Here I am again. School's out so I've got some time to post here. Amande's coming over from France in about 6 hours time and she's gonna cook me tomyum so I'm mighty excited!

Okay. So on the 2nd/3rd night (I can't remember, so many things have happened lately) that I was here, the school orientation committee organized some buddy kickoff that was held in one of their nations. Nations in Sweden are like student clubs, and Uppsala has many of them; some really big, some real small. They're named after regions in Sweden and local students usually pick the nations they're from, but exchange students are free to choose any they take a fancy to. So we went to this nation for a party, and met some Swedish students, along with Irish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kongers, and a UK guy. Nothing much happened that night, except maybe that I was talking abit much, and don't ask me why, I just talked more than usual that night.

All of us!

mambo floor!

And yeah, this is their version of mambo, they'd play all these funny silly songs and drunk people would get up there and just be silly. It's quite funny to watch actually! They also had this other small room where they played more hiphop music and people would really dance in there. One thing I noticed about Sweden's nightspots though, was that it was a lot more civil than it is back home. I know strange people in Singapore love to go up to girls in clubs and hang around them suspiciously but it's not like that in Sweden. You hardly see any such things happening. 

So that was the buddy kickoff. It was rather short though, so I guess I should move on to the more eventful thing that happened later on. It was around 11.30 p.m. or 12 a.m. when we left the party, and us being noobs and finding our way around town, we tried to take a bus back to where our hostel was. We told the driver, we want to go to Eklundshofsvagen (and we even pointed to a typed out version of that name!) and he nodded and he pointed to this stop called Ekolnsvagen on his bus guide. We asked him "Are you sure?" three times, and he nodded on all counts. So we said okay, and happily sat on the bus to that destination. 

By the time we reached that stop it was about 12.45a.m. After walking down that stretch of road we realized that we were stuck in some ulu residential area that was situated in the outskirts of Uppsala! Worse, there were no more buses running in that area anymore. So in a nutshell, we were stuck there. We tried knocking on the resident's doors (those with cars, and we were hoping in vain that they'd fetch us back somehow), but they didn't know where we stayed. So we did the next best thing. Walk out to the main road and hitchhike! We stuck our arms out to flag down cars, and we didn't even know what the sign was - now I know it's a thumbs up sign, but we were making some weird sign lah. We didn't actually think anyone would stop, but within seconds a car slowed down and this woman asked us what was going on.

She was an Iranian woman who had migrated to Sweden 8 years ago, and she was so helpful! She invited us into the car - I did have a Hansel & Gretel moment then and I was wondering if she was out to help/harm us. But then again she was a 50 year old lady; I doubted she could outrun all 4 of us. So she said she didn't know where we stayed (it's that ulu...) and she said she'd go home and check the internet. She brought us along, and guess what she did? She invited us into her home. She was so hospitable and kind and warm. She served us Persian tea and snacks -- they were called Zulbia and Bemiah - I swear I am going to learn how to make them because they are so yummy! She also set down some pizza for us. And it was so embarrassing because she was bustling around her kitchen, taking out all her best utensils and cutlery. Her English was not that fluent, and it was halting, but then she tried her best to explain herself with our help. It was just such a surreal experience, and we learnt about her life, and she learnt about ours. 

In that moment all I could think of was, I'm so glad I got lost, because if I didn't I'd go on my way thinking that everyone's selfish and self-absorbed and that they would never stop to help strangers in need. It's not like I expect everyone to be angels from now on, but I would say at least my view of people isn't as cynical as it used to be. Perhaps you could say that I'm more aware that there ARE more people out there than I think that have good hearts...

Her Dining Room

Her living room, so pretty!

So from then we wanted to take a cab back to our place, but then she insisted and insisted that she'd send us home; and so she did, right up to our door step. So I guess this is no Hansel & Gretel. No headline news for you all. She invited us for a BBQ in summer, and my friends and I have all decided to cook some Singaporean food for her and visit her sometime. 

I've just got to say that I've been massively blessed and protected by God. I think He's sent so many angels to aid me on this trip...

More to come in future! People like teopampam would appreciate my next post on Swedish food, hehehehhe.