Dealing with Cancer in Sweden - Betül's Story - Newbie

My latest article in The Newbie Guide to Sweden was a very special one. It tells the story of Betül, a colleague from work. She moved to Sweden to work as a researcher and a few months later she was diagnosed cancer. Imagine that! Barely adapted to a whole new life in a new country and bam! 

The story ends well, because she is cancer-free now, but I thought this article ought to be written and shared. I find the story inspiring and maybe even helpful to those who might know someone or even be themselves in a similar situation.

You can read the full article here:
https://www.thenewbieguide.se/dealing-cancer-betul/

Meet the Newbie blogger Sara

The Newbie Guide to Sweden is a page full of helpful information for those who move to Sweden. Besides that, the Newbie has another side - the blog - full of stories, curiosities and cultural tips. The page is run by two sisters and the blog is written by them and a bunch of volunteers, among which I'm included. The volunteers are all foreigners who have moved to Sweden at some point. Some have moved recently, some have lived here for more than a decade. The two sisters running the page have always been very supportive of the volunteers, and now they decided to present each of us in a special post, both on the blog and on the Facebook page. 

I was the first... What an honour!

You can read my quick interview here.

Stories of my world #12

I met him at work, in the pause room. He is a retired professor of the Chemistry department who comes and visits sometimes. Just before we met, I was in my office wondering if I should or not go to the afternoon break, because I had some stuff to do. I did go. As I prepared my tea, I noticed an available chair across from that man, with his shining white hair, probably aged by many years spent in the laboratory. I sat across him wondering if we had already been introduced or not. There are a lot of new faces to be remembered and his I could not recall. As soon as I sat down he said "you must be the new Portuguese girl". I am. And he replied, in strongly accented Portuguese, that he knew a few words in my language. He had visited many times a group in Brazil and ended up learning some essentials. He had also been in Portugal several times, although he found our Portuguese harder to understand. Not knowing how much he could speak I asked if we should change to Portuguese or continue in Swedish. He laughed and said I got it wrong, he couldn't really have a conversation in Portuguese. 

As I enjoyed my tea and he enjoyed his coffee, I told him how I had also lived in Brazil. We talked about how exotic the country is and shared opinions on how interesting experience it was to be able to live there. He asked me in which city I lived. As always, I replied Belo Horizonte, getting ready to explain where it is because not that many know. But he knew where it is. He not only knew where it is, but it was also the city where he lived in Brazil! In that huge country we both had lived in the same city!

Knowing he is a chemist I asked if he had visited a group in the Chemistry department of the local university. No, he replied, he was visiting a group in the physics department. What? I worked in the physics department for three years! In a 50.000 people university, we actually worked in the same department! His eyes were shining, as I'm sure mine were too, and we shared common experiences and places. We tried to find people we knew in common as well but that was harder, as his last visit to the department was in 1984, when my Brazilian ex-boss was not even a professor. 

That was how a common coffee break at work became a fantastic story. Another one to add to "the world is so small" collection. I love these. Especially the most unexpected ones. Like this one. Thank you S.

Libraries, the best kept Swedish secret - Newbie

I have confessed here before how much I like libraries and how I dreamed of living in a place with cosy, functional and good libraries. My dream came true. Swedish libraries are fantastic and the possibilities they offer go way beyond borrowing books. 

While I was writing the article for the Newbie, I saw in the news section of my library that they had recently got a cat that we all could go and pat. At first I became super happy, because I love cats but can't have any. Then I started questioning the idea, as the cat could get lost in that huge library full of hiding places. Later on, I saw that it was an April fool's joke... I will have to find some other cat to pat.

Apart from that, there's a lot to do in Swedish libraries, as you can read in the article I wrote to the Newbie Guide to Sweden.

Gothenburg's library

Learning Swedish with TV shows

We grow up listening to our parents saying "you can only watch TV when you are done with your homework". Then we come to Sweden and hear the teachers encouraging the students to watch TV. The times have changed. Or not!

It does actually make sense that one should watch TV to practice a new language. It certainly helped me a lot to develop my Swedish, specially because the language has this very particular melody, that goes up and down.

In my latest article for the Newbie Guide to Sweden I talk about my favourite Swedish TV shows and how they taught me useful things about the language, the culture and the country itself. Read more here.

First day

There's a Portuguese song from Sérgio Godinho who goes "today is the first day, of the rest of my life". I have found myself saying those words on a few different occasions. There are so many first days in life! All of them bring similar feelings, whether it is the first day of school, the first day in a new country, the first day living as a couple, or the first day without someone we loved. They all bring changes, changes that even if are good, are always a little bit scary first. They all bring uncertainty, because we know something is about to change, but we simply can't know what or how. 

Here I am again. On the verge of another first day. This time, the first day at a new job. 

Who will I meet? How will they influence my life? Will I get new friends? How will my daily routine be? Will I enjoy it? Which mistakes will I make? Will my life be better or worse? Will I miss my pre-changes-life in a year? 

And the biggest question of all... Will I be happy?

All these questions will only be answered in the future, as the time passes. It wouldn't be fun otherwise! What would be the point of living if we had all the answers? 

Still, a little part of me would really like to have these answers now. But the other, the biggest part of me, is just enjoying the excitement of a new beginning. 

Photo from the internet

PS. I would like to come back to this post in a year and see how the answers turned out...

The Newbie - Swedish supermarkets

I have a thing for supermarkets. Don't ask... When I was small I liked to play supermarket, saving a lot of boxes and packages, and as an adult is a place that makes me happy. I enjoy learning more about a country through its supermarkets and in my trips I always visit local shops. That doesn't mean I spend hours in the supermarket here. Quite the opposite actually. On a regular basis I like to get through my shopping list as soon as possible and I do that by learning where my favourites thing are in "my" supermarket. However, now and then, I enjoy taking the time and explore new shops or even unusual shelves (those I go seldom to).

I think a supermarket says a lot about the lifestyle and culture of a country and my latest post on the Newbie Guide to Sweden is exactly about that. You can read my post here.

Picture I made for my Swedish class, in which I also wrote about supermarkets

My blog's best friend

My blog made a friend - the Newbie Guide to Sweden. It all started when I became a guest blogger in the Newbie. I was afraid my blog would become jealous for having to share my attention with another page, but no, it behaved like a grown up. Of course, I had a serious conversation with both and explained how Às Voltas no Mundo will always be the light in my eyes, my world and my corner.

Still, both pages accommodated the other and they are now good friends. 

All this to say that my dearest Às Voltas no Mundo is recommended by the Newbie, and there is a new stamp on the side bar. 

Let's all give a warm welcome to the Newbie Owl! Welcome!

PS. First ghosts now friendship between blogs... I know... This new course is burning my brain!

The Newbie - Swedish weddings

My text about Swedish weddings was published in The Newbie Guide to Sweden. If you are curious click on this link to read. 

I really enjoy going to weddings in other countries than my home country. I think wedding parties say a lot about the culture of each place and I have to confess that my favourite have been Swedish weddings. They are always fun and there's always something unexpected. 

Kärlek is love in Swedish

I'm a Swedish Newbie and Blogger

What have I been doing then?

I wrote before that I recently got involved in two other projects. I waited until things were a bit more developed to be able to show you something concrete. 

1. The Newbie Guide to Sweden

I became a reader of the Newbie Guide to Sweden as soon I decided to move to Sweden. This page has all the useful information a foreigner needs in Sweden, whether one just moved in (a Newbie) or has been here for more than 10 years (an Oldbie). Besides that, there is also the social side of page, with interesting posts about traditions and social behaviours in Sweden. This page was created based on the belief that no one can figure out Swedish habits better than non-Swedes. Therefore, its contributors are all foreigners and I recently became one of their guest bloggers.

My first guest post was just published and it's about the mystery of Traditional Swedish food. You can read it here. 

2. SFI Mölndal blogg

When I started as an SFI student very little information was given to me. Slowly, I got to know more and more, usually through other students. I'm talking about important information, like the fact that the books are free, that most of the times we have to study the books on our own, how many exams a year exist and so on. On the other hand, I enjoy writing in Swedish and the writing assignments in the book started to not be enough, or maybe not as interesting. I wanted to write more!

I had the idea of creating a blog with all important information and also with more fun stuff, that could maybe push the laziest students to read something in Swedish. I talked with a teacher, who talked with the main teacher and the dean of the school, and the blog was born. They thought it was such a good idea, that helped me a lot with the information, that I could only find through them anyway. There's still not much fun stuff there, because this first phase took a while, specially when I had to study for the exam as well. I will leave you the link just for curiosity, but the whole thing is in Swedish. 

As I said before, no matter how exciting it is for me to write on these two other blogs, I will never abandoned my dearest Às Voltas no Mundo, because here it's home!