11 hours of flying later…

I am officially in Uppsala! I planned on writing sooner but I only just took my first two hour nap in a span of a 26 hour period. I wasn’t feeling too great before.

So the flying. I got to the airport WAY too early (we’re talking three hours here) so I wasted a lot of time doing nothing after saying goodbye to Jordan, Mom, and Manda. Once we were allowed to board, it was time for the 9.5 hour flight to France. Isn’t that weird? When I flew to Copenhagen from Seattle, it was a 9.5 hour flight…I’m not nearly going as far, but it’s the same length of time because we can’t fly over the top of the world. Thankfully, they offered a ton of movies and despite the hour-long issues with the tv screens, I got to watch Star Trek (for the fourth time?), 17 Again (it was funny enough), and an episode of Gossip Girl. I had an aisle seat, which was nice but zero leg room…unfortunate. I tried my best to sleep but no luck even after waking up at 5am that morning. We got two meals - dinner and breakfast, and dinner was awful. Ohhhh well. As we were flying over Paris, I became more and more excited for my trip ahead! Not sure why considering I’m not living in France, but I’ll take those feelings regardless.

After arriving in Paris, I had only an hour to change planes. No biggie I figured considering my bags would transfer themselves to the next flight! WRONG. We had to take shuttles off the airplane and I missed the first one. Then I had to transfer shuttles to get to a new terminal and of course, missed that first one as well because it was too full. I finally got there and we had to go through the passport agents plus rescanning all our carry-ons. They required EVERY electronic out of the bag so my perfectly packed backpack became a mess because they needed my SLR out of the bottom and all the cables out of the baggy I brought. Fine. I got to my gate right at 9:40am as it was set to leave but I’m so lucky - the flight was delayed and people were only just boarding. Thank goodness. This flight was only 2.5 hours and it passed quickly. We got more food and yes it was terrible.

Finally I was in Sweden! It’s such a beatiful day here - maybe 73 - and perfect in everyway. The water ways all over Stockholm looked amazing from in the plane. I got off quickly (I was in the 7th row, holla!) and my bags were among the first to come out. My cheap suitcase was a bit worse for wear though with a massive rip in the front pocket. Good thing I didn’t put anything in there…I think? I need to do a better check of my things tomorrow when I’m not so sleepy. I hired a taxi to take me to my hotel because one. I didn’t want to wait for a bus and two. I didn’t think they’d let me take so much luggage on there. Not to mention, the issue of me getting my things from the bus to the hotel. But anyway - my taxi driver drove like a psycho. He was texting/calling people. Changed lanes without blinkers. Drove down the middle of the two lanes on the highway. Drove on people’s bumpers. AND was watching some weird 70s Swedish pop dvd on a screen in the front seat? But no one was bothered by it. In fact, I noticed other cars gave way and did some of the very same things. I guess I’ll be getting over my issues with driving if I continue to see this sort of thing. Sadly, the radio was on while we were driving at first and it was the same old as home. Bor-ing.

Not much to say about the rest of my day. I checked into my hotel and I signed my housing contract. I get to see my apartment tomorrow! But it’s just very pleasant walking around and listening to people and enjoying the summer weather. Sadly, I’ve been a bit too nervous to speak Swedish just yet but I’m hoping that’ll change tomorrow because I need to book another taxi to take me to my apartment. I have another night in the hotel so I’ll take all my bags there, unpack, maybe get sheets at IKEA and then save more shopping for the next day. I’m trying to stay up for another 2 or 3 hours so I can just sleep the night away and beat jet lag! Let’s hope it all goes well!