I Heart Råslatt.

Råslatt 

Pronounced Rur-sl-ah-tt (With the ah like the 'u' in 'up'...It's the best description I can do!) is the accommodation I've been placed into here in Jonkoping, Sweden. 

It's the ghetto 'slums' of Jonkoping, where immigrants from all over, students (Swedish and foreign!), young families and miscellaneous youth reside in a community of 100, yes 100 buildings! I liken it to Collingwood meets Brunswick in Melbourne with much prettier infrastructure.

Everything here's pretty really..

My building, the 4th floor.

From my window.

Our kiosk.

First drops of snow.

The local supermarket is called 'Willy:s" (Notice the colon. It's the way it's printed in the sign!). Due to my absolute lack of  Sverige language skills, I found a simple exercise like grocery shopping very entertaining. I live with two Swedish girls (One who lives in the 'Swedish igloo' i.e keeps to herself) and an African exchange student who lived in France for four years. She made me delicious crepes on her first night and loves to cook. Sweet. I can sense slight anal retentive inklings though, so I need to clean up my slobby ways. Thankfully, I have my own bedroom decked out in IKEA (Of course!). It's ridiculous how cheap it is AND such a novelty to visit.

Sam and Perri, fellow Melbourne folk.

Mmmm..Dirty snow..

Here's our common room called Sokertoppen, translated: Sugar Hill!

On our first night out, we discovered Sweden's equivalent of Hungry Jacks. It's called MAX and on our drunken trip into town we got a...MAXBOX! The toy? A Tom & Jerry toothbrush!

'Akademien' is the club and melting pot of the city, where Swedes and internationals mingle, bump and grind to retro 90's, shitty pop and Eurovision crap. It is AWESOME. At least for now. It's only open on Wednesday nights, thankfully.

Swede's can, in some cases, come off as cold, reserved and overtly formal in normal settings..Oooooh, not once they're wasted! Arms flail, jumping in unison in circled fashion with Snus tucked neatly in their gums. Snus is a tobacco product that's flavoured and a replacement for smoking that many Swede's love. There's even a eucalyptus flavour!

Jonkoping Uni have a sort of sorority/scout pants system that a lot of students partake in. Each faculty has a colour and on these pants are 'badges of honour' that represent duties performed, how many people you've slept with, stuff like that. 

I think I'll pass..

Patchy much?

The BRILLIANT Lithuanians, Micholas and Jelena..

Below are snaps of my new home town and school. 

I'm in love with Sweden.

 The joy of a frozen lake..

Developing a taste for vodka again.

At around 2pm on New Year's Eve, eight of us were all sitting around our little bedroom and out comes the vodka once again, this time on my initiation. I was ready! Slamming vodka down is painful, but I hardened up. 

We were eventually heading out to the local for festivities..

 But first, we had to get more liquored up!

Mikolaj's friends were absolutely lovely, which was a relief. I was a little nervous heading out into the unknown over New Year's and suspending my control over the situation, but my fears were put to bed after they welcomed 'Australiska'. They had an obsession with all things Australian. Telling them many elaborate tales (Some true, some fake!) of the creatures abroad and all that stuff was a complete novelty that I know I'll get sick of by the end of my trip!

We got to the pub, three flasks of vodka discreetly hidden, and were given these garish yellow scarves to wear, which we all did initially. I've kept mine as a memento, but they couldn't have picked a more hideous colour really..

At around 8pm, some of us went back to the attic to pick up more stuff. On the way, we found a scrawny guy sitting on the kerb and mumbling to himself. He was completely wasted, reeking of whisky. It was -25 degrees by that point and I could see in his weathered, blue-ish face that he was close to freezing to death. We tried slapping him around a little but when he didn't get up, it took four of us to lift him and take him to a safer place with plenty of heating. The next morning, I saw him right where we left him, drinking yet again!

Closer to midnight, I decided to whip out my bottle of duty-free Moet from my bag. They tried to confiscate it, but I blatantly refused to give it up! 

Then at 12am, the AWESOME fireworks display set the night alight and the rest of the night was a haze.

The next day, in an attempt to get rid of our aching hangovers, we distracted ourselves with an activity called 'Koolik': Strapping a few sleds to the back of the car and riding them at around 30 km/h. When I got thrown face first into the snow, it was a completely refreshing experience, hangover obliterated! 

On leaving Polska, I've learnt some valuable (and not so important) lessons:

1) DON'T get into conversations with your grand parents about their health ailments. It goes on for way too long and is simply a depressing forecast into the future. Diabetes. Check. Heart disease. Check. High Blood Pressure. Check. Cataracts. Check. Cancer. Check. Ugh..

2) ALWAYS wear something on your head when the temperature drops below zero. 

3) That 'Super' is the same word and meaning in English, Polish AND German. Super!!!

4) The phrase 'Robi Loda' literally means 'Doing Icy pole' but actually means 'Giving head' (I learned this in the mountains when the girls were going on and on about this Polish song with lyrics "Because she's giving head, and she likes it!" I don't know how valuable this is, but I thought it was a funny phrase.)

5) That my name isn't so unique after all. 'Anya' (Usually spelt Ania or Anja) is the most common name in Poland!

Ustrzyki Gorne

The day before New Year's Eve, or Sylwester as it's called here, we found ourselves deep in the Polish mountains, almost touching the border of Ukraine. They're called Ustrzyki Gorne (Pronounced Oo-sh-ch-iki G-oo-rneh) and the place is stunning.

We rolled up to the little village after a winding and bumpy drive, met up with a bunch of Mikolaj's mates and were taken to our place of rest and consumption of lemony vodka, although my Krakow hangover definitely limited my drinking capability on the first night. Aussie's are known for their pissy natures and, on first impression to the Poles, I was a complete disappointment! I totally redeemed myself on new year's though..Oooh, yes indeed!

The place looked wonderful..

But my image of a comfy abode was shattered when we were taken up to the freezing attic. 10 people in one bedroom with a constant threat of hitting the roof with one's head (Which we all managed to do many, many times!) 

Hmmmm...

Aaah, it's character building I suppose. By the end of it all, I wasn't phased in the slightest!

On the final day of '08, we all went for a cleansing hike. As I was told it would be freezing, -15, rugging up was in order: 4 layers on the bottom and 5 layers on the top. 

I didn't think the sun to come out, and with such strength..

After an hour and a half of steep climbing I was a sweaty, puffed out, blubbering mess, it was so embarrassing. As always at this particular time of year, I vowed to get fitter, take up volleyball or something. Shame I'm so shit at sports though..

We then finally reached the top, post-crisis, hoorah!

 

The way down was much more exciting and, of course, easier on my lazy soul. 

Justyna and I made angels..

Cooled off a little..

And fell into a heap at the bottom..

Brilliant way to spend the last day of the year.