Sverige!

It has been now a few weeks that I am in Sweden, so I think its high time to talk about this singular country. We actually live in the university housing area, the Ryd, where most people live in what is called a "corridor". Basically, this is a big flat shared by up to 8 people, where you have your personal room but share a living room and a kitchen with 7 other people. My room is very convenient, large and practical, with a decent shower. Sharing with many people has a big advantage: a huge kitchen! There is plenty of kitchen furniture and we have toasters and ovens! Unfortunately, it can become a nightmare for some corridors when people are a little dirty, I have seen some really disguting corridors!! But my roommates are very nice and clean.

There are 5 swedes and 1 german in my corridor, and the 5 swede are very close friends cooking and living together. It is sometimes annoying to feel like I am not at home as these swedes have been living there for several years and therefore make the rules, but it was fine and I have a lot of fun so far.

About the swedes, they are usually very nice even if they can seem cold. It is so surprising to see how EVERYONE speaks english... From 8 year-old kids to supermarket's cashiers! It is very frustrating to consider oneself a good english speaker and realize that you just have the average level of another country. Another interesting point is how they are super-organized, you always know how to do, or where to go, there is almost no uncertainty. It is sometimes a bad thing because when you have to take a ticket online to play basketball at the gym two days in advance, it becomes really insane! Queuing is part of the culture... you have to queue, everytime, - horrible!

Anyway, I make my way through, it is a pretty fascinating country and if you get used to the very bad weather then its perfectly fine! (but it is NOT easy). I now have a fancy bike, a swedish one that says "world-best bike" or something like this in Sweden ahah!

Livin' it up the Ryd

This is "Ryd". This strange term that I have no idea what it stands for or mean, is the name of the residential area where we all live. The least we can say about it is that it's very....... interesting!

First of all, the Ryd is not really part of the town as it is separated from it by a sort of wood, and to go to the center you will need at least a 15-minutes bikeride. The university is closer, with an average bike ride of 7 minutes and 35 seconds. The area shown in the picture is the university housing part of the Ryd, the one dedicated to LiU students, but it is surrounded by other habitations where other people live. The big red spot on the map is where I live, Rydsvagen 262 appt C30. The two red squares are pretty much the barycenters of the Ryd. The one on the left, Ryd Centrum is where Hemköp is at and the other one is the Herrgarn' a.k.a. "HG". Hemköp is the one and only supermarket in the Ryd, therefore we can use the term of monopoly situation and inexistence of competition to put pressure on prices. The HG is the student bar of the Ryd, so this is where main parties end, mainly because of the wind/cold/bike/laziness/price of drinks factors that occurs when trying to go out downtown. It is funny to notice that the entrance of the bars, where many drunk students are queuing and still drinking and being drunk, is adjacent to a kindergarten... Only in Sweden.

As I said before, the Ryd is very "interesting". The most confusing thing is that it is the antichrist of what you could think about Swedes obsession of organization. As all the building look the same, it is first very hard to find one's way, so your first reflex when you look for somewhere is to refer to the streets names and numbers. But here, there seems to be an absence or logic, or maybe a logic way too complicated for my simple french mind. It's a total MESS. You could be in a street that is called Alsättergattan, walk straight in the same street and then realized that now you are in Björnkarrsgatan... then you see a perpendicular street and go to the left, you are in Rydsvagen, and then the next street on the right is also called Björnkarrsgatan. And If you go straight you are in Alsättergattan again. It's so confusing, I'm still working on breaking down the mystery of Ryd.

Ryd is also like a "Little Amsterdam". Not talking about people using illicit drugs, even if it would be a relevant comparison, my focus is more on the use of bikes. An estimation of the number of bikes in the Ryd is 10,000 (Source: Myself newspaper) of which approximately 7,000 are broken ones. This therefore became the paradise of the of a gang of 12-year old kids that just hang out in the Ryd all day long looking for bikes they could "lend". A very common picture of the Ryd is to see tires or even entire bike stuck in some trees, roofs, or wherever it can be thrown.. consequences of the HG!