krink

i always run into jay. this is becoming an odd coincidental phenomenon. last week, as i was leaving jen's, he was returning from the liquor store with a stash of swedish beer... tonight, as i was waiting for the bus at lundagard, he was walking home from seeing harry potter down at the kino. so in order to save some time, i went ahead and made a coffee date with him tomorrow at 6, because i'd run into him downtown anyways.

and i double-booked accidently, meeting up with vanessa and erin to go to krischansta nation at 7. more dinner, more dancing. hmm. two weeks until the weekend getaway. will i recruit, or enjoy london on my own? time will tell!

i lost the chess game. should have castled, but instead tried, much to agressively, to take his queen. and got my ass kicked from here to berlin. germans are good at chess!

5 minutes to my chess date with martin. i have to mentally prepare to be sharp and cunning... or just lose really badly.

i miss playing chess with robert.

i need to go buy an umbrella,
but i can't,
because it's raining.

oh the irony.

it is always raining here. but at lesat no longer frozen rain, as it was when i first arrived. eric pointed out something interesting on the phone, i've already been here for (almost) a month. times flies when you're having fun. wait, am i having fun? most of the time. when i'm not falling on the ice or being robbed, this place is pretty sweet.

loretta emailed me.. for a once-every-three-months-friend, she sure does write great emails. almost a year since we met, when i was in Orlando last spring break. we sat in the rain outside einstein's and drank coffee. she's moving again, and also told me a story of how she sent flowers to some guy she was crushing on at her work. boy does that sound familiar... (i wonder how many deliveries of roses they get at the EA offices in a year?)

i skipped class. in honor of the oklahoma snow day, which is going on even as i type. almost, it's only 7am back across the atlantic. so now i'll have to write another paper over the article we were supposed to read. something about the changing role of brand-names.. how the appearance of retailer brands are undermining the differentiation and pricing strategies of manufacturer brands, because they don't have to advertise, they can stand alone on the good reputation of the retailer. example: go to wal-mart and buy the equate brand ibuprofen instead of advil. makes the advil people charge less, because the retail brand is so much cheaper. and you'll never see a commercial for equate products, but you know they're gonna be at any wal-mart you go too..

there now i can feel justified skipping class because i talked about marketing for five seconds. i wonder what the french-canadians had for lunch in the cafeteria today?

i can't decide if i should buy the bike. it's on a trial period currently, and boy is my ass sore.

when i did a search for my contact info on the ou site (8 months outdated by the way, no stalking me!)... it says that I am a senior! it's about damn time!

ugh, insomnia.

anyone want me to write them a letter?
you read about how tired i am now,in a week and a half.
for the low low price of ten swedish kronor.

mollie loves me to pieces, she's going to mail me candy...
teri is calling on saturday...
and in two minutes i will be dialing back a sarmiento, as promised.

i hear there are ice storms in okielahoma.

it's just like riding a bicycle...
which is very very hard to do. there was much huffing and puffing as i wound my way across town. the bike is old, and creaky, and rusty. this will hopefully deter the gangs of bike thieves. they are unstoppable... no lock can stand in their way. they steal and then send them up to stockholm, and then bring stolen bikes from stockholm back here to sell to students, and then get stolen and again sent away on a lorry. i have it on trial for a day, if i like it, i'll give 500 crown to sandra tomorrow. need to get the handle bars raised...

who would have thought they'd have gangs in sweden?

i'm in class right now, not paying attention to a computer-aided tour of the library. no one is. we're all emailing instead. for shame! like a bunch of exchange students are going to spend their time in a new place reading academic books... pshaw.

blah blah blah. this lady is very boring.

the moonbabies sound intriguing... if nothing else, from their list of linked american bands. maybe they'll play malmo again sometime soon.

hoo-ray for indie-rock.com giving me something to do.

i got off the phone with my mom about an hour ago, and she has left me hungry for more conversations. but who to call? who would not be otherwised occupied with their important daily activities? who would not mind being interupted? would they be as happy to hear my voice as i would be to hear theirs?

feeling insecure, and so, no calls to be made. o, i miss people.

a day like any other day
.waking, snozing, waking, showering
.guest lecture
.lunch with the french-canadians
.coffee, cigarettes, walking
.involved class discussion with gorgeous swedish PhD candidate
.shopping for fresh produce at the ICA
.cooking lasagna with jen and leslie
.riding the bus home
.reading emails from aaron, curtis, nate
.updating friends listing... (kathleen has an LJ! hi kathleen!)

kathleen = donny's little sister.
for 6 year's i was always "joe's little sister."
i really hated that.
sorry, kathleen.
and many other festival city rockers have popped up with weblogs. interesting.

and anxiously awaiting...
.letter from eric
.birthday packages
.weekly 11:30 call from mom
.email from teri
.sleeping in tomorrow, and
.getting a bike tomorrow, and
.dancing at wermlands tomorrow night
.going to london!

infinite nostalgia.
Oh so she is so slim and sexy... soon she will be in my house... pictures later...
posted by takeru at 4:30 PM 2.8.2001

new thoughts to consider:

if a vegetarian were pro-life, but still ate eggs, what would you call them?

a european recently presented me with the misconception that we are at war with afghanistan... when in fact we are in cooperation with their interim leader, Hamid Karzai.

does being seven hours ahead mean all my friends back in the U.S. are living in the past?

Wonderful Copenhagen Tourist Information
so the sign proclaimed above the tourist center as we stepped out of the train station. all 40 of us. what a crazy day! i took lots of pictures, and saw lots of things. smoked something nice that francois bought at a hash bar. watched all the aussies learn drinking games. drank some funny blue dutch liquor with vanessa at the southern cross. danced to 'like to a virgin' with all my psychotic friends. oh and witnessed a large scale anti-american rally in one of the main town squares, and corralled jeff (from north carolina) from screaming something obscene at all the gathered muslims. just what i need, to get shot while wandering denmark. had my first hostel sleeping experience... all 4 hours of sleep i got. jen snores. ate funny scandanavian breakfast... cornflakes, sour yogurt, strawberry jam, and sugar, all in one bowl! rode a bus, bought a train ticket, ate an ice cream cone, and came home.

(home, as in here, this is my home, wow! not oklahoma! lund!)

can i move to europe when i grow up?

eric emailed me, cheers to okie friends! and awaiting love-filled-birthday-packages... life doesn't get much better then this.

(verse 1)
teasing from across the room
so many caught glances
so many missed chances
still I can see your smile
(verse 2)
i can scarely remember
it's all seen in a whirl
and i'd give anything to go back
back there where you are
(bridge)
and i'll have some new adventure for you
here doing what so many wish they could do
can you see me
surrounded by strange faces?
wonder if i'll
lose my way in new places?
(verse 3)
with you i'll always in remember
in those eyes i could never forget
that fleeting glimpse i caught
upspoken hopes to never be met
(verse 4)
maybe one day as i wander
wander lost in a daze
i'll be saved from being lonely
and find your smile
there in the changing maze

things are starting to fall into place. today was a wonderfully long busy useful day. i had class from 10 - 12. the lecture was horrendoursly boring, but the fact that i actually showed up earns me 100 cool points. and the teacher assigned me a paper for skipping yesterday... whoops. they're stricter about attendance here.

after class was lunch at the blue diamond, a decent thai/chinese buffet i've discovered. it's really funny what they call a buffet. about 6 different things, and rice. but it was really good, i'm not complaining. the place was packed, so i asked them to find me a table instead of seating myself. they stuck me a large table where i guess they throw all the alone-lunch-eaters. there was an adorable blonde swedish guy and a woman about my mom's age already seated there. we all sat diagonally to one another to avoid any possible eye contact. it strikes me as so odd how oblivious people act towards each other here. the woman said something to me once when she went to get coffee.. and she smiled, so it much have been something nice. who knows. jag talar inte svenska, jag talar engelska. i just sat and ate my noodles and my chicken, and i got to practice being polite and proper. table ettiquette is important here. you hold your fork in the left hand, and the knife in the right, and you use the knife to scoop stuff on to the fork, and then very primly put it in your mouth. no noodle slurping. and it's also very rude to leave any food on your plate, so i am now a card-carrying member of the clean plate club. when you get up at 7:30, and actually eat breakfast, you are so hungry by 12:30! and then after you eat you sit and drink coffee, and you're supposed to talk, but i was all alone, so i had a cigarette and read a little.

and i met with my advisor to fill in my final class. something about icelandic literature. all the business courses were full so i opted for some scandanavian studies instead. and speaking of business classes, my god they are really hard here! it's about half grad students in my class, which is only supposed to be an elective... definately reads like a grad level class. but it's really interesting stuff. i sat in the library for about an hour and read an article on how the post-modern movement has effected the marketing strategies of corporations in the european union. basically evaluating how the increasing sense of individualism and the growing international application of business have caused a shift in marketing strategies from segmented marketing to niche marketing, with focuses on what they call 'tribes' ... the social groups people belong to that set the norm of their behavior (cliques). it's really interesting to see the shifts in individual buying behavior of european consumers, as more imported products are made available to them. they are so much more concerned with health and the environment then americans! especially the swedish. they recycle EVERYTHING.

but enough school, everyone's eyes always start to glaze over when i set in on my business talk. i remember once aaron telling me how he about fell asleep in some EA meeting when the marketing guy got up and started blabbing away... that will be me in another year or so. hooray for marketing.

and i started my tutoring gig today :) it was really fun! i had to walk about 30 minutes in the rain to get to their house, but i really loved it. just walked and sang to myself and thought about things. the two kids are really cute, and their mom is very nice. we just sat and made conversation. it was really hard for me to think of things to talk about, but i managed. i'm trying to think what words i taught them... let's see. thermometer, population, how to use "once and twice" in a sentence, and a bunch of other random crap. we talked about what they got for christmas, and what they did in school today. mom made us some tea and we had some yummy chocolate biscuits. it was altogether very homey. nice to be in a house again, with a family. and get this, the little boy, he's in the 7th grade i think, has a cell phone, his own computer (complete with the sims, even the hot date add-in), and he got a playstation 2 for christmas. i wish i was swedish.

teri left me a voicemail asking when my birthday was... she is going to send me something! hooray for birthdays!

(februrary 6th)

memories every time i close my eyes... like moving pictures in my mind. i can't escape them no matter which way i turn. in social company i am frantic to escapte and alone i am asking only for peace of mind. rain splattering on window panes, bursts of laughter from the kitchen, garbled french phrases spoken out in the hall..

i see flashes. robert crouched giving me a squinty eyed smile. frantic chess games admist isles of coke and chips, minidiscs in the background. sitting poolside at the keys lounging with aaron on a hot summer night. laughing with amy over broken refridgerators and sleep-walking boyfriends. see liz leap drunkenly into the pool at one of our late summer parties. watching football games with eric. dancing naked around my living room to the rolling stones. sad songs sung on my guitar. dreams lost and won.. and hearing the train go screaming by. whispered names and lost places and hopeless feelings. it's making me dizzy.

(tommy roe.. billboard hit, 1969)

i should be in bed. i should be reading. i should be responsible, for i have class in 9 hours. but you know what? fuck that! i'm in sweden, and for once in my life i'm not going to worry about it. instead it is off to the ryanair website, to search for cheap fares to paris.

it's my birthday in two weeks. not everyone can send themselves to paris on their birthday...

excuse me for one moment while i release the frustrations of living in a country where the phone company doesn't operate in english...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

ok i feel better. i had voicemail installed on my line on Sunday. there is an option to set it to go straight to voicemail, i.e. for when you're on the internet. you dial *131# and hang up. this works great! except there is no conceivable way to turn it off. so even when i'm not online, none of my calls come through. so i called to information line for the telephone company. it's in swedish, but i figured out if i keep pushing one eventually i'll find a real live person. so i found real live person and they forwarded me to where i needed to be. and the next person that answered.. did not speak english. so i asked to speak to someone who could. this, she told me, was not possible. they would have to call me back. i couldn't make her understand that they couldn't call me, because my phone doesn't ring, but ended up giving her my number anyways and hanging up. they did call back, and left a rude message saying they couldn't get through because the message service was activated.

well, fuck me, that's why i called in the first place. so when my mom called tonight she couldn't get through, so i called her, and kept getting disconnected. i just want to talk to my mom. is that too much to ask? i need to learn swedish.

on a happier note: i did some fun things today. yesterday received my first letter! from teri, hooray for teri! so i went to a pretty coffee shop and had a fancy pastry and wrote her back a bit fat reply. so big and fat in fact, that it cost $1.50 to mail. eek. but it was fun. definately worth the expense. then i wandered around a bit.. couldn't find the international office. that kinda sucked. but i did go to the library and get a card. checked out some books on literary criticism.. vonnegut and then american women's autobiographies in general. and also an analysis of jfk's presidency. they don't have novels at the uni library, so then i walked to the city library and got a card. checked out timequake, by vonnegut, and gates of eden, by ethan coen (of the coen brothers fame). so now at least i had books to read. good thing. a paperback, on the rare occasion they can be located in english, costs around $13.

tomorrow i have class from noon to three, which i think in swedish time means 12:15 to 2:45, with a 15 minute break somewhere in the middle.

oh, and i might have found a job! don't report me though, the terms of my visa say i'm not allowed to work over here. saw a posting requesting "englishspeakingstudent" (spelled just like that) to help two children practice english. so i called the lady, she sounds nice, and we have an interview on Thursday. if i get it I'll go once a week for two hours and talk to her kids. nothing special, no tutoring involved, just conversation in english so they can get used to hearing it. and i'll get about $20 a week. sweet!

i am hungry, and i already ate all the pringles. i wish i could go into the kitchen without feeling so nervous.

p.s. michael looks like harry potter. can you pick him out of the lineup? scroll to the bottom there to see...

my posts are becoming all-together too unorganized. so i just deleted one (gulp) and am starting anew. i have just arrived home from a long and involved day. should i go into detail? well we will just have to see how deep i end up.

my dad called me at 9am, and I can't remember a lick of the conversation. he was telling me to make sure and eat enough, and to look into where i would need to go in case i get sick, and then graciousally letting me go because it was clear i was still half-asleep. (here's a little *hooray* for dads!)

so then slept until 1:30. bad news. on saturdays in sweden all the shops close at 3pm. eek! and i am a slowpoke, and i lost my bus pass/credit card/student id last night... so no bus to take to the town center. i showered and hosed down my bathroom, dressed, polished, painted.. and took off out into the dreary overcast day. it rained. and it took me 30 minutes to walk downtown! ugh i better have some really nice calves by the time i get back. so i walked to the bus depot to see if anyone had turned in my cards, etc. and no one had. so i think, ok kate... chin up! can't get much worse! you've already been robbed, and lost, and lost things... no where to go but up! so i went on to the Forex to cash my emergency travlers cheques.

forex closes at three. i walked up at 3:05. (it was still raining) shit! so ok, i have my emergency credit card. i decided to find a restaurant to have some food and maybe a beer, and try and collect my thoughts. first restaurant - 10 minute walk. still raining. don't take credit cards. second restaurant - 3 minute walk. no open tables, and no help from the staff. at this point i stepped out into the cobbled street, and tried really really hard not to cry. jen's dorm was only 5 minutes away.. so i forced myself to go just a little farther, in hope of a hug, and maybe some bus fare, so i could go home and cry in peace.

jen was home. god bless jen. and god bless michael for introducing us in december, so i would have a familiar face once i arrived. (jen = other girl from OU who came here this semester) so jen hugged me and gave me some peanut butter crackers, and we went together to the library to check our email. we step into the lobby, and there is our friend Elke having a rather confused conversation on her mobile. something about a girl named Marie, and lost things, and buses... we thought it was about this girl Marie from Finland. So she gets off the phone and turns to us looking very bewildered.

"that was some bus driver... Fritz or something... is there another girl from Oklahoma? someone named Marie?"

i think that was when I started jumping up and down and screaming with joy, because it was me (MARY, not marie, i told her) and Fritz found my shit on the bus! I had Elke's number tucked in with the credit card so he called her to try and find me. So I have my things back! He is leaving them at the lost and found tomorrow. When we spoke he told me he wanted to take extra care to return my things, because he has been to Oklahoma, and thought it was such a nice place. How cool is that?

So swedes aren't all bad. I went grocery shopping and then came back home... had a fun dinner with all my korridor mates. Amelie and Marie made quiche, Volker made some german meat/potatos things, and Martin an Irish cake with ice cream for dessert. And Cedric brought good French wine, and Luis made sangria. Yummy yummy!

They all think I'm rich because I brought out my cd collection to listen to.. they could not believe i owned 40 cd's. *gasp* And then they had a party that I didn't go to... I went out with some of my new aussie/canadian/english friends. If you get to the clubs after 11 they won't let you in! So we instead found a cool bar with good salsa music and some smelly Spanish guys. And two nice swedes that I have befriended... Steffen and Christian. Good conversations on politics and social demeanor and economics (what they call all business studies... i study "ekonomi"). AND get this, Steffan asked me to dance.

I can't remember the last time a guy actually asked me to dance.

And I took a cab home when the bar closed at 3. How is that for becoming a city girl?

p.s. everybody have fun at avi's. tell him his sangria is just about as good as the real thing!

ah i love getting email!

and that feeling after being sad... when you think to yourself, there is nowhere to go but up.

and now for the hobbit. bilbo just found the ring.. escaped the goblin cave..

ahhh listening to some live radiohead. my salvation. pistol arrows show in 4 hours. sigh.

(post-show note: teri called and left me voicemail twice during the show. to tell me how much she missed me. i love teri!)

having two journals is getting confusing. i think i might have to retire the lj, because i can't take this one off... i am too attached to my archives. and all my readers are getting confused by the connecting links.

i'm in the middle of doing laundry, which here is free! neat! except i think the machine i did my undies in did not use the soap. so now i have undies that will be sort of clean, but not quite all the way clean. just super-hot-water-but-no-soap clean. the machines load from the front, and then you dump your soap in this little compartment on the top. there are also two other compartments.. i think for extra soap, and then maybe fabric softner. undesicferable considering all the instructions are in swedish. and here is neat idea we should have in the states... (in additon to laundry being FREE!)... there is a large drying cupboard in the washroom. it is about as tall and me, maybe 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep... you open it and pull out this big rack, and you drape your clothes all over it, and close the door, and push a little button... and it makes a funny whooshing noise. and blows hot air on your clothes for an hour. this is good, you pants are then not wrinkled!

last night i drank far too much. smirnoff. i was so drunk that i had to come home at 11pm. some poor guy Jeff, from North Carolina I think, escorted me home. We were waiting in line to get into a party and I got sick. yucky. So he stood there and held my hand while I sat down for a minute, then walked me all the way to the bus stop, and rode the bus home with me, put me in my bed, then took the bus back to his dorm. This is a big deal, because I live pretty far outside of town. I can't believe how nice he was to me! So if I ever see him again I will be very thankful. He wasted 20 crown on bus fare just for me. But also a bit embarassed, because, well, he saw me sick, and drunk, and looking pretty ugly and scary.

Hooray for Americans!

I need milk pretty bad. and eggs. I'm down to bread and cheese. But I'm getting lazy... maybe will instead go to Mondo. A good bagel place where you get a big fat fresh bagel loaded with skinka och ost (ham and cheese) and also a good cup of coffee, for 38 crown. That's about $4.. a little less. And you can smoke when you're finished, and sit at the table for as long as you like. And in Sweden you don't ever tip anyone, which explains why there is no rush for you to leave. But they don't put ice in their drinks, everything is rather lukewarm. And instead of lemon there is cucumber in the water, but then they put a lemon in your coke. Very very strange. And the Dr. Pepper is really Mr. Pibb. They can't fool me.

but inspite of everything, i will try and make the best of things. after i think maybe another hour of recovery holed up in my room i will attempt one, and perhaps two, things.

1) walk down to the kitchen, be polite to everyone, and cook myself dinner without looking stupid. and eat something without getting sick.
2) walk over to dale's building and maybe sit and watch something on the telly. and try not to talk about what happened, since she was there too. so then again, maybe i will just stay here and watch my own little telly in the little tv lounge. with the frenchies. hmm...

i am getting to be an expert at making lists.

amy sent me a voicemail! it is so cool.. comes through as an email and when you open it the message plays on the computer speakers. i reiterate a point i made months ago....
AMY RULES!

so about thirty minutes ago i received my first official welcome to sweden.

this translates to the little store i was shopping in... i believe i was holding bread, bananas, tampons, and ravoli... was robbed at gunpoint just as i stepped up to the register. what good timing i have!

the two guys starting screaming things in swedish, which i figured out meant "get your asses on the floor." so i ended up sprawled out next to some other poor guy, and i remember whispering to him, ".. you have to tell me what they say. i don't speak swedish. please, you have to tell me what they say." i was so terrified they were going to come up and start screaming things at me i wouldn't know what they were talking about...

but they didn't. luckily just cleaned out the register and took off. i couldn't believe how calm everyone was. i just started crying and crying, and my friend dale took me back to my room. took us 5 minutes to get up the guts to walk outside the store.. and people kept walking in and trying to shop. "uhm sorry, there's no money, because we just got fucking ROBBED!" and then everyone outside as we walked away just kept wanting to know what was wrong. god i just wanted to get the fuck out of there. we were both really shaken up. she left to go be by herself, and as she was walking over to her building, i was thinking, god what if she gets jumped just crossing the lawn?

fuck.

light streaked through
from an unseen sun
fog drifts
past
crunching boots
on ice and snow
cobbled streets
walking rushing
unsmiling faces
smokey breath
match sparked
offers welcome warmth
to
Dry
chapped lips
sweaters soft against my skin
strange tongues rough against my ears
far from all that I know
so far from
Home.

(why is tongues so damn hard to spell?)

so now i have my own little link to the web cam looking down on matt's living room.. and the caption reads naked yoga cage.

is this a good thing? too bad it will be 4am here when everyone is over watching battlebots.

why does long distance have to be so freakin expensive?

all i want to do is call up people! i am a phone junkie!

damn it damn it damn it.

Emails coming out the ears... and ICQ beeping... I love it that people miss me.

It costs $24 for an hour phone call to France, what the fuck? But now it may lead to a trip to Paris in the coming months.. yippee!

Tomorrow night is a dairy product tasting after class at the Krischansta Nation. Yummy swedish cheese!

Wednesday I'm meeting Casey for lunch.. she's from OU, been here since August living with her swedish boyfriend Erik. Lucky girl, I bet he's hot. And I hope she'll introduce me, I need some swedish friends to practice speaking with. and drinking with. and smoking with.

Victory! The packages of Thai Kitchen Pad Thai noodles have instructions in english on the back! And what you should add to make them good! (eggs, peanut oil, shrimp...) So now just as soon as I can find a time when none of my other 11 korridor mates are in the kitchen...thai thai thai!

Tomorrow is lunch with Casey, a girl from OU who has been in country since August. Maybe she'll take me to one of the thai restaurants.. or know if they're any good. There are about three down in the center.

My hair is entering the scary David Bowie stage. To cut, or not to cut? That is the question.

i am missing the simpsons. on my korridor that is an unheard-of monstrosity.. but the boys will live one night without my strange american commentary.

i got strange looks for telling i brought about 40 cd's with me, and then even stranger ones for saying that most people in america own around 200. also strange looks for eating poached eggs on toast for lunch... and buying a lot of groceries at one time. but they did like that i shared my vanilla sandwich cookies.

tonight for dinner i planned on making a grilled chicken salad. so i caught the bus to the Matex supermarket up the road.. and perused the vegetable section. lettuce, tomato, red pepper, carrots, creamy french dressing, mozarella cheese... and then i made my way across to the meat section. there is pork.. there is beef.... there is sausage... there are swedish meatballs (of course)... but, no chicken! WTF! so i had to buy some sliced turkey and make it a club salad instead.

and they also don't have any soup. but i did find pickles, and cans of coke.

i found an indian shop in the center today called "exotica" that sells all forms of hippie type things... woven shirts, hemp bags, beaded jewelry, etc ( i bought an orange scarf and a bracelet of what looks like imitation ivory beads ) ... and when it poped up as 92SEK on the register, I asked the clerk " nintio-tvo? " and she thought i was swedish! how cool is that! when she heard me speak english next she said, "ah very good... even said correctly with no accent."

Ack... klockan ar kvart over atta. nej, jag maste kila nu. hej!

internet has been achieved! finally a small white envelope fell out of my mailbox this morning... with access numbers and user names and passwords. and i think with this service i also have email and space on the web server.. so maybe for a picture page or something. here is a taste of what the letter said:

Valkommen till Telia Internet Basic!
Detta ar din abonnemangsbekraftelse. Har finner du den information some du behover for att kunna asluta dig Telia Internet. Ha alltid ditt kundnummber tillhands vid kontakt med Telia Internet Kundsupport eller Kundtjanst.

try to say that three times fast. i am glad i was able to deduce that "modemuppkoppling" is the access number, and then "anvandarnamn" is the username. weird weird weird.

my friend lacy has my old computer, and she said there were multiple icq messages waiting for me on it. so if you sent me something i didn't get it...

things that are nice here:
1) endless instant hot water
2) easy access to shops without a car.. thanks to Skånetrafiken.
3) fun new people to talk to
4) good beer

things that i miss:
1) mexican food
2) american grocery stores
3) bathtubs
4) ALL MY FRIENDS!!!

helllllllllo sweden!

i am here. well my current here isn't really that exciting. a computer lab in the architecture building... courtesy my new korridor-mate Martin from Dublin. I asked him where on earth I could find an internet connect at 7 on a saturday night, and he said, well then, just come along with me!

so here i am.

arrived on monday around lunchtime. stumbled into town with some canadiens i met on the train. we did the whole check-in, here's your keys, there's the laundry, sign up for a bus tour - thing... and then i came to my room and absolute collapsed on the funny little crappy dorm-room bed. i slept for about 14 hours... and then woke up in time for my 1:45 course the next day. we have to sit in a tiny little room with this chick Linda who babbles swedish at us for 5 HOURS every afternoon... no one understands a word. and then we say, "..på engleska?" and she just keeps rattling along, and we throw our hands up in frustration. god bless everyone here in town speaks english for the most part. just it's impossible to read signs, and menus. but i'll survive.

my class has about 15 people, all native english speakers except one poor french guy. they've become my main social circle, i usually go out with them in the evenings after class. so now i have this really funny slight australian-english-scottish accent from being around them so much. it's like whoever i happen to be speaking to, i just sort of subconsciously mimick their vocal patterns. so now i say "oi" a lot. and also "no worries".

last night we planned to meet up at a pub in the center about 9. i arrived early, so i hopped up to the bar and claimed a stool. the place was packed, i think i grabbed the only remaining seat. the guy i sat next to kept giving me these funny little sideways glances for like 10 minutes... and finally said something to me (in swedish), to which i think i just kind of giggled and shook my head, and asked if he spoke english. he did and we had a nice conversation. he has two good points. 1) he is native to Lund and will hopefully call and take me on a tour... and 2) he owns an acoustic that he NEVER plays and on which he would like to learn... hmm. but our conversation was cut short by the arrival of my boisterous aussie friends, so i gave him my number. hopefully he'll call, he seemed really nice and pretty cute. oh his name wasn't svenn... it was daniel. fancy that! so my friends and i walked across town for an HOUR and got totally lost, but finally found this big party they were hosting for the new internationals. they had good cheap beer and liquor, and absolutely horrible music. and european men dance very strangely. i would love to see them in an american club, they'd get their asses kicked after about 10 minutes of flayling around. so anywho, it was fun, i got pretty drunk. talked to lots of people from every corner of the world, and then my aussie friend todd walked me back to the dorm. i slipped and fell on the ice and now have a really cute scar across my left cheekbone (ouch!)

oh shit what else was i going to say... there is so much to tell! my dorm is alright. tiny room with ikea furniture. lots of empty shelves. the bathroom (my own, thank goodness) is a shower stall with a toilet in one corner and a sink in the other. community kitchen down the hall with a television... european MTV plays all shitty american music videos. go fig. and lots of american sitcoms.. still can watch friends every night at 8. my neighbors are alright. pretty much all guys on my korridor, from various european countries. and they all know each other from last semester, so i'm a bit left out, but i can make small talk with them while we all cook and eat each day.

did i mention i am a horrible cook? it would help if i could read the labels on things, like i bought some frozen meat that i thought would be lamb from the picture, like to put on gyros, but turned out to be sausage. hmm. they have corn flakes thank god. and you can not believe the cheese! miles of cheese! and fresh bread! just need to learn the names for everything, or have someone swedish take me shopping.

did a funny thing today, stepped on the wrong bus. the right number, number 94, but on a different section of the route, so it took like 45 minutes to wind around to my stop. got a little taste of the southern residential section of lund via a bus window. they have super nice buses here. all Volvo (surprise, surprise) with little digital screens telling the next stop and a little high pitched audio recording of the names. so there is a munchin that announces "Delfinen" over the speakers each time i am almost home. so note to self, next time catch the bus that is facing the way that you go to get home.

no luck finding a guitar as of yet... hopefully soon. when i have a chance to catch the train into Mälmo. (near-by larger city, about 10 minutes) that is where the IKEA store is... yea baby! I have come the homeland! the mothership is calling me home!

oh headache. and still stacks of email to answer. i miss you guys! even if i don't write back much... still write me. i smile so big when i hear about what everyone is doing.

oh and i switched the times to swedish time. so if you are in oklahoma just subtract seven hours.

oh so tired.
i have a new stepmom. now there is a Dr. King in my immediate family (child psychologist).
hung out with my cousin Nancy.. we're on the same flight tomorrow to Memphis. someone to drink with at 11am on Sunday morning.
my mom is across the table. still doing report cards. soon we'll go buy last minute things. luggage locks. contact solution.

i am sad.

bye oklahoma!

my mom is in her room grading papers. it's midnight on a friday and i'm tip-tapping away at the laptop. lost with nothing to do. i already said goodbye to everybody.. except a few people i wish would maybe call but probably won't.

curtis called :) while i was driving to the rehersal supper unfourtunately..so the conversation was cut short. but i was grateful all the same. so nice when people call to tell you to have a nice time! very reassuring in the greater scheme of things.

my suitcases are all packed, and mostly crammed with toilet paper and kleenex and other disposables because my clothes didn't take up enough space. or correction, just enough space, and room left for things i'll buy over there. i'll be like matt and have a whole new wardrobe. and be very fashion savvy. very eurotrash. not that he is, but i hope maybe i will be just a little.

i'm taking my radiohead poster, and lots of snapshots to hang up, and push pins. a gigantic bottle of jergen's lotion. lots of long underwear. sweaters, skirts, fancy undies and condoms. i'm being optimistic.

christie asked last night if i packed a bikini. of course i did, that silly one i bought for florida and never wore, and she said, "oh but you should buy one over there!" and i replied, "why? not like i'll wear much of it anyways!"

nude beaches! the mediterranean is a callin' my name...

wow if you search for krink on google my site is the fourth thing that pops up :) neat-o!

last night at the deli i heard a pretty good indie rock band out of gainesville, FL... loyal frisby. their drummer was out of comission so i think i didn't get the full benefit of their sound, but i still enjoyed the show well enough. those readers in the florida area would do well to check them out.. they appear to play the orlando area every now and again.

ever have that feeling like you're forgetting something? i just know i am, or i will. sigh. i can not relax. what clothes to pack? what miscellaneous crap to take? pictures in frames? will they break? do i need my stupid sundress that i love but that it will probably be too cold to wear? will i look silly in a hoodie?

AHH MAKE IT STOP!

needless worries. but i guess that is my nature. and to top it off the silly dryer is broken. i had this beautiful little pile of things to be washed and then packed... that are now scattered all across the house. draped over chairs to dry. but if i forget one of those stupid set of long underwear, will it really be the end of the world?

are you guys tired of hearing me bitch about this stupid trip yet? i sure as hell am.

dad's wedding on saturday, one more source of stress. i finally found shoes and a sweater to go with my dress. and i get to eat yummy vietnamese food at the rehersal supper, and see my aunts, those are two things i have to look forward too. and i'll play with the baby. i know when the grown ups get on my nerves i can just go play barbies with my niece. her life is so blissfully simple. chocolate milk or kool-aid? lincoln logs or blocks?

oh to be three again.

my mom already hates my laptop. "what are you doing on that silly thing! go read a book!" this from the woman who owns the push-button 9 channel tv, and the 25 year old vcr, and can't figure out how to turn on the stereo i brought so she could listen to my rolling stones cds...

ah technology.

but i like my new loaner laptop. i think it will serve me well the next 5 months, and hopefully not freeze, or get stolen out of my backpack, or anything silly like that. it doesn't have a case. i'm reminded of this funny conversation i once had with robert... where he told me a story about fashioning a make-shift backpack laptop carrying case, so he could cart his laptop around while he skated. and it amazingly survived!... i think he even fell on it once or twice. who knows. but i'll be doing the same i guess, backpacking my computer. i can ICQ from amsterdam, and email from copenhagen...

tomorrow night is my going away "thing" at the mont. 9pm. you can come sign my address book, and wish me warm wishes.

or if you can't do that, i'll have my cell phone until sunday, call and say one last goodbye.

get this, 4 days! whoa! i have to go pack now. ta-ta.