Maria's Travel Diary

In 2003 Maria Cameron spent six months studying at the University of Malmö in southern Sweden. This page contains a list of Maria's diary entries in which she describes the daily life in Malmö and her experiences of study, life and Scandinavian culture, to keep her worldwide network of family and friends informed about her time abroad.

Monday, 1 December 2003

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Hi everyone,

I arrived home yesterday from a week-long trip up to the north of Sweden and Finland where I saw snow falling for the first time in my life! It was great. Every time I sit down to try and write about what I've been doing here, I get overwhelmed, and end up not writing anything, because so much has happened in the last couple of months, that I don't know where to start! But since I've just arrived home from a great trip, I'll write a little about it first...

I had been planning to go travelling up north for quite a while with some of my friends I live here with, and we had found a time during which we were all free to travel in between our studies, but we only actually booked our flights a couple of nights before we left. I went with a group of Spaniards - Andrea (my neighbour), Miguel, Jorge and Jose (who live upstairs from me), and Jose's sister, Paloma (who was visiting him from Valencia). We had found really cheap flights from Malmö to Stockholm, then from Stockholm to Luleå (in northern Sweden), then another flight from Kiruna (in the very north of Sweden, above the arctic circle) back home again to Malmö.

The only problem was that when we booked our tickets we didn't realise that the Stockholm Film Festival was on the weekend we were planning to be there. After getting excited to be in the vicinity of the likes of David Lynch and Qwentin Tarantino (Edwin: I was thinking of you and Seth), we frantically tried to find accomodation, but it was impossible, everywhere was booked out because of the festival! We spent hours trying to find a hostel to stay at, or a cheap hotel, and then as our desperation increased as the time for leaving drew near, we contacted everyone we knew who might know of somewhere we could stay, from as far away as Spain and Australia. But no miracle occurred, and we left Malmö with no idea of where we'd be spending the next three nights. We were hoping to find somewhere - anywhere - out of the freezing cold, even a warm train station.

But when we arrived at the central station in Stockholm, we bumped into Noell and Grega (who live with me on my floor at Rönnen), and Grega's sister, Nina (visiting from Slovenia), who had been travelling also. We managed to then find accomodation with the help from a woman at the tourist information centre (who was so kind as to give us her mobile number, offering to put us up for a couple of nights, if we couldn't find accomodation for the rest of our stay! She was the first of many who broke down the stereotype of Stockholmers being snobbish and unfriendly that I'd had from Swedes in Malmö. So many people were so friendly and helpful to us during our brief stay). Jorge, Andrea and I were to sleep on a ship-turned-youth-hostel, the same one that Noell, Nina and Grega were staying at, and Jose, Paloma and Miguel slept in a jail-turned-youth-hostel.

Stockholm was very beautiful. It is a city built on several small islands, joined together by many bridges. The old part of the city, Gamla Stan, was magical, with very small cobblestoned streets, bright shop windows, beautiful old buildings and statues. It reminded me a little of the old part of Florence, although it was different in many ways. I felt as if I was in a movie set, everything was picture perfect. I preferred the city by night, because it looked so fairytale-like with all the twinkling lights (which is lucky, because it was dark by 3:30pm!) We listened to a great blues band one night in an Irish Pub, we spoke to a young soldier guarding the royal palace, we saw an amazing restored battleship 333 years old, called Vasa in a museum, I saw snow falling for the first time in my life, we had fika (coffee and cake) in a Brunswick St-style cafe in the student-working-class part of the city ! after looking in all the second-hand cd, record and clothing shops, we ate lots of kebabs, and we squeezed seven people into a tiny four-bed hostel room. Every day we walked around a lot, seeing a lot of very beautiful buildings. My favourite was the city library. The central room was perfectly round, and open. Along the walls were three levels of books, but above them was a white, windowed wall the same height again, topped with a huge, open white ceiling. The patchwork of colours made by the books was so beautiful in contrast to the white of the ceiling (Boba: the colours of the books reminded me so much of your embroidered quilts). But most of the new part of the city could have been found in Melbourne, and I wasn't so interested in it. The shops, the design of the streets, the architecture, the Macdonalds, it is all the same everywhere!

After four days in Stockholm, we met up with Ulrike and Anna (who live upstairs from me at Rönnen) at the airport, who were joining us in our travel up north. We caught our next flight, which was to Luleå, where we stayed with Geni, a friend of Paloma, who was also on exchange from Spain. We stayed in an apartment for visitors, complete with kitchen facilities and a sauna, which was luxuary compared to our previous accomodation in Stockholm. The flight to Luleå was very exciting for me, because I learned how to say the the spanish 'r' with Miguel's instruction, a sound I thought I'd never be able to make. Although I haven't been able to do it since, it was very exciting to have done it once! A friendly bus-driver drove us to the door of where we were going to stay, after talking with us for over an hour during the bus trip about the relations between northern Swedes and Stockholmers, and how it is possible to survive in such a cold climate,! among other things (Dad: every time we spoke with a local in all the places we visited, I thought of you, and of how you would love to be there to ask lots of questions and have really interesting conversations with them...I asked them all the kinds of things I imagined you would, it was great fun imagining you there!)

In Luleå, we visited a very old church town, Gammelstad, from the 1300s, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site not only because of the old church because of the cultural practice of using the houses only for the weekends to go to church, that has continued up until now. We also went on a bus trip for one day to Rovaniemi, a town in Finland approximately on the artic circle, and to an arctic museum and to Santa Claus' house (what Dad would call a touristic monstrosity, comparable to Westfield Shoppingtown), with 120 exchange students studying at the technical university in Luleå. The bus trip was incredibly beautiful, we watched a golden sun rise very slowly over endless fir tree forests, all brilliantly white from their cover of snow. At Santa's house, Paloma, Andrea and I happened to meet a Finnish reindeer man, who was preparing two of his reindeer to take some tourist on a sled ride. We spoke to him for a long time, it! was very fascinating to learn about his lifestyle, and when we left we said goodnight to him in Finnish, and 'moi, moi', which means goodbye, the only two things we knew how to say. The museum was pretty good, with lots of exhibits about the Vikings and the Saamis (an indiginous group who live across the top parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and part of Russia). It was in Rovaniemi that we experienced the coldest weather ever in our lives: it was -20 celcius!

After two days in Luleå, we caught a bus up north, to Jokkmokk, a small town on the way to our final destination, Kiruna. There we visited one of the best museums I've ever been to, about the Saamis. It was so tastefully done, and so engaging. I was amazed at how well each exhibit had been crafted. That night we walked 3kms along a road through a white-blanketed landscape to a warm, cosy cabin, where we drank Glögg (traditional Swedish warm, spiced, sweet, red wine), and played Yatze and Poker long into the night. The next day we walked across a nearby frozen lake, and sat in the woods on the other side, wondering what we'd do if we had to try and survive out there. We ate snow, and found three tiny, sweet ligonberries, and ate them. We weren't as lucky as the reindeer we'd met in Rovaniemi, who we were told could find 200 plants to eat in winter, and over 300 in summer! In the afternoon, we caught a bus to Kiruna, arriving there at ab! out 8:30pm. We'd planned to stay overnight in the airport, sleeping on the couches, but it is such a small airport that it was closed until 8am the next morning, and we had to be there then to catch an early flight home to Malmö. Thus stranded with nowhere to sleep for the night, closest to the north pole we'd ever been, a lovely man from Alexandria, called Hasse, drove us with all our luggage to his coffee shop from the bus-stop, and let us stay there until it closed at 4am in the morning. We sat there playing word games and postcards to kill time, while a lonely Swede spoke to us for hours. But after 4am, we walked around the empty town centre, looking for some warm place to spend the next few hours. We were so desperate we asked the police if we could stay at the police station, but they turned us down, so we ended up staying for a couple of hours outdoor in the freezing cold, outside a kiosk, cuddled up to each other to ward of! f the chill. Then Miguel and Jose went searching for a warmer place, and found what was for us a paradise. They had found a warm, dry floor in a shoppingcentre. We were so desperate for warmth that it was like finding heaven. We lay down there until 7:30am, when we caught a taxi to the airport, utterly exhausted, but also happy. The sky was just lightening with the first rays of sunshine as we took off, and we saw a stunning red sun rise above the snow-covered landscape. Arriving home was great, we had showers, put on our pyjamas, and the trip was finished with a lovely long evaluative conversation with Paloma and Andrea, followed by a nice dinner with my 'Swedish family' (the exchange students I live with, none of whom are actually Swedish!), to which we told all our stories to.

And that just about takes me to the present! I only have three weeks left in Sweden, after which I will travel to Oslo, to spend Christmas with the Aares family and Virgil (my brother), after which Virgil and I will travel to Valencia, Spain, to visit Jose, Paloma, Jorge and Miguel. We are uncertain about our plans after that, except that I hope to meet up with Riona and Berna maybe in Berlin or Zurich (Berna: there you go, you are mentioned now in my plans! It's going to be so great to see you!), and possibly visit Tina in northern Germany, but on the 20th of January we will leave Europe for the US, where will visit my aunt and uncle Daniella and Martin in New York and my uncle Jeremy and his family in San Fransisco. Originally we had planned to then return home on the 4th of February, but we are going to try and change our tickets, so that we can stop on in New Zealand on the way home, for a couple of weeks. We hope to ! visit Danielle and Al and their family in Dunedin, and then go camping to enjoy the summer weather after our long northern-hemisphere winter. And hopefully Edwin will come and join there! (Mocca and Kiana: I'm so sorry I might miss your birthday celebrations, even with the extension of Mocca's for nearly a month!)

The next couple of weeks will be filled with essay-writing, press-release-writing and group presentations in my Human Rights course at uni. Also, I will be saying goodbye to so many of my close friends here, many of which I doubt I will ever see again. But strangely enough, rather than feeling sad that this magical time is about to finish for me, and my 'Swedish family' is about to become something of the past, I feel ready for it to finish. I can only feel gratitude for having had this experience, and having met such amazing people, as well as feeling ready to do other things, to travel and then to return to Australia.

I guess because this is likely to be one of the very few emails I write about my time here in general, I should try and say something about what I've been doing the last few months. Firstly, my studies in the field of Human Rights has inspired me to change what I'm studying in Australia from Arts-Science to Arts-Law. It has been great learning what I've learned here in my uni course. I've also met really lovely people in my course, from all over the world, as well as from Sweden. I've learned a lot about myself, and about people in general, from having to live with 17 people from different backgrounds. Much of my time has been spent discussing our different cultural practices, our different lifestyles and habits. I've tried to learn a little spanish from my spanish friends, and I learned a little swedish in the first couple of months. Tonight I watched a great film, 'Carne Tremula' in Spanish, with Swedish subtitles, so it was a ! good test of my understanding of each language I've learned a bit of here. I also had Andrea translating the general plot, but it was great fun seeing how much I could understand of each language!

We have had endless fantastic parties, many on my floor, one birthday celebration in the form of a wedding. Sören, who lives on my floor, and is a regular member of our nightly 'toothbrushing parties' (he and Jan come to Andrea and my bathroom, and we laugh and talk together as we brush our teeth) had said he'd like to get married for his birthday. So we made a 3-tiered wedding cake, with figurines on top, we had a bride (Pia from Finland), a ring-bearer (me), a priest (Darek, from Poland, who after reading my previous group emails on www.virgilsdiary.com was disappointed that I hadn't mentioned him, so now I will say that he is a great friend to me, he is a life-size teddy bear who is trying to convert me into an obedient, Polish housewife and calls me 'Koala'), a father-of-the-bride (Piotr from Poland), an objecting, pregnant ex-lover of the groo! m (Andrea with a baloon under her top), a best man (Silke from Germany), a brides' maid (Heidi from Finland), and flower girls (Tina and Anna from Germany). It was so much fun, I'll bring pictures home to show you.

We've also had endless impromptu dinners with several of the people I live with. We have had Moussaka made by Marina from Greece, Paella made by Miguel from Spain (and his mother, when she and Miguel's father visited), Kaiser Schmaren by Silke and Jan from Germany, as well as by Krista from Austria (it is a traditional Austrian dish), brownies by Rachel from the US, lobster soup and croissants by Magga from Iceland, a traditional fish risotto by Disa and Edda from Iceland, spanish potato omlettes by Miguel and Andrea, just to name a few of the special dinners we've enjoyed together. We've also had several sunday breakfasts together, many outside on the balcony, when the weather was warmer, reminding me of our sunday breakfasts out at Warrandyte with Don and Barbara.

A big part of my life here has been the endless conversations I've had with all the people who wander into my room, or Andrea's next door, at all hours. We've watched many great DVDs, had many spanish classes, listened to lots of music, laughed, laughed some more, played guitar, looked at my atlas (that I've given to Miguel now) and my world map. There is nothing I love more than having people just walk in to talk with me, which has happened a lot. When the weather was warm in the first few months, we would take the couches from the living room out onto our balcony, and spend the balmy evenings outside. The seasons here have been so beautiful, and so different to Australia, particularly all the orange and red leaves falling from the trees in Autumn.

We have made several trips across the Öresund Bridge to Copenhagen. Copenhagen always makes me think of Boba, because she says it was her favourite city. I've loved going to the independent community, Christiania, in Copenhagen. It is like Nimbin in New South Wales, but not disconnected from the rest of the world, as it is in the middle of the city. I have several fond memories of being there for hours with friends (I also went there with Virgil, when he came to visit me with Julie from Oslo), walking around, and eating in a lovely vegan restaurant that reminded me very much of Don and Barbara's house. We have also visited the nearby beautiful, old university town, Lund, and one weekend Jorge, Andrea and I travelled up north to Oslo, Norway, where we visited Virgil. The trip to Oslo was one of the best weekends in all the time I've been in Europe.

Although I've only written a tiny bit about what the last few months have contained, this email is long enough now. I hope it gives you some kind of idea of why I've had an incredible time here. But I must get some sleep now. I'm so appreciative of all the letters in the post (thankyou so much Yuki, Mutti, Jelly and Edwin, they have been so incredibly nice to receive, nothing beats the excitement and anticipation of opening an envelope!), the telephone calls and, of course, the emails from everybody. I'm sorry I don't always relpy straight away, and that I'm not writing to all of you personally now. But thankyou so much for the friendly emails, I love them so much!

All my love,

Maria.

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Friday, 17 October 2003

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Hi everyone,

Maria and some of her 'Swedisn Family', pictured outside her appartment building. (Photo: Virgil Cameron)

This was going to be the promised long email all about what I've been doing here, but I just spent two and a half hours happily writing it then for the second time I accidently deleted it (I did exactly the same thing last week). So you will have to wait for a couple more days until I have time to make a third attempt, before hearing all about what I've been doing, and why I love it so much here. But some information just can't wait! I just got the results for my five-hour exam I did four weeks into my course, and I got 100%!

Maria tries on a cool hat while visiting a second-hand clothing store in Copenhagen. (Photo: Virgil Cameron)

I was chatting online to Virgil last night, and I promised him that if I passed this exam (you know me, I was worried I might have failed it!), then I'd come and visit him in Oslo with my very special Spanish next-door-neighbour Andrea, Jorge (another special Spanish friend), Rachel (a lovely friend from the US) and possibly some other friends, when they go to visit Virgil (they all met him when he and Julie Aares came to visit me a couple of weekends ago from Oslo). But late last night Andrea mentioned to me a plan to travel with Tina and Ulrike (the lovely German women I do yoga with every morning) up north past the polar circle, to see the northern lights. They are planning to travel via Stockholm, and to spend a day on the way up in Estonia. They would go in late November, for about a week and a half. And we could travel down via Oslo! If I travel very cheaply, and study hard beforehand to make up for the time lost, I just might be able do it!

Maria smiling happily while eating breakfast in the sunshine on her balcony, during the weekend that Virgil Cameron and Julie Aares visited her in Malmö. (Photo: Virgil Cameron)

I've worked out that if I work really hard in the next month, I can have all my studies finished before Christmas, so that I can go to Oslo for Christmas without anymore essays to write. This means that Virgil and I have until the 20th of January to travel in Europe, before leaving for the US. One option is to go to Switzerland, Austria and Germany, possibly visiting Ruth, Eva, Aurelia and Verena, but we could also go to Valencia, Spain, and visit my Spanish friends who will be back home by then! (Virgil: what do you think?!?)

I was talking into the early morning with Jorge and Andrea last night, so now I will go home and get a bit of sleep, stopping only for a celebratory drink at an Irish Pub on the way, with friends from my course, to celebrate that we passed the exam. Then later tonight there is a party on with Swedish people who live in a nearby student apartment block, similar to the one I live in.

We have been having incredible weather here. It is nothing like I imagined Sweden to be like. Before leaving Melbourne, I was picturing myself spending the whole six months bundled up in thermal underwear, numerous scarfs, gloves, boots, a beanie, and a huge jacket, to ward off the grey, the cold, the wind and rain, and possibly the snow. But the last week has been amazing: bright blue skies, brilliant sunlight, crisp, cool air, a strong wind at times, frost on the grass in the mornings, and blazing red and oranges everywhere as all the trees change colour. Instead of the muted greys and dirty city snow I was expecting by this time, the brilliance of the Autumn reds and golds of the trees against the clear blue of the sky is breathtakingly beautiful. Tomorrow I will go for a morning walk with Edwin's camera, to try and capture some of the beautiful scenery I pass on my way to uni every day. And there is the first snow forcasted for next Monday, which is very exciting for me!

Thankyou so much everyone who has sent me snail mail and emails, and for the nice chats with people on MSN Messenger and ICQ. It's so nice to hear from you!

I will write more soon, but until then, I send you all my love!

Maria.

 

Thursday, 11 September 2003

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Hi Everyone,

I just checked the website for the Introductory Program for International Students, and I found a couple of pictures of me! The first three are at a place called Österlen at the top of a cliff where we could lean into the wind, the force of it holding us up.

The third photo is of me and Pia, a girl I live with, last Friday night at the farewell party we organised. A lot of the people on my floor have bought toy guns, as we affectionately call our home the 'International Ghetto'. I was comparing Sören's gun with Pia's.

All my love,

Maria.

(Photo: www.mah.se/internat/0304/Day13.htm)

(Photo: www.mah.se/internat/0304/Day13.htm)

(Photo: www.mah.se/internat/0304/Day13.htm)

(Photo: www.mah.se/internat/0304/Day13.htm)

 

Wednesday, 3 September 2003

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Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry it's been so long since I last wrote to you! I keep putting it off, thinking that I'll write a long email sometime soon about what I've been doing here, but each time I've begun, I've got distracted. At last, I've found the perfect time to write. I read my timetable wrong this morning (the days of the week are written in swedish, which complicates things a little), and have arrived at uni for a lecture a couple of hours early, so I have some time to kill.

Mostly, I've been spending my time getting to know the other exchange students, particularly those living on my floor and the one above (there are about 35 of us living here), which means a lot of long conversations into the night, and little sleep. Also, I've been really enjoying walking everywhere. I love the size of this city, it is small enough that I can manage to walk nearly everywhere I need to go, and I have only caught the bus about 5 times while being here. Last Friday was the last day of the Introductory Course organised by the Malmö Uni International Office, and the last three weeks they have organised for us have been amazing. These are some of the things we've done...

On Wednesday 20th we visited the city library - now, it doesn't sound very exciting, but it was breathtaking. Half the library had been recently designed by a Danish architect, and there is one room that is huge, maybe 3 or 4 floors high, but all open space, and with two walls of constructed out of clear glass. It's hard to describe, but the library is situated in a big park full of giant green trees, so the effect of being in this glass room is like being out among the trees, while being surrounded by books as well. A lot of people have taken a lot of photos during our stay here, and I will be able to get copies of most of them on cds, so when I return I'll be able to show you how beautiful it was. It will be particularly nice to meet friends there for coffee in the winter, because it will be so warm and bright.

On Saturday 23rd, we went for the day on an excursion around the southern part of Scåne (the southern region of Sweden), visiting very old towns, castles and churches. But the best place we went to was at the top of a cliff at a place called Österlen, above the sea. There is a big circle of very old stones, the origin of which is constantly being heatedly debated among experts: some say it was a burial ground, others say the ring of rocks was a sun dial of some sort. It is one of the largest rock formations in Europe, second only to Stone Henge. The sky was grey and stormy, and the ocean coloured to match, and the wind was the strongest I've ever experienced. We stood at the cliff's edge for ages, leaning off the cliff toward the water, being held up by the wind. I loved it there so much, it reminded me of being on a motorbike, the wind rushing through my hair.

On Tuesday 26th, we had a barbeque on the beach, where we played swedish-style softball. It was a lot of fun. We ate hot dogs with a sweet pickle spread and crispy dried fried onion pieces (it is extremely hard to describe these, but all together, it was delicious!)

The last week has been a very social one, we had four parties in a row, from Thursday night through to Sunday night. On Thursday, Andrea, an extremely lovely woman from Spain moved in next door to me, so we had a little 'room-warming' party for her.

On Friday, the last day of the Introductory Course, all the international students organised a huge party on my floor to celebrate the last 3 weeks, and to thank the members of the Malmö Uni International Office for the course. It was great. We had split up into little groups, each organising a different thing, such as decorations, drinks, music, thankyou gifts, speeches, catering, clean-up, etc. I was in the speech group, but instead of writing a speech, we wrote a song to the tune of the ABBA (who are swedish, if you didn't know) song 'Mamma Mia', saying thankyou for everything that had happened in the course. It had about 5 verses, and it was really funny, but when we wrote it we didn't think everyone would sing it. On the night of the party, though, everyone sang it, and loved it, and then after giving our thankyou gifts, we all sang it again. On Saturday night we celebrated two birthdays, Laia, a woman from Spain, turned 23, and Katie, from La Trobe Uni in Australia, turned 20. On Sunday night, we had a pancake party for Maren, a woman from Germany, who turned 22. Just in the next week there are three more bithdays, a house-warming party for Nils, a guy from Germany who has just got his own apartment, and there are also lot of activities organised by the Malmö Uni Student Union for the first week of uni for first-year uni students.

But now I'm studying again, after a long, lovely, European holiday. I had my first lecture on Monday, where we met some of our future lecturers, and were introduced to the Human Rights course. The course is being taught from three different perspectives: legal, moral and ethical, and political, so some lecturers are lawyers, economists, political scientists, and anthropologists, among others. One lecturer is an Australian lawyer from Melbourne, with a strong aussie accent. I was happy to meet some people also studying HR, from Uganda, Mexico and Japan, two of whom are already lawyers.

In Sweden, and possibly most of Europe, the average age that people start studying at university is about 23, much older than in Australia. Most people travel, work and do other things before study at uni, and this makes for a different atmosphere in the classroom. The atmosphere reminds me a lot more of the second-year humanities lectures and tutorials I've had at La Trobe, rather than the first-year ones, in which it is very obvious that most people have come straight from highschool (even though HR is at first-year level, most people in my class are what in Australia would be called 'mature-age').

After the lecture on Monday, I went and bought seven books with titles like 'Models of Democracy', 'Women's Rights, Human Rights', 'International Law' and 'Religious Diversity and Human Rights'. I have to read a 360-page book about democracy by next Tuesday, among other things! It seems like the course is much more based on reading than anything I've ever studied before. But I'm very interested in the topic, so I'm quite excited. At the beginning of any period of study, I'm always very excited and motivated. The problem arises when I've been studying for a while...

Because I hope to one day travel in Latin America, or even possibly live there for some time, I hope to learn spanish while living here. In fact, I'd prefer to learn spanish over swedish, as it would be more useful for me later in life. It might be possible, becuase there are five spanish people living with me, and most importantly, Andrea is next door! So we've been having a couple of informal spanish classes, and I've already learnt a couple of phrases, basic pronunciation, how to count, etc. It is also possible for me to continue studying swedish once a week in an evening class, provided by the uni for free. I think if I can fit it in I will take these classes, becuase it is such a great opportunity to learn a language. If I didn't take them, then I probably wouldn't learn any more swedish at all becuase EVERYONE here speaks fluent english, and most swedes prefer to, as soon as they know that you speak english.

Another thing I've been doing a bit is playing frisbee in our long hallway (I live in converted old hospital, remember, so the hallway is extremely long and wide), as well as outside in the nearby park. It reminds me a lot of playing with Edwin and Seth behind their flat, and on the oval across the road from our home in Rosanna. Sören, a guy from Germany who lives two doors down the hall from me, is crazy about frisbee, and we both want to make a regular habit of playing, especially if we are studying a lot.

My bedroom is still very often full of people who drop by to 'study' (this is a code-word for sitting around and enjoying ourselves, while our books lie open but ignored infront of us), to say hi, or to talk. I love it. We have our carpets from IKEA now, so we can lie on the floor now too. My red cyclamen, my green rainforesty plant (I have no idea what it is called, Dad!) and my basil plant are still healthy and alive on my window sill, and my regular use of tea-light candles and my oil burner still hasn't set of the fire alarm. In short, life is good on the fourth floor of Rönnen ( we now fondly refer to Rönnen as the 'International Ghetto', after someone jokingly called it that because we don't have a kitchen yet).

Thankyou everyone who has written me letters, SMSs and emails, or called me. It is always so lovely and important to me to hear from you.

Mutti - Thankyou SO much for all the snail mail, there is nothing better than arriving home from a long day of swedish classes and opening my letter-box to find some mail, and seeing the red and blue stripes of the airmail envelope, and your perfectly printed writing! Your letters give me such a lovely window into the close family's daily life, which I really appreciate. I am still walking a lot, and in the last few days I've been starting my day with some yoga. A lot of people at Rönnen would like to do a weekly yoga class together, just in one of the spare rooms, taken by some of us who have done it before. So we will have our first one next Sunday. Congratulations on the patchwork quilt, the pictures on Virgil's Diary look great. Everytime I hear from someone in the family, they always mention how much you are enjoying driving my car, so keep it up! And everyone seems to keep mentioning the movie 'Cypher' - what is it about? When Andrea (she actually grew up in the Canary Islands) saw the picture of me and you on my pin-board on my wall, she said how lovely you look, and how much she loves your hair (in the picture you have two long plaits). Everytime she comes into my room, or shows someone my photos of the family, she says how much she loves you, so I promised her I'd tell you . I had a lovely phonecall from Boba and Zayda last Sunday morning, so if you write to them or speak with them, please pass on my thanks.

Mocca - thanks for nice SMSs, I don't have any credit at the moment, so that's why I haven't responded. I'm glad you liked the postcard! And thanks for the lovely e-mails. You can still send me essays to proof-read, but I guess the one you were working on when you last wrote to me will already be handed in...but I'm still interested to read it, if you'd like to send it to me!

Widge - I just looked at www.virgilsdiary.com, and the new stories are fantastic! I had no idea that so much more had been written about what's going on in the family! I still haven't checked if the 15th is a good time for you to visit, but I'll keep in touch about it. It's great being able to chat on ICQ with you, you seem to be the only person awake and at a computer when I am (due to the time difference, I think!)

John - please put more pictures from Madagascar on Virgil's Diary, the one of two little girls was so nice, accompanied by your description. Always, when people living here with me complain about the lack of proper kitchen facilities (we will have our new kitchen on the 23rd of September), and about only having available a microwave to cook with, I think of how you lived in Madagascar, and I feel like I have everything I could possibly need here!

Vaiya - thankyou so much for the beautiful picture you painted of life in Melbourne. It makes me miss all of you so much, so it was really nice to hear about what's going on. I'll definately come to weekly hip-hop gigs with you when I'm back, particularly if they are anything like Spearhead! Next time you see Karuna, Loz and Tara (and anyone else from high school!), can you say hi, because I don't have any of their contact details. I didn't have to defer my studies at La Trobe Uni to come here, this semester of study in Sweden will count toward my degrees there. Actually, the dean of my faculty was extremely helpful in allowing me to gain full credit for this exchange, by changing the requirements for a double degree just for me. I'm glad you exhibition went well, I'm sure it was a huge success! I'm so sad I missed it, because I was so excited that you were going to have one...but I'll be there for the next ones you have!

Eva - yes, I did get the lovely long email from you about what you've been doing, thankyou so much, it was great to hear from you. The computers where I live haven't been working in these last few days due to viruses, so I wasn't able to respond to the first email straight away. When I've settled into a rhythm with my uni studies, I'd like to plan a couple of trips in Europe, specifically to Switzerland, Austria and Germany, as well as travelling a bit in Sweden. So I do hope to make it to Zurich, and it would be lovely to see you. I'm glad things are going well for you, three jobs sounds like a lot though!

Dad - thanks for writing out what Nath wrote on the postcard he sent the family, it was extremely lovely to read. He had told me he had thought of you on the bus, but I didn't think he had actually sent you a card saying so.

Berna - I'd love if you could send me some photos of anything!

con cariño ('with love' in spanish),

Maria.

 

 

Tuesday, 19 August 2003

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Here's a photo of Maria makig something that might be food, in her newly furbished kitchen. (Photo: www.mah.se/internat/0304/Day8.htm)

Hello everyone,

Well, it really must be time to update you on what I'm doing in Sweden, because if I leave it for any longer, I wont remember! I have just brainstormed with some others here to work out what we've spent the last few days doing, and now it has come back to me...

Sunday I spent sleeping, relaxing and trying to study Swedish. Sunday night was yet another very late night, talking with people in our loungeroom. As most of you will know, I try to not let anything get in the way of a good conversation, so meeting 85 people from around the world and living with 18 of them leaves little time for much else than getting to know them!

On Monday, my day began with another Swedish class, after which I opened a Swedish bank account. After, I went over to the other international student accomodation building, and cooked up a huge pot of pasta and sauce (mum - it reminded me of you so much, I made 14 dinners worth!). When it cooled, I froze it, which saves me buying dinner out every night, and from the horrors of frozen microwavable dinners from the supermarket. I also bought a basil plant which is now flourishing in the sun which streams in my window, and it makes everything I eat taste delicious.

Last night I stayed up late to give Edwin a ring (it was so nice to talk with you, Edwin!), then got some much-needed sleep. After my Swedish class today, I walked to the cheapest fresh food market in all of Malmö, not far from where I live, but the stalls were packing up as I arrived, and none of them would serve me. So I came home, and spent a couple of hours in the late afternoon sun with a couple of people from my floor, listening to music, in a nearby park.

Tonight, all the international students had a Swedish cooking class, where we make meatballs, potatoes, and other vegies, with ligenberries (do you know them, dad?) and a creamy brown sauce. It was delicious! Me, and a couple of others from my floor took all the leftovers, as food cooked on a stove is extremely valuable to us, so we will probably have the same thing tomorrow night too!

Now, after a pleasant evening (made all the more pleasant by a beautiful sunset, lovely company, white wine, and the balmy night air on our spacious balcony) I will study some Swedish, then have an early night.

Thankyou everyone for the lovely e-mails, it is so very nice to hear from you, and it is such a nice surprise to hear from some of you I haven't seen for ages (Andrew and Sam).

Oh, and if any of you use ICQ, you can chat to me online. My ICQ number is 347255582.

All my love,
Maria.

 

Thursday, 14 August 2003

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Maria arriving in Malmö with her very heavy bags. (Photo: www.mah.se/internat/0304/ArrivalD.html)

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for the fantastic emails! I don't have very much time at the moment to write, as things are pretty hectic what with moving in to a new room, new 'family' (the other international students), new city, new language and new culture! Still, I'll give you a quick rundown of the last two days, as I hope to use these emails as a sort of diary I can print off later, which will save me writing the same things twice. Also, sorry I'm not writing personalised emails to all of you, I just can't find time right now...but I really love hearing from all of you so much!

Firstly, here is my new address:

Maria Cameron
Rönnen International Student Accomodation
Östra Farmvägen 1
212 16 MALMO
SWEDEN

...to which any mail would be most welcome if any of you would like to send snail mail to me!

For those of you that might like to contact me in a slightly more modern way, yesterday I bought a brand new mobile phone! It is a Sony Ericsson T100 (for those that it means anything to, eg. Felix ), and the number is: 0734 05 76 62, but if you ring from Australia, I think you need to dial 0011 46 734 05 76 62.

As soon as someone rings me, I can confirm that this is the right way to call me from Australia! You're more than welcome to contact me 24/7, I don't mind being woken up at night, but I will have the phone on silent during swedish language classes every week-day morning from 9:15-12:45. (Felix, or any other mobile-phone-literate people, can you tell me anything about WAP, or any advice for using the phone? I have instructions in swedish only at this stage, but I will try to get some in english in the next few days. I know how to use the phone as a phone, but not any of the other things that I might need!)

On Tuesday, after emailing you all, I went to a welcome reception for the international students, which was very nice. We were all given Malmö Uni hats, and we put them on country by country, to transform into 'Malmö Uni students'. The people running the couse are fantastic, and I feel like we are in the best city and the best uni for international students.

After that, I went home and bought some more things for my room, including an oil burner, tea light candles and two pot plants (No, Felix, drug laws seem pretty strict here, so they weren't 'pot' plants, and the plants I bought for my window are innocent! One is dark green and glossy, and the other has red flowers, of which I can't remember the name right now...mum has one in the kitchen, possibly also red). I began to arrange things in my room, listening to Jack Johnson and Spearhead as I worked (thankyou SO much Edwin for the Minidisk player, it has been so great to have my music playing, and thanks John and Yuki for the use of the computer speakers, they are perfect!), but at that stage, the walls felt very bare, and I desperately needed some pictures on them.

I stayed up very late to ring Edwin, Mum, Dad, Jelly and Flex to announce my safe arrival. I had bought an international phonecard which I can use in the lobby of my building, and it seems like it will be the best way to call you. (Virgil: I got a World Card on Julie's recommendation, and it seems quite good. Someone explained to me about the numbers on the back: you get more minutes if you call the 'local number' rather than the 'freephone' number, but if you use a public phone, you also need a local phonecard to pay for the phone connection in Norway. If you call the 'freephone' number, you also pay for connection in Norway on the international card, and it's more expensive. Anyway, talk more with Julie, and you should be able to work out the best way to call.)

It was so nice to hear your voices! Then I went to bed, after a shower, and woke up very early, at about 5am. We walked to a square in central Malmö, where we would go on a 'City Safari' with a tour guide. I have walked nearly everywhere, and will probably not get a bike, both to save money, and because it is such a small city that I can walk everywhere I need to go frequently, and catch a bus otherwise.

Our first tour was of the Malmö town hall, which was stunning. Old paintings, amazing architecture, interesting political history, and an introduction to the Swedish political system. Next, we went on a tour of the city, with an extremely good tour guide. He took us to places where he could tell us the history of Malmö, from being a tiny medieval fishing village in the 13th century to being the bustling city it is today.

Of particular interest to me was the later part of the tour, in which he explained a lot of the recent history of the working class of Malmö. Malmö is known as being a very 'red' city compared to others in Sweden, to my pleasant surprise. And I found out that the percentage of people from other parts of the world now living in Malmö is more like 40% (I think I said 25% in the last email)! In September, as well as elections occurring, there will be a referendum on whether to convert to the euro currency (Sweden is a member of the EU, but still has its own currency). All over the city are the Swedish Communist Party's posters, with slogans like '€uro or democracy: you decide', and on Septemeber 7 they will put on a big party and music festival under the banner 'say no to the Euro'. I hope to go and see how things are done here!

After the tour, we had a nice, relaxing picnic in a nearby park, after which I went and purchased my mobile phone. The last thing organised for the day was a lecture by the Malmö Uni social workers and priest, who told us about the health services, councilling and religious guidance services available for us during our stay. I found it very interesting, but best of all was a brief lecture on the Swedish education system, which differs a bit from ours.

Following the lecture, I went with eight other students (all female) to IKEA, where we stocked up on much-needed things for our apartments, such as linen (although Solveig and Finn and so generously given me a few things, the doona covers from them were too small), pictures for our walls, toilet brushes and flower vases (on my walk home this afternoon I will pick some flowers in the park for my room). IKEA here is the equivalent of Bunnings in Australia, where all the students can buy budget furniture and everything for a home.

Tired, and laden with shopping from IKEA, I arrived home...after a small dinner - making use already of the fantastic olive paste from Italy - I played around with the mobile, trying to work out everything. Later, I folded all my clothes and placed things where I wanted them around my room, to the tune of Stan Getz's 'Girl from Ipenima' and Stephan Grappelli, followed by more Spearhead. I haven't put any pictures up yet, because I need blu-tack. Afterwards, I went around to visit all the people living on my floor, and collecting nearly everyone as I went along, so by the end we were doing a full-on room tour. It was really nice to see how other people have made their rooms their own space, and to get to know them a little more. Already, I can see that I will be sad to say goodbye to many of them at the end of six months.

This morning we had our first Swedish class, which was surprisingly a lot of fun! We had a 'dairy product tasting' session for lunch, and now I must go back for a lecture on the Swedish political model!

You can see pictures from the course (updated every day) if you'd like to, at:
www.mah.se/internat/0304/introschedule03ht.html

I have so much more to say, but I'll have to leave it till later...I send you all my love, and thankyou so much for the correspondence so far...many of your emails had me laughing out loud for ages.

Love,
Maria.

 

 

 

Tuesday, 12 August 2003

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Hi everyone,

Just quickly writing to say that I'm safely in my new home for the next 6 months...the beautiful city of Malmö (John: on my travels I have now used italian, german, norwegian and now swedish computer keyboards, and they all have different, special keys, and some in different places, so I've had to get used to them all. This one has these cool letters: ö,ä and å.)

My room is in an old hospital, being used for student accomodation for the first time. This means that I have all brand new furniture from Ikea, and some things - the kitchen, most importantly - are not fully renovated yet, and we only have microwaves, kettle and basic stuff in make-shift kitchens possibly until the end of Septemeber.

I have my own room, which is pretty big (heaps of floor space for yoga - I did some sun salutes this morning to test it out!), furnished with a big desk, desk lamp, an armchair, carpet (which hasn't arrived yet), bed, doona, pillow, bedside table, bookcase, mirror and another lamp, all new, mostly made of stainless steel and beautiful pale wood. Everywhere in Scandinavia so far, the interiors of buildings are furnished with a lot of this wood, and it looks fantastic.

My walls have a not-too-nice yellow wallpaper, but a few pictures on the wall, an oil burner (I bought a very cheap one today), tea-light candles and a pot-plant maybe will make a big difference. Outside of my room is a small room with a sink, cupboards and mini wardrobes and a toilet. I share this all with one other person.

On my floor (the fourth) there are 18 people, and we share showers (there are four for men in one room, and four for women in another, but to some other peoples' shock, without shower curtains!). We have two big dining rooms, a laundry room with 2 washing machines and one dryer, and two temporary kitchens until the big one is ready. Outside the lounge room (furnished with lots of new Ikea couches and a TV - I can't remeber if there is a VCR) is a big balcony, and it's all non-smoking.

So far, everything is going really well, and the only drawback is the lack of proper cooking facilities for the first 7 weeks (but all I have to do is think of the time John spent in Madagascar, and I feel like I have more than enough with what is available!)

Everything went according to plan yesterday, except that I got to Oslo Airport just too late to check in for my flight, so I caught one a couple of hours later, which was no drama. Everyone on the bus from Malmö Centralstation (I caught a train there from Copenhagen Airport) to my apartment was so helpful, 3 people in particular made my introduction to Swedes very nice, giving me tips on what to do here. I met the people from the Malmö Uni International Office, and they were very helpful. They are taking photos of us during the next three weeks of the introductory program, and when they have put them on the web, I'll let you know how to look at them.

I've already met some really lovely people that want to do similar things with their time here in Sweden, like a lot of bushwalking, camping, cooking together in cooking groups and living cheap! I've met people from Australia (there are a lot of aussies here, as well as a lot of germans), Germany, Iceland, Slovenia, Macedonia, France, Austria, Finland and the US, but there are several others I haven't met yet. My neighbour with whom I will share a toilet hasn't moved in yet, so I don't know yet what that will be like. Anyway, if I enjoyed living under a piano as a child, then any living conditions shouldn't be too difficult or problematic!

As soon as I got my rental agreement and other paperwork sorted out, I got on a bus to explore Malmö. It is very beautiful: small streets, old buildings, and several stunning churches and gardens, and I've barely been here 24 hours!

I bought very much needed shoes and a watch (only Virgil will know how much I needed a watch, as both of ours broke in Italy and we had to look at our alarm clocks for the time, and only he knows of the blisters I got wearing my old runners in Oslo. By the way Virgil, I got my watch for only AU, would you believe! And it's nearly exactly the same as my old one!), and I found two mobile phone shops, but they were closed.

Munching on a couple of nectarines I'd bought, I strolled home via a peaceful cemetry (I guess the peace is to be expected in a cemetry ) filled with beautiful flower beds and lush green trees. I also bought an international phonecard which I can use at a payphone in the lobby of my apartment building, but I don't know how cheap it is until I try it, as Virgil and I discovered in Oslo.

Just before arriving home, I went to one of the cheapest and biggest supermarkets in Malmö, where I got a few groceries and toiletries. It is less than a block down the street from my apartment, which is very convenient, and I live in a very ethnically mixed part of the city, which I could tell straight away. It is amazing here, I think that over 100 nationalities are represented in this city of 250,000 people, and more than a quarter of the population are migrants.

Next week is the annual Malmö Festival, which is jam-packed with cultural events for a week, beginning with the biggest crayfish party in the world this Friday, that we will all go to as part of the Introductory Course. Over 1 million people apparently come to Malmö for the festival, so I'm very lucky to be here for it. Everywhere there are white pavillions and small green-and-white striped umbrellas being erected for the festival.

Today was the first day of the Intro Course, and we have been shown around the uni and now I'm using a computer in one of the five uni libraries (and for those impressed by flat screens (are they called LCD screens?) they are all the flat kind like Virgil's computer, and with EXTREMELY fast internet!). Speaking of internet, we will have computers, possibly with internet installed, in our shared living space at my apartment building in the near future, which will be no extra cost!!! Cool, huh, Flex and Virgil!

Just before in my lunch break I went to the mobile phone shops, and now I will go back to find out more, and hopefully buy one. Luckily, I can get one quite a bit cheaper than the normal price, buy getting a vodaphone pre-paid card with it. As soon as I have it, I will give you the number. I don't have my address with me, but I will e-mail it to you hopefully tomorrow.

I guess this wasn't the quick hello I thought it would be! I'd better go now, and get a phone. Thankyou so much for the lovely e-mails from John (yes, I have hot water, electricity and much more in my apartment! I will take some photos to finish up my first roll of film, and then send you some, so you can see ;-) and no, Oslo is not far from Malmö, but a bit further than on the map in the Rosanna bathroom!), Dad (I felt a lot smarter after reading 'brain cramps', so thanks!) and Jelly (Belly, you wrote so beautifully about your Spearhead adventure. We thought of you at 1pm (your time) on the night of the concert, and we (Virgil, Julie and I) were going to SMS you to say we were thinking of you, but Julie's mobile's battery was a bit flat. I'm glad it was so fantastic, I talked to Mocca on Sunday night for ages, and she told me all about you meeting Michael after, and that you loved it.)

All my love,
Maria.