?
it’s a watertower?
oh, is it really that easy? Just hang a left?
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.
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)
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.
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.
wannnnt
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.
Philosophy = I don’t know what happened, but I saw Cecil Baldwin’s full arm tattoo and was super disappointed. Jonatan said it might me a Satanic worshiper thing though, so I guess I can always pretend it’s something scary and cool. I don’t know, it was like a pitchfork in a circle?
Svenska 3= We read poetry about death and then I translated one of the poems and had to write a super detailed and disgusted essay on something that happens in my daily life. Mine was a really surreal piece about waiting for the train in the rain. I didn’t read it aloud because I was embarrassed by how freaky it was.
Lunch = penne noodles and hamburger?
Natural Science = nap time because I couldn’t remember my password for the school computers
Music Class = I still suck at music, but Rickard was just as hopeless, so I don’t feel too terrible. They wanted me to stay after school and teach him how to harmonize though and I had a thing, so I recorded me singing the song with the piano so that he can figure it out on his own this weekend. I really hope he pushes the due date up to next thursday. We are soooo not ready.
Break = I went home and had a meltdown because the internet wasn’t working and I couldn’t figure out where to go to meet my rotary contact and I ended up getting there a half hour late and ughhhh.
Dorren = That’s with a swedish ‘O’, to be clear. I hung out with a girl named Hanna (Hannah?) and a guy named Oscar (Oskar?), and Hanna and I watched Oscar edit photos for an hour, and we talked and ate sandwiches and drank tea and it was a grand time. Then Christal picked me up and we went for vegetarian food and IT WAS THE BEST, OMG! I’m so tired of meat, this was a blessing! Then I forgot my phone charger so I went back and hung out with Hanna and Oscar some more and then we all went to the train station and here I am. What a day. I want to go back to Dorren because those kids were really cool and I like them a lot and they listen to good music and the photo editing was really interesting and yay!
Today our english teacher asked us if we had any news about Africa. Va? Really? No one answered him because that’s such and obtuse question, and he got all upset that “none of us had done any research”. He went on to tell us about how some Swedish missionary just died ‘over there’ and if we knew who he was. I don’t think Swedish missionaries are exactly “news about Africa,” but okay? None of us did and then he asked us if we knew about Dr. Livingston. No one was talking, so he told us about how this dudebro got lost in the wilderness (still not sure where exactly, but I guess that’s not important to the story.) and when someone found him, they said something famous… what could those words be? hmmmmm I wonder…? No one was raising their hand so I did, and the teacher was like “THANK GOD” and I was like, um, these kids didn’t know who Livingston was, and they speak English as a second language? Why would they know those magical words?
Anyway, we went to the library to “Research Africa” and I read some short African horror stories about kids getting tricked into terrorist plots and some boy getting tangled up in and exsanguinating to death in some barbed wire. I think I’ll probably write about Rwanda or something. It’s not due until October, and it’s only a two page long paper, so I’m not too worried.
I took a nap on a bench. Probably drooled a little, but I was face down and my hood was up, so it’s all good. We had a two hour wait before going on a surprise field trip during E-Block to the King Christina exhibit, so I made the most of it and got some rest. The exhibit was alright, and probably pretty informative if you spoke Swedish and could understand the tour guide. I felt like any minute I was going to time travel back to the 1650s and that would be my YA character power, but no. So because that didn’t happen, I guess my favorite part was when we got to wander off on our own and I found the dress up section. There will be pictures, but I’m to tired to upload anything right now. Check back later.
Alright. So that was my day. I made pancakes for dinner and it was only Hugo and I eating tonight, so we ate all the bacon and got two giant pancakes each and it was heaven.
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.
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!
I feel like I should give you guys day to day updates, but life is pretty boring. Not for me of course, but for you guys to read about this junk, I feel like it’s getting boring.
Today:
I got on the train, made eye contact with the person sitting across from me and they got up and moved. People here scare easy.
My first two teachers were missing so I went record shopping with Farida and Nick Baker. It was nice. We were out for like three hours and then we got lunch and went back to school for our last few classes.
I finished rereading Looking for Alaska in science class. Still didn’t cry. I must be lacking in some hormone that triggers that emotion.
We started the song. Everything went okay I guess. I’ll videotape it later. I’m no longer the weakest link in my group! We got this new guy (I think his name is Rickard? He’s cute I guess, but he has really long hair, so it takes away from his general appearance. These facts are for Ollie. It’s important to know. If you were a teenage girl you would understand.) and he can’t play or even read music, so I’m going to sing harmony now so that he can have the easy melody. I don’t think our voices blend well together, but whatever. I’ll make it work.
I got on the train to go home and some guy sat across from me and asked me something in Swedish. I said “I’m sorry?” and he repeated himself in Swedish. I thought that he was asking if he could sit there at first, so I replied “Yes.” He got frustrated and then looked out the window. At the next stop he asked another rider the same question before running off and getting on the train that was going in the opposite direction. I’m pretty sure now that he was asking what way the our train was going. Oops.
“What way is the train going?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Which direction is this train going???”
“Yes.”
I’m the worst 😛
I made the enchilades tonight and they tasted okay. I burnt two of them. It’s a good thing that my host parents don’t eat on thursdays (the day that I will always be cooking.) because then I can always ruin a few of whatever I’m making and no one needs to eat them.
we're never getting off this planet 