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Published: August 13th 2007
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i woke up to the gray gray whale of a sky as i do most mornings here and i tried to convince myself to go on a run, but laziness won over reason. i'm now kicking myself for not going because the running trail by my building is wonderfully peaceful and beautiful. it looks like the setting of a romantic pioneer movie..haha that sounds like a horrible film. anyways hannah( yes i have a friend named hannah,i still am trying to accept that) and i went outside to read once we saw a glimmer of sunlight and we both got really immmersed into our books until thunder woke us out of our trance. the sky had become bleak without us noticing and the air colder. we each felt a raindrop at about the same time and i said RUN and that we did. so we went inside and read and i enjoyed my book and felt slightly envious that my tour group isn't going to stockholm today like the other one. i just made some pasta with ricotta cheese sauce, meatballs, and broccoli and it is damn good. them swedes looove them meatballs. they seem absolutley foul but they are pretty good. grocery shopping is a great struggle for me still. i think about it all week until it is time to go and then i have to make myself not buy one of everything on the shelf. i try to hide my brow that is furrowing in confusion on exactly what these products are, if they are edible, and how can i figure out how to make them if i can't read swedish. my goal is to make the other store goers believe i live here and i am just doing my daily errands instead of the reality that i am a foreign exchange student doing a cultural cuisine study. i really feel like a fake when people talk to me in swedish and i have to say sheepishly...umm engelska??...bullocks.
when we went to the saturday market i was so excited because all around me was fresh produce which shone in every color of the rainbow unlike the damn grocery store with its withered selection..sweden imports almost all of its produce. i was eating grapes from spain! coming from california this is a bit of a knife to my heart..fruit and vegetables, why does sweden hate you?
i think tonight is going to be a movie night with the girls because this weather is so wretched and i have no inclination to be thrown into the storm. i had my first bike ride to class in the rain yesterday and wow. horrible yet a bit exhilirating. i doned a huugee rain jacket and rainboots and pulled the hood of the jacket so tight that i looked like an ugly old bald man. i pedaled off squealing and swerving in all directions on the wet pavement. i could hardly see anything and i left behind Ella on her bike although i didn't know it and kept making comments to her ghost about the "stupid, shitty, fucking, rain". a few times i laughed and felt really happy because rain on your face can have that effect, but then i realized my hair was getting soaked and ratty and my makeup was swimming all over my face and then i got mad. my jeans were pasted to me and i looked like a nightmare. i don't think you can understand how impeccably well dressed and good looking the swedes are. even in that weather they look like they just got done at a photo shoot while the rest of us look like the weather took a big fat shit on us. you have to love them for it though. despite my anger at their looks i love the swedes. it is completely true that they can be quiet and cold, case in point some of my flatmates who hardly say hello to me, but the others are so inviting and fun and i feel like this is a country of the best people around. and they love to party. every night and day. i mean saturday night we all just hung out on maria's lawn creeping on some naked boys being far too friendly with each other in thier huge open window and then we went to niel's for some hot chocolate and called it a night at 10 30 because we were all so tired from the week of partying. taking a break on a saturday night..unheard of!
well this rain has made me just babble about nothing intresting. i promise to write more about the great land of sweden.
great little tidbit: i have to turn my sink on to take a shower. and my shower is a shower head hanging over a drain in my bathroom floor with is encircled by a shower curtain...just a drain on the floor...what a life it is.
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mary
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life is good
Life is good....when there is a new hannah blog. You do have the gift of words, I laugh and I cry. I am sending you rain pants pronto!! Enjoy the ride!!!Love ya!!!