The Final Days

Our last few days were really really sad :(
Me and Isabelle pulled an awesome prank on Elin b/c she wouldn't have a slumber party with us. We hung her bras from the ceiling, scattered her healthy shakes all over, put decorated fish at her door, and put all her clothes in the fridge--it was really funny.
It was really really hard to say goodbye to everyone :(
Saying goodbye to Joel we were there at the preparty (although meand issy weren't going out) and the three of us were just standing at the door bawling our eyes out. I'm gonna miss that boy so much!
Saying goodbye to Johan was one of the hardest. The night before Blondi had come down and our whole group went to Sliver and it was just the perfect last night out together! But the whole day I was pretty much forcing Johan to be with me every minute. Elin me and Derek drove him to the bus to Goteborg and I was just bawling my eyes out saying good bye :(.
The next day we had to say goodbye to Derek and that evening me issy and AK just chilled in the room with each other until we had to drive Derek. Elin was a mess saying goodbye, naturally. Then it was my turn. And we all crammed into Elin's mini with 2 of my huge bags. It was so sad we were just in the airport crying hysterically. It was like in a movie when I went into security and waved goodbye. I just cried and cried on the plane.
Elin and Issy made everybody these really awesome scrapbooks. And I showed everyone the video I made at our last family dinner where we had all our fadders too.And AK wrote me a really amazing inspiring letter. It felt so surreal taking off and leaving behind the life I had grown so accustomed to. These people have been like my family. They are my family and I'll never forget any of them.
That was truly the most amazing experience of my entire life and I learned so much about myself.

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.