Uppsala Adventure

ugh I wanted to go out and do things today but I’ve got a fever and my head hurts and I really think it’d just be better if I just stayed home and watched Hallmark Christmas romances.

I complain a lot

This feeling of being unreasonably cold comes and goes, so I’m p sure that means my immune system is doing something about it. It’s probably also got something to do with how messed up my sleep schedule is. Last night I emailed my dad at four in the morning asking how the wind works and if we could use solar wind to time travel. Go to bed Kate. How does the wind even work though? He only sent me a sarcastic picture of a souped up Delorean and that really doesn’t tell me how air pressure works. That’s a great movie btw. Kate Recommends you watch Back to the Future Series. 

Ok, on to the important stuff because I’m sure none of you care about the stuff above.

Yesterday I went to Uppsala with Aakanksha and her host mom and host brother. We went to this really big church where Gustav Vasa is buried (You’d better click that link. he was boss) and then we met up with Aakanksha’s host cousin and her host cousin’s boyfriend at a cafe. The cafe was absolutely gorg and super fancy and I wish Espresso House was that cool.

Afterwards we went to the castle to look at a peace museum (it was about Dag Hammarskjöld) and then we went to the Uppsala universitetsbibliotek where there were a bunch of historical books and documents and maps and the Silver Bible made me drool. The boyfriend was studying art history and so he explained the history of the materials to us and I just wanted to die because we were so lucky to have guide.

If you haven’t noticed I’m really into asking questions and knowing the hows and whys of stuff. Knowing things makes me feel good.

We went to a few more museums that talked about the abuse of Orangutans and the deforestation in Borneo and how we should never ever buy anything made with palm oil to boycott those kinds of practices. It was a really nice day and I love Aakanksha’s host mom.

MY MITTENS ARE BACK FROM THE WASH AND WOW IT’S SO NICE TO HAVE WARM HANDS AGAIN

my beautiful friends back home sent me this super cute care package and it was full of poptarts and mac n cheese and hot chocolate. Also many bottles of bubbles. Those will come in handy.

this is the outside of that big church in Uppsala

Aakanksha and her host brother

It was raining and none of us had umbrellas

more church

swedish graffiti makes me laugh so much

I bought a replica of this for the exchange students to sign instead of a Swedish flag

the silver bibllllllle

haha oops. This photo is irony at its highest though.

Aakanksha about to be shot by a cannon

everything was so pretty it hurt

aren’t we cute?

this was in the care package along with a million stickers. I love it.

 

 

Please Forgive Me!

It’s been forever. I know. I’m sorry. Kind of. Ugh. Nothing incredibly interesting happens that I haven’t already written about, and I don’t want to bore you all to tears. There’s a fun video and some groovy pictures with this post though, so you get twice as much from me this time than normal!

So…

Um.

On Tuesday last week I missed my first 2 classes due to a killer headache and on Friday I almost missed that really amazing SFF teacher’s last day because I turned off my alarm and woke up an hour late. I went to school and caught the last 30 minutes of class though and said goodbye and it all turned out okay.

I wrote 4ish pages of that Humanistics paper and I’m supposed to be writing more right now (we get to stay home during humanistics because they don’t feel like booking the computer labs for us at school) but I’m doing this and drinking Apple Cider instead.

I was supposed to see Christal today, but she cancelled and so I think I’m going to email her because I have a lot of things to ask her about EuroTour and London.

Even if I can do EuroTour, I still want to go to London because that’s not on the trip list and it would be silly to not go considering how cheap the tickets are. Aakanksha has some cousins living there near the airport and McKenzie has a family friend closer to the city there, so they’re going to talk to them and see if they would be willing to take us in for a few days, and I need to talk to Christal and see if it’s okay to go.

I jumped a fence on the way back to the train to get home on Thanksgiving because we took a wrong turn and the whole thing was fenced in and I thought we would be late if we didn’t hop over the fence to get to the station. The fence was one of those weak bendy ones though and you can’t exactly climb that type, so I just kind of laid on top and fell over to the other side and I got these freaky looking bruises from it and ripped my favorite pair of tights, and I definitely learned my lesson about floppy fences.

For those of you not in the know, I got accepted to the University of Mary Washington a few days ago and I might have cried a little.

Cecil Baldwin is still always sick (super annoying). OH! I saw his tattoo super close up the other day! It’s a weird scale thing with words written in Hebrew. The real Cecil Baldwin just released another chilling podcast in the Welcome to Night Vale series.

I think I just finished the MVP Elks scholarship. Clap for me. It’s been days.

We go ice skating a lot. I’m going to be a professional figure skater when I get home.

idk. what else do you want to hear about? Thanksgiving was cool? Not much to talk about there though that the pictures and video don’t say. 

a different library than the usual one I go to

the statue in the middle of the rink

Gabriella

the bruises

I’m a professional blogger, so I can update as often as I see fit

Alright. Where did we leave off last?

Um so. This weekend I went to the library and got some books that I probably won’t read. (I only want to read The Book Thief right now, but I can’t find it, so I guess I won’t read at all.) I walked around until I was a Kate-sicle and then I got on the train and went home. The rest of the night was spent skyping with my parents and that was nice.

On Monday I went to school at 13:00 for my only class of the day, but no one opened the door when I knocked, so I figured it got cancelled and hopped onto the train. I rode for like two hours because I didn’t feel like going home. I got off at the slutstation (it means last station, but I call it the slut station, which is definitely my stop 😉 jkjk ) and got some risifruitti which is basically my life. I only eat risifrutti and tea now. I think drowning in either one might be an okay way to go. The only time I stop thinking about how much I want some is when I have some. And even then, I’m thinking that I wish I had more. I will probably have to go to addict meetings when I get back to America.

On Tuesday I made vegetable soup for dinner, but no one really ate it, so it’s my duty to finish it off before friday. Thermoses of soup abound. I am always drinking it. It’s a little off putting when you get to the chunks, but I do my best.

Today I slept until 10:00 exactly which is when my English class starts. Somehow my alarm got turned off and I missed class. Amazing. This must be how it feels to go to college. Wake up late, school day is over already. So I spent all of today drinking tea and looking at scholarships and eating grapefruits.

I’m feeling like I’m going back to my middle school days because lately I’ve been listening to exclusively musicals. You just can’t stop the beat, my friends. Showtunes are where it’s at. I like how they don’t really repeat and how I can use a funny voice when I sing and it sounds right and how every musical has the same sort of sound in each song, so you can sing along even if you don’t know how it goes exactly.

How To Be Awkward: a guide

I just really don’t know how to make friends? Like I don’t want to appear clingy? But I also don’t want to appear standoffish? And so today when we were walking to lunch, I was waiting for Farida and then she was waiting for someone else at one point, and I just kept walking and then I got in the lunch line before them, and I didn’t know where to sit, so I ended up sitting with kids I don’t usually talk to, which I suppose is fine, but it felt weird and then when we were on the bus they were all talking to each other and I didn’t know if I was a part of their conversation, so I just stayed quiet and ugghhh. I WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT ENTAILS. okay? I’m really into run on sentences if you hadn’t noticed.

Gucci has a cone on her head right now because she got in a cat fight and her leg got ripped open. She’s very sad and very noise and likes it when you scratch where the cone sits and I don’t know if I could handle Sneakers having a cone on his head because I feel bad enough for Gucci and I don’t even care that much about her in the first place.

That sounded cold. I care, but she’s not mine. I guess I have compassion for her. There. Compassion.

Cecil Baldwin saw one of his attackers on the subway so he took a few pictures of him, found a student who witnessed the crime, and they’re going to go to the police station together to make a report. HOORAY FOR JUSTICE! In other news, religion is interesting, but I can’t understand anything, only look at pictures. Astrid translated the pages about Ethics for me, so maybe I’ll learn something yet.

Question: when the college website says that I need to take at least five classes my senior year, do they mean that I need to pass five classes my senior year? I’m very stressed out about this.

I’ll have the music video ready for you guys next thursday. Wish me luck! (say: Lycka Till!)

I don’t wanna apply for colleeeeeeeege :(((((((((

It’s so harrrrrrd you guiiiiiiiiisssee. Essays, and personal information I don’t have, and asking for recommendations, and paying to send it in, and uggghhh.

Anyway, I should probably tell you all about the highlights of the past two days. Ugh. I don’t want to do this either. I’m getting increasingly lazy. Here we go:

1. Humanistics for three hours = Kate reads Jane Eyre for three hours, taking breaks to talk to Jonatan when everyone else seems to be talking to each other.

2. Lunch = colored penne and meat sauce = what Jonatan says is this is the best school lunch I’m going to get.

3. Natural Science Teacher = missing = we “study for an hour and a half and go home = we eat chocolate covered nuts and talk until we feel like going home

4. Music Class = We finished the song, now we just need to add Rickard and guitar

5. Swedish For Foreigners = That teacher is nuts. Today we learned about geography and how to say the letter y. Amazing.

6. Religion = OMG CECIL BALDWIN WAS MUGGED!!!!!!! He told us this story about how four giant guys came and pushed him against this wall and kicked him in the back and stole his phone and money and no one helped him even though he was on a busy street and had blood streaming down his face. He was asking for help but people just passed him by and WOW. Crazy stuff man. He’s got this big ‘ol bruise on his cheek and I guess he has to go to the doctor to get his back checked out.

7. Lunch = frijoles y carne. I thought we were in Sweden? But that’s what was written on the little descriptor card. Anyway, it tasted like taco meat with kidney beans in it. I mostly just drank the milk.

The view from another window.

OR you can have hash browns with jelly. The other option was the penne and meat sauce. So many options. Good thing it’s free!

Hashbrowns with Lingon sauce?

Making Friends on the way to school

this little guy almost got hit by the train!