No Postcards Anymore

Please don't send letters or postcards to my address in Stockholm anymore. It's very likely that I move out before they arrive and won't receive them at all.

Of course letters and postcards are very welcome at my "new" address:

Hendrik Buschmeier
Oberer Steinbrink 8
32657 Lemgo
Germany

It's Time to Go Home

As the autumn term at KTH is over and my work here in Stockholm is mostly finished (there is only some paperwork left), it's time for me to return to Germany.

My girlfriend is coming over today and we'll spend the next days going Christmas shopping, strolling around the city and visiting the Alundaälgen in Stockholm's Historiska museet.

All in all, it was a fantastic time here in Stockholm. I met gazillions of brilliant people, had two excellent computer science courses, lots of fun and a hell of lot of work to do. It was a really really good experience.

By the way, don't delete this weblog's feed from your news-aggregator yet—I've still got some articles in the pipeline (e.g. the inofficial Flemingsberg FAQs, an article about the Swedish language, some results of course assignments and a comprehensive and extensive after-action report).

Update February 2008:
As you may have noticed by now, the announcement above was a bit short-sighted. I haven't had the time to write the articles. I'm sorry!

Another Child-Friendly Place

The cinema Sture, known as "Stockholms finaste premierbiograf," has a special offering for parents with small children. At 11 o'clock in the morning you can watch a film and bring you baby with you. They have a reduced price and it is not totally dark in the auditorium.

This might be another reason why the birth rate in Sweden is higher than in Germany and most other countries of the European Union.

I have covered Swedish child-friendlyness earlier.

My Residence Permit

Today—10 days before I leave this country—I finally got my "certificate of residence permit". It is a plastic card which states:

"My name is Hendrik Buschmeier and I am allowed to stay here in Sweden until the 31st of December 2005".

I think that was good and fast work of Migrationsverket.

Swedish Campground

Have you ever asked yourself what the meaning of the peculiar symbol on the command key of you Mac keyboard is? Several weeks ago I saw it on a sign near Uppsala's Castle (unfortunately I forgot to take a photo) and was even more confused.

Today I found the answer. It is the Swedish sign for a place worth visiting (sv: en sevärdhet). The website folklore.org, which publishes "anecdotes about the development of Apple's original Macintosh computer, and the people who created it", ran a story about the so called "Swedish Campground."

Christmas Lights

Right on time for the first advent someone put up Christmas lights on the oil tank of the power plant.

Alcohol in Sweden

The Swedes (or at least the Swedish government) have a quite peculiar attitude towards alcohol. Alcoholic beverages (with more than 3.5 ‰ of alcohol) are only sold in special state-owned shops called Systembolaget (and of course in Pubs/Restaurants with a special license).

Although this is very annoying if you are not used to it, most of the Swedes think it's a good thing (the others go on boat trips to the Baltic states, Finland or Denmark where alcohol is much cheaper). In fact, the alcohol monopoly has a long tradition in Sweden.

This year the Systembolaget turned 50 years old and therefore an open letter was written to José Manuel Barroso (the President of the European Commission), which was published in several European newspapers.

Additionally the Systembolaget created a short and funny movie where the Swedish system is explained (and propagated).

I recommend watching this movie as it makes many things much clearer.