Is it just me, or is the news about the Swedish new royal generation (aka the new princess) a moodbooster or what? Being a big fan of the royal household, which I know several of my friends is not, I'm really happy over this. To the extent where I doodle pictures of Sweden VS the presidents of the world and giggles about it to my classmates. One of my french friends replied: a princess? So what, you're dressing her up in little pink dresses and everyone does the same strotting down the red carpet?
- We're having a MONARCY, not a COSTUME PARTY. Sigh.

   

- Cut it extremly short this time, compared to before... Still getting used to it, but it's very useful to have so short hair when working out -

Anyhow, I'm doing fine here, have always stuff to do, travels to plan and assignments to procrastinate. The only thing I'm a bit sad about is that it seems none of my friends from home can come and visit me, which of course sucks for me but I can't blame them, most of them have good reasons. But I'll manage, and keep on being awesome with my friends here, and I'll see everyone when I get back home!


-Awesomenss in a pose! Pic stolen from Helen-

The skill of daring to speak with new people has proven itself very useful to me lately. Last time was last night, when I spoke with one of my friends dorm-mates only to realise she's a fangirl like me, shipping various stuff and playing the same games. For some time now my fingers and mood have been itching to do some con-going and cosplay, however I've no clue to do anything about that while being in England. So to my surprise she told me that there would be an event for games-tv series - anime in the next town. Without second thought I wanted to join in, and luckily there was still tickets left to buy at the entrence. So for the first time I went to an Expo abroad. And I loved it, naturally ;)

   
-Cosplayers - Actors - Photobombing Conn -

It was really nice to have a few people to walk around with, even if the area of the Expo wasn't all that big. The name of this event was MCM Expo (in Telford. If you google/youtube it I bet there'll be films to see from the expo if you're interested). It felt good to be able to speak about the shows you like, comment about cosplay and discuss fanfiction with people again. Talking about Anime Helen is helping me with a great deal, but being with other geeks is always a comfort :)

  
-The tardis - Crossplayer - Movie poser-

The best part I must say was to be able to ask some questions to the actors Tom Hopper and Adetomiwa (he actually forgot how to spell his own name while signing the photo :3 ) from the series "Merlin". Fortunatly they made it really easy for us fans to talk with them, because more than me was really nervous spekaing with stars from you fandom, even if they aren't the main characthers.


- My head is up the clouds~ Now I just need to see Bradley James and Colin Morgan <3 -

This is one event I've been looking forward to over two weeks now: the "Party Animals" Bar Crawl. A bar crawl is an event in which you visiy several bars during one night. For us it was also with a theme, so we decided to go all out and dress up properly! Lions, Pandas and bunnis was common in our group.
   

However, once we went to the bars it scattered, since you was supposed to follow the other people with the same colour on the shirt, so half of us (the dutch people of course) went to the orange t-shirts and we other (dutch and swedish) headed off to the black group. It was so much fun, seeing all the people dressed up, the flow of the evening and all the happenings :)






We all had some great stories from the night, since we all had been to different parties so to speak. In the end, we all gathered at the biggest club in Wolverhampton, Oceania, after reading the schedules on our t-shirts' backs and confirmed that both black and orange should be there at the same time. The night couldn't have ended better than meeting up all the friends again and dance as if we ruled the world!

Due to a high demand from family and friends most of these pictures are now already on facebook, but I decided to do a post about my trip to Bath anyway!

So, why Bath? Several reasons actually, the geeky one being Charlieissocoollike's birthplace, the less geeky one is the historical aspect due to which I wanted to see the places shown in the Jane Austen/ the dutchess movies and thirdly I wanted to see more of England. The sun was shining which made everything look really pretty, but it was really cold.There was many things to do, but unfortunately too little time to do it all so we had to cut some things out, but we still managed to see the vital things.

The group of four girls started with the Abbey and the Roman Bath....we thought. Instead we stumbled into a long queue and an ongoing wedding, so we decided to go there later instead. So we started with the famous Brigde, which is one of the two in the world which has stores upon them (no source to this fact though), one here and the other in Venice.


-The Bridge-

After escaping from some nasty pidgeons we went to the Jane Austen House. I had no clue Jane Austen ever worked or lived in Bath, much less that they had a house with facts of here there, where the employees wore old-fashioned dresses, sold books from the printed edition in the 1800 century or had a love café at Gay Street, but now I do!


   
- Costumes - Fan language - Colin Firth - Fika <3


-Tea time with Nien and Leonie, my "dutchessess". Ashley was kind enough to take the picture-


After some lovely cream tea a lá Mr Darcy and scones we went up to the Cresent, a house which for a long time have been on my "must see this building before I die"-list, due to it's role in many of my dear movies about the 1800. And I wasn't disapointed, it was stunning. On the way we passed the famous "Circus", a turnabout with beautiful houses along the edges. A very fancy, and expensive, part of Bath.


- The Royal Cresent-


-Wiiih!-

So, after all this we decided to tackle the Abbey and the Roman Bath again, and was more successful this time. Even if we had to stress through the Roman Bath to make it to the bus, it was worth it, and I can't help but always be impressed by the quality of the Roman's ideas and work. This was altogether a great day, Bath has been placed as top two in my favourite cities in the world and I'm so glad I finally saw the city of my beloved books in real life. I did however also got an little heart-attack when a friend stated:
"Ida, you're standing on a body."
After a shout and a jump back, I realized it was "art" for a calm demostration against the Soldiers in Afgahnistan, but how was I supposed to know? I was busy looking at the gorgeous Abbey, why bother looking down? (well, because there might be a body there apparently...)

  
-Inside the Abbey - Dead Body - Outside the Abbey
    
- The Roman Bath from above - R.B. with the Abbey - Phone booth - R.B


And this is the heap of things I got home with me. I feel like a true Jane-nerd and fangirl, which is absolutely true! ;)


-I'm a happy girl today-
[Also borrowed some of the pictures from Leonie, so it wouldn't be all the same]

Today I've been in Wolverhampton exactly one month. It's very hard to believe, the days just rush by and I really don't know where these weeks have gone. I feel like I'm still processing the fact that I am in England, a country I've wanted to live in and/or visit properly for such a long time. Sometimes you're living the dream without even knowing it!

I've gotten a grasp of the modules, created a day-routine and made many new friends, some which I think will last a really long time. I now realise how my exchange students who comes to JIBS are feeling towards the swedes though: it's much easier to blend with other exchange students than the british people, since we have a higher need of getting to know people than they do. As you know I absolutely LOVE my exchange students from back home, and love hanging out with them, so I'm perfectly happy with my networks here :) We are having british people within our group of course, but generally speaking the englishmen likes to be with the englishmen, as swedes likes to be with swedes. No surprises there. It's been a fabulous first month, and I can't wait to experience more!




Some funny comments teachers have made during lectures:
- "Hang on, are you LATE? Or are you early for next week?"
-"I can tell by your faces that you bitterly, bitterly disapprove of that" (regaring ending the lecture early)
- "It's youtube morning this morning folks!"
- "You know me, I love to spread!" (regarding scattered papers)
- "Monotone is sexy!"

So, today decided to eat brunch. Ha! As is a simple brunch could ever satisfy us, the brave warriors of the Erasmus programme! So instead we grab out big bags and warm jackets. Why the warm jackets? Due to a sudden snowfall yesterday which resulted in most cars in Wolverhampton in desperate need of a push to start and closed taxi services, but left us swedes laughing in pity. But even if heaps of wet snow remained we carried on, and the trains left on time: we were going to Birmingham.

 
 

In Birmingham we didn't have time to see much of the city: the shopping centre was far bigger than any in gothenburg, and we spent the day walking around in this mall called "the bull ring". However we started with a full english breakfast. How anyone can dislike beacon is beyond me. So, we, me Helen and Leonie, drag poor, but there voulantarily, Jimmy around to various girl stores to gather both clothes and supplies and props for the upcoming "Party Animal" bar-crawl, gonna be really interesting! Several bags of various shopping and a bento box of sushi was brought back home to Wolverhampton whhen the stores closed. A true, fine, british sunday!


  
- I now have a Panda Hat and a Milk & cookie shirt... NOTHING CAN STOP ME!

4 AM, all students in Bedford House is soundly sleeping and dreams of mushrooms, boats and economic principles. Well, at least one of them, when suddenly the most distrubing sound possible at 4 AM penetrates the sleep. The bloody fire alarm. Shoes and jacket on och off we go, everyone skipping down the stairs in their PJ's and out. Happy people who still are up walkes by and excited shouts "Pyjama party!" and gives thumbs up.

Apart from the cold it's fine, no one really thinks it's a fire going on. So instead we all get to know our neighbours a bit more, and I can now conclude that Augusta, as her name turned out to be, is from Nigeria. Nothing bad that doesn't bring some good ;)

Another "warning" you can find in England. I took this one in London and I can't for my life figure out why it says "Stop cock" on it.

Firstly: The launderette is utterly odd. First of all, compared to our beloved Swedish system, you do certainly not have to schedule a time or sign up on a list – you can simply go there. And not just on special times, because the launderette is open 24 hours. As in Sweden, it’s free of charge which is as awesome as can be. Perhaps it’s just me but they don’t have a little pocket/box for the washing powder, but you just throw it into the machine. Efficient yes, but very confusing the first time you try it by yourself…



Another notion is the tea here, with this I mean the kind you buy in the stores. It is very rare to see which kind of tea: it doesn’t often tell if it’s red, green or black, and furthermore which flavour the bags have is even rarer. And when you then manage to get a hold of your tea, the bags do not have a string, oh heavens no, you just place the bag in the cup and fish it up with a teaspoon once you’re done. This is one of the things I’ve seen around Europe, in Poland for example they had the same system. It’s cutting down on the number of items used for a teabag, which means less waste which is always good for everyone. Sweden, watch and learn!

Okay, time for some blogging. I’ve now been in England for 2 weeks, out of which 1 night in London. This time, compared to 2010 when I went to the capital for holiday and it was awesome, it was…not my most impressive experience. It turned out to be somewhat difficult to find a place which was night open to wait at, and when I finally did this oddball of a lady was speaking about her mother’s sore throat with me…for four hours. No offence to people who are talkative but, ugh. After the night I finally managed to get to the Euston station, where the train was waiting, left on time, and arrived on time. The Swedish railways have so much to learn for the UK. Due to my early arrival in Wolverhampton (8-ish, after two hours of sleeping on the train) I couldn’t check in to the hotel yet, so five more hours of walking around without any real plans until 13 and finally got some sleep after 30+ hours awake. I stayed 5 nights at this hotel while I managed to fix my accommodation, the enrolment and most importantly got a hang of the city.  It is very many bricks. But the University seems fine and I think I can really come to like it. Though I must add, when I stepped of the train my first thought was “Why the HELL did I want to go here?”


 - Hotel room

So, after speaking with the accommodation service which was very helpful I moved in to my room, in a corridor which was empty. For days. The exact amount of 5 days I lived somewhat isolated in the room, because hey, I had explored the centre, no school activated yet, no dorm mates… internet, I was so happy to have you. However the day before the school’s welcome meeting one other girl, which I have not seen since, moved in to my delight.

 - Dorm room
   

At this welcome meeting (which wasn’t  anything special at all.), the first thing I hear is my own language. I’m now very glad to have my new acquaintances Helen and Jimmy to attack the English culture with, which is very much needed because there are some  culture clashes to be expected. Like how the tap water tastes chloride, the lamps lit up by pulling strings, the penny system, transportation systems, the fact that they only sell fried chicken in the supermarket … it is similar but you know, not quite THE SAME!

The first trip outside Wolverhampton was the 21th, when we travelled by bus for about 1 hour to Stratford-upon-Avon, known for the birthplace of a bloke called William Shakespear, you might have heard of him? It was an adorable place, as you picture UK to be with little cafés and pubs. We kicked off right away in the awful weather, windy and cold, for a 2 hours guided tour about Shakespear  and the town itself (as well as an definition between city, village and town) we hurried into a cozy restaurant before we froze the toes off. Fabulous food later we strolled around the charming streets to various stores, before finding and equally cozy café with equally fabulous offers (we hit the jackpots of food places I dare say!) before getting on the bus and back home.

 '- Hamlet, Jimmy and Helen

    
- The Garrick - A candy store - The Stratford theather - W.S. Birthplace


- awesome little store which sold butterbeer and only played Harry Potter Music <3

 

- FIKA!

So in conclusion, after an annoying night and many dull days the university life is finally starting, and it seems like it’s going to be some great months here in England <3

”Väsk-ryckt” för första gången. Vet inte riktigt vad man kallar det när något tar innehållet i väskan men låter dig behålla väskan, men i alla fall. Mitt kontantkort och körkort blev stulet ihop med min kompis plånbok och mobil nyligen, vilket alltid förstör fest-humöret.

Steg:

1)FAN. Leta genom väskan minst fem gånger.

2) Leta runt sig samt fråga i ”hittegods avdelningen”

3) Svära. Gråta. Bryta ihop.

4) resa sig igen och spärra kortet innan de köper drinkar för hela ditt CSN

5) gå till polisen och anmäla stulet körkort samt skaffa nytt.

6) Skaffa en väska med James Bond säkra lås tills nästa gång.

Men varför? Två körkort, 2 kontokort med summan 200 kr totalt, en gammal mobil och en förstörd kväll. VARFÖR stjäla något så värdelöst?

Jag bröt precis den svenska integritetens bubbla. Invaderade någons säkerhets zon. Jag sa i kort ord hej till en svensk jag inte kände som satt bredvid mig på tåget. Och redan tidigare denna dag hade jag syndat, då jag såg en annan fadder (i färgen gul) gå förbi och hälsade ”oss faddrar emellan” mässigt. Det jag fått tillbaka är två blickar fyllda av förvirring och skeptiska korthuggna svar. Dock lyckades jag lura faddern att känna gemensam grund och vi hade några meningsutbyten innan vi gick åt varsitt håll.

Det känns rent av löjligt. Att man inte ens ska kunna hälsa på en annan medmänniska som du ska spendera 2 timmar tågresa med! Inte undra på att utbytesstudenterna som kommer till Sverige inte lär känna några svenskar utan känner sig ensamma. Eller är det bara för att jag har fått det berättat för mig som jag anstränger mig för att spräcka våra anti-sociala oskrivna lagar? Jag kan bara ana vad tågresenären kommer att säga till sina bekanta ”det var en skitkonstig tjej på tåget dag. Nej jag vet inte, bara så jävla konstig och otrevlig. Irriterande.” Om denne nu har några bekanta, för med den attityden kan man ju knappast lära känna många… Kalla mig stereotyp-letare, men man kunde nästan ana att han gick fordonsprogrammet (det är bekräftat av hans jacka)…
Kära läsare, min högskola påverkar mig oerhört positivt. Säg hej du också.

You learn several interesting things when studying the present business environment and the implications of this. And when I was doing this I stumbled upon a term called "the gender contract" which I find very interesting. The gender contract is first of all not an actual document, notihng tangiable, but instead something intangiable and measurable. The gender contract states that men exists to protact women, and women exists to serve men.

So how can we see this in the business world, that's it isn't just me bullshitting?
We can first of all see this in the gender patterns that are very apparent, which is the division of work. As how the military, firefighters and police are dominated by men, which are "protective" jobs, while we find much larger proportions of females at occupations like being a nurse. This have also to do with the homosocial reproduction (which claims that male bosses wants male bosses to take their place when they quit and same such), and some other reasons why females don't have many top positions, but this have to do with segregation, not the gender contracts, so I will not speak of this until later.

This gender contract works nicely at home, with a marrige couple. It is a bit, well, traditionally thinking and I think it seems somewhat old-fashioned, but nonetheless. But in the labor market, this is a serious trouble, since it doesn't allow women to climb the hierarchy. This is one of the reasons we find more women in the public sector, where wages (rewards in formal terms) are lower. But because of the lower rewards men prefer to search themselves into the private, more well-payed, sector. This creates an opening for women to enter a tad higher hierarchy levels in the public sector, but the top management is still men. The conclusion can be that women are structurally subordinated men!

This is not just something existing in pre-time. Think of a male boss. Pause and just think of some good adjectives. Did the words dependable, stable or something like that come to mind? Think of a female boss. Is the thought more negative? Even in this "enlighted" generation we tend to think way more negative about women.

And when we try to break the gender system, assume I guy buys and wears a dress, the societly will restore order in one or both of two ways: claim it as wrong
"A guy in a dress is just wrong, shape up dude!"
or claim it to be an expection
"He's just that wierd kid."

So what can we do affect the gender contract? Be a femenist maybe? No, a femeist isn't just some crazy lady who don't shave her legs. It is a person thinks men and women should have the same wages, if they do the same work. This should also mean that women should be delegated the same work as men, not less complicated work. The rewards should be equal because of what you do, not what you are!

//Thought and knowledge from an International Management student

Min vän Artano, Kung och Drottning över Skåneland, påstod till Närconälskares förfäran att kåsor inte var användabara till någonting! Därför bad jag några kompisar om hjälp och vi sammanställde ett smakprov på 101 saker man kan göra om man har en kåsa. Vissa förslag togs bort (t.ex. One night stand, gifta sig med, använda som den Heliga Graal, bada i, måla med...) och många sätt fick inte plats på listan.

100 sätt att använda en kåsa:

1.       Ha vatten i

2.       Akut pungskydd (punkt 1&2 var alla sätt Artano kunde komma på)

3.       Fimpa i

4.       Ha vatten i när man målar warhammer figurer

5.       Använda som spargris

6.       Ha småsaker i

7.       Äta ur

8.       Hatt

9.     Smälta den och skada ozonlagret

10.   Smälta den och låtsas att det är ost

11.   Använda som ett vapen

12.   Paddla

13.   Ha blommor i den

14.   Fånga förkrympta människor i den

15.   Fläkta sig

16.   Ögonlapp om man ska vara pirat

17.   Vattentäta skor

18.   Platåskor

19.   Cosplay

20.   Lura folk att man är scout

21.   Musikinstrument

22.   Prydnad

23.   Öronskydd

24.   Ljusstake

25.   Få folk att kissa på sig, eller få det att se ut att de har kissat på sig

26.   Akvarium

27.   Transportabel myrstack

28.   Vinpress (kräver hål)

29.   Duschmunstycke (kräver hål)

30.   Juicepress (kräver hål)

31.   Gräva med den

32.   Paraply för små människor

33.   Fjärilshåv

34.   Tuggummi avlastare

35.   Stapla andra kåsor i

36.   Bära ”The ring” från sagan om ringen i

37.   Krabbhåv

38.   Fiskhåv

39.   Påstå att det är en magisk kåsa som gör dig längre (Hanna går definitivt på det!)

40.    leka sköldpadda

41.   Använda som påse

42.   Måla ett ansikte på den och ha den som en vän

43.   Dricka ur den

44.   Toalett

45.   Shotkåsa

46.   Sockerbehållare

47.   Mått

48.   Handelsvara (köpa slavar för 10 kåsor kanske?)

49.   Flyga med! Vingar!

50.   Vid nödsituationer, som vid en förlisning kan man ösa vatten med den!

51.   Gömma saker i den

52.   Kasta den

53.   Hoppa på den

54.   Leka ”gömma kåsa”

55.   Filma den

56.   Mikrofon när man sångtränar i duschen

57.   Solskydd för ögonen

58.   Göra underkläder av den

59.   Plånbok

60.   Dörrstopp

61.   Bokstöd

62.   Göra halsband utav

63.   Ge bort i present

64.   Lampskärm

65.   Julgransfot

66.   Julgransprydnad

67.   Titta på den

68.   Klä ut den

69.   Rita på den

70.   Pall

71.   Pajform

72.   Diska den

73.   Bygga sandslott med

74.   Dansa med den

75.   Leka Hamlet med den

76.   Burktelefon

77.   Gryta

78.   Hammare

79.   Hjälm

80.   Sked

81.   Forma riskullar (i genren matlagning)

82.   Mosa potatis

83.   Använda till fågelbad

84.   Tvättkorg

85.   Tvålkopp

86.   En present i ett Happy Meal

87.   Nödlaga din lacross-pinne (kräver silvertejp)

88.   Brännbollsracket

89.   Fruktplockning

90.   Ha skramlades efter bilen om du är nygift

91.   Träningsredskap (lyfta vikter)

92.   Gräva bort Skåne (OBS inte att förväxla med #31)

93.   Sandkakaform

94.   Binda ett snöre vid och skapa streetart

95.   Flöte

96.   Knäskydd

97.   Armbågsskydd

98.   Tillbe

99.   Kavel

100. Degel; ha vitt pulver inuti och en tändare under

101.  Göra en lista på 100 saker man kan använda en kåsa till

18/1-2011

Det var uppenbart att mannen där nere vid podiumet var Brittisk. Inga baktankar här inte, han var brittisk! Andreas Stephan, brittiskt. Drack kaffe, brittiskt. Rosa skjorta. Mannen var praktiskt taget Storbritannien i levande form! Min finska kurskamrat påpekade att hon hört att han var tysk, men vi var överens: vi hade att göra med en engelsman. Stephan, hur engelskt kan ett namn bli?

”Stepham” skrattade vi, då vi testade tyska versioner av hans efternamn. Sen började han prata.

”My name is Andreas Schteffan” med bred tysk dialekt. Skit. Föreläsningen segade sig fram. Hans kaffe förblev odrucket. Och när han slutade var jag säker: hans skjorta var helt klart vit.