Bye bye, 7km here..
Hello, gym Back in China after 5 intensive days in Sweden (can’t believe I was home for such a short amount of time, it felt like forever?!). The thing when I go home like that is that I behave real… strange, trying to cram in all of my “this is what I love about Sweden-things” in the short amount of time I have.
I spent Mon-Wed in Stockholm where I attended a seminar, and during this time I also managed to squeeze in some insanely early morning runs, just because “I had to make sure I went for a run in such fresh and crisp air now when I had the chance.” Only problem was that there were no running trails where I was what-so-ever, so I ended up going back-and-fourth on the small piece of land that I found, obviously looking like an idiot according to those few people that were unfortunate enough to see me (I know this because at breakfast that day, my Indian neighbour greeted me with a puzzled expression, eventually asking: “did I dream or were you actually running around outside my window at 5am this morning?!”)
Another thing I do when I am back to Sweden is to eat. I eat as if there is no tomorrow. As if I am never going to be fed again, or never get a chance to eat Swedish food again. So in a way it’s probably good that I kept doing those rather fanatic runs otherwise I might have rolled off that airplane.
The flight back did not provide me with any exciting experience worth blogging about, however, I should mention that I once again got stuck in the passport control, where the man inspecting my visa started to question me in Chinese:
-Are you here to study?
-No, I work. Can’t you see that from my visa?
-So you are not studying?
-No, are you looking at the right visa now? I know I have quite a few. Shall I help you find the right one?
-No I have the right one here (shows me my residence permit that clearly states that I am here to work, not to study).
-So is there a problem?
-Well you have so many study visas…
-Yes, I was studying here before. Then I found a job…
-So you were studying before?
-Yes, of course, since I have all those study visas….
-Okay….
Are they doing a crack-down on phony Chinese-language-students aka people with work visas? Sure sounds like it! Well, that and cheese.
Because when I eventually moved on to the baggage claim there was a dog sniffing all bags, barking and scratching every five minutes. Cause of reason? Well, nothing as exciting here... Rather, I saw quite a few packages of cheese being removed. My load of Swedish chocolate, however, didn't manage to interest the dog. Good dog indeed.
Obviously, this was a dog with no taste, as it passed by the chocolate!
ReplyDeleteDo you think there are reasons you were coming under more scrutiny at the airport? It does seem like a fairly regular occurrence for you, when being questioned about your visa.
The dog knows not to mess a women's chocolate lol
ReplyDeleteMartin -Exactly. Good dog!!
ReplyDeleteI don't know why they are being harsh on people with student visas. But I think it has something to do with the fact that they think students should not be able to get work permits... at least that's what it was like for my bf when he got his first job. His visa application was turned down because her had a Chi student visa in it... the visa office saying that "he could not be qualified for the position if he recently graduated"... ridiculous!! I mean, he was just studying some Chinese here to make life easier!!
Anonymous -yeah, like I said.. a good dog! :)