Posted by hatim
Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:50:00 GMT
On Sep 1st 2008 I have started a new chapter in my life, Grad School. I look back and think that it took almost the double amount of time for me to get to this point. Many of my peers started Grad School back in Fall of 2004. I have had my ups and downs in life but this is definetly an up. My program was greeted by the faculty head and then by the program director. Later we were greeted by CEO of Chalmers University. It was truly reaffirming that Chalmers was a correct choice for all of us when she counted all the positive aspects of Chalmers. Here at Chalmers they take student input very seriously and change the workings of university based on that. The CEO especially mentioned that there would be absolutly no compromise on equality and every one would get the same level of attention which they truly deserve.
After all the talks it was time for me to get keys to my new room. Here are some pics which i snapped before moving in. It's an OK sized room and I am glad that I got it on time. After this I completed my registration and all the related activities. As of now I have already attended atleast 2 lectures of both of the courses I have to take this study period (ie for next two months). One is Algorithms and other is Agile Devlopement Methodologies. The latter is more of a team/lab work than a course (so it would be just like working for a company).
Posted in LifeLog | Tags chalmers, studies | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:38:00 GMT
I came to Gothenburg on 25th only to attend some CIRC activities. CIRC is a volunteer organization here at Chalmers campus whose aim is to help international students adjust to Swedish/European culture. I have so far attended their Campus tour and Phadders evening (small silly fun and games with a senior student). I am planning to go to their city tour and to Leisberg park tour this weekend.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags chalmers, circ, gothenburg | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:37:00 GMT
I have recieved my stamped residence permit today. I spent a good deal of time yesterday trying to trace it. By calling the Embassy, FedEx and even going to the Embassy. The lady who talked to me from the Swedish embassy was very bitchy. I in fact needed my passport for another journey late this month so I was concerned that Swedish embassy is sitting on it for a while. I an extremely bitchy tone she said that if you need your visa right now I can send it to you unstamped. I said no thank you as I didn't want to risk delaying the process.
Today I got this on my FedEx status
So I went to FedEx office to pickup my visa. There was a very small queu of people recieving visas back. My visa has been granted from Aug 1 2008 till Oct 1 2009. After getting visa , accomodation and plane ticket now the only thing left is packing.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags visa | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:59:00 GMT
Since I got admitted for my masters program I have applied for Swedish visa (also known as residence permit) and prepared my self for booking accommodation air line tickets etc. I have yet to start doing my packing and it's just 6 weeks till I leave.I applied for my residence permit on May 19th and was given an interview date of June 9th. Around July 8th upon inquiring from the Embassy I got to know that I was granted my visa. I have yet to get my passport back with the RP stamped in it.
I shall be flying from Lahore to Gothenburg via Frankfurt on Lufthansa airlines in last week of August. I got the ticket for around 47000 Rs . (around 430 Euro). I was also able to book a room from chalmersstudentbostader. Their international student apartment booking is password protected and is usually pretty swamped when there is a chance that apartments would be posted. I used a trick to book my apartment (it has to do with how a simple Java EE application is hosted,normally its running at port 8080 and its proxied from port 80 to this place, instead of using no port in URL, which implies HTTP port 80, I used HTTP port 8080) and I also had a cron script running looking for a new room postings every 15 minutes. Then after booking the apartment I filled my contract and with help of a friend submitted my deposit.
Though I have arranged for my accommodation, I have yet to get a temp accommodation for the few days I shall be not in my booked room.
There are excellent resources for Pakistani students at PakSirZameen.net (which is maintained by a highly motivated pakistani guy, in Linkoping Sweden). It also has a list of different mailing lists of Pakistani student associations across Sweden.This site helped me a lot. It also inspired me to open up my own chat room for incoming Pakistani students to Sweden.
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Posted by hatim
Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:41:00 GMT
On this previous monday I recieved my Google Summer of Code payment card. Its a Master Card from some finance related company run by General Electric. It does not have my name on it, instead it has a number and GSOC 2008 Stundet written on it. The card had no value on it and had a number written on it to enable it. It was a US 1-800 number. I had a hunch that skype should let me call 1-800 numbers for free, and a google search confirmed it. I activated my card at no cost :).
Posted in LifeLog | Tags google, soc
Posted by hatim
Sun, 25 May 2008 11:57:00 GMT
I have started preping for my forthcoming stay in Sweden (I am quite hopeful about the visa). Since there is no tution in Sweden so the biggest expense one has to bear is accomodation, clothes and books. I registered my self to one of the housing comapnies in Gothenburg few days after I recieved my admission offer. The rents begin at around 280 Euros / month (including electricity and internet). I am targetting for an apprtment complex which is very near to the university and is frequented by international students.
As for clothes I am hoping to get some clothes stiched up within coming few months. I will rely alot on Jeans and Tshirts :) but would definetly get a black 3 piece suite. Sweden is a very very cold country so I need to buckle up (I also need some good shoes).
As for books I am on the lookout to buy them from here, but it seems very few books will be available in Pakistan. I will try to put a list of all the required books for software engineering and technology on my blog soon.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags chalmers, studies | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Thu, 22 May 2008 15:39:00 GMT
Since I recieved my admission letter from Chalmers University, Software Engineering Masters program, I have been preping to apply for visa. This year's visa process for studies in Sweden for Pakistani students has few changes. First of all one would need to apply through Visa drop box (which is essentially Gerry's/FedEx office). They handle visa documents and fee. Swedish Embassy charges 10500 Rs (roughly 100 Euros) in form of Bank deposit and visa drop box further charges 1000 Rs (10 Euros) cash. I also got my pictures snapped from a studio in F-6 Super, they knew exactly how to snap the pic. The toughest past was to get a Bank Statement, I had to borrow some money from my parents and buy Euros of it. Euro is becoming expensive by the day. They have other requirements filled in on Embassys's website. One thing which people don't know is that all photocopies should be on complete A4 page and should not be torn in any way.
I went to FedEx Gerrys office on Thursday (before I submitted my docs) only to find out that they only accept documents from Mon-Wed , 9 am-12 pm which is really a pain. So finally I reached the visa drop box office, this Monday early morning. There was atleast one more student there before me, also applying for Visa. After submitting my documents I was given a date of June 9th for intreview. Hopefully it will be a breeze :)
I am already looking out for cheap air travel from Pakistan to Sweden. It seems that one has to reach Sweden directly or has to fly through France, Netherlands or Germany for some new European Immigration procedure. I am eyeing on a late bird Luftansa from Lahore on Aug 25th now, costing me about 490 Euros. Not bad for half way around the world eh.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags interview, visa | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Wed, 07 May 2008 16:25:00 GMT
This year I had applied to admission to various programs in Sweden and have been waiting anxiously for their result. Today I was delighted to find out that I had been admitted to Chalmers University of Technology for MS in Software Engineering. This year the admission process of MS in Sweden had beeen centerlized by the swedish authorities by the use of webbased application system which distributted scanned copies of admission results to all the universities. I applied to 8 different programs, following is a list of those programs.
This year's admission process was a tense and competetive one. It started in Dec of 2007 with the announcement of programs and online registration for web based application at studera.nu. I chose the programs based on my interests, chances of getting a scholarship and reputation of the University (I also made sure that I ended up in Stockholm or Gothenberg). I had applied online in time, but my documents almost missed the deadline (they reached on Feb 15th). I sent my documents a bit late (on Feb 10th) via FedEx and i was promised by the FedEx guy that it will be on its destination in 72 hours. My documents reached Stockholm rather quickly but they were supposed to go to a very unknown town in middle of nowhere (Stromsund where VHS ,the company which manages studera process, is situated). Needless to say that I spent some tense days in Feburary thinking that I had missed the deadline and blown my chances of admission this year. And if my docs had not made it in time that might have been the case.
Then it was a long wait till Mid of march till it was confirmed that all my documents had been recieved and had been sent to the Universities for review. When the time line of April 17th approached Studera suddenly decided to delay the process till 29th April. They again delayed the process till May 8th. Every one I know was extremely frusturated with this delay. I found some comfort in a facebook discussion forum (which was previously a blog entry for a romanian guy. On small scandal on this forum was that some how an Excel sheet of the admission record for Chalmers got leaked on the internet. It really didnt contain much but it was a leak, it was removed quickly from the board. I came to know that people from all over the world had applied to universities and it feels like that this international representation would be strong in the programs them selves as well, which is a good thing.
I was suspecting that my result would be out by May 8th Sweden time but I was deligted to check my studera status as accpted today. I am suppose to start with classes on Sep 1st this year. Hopefully securing a visa will not be a problem as I have already started work on that issue. This is second good news for me this year after my selection in summer of code for the OpenNMS project. I am not very hopeful for SI scholarship for which I am eligible due to my current program, but you never know till its finalized. Also I wont be applying to any more Grad Schools this year as I had initially planned.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags education, sweden | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:44:00 GMT
I had been planning to sell my (crappy)Suzuki Alto VXR ,2003 to some (un)-lucky shopper. I had already put up an ad on the back of my car and received many calls. I was hoping to get 350,000 Rupees out of this car. Eventually I sold it for 338,000 Rs (roughly 200$ less than my asking price), but I think it was a good deal. The car had an accident and was not in the best of shapes but it looked ok. I will be using my Dad's Honda Civic from now ;).
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Posted by hatim
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:02:00 GMT
A friend of mine got married this month. His marriage brought unnecessary pressure from my parents on the subject of my own sentecning :) I told them there is time for it and ofcourse I don't have time to find the girl (with all the procastinating I do). Any who this was the first ever complete Pakistani marriage I have attended in my life. I went to a pre-Mehndi function, Mehndi, Barrat and Walima. The highlights were meeting few friends after 5 years and sharing old memories.
Here are some pics from different events.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags friends, wedding | no comments | no trackbacks
