So all week I’ve been feeling pretty awful and I was feeling super duper awful today so I wasn’t able to go to school or the fotografiska museet with my photography club which was sad, but I was able to marathon romcoms, so Kate Recommends: About Time, The Switch, The Proposal, and He’s Just Not That Into You. Also, 12 Years A Slave is super amazing and you SHOULDN’T watch The Secret Life of Walter Mitty or Lizzie Borden Took an Ax or Flowers in the Attic because they’re reallllly boring. If Oliver is reading this (which I hope he isn’t. stop reading my blog. all of you. I get freaked out when you other exchange students talk to me about my blog.) I’m sorry I didn’t watch The Mighty Boosh yet! I just remembered it while I was typing this up! Someday, I promise.
Yesterday was the worst day of my entire exchange. I’m going to steal pictures from other people’s blogs because I was to distraught to do naught but film.
Here is some context for the day I’m about to talk about
Thursday: Signing of the flags
Friday: Saying goodbye to Perth.
Afterwards I went home with Brooke and helped her pack a bit. She gave me a bunch of stuff that was weighing her suitcase down and now I’ve got Aussie stickers and a really cool Aussie lanyard and summer clothes that will remind me of her everytime I wear them. I almost don’t want summer to come now.
That night I slept over at McKenzie’s house and while we were falling asleep she asked me to tell her my life story, but she fell asleep halfway into it. I hope she’s reading this right now.
<USA?
Saturday: Went on a walk with McKenzie because it SNOWED!!! < jk
< I ate some
I lost my SL card on the walk and now I’ve got to get a new one in a mail. Meanwhile I can’t really go anywhere. I was supposed to go to school on Monday for my Natural Science class, but when I woke up I couldn’t make myself go outside and walk all the way to school in the cold for a class that I hate, sit there for an hour, and then walk all the way back home. Google maps says it would have taken me well over an hour, and I’m a slow walker, so I’m going to say it would have taken me two, making adjustments for getting lost. Uphill both ways. Through the snow. With wolves chasing us. We didn’t even own shoes.
Later that day I met up with McKenzie, Tanner, Narain, and Abigail. We ate deep dish pizza from Pizza Hut (it was amazing, fyi. Everyone told me Pizza Hut was a bad idea and that Swedes couldn’t do it right, but they were wrong.) and then went to Max for ice cream. I called my papa and talked to him for a while which was SUPER DUPER COOL! I miss talking to my parents on the phone. Skype is different. I just want to be able to call my friends and tell them pointless things and send them pictures of things that remind me of them and I just want to go home, only I don’t because I don’t want to go back to working two jobs or my life with my monotonous high school schedule from 8:00 to 3:20 and I would like to go on EuroTour right now and then return home for college. I’m so jealous of the Australians. Jerks.
We told our parents about this live camera in Stockholm that shows the weather, and then we went to it and stood in front of it so that our parents could see that we were still alive.
< we’re the group standing in front of the circle thing< sick photo of me high fiving tanner< trying to figure out where the live cam is
< Abigail and Tanner touching a heated statue’s belly
<waving at the camera
< <hot hot hey we got it, hot hot woah we got it, hot hot yeah we got it, HOT CHOCOLATE
Sunday: I hate this day. I don’t want to talk about this day. I’m going to anyway because I don’t know how else to get over it.
We woke up at 4:45, and I threw some clothes on and ate a piece of half frozen bread which I later felt like throwing up. We got on the train. We got off the train. We got on another train. (Because I’m only a lil bb, possessing only 17 tender years, I got to ride the Arlanda Express for free. All of the adult children feigned stupidity and bought senior citizen tickets instead of the full priced ones.) We got off at the airport. I didn’t think I was going to cry because I was so tired, but I was wrong as usual. Brooke and Oliver walked in and then I saw Emily crying and I just wanted to lay down in the fetal position for the rest of my life. Emily cheered me up by singing songs and doing interpretive dance and telling me the story about how she became Orky Idol and her name was on a sign welcoming people to her town of Orky in Canada. She’s great. I want a Pocket Emily to cheer me up every time I’m sad.
We said goodbye and everyone was crying except for Aakanksha who was too stunned to do anything but stare.
I don’t know what else to say. I feel like you all can understand how terrible it is to know that you will never see someone ever again for the rest of your life. I mean, there’s skype, but it’s not the same. I feel like Miles in LfA, wondering when he’ll forget Alaska’s name and when it won’t hurt so much to remember. So dramatic. Someone pinch me. God. I need to get over myself.
<Emily and I < Sam and Beth <Brooke and McKenzie < Hugging Brooke goodbye <Me, Oliver, and Emily
< Narain dying
< SEE YOU SOON!!!!< Breno showing off his cool shirt
The Rest of The Day:
We took the bus back into Stockholm so that the adult children wouldn’t have to pay. Narain was silently crying, Breno was showing off his Alaskan presents Carley had given him, Emily was talking about YouTube, Somehow we all broke out into “I Dreamed a Dream”, I’m sure the other passengers were very confused and annoyed. The emotional distress we were all in was a little too overwhelming at this point for any of us to care though, I suppose.
I was a little upset that we were in Sweden at this point and not a country with a Denny’s because I really needed some pancakes and everyone agreed that Denny’s was what they were craving. Let it be tradition from now on that whenever something tragic happens, Denny’s is the place to go. Get some crisp bacon and maple syrup and put your head down on the table. Denny’s don’t mind. Denny’s will take care of you.
Tanner needed to meet his host mom at noon so Emily, Narain, and I all waited with him after grabbing some food from Coop. This ended up being not such a good idea because I was already dying and wanted to throw up from all of the stress. Yogurt isn’t something you should drink when you feel nauseated. We ended up at Espresso House later and then H&M to get Tanner a hat. I begged Emily to come with me to pick up my stuff from McKenzie’s house because I couldn’t bear to be alone. Have I mentioned how great Emily is?? She rode all the way with me to McKenzie’s house and back again.
When I got home I was a mess again and decided to try and edit all of the footage from the day together to take my mind off of things, which is the opposite of a good idea??? I ended up falling asleep and waking up an hour later still completely wiped. Today is a little bit better. I just want some pasta and a book.
BTW: Kate Recommends: The Fall (2006) and The Book Thief Movie. (Watch the movie before reading the book or else the movie may feel a bit disappointing in comparison.)
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.
Also, I got lost trying to find the ice skating hall and it was really pathetic and scary. I walked around for about an hour before I finally got there, and by then I was really frustrated and a lil tired so I only skated for about an hour 😦
I think it’s really unrealistic in books when the main character gets a massive amount of information once (instructions, directions, prophecies, etc) and then they can remember everything. Especially since they’re usually told these things when they’re stressed out or caught off guard or when they don’t really understand why they’re getting this information or how important it is. When I ask “How do I get there?” and someone says “Straight on and then a right” I still get lost. I need Dora the Explorer to be reminding me ever three minutes where I’m going or else it’s not going to turn out.
<USA?
< jk 
< I ate some
we're never getting off this planet 