Rainy Göteborg

What a week – the rain seems to have been nonstop and I’ve spent very damp mornings in my SFI classes. I’ve also spent an unhappy amount of time on trams and buses after getting a puncture mid week. Despite classes starting at 8am I have spent a very happy week at SFI learning Swedish – but it’s early days still and I’m still trotting out the sentence: ‘jag förstÃ¥r inte svenska’ (I don’t understand Swedish) whenever I have to talk somewhere that isn’t class.

I’ve been spending the rest of the time meeting up with Karin and Cheri and of course going to the bookclub where we discussed The Sea by John Banville at length (well in between the cups of tea and life stories!). There really is nothing like sitting in a warm room with a cup of tea and a whole bunch of woman.

On Wednesday night I went to see When We Dead Awaken by Ibsen at the Pustervik Theatre in Järntorget which I thought was very well done. I hadn’t seen that Ibsen play before so it was great to stuff it into my mind along with his others and where better to see it than in a Nordic country in the depths of a rainy November.

Today I introduced Jin Sook from my SFI class to the delights of the Stadsbibliotek (City Library) and she treated me to lunch in the lovely little restaurant opposite where for about 79ske (£6.60) you get a very hearty lunch. I finished off today by going to the Arbetsförmedling (unemployment office) to see if they could help me to find a job. I’m not sure they can but still it was probably worth a try. They suggested that I come back when I have learnt Swedish and in the meantime contact my embassy to ask what companies there were here that employ English speakers!

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