I feel accomplished!

I actually feel like I got out and did things today - maybe it’s because I DID. Orientation tends to have that effect on people.

I accidentally woke up at 6:30am and couldn’t fall back asleep (still haven’t properly adjusted my sleeping schedule), but I just spent time catching up on a tv show. At breakfast I met another one of my neighbors, Elin, who is from Austria. So there are only exchange students in my hall so far - Me, Elin from Austria, Mustafa from Iraq, and Nikolas from Finland. Thankfully, Elin asked me how I felt about the kitchen and when I said it was disgusting and that we all need to get together to clean, he agreed. So good news there! Maybe this won’t be so terrible after all…

At orientation I met up with Nick and Kena and then met too many people to name. Some from Italy, the US, Germany, Belgium, France, Japan…I’m sure I forgot everyone’s names too. Whoops. All we had to do was sign up for various activities during the week and get our temporary student ID that lets us into all the nations (I will explain this concept later…it’s like exclusive clubs, one of which each student must join). This took nearly an hour. Not entirely sure why but I will blame it on the fact that Scandinavian keyboards have a 2nd alt key and that confuses people when they need to type the @ symbol to enter their e-mail address in the system. After this, we went on a “practical tour” of Uppsala which just showed us a lot of the same things I’ve already seen, as well as probably upset a lot of Swedes as we took up the entire sidewalk and flooded into the streets. When we were done, a bunch of us went and got lunch at Burger King. I didn’t want to, but the majority of them did so I said forget it. Oh well…we split up at this point and Kena and I headed toward the International Office so I could pick up my welcome packet and Kena and I could try switching out rooms (his hallmates are messy too).

I quickly met with my coordinator Kerstin (cher-stin) and spoke with her in Swedish, which was good practice. She explained I got all my classes and I needed to see/e-mail all my professors for the schedule. So weird, huh? I better do that this week if I plan on getting to class on time on Monday. I also got my new sim card but it doesn’t work in my phone…crap…and a new one costs 400kr at the cheapest, so I’m hoping my mom can unlock mine at home and it’ll work? We stopped by housing to try and switch but as I figured, they’re way overbooked. So no switching for either of us two. However, they have these sign up sheets where you fill out info about your place and where you’d like to move and anyone looking to switch can check them out. If someone is interested, they’ll contact you or you can come back in awhile and see if there’s anyone who you’d want to switch with. Good enough for now I suppose.

I said bye to Kena and went off on my own. It was 2pm and I needed to find the Economics building by 3pm to register for classes. No problem! I walked around aimlessly for 20 minutes before really looking and only then did I realize I was way out in some residential neighborhood not even heading back toward the river, oops. I was late but that’s okay because the info on my sheet was wrong and I didn’t need to be there are 3! Stupid. Then after wandering the halls for 20 more minutes, I found the guy I needed to talk to but there was some kid there taking FOR-EVER asking questions and stuff. After 20 more minutes, it turns out he wasn’t even the guy I was supposed to see and the other guy wasn’t even there! Plus, there is no real need for international students to visit their professors - they prefer e-mail. Great. However, I did find out later tonight that WAS the correct professor, but I had asked about the incorrect class…oops. I just shot him an e-mail though, whatever.

After my 8+ mile trek around town, I was so ready to go back to my apartment and rip my feet off. That was nice to rest until I had to pick my bike up from a friend. I will say one thing - it is a bike. I have transportation for free! But it is the crappiest thing ever. It is really wobbly and I feel like I might fall over any second. Plus it only has back breaks…I was too afraid to ride on the road as everyone else did so I walked it halfway back to my apartment until there was a bike path on the sidewalk. I need to shake the feeling from the car accident and know no one - especially in Sweden - is going to run me down.

I came back home to find someone had moved all MY food from my designated cabinet onto the counter and they replaced it with their silverwear and food. Um HELLO? If I have my things in there, even if they might be just 3 things, this does not mean “Please remove and use the cabinet after I cleaned it!” I moved everything back, added my cereal to the cupboard, and then set his into another cupboard I know is available for someone to claim (even though it is messy…like I said, I cleaned mine!). I cannot stand the idea of someone else touching my things like that and moving them without asking. I’m thinking I’ll stick a note in there saying not to touch my things…I was also considering saying I have major anxiety regarding food and germs so no one else can touch my things and the kitchen needs to be clean haha. Maybe.