Swedish Idol!

Well, Thursday Johan said to me "Hey, do you want to go to Swedish Idol tomorrow for free?". How could I possibly pass up that opportunity! I guess his friend Joakim got 8 free tickets! We were all set to go but waited until Friday to book our ticket, so we couldn't leave Jonkoping until 450 and arrive in Goteborg at 650. So after Micro class we went and grabbed some food, then were informed that because it's a television production they close the doors right at 7! So naturally we started freaking out and Joakim asked the guards if they'd hold the doors open for us if we werent too late, which they said they would do (yay!). Then when we were getting on the bus we saw our friend Leo who was one of our business partners on that Taxi culture card we were working on. So we mostly talked with Leo on the way up..I slept a bit. So we got there and sprinted to the taxis (which over charged us huge because they knew we were desperate--we even tried a few different ones). So we got to the theatre and just made it in time!

Then we realized why our seats were free. The concert was in a stadium so at the back the whole stage was set up..and we were BEHIND the stage. Soo although we couldn't quite see the front of the performance, we got to see all the cool stuff happen behind the stage! It was the semi-finals and the contestants were Minnah, Olle, and Jay. I didn't understand a word of anything that was going on, but I understood the songs so that's all that matters. A bunch of Johan's other friends were there too--they're SO cool! Oh, and Joakim's mum. So we watched the show and were even on tv kind of! We were sitting right behind where they interview all the idols so when it was interview time they handed a bunch of made up signs to the audience and if you look reaaaaaaaaally close you can see us! And you can here us all shout "MINNAH" really loudly too!

So with this idol they take 1.5 hour break to allow people to vote, so we left at this time. We were going to go hang out at a pub or something but they were all full so we just went to Fredrick's apartment. We ended up watching the finale at the apartment and then watched "Get him to the greek" which is a hilarious film! And me and Johan slept at Fredrick's place. Fredrick was such a pleasant host! He gaves us each our own little beds complete with sheet and comforter (and I mean, which student has this kind of hospitality?!) and even made us breakfast in the morning!

Then Saturday me and Johan walked around Goteborg and looked around --it's such a beautiful city! LOTS of people though, too many I think. But it was the perfect weather--not too cold and just a big of snow sprinkling on us.

Then we went to LISEBURG! It was AMAZING! It's an amusement park that in the winter they turn into a winter wonderland. There was way too many people there so it was hard to walk through. But everything was decorated in beautiful lights and there was snow all over and christmas music playing. So we walked through the whole park looking at different little shops, little markets, smelling all the food. They had these games you can play and you can win HUMUNGOUS chocolate bars! Like body size. So, obviously, we played and I guessed numbers 61 and 64 and the number was 63!! I was pretty sad for a while...but realized it was probably for the best because I'd definitely eat that chocolate in a day. Then at 430 there was an ice show that they put on for free! We had a hard time seeing it because of the huge crowd but we got to see some of it. It was so cool the ice skaters were wearing christmas lights on their costumes! And there were 2 huge green bunnies and they did a whole little show to christmas songs. Then we headed for the bus home :(

Sunday has been homework day! (kind of). Johan got home from Goteborg and he made a really good dinner. We call it his "Chicken Shit" because I don treally know what he does, but it's pasta and some creamy sauce and chicken and it's delish! We're living like poor people towards the end here though. Only 18 days until I'm home! I can't even believe it. It's coming so soon! I'm really starting to miss home though and am kind of looking forward to it :) 

My first latte

Today I had yoga as I do every Monday, and I tried to leave at the perfect time so that I would catch the bus home just in time. However, of course I'm an idiot and looked at Saturday instead of the weekdays so I had 15 minutes to kill. So I walked down to Coffeehouse by George and got my very first latte! And it was delish! They also gave complimentary ginger bread cookies.

I also got a little bit of culture shock..while I was waiting for my latte I saw onoe of the workers come up to the counter, open a drawer, and pick up a snoos (chewing tobacco in a little packet) anda put it in his mouth right in front of me! That stuff is everywhere--I even saw kids with it on their desks during exams. Craazzay.

Tonight Johan gets home..he was in stockholm with anna this weekend. When he gets home I think we're going to play hide and seek in all of Raslatt :)

The most amazing sight I've seen in Sweden!

Sunday I lounged around and went to the gym and when I came out of the gym I saw the most amazing sight ever! The stage in front of handelsbanken was all set up and decorated with different performances going on. There were people dancing to Christmas songs and some girls even did a dance to lady gaga bad romance! There was also live Christmas music and even jazz versions of the songs. The city was decorated beautifully with white lights hanging from the high parts of the building. And it was the perfect soft snow fall that just dusted all of us walking through the town. An there were ppl everwhere! Kids with balloons an cotton candy singing and dancing. There was an “American donuts” stand which me and issy obviously had to go to...even though I had just finished at the gym. There were also these little stands selling random stuff like hats, scarves, necklaces, watches, purses, kids toys. I walked around for a little by myself with a gigantic smile on my face. I probably looked kind of creepy just walking around with this retarded smile. I called issy and told her she needed to get to town asap but she was luckily already on her way to go to the gym—which she ditched to walk around with me :) It was funny because both of our purposed for going to town was the gym but then we ate an insane amount of bad food! We walked around for a good two hours just looking at everything an going into the stores and stuff. We also got hot dogs and hot chocolate to help the homeless, even though it makes me super sick. It was such an amazing evening just listening to the Christmas music and seeing all the decorations, walking through the snow, and seeing all the people :) Then we watched eat pray love at issys! An excellent evening.
I don't have a picture of the festivities..but here's a picture of the snow we have!

Workin' for the Weekend

Friday we went tobaganning! There’s this really awesome hill about 5ish minutes from raslatt. It was just me Julie Shannon em issy and joel but we had a blast! We all bought toboganns for the occasion of course and brought along good old mr. bag in a box. The hill was pretty big so it was quite the treck up each time but so much fun on the way down! Most of our sleds were super duper fast and we ended up having races and battles down the hill. The battles started to get pretty intense pushing each other off the sleds on the way down. Then we started doing doubles down the hill and this is where is got dangerous and painful! We were there for about an hour and a half probably,, then started to get cold and super tired so we headed back, all of us with nice bumps and bruises. I insisted we take a short cut even though it involved climbing a “little” hill. Hoewver, the last time I took that short cut I was running by myself during the fall…so this hill we all now had to climb in knee deep snow all carrying tobagans and a highway beneath us. It was difficult, but we made it with a little help from joel pulling us up onto the bridge. Joel took off to hang with the guys but the girls went back to issys to watch a movie. We REALLY wanted pizza but nowhere in jonkoping delivers or is basically open passed 9! So we just broke into Derek’s place and stole his pizzas and watched “he’s just not that into you” (hopefully Derek doesn't read this...)

Saturday was super fun. We went to the last Club Enkelt! We did a little preparty at forss’..just basically the raslatt crew at his place an we played some kinex soccer game. Issy got in a little bit of a fight at the bar when I was cuttingi n the coat check line and some girl got mad and for somereason hit Issy in the face. After that we were trying to grab a cab and we finally got one but it was already filled with a group of guys! But they were headed to raslatt so we were lucky. So we had to drop off his one friend at a girls house and everyone was congratulating him and pumping him up…turns out this kid went to the door and the girl thought it was one of the other guys which we thought was hilarious. It was a good, fun and chilled out weekend!

Thanksgiving

I went with Derek and Elin on Thursday to the ICA Maxi and it was like heaven! They had so many of the foods from back home and I got poptarts and peach slices! Thursday was also thanksgiving! Which was so much fun! Everyone made something—I brought the ice cream for the apple pie that elin and issy made. Julie brought green bean casserole which was AMAZING, stuart even made yams! James and Joel did corn and Shannon and Em brought salad. Derek did mashed potatoes and Brett & Claus did dinner rolls. It was so nice to be with the whole Swedish family eating awesome food! It was funny b/c since we were so many there would be a few conversations going on, and when one would end those people would just jump to the next one and then from time to time there was just a huge startling silence, which all ended up laughing at. We all just hung out at Bretts for a while and talked after dinner. The boys started watching football and me Elin an Issy ended up falling asleep all spooned on Claus’ bed until they woke us up at about midnight. It was a really great night!

bits and pieces of Movember

I was really really really sick last week..I had a seriously gross throat infection and fever and pretty much laid in my bed for 6 days and watched all seasons of Californication and the Office. Not one of the best ways to spend my week.

Saturday, November 20
Club Sliver and Shannon’s birthday!! We all went to Shannons to preparty because it was her birthday and we had a blast. We played kings cup for a while and their door frame which had broken off fell down on Julie, which was pretty funny. We were worried we wouldn’t get in because the age was 23, but we all made it in just fine. It was fun because Shannon and Julie and Emily came out with us which they usually don’t! Derek got in a fight with some Persian dudes because they kept grabbing Elin’s butt—so him and Elin left pretty early in the night. Then I lost my friends, but they were getting food at Evergreeen, a restaurant by the school so we walked over to meet them and ate a retarded amount of pizza salad, which I’m obsessed with and will miss so dearly!

Sunday, November 21
I had a really cool, calm, and relaxing day today. Me and Johan basically spent the day together just chilling out. We cooked some food, ate dinner, and just hung out and screwed around pretty much. Then I was about to watch he’s just not that into you and he asked if he could watch it with me (I don’t think he knew it was a chick flick). We also went over to Joels for a bit and just chatted with him and James. It was a good day :)


Monday night Johan insisted on doing Micro together and I actually thought I was going to murder him with a knife. He and I cannot study together—I just started getting so frustrated at him. It wasn’t his fault really, he was just being inquisitive and asking questions but there is definitely a language barrier that was making us want to kill each other. And then more I got frustrated the funnier he thought it was so he just kept being a little shit! God, I’m gonna miss him.

Barcelona & Duncan's visit

First and foremost I apologize for not posting in forever! Turns out I really hate this whole blogging thing. But here's the story!
Well well well Duncan arrived Monday October 25. I met him at the train station with Adrian who I randomly bumped into. Monday there was a pirate party at Oleary’s so we obviously had to get costumes. So we went to the mall and found some decent pirate stuff, went home and ate spaghetti with Annakarin, and then went to Brett’s for the preparty. It was suuper fun and there were lots of people and so we headed out to Olearys and had a blast! Small dance floor, but enough pirates there to make it fun. It went downhill, however, when Isabelle fell on a table and broke it so then everyone decided we had to take her home and that was unfortunately the end of the night :(

So Tuesday I thought I’d go out and show him the town. Now originally we were supposed to go to Barcelona Wednesday-Saturday but he heard from someone in another contry that he just HAD to go to our student pub Akadamien which is on Wednesdays so I suggested we switch out flight to leaving Friday morning instead so we could party at Aka. So anyway, Tuesday we slept in quite late, went to lunch at lingon with annakarin (my favourite favourite restaurant), I showed him the town a bit and then Tuesday we went to the gym with Johan and AK. Johan and Duncan worked out and me and AK did kick box! Then we just went back to mine and watched a movie and hit the hay. So Wednesday I switched my flight over the phone and signed him into the Akadamien. But when we went home to switch his flight the flights were full! So we had to do some serious problem solving so we decided we’d go to Aka and then he’d leave right from the bar to the train station to catch the flight..and we did just that! Chaotic and exhausting, but worth it (I hope)

So Thursday I was to do exactly what Duncan did--leave for the train to Stockholm after having been out! So I forced Johan to to take me to the bus and he was SO mad that I wouldn’t let him just abandon me at the bus. We were literally sprnting and running around looking for the bus and he was screaming out how much he hates me, but I know it’s pure love. So I got on the bus at 1:45 am! Tried to sleep as much as I could but it was quite crammed! Then off the bus and onto another bus to get to the Stockholm airport that I took to Barcelona.

So I get into Barcelona after a loooong trip and 2 days with a very minimal amount of sleep. So I met up with Duncan and Barcelona was SO cool! It was so warm and all along the streets were people doing really weird stuff for money. They would sit in these weird costumes and just sit still ALL day and people would drop money in their hats so we walked around looking at that stuff for a while. Then we went to some humungo church that has taken 150 years to build and it’s STILL not finished. The inefficient and waste of mmoney and human resources made me SO fricken mad that I didn’t even want to look at the church any more because I was so pissed at how stupid the gov’t was being to continue building this church! So then we went to the beach where we found a cool Irish dude who took us around on a little bike thing and showed us the places you can purchase cannabis which are apparently located on the official Barcelona map (we didn’t buy any, obviously). And we got REALLY amazing ice cream at this place on the beach and all along the beach they had these people who would spend like a whole day making this CRAZY INCREDIBLE sand sculptures (for money, of course). Then we went back to the hostel to regroup where we met this crazy Australian who came in talking about all the cocaine he did yesterday and so generously offered to do some cocaine with us, which we politely declined. Then we went into the downtown Barcelona area looking for stuff to do. We ended up going to a flamenco show! So we got a buffet of really traditional Spanish food (I ate mostly kiwi) and unlimited wine and Sangria. Then we went into this quaint, cozy little room, probably only like 50 people and we were right up next to the stage! The dancers wer AMAZING!!! The woman were quite luscious, which I liked! It really added to the culture and feel of the dancing!! The show was just incredible with only a guitar, tambourine, and the female and male singers. So after that it was 1 am and I was POOPED! And had to wake up early the next day to head home (Yes, I was only in Barcelona 24 hours). So the next morning I went to take the bus to the airport but they so politely informed me the bus wouldn’t get me there in time for my flight so I had to pay a cab 200$!!! To take me to the airport! I was pretty bitter after that.
Long story short I got home to Jonkoping and then went straight to Forss for the Halloween preparty! (I was captain underpants). It was fun but i was a bitter girl because of all the stupid money I had spent and how little sleep I had, but then we went to Club Hollywood for a huge Halloween party which was kind of lame, but kind of cool.
So Sunday was a laaazy day. I had tacos with Elin, Brett, and Derek for dinner though which was fun then watched night at the Roxbury with elin and isabelle.
Monday I had school (Micro, which is gonna be hard). But I lost my phone (but then found it without a battery) So joakim (isabelle’s lover) said I could use his phone. So we met up at the Student Hause to make the swap and ending up sitting there and talking for 2 and a half hours!

Me and Johan pretty much hang out every day. He's the best!I feel like we’ve known each other our entire lives. I honestly don’t know what I’m gona do without him, but I really try not to think about it. He and I will be good friends for life, I can tell :)

I LOVE SWEDEN

Exams are finally over! yiippeeeeeeee! I've been studying my buns off for the last couple weeks, so not many fun things have happened :( I mostly hang out with Johan everyday and my roommate Annakarin. I tried cooking again and this time I DIDN'T give myself food poisoning!

Halloween is coming up here and I've finally decided on my costume: Captain Underpants! Today I got my costume (boys boxer briefs and a red cape and tank top)and I put it on when I got home and I've been wearing it for 3 hours now because I feel like this is who I AM. I accidentally answered the door with it on forgetting I was wearing it and thank god it was only Elin.

Johan's girlfriend Anna came here for a few days and I was lucky enough to get to hang out with them on Sunday! We went for lunch at Kaffe Paus (one of my favourite places to eat) and then we came out and realized we missed the bus so we walked to the next bus stop. Then we went back to my place and Anna made this really good swedish cake called KaddaKakka (i think) it's like a moist cake while Johan and I studied. the next week was unfortunately dedicated to studying!

However, Duncan arrives tomorrow and then we leave on Wedensday for Barcelona!! I get back on satuday afternoon and that's when we have the Halloween party and then Mark arrives on Wednesday and we leave for Paris and Rome! And when I get back it's time for SENSATION WHITE!!!!!

These next few weeks are going to be crazy! Today me and Annakarin had a really nice day walking around the mall and going for IKEA Swedish meatballs :) I can never leave this place <3

Friendly Visits

I recently started suuuper duper stressing out about school and realized that I should NOT have spent an entire week only partying, going to the gym, and watching dragons den, because I have royaly screwed myself for exams! However, now that the pressure is on I should be fine.

Last night I experienced something I've never experienced in my life..and it was amazing! I was just laying in my bed thinking about how stressed out I was and missing home quite a bit and all of a sudden (turn away those of you who don't believe in this ghost/spiritual stuff) I felt Geggs hug me. I literally felt my heart fill with this energy or something and to describe the feeling of a "full" heart is next to impossible. I could feel her around me literally hugging me. I just felt her everywhere, and I just knew it was her. I said to her outloud, "Hi Geggs, I know you're here and I can feel you. I miss you everyday and I know that you would be proud of me". I felt her for about another 30 seconds, and then I felt her leave. I felt my body become cold again and actually felt my heart empty of whatever it was that had filled it moments ago. It was as real as the fact that I'm in Sweden right now (..or am i?). That was just what I needed, though. A big, warm hug from Geggs..someone who is truly with me wherever I go, even across the world.

Isabelle's birthday

Well yesterday was Isabelle's birthday. She turned 19 (although I thought she was 19 all along) so me, Elin, Derek, Brett, and Joel went to dinner at this place called "an Italian and a Greek". It was a really quaint, warm place! It was dimly lit and nice music and I don't know what it was about the night but it just seemed like we didn't stop laughing the whole time! Most of us got pizza (which again, is never cut for you here and is super super thin) and I ate the cheese! Which I think I will never do again because I felt really sick the rest of the night. The six of us had a blasst and then Elin drives (a mini cooper) so the 6 of us all squeezed in like it was a clown car (since we all live in Raslatt) and went back to Isabelle's for cake. her mom made this craaazy good cake for us so we just talked around the table for about an hour. It was really really fun. My friends I've made here so far seem like family! It feels like I've known them my whole life--it's amazing how close you can get to people in such a short amount of time.

I shall never cook again

So most recently I've been learning how to cook and moving on from just pasta and sauce in a can. Last Wednesday I decided to make Jennie's recipe of goulash for Johan and I (I thought he could be my guinea pig). So Dad sent me the recipe and I followed it step by step (I had to improvise with some of the foods that they don't quite have here, like no mushroom soup in a can and no tomato paste). I was SO proud of myself because it tasted soooooooo good and thought wow, I really did inherit the cooking gene from dad. Well, it turns out I think I mildly food poisoned both Johan and I. We both woke up in the middle of the night that night with baaaaaad bowel movements and really sore tummys that lasted the entire next day. Needless to say, I won't be trying to cook that again, and idiot me ate the leftovers the next day, but halfway through decided it maybe wasn't such a good idea.

Then Thursday it was Club Caj (which is only every other Thursday) and we had suuuch a fun time!

Oh, also, Dragon's Den has been ruining my life. Well, both ruining it and making it better. I watched this show pretty much 24-7 for a solid week until I ran out of youtube video clips of it. And as much as it distracted me from doing anything else relatively productive, it also enhanced my presenting skills and ability to deal with investor's objections! I discovered this on Monday when we had a "trade show" at school where we had to present the businesses we've created for our project (ours was the student discount for taxis), and I found myself being able to deal with objections and situations I saw on dragon's den! Sooo why do I subject myself to the student life when I could just watch dragon's den and get an education?

So this Friday I went to the movie theatre for the first time! We went with Elin, Isabelle, Brett, Derek, and my new Canadian friend, Adrian (CanadRian ..haha) he's suuper funny! We saw "the other guys" with will ferrell.it was soo funny! The movies are most expensive here (about 15$) but you can get popocorn AND a drink for 7$. The movie theatres are a lot smaller too, but SUPER comfy seats and lots of leg room!

I'm having a blast here and still love it so much! I'm catching up in my classes and our lectures are done this week!! Exams in 2 weeks..it's going so fast!

The Slippers

The last 2 days have been REALLY nice weather! You don't even need a coat! Thursday I met with my friend Veronika (she came to Windsor on exchange..we go for lunch once a week) and after that I was planning on going to the library to study, but it was just SO nice out I couldn't justify couping myself up indoors when I knew this weather was going to be limited! So instead I bumped into a few friends and we just sat on these stairs in the middle of campus and talked for a couple hours. I met this new Canadian kid named Adrian and he's by far the funniest person I've met so far! He and this British guy were wearing huge russian hats on the warmest day yet! Anyway, while I was laying on the stairs I was looking up at the sky, and I thought about how you guys are looking at the same sky and how even across the world the sky looks the same..it made me feel really close to home :)
I also joined a political protest! They advised us against this, but it was peaceful! There was just been an election in Sweden last week and there was a racist party that 6% of hte pop voted for, thus gaining them a seat in the house and the cities have just gone crazy and are super upset at this. This political party wants to keep anyone who isn't a Swede out of Sweden (sounds a lot like Hitler, right). Anyway, we all met in the center of the city and just walked around the city and chanted to show the support for anti-racism. There were about 500 people in Jonkoping, but Goteburg had one with 5000, and Stockholm (the captial) had one with 10,000 people just the day after the election!

After the walk Johan and I decided to make dinner and oh my gosh I am SO proud of myself! I'm finally learning to cook (by force). Me Johan and Lina made potatoes and pork and I didn't even talk with my mouth open because I wanted to soak up the flavour!

Friday (yesterday) I had class early in the morning, but it was a really fun class! We had a mock business transaction and myself adn two others were acting as entrepreners (selling the stupidest business idea ever--a business that improves relationships w/ employees & custoemrs to retain current customers instead of getting new ones) selling our idea to 3 other "venture capitalists". I ended up single handedly convincing the venture capitalists to give us 15 million for 10% of the company. Well, when we started taking up the deals with the rest of the class other people got zero investments, 100,000 for 30%, 1 million for 50%...this led me to confirm that business is my true calling :)

The Slippers:
While I've been here I've really really really been missing my slippers! The ground is cold in my apartment and I hate walking with barefoot or only socks so I usually wear my boots, but my roommates are getting pissed at me because we'll clean the floors and then I'll just muck them up..so I've really really wanted my slippers from home. And yesterday I was walking down the street and in the window I saw the COZIEST pair of slippers! But they were 200 SEK ($30) and I stood there for a while comtemplating whether I was willing to spend that much on slippers. Finally, I justified the price and went in to buy them. When I got to the counter the cashier told me there was a sale and I got 100 SEK off! (15$) so they were only 15$! I swear that has been one of the happiest moments of my trip here!!

I finally found some foods from home! The most I can find is Nutella and Campbell's tomato soup, so last night I cozied up in my new slippers with some campbell's tomato soup and a movie :) Twas a good night!

A month already!?

Well, I haven't written much lately because there hasn't been much to write! I realized early last week that holy crap, I actually still need to get good grades while I'm here! So I've spent A LOT of time studying! We've also chopped in half the amount of nights we go out from 4-5 nights to only 2 nights, which is really great for my wallet, my GPA, and my body!

I forgot to tell you guys about johan's birthday! So it was Johan's birthday a couple weeks ago and at first I just thought me and Joel would take him out for dinner, but on his actualy birthday more and more people kept telling me they wanted to come. So like 2 hours before we were supposed to have dinner I decided to make it a surprise party! So we gathered everyone at O'Learys (this really great, cheap sports bar--and there was a football [soccer] game on!) and Johan came over and I asked him if it'd be ok if just he and I went to dinner and he said yes, but then Joel popped out of the bushes so that was surprise #1! And then I told him about the change of venue, because originally we were going to a nice place to eat, but he was fine with it. So then we walked into O'Learys and saw everyone and he was SO surprise! He had a great night! His meal was free (lucky for me b/c I was going to pay for it) and people were buying him beers all night and he just got to drink beer, hang with all friends, and watch a heck of a football game!

I've been going to the gym a lot here! At least 5 times a week doing different classes-- a lot of yoga! I can't wait to be able to do yoga with an English instructor when I get home because it is SO annoying having to open my eyes every 30 seconds to see what the teacher is doing because I can't understand her!

I really can't get enough of the scenary in this town! It's SO beautiful (when it's not raining). And of course, I lost my umbrella week one! But I love just walking through the city and to the dock overlooking Lake Vattern and to all of the little shops. And I'll be getting visitors soon!! Lesley is coming for a couple days the first weekend in October, my friend Duncan is doing a Eurotour so he's stopping in the last week of October and we've booked a flight to barcelona in that time!, and hopefully Mark can come about the first week of November, where we'll go to Paris and Rome, and I'm hoping my grandma, dad, and jennie will be able to visit as well! It'll be so much fun being the tour guide instead of always having people show me around--now I get to show people my city! :)

I can't believe I've already been here a month! It's gone by SO fast--it's really scary. For a while I thought that maybe I'd want to try and stay for another semester, but I think 4 months away is the perfect amount of time away, or as the Swedes would say "lagom". I'm picking up Swedish pretty quickly and quite well! I'm finally getting down the seemingly IMPOSSIBLE intonation! I miss my family a lot though, but soon enough I'll be home :) I had a dream last night that Sweden got rid of all of its traditional chocolate and instead smartened up and started importing Reese's cups! That's a sign of a girl who misses the deliciousness of home. But they have some AMAZING choclate here--it's dangerous!

Last night was Wednesday, which is night out at the school pub. It was really fun! The thing I love about the clubs here is that people and guys aren't as gross as they are in Windsor. Like whenever you dance with a boy here it's like tango or salsa or some kind of ballroom, even to songs like lady gaga! They all know how to dance and it's very refreshing!

I'm meeting Veronika today for lunch (we have lunch once a week). She's the girl who came to Windsor on exchange and she's from Sweden. It's fun being able to talk about home with someone who knows what I'm talking about. I've also recently discovered that our friend Forss is an AMAZING cook, so I think me and Johan are going to pick up some groceries and bring them to Forss' for Forss to cook them!

I'll try to start writing more often, even if it's boring stuff because I'd like to have this to look back on when I'm home as well :)

Miss you all to smitherines!!!
xoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxo

I really suck at this blogging thing

I know it's been a while since I've updated, but now that school has started it's been super busy!

Well last Friday was my first Sweden "football" (aka soccer) game. Johan and I went to a little pizzeria we found to get pizza and watch the game. Of course, the menu was in Swedish so Johan had to translate and I told him that I only want pepperoni & cheese on my pizza and his mind was just blown--he could not understand it. So we get to the counter and he's like well how many pepperonis do you want? And I was like what do you mean? I can choose? And he pointed to what a pepperoni is in Sweden and it's that long, green hot pepper! It's the little cultural differences like that that make this experience so funny and different. Then we ate our pizza (which isnt NEARLY as good as North American pizza!) and watched the game!

Saturday we went to Gotenburg (pronounced Gothemburg). It's about two hours from Jonkoping and one of the girls, Elin, is from there, so she, Mikaela, Johan, and I drove down there on Saturday. Me and the girls did a little bit of shopping, went for a cute little lunch, met up with the rest of the crew and had dinner. Then Saturday nigght we met up with Johan and his friends and just hung out at his friends' apartment and learned a whole bunch of Swedish :)! Sunday we did a bit more shopping and then headed home. Gotenburg was beautiful, but while I was there I kept thinking of how much I missed Jonkoping. Jonkoping really is where my heart is at!

Sunday we started a tradition that will continue for our remainder of the time here: Family Dinner Sundays. All of us that live in Raslatt [Elin, Isabelle, Brett, Dereck, James, Joel, Johan, and my roommate AnnaKaren] made a big dinner on Sunday and had a family dinner which we'll do every Sunday from now on :)

The beginning of last week (monday and tuesday) I've been taking it really easy. Trying to keep up in my classes and making dinner with Joel, James, and Johan most nights. And of course, Wednesday night was the night out at the school pub Akadamien. So we all hung out at Derek's to preparty before going out and it was really fun! Akadamien is really cool because it's only students and you have to be a student to get in!

Joel and Johan left Thursday to Stockholm to visit their girfriends, so I'll be without my buddies for the weekend :(. Thursday was laundry day! Our laundry room is super scary and looks like a place out of a murder scene, so me and Annakaren made sure to do our laundry together. That literally took ALL DAY. But Thursday night was Taco night!! A bunch of us from Raslatt made a bunch of stuff for tacos and played authentic mexican music like gypsy kings in the background! It was really fun but everyone was in a food coma after eating so much!

Friday we played nightbowling! Kind of like rockinbowl or whatever it's called in Canada. It was a bunc hof us and our fadders (we still hang otu with them all the time) and it was fun even though I hate bowling. There were cool lights and really awesome music!!

Saturday we had an adventure day! I signed up for this trip that said "canoeing and horseback riding and bbq lunch" which was a VERY misleading sign! Especially since we only canoed for like 40 minutes max, and went horseback riding for the same amount of time. Also, I was in the "brave" group for horseback riding thinking we'd be galloping and we "jogged" maybe twice. And the bbq lunch we had to bring ourselves. And then the afternoon was games! Stupid "team building" games you play in grade 3. So I was pretty rattled, but the canoeing was really fun I just wish we did that a loooott mre. Saturday night we went to a place called "Huset" where they played LADY GAGA (upon request of course).

Sunday was another catch up day and I literally sat in my bed all day and did homework! My classes are pretty hard and I'm realizing I really need to get on top of this stuff!! But Sunday night we had another family dinner :) A little smaller this time though. We made stirfry and buns and rice, except no one knew how to make rice so it was more like mashed potatoe/gruel.

Today was SUCH a long day! I had my Macro class from 9-12 then had to meet with my group for our project [oh ya, we're starting a business here! discount cards for students for taxi rides!] and then more class! But i went to my first kick box class tonight :) It was so much fun!! I feel like I'm Rocky after just one class--which reminds me, the other day I went for a run and i was scoping out new paths and all of a sudden the air just smelled like such crap and then i turn the curve and there are like 30 COWS just in a field! And they literally all just stopped and stared at me. I kind of started to get worried cause I was like holy crap, do cows charge? Thankfully, they didnt and just watched me run by with their big fat ugly disgusting faces. But, tonight I just did homework all night :( It's definitely not kick off week any more! I actually have to start doing homework. But tonight I plan on watching stepbrothers which I rented for only $1.50! The guy wouldn't let me just buy it so I told him I'm just going to keep coming back and renewing my rental until he gets fed up and just lets me buy it!

Missing you guys and home lots lately!! <3

Weekend

Well we finally got half a day's rest on Saturday. I went to the mall with my roommate and her friend Maia and we had Ikea meatballs! Oh my goodd they were so amazing! Then Saturday there was a big caps tournament and then everyone went out to the club; it was really fun! We were out on the patio and I randomly saw my roommate (Annakaren) walking by so she joined us and then once the club closed we all went back to one of the fadders' houses and showed each other our music for a few hours (they don't really like Canadian/American music). They mostly listen to really cool techno here.
Sunday I got to play paintball for the first time!! I thought I would hate it because I hate that feeling of being chased and hiding and stuff but it was actually really fun! I got shot a bunch of times though..me and Johan had a pretty serious rivalry going and I'm sad to say he won :( I have bruises all over thanks to that bastard. Everyone kind of just went home Sunday night because its been such an insane week, we all needed a night off.
Monday Emilee and I walked around the city for a bit and checked out the little shops which was really fun!! They have so many cute little cafes and shops here. We got lunch at Waynes Coffee which is an awesome spot overlooking the city, lake, and the canal! I love how relaxed Europeans are. There was a bird flying around inside the cooffee shop and no one even cared. Everyone kept on with what they were doing and they were kind of like oh well, there's nothing we can do about it. I love it! Then We got a city bus tour of the city! There aren't even words to describe how beautiful this town is! We saw a whole bunch of parks and stuff and little forrests with trails in them it was awesome! Then me Emilee, Shannon (cdns) and Julie and Amy (Texans) went for lunch at this really cute little place before our night mission with our group! Our mission was a scavenger hunt so we got a list of like 150 things we had to find! Some were easy like pink cell phone, blue and pink socks, bra, batter, but then others you like had to find people and a priest and a picture of us with a mom and a baby stroller. Emilee and I were really good at finding people so we did that mostly. My favourite was we had to find "Dennis" (we had no idea who that was) and propose to him in front of the judges. So we went into the pub and asked her who he was and the girl told us he had dark slicked black hair and a white t-shirt and were just about to run out into the campus but we were like wait a minute, that guy by the door..he has dark long slicked back hair, and hes wearing a white shirt..so I asked if he was dennis and it was him! Then I proposed to him in front of them (and assured him my proposal was real and I actually wanted him to be my Eurohusband). And in the middle of it we'd get little mini challenges for extra points. Our team did really well, though, and found almost all of our items! Then all the people from Raslatt (where i live) went home and went in our sauna (which i dont really like but i was feeling sick so I thought it would help).
Tuesday I had my first day of classes! I really like them sof ar! The teachers have really good English and are pretty funny actually. I have friends in both of my classes so I'm thankful for that! There was a formal dinner that night for all the JIBS students but I accidentally bought the wrong ticket and bought the one for the health students! So Joel (switzerland) and Johan (Gotenburg) and I went to my house and got some stuff for dinner and made dinner with my roommate while we waited for Emilee to be done class. Then Emilee came and we all played games before going to the bar to meet up with those that had gone to the formal sitting. Then I made good friends with the bar owner because when we got there he hadn't put toilet paper in the bathroom so I had to wait so he gave us all free drinks and free coat check! We had an awesome night!
I'm planning on taking it easy today. We have that dinner but I'm not sure I'll go--I'm not really feeling up to dressing up and that but maybe I'll just go for the dinner. :)

Rando

I can't believe how well everything just works itself out! I lost my phone the other night and yesterday day I was walking back to my apartment and I thought to myself "Jeez, it would be really freakin lucky if I came home and my roommate had found my phone..but htat wouldn't happen". I get home and she says that a bus driver found my phone! It's perfect here, or "lagom"!

Day 5

Day 5
Tonight was hands down best night of my life! IT was funny b/ cin the morning I woke up and was talking with my roommate about the night’s events and we were all supposed to meet at the beach for some activities but I lost my phone so I couldn’t get a hold of anyone in my group so I thought ah, I’ll just go and I’m sure I’ll find htem. So I went and on the bus I saw one of the fadders so I thought I’ll just follow him..but it turns out he wasn’t going to the beach so I asked him and he sent me =in the way to the beach and I was tihking to myself crap, I’m never gonna find my group there will be so many people but on my way I found 2 ppl in my group1 so they called the rest and we met up! And then it started raining so we all just went hom but then we met again for the pool party and my roommate she came with me. It was BY FAR the MOST AMAZING night of my entire life!!! We wne tfor a pre party at Maz’s house (one of the fadders) and hten went to this place where it was a HUGE indoor pool and everyone was in the spectator stands and ther was about a thousand people all chanting and singing waiting to go iN! and FINNALLY they let us in and everyone just jumped in1
The re was an indoor pool and an outdoor pool so we all went outside at first to get drinks and then next to the beer tent there was an outdoor foam party. It was unreal there was so much foam and at one point I oopened my eyes and all I could see was white everywhere It was kind of scary. And they had jumping castles and huge water slides and sumo suits and huuuuuge sockem bopper things outside and then inside was a HUUUGE dance floor but It was in the water! So it went up about to your waist and everyone danced in the water and we all got a free hamburger! And everyone was just splashing and jukping and dancing and singing like 500 inside and 500 oustide! It was just soo incredible and amazing and “lagom” (just perfect).

The Swedes are telling me that they are very impressed with my Swedish and how fast I’m picking it up  I cant even describe how much fun I had tonight! It is just such a different kind of fun than in NA b/c it’s just like no one cares about anything and everyone just wants to have fun1!! Back home I have so many duties and responsibilities but here my own responsibility is to have the time of my life and I am doing just that!! We have a solid group of firneds that include Swedes, Canadians, swiss, belgiams, it’s just such a perfect group!! I will never forget this night!

Day 4

Well, day 4 was nothing short of amazing!!! I woke up yesterday feeling "inta so bra" (not so well--my swedish is getting very good!). We then had a city tour planned and i thought that it would be like a bus tour--but nope, we were walking. It was soo much fun! This city is just absolutely GORGEOUS! The thing I love the most about it is that it's still very much a student town and it's busy and city-like, but it's also so authentic and has history and culture behind each building and road. So we were in our groups and the teams were having different competitions to get points so our first one was a fashion show and 5 of us dressed up in all these goofy looking clothes and strutted our stuff for the judges. Then we continued to walk and there is like a canal kind of thing that runs through the city and you got 100 points for each person that jumped in and 100 extra if you waved your underwear around when you got to the other side. Obviuosly, I jumped in but there were only about ten of us that did and it was SO cold! Luckily, it was a gorgeous day out yesterday and it was sunny and quite warm, but the water literally took my breath away--and i'm not a very good swimmer to begin with. 

After that there was this water fountain with 3 levels so you had to turn around and try to throw a boot in backwards into the highest one which a couple people did--but then we had to climb up and get it! It was actually really dangerous but everyone was ok. By this time it was already 4:30 and we had to meet back at the school at 6:30 with our groups. So I took the bus home (finally bought a bus pass), got changed really quickly, then met my group at the school because we wree going to a pre party at our fadder's house. 

There's a really popular game they play here called caps. So there is one king cup with a mixture of a bunch of different drinks and then you sit in a circle around it and everyone puts their cups all around it in a little circle and you try to throw caps into other people's cups and they have to drink it. We played that foreever and then we went to the toga party which was sooooo much fun!! But, I lost my phone :( So I'm kind of screwed now because I don't know where to meet my group today and I have no phone to ge tin touch with them. But I figure I'll just show up and find them somewhere==if not I'm sure I'll make some new friends. So now we have "happy students at the lake" at lake vattern and I think we play all kinds of games and stuff and then we have the infamous pool party tonight. Apparently there were 1600 tickets sold!! I love this place!!!

Day 3

Oh boyyyy it has been so busy here! Tuesday night we had a party at the school pub. People go out a bit earlier here--we went to the club at about 9 and couldn't even get in! It was funny I was meeting some of my friends at the school but I accidentally took the wrong bus from my apartment so I was on the bus and after a while I was like wait a minute, this doesn't look familiar any more. So I asked the bus driver if we already passed the school and he said that we had a long time ago. So I hopped off and got on the right bus. Then something weird happened. Thy keep telling us here that the Swedes are super shy and the won't talk to you or come up to you , but I was talking on the phone and a Swede (who I later discovered was named Arvid) came on the bus and he heard me speaking English so asked where I was from. Then we ended up talking the whole bus right and he was going to the same place I was so we got off together and he was really cool and outgoing! So maybe their lying about the shyness of the Swedes.

Yesterday we had to go to these boring sessions in the morning and up until I haven't had a "fadder" group. Apparently everyone got put in to them on Monday but I wasn't here yet. So I was with my friend Joel (he's sooo funny! He's from Switzerland) and he said I should just join his group. So I did! And I brought along my two Cdn friends Shannon and Emilee. Jonkoping U has 4 schools in it: Business, Communications, Engineering, and something else that I forget. So during his week each school has a different colour--my school is green--and everyone gets these coveralls that are the colour of your school. So everywhere you look is just studnets in these ridiculous get-ups. And the more parties you attend and fun stuff you do the more badges you get to put on your pants. I just got mine yesterday (finally) so I don't have any badges yet. Then we all took a bus to the stadium for some presntations. They gave us a crash course in Swedish and taught us all kinds of really neat things about the city! Apparently Jonkoping is a very entrepreneurial focus city--business is its background. I knew I belonged here! We are surrounded by three lakes--the one closest to me is Lake Vattern. My Swedish is actually get quite good! It's a very hard language to learn because it's a very liquid language. Everything they say sounds like one word and they skip letters so it's hard to understand but I can now ask where people are from, where things are, my name, and a bunch of other stuff. Actually, yesterday I spoke my first Swedish to a stranger! I asked the man at the store "Furstoar du Engelska" Which means do you understand English. he said yes, so I proceeded in Enlish ahaha! So at the end they had a big thank you to all the fadders. The fadders are like frosh leaders here. It was sooo cool! They just filled hte entire stadium and pretty much everyone inthe stadium danced and chanted and cheered to loud music and lights and smoke to thank them. There were a bunch of fadder girls that took off their shirts lol--but for the Swedes that's noting big.
After that we had to meet our fadder groups back at 6 because we were going to a beach party. So we met, then went to McDonalds which tastes much different here! The fries actually taste like potatoes! So then we all went to a preprty at one of the fadder's apts and then all went to a bar called centrum. It was so cold though and we wre all in shorts! It was SOOOO much fun! Especially b/c it's kickoff week everywhere is just so packed!
I also went for a run yesterday to discover the area and I got lost--of course,but fond my way home. It's PERFECT running weather here! It's full out fall!
Miss you guys at home but I'm have an incredible time

Day 2

Well, day two began a little later than I had hoped. I just bought a cell phone yesterday and had set the alarm to wake me up at 6:30 this morning so I'd be on time for our courses meeting at 8 at the school. But of course, I switched up the am and pm so woke up at 8:30. I didn't really worry about it, though--in fact, I haven't been worrying about anything that hasn't gone perfectly here. I've been very relaxed here because I know that everything will work itself out--besides, all I've got is time! So, today when I got to school and told the woman that I missed my session she assured me it wouldn't be a problem. After 2 and a half hours of waiiting I wanted to smack myself in the face because if I had been on time I would have been out of there by 9:30! Oh well. So then my friends and I went to go get tickets for the pool party this Friday. Apparently it's a huge deal--1600 tickets are being sold and 900 have already been sold! When I was waiting in line I met a bunch of Canadians (2 from Windsor!!) and then they introduced me to some Australians that I am very much looking forward to partying with tonight! We then all took a trip to the liquor store (where liquor is about $5 more expensive for each item than it is in Cda). And people just walk around with open alcohol here--the guy didn't even give me a bag for anything so I felt like a barbarian walking around with it in my hand. Everything here is in Swedish (Duh, right?) but I didn't expect that! I thought they'd at least have English subtitles on everything. Yesterday in the grocery store Sam (from Chicago) and I couldn't decide which carton was milk and which was yogurt because they looked the exact same! Buying groceries is a joke and I guess on half of the stuff I pick up--the only thing I'm always sure about is the fruit! There have been a lot of activities going on at the school (I've missed half of them because I forget even though we have a clear schedule). I don't know how two such organized parents gave birth to SUCH a scatterbrain! I now finally have my internet set up, although having my computer plugged in is sure to start a fire any second (I can smell the burn coming from my adapter). I'm about to go for a run around my little neighbourhood. It's really cute with little trails and stuff around the apartments buildings. People say this is the ghetto, but I think they mean that in the sense that peopl who aren't students in these buildings may not have a lot of money--but I understand because it's expensive to live here! Rent is cheap (only about 380/month and includes everything--even a pool and a gym), but food and transportation is a bit more expensive than in Cda. Tonight there is some event going on at some club--I never really focus on logistics, but I plan on attending with my new Australian friends (and the Canadian ones too!). Missing my friends and family at home big time, but loving this city!

Day 1

Day one was amazing! I love this town sooo much! I arrived at about 12:35 and Veronika Elg was waiting in the airport to pick me up. We then went to the school which has the most incredible scenery I’ve ever seen on any campus! The view from my prospective classrooms is that of a sparkling like and little foliage-covered mountains. The town is a perfect mix of a busy city with deep historical value. Each building has some story behind it, and although I normally reject buildings that are so ornamented, I am fascinated by the infrastructure in this city. So, I had to huge suitcases and no where to stay when I arrived! I went to some meeting that a man told me about for the exchange students where I was then redirected to the accommodations office to find out where I had been placed. I lucked out big time! I live in what’s called Raslatt and it is like its own little community. There are about 10 apartment buildings in the area but not all are filled with students. It’s easy to find groups of children playing on bikes and scooters all around the area. While in the accommodation office I met 3 Canadians! We could all identify each other by our (apparently) distinct accents. It actually turns out that the one girl I met, Shannon, is a member of Golden Key in the Montreal chapter and attended the international conference this summer where some of our executive GK members went to advertise the South Africa Golden Future Project to other Golden Key chapters. She even knew my good friends Jacqueline, Nick, and Gary! Talk about small world. After I got my keys I was dropped off at my apartment. Despite the fact that I was only running on 4 hours of sleep and had lost 6 hours during the flight, I was still determined to scope out the area. So I unpacked my things and then just started roaming around my area. I think found myself on a bus and decided to go get a cell phone and some things for my apartment. Oh ya, I’m rooming with two other girls who are from Sweden—and we each have our own rooms!! On my way home from IKEA and the mall I thought I was so coy because (and I actually thought this to myself) “I could now go anywhere I wanted in Jonkoping because I know what bus to take to get back to my apartment”. Shortly after saying this to myself I realized I was on the wrong bus. I asked the busdriver if this bus was going to Raslatt, and he said “no, the one across the street that’s about to leave is going to Raslatt”. So obviously, I made a run for it. I now know which bus gets me to my apartment. When I got back I started unpacking all of the things I got for my room (bed sheets, comforters, organization bins, groceries). Then I thought that I would try out the converter that Jennie lent me to bring. So I plugged it in, and decided to plug into it the only thing I didn’t really care about---a powerbar. Super smart, because it blew up right away and so did my half of the apartment immediately after my roommate mumbled “what’s the worst that could happen—it blows up?” After a lengthy phone call with the horribly unhelpful electrician, I figured out how to turn on the breaker. I felt so accomplished after that! Until I went to barge into my room, and realized I had locked myself out. Strike 3 Atkins! The Security wouldn’t unlock it because my ID was inside the apt, so they told me to call the police. The police didn’t answer for literally 5 minutes, and when they did answer they told me it would be a half hour wait. When they arrived they informed me that we had to wait for the security guard (the same one who wouldn’t help me in the first place) because he had the key. When he FINALLY came I thanked him (IN Swedish might I add!) and waited for him to be on his way. It was then that he slapped down a bill for 500 SEK (about 70$ CDN) with an almost evil grin on his face. Of course, I tried to protest asking how he could do this to a student—but “Rules are rules”. Rules are bullshit! After this I had a little chat with my roomies and they attempted to teach me how to CORRECTLY speak Swedish (they were mostly unsuccessful since I already forget almost all of what they taught me).



I really do love it here though. I feel happier than I’ve ever been in m y entire life! Even after all of the things that went “wrong” today, I just laughed, because right now all I’ve got is time. Taking the wrong bus allowed me to see the whole city and scope out places I wanted to go! I feel happy here not because I’m away from my life at home, because I love my life at home, but because I truly get a chance to experience who I really am and how to be truly independent in a way one couldn’t even have anticipated. This has been a true test of putting my problem solving skills to work, and so far, I think I’m doing pretty well!