Looking for a Sweden Residence Permit

As part of the PERCCOM program, the next semester will be spent in Lulea, Sweden. Therefore as a non-European citizen, I need to have my residence permit ready before my semester begins. To apply for a residence permit for study, first of all, I need to check the general requirements in Swedish Migrationsverket (Migration Board) website.

The documents that need to prepared are among others passport, insurance, Letter of Acceptance from university in Sweden and bank statement or scholarship letter. Remember that the Letter of Acceptance should state the duration of the study, for example, 6 months from August to January 2014.  Otherwise, the application will be rejected.

The first step is to fill out the online application form here. When we fill the online application, the website will give an automated username and password. Keep this username and password in case we need to make any changes toward our application. However, once the application is submitted, we can no longer make any further changes. Therefore please be careful.

After completing the online application, we need to wait for a couple weeks for a decision. The current waiting time is different upon the particular situation. To check the estimated waiting time, please click here. We can also check the progress of our application in here. By inputting the 7-8 digit numbers of case application, we can check whether or not a decision has been given toward our application.

The next step is to take a photograph and fingerprint in Embassy/ Consulate General/Swedish Migrationsverket. To do this, we need to make an appointment in advance. We can book, cancel, or see the schedule of appointment in here. Please note that you can make this appointment either before or after a decision has been given on your application.

On 3 April 2014, my friends and I visited Swedish Migrationsverket Office in Solna, Stockholm. There are many offices available and we can choose one in our convenience. The list of offices and their respective addresses is provided here.

If the decision has been given, we will receive a confirmation email from Migrationsverket regarding the status of our application, whether it is granted or rejected. Finally, if we are granted with the residence permit and have our photograph and fingerprint taken, then we can wait approximately four weeks until the residence permit card is ready. We can either take it on the Embassy/ Consulate General/Swedish Migrationsverket or have it delivered to our home address. 

And that is how we get our residence permit in Sweden :)

My friends and I visited the office of Sweden Migration Service in Stockholm

Good Food for Good Mood

This is the second time since our first food gathering event in Nancy, and we called this event as International Lunch Party version 2.0. The event was organized by Zainie, and was held in her apartment at Karankokatu 4. As the previous one, we cooked our specialty food from our countries and share them with others. However, the difference was we had a fun playing truth-or-dare game after the meal. We sit in circle and spin a bottle. When the bottle stop spinning, the person whom the bottle point to should choose to take either a truth or a dare. A truth means that the person should answer any question that he/she got truthfully, no matter how embarrassing/ awkward it was. Meanwhile, a dare means that the person should do anything he/she was asked to do or else he/she should drink the vodka.We had so much fun revealing each other 'dark' secret and even more fun enjoying our friends doing some silly dance moves.

Time for Tea

A Secret Recipe for a Perfect Cup of Tea:

Willing friends who love to sit and share
Grateful hearts to have a friend that listen and care
Wonderful memories of times shared to adhere
Bunch of crunchy cookies and more for spare
Large room to enjoy play truth and dare

For special friends sharing a cup of tea truly makes this a perfect recipe.

An evening tea party

From Lappeenranta with Love

Warm Greetings from Lappeenranta <3.Well, as you can imagine that here the weather is freaking chilly, just stand outside on the backyard and you'll get frozen immediately. Anyway, in order to keep you warm and enlightened, I would like to share 10 things you need to know about Lappeenranta, Finland. Okay, here we go!

Fact #1: Location
Lappeenranta is located in the South Karelia region of Southeastern Finland. It's approximately 225 kilometers northeast of the capital city of Helsinki and just 30 kilometers west of the Russian border.

Fact #2: Area
Lappeenranta is approximately 1,723 square kilometers in size. It is the 41st largest area in Finland, but it ranks as the 13th largest in population.

Fact #3: Age
It was chartered in the year 1649, by Queen Christina of Sweden. Lappeenranta is also known by its Swedish name of Villmanstrand, meaning "wildman shore." Hence the wildman image in the city's coat of arms

Fact #4: Airport
Of all Finnish airports, Lappeenranta has the most international profile, as it mainly serves passengers travelling to European destinations and offers no regular domestic routes. A recent customer survey conducted by Finavia found the check-in and security control services at Lappeenranta to be the best in Finland
 
Fact #5: Population
 There are approximately 72,000 people reside in Lappeenranta.  

Fact #6: Popular
Lake Saimaa, Finland's largest lake, is a popular tourist draw in Lappeenranta.  


Fact #7: University
Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) has been a pioneering scientific university, bringing together the fields of science and business since 1969. Starting in the autumn of 2012, almost 33 per cent of the new students are from foreign countries.
 
Fact #8: Tasty
The Lappeenranta region is renowned for its delicacies such as Karelian rice pasties, unleavened rieska bread, and pretzels. The famous Karelian hotpot has been adopted as a traditional dish throughout Finland. Vendace from Kyl&auml, the Greater Saimaa whitefish, not to mention bream and perch fished from the smaller lakes, are all on offer at the market place in Lappeenranta.
 
Fact #9: Spa
The history of the Lappeenranta Spa goes back as far as the 1820s when the Pikkala spring was found. Today, Lappeenranta Spa offers accommodation in the old spa building called Wanha Kylpylä, as well as sumptuous facilities for luxury and health treatments. The Spa Hotel on the other side of the street offers modern, comfortable and spacious rooms, saunas, pools and a fitness training room.
 
Fact #10: Ice Hockey
The 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship tournament will be held in Lappeenranta and Imatra on 17-27 April. First games of the tournament will be played on Thursday, April 17. The Championship period includes 10 game days with 30-31 games depending on the number of relegation games needed, as well as Easter Holidays. Medal games will be played on Sunday, April 27.

Saimaa Lake View during winter at Lappeenranta, Finland

French or Finn?

Do you want to know how does it feel to live in France (FR) and Finland (FI). Take a look at my article below and you will find how much different they actually are.

Situation 1: Greeting people

• FR:  French people are known to be warm, so greeting people has been part of their custom to  shows their courtesy.  If you meet your friend, you will hug and kiss him/her on the cheek. So suppose if you enter a room and your friends are already there, you will have to do those things (hug and kiss) to each and everyone there one by one. When you meet some strangers on the street, you will great him/her by Bonjour (Good Day), Bonne Soirée (Good Evening), or Au Revoir (Good Bye) even though you don't even know them.
• FI:  Finn people are known to be quiet. So first of all, you don't expect to be hug or evenmore be kissed. You just simply give a friendly handshake to your friends when you meet them. In case you meet with strangers on the street, just be quiet. They will not greet you, and you are not suppose to greet them as well. Here silence is golden. So by being quiet (not making any noise) means that you appreciate people around you because you are not bothering them.

Situation 2: Understanding class schedule

• FR:  When it is written that the class started at 8 AM, it literally means 8 o'clock. So you should come to class by 8 or even better before 8 if you don't want to miss the lecture. Same thing goes with the end time of the class. If the schedule said it ends at 10 AM, then it will end at exactly that time.
• FI:  when it is written that the class started at 8 AM, it means that the class will start at 8:15 unless you are told otherwise by the Lecturer. So you don't have to be worry when you got up late, since the Lecturer will not come until 15 minutes later. But the more awesome thing is that even though it starts 15 minutes late, surprisingly it ends 15 minutes earlier. So if the schedule is 8-10 AM, it means that the class will be over at 9:45.

Situation 3: Taking Bus

•  FR:  The bus price is cheap, only 1.3 euros per trip and if you travel during 1 hour and change the bus during that time, you don't need to pay additional fee. In France, you can wait the bus at the bus station, just stand there or sit if benchs are available. The bus will stop at every station, so if you are familiar with the station where you suppose to get off, you will not miss it. Just look at the panel that display the next station, and get off when you reach there.

• FI: The bus ticket is expensive, it is 3.3 or 3.6 euros per trip depending on the bus number. So if your apartment is quite far from the university (just like mine T_T), you will spend at least 7 euros every single day just to go to university and come back home. In Finland, if you want to take bus, you should wave your hand when the bus is approaching the station, failed to do so, the driver will not stop at your bus station and you will miss the bus. Here, the bus will not stop at every station unless there is someone waving at the bus station or there is passenger who push the stop button. So if you want to get off the bus, you must push the stop button just before the bus approaching your destination. Otherwise, the driver will never stop, and you have to get off on the next station which is pretty far.

Situation 4: Eating

• FR: French people can not be separated from cheese and wine. It has been an integral part of their daily diet. So don't be surprised if you find exceptionally lots of cheese variants in the supermarket, and it's actually common to see French eats cheese just like a snack. Another visible nature of French cuisine is the sauce. They love to put sauces into the food, but don't mistakenly think as if it is a chilly sauce or anything spicy like that because trust me they don't really eat any spice. So they use sauce to enrich the flavor of the food but they don't go extreme, so the taste is much more plain, a bit salty, and sometimes cheesy. Lastly they usually have some baguette (bread) to accompany their meal.
• FI: The flavours of Finnish food is characterized by its the exotic northern nature. Being close to the nature (70% of Finland areas are forest, they have lots of lakes and particularly the 2nd biggest lake in the whole Europe, which is why the country is called Land of Thousand Lakes) has somewhat a lot of influence into their gastronomy. It is kinda mix of variety of pure products, such as fish, vegetables, grain, mushrooms, and fruits. They care of the nature and they preserve this spirit when they prepare the meal. One thing I notice is that the food here is expensive, I think it's because of the harsh climate that makes fresh fruit and vegetables were unavailable during most time of the year.

Situation 5: Being a Guest

• FR:  In France, if you are close to someone or some family, they will invite you over a dinner in their house. A dinner invitation is valued as an honor that bonds a relationship between people. So if someday you are invited by a French people over a dinner in their house, don't forget to bring some souvenirs or gift (like wine or flower for example) to show your gratitude to them.
• FI: In Finland, sauna is not seen merely as an bathing activity but it is somewhow a social activity that fused and unseparated from their live. A typical Finn will go for sauna at least one or two times a week regularly. So if a Finn is wilingly to spend their sauna time together with you, it means that they really regard you as close friend to them because normally only a couple or a family take a sauna together.

New Years Eve

Initially I planned to have my new years eve in Paris, but somehow because one reason and another, I ended up staying in Nancy and had a quite New Years eve. Fortunately I had many friends here so I wouldn't be alone during the turn of the year. I spent the new years eve with my Indonesian friends, we went for dinner together at Chicken Spot. It is a halal restaurant which sell some stuffs like KFC, including fried chicken, fries, burger, and softdrinks.

After the dinner, we thought we are going to spend some time in Place Stanislas aka the City Center, in case perhaps they have some fireworks or anything fancy like that. However when we reached Place Stanislas, we found nothing but few people walking around and some teenagers seemed to be drunk. So we continued our journey to see if they opened the Pepiniere Park in which they didn't. Had nowhere to go, we just kept walking and headed to the Euroline Bus Station where I found some river and some ships too. I was surprised because I have lived here for about 4 months but I never found this place before. We spend some time to enjoy the view and finally decided to go home. It was about 23:15, not yet 24:00 already but since we felt so boring we thought that it might be better to just return home wait for the year to alter.

Dinner at Chicken Spot

Still at Chicken Spot

Somewhere near Pepiniere

This is also somewhere near Pepiniere

Christmas tree in Place Stanislas

me sitting in Place Stanislas

Somewhere near Euro Line bus station

One and only river I found in Nancy

A ship named after Niagara waterfall

In the park alongside the river

Carry In Your Memory

I don't know why I became so emotional like this, I just got here in Finland for 3 days but I really fell that I'm kinda miss my time in France. So I put all these pictures that still remain in my pocket camera to remind myself about Nancy, France. As people said that a picture word thousand words so in this particular post, I'm not going to give much sentences because I intend to make some kinda memory album.So here they are, some of the my most memorable places at Nancy.

My apartment room that I miss a lot

My apartment building

Match Supermarket Parking Lot

Public Bike Stall

The Tram Station

The Junction that I cross every day

U Express and Subway where I used to go almost every week

Mc Donald Resturant just nearby my apartment

Christmas Market

Two weeks before Christmas until the Christmas Eve, you will be surprised at how beautiful the night at Nancy was. The street were decorated with lights. And the most important thing to visit is the street Christmas Market which sell anything from chocolate, churros, hot wine, clothes, jewelry, decoration, etc. The market does not intended to children only, although I saw children quite everywhere here. But I believed that everyone must be attracted to this flashing flickering stalls. The Christmas market is actually a collection of small temporary kiosk made of wood and decorated by many colorful lights that glow nicely during the night. There are lot of location of the Christmas Market in Nancy, the first one which is bigger was near DARTY Shop just close to Nancy Gare, the other one was near C&A Shop.

St. Nicolas Day

In Nancy, St. Nicolas Day is a popular traditional feast day marked by live entertainment. People will go out and gather at Place Stanislas to see the Fireworks exhibition for about 30 minutes. The fireworks will start at 7 PM but if you want to get inside, you need to be hurry. Because it will be very crowded there. My friends and I reached there at about 6:30 and unfortunately we were too late to get inside. The guard already close the fence, so we can't enter it. As the result we enjoy the firework from quite a distance outside Place Stanislas. 

FYI St Nicolas is the protector of the weak and oppressed, as well as the patron saint of lawyers, seamen and school children. More about St. Nicolas Day in Nancy can be found here and here.

A Lovely Evening at Nancy

Today is Armistace Day and it is a national holiday in France. I stayed in my room the whole day since I had nothing to do. After 3 exams last week, I still did not feel to open any book. I just wanted to rest and relax my mind. Suddenly one of my friend had this brilliant idea that he posted on the faccebook, he suggested to take a walk to the park near by the dormitory. It was a large park with green grass, some benches. Plus, there were also some ducks and swans swimming on the pond with the pink bridge lied across the top.

We met at 4 PM and started to walk. It was not that far, I guessed it only took 10 minutes to reach there. And yes, it was amazing. I mean, yes the weather is cold outside (about 2 degrees) but it was all worthed all the way to see this beautiful view. The scenery was refreshing and my favorite part was of course the pond. I saw many swan both black and white swimming with their long neck and fluffy fur. The ducks were so cute, they are grey and black with the green head. I definitely could spent hours there just to stare at this very lovely scene.

Finished with the pond, we decided to walk to the kids playground. I knew that it was written there "for kids 4-12 years old only", but it was just so tempting that we couldn't help but to play with the swings and some spinning plate shaped like UFO. Tired of playing, we then hiked to the hill to enjoy the scenery from above. Since I didn't wear sport shoes, it was quiet slippery but after all I managed to reach the top. The weather didn't seem so friendly and it kept getting colder and colder and so we decided to went back home.

Ducks are everywhere

White swan and black swan

Duck pond

Kids playing ground

Let's play a swing

Me standing in the bridge

Colorful Trees

We play the spinning plate

Home Sweet Home

Today I would like to let you to take a peek to my room. The objective of this tour is to give some useful tips about Living in France. During this tour, I hope that you wear your name tag, stick on your group, follow my flag and try not to be lost. I will be your guide during this short tour and feel free to ask any question that wandering in your head.  So are you ready? One, two, three, go!

I lived in an university dormitory not so far (about 10 minutes walk) from my campus. The name is Résidence Universitaire Vélodrome.  The dormitory itself consists of 3 building and I lived on the building 2 where the rooms are numbered 2xxx. There are lots of room options are available here, but I choose a single furnished studio with 18 m2 large. The room is quite nice and tidy. And the best part of it is that I got an extra big window that keep my room light all the day. The studio is already furnished with a bed and sleeping utensils, an electric stove, a refrigerator, a mirror, a wardrobe, a broom, and book shelf. 

A good thing of living in a CROUS student apartment, apart from the fact that it is always closed to the campus and the cafeteria, is that you get a high quality in low price. If you live in other apartment managed by private, the rental cost will be as much as twice for the same kind of service. Some of my friends will have to pay about 500 euro per month for a 27 m2 studio. Well, sure it's larger, but it's too much to spend 500 euro just for the domicile, isn't it? Another thing that is important if you live here in France is to register for reduction fee called CAF that will deduct 50% of the rental fee. So for example, my rental fee is 300 euro monthly, but thanks to CAF, I only need to pay 150 euro per month. Isn't it amazing? So I can save the 150 euro for shopping!! Yey!

My desk

A zoom of my desk

My comfy bed

My mini kitchen

My toilet