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Swedish Design

你心中的Swedish design是什麼?
IKEA家具? 具人體工學不知道在貴什麼的鮮豔塑膠椅?

我的新發現是他們的textile


Svenskt Tenn in Stockholm
雖然也是貴的嚇人,但比起"極簡"的設計我認為繽紛的線條更適合北歐
這裡冬天太陽四點就下山了,如果回家看到的都是單調冰冷的家具會想自殺吧
幾種圖案設計用在很多不同的商品上,真的會讓人很心動想買
把日常生活用品跟設計結合的行銷模式很有效



T-Centralen: Stockholm's metro station
每一站都有自己獨特的設計,當然有些好看有些普通而已
是個讓藝術家表現的好辦法
More creativity, less boring advertisement


街上有不少這樣的randomness滿有趣的 (I'm sure they are made by some famous people)


好了
現在要講重點了
我主要想說的是Swedish bad design
畢竟好的大家比較常聽 壞的要住在這裡才會知道


You never know when to push or pull!
You see doors like this all the time. In this case, the handle should be pushed... very smart...
每天都要想哪些門是要用推的哪些是用拉的



You never know if the lights will ever turn green!
過馬路要等超久,我到現在還搞不懂他們燈是怎麼變的
常常四邊都紅燈,等得我霧灑灑
看來這邊的燈只是供參考
沒車就趕快過


Ugly graffiti!
So much about Swedish designers. I don't think the rest of the population is artistic at all.
在這裡我還沒過可以看的塗鴉

Procrastination

I don't want to spend too much time blogging when I need to get my stuff done.

1.19

fika (like afternoon tea) at 1230



walked around the town, went to the main library
afterward took bus to IKEA
nothing is different except everything is in Swedish
cheap for basic things
hot dog and pop only 10kr together!


在IKEA什麼都想買
就像車子廣告一樣 讓你覺得買了整套的家具就可以有美滿的家庭
可能真的有點用吧 畢竟好看的東西會讓心情好 買便宜的東西也不容易吵架
IKEA might have positively contributed to the higher fertility rate

1.18

didnt sleep well as usual last night
kept thinking abt getting an internship in berlin
for some reason i am strangely attracted to that place

早上又睡過頭來不及去11點的uppsala tour
只好乖乖的洗澡做午餐
遇到了另一個flatmate 她是從denmark來的 過兩天就要去scotland
是還滿友善的一個人

中午的時候去intn student orientation centre sign up
好不容易在housing office找到internet connection!!! (biggest reward for the week)
後來又去sign我的housing contract
在樓下想要買飲料的時候遇見第一天看到的Ann
stuck with her for the rest of the day
i guess you tend to grab on to someone in unfamiliar places

practical tour! 還滿有用的
遇到了好幾個香港來的exchange students
一看到我就主動問我"uh.. ah.. are you a chinese exchange student?"
他們學校是用英語教學 所以用英文溝通還沒問題



後來去pub crawl for int'n students
visited 5 pubs
had 4 beers, 1 cooler, 1 shot
spent abt 270kr, incl 4kr for coat check and also admission



left at around 1230
waited a long time for the bus with Ann before realizing we missed the last one
walked all the way back
still not feeling any better about the distance

1.17

昨天晚上睡不好 滿腦子都在想我為什麼最後一秒選擇要來這裡 而不是berlin humbuldt
暖氣不冷 又沒有一條真的被子 枕頭還是用衣服充當
只差沒有偷偷掉眼淚而已

9點鬧鐘響了 賴床賴到12點才起床
走到廚房的時候看到了我的隔壁flatmate
簡單的打了個招呼 swedes果然有點閉俗

走了大約2km到市區 看到人跟商店心情馬上好了起來
我果然還是適合住在城市裡
遠遠的看見地標uppsala cathedral 配合著颼颼了寒風 開始相信自己到了北歐


到intn office拿了info package
跟coordinator終於見面了 她感覺起來還不錯
講話有點繞圈圈但應該會滿helpful
等她的時候和幾個也是從US/CA來的聊了一下
發現他們都還滿強的樣子 而且好幾個是讀poli sci
可能只有我是本科系的遜腳
犯賤的我如果當初乖乖的讀engineering成績應該會比現在好很多
最近發現我常常在後悔我做的大決定
是心態的問題嗎

去了housing office填了request for change in housing
不管怎樣都要試看看 有覺得不會成功的預感, fuck

後來去register我的課 在Ekonomikum
裡面還滿現代的 有自己的cafe
看到outline馬上覺得心情又好了點
他們教的東西還算practical 課好少堂 自己要努力一點

到樓下買了個20kr的三明治 倒了杯咖啡 認真的讀著我的info package
旁邊有個女的在講電話 完全不會swedish的我竟然莫名其妙得聽懂她說的一個phrase
no its not Swedish, its Norwegian... 前幾天才剛學會的
她一直講 一副講的很爽的樣子 還用不同的語氣說
我在旁邊要一邊忍笑一邊裝沒事


回家前經過市區 到處逛了逛
衣服鞋子真的夠貴
日常用品還滿有格調是真的
最後花好多時間逛超市
走了兩圈才決定要買什麼
看不懂不用說 但我買的也不需要什麼說明



回家時沒看到任何人
還是好想換地方住
真不知道應不應該跟他們熟

ps.現在過馬路常常看錯邊 did i try too hard getting used to London?

1.16 到達

wow that wasn't too pleasant
一下飛機就開始看到不知所云的標示 很不習慣
機場真是小到爆 只有一個海關而已 什麼都沒問就讓我過了
過海關後三秒鐘後就看到行李了 買了張車票就再度出發了
到了終點站還問司機該往哪裡走
拖著我的世界爛行李箱行進時 竟然有一台車從我面前開過去 裡面的人開門不知道對我講什麼
看他們的樣子應該不是說什麼好話 something i didn't expect here
走了大概20分鐘才到office前 可是沒開 也沒電話
像個白痴一樣在門口走來走去 才看到兩個人走過來 一個是office的人另一個是跟我一樣的交換學生
原來我是剛好被看到的 如我走遠一點今天就沒地方睡了


我的宿舍好遠 覺得滿鳥的
好想換了地方住
不是住熱鬧一點的就算了 但至少要住比較靠近學校跟市區吧
有一種這裡不會是好玩的地方的預感
how the hell did i end up here? i thought i was going to berlin or netherland?

沒有網路!!!???

Price Match

這個Xmas沒買什麼，除了一些本來就要買的電子產品，還用了兩次Price match。
大部分的店家都也這種policy，只要你能show出比他們便宜的價錢，他們就可以給你一樣的價錢，減掉10%的差價。For example, I see something in Futurehsop that sells for $70, and Bestbuy only sells for $30. I can go to Futureshop to do a price match and get it for only $26 (an extra 10% of 70-30 off). Here is how you do it:

1. Do some intensive research online on what you want, and who sells it.
2. Make sure the stores sell identical products.
3. Go to the one that sells it at the HIGHEST price. Note: matching between big stores is easier because they usually have bigger price difference.
4. Find the product you want and take it to a staff telling him you found a price lower than this and ask if you can do a price match
5. Get a puzzling face from the staff. He will ask you to show him the price, so go to the website and show him that you are right.
6. He will say ok we can do it, and attempts to checkout for you. Usually it takes some time because he doesn't know how to do it. Wait patiently with a smile on your face and ask politely if many people do this. He will say no. This can hopefully relief the awkwardness while waiting.
7. He finally figures it out and prices it at what you have shown him. Now you will notice that he does not give you the extra 10% price difference off. What a noob, but let's forgive him.
8. Be strong and ask him politely if theres an extra 10% off. He will suddenly remember it or go ask other staff.
9. He will then try to make some calculation to figure out how much 10% difference is. Help him with the calculation. Be patient and smile if he can't get it right. And yes, you do want the extra discount no matter how small it is, it's the pride of consumers.
10. He finally got the price right. Pay for it, and thank him for the endeavor he goes through.

It's extra fun when you do price match between Bestbuy and Futureshop.