More everyday life.

Hello there again! :)
Today was my last exam for this quarter, I just finished it, and I passed the crap out of it! I am a lean, mean financial machine haha. Well, I dont get much of a break because second quarter starts tomorrow, how lame is that? Oh, and at nine in the morning, Gah. The next few weeks are going to be sooo interesting. Saturday I am going to this Easter getway trip where we go horseback riding and conoeing, I come back Sunday from that, and then Monday Johan is cooking a traditional Swedish easter dinner, yummy (I hope). I am pretty excited to see Johan cook actually, but I hope he doesn't read these blogs haha. The other day we made these things called Chokladbollar, which are delicious. I love them so much and will make them for everyone when I get home. They are made out of chocolate, oats, cocomut, coffee, sugar....well I will just have to make them for you. There is a picture of them to the left. Tuesday, after Johan's easter dinner I leave for Brussels and come back the following week, with Andy and Jenna. Maybe I can improve on some french while I am there. I actually also just booked a trip to poland for the end of April, because my friend Patrycja lives there and she needs to go home then, so we all decided to go with her. The city is called Polsnan, google it.

Until next time, TTFN :)

It's been a while...

Ok, so I understand it has been a while. I have been quite busy with school (yes I actually study) and my travelling of course. A couple of weeks ago I went to Berlin with Justine, Andy, and we met Justine's friend Clarisse there. It was really fun, and the flight there and back was really cheap, like 20E roundtrip! When we arrived we checked into the hostel. It was actually really nice, a lot nicer than the hostels I had previously stayed at. There were only 8 people in this room, opposed to the 18 we stayed with in London, and the facilities were a lot nicer, like you get your own washroom or shower, whatever. We don't spend any time there except for sleeping and such. While we were in Berlin, we did all the touristy things, saw the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, etc. The coolest thing I think we saw was the Eastside Gallery, which is the largest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, and it was full of this awesome artwork. While in Berlin we tried to go out to a club or something, but we couldn't find a good one. Someone recommended for us to go to this place called Casseiopia, but it was real sketchy looking, in some alley so we didn't go. There are pictures of this place in my Berlin album on facebook if you are just wondering the actual sketchy-ness level of it, which is quite high.

Next weekend is Easter Weekend, and the school organized this trip to some place in Sweden, like 40km from Jonkoping. We are going to stay in a cabin, ride icelandic horses and go canoeing. It sounded like a lot of fun and it was only 500 SEK and that includes your food and everything! We have a week off for Easter Vacation, so the week I get back from the weekend trip, I am going to Brussels, Belgium with Andrew and Jenna. Really looking forward to it. I have so many trips lined up, Brussels, Poland, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen. I will inform you of each of them when I get back from them.

So, the weather here in Jonkoping is improving greatly, there is no more snow and the lakes are beginning to melt, and occasionally (like once or twice a week) I see the sun! I will have to take pictures of this place in the spring, because it seems to be much more beautiful here in the nice weather than in the winter.

Really, I should get back to my studies though because by writing this blog I am procrastinating. So until next time TTFN :)

Anybody?

Does anybody even read these?

Kiruna

Ok, so it has been a while.

Last week, I ventured off into the Arctic Circle. And yes, it was damn cold. We left on the train around 2pm and had to change a few times. We were on this night train and it was pretty cool, we mainly just partied and drank. We got to Kiruna in the morning and our train was late because we hit some moose and reindeer. Because we were late, we had to go directly out into the wilderness before going to our hotel. We took a dogsled and snowmobiles many kilometres into the wilderness over a frozen lake. We reached these wooden cabins, which is where we would be staying for the next 2 days. In order to keep it heated, we had to chop our own firewood and get our own water from the river. Stiig, who was one of our guides cooked us reindeer meat for lunch and dinner, and it was very delicious. While in the wilderness we could have done many things, such as cross country ski, ice fish etc. I chose to go on a wilderness hike with a few of my friends. It was gorgeous some of the scenery that I saw. There were huge hills, frozen streams and lakes, sunsets and so many trees. The whole time we were there we didnt get to see the northern lights, which was kinda disappointing. We took the dogsleds back to civilization and it was the coldest I have ever felt in my like. My toes had a little bit of frostbite on them and some people were lying in the fetal position trying to get warm. Some girls were even crying but I'm not that pansy lol.

So, we get back to the hostels and try to warm up. It was pretty difficult because our hands weren't functional for at least an hour. We walked to the grocery store and made ourselves dinner and chilled to the next day. We went on the mine tour and it was kinda boring, but it was warm so I didnt really care. The town of Kiruna is pretty small, but it was cute and quaint. I really enjoyed all the little cafe's. The ice hotel was pretty awesome, but by the end of the trip I was just soooo sick of ice and snow lol.

The train ride back took forever, because all the trains were delayed because of a huge snowstorm through southern sweden. We missed our connection so they put us on a bus, which got stuck in traffic in Stockholm for 3 hours. I was very glad to get home and sleep in my warm and comfy bed.

Not too much else has been going on here for me, just business as usual. Some friends and I are booking a trip to Paris so I am pretty excited for that. Ryanair is so cheap I love it. I wish they did business in Canada. Now that I have spent most of February travelling, I must spend most of March studying haha.

Monthiversary.

Yesterday morning (Saturday) I lay peacefully asleep after a long night out, only to be awaken by Jehovah's witnesses banging on the door. I was really surprised when I say a hobo, and even more surprised when I saw these people. I live in this huge apartment building like thing, and these people should not be able to get inside because the outside door is usually locked. Note to self: make sure the door is always locked.

I talked to my contact family yesterday. They wanted me to come over for dinner next weekend, but I will be in England and wont be able to attend. Sooooo they insisted on taking me out on the 16th for my birthday! The family has the wife, Annika, the husband (can't remember his name), a boy named Bjorn, and a girl Hanna. The boy is 16 and the girl is 18. They have a puppy too, I've just seen pictures but he looks adorable. They live in this little town right outside of Jonkoping called Habo. Really excited for dinner on teh 16th!

So, today is the superbowl, so Andrew and I are throwing a party here at Skepps. Plenty of hamgurgers and beer. The game starts at midnight here, so it is going to be a looonnggg night. Looking forward to it.

Oh! And today I have been in Jonkoping for exactly one month, so it is my monthiversary :)

Sweden

Ok, so i guess I haven't written in here in quite a while. It's pretty much day to day life here. Although, I do go to England next Wednesday which I can't wait for! Jenna, Andrew and I leave early in the morning to catch the bus to Nykoping, then hop on a Ryanair plane that takes us to London Stanstead. The tickets were soooo cheap, like $20. It's crazy how cheap travel is here, nothing like Canada. We booked a hostel right near Hyde park, which is apparently pretty close to the city center. We come back on the following Monday, and then leave for Kiruna on the Thursday. Kiruna is veryyyy north and is in the Arctic Circle, the bus ride is something ridiculous like 20 hours or soemthing, but we get to do so many awesome things there like see the northern lights if they are out, ride dogsleds, see the icehotel, ice fish, go mining... it will be awesome. Although, I am going to have to buy some snowpants and some new boots. I dont know how I have lasted here so long without the boots and stuff.

Today, the sun was out all day in Jonkoping, which is awesome because I don't see it very often. However, they say it will come out a lot more now that it is getting closer to spring. Today it wasn't even below zero. itw as 1 degree haha.

Homeless Man

Ok so today I woke up, pretty early anyways so that I could get a shower because we were going skiing. Well the shower upstairs was occupied for a verrrryyy long time, so I used the one downstairs. When it was time to leave, I needed to find my friend Andrew so I go to the TV room and find a homeless guy coming out of the shower. WTF. I ask him if he lives here, and he says "for now". It was very weird. We saw the same homeless guy while coming back from skiing at the bus stop. This wasn't a regular homeless person, like you would see in Detroit, that would have been way more normal. He was well dressed and could speak perfect english. You would never be able to tell he was homeless on the street or anything, I only knew this because he was sleeping on our couch and using our showers, and probably eating all of our food. I guess one of the guys that has been living at my accomodation for years said that sometimes thsi same homeless guy comes, and he is very polite and uses the shower and leaves, so they dont make a big deal about it. This is crazy, and he scared me half to death ahaha.

Anyways, enough about the creepy homeless guy. I went skiing for the first time today. It was a lot of fun, but I really do suck at it. At first, I couldn't even move, that's how hard it was. The first time I tried to get on the lift (it was one of those towing ones), Andrew and I tried to get on together, and we both fell and it dragged me for 50 meters before I finally got free. It caused a huge scene, and was hilarious. The second time we tried to go by ourselves. He got on his first and got halfway up the hill before he fell off, and I was doing well on the one behind him, we he decided to try and latch onto mine. I could have killed him. Once we finally got to the top it took me about 30 minutes just to get down the damn hill because I fell every 15 feet or so lol. Eventually by the end of the day I could get down the hill only falling once or so.

Then, we went to this place called "Max" and it is teh Swedish version of McDonalds, and I believe is way awesome-er. They put this sauce on their burgers everywhere in Sweden, its like orange and very good. Tonight, we are going to a party at a student residence then to a nightclub. Everyone here loves the clubs, or "disco" as they call them.

Classes

Hello again. Not tooo much going on here. Thought I would put up a post because it has been a while. Classes started the other day, and it was exactly what I expected. The lecturer was from Iceland and he was boring as hell. I guess the lecturers change every week because I had a different guy for class today from Iran but he was young and cool and less boring. The material is veryyy dull and pretty much stuff you learn early on at business school. I did something bad to my foot, even though I am not sure what I did. I just know that it hurt a hell of a lot so today I went to the doctors to find out what the heck I did. Guess there is just some swelling and internal bleeding or something but it will be fine and she gave me this ointment to put on it to make the inflamation go away. Hopefully it feels better soon...

Jill
P.S. The Swedish people can't say my name right, so I am trying to come up with some super kickass nickname that they can pronounce and then I will tell them this is my name. If you have any ideas, drop me a line ;)

Bandy

Hello again. Well last night was another interesting night. We all stayed up to party til 7 am thig morning. The tequila made us dance on the tables, it was awesome. These people are great. Today I woke up early and went to this Bandy game with Johan and his friend. If you are wondering what Bandy is I will tell you. It is kinda like hockey, but a little different. It is played outside on ice, and the rink is ridiculously huge. They skate around with clubs and try to hit this ball, like a floor hockey ball into the net. The net is pretty huge and it is a lot easier to score. I posted a video of this on my facebook if you want to see.

I am buying a bike, because it is a lot easier to bike around than it is to walk everywhere since it is so farrrrrr away from here.

Jill.

I'm not funny here.

Ahhhh it is a lot of fun here. My roomates are awesome, and more and more just keep coming everyday, they should all be here by the end of the week. Although, a lot of them are messy dirty boys lol. Last night I went to a party at one of the other residences and it was a lot of fun. There was mostly exchange students but a few Swedish people as well. The Swedish people only talk to you if they are drunk haha. I met a lot of cool people.

Today I slept in late, because we didnt go to bed until 5am last night, then I woke up to get to school because they were taking all of the exchange students on a bus tour around the city. We saw a few cool things and then drove us back to the school, where we had this Swedish quiz activity. Antonello and I went to the A6 Centre, which is the mall here. The mall is awesome and is pretty big for being in such a small town. I bought a hat and mittens because apparently what is cool in Canada is not cool in Europe. As my french/italian friends would say that my hat and gloves were "scandalous" which apparently means ugly from what I understand. But it's ok, because now I am "in fashion". (that is something else they say haha)

Well, since dad probably reads this, I must explain the bus system haha. Buses leave every 10-15 minutes and at the bus stops there are electronic signs that tell you when the next bus comes, and they are always on time it's ridiculous (they make fun of Canadians for saying ridiculous all the time). All the bus routes are labelled by numbers so it is really easy, and they say the stop on a electronic sign inside teh bus so you know when to push the button, kinda like Toronto. Also when you get a transfer ticket, it is good for one hour, even for a return ticket and for any bus. A bus ride is expensive, like 3 dollars to get on.

The most frustrating thing here is that nobody understand what I am saying. A lot of the other exchange students don't speak English very well, so I find myself having to explain myself all of the time, which is fine but just gets annoying. They don't understand sarcasm here at all, so if you ever come here avoid sarcasm lol, it isnt so easy to change your sense of humour. However, I was kinda relieved when an American from New Mexico moved in here today, because he gets my jokes (especially "That's what she said" lol). Also i never have to explain what I am saying to him. It's great haveing everyone from different places, but sometimes it just feels good to be understood. :)

Jill
Tomorrow is a long day, there is a lot of work and a lot of partying to do.

Drinking with Georgians.

Soo, yesterday was a good day. Woke up in the morning and went and explored town and all. It is a very beautiful place and is inbetween 2 lakes, Munksjon and Vattern. Everyday to get to school I have to walk around Lake Munksjon, but it isnt really that far, only about 25 minute walk. Then I went to the orientation meeting and met a lot of cool people from all around the world.

Last night at Skeppsbron (which is my residence) we had a huge fiest, everyone cooked something so that there was a huge variety of food from all over the world. Then, the Georgian guys suggested we drink. I guess when they say drink, they mean it. I think I was more drunk than I have every been in my life, or Swedish Drunk as they like to call it. Swedish drunk is a lot different than Canadian drunk. We drank a 3 litre bottle of vodka, which seems cool at the time until you wake up in the morning.

Tomorrow is the winter games. I still have to go to the shopping center and pick up a few things, but there is just so much to do it is hard to find the time.

Oh and this language thing is really confusing, because I can't even go the grocery store and actually know what I am buying, so I buy a lot of weird crap. The swedish version of a hot dog is nasty.

I'm here.

Okay, so I got here today. I took the bus from my hotel in Stockholm to Jonkoping where my friend Johan met me, and the people from teh school took me to my accomodation. It is definantly interesting. The room is kind of in this weird building behind this trucking company. There are like 20 rooms I believe and we all share a huge kitchen and bathrooms. It is pretty nice though. After I arrived and got settled in, Johan made me tacos. They were delicious.

It is very unusual not being able to just speak to anybody. A lot of people dont speak English amd it can be very confusing while trying to read signs and all that stuff. O well, I will figure it out :)

Tomorrow is a busy day because I have to start the kickoff week, as well as get a whole bunch of things like shampoo and groceries and stuff. So, gotta get to bed.

Leaving in 3.

Ok, so this can be considered my first real post, because the last one really doesn't count. It was so long ago. So, I leave in 3 days and it is coming so fast. I am excited more than ever and also a little bit nervous but that will subside. The only real scary part is the getting there part, because it is such a long journey and is going to take me a couple of days. I did make a friend in Sweden however, and he is going to help me out to make it a bit easier.

So, I leave on Friday for Pearson in TO, fly to Heathrow in London and then change plans to go to Stockholm. I should arrive in Stockholm at 2:20 on January 9th. I have a hotel there that night because I figure this is a crapload of travelling to do in one day, or even two days and with the time difference I will be too jet lagged to catch the bus the same day. I catch the bus to Jonkoping at 11:45 on Sunday and arrive at 3:30.

Well, I will keep you all posted! :)
Jill