Sunday, September 30, 2007

Mom's Weekend Syndrome

I can't write long because I'm using the hotel's computer, but I just wanted to give a quick update. I met up with mom at the trainstation no problem, and it was so AMAZING to see her and my grandmothers! Then we drove to where Marian is... our realitive who is also our connection to this area.

She was a sweetheart, although bossy in the way that only old people can be. She spoke to me as much as she could in Swedish... which was helpful, but also confusing because she has a different accent than all the other ones I've encountered. But when she slowed down and said what she said again, I could normally get the gist of what she was saying. I'm trying to pratice as much as possible.

She had baked a whole bunch of baked goods for us... trying to outdo her cousin who hosted my mother and Grandmother when they were there last. Incredible swedish treats... I enjoyed them a lot, and am dreading looking at the scale when I go back on Wednesday. I'll just have to do a bunch of walking to work it all off.

It's funny though, I find myself being at the same time overjoyed to see my mom, but at the same time weepy. I feel gald that she's here, but also angry becuase... I feel like she's interfering with my independence. I feel like I've done so much here, but at the same time, I haven't done enough. She's dong nothing to make me feel that way, but I reconize the feeling... I get the same feeling during Mom's Weekend at camp each year... still.

I complain, am alternately clingy and wanting to show her everything I've done. I'll wonder if she approves.

But for once, instead of just pulling all this stuff, I sat down with her this morning and told her ahead of time that I was feeling this way, and I was trying to deal with it.

Meanwhile, my crazy grandmothers are having the time of their lives, letting mom and I do all the organizing ('cause they can't read maps) and driving. We had fun last night going through all the pictures on my computer I took and also playing with my Swedish Language program I got, which I LOVE!

Saturday, September 29, 2007

On a train to Goteborg

So this is really my second time going on a train (there was one time I took a train from Charlotte to Raliegh, but it was an unpleasant experience I do not want to think about), but I'm going to count it as my first because this time it's so much better. So there.

This train is really nice... and I even bought an hour of the net 'cause I'm just that addicted to my computer. The seats are nicer than an airplane's, which was kind of what I imagined it to be like. The seats are also roomier... and I have the cheapest type of ticket I could buy... student, and the last class. I'm in a quiet zone, so there's no babies crying or people talking on their cell phones. All in all, pretty neat.

Sweden, I have come to discover, is a lot of farmland, or if not farmland, then timberland. When I first got here I went to the South of Sweden with my host family for a family reunion, and we drove through five hours of farmland. I'm noticing a lot of the same on the train ride. I ended up choosing to take the faster train, and we're going along at a nice clip... we're currently 20 minutes late, but they're trying to make up the time (I don't know how one would go about doing that... but it's nice that they informed us.) The nice lady that is sitting next to me keeps on translating the announcements for me after she found out I couldn't understand much Swedish, so at least I know what's going on.

I'm actually quite tired today, because yesterday I got my packing finished and then Gabe had some friends over. It's the same group of friends he seems to have over every week, five kids that have all paired up into three couples. There's Gabe and Viega, Dante and Tome (I think that's how you spell her name), Tomas and Linea. They're furn kids that do stuff like play games, cuddle, watch movies and bake when they get together. They remind me of my group of friends from HS... we'd all just get together and do random stuff like go to the roller rink and have a blast.

But the best thing about these kids (and don't get me wrong, I call them kids, but I consider myself a kid too in a lot of ways... they're only 3 years younger than me) is that they include me in what they do. They tailor their games so that they either speak English or so that I can learn Swedish words from what they're saying. Last night (and this morning, come to think of it) I showed Dante my workbook and explained to him how we're learning about their verbs. He looked so serious when he was looking ove the stuff- he's got a solid build and a very cut face- pale blue-grey eyes and a spill of Blonde hair that flops onto his forehead. His girlfriend Tome is always pushing it back from his face when she goes to kiss him. Anyway, He found it interesting because he doesn't think of his language's verbs in that way. It was only the ways we study it that there is type 1, 2, 3, and 4 verbs.

Tomas on the other hand, likes trying to stretch my language skills. Of all the people in the group, he's the one that is most interested in helping me learn the language, although that is and isn't saying much, because all of them make an effort to help me when I try to respond back in Swedish. But Tomas in the one that most often stops from time to time when there taking in Swedish and summarizes what is being said for me. Or he'll remind his girlfriend, Linea (who feels like she isn't that good at English, and often is self-conscious) to speak in English when she's addressing the group. He's also really quick of wit and has a killer smile- they type that just sneaks out of his face and lights his eyes.

It was funny last night, the group was discussing how Gabe and Tomas would make a really cute couple... I find it highly ironic that all the girls in this group have short boy's cuts, while all the boys have (beautiful) long hair down to their shoulders. Then, Tomas and Gabe trade a look, and they both get up and vanish. Well, they're gone for a long time, and we start speculating what they're doing in Gabe's room. And then they come out. They've both put some type of oil on their chests so that they gleam, and are wearing boxers rolled up to look like short-shorts and Suitcoats. They're saying "POSE, Pose, Pose," a line from a play we went to go see who had these two effeminate guys who were all over each other and would do the same thing. But the best ting about the whole getup was that they put SOMETHING in their pants to make it look like they have a enormous bulge, and they're fake making out.

We died laughing. I mean, that's how comfortable these kids are around each other.

Later that evening I had a long conversation with Tome about how Sweden actually trusts the government, and has more common sense than America. Sweden taxes the rich to level out the gap between the rich and the poor. I was telling her about a study done in America that surveyed people from the poor to lower middle class part of society and found that 80% of the people believed that by the time they had retired they would be in the high upper middle class bracket of wealth. I was telling here that there is a mentality in a lot of parts of America that you don't want to tax the rich too much... because one day you might BE one of them. The American Dream taken too far.

Tome had some really interesting things to say back to that. The least of which was, "WHAT?!?"

Lastly, we played a game similar to truth or dare, but it translated into more truth or challenge. People take turns have one person on the hot seat, and they ask them a question and the person has to answer that question, or they can ask for one other question. But if they ask for the second question, you have to answer that one. It was very casually played though, with not much peer pressure. Tomas's question for me was, "Would you rather be poor, addicted to alcohol but have friends, or be rich and know that you didn't have any real friends?"

I actually responded that I would want to be rich. Not because I want to live in comfort, per se, but just that I'm terrorified of being addicted to anything, especially something that robs you of your mind the way alcohol does. I'd much rather be in control of my faculties and be friendless than be so worn and ravaged by alcohol.

I asked silly questions, and I'm not sure that the people I asked them of realized they were silly. My favorite was when I told Gabe, "The world is in danger, you have to save it with one kitchen utensil. What would it be?"

He took it much too seriously, and was asking, what was the danger, how could he save the world with a kitchen utensil... and just I think it went over his head, if that makes sense. He finally said he'd have an oven so he could distill water, which would be good to give people who didn't have clean water. Then we went around and some of the other people answered it. Dante would want the biggest knife he could find, Tome would want a seltzer maker (these great devices they have to make their own fizzy water) so she could use them to charge up bottles and then shoot the compressed water at people.

Soon after, I went to bed, 'cause it was three in the morning and I wanted to get up at 7:30.

Well, we're almost there and my hour is almost up.

I have a shift key!

This causes me great joy.

So I'm getting ready to go to Goteborg tomorrow to meet up with my mom and grandmas... lots of fun.

Today I had my first Swedish test, and I'm fairly certain I got a good grade on it. I'm trying really hard, and all the Swedes I meet seem surprised when I try to talk to them in Swedish. It's still obvious I'm American, but I'm trying to learn.

I found this great program this week that has been helping me learn Swedish words fairly quickly with really good retention. It's called "Before You Know It" So that helped too.

I'm sure there's more to write about, but I need to pack, so I'll write more tomorrow.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Wrapping up the week

So on my last day in Visby, I ended up finally walking around the wall. This was nice because I found a place on the wall that I could climb up to, which worked out wonderfully for taking some pictures of the city and also for playing with the timer function on my camera. I'll hopefully get the pieced together panaromas up in the next few days.

I haven't posted the rest of this week because I had a Swedish test that I was panicing about. I just took it, and she gave us two hours to take it.... I ended up taking 45 minutes. It wasn't easy, but I knew most of the stuff, and it was mostly a case of knowing it or not knowing it. I don't expect to get a 100, but neither do I expsect to get a 70. We'll see, being the first test I've taken over here, I'm not sure how it went.

This week I'm excited because I'm taking a train across Sweden to Goteborg, to meet up with my mur, farmur, and murmur (swedish for mother, father's mother (aka paternal grandma) and mother's mother (maternal grandma). I like how swedish has a name for almost every time of relation. There's a word for your cousin's cousin. How sweet is that? I'm sure it makes things less confusing.

The other reason I haven't posted is because a book fell on Daram, my keyboard, resulting in two keys falling off. And no, they don't go back on, something broke off of them. Luckily, the warenty on the computer that my parents got me (knowing how accident prone I am) covers damage like that, so I called up the Swedish Dell place and they're sending me someone to put on a new keyboard.

And then I can write more.

'cause right now I'm using a swedish keyboard and the keys are different and it confuses me.

But such is life.

So I'll write more later once I've packed and got my keyboard fixed.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Even more of me

Yeah, so here's the last of them, for now.



And my view from the wall, plus my face way too close and a rather halfhearted wave...

Monday, September 24, 2007

And now for me (playing with my camera is dangerous)

I haven't gotten all the footage of me up, so here's what I've got thus far.

Realize, extreme corniness is going to follow, seeing as this is the first video I've ever taken of myself.



And the second one.



Stay tuned for more as I get it uploaded to youtube!

More adventures in Visby, Video Style

This video is of the Medieval dinner we had. Short and Sweet.


This is of a skeleton of a Female Viking that they dug up. All I could think of when I saw her jewelry, keys and knife is that for a Viking Woman, she was pretty rich to be buried with that stuff. I thought of Gangsters today.

But on a different note, I've always had this strange fascination with bones, with the graceful curve of skull and hip.

So here we go.



Last one here is of my favorite standing stone... made about the time Egyptians were alive, I think. They think there is some Egyptian influence in the boat, presumably to take people to the underworld.

My adventures in Visby



So this first one is of a grave we saw in one of the churches. I'm trying this post out with this one to see if it works before I get to the meatier stuff.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Oh, and Guthar and Gunnar are the same person. Gunnar is the right way to spell his name

That took most of the day, and we got back around three. We had just under an hour to freshen up and take showers if we were so inclined, and then it was back on the bus to go to a Viking Village. Daniel had been talking about this village all weekend, he was so excited. It ended up being quite cool, a neat mix of being geared toward tourists while still having historically accurate details. We got to wear Viking clothing over our own clothes, and the differences between the brown ‘dresses’ and the brown with purple ‘dresses’ divided us into teams. The first thing we had to do was create a cheer. Ours went as such:

We are the Slashers, the Stockholm Slashers

And we will eat you all for dinner,

We will pillage your village

And eat you with a side of vegetables!

Slashers, Slashers, Slashers

HUH!

Needless to say, it was amazing.

Then, we competed in such activities as spinning with a drop spindle (Guess who dominated that sport… you’re right… ME! Heh. And people say it’s a dying art), making a chain out of chain links, building a ‘house’ with pegs and wood, measuring in Göteborg Units (a real measurement that fell out of use 200 years ago), archery (I also dominated that sport, being the only person out of us to have both arrows hit the target… YEY for summer camp and teaching archery!), and throwing axes (I was quite bad). It was a lot of fun. I have some good pictures.

Next was dinner… again without silverware, this time without even knives. We had roast lamb, really roasted over a fire, and even the split skull was there! It was quite yummy. Then, after dinner we performed skits based off of a runic inscription we had to interpret. Our skit was quite funny, one because we had the characters, and then separate people who were the voices, so females were male voices, and it looked like bad Chinese dubbing. Ours was about Jack, from jack and the beanstalk, and how he goes to the heavens and finds a giant and Thor, god of thunder, fighting. After explaining that giants were an endangered species, Jack tricks the two into stopping fighting and leaving heaven so Jack can have heaven to himself. We also had pregnant pauses and other amusing stuff.

It was hilarious at the time, and since the humor isn’t something that can be explained, just trust me… I nearly peed my pants laughing.

After that we had a game where two people sat on a round log over mattresses and whacked each other with pillows until one fell off. It’s harder than you’d think… but I think girls have an advantage with their distribution of body weight. I actually won, surprising since I felt like the whole time I was going to fall off. I didn’t get pictures of me, but I got some great ones of other people.

So now the night’s over, we ended the Viking Village soon after, and headed home. Some people went to the pool and the sauna, but I forgot my bathing suit so I didn’t do that. I think most people are going out partying, but I’m planning on taking a shower and heading to bed… yes, eleven being relatively early, but for me pretty late. I’ll post this tomorrow, because I’m too lazy to do it now.


Hopefully tomorrow morning I can try to do my walk again.


Yesterday

I have decided that people don't read long posts, and because this is a long post, I'm going to divide it into two.

I was planning today to go walking around Visby in the morning and walk the wall that surrounds the city, but when I looked out the window I could see it was raining, and I decided against that idea. I wasn’t going to deal with the cold and rain in order to get my walk. So instead I went back to bed and slept for another hour. A good thing, because the day was packed full of stuff, so much so that I’m worried that I’m going to forget some of what we did.

We had breakfast, and left a nine to head out to look at some Medieval churches in the countryside. We passed Pippi Longstocking’s house, but we didn’t get to actually see it, much to my disappointment. We made our way to where ferry boats can take you across to Fåro (pronounced Fah *rolled r* oh) a nearby island. There we visited another church. This church is special because it is where Ingmar Bergman is buried. We got to see his grave. For those of you who don’t know, Ingmar Bergman is a Swede that created these very creepy movies that are very artsy and famous. The people of the island are extremely loyal to him, going to the point of misdirecting tourists who wanted to see where he lived. Bergman apparently was very generous to the community and also very private. However, Gunnar knew him personally, as did most of the people on the island, it being very small with the exception of when the tourist season happens. We made our way to one of the limestone beaches were we went climbing on rocks and enjoyed all the really cool fossils in the stones. (See pictures… I’ll post them later)

Meanwhile the whole time Gunnar told us stories about the countryside, ghosts that haunted churches, trolls that would come avenge themselves on you if you did them or their farm any wrong or violated a grave. We stopped at an amazing little bakery that made really good baked goods and had quiche. We got to see some people thatching a roof, and a bunch of windmills. Then we stopped at another beach were I went wading and took a bunch of pictures.

On the way back we stopped at a place where there were these standing stones formed in the shape of “boats” that were a type of grave, and other stones that made circular graves. Gunnar told us more about the two-foot tall trolls that fiercely guard the holy sites in Sweden against evil people or forces that would seek to destroy them. He also told us about how the landscape of the islands is created because of the livestock that live there… they keep most the trees from taking over the fields by eating them.

Then he took us to… well, the best description of it would be a cairn. It was a great stone mound with a crater in the center. According to Gunnar they are graves of very important people. It’s interesting, in Viking history there are all these amazing buildings and graves, and then later the society seems to have regressed- we can only guess why. Perhaps there was a disease that wiped out a large part of the population and the people could no longer create the great cairns that they liked to… perhaps a war happened or there was a great change that caused them to regress. But it was very fascinating to listen to Gunnar talk, in part because Gunnar has ties all over the island. He also has a brother who is an archaeologist, as has a result knows a lot about the island.

He was a really good tour guide. I’m going to write him a thank-you note.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Technorati Profile

Friday, September 21, 2007

My first day in Visby in Gotland, a part of Sweden

Today was an amazing day. I woke up ridiculously early- 5:30 so I could be out of the apartment by 6am and be at T-Centralen by 6:30. I was late because the train was late, but it ended up being all right. We caught a cab, got to the airport, checked in, and by eight we were in the air, and by nine we had landed. A short busride, and we were in Visby.


Visby, I think, has become my favorite city I have ever been to by far. Ridiculously old, it was built by a peaceful version of Vikings. (I might insert more here as I read my guidebook)


But history aside, the town is all wonderful cobbled streets and old houses so that you feel like you’ve stepped back into time. There’s a sea breeze that blows through the streets, so that even when you’re hiking around and are overdressed because you thought you’d be cold, you stay a nice temperature. There’s roses springing out of the most unlikely places, like the cracks between sidewalks and the bases of buildings. Apple trees hang over walls that surround gardens and small little parks are nestled between buildings or in “squares” (because most of them aren’t really square). The roads are meandering and haphazard, apparently similar to the setups of Viking towns in other parts of Europe.


Right now there are hardly any people on the streets, and there’s a peace that is only broken by the passing of cars down streets that should be too small for them to maneuver. It’s a close fit in places, but the natives seem to know what they are doing when driving. Sometimes the cars take you by surprise, expecially when exiting one of the older buildings, because you feel like modern things have no place in the town. But somehow Visby has succeeded (for the most part) with meshing old and new.


We had a tour by a man named Guther (although pronounced in the Swedish fashion so the name sounded much more musical.) It’s interesting… He is a really old man, and remembers when Visby’s main language was German and you took English in the schools. Now, (as he puts it) the Germans lost the war, and we speak Swedish. Visby has a particular multicultural history, in that at the height of its prosperity (that is, it’s Medieval Prosperity) eighteen different nationalities were represented – and they traded with people as far as Mesopotamia.


Guther is our guide for the weekend, and today treated us to a tour inside of the city walls. I have lots of footage (today I discovered my camera had a video feature… guess what I’ve been doing?) and pictures of the churches and houses he took us to- many of which aren’t open to the public during the main season, and you have to know someone to get you into them during the off season. We got to see a lot of places that my Visby Guidebook says are off limits… kind of cool, huh?


Don’t worry, I’ll upload the footage when I figure out how.


The highlights of the trip included our visit to a house that had paintings instead of tapestries on all the walls depicting beautiful scenes of various hunting and biblical passages. We got to go into the inside of one of the towers and went into several ruins of churches… they were both beautiful and haunting, and somehow they were more powerful to me than going into the church that has been maintained that was built around the same time. I felt like the ruins were like skeletons, the flesh melted away but the bare, pale bones and ribs pointed to the heavens like a giant that simply died.


One of the great other things about having Guther as a tour guide was not only his knowledge (ghost stories) and island connections, but also the fierce pride he had for the architecture on the island, and the enduring ability of these structures. He pointed out that the houses and things we build today will hardly be there 500, 1000 years from now. Sometimes things like these make me wonder how much we’ve progressed, and if historians that look back at us will say, yes, they had great technical advances, but this was a time when art and architecture went stagnant. Simply because there’s no buildings that lasted.


Sure, now we might look and be like, yes, this was a time of sickness and war and they lived with relatively little technical advancements, but look at what they were able to achieve with the little they had. I mean, the rune stones we saw today told stories of a boy who decided to go home over the dangerous rapids while his brothers went overland. He died… his pride to prove that he was able to do better than his older brothers the lasting impression we have of him. (ok, so I added the last bit about his pride and having to prove stuff, but really, how much have things changed?)


Another highlight was at lunch we went to a medieval restaurant, ate on bread trenchers, only had a knife, and ate like we would have if we were at a formal meal in medieval times. The food was quite good, and it was a lot of fun, if a bit messy.


I’m thinking of waking up early tomorrow and seeing if I can walk around the edge of the town and follow the wall around Historic Visby, since I don’t think I’ll be able to do it otherwise. I’ll have to resist taking pictures, because I’ve almost used up a while GB in one day. Some of that was filming, but not that much. I have SOOO many pictures. I don’t know which ones I’ll be able to choose to put up here.


So after lunch we finished the tour (a few more churches and some ghost stories) and we had freetime until dinner. I took the opportunity to go to a Nordia bank and cash my check. Then I went to the one still functioning church from the mideval times, and after that I went through some charming tourist stores, culminating in me going to a handicraft store and caving. I got myself a hat trimmed in lamb’s wool, and also a pair of slippers. I badly wanted a pair of gloves also, but I had to resist. There might be other things I want to buy the rest of my stay here.


I did also get an obscene amount of postcards to add to my incipient collection, and also some tour books that have info that I think is interesting. I thought one of them might also make a good gift.


Dinner was in a monk’s tavern, and now I’m going to work on my English Essay (due Monday, along with a bunch of reading) that I’ve been procrastinating doing by writing this entry. Hey, this journal and my cultural experiences is just as important!


*wink*

I have to leave for gotland in five minutes

But I wanted to leave you something happy before I disappear for the weekend.

Do you feel like working today?
no

Tomorrow?

no

The day after?

no

Next week?


no
Next Month?




no
Me neither!
I just want to party!



You...




....have a GREAT Day!!!

*snickers* I got it from dad.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

A Doozy of a Day

The funny thing about today was, I was looking forward to today so much, and it was just the culmination of a rough week.

I'd had a rough week of classes and just feeling off and rather lonely... not surprising considering I've only been here just under a month, and everyone speaks a different language. Last night I was supposed to work at the pub, but after classes that went from 8-6pm, I was tired, feeling antisocial and just not fit for human consumption. In a totally irresponsible act, I told them I didn't feel well and went home. There, I found nobody home (both a mixed blessing) and my host mother (in her typical fashion) had made a vegitarian-friendly dinner. Now, I've been good for the past few weeks. My family is happily carnivorous, and while we do eat vegetables, our meals tend to be fairly... simple. Some might even say boring. And my host family... well, they like to sample from every culture under the sun. The result is I've been exposed to a lot of new foods in the past few weeks... all unfamiliar, and while some of them were good, some of them I just can't decide if I like or not. But I've been flexible. I've tried things.

But last night I came home to a pot filled with... something. I wasn't quite sure what it was. It was virulent looking- a shade of red somewhere between vermilion and cranberry that was just asking to be spilled on my white shirt. It almost looked like... watered down blood in vibrancy of color with an undertone of pink instead of brown. And (to me) it was of a similar consistency- pureed into a soupy, thick mixture.

And I was good. I tried it. And while it wasn't bad, I sat there eating it, and suddenly, all I wanted was simple, easy chicken with corn and mashed potatoes. I ended up bawling, spilling on myself (I KNEW IT- luckily I changed my shirt), and crying even harder. I made myself boiled eggs, and indulged myself by not only eating the whites, but the yolk too. And then I ate some cashews and cried some more.

When my home stay mother came back later, I was recovered, and she insisted I try the soup again... this time with lemon and sour cream in it. Apparently it's made out of beets or radishes... I never could figure out which one, but I ended up liking it even less, on a totally emotional level.

So today I was looking forward to just a chill day where I could wash my clothes, do some work, and rest my mind. And I got on the scale this morning.

Now, I should also mention this. I've been avoiding my scale because it is low on batteries, and because my eating has been, quite frankly, out of control. I've all my life eaten to cope, especially with social problems. It probably goes back to all the moving I did as a child, and each time I found myself struggling to make friends, and being quite miserable, I ate to feel better. Now, for the last year I've been on Weight Watchers, and I've lost around 50 lbs (it's less now because I've been gaining, but that was at my best point). I'm coming to terms with the fact that for me, eating is an addiction, an unhealthy way I cope with being unhappy.

Well, anyway, I got on the scale this morning to find that I've gained eight pounds in the last four weeks. I've sensed and known that I've been gaining, but not this much. Needless to say, this depressed me quite a bit.

So that put a shadow on my day.

And I was still feeling low from last night.

So I worked up my resolve throughout the day, and decided that when I went out to cash my food subsidy check, I would also make another attempt to find Weight Watchers (called here ViktVaktarna). I very deliberately got directions, and set out.

Well, I got lost when trying to find the Bank, and ended up at their OFFICES, instead of a real bank. The lady at the offices was nice enough to tell me how to get to the bank, but by the time I got there, they had closed. I was four minutes too late. So now I don't have my food subsidy money. That whole process took an hour and a half. I thought it was only good to take 30 minutes, tops.

So I was now late going to ViktVaktarna. I had built in 30 minutes to find the place before they opened 30 minutes before the meeting started, because the place looked on the map a little difficult to find. Plus, not being able to read Swedish, I had difficulty with signs. Now I was racing to just get there for the meeting.

Guess what? Turns out there is a Kungstagatan and a Kungsgatan... and they are on opposite sides of the city. When I had went to get directions, I had went for the wrong street. TWO HOURS LATER, I give up, sit in a park, totally utterly lost, and try to call my mother to see if she can find where I am with Google maps, and help me get to Weight Watchers. No luck. I give up. Now I try to call my dad so I can have some help just calming down. No luck there either.

An old lady with a dog as big as she is comes over and tries to ask what is wrong (I think) but she doesn't speak any English, and I can only understand one word she's saying: du (you). She pats me on the back and eventually leaves. And then i go buy a Snickers bar and one of those really yummy rolls that you can buy at 7-eleven's in Sweden.

When old ladies in parks come to ask you if you're all right, you know you're at the lowest of low. Finally, I felt I'd gotten enough control of myself enough that I could ride the subway without getting undue attention. (Turns out I was wrong, I kept on getting strange looks from the silent people all dressed in dark clothes that looked at the crazy American who was rude enough to show undue emotion on the Subway of all places!)

Well, I took a look on the map to the subway and realized that the process of my getting lost had taken me about FIVE SUBWAY STOPS from where I started out. Trust me, it means I had walked a really far way.

And you know what, I leave the station, and the next one I pull into... Kungstagatan. Right there. After I'd spent two hours looking for it, and another thirty minutes bawling because I couldn't find it.

I got out, went to weight watchers, and went through the great experience of having a bunch of Swedish women look at me as if I was a novelty. AN AMERICAN? Who did Weight Watchers in the states? Let me see.

And I couldn't even stay for the meeting because I had to go to choir. And turns out they use a different system that I don't now how to use because I can't read the materials and I couldn't stay for the meeting. I dash to choir, (get lost again) find the place, and NOBODY's there.

I go back to the apartment. My host family mother tells me they're probably starting later because the director can't be there tonight. I GO BACK... and only the two guys are there. They're really nice, and try to include me, and I try to sing along, but I've only sang mostly classical, and mostly off of sheet music, and these guys are just picking tunes of of a song their listening to. Well, they try to include me, and I try to participate, and I end up having fun despite feeling like an ass because I don't know what I'm singing.

Right now, things are looking pretty down. I'm leaving for Gotland in the morning, and I have to be at the meeting space for 6:30... which means I need to be up obscenely early. I'm all packed (for the most part) and I'm hoping this all works out. I want to have fun, and I want to turn things around. I know part of the reason I'm feeling low is because I'm about to have my period, and another reason is because of my eating, and also just plain culture shock (which they warned us about but I didn't believe in).

So I'm heading to bed, and I'm hoping I'll have a better outlook in the morning.

That's all for now.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

I got a package from my boyfriend... and I opened it on the subway... that was a mistake

So this morning before classes I got up a bit earlier to pick up my package from the mail distrabution center. It means I had to carry it around all day, but the other consequence was waiting until tomorrow to pick it up because today it would close before I could go. So I got it just before I got on the subway to go to school.

Picture this: Me, on the subway. Everyone acting acording to the Swedish unwritten code "tho shalt not talk on the subway unless you're with friends, and tho shalt not speak loudly enough to attract undue attention". An old lady had already shushed the man beside her because he was speaking on his phone too loud and that was 'very rude.' (or at least, that is what I think she said. I got the very but it might have been very loud or very _fill in blank_) And then I FINALLY get all the tape off using an old fashioned key (not the new types because the key to the appartment has one of those old fashioned keys that don't really have sharp points to them) and a ballpoint pen and my crocheting hook. I pull back the cardboard.

A sudden squeal.

The old lady looks over, and I can feel her stare pressing into my back. That... forigner is making noise. (yes me) and getting quite excited about... *the old landy cranes her head to look* a doodle bear and butterfly stickers. And strange american candy in much too bright colors. (Swedish candy is much more subtle, less bright colors. You can tell what brands are imported and which ones are made in Sweden. Look at Tolberone for example... again, it all goes back to the belief that all Swedish people have that nobody is better than anyone else, and assuming your better than anyone else is rude and arrogant. It translates into Swedes believing that drawing attention to yourself is very rude. In contrast to the belief in American where we go, "how dare you think that I'm not as good as you!" We think that you should put yourself forward, make your own way, be an individual.)

But back to the old lady. She glares at me.

*snickers*

Needless to say, I was quite delighted by the package. Went around with a dopey expression on my face all day. As one of the girls on my program said when I told her the box was from my boyfriend and I showed her what was in it... "Somebody loves you a lot" I could only nodd and grin. I have to think of something cool now to send my boyfriend.

I haven't listened to the mix he sent me yet, but I now know what my breakfast is going to be tomorrow morning (grits that were in the package), and each morning for the following days. Or perhaps I'll save it for special occasions. YEY GRITS! And I don't know where he got the stickers, but each time I see them I'm convinced someone knows me very well, but not only that, but is very very very thoughtful. I feel very loved.

Well, I have a lot of reading I need to get done, payment for my work on my story last night. *Must get to it*



PS: But the best thing about the package? After I told my boyfriend about the Italian guy flirting with me on the subway, he sends me a list of all the different languages he can think of, each one saying "I have a boyfriend" Or "I'm taken." It made me giggle each time I looked at it.

The promised pictures of the Cruise to Finland








I've been remiss in my blogging

So I'm trying to remedy that now. I'm also procrastinating... but then, I think that's the only time I blog.

So what has been happening lately? My host family is amazing. The oldest of the two boys has been including me in a lot of stuff, whenever his friends come over. I've joined a choir, the Monkey Club (which includes my first expierence with bartending), actually worked on my proposal and have gotten into the swing of things.

I've gotten propositioned by an Itallian guy on the Subway who called me 'bella' and was quite charming. He kissed my hand.

Last sunday I went to a folk dance and a guy picked me up (I was rather clueless until the end). I felt bad telling him he could call me as a friend, but I had a boyfriend. I actually haven't told SG about the pickup expierence after what happened when I told him about the Itallian guy (SG compiled a list of every language he could speak of, and sent it to me. The topic of the list? How to say 'I have a boyfriend/I'm taken' in as many langages as he could translate. Cute, but he also told me he felt rather helpless when he was halfway around the world).

I've learned and held my first rudimentary conversations in Swedish, and on Sunday (it was a busy weekend) I went to my homestay father's parents' house and held a pretty good conversation with the mother, who speaks about as much english as I do Swedish. I'm pushing myself hard, even though it's really really tedious and really really HARD.

I also on Saturday went to a muscial- a swedish modern intrpretation of the Jungle Book. Facinating, and I didn't understand much of what was being said, but there was lots of visual and music jokes that I got, and the music was cool.

I had some low points last week where I was really struggling and feeling like I was isolated. It helped though on Thursday I went on a day cruise with the Monkey Club. It was a fun trip and I enjoyed the time I spent with the group. There were a few rough moments for me- people were drinking, though not to excess, and I felt really guilty because in the States I wouldn't be allowed to drink. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but I've come to realize that drinking is not as big of thing as it is made to be in the States.

Each day I'm learning more about the culture... through politics, and the otherall way Swedes think. I want to note here that any genrelzations I make here are just that... I'm genralizing, and as such I might not be correct at times. Still, I think some of my observations are valid.

I'm still planning to get some photos up here, but my internet access is limited, and I have lots and lots of reading to do. Most people go aborad for a break in academics... not happening for me.

So that's the crash course on what's happening, I'll try and get up more later like my yarn adventures and some cultural observations.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

The Finland Cruise

So I was a little concerned going into the cruise because:

1.) I didn't really know these people and I was going to spend the next 12 hours hanging out with them on a boat.

2.) I had heard the cruises described as "Booze Cruises," because the ships are Duty Free Zones, so the Swedes take the time to buy alcohol that isn't taxed up the wazoo. They also bring a lot of that alcohol back with them.

3.) This was taking a bit of a risk for me and I often over think these types of things. I was also missing out on choir to go on this, and I hadn't been entirely honest about the fact that I was missing choir to go on a cruise. They didn't have any problem, and I didn't like, I just moved the truth around a little.

It ended up being a lot of fun. The group of people were very accepting of the fact that I didn't like fizzy drinks, and thus didn't really like drinking beer like most of them were doing. They didn't drink to get drunk... they got a little tipsy but that is an improvement from what I've been exposed to at college.

I actually struggled with my morals a lot on this trip. I don't drink in the US- other than having a sip or there to try something. It's illegal, and I don't like how drink lowers your IQ and impairs your thought process. My brain is one of my favorite attributes. So I wasn't quite sure how to conduct myself on the cruise. Part of me wanted to have and drink alcohol, because I was curious. Also, because at school I'm known for not drinking, but here nobody had a previous opinion of me.

Well, my curiosity got the better of me, and I ended up having two Strawberry Daiquiri's, which to my senses did nothing, but they were the only alcohol I drank on the whole trip. I also bought some Bailey's Irish Cream (because I love that stuff) and some cognac, which I've been wanting to try. I haven't yet, I figure I'll save it.

Then came the doozy. The group did buy beer- in bulk for all the parties they might have in the future. They might also sell it at a minor profit.

But all in all the trip was nice. While we were hanging out during various parts of the trip I attempted to learn Swedish songs, and they sang a bunch of English songs like "Wild Rover" which I love and enjoy. One of the guys brought his miniature guitar, (which has a name starting with a U that I can't remember or spell) and played accompaniment to different stuff. I shared with them my rendition of "Biddy McGraw." They thought it was quite amusing.

Later, I mentioned I had brought my flashcards with me, and one of the guys insisted on helping me with them, by also telling me cultural impressions of the words, and also telling me if there was any way to make the word dirty. *snickers* It was a lot of fun.

Lastly, I got some great pictures that I'll share with you, but in the next post, because I don't want them to squish this post.

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