Three out of three!!!

Freedom is finally here! I have now completed my last exam EVER!

This means that my time here at IIMC and India is coming to an end... It makes me both sad and excited... Sad for all the people I will no longer see everyday... Sad that the experience of India is coming to an end so soon... But excited that my vacation is finally here! For the first time ever I will have the opportunity to travel and to relax without any demands! Six weeks of relaxation!!!

Productive day!

Today has been a very productive day... I had my first end term exam out of three... I then had lunch with Anne at the gate... 

Signed some papers and got my hostel release paper signed... I even handed in a term paper that was due today!

 

I then decided it was time to revenge Aman for kidnapping my mosquito net ;-) Aman has a commonly known nickname (Kinky Pinky) and when you don't lock your door or log out from FB... the nickname will be announced as your new status... If you then after 30 min leave your room unlocked again... The same thing will happen! So yes I managed to announce his name twice today!!!  

After that I had a long discussion with Bora and Aman about India and the perception of this country from the rest of the world... 

And now?! I might start studying for my next exam now.. Or I'll watch a movie.. Let's see :-)

Life as an exchange student in Calcutta, India!

As an exchange student in India your life is filled with travels and parties... But there is another side of the story... The story of the everyday life!

Traveling is an experience in it self and traveling by trains in India is an even bigger experience! For an example the very "nice" and cheap sleepers! :-)

As you all know... Student life in IIMC contains of a lot of pizza... If you don't feel like waiting for the delivery service you get a cab to drive you to Domino's and eat at this fine "restaurant" (while the cab driver waits outside for you!) 

 Campus life goes hand in hand with parties and people getting friendly towards each other! But we are far from the only ones getting friendly :-) These two cats always cuddles right downstairs from my wing!

 On a hot day you can always head to the restaurant at the gate and have a cold one!!!

 Walking back to my hostel I get this amazing view as the sun is coming down on another beautiful day!!! (in Calcutta, everyday is sunny and a high 30 degrees. Even in december ;-) )

 I posted a while back that I went to the spa... Here is the sign in the treatment room!!! I don't know why she is allowed to touch me if I'm not allowed to touch her!!! Spa discrimination;-)

 Namaste let's watch a movie!

These pictures are for my mother who keeps asking me if I actually study or if there are only trips and parties going on!!! So Yes mom... This is what it looks like when we are having a good time doing group work in the library at 11pm at night!!! 

 More students having fun in the library!

 As for what we were working on... That is top secret ;-) 

 And then came the presentations... 1,5 hours of presentations... That's not fun in any country!!!

 After a long morning with presentations, you can always dropped by the restaurant at the gate for a cup of tea!

 More strange signs where found in an department store at South City Mall... For all of you out there dropping things on purpose ... That is not allowed here!!! (even if it was not on purpose)

 Food courts in India are awesome! If you want to have some good old american KFC, you can... And if you are Aman and want some good old Indian food you can!!! As to what he's actually eating?! It's called bhatoora or as I would like to call it... A big ass puri!!!

Bora watching in amazement but all he got was KFC ;-)

  I even saw a ghost in the mall :-)

So this is some of the "normal" thing that you can see and do while on exchange in India! 

The unofficial steppers farewell party

Here are some pictures of the unofficial steppers farewell party... It now seems like there might be an official one on Friday so there is more to come!!!

Chiara and Sara 

 Anne is doing some kind of Norwegian dance for Olav ;-) 

 You might think that having two girls kissing you would be more fun then this Olav?! 

 The boys stayed outside...

 While the girls took to the dance floor inside! 

 Norway and Sweden coming together!!!

 Another wonderful face from Baptiste 

 Christine shows us how drinking is supposed to be done!!! Cheers!

 Good times!!! 

 Steppers mingle in the couches!  

 The very well dressed Einar showed up to the party looking very casual... I almost didn't recognize him ;-)

 I think Anne might have told Amel that parties are more fun up side down (read the Plush post)!!!

Nedräkning åt andra hållet...

Kommer ni ihåg när jag skrev att jag redan hade varit här i en hel vecka... Kommer ni ihåg alla intryck som jag redan då fått av Indien och skolan här! Jag vet inte riktigt vad som har hänt med tiden men nu sitter jag på andra sidan och måste sorgset skriva att det bara är en vecka kvar av min tid här i Calcutta... 

När man är mitt uppe i det känns tid som något obestämt som inte riktigt existerar... Man tror att man har hur mycket tid som helst och att det man inte hann göra den här helgen, kan man alltid göra nästa... Nu finns det inga fler "nästa helg" helger för på lördag nästa helg lämnar jag IIMC och Calcutta för gott... 

Med det lämnar jag det hem jag skapat här med alla vänner jag träffat, Indiska som andra utbytesstudenter... Jag lämnar dem med insikten att jag med största sannolikhet aldrig kommer träffa dem igen... Jag kommer aldrig leva så nära dessa människor igen, vara en del av deras familj och jag kommer inte kunna gå ut genom min dörr och hitta flera av dem i korridoren pratandes om allt och inget... 

Mycket kommer försvinna men det jag kommer ha kvar kommer vara såå mycket värt! Nämligen mina minnen! 

Minnen som första dagarna i Calcutta när vi tog en promenad utanför skolan och nästan blev ihjälkörda av galna busschaufförer...

Eller första besöket till South City Mall där ägaren till fiket körde iväg Indier bara för att hitta någonstans för oss att sitta.... 

Eller dagen på Victorial Memorial där hundratals Indier följde efter oss som om vi vore världskändisar... 

Eller resan till Bodh Gaya där vi besökte några av de vackraste templerna som finns... 

Eller resan till Himalaya som inte gick som planerat utan fick ett mycket tragiskt slut...  

Eller minnerna av mina underbara korridorsgrannar som tog hand om mig när jag mådde som sämst efter Himalaya även fast de var mitt uppe i sin egen sorg... 

Eller alla Subway och Dominos kvällar där vi ätit och skrattat så vi fått magknip... 

Eller spontanresan till havet... 

Eller alla galna tågresor fram och tillbaka... 

Eller resan till Delhi som började med en inställd Metallica konsert men slutade med ett fantastiskt formel 1 lopp och uppfyllelsen av en livslång dröm...

Eller den härliga resan till Agra och Taj Mahal... 

Eller helt enkelt alla "vanliga" kvällar med vanliga minnen... Tex alla filmkvällar, alla kvällar med diskussioner eller alla kvällar med bus där saker blivit kidnappade... 

Jag kommer till och med se tillbaka på alla myggbet och le... Dem har på något sätt blivit en del av mitt Indien äventyr! 

Så vad har jag lärt mig av mina månader i Indien?! 

Livet varar inte för evigt, njut nu och oroa dig senare! 

Tid är väldigt relativt och i Indien betyder kl 8 inte kl 8 utan snarare kl 9:30! 

Det är ingen idé att stressa... Du kommer bara bli ensam om du stressar för ingen annan kommer komma i tid (se ovan)...

Tålamod

Tålamod är nyckelordet i Indien!!! Tålamod med dina studiekamrater, tålamod med skolan, tålamod med taxichaufförerna, tålamod med restaurangpersonalen, tålamod med tågtiderna, tålamod med byråkratin... Dvs tålamod med allt och alla!

Jag har även lärt mig att olika oftast betyder samma... Det vi saknar är tålamod nog för att se att de ytliga skillnaderna inte betyder olika! 

Plush...

I took a little break from studying and joined in on the last party at Plush! Plush means open bar with all you can drink for only 1000 Rs (ca 150 kr)!!! 

Love at first sight (for one of them at least ;-) )

 We like an open bar that makes drinks with fresh fruit ! 

 Cheers! 

 Why not set the bar on fire?! :-)

 Anne is as always very happy to be at Plush!

 I found a cosmopolitan and joined Anne!

 Time to hit the dance floor....

 More love!!!

 And some crazy faces ;-)

 And of course some crazy poses :-)

 Anne decided that the world is a much funnier place up side down!!! 

 Some love and some confusion!

My first and only trip to Plush was a fun one!!! Thanks to all steppers for this time and let's have a great farewell party tomorrow!!!

Back to the books....

There has been a lot of traveling and a lot of parties lately but today life is sadly back to normal... 

It's time to start studying for the end term exams and to finish all assignments... 

You could say that the boring part of my exchange is all happening today...  

Coffee in my hand and the BOP assignment in front of me...

Let's get this over with!

Hangover

I need to admit something... 

I got hungover...

It saddens me to say but I was actually feeling a little hungover yesterday! 

How do you cure hangovers?!  

Popcorn and a movie in the pink room of course!!! 

Thanks Aman for the company and next time we move on to Alien 4 ;-)  

Placement party!

Saturday night and it is finally time for the placement party!!! We had everything you need for a successful pre-party! Alcohol, soda and good music!

 To kick things of we had a little vodka tasting :-)

 After moving the pre-party into the pink room (Amans room) he kindly filled our glasses with more vodka! 

 It was the night of miracles... Tommy gave me a hug and it was probably the biggest thing that has happened to me during my three months in India!!! ;-) 

 Bora had a meeting with some guy in his room but Aman and I decided he was done working and that it was time to PARTY!!! We kindly asked him to step out for a second... pushed him quickly to Amans room... Did some shots and then sent him back to him meeting! We did this several times and he did not seem to mind judging by this photo :-P 

 He then gave up working and joined in on the party!!!

 Hey guy showed us how to best use a newspaper :-) 

 We arrived at the party and as usual we climbed up on the roof!

 Sahil enjoyed the party still on solid ground!

 There where a few of us having a roof party...

 Tommy has finally warmed up to me and gave me this huge smile :-)

 Aman and his hand joined in on the fun....

 These two had their own fun fun fun ;-)

 Davide looked a little confused when he saw all of us up on the roof...

 Steppers having a good time!

 Crazy but still a good time... :-)

 The good times on the roof continued... 

 Sahil found Anne to keep him company down there!

 I learned one new name last night!!! Abhik in the middle I already knew but the guy to the left has the best name ever!!! His name is Naskar!!! Nascar is no F1 but still :-) 

 My lovely wing mates!

 You will all be missed and these months has gone by way to fast! 

 Christine is having a great party by the looks of it!!!

 Aman doesn't look that sad either!

 Vivek and Sandeep ready to party!

 Norwegian love ;-)

 All smiles here!

 I'm not sure what this is....

 Or this... :-P

 The two nicest and most helpful guys on campus!!!

 My F1 friend Gurchetan!!!

 And my travel buddy Bora!!!

 The party ended early for some...

 The rest of us (including Amans hand in my face, AGAIN) continued the partying for a few more hours!

 I found Anne in the bathroom wearing a nice headband :-)

 You may have Petter Northug but you need to work on you creepy smiles ;-) 

 More steppers having fun!

 Dancing queens (according to Bora)

 Not sure what is going on here... But the guy in the blue shirt seems to like whats happening ;-)

 Thumbs up!

So much love among the students! 

 More dancing!!!

 Someone's going for it!!! :-P

 This picture might not be the best one of the night but it probably explains in the best way how drunk we were all getting :-)

 I'm hoping this is his drunk face!

 People getting their moves one...

 More moves :-)

 Well... Not sure what to say about this ;-)

 What happens when two crazy people get together?! 

 I think this might be his seductive face... How you doooing ?! ;-)

 The party had all elements of a great party... Drinks, dancing, crazy people and great music! To sum it up I give you Davide early Sunday morning! Cheers and let's have an equally fun farewell party next weekend!