Since I come to Sweden, four months has passed. Time flies.
I suddenly noticed that I haven't seen some Swedish friends I met in Taiwan yet, so I arranged Afterwork this Friday. I will arrange more activities during my stay in Sweden to see more people.
The Afterwork was supposed to be in Smaka, a restaurant providing traditional Swedish food. However, after I got there, I found out that Smaka has no Afterwork in December. They only provide Christmas meals, which is more expensive. So I changed the Afterwork to Babar on Avenyn.
It was a very bad time choice since many people were not free. To my surprise, Maria, Jesper, and Anna showed up. They were the exchange students in Taiwan. I was the translator in their Chalmers Asia Office, and I was with them very often that year. It is hard to describe how happy I was to see familiar faces! They don't change much. We had a good time eating and talking. I tried a green shot with mint, which makes people feel cold.
Later we went to a bar called Kelly's. It is a much more relaxing place. People there are in middle class, unlike the people in the pubs in Avenyn who wears fancy clothes. They have unique clothes and hair style, like shiny red hairs. People there are very stylish, as Jesper said, they care less about their appearance but more about their soul. No matter who you are, everyone is equal there.
It was fun! I'll arrange more activities.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Universeum
I went to the Universeum, a cool science museum.
http://www.universeum.se/index.php?lang=en
There is a rain forest with many exotic animals, and shark aquariums.
I saw many interesting animals today.
http://www.universeum.se/index.php?lang=en
There is a rain forest with many exotic animals, and shark aquariums.
I saw many interesting animals today.
Finally! I have my bank account!
Today I finally fixed my bank in Sweden. It would be so convenient with debit card and internet bank.
Opening an account in Sweden is very troublesome, which made me really frustrated in the past few weeks.
For example, Handelsbanken won't accept people who would stay less than 18 months.
SEB don't allow foreigners who can't speak Swedish to get internet bank since their internet bank is only in Swedish, and lots of false transactions was made by foreigners.
Swedbank only accept people with personal number, and they have higher fee. However, Swedbank and Handelsbanken has English version of Internet bank, while SEB and Nordea don't.
I was rejected several times, or the banks didn't provide what I wanted.
Finally, today I got it from Nordea, which is a major bank in Northern Europe. The best thing is that there is no fee if you withdraw Euros in other EU countries. They allowed me to have debit card and internet bank, with a English guide.
Everything is great like a dream, just one strange thing...
I wrote "Taiwan" as Nationality in the application form, but I found it changed to "Kina"(China) when I check my printed client info I got. :O
Opening an account in Sweden is very troublesome, which made me really frustrated in the past few weeks.
For example, Handelsbanken won't accept people who would stay less than 18 months.
SEB don't allow foreigners who can't speak Swedish to get internet bank since their internet bank is only in Swedish, and lots of false transactions was made by foreigners.
Swedbank only accept people with personal number, and they have higher fee. However, Swedbank and Handelsbanken has English version of Internet bank, while SEB and Nordea don't.
I was rejected several times, or the banks didn't provide what I wanted.
Finally, today I got it from Nordea, which is a major bank in Northern Europe. The best thing is that there is no fee if you withdraw Euros in other EU countries. They allowed me to have debit card and internet bank, with a English guide.
Everything is great like a dream, just one strange thing...
I wrote "Taiwan" as Nationality in the application form, but I found it changed to "Kina"(China) when I check my printed client info I got. :O
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Sweden Democrats becomes powerful
Back in Taiwan I am interested in politics. I find politics in Sweden interesting.
If something is wrong here, please correct me.
Swedish politics is similar to that in the UK. The head of party who won the most seats in
the election of the Councillor would be the Prime Minister.
However, no single party can win over 50% of the votes. Thus, some parties have to form alliance. There are two alliances.
Left (Red): socialism, higher tax, higher welfare.
Right (Blue): liberalism, lower tax.
Usually young people support Right.
Left(Red) has been ruling Sweden for a long time. However, in recent years, Right(Blue) becomes more popular and they won again in this election on September 19th, 2010.
Here you can know the major parties in Sweden quickly:
Swedish Democrats is nationalism, but actually pretty racism.
They want more strict laws to immigrants and accepting refugees.
They only care about less foreigners, so Sweden can remain "Swedish".
They don't care about economy issues like tax, welfare and jobs.
Many people don't like SD(or as some said, they hate SD.) All the other parties don't like them.
Here is banned commercial of SD:
Before the election today, SD were not powerful. But the research showed that they might have more than 4% votes and be able to have seats in the Councillor. There was a demonstration against SD few days ago.
They got 5.7% this time and have about 20 seats.
The election is very intense.
Red + SD > Blue
Therefore, SD is the one who decides the result of all the decisions when Red and Blue disagree with each other. Every decision is actually controlled by SD, some racists. The government is very unstable.
SD is fast growing. Why would more people support SD? It is an interesting issue.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Arriving Sweden
It was a long flight. Taiwan - Hong Kong - Frankfurt(Germany) - Göteborg(Sweden). I took Lufthansa, a German airline.
I was alone during the flight, but I met my junior high classmate in Hong Kong Airport.
It was the first time I travel abroad alone, lots of things were very new to me.
During the flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, I talked to the family from the Netherlands, and play some games with the kids, which made the long journey less boring. I tried some German beers and snacks on the plane.
After arriving Sweden, it was 23:30, and I was alone in a totally unfamiliar place. It was exciting and kind of scary. The airport was almost empty. I called Johan, since I had to stay in his brother's place for one night, and on Monday I could move in my apartment, Rotary. He said they were having a Chalmers Alumni party in the Chemistry pub in Chalmers. We decided to meet in Johan's brother's apartment.
I took the taxi, and the driver is from Palestine. He couldn't understand English very well, which made me really nervous. I waited in front of the apartment, and there were few people on the streets. The passengers looked drunk. It was Saturday night (Sunday morning), people were out for party. Waiting there alone, I became quite nervous. What if the drunk people do some bad things to me, or someone took my luggage. I was even wondering maybe the taxi driver dropped me to a wrong place. Finally I saw Johan, I was relieved.
Well, it is more scary than I thought, being alone to a totally unfamiliar place, and in the middle of night, with drunk people around. Now when I recall the situation, I laugh at myself. Perhaps it is always more scary when you do something for the first time. (After living in Sweden for a while, I think Sweden is actually a very safe place.)
After putting my luggage in the apartment. Johan and I went to Avenyn, since some Chalmers Asia alumni were in a pub there. I was so surprised to see so many people in the street, many were drunk and some were singing. Most people wear fancy clothes. I felt very small there, since I suddenly became the minority.
People were so joyful. However, I saw some beggars on the street. They're from Eastern Europe. They look so miserable, but people just ignore them, some even laugh at them. I felt quite bad since there is such a difference. The Swedes were celebrating, and the beggars were being miserable. Few days later I found out those beggars are controlled by some bad guys who takes money from them. Do not give them money. However, at that time it left a very bad impression on me. I thought, "What's wrong? It is not the Sweden I imagined." I thought the immigrants have miserable lives. In fact, these beggars come to Sweden after their countries join the European Union, and people can go to Sweden legally. These beggars show up on the street starting from maybe 1 or 2 years ago.
In the pub (I forgot the name. The age limit is 25), I met Martina, Mattias, Jesper, Martin, Calle, Hugo and David. They were surprised that I am in Sweden. Hugo even bought some Champagne to celebrate! It was so nice to see some familiar faces!
On the way home, I was so curious that I was amazed by many things around me, for example, the trams running on the streets. The roads, street lights, building all amazed me. There are lots of shops, even 7 eleven is different, which sells banana and Swedish products. It was cold at night, I suddenly feel that summer is gone.
I was very excited. I still couldn't believe that I am now in Sweden, so north and so far away from home, and I am going to stay in Sweden for entire one year.
I was alone during the flight, but I met my junior high classmate in Hong Kong Airport.
It was the first time I travel abroad alone, lots of things were very new to me.
During the flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, I talked to the family from the Netherlands, and play some games with the kids, which made the long journey less boring. I tried some German beers and snacks on the plane.
After arriving Sweden, it was 23:30, and I was alone in a totally unfamiliar place. It was exciting and kind of scary. The airport was almost empty. I called Johan, since I had to stay in his brother's place for one night, and on Monday I could move in my apartment, Rotary. He said they were having a Chalmers Alumni party in the Chemistry pub in Chalmers. We decided to meet in Johan's brother's apartment.
I took the taxi, and the driver is from Palestine. He couldn't understand English very well, which made me really nervous. I waited in front of the apartment, and there were few people on the streets. The passengers looked drunk. It was Saturday night (Sunday morning), people were out for party. Waiting there alone, I became quite nervous. What if the drunk people do some bad things to me, or someone took my luggage. I was even wondering maybe the taxi driver dropped me to a wrong place. Finally I saw Johan, I was relieved.
Well, it is more scary than I thought, being alone to a totally unfamiliar place, and in the middle of night, with drunk people around. Now when I recall the situation, I laugh at myself. Perhaps it is always more scary when you do something for the first time. (After living in Sweden for a while, I think Sweden is actually a very safe place.)
After putting my luggage in the apartment. Johan and I went to Avenyn, since some Chalmers Asia alumni were in a pub there. I was so surprised to see so many people in the street, many were drunk and some were singing. Most people wear fancy clothes. I felt very small there, since I suddenly became the minority.
People were so joyful. However, I saw some beggars on the street. They're from Eastern Europe. They look so miserable, but people just ignore them, some even laugh at them. I felt quite bad since there is such a difference. The Swedes were celebrating, and the beggars were being miserable. Few days later I found out those beggars are controlled by some bad guys who takes money from them. Do not give them money. However, at that time it left a very bad impression on me. I thought, "What's wrong? It is not the Sweden I imagined." I thought the immigrants have miserable lives. In fact, these beggars come to Sweden after their countries join the European Union, and people can go to Sweden legally. These beggars show up on the street starting from maybe 1 or 2 years ago.
In the pub (I forgot the name. The age limit is 25), I met Martina, Mattias, Jesper, Martin, Calle, Hugo and David. They were surprised that I am in Sweden. Hugo even bought some Champagne to celebrate! It was so nice to see some familiar faces!
On the way home, I was so curious that I was amazed by many things around me, for example, the trams running on the streets. The roads, street lights, building all amazed me. There are lots of shops, even 7 eleven is different, which sells banana and Swedish products. It was cold at night, I suddenly feel that summer is gone.
I was very excited. I still couldn't believe that I am now in Sweden, so north and so far away from home, and I am going to stay in Sweden for entire one year.
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