Addendum (sp?)

Oslo:

After a four hour bus ride we arrive. Take a taxi three blocks which costs approx 30.00 and head to our "hostel"

There was a girl at our "hostel." She was on heroin. She was supposed to work behind the counter but instead stood there saying "yaa yaa yaa yaa yaa" on her cell phone over and over and over again. Her eyes were vacant, her spirit clearly destroyed, and she may have been missing several fingers. She was basically the most useless person on the face of the earth. In fact a damp wash cloth covered in elephant feces would contribute more to the earth's greater well being.

To make matters worse, it wasn't even our hostel, erica had once again messed up and we were in fact staying at the hotel next door. It was then time to find lunch and the obligatory city castle. It took us about twenty tries, and 35 run ins with more heroin addicts, to finally end up on the same street our hostel/hotel was located.

For the next 24 hours I walked around thinking everyone was on heroin, every house was the one charlotte used to live in, and the foliage is soo beautiful this time of year (bahaha that last one was erica, she couldn't stop talking about it).

Things I learned in Norway:

1) Everyone looks dead, in fact I had to ask erica multiple times if she saw people we walked by because I was completely convinced I was seeing ghosts.

2) 7 dollar beers from a hostel refrigerator are the best deal in town.

3) When a boy comes up to talk to you at a club repeatedly saying "Nej" will not impress him, and he will shoot you dirty looks with his sullen heroin eyes for the rest of the night.

4) There is a park with short squat people in compromising positions, in the middle is a penis of people in even more compromising positions, this turns erica on in all the right ways.

5) I love viking ships, and everything viking, I would live in the viking boat museum if given the opportunity.

6) People in norway love US... The United States. Or at least the boy we met in a club did... he was a pastry chef and therefore his opinion is held in my highest esteem.

7) Boys in Oslo are the best dancers I have ever seen in my life! To describe it as angelic would be an understatement of epic proportion.

8) I want to live in Oslo one day, I could happily become a sunken eyed living dead person with an affection for Norwegian Sweaters!!

MISS WHOOPIE ARRIVES

Sooo as most of you already know, whoopie is currently staying with me and we are off to an adventurous beginning!

On friday erica arrived at 6 pm. By 6:30 she had taken over the laundry room of my building and was either washing or drying every article of clothing she had taken with her on her journey. She also arrived with three bottles of wine and a 12 pack of beer so all was forgiven. It was then time for Erica to experiance "the man in the window" a small asian man and his wife who have a small window on the street level of my apartment building and can create either thai, chinese or italian dishes for your consumption. Everything invariably tastes the same... delicious.

All was going smoothly until it was time to head out. After consuming copious amounts of alcohol, Erica was feeling quite loose in the head and mistakenly left home without the tram pass we had purchased just hours earlier. This would have been fine except for the fact that a tram worker, we will name her St. Peter (Erica and I aren't sure but we think he judges you when you get to heaven) took it upon herself to make sure that Erica and I were not wronging the Swedish tram system. St. Peter heard me talking to Erica informing her to get out her ticket, Erica too drunk to comprehend what is going on just looks up laughing saying she forgot her ticket. St. Peter hears the exchange and turns to me and asks me in Swedish where my friend's ticket is. I try to explain in English the situation. St. Peter becomes angry and once again starts talking to me in Swedish. I once again try to explain that I only speak English. St. Peter informs me I am wrong. I inform her this cannot be so. I then tell St. Peter that I will buy Erica a ticket with my phone. St. Peter sees that my phone is in Swedish and once again starts yelling at me in Swedish. I explain to St. Peter that in fact the reason my phone is in Swedish is because I bought it here and can't figure out how to switch it to English... on account of it being in Swedish. St. Peter is still angry and takes Erica's drivers license to call the police, because she no longer believes me about anything. Not sure what happens during that conversation on account of it being Swedish. But St. Peter once again turns to me and tells me I am lying. Sebastian informs St. Peter that I infact am telling the truth, but it is to no avail. She says she is going to check something up front, our stop comes we get off.

Had fun at a club...

Next morning head to Norway. Ate a whopper for breakfast. Ate a ham sandwich as a snack. Ate fish soup for lunch. Ate either cod or cloud fish for dinner. Went out

Had fun at a Norweigan club...

Next day saw naked people in comprimising positions in a park. Saw three old viking ships. Had erica mess up our bus tickets home. Cried and ate a chocolate bar. Recovered, and ate a pizza buffet.

yo!

Alright people it's time to get serious!!! So I just read through Erica's blog and decided enough is enough... time to get crackin'!!! It's been two months and I have written essentially nothing. So to sum up my past two months in one long but hopefully enlightening post, I am going to make a list of all the things I have learned during my time in Sweden.

1) Going on exchange is completely different from studying in a foreign country for grad school. You will not drink 6 nights a week, instead you will partake in this novel concept of homework and group projects (this is the only serious thing I've learned don't worry!).

2) If you rent an apartment online, expect the walls to be puke orange and spend two days painting them!

3) If your landlord's name is Bjorn, your handyman's name is Hans, and your electricians name is Leif... this will make you very happy.

4) If your father cannot drive in your hometown, do not expect him to be able to navigate the streets of Gothenburg.

5) If your brother thinks every boy who looks at you is "creepy" going out together is going to be a long night.

6) Watching large boats go by in the harbor... is way better than any show on television.

7) I have a neighbor that lives in a garage, his dog wears a diaper, and one night Mandy (friend from highschool) and I jammed with him. I played the xylophone... it was rad. Learned that you never really do know what goes on behind closed doors!

8) If you don't water your plants they die... when you water them they come back to life... until they die again... and the cycle repeats

9) If you get black out drunk... you will meet a significantly greater amount of people than usual... they will all remember you.

10) I am still the worst communicator ever.

11) Late night drunk food still makes me quite nauseous.

12) Princess cake is still my favorite dessert!

13) Swedish gyms are full of cyborg robots... save your self esteem and never enter one ever!

14) I still love to ride my bicycle!

15) Group projects can actually be fun... four tigers rawr!

16) Shopping for home decor might be even more fun than shopping for clothes!

17) Living alone is amazing, you get to do whatever you want whenever you want, and you never have to wear pants!

18) When we go out, they play Abba, this is the highlight of my night everytime!!! ( I learned that this is awesome!)

19) Cocoballs taste like heaven.

20) I discovered the most amazing candy store in the entire world... the Chocolatemonster was very satisfied!

21) I realllllllly love vanilla yogurt with musli!

22) I want a pet.

23) There is a man in the window who cooks for me when I don't feel like it! (I've learned I want to marry him... even though he has a wife!)

24) I've learned I am surprisingly neurotically clean when I live alone.

25) I will always be a party girl at heart! I joined the events committee and now will plan parties for my university!!!

26) I still have a crush on Ola Svensson... Natalie just gets me everytime!

27) It is not appropriate to run around asking everyone if they are your mormor och morfar (grandmother and grandfather)

28) I now own ten pairs of black leggings in various design, if I throw in my jean leggings (now up to four pairs) I can go a whole two weeks without repeating!

29) Something about Sweden makes me lose earrings constantly... I've already lost 4 pair... while sober!

30) Oktoberfest was the greatest experience of my life. I never knew sitting in a smokey tent for 12 hours drinking beer could be sooo fun!

31) I still love it here!!! But I miss you all terribly! Visit?