Resumo dos últimos 2 meses

Enquanto que em Portugal apenas tivemos as legislativas, as autárquicas os jogos fraquinhos do Porto e o benfica até a jogar mais ou menos (daquilo que fui lendo nos jornais), aqui em Estocolmo houve muito que contar. Não quero alongar muito este post e portanto deixo algumas fotografias que penso retratarem bem a estadia:

No dia 09/09/09 houve um concerto no jardim do KTH. As orquestras da universidade e nacional tocaram durante quase 3 horas e no final o espectáculo acabou com um fogo de artíficio fantático como se pode ver nas imagens.

Fotografias à entrada e na sala principal da Opera Real (ver posts anteriores). Fui com a Zita ver uma ópera chamada Пиковая дама ou também conhecida por "A dama de Espadas".

Fotografia que tirei nas ruas de Estocolmo no inicio de Setembro. Gosto da luz e composição da imagem portanto decidi insera-la no meio de todas as outras =)

Almoço com muitos estudantes de Erasmus na câmara municipal de Estocolmo, local onde também são entregues os prémios Nobel. As fotografias mostram a comida, algumas das pessoas que vivem comigo em Tyresö e a espectacular sala dourada.

Lançamento (falhado) do nosso water rocket. Apesar de termos rpevisto que iria voar uns fantásticos 126metros tivemos problemas com o lançador (não foi só culpa nossa) e acabámos por obter um fantástico record de 28metros!! Não será preciso dizer que ficámos em último, tendo o penúltimo classficado ficado acima dos 100m =\ Na primeira fotografia vê-se um pormenor do foguete e na segunda dois dos membros do meu grupo David e Yoan, sueco e francês respectivamente.

Duas fotografias do por do sol tiradas na minha viagem a Helsínquia. A cidade em si não achei muito bonita. No entanto há uma ilha mesmo ao lado da cidade, a fortaleza suomenlinna, que vale a pena visitar! A última foto foi tirada nesta ilha e modificada por alguém (não sei quem) aqui de Tyresö

Primeiro dia de neve em Estocolmo: 13 de Outubro. Por esta altura já tudo estava a derreter. Desde então já houve vários dias com temperaturas negativas e onde não parou de nevar.

O famoso Peter Higgs deu uma conferência com o título "A minha vida como um bosão", numa conferencia em memória do físico sueco Oskar Klein. Foi uma conferência muito interessante baseada mais na história da física das partículas até aos dias de hoje e, infelizmente, com muito poucos detalhes técnicos (muito provavelmente também não os iria entender).

Os alemães aqui da residencia decidiram fazer uma festa para simular a Oktoberfest que eles têm lá pelas terras deles. Cada pessoa tinha que ir vestida com alguma coisa engraçada e como eu cheguei tarde pois tive um jantar com o secção de Aeroespacial do KTH não tinha nada mais original que os meus óculos e touca da natação para usar. A rapariga ao meu lado é a Erika da Suiça e lá atrás está o Dominik mascarado de Baco, o rei do vinho.

Comidinha portuguesa!! Chegou a encomenda que os meus pais me enviaram (Obrigado!!). Veio direitinha da Ocidental Praia Lusitana e chegou totalmente intacta a Tyresö. Infelizmente poucas das coisas duraram mais do que uma semana =)

Fogo em frente à residênca de estudantes! No dia 10 de Outubro houve este grande fogo mesmo em frente à nossa residência. Os bombeiros pouco ou nada podiam fazer e o edíficio acabou mesmo por arder completamente... Muitas pessoas assistiram ao desenvolvimento do fogo a partir da janela do quarto do Kuba.

No meio do semestre, mesmo no final dos exames aqui em Estocolmo para o primeiro período viagem para Portugal. Estive lá menos de uma semana, mas foi suficiente para ver os meus pais, irmas, avós e tios, estar com alguns amigos em Lisboa, fazer um exame oral de fusão nuclear, fazer o exame teórico que me faltava da licensa PPL do avião e ainda ir à festa de 50 anos desde o casamento dos meus avós maternos! PARABÉNS AVÓS =D

5 dias em grande, uma vez que tudo correu pelo melhor =)

Renascer das cinzas!

Estou de volta!! Depois de 65 dias sem escrever vou recomeçar a dar notícias através do blog.

Depois de analisar as estatísticas das visitas no blog verifiquei que 194 das 589 visitas ao blog tinha sido feitas em Portugal, representando 32.94% do total de visitas. Consegui ainda perceber que 41.8% dos visitantes usava o browser em inglês e aproximadamente 32% em portugues, sendo que havia ainda 19.86% de visitas com browsers em francês e o restante distribuído por 4 diferentes línguas: russo, polaco, espanhol e alemão. Abaixo apresento um diagrama que mostra esta distribuição diferenciando alguns dialectos:


Apesar destes bons resultados (sim, considero-os bastantes bons) decidi fazer uma alteração significativa ao blog. Provavelmente já devem ter reparado, mas para quem não notou a mudança é que estou a escrever em português em vez de inglês. Portanto a partir de agora todos os meus conterrâneos podem vir aqui visitar este cantinho e saber as novidades sobre o frio país nórdico onde vou ficar nos próximos 2 meses.

Próximo post será um resumo breve do que se passou nos últimos 3 meses em que não postei absolutamente nada.E por isto peço desculpa. Entretato vou fazer o jantar e comer que a fome já aperta =) Até já

Studerar på biblioteket och examen

Again this happened before the exam so this should have been posted before the "Tomorrow I have my exam" post.

This is the library at KTH where I prepared myself for the swedish exam. I really liked to study in there but probably I chose a bad place to seat in: There were a lot of people in the library these last days and so I chose a nice corner with a sofa and a small table to study... The result was that the sofa was too comfortable and 2 hours later I was so sleepy I had to get back home and work at home.

About the exam:

I think it went well and, for now, I am expecting to have the grade above 60% and pass. The results will be published in two different ways:

If we fail or if we have to retake the exam (which happens if we get a grade between 50% and 60%) the results will be announced during the next two weeks;

If we pass the results will be published in the library on the 14th of September.

So I'm not in a hurry to know my grade, I prefer to wait for the 14th =D

Last day of swedish classes

This is not in chronological order since this post should have been posted before the last one. Either way I'll post it because I think it's worth to have a little video and a photo of our amazing swedish teacher. She taught us the basics of the language and I hope this basics will get me to the second level of swedish courses. =D

This was a gift that the whole class gave her on the last day of classes.

As you could see Anita invited us to a barbecue. Isn't that nice of her? Tack så mycket =D

And here she is opening the bouquet:

Thanks Anita for the classes and see you all soon.

Imorgon har jag min svenska examen

That's right, tomorrow I'll have my swedish exam. I think I know enough to pass (I'll have to have 60% at least to pass) but I must say that it's going to be a very difficult exam.

The prepositions part is the one I am worst at... While training to the exam the percentage of correct answers in this filed varied from 20% to 80%, depending on the exercises. So if they give us a very difficult exercise I won't pass it.

Let's hope I can balance it with the rest...

I'll write again tomorrow.

En dag i Uppsala

On Saturday I went to Uppsala. It was just a short visit and we didn't planned it very well so it turned out not to be as good as it could have been. I'll probably go back there somewhen during the semester. Till then I have some pictures:

While waiting for the bus i took these two pictures which I think are nice

The cathedral was the first thing we saw when we got there. It's really big, you can see it from everywhere in the town.

As it looked from inside...

We went to an art museum. It had nice paintings and also this strange sculpture, which was hanging on a wall and was the main attraction of the museum

A nice views of the "Botaniska trädgården"

Inside "Botaniska trädgården"

A very nice place right in the center of the town

One of the last things we visit was Gamla Uppsala, or "The old Uppsala". It was very peaceful place 8km from the center and had a museum in the. I think it's worth visiting.

And to finish with this post, something you can't find anywhere else:

A very nice and practical way to distinguish twins ;)

International Culture Communication, TACK!

WARNING!: This is another very big and perhaps boring post! Feel free to wait for the next one without reading it. I would say the content of the text is good but that is up to you to decide, so hope you'll like it!

I went to a meeting organized by the ISS, International Student Service of KTH where we were briefed on the culture and habits of Swedish people. This a very short resume of the points discussed in the meeting.

1- How to address:

Unlike many other languages such as portuguese and french swedish is a very flat language (I would say even more than english). So there's a need for words to express politeness when talking to someone. We could say that in english you could use sir or madam but in swedish the special word they use is TACK!. Meaning thank you and you are welcome, this word is used everywhere and all the time. Swedes even use it several times in a row and you can actually hear people saying tack! tack! tack! many times during the day!

In the same point we also discussed the way to communicate when writing. One of the things to retain was NO USE OF CAPS LOCK IN AN E-MAIL. As the speaker said: "Swedish people find it very, very offensive, even more than in any other country" (is there any way to prove this statement?!)

2-Food:

We didn't discussed much about this point, but there was one thing that was very clear: FIKA. Fika, as wikipedia states it ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fika") means having a coffee with one's colleagues, friends. The point stressed on the meeting was: always say yes! Even though you go there and drink nothing you should always say yes, because this is the appropriate time to invite people to do something else besides work or school and to get to know each other better.

3-Swedes in Business:

This are some important characteristics of swedes concerning the way they look and feel about work:

-Effective: Swedes always like to keep the agenda. If there is a meeting schedule to last 2 hours then it will last to hours, not more nor less. If the subjects are not completely discussed another meeting shall be scheduled.

-Punctual: This is mandatory when you want to be effective as said in the previous point.

-Non-social: Normally swedish people don't like to socialize after business meetings or conferences. Example: "There is a meeting in Denmark. A typical Swede would leave his home in the morning, take the plane to Denmark, go to the meeting, take the plane back right after the meeting finish and rest at home in the same night. In many countries business are closed after meetings, while having a coffee or having a fancy dinner. Not with Swedes!"

-Honest/Trustworthy: This is one of the most appreciated characteristics of Swedes. Also they also appreciate that someone looks into the other person's eyes when telling the truth.

-Hierarchical(less): Everyone's opinion is valued and a discussion or argument is only finished when a consensus is reached.

-Under-dressed: Most of the professions in sweden don't require one to have very fancy and outstanding clothes. I've been to a bank and found men that weren't using suits... How strange is that?

4-Do vs Don't

The next table was also presented on the meeting, as it's resume.

One point that I would like to comment on is the "take a queue number everywhere". I found a nice webpage about Sweden were there was a small text commenting on this:

Sweden is a very organized country. Everything has its place and there are rules and regulations for just about anything. Some rules don’t even need to be officially written down, they technically don’t exist, yet people here follow them anyway. That of course makes life a lot easier in many different situations – when boarding a local bus, for example. Everyone lines up neatly to get on and waits their turn. Even when it’s raining.

When entering a store, library, clinic, even ER, everyone lines up nicely to get a “nummerlapp” (= queue number, which you get from a special machine that dispenses them, normally somewhere near the entrance) and then patiently waits their turn. Nummerlapp is not a strictly Swedish invention, I have seen it utilized in such far-flung locales as India and Cape Verde, but Sweden, without a doubt, is the country that has turned it into an art form.

If you are interested in knowing more about the country and it's people go to the website: http://www.transparent.com/swedish/

Lagom is another concept very characteristic of Sweden. You can find a full description of it on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagom, but to make the long story short it all goes back to the middle ages, when Vikings ruled the seas. Lagom is the word composed by Lag (team) and om (around) and describes the the following tale: Vikings used to have a very big cup of beer to share around a table so each one of them could not drink too much nor too little so that all could have the same amount. They would drink exactly the right amount so that the last one to drink still had the same as the first.

To end with this long post there is just a last thing to present. This picture

The W-curve of Intercultural Sojourning

was drawn by Oberg and Gallahorn in the 60's and it plots the mood of a person living in a new country with time and his return home. If you are curious about this point take a look at http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/heroadventure.html where you will find very good information regarding this topic.

Okay! This is the end of the post! Thanks for your patience and I hope you keep reading this blog =D

Here's just a small photograph to amuse you after this boring text ;)

That's me juggling with red onions

Kayaking in the sea!

This afternoon we went Kayaking! 4 hours of paddling in the sea is very exhausting but worth the effort!! Stockholm is really beautiful from the sea and such a large time you can do quite a long trip. Here's a map of Stockholm and in green I drew our route: we started going to the left part of the map and we paddled until the point showed in the left of the map. There we found a beach and we rested for 20 minutes in there. We return trough the right margin of the island on the left, passed the point where we rented the kayaks and paddle to the right of the map. We touched the ground of the island on the right named Gamla Stan and we returned to the starting point! As I said it was quit a long trip, around 15Km but it was very very nice. =D

After the kayak circuit I went with Federico to a place near the kayak club to play Tarzan on a tree! It was awesome, bit scary but AWESOME (as I say in the end of the video!!). Here are two videos, one of me climbing the tree (which I think is the most difficult part) and the other one having fun :D

På Svenska (In Swedish)

I realized it would be impossible to write the blog on a daily basis. I will try to post when I have the time and when I think I have something new and interesting to say.

Today is Friday and I can tell you that the whole week was very nice. The Swedish course began on Tuesday and since then we have been having a lot of work to learn this new strange and difficult language. I think you won't know that much by the end of the course but I already applied for the next level so I hope that by the end of the semester I can at least communicate with Swedes. Here's a photo of my class during the brake (the schedule is: start at 9:00 till 10:15 restarting at 10:30 til 11:40, but we alway finish at 11:55)

Another interesting thing is that we can have lunch in the garden inside the KTH (Kå The Hå as they call it in Sweden - for portuguese people you read it as kô tê ô). That is also the place where we can rest after lunch:

We had 3 meetings so far with all the Erasmus students and coordinators of departments and sections of KTH. One of those is the KTH orchestra and they came there to ask for new students to play in their orchestra. Here is a video of their performance in the meeting: