoying. Some days it hurts like a m@therf#$ker, and some it's fine. It's been acting like this since Paris (i.e. New Year's); very frustrating. I'm on a good streak and am being careful not to re-injure myself so I think it's best that I let myself get back to full form before I prance about doing sports like badminton and pounding shuttlecock.

But today I felt particularly lazy and feel that I need to change my ways. I was up a little past 8 this morning without an alarm clock, had a nice hot shower, and am still determined to use this day wisely. I'm going to go to the library and get some reading done and other stuff that I've been prolonging. I think I've got an appointment in the light room today, my first ever.

It is, however, snowing outside so we'll see how long this resolve lasts.

Later skater.

Missing America a Tad

A huge blow happened today. Okay, so they've got a Subway here and it's the only restaurant in the whole of Sweden that I know of that offers free refills. I love free refills. It reminds me of America. But today I found out that because of the damn taxes in this country it costs more to have fountain drinks than to sell bottles of soda. So Subway is going the cheaper route. It sucks. Free refills is probably the biggest reason I go to that restaurant. My life crumbled today.

So I cut my goatee off. Yeah, there were a group of slightly drunk people in my room that were simultaneously chanting "Cut it off". I had no choice. Right there and then it came off. The result it mixed. Everyone at the party said I looked 2 times better, but they had to. If they said anything else they would look extremely cruel. Others say I look the same, where others say that I lost my identity. As for what I think...I'm not sure. I liked it there. I liked to stroke it when trying to look contemplative. But now I don't get toothpaste on it every day. I won't grow it back. It took too long to get it where I liked it and it would be pretty ugly up until that point.

There's a bunch new people on the floor. Mostly Americans, which makes it not so cool to be an American anymore. I liked being an ambassador of some sorts but now there's a bunch of undergrad aged students from Penn State here. Yeah, they came as a group, so they came with pre-made friends. So it's been about a month and we still haven't fully integrated friendships. There a girl, Lisa (she asked for a name drop on this blog), who's cool. she's sitting on my room mates bed right now. She's one of the few who've come over to the dark side. Everyone's nice, but still acquaintances.

Classes are pretty straight forward this term. Lots of reading; need to do more, but I've been watching the Office, the American one. You know how that is. We just downloaded it. It things like that made it super hard to do homework at home. Did I tell you we got a couch in our room? People are here all the time now. It's awesome. Really, it is, most of the time. I haven't slept much in the past few nights. But one of those reasons was because we watched the superbowl which is broadcast live, but it starts at midnight and ended at 4 in the morning. We went to a sports bar to watch it. But you know how Superbowl commercials are awesome? Well, they don't broadcast them here. Instead, in place of commercials they put on three Swedes pretty much explaining the slang terms of American announcers. And no, it wasn't Ed McMann (can't spell it), they were random dudes I've never heard of. One thing about this Superbowl was that I watched most of the playoff games. I finally found a way to watch American Football. There's this torrent community that's only for American Football. It was great. I rejoiced much when I found it.

Rock band 2 is here. It only took a little over a month for it too come. But we play it tons, and piss off lots of people on our floor as well as the floor beneath. It's awesome. We've got at least 200 songs on there. It's great.

That's it for now.