Vill du fika?

"Would you like coffee?"


This is my new phrase of the day, that I know I'll actually be using a lot more in the coming weeks! I just came home from hanging out with two amazing students from the school that I know I will be spending a tot of time with in the near future.

Linda called me this morning to see if I wanted to get together at some point today to show me around and answer any questions I may have. Linda is a fifth year vocal education major, and is friends with Sebastian. He gave her my number, since he knew I needed some help. Linda and I planned to meet at 7pm outside of my apartment building. I was excited...because I really need to do laundry, and there is a very complicated system to get it done! Plus, Linda sounded very friendly on the phone, and you know me and my need for human interaction...

I filled my afternoon with a trip to the grocery store, some reading, lots of practicing, and some video chatting. At the Coop Nära (mini grocery store near my place), I am getting better at navigating and buying all the necessities with a little money. I felt pretty good about my ability to fit in, but as I was leaving, I held the door open for an older man. He looked at me and said "Thank You".

Haha, this doesn't sound odd, but he should have said "Tack". So, I guess I wasn't as incognito as I thought :)

The afternoon in the practice room was good, but not as focused as I would have liked. My head kept roaming off into ideas of what I would like to accomplish while I'm here...repertoire that I want to learn, the kinds of pieces I would like to write, lessons with Anders, collaborations, traveling, yadda yadda yadda. I had to keep telling myself to "do" and not "plan" in order to be productive. Eventually I did finish the first section of my piece, and I'm surprisingly happy with it! Who would have thought that I would get so into this composing thing?!

I came home in time to have dinner before my Skype date with mom and dad. (Even slipped in a little chatting with Marilyn, where we complained about our inability to workout like we used to in Rochester. Good thing I don't have enough money to eat! haha). Mom and dad are doing well! They updated me about the family, and I filled in the holes of my blog entries...I can't tell you everything, I mean you don't really care about what I ate for breakfast today...but they do. :)

After the Skype session, I went downstairs to meet with Linda. As soon as I met her, I knew we would get along! She was kind, outgoing, and really eager to help me out and answer my questions.

We first ventured over to the laundry building. To enter the building itself, I had to use a mini-key card that I got with my apartment keys at the Pitebo office. Once in, I used the keycard to activate a machine hung on the wall. This gave me instructions in Swedish….enter Linda’s help! I had to press a few buttons to get to a screen to sign up for a time to do my laundry. You sign out 3 hour time slots, and are assigned a specific machine. I signed up for tomorrow at 16:00. You can only use the machines if you have gone through this process, and can’t even get to the machines if you haven’t! It’s an intense process, that’s for sure. Linda gave me more advice about using the machines, but I told her to keep her phone on around 4pm tomorrow.

Then, we wondered over to the garbage building. You might think that taking out my garbage would be an easy task, but you are mistaking. They divide all of their trash here. There are bins for food (that you put into brown paper bags), batteries, light bulbs, cardboard, large electronics, newspaper, plastic, colored glass bottles, clear glass bottles, random large household items (it was weird…mops, and large things that you couldn’t fit into a trash bag), and then everything else. I’m going to have to put a lot of energy into separating my trash!

After leaving this smelly building, Linda showed me the building with the sauna and party room! I didn’t even know we had that! Once again, I had to use my card to access the building, and sign out times with a similar machine to the one in the laundry building. You can’t even access the rooms if you haven’t signed them out. Geez...no room to be spontaneous in this place!!

Linda lives in the building right behind mine, so once she gave me the tour of the complex, we went back to her place. First, we stopped by her boyfriend, William’s apartment so I could meet him, and then went up to her apartment for some tea. She invited over her friend Josfeine, and the three of us proceeded to chit-chat for a couple of hours.

We talked about absolutely everything, and got along beautifully! They are both singers, and grew up a few hours outside of Stockholm. Linda studied at Berklee (in Boston) for a year, and Josfeine studied in London for a semester. They are both great at English, and taught me some new Swedish phrases. We drilled each other with questions, and I feel like I know everything there is to know about the two of them, and Piteå.

We decided to meet up on Tuesday at 11am, and Linda offered to introduce me to some people at the student café, as well as show me around the school (from a student’s perspective). Then, we’ll go check out a second hand store in town. I really do need a lamp, and she said that everything is really cheap there. (yay!)

My mind is racing with all the information that I learned tonight! We talked about everything from the weather, to parties, to the economy (seriously), to the similarities and differences between music schools in America and Sweden, to the language, to jobs, to working out, to where to get the bus, to the best place to have coffee, to our families, to EVERYTHING! Plus, as we were chatting, Linda made a cake from scratch…and it was delicious (and I guess this means I will have to join the gym)! I told her that her baking skills were very Swedish, because the cake, with filling, did not come from a box!

Now that the wonderful weekend is over, I have to prepare for a busy week. Tomorrow will be a busy day. I’m meeting with Mike in the morning about my course schedule and the concert office in the afternoon to try and book a recital in October. I’ll have to run to the store to pick up some laundry detergent, and attempt to not ruin my clothes at 4pm. Please keep me in your thoughts...I should probably video tape the experience for a good laugh!