San Jose

Today I drove to San Jose to tell the new students who will be going to Sweden what to expect. 4 hours drive there, 4 hours drive back, only 3 hours there. It was pretty fun. There were lots of scared parents. I don't get it, these are university aged students, why worry? Eventually they'll be out on their own in the real world anyways. Sweden is at least a pretty safe real world.

I realized that two years ago that was me there asking lots of questions and being confused and worried. I'll be going back to Sweden again this fall, but as more of an adult. I'll be living in a real apartment, with my boyfriend, cooking my own meals, taking classes, and paying more of my own bills. I think it's cool how far I've come. I was actually able to give advice and help out. I went from student to teacher when it comes to studying in Sweden. Isn't it interesting how we mature as we move through life?

Oh, and I seem to have quite a few people who check my blog from Sweden. UU is probably my friends. I wonder who swipnet and comhem represent.

Vicious Sparkle Bunnies!

May I recommend the following two links:
608 & 634

Aren't they EVIL? They make me giggle again and again.

Anyways, back to reality. I got an extension on the paper. It was only about halfway done. I had warned the professor earlier this week that I might have problems getting it done. I really did want to get the paper done on time, but with an exam, a quiz, and two other papers that were due this past week... it was a bit crazy.

Tomorrow I will wake up by 6am in order to drive to San Jose. Hopefully I'll make friends with the 15 or so students who will be going to Uppsala next year from the California State University system. I don't want to be out of touch with the exchange students.

David and Peter must be happy. Exchange rate sucks right now (for me that is, good for Swedes). 7.35 SEK per USD. Last time it was that low was almost a year ago. I've decided the exchange rate is allowed to suck until the end of July. Then it is required to suddenly be great for me. 8 SEK per USD would be nice. Be even better if it soared to like 10 or something like it did in the end of 2001-start of 2002.

Ever have a day when everyone compliments you for looking good? (I wore a skirt and heels today.) I wonder how I look every other day if I look 'nice' today. Makes me smile a bit.

Lazy

I had pizza for dinner tonight and garlic bread! On another note: I have a paper due tomorrow morning that I haven't started on. It's now quarter til 8. I decided not to go to the show tonight because I had a headache. I'm also lazy. I think I'll write a blog entry instead of starting my paper. Sleep will be a bit scarce tonight.

Oh, and I finally couldn't take it anymore and asked my roommate what the key in the fridge goes to. His response, the mailbox. I think the key is still in the fridge.

And David and Peter are coming this summer! I have no idea how to fit in everything I want to do or that I think they might want to do. David will be here for a month. 2 weeks after he arrives, Peter arrives. Peter stays for 3 weeks. I'll have some 'alone' time with each of them to torture.

San Francisco - 3 days (Fisherman's wharf area, downtown, and shopping)
Bars in town here.
Go visit my parents (probably David only)
Train museum in Sacramento, and oldtown
Visit Brooke
Vegas
Sit on a beach somewhere
See the redwoods
Lake Tahoe
Drive to Lake Davis
Drive along the coast
Disneyland
Universal Studios
Hollywood (go look at the sign or something)

Some of these things are NOT great things to do in summer. But, paper writing time. Weee?

Tired!

Why is it that so many of my blog titles say, 'Tired!'

I was so tired last night that I put off my shower until this morning. I'm not sure it made me feel any more awake in the shower though!

The gameplan for today:
10:00-10:30 - School, print papers
10:30-11:00 - watch little kids
11:00-11:30 - Go over study guide with group
11:30-12:30 - check study guide with professor, go over 2nd exam
12:30-3:30 - class (should have studied for a quiz and gotten a problem set done)
3:30-4:00 - Meeting with mostly insane professor
4:00-onwards - get food, write paper due Friday

I think I might go get pizza tonight. I'm supposed to be a the theatre at 7:00 tonight to watch this show for extra credit. I might not be able to. I'll try to catch it when it comes out on film. Or maybe I'll watch it on Friday. I hope everyone else has a more relaxing Thursday than I do!

Toy I want!

I want this toy! Along with all the expansion packs. I want, I want! Unfortunately I'm not 6 anymore. And I have this odd feeling that when I'm old enough to have my own kids, I won't have the money to spend on odd toys like that. Good thing for grandparents I guess. Still, I want!

I know, with everything else I should be doing... I suspect drooling over toys designed for small children probably isn't the best use of time. But fun anyways.

(Note that this is the THIRD blog entry I've posted today... I'm avoiding school work.)

Time goes SO slowly!

I have no idea how time can move so slowly when I'm doing so much with every moment. Perhaps because I'm accounting for each and every minute that it seems much longer. I keep having panic moments when I think that it's Thursday and I should be elsewhere or getting a different assignment done.

I spent a mere 2.5 hours at the library today. I had planned to spend longer, but the paper I worked on took less time than imagined. I also got a one page paper written up too. Perhaps tonight I'll start on Friday's paper. I'll go to school an hour early tomorrow morning to work on my study guide for child development and to do some more work on Friday's paper.

But for now... shower then icecream! Somehow studying makes me feel so dirty!

Oops!

I was too tired last night to post you a blog entry. I've now forgotten some of what I was going to write.

I watched a movie in Child development yesterday, it was about the power of suggestion. Given the same task (moving a metal ring around some wire where it would BEEP if you touched it to the wire) half the kids were told it was a knitting task and half were told it was a mechanical task. Equal number of girls and boys in each group. The boys did MUCH worse when told the task was to see if they would be good at knitting. The girls only did a little worse (but still worse) when told it was to see if they were good at mechanical stuff. It was the exact same task, but wow. I found the power of saying what a task is amazing, also the effect it had on girls and boys. No boy really wants to be told he's good at sewing and knitting. He also fully expects that he won't be. A few girls would like to be seen as being good at mechanics, but most expect that they won't be. The kids were about 10-12 years old.

At work I've been given orders to finish up this project I'm working on even faster because they're expecting more work to be coming in. The new projects don't look as difficult though. I've mostly got it down to a format for those. This current project I've been working on for weeks and it still isn't done. I'm trying to create a format for it.

I think I'll live at the library today. Go to class a bit early, study there. After class come home, grab some food and my laptop and go to the library. I'll hang out there for at least 4 hours, maybe more. I'll bring my bike light and a sweater, then I can stay quite late. On the bright side, my professor has moved back the date that my paper for Iran is due. I just have a 5 minute presentation on Monday. But I am scared to even look at my planner, I've got so much going on!

The Mind Melt

Well, I spent more than 7 hours in the library working on the paper that is due tomorrow. I know it's only a rough draft that is due, but I'm still not happy with the paper. On the other hand, I am now really depressed after reading about women in Iran. The paper is about 2 or 3 pages short, but I guess I'll just turn it in anyways.

I rewarded myself by making Chinese food for dinner. Yum! I still have that weird cheese and hamburger dish left over, but I didn't feel like eating that. It's now 9:30 and I'm debating between brushing my teeth and eating some icecream. I probably should go brush my teeth and just go to bed. It's 9:30pm and I have a LONG day tomorrow. This week is going to be a long week too.

A paper due on Monday, another draft due on Thursday, a paper due on Friday, a quiz on Thursday, a test on Friday, and all the typical readings and assignments in between. Next weekend I have to go to SanJose. Besides next week I have another 5 papers due and 4 or 5 tests. I also have a required outside dance activity for ballroom dance. Oh, and I have a major project at work due on Friday. I'll probably be putting in some overtime to get that done. So I might just do a really short lunch tomorrow. Anyone want to take over half of my work right now? Being a full time student and working at this time of year is going to be the end of me!

American Spirit?

Sometimes I read a newsarticle that gives me renewed faith in Americans. This is one of them. People are traveling from all over just to have a vote. I know that most will not be doing this, didn't register absentee, and really couldn't care less, but those who do care, are working on it. THAT is the American spirit. Sometimes I need a reminder that it still exists these days.

On another note... this Three Cheese Hamburger Helper is YUCK. Oh, and the library was only open for 5 hours today, so I stayed at home to study rather than going there. I'll go there tomorrow, come rain or tornados! My paper is due Monday afterall. I think a day in the library with my laptop and lots of books might help me bash out a rough draft. I actually have half of the paper due Monday, more due Thursday, then the final copy due the following Monday. I'm going to try and have it as done as possible by Monday. That way I can work on my Friday paper and on studying for next week's tests.

Good Mood!

I've been in a good mood all day. I think it shows too. After I got home from work I changed out of bike clothes (jeans) and into a nice skirt and top and put on heels. I went and did my grocery shopping and got lots of nice comments. I've worn this same outfit before and been completely ignored. There were also lots of other pretty girls around, but I got the comments. I think my good mood and smile really make a difference. Even my neighbor in the apartment below me who doesn't even say hi to me said that I looked good today. I'm trying to decide if I usually don't look good? ;) I could look nice all the time if I wanted to put the time and energy into it and stopped riding my bike. Too much effort though!

Anyways, class was easy today. We didn't do anything that required too much thinking. I went straight to work after class. So I ended up working 11 until 7. I bought food at the store today then went and got myself a frozen yogurt. Chocolate with chocolate chips! I also got a second plain chocolate one and put it into the freezer. It was buy one get one free. So I'll eat the other one later. Problem with eating icecream before dinner though, is that I won't eat dinner! It ends up being icecream for dinner. I also bought a six pack of smironoffs. They were 7 dollars, but I really wanted them. I've had one open for the last hour and a half and I still haven't even gotten halfway through it. It's nice to be in the US where it's perfectly ok to sit at home and drink one drink by myself without being called an alcoholic. I can drink the things for the taste and it's a treat to myself for being a Friday night. You Swedes can just take your stereotypes and keep them! I'm going to have a nice relaxing night. I deserve it.

The birds are chirping

I had a pretty productive day. I took the morning easy. Talked to the boyfriend for a couple of hours, took a nap, did a load of laundry, changed the sheets on my bed, and generally just relaxed. Left for school around noon, sat through 3 hours of class, then spied on small children for an hour for research purposes. After that I walked to the library and spent 3 hours there doing research for another paper. So I spent about 7 hours at school today. Not a bad day. I'm hoping to do dishes and some more homework before bed tonight.

I'm hoping that my roommate goes away for the weekend. I'd love a chance to just get homework done without hearing loud music all the time. Be nice to be able to relax and just talk it a bit easy. I have two papers and two tests next week. Probably some more stuff too, but finishing my todo list is on my todo list and I haven't gotten that far yet. Isn't life fun sometimes?

I read a book in the library today about women in Iran. It's a pretty recent book too, published in 2002. It looked at the women of Iran from a different perspective, offering both sides of a story. Women have some built in protections, but they are few and if they don't use them, they're in trouble. Like women get to put this thing into their wedding contracts that says at any point in time they may demand a certain (agreed upon amount) of whatever from their husband and he has to pay up. Modern women who think they're being 'bought' and don't put in a large enough amount lose the ability to control their husbands. In exchange for giving up that award they can win the right to keep their kids after a divorce or any number of other things. More girls than boys attend university in Iran too. I learned a LOT of facts that I'll probably be using in my paper that's due on Monday. Weee... I can look forward to a weekend of paper writing... joy?

A kid to an adult

It isn't that one stops wanting to do fun things like cartwheels in deserted hallways or playing on playgrounds, it is that one stops oneself from doing that. Lazy? Lack of energy? Fear of what others will think? I wonder if being an adult really means controlling yourself more.

One of these days, when no one is looking, I'm going to do that cartwheel I've been wanting to do at work. I did one in the hallway during break last Monday. It was fun. I haven't played on a playground in a long time though. Not since I last played with Solveig.

Inside me there still lives a child. I think I let her out to play more often than a lot of people do. Have you let your inner child out recently?

People to pester for jobs

Well, my Aunt has given me a few ideas of large international firms that do consulting work. She says I should look them up when I want to find a job. Apparently they do something similar to what I do currently.

Deloitte - they have offices in lots of places in Sweden

Accenture - Stockholm, Malmo, Gothenburg

I'm hoping that if I get bored next year I can search one of these type of places out, show up at their door and try to get an unpaid internship. Hi, I'll work for free if you train me! Please? I wonder if things like that are done in Sweden. It'll probably hurt me that I'm not a brat with a business degree, but hey! Sometimes you have to have different view points. Someone trained in International Theory has got to be good for something, right?

Stress?

It's always interesting to discover what things stress various people out. Some people are stressed when they're taking tests, others when they study. Some people get stressed by deadlines at work and others get stressed by the thought of meeting someone.

I get stressed by living in a very messy environment. I can handle some mess, but I hate coming home day after day to an apartment that looks worse than my brother's room! I also get stressed at the thought of how much stuff I still need to accomplish before the end of the school year. My last final is exactly a month from today!

My solution to the stress? Sleep and make to do lists. I don't actually clean or study extra to make up for the extra work... instead I get tired and sleep.

I'm weird.

Oh, and my second class for today was cancelled so I spent an hour at the child development lab relaxing in the dark and taking notes. Progress? No idea.

Not really my day

I'm tired. Have tons of school work to do too. What really annoys me though is that I left my Easter ham leftovers out at lunch. They didn't get put back into the fridge until I got home from class. So about 8 hours out of the fridge. Which means they're probably bad. *sigh* I can tell I'm tired because something as silly as this has me near tears. Somehow I think my hormones are all screwed up right now too. And I'm hungry, but too tired/depressed to even go make dinner. I'm thinking about just going to bed and eating some cereal while studying. An early night wouldn't be bad right now.

My roommate mostly cleaned up the apartment... He picked up the beer bottles and took the trash out. I'll have to find time sometime this week to do a proper cleaning job again. I don't think I EVER want a large house. I'd spend all my time cleaning it. My uncle is building a house with 5 bathrooms... All I can think of is all those toilets to scrub each week!

My apartment... not that I recognize it.

Wow, I walk in the door and there are beer bottles and beer cans everywhere. Pizza boxes in the living room and just a general mess. There are people everywhere too. Someone is asleep on the couch, I'm not sure who. There might be one or two others under the blankets on the living room floor. There also seems to be someone asleep in the third room. I can't find my roommate, but he might be one of those under the blankets. I had this place clean last week! ARGH! There's a note on the door asking that the place be cleaned up by 8pm (that gives him 11 hours). We'll see if it happens. I want it spotless. I want things vacuumed again, cleaned, etc. I don't want to deal with mess, I have enough things to worry about.

I had a wonderful Easter though. There were 16 people running around my mom's place. The food was wonderful and I got to bring lots home. If my roommate or any of his hung over friends touch the stuff they're so dead. I even dyed Easter eggs. I'll take pictures of them later. I had to get up early this morning to drive back here.

Life is always so exciting...

Monday Morning?

Well, with the festivities and such not starting until 2 or 3 tomorrow, I've decided to spend Sunday night at my parents' place. I'll head back to Chico on Monday Morning. I made my mom buy eggs so that I could dye them. My mom thinks I'm being silly, but I really wanted to! Maybe I'll take pictures tomorrow of all the cool things going on here. The house is still a disaster from being half painted and the carpets are a mess since we told everyone not to worry since they were supposed to have been replaced weeks ago! The store hasn't even gotten the carpet delivered yet. We're trying to make the house look presentable... it isn't working.

Home sweet home

Made it home, and no internet in my bedroom. This means I'll not likely be posting more entries before Sunday afternoon! Hope everyone has a nice Easter. And yep, I made it home just fine. Nice sunny weather the whole time. It was warm enough I even considered turning on my AC for the drive, but I decided to just tough it out instead.

Ever find life so boring that you can't come up with new titles?

Nothing new is happening here. Life is an endless cycle of school, work, homework, sleeping, eatting, and whining about how much I have to do. I think I'll go to bed soon. *yawn*

I got a bit done today. Wrote reviews for two more of my classmate's papers then uploaded them. I went and spoke to a professor about my exam tomorrow morning. I studied for that exam a bit. I turned in the rough draft of my ECON 355 paper. I picked up my graduation announcements and started addressing the envelopes while VERY bored in class. I also spent half an hour watching kids through the one-way mirror. It's now 10:30 at night and it's been warm enough this afternoon that I still have the windows open.

Tomorrow I'm probably going to give up my lunch hours. If I go straight to work at 11 then I can get my 4.5 hours done by 3:30. Then I'll be able to get home by 5:30 tomorrow night. That would be nice. Otherwise I won't be able to get home until 7:30. My boss won't be working tomorrow, so I figure I can just work whatever hours I want rather than trying to match my schedule to his.

I'm really looking forward to Easter this weekend. I wish I got Monday or Friday off though! I like long weekends. I probably won't have much internet this weekend, but we'll see. If I get to sleep in my old room, I'll have internet. If my mom makes that a guest room then I'll sleep downstairs and let my grandfather have that room. The upstairs room has internet, the downstairs room does not. This weekend is going to put me way behind on schoolwork!

Spellcheck doesn't seem to be working and blogger is slow. If there are any really horrible misspelled words, sorry!

Amazing the things university students think...

"So if a girl is pregnant with one guy and sleeps with another guy, will the baby look like the second guy cause his sperm got on the baby before it was born?"

I kid you not, a girl asked that in class today.

Besides the disbelief that anyone in university could believe that... my next thought was 'what the heck is a pregnant girl doing sleeping around? Shouldn't she be like sticking with one guy or something? I guess I'm old fashioned, but why the heck would you want to bring up a kid into a world where you can't even decide which guy you want the kid to look like?

Oh, another comment from that same class. "You can end up gay if you play on certain sports teams, cause like all the girls who played softball in highschool ended up liking girls after they joined." I think we have some issues with basic thinking in this class.

Spam Messages?

Does anyone know how to either block certain posters from being able to comment on a blog or to make a list of who can comment? I don't want to have to sit here and moderate comments all the time. I like to wake up and see people arguing about something in comments. I'm thinking I might need to make this a 'team blog' and only let those who are members of the 'team' comment on the blog. I'd add pretty much anyone, and just give them no admin privileges. What do you people think? Any ideas besides checking each and every comment before it's posted? I might do that anyways though... would take time for comments to show up, but that way I wouldn't miss any if people comment on previous posts.

EDIT: I added the word verification bit onto it. We'll let this go for a few weeks and see how things play out. Sorry for making you guys type in words.

Why do my professors hate me?

If my professors didn't hate me I wouldn't end up writing reports on the economics of airline deregulation and price discrimination. I wanted to get this paper done today so I could turn it in and get some professor feedback on it, but not going to happen today. Maybe Thursday.

Btw, I recommend the Material World: A global family portrait by Peter Menzel. Cool to see how many items different families own.

WOOHOO!

Dear S.,

You have applied for the Master´s Programme in International Studies at Uppsala University in Sweden which begins in the autumn 2006.

The selection among students is now completed. I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the programme under the condition that you can provide a degree in June or no later than August 15. Please, inform me when I can expect a copy of your diploma and transcript.

I would like you to confirm the place offered in this programme be sending a return e-mail to this e-mail address as soon as possible but no later than April 20.

An Official Letter of Admission will then be sent by ordinary mail. Please include in you message to me a confirmation of your regular postal address. Included with the letter of admission will be more useful information.

Yours sincerely,
Gunnel Wikman

Woohoo! Out of the hundreds of applicants, I was one of the 25 chosen! It's got to be one of the worst written admission letters I've ever heard, but I'm definitely not going to complain as long as it is true. I found out a month in advance too! Weeee! I'm so happy. :)

Back to your regularly scheduled program

Ok, I'll try to post a more normal blog entry today. I managed to get a lot more done today than I did yesterday. I went shopping, took notes on two articles for a paper, read the articles I'm supposed to for tomorrow, wrote a one page paper to turn in, and read half of a book. I'm hoping to finish that book tonight and maybe read some articles for class. I also made a yummy dinner and a box lunch for tomorrow.

It's interesting how your work and school plans can change which days of the week you like. Last semester I loved Mondays, I had the afternoons off and could try and get some homework done. This semester I hate Mondays because I have work for 4 hours and school for 5 hours. Makes for a long day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are nice because I only have 3 hours of class each day and the rest of the time I can spend trying to keep up with my school work.

This Tuesday I'm hoping I can get a rough draft of this economics paper done. I counted and I think I have only 6 more research papers to write this semester. That doesn't count little one or two page assignments that I don't know about yet and it doesn't include papers that I have to correct before the portfolios are due at the end of the semester. I have one paper for each of my economics classes, two papers for my political science class, one paper for my child development class, and one paper for my gender studies class.

On top of the usual papers, I also have finals week coming up in like 5 weeks as well as many quizzes and exams before then. Life will be interesting for the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll be too busy to worry too much about graduate school (yes, I know it isn't graduate school in Sweden, but it's still grad school for me) and my upcoming move. But not too busy that my grades suffer or I get stressed out with work. It's a delicate balance!

Obviously I'm bored today

Well, I was looking at the school medication website and I'm making up a shopping list for next month. They have so many cheap over the counter medicines that I'm thinking about stocking up before going to Sweden.

ACIDOPHILUS CAPS 100 $3.60
BENADRYL CAPS (generic) 24 $1.40
SUDAFED TABS (generic 100 $2.80
SUDAFED 12 HR CAPS(gen) 10 $4.10
NASAL SPRAY (saline) 15ml $1.40
DAYQUIL CAPS 12 $4.10
NYQUIL CAPS 12 $4.10
ZINC GLUCONATE lozenges 100 $4.50 (2 packages, I think Peter wanted some)
ARTIFICIAL TEARS 15ml $1.80
CALAMINE LOTION (generic) 4oz $1.40
IMODIUM A-D 12 $1.70 (2 packages)
ROBITUSSIN(Productive cof) 4 oz $1.40 (2 bottles)
ROBITUSSIN-DM (Dry cof) 4 oz $1.70 (2 bottles)
MENTHOL COUGH DROPS 30 $1.40
ACETAMINOPHEN 325mg(Tylenol) $1.70 (your guess is as good as mine with how many there are)
ASPIRIN 325mg 100 $1.40
IBUPROFEN 200mg(Advil) 100 $3.00
ALEVE 220mg (generic) 24 $3.00 (2 packages)
THERMOMETER (digital) 1 $4.00
TOTAL: 51.20 USD before tax.

But these are the types of things that cost MUCH more if I buy them at the grocery store or the local drug store. Sometimes as much as 4 or 5 times as much. I have a bottle of advil that is the same number and volume as the ones listed. They would have cost me 11.29 USD if I hadn't bought them on sale... rather than the 3 USD the student store will sell them to me as. I just wonder how strangely the student store will look at me if I go in there and drop 50 or 60 dollars on over the counter medicines. I guess if I explain that I'm studying abroad and Sweden has crappy expensive medicines available for over the counter they'll understand.

Swedes have this odd idea that when you're sick you should suffer, Americans try to make you able to work still. Swedes get a cold and they whine for 3 weeks, Americans get a cold and whine for 3 weeks, but still go to work and are mostly functional. I tried getting cough medicine there... all it did was make me cough more. At a certain point staying awake coughing 24/7 for weeks on end is not healthy, I don't care if it's a productive cough. Not to mention the fact that the drug stores are NEVER open when you need medicine. They seem to keep bank hours! The one nearest where I will live is open 9 to 5 on weekdays, closing for an hour during lunch. That's just perfect as long as you need medicine during those select hours. I wonder what you do if you need a perscription filled when they aren't open? Suffer? Drag yourself to the other side of town, coughing and sneezing on as many people as possible? Sometimes I wonder about those odd Swedes!

Information Overload!

I've been trying to figure out more about the visa requirements for Sweden. Someone REALLY should teach migrationverk how to make a website that doesn't make me feel the urge to bang my head into the wall. I really wish they would break up the website in a way that would make more sense. Create a front page called 'Who are you? What do you want?' and work from there. As an EU citizen hoping to set up household with a Swedish citizen I have different requirements than lots of others. This confuses the heck out of me. I think I've figured out the main process though.

1. Show up in Sweden.
2. Sometime during the first 3 months show up at a migrationverk office.
Location: Bolandsgatan 10, 753 23 Uppsala
Hours: Mon-Wed 13:00-16:00, Thursday 13:00-16:30.
Better hope you're not working, no hope of ever seeing them without taking a day off of work if you are. They need some evening hours.
3. To the office I should bring:
500 SEK application fee
2 passport sized photos
proof of my relationship (photo album, emails, boyfriend himself)
2 forms, filled out. If they're wrong, they can give me new ones.
http://www.migrationsverket.se/blanketter/bob/eu/blees_bila_222011_en.pdf http://www.migrationsverket.se/blanketter/bob/eu/blees_110031_en.pdf
4. Pray for good luck that I understood everything correctly and that they won't laugh at me and deport me then and there.

I'm also supposed to do things like go to the tax office as soon as possible. I'm not sure where in this process I can sign up for SFI, but I figure the term will probably start in September so sooner is better.

The bits I found as useful information from the odd FAQ part from the migrationverk website:
Can I get the decision in English?
No, we never translate decisions. People who want the decision in a language other than Swedish have to arrange for a translation themselves. God forbid that anyone who gets a response actually know what it means. Poor refugee people getting a letter and having to find someone who knows Swedish to translate it for them so they will know if they can stay!
My girlfriend has been granted a residence permit and will be arriving here soon. Where can we find information about things like authorities to register with, Swedish tuition, rights and obligations, etc?
Your girlfriend should begin by contacting the local tax authority so that she can register with them and obtain the last four figures of her civic registration number (personnummer). She should then contact the social insurance office so that she can become a party to the social security system. She is entitled to study Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) – the municipality can provide details. A few weeks after being entered in the civic register, she will receive a book from the National Integration Office (Sverigeinformation) describing how Swedish society works (in the language she specifies). In principle, Swedes and non-Swedes have the same rights and obligations in Sweden.
Do you receive pay or funding of any kind when studying Swedish for Immigrants (SFI)?
No, you are not eligible for any funding – but the tuition is free! They sound so excited about the free tuition.
Is my future partner entitled to medical care when she moves here to live with me?
As soon as she has been entered in the civic register, she is in principle entitled to the same social security and health care facilities as everyone else living in Sweden. This is reassuring. I just hope that I don't fall and break anything before I'm entered into the civic register.
When can my foreign boyfriend start studying Swedish?
As soon as he has been entered in the civic register, he can enrol for a Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) course. Contact the municipality! Well, that answers the question about when I can start SFI classes.
My boyfriend is Dutch and I am Swedish, and we are planning to set up home together here in Sweden. Does he need special permission of any kind to join me here?
Yes, he must apply for a residence permit. The application must be made at a Migration Board office within three months of his arrival here. I pray I can quote this FAQ if they give me any problems about showing up in Sweden without a permit!

I WILL have a productive weekend!

I've started on it already. One load of laundry is washed and folded, another is in the dryer. I washed all the dishes and gave my roommate orders to wash his. I picked up the living room and vacuumed it. But then the vacuum cleaner overheated again. I was hoping it wouldn't do that since I spent 20 minutes trying to detangle the thing that turns from all the carpet fuzz and hair and stuff. I might try to finish vacuuming the hall and my room tonight before bed. I picked up my room too. I might try to read some of the stuff that I'm supposed to write my next paper on tonight before bed. :) Either that or I'll be lazy and play my DS, we'll see. I want to take the sheets off of my bed and wash them tomorrow and put new sheets on. :) I'm tired of lilac! I want to have lilac gingham instead!

I've given my roommate two tasks to do before bed tonight. (this entry has taken me about 3 hours to write, I keep getting distracted). Clean the mirror in the bathroom and put his dishes into the dishwasher and run it. Odds are that he manages to screw up at least one of them if he even remembers and attempts to do them. Not THAT hard. I asked him hours ago to put dishes into the dishwasher, he took one glass from his room and put it in there. When I reminded him about it again he said 'oh, I already did it.' I reminded him that putting his dishes into the dishwasher meant ALL his dishes, not just one glass. He said oops. *rolls her eyes* Anyone want my roommate? I'll pay you to take him! *laugh*

Hope everyone had a nice Friday.

Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger this week. Been so busy with this paper that's due this morning. It's done and I'll upload it to the school server after I'm done with this entry. I also had a test on Monday and on Thursday.

The other new thing that's going on is my attempts to make my stomach stop hurting so often. Doctor recommends.... fiber! ICK! I'm an old lady! The powder that he wants me to take with fiber requires being mixed with a large glass of water 3 times a day. After one attempt of that I said screw it. So now I'm working on eating more fiber normally. Thankfully this is the US and I can buy almost anything with added fiber at the grocery store. I switched to tortillas that have 20% of my daily fiber intake per tortilla. I moved to a cereal called 'Fiber One with Honey.' I also bought some snacks with fiber in them and a box of pasta with added fiber. The tortillas tasted pretty good last night. Granted I was dipping them into taco sauce after filling them with cheese and chicken, but still not bad. This cereal though... leaves a bit to be desired. I'm hoping I get used to it. If not, I have another cereal since I bought 2.

This weekend I'm going to attempt to get some of the big projects started that I have coming up due next month. I also need to do some cleaning. My house is starting to look like a disaster area and I'm almost out of socks. My roommate's pizza box collection in the living room needs to go away soon too. The problem with cleaning is that it just makes me annoyed at my roommate for being such a pig. I don't like cleaning in the first place and cleaning up after him while he sleeps or plays computer games is not my idea of fun!

Busy busy busy!

I've been so busy lately, that I haven't even had time to sit down and write much here. I have an extremely difficult paper due Friday. I got about half of it written yesterday, the easy half of course. It's only 10 pages, but requires 11 sources during its quest to analyze the decision making processes used during the second world war. I've had weeks and weeks to work on this paper and the due date has been extended at least twice, and yet I hadn't even started writing it until yesterday. The professor expected us to start earlier, but doesn't give us the last of the information we need to write it until the week it is due. I also have an Economics exam on Thursday, with a study group before then. That will take quite a bit of time out of my writing time.

I have a week in May where I have three large papers due all in the same week. I miss the Swedish system where I was only working on one class at a time. Each and every one of my professors assigns homework as though theirs was the only class I am taking for the entire semester! The good thing about the US university system is that I can take almost any class. I'm not restricted to political classes and economic classes. I'm forced actually, to take classes that are outside of my field of study. I find that a lot of them, despite my complaints, actually help me understand my field of study better. Then we have classes like child development and ballroom dancing which cover things that everyone really should know. I wish I had been able to take a nutrition class. There are a lot more topics that I'd like to cover, but won't have the time to do so.

At the same time I'm TIRED of this school and of people who have the intelligence of squirrels! I'm tired of the insane professors and the homework and the lack of free time. I'm tired of going to school, working, then coming home to start on my homework. Ok, whine done. But yea, I'm pretty busy this week. Next week should be a bit more calm unless a lot of things get assigned. Maybe I can use the week to get caught up or to start working on some of those May papers so that they're done BEFORE they're done. I don't have that many weeks left of school and quite a bit left to get done.

And David is going to buy his tickets to come visit me today! He'll be here in mid-June and will stay until mid-July!

Letter from Ma

Dearest Bubba,

I'm writting this slow because I know you can't read fast. We don't live where we did when you left home. Your dad read in the newspaper that most accidents happen within 20 miles from your home, so we moved. I won't be able to send you the address because the last Arkansas family that lived here took the house numbers when they moved so that they wouldn't have to
change their address.

This place is really nice. It even has a washing machine. I'm not sure it works so well though. Last week I put a load of clothes in and pulled the chain...we haven't seen them since.

The weather isn't bad here. It only rained twice last week; the first time for three days and the second time for four days.

About that coat you wanted me to send you, your Uncle Stanley said it would be too heavy to send in the mail with the buttons on, so we cut them off and put them in the pockets.

John locked his keys in the car yesterday. We were really worried because it took him two hours to get me and your father out.

Your sister had a baby this morning, but I haven't found out what it is yet so I don't know if you're an aunt or an uncle. The baby looks just like your brother.

Uncle Ted fell in a whisky vat last week. Some men tried to pull him out, but he fought them off playfully and drowned. We had him cremated and he burned for three days.

Three of your friends went off a bridge in a pickup truck. Ralph was driving. He rolled down the window and swam to safety. Your other two friends were in back. They drowned because they couldn't get the tailgate down.

There isn't much more news at this time. Nothing much out of the normal has happened.

Love, Ma

Insurance in Sweden, Scary

Check this out I always figured in Sweden you don't need insurance. Interesting that others say you do. Too tired to post a longer entry, and you did get one this morning.

Late April Fools

Just imagine if some of the stories reported yesterday were true, the world would look a lot different:

- Microsoft would have acquired openoffice.org
- China would have acquired Google
- Slashdot would have gone pink
- Google would have opened a dating site
- George Lucas would have approved an 'adult' series of star wars books.
- Scientists in California would have figured out to genetically engineer a dragon and a uniform.
- People would be rushing out to buy their 'wireless extension cords'

Oh, and it's a bit more than a month until I'll find out if I was accepted into the Masters Program at Uppsala. About now I wish I had some friend who was friend with whoever is sorting applications. I'd like some sort of clue like 90% are from China and don't qualify. Information, I need information! Ok, so I'm nervous. Hopefully I won't remain so for the next 48 days or whatever it is until I graduate.

Color!

I got my hair recolored today. It's just the same highlights I've been getting done for the last 5 years, but it always looks nice afterwards. Costs a fortune to get my hair done though. 85 dollars before the tip. But that covers 2.5 hours of labor, the dyes, getting my hair washed and dried, and everything else associated with a nice trip to the salon.

I also bought some Easter Egg kits today. Two of them! A sparkle kit and a normal kit. I'm going to stash them until the Easter after this one. That way I'll have a nice bit of fun in Sweden. If the kits go on sale the day after Easter, I'll buy a few more. Not that they're expensive even now. Two dollars a kit. If the picture here shows up... it's David having fun for Easter 2005.

My poor teeth!

I got two cavities filled today. They used white filling so they're not as noticeable as my old fillings. One of them doesn't feel quite right though, like they didn't drill it down enough afterwards. We'll see how it is once I get used to it.

I've also, somehow managed to trick David into putting up with my Mom's family for a weekend this summer. Ok, I didn't have to trick him because he doesn't actually know what he's getting into. My mom's family is nice, but I don't spend a lot of time with them. They're really quite different. They drink a lot, a few of them smoke, they have family problems galore. My mom tries to avoid spending more time than she has to with them. And they're her family. But it will give David a nice chance to see Yosemite National Park and meet part of my family. My dad's trying to figure out how to get David to meet his family too. Right now he's hoping to find a weekend this summer and have his brother invite everyone out for some water skiing.

In a way I'm worried that David won't like me anymore after meeting my family! We'll see how things go though. I have faith in David and hopefully my slightly insane family.

Oh, and I watched Good Eats tonight, I learned more than I ever wanted to know about beans with the help of an odd looking 'bean gameboard' and lots of comments. The things I learned today include the fact that one should always use imported bay leaves from Turkey or Greece. Those make food have a nice taste. The California ones apparently make food taste and smell like Vik's Vapor Rub. I also learned that beans seem to have the lasting power of Carbon 14 when in the back of the pantry. Fun fun fun!