Andrei Neculau

I understand why nobrainers use Twitter to say
- I’ve just woke up
- I’m brushing my bad breath away
- Wow! No cereals?
- Hmm.. I forgot to pee.
- Uhhhhhhh… What a relief!
- Taking a shower..
….
- Watching …
- Drinking …
….
….

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Let’s say that a freshly admitted student, name him a whoever Ikrom.. wants to get a bank account in Sweden, after getting his personnummer.

He goes, with his admission letter, passport, photo, personbevis for bank account, etc, etc.

He ends up at a branch and is told that they cannot give bank accounts to people without Swedish ID cards, and instruct him to go to the Police in order to get a Swedish ID card.

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If you cannot SMS your foreign friends from your Tele2 number.. just read the following.

WTF??

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Pfff…

So all this for nothing!

Why? Because in order to get a monthly plan with Tele2, you need to be employed or to receive CSN money (which is only for Swedes anyway).

Swedish friends to the rescue!!!

The support lady was nice though

Posten

Today, I figured out once and for all my “issues” with Posten (Swedish Post Office).

So… things is like this.

1. You get to Sweden, you put your nametag on your mailbox.
2. The mailman comes one day and notices the new nametag.
3. Posten then registers you in their “system”.
4. Only afterwards, mail sent to you will actually reach you.

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It took almost 4 hours for Aron and me to get the KTH Access Card and a kth.se account.

I guess almost all the new international Master students studying in Kista came today.

Oh joy!

I don’t get this type of organizing things. It that’s what somebody calls “organized”. It was bad for all of us waiting in that queue, it was bad for those 2 clerks at the Helpdesk.. We wondered how the hell are they still smiling?

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Some days ago, when I bought the TV tuner, the girl at Kista Galleria’s ONOFF store started speaking in Romanian (she’s not Romanian, or at least doesn’t seem to).

For a second there, after a week of mostly down-with-spirits mood, it almost felt good.

Now, for years, I have been critical in what Romania is concerned, only to come to Sweden for a full week of really living here, and not just act like a visitor/guest, and question myself “What the hell am I doing here?”

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or Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial.

Since a few years now, most of the TV broadcast is done digitally in Sweden.

So if you plan to get some Swedish channels into your life.. Go on with buying a TV tuner and an indoor antenna. You may be fine without the antenna, if you live in an area that is in an open field and close to the city.

After fiddling so much with the TV tuner’s antenna, I had to buy the indoor antenna. I already looked enough as a fool doing some sort of pantomime on the window ,)

You should be able to get SVT1, SVT2, SVT24, Barn/Kunskapsk., TV6, TV7, TV Finland, The Voice (music), Axess (classic music, documentaries, and good movies), some local ones (in Stockholm: TV4 Stockholm and Lokal Kanal) and others.

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As every other student, I’m bumping into..

Decisions, decisions!

One of them now is which bank should I choose? KTH recommends Nordea, SEB, or if you stay longer than one year, Handelsbanken.

Now.. to summarize the information that KTH gives you..

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After a succesful series on the procedures of admission to Higher Studies in Sweden, I’m now going back to a bit more personal chained writings (series). I’ll try to keep track of my experiences around my master at KTH

I’ll start fresh..

In the summer of 2003, I was finishing my high school studies and I was planning to go to Universitatea Tehnică Cluj-Napoca (en. The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca), located in Transylvania. It was really far from my hometown (Galați), but I went to Cluj-Napoca a year before and the town and youthful atmosphere seemed a far better alternative than the polluted and busy capital, Bucharest.

What many didn’t knew was that it was also a nice alternative, considering I actually wanted to try my luck in Sweden. Partially due to family reasons, but mostly due to personal ones, I didn’t try that. I was seeing friends sitting their SATs and Toefl exams, trying to find the money they needed, etc, for going to Germany, UK, US, and other places. I simply didn’t see myself doing all that for another place other than Sweden. The pure fact that people were looking for the money they needed, or that they were accepting clauses like “I will work at your company 2 years after I finish my studies” seemed restrictive. It’s like “Here’s the carrot..” but I would have always thought of the stick waiting behind the corner.

Why only Sweden? Because of a.. almost spiritual experience in Sigtuna, Sweden. Sounds lame, I know, but it felt right there. And the feeling was backed up by the reality of having most of the Swedish things in place, without loosing the humane part. In 2001 I was thinking Sweden is a lot like Germany, but with a touch. In 2007, I went to Frankfurt for one day, and I realised I was right. You can probably replace Germany with any Germanic country/culture and that wouldn’t change anything. It’s something about the culture, language and social context that attracts me and makes me feel like home in Sweden. Period.

And it’s not Scandinavia, it’s specifically Sweden!

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