Pic-of-the-Week 2

 

 

I'm in nightmare,
 Road to work.
 On my way now
 Through the fog...
___

Temporary unavailable

Hej folks!

we use some..eh..substances in lab

Oh, busy, busssssyyy week it was. And the similar one will be. At least i'm happy cause today was the payment day $$) I've recieved my first salary, paid by LICR, today, and now i'm so proud:) From my first salary i've paid my first taxes (which is 22,28% according to the Skattetabel). And now i feel a sort of "We build this country!", proudly walking on clean streets and breathing the fresh air, feeling like i have a full right now to admire and use the public services, cause i've pa$d for them as a honest and fair citizen..:) 

Soon i plan to post the last part of "Memories" about walking with Craig in museums, gay pride 2011 and beautiful sunset in august Stockholm. 

On this week i'll get in touch with all scandinavian gods :) 

On Onsdag (Wednesday, the Day of Odin) i'll try to prepare my toilet project for KI Innovation Idea contest.

On Torsdag (Thursday, the Day of Thor) i'll have an exam of "Animal Laboratory Science" course.

On Fredag (Friday, the Day of Frea) i'll hang out somewhere in the city testing my camera for possible malfunction before going to Paris. 

Hope everything will be ok! Check the blog and take care!

Memories of the Past vol. 3: God bless Riksten

Hej igen, folks!

I forgot all my pics at home of course, but on the lab laptop there r several which i copied few days before. This post i love already from beginning, cause it's dedicated to the kommun where i'm so happy to live in, Riksten Friluftsstad. First a little story to understand the reasons of my unconditional love.

Forests around Riksten

In the beginning of April 2011 everything went smooth with the embassy and official stuff, i knew where i was going to work in and etc. The main problem, however, remained - i completely didn't know where to live. Socialistic system of accommodation in Sweden is based on the municipal queues ("bostadskö"). Basically here you don't have to buy an apartment, u can get ANY flat from governmental public fund and pay only rent all your life (it's called "hyresrätt"). For example you can have a flat in center of Stockholm with view on the Palace, though to have it you must remain in the queue for... 25-30 years. 

Not the very center of the city, but in center still - ... 15-20 years.

Suburbian areas - ... 8-10 years.

And if you r a student, don't even dream about ANY accommodation if you have remained in the queue for less than 2-3 years.

So this is a nightmare for upcoming students. I know several people that hire the sleeping place in someones kitchen for 3'000kr. 

Of course you can try to get the flat from second-hand contract ("uthyres andra hand") - it means that you hire a flat from person who got it previously from kommun. Theoretically it's ok, but practically on each such apartment there is a queue of 20-30 persons. So when u come to Sweden, u r automatically find yourself in a crap because you don't have a place to live. And nobody cares. And your money is not an object - unless you will try to give a bribe. But then the police will catch you by the balls and u will be excluded from all queues forever. So simply wait in the queue or fuck off.

And i was feeling the same in April, one month before coming to Sweden, i didn't even imagine how i'm going to live there. And thanks God the miracle happened - on the Easter days 24-26th April i received a letter from landlord asking me to prove that i'm studying here. There was only 6 or 7 hours left before the deadline, so i called my professor, Johan, and he was on barbeque at that time, and so on and so on... Finally i got it (and i had only 40 days in the queue that time). I'm still thanking God every day when i come home at evening :) 

In Academgorodok in Russia i lived almost in the forest, he-he. Well, here i live in pretty much the same place :) it's clean air, rabbits and squirrels are scurrying around. A little bit far from central Stockholm, but it's nothing, 15 min bus to the train station, and then i take 150 km/h pendeltåg (eng. "commuter train"), which reaches Karlberg station in 17 minutes. So it's 1h door to door. 

So there is a place in Sweden which i'm happy to call my home :)

heh, these were first days in my flat :) assembling furniture, carpets and IKEA's bed. The flat is 20sqm, with kitchen and bathroom (no bath, shower only (sv. "dusch"), very little flats in Sweden have bath, it's rare)

50m from my home to swimming pool

This is a pic from 29th May, when 2 days before i got the keys i went to Riksten to see what is this place :) and this is my house. And this is my neighbor from the first floor (i live on second).

Unfortunately due to my Mac fail in July i've lost the most of my pics which were about my accommodation and Riksten :( but i hope folks you know have an idea of where i live. As i was lucky to get it, all i just want to wish you is good luck! And never stop thanking life of what it gives you :) see Pic-of-the-Week on Friday as usual and see u!

P.S. 

One day as usual i was returning home late, it was 22-22:30 i guess. In the bus i met drunken politian from Socialistic party, he just returned from boat cruise with his mates. We were chatting funny and became good friends :) one day he asked me:
- Well, as u know, Anton, i'm the politician from the glorious Socialdemokratiska Arbetarparti, and i want to ask you what do you like to improve in our motherland kommun of Tullinge?
I said:
- Well, it's not for me to complain, i'm just so happy that i got the place here!
- Ah, tell me tell!
I was thinking a little and said:
- You know, Peter, it's good to have a express bus from Tullinge station to Riksten directly, without driving on all these back streets and making a huge hook. Actually you live on the "Krokvägen" (eng. "Hook street") and u know this problem.
- Ah, yes-yes, good-good, nice idea, we can discuss it at the municipality..
So this is how it was.
I've never seen Peter since that talk in the middle June.
But from the 25th August there is an additional bus 721X, which goes 5 times/day directly to Riksten within a 5 minutes (against 15 min of common 721' bus).

Meet more drunken people and tell them your wishes.
And they'll probably come true :)))
Cheers!

The Strictest Professor

Hej, Monday starts.

Matti, education supervisor at KI, suggested me today to join the examination of medical students. All I had to do was just a supplementary role of providing students with a paper, answer their questions and watching them if they cheat on the exam.

I came at half-past-eight at Skrivsalen (eng. "Writing Hall"). To say that i was impressed means to say nothing. It was outstanding, i've never seen anything like this before. And it happened to be that all examination procedures are so in Sweden.

Now i'm afraid about myself.

Cause I will have couple of exams too.

Fuck.

Took some pics on iphone.

160 persons r examinated at once. You r not allowed to take ANYTHING with you (except of coffee thermos flask or snuff tobacco) and use ANYTHING except of pen and paper. Yellow form is just check-in, white ones - the tests themselves. 30 questions, 3 essay questions. The spirit of totalitarian government was in the air.

Matti's introduction. Basically - to scare students to death. As he told me, it was their first exam after school.

Cheating at the exam in socialistic Sweden is a governmental crime. You r considered to be an embezzler of public money, as if you r stealing them. If you r caught cheating, the case goes straightly to President of University and in Ministry of Education. The sentence - you are expelled from university

While students were writing, i was thinking that if the same rules applied for me when i was studying at NSU in Novosibirsk, i would be expelled from university approximately 25-30 times.

It was total shit for me and Stephen and Vanessa when people started to hand over their tests. Most of them finished after one hour, and it was a great rush to be able to take their papers, put a mark about it in the list and put test in proper folder.

Here u go, the test itself, for the "Ägg till embryo" (eng. "From egg to embryo"). Quite all right though, some questions are very specific. But some r very stupid, for example "From where the transcription starts? a) Telomere, b) Promoter, c) Attenuator, d) Enhancer"

And here is the fucker! Everyone left at 11 - 11:15, and he was sitting there ALONE up to the very end of exam, 12-00!!! Of course we had to wait for him, otherwise we could escape this torture almost one hour before!

This is no funny ...

It actually can be another brilliant pic-of-the-week, but i decided to post it out of these series. 

This short video is about Stockholm winter 2010/2011, shot by Lucita Sorez, the friend of my collegue from lab. Two previous winters were really snowy in Sweden. I honestly hope this winter will be the same.

Enjoy the sunday, enjoy the video and comment :) 

Pic-of-the-Week 1

At the end of each week (Friday usually, but let's start today) here i'll post a Pic-of-the-Week - a picture, video or other stuff that seems to be very strange, but nevertheless interesting and representing Sweden (or etc.) from its cute and funny side.

please feel free to comment)

Moonlit night in old Mexico

You have to anticipate to return home late if you r working in the science. Unfortunately, this lady takes very much of you, and i'm 100% sure u must not let her to do it. 

Couple of times i returned home at 10pm-3am (4-5-10 of 5:) ), but the city is actually very pleasant to walk in honestly. At night city streets r pretty empty, but not T-bana on sat night 4-5am of course, when there r a lot of drunked folks returning from clubs.  

Anyway, i decided show u some pics of the Beautiful at night, collected basically from 3-4 of such late coming-home's. So feel the dark side and let the rapture flow through you)

Gustav Vasa (i told u, vasa is everywhere) kyrka (church) at Odenplan (The Square of Odin)

kungstädgården party it was

iron boy

Nope, no cars, no, sir.

Sweden: almost best in the world

According to the results of every-year survey, provided by Reputation Institute, Sweden has the highest reputation in the world after Canada.

First five also r: aussie and kiwi (Australia and New Zealand, respectively) and Switzerland (*where the richest swede lives, Kamprad).

Almost 42'000 people joined the survey all around the world. The main for the interviewed participants were reliability and safety, democracy stability, quality of life, environmental care and economic successes. 

Good, good!

Memories of the Past vol. 2

This beauty costs about of 20 euro/month as a church tax for its faithful prayers

These kind of streets looked the same even 600 years ago

a way to bank where i receive stipend

it's the only art deco masterpiece which i tried to find in the city

S:t Eriksplan, the terminal T-bana (metro) station which i take on the road to institute

ahaha that street!

you again! they never leave me alone, these guardians, i honestly don't know what they need!

Stadsbiblioteket

it looks like Cinderella's house, but what i saw was a half-naked man in his late 50's smoking on the balcony

animals actually live very peacefully with the man in Sweden. For 6th month being there i saw a lot of rabbits, squirrels, ducks of various kinds and the creature which we know as Bamby (a deer?)

in Sweden there is a sort of cult of personality (almost like Lenin in Russia) of king Gustaf Vasa, his name is everywhere: streets, squares, museums, cookies and thermal regulator in our lab

aah, that's the famous building at Stortorget, the very heart of the city

the birds are quite shameless here, they don't mind to give a shit on the Gustaf Vasa head