back with a vengence..

so i've made it back to town. the past month was pretty insane. we had a farewell party for our class that was fun, but i think everyone got a little more completely drunk than expected..me included. a promise for a rousing game of phase 10 came from it, though!
Christmas was nice- i first flew to austin where i spent about 10 days with my parents and my grandmother (who managed to call me fat, say i had big feet, and inform me that i was a bad cook all in about 2 hours). The flight home was nice too! the seat i had was at the beginning of a section and there was sooo much leg room. dare i say infinite leg room- fantastic. while in austin i spent some quality time with my parents- i got pretty sick- i think that being in the states makes me sick- because as soon as i got back i felt fine. in austin i bought practically a whole new wardrobe. i needed it- i've picked up enough weight to make my old clothes unconfortable, and i would like to say that all that will change this semester (but something makes me doubt it- but i can lose the fat, just not the mass.)..i am super excited to get back to the gym!
after austin- i flew to atlanta to hang out there! it was really nice- being with allison automatically lifts my spirits- which is also awesome- because her, fredo, and devin will be here in 10 days. in atlanta- i shopped a bit more- got a lot of things to cure me and my brokeness. i got my hair redone, so now, hopefully, i appear blond again. most importantly- i got to hang out with good company- allison, devin, fredo, dr. medina, erich and travis.
my brain is really sluggish- i had too many nightmares about bedbugs last night, and it kept waking me up. i had to take another melatonin and then make my bed for real. (around 7) i ended up sleeping until 1:30- not good. i need to go to the grocery store and the gym, AND at some point finish writing this paper for CCT.
ok- das ist alles for now... note: i don't check for grammar or correctness- sorry if none of these make sense.

luckily only minimal casualties were suffered..

So I finally got the chance to go to Budapest!! i love that city- its so beautiful and relaxing (except when struck with food poisoning, but it could have been worse) We went to the baths -of course- heaven on earth. i could have stood for it to be a bit chillier though. then we did the touristy thing and went up to castle hill and all around buda..and the next day was for pest, but unforunately my stomach wasn't so willing to follow along that day. Budapest teased me with over 60 TV channels (which, when lying around sick is fantastic!) The bastards dub everything though, and not just normal dub, dub where you can just barely hear the english spoken underneath. they had discovery channel and food network! i just about shit a brick- it was sort of like last time when i was in sweden and all i wanted to watch was the christmas story, and they played it on the plane back home!...for 15 minutes before the channel went out and didn't come on again. luckily- i've already watched it so far this year. yay for torrent. anyway, budapest was absolutely lovely.
as soon as we got back, martin (bless his soul), sara and I jumped a bus for willy's to make our thanksgiving shopping. (woot. make, faire, machen..i'm no longer a native english speaker). On the way back i was stupid and the bus driver was crazy and that resulted in us getting off at the wrong stop. oops. so we have 850kr worth of groceries...which is a lot- especially when you have to carry them all the way to spoletorp from the domkyrcka. sara and i cooked that evening until 3am and then all day the next day. but thanksgiving was a hit, everyone seemed to really enjoy it..possibly except sara and i's right index knuckles. both of which suffered injuries inflicted either by an oven or potato peeler.
so today is my birthday. its been really really nice so far. a group of us went to brunch this morning at Lunds Nation, and then we went off to the christmas market put on by the ID students. I got some cute gifts and fantastic ideas for a couple presents. i know i'm a bitch, but they were charging 500kr. I can't afford that shit. tonight i will indulge in black forrest cake, or something similar and hopefully a tasty meal as well.
18 days and i'm back in the arms of the United States. wish my luck on all the shit i have to do before then.

'tis the season.

its cold. as we speak its 23 degrees outside. thats very cold. so today i am going over to stadium to pick up some nice warm gloves, then to the second hand store on secret business, and then to the train station to make our reservations for KIRUNA!! woot. today i'm putting a couple hundred dollars on my credit card. woot. so when i get back, my parents and i are going to have a swedish-esque version of christmas dinner for christmas eve. -if any of you are in austin, please join! the more the merrier.

classes are crazy. this time the quarter is only 6 weeks, and we've got essentially four books to read, 45 pages to write, and seminars. that aparently isn't so much for my classmates, but when you come from a design background...eeep! i will have offically surpassed the amount of writing i did in the past four years..now. i'm pretty sure i've already written more. but i got better grades on the undergraduate stuff. remember, its not the quantity, its the quality, right? luckily in the huge paper, i've 'only' have 5 pages to write, but i'm supposed to write on theory. first off, i think i lot of the theory we learn in bullshit. not that its wrong or invalid, but more that none of them are totally applicable in the real world. like peter said- people fuck it up. they are irrational. i agree. we need to look at case studies- see where theories were used, and then fucked the company. favorite quote from class ever: "then people come into the equation and add upfuckedness". there is not much better than a non-english speaker cursing.

thanksgiving is coming! stephen was having his on the 22nd, so we are having ours on the 29th. now stephen is having his on the 20th, and no one is having it ON thanksgiving. i think i need to do something, even if it is celebrate by myself with a cute mini-feast. our big one will be awesome. if all goes as planned there will be a play, and we will have a delectable menu. and my favorite PUMPKIN PIE!

i'm off to budapest on the 24th, and i can honestly say this is possibly the think i am most excited about. i can't wait to lay in the baths of szychenyi, eat a nice dinner that doesn't cost an extremity, go out for a night for real. buy some tasty beverages to bring back...and some whiskey for our apple cider! i am so excited. budapest is definitely one of my favorite cities in the world. so we get back just in tme for our thanksgiving, and then..birthday time! the big 23. the other day i forgot how old i was turning, and was convinced that i was going to be 22. but i knew i was over 21. numbers are confusing. i shouldn't work in restaurants anymore, or else i will be serving 16 year olds liquor.

ok. now its time to read, i have procrastinated long enough.

a very spoletorp halloween

yay. so this week i have completely off. no work-nuthin. so tuesday martin, sara, and i decided to go to kristianstad (the town, not the nation) and do a little shopping. it was cute, lots of shops, but very predicatable. in sweden there are about 6 or 7 stores that are in EVERY town. and mostly thats it. its like going to new york city and shopping in GAP. not too much thats unique. i take that back- there are some unique stores, but the only currency they except are first born children. there are a couple stores in lund that are unique and except cash. i like those ones.
halloween was last night. we started in spoletorp, but there were three parties- on the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors. there was lots of confusion because the floors aren't numbered, and the parties kept shifting, so no one could find anyone. later we moved to st lars...the mental hospital turned largest halloween party every year (also places for students to live). the party was best characterized by my good friend pierce's words:

Pierce William-Toal Madden
is wondering why there are people trying to knock in our doors, why st lars looks like the aftermath of hiroshima and why theres a couch burnt to cinders outside.

what i remember (which is everything- lite drinking for me that evening) was john pushing a couch out the window, a little indian (or pakastani, or somewhere in that region) guy grabbing my ass, and rubbing my leg, a guy is a crazy ass mask, and john unwittingly turning down a night with a girl. yaaaaay being sober.

-i was the badminton champion of the world...from 1980-something.
-felix's costume wasn't real.
-jason takes the best scary pictures...even when he doesn't know it
-stephen makes a good lindsey
-lindsey makes a better lindsey- and should always stay away from red wine.
-norwegian people are talkative
-at least michael wears boxers.

sticks and stones may break my bones, but gympa will always squash me

i made eclairs tonight. the pastry is perfect, but i totally fucked up the mousse. Here is why:
"Vispa ner påsens innehåll i 2 dl kylskåpskall mjölk, gärna i en hög, smal skål. Vispa med elvisp ca 3 min. Fördela chokladmoussen i coupeglas eller liknande och låt stå kallt 20-30 min."
so i improvised and it turned out to be the best chocolate pudding EVER...mmm...with a little ice cream in the middle....delicious.
So the tacksittning was last friday. extremely fun as usual, though once again, my vegetarian options were a little limited. good company, good drinks, good food, good dancing. oh man- i started this entry, and now i'm far too tired to finish it. perhaps i will continue tomorrow. sov gott.

if its not the carbs, then its the butter, sugar, and fat...

so i've been having these really fucked up dreams lately. there has been a lot on my mind and school has been slightly stressful (nothing like tech stressful, but its easy to lose a comparison point when you aren't faced with that shit.) anyway- berdine and i analyzed the dreams and found the sources of the stress, and i fixed all of them- starting two days ago, and now i am sleeping soundly again. i am taking a beating from swedish food again, but this time a little different- i'm working out so much that the fat is equally distributed, so it was like a sneak attack- i was doing great, and then all of a sudden i get on a scale only to find i am a sturdy 8 pounds heavier...then when i came! and i was definitely overweight when i came..anyway- that is the next demon to conquer on my list- besides can you help it if the only really good food in sweden is sweet and baked?
i've written a lot of papers. more than i think i did for my entire undergrad degree, but i suppose thats grad school. weekends are still awesome though- the weekend before last was another tacksittning- i think i wrote about that, then last friday i worked again (so another tacksittning tomorrow!!)..and then saturday night berdine, sara and i had a wine a cheese night and watched cute movies. so now i'm off to dreamland- good dreams!!

vecka 40..and still twitching

life here has been going on. i have contracted possibly the strangest cold i've ever had. all the symptoms- just one at a time, today and yesterday have been coughing- before that sneezing, and before that congestion. its sort of like....a box of chocolates. (ok i apologize for that). otherwise life has been a non-stop flow of reading, writing and quizzing. but its ok- i'm turning in my mega-starbucks quiz on wednesday whether i feel like i'm done with it or not.
so, last week was very exciting for the second half...on thursday my (almost) entire class went to a sittning at Malmo Nation- let me tell you- i was EXTREMELY pleasantly surprised. i think maybe this week we will have our contest there! there will be lots of stars.!! Then on friday night we had a giant ring of fire night in our hallway- i was thinking about nine people would show up- but it turned out to be more like 30, and the aussies and robert just haaad to add about ten extra rules- but the grenade master was a fun one- maybe berdine didn't appreciate it as much after the entire beer was spilt all over her. i also stole sam's sweatband, and never thought that i would get such a reaction. haha now all of my upper arms are bruised. saturday night was another tack sittning for those of us that worked at the Novishefest- the food was pretty tasty-even if they weren't expecting vegetarians (second time that week). and the drinks wooooo...i don't think there was any catagory was missed, and i am completely shocked that the mixing didn't kill me- in the end that night we never actaully made it into any of the nations, but thats ok- i needed to get early and work yesterday- quiz tomorrow, starbucks wednesday, and then scramble to write a 6000 word paper.
..my new bike is fantastic.