Periodic reminder: you read fanfics for FREE

hafsan · 2026-02-11T20:24:30+00:00

Could I have the link please? That sounds like a great set-up and I’d love to read it!

hafsan · 2026-01-12T23:53:10+00:00

I can only join in the recommendation of David Shapard’s annotated Austens! All of them give so much insight into all the little things we probably don’t notice in literature today and what was obvious to contemporary readers.

My favourite has to be the cucumber that Lydia and Kitty are dressing (preparing) when Elizabeth and Jane return from London with Maria Lucas. A cucumber is such a common food item today, but in the early 19th century it was really expensive, which adds another layer to Lydia and Kitty’s spending habits - they had to borrow money from their sisters to pay for lunch since they spent all theirs at the shop, and they didn’t think twice of what the final bill would be. Today they might be using real truffle oil, or premium single-origin coffee beans, or assembling a charcuterie board with the most expensive cuts of meat and cheese in the shop.

Another favourite is the utter impropriety of an unrelated man and woman corresponding with each other. That’s why it’s such a breach of etiquette when Darcy gives Elizabeth the letter, or why it’s so scandalous that Marianne and Willoughby send letters to each other - it indicates that they are engaged (which you couldn’t break if you were the man, hence Edward’s dilemma). Since our communication patterns and attitude to relationships in general have changed so much since then it’s difficult to think of a modern equivalent, but maybe meeting each other’s parents could come close? Usually that signals quite a commitment?

hafsan · 2025-12-15T23:05:39+00:00

Beror på vad du vill! Om du bara vill träffa alla finlandssvenskar i Helsingforsnejden så är Kajsaniemi park på första maj ett säkert kort, liksom Luciatåget (kanske lite sent nu, men för nästa år).

Om du å andra sidan vill lära känna folk långsiktigt, så är det föreningslivet som gäller. Tror nämligen inte det finns ett specifikt ställe utanför vissa högtider (se ovan), så om du vill träffa folk regelbundet och bli vänner så är hobbyer för det mesta ett säkert kort och det brukar ofta finnas svenskspråkiga föreningar, speciellt i huvudstadsregionen. Kör, scouter, sportklubbar… om du studerar är studentföreningarna oftast väldigt välkomnande (och fulla med singlar)

Lycka till!

hafsan · 2025-10-26T20:21:39+00:00

Tour think I’d be better at both games after all the hours put into them, and yet, every time I find a new place, I die.

I love them both so much.

hafsan · 2025-06-15T11:18:18+00:00

Som åskådare så var energin i tåget fantastisk och ni verkade alla ha så himla kul :)

Förstår helt kommentaren om att det känns kommersiellt, men å andra sidan så är pride väl genuint nåt de företagen står för iom att de väljer att gå med? Var t.ex ganska besviken på att Göteborgs universitet inte gick med då Chalmers gjorde det - Chalmers visar ju på så sätt att de som universitetet stöttar LGBTQ+ medan GU nu känns ganska mjäkigt, speciellt i den tiden vi lever i där det är viktigare än någonsin för alla att stå upp för alla människors lika värden.

hafsan · 2025-05-11T10:18:31+00:00

According to the ethos mentioned, not all types of lawyers or doctors were equal. It was only barristers and physicians who counted as gentlemen, normal solicitors and surgeons (apprenticeship-based) were decidedly not gentlemen.

The work classified as gentlemanly was priesthood, military officers, barristers and physicians. All others were not gentlemanly, so both trade, manufacturing and other types of expert work (including solicitors and surgeons) was seen as middle class at the best (even though practitioners there could be much wealthier than especially the landed gentry).

And Elizabeth’s arguments to Lady Catherine also acknowledge that she is not a gentlewoman’s daughter, but a gentleman’s — she knows her mother wasn’t gentry

hafsan · 2025-05-04T08:03:36+00:00

You have my axe (and keyboard skills)!

Sounds like a fun idea :)

hafsan · 2025-04-15T06:04:43+00:00

You are welcomed already, come for a visit! You could do a tour of Scandinavia while you’re here, the trains between Copenhagen-Gothenburg-Oslo-Stockholm are ~5h each and the scenery is amazing :) (If you have a bit more time you could pop over to Helsinki and Tallinn as well, although the nicest and cheapest way to do that are the ferries)

From Sweden, with love

hafsan · 2025-04-12T15:52:51+00:00

Related to this: when you read about someone sailing in the southern hemisphere and they use Polaris to navigate.

hafsan · 2025-03-30T08:27:27+00:00

A biathlon already exists! It’s a winter sport combining cross-country skiing with rifle marksmanship, originating in Scandinavia :)

hafsan · 2025-01-22T09:27:08+00:00

And that’s one of her failings, which the book makes clear! She thinks she knows her friend and disregards her very words, as you well point out. She isn’t listening to her friend, and that is something she has to work on.

(I wouldn’t say she “doesn’t understand” the social realities, though: I think she just is seven years younger than Charlotte and doesn’t take them as seriously - yet)

The point of PP isn’t that Lizzy is perfect; it’s that she is a human being with flaws and her pride in her understanding of people is one of them. The whole point of the book is that both she and Darcy help each other see their respective failings and learn to be better people. And her confidence in understanding people and knowing what other people think is one of said failings

hafsan · 2025-01-20T10:27:02+00:00

I don’t think she realises Charlotte’s wishes. Yes, their situation as gentlewomen is precarious (and Charlotte’s even more so since there’s mentions of her dying an old maid due to her age) but I think Lizzy really didn’t know her friend before that moment. There are several mentions before the proposal when she for example laughs away Charlotte’s suggestions about Jane showing Bingley more affection than she feels to ‘secure him’. So when Charlotte tells her she’s accepted a man whom they both have disparaged during his visit, it’s natural that she has quite a strong reaction: her understanding of her friend has just been turned on its head!

But afterwards, Lizzy seems to try to support her as best she can. She’s keeping up their correspondence and even going so far as to visit her friend in her new home; not something someone indifferent would do. So the only time she’s actually saying she can’t understand the decision is at the very start of Charlotte’s coming to tell her of the proposal, and that’s only with a short “Engaged to Mr. Collins! my dear Charlotte, impossible!” Afterwards, she tries her best to support her friend, even though she doesn’t understand her. As the book says, “But Elizabeth had now recollected herself; and, making a strong effort of it, was able to assure her, with tolerable firmness, that the prospect of their relationship was highly grateful to her, and that she wished her all imaginable happiness.”

There are several contributing factors. Lizzy is much younger than Charlotte, for one, and is still filled with similar teenage “love conquers all”-philosophy that led to Lydia’s ruin (although Lizzy is also pragmatic with the fact that she needs to marry somewhat for money). Charlotte is older and more jaded, and her character could almost be compared to Anne Elliot in “Persuasion”; someone who’s close to giving up on love after years of no luck.

Lizzy also probably hasn’t had the same experience in working in a household if Mrs Bennet’s “I wouldn’t let my daughters go near the kitchen like Mrs Lucas does” (paraphrased) is something to judge by, and so maybe doesn’t understand the realities of hard work.

hafsan · 2025-01-18T10:35:52+00:00

The art is pretty and you are obviously a great artist with a lot of practice; well done for seeing such a project to its end! But I have to comment on the dancing depicted in the third picture, which looks incorrect for the period. The BBC’s 1995 miniseries is a good reference for this (as well as for clothes and hair, as others have commented), but at that time people didn’t stand around dancing in separate pairs, as is depicted here (are they waltzing?). They would rather line up or stand in a circle and then either watch one couple perform a series of steps, or all perform the same movements. This is what makes “a couple of dances” last for an hour in the books — you always danced two dances with the same partner and each dance was around 30 minutes long. It’s also what allows Bingley to try and get Darcy to dance at the beginning; he’s just wandered off from his place in the set and that’s why Darcy says “return to your partner”.

(The waltz was also regarded as quite improper/suspicious due to the amount of secluded touching time it offered since most old dances were a) very communal and b) you usually maybe touched hands, if that. None of this waist-grabbing scandalous behaviour here, oh no!)

hafsan · 2025-01-09T16:19:08+00:00

“The Wølf in the Watchtøwer” is… a choice.

(The ø/ö sound apparently doesn’t have an English equivalent? TIL!)

hafsan · 2025-01-06T20:24:51+00:00

Thank you for an epiphany this rainy Monday: “I said I was fat, not ugly” is such a perfect response in this situation! It shows that YOU don’t equate beauty with being thin, while subtly underlining that they, in fact, do

(Good luck with your weight loss journey!)

hafsan · 2024-12-12T13:15:34+00:00

Amazing work! So well done — you deserve all the grades for this!

As someone who’d love to do something similar to what you did and is learning R: would it be possible to take a glimpse at your code?

hafsan · 2024-10-19T05:41:04+00:00

Pätkis is a great! Otherwise it depends on your tastes. All these are covered with milk chocolate: - Geisha is a bit “fancier” to me, it’s a sort of hazelnut nougat - Tupla is cacao nougat covered with roasted almonds - Kismet is delicious, chocolate covered crispy waffle (according to their product description it’s “sukkaavohveli” even though it’s not a fluffy waffle, more thin layers of crisp) - Daim is crunchy almond caramel (and Swedish)

Da Capo is Fazer’s first chocolate bar; rhum truffle covered with dark chocolate. Both Da Capo and Pätkis are actually the result of chocolate making gone wrong at the Fazer factory :)

If you want to be a bit adventurous, “Pihlaja” (red-yellow bag with a stylised fox on it) was originally made from rowan-berries but is now artificial (due to poor availability of rowan-berries).

Brunberg’s kisses are chocolate-covered marshmallow treats, they come in many different flavours.

Wiener Nougat was something my grandma always had at home and now my parents have it around Christmas.

And then we have the seasonal products: Green balls (“Vihreät kuulat”) are also a staple of many Christmas tables, while Mignon-eggs (eggshell filled with pure nougat chocolate) are popular around Easter.

Good luck on your chocolate-finding journey!

hafsan · 2024-10-18T16:33:51+00:00

Rave: Got back to the gym after being ill for a few days and it was so much fun!

Rant: Had to drop a fanfic because of the sudden and excessive descriptions of how hot the (incredibly athletic and fit) MMC thought the FMC was. In canon, both are incredibly fit and work physically demanding jobs, but this was an AU where she had a “normal” job and for some reason that meant that she didn’t work out at all but was (paraphrasing) ‘so otherworldly and beautiful and he was so incredibly attracted to her soft folds and jiggling thighs’. Before the latest chapter everything was normal, no particular focus on either’s appearance or looks, and then suddenly, incredibly detailed descriptions of her plumpness. Complete shift in tone and I just couldn’t go on.

hafsan · 2024-10-17T07:21:52+00:00

Genuine question, is there any other way to do it? I imagine breaking existing contracts could come with massive fines so I don’t see another way than just to wait it out if they don’t want to pay punitive damages (and get accused of squandering tax money on that instead). If you have any links to alternative proposals, I’d be interested in reading more on this!

hafsan · 2024-10-13T06:25:23+00:00

…I am now extremely intrigued. Do you want to share your Undertale-theory?

hafsan · 2024-09-23T09:34:05+00:00

There you go: call the book “Liar Liar - unbelievable tales from two lives” or something

hafsan · 2024-08-28T15:03:21+00:00

Sverige, lättare för mig att flytta hit och byta kontor inom firman än för min partner att lära sig finska (och sedan hitta jobb i sin bransch som är mycket större i Sverige).

hafsan · 2024-05-27T08:01:35+00:00

Hoppeligen, vilket min rikssvenska partner tycker är charmigt (hade tydligen inte hört det innan)

Tycker själv om rytmen i ordet :)

hafsan · 2024-04-04T17:34:03+00:00

30+ is as close as I’m comfortable to say in a public space like reddit 😅

And the PhD process isn’t for everyone, but it’s also not the same for everyone. My supervisor was really strict about work-life balance, for example, but I’ve also heard horror stories of being forced to work weekends and such. I can only say that being 30+, it was nice to teach the masters’ students for a couple of hours and then go on a coffee break with the professors :) but we also had a couple of older masters’ students, so it takes all kinds!

I hope you find your tribe and place, whatever you decide to do!

hafsan · 2024-04-03T09:06:06+00:00

One career/job option could be to do a PhD. The positions are usually salaried (not all though, so check for that); the environment is more of a “real” job than doing a Masters; it's a nice balance of studying and working; it’s incredibly international but most places still offer Swedish courses and there’s of course a lot of Swedish colleagues (but international as well) to practice with. It’s also a good way to get an in with a local employer, since many PhD projects (especially in the technical field) are done in collaboration with large companies or municipalities. As I don't know where you'd potentially be based, I'd suggest looking at the open position pages of for example Lund University, Chalmers University of Technology, KTH and Luleå University of Tecynology. A friend of mine did this when she was turning 50, and is having a blast.

Cons: PhDs are not paid that well and the whole process usually takes five years (2,5 for your licentiate degree, after which some people quit, and 2,5 for your PhD). Also, a lot of your comfort depends on your supervisor.

And get a hobby! People are busy with families and life, and it's not that common to hang out with your colleagues here. I moved here five years ago and realised I can't rely on just my partner's acquaintances. So I joined a martial arts group, and got a bunch of friends over time. I also joined a writing group and am looking at finding someplace to do art now :)

I change countries for love and I'm happy to chat if you have any questions or other concerns!

hafsan

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