Oh no! My time in Sweden is almost over! Oh yes! I will see my friends soon again! No! What about my friends here? Yes! Getting a normal life again! No! Yes! No! Yes! Aaaaaaaaaaargh!

At the moment there is a storm in my head. I really miss my life in the Netherlands, but I know I will miss my life in Sweden as well. They are both such excellent lives! Today, I will leave for my two-week travel through Sweden and Norway, and I'm really excited about it. But I know that, when I go back, I will have to leave all this behind!

If I look back on my EVS-time, I feel I've been through a lot, both good and bad things. It started with the youth center where I worked, Zokker, which wasn't the place I imagined it to be. Add the homesickness, the darkness and the lack of Swedish friends, and you will get the first 6 months here: not very good (although I had fun with my friends as well. It wasn't all bad! We went to Stockholm, Kopenhagen and Estonia!).
Then in March, I went home for a short visit, and everything just changed. I saw that my friends were still my friends, and that they didn't change so radically. This made my homesickness grow less and less when I got back. In this time, I also stopped working at Zokker, a choice which I have never regretted. I think I should have done that a long time earlier, but I wanted to stay and proove myself, and not dissappoint the nice people. Oh well. My new project, Real Life, kicked serious ass. I felt useful and  happy, and I think I was appreciated by the people there as well. Even though I didn't work there as long as in Zokker, I see it as my main project in Sweden. Too bad it stopped as well.
Meanwhile it was getting lighter and lighter, I accomplished the impossible (I made Swedish friends, and nice ones too!) and my life in general was getting better and better. Greta and I began to swim again, we grilled a lot (blegh, I can't see another 'korv') and summer came. My film project was nice to mess around with for a while, and now I have holidays.
When I walk around now, I already see that the people and buildings will soon just be memories. This sucks, but at least they will be good memories. People, I love you!!!!!

- I am still alive and kicking. My project still rocks, but will be stopped in three weeks, because the stupid new government is stupid. They want to decrease the number of unemployed people by cutting the money for projects that decrease the number of unemployed people. Do you understand it? Stupid. Anyway, after this i will work with my film project untill the end, and probably some small projects for Kumulus, like making folders and stuff. Fun as well :).

- I was in Oslo! This is a really cool city, relaxed and beautiful. Pictures in MyMedia. I went with Davide, an Italian volunteer, and we went to the Museum of Contemporary art (intellectual!), the oldest cafe in Norway (Engebret), the alternative neighbourhood with a cool Culture House (alto!) and we saw a big part of the city. Brilliant. People, if you don't have anything to do, go to Oslo!

- I have dreads :)

- I have made some Swedish friends, and am not lonely anymore. Mission Impossible Accomplished. Next weekend, we will have a big international party in our house, so you'll hear about this next time.

- I can actually speak Swedish quit good now.

- I have about two months left before I go home. These, i have decided, will be two months filled with fun, sun and stuff. hurray!

- listen to good music, this is the music tip of today. It is all around! Oh, and write me some reactions, that is always nice to read. If you want. hejdå!

Alo

Alles Chut?

write something nice in this blogg witch belongs to my dear friend Albert Meijer. Albert was given the same opportunity last week when he wrote a few lines about the way i approach my readers in my blogg, fredrikstoltz.se.

Hello everybody! It's been some time again since I wrote something, so here's an update on my life:

Everything is going according to plan. There's lots and lots of snow, I'm really enjoying working in my project and there are a lot of plans for the future. And my Swedish is great! Well, I can make myself clear anyway. For example:

Allting går jättebra. Det finns jättemycket snö överallt, jag tycker om jobba på Zokker och det finns många grejer jag vill göra i framtiden. Och min svenska är jättebra! Fast min Ingelska är bättre...

So I will continue in English, because your swedish is probably not as brilliant as mine. Muha! I'm getting language course every Monday now again, so I could write these sentences without a dictionary!

Anyway, that's it for today. Listen to Marit Bergman, she's okay as a music tip. Oh, and look at the weblog of my friend and house-sharer Greta! It's just a click away (look to your right). Hejdå!

Weehoooo, the on-arrival training (Stockholm, från 11 till 14 september)  was sooooo nice! I made a lot of friends there with the other foreign volunteers (for pictures: click 'MyMedia' and then 'Friends'), I had a lot of fun and I've learned some things as well. For instance: High Rope climbing is nice! For our teambuilding or something, we had to get up in the trees for about 7 meters high, and get from one tree to another by walking on ropes, wooden logs and stuff. And at the end you had to jump to the ground, which was quite scary, because... well, 7 meters high! but luckely, we weren't smashed into little pieces on the ground, but we flew through the air with a 'rodel'-line. Muy fun.

Next to doing adventurous things like rope-climbing, we had a lot of group activities like going into the city (the training was in Stockholm), attending quite boring classes about being a volunteer and finding your inner goals and playing Halli Galli, the game that will someday conquer the world, I'm sure. Ooh, it was so nice. And now, greta and I have a lot of friends to visit everywhere. Hurray for that! To give you an idea of the new friends I've made, I will give a list of the people who I will meet most regularly, and who are already my friends:

Greta Egle (From Vienna, Austria). My roommate in Mörbylånga. She's really great and kind, and you never get bored with her. She even has the same musical taste! No fights with her yet.

Emmi Lindqvist (From Esbo, Finland). If you want to have a laugh, go to Emmi. She is SO funny. And evil, in a funny way. Lives in Kalmar with Ronja and Israël.

Ronja Zahradnikova (from Göttingen, Germany). Little funny girl. Is really in touch with her inner child, and giggles a lot. Likes Terry Pratchett and horses. Lives in Kalmar with Emmi and Israël.

Israël (Taco Taco Burrito des Nachos) Gallardo Martinez d' Albeinz (from Basque Country, Spain). Oldest one (25!). He has a good taste in music (although his main music style is metal), and plays the Spanish guitar. His English is not the best, but he'll manage.

But I won't forget all my friends back home! It's not nice to not be able to see you. I'm, starting to miss you all!

And the music tip is, once again, not Swedish. It's especially for Heit and Jeroen (who probably knows them already, but anyway): the Mars Volta, from Puerto Rico. Heard it from Israël, and it's music for the both of you, because it's a bit Zappa-esque. Have fun listening to it!