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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.) 

Today we said Good Bye forever to Perth and fika-ed the night before to sign flags By: Fall Out Boy

another dramatic goodbye

McKenzie

Sam

bro time

Aakanksha

Sofia

signing flags

dramatic goodbyes

Kate realizing once again that everyone is leaving forever and will die someday

Brooke with her letter to Perth

so much repacking

helping Perth repack

sitting on perth’s suitcase to get it to shut

Brooke and I being dramatic

Me and Brooke on the way there

GOTT NYTT ÅR!

It’s January first!! The world still hasn’t ended! Sherlock premieres tonight!

Plans got really messy last night, so this isn’t going to be about what I talked about in previous posts. I’ll organize this into a time table because life is hard and confusing and it’ll give my transitionary adverbs a break. I don’t know what tense and which pronouns to use in all of this either because half of this happened to me and half of this happened to me and the group and some of it is still happening? Lordy Lord. Also, I’m bad at math, so those estimations of half are probably really off.

4:00 – picked up Perth from the station

4:40 – picked up Hannah from the station

4:50 – went back to my house to drop off luggage

???? idk the real time. I’m gonna guess it was about 6:00? – Went to Central Station to meet up with Josh, Avishkar, and Oliver to get coffee Starbucks was closed though and we were very sad.

7:00ish ish – Went to McIncredible. Then we sat and talked and it was nice and also a little boring because I am the worst at making plans. Every other day is a ‘red day’ in Sweden which means that the shops close at 2:00pm and whatnot. We discussed what to do with the time we had free until the time we had free was gone.

9:00 – picked Narain up from the station. Oliver, and Pablo left to go to house parties and Narain and Perth went off in search of food that wasn’t McDonald’s. The rest of us waited for Alejandra and Jorge to come to the station. We ate Hannah’s brownies while we waited so it wasn’t all bad

9:45 – Several brownies later we left the station to find a kebab house for Jorge.

10:30? – We got to Slussen (an area near the water) and watch live music under the shadow of Katrina’s Hissen.

11:40 – Narain calls me to come and find him and Perth, which rescues me from being crushed to death. Every person who has ever lived was pressing up against each other in a writhing mass of bodies and I thought I was going to die.

11:55 – I find them and we watch the fireworks from a safe distance away from the drunk people.

12:00 – HAPPY NEW YEAR! Instead of kissing each other, strangers give hugs to one another which is infinitely more hygienic. (Side note: All night people were grabbing at me on the sidewalk and stuff. Like, they’d take my arm or stand chest to chest to me and go “Hallå!” and at one point this guy came up and was like “Pata Spanska?” and I was like “No, pero- hey, Alejandra!” because I thought he needed directions or something and then he says to her “Me gusta ella. Es muy bonita.” and I’m laughing because I could kind of understand and Alejandra translates it to “He says he likes you,” and I say “Claro que si!” and that is literally the extent of my Spanish so I walk away before he can try and talk to me again, but wow. Just remember to S.I.N.G. if you ever get into trouble. Miss Congeniality taught me that. Self-defense class taught me to aim for the eyes.

1:40 – We finish listening to music and watching fireworks and look for a place to pee and eat and McIncredibles is the only place open so we head on back.

2:30 – We find Oliver at the station and take him back to McDonald’s.

3:00 – I’m really tired and I start to feel feverish? Also I get unnecessarily emotional and start crying because I suddenly remember that everyone is going to leave and I’m never going to see them again and the present is really nice and I don’t know if it’s possible but I felt nostalgic for it.

3:45? – We head home, missing the Nockeby train by nearly two hours. sl.se, the website we use to check train times, went down around midnight, so there wasn’t anyway to know unless we had checked before going out. Oops.

5:00???? – We get home after walking from Alvik and wow I was so cold, it was unreal.

7:00 – After several deep and meaningful sleepover conversations, I fall asleep. Dang.

1:00 – have breakfast

2:30 – Keep the party going by going to Starbucks and taking sips of everyone else’s drinks because that’s how you find out what’s good and I’m definitely not a mooch.

5:40 – Go home because I’m definitely have a fever and am the clammiest of clams. Dear lord. Go on, feel my hands. They are sweaty and cold just like the rest of me and I am probably dying ohmygod. I’m shivering while I type this. Literally, my teeth are chattering and my stomach hurts the way it does before you jump off of something really high. This is disgusting. I’m hope it’s just left over emotion from last night and I’m not actually ill.

Okay. I hope this post was informative. I think there’s probably a million things I’m missing. We danced at the new years thing. All of those dances I had during gym class with that weird kid who tried to ask me to prom Sophomore year were useless and I had needed to be taught all over again. I think that’s it. I don’t know. I’ll probably remember more later.

^ Gabriella left a few days ago, so a bunch of us said good bye to her at the airport.

AT LAST

Indeed

We made a gingerbread house!!!!!

I saved his little hate in case I should find a little cat to wear the little hat

I through with apologizing. I  know I’m late, forgiving me is up to you now, I don’t feel like begging.

Where to start??? Um. Where did I leave off last? Guys, I don’t even read this blog. What are you doing with your lives?

I guess I’ll start with updates:

I know nothing. I am Jon Snow. I’ll start off with what I do know then (which isn’t much)

1. I’m for sure not moving to Nykoping
2. I’m for sure not going to Turkey
3. I may be changing schools
4. I may be changing families
5. I may be going to London
6. I may be dying of cold
7. I may be dying of heat in a parallel universe????

I think I might be going through menopause? Because half the time I’m so cold I could chop my hands off and not notice, and the other half the time I’m so hot that I’d like to bash my head against the wall until everything stops. I think that’s what menopause feels like, right? No one ever taught us about menopause because we live in a patriarchal society and therefore menopause is not of import. jk jk (maybe.)

Quick Side-Thought:

Sometimes I’m just staring off listlessly and I think the weirdest things? Today I was riding home and I remember Aaron Baldauf’s hair. Wow I miss that hair. I mean, Aaron’s alright, but his hair. Wowee. That was some really great hair. Monuments should to be built for that hair. I pray he should never bald. God bless.

BACK ON TOPIC!

I saw a super cool Lucia Thing. My younger host sister, Saga, swims and so we went to see her do her singing thing? I don’t know what I was expecting. I guess I thought that they would all stand around the pool and sing or something, but they JUMPED IN THE POOL WITH THEIR CANDLES AND MY MIND WAS BLOWN! Then there were these really attractive guys on the diving board holding torches, and I felt like I was in an episode of FREE! because they were wearing the same suits and everything. At the end they jumped into the water and my life was made. God Santa Lucia, everyone!! Jajaja

tha pool

Sagaaaaa

Here’s a really long video of the thing:

I saw Astrid’s ballroom dancing recital and while it was really cool to see them all dance (and the little kids were super cute and reminded me of my days in ballet) I felt SOOOO bad for her because her dance partner quit on her and she had to pretend he was there. She totally made up for a lack of partner, but it couldn’t have been easy to practice like that. In fact, there was only one girl with a partner, and 2 without besides Astrid. Boys. Ugh.

I also saw a theatre thing that Astrid’s school at been working on a few weeks ago (sorry for not mentioning it!) and I could understand a lot of it because *acting* and I was, once again, thoroughly impressed.

 Astrid is the one dressed as a man in the middle. I thought it was funny that every scene that required a man, the man was played by a girl, and then one of the only scenes that was gender neutral, the only two boys were cast together in.

It snowed here! I rejoiced by running outside and catching a few on my tongue. People be like “yo, haven’t you seen snow before?” and I be like “Självklart, mah home dog. I live in da nort. Snow da best doe, ja feel?” Now the snow is gone though, and I am very sad. Please accept this video as proof of the snow:

This is my school just as I was getting out. Hello, Moon.

Here are the results of today’s little trip:

stadshus

Oliver said that I could go up in the tower, but sadly I could not. The man at the gift shop told me that it’s only open in the summer, so I guess we can go up there later.

pretty pritty

Riddarholmenskyrkan. I was going to read you the history of it, but there were people around, so that’d be embarrassing.

It’s a door, if you weren’t aware. I know it’s awfully ornate for an entryway, but so it is.

Parliament House

StorKyrkan

Here’s a video of the changing of the guards:

Here are some unconnected thoughts:

We’re going to the highest point in Stockholm for New Year’s Eve so that we can see all of the fireworks. It’s going to be great! I’m making cookies and I think we’ll hang out for a few hours before it. Yay! I really love all of the exchange kids. A few of these people are so tragically amazing, I just, I just. Ugh. I’m so mad that we’re never going to see each other when this is all over. I hope that college lives up to all of my expectations and I can be surrounded by people like these again. It’s so dumb of me to be sad about it at this point in the exchange because 1) there’s so much time left! 2) I knew this was going to happen. I should be more prepared for this. I’m too emotional. Get over yourself, Kate!

One last thing: I’ve been pronouncing plebeian wrong my entire life as well. It’s pleBEian not PLEbeian. Emphasis, man. Gets me everytime.

This is Important

Yesterday I learned that I’ve been pronouncing niche wrong my entire live. It rhymes with quiche, and not itch. wow.

Since I was like 13, I knew that I never wanted to live in the Southern Hemisphere because I wouldn’t recognize any of the constellations and that would really bother me, and I asked Oliver yesterday if it bothered him that all of the constellations were weird and he said he never even thought about it, and he didn’t even have a favorite constellation and I just… ALSO apparently the moon is upside down for people in the south?????? please send help.

I never really thought it was weird until they pointed it out to me, but Narain was talking about how he paid 60 kr for a locker and I was like “that’s too much” and the way I think about money is by how much food you can buy with it? You can buy a 6 piece chicken nugget meal here or 10 burgers, or 3 marabou bars, or 4 giant muffins and I could go on, but I just couldn’t help thinking of how much food he could have eaten if he had just carried his suitcase around with him, and then they laughed at me and I don’t know how other people think about money or calculate how much is too much. Back in America I would think about how many books I could buy, but prices here are off, so I need to go by food.

Here’s Narain and Oliver eating Subway:

I’m sure they’d want everyone to see this.

I’m dying and I hate everything whymeeeeeeI

I made the post and then I tried to add the pictures and the computer froze and lost the whole post. So. I quit. I’m not rewriting it all, because now I’m in a terrible mood. You get the abridged version.

Friday.

no. nothing happened. I ate pizza. Here are those pictures I promised earlier.

I was so close.

this is ridiculous

Here are some more to tide you over.

secret agent man

tell me who you are

so mysterious

species please

what kind?

bird

this reminded me of the IKEA monkey

IKEA monkey

Saturday:

Cafe Dox exchange student gift exchange.

I didn’t participate because I suck at giving gifts.

It was nice

We went ice skating afterwards. I was wearing tights because all my pants were in the wash. I was super super cold (but also super super cute.)

Lots of kids had never seen snow or ice skated.

I was helpful. Made me proud to see them going off on their own. And sometimes they fell, But they got up without help, and that’s what counts.

We went to McDonalds to warm up and ate ice cream because we like to be ironic.

I got home at midnight because I was sitting with Narain and Tanner at Central Station for a few hours after they missed their train home. Had a little heart to heart. It was grand.

Sunday:

Went to see Catching Fire with Hannah, Emily, and Oliver.

The movie theater candy

Hannah is like the best friend I had in a past life, Emily is like the friend on the internet I never met in Real Life, and Olver is like the big brother who never came to stockholm with me.

If you guys ever run into these three, you’ll need to step up your wit-game. Clever sarcasm abounds.

Oliver and Narain

Emily and Tanner

Afterwards we looked at the NK display and had our minds blown.

Then we went to a trendy cafe.

Hannah’s bus home was coming, so we left really soon after getting there.

We ran to Emily’s host family’s apartment to get Hannah’s bag, and then ran all the way to the pendltag platform.

My lungs still sting from the cold air.

I think that’s it.

OH!

I might be moving to where Hannah lives at the end of the christmas break. So there’s that. No more living in Stockholm. It’s alright. Hannah’s the best. Also, music program at school. I miss singing.

OH!

Also, I’ve been staring at dogs when they walk past me, and then they stare at me and they stop sometimes and their owners are like ‘whatchyou doin m8?’ and I keep looking over my shoulders and I can tell the dogs want to be with me. This is my power. I can control the minds of dogs. My YA novel character power has been achieved, not a moment too late either, seeing as it should be at it’s full force around my 18th birthday.