Feb/105
Berlin. Again.
Friday morning I’ll hop on a plane and head to Berlin. I LOVED Berlin the first time, so I’m super stoked that I get go go back.
Håkan and I are going just for the weekend. It was really cheap, like fifty kronor (seven or eight bucks) roundtrip… how could we pass this up?
The only problem is the flight leaves at the crack of dawn … no, excuse me, this is Sweden, BEFORE dawn, so we will be heading to Stockholm tomorrow evening and spending the night at Håkan’s friend’s apartment. I feel a little bit uncomfortable staying in someones apartment when I’ve never met them before, but this is his friend, and apparently he got the okay to bring me so… I shouldn’t worry myself.
Then we’ll wake up super early to catch the first bus to Skavsta Airport.
And now if you live in the Stockholm area you can totally stalk me, as I’ve just given a lot of information. I’ll have Håkan with me so I’m sure he’ll protect me if need be 
.
Our only plan while we are there is to go to the zoo. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to the zoo, so this should make me feel like a kid again! And then we’ll do general sightseeing and museum hopping; we’ve both been to Berlin before so we’ll just be visiting the places that we missed the first time.
Should be jättekul (fun!).
xoxo.
Nov/092
No more
I have been putting off posting because I originally wanted to tell you about Berlin first… but I have no desire to write about Berlin, mostly because every night when I was there I would write down detailed blog entries – so all I have to do is transcribe. And I hate transcribing, which means that there would be no posts for a while.
So I’m going to continue regular blogging – minus Berlin trip.
After I got back from Berlin it was a whirlwind. I had a presentation due the day after I got back and I had a cold. Thankfully I had cold medicine, which did it’s job when it knocked me out for about 12 hours.
As soon as I was done giving my presentation, me, Katie, Sarah, and Ruby hopped on a train to Oslo. The train took about seven hours to get there. It snowed the whole way there it was awesome! Of course I still had my cold but I did my best to stay away from everyone.
We were lucky to get accommodation for both nights we were there because we waited until the week before to book… thankfully one hotel had a cancellation and we were able to snag it! The four of us shared a two person room. So basically, it was two twin sized beds. We had a sink and a mirror, and shared toilets and showers with the rest of our floor. It was more like a hostel than a hotel in my opinion! Two of us slept on the floor the first night and the other two slept on the floor the second night. It worked out well.
Norway is… mostly just like Sweden. It looks mostly the same, they have mostly all of the same shops (although I didn’t see any Pressbyråns!). The biggest difference is that Norway is way, way, WAY more expensive than Sweden. The only thing I bought besides food was three postcards to send back to the USA. I didn’t even get my trademark souvenir – a bookmark… but the reason was I actually forgot. But still! I would have been more keen about shopping had the prices for everything been cheaper.
We saw a lot, and walked the whole city multiple times in one day. Amongst the sights we saw include the old city center, the castle, the palace, a sculpture park- where we had breakfast in the freezing cold, the Munch Museet (my favorite!), we almost went to the Resistance Museum, we even made it inside, but decided we wanted to see the Munch Museum more (closing times were quickly approaching for both museums)… what else? Oh yes, the parliament building, and the US embassy (which was a huge dissapointment, it looked like a prison! All of the other embassy’s we saw in Oslo looked so cute and pretty).
Now I am back and am thankful. I feel as though I have been pushing tourist overload… I love to travel but there is a point when you need to resume everyday life. And I definitely hit it in Oslo… it was like ooohhh yay another old building! Haha. But seriously. It will be nice to have the next two weeks to prepare mentally for my next trip – to PARIS!
Since I got back from Oslo I haven’t been doing much. Some of us started a Back to the Future marathon. We watched the first on Sunday and the second last night. We’ll watch the third possibly on Wednesday.
Yesterday we ran through the forest and had an impromptu hide and seek game. It was Jacob and I (the Americans) against a Brit and a Swede (the Europeans). Out of nowhere the Europeans disappeared, and so Jacob and I ran to find them. Then the Swede yelled, “Are you alive out there?” And I responded wittily, “No!”
So since she now knew that we weren’t alive, Jacob and I ran stealthily through the forest trying to make it to our destination before the Europeans did. Unfortunately, the Europeans found the path before us, and were standing in our way. We decided to creep through the forest around them and then make a break for it! But then the Brit saw us! And we lost.
After this we walked to the park and played on the swings and the playground like we were little kids. It was awesome.
Today I am making American pancakes for breakfast… er, lunch. We were supposed to meet in my kitchen at 11am, but then Lisa texted me and said that 11am was far too early to wake up, and could we postpone until 12:30?
So I am just killing time now. Only an hour an a half more to go.
xoxo for now!
Sep/093
I love/hate Sweden
My relationship with Sweden is a love/hate sort of thing. Some days I love it, some I hate it.
I mostly hate it because I miss home. But I really can’t think of any other reason to not like Sweden. Homesickness comes and goes, but I always still miss everyone. I had a really good day today in terms of being homesick. At the point I am at right now I’ll be good for about 2-3 days, and then have one really bad day.
The other night I had a weird dream. All I remember about it was that I wanted to get out, I had to. And in my dream I was digging at something, and woke myself up because I was actually physically digging/clawing at the wall. That day was a bad day.
BUT, I am doing so much better then the first week. And I am having a great time in Sweden, which is helping to counteract the homesickness.
So some things I love about Sweden:
I love how there are so many men pushing around their children in strollers.
I love how parents feel comfortable leaving their children unattended in their strollers. The first time I saw this was at IKEA. The baby was all alone in its stroller, the parent in the bathroom. When would that ever happen in the States?
I would never leave my child unattended… but things are different here.
I love how pedestrians really have the right of way. The States “claim” that pedestrians have the right of way, but once you’ve been in Sweden, you learn that they really don’t. In Sweden you don’t even have to look both ways before crossing the street. The cars will see you and they will stop. And if you’re like me and are still getting used to this phenomena, and the driver sees you hesitating, they will stop and let you cross. It’s amazing.
When I get back to the States I’m seriously going to get run over by a car.
I also love how beautiful it is here. I love the cobblestone streets, and all of the historical buildings.
I love riding my bike everywhere.
I love going to pubs. I sort of love going to clubs… went to Snerikes’ club last night and it was okay. Wasn’t very impressed with the music… they remixed perfectly good songs and made them more disco-y. It was bad, to say the least. I will not be paying 60 kronor to go to their club again; I will be sure to get there before 9pm from now on, because then you get in for free.
I love my nation. Yes, I finally actually went there! They had awesome music. Mostly rock. And they played Green Day. Twice. The first time I’ve heard Green Day since I’ve gotten to Sweden (minus listening to them on my iPod).
I’ll be curious to go to Varmland’s club on Friday though… will they play the same sort of music that they had at the club, or bad techno disco-y music like at Snerikes?
I won’t find out for awhile though, because I won’t be going to their club this Friday. I made plans to go to a corridor party, and I have to go because I promised the guy who invited me. He’s from France, and he’s in my Swedish class. He went with me to Varmland’s pub today. I like him .
And Swedish class is awesome! Nothing like taking a foreign language in the States. I feel as though I really will learn something!
I don’t love my “actual” class though. The teacher is nice but really is horrible at her job. The moment she starts talking is cue for me to start daydreaming. She is that boring. And I try to listen, I really do, but the words start melding together and it doesn’t make sense… it’s just not good. But the format of the class makes it really easy for me to slack and still pass; the only thing that is graded is the final… and it is a take home exam (essay). October will bring me a new class. Can’t effing wait. I actually like school and it takes a lot for me to dislike a class.
So excited about going to Berlin at the end of October! I went to the informational meeting the other day and learned that we are there from Monday to Thursday, but are welcome to come earlier or stay later and do our own sightseeing. Mostly we will be seeing things that pertain to the class, but we will be going on a bus tour of Berlin and going to some holocaust museum. SO EXCITED. I love reading about Nazi Germany and also the aftermath all the way until the wall fell, so I am definitely staying past Thursday and will likely be coming back to Uppsala on Sunday.
We have to make our own plans for flights and accomodation, but the university pays for everything else.
Uppsala is great. I just wish I wasn’t so far away from home. I dislike the time difference, and when I wake up in the morning I can’t call anyone because they have just gone to bed 
. I have to wait until 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and by then I’m out and about doing things.
One thing that I find horrible is when I wake up in the morning and hear noises… my eyes are still closed, and to me it sounds like my mom making herself coffee in the kitchen, opening drawers, talking on the phone, yelling for my brother to wake up. But then I open my eyes and realize that I’m in Sweden. And while I’m happy to be here and living this once in a lifetime experience, during those moments I feel sad. But those moments are coming further a part.
To end this post on a happy note, I wanted to share this gem with you:
I promised a picture of the guy peeing in the street at the American Car Show, and so I had to deliver! 
xoxo, Jessy