Today is a miserable autumnal Thursday in Malmo - rain and grey skies. I'm pretty tired from the moving around I have been doing - sleeping at one friend's house, then another and hoping for an opportunity for accommodation until the end of December to arise.

I've met some great people this week and in many ways being here is a lot of fun. My challenge right now is getting into "the system." In order to get on a language course I need a residence number, which I get when I have work. Learning Swedish would really improve my chances of overcoming a couple of cultural barriers. One of these barriers is that Swedes are great at English and until you have a good basic grasp of the language it's hard to get them to speak to you in Swedish (more than a simple "hi, how are you?").

This morning I met a guy who has just moved to Malmo from Palestine. He was walking the wrong direction from the Migration office to wherever he was going and presented me a map showing where he was going. The map had a green line showing the roads he should follow to his destination. Looking at the map I noticed that this route was probably the longest. The green line zig-zagged across this particular part of town threatening to turn a 10 minute stroll into a 45 minute tour of South-West Malmo. I was reminded of the directions given me by the lady at the tax office the other day which were equally as indirect. I'm sure there's some kind of conspiracy going on...

Mark and Jon are here, exploring the pigeon-less streets of Malmo. It was nice to hear some news from the UK.