[SWEDEN] A new colleague in Sweden

I finally got an internet connection at home so I should be able to update my blog a bit more now. The problem: it's not wireless and the port is at my doorway where there is no table and chair. I pulled a chair from my dining area and my laptop is literally on my lap as I type, and I won't be typing for long because it is getting a bit too hot. I am planning to get a WLAN router soon (or maybe not so soon since I am guessing it will cost quite a bit to get one) so I can actually work in my study (yes, my new pad is large enough to actually have a study among other things).

Anyways, I now have a colleague working with me here in the customer site - her name is Marlena and she is Polish. She's staying now in the same hotel that I stayed in when I got here, and in fact she actually got the same room I got. She says there's a plant in the room that is almost dead which is why she has started watering it, but i take no accountability to the death of that plant since well it's a hotel and there's someone cleaning the rooms daily so it should be their responsibility to water the plants (or at least tell me so if they expect me to do it). Speaking of which, there are quite a few potted plants in my new apartment and so far I have been able to remember to water them a couple of times each week. Hopefully by the time I leave my apartment all these plants are still alive.

Yesterday, Saturday, I went over to her hotel because we planned to walk around the centrum so that she could familiarize herself with the city. Unfortunately the wind on Saturday was incredibly strong. It was somewhere between 5 and 10 degrees I think, and I now find that temperature to be warm enough to be outdoors without a hat and gloves and with my jacket unzipped (guess I have adapted to the cold weather pretty well). But not on Saturday. The wind was so strong that it felt a helluva lot colder than it was. Marlena was actually tearing up from the wind, and after we had walked around to see the Domkyrkan (I'll write more about the Domkyrkan in a later post) and a few University buildings when she suggested that we go have some coffee because and hope that after our coffee, the wind would die down.

So we head to Espresso House (of course) and end up talking about how it is working in a different country as well as the history of Poland and the Philippines and how life is in our respective countries. Marlena knows a lot about Poland and it's history, and it embarrassed me a bit because I just realized I didn't have the same in-depth knowledge of my country's history as she had of hers. So the next time I get back to Manila, maybe I can get a decent history book and read up on it again so I have better, more insightful things to say to people who ask me about it next time. Or maybe I can just check the internet.

When we step out of the cafe, we find out it was still very blustery outside. So we decide to call it a day and maybe try to see more of the city some other weekend when the wind isn't forcing us to stay indoors.

I actually decided to run today. As I said, it doesn't feel too cold anymore so I was feeling ready to take on the weather in just my running attire and a sweater. And I did run - I have no idea what distance I covered but I ran for 28 minutes so that's probably about 4-4.5 km. The intense wind was still around though and it made it extremely difficult to run. But I really needed some exercise so I am glad I did it.