This week Her Campus got to catch up with a lovely, campus cutie called Elvira Eriksson. She is a third year, studying politics and IR, and is originally from Sweden. I started off by asking how writing for The Tab was going and to my surprise she’s had a lot of press and interest in her writing. She told me she got asked by her editor to write a piece on the whole accommodation issue first year students of Aberdeen University were experiencing. In the end she had wrote two pieces on this issue and eventually got some interest from the BBC. They have asked to use her contacts/resources for research and are using her articles on an upcoming show. Unfortunately, I cannot reveal much information on this issue because it is all hush hush for the time being. However, keep your eyes peeled on the news programmes as you will see Elvira’s handy work put to good use.
I then went on to ask about her being part of the yoga society. She confessed she hasn’t been attending much this year due to her busy third year schedule. However, she states that people should join and that the teacher is ‘very motivational’.
‘Once I was in a painful yoga position’. He then went up to Elvira and asked her to continue in this position and before she could moan in agony he replied: “pain is part of life; it’s an experience we all have to go through”. Nonetheless he made her continue – OUCH! – That does sound errm motivational.
Elvira gave me some good advice when addressing long distance in my tinder article so I asked more about where these wise words came from. She told me that her and her boyfriend have been together for three years and long distance, as always, had to be on the cards. When they first met they lived in two completely different towns in Sweden and then she went to university in Aberdeen. ‘So yea long distance has always been there for us’. However, she states that they are now experiencing a complete adjustment because he has now moved to Aberdeen so it is the first time in three years distance is not an issue. She loves it at the moment but confesses it is a big adjustment. As she states they were not the ‘normal’ couple so they have never had the ‘normal’ arguments. In light of it though they seem to be working well and ‘hes a great cook, so it means I get nice food now’ – bonus! However, ‘he does restrict my intake of chocolate as it will ruin my appetite for his cooking’. Haha well that’s not always a bad thing shows her cares for you! I then asked her, for the readers of this magazine, as she seems to be the pro for long distance, what advice can she suggest. ‘You really need to make your own rules’ as well like she said they weren’t the normal couple so you can’t go by the generic couple/relationship guidelines. Also ‘honesty is the most important aspect.’ You have to have trust, as this becomes a big issue for people in long distant relationships’. As long as you’re honest and trust each other the rest comes with it.
Finally, I asked what the big adjustment was from living in Sweden to Scotland was. ‘The most difficult was saying trousers instead of pants’ – haha well I did not see that one being the biggest issue. ‘oh and understanding the Scottish accent’. She told me that in one of her first sociology lectures she thought the lecturer (with a Scottish accent) said Carole Marx instead of Karl Marx. ‘I actually thought for a while that Karl Marx had an academic wife – it’s a miracle I’ve got this far with my academic career.’ She then went on to say if I still don’t understand I just nod and smile. Well don’t worry Elvira I sometimes have to do that too.