Do you have all the habits you wish for? I certainly don’t. I am always up to try something new, some new challenge, something that can have a positive impact on my life. But I always fail to develop a habit, I often forget, start something else, get bored, etc. And it kinda bothers me, because sometimes the good benefits of a new habit may not be instant, but somewhere along the road.

At some point I tried to meditate everyday because I read about the good effects that meditation has in your ability to focus and relax. But I quitted even before I was able to “truly” meditate without distractions. I remember that I tried to wake up at 7 everyday on another challenge, even when I didn’t have to, to take advantage of the quietness of the morning to get things done. That one failed already in day one.

They say it takes about 21 days to build a new habit. I have seen an interesting concept called 30 days challenge, in which you challenge yourself to do something for 30 days. Some of those challenges may include no TV, become vegetarian, read 50 pages everyday, no facebook, etc. Some times the point is to make yourself flexible, and to realize that you need very little to be happy (yes, you can survive without facebook for a month, I heard). Some other times it’s about introducing a healthy habit.

I like the 30 days challenge concept, and since it’s almost the end of September, I will start from October. The theme for October will be meditation, and I will meditate everyday at least for 15 minutes. I will post the results later. I still haven’t decided what to do for the next months, do you want to help me out? Vote! 🙂

Hej!

Jag heter Fran, en man på 26 år och ursprungligen från Spanien. Jag söker en lägenhet eller del av en lägenhet i Stockholm eftersom jag ska påbörja min Magister i Bioentreprenörskap på Karolinska Institutet nu i September.
För en internationell student som mig själv, är det väldigt svårt att hitta lägenheter eftersom majoriteten av marknaden använder kösystem och att det generellt är hård konkurrens för att få en bostad överhuvudtaget. Därför har jag börjat använda några inte så konventionella metoder såsom google adwords för att hitta en bostad.

Om mig

Jag har studerat och jobbat i Uppsala i tre år där jag vid sista året jobbade i Manchester (Storbritannien).
Jag är en väldigt hälsosam person, rökfri och älskar träning. Jag är väl-organiserad och ser till att jag har det rent och snyggt omkring mig. Sedan 18 års ålder har jag delat studentboende och har aldrig haft ett enda problem med någon rumskompis. Andra egenskaper jag har är att jag är väldigt social och att jag försöker skapa en varm och trevlig miljö i min omgivning oavsett vart jag än befinner mig. Mina fritidsintressen är fotografering, sport, resor och datorer. Lite rolig information om mig är att jag inte tittar på TV, jag tycker inte om öl, vin eller fotboll (vilket inte är särskillt vanligt för att vara spanjor). Jag försöker också att lära mig nya saker hela tiden (läser och lyssnar på ljudböcker) och jag strävar efter att omringa mig själv med likasinnade personer som är målmedvetna och ambitiösa.

Har du något att erbjuda?

Om du möjligen har bostad eller rum att hyra ut eller någon du känner som har det, var vänligen och fyll i så mycket information som möjligt i formuläret nedan så återkommer jag snarast.

Tack så mycket!

/Fran

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About this page

Hello!

My name is Fran. I am 26 years old, male, originally from Spain. I am looking for a flatshare or an apartment/studio in Stockholm as I will start a Master in Bioentrepreneurship at Karolinska this September. Because of the queue system for renting apartments in Stockholm and the high demand for them, renting an apartment can be really difficult for an international student like me. Therefore I am using other “non-conventional” methods to find an apartment like google adwords.

About me

I have spent 3 years studying and working in Uppsala and last year working in Manchester (UK). I am a very healthy person, non-smoker and love to workout. I am tidy, clean and well organized. I am a very respectful person, I have been sharing student houses since I was 18, and I have never ever had a single problem with any flat mate. I am very social, and I like to keep a warm and fun environment wherever I go. My hobbies are photography, sports, travelling and computers. More interesting info about me is that I don’t watch TV, I don’t like beer, wine or football (not very common in Spanish people) and I am constantly learning new things (reading books or listening to audio books). I strive to be surrounded by goal-oriented and ambitious people like me because it keeps me motivated, and I work to motivate others.

Do you have something to offer?

If you happen to have a property or a room for rent, or know someone who does, please fill as much information as you like in the form bellow. I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you!

/Fran

As most of you know I will be moving to Stockholm in September to start a master. Right now, the biggest issue is accommodation. Finding a place to rent in Sweden in general is difficult, because there is a politically managed market for rental apartments on the basis of a queue system. This means that if you are searching an apartment to rent, you would go to a website like http://www.sssb.se or https://bokabostad.stockholm.se and sign yourself up. Once you have an username, you start accumulating queue days. Users apply to properties in these websites, and the user who has more days accumulated gets the contract. You can sign up in these website the day you turn 18, and Swedish people usually do that. So what’s the average time in the waiting list to be able to sign a contract? TWO YEARS! Yes, f$&king unbelievable! It was posted in the news as well http://www.thelocal.se/24858/20100208/.

So the chances for an exchange student to rent a flat there are slim. There are subletting contracts, usually more expensive and for a fixed period of time, but even those are hard to get because for every subletting announced there are 100+ applicants. Adds of the kind of “You can rent the corner of my living room for 3500 SEK (more than 350 euros) and don’t forget to bring your own bed” are not rare to see. And the sad thing is that people actually pays it because they have no other choice.

There is, however, something called last-minute apartments. In the SSSB website mentioned above, from time to time they will post an apartment called last-minute, and those are rented in a first-come first-served basis, with no queue. Now the problem is, SSSB website gets thousands of visit per hour, it’s highly unlikely to be the first one seeing a last-minute offer. How can I rent an apartment then? Either by subletting (with lot of luck or networking) or get a last-minute one (with extreme luck). I am already working in the networking part, and for the last-minute ones, I came up with a creative solution.

Theoretically, I knew it was possible to design a program that goes to the SSSB website, check the number of last-minute apartments, and if there is one, it will send me an email. The geek within me suddenly awake. I knew some bash scripting in linux that could do some of those functions. I won’t disclose much information about how it works just in case I decide to make a business out of it some day lol. It took me some 6 hours or so to make the script, and still, the program could run as long as my computer was on. So I came with another solution, and now the program is ran 24h thanks to a remote server in my godaddy hosting account :).

Now guess who’s going to be the first one (or one of the first ones) to know when a last-minute apartment is posted. I hope that the 8+ hours invested in the trick are worthwhile. It’s a though situation, so it was time to be creative with the solution.

Cheers X

For the past weeks I have been busier than ever. I am always thinking about ideas on what to do next, and helping friends achieve success with their business. I am working in a few projects now, and some more to come in the near future. Here are the projects:

1. Bioentrepreneurs.com I started this project because I realized there wasn’t enough information out there about how to start your own company in the biotech industry. It will be an online community for bioentrepreneurs, where they can interact with each other and share ideas and experiences. There will be also articles (thanks to the teachers at the Master in Bioentrepreneurship at Karolinska and selected guest speakers), news and events.

2. Dentalcrea dental laboratory. This is my friend’s dental prosthesis laboratory. I already finished logo, business cards and website, now its only the price list left (and what a headache!)

3. Muah.se. A webshop for cosmetics. Logo ready and working in the webpage at the moment.

4. La Pampa Restaurant website. This is a famous rustic steak restaurant in Estepona. I will design the website, probably somewhere in august.

5. Also, a friend is starting a business which mission is to help small business to grow, and she may send me all the website works.

6. And lastly, I already know what kind of company I want to set once I finish the Master, it will be related to research innovations and transferring them to the market.

Having projects going on keeps me in a positive mood, and it makes me feel productive. Although the to-do list is already getting too big for the little time I have (only one month left yay!) before the Master.

Cheers! 🙂