Achey breaky, not my heart.

What a quality freeze frame of my face...

A second beginning. Sort of.

Or at least a continuation.

Hello there, pals!
It's the 10th of January. I am in my teeny little Triolo bedroom. And in fact, I'm in a near panic attack. A few minutes ago, I received an email saying that CLS program had made first round cuts for their programs this summer. Tajikistan to study Persian and Tajik this summer. I can't bear to look. I really just can't. My stomach has dropped, I feel nauseous. I have the website opened, the link for "Decision status: Your application status as of 1/10/2011" is right there. I mean, I felt I had basically very little chances of being accepted to the program, given having started Persian while in France and the French system which differs so greatly from the US one, having sent a bizarre application because of it, including two very well written and wonderful (I'm sure) letters of recommendation from my professors at UIowa, neither of whom quiiiiite met the requirement of being my Persian professor or someone who could substitute in. I had just gotten so hopeful since November 15th when I filed the application. And worse, I had had myself convinced that I would hear nothing until mid March. I even checked the website a few days ago, just to make sure, and then, "Oh, yes, yes! This says decisions in March! Everyone will hear of their decisions in mid-March."
Liars.
I just got an email WITH MY FUTURE IN ITS HANDS. In its body. Haha. Get it? Body. Body of an email...


Right so. Enough of that. We'll see how long I can feel this anxious before I check and then (I assume) feel disappointed.


Anyway..

My courses for second semester officially started today. To be honest, I don't know if Persian met today because the sheet listing times hadn't been updated, so.. Right!
I'll be taking:
Persian
Language and Space (which is a Masters course in linguistics and I am super, super excited)
Greek Cities during the Hellenistic Age
Linguistic Theory II
Introduction to Linguistic Argumentation(?!?)
Histoire de la Langue II

I've decided to axe Arabic class, simply because I felt it served me no real purpose last semester. Instead, I'll be trying to continue through my coursebook on my own.


And, all this comes in the midst of my panicked scholarship application writings for Iowa. Stressful. Too stressful. I just want to sleep.

Rosalind left today. It was sad. We've spent so much time together this past week or so... I helped take her bags to the train station, we hugged goodbye, and hopefully we'll be in touch as much as we can while she's in Caen (still in the northern part of France, but much more westerly and in/near Normandy). Maybe get together again, too!


On the bright side, a package from my parents arrived today with lots of little happy things, including cookies and other treats, some oral hygiene stuff (toothpaste, toothbrush, flossy things - I mean, really? Are you trying to tell me something?!), gloves, hand cream, a harry potter calendar, and potentially my favorites: hippo items.


So, to end on a good note and keep my panic at bay:


Hippopillow.
Some strange, bristley hippo who shall remain on my desk to induce smiles. Smiles like this: :D


P.S. I'll totally get photos of Calais, Stockholm, Tallinn, and Helsinki up here sometime this week, it's just that the photo files are big and take forevvvvver to load 5 at a time on this blogspot website.. full photos can be found at my facebook in the meantime!

Helsinki, Finland.

Helsinki, Finland.

Today was awful. Really. The most distressing one I've had in a while. Let me recount the tale...
Last evening, I stayed up to use the laptop. I needed to look up timetables for ferries, directions to my hostel, contact a longtime friend about our plans to meet up, etc, etc. The TV was on and everyone had left. America’s Next Top Model was a very serious distraction, but not as much as Criminal Minds when it came on at 1am… I got to briefly speak to my mom via facebook chat and made plans with my friend. We decided to meet at some big shopping center/bus terminal at 1pm in Helsinki. By the time I went to sleep at 3am, I was anxious about finding the ferry docks in Tallinn. In the morning, I made it to the Viking Line (the one that everyone had suggested to me) an hour too late at 9am. When I asked about the next ferry, the nice lady told me it would be at 6pm. 6. Upset, I took her advice and walked all the way around the harbor to the other ferry lines. Luckily, the next ferry was leaving at 11am. Unluckily, my US debit card wasn’t working. I used the credit card and all was fine as I sat and waited to board.
The ferry itself was pretty cool. Huge. I think I’d like to experience a cruise someday. A giant, classy hotel that takes you to new cities? My kind of thing for sure. While on the ferry, I’d sent a frantic facebook message to my friend, explaining I was behind schedule and to text me so we could sort things out. When I landed and disembarked (so nautical!), I seriously has no clue where I was. Some people at the hostel in Tallinn explained to me that simply following the road to the left should get me right into the city. I tried this, but soon became flustered. I still didn’t see any familiar streets from the map and didn’t seem vey close to the city at all. I started following signs to a metro, but then gave up and started panicking. As I stood at a corner, nearly in tears about how lost and confused I was, a Finnish man came and offered to help me. He very kindly stumbled through basic English and directed me towards the city. When I thanked him again, my eyes really did start watering, partly in my panic and partly in thanks for his kindness. I kept on marching through the snowy streets, dragging my carry-on suitcase behind me (really difficult in snow; my arm was killing me..) and eventually found myself on the map. Turns out, because I had to take a different ferry, it went to a completely different port in the very southern part of Helsinki as opposed to the East for Viking Line. I made it to Kampii, where I was meant to meet my friend Eric, after 3pm. He hadn’t messaged me, and as the place was large and busy, I decided the odds of his staying that long and my finding him amidst the mass of people were slim to no one. Really none, actually… Thus, I continued onward through the city, desperate at this point to just get to my hostel. I stopped at a tourist center to grab some brochures before I arrived at the small ferry that runs between Helsinki and the island of Suomenlinna. Ticket machines that only take change and/or credit cards? Stupid. Sooo, I used my French card (which must be dangerously low presently) and waited. I did actually make it here, though not without more problems. (I forgot to mention that I saw one street performer in the entire city and he, of course, was playing a xylophone. I teared up again…) Anyway, at the hostel, I gave her my American card, but it still didn’t work! I only had €30 cash and my French account truly probably only has €15 in it. The worker told me to go into town for cash tomorrow and pay then. I am disappointed with my room and bed, the bathrooms, and the kitchenette. To be honest, I just wanted to stay in the hostel until Friday when I’ll leave, but exploring Helsinki it’ll be!
I was, at the time, almost crying again, so upset and frustrated about the entire day. I sent my dad a text, thinking Mastercard had stopped my account, finding it odd to have charges in Estonia and Finland. I eventually accessed the wireless connection via my iTouch (which is now at about 5% of battery, but which needs to last until at least Friday so I can check my flight status and update Georgie) and checked my bank account. $19.
$19!
$19?
WHAT?!
I was boggled. In the end, I transferred money and cursed the current dollar/euro/SEK/EEK/ANYTHING exchange rate which seemed to be the root of my depleted account. I made dinner (some really disappointing instant mashed potatoes), looked through my tourist brochures, showered, wrote some postcards, and then wrote this.
My skin is so dried out it’s scary. It is cold. I’m really cranky, and all the events of today just felt really overwhelming. None of it is terrible, in retrospect, but it was so distressing initially. I do like traveling, especially on my own, but it gets lonely and stressful, specifically in the cold and in the dark. My excitement for Helsinki has been completely zapped and I find myself wishing tomorrow were Friday instead of Wednesday, and that I could skip the next two days here. But I know deep down that that is silly! I’m in Helsinki! Finland! How many people get to come here? Not many, especially where I’m from. I know that deep down, I am excited to go wander around tomorrow and see what I can find. I just need to let that excitement take over and fuel me until Friday. Friday brings with it a wonderful friend, a more than kind and welcoming family, warmth, and a real house. Company and holidays. I can hold on until then. I will, and it will be so good to relax after having fully enjoyed myself here in Helsinki, as well as Stockholm and Tallinn. Yeah.


Alright, mes amis!
Let’s recap Helsinki!
After my worst day in a while, I slept loads and then went exploring on Wednesday. These are the highlights of my excursion:

Helsinki Cathedral
-This huge white cathedral on a hill. It’s supposedly the most famous/photographed building in Helsinki. The inside was warm and churchy, but I’ll try and get to that later.

Esplanade Park
-In winter, this hosts a fairly large Christmas market. I didn’t stop and buy a cup of gölgi (hot wine) and I’m regretting it a bit. :\
National Post Office

-Lame, I know, but I love post offices and stamps. Plus, the building had about 4 different floors with shops and gifts and books and a museum! A museum that I did not enter…

Olympic Stadium
-Helsinki hosted the 25th Olympiad in 1952. Bit odd looking in my opinion, but was the result of an architectural competition.

The Sibelius Monument
-I seriously went waaaay cross the city to get to this. Sibelius is this really awesome composer who, in fact, wrote Finland. (I think this is probably why the huge concert/meeting hall here is called Finlandia Hall…) Anyway, loving classical music, I decided that it was certainly something I needed to see, despite its location on the very far west of town. I did go out and visit it. I think the design was meant to resemble organ pipes, but I could be way off. By the time I made it back towards center city, I had enough time to grab packets of pasta, clementines, and a yogurt before returning home…
….see, I’m staying on this island called Suomenlinna. It’s actually a fortress that the Swedes built in 1748 to safeguard against the Russians (totally didn’t work by the way: Russia had control of Finland for a loooong while between 1809 and 1917). Well, you can only get to and from the island by a ferry that comes every 40 minutes. I tried to stay in the city until 5:30 and then come back here. The hostel was deserted. The first night, I shared a room with three others, but last night (and it looks like tonight) I’m all alone. Though, whereas last night the hostel felt completely empty, tonight I’ve at least seen and heard people.
Today, I decided I would try to make it to the Uspenski Cathedral and the Winter Gardens, maybe do some shopping and see the national library. As soon as I stepped outside, my plans changed. My nose froze instantly. My fingers and toes went numb. Terrible. Once I made the ferry ride over, I immediately climbed to the Uspenski Cathedral, knowing I could go inside. I almost didn’t want to, though. Almost. It’s beautifully Russian-looking and imposing. Actually, it’s the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe! The inside of the building was warm and churchy, just like Helsinki Cathedral. I can’t say I’ve been in many Orthodox churches, but it definitely is different from a Catholic church. I don’t know that I could properly point out the reasons why, as I’m certainly not a specialist in the differences between the religions nor am I one in the architecture of churches, but it was different. Moreso than Tallinn’s cathedral as well, somehow. After I felt my stay had been long enough, I walked to the library. I went inside (where I had to store my coat and bag in lockers before leaving the lobby), found myself a nice desk with a window (that I couldn’t see out of …) and sat down with Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d’Azkaban. I spent an hour and a half inside before it closed at 4pm, thinking to myself as I enjoyed looking at the columns and stone pillars and the shelves of books for several floors, “Oh, hey, I’m in the National Library of Finland! How interesting!”
I tried to make myself go wander to the shopping centers, but as it had become dark, I could barely stand to be outside. (Dad just texted me and said it’s -9ᵒ here. -9ᵒF. That’s like…like really, really terribly freezing for any of you non-Americans reading this. (He also added “But it’s going all the way up to 11ᵒF t omorrow!” Thanks, Dad.)
Since being back at the hostel, I’ve made pasta, had tea, and read a lot of Harry Potter. It’s 5 minutes until 9pm. If I slept now, I could sleep 12 hours before I need to wake up… Tomorrow, check-out from the hostel is at 10am. My flight is at 7:15pm, boarding at 6:45. I need to take a bus to the airport, but I’m thinking I’ll seize all that time to arrive very early and read indoors. I plan to be to the bus station by 2pm and on a bus by 3:30. That gives me about 3 hours to find something to do between 10am and 1pm. If Dad (and weather.com spoke the truth and it does get up to a positively warm 11ᵒF, maybe I’ll ask to leave my things here and then explore this whole ‘one of the world’s largest maritime fortresses’ thing called Suomenlinna.
For the moment, I’m texting chère Rosalind, who is now in Paris after her trip to see friends in Germany. I do enjoy traveling,but the Christmas markets, songs, snow, everything really makes me miss my family and friends. I am so lucky to be going to stay with Georgie and her family in England the next few days. So lucky and so excited. Plus, I’ll get to skype home tomorrow and say hello and see everyone! :)
Bonne nuit!
(I don’t know how to say that in Finnish, or I would. In fact, all I know is that “hello” is “moi”, but I don’t even know how it’s pronounced…)



Still in Helsinki. My flight was supposed to leave 2 minutes ago. Instead of being on my way to GEorgie and happy old England, I am sitting here, wishing that this hadn’t happened. The board now reads the estimated departure time as 21:00. 9pm. Not cool, travel Gods, NOT. COOL.
Today hasn’t been anything special, honestly. Cold. (But what’s new in Fnaldn?!) I woke up, checked out of the hostel, but did decide to explore Suomenlinna. It was kind of cool, I guess, but it was too cold for me to once more and when my hair was frozen and I believed I had frostbite, I turned back. I ate some strawberry-banana yogurt that I’d bought, but it was an extremely off-putting consistency. I ate a Clementine instead. I’ve eaten 3 today. That’s all I’ve eaten except the water and sandwich I just had that was not nearly as fulfilling/delicious as its €6,40 pricetag seemed to imply. Right, I exchanged my Swedish and Estonian crowns back over to Euro. It wasn’t much, but oh well. Then I went to the bus station. There were very few benches inside where I could sit and read, so I decided I’d just catch the next airport shuttle au lieu de waiting. According to the bus, it was -11ᵒC outside, but a cozy 25ᵒC inside. Upon arrival, I hoped to check in and pass security so that I could grab some food, but after waiting in line for 30 minutes, the worker told me I couldn’t check in for another 2 hours. Awesome. I finished my Harry Potter book, which, on the bright side, means I can justify going out and buying the 4th ASAP from Auchan, but, on the downside, means I’ve nothing left to read during my 2 hour wait right this second. I did eventually get checked in. My dear face moisturizer, which has been desperately trying to save my poor, dry, cracking, hateful-of-Tallinn-and-Helsinki hands, was apparently not regulation to pass seucirty. :( So, she chucked it and I died a little inside. On the other side, security man had me open my bag for searching. I was boggled, honestly, but when he started sifting through my bag, I suddenly realized that they must’ve deemed my pyramid shaped candle (a present for the Harmsworths) a bit suspicious. The passport check area that I had to pass through to reach my gate was odd as well. The man seriously checked my passport for 2 minutes, looking at my ID page, visa, OFII page, and reading all my stamps. By the time I made it to my gate, word had just come through that our new departure time was 21:00 as opposed to 19:15. I found food, sent Georgie a message (hoping she’s received it!) and spent the rest of my time moping. The worst part is inconveniencing her and her family. They’re nice enough to host me and to pick me up from the airport, on Christmas Eve at 8pm, and now I’ll probably arrive after 10. Just makes me feel really guilty. I said I’d skype home around 9 or 10, but now it’s sure to be later. Chances are that Dad’s figured out a way to track my flight and is aware of the delay and won’t expect me on skype until later…but if not? What if my whole family is waiting to haer from me and I don’t make it there to say “Hey!” and “Merry Christmas!” I’m already a guilty person; more guilty is never a good thing. :(
This has really ruined my opinions of Helsinki, even if it isn’t at all the city’s fault.
:/

The guy at the gate is the doppelganger of the actor who plays the main character on Community. The mean one with the blond, short hair. Doppelganger Community Actor appears to be a ginger.



Christmas Market (blurry for artistic value, clearly.)
Uspenski Cathedral.
Parliament.
Sibelius Monument.
Olympic Stadium.

Tallinn, Estonia.

Tallinn, Estonia.

My flight was fine, really. Row to myself and a view of snowy Tallinn as we landed. The actual airport was really cool and modern. I was waiting for the bus to take me to the city when a man came up and spoke to me in Estonian. No idea what he actually wanted, I just kept shaking my head. I was really confused/lost for a while trying to make it to the hostel. All my getting lost makes me sound like I’m just terrible with orienting myself and directions, but I swear, I’m a real directional genius 97% of the time! Anyway, I ended up stopping in some pub type thing to ask for directions. I eventually did make it, but the actual environment had me feeling a bit uncomfortable: a seedy hidden staircase and an entryway sans lights. Inside, I met the guy who (I think) owns/runs the hostel. He’s seriously so nice. He spent about 10 minutes highlighting points of interest on the map and telling me stories about Tallinn. I went out into the city with some Italian who was really annoying. It was terribly cold out and when I made it back to the hostel to warm up, I took a nap. On waking up, I decided I would freeze if I went outside in the dark and spent the evening watching movies and reading my book. I watched several of them and now can’t remember which ones…

Today, I slept far, far too late and went to a suburb to see Kadriorg Palace, a palace that Peter the Great built for his wife. It was being restored and had lots of scaffolding in the front, but the snowed over park around it was nice as well. I exited to the big mermaid/angel statue/memorial and walked just along the shoreline to come back to the old town. I browsed some tourist shops, made extensive attempts to find a big flag, but it has in fact been unsuccessful… L

I’ve been hanging around the hostel for the rest of the evening, watching movies (A Beautiful Mind, 500 Days of Summer, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and chatting with the hostel owner man. Now writing this up. Some guy just said he’s from Dublin and when I inquired further, it turned out he’s from the same place at James! Weird coincidence. Oh man, just remembered that I have a Kinder Bueno bar in my bag. Time to eat it! Then I’ll try and snag the shared laptop so I can write down directions to my hostel in Helsinki and look up ferry times to actually get there.

Overall, Tallinn has been nice; a bit more relaxing 2 days after more of a go-go-go time in Stockholm. The cold is also holding me off from being busy, but Tallinn is quite small regardless. Oh. And apparently most of Europe is quite shut down due to snow. Here’s to hoping that by Friday, everything will be okay and my flight to Manchester from Helsinki will be on.

<3

Freedom Square
Monument to a Russian ship's crash on the shores.

Main square; Christmas Market.

Stockholm, Sweden.

Stockholm, Sweden.

I got about… 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Left Triolo with Rosalind, who is also beginning a journey today, at 5:45am. Luckily, I bought my ticket for the train to Tournai on Tuesday, because I made it to the platform and hopped onto the train just two minutes before it left the Lille-Flandres station. In fact, I decided to travel with a ticket of Lille to Tournai (just over the Belgian border) and then a slot on the Go 10 pass from Tournai to Charleroi-Sud. It cost me a total of €5,40. Deal! Way better than direct Lille->Charleroi –Sud ticket for €22. The problem with trying to make my 9:30am flight was that my earliest possible arrival at the Brussels Charleroi Airport (a large Ryanair hub) was 8:20am. Not a lot of time to check a bag and get through security. Luckily, I made it and my flight was actually late leaving. I couldn’t sleep, but did indeed manage to start drifting during the 90 minute coach/bus ride into Stockholm from the airport. When I got here, I was fairly lost. I had completely run out of time to plan my maneuvers outside of booking plane tickets and hostel beds. I wandered, backtracked, and eventually gound my hostel. It’s about 10x’s better than the one where I stayed in London. Quick let a few people know I was alive via the hostel’s wireless and my iTouch, and then decided to wander down to the National Museum. The museum was small, but nice all the same. On the walk down, I discovered some beautiful buildings and sights. (Pictures to come once I’ve returned!) Perhaps more importantly, while walking, I realized it had been about 10 hours since I’d eaten 2 bananas for breakfast, so I was on the search for a place to eat when lo! I saw a stand selling hot dog things. My heart lept! I gasped in excitement! TUNNBRÖDSRULLE!!

Yes. Tunnbrödsrulle. Anthony Bourdain featured the food on his show and I knew when I came here, I would have to try it. :D If you don’t know, tunnbrödsrulle (which they had translated to ‘flatbread’ in English) contains:

A hot dog

Mashed potatoes

Shrimp salad

Mustard

Ketchup…

And it’s all wrapped up in a tortilla (I guess that’s where they get the ‘flatbread’.)

In all, it may not have been the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten, but it was much more than tolerable! I would certainly eat it again.

After leaving the museum, I spent some more time wandering and taking photos. I’ve wound up here in Wayne’s Coffee, drinking the hugest mug of tea I’ve ever seen. Coincidentally, the man and woman who sat next to me on the flight have also made it here.. And presently, there are about 7 Swedish women doing some sweet cross-stitching and talking on the other side of me..

My plan is to stay here a bit longer before I meander back towards the hostel. Then I’ll type these up and post them, mplan the things I want to accplish tomorrow, and go to sleep.

But first, to give you a better idea of this place…

6 Things I Have Learned About Stockholm in Approximately 6 Hours:

1. It snows a lot.

2. It is dark very early (by 3:30?)

3. There is an H&M on every corner. (Really.)

4. Everyone speaks English.

5. Even if someone isn’t speaking English, it sometimes sounds far, far too similar to a British accent for my comfort..

6. There is a McDonald’s on every corner. (Still valid, but not as prevalent as H&M.)

Further experiences in Stockholm:

Upon my return to the hostel, I discovered that I couldn’t figure out how to access the internet on the computers in the lobby, so my updates will have to come somepoint after the fact.

I decided to take a quick cup of tea (the hostel provides free coffee and tea!) and met this Australian named Nick. (Actually, we only discussed names about 40 minutes into our conversation.) He’s super nice, if every quick to share tales of his drunken experiences. We were sitting next to three friends from Perth who were doing some extensive traveling. They played chess the whole night and talked with us too. I don’t remember all the subjects that we discussed, but Nick is now fully aware of the Platform 9 and ¾ in King’s Cross (he’s been living in London for 5 months) and told me he’d definitely be going there. Job well done on spreading the Harry Potter gospel, Self!

I ended up not sleeping until after 1 and still hadn’t made any real plans. Woke up until way late and said hello to the 3 Australians (once more playing chess…) and Nick while I had tea for breakfast. I made my way down to Gamla Stan and walked around, enjoying the lights and cute shops. I bought myself some earrings and went into a “Taco Bar” for lunch. It wasn’t great, but it was fairly cheap. 38SEK is about 3,80 Euro is about 4.50 dollars. Kept walking and caught Riddarsholmen out of the corner of my eye. Wandered around the island taking photos and then headed off to the Modernamuseet. I paid 80SEK for a ticket to the museum and the Arkitekturmuseet was free between 4 and 6! I spent an hour or so in the modern art museum. It was okay, really. I guess I’m just not a “modern art” person. You know, pieces that look like someone threw paint at a canvas and decided it was groundbreaking.. Some was cool, and the Dali piece was bizarre, and I, for some reason, like Matisse. The Architecture Museum had a cool temporary exhibit of gingerbread houses constructed by Stockholmians (I think), and a really neat collection of models of buildings around the world and of Stockholm. Afterwards, I walked over to Gamla Stan again with the goal of seeing the gigantic Christmas tree up close. Goal accomplished. It was decorated with some huuuuge ornaments and apparently real gingerbread men! Also, it turns out that the Stenbeck Tree (as it’s called, for the guy who suggested Stockholm make it a tradition) isn’t actually a real tree, but instead there are a bunch of trees that “donate” their best, fullest, greenest branches to the cause of the “biggest and most beautiful Christmas tree”. I left and walked to the Royal Palace and the church next to it. I certainly plan on going back tomorrow to see if I can go inside the palace and church. So far, I’ve been going places at the wrong hours.

:)

So. It’s 5:35am; I’m once more in Skavsta Airport. It’s also Sunday morning. My plans didn’t go exactly.. according to plan (harhar.) Honestly, the last thing I have written in my notebook is a big, green smile that I drew, I suppose, as a recap of yesterday (see: Friday). I will try to explain further atthis point.

Ahem. So, while in the hostel drinking tea and pouring my adventures onto the paper via my sweet Union Jack pen from London, the TV in the kitchen/common area was on with some music. A guy was changing the channel occasionally, and at some point, he asked if I was interested in watching something. I explained that I didn’t mind at all since I was writing. He asked if I was writing about my trip to Stockholm. I said yes and told him about my blog. This turned into 3 hours of conversation between us and no more recapping my day’s discoveries. And I don’t mind at all. :)

Tom is from a small town close to Hamburg, but speaks flawless English, certainly helped by is year spent as a highschool exchange student in Florida. He mispronounced “alibi” but I think that’s the only mistake I noticed. We spent a good deal of time talking about traveling, schools, America.. And that’s the only remembering my mind can do at the moment.

In any case, when we became tired, we exchanged names and emails to stay in touch and suggested possibly seeing each other the next day to walk around and maybe get to some museums.

Back in my still empty (!) room, I got ready for bed and looked through my maps a bit, planning to hit the us terminal to check departure times for the airport, get to the royal palace, stop in souvenir shops on the way home, try to get some sleep between 5pm and 1am when I would need to check out. If I saw Tom, maybe we could do something together as well. Simple. Sleep. (And good sleep. I had a legitimate mattress and pillow and extra cushiony mattress pad thing! Way,way, WAY better than those terrible 2 inch foam pads they call a bed in Triolo..)

Saturday morning, I very reluctantly got out of bed and gathered my things for the day. As I had tea and watched an incredibly varied selection of music videos on the TV (including Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” and J. Lo’s “If You Had My Love”) I ran into Tom and we made the decision to go out together for shopping and some museums. First stops were some stores: one with a collection of ties so fascinating and creative that I wished I were a suit-wearing business man; one with tons of Halloween costumes, gag gifts and overall bizarre items that reminded me of Spenser’s in the USA; 2 design/furniture/stuff stores that were cool but far too expensive for me. We also stopped in a mall where, rather than going into stores to search for Christmas presents, we instead had gingerbread flavored gelato. SO. WORTH. IT.

We went to the Dansmuseet (for free!). It was fairly interesting to be honest. The exhibit included paintings and sculptures of dancers, costumes from performances, and a neat video showcasing a lot of different styles of dance, complete with a scene from Bride and Prejudice! We found an indoor food/farmer’s market and managed some free samples of Chocolate, then went to the Kungliga Biblioteket (aka: the Royal library), but quickly departed so we could make it to the East Asia Museum to see the Terracotta Army! Unfortunately, it cost about 15 euro to get in and neither of us were looking to spend that much. We did enter the permanent exhibits on China, which included loads of pottery and a nice little section on the history of bookmaking. On our way home, I bought some postcards, a cute moose figure thing, and my Swedish flag!

Back in the hostel, we had some dinner and spent the evening watching more (mainly terrible) music videos and talking with Nick the Australian. Once more, I’m at a loss to recount the subjects we discussed, but we did sit around together for hours. By 10:45pm, we snapped a quick photo (one I’ll hopefully receive from Tom very soon!), said our goodnights/goodbyes, and I went to nap for just about 2 hours before repacking, checking out, drinking more tea, reading Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d’Azkaban, freezing on my way to the bus station, drifting asleep on the bus ride to the airport, waking up abruptly to a screaming child upon my arrival at the airport, and now putting my pen and notebook away to get my flight!

Recapitulation.

16/12/2010.

So. Exhausted.

Really. I totally haven’t updated in a serious manner in what seems like forever. It’s simply been go, go, go to finish the end of fall semester. Let’s talk academics for a hot second:

I had 6 exams: DEFI French, Persian, Arabic, Thème (French to English translation), Tandem conversation/interview and History of the English language. All are done, all have (hopefully) been passed..

Right, so, my last exam was yesterday morning at 8:30. It wasn’t awful, but I’ve been having trouble falling asleep, so it was terrible getting up to take it.

Immediately after, I found Clémence (she offered to give me a sleeping bag for when Katie visits!) and then Laura and Georgie. We came back to Triolo (their very first trip here!) and met Raashnie and Rosalind for a nice, homemade brunch. Rosalind had those pancakes down, Raashnie’s reheated canned Auchan brand corned beef (no hash) was sooo god, and my scrambled eggs were, of course, beyond the tastebud imagination of anyone. We chatted and laughed and someone may have been a bit teary with goodbyes… Overall, lovely. I went back to my room so I could finish doing my laundry and then pack up a box to send home for Christmas! After about an hour, I was out the door, to the post office, the metro to Marbrerie and then arriving Chez Georgie/Laura/Katie. Some more ‘goodbyes’ or at least ‘see you soons!’. Home several hours later, I began packing for my traveling adventure, but was soon distracted by skype with Rutvi and Hetal…

Shortly thereafter, Christine and Sarah stopped by ma chambre for saying goodbye as well. And, though very sad to see Christine go home and Sarah go to Jordan, as we reiterated several times: it’s not like we won’t talk to each other all the time via facebook/skype anyway… I eventually finished packing and fell asleep around 1.

BUT before I continue my first update from abroad (well, you know, abroad from my home abroad…) I’d like to throw some other happenings in here:

On December 7^th, Laura, Brian, and I went to the Orchestra National de Lille for an evening of Berlioz. Seriously amazing. It was honestly the first time I’d really opened myself back up to music/performance and the results were a bit emotional and painful. Its all okay, though, and hopefully I’ll soon be in the possession of a cheap €50 acoustic guitar to feed my need for the myoooozak.

I had a beyond enjoyable evening with Rosalind, Christiane, Raashnie, too much wine, and too many potato chips. Speaking of, there are some wild flavors of them here in France:

Bolognaise, barbecue, original, rotisserie chicken, salt and vinegar, three cheese, smoked ham, paprika, kebab… (I’m sure there are others as well, but these are the ones I made note of..)

I’ve recently watched a lot of movies instead of doing homework/studying. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkbana, Leap Year (trash), When Harry Met Sally (soooo good I watched it three times in about two weeks!)

Sarah FINALLY uploaded photos from our day trip to Calais, so I’ll make a post of them/update the old post when I return home. Maybe those backlogged videos about London too. But only when I’m home. Because I am gone. Woo!

Here’s the plan:

Dec. 16-19 Stockholm, Sweden

Dec. 19-21 Tallinn, Estonia

Dec. 21-24 Helsinki, Finland

Dec. 24-28 Manchester, England (with the Harmsworths!)

And so, as it is indeed 7:30pm on the 16^th, let us get to what I’ve done (and learned) thus far (about 14 hours into my adventure…)