New Blog

Well, I'm not sure how many readers I have on here, but if any of you would like to keep reading about my life (and my husband's now, I guess), you can visit our new blog. Happy New Year!

17 Days till the 17th!

So, I got a few comments on the last picture that I posted saying that it looked like an engagement picture. Since last posting I have become engaged for reals and taken real engagement pictures (and bridals, but we're still waiting to get those back, so those will be in a future posting), so I thought I would post some of them on my blog interspersed in the telling of the requisite engagement story, so here I go.

Okay, so Jason and I talked about marriage back in June I think it was, but neither of us was ready for that yet, so we kept just dating and having fun getting to know each other better. Then things were just getting better and better and we were falling more and more in love, so in August/September we talked about it again seriously and went to the temple together on Friday, September 9. We both felt really good about moving forward and we basically decided to get married the next night on Saturday, September 10.

You may be tempted to ask what has taken so long, but the answer is actually pretty obvious. I am a major procrastinator, so it took me a few weeks to go look at rings with a friend. Once I had picked out three, I gave Jason the information and then he took his time as well going to buy it with his friend. After that he had to wait a little longer to get the ring as well, but he got it by the end of September. He told me when he got it and showed pictures of it to other people in my presence which was pretty frustrating since I just wanted to see it. :)

He finally decided to propose at the busiest time of the year for my job. After putting in a full day of work (skipping my classes) we attended BYU's Homecoming Spectacular together during which he texted his mom and told her to watch BYU TV thus making me think he was going to propose during the show which kind of made me nervous since I get easily embarrassed in front of other people. His mom ended up watching a BYU Volleyball game since the Spectacular was not even on BYU TV thinking that her son was going to propose during the game or something. :)

Anyway, after the show ended, we went and got yogurt which has sort of been a tradition all throughout our months of dating (we did that on our first date together and I accidentally got 1.1 lbs which he is happy to tell everyone much to my embarrassment, but that's another story). We then drove up to the base of Y Mountain to overlook the valley (another tradition of ours. I know what you're thinking, but no, we actually would talk and look at the lights).

Jason decided to blow my hair
like a shampoo commercial

After finishing our yogurt he said, "Well, you have a big day tomorrow, so I'd better get you home" (my craziness at work was continuing that weekend), so he put the car in reverse and starting pulling out of the parking spot. He stopped all of the sudden, leaned over the steering wheel squinting his eyes at the ground in front of the car, and said, "what is that?" I being the naive person I am wondered what the heck he was looking at and asked him what he was looking at. He just said incredulously, "what is that?" and got out of the car and said, "Come here." I was starting to think something was up, but I got out of the car and walked over to the spot on the ground that he was looking at so intently. Nothing was there, but when I got there he turned around and got down on one knee and pulled out the ring box, said something goofy (totally Jason to be goofy at a time like this), and asked me to marry him. I said yes, we kissed, and then got back in the car, and drove off honking the horn and we lived happily ever after. Oh wait, I forgot to mention all the craziness of planning a wedding while working two jobs and trying to keep up with school work and spend some time with your fiancé.

So, life is crazy busy, but so good. Time is ticking with the count at 2.5 weeks right now and we are getting so excited. We'll be getting married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple on December 17th and we'll have a reception here in Orem that night and then an open house in CA come January. Yay for marriage! :)

Trip to California

So, one of the vacations I had this summer was going with my boyfriend Jason to visit his family in California. I had never been to southern California before and the one other time I have been to California was visiting San Francisco for a weekend in high school, so it was a completely new experience for me. We had a lot of fun going to the beach, going to a Dodger's game, going shopping, and spending time with Jason's family (his brother had just gotten home from his mission). Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures, but I've attached one that we did take while we were there.

Summer is almost over

So, it seems that the trend in my blogging is to write a blog post about every 4 months, so 3 a year. Not too great numbers, I guess. I should probably update it more often. This sounds very similar to what I write in my journal entries. :)

Archery at the Andelin Reunion

Summer has been great. I did attend Spring Term and that was enjoyable, but I was very excited to not have classes during Summer Term. It has been nice. Several vacations including some reunions, etc. have been a lot of fun. Other than that I have just been working, reading, and having fun in the evenings hanging out with family and friends.

Biking with Kathy, Karen & Nate at the Andelin Reunion

Anyway, school is going to start next week and I have mixed feelings as always. Excitement for new classes, new stuff to learn, new people to meet, etc. Dread for the busyness of homework. I have started ordering my books and am actually very impressed with the BYU Bookstore. On your book list they actually give you the ISBN number, so you don't have to go there to look it up if you want to buy your books elsewhere. In addition, the online book list shows alternate places to buy your books including half.com and amazon. This makes me very happy as I always buy my books online to save some money. Thank you, BYU Bookstore. I'm still trying to find a place to live with my sister. I'm sure we'll find one eventually, but it would be nice to get it done sooner than later. So, there you go. A short update on my life. Maybe I'll find something exciting to post about and get some pictures on here as well.

I'm back!!!

Well, after a leave of two years, I have decided to post on my blog again. I had an amazing mission experience in the Switzerland Geneva Mission which is unfortunately being split to be combined with the France Paris Mission and the France Toulouse Mission (which will be renamed the France Lyon Mission). But, it really is not that tragic. The same people will still be there and the work will continue. My mission president, Kent Murdock, and his wife will continue to serve, but will move to the new mission headquarters in Lyon, France. I loved my mission and still continue to miss it a lot.

It is good to be home though. I arrived home just before Christmas after a delay of four days due to crazy snow storms in Europe. It was good to be home for Christmas and be able to see all my family members but David. I started school two weeks later and had a fun semester living with Bekah. It was a crazy busy semester, but it was good--especially now that it is over. :) But, now, it's back to school tomorrow with Spring Term classes and back to work today. No rest for the weary (Yes, I prefer that version instead of "no rest for the wicked" :)). But life is good. I'm living at home for this next week until I can move into my new apartment, so that will be fun to hang out with the fam for a few days. Well, that's pretty much it. I am still alive and back in the blogosphere.

Here's a random picture of me after the twins helped do my hair and makeup for the "Bishop's Ball" in our ward a few months ago. Sorry for the weird face. :)

Lament of Forgetfulness

So, I have realized through the years that I am a very forgetful person. Not that I am too terribly absent-minded per se, but I forget things in the past. I guess that would be long-term memory impairment.

Anyway, I have always been jealous of my brother Nate for his awesome memory of things that have happened in the past. He can seriously remember things from when he was like 3 years old. At least, he says he can and I'm inclined to believe him.

I, on the other hand, forget things very easily. A particular sense of frustration is that I forget books that I have read. I really like to read and I read a lot, but it is frustrating because I forget the books, especially if I read them quickly. I can usually remember a few scenes very clearly (usually rather unimportant ones, sadly), but the rest of the book is gone. I'm sure it's all in there somewhere, but I can never seem to dig it up.

I suppose this would be a good characteristic if was a poor child back in the day who only owned about 5 books and could get renewed delight out of them every time she read them, but since I live now and have tons of resources at hand (e.g. BYU library, internet) it would be so much nicer to be able to remember everything I read and be able to keep reading new books and remember everything in them too.

My one consolation in having to read books more than once if I want to remember them are the following quotes by C. S. Lewis that Elder Callister quoted in his devotional talk, "Your Refined Heavenly Home":

An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books once only.

I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.

Clearly one must read every good book at least once every ten years.

The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers “I’ve read it already” to be a conclusive argument against reading a work. . . . Those who read great works, on the other hand, will read the same work ten, twenty or thirty times during the course of their life.

Anyway, it's an awesome talk and you all should read it.

So, I guess it is good to read the books again, but what am I to do about all the other things I forget? You can't relive life. Alas and alack. I guess journal writing helps. Then I can just reread that. :)

Haircuts!

So, my sister Elise being in town and all, we decided to go get haircuts. Kathryn decided to come with and get hers cut as well, so I took an afternoon off work and spent it at Paul Mitchell. Lise got highlights and a few more layers, Kathy got all her hair cut off (well, most of it. She got shoulder length hair instead of shoulder blade length), and I got “lingerie layers” (funny name, eh?) and bangs. The girl styled mine curly as well, which was fun because I never do it curly. It took a lot longer than just doing it straight though, so I don’t know how often that will happen. However long mine took, Kathryn and I were finished long before Lise, so we drove up to the Wilk and got Jambas and brought one back to Lise. Finally she was done and I dropped them off at home before heading back to work. Here are the finished products.

Life Accomplishments thus far

Instructions: Take the following list and bold the items you have completed or experienced.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been on television

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a lawsuit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own

39/100

I got my mission call!!!

I just opened my mission call and am going to the Switzerland Geneva Mission! I will be speaking French and will enter the MTC on June 3, 2009. I'm so excited!

Where will I go on my mission?!?

I will submit my mission papers this week and will probably get my call within the next two weeks. Everyone make a guess as to where I will go. Here is a link to a list of all the 345 current church missions. Pick one and submit it in a comment. I will post on here as soon as I find out where I'm going.

When I'm Gone

1. Put your iTunes on Shuffle mode and press play.
2. To answer each question below, press next and write down the title of the song as the answer.

Here are the questions...

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY? Darling Corey by Crooked Still

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY? Ode to a Butterfly by Nickel Creek

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL? That's Life by Frank Sinatra

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? A Home by Dixie Chicks

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE? Track 5 (Wow, that's deep. :) )

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? The Narrow Way by Nickel Creek

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? Hey Jude by The Beatles

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (that's good)

WHAT IS 2+2? Driving by Everything but the Girl

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND? Long Time Gone by Dixie Chicks

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE? All By Myself by Green Day (haha)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY? Cursum Perficio ("I finish the course" :) ) by Enya

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? What Do You Need by Gutterflower (Haha, that's really hilarious. I will be whatever you need :) )

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE? Old Man and Me by Hootie & the Blowfish (okay, that's kind of weird)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU? Love is Strange by Everything but the Girl

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING? She Likes Me For Me by Blessid Union of Souls (I highly doubt that)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? Woman in Love by Barbra Streisand

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST? Gone Country by Alan Jackson (haha, nice)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET? Give it Up or Let me Go by Dixie Chicks (some secret)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS? Lazy Afternoon by Barbra Streisand

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN? This Time the Dream's On Me by Harry Connick Jr.

HOW WILL YOU DIE? Running out of Days by 3 Doors Down (How appropriate :) )

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET? The Tender Trap by Hanna Richardson/Phil Flanigan

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH? Forget Me Not by Celine Dion

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY? I'm Already Gone by Diamond Rio

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED? Longview by Green Day (Not for a while I guess)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST? Girls' Night by Deana Carter (haha, sad)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU? Don't Rock the Jukebox by Alan Jackson

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? Angeline the Baker by Crooked Still

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW? Flavor of the Week by American Hi-Fi

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS? When I'm Gone by 3 Doors Down

Pretty good. :)

Photo Tag

Elise tagged me in this and since she attached a snide comment about how I never update my blog I decided to do it. Although, maybe that was her ploy all along. Oh well. :)

Tag: Post the fourth picture in your fourth folder.

So, when I went into My Pictures to see what picture this was, I was like, "Oh no." The reason for this groan is that my fourth folder is solely dedicated to one Sunday when Bekah, Sarah, and I took a bunch of silly pictures of each other. The folder is actually titled That One Sunday November 2006. I think the one below is some sort of impersonation of the Lady of Shalott. Hence the spread hair, flowers, and me looking like I'm dead. :) Anyway, I tag Camille.

Chicago!!!

So, this last weekend I visited Dan, Lise, and Violet in Chicago! It was so much fun. I got there Thursday night and Dan and Lise picked me up at the O'Hare airport there.

On Friday, Lise and I went shopping pretty much all day and bought some fun new clothes. That night, we all went to Wicked. Wow, that was awesome! Now all the songs are still stuck in my head, but that's okay because they're great.


On Saturday, we all went downtown and visited some different sites like the Cloud sculpture (everyone calls it the Bean though, apparently greatly offending the sculptor when they do so), Millennium Park, and Navy Pier. We also went inside the mall and got hot chocolate and ate lunch because it was so freezing. The hot chocolate was pretty awesome. They would take melted chocolate and just put milk in it and whip cream. It was really rich (we all had to share two), but very good. Navy Pier was a lot of fun. Lise described it as a "year round carnival." It had a huge strip mall of shops and museums down the whole pier which was actually really long and Lise and I bought some cute hats at The Mad Hatter.


Sunday, after church, we went down to the University to see all the buildings and take pictures. The buildings were amazing. They are built in this Gothic architecture style which is just so austere and majestic. I sort of wish BYU looked like that. It just looks so academic. :) It was freezing that day as well, so we took refuge in the library for a bit. That was also an awesome building. We went back to Dan and Lise's apartment after we couldn't stand the cold anymore and had some yum Mexican hot chocolate that Dan made.

On Monday, Lise, Violet, and I went to Shedd Aquarium with some of Lise's friends from her ward and their babies. The fish and turtles were all pretty sweet. My favorites were the sea dragons and sea horses though. Lise and just hung out the rest of the day and watched North and South (great movie).


Tuesday, I left and because of the bad traffic, I rode the Metra to the airport, but as I kept reassuring Lise, it was fine and I wanted to ride the Metra anyway. After two flights and a layover, I made it back to Provo late that night. It was an awesome trip and I'm so glad I went. It was great to see Dan, Lise, and Vi. Thanks for letting me stay with you! I can't wait to see you at Christmas!

Back Home in the Good Ol' U.S.A.

Well, I returned from Europe and it feels great to be back. Not that Europe isn't great and all and not that I didn't have an amazing time, but there's nothing like home. I got back on Saturday and am currently trying to get over jet lag. I think I'm doing pretty good though. I jumped right back into work on Monday and I haven't been feeling too exceedingly tired.

Now to summarize my last few weeks in Europe. After we finished our language course in Uppsala, we took trains and buses and a ferry to get to Gotland, an old Viking island off the coast of Sweden (the journey there was quite an experience-barely finding our train stop in time, barely catching the bus, and hauling all of our luggage along with us through the whole thing).

The medieval city of Visby

Being there was a lot of fun. I have been telling people that it was my favorite part of the trip 'cause even though I am not sure that it is (as many know I have a very hard time deciding favorites), it was tons of fun. We went to several different beaches and got to relax in addition to seeing really interesting old viking churches and visiting with a famous Swedish artist and his wife.

Arch in Visby

After Gotland we went back to Stockholm and visited some more museums, Drottningholm Palace, and went to an opera and play. Drottningholm Palace has amazing gardens which are modeled after the gardens at the Palace of Versailles.

We left Stockholm on Monday and caught a train to Malmö, a city in southern Sweden. While we were there we visited the Lund Cathedral which was built in 1080. It was really interesting.

Lund Cathedral

We even got to see the astronomical clock chime (figures circling and organ playing; really neat) and watched a church play that was performed right inside the church. We also visited the university in Lund which was pretty cool. I also got to visit the church site where my great, great, great-grandmother was christened.

On Wednesday we took a train across the bridge to Copenhagen. In Copenhagen we went to some more museums and went on a sight-seeing walk through the city that took us to tons of churches including the one with the original Christus, a citadel, the Little Mermaid, and several other things.

Kristina, Me, Brittany, Madeleine, and Julie--Fredriksborg Castle

Christus in Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen, Denmark

Little Mermaid--those dang girls would not move

Brittany and I--Eating Danishes in Denmark

Marie-Laure, Julie, Madeleine, Brittany and I--Round Tower

On Saturday morning I took a bus to the airport and after a long day of flights and lay-overs I finally got home at 11 that night. It is good to be back.

View of Denmark from the airplane

Uppsala-Language and Liquor

Well, here I am in Uppsala, the university town in Sweden. Our housing is really nice. We each have our own room and bathroom and share a kitchen with about ten other students who live in our corridor. It is a lot of fun. It is also very different though, living with people who don't have your same standards. We were offered tea and coffee every morning for the first week here and there are always beer cans lying around.

My course has been really good. Julie and I are both in the first level and have a really nice teacher named Peggy for the morning and then we have Gun [pronounced Goon] for the afternoon. They are both good teachers, but Peggy is easier to understand. The language is a lot of fun. We have class from 9-10:30, a fika break from 10:30-11, class from 11-12:30, lunch from 12:30-2, and class from 2-3:30. There is a couple from the U.S. in our class, as well as two girls from Germany, a guy from Czech Republic, a guy from Switzerland, a woman from Italy, a girl from Taiwan, and a girl from Hong Kong. It makes for a fun class. It is interesting to see how English really is the universal language. They all speak English a little and some speak it very well. It is nice for when our teacher is explaining the grammar of Swedish, but not so good when we don't have to practice our Swedish when talking to classmates out of class; they just resort to English.

After class, in the evenings, the program often has activities for us to do as a group. After one of the activities which was kind of like a quiz scavenger hunt, the group wanted to go out for a drink while some wanted to get something to eat as well. So, we went to a restaurant and one person got dinner, Madeleine (a girl in my group) and I got juice, and the rest of them got their alcoholic beverages. It was interesting to be in that group. I felt a little out of place.

After class on Friday a few people on our floor decided to have a BBQ. They went out and bought all the food and we all contributed some money. This barbecue was very different than the ones that I have been to though. There was lots of beer and vodka being passed around and they even sprayed some beer on the meat they were grilling. Though probably most of it cooked out, I was glad I had already eaten all the meat I wanted because any desire to have any more meat was ended when I found that out. The aftermath of the barbecue was still evident on Sunday morning. Brittany and I ate our breakfast with two bottles of remaining vodka on the table. Very different for me, a Utah Mormon girl. The past week has been a lot of fun though and I'm sure the next few weeks will be so as well. I will just have to be careful to avoid the alcohol in my kitchen. :)

Museums, Birka, and Skansen

This last week has been really fun. We spent a lot of time touring around Stockholm and the different museums in the city. On Wednesday we went into the old city, Gamla Stan and got to see the old church and the Royal Palace. In the Royal Palace, one of my favorite sections was the treasury. We got to see all the different jewels and gold crowns, scepters, and orbs (For anyone who does not know what an orb is, it is just a jeweled golden ball that you hold in your hand and is about as useless as the scepter). It was really neat. I felt like a pirate. :) The rest of the palace was really cool as well. It was huge. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a structure that big. There were so many different bedrooms and big banquet halls and council chambers. It was awesome.
We also got to go to an island in Stockholm's Lake Malaren called Birka. It is an island which was supposed to be one of the main viking settlements in Scandinavia. They had a few reconstructed buildings and that was cool. We went on a tour with a guide who showed us a bunch of mounds that you can find all over the island that are grave sites for these ancient vikings. It was really interesting. The ferry ride there and back was really windy and kind of cold though.
On this last Monday we went to Skansen on the island Djurgården right next Stockholm city. It is a really cool open-air type of museum where they have shops and houses from all different parts of Sweden that you can visit and walk through. It reminded me of Pioneer Village or Nauvoo where they have the same sort of thing. It was all really interesting and cool. I really liked the glass-blowing shop. I could barely tear myself away from watching them make pitcher after pitcher so fast (they probably made one every 5 minutes). It was amazing! The bakery was also fun. We each bought a few baked goods and they were very delicious. So, we spent all day there trying to see everything even though it started raining half way through and we all got soaked. :) Every Tuesday during the summer they have an outdoor concert called Allsång på Skansen where different artists come and sing at Skansen. The artists sing their big hits, but they also sing commonly known Swedish folk songs to which the audience members sing along. It is a huge deal and tons of people come. Since we were there, we stayed for the rehearsal (tons of people come to that too) and got to see it. It was really fun. Since it was the rehearsal, they practiced some of the songs a couple times and we got so we could sing along with them. It was great. One thing that is interesting is that a lot of the bands sing most of their songs in English. Several of the songs that we heard that night were in English. I don't really know how I feel about that. I was glad I could understand it on one hand, but on the other hand it seems kind of lame to sing in a language other than your native one especially when you are singing to your countrymen. I was glad to hear a lot of Swedish songs though.
Okay, well, I've been writing too long and I don't really want to describe the rest of our activities in detail. We went to the National Art Museum yesterday and then went to the Modern Art Museum and the Architecture Museum today. They were really interesting. Oh, another thing: food is so expensive here in Sweden. Well, maybe not so expensive, but more expensive than in the U.S. The cheapest apples I could find were 19 Kroners per kilogram which transfers roughly to $1.50 per lb. A regular ice cream cone with like two smaller scoops of ice cream comes to about $5. I don't know, maybe that's not so bad, but it seems expensive to me. But, despite the exhorbitant food prizes, I love it here and am having a lot of fun. On Monday we start our 3 week language program in Uppsala, so that should be really intensive and good. :) We leave tomorrow though, so I need to pack now. Hey då!

Hello Sweden!

Well, here I am in Stockholm, Sweden. I am sitting at a computer in my bedroom at my host's house. David dropped me off at the airport at 9:30 PM on Sunday after he and Katia provided me with cookies and books for the plane ride. So after a three hour delay out of Salt Lake making me leave at 2:30 AM, I arrived in Newark where I had to wait another nine hours before my flight to Sweden. However, with the help of Dave and Katia's cookies and books, I finally got to Arlanda Airport this morning at 7 AM.

I met Julie, another girl in my group, at the airport and we waited until our director, Chip Oscarson, came to meet us. We all then took a bus ride into Stockholm where we got our bus/metro passes and met up with Madeleine. After dropping our stuff off at our respective housing locations, Julie, Madeleine, and I went into the old city, Gamla Stan, to eat lunch and look around a bit. We ate sandwiches and got some pretty good ice cream (glass) and then walked around and saw St. George slaying the dragon (a statue of it actually :) ), the Royal Palace, a few different churches, and walked along the water. Since Julie and I were both so exhausted what with jet lag and not having slept much on our flights, we called it a day at about 3:30.

Julie and Madeleine rode the metro with me a little ways, then took a bus back to their host family's house and I rode the metro a bit further and after buying some apricots for dinner and breakfast along with Dave and Katia's last cookies (which will be fine until I can go to a grocery store), I walked about a mile up the road to where I will live. My host is Irene Karlsson and she lives here with her 18-year-old daughter, Emma. They both seem really nice and my bedroom, which I will share with Brittany, is very cute and comfortable. I tried to stay awake, but alas, I fell asleep reading and just woke up a half hour ago at 9 PM after a 3 hour nap and I am not very surprised to see it still light at 9:40 PM. Hopefully, I will be tired enough to sleep well tonight and get my body on this new Swedish time schedule.

Sweden is very beautiful and so green. It's kind of fun to fit into the population. With my blonde hair I can fit in as a Swede (unlike Jerusalem where it just got me cat calls :)) and it is fun to have the people start talking to me in Swedish before I ruin the fun and tell them I do not speak Swedish yet. I have started learning more though by just being here one day, so I'm hoping I will be able to pick it up pretty quickly hearing it all the time. Now I'm going to go eat dinner and make myself stay awake until my roommate, Brittany, gets here at 11 PM.

P.S. Sorry if this seems disjointed and rambling. I am still running on very little sleep and am only half awake after my nap. :)
P.P.S. Despite my best attempts, I cannot figure out how to get pictures on this computer. Since everything is in Swedish I can't really resolve the problem, so I will have to wait until I can use Brittany's computer to post some pictures.

Random Facts

A ~ Each person has to list 6 facts/habits about them.
B ~ After part A, go to 6 people's blogs and leave a comment letting them know to read your blog, and that they have been tagged. List at the end of your posting who you have tagged.

1. I love watching all the credits put to music at the end of movies.

2. I have very violent sudden shivers that are not always induced by cold, but often occur at very random times.

3. I always bite popsicles and hard candy. I can't just suck on them.

4. I have been known to sleep walk although sleep talking is much more common for me.

5. I've eaten some cow tongue and a fish eyeball.

6. My biggest pet peeve with bad drivers is when they don't use their blinker.

I tag whoever feels like doing this. Sorry, boring and a cop-out I know. :)

Work work work

Words start to look really strange when you type them too much. After I typed work three times I wasn't sure if that was how it was spelled. I should know how to spell it since I've been working 8 hours a day lately. Ugh. No, it's not too bad. It's kind of nice not to have to worry about classes and to have my evenings free. Plus, I'm earning lots of money to spend in Sweden.

Now, to update on the crossword news. My roommate and I do the New York Times Crossword puzzle contained in the Daily Universe every day. Unfortunately, because of the break between Winter and Spring classes, we were left without a newspaper and therefore we also lacked a crossword. We were quite despondent, but this week the paper was started again and we are once again happily doing our crossword puzzle every night. Not so happily last night, however. Thursday's puzzle seems to be the hardest to both my roommate and I and last night there were a few that were ridiculously obscure. For example, the clue on one of them was "Do trailers?" What the heck does that even mean? After finishing every other part of the puzzle but that one little section, we were so frustrated. We racked our brains for so long on that one. At first we thought it was something like a hemi engine that would make a truck stronger to pull trailers, but that did not fit well with the other words. Finally we finished the other one and found that it was remi and even though we didn't understand it in the slightest, we called it quits. After that, we looked up online to find if there was any explanation of it. Thanks to Rex Parker's blog on Crosswords, we found that it was actually two words: re mi. Do Re Mi. Oh my heck, we were so angry. What kind of clue is that anyway? Trailers? He should have put something like "Do followers" or some other word that makes sense.

Well, that is the update on the crossword. I don't think we'll get to Friday's today because of our other roommate's birthday celebration. We're going to go see "Made of Honor." I hope it's good. It looks pretty funny. Okay, back to work.

Here Come Finals

Well, classes are over and it's now time to buckle down and study for finals. It's so hard to stay motivated right now. The only way I get through finals week is to tell myself that it will all be over in a week and then I can relax.

So, I have this custom of doing the crossword every night with my roommate and we have been slacking off lately, but last night we finished it so fast. We were so proud of ourselves. Later that night, after all the boyfriends went home at midnight, we all watched The Bachelor, a new tradition that we started last week. After that my roommates and I recorded ourselves making strange noises with our mouthes characterized as "machine gun" or "weed eater." I felt bad for our neighbors: here we are at 1 AM making all this ruckus and they are probably trying to sleep. It was definitely a good roommate bonding night though. :)

Time to go study for finals!