They call me Sweden

21 year old Swede living and studying (BA Journalism, Media and Sociology) in Cardiff, UK. Originally from Stockholm. Loves food, to travel and my dear friends.

Archive for the ‘They call me Sweden’ Category

LONDON CALLING!

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Oh gosh, I didn’t think so many people would comment on my previous post, proves how important it is to discuss the issue. Some of you seemed to believe that I meant that suicide bombers are not a problem at all in our society, that wasn’t my intention. It is an issue and it’s something that politicians need to discuss and also perhaps think about the security, however, I don’t think it’s a solution to blame a particular ethnic group. It will be interesting to see how the situation is in Sweden, if they have increased the security at airports etc. I’ll update you guys.

Speaking of Sweden, it’s time for me to go home tomorrow and therefore I’m in London at the moment. It’s very convenient to have a close friend who lives here. The trip here was not fun though. I noticed that I had forgotten my phone at home when I had arrived to Cardiff Central. It was only 25 minutes before my bus left, but I’m quite dependent of my phone (otherwise I wouldn’t been able to contact my friend), so I took another taxi back to the halls. Missed my bus but found my phone on my desk. So stupid of me to just leave it there! Then I went back to Cardiff Central, bought a train ticket and thought I would arrive earlier to London. Or not. There were some problems with the signals when my train came to Swindon which meant that I had to change train. Anyhow, I finally arrived to London Paddington at 6 p.m, ca 2½ hours late!

Conclusion of this experience? Well the next time I forget my phone or something else I might just leave it. Missing a bus is not always worth it… Anyhow! We’re going out soon, I’m quite excited!

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Stop being ignorant, please.

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

I felt that I had to comment the terrorist incident that occurred in Stockholm the other day. Or rather the aftermath of the attack.

Of course I was shocked and a bit worried when I found about what had happened. Personally, Stockholm has always been like a safe bubble which excludes everything bad that is happening in the rest of the world. I have always felt safe, crime has never come across my 20 years’ life and I grew up in a safe environment where I could walk home safely from school. Pedophiles were the only threat, that may have been hiding behind a bush, however, that was something I never bothered about – it was probably just my parents who were scared, I never found out if there actually were any pedophiles that lumbered close to our neighborhood.

I’m aware that it’s naive to think about a society as a ‘bubble’ and I don’t think anyone benefits from isolation from the rest of the world. Yet, I had a safe growth and that has shaped who I am today, as well as my values and opinions and what I think about the rest of the world. Some Swede’s reactions of the terrorist incident make me wonder (as some has put it), what the he** they were doing during their religion lessons? And it shocks me. Probably more than the attack itself to be honest. I grew up in a safe society and yes, I wish that my future children will do the same. That doesn’t mean that I would blame Muslims or immigrants if anything happens (such as a terrorist attack) that may disturb our harmonic surrounding.

Two words come to mind, ignorance and generalization, which could be used this reactions. Ignorance of the fact that those who operate these attacks are often extremists and also mentally ill. And also that only a tiny fraction of attacks from 2006-2009 (Europol) were acted out by Muslims. See below. They’re also generalizing that all immigrants and Muslims (especially Muslims, remember that!) are capable of establish a terrorist attack. “Let’s threw all of them out of Sweden!” What good would that do? And when they’re in action, they could throw out the Royal family as well. They are after all not 100% Swedish. In my opinion, all of this is so silly, what is the definition of a Swede? Is there even one? I would prefer to live in a society where there are a variety of cultures and people are able to express themselves, rather in society where there’s only one ideal and people are oppressed as an effect.

Conclusion: Do more research before making a statement and base arguments on Facts rather than Assumptions. Something to help you on the way:

Total number: 1770
Islamic: 6 (0.34%)
Right Wing Ethno-Nationalist and Separatist: 1596 (90.17%)
Left Wing: 106 (5.99%)
Other/Not Specified: 62 (3.50%)

Also, why can’t we be positive about the fact nobody except the suicide bomber himself got killed during the attack and that it was an operation solo? I could probably write a 3000 word essay about this subject, but let’s stop there.

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In love.

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Sometimes I feel that who I am is not transmitted through the blog and I think I have to struggle harder for that. I have never been interested of writing about everything I do, but my interests are rarely shown here. For instance, how often do I tell you about my passion and love for shoes? To be honest, I’m one of those who believe that shoes are an art form and that you never could have enough shoes. My mom and my boyfriend think that I have enough, but that doesn’t stop me from finding new beauties. Like these:

They are unfortunately quite expensive, 1960kr :/, but they are of real leather and fur, so almost a catch, maybe? Oh I want them so bad… Should I? Or is it stupid if I buy them? Grey or black?

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Posted in All about SHOES, They call me Sweden | 14 comments »

Delivery from Sweden

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

Yep, the cold finally hit Cardiff so I was quite glad when I got this parcel from my mom! It included tea with glöggflavor (yummy!), salt liquorice, fudge with gingerbread cookie flavor and the Swedish Cosmopolitan. Perfect treat to a headache and tiredness! When I’m coming to Stockholm I think I’ll stock up with these fudges – ’cause they are truly delicious! Something you ought to try.

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First advent.

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

As in the UK, Christmas is the biggest Swedish holiday and probably the only one that the majority of Swedes still are celebrating, whether you’re Christian or part of any other religion. Even though Swedes don’t start celebrating the holiday in the beginning of November such as the British, we also are fond of counting down the days to Christmas Eve. E.g. advent is part of pre-Christmas which is very traditional, and in the past this was the fasting period before Christmas. I don’t think anyone nowadays relates advent to fasting as this is the time when Swedes begin to eat gingerbread cookies and ‘lussebullar’ (saffron buns shaped ’s’). We also have four candles for each advent Sunday, and today thus is first Advent and also four weeks until Christmas eve.

It is weird when you’re abroad for a longer period of time and you suddenly become much more patriotic and attached to your country of birth. I’ve been trying to do work today, but it’s hard to focus when you wish you were close to your family and friends. However, I’m glad I have friends here in Cardiff and the feeling of living between two worlds is slowly disappearing. Cardiff is a different world (and time zone..) from Stockholm and I guess it always will be. But a day like today, first advent, you wish you were sitting in you mom’s sofa, eating gingerbread cookies and lussebullar and of course lighting the candle. I planned to bake gingerbread cookies for today (the dough from IKEA is waiting in the fridge), but it didn’t happen. I will bake some cookies in the next coming days though, the Brits must taste something really Swedish!

Lussebullar

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Posted in Cardiff student life, So Swedish!, They call me Sweden | 5 comments »

Snow in Cardiff <3

Friday, November 26th, 2010

I must have forgotten how stressful it could be to keep the deadlines for coursework. Writing my second essay was tough even though the subject was interesting, as I chose to write about The Political Economy of Italian Broadcasting System. If you have been to Italy and watched TV there you know what is special about it. Its Public Broadcasting is still very state governed and there’s a duopoly as Silvio Berlusconi has control over the commercial side. I wrote about how the broadcasting system is structured, its history and the possible dangers if the duopoly still stands in the future. Even though I began to write early I still ended up during the night before deadline editing it which lead to that I’ve been tired all week. And I should start on my next essay now so that I won’t have to write that much during Christmas.

Aaw Christmas.. We have like a Winter Wonderland here in Cardiff at the moment! It’s probably the first time I’ve ever experienced real snow flakes in the UK. Actually I’m really excited for Christmas this year as I’m going home to see friends, family and my boyfriend and then on Boxing day I’m going to Finland to see my boyfriend’s family (he’s half Finnish). I guess it will be more snow over there than in Sweden and they have fireplaces, saunas and skis thus it will be really cosy! There’s some weeks left though and until then I will have, as mentioned, work work work to do, but I think there will be time for some fun as well. Tomorrow or Sunday I will go housewife and bake some Swedish gingerbread cookies, yummy!

Christmas cards that I’m going to send to family and friends, I felt that I had to buy some cards as I’m in the land of cards… They seem to love it here!

People here behave like they never have seen snow before.

My friends and I went to watch the opening of Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland in the beginning of November, Dr. Who attended and turned on the Christmas lights with his screwdriver.

P.S. Someone wondered if they still call me Sweden and yes they do, can’t seem to shake off my Swedish heritage!

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Forever 21 to Birmingham

Friday, November 12th, 2010

Apparentely I’m in the right place at the right time for once! Today when I arrived to Birmingham Forever 21 had just openened in Birmingham. It seems to be the only one so far in the United Kingdom so I’m quite glad to be so close to Bullring for once. Oh gosh, it is so massive, at least three floors! And wasn’t it perfect that my aunt wanted to go Christmas shopping (that’s another thing that I find amusing with the brits, Christmas starts so early here and they really can’t seem to wait haha ) tomorrow? Think I might do some Christmas shopping, to get it over with and buy some things for me as well. Like a jacket, party top and perhaps a pair of shoes…

Found some favorites:

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Posted in All about SHOES, Louice <3 clothes, They call me Sweden | 3 comments »

Weekend in Wolverhampton

Friday, November 12th, 2010

Wolverhampton is known for its Wolves team.

The walk from the students’ hall where I live to Bute building where I had my History of Mass Communications and Culture seminar was a really tough one. It was windy and as I’m going straight to Wolverhampton in a while, I had to carry a really heavy bag. It was tempting to take a taxi…

The seminar was quite interesting though, we had to do roleplay and act that we were going to bid on a newspaper for sale. It was quite hard to argument for why our company was the best for the task, however it’s useful to get an instinct of how the procedure is when a newspaper is on the market. History of mass comm. is my favorite module as the lecturer, Professor Justin Lewis, is engaged in his lectures in a way that grasps your attention. We have gone through the political economy of Barbie, British vs. American broadcasting system and latest about the British press. Really interesting and it makes you look at news and broadcasting in an entirely different way.

I actually planned to bring some books over the weekend, so that I could start writing on my History of mass comm. essay, but I decided not to as the weight probably would have made me fall over! And after all, I’m going away to celebrate my cousins’s birthday, would be quite boring to study then. Mmm, I’m longing for cake!

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Busy and hectic day

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Today has been a very busy day, three seminars and one lecture so there has been some hectic going on. Also include that my time planning of the studies hasn’t been the best last week, which has lead to that seminar preparation got a bit last minute… I managed to get it all done though and I’m glad I did, as it’s quite hard pretending that you have done prep work when in fact you haven’t. I.e. the seminar leaders are quite tempted to ask random students questions. When I have handed in my representations essay tomorrow I could relax for a little while.

I did so much research about Cardiff and Cardiff Uni, but I seem to have missed that it’s the rainiest city in the UK. Have got some reports from Sweden about snow today, would prefer that instead of rain and hard winds. Sometimes it’s 10 degrees here and some days it is really cold, like today. In my opinion there’s no reason for it to be cold if there’s no snow… Well well, I’m gonna get some tea now and read through my essay.

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He came… … and he left.

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

My boyfriend left today and it was harder to say good bye than I thought it would be. The fact that I won’t see him the next time until Christmas made me quite sad when he had left. His bus from Cardiff to London was 45 minutes late (Megabus, don’t ever travel with them, unless you don’t care if you’ll arrive on time or not) so I almost hoped it would be cancelled – which would mean that I would get to spend some more minutes with him. I’m glad though that I have such nice and wonderful people in Cardiff who I can rely on, and that I can contact my friends back in Sweden as well, and there’s Skype too, what on earth would we do without it? However, it doesn’t change the fact that long distance relationship is probably the hardest thing I’ve experienced.

Immediately after he had left I remembered that I have tons of stuff to read, as I’ve missed some lectures this week… Well, well, I have the day off tomorrow so I’ll plan to spend the whole day studying. At a library, otherwise I wouldn’t get any work done.

The nine days that he were here passed so quickly, it feels like he came and then left so soon. We had so nice days though. We spent some days at Cardiff Hilton, went out for nice dinners, went to see my aunt and family. The negative thing was that my camera got stolen at a night club last Friday and I didn’t get it back. I’m so naive to think that everyone can afford one themselves nowadays and therefore it wouldn’t be stolen… Life’s however all about prioritizing and therefore I decided to buy a new one yesterday as the insurance cover some of it at least.

I met Joel at London Heathrow so I got to see my Swedish friend Anlu as well! I love Carnaby Street in London, it’s a bit hidden from the busier streets Regent St and Oxford St.