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.