Minus 5 degrees+Cold Strong Winds..brrr.. Lets tok abt a unique Swedish experience

today was scheduled to meet Gavita for a project meeting at 1pm in school.. well today is a typical boring day for me in Sweden.. not much pics in this post.. i guess for the next few days til Sat, the days r gonna be long n boring n cold.. (tomolo(Wednesday) maybe not.. well wanna noe why?.. stay tuned to Simon's adventure at okloh.blogspot.com!!.. corny n lame i noe..:p) .. anyway have to rush for my project due next week.. n the hardware part is still pretty screwed up.. i will never figure out op-amps.. arrghh... nah dont wanna tok abt such frustrating n boring stuff here..

woah.. when i stepped out of my lobby door... i felt the cold chill almost instantly.. yeh its normal to feel it here but today's was intense.. winds r strong n chilly.. ooh.. n its snowing slightly as well.. finally i reach the Tunnelbana station.. took a copy of Stockholm City.. could never figure out the Swedish.. arrghh.. look at pictures loh.. wow today is MINUS 5 degrees.. n teh winds r like 4-5mph if i m not wrong.. this is shiok.. i tink this is the coldest day i experienced in Stockholm so far..

well well.. as usual project meeting.. then i came back to type this blog..
OhYA!! almost forgot to tok abt the topic in the title.. "Toking abt a unique Swedish experience" haha guess wat issit? i experience it almost everyday..

THE TUNNELBANA.. (Swedish underground train system).. well some of u may tink its just another Metro system.. wats the big deal.. well.. u get to experience all kind of ppl here..

Lets tok abt the beggars first.. occasionally, while in the train.. (ok be forewarned... i m not discriminating or sterotyping here.. just my observations..) usually a old woman in her 40s wearing a headscarf n looks to be of Middle Eastern origin will walk from seat to seat carrying a laminated note with pictures of a family or a group of small kids in quite a poor condition (i did not look closely.. usually i just look away.. so didnt get a close look at the pic) with some Swedish word which i presume to mean "i m poor n i have kids who need to eat, pls give me money.." Most of the time, they will say a sentence or so in Swedish (i dont understand that as well)
They seem to change shifts as in i always see diff woman seemingly with the same card.. after they finish walking thru a cabin, they will wait for the next stop where they will move on to the next cabin n the process continues..
The other type of beggar that i encounter r those of young little gers abt 9-10 years old.. they seem better dressed.. n they carry around a card with printed letters with no photos.. the quality of the printed card is pretty good.. looks as if its printed with a laser printer..n its laminated as well.
These ger will jsut walk from seat to seat saying a very short phrase "10 kroners?" n showing the card.. its as if they r selling the card.. sometimes the very mean me feel tempted to ask (but never in my life will i ask) "Do u have change for 50 kroners?" Also they move from cabin to cabin when the train stops..
One thing that strikes me most is that they r pretty organized with a well printed n laminated card.. what i heard of is that some of them r immigrants who arrived here n r recruited by gangs to beg for money n get a commission of their "earnings" from them..

From what i heard from my Swedish friend is that Swedes believe u earn wat u work for.. there is no such thing as a free lunch here.. Retirees such as him get a high pension of abt S$2000 per mth provided they work hard for themselves during their working life.. The "no free lunch" Swedish approach is pretty evident from the sight that most of the ppl in the train ignores these beggars..

And there are the buskers.. i have encountered a lot of buskers in trains n train stations during this 2 mths.. there r ppl playing accordians, violin, cello, electric guitar etc.. in the trains n train stations.. just maybe short of a piano player.. haha.. those playing music in the trains will play a short tune.. then will proceed to ask for contributions from the commuters.. they generally play quite good music.. i guess their effort warrants a little reward.. thus Swedes r generally more generous towards the buskers.. for me, maybe not, i m surviving on a tigh budget here.. haha mayeb if i noe some music skills, i could peddle my skills around for money.. but too bad, i dont..

at night, there r occasionally also the drunkards... they would be usually carrying around the green Systembolaget bag.. If i m not wrong, sale of alcoholic drinks such as beer is state controlled in Sweden.. so Systembolaget is one of those state owned companies that sell these drinks.. these drunkards r mistakeable.. they would carry their green bag of beer n walk around, babbling to themselves.. best to avoid them.. some r also rather territorial, n will not hesitate to chase ppl put of their own defined zone like dogs..

then the rest of the ppl will be just normal commuters.. one can find a lot of free Stockholm City n Metro tabloids left on the seats of the trains.. usually ppl will either hang the papers on a bar by the window which i tink is meant for passengers to hold.. or jsut leave the papers on their seats after they r done with the papers.. the next commuter that comes along could just grab one n have a quick read on their ride..

ppl also bring dogs along for the train ride.. smt i would never see in Singapore.. as well as baby strollers.. (a very rare sight in Singapore considering the not so stroller friendly MRT station)

Snow isnt always white n beautiful n fluffy... After a few days, it starts to become ice with dirt gathering around it.. making a big lump of black dirty ice.. as shown in the pics below..



Misleading puddles of water.. arrgghh.. very frustrated.. these pools of water look very shallow.. but they r indeed very deep.. abt a foot deep (by my own measurement.. since i accidentally step into it n my entire boot got soaked!!) i guess their depth could be due to the fact that they r formed in middle of snow n ice patches on the road.. i will just have to avoid them next time..