You are my sunshine

Yeaah, almost like this ...

Hello! How are you guys?
I am doing great. My cold has finally gone. The sun is shining here the whole week and everything seems better and nicer in Sundsvall these days.

Mr. Lennart (everybody knows him) finally brought curtains for my room and helped me with putting my new mirror on my wall so now I finally feel cosy and really comfortable in my new room in Nacksta (Hello Nacksta people!!!).

What is going on with us international students here?
Our days are full. Except lectures (more about them some time later) and parties (more about them down below) most of us have the same "problems" from the beginning like where is IKEA, where you can buy this or that but I think finally all of us have furnished their apartments and we are starting to feel more like home. [Yeah ironic thing that we are in the "land of the great furniture" but our apartments were unfurnished.]

Bella and I with our new friend Ileyha (Turkey)

I met sooo many new people and I am meeting more and more of them with every new day. And the awesome thing is that you can hear so many different languages here. Great experience!

80/90s party

So we had 80/90s party this week. I think girls enjoyed a lot (Macarena, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and so on). I don`t know about boys - they enjoyed looking at us dancing all the time I suppose.

Mery`s tacos

We also had tacos evening this week. They were very delicious! Student Union did the great job! ;)

P.S.
- Joachim, Fadi and your friend thank you for the book! :)
- Natalia, happy birthday!!! :)

- And to my dear family, mom, dad, brother Toni and sister Marta, I miss you all very much! :*

My dear Marta, greetings on your first A in the class from the history lesson! Well done! I am proud of you! :)

Jag heter Maja. Vad heter du?

Svenska for utlandska studenter

My first Swedish words: "Jag heter Maja. Vad heter du? :)"

So, all international students had their first Swedish language class today. It was short but I actually enjoyed as it was my first official class at Mid Sweden University.

It seems that we are supposed to focus on oral proficiency this semester and be able to use Swedish in everyday situations. Sounds good but we will see that in the end of the semester :D.

Anyway I have few announcements I want to share with you my dear readers.

1. First of all I have looked few minutes ago at my statistics information on this blog and I saw that I had 1006 unique visitors/readers from the day I started to writing my blog till now (10 days). I am so surprised but also very touched. Thank you for showing your interest for my blog!  

It encourages me to keep writing posts.

2. Second thing. Some of you, my FB friends especially, noticed that I have announced the other day that my paper about Lean method and Lean startup in Croatia has been published in Tem Journal, Vol1. No3. in online and print version. (If anyone is interested), you can also see the whole article.

That research was actually the first research about startup scene in Croatia and FOI students awareness of the Lean startups and I am pretty proud of it. 

I will also use this opportunity to say big thank you to my dear mentor and professor Marina Klačmer Čalopa who was there from the beginning and helped with everything! I wouldn`t have been able to complete my research without her and assistants Jelena Horvat and Kristina Detelj for sure. Thank you very much and greetings from Sundsvall to all of you! ;)

Clip from the article

I would also like to expand my research about Lean startups, Lean concept and/or Business angels here in Sweden so if anyone is interested in those field and would like to cooperate, feel free to contact me.

P.S. I will also have the online presentation about FOI students awareness of the Lean startups, founding, financing and the role in the enterprises as a part of CECIIS conference on 19th September. I am really looking forward to it!

3. I would also like to say thank you to my dear friend Nikola Kadoić who helped me a lot in admission to my graduate studies at my home university while I am here in Sundsvall. He also told me to enjoy in Sweden along with Euphoria song:

"... Euphoria
Forever, ’till the end of time
From now on, only you and I
We’re going up-up-up-up-up-up-up
Euphoria... "

Greetings from Sundsvall, Nikola!

And all the other readers enjoy the song! :)

P.S. Have no idea why the letters are so small.

My first official FIKA

You have to see that famous coffee for 34 sek (cca 30 kn)

Today I had my first official FIKA. It means we went to some coffee shop and had coffee and something sweet. They call it Fika in Sweden and it is pretty popular here to go to Fika very often as I understood good.

But in Sweden you can`t go to coffee shop or even in a pizza place and then just sit, make yourself comfortable and wait for the waiters to order some drink or food like for example in Croatia (at least not in those coffee shops and pizza places where I have been so far).
It seems you have to do everything by yourself here. Buffet tables are everywhere! :D

Say cheeseeee

So I enter the coffee shop:
1. took my own try,
2. took the spoon,
3. the glass,
4. ...and then pour myself a water,
5.  ...then took my coffee,
6. ... take sugar,
7.  ...pay a fortune for doing that (!) all by myself 
8. ... and then finally sat down with my friends and was able to actually drink my coffee.

I have said that I paid a fortune because if I compare my coffee here in Sweden and in Croatia (the same quality) - the difference is just unbelievable. 
In Croatia all students can get coffee for cca 7 sek (7 Swedish krunas or 6 Croatian kunas). And even if you don´t drink an ordinary coffee but for example the Chocolate Ness Cafe or Cappuccino like me, you pay for it like 12 sek. And all you have to do is come to the coffee shop, sit and order :D (ok you have to pay in the end, but that is not the point).

... and believe me I am not a lazy person. I don`t even drink a lot of coffee at my home country where it is so usual to spend a lot of time in coffee shops. I am just noticing the difference.

Good night peopleee! ;)

In the middle of nowhere

Me, Theresa, Annika, Miriam and Natalia

OK, it was like I had a hunch something would go wrong from the moment we left the bus... and in the end it did.  
However I think today was one of those days which I will remember my whole life just like Theresa, Annika, Natalia and Miriam (hello girls! :))

So, we decided to spend out Saturday afternoon on the island called Alnon which is situated just outside Sundsvall in Medelpad. The island is 15 km long and 6 km wide on the widest spot and it is connected to the mainland by a 1,042 meters long bridge. That bridge was actually the longest bridge in Sweden when it was opened in 1964.

The island

And yes, the nature, the coast, sandy beach, the sea, the clouds, the rocks - everything was beautiful and really breathtaking. We took a thousand of pictures there (you will notice that on our new profile pictures on FB I suppose), pretend that we were models, we were sightseeing and really enjoyed our day. 

Really nice place to go and rest from everyone and everything

We discovered that the island is almost empty during the autumn and winter so that is why everything was closed and you could hardly see a human being passing by. We actually met one nice old man who was renting his house on the island with his wife and even then he asked us how did we plan to leave the island because there is no bus on Saturday afternoon from the island to the land. We just looked at him, started to laughing and then he started to laughing (obviously thinking what a crazy international girls) and then he said that he was joking about the bus so we kept on sightseeing. 

Sandy beaches, you must love them

We were also pretty hungry so we were thinking about going to the pizza place near our University afterwards. Some of us (right Natalia? :)) were thinking just about the pizza whole day and it was like one of those things which keep you alive when you have a bad time.

The weather, ahhh awful Swedish weather as usual with the rain, wind and sun changing every 5 minutes.  

The view

One advice while you are in Sweden: Always take your umbrella, warm jacket, good and warm shoes, the cap, scarf, gloves and food with you, no matter what!!!

The girls just want to have fun ;)

So, as you might guess there was no bus for leaving the island. Although every timetable (on the Internet, in the small bus notebook and on the island - as we have checked few times) says that bus goes everyday (even on Saturday) at 6:27 p.m. We were so tired and hungry and just couldn´t wait to come to that pizza place and tell everyone that they should visit the island as soon as possible. 

Some kind of the viewpoint

It was getting darker and colder but still we were in a good mood waiting for the bus and thinking it is normal if it is 10 - 15 - 20 minutes late. But after 30 minutes it wasn`t funny anymore. We were freezing (I couldn`t feel my fingers anymore)! We tried to call the bus service, but no one answered. Then we tried to stop a car and ask for help and taking us to the nearest bus station outside the island - but NO ONE, no one stopped. I couldn´t believe that. There were five sweet girls on the road, waving and looking so scared and people in cars were just smiling and passing next to us (did I say that you could see a car there like every half an hour!). 

And then we finally thought that we found one good soul who would rescue us but the guy stopped because it was his house there, not because of us. We asked him the same question about taking us to the nearest bus station and he said that he needed to go inside to eat something, take a shower and go out with his friends. Seriously??!! I mean, seriously man!! What a gentleman... Yuck! :/ I mean there are five ladies in front of you who look sad, desperate and hungry and you tell them that you have to go in your warm house to eat and take a shower! Once and again, seriously man??!

And I am sorry I never curse or anything like that but you Swedish people really need to do something big to convince me you are not such jerks. 

I mean in Croatia if we ever see someone in trouble, especially tourist people and girls/women, we would not just help them and take them where they need to go, but also we would feed them, make them feel like home and even give them the place to sleep if it is necessary. I dont´t know if the difference is in the mentality or what but I must admit that I didn´t expect that behavior today. I was disappointed.

Anyway somehow we called and asked our new international friend Helena who came with two cars and saved us. When we saw those two cars coming closer to us after more than two hours waiting in the dark and cold weather, we were the happiest girls in the world! :) 
Helena and your friends, thank you very much for rescuing us! 
We will (I will for sure) remember this forever. 

A friend in need is a friend indeed!

And yes, we finally had our pizza and went home to a warm place! 

What a day - the real adventure. I just hope all of us will stay well and healthy! :)

 

Rhapsody of postcards

They asked me if I am crazy to spend so much money on the postcards and stamps :D, but... I know how happy I am when I get a postcard :)

Quote of the day: "Best things happen when you don´t expect!"

This morning I was so surprised when I saw that someone (maybe a moose :) ) put the link of my blog on official FB page of the Mid Sweden University. I really, really didn´t expect and plan anything of these because blog was supposed to be the fastest way to say and to show to my family and friends how I feel about my new address in Sweden and University.
First of all I thought : "Ohh boy, now I have to be careful about what I am writing", but then a friend of mine told me to write exactly how the things work here so that she knows weather she will come her or not. Best regards, Monika! :)

So thank you, Mid Sweden Uni and thanks all of you who are reading my blog and giving me support. :)

I will also use this opportunity to say something more about my home university, Faculty of Organization and Informatics -  FOI. (Unfortunately the website is not in English and there is just Croatian version of it, at least for now.)

So, my dear FOI! :)
It is part of the University of Zagreb but it is not situated in Zagreb, Croatian capital city, but in beautiful Varaždin. Here is an interesting article in English, all about Varaždin. If you ever get a chance, come to Croatia and except enjoying in the sun and Adriatic coast, visit Varaždin. You are more than welcome! :)

The old town Varaždin

I am a graduate student now and this is my last year (I hope) at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics (at least for now). :)  
From this perspective I think I made a right choice while choosing FOI as a place where I continue my education. I met so many new and interesting people from all side of Croatia (and beyond - Hello to my friends from Bosnia and Herzegovina and from USA!) and had opportunity to participate in all kinds of activities. Of course there were hard times, hard exams, sleepless nights but in addition, FOI rulzzz! :)
For now, the only difference I see between FOI and MidSwed is that here we are supposed to call our teachers by their first name and not like at my home university where we usually call them ¨Professors¨.  It is a bit strange, but I hope to get used on it.

I also think this is a great opportunity to invite all Swedish students to my country and universities (not just in Varaždin, but in whole Croatia). Then this all exchange program between Croatia and Sweden (FOI and MidSwed) will have the true meaning of its word.

And there are also few people (professors and assistants from the MidSwed) who visited FOI last year or hosted my professors here (Hello to professor Violeta Vidaček-Hainš and professor Neven Vrček who were here in Sundsvall if I remember good!).
Those are: Ann Larsson-Dahlin, Janet Harling, Assar Hörnell, Romana Culjak, Karen Anderson, Erik Borglund and Svard Proscovia. I was googling them a bit and I think most of them work in Harnosand, the other campus of Mid Sweden Uni. Although I have already spoken with some of them by e-mail, I hope to meet them all in person this semester and to visit all three campuses that Mid Sweden Uni has.

News!!! My dear English professor, Andreja Kovačić is coming to Harnosand on Departmant of Education. I am looking forward to seeing her here. I hope we will both find a way and time to meet next week!

"Flying" to Carl Ohlson where I finally bought the appropriate uplight for my room. Noo, I wasn´t in the dark all this time, but now is much more comfortbale ;)

And yes, I forgot to mention one great thing about Swedish people which I have noticed these days. They always come on time and they are never late. It means that they respect other people´s time. I like that characteristic very much!

P.S. I am not complaining :D (or I am) but I already caught a cold here. I hope to be better tomorrow, but I need to share this with you.
Mike, my boss (ok, the BEST boss ever :) ) told me: "Well, Maja, I don't think they will put that on tourist advertisement - "Come to Sweden.  Get sick." " :D
Best regards, Mike! ;)

Little Spyros everywhere

This morning I felt exactly how the song above says.
The sun was shining and it was pretty warm. Then we went to the town and had a guided tour the Sundsvall. I finally discovered why there are dragons everywhere in the town. 

One of the city protectors

So, shortly - in 1888. there was a big fire in Sunsvall which destroyed everything. After that Sundsvall citizens looked up in Chinese culture and discovered dragons and then decided to put them everywhere around the town. They are protecting the town from disasters, accidents, fire and all other troubles. That is why dragon is a symbol for Sundsvall.

I won a lollipop here :)

The main square

There are a lot of bridges here

The funny game we played. My team won!

With Bella (this is for her mom :))

The weather today: sun - sun - wind - rain - sun - rain - sun - croup - sun - wind. Seriously, what to wear??!! I miss my dear Croatian weather! ;)

P.S. My dear Marta enjoy your first week at school! I am sending you a kiss! :*