Well, it's been a while since my last post, so I guess its high time I do some updatin'. I'm officially really glad I came. Everything about this place is amazing. But as usual, I have stuff to complain about, which is what makes for the best stories; and then I'll share all the amazing stuff.
First though, Swedish bus drivers are assholes. Two separte stories prove that it is not just a fluke.
1.) 20 of us exchange students are standing at the bus stop in the bitter Swedish night time cold (i.e. -5C). The bus driver drives by, we are all standing at the bus stop, not near it, by it. We all have our bus passes out and are ready. We have even started to que for the bus line. The asshole keeps on driving, doesn't stop so we have to wait thirty minutes for the next one which to avoid the same fiasco we form a blockade in the middle of the road to make sure the asshole stops.
2.) Today we took a tour of Stockholm. Anyway, a friend and I were on a bus heading back from the Vasser museum to central Stockholm, but we got on the bus going the wrong direction. After realizing this we figured we would just ride it until it turned around. So the bus gets to the outskirts of bumblefuck stockholm, stops, and the busdriver opens the doors and says "get out." Dumbfounded we get off and start headin back the other direction to find a bus stop going the right direction. During our walk, a bus that we need is approaching before we get to the bus stop. I kid you not, I run out in front of the bus, wave my bus pass, expecting him to stop. The asshole keeps driving. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't have moved, he would've hit me.
Anyway, those are my fuck Swedish bus drivers stories. But as I said, this place is amazing. I went to a party on thursday and one on friday with all the international students (the swedes kinda keep to themselves). Long story short it took 5 beers and a good amount of whiskey for me to be as openly affectionate as the Italinas at the second one, but they were both a lot of fun, and I met a lot of really cool people. I even played some guitar and we all sang, and then I sang, and there was yelling and laughing and mor esinging. A fun time was had indeed.
Today, as I said , was the bus and walking tour through stockholm which is an amazingly beautiful city. There are pictures coming on facebook as soon as I file through the crap and the good stuff. We also went to the Vasser museum. The Vasser is a big Swedish navy ship that sunk 1.2 km into its maiden voyage because it was built poorly. Infact the entire Swedish Naval history appears to be one embarrasment after another. But we learned alot about Swedish history on the tour, in specific that any statue where a night is fighting a dragon, the dragon represents evil which is Denmark. The Danes apparently did terrible horrible no good things to the Swedes a long time ago, and the Swedes hold a serious grudge. I'm running out of things to say because I am so tired I am falling asleep while I am typing, but I absolutely love it here. Truth be told, its not so much Sweden that's so amazing. I could feasibly be anywhere with all these international students, and the best parts would still be loads of fun. I haven't experienced the nightclubs yet. Those are yet to come, and I look forward to them a lot. Until next time. Transmission out.

Getting better everyday

Today was the first day of classes. I went to my first class, Nordic Politics, which seems to be very interesting. The teacher is really nice and encourages student participation which is nice because the last thing I want to do is listen to some pretentious academic ramble on for 2 hrs everyday. The class is only 7 people with three from france, 2 from the U.S. 1 from nepal and 1 from sierra leone. I learned today the difference between a parlimentary and a presidential system (good stuff to know). We hit the ground running tomorrow. Best part is that all the reading assignments are real vague. They say to read the introductory article to a series, and read further if we are interested, and then we discuss in class. Its both exciting and nerve racking because most of the articles are online meaning I have to navigate a swedish website.
I am excited because I am actually meeting people. I'm doing my best to be as social as possible, but I am very shy, so it is difficult. I did manage to make a friend. He is from texas, and despite that fact seems like a pretty good guy. Its nice to have someone to talk to...even if he is a texan who thinks that beef barbeque is not only acceptable, which it is not, but that texas is the world capital of barbecue...he's crazy. But I dye grass. This place is slowly growing on me, although if there were more than 20 minutes of daylight a day, I might like it a little better. It snowed a little bit today, but not enough to play in. I'm sure I'll get my snow soon enough.
New thing learned:
Swedes speaking English, particularly the international students woman (maria costa of Sodertorns Hogskola) is positively adorable. I want a little swedish woman plushy.

Swedes still love hairgel...alot...and tight pants...but hairgel more.

Stockholm day 2

These posts will grow far less frequent as I hope to meet people and have a little less time to myself in the near future. But for now I have nothing better to do than to update, or in this case, begin, my blog.
So, after waking up at midnight from my 8 hour jetlag recovery nap, I putzed around for a few hours and then fell back asleep until, get this, 2:00p.m. Bringing my grand sleep total to nearly 24 hours. Booyah. Anyway, today I decided to take the train into Stockholm, wander around the city without the burden of two fifty pound bags, get some stuff I needed, and acclamate myself with my surroundings. So I felt like a total bad ass navigating the rail system in Stockholm by myself, as none of it was in english, and I'm new to the whole train thing (but I'm not afraid of them). I got off at Stockholm central and wandered around for a while until heading back into Huddinge (a suburb) to buy groceries, and then back to Riksten (another suburb) to my room. The whole adventure took about 6ish hours. The following is a list of stuff I have learned about Sweden:
1) SWEDES DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH!!!
yes, they know english, and when forced to speak it, they usually can; yes most of the pop culture is in English, but they speak Swedish. They write in Swedish. The signs are in Swedish, the train station is in Swedish, Mcdonalds is in Swedish, the grocery store is in Swedish, and yes, the bus stop is in Swedish. Saying the country speaks English is a gross exaggeration. They know it, but they don't want to speak it. That's why they invented Swedish...seriously.
2) It's not that cold.
When you think Sweden you think far North, Baltic Sea, really cold. Truth be told, Stockholm gets the same North Atlantic Current that England gets. It's not really that cold. It rains. It's dark save like 3 hours, but its not the frigid subarctic wasteland you'd expect. Infact, all I've done since I got here is sweat. It's chilly, and certainly not swimmin' weather, but bring a decent overcoat and an umbrella and ur good.
3) It's freakin' expensive
bottled water 20sek=3.25ish
month transportation pass 650sek=120ish
train to destination for unfortunate traveler who didn't know that the word bus pass doesn't translate and bought single tickets as a result
169sek+30ish
making this mistake once more 50sek=8ish
NOTICE I HAVEN'T EATEN YET!!!
4) Swedish showers are weird
there is no end of shower-beginning of rest of bathroom. You shower on the floor. WEIRD
5) Swedes love HAIRGEL
I haven't seen this much product usage since...okay to be fair I did live with Jason, but everyones hair looks like Sid Vicious.
6) If Sweden were highschool the gothy, punky, lipringy kids would be the popular kids.

So I'm learning a lot. Oh, and I saw the scariest man on all of planet earth today. I would have taken a picture, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have shown up. I'm not kidding, I curled up in the train station corner and shivered and cried...well I would have, but every kid within a square mile was doing just that, and all the good corners were taken.

Last but not least, I saw the first use of "taugen" today. Apparently its not as popular a sound as I once thought. My love to everyone. Pictures are soon to come.