Het is alweer veelste lang geleden dat ik jullie via deze weg op de hoogte heb gebracht van mijn leven in deze boeiende stad. Hier dan een update, eindelijk!! Omdat ik binnenkort een essay moet schrijven in het Engels deze keer in het Engels…
Klubben
After having spent almost a month in the the industrial and commercial capital of Sweden I can say the partyscene here is amazing… Until now I have went out three times a week almost every week and seen a lot of clubs, bars, lounges and student partys. Thanks to Erasmus :P. It seems that the Swedish, from students to the elderly, really like to enjoy themselves at night by spending their time at posh and stylish clubs. As I wrote in my second post the clubs seem to be very expensive but actually I would like to refrain that opinion. Take for example the price of a beer: its just around 50 SEK, so that would compare to be 5€. Seems like a lot but the beers happen to be 40 cl here and about 20 in Holland. Then there’s the entrance fees, they vary from 80 to 120 SEK, luckily, if you know which place to go on what night, you can usually get in for free.
So if you think about it the prices are not that exuberant.
The age limits for the clubs might seem unreal. Almost all clubs pretend to refuse entrance to people under the age of 25, going all the way up to 29(!). So if you’re younger you better dress up well, get there early, split up large groups and leave hairy nozems at the hard rock café. If you do this you will get in for sure, my friends and me never have problems, even after showing my ID. So it seems like a big deal but it’s just a smart way of making sure the party will be good, they usually are so it seems to be working :).
Party @ Excet & Chalmers with Philip, Philip, Felix, Ali
There are clubs like the ‘Excet’ (see pictures) and ‘Nivå’ which are really great and good for students. The places look posh and clean in every way. No glass or beer on the floor, a really good ambience, great music and most of the times an outside dancefloor on the roof. Just great for cooling down after some dancing in one of the 4 dancefloors. One thing I can also really appreciate are the smoking permits in all the clubs (actually, all public places). You feel more fit in the morning and you can were the same shirt again, I’m looking forward to when they do this in Holland as well.
There are also a lot of student partys in student houses like mine. We just had one yesterday with some 20 people from different coutries that was great. So you see, parties are just as rooted in the Swedish culture as the beautiful girls are… +bar.JPG)
Chalmers
Now I will tell you something about the studying here at Chalmers, this will also keep the people from the Erasmus funds happy ;).Gotenborg has three major universities: Chalmers, Gothenburg and Handels. Actually being a department of Gothenburg Uni, Handels is the school for economics, business and law. At Gothenburg the other, non technical studies such as biology can be found there.
Founded in 1829 it is by far the oldest university in Gothenburg and this is the main reason Chalmers has an amazing culture bounded to it. First of all, the organization of everything is very structural and seems to have no flaws. Finding teachers, applying for courses, using the student webportal, it all works like a dream. Then the second thing that amazed me of this university is the ‘campus’. All of the building are situated together in an American-style way with over 16 pubs (!), good food everwhere, benches, a lot of green and lots of places to hang out complete the picture.
The influence and power of the students is another phenomenon that is quite different from Delft. Of course, we have the boys from ‘Gezelschap Leeghwater’, but that’s just about the only study association that’s old and professional enough to create student culture to the Mechanical Engineering students and far surroundings. Here its quite different. First of all, there is one major ‘Student Union’ overlooking all of the students at Chalmers. They have got an extremely big(12000m2) and stylish building. With sponsors as Volvo, Saab and Handelsbanken their connection to the companies is great and rooted into Chalmers. Then the studies themselves also have smaller study associations which organize a lot of party’s and events in the pubs they all own. In one of the pictures in this post you can see some girls painting their study’s logo on the campus pavement.
The courses I am taking are great so far. Both are courses from (different) master programs. Especially ‘introduction to automotive engineering’ is one of great level. My teacher comes straight from Koenigsegg,we have guest lectures almost every week, excursions to Volvo and parts suppliers and assignments made up by the people from Lotus! The other one, Product development management is more ‘bla bla’, not a surprise of course in comparison to the all-technical automotive course. In this course they try to teach us something about Product Development by explaining ways of market analysis, product introduction times, managing strategies etc. The grade for both courses is for about 60% determined by various assignments during the quarter, varying from an essay about ‘market shares’ to developing a new SUV for Lotus. I think doing the assignments with Swedish as much as possible is a great way of getting to know them. Which brings me onto the next thing I would like to share with you.
Svensk Mentalitet
The ruling opinion about Swedish is that they are self centered, not really outgoing and expose defensive attitude against foreign people. I guess the people like the ones from the lonely planet travel book met the wrong people, because I totally disagree with this view. Sure, they might seem more quiet when in public transport, supermarkets etc, but to me this just seems like better behavior than the Dutch in some ways. If you ask a Swede something, like directions for example, they will be very interested and assist you as best as they can. The Swedish guys are shy, especially to girls, but open up once they start drinking!
Omgivning
The city of Gothenburg is, as I said before a really nice and beautiful place. Especially the fashion stores are great, if only I had the money I would buy all my clothes here. Ok, real ‘skinny jeans’ is one stop to far for me but they sure know how to dress themselves in a very fashionable and stylish way.
Behind my studenthouse, there is a really big forest with lots of lakes, a huge golfe course and lots of places to do some picknick or have a BBQ. When my knee is not giving me a hard time I like to run there and enjoy some fresh air and beautiful nature.
This Saturday I went to a group of islands called Archipelago, located just across from the coast of the south of Gothenburg. You get there by tram and ferry, which you can use for free with the month pass. I’m actually really lucky because I found one that’s valid for three months :D So this will save me some money! It was nice to really ‘get out’ for a day and walk around the island, the weather was fine and we even did some swimming! You’ll see some pictures of this trip in this post as well.
The weather is very similar to that in Holland, lots of sun, around 16-19 degrees by day so just fine. Still good enough to have BBQ’s on the terrace of Ostkupan. Its getting worse though, I am glad I’m leaving before it gets dark and rainy for a long time.
Fysiken
In order to meet the high demands from the Swedish beauties I have to stay fit so I bought a three month pass to a gym called Fysiken. It cost me 670 SEK, so around 70€ for three months, I think its quite cheap and the facilitys are good. I also have to climb this crazy hill every morning to go to school so that will keep me in good shape as well :).
So far I’m really enjoying myself here, as you can see, but I do really miss you all!!! And I promise you won’t have to wait so long to my next update!!
Skål !!
Roel
jellyfish bij archipelago
best eng
harlaar eindelijk aangenomen bij de international beauty school
joop
rechter geregeld, typisch brugge
excursie volvo cars
ouwe maten
Die gast kan veel hebben
Ich bin ein berliner
stockholm panorama
dinner party met de italianen, grieken, fransman
je wil toch wat bijverdienen
nogal vette club in stockholm
stockholm by night
in Skansen, grootste openluchtmuseum van de wereld
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