next stop - UK

Finally our big bosses made their minds and released our destiny for the next few months and according to this from January until end of March I’m going to work in a rainy Britain, and more specifically in a wonderful place (=village? :s) called Hemel Hempstead - half an hour away from London.
Must admit that I’m pretty excited about it since I’ve never been to UK yet but mostly that finally after almost 2 years people around me are gonna speak the language that I actually understand and able to express myself… And especially after 4 months of working around Swedish people speaking their “lovely” Nordic language all the time, I consider it as a total blessing – UK being my first work destination.

Besides obviously I’ve already got plenty of exciting plans, trips and meetings to do. Curly Katya was planning to go to London straight after Russian Christmas, Pavlik promised to pay a visit during Chinese New Year (hell knows when is it, February? :ss) and as Paris is just 30min away by EasyJet Nico’ll visit me during the weekends as well (right, right, right?!:).

And now about my Xmas holidays plans! Sometimes it could be quite nice to work for a Swedish company as I have more than 2 weeks of holidays for Christmas.
So me and Nico are leaving the fabulous village of Jönköping on 21st of December to start the exciting journey to the cheaper and sunnier countries. The plan is to drive by car all the way down to Paris having stops in Bremen&Cologne&Luxemburg for sight-seeing and in Thionville for getting some oysters and Christmas spirit.
26th – 30th of December – oh, Paris…..!!!!!!!
30th December – 3d of January – hola, Madrid J)) We’re gonna crash into the hospitable house of Cabronsito (aka Jesus) to eat 12 grapes during NY Eve and explore Madrid’s nightlife.
4th – 7th of January – back to wonderful Paris – cheese, wine and blinking Eifel Tower J
7th of January – Paris -> London -> Hemel Hemstead – back to working life….

So if anybody’s going to be around those cities during Xmas – give me a call ;)

And some pics from Pierre’s visit to Stockholm few weeks ago…
Xmas market in Gröna Lund
Night in GK
Wirströms – old and lovely Irish pub in Gamla Stan – and most of the crowd is French – can you imagine how scared I was?! :)))

Coutryside girl

Jönköping.... "It is a city in Småland in southern Sweden with 84,423 inhabitants. It is the 9th most populous city of Sweden. Geographically the town is situated by the southern end of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern. With a sandy beach running through Jönköping is considered a very beautiful city..." ...well, at least according to Wikipedia:)
Einstein used to say that evrything's relative in this world and in this case it's the same. If you judge Jönköping as a 24 year old born in a city with 2 mil people in a country where almost everything's opened 24/7, moving to Jönköping is like changing a skyscraper to a mongolian jurt. However, if you think about it as a proper Swede it has only advantages: calm unstressful life in a countryside city which although has evrything necessary for normal living: shopping malls, bars, restaurant, clubs, museums and a huge beautiful lake.
So at my 1-month-living-in-Jönköping aniversary day I came to the conclusion that Jönköping is a beautiful provincial Swedish town with very nice and friendly inhabitants (unlike in the capital) and very good bus connection to Stockholm:)
Some facts to be proud of my new home:
a safety match - it was invented here and the city has The matchsticks musseum - the only one in the world!
the Cardigans - "love me, love me, say that you love me" - you definitley know them. And yes, they come from Jönköping!!!

Now short facts about my work for those who still doesn't know: since 17th September 2007 I am taking part in Trainee management program in ITAB Shop Concept (one of the European leaders in shoppitting manufacturing). The company's based in Jönköping, Sweden (see above), however it operates around the whole Europe including Russia and Ukraine. The trainee program is 1 year long. During this year we (3 trainees) are going to work on different projects within several corporate areas such as: finance, supply chain, sales, logistics etc.etc. Until Christmas 2007 we are staying in the mother company in Jönköping, and after fabulous New Year holidays (see later) we're going to outside world to travel for 9 months between different dauther companies.
3 trainees are me and 2 Swedes: Catherine and Marcus (who's my flatmate at the same time).
Me&Marcus live in a big 3-bedrooms apartment right in the center of this fabulous town, so as we're just 2, there's one guest room waiting for YOU to visit me here until 21st of December!;)

As for the rest: I live a totally happy lazy life now, coming home after work in the evenings, watching movies and TV series, playing with Magnus (my birthday present) and eating some chocolat. And during the weekends: hello Stockholm!:) However this weekend we are planning a Göteborg trip...

cheers to everybody
I'll try to post here more often than once in 6 months :p

hallo Berlin

Life's going very fast, lots of work and studies:( Don't really have time to write, therefore just a quick picture snapshot, enjoy the view of sunny Germany from where I came back just yesterday.

Always Berlin....this city has some strange power over me and even thought I don't actually like it that much I always come back there (it was 3d or 4th time now), maybe it's faith..:)

But there's the thing about Berlin which I adore: it's soooo blood cheap!!!!!!! You could easily eat for 3-4 euros (including beer!) or have a perfect cake for less than 2 euros!!!!! Incredible:)))

Or we went to some kind of student club where I entered for free and got flyers for 10euros to buy drinks!

But don't think I was partying there:P Actually I went to Careers in Europe forum to conduct few job interviews.....

Have la prueba de español next week, so back to studies......

LUBECK (on the way to Ryanair airport...)

Beds in the street, sushi at work and Little Mermaid for weekend

"Say no to HARD drugs!" - main slogan of Christiania - hippy comunity in the center of Copenhagen. And yes, the main stress is on a word "hard" - hash is everywhere:)

Don’t really know how to start as quite a lot of things have happened during last month and therefore as a real technician (I know it’s not true but can I at least pretend that the thing written in my diploma is correct :p) I’ll go straight to the point.
Few changes in my life:
1) Accommodation. I finally moved to student dorms: hello Lappis :DDD And right now I’m writing in my quite small, rather empty but still very nice room in the best dormitory area in Stockholm. Why the best? Because it’s international – meaning funJ and most of my friends live around what makes it much easier to drop by for a drink&chat (right now waiting one español to pass by for an evening coffee & ice cream and, of course, gossiping:). It’s less than 30 min from uni and job (see later). And it’s just student life as it is during my last 3 months of student “halara”.
However (this word is always inevitable unfortunately) there’re 2 disturbing moments. First, it’s my lack of furniture. My room was absolutely empty when I moved in. When I say absolutely, I really mean it. Nothing. Not even a bulb in the ceiling. They even took away the stick for curtains above the window:p Luckily Lappis is amazing place as I said. During the first day we managed to find me a bed (was laying just on the street), a table&chair (from one of the corridors) and a pillow. Later in the same way (foundraising J) were found table lamp, mattress, blanket, mesita (bed table:) and 1 hanger (still need at least 10 moreL ). As I said this dorm is incredible!:)
Another thing is my corridor. It’s incredibly quiet! By now I’ve seen just 3 Swedes and 1 strange Icelandic guy out of 9 neighbors. And all of them I’ve seen actually once or twice…… But at least nobody complained when we almost burned the kitchen making pancakes :PP

2) Job: I found new “shitty” job until the end of my main studies (June). So now I work as a waitress in a small Japanese restaurant downtown. Of course it’s tiring but kind of nice. Apart from the fact that “jag måste prata svenska där!:(“ (=I have to speak Swedish there). It’s not that big problem as it’s simple day-to-day language but still I’d prefer to speak English or..SpanishJ (need to practice more with normal ppl, not just with drunk Catalans).

Hmmm, this is it actually. So now basically my 3-months plan is to work, work, work. Pass last exams by the beginning of June. Go to Paris and Barcelona again before July (hopefully…). Entertain 20 crazy European students in the middle of June (we have our BEST Spring course in Sthlm). And then leave to great Russian trip at the end of June. I hope by that time to find a job in SPb or Moscow but before from 2 to 10th of July I plan to go to Ekb – hope that u all will be there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And at the end to entertain u a bit here goes the story of my trip to Copenhagen during Easter weekend (7-9 April).
It started 2 weeks ago when we were having coffee with a friend of mine and suddenly I remembered that I’ll have 4 days free from work around Easter and Danilo had the same.
- What shall we do?..
- No money…
- YeahL
- Let’s hitchhike somewhere then..!
- Just 4 days, somewhere close then…
- Copenhagen! I still haven’t seen the Mermaid! (Tanya)
- Yeah, I wanted to visit a friend there for a long time! (Danilo)
- So let’s hitchhike to Copenhagen!!!

And so last Friday the adventure started. Started with 2,5 hours waiting (and freezing) on a petrol station in Södertälje (around 30-40 km south from Sthlm). After 2 hours Danilo already gave up and was ready to catch the train back to Sthlm to warm apartment. But I desperately wanted to get out of Stockholm, especially having 4 days weekend! Finally we got our first ride to Nyköping (50km down). And so it went, 50km, 80 km, another 100 km.
Then another dead point right in the middle of the way – Jönköping – 250 km from Sthlm, 300 km from Malmö. Middle of Sweden – middle of nowhere. 100 cars with stupid local youngsters, making stupid faces from the cars. 0 cars stopping. After imagining all possible options of sleeping somewhere in this middle of nowhere 2 cars packed with Swedish-Yugoslavian guys stopped. We got free beer, entertainment of drunk guys speaking skånska (a dialect from the south of Sweden, smth in between Swedish and Danish – imagine the pronunciation!!!!). One of the guys got extremely drunk somehow (Swedes cannot drink!!!! Just like babes!) and was sleeping on Danilo’s shoulder while Danilo was praying that the guy wouldn’t throw up on him :p
At the end we ended up in another (10th for that day I guess) petrol station about 20 km before Malmö, at 20.00 in the evening, in the dark with absolutely NO cars driving around. Another 40min imagining sleeping possibilities. And then a miracle: 2 muslim guys stopping and bringing us to the entrance of Malmö’s train station, meanwhile telling about their 2 years in prison and promoting that “Every man has to be in prison at least once in his life during 1 year!!” Danilo actively supported the thought just to stay alive until we run to the train to CopenhagenJ.
Easter weekend in Copenhagen: a loooooooot of walking (no money to pay 25 crones for public transport), free snaps in Nyhavn (Scandinavian people definitely have a lot to learn from Mediterraneans about how to make alcohol! Snaps is disgusting!!! But I couldn’t skip free drinkJ), Little Mermaid (with some stupid Russian 50 years old tourists trying to climb on her! Of course!! ), Easter breakfast in typical Danish family (lots of nice food, chocolate eggs and people speaking Danish = kind of Swedish but having “hot potato” in their mouth – freaky and absolutely not understandable).
Coming back… bus to Helsinborg in a naïve hope to catch the ride to Stockholm from there. Finally after freezing the ass for 2 hours in a petrol station in that bloody “town” (aka village) we took a bus to Stockholm paying more than I used to pay for the plane to Paris – bloody Sweden!

Conclusions: no more hitchhiking! EVER! And please, if I ever mention it again – remind me ex-cocain-addict driver in Nyköping, leaving my passport in Copenhagen (now I just hope for the safety of Scandinavian post to get it back) and frightened faces of people from passing cars!


Now, the most important part of the whole bullshit: people, COME TO STOCKHOLM!!!!! Now when I finally got my own accommodation I can host you with no problems. Also the best time to visit Stockholm is coming - May and June: warm but not hot weather, white nights, barbeques and student parties and of course me extremely happy to see you hereJ
For Russians, if you think fast (during a week or so) I could even make you an invitation for June from university and BEST. So hurry up!!!!

Stockholm is waiting for YOU!!!

COPENHAGEN

Swedish archipelago - BEST Nordic Regional Meeting in Barnens Ö

Saturday night in student campus

life is moving on, I'm still home sick but trying to cheer up going to the parties:)
The typical one looks like this: Friday/Saturday evening&night, a corridor in student campus, italian dinner (most of the time, grazie mille to our eternal cook Stefano:), russian vodka (brrr, but I had to bring a prouf that I was home:), and then something absolutely untypical: no party!!! We were crawling around the campus for about 2 hours, desperate to find some party and...NOTHING! Dead as it was! Incredible!
Finally we found some spanish ppl (u always can some anywhere anytime of the night:) including beautiful señorita - a guy who lost a bet and had to dress up as a girl (I'd say as a transvestite hore but tastes differ :p).
Finally we finished around 5 a.m. in the corridor of our cook (see above:), drinking amaretto, singing and "dancing" (aka jumping around). Still dunno if he survived an attack of his corridor mates next morning:P

Student life is great...unless you don't have to go to study meeting the morning after the party:P

Tanya / moving to Lappis (student accomodation) in 2,5 weeks!!! :)))

home sweet home

I've been home! In Russia! In Ekaterinburg!!! You cannot even imagine how it feels to go out of the plane after 14 months being away and to see the city that you've been living in for more than 20 years looking so familiar but already different. It seemed like I've never been away but felt so weird to be there again, to see all those buildings that I passed by 1mln times in my life. Although even after just 1 year it already felted like I don't belong there now and 3 crowns of Stadshuset seem to be more common than a star of Adminisration on 1905 square in Ekb.
Although what first really freaked me out already while changing airports in Moscow - people. Russian speaking people everywhere!:) Believe me it's amazing. Especially after crawling around Sweden, Spain, France and whatever for such time I got absolutely confused about in which language I need to talk to people. And I always noticed and turned my head automatically to ppl speaking Russian as I do in Stockholm...and they all spoke Russian..:) freaky:)
But finally I met with my dear friends and all strange things and impretions didn't matter anymore:)
Uff, it was taft. 9 days of almost constant drinking and pub-club crawling at nights and then pathetic efforts to work on 3 study projects in order not to be killed by university mates in the morning..... I managed! and must say that I really loved it!
And now after coming back to calm and clean Stockholm I must admit I miss messy, sometimes dirty but fun Russia with all it's 24 hours shops, full clubs, traffic jams even at night and...just real life! It was almost like Barcelona (which is definetely still top 1 city ever in my list) but with people that I love around...

Ganina Yama
US (me, Anka, Lelik, Julichnaya)

night city rally

By the way, what did we do there? I've been shown almost all new opened clubs and bars in the city:) Why I love Russia also is that you never have problems with moving from club to club at 4 in the morning - just go out to the street, raise your hand, cars stops and you go. Even when you're 6 drunk ppl:)

We went to Ganina Yama (thanx to Dima:) also - a place where they burned and buried the bodies of the last Russian royal family (Nicolas II and Co). Nice wooden churches but too freaky cold:P

Cinema - well, this was not that nice experience...apart fromt eh coctail in a cinema bar for the price of kafe och kanelbulle (1,5 euro). Aparently movie producers decided that they won't earn enough money in normal way and just divided the movie into 2. So after 1,5 hours, at the most interesting moment of we've seen "to be continued...". Fy fan!!!!! Apparently it's Film 1 and Film 2 will be shown in the cinemas in 3 weeks or so. Nice......

And of course I couldn't miss home-based drinking at our 33 square meters - Lelik:) Limoncello, glögg, and of course congnac:)))

I love Russia!