In Oslo,Norway baby!

I'm in Oslo, Norway and ready to take on the city! Dad has to work, so I'm going to be wandering around on my own.

FUN FUN.

NOT in Oslo

Now, you may be wondering why that is since I was supposed to be on a bus this morning to the Airport so I could meet up with dad. Turns out snowstorms in the states have got the planes out of sync, so dad missed his flight to Oslo.

I found this out sometime this morning, or last night, just after Midnight when Mom called me.

So now I'm flying out TOMORROW morning, same time.

God, I hope things go all right.

REALLY bad day.

The following is an edited version of the series of events I sent in a letter:

This is one of the days that you just shouldn't leave the house. Really. Forgive me if I sound a bit bitter, and perhaps part of it is being in an unfamiliar place, but today was a day I do not want to repeat again.

Things went all right until lunch. Then, I decided I needed to get my food subsidy money cashed and my graded papers from the University, since it looked like I wasn't going to get to a museum or to do anything really productive.

A quick internet search later, I left armed with the different locations of the Nordisa (I know that spelling is wrong but we'll go with it) in my pocket, and determination. I got on the subway and started heading to the nearest one. I went there, and they informed me that I needed to have a Swedish person with me because they could not know if I was the person on my passport. Ok. I get frustrated, but that's all right, they're probably being strict so I'll just go to the next bank. After all, I know I CAN cash at check at Nordisa, I did it in Visby all right. So I get on the subway and head to the second location. It turns out just to be an ATM kisok, after I walk about half a mile. OK. Great. Excersize. That is good considering I've been an invalid for the past four days.

I go to the next place. Oh, they're relocating. Wonderful. At this point, I'm close to the University, so I go and pick up my papers and stuff. Then I turn around. I'm frustrated, it's cold, and it's getting to be almost three o'clock- banks close at four. I get on the subway... and happen to notice a sign for the Mika concert I'm going to. Except... wait a moment. It says the 9th. That's the day I'm leaving to go see Dad in Oslo. But I thought the concert was on the 8th... Well, I just happen to have the tickets with me, I'll just take them out and look at them and... SHOOT.

I have the wrong day.

Now, take note, these tickets have caused me some trouble, being more expensive than I was first quoted, then the girl that was planning to go with me having to cancel, (so now I'm saddled with two tickets and she never paid me for hers), so then Anita offers to go with me, and now, wonder of wonders, I've got the wrong day. I've been functioning thinking that the concert was on Thursday, but no, it's on FRIDAY. And I'm going to miss it. Because I GOT THE WRONG DAY.

Of course, because I'm on the subway, I now have time to think of the repercussions of my actions, and the fact that Mom is going to be furious with me because she already gave me the talk about keeping my spending down while I'm in Sweden (because when I first got here I got the conversion rate wrong AND I didn't know that there was a service charge on my credit card... I asked and the people SAID there wouldn't be). And now, I'm being frivilous about money because I've just sunk 100 dollars into tickets to my first ever real concert and in EUROPE of all places and Anita thinks she's going with me on Thursday but it's not Thursday it's Friday and well, SHIT.

So I stew all over this while I go to the third Nordisa bank, and they flat out tell me they won't cash my check because I don't have an account with them.

I go out of the bank and cry.

I then proceed to go back home and cry to Sam who tries to be supportive but I'm having none of it because all I have in my brain is thinking about looking really really stupid in front of Anita and telling my parents and them being FURIOUS.

Narrator intervention. I then proceeded to rehash the whole argument, which, unless you were there, was not very interesting other than both mom and I loosing our tempers, me getting off the phone and crying. I also spoke to dad before speaking to mom; and dad was a lot calmer.

A while later I get back on the phone with them again, and we figure things out so that I can go a two days earlier, on Wednesday. And now, on with the excerpt:

I'm happy I'm leaving earlier, but I'm also emotionally wrung dry, and I keep ocliating between wanting to cry and just feeling ambivalent.

So... yeah.

I'm still smarting from everything. Gabe's delighted about the tickets, now that the show's on Friday he can go, and take a friend if he wants. And I need to be packed and leave the apartment by... 5:15 am tomorrow morning. And I have no clean Laundry, because that was what I was planning on doing tomorrow. That is, I have clean laundry to go, but I'll have to clothes to wear when I come back.

Joy.

SNOW

My first snowfall in Sweden. It's been raining like Noah's flood lately, and finally it got cold enough that I woke up this morning and looked out the window to snow! You have no clue how delighted I was.

It didn't stick for long, which suited me, but it was still quite exciting to see. I took pictures!

The view is from the apartment.

Backpostage... 'cause I'm behind

I'm actually writing this on the 9th, but filing it on the 4th, because my sense of Order demands it so.

So what has been happening lately? Well, I was sick from Friday the 2nd until Monday the 5th. However, on Saturday I THOUGHT I was all better, so I decided to go with Anita and Magnus to see the "Day of the Dead" celebration thingie they have. It's not called Day of the Dead, and it isn't the festival you hear about in Spanish-speaking countries, but on the Saturday after All Hallows, many Swedes go to the graveyards of the people they've lost, light candles and honor them. The sentiment was something I appreciated, and something I kinda wish was more popular in the 'states. We went to one of the biggest Cemetaries in Sweden to light our candles- because both Anita and Magnus' family live far away, and the importance of the holiday is about remembering, not where you are.

It was, quite simply, beautiful. It's one of the few cemeteries that has a forest in it, and as we walked the cemetery you could see all the candles- oftentimes more than one candle- at almost every grave. There had to be traffic control to channel the flow of people.

Unfortunately, it was more walking than Anita made it sound, and I very quickly discovered that I was not up to my normally charged batteries. I had to go home because I was feeling faint. Still glad I went though.

In other news, take a look at this:

Yes, it's what it seems. A purple potato. It comes from Gotland. Anita says something in the soil makes them look that way. I really want to make mashed potatoes out of them simply because of the color. It also puts a whole new spin on the song, 'Purple Stew' that's sung at camp.

Ugh- Day Two

Warning: This post, upon re-reading, is not for the faint of heart!

I wish I had something more interesting to write about, but this is day two of not feeling well. The Nausea of yesterday has lessened, but general abdominal cramping and misery have taken it's place. I have that wonderful mixture of being hungry yet having no real urge to eat. And my stomach and lower intestines have been making some really interesting noises.

Probably stemming from my stomach distress, I had horrible dreams of intestinal worms and strange writhing creatures. The best one was when I met this woman in the dream who thought she was pregnant, but when she went into labor had snakes and worms coming out of her belly button and other... areas. She managed to live and was taken to the hospital, where they gave her a drug that should kill any of the remaining worm/snakes in her body. However, she wasn't able to expel them... she was susposed to digest them apparently. So a doctor decided to open up her stomach (and they didn't even put her to sleep- they just stuck a needle into her spine and numbed everything below her ribcage) where he proceeded to open up her stomach and look at her intestines (which resembled stuffed sausages), and when he split one open, it was filled with dead baby snakes, which they took a vacuum to and sucked out. Unfortunately, it was one of those clear vacuums, where you can see the dirt in the container, and so you could see the dead snakes getting stuffed wetly into the container, some of them splitting open so black juices collected at the bottom.

I woke feeling quite sick, and proceeded to stare at the wall, and put my covers on me and get too hot, only to take them off and get too cold.

I went back to sleep, and this time I was in a park I had went to with Anita where there was a lake. I was sitting on the shore, when suddenly, this blue and yellow dragon/serpent came out of the water, crying, "I am the Swedish Dragon, hear me roar!"

And I asked, "Don't you think Swedish Serpent is a bit more catchy?"

The dragon paused in it's ferocious and terrible display to peer down at me. "Do you think so? 'Cause I was afraid of getting mixed up with my cousin, the Loc Ness. She is, after all, a serpent."

"Sucks, I was always thinking she was some type of prehistoric water dinosaur."*

"Nah, she's a real serpent. Now our aunt who lives in the Great Lakes in the US is a real plesiosaur. But she's a sweetheart. Only eats fish. Unlike me, who has found you, a non-swede to eat!" Because of course, the Swedish Serpent couldn't eat Swedes, because that wouldn't be very nationalistic of him, and after all, he's got the coloring and everything so he has to go along with his role.

But I convinced him that I would better be served as his publicity person, because being the Swedish Serpent he'd need someone to spin the news the right way so he wasn't seen as a threat. So I hopped on his back and into the air. (Because he was after all, more like a dragon, with wings-even if he did live in the water)

Unfortunately, he also was a bit of a show-off, and decided to go into a free-fall dive, whereupon my stomach did somersaults and I woke up.

But as I said, today has been been getting steadily better. And I get to look forward going to Oslo to see my dad at the end of break, from Friday to Monday morning, when I come home.

YEY!


*Note: I found out after doing a bit of research that there were no such things as prehistoric water dinosaurs. They were more like reptiles that gave birth to live young. Interesting.

Ugh

God, I'm not feeling well. I wanted to finish up my proposal, but somewhere around ten I just started feeling really car-sick, without the being in a car. It's been coming and going in waves.

And I hate not feeling well in an unfamiliar place. And while I'm getting more and more comfortable in Sweden, I'm not that comfortable.

So I'm going to bed at an early hour and hoping it's gone by tomorrow.