after depositing my newly acquired possession in my room, i set off on a mission to open a bank account. i've heard many things from many people about bank accounts. exchange students don't open bank accounts (j the predecessor), whether you're allowed to open one depends on the bank clerk dealing with you (international exchange student coordinator), you need a swedish social security number to open one (friendly prc guy i met in my kitchen), exchange students can open accounts but aren't given ATM cards so there's no point (j on exchange with me now). that said, i was determined to open a bank account because it's tiring to sleep with your cash under your pillow. i felt like silas marner, living in perpetual fear that my gold (haha) might inexplicably disappear one day.
i remembered seeing some banks at odenplan and thought it'd be as good a place as any to start. in stockholm, queuing by number is almost a national past-time but because i'm too shy to ask, i usually take a number for the wrong queue. today was no exception. but when i finally did get to sit down with the account opening clerk, she was agreeable! all of a sudden i'd a swedish bank account and i could deposit the money and i can sleep in peace now.
still jubilant at my tiny victory over the system i went to the asian grocer's to buy some bee hoon. funnily enough, i'm speaking chinese with the prcs, french with my french housemate and a smattering of arabic (leftover from last summer in morocco) with the bangladeshi chap on the ground floor. my english is going to get rusty at this rate. and according to the prc, i've a cantonese accent that made him mistake me for a hongkong-er initially. this perplexes me because i don't speak a word of cantonese so it's mighty odd that i've a cantonese accent, of all things. stepping foot in the asian grocer's made my heart race for all the right reasons. surrounded by shelves and shelves of the familiar, i spent more time than i probably should have lingering in the aisles and touching the goods as if they were talismans. popped by the shop for cheap toiletries that W and C recommended and wasn't disappointed! as C described it, "it's like those toa payoh shops selling toiletries much cheaper than the supermarket". think i accidentally bought a year's supply of soap, shampoo and moisturiser for my five months here! and as if that wasn't enough weight, i went to the cheap supermarket to buy food for the week. spent a better part of the day deep in thought engaging in mental acrobatics and wondering how much i should buy and how i was going to use it etc. ended up only with root vegetables and frozen chicken though. as you might be able to tell, the repertoire is as yet limited.
and i'd a little run in with the first rude swede i've met. the lady in front of me at the check-out line was so irate that i'd placed my stuff on the belt after her that she shoved it repeatedly and knocked some of it off the belt. was tempted to verbally abuse her but decided against it so instead i gave her an "omg you've gotta be kidding me...." face. but seriously, just because you shop at a cheap supermarket doesn't mean you need to be a tacky person too!
brought everything back home and had the fun of chopping up some of the root veggies and thawing my frozen chicken. the cheapest option was 3xfrozen thighs and i had no idea hot to fit the thigh into my little pop. thank goodness for nice indian man who showed me how to skin and then debone and chop up the chicken leg into malleable proportions. but i was supposed to learn and i'm afraid i can't remember how it's done now!
he was stupended by my lucky brand mini-crock and it's snail's pace cooking. i guess waiting 10h for a meal is unfathomable to many but i think i might've convinced him that the plan was to wake to a hot meal. so i turn the mini crock on and let it work away as i sleep and ideally i'll awake to the gentle wafts of chicken soup. ideally.
and self-sufficiency is overrated. after (almost) single-handedly doing all the necessary things, i don't feel empowered, just exhausted :(
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