Ja, Sverige är galen.

So, Sweden.

Quem lê Português fica a saber pela forma simples. Um país inteiro que funciona como se fosse o IKEA. Tudo é funcional primeiro, elegante depois. O quarto do hotel é pequeno, mas elegante. Não fossem as malas e aqui estava-se muito bem. Todas as pessoas com quem falamos percebem inglês. A maioria fala inglês fluentemente. O que se vê mais nas estradas são, sem surpresa, Volvos. Autocarros, retroescavadoras. Carros então nem se fala. Aliás, carrinhas, que é bem mais comum. Pneus com pitons para a neve que ainda não chegou. Estes gajos são meio malucos. Pela positiva, mas malucos...

To Everyone else: Sweden is Crazy.

If it's easy to explain why, trust me, living it is a bit beyond words.
Somehow, Sweden is like the World's very own air conditioning unit. Air conditioning, because A/C these days means Aircraft. For the first time since I can remember, I'm staying in a Hotel where my room temperature is set to 19ºC and I can only feel like it's warm.

Today, we had -6ºC. And it was close to 12PM.
Luckily for me, my day started at about 6AM. This was because I managed to forget about my mobile phone on the bus to Nyköping - easily understood - in this weather, your gloves are more important.
So after freaking out a bit yesterday, I woke up and left the Hotel early to find out that Sweden is more like a refrigerator than an actual country.

Everything has a white cover on top. And by everything, I mean grass, cars, pavement, everything. And white does not mean snow, at least not yet. Worst though, is that at 2PM, some parts will still be frozen. And since the sun goes away at around 4PM, it'll stay that way.

The Sun. Our great star seems to be playing with us like if we were 2 year-olds. It's exactly like that: remember when playing with a baby, you'll hide your face and show up for a brief second, only to hide again? That's the sun, and that's what our day feels like.

At 6AM, there is no light to be seen in the deep dark sky. At 7AM, the horizon lights up. It stays like that up until 9AM, by which time your mind tells you that you've been awake since 3AM. Funny thing is, you accept the new light and warmth as morning, so you stop paying attention. So when, at 12PM, the day looks like it's 4PM, it gets weird. Your mind goes into "Dude, you forgot to have lunch! I WANT TO EAT !!!" And it's only 12PM.
When, at 4PM, the sun starts to set, this turns into "Go Home, start cooking dinner...C'mon, you know you want to."
Of course, by now, your stomach is having a party like it doesn't know what time it is.
It gets worse: at 6PM the sun has set so long ago that you actually start to feel sleepy. Forget dinner, you are now sleepy. Because you should have had dinner some two hours after the sun set. So, 5.30PM (pitch black skies)... Lost ?
So are we.

And yet, my mobile phone was waiting for me at the bus station.
Rush back home, get S, rush back into Nykoping, visit Nykopingshem - home rental agency.
Good news. Apartment available, 3 bedrooms, in Brandkärr. Which somehow reads Brandchar.
That's the funny part. Nichaping (it's how it sounds and it's easier to write) is a small town. Yet somehow, everyone talks about it like if it was Ancient Rome. They have districts. You could walk from one side of Nyköping to the other in about 30 minutes, yet 10 minutes walking is a bit far.
Well, in this cold, it actually is. But that's beside the point right now.

Brandkärr appears in a conversation like it was in another country.

So, visit Brandkärr at 14.20 ? Ok.
Base visit first.

Again. Base ? They still don't have an airport, yet somehow this is a base.
Arrivals and departures are at the same doors. The outside door marked "Departures" goes straight into the check-in gates. The fence protecting the runway is smaller than the one we had in High School. Hell, the entire Airport building is smaller than my High School.
Still, base visit. Quick run of where to do what and when.

Hastily lunch at around 12.30PM and, at 14.20PM, we were at Brandkärr to see our potential new apartment. Well, the apartment was all very well, big and spacious as all empty houses seem to be. S was instantly glad we had a semi-room that seemed to be a closet and we would stay there without thinking... If we had started the visit by the apartment. Unfortunately, we started in the street and then went up. Brandkärr is, simply put, the Projects. It's Social Housing from the 70's and, although the houses look fine, the area seems to be waiting for some murder or drug deal to happen. (Suitably enough, an ambulance could be seen in the massive park behind the building) So we're not staying there.

And still, you notice that schools don't have fences around them, how some bycicles will not have a lock. However intimidating the area looks, all elevators work and windows are intact. Walls look a bit dirty, but there are no graffitis or trash out in the streets. How everyone shares washing machines and tumble driers, and they are not scratched, tagged or dented. And they work.

Tomorrow, the "Big Search for Housing" continues in the morning, quickly followed by our first Supernumerary flights. The last few flights we can be in and not do much but look.

Right now, it's 21.40 and my mind is screaming "GO TO SLEEP, YOU HAVE TO WORK TOMORROW, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" and I have over 9 hours to sleep.

The Swedes are a bit crazy.

But they seem to have a good reason to be like that.

Alturas