A Loooong Week

Ugh. I never meant to wait this long to write (4 days!?) but I became so busy with everything else and then by night I was too tired so I hope you’ll forgive this belated post.

Monday

I can’t remember much of what we did that day, shoot. Sorry. I had class in the morning and then went and met Nick and our friend from Swedish class at home, Leif-Erik/Dylan (I’m not sure which he prefers as in Swedish class he went by his real name L-E and Dylan by our mutual friends…). We showed him around Uppsala as he was visiting from Stockholm and then grabbed lunch. It was pretty fun but I had to leave them to head back to class. However, I had a massive headache by the time I got there and decided to just head home and read my book for class instead of attending. Amanda and I went grocery shopping so not too exciting beside that. Oh and I decided we wouldn’t be going to the animal park as I didn’t want to travel two days in a row and spend so much money.

Tuesday

I only had class for two hours today (YES!) and besides getting some worksheet that was due Thursday, we didn’t do much else. I’m seeing more and more how easy this class is despite it being in Swedish. All my classmates seem pretty lazy haha.

Anyway, then I went to the train station to meet Amanda and we were off to Stockholm! It took a bit to get tickets because our debit cards refuse to work at any automatic machines or with use of pin numbers (except for atms) so we had to wait in line at the ticket office and charge it. Then on our way to the city, our train had random technical problems which left us in the middle of no where for a good 20 minutes. Nice job. We finally got there a bit past 2 and after getting a tourist map, we were off to the shopping street. They had 4 H&Ms (weird, eh?) and we stopped in one of them and got a few cute things. We were both stoked to check out Top Shop too as the only one in the US is in NYC but it ended up being more spendy than we thought and Manda wasn’t having any of that. So shopping ended abruptly.

We headed to the water to try and get to Skansen, an outdoor park with animals and such. Sadly, the boats had stopped going for the day so we just walked along the harbor and took photos. We crossed onto one island and saw the outside of the Viking Museum. I wish I could have gone, but Manda was done with today and we took a bus back to the train station. After waiting for 40 minutes for the ticket counter, we bought our tickets and hurried off to the next train. We got home a little past dinner and were exhausted after the day out. I really wish I could have spent more time walking around, but I guess I can go by myself later.

Wednesday

No class today! Holla! I wanted to spend the majority of the day catching up on my reading but since we were no longer going to the animal park, we went into town to try and buy our family some gifts. Sadly, we couldn’t find anything (there’s not many boutiques with things that scream Sweden to be honest) so we ended up clothes shopping, whoops. No more of that for me for awhile. I did get some much needed boots and purse though. Now all that’s left on my to-buy list is a nice winter coat. Oh! I also figured out my phone after buying some minutes for it haha. While it’s not the best plan, it’s free to call or text any of the other exchange students as they’re on the same network. They get you with costs of calling other networks like 1kr (1/7 dollar) to text someone. Dang. I also bought Män som hatar kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) for my dad, although I have no clue how he plans to watch it without English subtitles. Whatever he can figure it out!

I went home and studied for a bit and then I was back out to watch Inglorious Basterds with Sarah, Julia, and several of Julia’s classmates. This was the first time for me being in a Swedish movie theatre and while tickets are usually 120kr (18 bucks), there are special student prices on specific movies Monday-Thursday for only 60kr (9). The theatre itself is really small and it’s weird that the lights are still on and everyone talks throughout the previews. Apparently it’s not that big of a deal here. Then they have to shut the curtains before beginning the movie haha…weird. The movie was pretty good, though I had to really focus during the French and German parts to read the Swedish subtitles. Excellent. I opted out hanging out with everyone after the movie and went home to study some more and figure out the stupid assignment that was stressing me out for economics. I had no idea what to do!

Thursday

Class again and I was ready to turn in my homework. I stayed up late to catch up reading and figure out what the worksheet was about, alright! I come to class and not one person around me did the assignment…all their sheets are blank. What. We didn’t even turn it in and the professor spent 30 minutes going over it and people were confused. Ughhhh. Really everyone? Sheesh. After break, I had to hurry home and grab my medication because I forgot it when I left that morning and then I went downtown to meet my other classmate from Swedish class, Chris and his friend Chris. I played tour guide for the 3rd time in 2 weeks and we checked out the castle and church again…same old same old. They bought me lunch for my trouble, which was nice. And we just walked around and had a good time. It was nice getting to know Chris better as I didn’t talk to him much in class. I left them around 5 as I had to get home to eat before heading back into town for choir.

Unfortunately, Amanda had a bit of an accident and broke my wooden window sill and my 5 grass plants are ruined…so we hurried to the store to buy a broom and other essentials so she could clean while I was out. Sadly, they were only sprouts and now I need to go buy those plants again…at least none of the pots broke, huh? Amanda had to wash my curtain too and now it feels weird and stiff compared to the other one, sigh.

I went to choir and talked with a fellow alto, Sophia. For some reason, I always have issues speaking Swedish during choir. It’s like I’m focusing so hard on singing and memorizing the words, I get jumbled trying to speak in Swedish so I end up going over to English. Oh well. Next week is our concert at the reccegasque (which I still need to buy tickets for…) and I desperately need to memorize the songs. However, we can’t take the music home? What am I supposed to do?

I watched Män som hatar kvinnor as Manda finished getting ready and didn’t get to bed until late…then Manda got up at 4am to catch the taxi I called for her and she made so much noise D: So much for a good night of sleep.

Friday

Today is my resting day. I’ve cleaned a bit and went grocery shopping for basic things like sugar, flour, olive oil, vinegar, etc. I don’t trust the community stuff because I’m worried it’s been here for too long or left open…ick. Especially after someone in another apartment said they found worms in the flour ahhhh. I had planned on making pasta and pesto for lunch but now the stove won’t start. Add this on top of some issue with the fridge ruining all my fresh fruit and veggies 2 days after purchase, I’m getting fairly sick of my kitchen. I e-mailed for a repair and I e-mailed the student union asking why I don’t have my username or password for the student portal. I need to log in and sign up for a group in my class or I’ll be out of luck…gah. But as I said before, I’m just staying in today and resting after this massively busy week. I’m hoping to read “The Girl who Played with Fire” this weekend as the movie comes out in Sweden in 2 weeks.