Journey to Stockholm Interview

That was a disastrous start for my formal interview in Sweden. This is my first time, I'm attending for an interview. I was dressed up in all formal. Everything is set to go according to my plan. I had already prepared my stay for the night, upon that I have prepared my lunch, had my tooth paste packed, charged my mobile upto 100%. I even shaved the night before my travel to avoid the time collapse. Everything went fine, until I finished my breakfast. Then there started a rain which seems to change my plans for the jacket which I'm supposed to wear for my travel. The rain was really deceiving my mental status to choose between the jackets. I had planned to wear a dark green jacket for the travel, but due to the rain I had rain jacket as an alternative. My plan was to leave the house by 7:30 am, as I have to walk to catch the train. The rain was very tricky, it started pouring for a second and I had to choose my raincoat for my journey. A second thought hit as the clock strikes 7:31. The drizzling of the rain stopped and suddenly I had to switch over to my old plan. I sensed the lateness with my plan as the clock started ticking. I have to rush out to my house to catch the train. The moment I realized, as I walked out of my apartment, the story of my travel changed all in a sudden. Yes! I left my mobile in the rain jacket which I chose at my second thought. That was a stupid mistake  which I haven’t done in my life. The problem is not only I’ll be out of communication to the outer world, but also I can’t even have communication to enter into my apartment, due to the lock system. I didn’t have keys to enter into my apartment, as keys got struck up with my room mates, who sleep inside. I didn’t have my laptop  with me or any public or public services to contact them.

I shouted in vain, calling for my roommate's name, but nothing I received expect a second thought of cancelling the journey. I barely waited for 4-5 minutes just by shouting, the bad thing is I couldn’t even hold the attention of my neighbours. Luckily I had my nokia phone in my bag, where it had a message of my ticket.  The last shout of mine, which was heard by a dog. Hope it understands my sitaution, but still do anything other than to bark. Earlier I had even had a hope of reaching the railway station, by the bicycle once when I get in the apartment, but all ended in a vain. I made a decision to travel thinking of traditional travel. "No mobile, No map and most importantly no communication". I assumed that it’s more like an era where the technology even existed. As the blood gushed into my vein, I started to stride across the road. I started walking with my fastest pace, having my creditless mobile on my hand to keep up with the time. I even had a thought of having a lift from a guy, but my heart didn’t pave way for it. I had an attitude that, " I should go for it". I thought of the money  which I spent for my ticket.  I thought about the interview which was set for me at Stockholm. I literally ran to cope up with the time. I ran, I ran, I ran, I sensed the situation, that I could make it as I reached more than half away. That was a moment where the rain could strike any moment from those dark clouds. I had reached the train station even 10 minutes earlier, before my departure. I slowed down a bit and removed the jacket to let me cool down for a while, as I strided. I came into the train refreshed myself for a minute in the washroom, still I had the tempo running in my body.

I started my journey without any phone contacts, without any address details of the venue. I just had my old reading of the maps in my mind. My dreams of checking in at places through mobile  have been collapsed, but the hope of having a good interview, with the experience, made me to push through.

Nature as a part of home

Usually people wanted to have the same environment, every time when they visit the same place every time. Because they don't want to loose their memories in the place, where they lived earlier. I hope the same follows with the most parts of scandinavia, as the places remain same after years to come. I would like to compare with two of the places, where I live in Scandinavia. The residence in Esbjerg, Denmark is so cool, it's very close to the highway. Similarly, the residence in Halmstad is very close to highway. Both the places have one thing in common, trees. They are surrounded by an enormous amount of tree, sometimes it makes me to forget that I live close by a highway. The place also sounds quiet, when it comes as if we are living in the amidst of the forest area.

Halmstad to Esbjerg

It was very hard for me to get separated with guys from halmstad. But it has been done because my program is designed in such a way. It’s been a surprising evening to everyone, cos our plan to Copenhagen was scheduled by sept 1^st has been pre-poned by 31^st night cos of certain reasons regarding our accommodation. That evening was our last party. I have to mob my room and clean the house to save some one’s head. Surprisingly Bau Bau came around 3 in the afternoon, she holds to the word inspite of heavy drinking in the previous party. Sarika helped us in cleaning stuffs and cooking. The evening became big when yaale and alina came with Emilia. Some people cooked, some cleaned and some chatted as it’s their last day in the country. My Chinese friend came and gave me his Chinese coins, while my Nigerian guy exchanged all of his pictures, inspite of showing Nigerian traditional ring. Some people parted away saying adieu, some stayed until the dinner. It’ almost 6 in the evening we had our last dinner in Sweden and continued with some photo session with black and white pullover combination. My heart pounded very faster as the time neared 7:30. We got to start by 7.45 to the train st. It was the land lord who helped us carrying me and friend with some luggages, while the Chinese did his part with the help of his friend. Not to mention about Swedish, they came along with us to the st. It was a great send off, which everyone would haven’t expected in any case. Few photos were made at train st and some were sentimental to me. It was like almost 10 minutes left for the train to come. I almost hugged the people who helped me to live in halmstad. I could not control things for a moment became so emotional. Felt it would be so nice if my wife would have been there at that moment.  My heart pounded very faster when I was standing inside the train and people standing outside the train and waving hands to us. Damn what a moment. It was 2 and half hours journey to halmstad and during our journey we met a lady in the lady who could able to describe things in such a way that’s it very hard to grab her language. It was so concept oriented and language skills added. We exchanged our cultural belonging to her. Its 11 pm we got out of the train searching for the place to sleep. The moment which I felt when I was standing outside the station, that I was lucky to born in this beautiful world. Later we ended up in carrying our little mountains to st and got settled at one place inside the st. Later we were served food by our mates, who got the expensive food in the cph. It was almost 1.45; the person who was responsible for cleaning had to come over to us and told to vacate the place as the st closes by 2. And again we have to get down to the platform for sleep. That night gonna be a very chill night inspite of me wearing 2 pullover s and s shirt. My Indian friend who started the conversation in the train still continued his talks to the people inside the railway st. It’s almost 5 am again we went inside the st and parked our luggages. I slept for few minutes and went and looked for WC. I don’t know whether it s paid one or not. I just left the place after my morning duties. It’s almost 6:30, I went around the st and looked in and around places in st. Almost by 7: 30 I and other two people stared to embassy to get our visa stamped.  We were lucky in travelling with our train tickets but unlucky with the time factor we reached the embassy by 8:15 and were late by 15 minutes, but the embassy people opened the gates by 9. Our plan to 8:30 train to Esbjerg had already failed but later changed our plans in catching 10:30 train and reach Esbjerg as soon as possible. Fate played a major role here, my friend who came along with us for stamping the passport had a wrong picture, so he has to go out and get new photo, while me and other guy submitted the passport and let the other guy to go and get his picture in nearby shop. Our job finished by 9:25 while the other guy went didn’t come for a while. So I had to rush up to the place in search of him to the place he went. I hardly received a message after losing hope of catching the nest train. He was in embassy by the time when I checked the inbox. He was lucky to use his Norwegian sim. We finished our work by 9.50 and hurried up to the nearby bus stand. I was in a very tense mood. We missed the first bus and thought why we were so unlucky. Not more than few seconds we got into the next bus to norra port and then the train to st again within few seconds- It was like 10.10 when we ran into the station and asked my friends to move our luggage’s to platform 6. I had to buy tickets to everyone in the last minute taking the whole burden. It s almost 10:20 we ran to the platform and one crazy guy went lost in buying some food for us. I was very much tensed again; the funny thing was the new guy who went searching for the old guy was lost, while the new guy arrived with some food. It was good decision to get some food but it was a risky act. I started loading things on the train by 10:27 and I told my friend to forget about the other guy. Luckily he stepped in by 10:29 while the train started exactly by half pat 10 with our luggage’s kept in the entrance of the compartment- We have to adjust our mountains so that people can move around the whole compartment. Later we got settled with our seats, everyone was so tired and they stated sleeping after a small food. I was the one who stayed on admiring the nature and had few tensions in my mind whether we could able to sign our contract today or have to stay in st for one more night. I clicked many shots during our journey and I even used my lappy to get some videos. It was unbelievable for us when we reached Esbjerg. The lady next to me finalised the location to us. It looked like short time period while the journey was about 3 hours. I wanted to snap some pictures at the st, cos that‘s gonna be a long time memory once we visit the place for the first time. We had to park our luggages in the st; while 4 of us went to nearest bank to withdraw money. It was like 2 pm when we reached nordea and got confusion in withdrawing money with Swedish card.  Later I had to withdraw a surplus amount of 12,000 dkk taking the burden again. I contributed almost half the rent, while others manage to pay their amounts. The worst thing is to maintain the table to one who owe me. Later me and my friend went to bus station and took a wrong bus to the accommodation office, we had to get down at certain point and started running a quiet distance. Luckily we reached the office by 2.50 while it was suppose to close by 3.  I was very relaxed as our decision to travel by previous night didn’t go wasted. After signing the agreement and after paying huge amount of money. Then was a sudden deadline give to us, which very shocking to both us. The thing was we were supposed to get the house key from the care taker within 15 minutes from the mentioned address given the agreement. Since we are new to place we were surprised for a moment. The condition imposed on us was the guy will be in office for another few minutes, but not later than 3.15- we hurried up in looking for the bus and the address. We ran to st again which was hardly a kilometre from the office and came to the bus stop and asking for the address of the care taker to many people- it‘s already 3.10. We were very sure we cannot able to reach the place at the given time. Suddenly a guy helped us in taking to the particular place. We were supposed to take two buses as per the plan given by the previous guy but the new kid took us in another bus; we used the same train ticket to travel in a bus. It was almost 3.30 we reached d the destination, I felt relaxed a bit because the kid took us to the right place. The care taker was not at his place when he knocked down his door. We doesn’t know what to do, we thought we gonna sleep in the st for the second day. The guy took us to his place in hope of getting some help from the care taker. The interesting thing is the guy could not understand English or the local language, so we have to communicate in such a way; he gets our body language completely. Then he took to his place and I could hear her sister speaking few words in the local language, I was happy by that moment as someone can able to understand stuffs. We were introduced to their family who came from Malaysia and settled down here for a long time. They helped us in providing food and calling the care taker.  His sister took us to the office after having a conversation with the care taker and we all went to the office, but the acre taker didn’t turn out by the time he mentioned, my mind was so tired after many shocks and discoveries. I hoped everything to be positive and also thought about the people who sat in the railway st. The guy’s sister doesn’t have balance in her mob to call the care taker, so she has to look into her friends phone to call him. By 5 pm we got the key to the apartment and the lady and the kid took us to our apartment. I was very relaxed after coming inside the apartment and halted for a while and thought Damn we did it. The lady and the guy were very helpful to us in giving some food with cooker in the later part f the day.  I sent my friend to pick a taxi and they can also move the stuffs to our apartment. It costs us a bit saved us again in sleeping in the station. Later the kid helped us to take to the nearby supermarket. We bought our groceries and came to home after a long walk. Later we cooked the food, while the kid’s brother came to us to have a look at us. He was also very kind and could able to understand both local and English language. That night, I had a tight sleep in all those days in a week. There was something which I felt is missing my Swedish wife and could get relaxed by thinking of the date when I stepped into halmstad on sept 3, 2009.

Snow in halmstad

Snow in halmstad is disturbing the normal activities of the humans. I have uploaded a video in you tube which describes the current situation in halmstad, Sweden. The winter starts in halmstad in the month of December. Snow flurries become more at certain times and make more difficult to people who prefer to travel.