Well, September flew by like crazy. It seems quite funny that all the things I'd been worrying or stressing about on end now feel like it was a walk in the park. (despite having learned a lot about trusting my gut, I think I could do with trusting it a bit more.)

My first month in Sweden has been absolutely fantastic. Still figuring out my routine but it's getting there! What I need to learn most is how to live with this thing called 'I'm-still-kind-of-a-poor-student-budget', while still keeping up with the social activities that I really don't want to miss out on. 

This weekend I went out for the first time to a different city, which was around a 3 hour car drive to a place called Västerås where we went to the Retro Gathering. I got a super cute membership card which has my nickname on it. A memento for all times! 
We stayed in a hotel on the 7th floor, and I managed to got a pretty picture around sunrise.

As I mentioned before, my budget wasn't that impressive so I had a mental list of things I really wanted to have to not go completely overboard. My loot is the following:


Dino Dini's Kick Off for the NES - Dino Dini was my math teacher in the first year of IGAD. This guy is just so passionate about everything he does, and I truly think it's an admirable quality. His math class was the first one I've ever passed in my life. I think his determination was something that inspired me.

Vagrant Story - An awesome RPG that I have fond memories of, watching my brother play as I was a tad too young (or absentminded) to understand the gameplay. I look forward to playing this one when I get my PS2 back.

Final Fantasy IX - The last one I missed in my Final Fantasy collection, which is now complete! FFIX is up there in my favourites. I never get tired of putting on the soundtrack and dreaming away. (Also, Steiner is the best character.)

A photo with game dev legend Jon Hare - Jon Hare visited our University last year and I remembered being pretty inspired by his story, so at the Retro Gathering I went to see his talk. At the end I started talking with him and he remembered the University. He agreed to do a polaroid photo with me! :)

I loved being at the convention, talking with all kinds of people and finding out where their passion for games comes from. The games industry is still reasonably new, which is why I think it's all the more important to understand who were the people that started this thing we now find ourselves in.

At one point I found a Nintendo 64 with StarFox, and I think I spent around 3 hours playing and completely losing myself in the game. Time well spent!



On the way to the Convention I unfortunately got pretty sick during the car ride, so we'd decided I would take the train back on my own. Train rides are one of my favourite things in life, so it was a blessing in disguise! :)