Finally! An Update!

Sorry for the long time between updates, but I've been doing things almost every day since I arrived here. The sun rises around 10am and sets before 1.30pm. There is almost no snow at all, and the weather is relatively warm with temperatures being often positive during the day.

David and I got so many wonderful Christmas presents. A set of matching sheets, a food processer, a blender, a knife set, books, a basket for fika goodies, hair stuff, video game stuff, usb memory sticks, a bathrobe, and masses of other small presents. I'm so spoiled! Christmas was wonderful because it felt so much like Christmas back in the US. Lots of people, good food, presents everywhere, excited children, and lots of sitting around the table talking.

We've been meeting up with David's friends relatively often as well. Lunch, evenings playing games, evenings just talking, and of course, the random meetings in town. We've done a bit of shopping, played some video games, and generally been taking it pretty easy between running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

We've been eating LOTS of Christmas food. We ate it for Christmas Eve, Christmas day, the day after Christmas... and now we are working on the leftovers! I've never seen so much sill in my life!

So far it's been wonderful up here, and I'm looking forward to moving to Skellefteå this summer. It will be nice to have our own place with a bit of privacy though. This is very much like being back in my mom's house! Which is nice for awhile, but a fledged bird shouldn't return to its nest! I miss having my own apartment with my own kitchen sometimes. It's great to visit though and not have to do cooking for a few days! Anyways, we'll be back in Uppsala January 2nd. We'll see if I manage to update again before then. No promises!

In Skellefteå!

Well, we finally made it north. And here there is snow! Today I am just completely exhausted because of all the traveling yesterday. We didn't land until almost midnight. It feels good to be somewhere that is a bit more Christmasy though!

So far only one thing is a bit messed up. I turned my cell phone off for the flight, but now I can't get it back on because I don't know the pin code. I've never used it except when I first got the phone. So later on David and I will go bother the Telia store and see if they can set me up with a pin-code that will work. Otherwise, I'm cellphone less for 2 weeks. At least I won't pay much in calls then?

Long time, no write

It's been busy here! I just now finished my home exam (Hemtenta) and mailed it in to the professor. Tomorrow night, David and I will fly up to Skellefteå. Today we did six loads of laundry while cleaning the apartment and studying and cooking and playing Zelda. Tomorrow we will pack, wrap the last of the presents, and go to Ikea, all before our flight leaves.

I'll try to still update from the far north in this land of cold and ice, but we'll see. Speaking of cold and ice... we were below freezing the entire day today. This is a first in more than a month I believe. Some December in Sweden this is! Where is the snow and ice?

Crunch Time

With Christmas just around the corner, the end of the semester stuff, and everything else, it will be a very busy week here. I have lectures or seminars every day this week. Thursday I have to do a presentation on a paper that I haven't even done the research for yet. I also have the last of my Christmas shopping to do and some Christmas cards to deliver still. David and I need to find some time to return to Ikea and buy a few more things and to replace the defective bookshelf board. I also have a hemtenta this weekend. The 18th David and I fly up to Skellefteå. Busy Busy Busy!

I'm thinking to maybe take a break from drinking too. This last weekend was a bit rough. Two drinking days. Even though I only had three ciders each night, it still seems a bit much. Every weekend it seems there is a new party. Maybe I'll go until New Years without drinking, but I think until Christmas will be good enough.

Oh, and I've made the somewhat adult choice that I'm not going to spend money getting my hair done until I'm earning money again. Not having a job right now means I'm only spending money and not ever getting new money into my bank account. 1000kr just to get my hair done is a bit expensive right now, so I'll wait. Annoying, but since we've been spending money on more fun things right now, getting my hair done isn't going to happen.

Cool Stuff

First thing first, I finally got all the pictures from the apartment online. There are before pictures and after pictures and in between pictures. You can see what the apartment looked like before we went to IKEA as well as what it looks like now.

Also, David and I got up early Friday morning and went and sat outside a toy store to get a Nintendo Wii. They only had 5 and we were 5th in line. We chose a very good place to wait, it was inside a mall, heated, dry, and we had music. The Wii is David's present from his younger brother. A very cool present. We have two games right now, the Wii Sports that the system game with and we bought Wii Play (and an extra numchuck). We have pre-ordered Zelda, but we haven't got that one yet. The game system is so cool! Even Peter plays it and he almost never plays video games with us. The new controls are easy enough that even a small child could handle it.

We are looking forward to Christmas very much. Next week David and I have to do the last of our Christmas shopping. I have a presentation on a paper I haven't started to research yet and a take home exam next weekend. So I'll give David lots of time to play his Wii without me bothering him.

Last night we went out to a nation and danced a lot. It reminded me that my knee isn't quite healed yet from the last bike crash. Tonight we will go to Sara and Anders place for a party I think. This is a busy weekend!

I exist!

Last night I didn't sleep very well. I kept waking up. When I finally got up in order to go to class... we had no running water. Studentstaden, our housing company, had turned it off again. I found enough water in a glass to brush my teeth, but that was it. Lectures at school today were relatively boring too.

But lots of good things happened to me today too. I got a package from my little brother, written in my mom's handwriting. I'm not sure if my brother even knows he sent me a Christmas present. But that is another present under our little Christmas tree. I got an even better piece of mail too. A letter from Skatteverket. I now have a personal number! I can do all sorts of things now that I officially exist. I can get an ICA kort. I can change my bank account over to a real number. I can own my own cell phone. I can tell the university my new real number so that I'm listed correctly. I can get a Swedish ID card (they even sent me the paperwork for this one). I can sign up for SFI (Swedish for immigrants). I can get healthcare! This is just beyond cool. I still have to deal with the immigration authorities a bit, but that should be much easier now that I have a personal number. It is nice to actually exist.

Oh, and I mailed out most of the Christmas cards. I have 4 more still to write, but since they should be done in Swedish, I'm going to make David write them.

Furnished Apartment

The apartment is mostly done now. All the furniture is where it belongs and put together. We still have a fair bit of organizing to do, but the apartment looks much better. I wrote out most of the Christmas cards today too, and did some cleaning. Every time we moved anything in the apartment we found more dust. I swear we need to move things around more often when dusting! I will take the last of the pictures tomorrow morning and get them online hopefully by the end of the week. Then you can see pictures of the newly furnished apartment. It is quite cool.

Ikea list

Here's what we bought at Ikea yesterday. I figured that someone would want a list. The receipt is 68cm long.

A GORM bookshelf (bought in pieces) - 246kr
BONNY Computer Chair - 695kr
Armrests to BONNY Chair - 270kr
BESTå 4 Bookshelves - 1580kr
10 extra shelves - 390kr
INDEX Curtain Rod - 39kr
NOT Floor/reading light - 139kr
PULT light for entryway - 79kr
DOKUMENT thing for holding papers - 89kr
5 Paper bags - 10kr
FOTO light for over the table - 99kr
REGOLIT light for the hallway - 19kr
DIMPA clothes basket - 59kr
FADO bedroom light - 189kr
4 sets of hangers - 36kr
GENIAL candles - 15kr
KULLEN wardrobe - 845kr
FNISS trashcan - 38kr
KASSETT storage boxes - 138kr
AGGER rug for desk - 25kr
NäSTVED rug for bedroom - 149kr
NäCKTEN bathroom rug - 15kr
2 365+ Containers for flour/sugar - 70kr
Lightbulbs - 265kr
LENA curtains - 249kr
REDA whisk - 39kr
REDA noodle strainer - 15kr
CHARM measuring cups - 9kr
CHARM funnels -9kr
LISBET hotmats - 29kr
SNITTA knives - 39kr
LEGITIM cutting boards - 19kr
BYGEL metal basket for bathroom - 19kr
IDEALISK whisk - 9kr
KNOCIS balloon whisk - 39kr
IDEALISK potato masher - 89kr
INDEX curtain enders - 58kr
KOPPLA light connectors - 20kr
365+ Pepper Grinder - 49kr
12 SVEPA glasses - 39kr
FOTHULT sofa - 2495kr

Total - 8744kr

DUKA Chairs - 998kr


So far the only room done is the living room. It still needs some more pictures on the walls, but the room looks quite nice. I've been taking quite a few photos as we build and arrange furniture in our apartment. Pictures will be up in a few days when we are done with the apartment. We will be making another Ikea trip in a week or two though. We need another shelf for the GORM shelf in the living room, another curtain thing for the front door. The curtain rod we bought was too short. We want some pillow for the couch and maybe a few other things that we'll gradually be noticing that we don't have. Some candle holders for near the TV for example.

Ikea Shopping Day

We bought tons of stuff at Ikea today. I'll post the official list tomorrow when I'm not quite so tired. We got almost everything we needed for 8,700 kr. We also spent 1,000 kr at Duka for really quite nice kitchen chairs. There were a few things we needed/wanted that we didn't buy this time, but I'm sure in another week or two we'll have quite a few more things that we realize we are missing. They will deliver the stuff that we couldn't take with us tomorrow.

Oh, and we went to Skatteverket today. Apparently at anytime in the last few months I could have gone there, claimed I was here looking for work, shown them my passport, and gotten a personal number. So I will have my p-nummer in a week or so. And it will let me study Swedish for Immigrants too! A very productive day today.

For now, Sleep!

Day 1 of our Own Apartment!

Jenny gave over the keys yesterday, so now this apartment really seems more like ours. I think for it to really feel nice though... we need to do some cleaning and buy some furniture. Today we are going to clean and take some pictures to show how empty the place is. The only room with much in it is David's room. Soon it will be an office, but we haven't wanted to move the bed into an otherwise completely empty room that echoes quite yet. Jenny's old room has only a desk in it. When David made coffee this morning every noise was so loud because the living room/kitchen area echoes as well! Every noise was louder than it should be because the rooms are so empty. So tomorrow we will go IKEA shopping!

To Buy Tomorrow:
a couch
chairs - from Duka?
wardrobe
bookshelves for books (4)
shelf for living room
light for hallway
light for entry
light for kitchen table
light for bedroom
floor lamp for living room
floor lamp for office
computer chair
And anything else I've forgotten.

The rest can wait a few days while we look at other stores too.

Life is Busy!

Life has been really very busy lately. Last Saturday was David and Jenny's birthday party. It was HUGE! There were 52 people at the party. Keeping in mind that we held the party in the apartment that only has two bedrooms, the living room, a hallway and the kitchen. It was quite crowded. There were balloons, presents, and people everywhere. It was great fun though.

Then we have today, which is Jenny's moving day. She has been packing stuff for the past week so that she wouldn't go too crazy with work today. Jenny moving out means that we have almost no furniture left in the apartment. Once they have completely finished moving, I will take some pictures. At the very least we need to get a couch, some bookshelves, a shelf for the living room, kitchen chairs, a computer chair for me, a wardrobe, some lamps, some kitchen stuff, and some other items as well. We bought a vacuum and a coffee table from Mattias, so that is a few less things to buy. Jenny has given us the kitchen table and her desk. Neither of which are in the best shape, but they will work. We are going to check used places for things like rugs and small items. We spent about a month trying to find a used couch, but everything is too far away or too expensive. Without a car we don't really have a way to move something we buy. By the time we borrow a car, rent a trailer, and pay for gas and time... we might as well just have bought something cheap at Ikea since they deliver.

We will also need to get some rugs, some paintings, and some curtains. Those things aren't very high priority though. We might get those downtown so that they aren't quite so obviously Ikea items. Thursday we will have our Ikea trip. On Wednesday we might go see what is available downtown first. If we have time. David has a large paper due this week, and I have a seminar and a paper topic due. Saturday we will be going to a Julgask at a nation. That is a fancy Christmas dinner filled with tradition. The food isn't great, but the entertainment makes it worth the money. Plus David and I don't get to go out as a couple that often. We're both so busy!

So in the space of 10 days we have had Thanksgiving, a BIG birthday party, cleaned the apartment three times (before the party, after the party, and after Jenny moves out), have had to plan out furniture to buy, have to buy furniture, assemble it, go to a Julgask, help Jenny move, go to the immigration office, visit the tax office, get the apartment moved into David's name, visit the people in charge of social payments, and do the usual school work and classes. We need to add like 10 hours of time to each day!

Thanksgiving

Our little thanksgiving celebration went amazingly well last night. We ate quite late since it took forever to get everything made. We made almost everything from scratch. We made a pecan pie for dessert, although we bought the vanilla sauce to have on top. The leftover pie crust I had David roll out and I sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and baked into nice treats. We also made some rolls from one of my mom's recipes. I learned something with those though... I should not put egg on top of them, because the color ends up very weird. Instead, in the future, I should use butter. We had some extra dough leftover so we made some small little balls and baked those. We ate those before dinner too. They turned out really well though. Both David and Peter were impressed. I know I could have bought the rolls from ICA 5 for 10 kr, but making them from scratch was more fun. Peter made mashed potatoes from actual potatoes. They had lots of cream and garlic in them and were very good. And we baked two turkey breasts in the oven. David said it was the first time he ever had turkey besides in sandwiches on airplanes. I think everyone was happy with how everything turned out.

Today I might see if I can buy tickets to a nice dinner next weekend. This weekend is David's birthday party. He and Jenny drove to Systembologet and are going to the grocery store to buy stuff for the party as well.

The immigration office (migrationsverket) ended up being quite boring. Basically they were confused and just had us in to explain our options. It wasn't the interview we expected it to be. Instead they told us to go talk to the tax office (skatteverket) and the place that deals with health issues (forensingskassen?). After we figure out what they think of me, we're supposed to contact our lady at the immigration office and decide on how I wish to apply. The original method of a relationship is the most difficult and most complicated, but if that is the only way to get health insurance, we'll go for that one. The lady seemed to think I should apply as a student or someone who is looking for work. She was really nice, but I got the impression that she didn't know that much more about the situation than we do! It was all quite confusing, and in Swedish!

Swedes are officially strange! (not like that is a new thought though.)

Preparations for Thanksgiving

I've decided to do a small dinner for thanksgiving. I think I would be sad if I didn't do something. So I managed to track down some turkey breasts. I've also managed to find some pecans. Pecans are very expensive here. The cheapest I've managed to find them is 180 kr per kilo. I bought a kilo of them anyways. I've decided that this holiday deserves something nice. I'll want something nice after dealing with migrationverket on Thursday anyways. I've asked my mom for her recipe for rolls and how the heck to make mashed potatoes from scratch. I'll probably make some vegetables to go with dinner as well. Now I wonder if I can do dinner at the proper time (1 or 2 in the afternoon) or if I'll have to wait until 5 or 6 when people are off of work. We'll see!

I plan to try and mail my package with Christmas presents tomorrow. The only one I don't have a present for is my brother. Not a clue what to get him. Trying to get presents for around 17 people into a blue shipping box and weigh under 5 kilograms total is quite a lot of work! Especially working on a student budget. I think I've done pretty well though. I was originally planning to mail the box today, but I haven't finished wrapping everything yet.

Tonight, we will have a chicken casserole for dinner. Chicken, pasta, cheese, cream sauce, spices, celery, and maybe some freezer veggies. I'm trying to empty out the freezer some, but every time I take something out, I buy something new to put in. The fridge works the same way!

migrationverket

David called the lady at the migration office who is handling my case today. She knew who he was and who I was. That is a good sign. She also scheduled our interview for next Thursday. Then we will have to go down to the office and convince them that we really are in a serious relationship. I really hope all will go well! It should go well!

David and I are probably going to go to IKEA tomorrow and look at stuff so we have a better idea with what we are looking for on Blocket (an internet website for buying stuff locally).

David and I also need to go visit Skatteverket next week and perhaps go in to Stockholm to see about getting some stuff I want for Thanksgiving.

Another Bike Fall

I managed to fall from my bike again today. Just crossing the road where all the bikes have to cross... I slid most of the way across the road. While I was still on the ground feeling quite confused, another biker did the same thing and landed next to me. As I was starting to get back on my bike, a third biker crashed. EVERYTHING was very slippery this morning because it rained during the night but froze as well. Everything just looked to be a bit wet, but it was icy.

I took the bus back from town because my knee hurts to bend it too much. You can already see the nice pretty bruise on my knee.

In other news, I'm thinking to try and take my laptop to school more often. It is useful to have. Be even better if I had internet in class, but then I don't think I would listen at all.

Wireless

As of today, I am now wireless! David and I bought a wireless router for the computer today. And we bought a wireless card for my laptop. Jenny also wireless now because she has a new laptop. So soon there will be many less wires running through the apartment.

Today I also did some of my Christmas shopping for my family. It takes longer when things must be mailed to the states, so I will have my presents mailed by the end of this week I think. It is hard to find nice presents for many people that don't cost much, are cool, and don't weigh much. I think I'm doing ok though.

Photos

I've uploaded a lot of photos to the website. Or well, I'm in the process of uploading them. It's been an hour and I'm only about halfway done. All of David's China photos will be up, the Halloween photos, and the photos of snow from our short lived snowstorm in Uppsala.

Last night David and Peter carved pumpkins while I took photos. It was nice to just relax and talk with such good friends. We also met for lunch today between my lectures just to relax a bit.

Besides that, there hasn't been much going on around here. I've been studying whenever the internet feels like working and going to lectures. David has been taking it easy and recovering from his trip.

The only other thing of interest going on right now is the fact that I feel like such a boring adult! Trying to figure out about things I want for Christmas... it is all boring stuff! Furniture, a new router, a grillpan, money for things like getting my hair done. BORING! And yet I can't really think of anything else I need right now. It's a sign you're growing up, when your list is more about things you need and less about things that you want. I remember the years of going through the toy catalogs and dreaming about all the brightly colored toys! Now I look through the IKEA catalog and dream about a new bookshelf or chairs that don't wobble! Life changes sometimes I guess.

David is back from China!

David is home again from China. It's quite nice to have people living in the apartment again. Although I must admit, I was starting to get used to the quiet again! Now I only get two pillows and one blanket at night too. And I shouldn't leave a mess everywhere since others live here too. Oh well, a bit of organization shouldn't kill me.

Today David and I bought our tickets home to his parents' place for Christmas. We will leave December 18th and come home again January 2nd I think. Now I just need to get Christmas presents for everyone. I need to send out Christmas cards soon too.

I've been studying like crazy lately. This course is much more effort than my last one. Although I did get a VG (Very Good, highest grade in the Swedish system... it doesn't actually say very good, but it translates nicely that way). I have a seminar tomorrow and I want to be prepared for it by at least having read through most of the required readings from the last three lectures.

David and I mad a yummy Potatis Gratang for dinner tonight. We made an extra one so that we would have leftovers too. That way I don't have to make lunch tomorrow and can study a bit instead. Peter will come over in the evening to carve pumpkins again I think. And maybe we will eat some chips and just relax and hear more about China.

The Halloween Party

Last night I finally had my Halloween party. It ended up being a lot of fun, despite getting off to a rough start. Everyone showed up late. I was getting phone call after phone call about people having problems with the bus, or the pumpkin, or worrying about the ice, etc. Everything worked out though.

We sat around, talked lots, carved pumpkins, etc. The pumpkin carving ended up being quite a bit of fun. I was the only one who had ever carved a pumpkin before. Swedish pumpkins are NOT very good quality. Some of them started to go bad even before we could carve them! And my pumpkin had started to get green sprouts inside it. ICK! It still looked nice for one night with a candle inside though.

The annoying thing about parties is how much of a mess they leave. Took me about 2 or 3 hours this morning, WITH Aile's and Oscar's help to get the apartment looking respectable enough to eat breakfast in. I'm still not done cleaning either. I need to put some more things away, scrub down the tables, vacuum, take recyclables to the store, and mop. I needed a break though.

I have a seminar tomorrow that I am not quite ready for yet. I still have quite a bit of reading to do and I need to write another half page on my seminar assignment. That's all due tomorrow at noon though, so I have awhile left. Helena brought me the book that has the one chapter in it that I don't have a photo copy of. So that means I don't need to go to the library tomorrow morning before class.

Oh, and we ended up in a discussion about Nintendo DS last night... discovered that I think two others in the group have Animal Crossing for their DS. Wow, my friends are all just as geeky as I am! Sometimes that is a cool observation!

Studying

I spent most of today studying. I should have gotten a lot more done than I did. I didn't get much cleaning done either today. The Jello for tomorrow is made though.

Tomorrow I need to do a lot of cleaning. I want things to look really very nice before everyone shows up. So vacuum, dust, wipe off surfaces, pick up, and maybe do some spot cleaning in the bathroom. I also need to set things up for pumpkin carving and make sure my decorations look nice. I am really looking forward to the party tomorrow. I can't wait!

I need to make a run to the grocery store for chips tomorrow, and maybe pick up some folk-cider, and stuff for breakfast on Sunday. I also need to take a shower and get dressed up in my costume. Weee!

Snow chaos and school

It's been completely crazy here for the last two days. Wednesday I woke up to falling snow, a small layer of snow on the ground, and wind that kept throwing the snow back up into the air and rattling doors. I had to dig my bike out of the snow drift that had built up under the bike shelter in order to bike to school. It was not an easy ride to school due to the wind and the fact that nothing had been plowed. I allowed myself extra time, leaving for school more than half an hour before school started. Others did not do that. Buses were delayed, trains stopped, and just everything was crazy. More than half my class was late. The professor was not amused.

After class ended I went and got photo copies made of the chapters we need to read that aren't available at the library or online. That took forever! It was another hour and a quarter before I even was able to leave town. The bike ride back from town was complete hell though. The wind was making it so that there were snow drifts on the roads and bike paths. In some places I could not even see the bike path. As soon as someone walked or biked past, the wind would fill in the footsteps. It was as though no one had been on the path at all, even though I could see lots of people ahead and behind me. It meant I had to walk my bike a lot since the snow was more than 20 cm deep in places! It is hard to bike through that. It was long after dark before I finally got myself and my bike home.

Peter thankfully came over and brought food so that I had something to eat. I was too tired to even go to the store for food. He even made me a dinnerbox so that I have food tonight as well.

Today it dawned clear and cold. The wind had died down so that they actually plowed the pathways. Biking to school was much easier than yesterday. The one problem today though was the ice. It is everywhere! The temperature today got above freezing so there is this nice layer of ice a few cm thick everywhere. I managed to find a section of it on the way home from school today. I was cycling with a classmate and she slipped, I hit my brakes to dodge her and lost control on the ice. I ended up in a pile of snow. I have a few new bruises and so do her fruits and veggies I had in my basket.

School has been interesting. It is going to be a lot of work. There is lots of reading, writing, seminars, and seminar assignments to do. I am now four lectures behind since we had two lectures yesterday and two today. I am going to have to work really hard tomorrow so that I can enjoy Saturday and Sunday this weekend. There was one disaster though. Since the time when the class schedule was requested the professor changed the class. Originally our last day of class before break was supposed to be December 8th, now it is December 18th. There are about 10 students in my class who bought plane tickets and will be missing two seminars, a presentation, and the homeexam. She's having to work around them now, but it caused lots of panic for awhile. I now don't have any class after Christmas though. Only a paper due January 8th. It will be crazy trying to get all of the reading and writing done for the class. On the first day the professor said that she expected the international students to do well, but the Swedish students needed to understand that she was expecting a lot more out of them than most classes and that Swedish students have had problems in the past.

Another interesting thing about the class... it isn't a masters level. There are people who are doing their first semester of anything related to government and people in my group who have already graduated. The class moves VERY slowly at times. The thing is... the class has no prerequisites and no level. It is not an A, B, C, or D course. It just exists. It will be interesting watching who gets lost and who is bored.

Happy Halloween!

Well, I didn't do much for the holiday today. Instead I cleaned. I did 5 loads of laundry, vacuumed, did the dishes, and did some picking up. I got a few other people who have said they will come to the party on Saturday. So now I know that I'll be there, Peter, Sara, maybe Anders later in the evening, Aylea and her boy Oscar, Håkan and Kattis, and maybe Helena. I've invited a few other people, we'll see if they show up or not. If nothing else it will be a nice party anyways! And it gives me a good excuse to dress up as a black cat.

I did wear my devil horns all day though. It made me happy even if I did get some weird looks.

This evening Sara and Anders came over, played lots of Nintendo while I watched. It was relaxing at least.

Tomorrow at 9am I think I am supposed to start a new class. It will be interesting if it actually happens. For now, I think I will find a nice book and head to bed. I am quite tired since I cleaned so much today.

SNOW

We got our first snow this morning. It only lasted about 5 minutes and didn't stick to the ground. But it did snow. I think this means that fall is officially over and winter has begun. Goes along with the fact that the sun is setting before 4 in the afternoon now.

I tried to take some pictures of the snow falling, but I'm not sure they turned out. Oh well. We'll see later.

And Happy Halloween! Maybe I'll wear a pair of cat ears around town today just because I can. I'm sure it will upset some Swede or another.

Paper... almost... done...

I've spent the entire day working on writing this paper. It is due tomorrow morning. I still have about a half page left to write, but then I'm done. I don't think it is a very good paper, but if I am lucky it will pass. If it doesn't pass, then I'll redo it properly.

I am quite tired today too. Tomorrow I will clean. I don't even have any more clean socks left! It is time to do some laundry.

My mom has asked for my Christmas list by the end of this week. I'll have to get that together too. But hopefully this week should be relatively light in terms of schoolwork. Last week was a lot of fun, but the film festival really took a lot of time. Between that and my paper I had absolutely no free time at all.

The end of the Film Festival

Well, the film festival is over now. I went to the last showing earlier this evening. This means I have about 36 hours until my paper is due. I have a LOT of writing to do still.

I can't really say anything interesting is going on here, because nothing interesting is happening. It's cold outside here. We've had one night of frost and it looks like tonight will be another cold night. It's hard to come up with something interesting to say every day or two when nothing interesting is going on.

The apartment is a complete disaster right now. I've been spending almost all of my time either at the festival, studying, or sleeping. I haven't done laundry in about 2 weeks, I haven't vacuumed for about a week and a half, I haven't even made anything more complicated than noodles or a frozen pizza since last Monday. But Tuesday afternoon I'll be free. My paper will be done and I won't have class until Wednesday. Then I can clean, do laundry, and generally make things look nicer. On Friday I might go in to Stockholm to buy some cans of pumpkin for pumpkin pies. That's only if a friend didn't do it for me already. We'll see what this coming week brings. Hopefully more sleep time!

Film festival - day 5

Today's film festival was quite nice. I saw two sets of short films and two sets of music videos.

I worked on my paper some more. I haven't managed to write anymore, but I've done more research. I picked up some more books from the library today too. We'll see if that helps me out a bit.

Oh! My mom made me a Halloween postcard. It came in the mail today. She quilted it herself. I have it in the window with my pumpkins now.

PUMPKINS!

I bought more pumpkins today. I meant to buy dinner, but instead I only bought pumpkins. So I have 4 new pumpkins. There are now six pumpkins sitting in my window. I have problems now though, there is no more room for pumpkins! I've already removed all of the plants too. I've spent about 100 kr on pumpkins so far. I might buy a few more, but if I do I need to find a bigger grocery store. Perhaps tomorrow I'll have time to make a trip to ICA Maxi. I need to find more pumpkins! I've no idea what I'm going to do with all of the pumpkins that I have, but I want them anyways.

Oh, and I've written three pages on my paper that is due in 5 days. I still have a lot left to go, but at least it is something.

Film Festival - Day 3

Yesterday I got a bunch of research done on my paper and went to another day of the film festival. That was pretty much all I did.

Today I think I will go buy another pumpkin. And I am not sure what is going on with my Halloween party since I think only a few people have said they will come... Peter, Taranika, and maybe Sara. I haven't heard back from anyone else. If so few people come, it will be a very small costume party! But I guess then there will be more JELLO-shots to go around.

Film Festival - Day 2

The films today were actually quite disappointing. Today I only saw 2 showings rather than the four I saw yesterday. I could have gone to more, but I needed to work on my paper. I spent about 2 hours at the library then went home to eat dinner. I didn't get much done, but I guess I've eliminated a lot even if I haven't found much.

Tomorrow my first film showing begins at 19.00. I might go to some earlier ones if I make progress on my paper.

I did get one thing done today... I finished up the dirty dishes from the past few days. AND I bought another pumpkin. They now cost 4.90 kr/kg at ICA. I might go buy yet another one tomorrow. Pumpkins look pretty in the window. The problem is carrying them home from the store! Maybe I'll save one for David to carve when he gets home? If nothing else, uncarved pumpkins last practically forever and they look pretty.

Film festival - Day 1 and HAPPY BDAY DAVID

The first day of the film festival was quite nice. I've got to admit though, sitting on my rear end for 8 hours doesn't make me feel very productive. Some of the films were quite nice, others funny, and others made me want to put the characters out of their misery because they were so bad. I was basically in movies though from 3pm until 11pm. I didn't get dinner in there either, besides a candy bar. And by the time I got home around 11:30 at night, I was too tired to eat. I woke up a bit hungry this morning, but there's no food in the apartment and the store doesn't open until 8 in the morning. So I'm writing this then probably going back to bed. There's no reason for me to have woken up before 9 at the earliest! And I've been awake since 6am!

I might have to skip some of the showings that I have tickets for.... I'm worried that I won't have enough time to get my paper completed. I was supposed to have it almost done by Sunday night, but it didn't happen. Come Sunday night and I didn't even have a subject chosen. I'll work on it a lot in the mornings and between movies and see if I can't get something done though. I have another week until it is due.

Yesterday was David's birthday. Since I couldn't actually give him his present, I sent him an sms with it. He gets to go to either Tallin or Finland on one of those ferries. Finland for sure, unless I can get a good enough deal to go to Tallin.

Pumpkin!

Today I bought a pumpkin! The girl at the cash register didn't know how to ring it up properly, so she asked Peter about it. He gave the per kilo cost, but she gave it to us as an item cost. So I only paid 8.90 kr for my 3.2 kilo pumpkin (that's like a 1.20 USD). Weeee! It's now sitting in the window.

I had a nice dinner tonight, Potatis gratang. However that's spelled. Made enough that I have TWO lunch boxes sitting in the fridge for tomorrow.

I didn't get any school work done today really. I REALLY should have, but I just didn't want to. I read a book instead.

Oh, Sara helped me sort out the bills. Took us three phone calls and about an hour, but we did it. They told us to throw one of the bills away and pay the other one. The bill they said to pay includes two weeks that David has already paid for. They said to just pay it and they'll refund the money. I hope they refund it with interest! Doubt they will though. At least I have everything settled now.

Wasted Day

I did nothing today. Absolutely nothing. I watched some TV, wasted some time on the internet, and played some internet games. I didn't manage to even write a full sentence for my paper. I did create a word file for it though.

Anders came by today to pick up Doom3.

David's mom called yesterday and Peter came over for dinner yesterday.

In other news, Tele2Vision is STUPID! Yesterday the cablebox stopped working. After about 2 hours unplugged then plugging it back in, it started working again. Today I got ANOTHER bill from tele2vision. They're double billing us. They're billing us for analog cable AND digital cable. Both to the wrong addresses, neither of which is the same as the other. I tried to call and fix it, but I had problems understanding which buttons to push when. I sat on hold for 20 minutes then spoke to someone who understood a bit of English. He said that lots of people were having this problem. But he couldn't help me, he would transfer me though. So he did... then I was listening to the menus again. This is after I said I had problems understanding the menus. Anders said Sara will help me tomorrow. Tele2vision will be getting a phone a phone call from a girl who is the friend of the girlfriend of the one who the bill is sent to. Isn't life fun sometimes? That's it for excitement here though.

Bored...

I'm bored. Peter is sick, classmates tend to be busy, no idea what David's friends are up to. I should be writing a paper I think. Or getting ready for Friday's seminar. Or cleaning. Or a million other things that I should be doing that I'm not. Instead I'm complaining about being bored.

Today I went to class for 2 hours, then went and bought festival tickets. After that I wandered around town with a friend for an hour trying to find some government office or another. Turns out it is next to ICA City. The line there was too long, so we went and bought me some markers. Then we decided that we would absolutely NOT go and eat lunch out. Until we had to walk past our favorite restaurant... and saw our friends inside. So I had an all you can eat, Chinese buffe lunch for 60 kr. I shouldn't spend the money, but I wanted to spend some time with my friends. I've spent the rest of the afternoon doing nothing pretty much.

I was talking with the girls and I found out that those I ate lunch with were getting 8,000 kr a month scholarships! No wonder they can afford to eat lunch out every day! I've decided that for this month at least... I should go out with my class when they go out. I will be bored all the time otherwise.

Oh, and my brother has dyed his hair red according to my mom.

Dry Air and Swedish Attempts

Now that the heaters have turned on, the air in the apartment is VERY dry. I went and found the dictionary last night and the word for a humidifier is luftfuktare. The local, I guess you'd call it a general store, has them for about 100 dollars. Clas Ohlson has everything it seems! I'll have to think about it though, it is a lot of money. I just would like my hair not to be sticking straight up all the time. My hair makes funny noises when I brush it because of all the static electricity (statisk elektricitet). My skin is always dry and my throat is sore in the mornings. I don't really like radiators (element). It isn't something that we used in California really. Instead we had central heat (centralvärme) and central air conditioning. The cold and hot air came out of vents in the ceilings or floors. And the heater didn't dry the air out quite so much. The AC dried the air out, but it was in summer when there was so much humidity (fuktig), it didn't matter anyways.

Today's experiment was to try looking up the more uncommon words and figuring out what their Swedish words were. It's good for me to learn more vocabulary and I have a feeling that not everyone who reads this understands English that well. Lots of times I can't find the words I want, so I just use something close. Hopefully it gives some idea of what the word means, even if it isn't the exact meaning. I need the practice in Swedish anyways.

Christmas Already?!?

My mom told me that if I don't plan to come home for Christmas, I have to put a Christmas list together soon so she has time to send things. I don't even have a clue of what I'd want. The usual things of books, lots of books, any topic, in English. Usually I tend to get a lot of money for Christmas and my birthday, but it's so expensive to send money over that it seems like a waste. Otherwise I'd say money for book shelves to put all of those books on! I think I'll be getting the bookshelves I want in November though. David said I could get them. Other things that I'd want would be too difficult for my parents to get to Sweden. Or they just aren't practical to do from that side of the ocean.

Oh, my books by the way, arrived safe and sound. The same can not be said for the boxes the books were in. I had to throw them all away, they were not usable at all. The sides had split, the cardboard was torn, there were whole sections of cardboard ripped off. That's why I put things in boxes and pad the boxes with books I don't care as much about!

I'll have to keep thinking though.

When the boys are away the girls will play

Well, with David in China and Sara's Anders at work... Sara and I had a nice evening to ourselves. We discussed everything that we didn't want to talk about with the boys around. Quite a fun conversation. Over a couple of drinks of course.

Today's school was quite boring though. The lecture was from some law professor that seemed confused that there were no lawyers in the class.

Tomorrow I NEED to clean this apartment. It's starting to stress me out. Means buying more cleaners though. There's no toilet cleaner left, and I want something to take off the spots on the shower walls.

Sara and Anders have offered to help a LOT with my Halloween party. They said they'd do music and help me write up invites so that they look properly Swedish. Anders said he'd keep check for carving pumpkins at IAC Maxi too. IAC Väst (our local grocery store) didn't have any when I went by earlier today. I did manage to mail two letters though.

Anyways, since it is almost 2am, I think I will go read for awhile then sleep. Oh, and David was at a Karoke Bar last night (tonight?). He can send SMS messages for about 2 kr from China. That isn't too expensive. No idea what it costs him to receive them though. He can also check his email every few days. If anyone wants to know what he's up to, feel free to sms me. I'm pretty sure I'm listed on hitta or eniro. Now... SLEEP!

Boring Day

I was originally looking forward to a day of relaxing, but it was boring. I didn't do anything productive all day. I read for awhile, watched some TV, made three meals, played some video games, and took a nap. I didn't clean anything, pick anything up, organize anything, or even study anything.

Yesterday I managed to get all of my new books off of the living room floor. I put lots in the case next to the TV that usually holds glasses. I just rearranged some stuff. I also put some on the TV bench, and on the bookcase that usually holds some other stuff near the kitchen.

My apartment looks like a disaster right now too. Between books everywhere, there are also a couple of dirty dishes in the kitchen, a big pile of boxes near the front door, and the place needs to be vacuumed AGAIN! I could learn to hate the type of flooring here. No matter what you do, it's ALWAYS dusty and dirty.

Days without school are quite boring if I don't have anything planned. Didn't see any friends today. Didn't speak to any classmates. The only talking I've done all day is to someone on the phone. It was an odd conversation because we each spoke different languages. 'hej, ar david hemma?' 'nope, he's in china' 'nar kommar han hem?' 'sometime in mid november.' I have no idea who called, but it was a human I spoke to today. Weeeee...

Tonight I'll put the drinks for tomorrow's night with Sara into the fridge. At least I have something planned. I need to send SMS messages to people about the party in November as well. I also should put the Halloween decorations up. I asked Peter for help yesterday, but he was too tired to do anything but watch TV. Oh well.

Stockholm Visit

Yesterday in Stockholm was quite fun. I was very tired by the time I got home. I even fell asleep on the train. I was asleep before 9.30 last night too. Taranika is doing as well as can be expected considering she's in a city where she doesn't know anyone. I bought a cute little black purse there yesterday too. 100 SEK from one of the street vendors. I'm sure it will fall apart, but since I won't use it that often, no real problems. I just need something besides a large shoulder bag in brown with bright blue flowers for when I got out to nice dinners.

BOOKS!

My books arrived today. So I now have 156 books sitting on the living room floor. Along with 6 mailbags, 8 boxes, and lots of other stuff. I was so happy about books today that I forgot the towels I had in the dryer for 3 hours. When I got back they were still there, no one had removed them.

Dinner at Håkan's place was quite nice, even if I did manage to get lost going there. I ended up somewhere odd, then called, then ended back up in Flosta, called again, and Håkan had to get on his bike and find me. Then when I got back after a really yummy dinner I had problems figuring out where my apartment building was located. If you've ever seen a map of the apartment complex, this makes more sense.

Also coming up this month... the Uppsala Short Film Festival. I think Peter and I will get tickets and one of my classmates might as well. I don't have school that entire week because I'm supposed to be writing a paper. Hopefully I can write in the mornings and go to the films in the evenings. For 300 SEK I can go to as many as I want to the entire week. I went last year to 3 showings and had a wonderful time.

Oh, I also bought some halloween decorations today. Just two garlands, a spider and a pumpkin. I think the party will be on Saturday. I just need to invite more people... and get a pumpkin to carve. Tomorrow I'm going to go visit Taranika in Stockholm. So now, I sleep.

Website Updated!

I've finally managed to update my website a bit. All of the links on jaenelle.net should now work. I've linked my main page to this blog and added a section with information in English about Sweden. I need to figure out how to add a table into the weather page for my vocabulary list, but then it should be done for awhile. I have not added more picture to the photo page because I haven't taken any. Once David gets back he'll hopefully have a bunch of photos I can put online for everyone to see. If anyone thinks of anything else to add to the website, feel free to let me know.

Friday Night's Dinner

The dinner Friday night was really calm and relaxing. No singing at all, and all the talk in English. I'd say a third of those there did not speak Swedish as their first language. The starting food wasn't very good. It was raw salmon... what a perfectly good way to ruin salmon... eating it raw. Salmon should be BBQed over woodchips. The main course was wonderful though. Sliced potatoes, very tender beef, and some green peas. We stayed there until about 1 in the morning. I didn't drink very much at all really. They just served wine with dinner so I drank my half glass of white wine and gave the rest of the alcohol away. I had two welcome drinks and two of the avec things after dinner too.

The funniest thing over dinner last night was when the guy across from Peter left before dessert to go to the lab. After he was gone for around an hour and we didn't think he was coming back, everyone urged me to eat his dessert. So I did, then he showed back up again. I felt VERY guilty.

The plans for today include taking it easy, taking a nap, reading for school, playing X-box, and meeting up with Peter tonight for chips and cheese doodles with some TV time. I might visit the grocery store too. I have no butter, eggs, milk, or even olive oil! The leftover korv strogonoff from yesterday was really very yummy for breakfast this morning though!

Friday's Life

Today I went to class. It was a very interesting lecture about southeast Asia and their types of democracies. The professor argued that democracy was NOT the best thing for many of these countries. After class I went and got a new book from the library. Then I got home and started laundry. I only did one load since there was only one machine open. While doing laundry I cleaned, vacuumed, made lunch, ate lunch, and washed some dishes. I still have dishes to wash before tonight though. I haven't gotten a nap yet and I'm thinking about doing that after posting this. I also made an extra lunchbox of food so that I can eat tonight if I come home hungry. I wanted to be sure that I have enough food and water inside me that the alcohol I'll be drinking tonight won't bother me as much. Swedes sure drink a LOT at social occasions!

Weird Bank Hours

I used to think that the bank hours in the US were restrictive, but they are nothing compared to the hours that Swedish banks keep. I foolishly went to school early this morning thinking that banks must surely be open by 9 so that I could go before class. Nope! NOTHING in town opens before 10. I wonder about those who work, when do they find time to go to the bank. Trying to get anything done during lunch hours is nearly impossible. I went to the bank and waited quite a long time at noon before I was seen. Then they asked to see my ID then told me to go wait in the nice LONG line in the big square to use a bank machine. I now have a working bank card though. And I did my very first internet transaction. I sent David 4,600 SEK. (The money I owed him since he took care of all of my bills until I finally got this internet thing working.)

I came home today thinking to do some productive stuff before dinner tonight. I've decided I need a nap instead. I did get the apartment picked up and the laundry sorted. Tomorrow between school and when I have to be ready for the gasque I'll try to get laundry done. Maybe later today I'll find time to vacuum. The dust NEVER stops! I swear I have to vacuum more often than once a week. This gets silly sometimes. For now, I need a nap if I'm going to be social for any length of time this evening.

Money!

I have money now! Lots and lots of Swedish crowns! (SEK) The transfer came through. I can buy a new tube of toothpaste AND more butter now! Weeee! I spent my money yesterday buying 1.5 kilos of falukorv from Scan. It was onsale for less than 40 SEK. I couldn't resist, even if it was the unhealthy stuff.

Tonight I will meet some friends at a pub for dinner. It will be nice to meet classmates somewhere that isn't a noisy club for once. Many of us consider ourselves a bit too old to be drunk at bars everynight and consider it fun. The student run pubs are the best place in town to get dinner. A nice dinner with a bit of meat costs less than 10 dollars. Probably because the workers earn less than minimum wage, if they get paid at all. But they get all sorts of other bonuses, so it works out.

Anyways, I'm going to try to hit the bank before class. I'll write more later, if I remember.

David is Alive! Alive I say! Alive!

Ok, so I just got an email from him. For your viewing pleasure, I present.... DAVID! Live from China!

Hello, Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe with lots of kids playing world of worldcraft. :-)

We arrived with almost no problems, except some delays and the fact that our driver was at the wrong airport.... After some phonecalls and some help from a Chinese who spoke some English I managed to get a hold of him. After that I got appointed leader of the group. ;-)

There are so many people here and almost no one from the West. We are like moviestars! People look at us all the time, and want to take pictures of us, and sometimes they try to hide the fact that they are taking pictures or filming us. We have also written some autographs!

The food is not as bad as I thought it would be, and I have almost mastered the chopsticks. I have no problems with my health except a headache yesterday morning, probably because I drank too little.

The shopping here is great, and the food is almost free. Yesterday we had breakfast that cost about 1kr and 50 ore. Well it was noodles but they filled me up. :-)

Yesterday we did a lot of sightseeing, and we went out on the west lake paddling small boats. Well, not that small, we had 4-5 people in them. We were the only people from the West out on the lake so we always had other boats around us.

In China its a national holiday right now, so the schools are closed this week. We got a light start to the trip. And I'm not the only one who forgot my name tag. I'll make a new one today.

I'm not sure how often I will have access to internet, but at least now I know where the internet cafe is. The problem is that I think that they have planned lots of stuff for us the following days, but I will try to get here as often I can.

I share room with Patrik. It's a small apartment. It's brand new, some of the price tags are still left on some of the furniture, and on the towels they gave us. :-) We are also known as the beer drinking group now, since we have beer with every meal. And we ordered it at 10 in the morning yesterday! We got Bud Light!

Everybody is really nice to us, but they can't drive. Or well they can drive really well, but they don't care about traffic rules, so we are always looking after each other when we are walking close to streets.

I have no idea how much time I have left here at the internet cafe, so feel free to tell people about my trip on your blog. :-) By the way, did you get my SMS that I sent you? I just checked, it costs about 2,50 kr to send an sms to you from china, at least I think so. So I will probably send you more if you can receive them. But a phone call cost more then 20 kr a minute. :-( But if you really need to get a hold of me try calling me. And try to send me an SMS if you want, I should be able to receive them.

So David is alive and having a wonderful time. Those are both good things to be. I'm glad he's having fun. If he wasn't having a good time and left me here to be miserable while he was miserable in China I would NOT be happy!

Rain Rain Rain

Today is one of those stay in bed and read a nice book days. It's raining outside and before it started to rain it was cloudy. I woke up with a pretty annoying headache this morning. It just got worse and worse until I took some pain killers for it. I went out running for 20 minutes after I woke up this morning, that was nice, but reminded me how out of shape I am.

David's mom called me today. That was nice. We spoke about nothing for about 15 minutes. It was nice to have my Swedish up to the level that I could do that. I ended up with some odd vocabulary bits where I tried to talk around the words that I didn't know, but I think it worked out pretty well. The dirty stuff that falls from the air is also known as dust. Yesterday I figured out that flytande margarin is liquid butter. I've known for a long time what it was because it ends up on the shopping list and stuff, but not what it translated to. I always thought it was just a weird word Swedes used. Then I saw it on the liquid soap thing last night and the little light bulb over my head turned on.

I'm going over to Peter's place for dinner. He's promised me chicken and rice with some sort of sauce. I figure it has got to taste better than my lunch box that I'm supposed to eat for dinner.

I need to go visit Sara later and see if she has a small cute purse for me to take to the sittning on Friday night. Last time I borrowed one from Jenny, but I'd like a black one instead of a green one.

Oh, and I got my bankomat card in the mail. It doesn't do me anygood because I don't have a pin for it yet, I also have no money in my bank account. I got my voting material in the mail today too. So now I need to look through all the paperwork and decide who to vote for. I don't even know who is running for what offices, so I might just be annoying and vote all democrats or all greens or something.

A book read

I finished reading my first book on my thesis topic. I'm doing Human Security. What about it, I'm not quite sure, but I'm studying it anyways. I made a big lunch today too, it was big enough for two lunch boxes. Despite all of this, I still feel like I wasted the day. I haven't spoken to anyone all day either. A bit odd to realize that I literally haven't spoken today. I really need to get out tomorrow. Maybe go by the library and get a new book or do my reading for school. Unless I run into someone I know I still probably won't speak to anyone. I've chatted with several people online, my mom, Jonas, Taranika, and Peter. I think if I sit here everyday in the apartment while David is gone I will go crazy. Tomorrow I REALLY need to get out. If I don't find people soon I will go crazy. I've forgotten how weird it is not to live with anyone. Maybe I should sign up for work again, anything to get out of the apartment this month!

David is gone

David has left for China just 15 minutes ago. It's going to be weird and quiet here for the next 5+ weeks. I'm going to have to study lots to keep myself busy. If I don't manage to get a VG in this class, it will be quite sad.

I think the thing I will miss the most for the next couple of weeks is just doing things together. I will come home each day to an empty apartment, make meals by myself, watch TV by myself, go to bed by myself. I have a feeling I'll be eating a lot more frozen pizzas and such. It just doesn't seem worth cooking much when it's just for myself. I'll have to have Peter and Sara and lots of other people over often so that I don't go crazy.

Anyways, I think I need a nap. Later today I will study and maybe play some X-box games this evening. Peter will be coming by to make Pancakes for dinner tonight so that I don't have to have dinner by myself. He is so nice. :)

People!

On my way home from class earlier this week I was somewhat alone in a usually busy area in my neighborhood. In front of me, on a bench were sitting a pair of boys who didn't appear very Swedish and spoke broken Swedish. I was the only one besides them on the bike path then and all of a sudden they throw a glass bottle against the back of the grocery store on the other side of the bike path. Ugh! Glass everywhere. Why do people do so stupid things? When immigrants behave like that it makes my life much more difficult. I was very tempted to get off of my bike and lecture them, but my common sense won out. People shouldn't trash their own neighborhoods, it's just stupid. There are enough broken bottles around without people adding more on purpose. And it isn't like they sweep the streets and paths as often as they do back in Chico. The glass will likely just stay there for a long time. It'll probably give some people flat tires as well.

LAG

The internet is soooo slow right now. But I suppose that is typical for a Sunday night.

In the news today, not doing much. Mostly I'm sitting in here blogging while David and his friend play some NHL game on the xbox. David is getting ready to leave for China in less than a week and he'll be gone for 5 weeks. EEK! I guess I REALLY need to find myself some friends here ASAP or else I'm in for a VERY depressing month. Somehow I don't think I'd get much studying done if I am depressed. I think I should go get some work done at the nations. I could use the extra cash.

David bought me the cutest little teddy bear last week. It's little and like CUTE and stuff. If I ever get around to it, I should take some more pictures and post them into my album. Maybe I'll take one of my new teddy bear. I haven't really named him yet, but I'm thinking Lille Nalle or something like that.

I still don't have a personal number, a bank account, or much of anything of my own. This makes me nervous since my safety net (aka David) will be taking off for a long time. I'm in a bit of a panic mode thinking of 'what if!' There are so many things that could go wrong and right now when something confuses me or gets messed up, I turn to David. Soon I'll have to figure things out on my own. That's really pretty scary!

Ok, this is really starting to be even more nonsense than usual. I'm going to bed I think. I'm a lot better now, but I still cough quite a bit and I'm tired a lot. Being sick sucks, but I'm back to school again tomorrow.

I hate colds!

Colds just never seem to end! Anyways, I've mostly finished my paper that is due Monday. I just need to write the conclusion and proofread it. It isn't a great paper, heck, it isn't even a good paper, but I wrote it. Anyways, I'm going to babble in Swedish for a minute because I'm tired and actually somewhat willing to for once.

Jag är så trött! Jag har varit forkylled hela vecken! Jag var lycklig att jag inte hade mycket skolan. Jag kan inte stava alls. Idag har jag fått en present av David. En ny mjukdjur! Just nu hatar jag tid. Varfor kan man sä ikväll och menar den här natten men om man sä imorgon det menar inte idag men dagen efter idag? Jag kunde lära mig att hatar svenska... Och det är Davids fel att jag är sjuk. Jag är i den här landet for att vara med han, darfor det ar hans fel att jag ar sjuk! Han tror mig inte. Nu ska jag sova jag tror. Natti natti. ZzZzZzZzZz (host host host host host)

Host host

I ended up with a nasty little cold this weekend. It's starting to develop into a cough again. Why oh why do I always end up sick in Sweden?

Anyways, this weekend was a lot of fun. Friday night my class party was nice. We sat at Snerkis and had a nice dinner and just talked. I've decided that some of my classmates get a bit shallow when drunk, but I guess we all do. Oh, and they forgot to feed some of us dinner. When the other half of the table was getting dessert, we complained and they freaked out and it was generally much fun.

Saturday morning I was a bit tired, but not too bad. We spent the day relaxing then we ate a late lunch around 3. That way we'd have food in our stomachs before the gasque. David looked soooo cute in his fancy jacket and nice shoes. It was good we ate early because the food took forever to get there. And long before food we had worked our way through a couple of drinks. With our 250 SEK dinner tickets we got 2 glasses of white wine, a drink before dinner, a beer/cider, a snaps, a portvin, and an avec. We also got a three course sit down dinner with entertainment. That isn't really a bad deal when you think about it. We also had the option of buying 6 cl snaps for 25 SEK. I did NOT drink all of the alcohol I was given, or even most of it. It was way too much for me, but Swedes seem to drink a lot at parties. Quite cheap, even for a nation. We met several really nice people and sang lots of songs. I think David was glad we went with me. Even if he wasn't a new student or a varmlands member.

Sunday I woke up with a really horrible cold. I spent the day doing nothing. It was nice. On Monday I dragged myself to class and when I got home David made me drink some soup and go to bed. I slept for more than 2 hours before dinner. Today I think I'm going to just take it calm and maybe study a bit for my paper if I start feeling better. Our next 5 page paper isn't due until Monday morning. I think that gives me plenty of time.

Sometime before this weekend I need to figure out how to get a birthday party together for Peter. He's turning 30 and therefore needs a big party!

I'm still alive!

Life here has been a bit crazy, but I'm still alive. Since I last wrote I have taken part in the culture night in town, gotten my new passport, dealt with the internet dying multiple times, and had the cable stop working. I've attended several classes and worked a bunch on a paper. I've read books and studied and played way too much X-Box when I didn't want to do anything else.

Culture night was fun, even if it was overrun by drunk 12-16 year olds. Keeping in mind that the drinking age here is 18 to even buy people's beer with a lower alcohol content. I ran into a bunch of classmates that night. I got to want Tong perform at the center for Chinese Swedish something or other. She danced this really pretty dance. We ate dinner at Norrlands then pretty much aimlessly wandered from one place to another before heading home. I got to spend some time with Helena, which is always a promise for a fun evening.

My passport arrived on Monday and David spent 20 minutes today getting frusterated with migrationsverket before giving up on them ever answering their phones. I need to get ahold of them eventually so I can figure out what paperwork I need to fill out, what things I need, and if I can just mail everything in.

The internet (which usually means our router) seems to be dying a lot lately. Although part of it last week was really due to someone screwing up their router and it shutting down the whole grid in the area. The cable stopped working today because they digitalized Uppsala and we didn't get a new digital box. David figured that one out after 20 minutes on hold with the cable people. They say we'll have a new box in two days and we'll have cable again then.

On Friday night I will be going out with my classmates for a nice dinner. On Saturday night I'll be going with David to a gasque. oy oy oy! It's going to be a rough weekend! But since I won't have anything at all to do over the weekend in terms of school work, I can afford to party a bit. It should make up for the fact that I'm working quite hard this week to get my paper done by Friday.

I'll have to remember to let you people know how this coming weekend goes. I'll try to update more often, internet connection and free time willing.

Sweden is Expensive!

I've been calculating my costs for various bills and expenses during class today. EEK!

2400 - Rent (half of rent)
1500 - Food
200 - Cell phone
200 - Shampoo/toothpaste/etc
275 - Cable/Internet/TV
250 - Apartment phone
100 - Electricity

That's almost 5,000 SEK for just the expected monthly stuff with no play money! Right now the bills should be a bit lower since we're splitting phone/rent/electricity with Jenny as well. But planning for the expected highest costs is what I do best.

I've had a lot of other expenses since I got to Sweden as well.
1000 - New bike
80 - new inner tubes for said bike when tires went flat
760 - new passport
450 - student union fees
941 - for the books I've bought so far... Course literature is expensive!
175 - Cable startup fee
400 - IKEA trip to get places to put my stuff in David's room.

And that doesn't even include food, bus fares, train fares, occasional alcohol money, or much of anything fun. Living sure is expensive even when you mostly just study and try to get important things done! I've gone through 869.76 USD since I've arrived in Sweden. That's 6262 SEK at the rate of 7.2 SEK per USD. That's a LOT Of money to have spent in such a short time! And that doesn't include the money I owe David for rent/phone/cable/etc. He's being nice enough to pay them until I get my bank account working. BAH!

First day of school

Yesterday was my first day of school. It was exciting, but nerve destroying. I had a few nice surprises though. One of the first people I see when I get there is my friend Helena from Estonia. She studied here with me as an exchange student and she came back too. There is another boy in the same situation and perhaps a Swedish girl.

The professor worries me a bit though. Sometimes he is hard to understand and I don't understand his organizational methods at all. So far I have a list of books, no idea when I need them by, what they look like, or anything. I'm having problems finding one of them even online because the published year is different. He says we need the second edition, but I'm not sure if the published year is wrong on his paper, or I just can't find the new edition anywhere. I also don't know much of anything that's going on in the class. We spent like 2 hours yesterday (without a break!) going around in a circle. I feel like everyone in there has more experience in this type of fiend than I do. There are students who have worked long periods of time then came back to study more, those who have traveled a lot, and those who are very serious about their studies. I feel like a butterfly that has flirted around with many topics and hasn't decided on one to be serious about yet. Our professor started lecturing us on how we should start narrowing down what we want to write about now. I have no idea how to do that! Eek!

Last weekend David and I went to a party. Sunday I basically slept the whole day, and whined a lot. David had a bad headache and didn't do much either. The party was Russian theme. We drank vodka, listened to Russian music, and ate Russian snacks (pickles dipped in honey, dipped in sour cream, then eaten after a shot of vodka).

David is leaving for China at the end of this month and will be gone until the 2nd week in November. What am I going to do by myself in this new land for 5 weeks! Jenny will be gone as well. Woe is me! Woe is me! Alone! I think I need to start leaving the apartment more often and making some friends. I think I'll be doing a lot of studying too. I REALLY want to write some very impressive papers and get as perfect of grades as I can. It will be hard since so many of those in my class are very serious students. Good grades might help me get a better job (or a job at all) once I leave university. At this point I'd be even happy to get a PhD spot if I could manage that. I don't like researching, but it would be a job that paid money. Those spots are nearly impossible to get though from what I understand.

David and I also went to Stockholm last Thursday and turned my paperwork in at the Irish Embassy. They say it should only take 2 weeks to get a new passport mailed to me. Finding the Irish Embassy was somewhat difficult. It's quite a ways from the center of town to begin with. It's on a residential street. In a residential building. On the fourth floor. Inside an apartment. No flag, nothing. You really only know it's there if you have the address already. The only sign that it was located in the embassy was the small name sign, like the other apartments, but said 'Irish Embassy.' But in two weeks David and I can travel to the immigration office and try and get me a personal number so that I can exist again.

Tonight David and I are going to try to make his mom's spaghetti sauce. We got the recipe from her last night. We'll see if it turns out better than when I've tried to make it in the past. Wish us luck!

New Toys!

Today I got a new cell phone, David got a cable box to play with, and Jenny got a new house phone. We all had new things to play with! We also finally managed to track down a priest for the final signature needed for my passport. Tomorrow we are going to Stockholm to visit the Irish Embassy. I'm hoping that I have all of the paperwork in order.

School starts Monday. I can't believe it's almost the end of summer already. We've been running around like Chickens with their heads cut off for the last couple of weeks. If it wasn't buying something, it was looking for something, or visiting someone for a signature, or trying to organize the apartment. Speaking of organizing, we got a compliment the other day from Peter. He said that the room looked the same as it did when David lived here despite adding all of my stuff to an already very full room. So our organizing did pay off.

Yesterday we painted and then baked some cookies. It was only David, Peter, and me since everyone else decided that they had better things to do. We still had fun making then painting flowers, stars, and feet. David made several red stars. Something about a political statement. Unfortunately with this latest round of baking we've completely filled up our portion of the freezer. I think we have like 2/3rds of this VERY small freezer. We probably should only take half though since we do share a room even if we do pay 2/3rds of the rent or something. If we use much more than half it doesn't give Jenny any room to store anything! And two people who are sharing shopping shouldn't need any extra room! It isn't like we need to store twice as much meat as before! If we store much more we'll be even less able to find things!

I hope I get my passport soon. I want to go get a Personal Number, start working, get a bank account, etc. I really want a bank account so that I can pay my own bills. Right now David is paying them and keeping track of how much I owe him. I hate owing people money, makes me feel like a free riding lazy person. Oh well. I'm doing the best that I can with my available resources.

I'll try and remember to update more often. Right now I've been busy constantly and when I'm not busy, I'm busy resting and relaxing! Those are important too!

Unknown Title

Thinking of a blog title was too much work this morning. Today we don't have a lot of plans. David is doing some of his own laundry. We might go by Tobbe's moving in party tonight for awhile. We might go visit some friends and get someone's dad to sign my passport papers that require a priest.

Later today, when my parents wake up, I might give them a call. Let them know I'm still alive and everything.

Last night we went with some friends to another of David's friends. We sat there and talked for awhile. It was quite relaxing. He actually like owns his own apartment and has a real job. It's crazy. That weird life is waiting for me out there. In one way, I fear the growing up part. In another way I look forward to the time when I might actually be able to afford to have nice furniture in an apartment that isn't a bit too small. Imagine... furniture that isn't left over from previous student generations! Furniture that isn't made only out of plastic and white plywood. Maybe even an odd piece of furniture that isn't from IKEA! Except that would be worth way too many adult points I'm afraid. Oh well... I guess everyone has to grow up eventually?

Papers located!

So my mom has found the papers and is going to mail them to me. Next step is to get the police report, the cash, some photos, and go visit the embassy in Stockholm. I think I can just mail things in, but I'd rather not. It took me long enough to find the papers this time. I'll start on this stuff on Monday. Today I don't think either David or I are really feeling very well. David is feeling much worse than I am. I am just feeling a bit slow after our night of drinking and partying. Pub crawls are so much fun. Well... while you're doing them... afterwards they aren't so much fun. Poor poor David!

David managed to get the gears on my bike working a bit better and he fixed the kick stand so that the bike doesn't fall over when you park it. He also put lights on my bike yesterday.

We're supposed to go visit some friends this evening, we'll have to see if David is feeling up to it. I hope so! I think I'll go wake him up again and force some more water into him.

The Crazy Life in Sweden

It's been just crazy here with one thing after another. We've been to IKEA and got about 130 dollars worth of stuff for the apartment. MUCH needed stuff like clothes hangers for me to put things on and boxes under the bed for sweaters. We've cleaned and dusted our room from top to bottom. We've also found a bookcase at IKEA that we want to get. Only problem is getting it back to the apartment.

In passport news, I've heard nothing. I've worked with embassies, airlines, and airports. In order for me to get a new passport, I need my mom to get me some paperwork. She's having problems finding it, which means having to order the papers over again and face more delays. Without the passport I can't get a personal number, without that I basically don't exist. No healthcare, no work, no cell phone, no bank account, no nothing. UGH! Now if I could just get my mom to understand how important this is and to stop quilting for an hour and try to find the paperwork.

Oh well... Hopefully this gets all sorted out so that I don't have to go home in two months in disgrace.

Another day in Sweden

It seems like I am always tired, I guess that is the jet-lag though. I know I'm tired because absolutely anything upsets me, no matter how small.

Anyways, my bags finally arrived yesterday. One of them looks like it was ran over by the plane because so many things inside were broken. I spent more than 5 hours picking bits of glass out of everything. Anything plastic had to be washed, anything out of fabric will be washed tomorrow, and a few things had to just be tossed because I couldn't get the glass bits out. The final result of damage was a destroyed glass pie pan, a dented muffin tin, a broken tic tac toe puzzle game, a broken hairband, a tossed binder, a dip mix with a whole in it (and a bag smelling of spices), a slightly bent out of shape suitcase, a leaky bottle of cough syrup, a shampoo bottle without a lid, and a much abused mandolin. The worst part of all of this was the cleanup. It took me forever to pick up the glass bits. And the glass bits that were stuck in cough syrup... ugh. I've got to admit, my bag has an interesting aroma now... dip mix, cough syrup, and shampoo. Even though the shampoo stayed in the bag, the scent was just lovely. I'm surprised with the cough syrup though, it is still safety sealed and was in a plastic container.

My goals for today include taking a long bath, going for a walk, going to ICA, finish unpacking, and maybe remember to eat. The long bath is because every muscle in my body still hurts from the airplane. My leg muscles hurt especially much, probably due to going from sitting for 11 hours to running to catch a plane, followed by more sitting. If it holds off raining for awhile going for a walk in the sun will help me adjust time zones. I want to buy David some stuff for breakfast from ICA. And maybe something other than cornflakes for myself to eat today. Maybe I'll splurge and buy something with protein in it... like falukorv. Unpacking needs to be done so that I can see the floor of this room. It's a disaster right now. I've managed to trash the entire apartment with my junk. I need to clean it up today.

Well, that should give me enough to do to keep busy. Yesterday I didn't have much to do until the afternoon since I was stuck in the apartment waiting for my bags to arrive.

Day 1 in Sweden!

Well, I finally made it. I'm starting my first full day in Sweden. I'm tired though. Also, my bags have not arrived. And I think I lost my Irish passport in Germany. I am not the most collected girl. If I can't find my passport then the replacement fee is 75€! That's a LOT of money considering the circumstances of how I lost it. I was running in Munich to catch a flight and I handed the lady by the gate my passport and boarding pass. Instead of giving either back she ran down the walk with me opening gates. She handed something over to the next guy in line. I'm not sure if my passport ever left her desk at the gate. But sometime between there and the plane I lost it. So it's likely either at her desk or in that tunnel thing on the way to the airplane. I'm hoping it arrives with my luggage today.

Oh, and I'm going to be soooo bored today! Jenny is gone for the next 8 hours or so and David doesn't arrive until Friday evening. I'm going to try not to sleep during the day. Once my baggage gets delivered, which should be sometime in the next 2 hours, I'll go for a walk somewhere. At the very least to ICA Väst. I might walk to ICA Maxi instead to buy some cornflakes. A walk in the sun should help me adjust time zones a bit easier. We'll see though.

For now I might get dressed and go sit outside near the front door. Anything to keep myself from falling asleep. Maybe read outside or something. It's a bit wet out, but the sun is out right now.

1 day to go!

Tomorrow is the last day before my flight! It's the day I'll be doing all the packing and everything. EEK! Today I went shopping with my mom. I bought lots of stuff. I bought two new pairs of pants, lots of new underwear (time to trash the stuff with holes!), a new swimsuit, and lots of other little things. The new pairs of pants are so nice and soft. They aren't jeans like I usually buy, but instead they are corduroy. My mom was trying them on and was saying such nice things about them, that I went and found the smallest size and tried them on. I loved how they felt. So I bought two pairs. They were seriously on sale so each pair was a mere 15 dollars. Maybe I can wear them around the house instead of PJ pants all the time. That way I embarrass fewer people. Tomorrow I get to spend lots of time doing laundry. That way I can avoid packing as much in the way of dirty clothes as possible.

Loki is doing pretty well. He mostly hides in a box that my dad set up for him. He comes out for food, water, and litterbox. Other than that he just stays hidden. I think it might be instinct to hide and stay quiet when you hurt. Easier to avoid becoming food that way.

My mom ordered Chinese food today. And my Uncle Dave and his family all came over. It was nice to say good bye to everyone.

It's crazy when I think of everything that I have left to do. Most of the things I couldn't do ahead of time either. Packing has to be done the last day, as does laundry if I want to avoid packing dirty clothes. My new contacts don't arrive until tomorrow either. I also have to make a quick run to the bank and the grocery store.

My thoughts are so disorganized. Maybe I'll go talk to my mom for awhile and write a list. I like lists. I should add updating my other lists to my list of things to do. I need mental help don't I?

3 days!

Just 3 days until the big move now. I have my flight nicely changed. I'm still nervous!

The cat should come home today. He was supposed to come home yesterday, but the he had a fever 1.5 degrees F over normal, so the vet offered to keep him overnight again for free. My mom wants to trade a cat quilt to get 100 dollars off of the vet bill. I hope she can do it. When we do get him home we have to keep Loki from running, jumping, climbing, or going up stairs for at least 2 months. My only idea is to crate him when we aren't home. This surgery at like 1,000 USD is way too expensive to have go wrong. If something happens, he'll lose that leg.

Today I have the choice of wandering the county fair in the heat, or taking it a bit easier and working on packing and organizing. I'm leaning towards the second idea because I'm a bit tired and nervous. Tomorrow I'm going to spend the day mall shopping with my mom. So can't pack then. That leaves me with Monday to run errands and pack. That's a lot of things to do in one day. We'll see. I could always do a half day at the fair if I want.

Flight Changed

I called Studentuniverse this morning. After about 20 minutes on the phone, mostly listening to music, they got everything straightened out for me. They moved me to the flight I wanted. They had to call United to see if they could do it for free, and they could. But if I went for the lowest price ticket then it wouldn't be refundable. If I paid 20 dollars more (the difference between my old ticket and my new ticket) then it would be as refundable as my current one. I paid the extra 20 dollars. With the current situation, I figure it's worth it. I no longer fly through London! As soon as I get my new itinerary, I'll forward it to whoever wants/needs it.

Airline changes?

First thing tomorrow I'm going to call my travel agent. For 75 dollars I should be able to change my ticket. If that doesn't work. For 175 I can cancel completely and book a flight that's actually cheaper. Total cost of canceling and rebooking should be around 50 dollars. Doing that will get me a flight out of the same airport on the same day and land me at the same airport on the same day. In between there I'd go LA then Germany instead of San Fran and London. Avoiding London is worth a hundred or so right now. I don't have a lot of money, but I'd really like to not check my laptop to leave London. I'd end up landing in Sweden about an hour or so later.

I'll give them a call first thing tomorrow. Right now there are 4 student seats left on the flight I would like to switch to. Tomorrow I'll know more. If I do switch the flight will land at 3.25 instead of 2.10.

And 4 days to go. Someone should really explain to the terrorists that they aren't allowed to do bad things. It messes with too many peoples' lives! Hmph!

The 4 legged kitty!

Well, Loki made it through surgery fine today. He has 4 legs and masses of metal wires and pins in him. I don't think he'd make it through a metal detector. We'll probably be bringing him home tomorrow. He's not completely in the clear yet, but I'm keeping my hopes up.

Speaking of metal detectors... anyone have any idea what is and isn't allowed going through London? With all of the recent high alerts there, it is going to be a pain in the neck to get there. I'm hoping the security relaxes big time before then. I've read so many different reports of things to bring and not bring. Ick!

Oh, and I got my hair done today. It's only 3 inches shorter, but it looks much nicer.

Poor poor kitty!

The big news today is that our cat is pretty badly injured. The vet thinks he fell out of a tree. His back leg is broken in two places and he is pretty scraped up and bruised. He'll probably be going in for surgery tomorrow morning. He's just been lying in a box we made up meowing sadly when he moves too much and it hurts. He can't get up and move at all really. He tried to climb out of a smaller box earlier today when he wanted a litter box. He can't use one since he can't stand, but he wanted one anyways. He tipped the thing over and cried. My mom is going to sleep on the couch next to his box to keep an eye on him. Actually... she usually sleeps on the couch sometime during the night when my dad's snoring gets to her. Not a big change.

With the exception of the cat, today has been a pretty relaxing day.

I'm just going to think happy thoughts that the cat will be better soon!

Oh, and 5 days to go.

6 Days... and a new DS game

Well, I didn't get much done today. I helped my mom clean, took a 2 hour nap before lunch, and spent the rest of the day playing my new DS game. Lost in Blue. Way too addictive. It took me a long time to figure out how to even play the game. Oh well! I'm having a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I will help my mom out with the fair. Not sure what else is planned. I'm tired so off to bed! Night nights.

7 days!

Today I got all of the books mailed. It cost me less than I expected at 93 dollars. Expensive, but required for me to feel more at home.

I also got my eyes checked. I have a new pair of contacts that I'm trying out for the next couple of days. They're a newer type, cooler and stuff. They're supposed to let 5 times as much oxygen through so my contacts function more as contacts and less as suction cups. So far the test pair is quite nice. They also cost a bit less than the previous contacts I've been using. They believe those were just a size too small in the curve so that's why they weren't fitting well. The catch? The new contacts don't come in colors. I'll have to settle for my original eye color. Small price to pay for being able to wear my contacts all day.

And it looks like my schedule is just going to be way too busy to fit in driving lessons. It's not like they're likely to do me much good anytime soon anyways. Since I don't have a car to practice driving on in Sweden.

This next week is going to be so busy... but Wednesday next week... I'll be in my new home in Sweden. (My count btw does not include the 15th which is the day I leave... so it's actually 8 or 9 days until I'm in my new home, but still... weeeee!)

Only 8 more days!

Today I weighed and organized more things. Lots more things. Tomorrow I'll mail books. Somehow I need to find time for driving lessons and mall shopping. Life is always so much fun! This next week or so is going to go by both very quickly and very slowly. With the county fair starting on Wednesday, 3 appointments, and lots of other things, I should be very busy. At the same time it's the final countdown (sung of course) and that part seems quite slow.

Even these slow days though do seem to go by quite quickly.

9 days!

Today's big progress is getting all of my books boxed up. I have 9 boxes of books totaling 99 pounds. That isn't too bad. If I ship them all, it will cost me around 100 dollars. I'm seriously considering it. With my luck they'll arrive in like 4 months. By then I should be feeling a bit homesick and will appreciate getting books. Originally I was planning on only shipping a couple of boxes of books, but after talking with my mom, I think I might ship them all. I can always put them into some sort of storage if there is no space. I just think they'll make me feel more at home in Sweden.

My dad's worry is that they'll be difficult to ship back if I ever want to move back to the states. That is true, but I can always buy them again or just pay the extra to ship them over. I think they'll be important to have. That's one of the things I miss the most while traveling, my books!

Oh, and I spent like 60 dollars today on makeup. I threw out everything that was old, separating, or ugly and bought new stuff. I think this was much needed. Some of my makeup was from highschool! And while I liked the colors then, and still do, I don't wear them. The oils probably aren't great to put on my skin anymore either. So I am now the proud owner of new foundation, powder, blush, concealer, mascara, and eyeliner. I'd like to get some makeup remover too. I use waterproof stuff near my eyes so that it won't mess with my contacts, but it also requires a special remover if I don't want to wear it for the week following application.

Tomorrow I have no plans at all, but Monday I will hopefully mail my books, get new contacts, and maybe go visit Bill to get driving lessons.

Exhausted, but 10 days to go!

I spent 8.5 hours helping my mom at the judging today. It was SOOOO boring. I was completely drained when I got home. Right now all I want to do is sleep for the next week. It's not even 9 yet and I'm ready for bed. *yawn* Thank goodness my eye appointment was moved until Monday!

Now I'm going to read then sleep. Night night. Note to self: Do not let oneself get volunteered for things again. Oh, and my mom won three ribbons on her four quilts. A first, a second, and a third. Not too bad considering it's only her third year quilting.

11 days to go!

I'm not actually sure what I'm planning on writing right now. I just wanted to boast that I am down to 11 days according to my fancy date calculator. Isn't it pretty nifty? Anyways, I'll be gone most of tomorrow helping my mom with her quilt judging. After that I expect to go pretty much straight to an eye examination. Hopefully I can get better contacts that irritate my eyes less. We'll see.

I hope everyone is having a nice day. Anyone have any 'last minute' advice on things to do before I make the big move?

Progress!

My room is vacuumed, I've registered to vote, I took my pants in to get hemmed. I've made progress and it's only a bit past noon. It's good I made so much progress today because tomorrow I've somehow been volunteered to sit at the quilt judging for the county fair for 6 hours taking notes. Oh well. I think that leaves me with more packing type stuff and the bank left to do. I'd still like to go shopping next week and I need to get driving lessons in eventually. Somehow I don't have any spare time, despite not getting anything done. How does that work? Oh well. I'm still getting to spend time with my mom.

Speaking of my mom, she's currently busy making something for my brother to take to his pot-luck at school today. Really he should make something, but he's too lazy. He also rear ended some doctor lady while she was stopped at a stop sign yesterday. Of course it can't possibly be his fault, since he's little mister perfect. Oh well. I'm really trying not to fight with him, no matter how stupid he is. Like I didn't say anything mean to him this morning. I had the vacuum upstairs and he walks by and asked me what it was for. I don't know about the rest of you, but I usually vacuum with a vacuum. I think he was amazed that I'd actually bother to take care of keeping my room clean when no one but me sees it. Anyone want to make him disappear for the next couple of weeks. You could just abduct him back to Berkeley again or something?

A failed day - 12 days left

I didn't get very many things done at all! I did have a nice long conversation with David and Peter, helped my mom with some stuff, took a nice long nap, and got my room almost completely picked up. I also worked on figuring out what to pack. Right now I have all of the boxes of things that I'm not bringing to Sweden in the closet. That's a big step. Tomorrow I'll vacuum. I got a lot of reading done too. Tonight before bed I'm going to try and read a bit more about Swedish grammar. The big move is coming up way too soon for my Swedish level. EEK!

I also ate two big bowls of chocolate ice cream.

Today's To Do List

Here are my plans for today. We'll see at the end of the day if I actually managed to get any of these things done!

1) Register to Vote from Sweden
2) Get two pairs of pants hemmed
3) Go to the bank and argue about checking accounts
4) Vacuum room
5) Work more on what to pack
6) Take at least one nap (This is most important of course!)

I'll try and remember to report in tonight with which of these things I actually accomplished!

13 Days and Counting!

Well, I'm back from Reno! It was a lot of fun. Somehow we got our room for free. Something about visiting often enough. My mom is an excellent video poker player. She started with 5 dollars in the machine, playing for nickels. 2 hours later I woke up from my nap and checked on her. She still had 5 dollars. I played the machine next to her for awhile and when we stopped she was up to 15 dollars. I had 6.25 off of my original 5 dollars. The Casino didn't make a lot of money off of us. Only money they got was for our steak dinner.

I'm really going to get my room organized today. This time I mean it! Maybe after dinner when it cools down?

The Garage Sale

The garage sale was a lot of work. It was a week of collecting stuff from around the house and finding the old boxes, a day of setup, and a day of sitting outside selling things. There will be another day of my mom going through all the boxes when we picked up quickly to prepare things for storage.

We removed about 400 dollars worth of stuff from the garage and house though. That's a LOT of stuff. My mom told me that my share is 100 dollars. Weee!

I have a number of things to do before I make the final move in 2 weeks.
1) Arrange voting for overseas
2) Finish cleaning room and packing things away for storage
3) Make final choices of what to pack/not pack.
4) Study Swedish
5) Finish reading Collapse (maybe)
6) Box up books for shipping (and fill out forms so Mom can ship them later)

Anyways, I'm off to Reno for the day. I'll be back tomorrow. Perfect thing to say after listing off my to do list you know!

The lost Reno news

In all of the other news yesterday, I forgot to mention that on Monday my mom and I are going to Reno. We're going to drop a quilt off in Sparks on Monday morning for quilting then drive to Reno. We're going to stay at Circus Circus in Reno. My dad is much too busy to go with my mom, so I volunteered. My dad works, my mom and I sit in Reno. What a great trade!

A note from the past

Today I got the last of my boxes from my brother's room. I've spent the last half hour or so carefully dusting and repacking the boxes to be sure that they were not damaged during their last time in storage. Samantha is just a wonderful doll. I'm always amazed how much stuff I have for her. I've got skis (complete with little boots), tons of clothes, a brass bed, a desk, a teaset, a large carrying case (made by my mom), a cheerleader outfit, and lots of other stuff. I think the most amazing find in going through all of the boxes and bags though was a letter I wrote to myself when I last packed her away.

"Hi, my name is ..... Today is October 11th, 1998. I am putting my doll and her stuff away for later. This is over 2 years worth of stuff and I hope to one day give it to my daughter or to my granddaughter. (P.S. I am 14)"

I've added to the note now with the new date, why I'm repacking her and a bit about my life at the moment. Almost all of the stuff I own for Samantha was done before American Girls was bought out by Matel (The evil makers of Barbie). Their new dolls are lacking in quality. It took me forever to save up the 100 dollars it took to buy her when I first bought her. After that almost everything was bought by my grandmother or my mom for presents. I'm so spoiled sometimes.

I guess I should finish my dusting and put everything up in the top of my closet. If I need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I'll end up killing myself otherwise!