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.

if only i had a lock cutter..

so it finally happened. i was the victim of a crime. i suppose the time has come since i made it four in atlanta without anything getting stolen. someone thought my bike would suit them much more than it did me, and alas, i am without wheels. but thats ok, karl-magnus and i are going 'bike shopping' soon, and i've picked a couple that are cute and quite possibly abandoned. (now see, i am such a nice person to make sure that these bikes don't have owners). otherwise all is good. classes are insane, and i've reached a new sort of...nevermind. i'm just not reading everything that i'm supposed to, its not worth it. i think i will pass, maybe not with the grades i had at tech, but oh well. we went to lunds nation last night- to the basement party, and it was sooooo fun! the music was mixed and really good. haha and i got a number. still winning the contest. OH! sara, berdine and i bartended the other night at the novischefest, we made a bet to see who could get the most phone numbers. i won! with the oh-so slightly pathetic amount of one (1).haha but the bet continues, soon it will be ON. no holds bar. fortunately for sara, she has the most...uhh....'going out clothes'- her words.

was that ice!?

So this week has definitely been like no other. i'm still dealing with my somewhat masochistic ways (not literally), but hopefully by the end of week I can put everything to rest or at least make something of it. I joined Gerdahallen last week (the biggest gym in sweden!!!- in other words, a normal size gym from the states). I went to a gympa class- sort of like aerobics on steroids- and an african dance class. let me tell you, there is not much thats more satisfying than watching 100 swedish women cramped into a gym doing 'african dance' simultaneously (almost). The result of the class? I feel really good, but i am sooooo sore. sore in places i've never been before. the swedes are on to something, i think i must have burned 1000 calories in those classes.
Last night i went to a thank you sittning at Krishansta, it was super fun, we started at effy's and had a couple drinks and snacks, then over to the dinner. ooooooh i was extremely tipsy- so i didn't have anything more to drink after the dinner. after that we went back to sparta to let our feet rest (sara and i always make very poor shoe decisions) and biked home to spoletorp. i made it the whole way with sara on the back of my bike! she's such a good passenger.
I got home and slept really well for about and hour and half before i started having really terrible dreams, so needless to say, i didn't sleep very well last night, but today i will rest- sort of. i have a lot of work still to do. boooo.
oh- did i mention there was ICE (not the craftshow kind) on the rode when i biked to class yesterday morning. das ist alles.

an apple a day

so last night i worked in my first nation. wooo. it was super duper fun! i got to work behind the bar most of the night- which definitely puts you in an advantage (especially as a female!). a whole bunch of swedish guys struck up conversations with me- and 6 of them were EXTREMELY attractive. This has got to be some sort of record- never in the states has this happened to me. no phone numbers- but i think i'm going to have a lot of repeat customers...
the best part of the evening was after 2- my stomach started getting uspet, and by the time i got home, i was doubled over in severe abdominal pain. after writhing for a couple hours, i called john (bless his soul), to come by and help me. I think he saw me at my worst- so we hopped (painfully collapsed) into a taxi and went to the emergency room. I got to spend the entire night in the ER getting blood tests and drinking gavison 'cocktails'. John and i got to chat for several hours-which was really nice- but he took off around 6 (i practically pushed him out- he needed sleep). So this morning at 8- i was released and made my way back to spoletorp for an hour sleep before i went to my..HAIR CUT this morning. i love haircuts.
so my current condition: unstable, but hopefully getting better.

Someone stole summer from Sweden

So September has started and the weather is still getting chillier- even though outside- the day is beautiful- I can't let the sun trick me again. Somehow, I always end up with half the clothes I should be wearing. I'm not sure where i left off in my last entry- but classes have started, and I feel like i may be in shit for a while- as long as it takes for me to: A. learn how to study like a real person again, and B: start picking up the fundamentals of marketing. My first quiz will be tomorrow- so we'll see how that goes...though I must say- i did very well on the online silly quizzes. Otherwise, this weekend was fairly quieter than the last two weeks. Friday we went to Krischanska nation- where a good friend of mine had a bit of a melt-down and has left me feeling a bit stressed about. Then saturday- off to IKEA where john had to buy furniture to outfit an entire room. i got a plant. its cute...even if it is homeless.

My disposition here is so much better than it is at home. The stresses that I have encountered here seem like nothing. Even when I really think about all the burdens (relatively not so many) that I am under, I still feel this light airyness to it all, and problems just sort of melt away....especially when i am riding my bike- except to Ulrikidel when i inevitably get lost. I would like to add that this week has been quite a challange so far. Since friday I have been living off of about 120:kr. This is slightly less than $20. In other words, I've just been eating the food I have left over, and not going out or doing this or that. Since its unknown how long my money is going to be sitting over the Atlantic Ocean- I may have to break down and withdrawl or borrow some. I need to- i've literally got a couple pieces of bread, a small serving of yogurt and no credits left on my phone. hahah i must seem so pathetic to everyone right now....

Ok- keep in touch.