So that happened....

So, I havent posted anything in a couple of weeks, because to be honest, nothing has been going on! The weather has been absolutely terrible, and I have been staying home working/not working on my thesis. So here a few random things to keep you busy while you probably should be working (you know who you are!). First off, your awwww moment of the day:A couple of weekends ago, Blake and I met up with my former Swedish teacher from UW, Mark, in Copenhagen. We took a boat ride and then naturally ate mexican food. (which was terrible, and we really should have known better, but I was craving it!) But it was fun and good to see a familiar face.

Other than that, I really dont have any stories for you people. Hmmm... oh yeah, I forgot way back when to show a few pics of Lund, which I will be officially leaving in a couple of days. Here is the Domkyrka (Big Church) , which is the biggest attraction in Lund:

The next biggest attraction is the human-like hot dog near IKEA. Seriously... what is this?! Why is he putting ketchup on his own head?
Next Blake demonstrates some of the "safe" playground equipment here in Sweden. All of their equipment would have been baned in the states years ago.
Like I said, there really isnt much going on right now! Sorry to disappoint. You can live vicariously through me next week though when Blake and I go on an Italian cruise that leaves from Barcelona! How exciting! oh! Good news though! We finally found an apartment in Stockholm! We will move up there when we get back from the cruise on the 9th!

For once in my life, I'm not exagerating!

They all have blond hair!!! This is a pic of me with all the girls from my camping trip. Hmm... which one is not like the other one?!Oh- and everyone assumes I dye my hair! People don't even think this is my real hair color because no one's hair is this dark here!

And I'm Back!!!

All I can say is Wow. What an amazing trip. I was gone for 7 days, so of course there are too many stories to tell here (well I could tell them all here, but you would probably be bored, so I will try and stick to the interesting parts), but I have to share my favorite story and pic (unrelated to each other) in this first post.

Favorite Story- I dont feel bad that I still mess up Swedish.

So Daniel was talking about haircuts, and was nice enough to be talking in English, and he says, "Yeah, guys cut themselves so much that girls never notice." Blake and I said, What?! And he realized that in Swedish, when you get a haircut and translate what they say directly to english, they say "I cut myself", which obviously doesnt mean at all the same thing in english. So the joke of the entire week was "I cut myself."

Then later, we were looking through pictures on my camera and we were laughing at how Nina was wearing a bright yellow jacket and how it makes her stand out. And she says, "Yeah, I'm always outstanding in pictures." Blake and I were going to let it go, but Daniel thought it was hillarious, so the other joke was "I'm so outstanding!" Maybe you had to be there. But it still makes me laugh...

Favorite Picture- I dont even have a story behind this, I just love it.

You can check out all the pictures from the trip (there are a lot, you've been warned) here.

Day 1

So lets start with the 12 hour train ride to Östersund. Blake and I met Björn (who I met at UW when he was an exchange student and who invited us on the trip in the first place) and Ulrika at the train station on Friday afternoon. With our Burger King in hand (the first fast food I've eaten since several weeks before I left Seattle), we boarded our cart, which seemed nice at first. Then we realized we were going to be in the sun until we reached Stockholm in 5 or 6 hours. We could put the window down, but then we couldnt hear each other, and everytime the train braked, it would smell like burning rubber. We met up with 6 of the others in Stockholm and kept on chugging. To keep ourselves occupied, we put gummy teeth on in our mouthes and tried to look as ridiculous as possible. I think we succeeded:


Ulrika didnt want Daniel and Nina to feel left out, so she bought some more so they could join in on all of the *fun*.

Day 2

After a restless night because we had no leg room and it was freezing cold, we arived in Östersund around 6:30 am on Saturday and met our final 2 travel companions, Daniel and Nina ,who were coming from the north. Someone in the group had arranged for a taxi to take us to our cabin, which was a 2 hour drive from there. We knew there wasnt going to be a grocery store near our cabin (since it is in the middle of the mountains!) and so the taxi driver arranged for a grocery store to be open for the 12 of us to go shopping for the week. It was chaos shopping with 12 people, but awesome that they opened for us. After we finally got there, I think we had some food and then half of us crashed (well I know I did, I wasnt really concerned at that point what the others did). Since there were so many of us, we had to split into 2 cabins, and lets just say there was an ambitious cabin, and then there was my cabin. My cabin was me, Blake, Björn, Ulrika, and one of Björn's oldest friends, Daniel and his girlfriend, Nina. While we napped during half the day, the other cabin went hiking. When we woke up, we went on what we thought was a short hike, but got confused by the directions and walked about 8 miles, which was much longer than the 2 km that the other cabin walked.

That night, most the other cabin was in bed by 8, but since we slept all day, we played a stupid swedish card game, where the point was to be able to guess how well you were going to do. If you did better than expected, you lost, which I thought was stupid, and pointed out that only in socialist socieity would you be expected to only do so much, and that you should be rewarded for doing better than expected, and that in a nutshell, America rules. I think this made some of them mad, but it was a stupid game and someone had to tell them.

Day 3

Anyways, the next day, we went on a hike with everyone from both cabins. Except that it was rainy and freezing, and everyone had good rain gear except for me, Blake and Nina. In our defense, a) I got rid of all my camping stuff when I moved here, and b) we had absolutely no idea what to expect from this trip and no one told us we would be hiking in 30 degrees and rain. The hike was actually pretty cool, except for the part where my legs were numb, because I was wearing yoga pants that were drenched and the wind was blowing really hard. We walked up a ski slope and got to this cavern:which we then walked down through. After a few hours, and the end of the cavern, I thought we were at the end of the hike, but we saw that no, we were still at the top of the mountain and it would take at least another half hour to get down, I wanted to cry. This is when Björn mentions that he has an extra pair of waterproof pants. An extra pair!!!!! I have been trying not to complain the whole time, but I know I mentioned several times that hey- my pants are soaking wet, I'm freezing cold! And he doesnt mention this until now?!!!! AHHHHH!!!! I wanted to kill him, but instead I changed into the pants and was quite comfortable the rest of the hike.

That night, we had a crayfish party with both cabins. We were arguing over who should host it, so they settled it with the best way to settle anything. Paper, Rock, Scissors. Håkan from the other cabin is on the left and Björn, representing our cabin is on the right.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28113775@N02/2752731107/

Victory for our cabin! Huzzah! Crayfish parties are a very traditional thing to do in summer in Sweden, and they buy pre-cooked frozen ones and just let them thaw, so you eat them room temperture. They taste good, but they are messy and there is a lot of work for not too much meat. The night also featured several swedish drinking songs, which was awesome to try and learn, although mostly Blake and I just watched. Here is a clip from my favorite one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28113775@N02/2752736261/

Day 4

I woke up much earlier than the rest of my cabin to go horseback riding with Maria from the other cabin. We both wanted a more serious ride, since we both were *experienced* riders. (Note: This is the best example ever of my favorite Texas phrase, "I used to could." I used to ride horses, and I used to be good at it. I havent been riding in a few years, and I probably should have said that.) So the girl at the stables gave us her 2 most difficult horses, had us saddle and bridle them up (yeah, havent done that in a loooooong time!) and then took us on a very difficult/ borderline dangerous ride up in the mountains. The ride was spectacular, except for the part where my horse wouldnt listen to me (because I used to could and now i cant) and ran me into several trees, and tried to kick me off a few times. We stopped and had fika (a swedish coffee break with sandwhiches and coffee) at some random families cabin where they took a lot of pictures of us and told me I spoke good swedish (I think all swedish people are just very polite). It really was amazing, they would never let you ride like that in the states, but I just wish my horse wasnt being such an a-hole, that put a slight damper on things. OH- and then I woke up the next morning and couldnt move because my back hurt so terribly bad. I think it all goes back to "Maybe I shouldnt have said I was such an experienced rider when it has been so long. Whoops."After I got back, my cabin went to see a fish ladder nearby. They measure all the fish that come through before they release it. The guy who did this was great:

I made the mistake of identifying some ladies Kerry Blue Terrier and got the whole group in a convo with her where she insisted that Kerry Blue Terriers are the best dogs ever, and then insisted that we take a picture with her dog. You're welcome everyone: