I woke up and thought that my appendix had burst, so no school today, which is terrible because I wanted to know how the dodgeball game ended up. Last night I was invited by some of my school friends to take part in a game called “ghost ball” which is played in the school gym from ten at night until six in the morning. After some confusion, there were too many people on the team and I couldn’t play, but I still really want to know how long our class lasted. Last year they only went until two in the morning after four rounds.
Things have been happening the last few days, but I haven’t been writing about them because I’m really bad at taking pictures and also updating this blog, so I’m just going to post links to McKenzie’s blog because she’s much better at documenting these things than I am.
I really wanted to end this blog on a bang, but the whole inability to post photos thing kind of hinders that. On my computer, I’m able to view most of the posts still, so if any of you notice posts missing pictures, let me know and I’ll try and fix it.
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.)
That dark place on the hill that I went to used to be a fort or something? In 1654 I think it said. Now it’s a cafe and there’s the remains of a cannon road on the other side of it. I accidentally deleted the video clip of me explaining all of that.
Last night I went to the Imagine Dragons concert and AHHHHHHHHHHH OMG it was so amazing! I’ve never been to a concert before, so this completely blew my mind.
They had two opening acts: Moth and Flame & Dan Croll
I thought M&F was good, but then Dan Croll happened and they were even better and then Imagine Dragons came on and I wanted to die because they were amAZIIING!!! We were the second or third row from the front, so we saw everything (except for Hannah who is 5’1” and could only see people’s backs. Poor Hannah 😦 ) The whole thing was super intense and I could feel the bass in the bones of the people around me.
Since the refrigerator here is broken, the milk keeps freezing. I quickly discovered that there was yogurt in the door, and it’s been there the whole time, but I’ve never looked at it close enough to notice it. I’m afraid my host family is going to be very upset with me pretty quickly here because I LOVE YOGURT. I love it so much, I think about it all the time. Risifrutti doesn’t matter when there’s a liter of yogurt and granola at your disposal. Sometimes I’m laying in bed trying to fall asleep and I think about how excited I am to eat yogurt for breakfast the next morning. It’s getting pretty pathetic, you guys.
Today we had hole time for humanistics. Only it wasn’t for an hour like it usually is, it was for three because Humanistics lasts forever. Afterwards we had E-Block until 5:10. Some woman was going to come in and talk about her book about Pompeii, and I really didn’t want to go for several reasons.
1) I didn’t go to Rome with the class, so the book doesn’t really matter to me. I mean, it might have, but
2) I didn’t read the book. So,
3) I wouldn’t be able to ask any questions about it. And
4) If I were to ask questions, they would have to be in Swedish. My Swedish isn’t advanced enough to ask questions about Pompeii and books. Besides that, my heart beats really fast and I sweat for like ten minutes after I answer a simple question in class. I don’t think I could handle the level of participation this sort of thing requires.
5) omg, 5:10? You’re kidding me. That’s less than an hour ago that I would have gotten out of school. Ughhhhhhhh
So, to conclude this thrilling story I went home half way through hole time because after talking to some of my classmates they said it wouldn’t be a big deal if I did.
Tomorrow I don’t have school, so I guess I’ll return my severely overdue library books (Sorry mom. You were right. I can’t handle the responsibility of library books.) and do some NaNoWriMo stuff. I’ll have some stuff for you Ollie!
I’m on the fifth row of Abby’s baby’s blanket, and I think I might actually be able to finish this thing! My new goal is to do five rows a day. I want to have it done before Christmas so that if she has her baby early, she’ll have the blanket in time.
That wasn’t about Sweden, but I’m very proud of myself for learning how to crochet, so I wrote it down to show off. Moving on.
I’ll show you the pictures first for a nice little change up.
Lunch time! I’m totally missing circle tables!
Not my lunch, but this is what was served. It’s gyro meat and rice. Apparently the Swedish school invented this meal because it takes the two cheapest foods and puts them together.
If you look closely you can see a chimney sweep up on this roof. Chim Chimeny Chim Chimeny Chim Chim Cheree
These swings went a million feet in the air and you could see everything and it was totally worth the hour wait
Twirl a whirl a whirl with Aida and Jenny
WAFFLE WITH ICE CREAM!
This is like a more hardcore version of the twirl-a-whirl. It made me understand why dad hates rides now.
this advert on the bus looks like danisnotonfire and I think about it a lot.
Okay, so yesterday I went to Grona Lund (it’s not spelled right because the O is supposed to be a Swedish one, but I’d rather type this than go hunting for the actual O.) and it was a grand time. The rides were scarier than the ones at six flags (believe it or not) and there was this fun house that made me feel like I was tripping on some bad drugs or something. All of the kids in front of Jonatan and I were screaming and crying, and if I were four years old I think I might have passed out from fear as well.
I don’t know how much I’m supposed to say on the subject of the theme park, because it was really fun and fantastic and I it was probably the most fun I’ve had all month, but that’s because I spent all day with a bunch of really amazing people and rode a bunch of cool rides and ate sweet food. There isn’t really one instance that I can write about that happened yesterday without going in to the conversations that I had with everyone, and I feel like that would be weird to talk about. So I won’t. Rest assured that I am in fact making friends.
OH! Forgot to mention! Jonatan and Farida are Musical junkies besides just being regular music junkies! I don’t know how I’ve been so fortunate to meet these two! They were very impressed by my Les Mis Revolutionary Rose pin and when I was talking about this cool tattoo I saw (I’ll post it below) I said something about how it would look better on me if I were a boy because boobs, and I sang “If I Were a Boy” (you know, the beyonce song?) and Farida sang it at the same time and I was like DAMN. I think that was what I missed most about my friends back home; bursting into song when we were reminded of one, and LOOK. TITTA! I hope they like me as much as I like them 😀
Everyone needs to watch My Mad Fat Diary. Farida got me hooked and it’s the best thing ever.
Awkward moment of the week:
The other night Astrid and I were hanging out and she got a text and told me her friend was here and that they were going to go swimming. So I was like, “Oh, can I join you?” because their pool is heated and I thought it would be better to go swimming than go to bed at nine pm.
She hemmed and hawed before saying ok, and in my head I was like “She doesn’t want me to go swimming with her, and so I shouldn’t because now it’s going to be weird.” but I had already asked and she had given me a reluctant yes, so it would have been weirder if I didn’t. So, I put on my swimsuit, stepped on another slug, and jumped in the pool. I swam back and forth width wise and Astrid and her friend sat in the corner farthest away from me talking quietly in Swedish. Ten minutes in I was getting really cold and wanted to leave to end the awkwardness, but I knew it would look weird if I got out, so I stayed in for another ten minutes and ohmygod.
I read this quote that said you should put yourself in as many awkward situations as you can so that when one catches you by surprise, you don’t act weird or make a fool of yourself and you’re just comfortable in general, but it’s hard, man. Okay? Everything I do is cringy, so I should be used to it already, but I’m not.
Last thing I’m going to say: I’ve spent almost six hours filling out scholarships so far, and I haven’t even gotten to the ones where you have to write long essays. College applications are a walk in the park compared to this.
This is that tattoo I was talking about. Isn’t it cool? I’ve never seen blue like that! Too bad I’m not a sailor who’s gotten her leg ripped off by a kraken or something so that it would represent something. Not that tattoos need to have literal meanings, but if he was a peg leg, that would make him even cooler.
Basically, I’ve been doing nothing. Friday was dull. Only one class that day and then I forgot to go to some carnival or something that was going on a few hours after class got out. Saturday I watched season one of Misfits, today I painted some feathers that I found so that I can use them as trendy bookmarks and I edited TMoNaD. I’m getting a cold. Saga and Astrid are sick too, and we don’t know who started it. It’s too hot to wear cute sweaters or drink lattes so I’ve just been making a million cups of chamomile tea and thinking about writing. No actual writing involved. Maybe another time.
I brought my camera to the city with me when I went to buy the paint for my feathers, but I forgot what I did with the memory chip (it was in my back pocket) so I don’t even have any fun photos to share. Sad day.
Please watch the TheAoJaneEyre. I started it when I was still in Murika, but it’s getting really interesting now. (This isn’t directed at you, dear parents. It’s not the kind of romance you like, mum, and I’m certain papa isn’t interested in gothic literature brought to life in the form of a vlog.)
This morning started off with my mum texting me telling me that I can’t fake swear on the internet. Usually, I’d be all “yeah, k whateves.” and take it down, but instead I replied none too nicely ranting about how stressed out I am. I probably did that because I’m stressed out. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am, so I am. I still am. Not so much as this morning though because today was really funny.
I woke up early to shower so that I could be at the school early to talk to the counselor and when I got there she was in a meeting with another student and then was too busy to talk to me for the next thirty minutes. So I read. Then we discussed my classes and she put me in SFF and a music class (with Mikayla (sp?) and Nick Baker) and she told me that I should go to the Rome class since I don’t like the Human one. Awesome. I’m totally going to Rome!
By the time I was done talking to her, my SFF class was about to start and so I had to run up seven flights of stairs to get to it on time. When I got there, there were three other kids sitting outside the locked door of the SFF classroom. Awesome. We sat there for fifteen minutes and talked. There was a girl from Finland, a boy from Egypt and another boy from Eritrea. Then the teacher came up and told us in Swedish that class was cancelled because she had a funeral to go to and that we should hang out in the library until our next class. So I read.
The next class was Religion and I was kind of excited because I like learning about other people’s religions and I thought maybe I would learn something even though the class is taught is Swedish. Nick Baker and this awesome girl named Farida Tanttu sat with me and we talked for forty-five minutes before someone kid came into the room and told us that our teacher was sick and that we could go to lunch or whatever. Religion is a split lunch class, so I have 40ish minutes of religion and then lunch and then another 50 minutes. I walked with Nick and Farida to lunch, and we saw what they were serving and all decided to go home instead. There’s a reason lunch is free. I’m going to make a lunch sucks and a lunch rocks tag so that we can all keep track of how often the miracle of a good school lunch occurs.
So basically, I didn’t have to go to school today.
I got home a half hour ago, finished the last ten pages in my book (that’s two books in two day! I’m on a roll! Can’t stop this, oh no can’t stop this!) and now it’s 12:30 and I’m kind of hungry but they only have frozen bread and cereal here and I feel like I’m at Cana’s house. I think I’m going to go get some lunch and then make some cookies or something so that the Skarins can taste the joys of fat. kk peace out
Förlåt for the vagueness of my last post. Here’s some details my father asked me to include in case any of you are interested:
I can sleep now. The week before I came here I could only sleep 3-4 hours at a time and the night before I came I only got 3 hours of sleep. I slept for an hour on the 7 hour plane ride over to Amsterdam and was awake until 22:00. Then I slept for eight hours. At camp I slept for six hours each night before waking up at 4:00 covered in sweat and needing to take a shower. Last night I slept nine hours. It’s getting better and I don’t feel sick anymore.
Before I left I had really bad allergies and couldn’t hardly breathe when I went outside. Now I go for walks all the time because it’s not difficult for me to. There’s no ragweed in Sweden and the house I live in doesn’t have carpet, so the pet dander doesn’t get stuck in it. I feel great!
To my surprise, the seat I got on the plane ride to Amsterdam was in the front row so I could put my legs out in front of me. A Dutch couple was sitting next to me and they gave me their dinner rolls for some reason and I didn’t understand what they were asking me when they were trying to give them to me so I said, “what?” and they put their bread on my tray. MMM. Carbs. The meals they served us were reallllly good. I want to write a nice review for the quality of that KLM plane. 10/10.
Customs was easy. Probably because it wasn’t American customs. It was basically going through security again. It took two seconds and we found our gate without a hitch. The Amsterdam airport is really nice. There’s nature everywhere and special recliners that you can sleep in. Sabrina and I went outside and sat on a deck and drank coffee while we waited for our plane to come in. I didn’t know travelling could be so comfortable!
The food here is pretty normal if you ate meat all of the time before you came over. I hadn’t eaten meat in about a year because my parents didn’t make me and because I was hardly ever home for dinner. Here, I’m really hungry by the time each meal comes around and it would be rude to not eat, so I swallow everything down with water because I wouldn’t be able to otherwise. We had thai food for some reason at camp. Even my host parents thought that was odd. The water tastes the same as it does back home and so does the milk, so it’s not that big of a deal to act the way I do.
We get up in the morning because we go to bed at 22:00. It’s about 7:00 when we get up each morning. They have work and school and soon, so will I. I don’t know anything about my school next, but we tour it tomorrow.
Some of the kids I met at camp wanted me to come to their homes here in Sweden and one of them wanted all of us to come to India and we all thought that it would be cool if we could host each other at some point. I don’t think that it was a serious though, cool as it sounds.
The cats sleep with me here the way that they did at home. There’s one in my lap right now. She’s calico and purrs the way Mr. Kitty did. You can probably hear her upstairs.
I think I broke my hair straightener. It smells like death. I plugged it in and I thought it was going to be okay because all of my other thing that I’ve plugged in worked fine, but my hair straightener filled the entire lower level with it’s stench of burning flesh. Ulf and Astrid came downstairs to talk to me and they didn’t mention the rancid smell, so I don’t know what to think about that. Do they think I smell like that naturally? I hope not.
<USA?
< jk 
< I ate some
we're never getting off this planet 