More working!

I've gotten an increase in my work. I'm working until Christmas pretty much now. I'm glad because it's 3 extra weeks and I'm really having a fun time. It is a bit stressful though going from studying halftime to studying part time and working full time! The apartment is a LOT messier than it was before. Oh well.

And not that much longer until Christmas! Weee!

Thanksgiving

I had two lovely Thanksgivings. I did a small one here at the apartment on Thanksgiving Day. Peter flew up from Uppsala and helped me lots with the food. It was nice to see him again. Then last night we went to the official American gathering type thing here in town. It was soooo much fun! It felt like a real Thanksgiving with kids underfoot and people of all ages from the 3 week baby to the grandmothers. It wasn't MY family, but it was a big family gathering with people from lots of families and there was lots of English spoken. Next year I'll see if I can invite David's family to that and do more along the lines of one big Thanksgiving, but we'll see.

Also... I should not make 6 kilos of potatoes into mashed potatoes next year. It was a LOT of mashed potatoes...

Working in the schools

It's been just crazy! I've been having a ton of fun working at the school on this internship, but it is also a ton of work. I get to see the bad sides when the students fight, argue, and generally try to act as close to 3 year olds as they can... as well as the good sides when the students actually surprise their teachers by doing their homework and working quietly. I still can't say if this is exactly what I want to do with myself, but it doesn't seem THAT bad either.

Besides this, everything is going really well. We've bought tickets home to visit my family for Christmas. I'm really looking forward to that. My mom paid half the tickets home as our Christmas presents. I've started thinking now about what to give various people as well as things I want. Top of my list is things like warm winter clothes, the boards that go on the floor between rooms (we're still missing two) and a working vacuum cleaner. Whatever happened to the days when we used to get toys! *laugh*

For Christmas David and I are each responsible for one 40-50 dollar present. We'll wrap it, and put it under the tree. Then we draw numbers to see who gets to go first. The first person takes a present from under the tree, unwraps it, and shows it to everyone. Then the next person can either take the first person's present, or take a chance under the tree. The third person can take either the first or the second person's present, or take a chance. This continues until all the presents are opened. Presents can typically only be stolen 3 times. Hehe.

Beyond that, we'll get stuff for both sets of parents, whoever David says we need to buy presents for, some of our close friends, my brother, David's brother, and probably my grandpa. Oh, and the children of course. They always get presents. It's part of being a kid!

Seems crazy to think of Christmas already! It isn't even Thanksgiving yet!

Wow. Whatever happened to the times when I posted blog entries every day? I think that requires free time that I don't have!

Anyways, yesterday was a VERY boring Halloween. A bit sad that such a cool holiday isn't celebrated here. Oh well, it isn't their tradition. I did wander around downtown dressed as a devil and was glared at by tons of old ladies. It was so much fun! Friday will be nice though, then we will have our own Halloween party. I've got tons to do before then. Today I'm going to try and get the place decorated.

Yesterday I made cookie dough. Some of it is orange. I'm thinking about trying to make pumpkin cookies. We'll see how they turn out. The dough needs to sit in the fridge for awhile, so I'll be making the cookies today. I also need to bike out to systemet and buy David a few öl for the party.

I've got tons of cleaning and decorating and what not to do before the party. I'm really looking forward to it though!

Oh! ANd I think I've got a Praktik now. It's like an internship. It pays very little, but it does pay! It'll be parttime at a school for 7th-9th graders. In the Swedish system...until they are around 15 years old. It should be quite fun. I've got a meeting with the unemployment office about it on Friday. Hopefully everything goes well! It'll be for 4 weeks and hopefully everything works out! Weee! It's just parttime since I don't want to drop out of Swedish classes though.

That's life. I'll try to be better at updating this thing!

Well, this week I've been running from school to school. Just today I was at VUX from 8.30-10.00. Then at 10.00 I was back at Anderstorp until 11.15. I biked home, ate lunch, and was back at Anderstorp at 12.00 to be picked up by a teacher. I don't usually leave the center of town since I'm lazy and have a lot of teachers who have contacted me. This school offered to come pick me up. So I went there and helped out with 3 classes. The kids had such nice questions and I was really impressed with how much Swedish they knew! I was even able to teach the teachers a few new English words. It was a nice day.

Tomorrow I've got lots of assignments due for my own Swedish classes and on Monday I've got another Swedish test. I'm going to study lots on Friday and Sunday. Saturday I'm going to IKEA. David is getting a couch from his parents for his birthday. I think it is a great present since then I can use it again too. So once I'm done with my homework and my shower and laundry and everything, then I can look at their website and plan out what things it is that I want to get. And what things it is that we might have money towards.

David is working full time as a substitute teacher for at least the next few weeks. He is so much happier when he comes home. I hope he gets to keep his teaching job for a LONG time! I'm still unemployed, but it feels that I hardly have much time since I'm running between schools. I'm doing almost all the schools for free, but I'm having a wonderful time really. Just be better if I was earning money while having a nice time!

Anyways, on to homework! And I hope this laundry is done soon, I have more that I want to start!

Busy busy busy!

Yet another post about being busy. I'm hoping it is an excuse for not posting more often.

David and I have /finally/ gotten all of our save the date cards mailed. That took about 3 weeks of work.

Also, I've started working even more in the schools, without pay of course. I've got an English as the mothertongue class with 3 students. They can all speak English, but just need a bit more work on being more comfortable in it and getting up to grade level in reading and writing. I've also had a meeting with the School and Culture office here. So I've started getting lots of requests from other schools who want me to come in for a couple of days and work with their classes. Still no pay, but I'm moving in the right direction.

I'm thinking about going back to school in the fall and studying to be a teacher. English teacher and perhaps economics or math or something. I'm not sure on what grade level, but pretty sure the last years before university, or else the years right before highschool. I don't want to have to teach all topics, especially not Swedish! Next semester I'm hoping to take Swedish B, perhaps a math class, some economics, and maybe social studies A. I'm not sure I need to take social studies A, but if I do, I should get it out of the way. If I work hard and stuff, then I might begin studying in the fall. It'll mean a LONG commute (2 hours each way) but it might get me prepared for something that I like to do. I'm really enjoying working in the schools!

This afternoon I've got a meeting with a teacher at the local gymnasium, and tomorrow I'll go and help out with her class in the afternoon. Assuming she likes me and all!

Meanwhile, the kids in the school out the window seem to be having a game of raking leaves. I think they're making large piles to jump into! Looks like more fun than studying Swedish!

Internship Quest

Well, the unemployment office found me a nice internship I can apply for. It is minimally paid, but the experience would be wonderful. I'm not sure I know enough information for it, but I can try. It is about the EU and is here in town. Go around to schools and such and inform people about the EU. I don't think I know enough Swedish either, but I hope I do!

Anyways, the Swedish way of internships is a bit odd. You can't have an unpaid internship since that would upset the unions. So someone has to pay you, even if it is like 10 dollars a day or whatever. It also seems that they can't take on an intern if they've recently fired or laid off anyone.

This whole system frustrated me when I first got here. I was willing to work for free for a few months as long as there was a possibility of it leading towards a real job in the future. I figured that someone would be much more likely to take a chance with the 'weird foreign girl' if they didn't have to pay me. Then I could prove myself and work things out. Unfortunately that is not how the labor market works here. I'm not sure I'll ever understand it, but I am trying.

In other news, I'm helping out two days a week at specific times with English classes now. I'm hopefully going to start tutoring in English a bit too. I also step in when requested and help out in English classes with one time meetings rather than weekly meetings. The apartment is ALMOST done. It's been sitting at the same almost done for awhile since we've not done anything with it since last weekend. My driving theory classes are going well too. David and I really need to go out driving every evening or something. Yesterday, instead of going driving, David and I worked on our 'save the date' cards. The design is done now. I just have to print them, glue them, address them, and put stamps on them. Then they will be ready to be mailed. Hopefully that will be on Monday.

Unknown

I'm not even sure what to call this blog post really! Life has been both exciting and extremely boring lately. I've had Peter over for two days, that was fun. And we've been working lots on the apartment. I'm also going to be helping people or classes with English Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday this coming week. I've got two Swedish tests tomorrow too.

That's life summed up quickly.

I'm having a much nicer time in Skellefteå now. We have an apartment that is livable, we've got a washer and dryer now, and perhaps most importantly... we have friends who come over quite often just to hang out. On top of this I've got stuff to do with my days as well. Studying lots on my own, attending classes, and helping people with their English. Now if only someone wanted to pay me to do this! *laugh*

It's been awhile since I last wrote a blog entry. It's bit a bit crazy here. The past week we've been unpacking, building furniture, and doing all the other things that happen when you move. David has been working a bit as a teacher too. This entire week he is working, and he worked two half days last week.

I'm doing really well in my Swedish classes. I've dropped the orientation course in Swedish that I didn't really like. Instead I'm just taking Svenska A and Svenska Grund. I'm still studying for samhällskunskap A test. Either next month or more probably, in January.

I'm helping out with an English class at VUX one morning a week. And it looks like I'll be helping out with an English class at the nearby high school one morning a week too. No pay yet, but it gives me something to do at least. And references, and all sorts of other important things that will help me get a job later on.

And either tonight or tomorrow Peter will be coming! He'll be staying for a few days and I'm really going to drag him outside to help me take pictures before it becomes any closer to fall. I need to send my parents some pictures. I can't send them pictures of the inside of the apartment yet since there are still pieces of the walls and floors missing. We spoke to the maintenance workers about getting hot water, and hopefully they'll come look at that soon. And we now have a password to the laundry booking service online. I'm still holding out for getting the washer and dryer tomorrow though. We'll see if it works out.

Swedish A here I come!

Well, it's been insane the past week. We moved last weekend. I also took a test yesterday that says I can move up a level in Swedish class. But I'm supposed to stay with my old class too and finish up the novel and a few other things. I've no problem with that really. It's more Swedish classes!

David also got to teach his first lecture as a real teacher. He took a day off of cleaning and went in as a substitute. He loved it. I wish we didn't need his income so much. Then he could be a teacher, even if it was just a substitute. He's been offered full time work for just next week too. But he doesn't want to leave his other stable income yet, and he really doesn't want to leave the work place short a cleaner. I need to get at least a part time job. REALLY. Then I can earn some money and he can quit his current job (or work just part time there). And look for teacher work. He'd love that.

Meanwhile. I'm now taking classes or studying the following courses.
Swedish Basic (Svenska grund)
Swedish Extra (in order to pass Basic faster)
Swedish A (first year of highschool Swedish - Svenska A)
Driving Theory (Korkort terori)
Social Studies A (Samhallskunskap A)

I'm thinking about dropping the Extra course. Because then I don't have to get up quite so early on Wednesday mornings.

Also... we're still trying to dig our way out of the giant pile of boxes. We spent most of yesterday trying to find a bag of screws that puts together 4 bookshelves. That will let us empty a whole TON of boxes. They were in a big bag of shoes. Go figure.

COLD

How the heck is it this cold in August?!? On Tuesday when I biked to school people were wearing gloves, jackets, and scarves. That's just not right. It's still August! I wished I had gloves on then. Wednesday was a bit warmer, but still quite chilly. Today the high is supposed to be 11C and the low is 4C tonight. That's 52F and 40F. And it's still August! We're losing sunlight at a pretty fast rate too. The sun rose at 5.11am and will set at 8.02pm. By Monday the sun will be rising at 5.23am and setting at 7.48pm. That's quite a bit of time to lose in just 5 days. I'm starting to miss California weather already!

In other news, studying at the adult education center is slow and boring. I met with the counselor at CV yesterday and he came up with lots of ideas for things I can do. So I've contacted people at Umeå university about the option of starting something in the spring. Semester hasn't started there yet, but I'm sure that I need to have at least finished elementary school Swedish first. I'm trying to see about getting into a teaching program or something. Then at least I'll be educated to something and get nice long summer breaks. Teaching pays pretty well in Sweden too. Starting monthly pay (before taxes) is about 20,000 kr a month David says. Or about 2,800 USD a month. But taxes take a BIG bite out of that. On the other hand, you don't have to pay several hundred dollars a month towards health insurance.

I'm not completely sure I want to be a teacher yet, it's a LOT more time spent studying. And since this town isn't really a university town, I'd be commuting to Umeå. It's not a short trip. It looks like it takes about 2 hours one way. But the county (kommun) pays half the travel costs, so I'd just buy a month card and use that. It is possible, but it isn't exactly the best option in the world. I do want an education and it isn't something offered at the local campus.

Well, I've got lots to think about. Meanwhile I'm going to try and see what things I can study on my own. If I want to study for a grade in a subject that I'm not enrolled in, I can. Then I take a test and if I pass it is as though I took the course. It costs money to do it this way, it doesn't cost money to take classes. Odd, but true.

Apartment Stuff

Well, the living room has wallpaper now, so does most of the hallway. Most of the floor and ceiling boards have been cut and now just need to be installed. This leaves putting wallpaper up in the staircase and finishing the last bit of the hallway. We've started moving stuff to the apartment too. I'm almost done washing all the dishes that sat out in the garage collecting dust. Some of them we could write in the dust. ICK! The apartment has enough dust (despite my efforts at cleaning) and I don't want to add more dust to it! Today's plans is for me to bike to the wallpaper store and buy our missing roll. Also I've got school at 12.30-13.50 and I need to eat lunch before hand. So thinking wallpaper store, food store, apartment, eat instant pie or something, then to school. Then back to apartment. Then wait around there cleaning and stuff until David or whoever else shows up. I think the plan is to finish the wallpaper tonight, so the more preparation work I can do before they show up, the sooner we all get to go to bed!

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to go finish up with the dishes in the kitchen so that maybe we can move them out to the apartment tonight or tomorrow.

Oh, and we only broke one glass so far in the move. Not bad really!

New website!

I've started a new website. You can find it HERE. It's a page where those who are learning Swedish in Sweden can write something about themselves. I've heard so many of my friends and David's friends say bad things about those who study Swedish as a second language that something needs to be done to rid the world of the myths. So anyone who has studied Swedish as a second language in Sweden, or is continuing to do so should send me a little blurb about themselves and perhaps a picture as well. If anyone is REALLY bored they can try to get their classmates to submit things as well. This project will start small, but if I don't get bored or distracted, it might be nice to have something like this! Heck, for all I know it already exists, but I didn't find anything when I searched Google.

school

Well, I had my first day of school yesterday. It was quite nice. I think I'm going to enjoy my classes. Thankfully they expect a bit more out of us than SFI in Uppsala did. There we didn't do anything. My two classes are Swedish and Swedish 'extra'. I have 8 hours total of lectures a week. So that's about equal to the number of lectures I'd have a week in the US if I was studying 8 of the 12 points that are needed to be studying full time. So 75% is pretty equal.

Also, yesterday I went and spoke to some of the English teachers at the VUX school where I study. (Vuxen means adult in Swedish). I'm going to try to help them out with their classes. That way I have something more to do with myself since I still haven't found a job. In another week or two once the regular schools calm down I might go leave some CVs and notes at the schools near where I live offering to help as well. I don't expect pay for this, but it's something to with myself. And since it's volunteer work, I can always stop if it becomes too difficult or if I do get a job or something. But meanwhile, it's another thing I would be able to write on my CV.

Speaking of CV, I went and made myself an appointment at the CV leading place at the school. They're like counselers. You come to them and say 'I don't know what I want to do with myself' and then they can help. I'm going to discuss what I need to study next semester and stuff if I don't get a job so that I can get a job in the future. That meeting is a week from today.

Today, I've got classes from 8.30 until 11.30. Then I'm going to go find lunch. Then go into town and visit the library and the bookstore. Then back to the apartment and do some serious cleaning. We're hoping to be able to move in this weekend. Everything won't be done, but enough will be done that we won't be throwing large amounts of dust into the air and the main rooms will be wallpapered. We'll still have some painting to do, but that can be done once we move in. Just shift the furniture out.

hehe

Well, I was checking the unemployment board today and now O'learys is advertising for more personal. I don't think I'll be applying since they already have my information. I guess I just got my application in at the right time. I just wasn't the right person!

But today, today I'll write my GAME application and deliver it either today or tomorrow. And on Monday I'll see about getting myself into the substitute teacher pool for teaching English. Also today, in like another 1.5 hours I'll leave to bike into town and have a nice Fika with the other Americans in town. I got the invite last night.

No job.

Well, I didn't get the job. They really wanted someone who knew their way around the place and who took more initiative. I thought it was hard to do that on the very first day, but I tried. They wrote my number down for future use and perhaps I can try working again another day. I earned myself 30 kr (all tips) for my day of work. It's something at least!

Tomorrow I'll try applying for GAME. If it isn't raining I'll bike into town and drop off an application there. I've gotta keep trying and I'm sure that I'll find a job sooner or later. Plus school starts on Monday with an orientation meeting at 8.30am. And then Tuesday real school starts. That and working on the apartment should keep me pretty busy.

Mild Job Success!

Well, I've got some success with job searching. I left a CV at the American sportsbar in town and the called me back the next day. I went in for a short interview. And they gave me a trial day for this coming Thursday evening. If I do well I can work that entire weekend and the job has the chance of becoming a full time job if I want it to be and I'm good at what I do.

But, I need some more Vocab suitable for eating out. What people say when you arrive there, when they give you the menu, if they ask you how you're doing or whatever else! If anyone wants to help, please go for it! I could use all the help I can get. Dialogues, phrases, words! Whatever! I really hope I get this job! But even if I don't, there are more bars in town, and always more places to try to find work. Heck, the video game place in town is advertising and wants woman applicants. I couldn't really study while working there, but it might be fun too.

Sun burned!

Ow ow. I burned myself quite badly today. I noticed exactly how bad when I took a shower. I had to send david to the store to find me something to put on the burns which have really started hurting. Everyone says that it is much harder to get sunburned in Sweden. They obviously don't have skin that's as white as a ghosts! Everything feels soooo warm right now. I guess I'm paying the price for lazing around by the ocean today. 3 or 4 hours... and just OUCH!

Cleaning... again!

Well. David's woken up the last two mornings, having a hard time breathing. So yesterday David vacuumed and it seemed to help a bit for awhile, but now he's having problems again. So I've decided to clean the bedroom (and maybe the rest of the house depending on the time left) from top to bottom. I took everything out of the bedroom that I could move, removed all the sheets and bedding, and dusted everything I couldn't move.

I'm washing all the sheets (again) and putting clean ones on. I've also taken all the dirty clothes out of the bedroom. Some of those I'm sure we played with the cat in. So it's another laundry day. But the weather is so wonderful I'm able to hand things outside to dry. I'm going to leave the rugs to David to shake out, but the rest of the room I should hopefully be able to handle. We'll see if I manage to get everything washed and dried that needs to go back in there before we go to bed tonight. If not, then there's always the chance that we'll decide to sleep over at the summer house anyways. David's mom has tomorrow off and it'd be nice to spend the day there with her rather than sitting by myself at the house or going to the apartment to work by myself. I just need to make sure David will be able to breath out there since the kitten lives at the summerhouse.

Also, apartment is going well. A big thanks to David's dad on Sunday night! We got the bedroom wallpapered. All without anyone yelling at anyone. It looks so wonderful! I can't wait until we get the rest of the apartment done and we can move in!

Yesterday David and I ran a million chores since it was one of the first days David has had off in awhile, and it was also, thankfully, a weekday. We went to the library, signed me up for swedish classes, went to the unemployment office, dropped off a job application (mine) at a place in town, dropped off a job application (david's) at the school office, and did like a million other things.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to go back to the unemployment office at 13.00 in order to sit through a 1.5 hour meeting on 'how one searches for a job'. Except the unemployment place won't do anything for me, and they can't require me to do anything since I'm not getting any money. They seemed actually, to think it was really very odd that I even showed up there since there was no money attached. They said they can give me information, but 99% of the work in finding a job I'll have to do myself. So if I'm out at the summerhouse tomorrow, I'll just reschedule so that I do my group meeting on a different day. They seem to do 3 of them a day, most days of the week.

Nice Party

There was a really nice party last night at the farm of one of David's friends. It was pretty relaxing. We played some odd games involving guessing songs in teams, ate really yummy pie, and generally socialized.

Tonight we're supposed to finally get something done on the apartment. Wallpaper the bedroom. We still need to sandpaper the old paper off the walls in the living room. Then we just need to paint. After painting and wallpapering we need to fix the floor and ceiling boards. Then we can move in. I can't wait! I hate doing the physical work involved though. Perhaps around 1 or 2 this afternoon I'll walk out to the apartment or get David's brother to drive me. I didn't get much sleep last night because it was quite noisy when we came home from the party. Then I had the window open this morning and some stupid bird sat outside the window, singing as loud as he possibly could manage. We need to teach the cat to hunt noisy birds in the morning.

And the Job Search Continues!

Well... yesterday I walked to the apartment from David's parents' house. It took me nearly 2 hours, but I figure it was good exercise. I removed the wallpaper from two walls. I still need to go through and remove any remaining small bits and sand the walls so that they are smooth enough for painting. It is hoped that this weekend we will either get the wallpaper up on the walls or else get something painted. I don't know when we're supposed to have time since David works both Saturday and Sunday and we have a party we're supposed to be at Saturday evening, but I'm sure we'll work something out.

Today I spent the entire day studying Swedish and writing a CV/resume and cover letter for another job attempt. This one is for some restaurant work. It is mostly evenings and weekends and it isn't a permanent job. This would be perfect for me since it would let me study in the days to improve my Swedish and since I'd be working in Swedish I could improve my Swedish that way too. It's just part time, but I think that'd be best for me. I think I could be a good waitress! Take orders, give food, wipe tables. I can do that!

Anyways, I'll be applying on Monday when I run all my errands in town, or perhaps later tonight if I'm feeling insane.

By the way, anyone have any job leads in the Skellefteå area? Or any tips on how to find a job besides waiting for the unemployment office to post them on their website? I would rather not have a cleaning or caring job. I'm not quite that desperate yet.

Long Post

Well... life has been just insanely crazy recently. Here is a quick recap and a promise to update more often and be a better blogger in the future! (Which should be easier now that I have an internet connection)

I went to the US, had a nice time. Visited my relatives.

David and I are now planning a wedding. We're engaged now. I bought the two rings while in the states. My ring has 3 diamonds and David's ring is a simple gold band. Swedish guys get engagement rings. The jewelery store seemed to think that it was a great idea and that American guys should also get engagement rings. The wedding is probably going to be in early June next year. I need to sit down with David's mom next week and figure out the guest list and get the exact date. Then my mom can start booking facilities and services.

The apartment fixing is going pretty well. David has ripped down most of the wallpaper and put a new floor into the bedroom. Now we just need to put new wallpaper up, paint, and do all the little details around the entire apartment. We might also have to remove wallpaper from one more room. Hopefully by the end of August at the latest we will have moved into our new place. My mom is being super kind and has offered me about 1,000 USD towards getting a washer and dryer. That will be just great! I just need to find something decent.

Peter was here visiting for the first week when I was back from the States. It was really fun. We went out and picked berries, sat around, drank wine, and generally celebrated David and my engagement. It works as a good substitute for the engagement party I won't get here in Sweden. I've pretty much resigned myself to not getting lots of the things here that I would get back home. But that's ok, because here is where I live and I've got a ton of things to do with trying to get the apartment ready.

Drivers' License. Apparently I have until I was registered in Sweden for a year to get my Swedish driver's license. So I've got until November or something. I've gone out trying to learn to drive a stick shift with David's car, but I've been having such problems with it. Then in the states I used my uncle's car to try learning. Man, what a difference. I figured out that most of the problems I had with driving are the fault of David's car. It's near impossible to drive I've decided! It's a good thing I've got 5 driving lessons from the driving school in town. I got them as a graduation present from David's family. At least this way I'll get some chance to practice in a car that is actually possible to drive! I miss my old car already. As soon as I get a decent job and have fixed the apartment, taken care of wedding expenses, and everything else that is really important, I'm going to try to find a nice automatic, easy to drive car for myself.

Oh, and the actual trip back from the states was hell. It ended up taking 3 days to go through 5 airports, and sit on 4 airplanes. I actually had British Airways pay for my hotel in Stockholm since their stupid flight delays cost me the last flight of the day. Then, of course, they lost my bags for awhile. I reported them missing on Thursday evening. On Saturday afternoon we got a phonecall that said they had my bags. When they came by they tried to give me one bag that wasn't mine. Yes, I was sure that it wasn't mine. I wanted a large green bag, NOT a small silver bag. The next evening (Sunday) they had managed to find and deliver my last bag. This time, despite the fact that my luggage ended up all over the entire world, only one item in my bags was broken. That is pretty impressive since I moved about half of my dishes here this trip. I lost one small bowl. I'll replace it at Christmas, so no big deal.

Now, I've still not managed to find myself a job. I've been applying for everything that I might possibly be able to handle, but no luck so far. So I'm going to study lots of Swedish in the next month and enroll myself in Swedish classes when they start up in the fall. Perhaps I'll sign up for math or economics classes or something too. Just something to get me out of the house and trying to improve my Swedish so that I have a better chance of getting a job.

Meanwhile... I'm keeping house. Cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, doing dishes, doing lots and lots of laundry, and then repeating all of this constantly. I swear, every time I wake up the house has been trashed again. I'm not quite sure how this happens. It's like magic! Now if only the magic worked the other way around and the house magically cleaned itself instead of magically becoming messy...

Now I promise I'll TRY at least to update this thing more often. I'll have all sorts of wedding plans, apartment progress, job searching, studying, and of course... cleaning to babble on about.

Oh. And I've decided that Sweden in the summer is a rain forest or something. It's only stopped raining for a couple of hours at a time since I got back.

Raining

It's actually raining right now! It's wonderful since it gets some of the pollen out of the air and really drops the temperature. It's almost 11am and we still have the windows open!

This next week until I leave to go back to Sweden is going to be packed! I've got a bit more shopping to do, a quilt meeting with mom, a bbq with the family, a trip to Reno, packing, socializing, and whatever else comes up! Fun fun fun! I miss David though. And I can't wait to see how wonderful the apartment looks since he's put a full month of effort and work into it!

And at the family bbq I'm finally going to get to see my brother. It's been almost a year since I last saw him. It's really nice that he's found time in his busy schedule to come and visit while I'm back in the US. Hopefully I'll get a job once I'm back in Sweden and have enough money to fly home again at Christmas, bringing David with me.

Boating

Well, today I went out boating with my family and my uncle's family. It was a lot of fun!

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. I haven't been around to celebrate it with my family in a couple of years, so I'm looking forward to this. We won't be doing much with the fire danger so high, but I will spend the day shopping with my mom. A nice AC building when temperature is in the triple digits is quite nice!

This weekend I'll be doing lots of chores around the house. I'll spend quite a few hours helping my dad split wood. Deadly boring, but I need the money if I'm to get that apartment livable. Wallpaper and painting and the worst of the fixing comes first. Then when I get a nice chunk of money saved up, I'm going to redo the kitchen! I want a dishwasher, less ugly cabinets, and to remove a wall. And of course probably fix some of the wallpaper/paint. I spend quite a lot of time in the kitchen, and I'd rather it not be an ugly cave! The kitchen is almost as isolated as the bathroom is! But again, that is in the far future. My uncle just finished building a new house. The kitchen there is just wonderful! I wonder if I'll ever have a house that nice so that I can justify having a really nice kitchen!

Anyways, with lots of shopping tomorrow, I'm off to bed! I hope everyone back in Sweden is having a nice time with the (hopefully) cooler weather!

Dark and Light

One of the first things that struck me as strange when I first landed in the US was the darkness. I landed at 8pm and it was dark. Completely dark, not just dusk. That was in LA which is quite far south, but still. After not having seen the darkness in the last month or two, it was a bit strange.

I spent the first hour or two out of the airport mentally jumping everytime I heard people using English too. Luckily, that wore off pretty quickly.

It feels a bit odd to be home really. After having been gone for 10 months... it doesn't really feel like I've been gone. My dad drove me around to see all the new things in town, but it doesn't really feel like I've been gone more than a month or something.

The one thing that helped me understand a bit about how long it has been since I've been back here is visiting my younger cousins. The oldest of the three is going to start highschool in the fall. Thankfully even the youngest still recognizes me! ;) I still haven't seen my brother, but maybe he'll come by sometime. This afternoon we're driving out to my grandfather's place and we're going to visit and spend the night there.

Last 2 weeks

In the past two weeks an amazing amount of stuff has been happening. We moved to the FAR north of Sweden. We carefully moved everything out of the trailers and into the garage. We started looking for apartments. We looked at one apartment. We bought said apartment. We have been trying to fix the apartment up. And then I flew to the US for a month of visiting with my family. During lots of the time while living at David's parents' place I had no internet. So that will partly explain the lack of updates.

The apartment we just bought is in Skellefteå and is supposed to be a 3 rooms and a kitchen. HA! I think it should say 4 rooms. By the way, if you aren't in Sweden, it's a 2 bedroom apartment, with a balcony, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, garage, storage room, living room, AND 2 bedrooms. Problem is, while cheap, the apartment requires quite a bit of work to make it not look like something the cat dragged in. David is happily(?) working on that while I visit sunny California.

The flight over to California was mostly uneventful. I had 2 delayed flights, but neither really changed much except I was half an hour late landing in Reno. And for the 10 hour flight from London to LA, there was like a school group of 60 like 13-15 year olds AND there was no in flight entertainment. Always fun. I also didn't sleep much for some reason. So I was quite glad to finally reach Reno and find my mom had booked a hotel room instead of starting the 2 hour drive home immediately.

First thing we did once we got back to town was to dump me at the dentist. I hadn't been in like a year! That's the longest I've ever been without getting my teeth cleaned. And, as I thought, one of my fillings was loose, so this morning I'll be going back again so they can remove it and refill it. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to this.

Anyways, might be going to be my grandfather's place this weekend to say HI for a day or two. And then will be back again for the 4th of July.

I'll try to update again later with more interesting topics, such as the weird fact that it gets dark here and other observations of someone who has been gone from home for too long.

Moved!

Moving was exciting. David's parents were godsent. His mother cleaned and scrubbed like that apartment has never seen before. And his dad helped lots with packing and getting another trailer. David is now officially a teacher. We just need to find him a teacher job.

Events while moving involve the fact that we lost the exhaust system on the ford sierra about halfway through the trip. It dropped and started hitting the ground, so we chopped the rest off with an ax. The same car also kept overheating. We made the trip in one day though. Took about 10ish hours to drive the whole way including rest stops and the like.

We've now moved so YEA! Just really need to find jobs soon so that we can get our own apartment. In like 10 days I will be on my way to California too. That's quite good. Once I get back I need to put myself on the unemployed list. I think things will start to go rather well soon though. David has work for the next 2.5 months and that is some income. And we do have a little bit of savings. And right now we aren't paying rent. It will be interesting to see what life brings us at the end of summer!

But for now! I want to go buy food for dinner!

Moving Wednesday!

Well, the bathroom is packed and mostly cleaned. A big thanks to David there. We've packed up all the books and taken apart all the bookcases we could. Today we're going to try and pack up most of the kitchen, the closet, the computer room, and some of the clothes from the bedroom.

The bbq with our friends last night was fun. It was a really small group since a bunch of people didn't show up. David's promised that we can go outside and try playing kubb this evening again. But that really depends on how we are doing with packing. It's noon and we haven't done anything yet today. But that's because we stayed up REALLY late last night talking to friends and saying our last goodbyes. We have one more gathering Tuesday night, then we leave Wednesday morning.

Thursday, if I haven't heard from the job I applied to, I'm going to go by their office. I really liked the job description and stuff, so I have to try and follow up on it.

Despite everything, I'm really looking forward to moving. And I'm SO glad to be done with my thesis!

The Stolen Bike and the Emperor

Well. When David last went to Skellefteå he left my bike in the center of town at the train station. It took us about a week to move it partway home to the University house. Then we have been very busy and did not make it back to the bike for something like 3 weeks. The last 3 weeks have been very busy with finishing up the last bits on our final papers. So yesterday, after I turned my thesis in, we had lunch, then went bike hunting.

My bike was not where we left it. So we went and found the guard/maintenance guy for the University house and he said that a few weeks back the police came and moved all the bikes. So that they wouldn't disturb the Japanese Emperor. Except my bike was locked to the bike rack instead of just to itself. The guard said that in that case the police had cut the lock and my bike was surely gone by now. So if we couldn't find it where they moved the bikes to (another bike rack a bit away) then we should call the police, who would call him, and they would buy me a new bike.

So we went off searching for the bike, not expecting to find it. But we did find it! They had cut the lock, but then they tied the lock into a knot to make it look like it was whole. And it sat there for like 3 weeks not really locked. We were quite surprised. Now I don't have a working bike lock though.

So in summery, my bike was stolen by the Uppsala Police, who broke the bike lock in order to move my bike so that its presence near the University building wouldn't disturb the Japanese Emperor. How is that for a story?

Moving?

I don't even want to THINK about my thesis! I ended up restarting with a blank draft and rewriting everything on Monday. I finished up a draft yesterday and have been working on spell checking and such while waiting for my adviser to get back to me. Meanwhile, something more interesting!

Moving? I've NO idea how to put together and manage a real move in Sweden! Where does one rent trucks? Boxes? Where do I get moving boxes from? Calling and writing to companies to cancel things like apartment, energy, cable? I don't know how to do any of this really. It's times like this I realize that I don't actually have the ability or skills necessary to survive in Sweden. If it wasn't for David I don't think I could manage anything. Even with his help I'm constantly confused about what should be happening.

The other thing about our move that confuses me is the complete lack of planning. Well... we're moving sometime after we graduate but before he starts work. That's about a week time span. I feel like I should be packing and slowly moving things now! But there's nothing I can really do since we're so far away from where we're moving. Lots of our stuff will be going into storage for the summer too. I'll have to keep that in mind when packing. But then it hits me, I don't have to plan TOO much because there isn't the constant summer heat to worry about. I don't have to pack with the assumption that if anything is left outside an AC'ed house things will melt or become damaged. I don't have to try and figure out what things need to be deep within boxes of other stuff so that they don't melt while traveling. I gave up one set of worries to acquire another set! I don't think I've even found all the things that I should be worrying about yet.

Life is boring

I wish I actually had something to write about, but I don't. Life is basically an unending round of reading books, writing my thesis, and reading more books to write about.

Spring is here too. It seems like the entire city is covered in flowers right now. It's even snowing little white flowers around our apartment.

David and I have both been looking for jobs. The most recent job I've applied for is a full time English teaching job in Lycksele. It's a village in the middle of nowhere in northern Sweden. Not exactly the most desirable location, but a job is a job. I'll probably not get it because I don't have a teaching degree, but it can't hurt to try! Either David or I need a full time job or we both need part time jobs in order to survive. We figure we need at least 10,000 kr a month after taxes in order to survive. That way David can start paying back his student loans, we can afford to rent an apartment, pay our bills, take care of the car, and buy food and perhaps occasional bits of clothes and the like. Any lower and we'll be looking at significant decreases in our already pretty low standard of living.

Valborgs Craziness!

The last few days have just been crazy! It seems like we've had constant guests overnighting here. Yesterday I made breakfast for 9 people, lunch for 6 people, and dinner for 5 people. I did breakfast again this morning for 4 people. It's been a really wonderful last few days. Although I did get sunburned yesterday while we were sitting at the park and eating lunch. (We had boiled potatoes, sill, and some grapes. Quite nice really.) My poor red nose. We also had a party in the evening we attended, so I didn't get to bed until quite late.

We've been eating so much quick food, that we're thinking about actually making real food tonight. Perhaps some pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes with a nice mushroom sauce. We'll see if I have the energy though! I'm STILL exhausted!

First draft done!

Well, the first draft of my thesis is done! I can now take the next few days and just relax, and enjoy Valborgs.

I'm going to put ALL my school stuff away and out of sight later and not even think about school until Wednesday at the earliest!

Maybe I'll get done some of the things I've put on hold due to school work. I bet the oven could use a good cleaning! And I've got laundry to do as well. Maybe it's just time for some spring cleaning. Perhaps I'll try to cook a nice dinner tonight too. Since for once I won't be so stressed! The next day or two should be nice!

In other news. The only excitement that has happened in the past week was that David's brother came to visit for a few days. It gave me an excuse to make up a yummy dinner once too! I did have to go to the airport to return a passport, but that wasn't that big of a deal. And I got to say hi to David's family again. I haven't seen them since Christmas. Oddly enough, this is more often than I see my own family! Speaking of his family, they will be here Sunday night between flights.

The next 5 or so days will be quite nice!

Thesis writing time!

I've been very productive today. Got lots done. Laundry. Studying. More studying. Lunch. Dinner. Dishes.

Tomorrow David flies up to Skellefteå. On Monday his brother arrives and stays until Wednesday. Means I need to get lots of stuff done before then. Weee?

Meanwhile, back to studying lots. They say red wine is healthy for you. Perhaps I should look into getting a box. Sara brought a box by the other day that was quite good. Someday, when I'm feeling rich, I'll look into it. 215 kr is a LOT for a box of wine... probably not much by Swedish standards, but still.

Oh, and Peter has been VERY sick recently. In and out of the hospital. Apparently he picked up some odd little virus while in Ecuador with his PhD class. He's been dealing with fever and stuff for more than a week now. He's home with his family getting people cooking and doing laundry for him. Probably the best place. Moms are best when you aren't feeling well! But Peter seems to be doing MUCH better these days and his fever is mostly gone, even if he still coughs lots.

That's life pretty much.

Busy!

It seems all my blog entries are about the same thing... being busy! For the past week I have been working like a mad woman on my thesis. It's hard to believe that I have only 6 weeks to finish it! I did take lots of time this past weekend to sit outside in the sun though. It was so nice!

On Wednesday David leaves for Skellefteå. I'll be on my own then for a few days. I'm actually looking forward to it because then I should be able to get lots of studying done. David doesn't try to be a distraction, but he can't help being more interesting than my books!

I'm about to go mad though. Except for breaks to wash dishes, shower, and eat... I've been sitting here in front of the computer or reading a book for the last 8 hours. And this is the plan for at least the rest of the month! Ideally I should have the rough draft of my paper done before the end of the month. Then I can party freely for Valborgs before beginning to fix all the problems with the first draft!

Meanwhile, I apologize for the lack of blog entries. I'm not doing enough interesting stuff to post more. Unless you want to hear about school work, which is deadly boring I'm sure!

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend has been quite nice. We have been studying lots, writing lots, and spending lots of time playing video games. I didn't get as much done as I had planned to, but I'm feeling much more relaxed.

Last night I went to Zuza's birthday party. It was small, but quite fun.

I've also bought tickets home to visit my parents this summer. My mom is buying the tickets for me as a graduation present. I'll leave June 27th and return July 25th I think. The tickets were not as expensive as I feared, but not cheap either. I'm really looking forward to going home for awhile. I can buy all sorts of stuff there that I can't buy here!

In the weather news... it's been snowing on and off the last three days. When I woke up this morning everything was white. A few hours later, it was back to being green again. I'm TIRED of winter now! Bring on spring!

Egg Dyeing!

Today has been an amazingly productive day. Woke up early and made breakfast, then started cleaning and doing laundry. Around noon the laundry was done and the apartment clean. I made lunch while boiling eggs. We boiled 36 eggs before I went into school. I had a short meeting with a teacher then I went to the library and found 9 more books to get me through the weekend. I then came home, took a short nap, then started on dinner. After dinner, we set up the egg dyeing stuff and three of our friends came over to dye easter eggs. It was quite a nice day!

One of the interesting things is trying to figure out the best way to hardboil an egg. We chose three different methods from the internet and then tried all three. The best way I thought was to boil the eggs until my little timer said they were done. Those eggs turned out near perfect. David liked the ones that were still a bit runny inside. Then there were 10 eggs that turned out to be more liquid than solid inside. We coloured them anyways, but we will have to throw them away later. We let Peter dye those since he'll be leaving to go home tomorrow afternoon.

All in all, quite a wonderful day. This weekend the plans are to study and study and study.

Wonderful Weekend

I had a really nice weekend. Lots of sitting in the sun and studying. It's still a bit cold outside so I had to wear a thick sweatshirt as well as having a blanket wrapped around me, but still! I did get a bit of sun and fresh air.

Today I've got Swedish, tons of research to do for my thesis, and an appointment at the student health center. I'm not actually sure when I have Swedish class for the rest of this week... but next week I'll have no Swedish class because of Easter. I've got university class Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. Right now I'm frantically trying to see if I can get together enough information to do what I want. I need to know by the end of today so that I can switch cases to use as my case study before Wednesday if I need to. I've gotten quite a lot don this weekend so I've got at least 6 books to return to the library. I'm hoping that if I spend the day (once I'm done with Swedish class) at the library then I'll get lots of research done. Maybe even know by the end of today if I'm likely to have all the information I need.

Well... It's now 6.30 in the morning and I should see if I can get some work done before class today. Fun fun fun?

Johan's performance

Last night David and I, along with 4 of our friends, went to see Johan perform at Kalmars nation. It was quite nice. We got there around 6pm to drink a beer and relax on our Friday night. Was just wonderful. I was quite tired at the end, but we ended up walking home anyways since it was a relatively nice night. Still a bit cold here at nights though. I can't wait for summer.

Plans for this weekend include maybe going shopping with Peter later today. I need some spring shoes and a spring jacket. I also need to get some major studying done. I think if I work very hard I can finish off most of the books I've got in the apartment for my thesis. I need to know by Tuesday if I can find enough information for this or not.

Sorry!

I'm sorry for being such a bad blogger! Goal for the next week is to actually get back to updating this thing each day. Anyways, in the past 2 weeks I've passed SFI, started a different Swedish course, finished a university course, and have been working hard on my thesis. I've also been quite sick for a week during all of that. I've been reading lots of books for school, spending time at the library, and doing a million other things. And in doing so I've completely forgotten to update this blog! ACK!

Enough with the excuses. Today we slept in since we went to Tim's birthday party last night. I spent some time studying and some time playing video games. We sat outside in the sun and studied for awhile. It's colder today than yesterday so we didn't stay outside too long. I haven't gotten as much studying done today as I wanted to, but I guess everyone needs a day off.

The coming week

I've been such a bad blogger recently!

Here's what's coming up in the next week.

Monday:
Swedish class from 12.15-16.05
Tuesday:
Swedish class from 12.15-14.30
Wednesday:
University Class from 9.15-12.00
Outline for my thesis due. (not yet started)
Swedish class from 12.45-16.05
Thursday:
Final test in Swedish (Day 1) 12.30-16.00?
Friday:
University Class from 10.15-12.00
Final test in Swedish (Day 2) 12.30-16.00?
Sunday:
Final paper for policy analysis course due

And between all of these things I need to study for my Swedish test, write the final paper, put together my outline for my thesis, do the grocery shopping, cook and eat meals, clean the apartment, and do laundry. And probably a million other things that I don't know about yet.

Oh, and have I mentioned recently that for days when I go straight to Swedish class... it's a 45 minute commute by bus there and 45 minutes home again? In 10-15 minute bits... which means I can't do anything productive on the bus since the time is too short between getting on, getting off, running between buses, and waiting for buses that I miss.

Fun fun fun! Hopefully things aren't this insane once this semester is over. This is WAY too much stress for my liking!

I've also enrolled myself in Swedish som andraspråk Grund that starts the 26th of March. Assuming that I pass my SFI test. Wish me luck!

And one last thing. It's starting to look like spring. Days are getting longer. The snow has almost completely melted, and it's warm enough outside that I don't always have to wear a heavy winter jacket. Yea! Spring in Uppsala is very nice.

Snowman

Thursday after school, I came home and made David help me build a snowman. It was perfect building snow, a few degrees above zero. I was amazed at how quickly the snowman went up. We had a large supply of sticks for building with as well, since they cut down all of our bushes a few weeks ago. Quite a nice snowman if I do say so myself. I'll try to get some pictures up on my picture place later.

Meanwhile... back to working on this stupid paper. I want it done in a week but I'm having problems. Bleh. And there's always laundry, studying for Swedish test, and putting together the stuff I need for next week.

Life is stressful!

Well, my Swedish teacher has informed me that I need to take the Swedish test in March rather than July. I was going to wait, but she wants me taking it now. So I've got 2 weeks to get ready for the Final test in SFI. I'm also going to try and enroll myself in Svenska som Andraspråk Grund. They offer a FLEX course in Uppsala where we don't have regular classtimes, you meet up when you want, and work at the pace you want. I think I can handle this while writing my thesis at the same time. The classes will also be at KomVux in centrum rather than outside of town. This means I won't need the expensive bus card anymore. I'm going to buy it for one more month, hopefully this will keep me off of my bike while it is still so cold.

I've got a rather large research paper due March 18th that I've been frantically working on between Swedish classes.

Peter has abandoned Sweden for Ecuador for the next 3 weeks. It's going to be quiet around here.

The book sale (bok Rea) started on Tuesday. David and I spent a few hours wandering around town buying books. I'm sure we spent more money than we should have... but sometimes books are worth it! I bought three children's books by Richard Scarry. They are books I read when I was a child, but now in Swedish. Even David thinks that they are cute. We also bought a dictionary and a synonym book. For some reason we didn't have either. And 99kr each is affordable.

Tonight I'm going over to Tim's place for some socializing.

Oh, and as usual, I've got Swedish class today. I'm just going 3 days a week right now, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. I'm still not sure how the heck I'm going to get my paper done AND pass this SFI test. ICK!

P is for Peter!

I've not been feeling very well. So haven't gone to Swedish in three days. Instead I went through the dictionary and found all the adj that started with P. Now which describe Peter best?

patetisk, pedantisk, passande, passionerad, perfekt, permanent, persisk, personlig, pessimistisk, petig, pigg, pinsam, pipig, pittoresk, platt, pliktrogen, plågsam, plötsig, poetisk, politisk, polsk, populär, portofri, porös, positiv, praktfull, praktisk, pratsam, precis, preliminär, pressande, pretentiös, prickig, prima, primitiv, premär, principiell, privat, privatägd, privilegierad, producktiv, professionell, proffsig, progressiv, proper, proppull, proppmätt, provisorisk, pryd, prydlig, prålig, präktig, psykisk, psykologisk, punktlig, påfallande, påflugen, påfrestande, pågående, påklädd, påkostad, pålitlig, påpasslig, påstridig, påtaglig, pösig

Peter says not very many describe him. :( He has chosen portofri (postage free) as one of the better ones. I think he is psykisk or perhaps polsk? ;)

Well, SFI is going fine.

University is going fine.

I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but still, it isn't too bad!

This coming week I've got the typical Swedish lessons, and my usual two days of University. Tuesday night University class will meet earlier than usual for our documentary evening and then go out to dinner afterwards.

I've got this small paper due tomorrow that is about halfway done. I have a big paper due midway through next month. Peter leaves for Ecuador at the end of February. Jonas is coming by for a few days this week. Tim came over last night. My MAJOR thesis isn't due until the end of May or start of June.

Hopefully soon I'll start having more time to try and write about how things are going. My blog entries have gotten horribly boring lately!

Odd Ikea Link

Just for your entertainment...

Odd Ikea Link

And I go back to writing this paper that is due Tomorrow!

Nothing interesting

I really can't think of anything interesting to write about. We've been making lots of smoothies in the blender. Strawberries, and bananas, and blue berries, and black berries. Yum yum!

University is being difficult. Lots of work constantly. I'm basically doing an entire week's worth of school work in 2 or 3 days. Last week I thought I did really poorly on my paper. I was so tired that I wasn't even paying attention much to the lecture. The professor noticed and sent me an email asking what was wrong. It was that obvious. I ended up doing the best I've ever done with the paper though. Got a B. I have no idea how since I was stressed, annoyed, and even left out one of the sources. I'm happy though.

I had my first Swedish test last Thursday. I think I did really poorly. Although I don't know why my classmates were getting upset. They can't do anything to us if we keep failing. The only thing that matters is the final test at the end of the term. Tomorrow I think I'm going to try to take my course information in to the people at SFI that can help me figure out what I would have studied in the Swedish system. Then I'll have some idea what my Swedish classes are. One never knows when it will be useful.

Despite the stress from school, being constantly tired, and everything else. I'm actually in quite a good mood. Although someone needs to remind me why I think doing 20 hours of Swedish (+ homework) on top of my full load university course is a good idea... The apartment is a disaster because David doesn't have much more free time than I do with teaching and everything. Despite everything though, I'm happy. I still have some time for friends, even if I don't have time to go out and party. I have an occasional hour or two to relax, even if I have to neglect studies to take those hours. Life is generally good. Even if the alarm is going off in less than 8 hours. (I can then ignore it and go back to bed... or get up and write my paper that is due Tuesday since I know I'll be very tired after Swedish tomorrow evening.)

First week of SFI

Wow, I've been very busy the last week. SFI is 5 days a week. It is 12.15-16.05 4 days a week, and on Tuesdays SFI is 12.15-14.30. It takes a lot of time out of my day. I've also got the usual university classes and studying to do as well.

SFI is very interesting. My class is the 'educated' class I believe. Most seem to have had at least some university and most are from Europe. Although there are a fair number from the Middle East as well. The way the class is run is the most interesting part, as the knowledge we're gaining is almost nonexistent. The class is aimed as a way to integrate immigrants into Swedish society. We had 1.5 hours of the unemployment office lecturing us. They were so annoying and spoke to us as though we were small children. So we gave them all wrong answers to their questions. The entire presentation was to teach us to go find our own jobs and leave them alone. Our classwork starts preparing us for jobs as well. We learn how to write sentences such as 'Even though I have an engineering degree, it is more realistic for me to get a cleaning job.' It is almost insulting.

The class is a zoo. No one listens to the teacher, does their homework, or is even quiet when others talk. There are about 30 students, but most don't show up everyday. They have jobs or school, or something else that takes up time. Swedish is what they do in their free time. For some of the class I think Swedish is their only friend network. It's quite interesting. Coming from a pretty difficult university environment, SFI is a joke. I keep going though because if nothing else, trying to use Swedish 4 hours a day with my classmates is good practice. I also do learn some new grammar rules. I come home and teach them to David and Peter. They look at me like I'm a lunatic. It's great.

University is a lot of work right now too. I find myself bringing textbooks to Swedish class and reading them when I don't feel like listening to the teacher explain something for the 15th time. Reading a book a week and writing a paper a week takes a lot of effort. Soon I'll have my final paper for this course to do and my master's thesis. I have no idea how I will fit everything in to each day.

Yesterday I had a somewhat relaxing day. Got up early and took a shower then started laundry. Laundry took forever. Every machine was started 10-15 minutes apart from each other. I ended up just sitting in the laundry room with some stuff to study for about 2 hours. After we got everything into the dryer David took over Laundry duty. He went back and forth checking on how dry our clothes were constantly. While laundry was drying we ate lunch, did dishes, and studied. I studied most of the afternoon. In the evening I met up with Peter at the store and we did some grocery shopping. Then we came home and spent the next 3 hours in the kitchen making freezer boxes for the coming week (and dinner too). Peter took home 4 lunch boxes, and David and I have something equivalent. After doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen, we ate dinner. Then there were more dishes and more cleaning. While the last of the food was in the oven, I folded and put all the laundry away. Then we made smoothies for dessert. Finally, around 11pm or so, we sent Peter home and went to bed. And that was what I considered a relaxing day!

SFI update

Hej,
Du kan få börja i sfi i morgon tisdag den 30/1, klockan 12.15.
Kursen är en D-kurs på Verkmästargatan 21, ingång A.
Rum V 11. Din lärare heter Gun Engström.
Kan du maila mig tillbaka och meddela om du kan komma redan i morgon.

Basically says that I can start SFI tomorrow morning at 12.15. The level is D and the address the room number and the professor. So Yea! I had to email them back and explain that I couldn't make it at that time though. I have class until 13:00 so cannot be there until around 13.30. They said it was OK.

So tomorrow... Class from 10.15 until 13.00. Catch the bus straight to SFI at the other end of town. Sit there until around 16.30 or so. Then catch the bus straight back to town. I've got movie night with my class for our weekly documentary starting at 17.00. It will involve professor supplied wine, a bit of food, the usual. I'll be home after 21.00. Ugh! Busy busy!

Busy busy!

I've been quite busy. Last Friday I was given a book to read as well as two assignments on the book. Everything due this past Tuesday. That was not much time to get everything done. This week should be a bit calmer. I have an entire week to read the book and do only one assignment.

Last night I met up with some classmates and the professor to watch a documentry and talk for awhile. It was a very nice evening. There was a bit too much red wine involved, but I felt fine the next morning, so not too bad. I think the professor was a bit worse for wear today. That might have been the antihistamines he was taking to prevent allergies though. The professor has kindly agreed to be my supervisor for my thesis as well. Which is just great.

The weather here has been wonderful. Very cold, but beautiful. It's been snowing on and off for the past week. It is much easier to deal with the darkness when there is snow to reflect what little light there is back up into the air. Looking out the window and watching snow fall just makes me extremely happy. This is the winter I've been expecting. No idea how long it will last, but I plan to enjoy it.

Nothing extremely interesting is going on here. David will begin working in one of the schools here come Monday. That means he'll be working pretty much full time and working on his final paper. It should be both a very busy, boring, and interesting last semester for us both. I've got to admit though, I'm feeling a bit tired of school. 5 years with no break is a long time!

First day of class

The first day of class started out quite interestingly. Half the students were told to go find another course. There were too many students for the type of course this is, so anyone who hadn't finished their first degree was told to go elsewhere. The class is roughly 20 students now. I have to meet up with my group on Monday, since I'm in the first group I have to present on a book by Tuesday. This weekend will be spent reading for me. How boring.

Nothing

There's almost nothing going on right now. I've still not heard back from SFI about when I can start classes. My first class for school starts on Friday. David's been playing with his new computer and I've been spending time at the library studying for Friday's class. We had a brief snowstorm. Which was completely melted within 36 hours. Today was beautiful, about 7 degrees above 0 and sunny.

The controllers for the Wii came last week. They work... but the one I've been using rattles already. Not really pleased with the quality, but what can you expect for the price. Been spending way too much time playing video games since there isn't much else for me to do at the moment. It's nice and relaxing, but a bit boring.

Birthday and SFI

Yesterday I spent another 2 hours at the hair salon. The end result being a very nice looking hair style. It just took forever to get what I wanted. My hair is much abused now, having been dyed 3 times in two days. It looks wonderful though.

Yesterday was also my birthday. Besides spending an unreasonable amount of time getting my hair done, I also had a small birthday dinner. David and Peter and I ate a very nice dinner, drank some cheap wine, and ate chocolate cake. Peter made the cake for me as a birthday present. A Betty Crocker cake with the icing from the can. It was wonderful! David gave me two presents. One is a promise to go out to dinner later and the other is 500 kr towards video game stuff. I also got some money from relatives.

Today I had my SFI interview. I managed to go through the entire thing in Swedish. They said they weren't quite sure what to do with me since I could already speak Swedish quite well. They gave me a small written test that I did quite poorly on I think. They're still going to put me at the D level they think. (There are only 4 levels... A B C and D). Within a few months they think I should be able to pass the national test. That isn't the TISUS (Test in Swedish for University Studies) but instead is the one that allows me to get a job I think. Anyways, I'm just waiting now for them to call me or send me an email saying what class they think I should join. The ideal class is 5 times a week from 12:30 until 4 or something like that. I'll be late to class at least one day a week due to university classes, but if they can, that's where I should be. It will be expensive though, since I'll have to have a bus card to get there. It will be 60-70 USD (400-500 kr) a month for the bus tickets. Oh well, at least the class is free.

We also got two packages today. One was the controllers for the Wii so that I can finally play my farming game that I got for Christmas. The other package was toner for David's printer. Now it can print again! David also ordered a new computer today so that we don't have to have his fire-hazard computer in the apartment for too much longer.

Wow... lots of things are happening here in just the last two days!

Hair disaster!

I finally got up the courage to get my hair highlighted in Sweden. David and I booked the appointment last Friday for today. Idea being that I could be pretty on my birthday. David carefully explained what we wanted done in Swedish. The man in charge seemed to understand exactly what we wanted and quoted us a price on the spot.

I came in today and there was a fight (which I stayed out of) about the wrong price being quoted which was too low. I was willing to pay the higher price, but they decided it was their mistake. I was paired with some Iranian lady whose Swedish was difficult to understand. I tried to explain what I wanted, and I thought I had succeeded. But the end result shows I didn't.

They were rushed, I started at 3:30 and by 5 they were nowhere near done. Not even halfway done with the dying. They started rushing things. There were multiple people working on me at the same time. They even moved me out of one chair and into another so she could cut another person's hair.

The end result was as the dye was being washed out they decided, before I even got to see my hair, that they were going to have to fix it. Instead of putting red and blond streaks onto JUST the part where the hair had grown out... they put only blond throughout my hair. I look more blond than brunette now. They also got rushed and mixed 9 percent bleach instead of the 6 percent they used on the rest of my hair at the end. So there are some large chunks of VERY light hair instead of small streaks of proper color. The color doesn't go all the way to my scalp either. It stops short where they got lazy and didn't make sure that it was done properly. So there are still sections of my hair that look like a skunk! I have a stripe down the top of my head still. My hair has also not been cut. They said I didn't order it and they also ran out of time.

So tomorrow I have to go back to the hair place and get my hair fixed. David will go with me and yell and explain what they should have done and what they are supposed to do now. Sometimes it is nice to have a boyfriend who cares.

Hand Controllers!

Well, David and I finally found some affordable hand controllers. I hope they will work! We previously had two of the controllers from Game that were Wii colored, but they cords were so short. They were under 2 meters. We can't afford wireless controllers, so we bought some cheap ones and bought two cables to lengthen the cables. Anyways, if everything arrives in a timely manner and works properly, I'll give a short advertisement for the store. Not sure how many of my readers are in Sweden and play video games, but it seems to be a new website ran by an individual instead of a big company. That's always good. So soon we should have 4 new hand controllers and 2 lengthening cables.

Swedish Bills and Stupidity

So... again... David and I have been double billed for the same service. This time it was Telia instead of Tele2 and involved my cell phone rather than the cable for the TV. But this overbilling seems to happen quite often if it has happened to me already two times in the short time I've been in Sweden. Every time we call the solution is the same, pay all the bills to the full amount. Theoretically we should get money back. But the last time we paid the full amount in all bills was in October and we STILL haven't gotten any of our money back. So meanwhile the Cable company gets to earn interest on our bill, as well as probably many others they mess up. Maybe they hope we'll forget about it and they can just keep the money? This Telia one has me quite annoyed though because it is a quarterly bill and they double billed me for three months. That's 357 kr that I no longer have to use. That is a LOT of money as a student. And they say we should get the money returned to us by March.

Why oh why can't they just take checks like in the states where I would just send in less money and a polite note and let them deal with it! I've asked my friends what they do in these situations and they just say, wait. They think nothing wrong of letting big companies like Telia take their money for extended periods of time with no compensation. If I wanted to loan money I'd expect a bit of interest at the least.

ARGH! Sometimes the Swedish system just frustrates me to tears. I'm sitting here trying to balance my monthly budget and I'm stuck double paying. BLEH!

Back in Uppsala

Well, we arrived in Uppsala safe and sound. We had enough energy when we got home last night to unpack everything and put almost everything back where it belongs. It feels good to be home!

I now have 5 days, including today, to write a 10 page paper. So I'm going to be working lots on it in the coming days.

In other news, my Swedish improved quite a lot during the 2 weeks in Skellefteå. I'm starting to think that I might actually learn Swedish eventually! Today, if David has time, he will call the people who run SFI and figure out what I need to do in order to enroll.

In the time we were up north we let lots of people know we were looking for jobs and an apartment, so now others can do lots of the work for us.

We had a wonderful time visiting David's parents, collecting Christmas presents, eating Christmas cookies and cakes, and visiting friends. Despite all of that, I am VERY glad to be back in Uppsala!