Be jealous.

It's 6:54am here in Östersund and we're off to Vemdalen for a full day of....SNOWBOARDING!!!! 

I'm snowboarding in Sweden today...what are you up to? :)

kt

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE BACK HOME!!!

Love you so much!

That's all. :)

kt

I kick butt at yoga.

Well today broke a little ground for Coe Conditioning. I started out with a shorter run than usual in anticipation for the yoga I'd be doing later in the night. I took a new 4-mile trail that led me to a neighborhood where realtors in the Rockies would foam at the mouths to see; with the snow and the pine trees these little homes gave off the image of a perfect mountain village. (Now all we'd need is that mountain and the place would be sold! :)) 

It wasn't until I arrived back at the camping that I noticed the remains of what had transpired there the night before. Mere hours beforehand, two battles had unfolded right there on that very ground; today, there were countless snowballs embedded in the trees and in the walls of the cabins to remind us. As if we could forget. Everywhere I turned, what had once been pristine, unscathed snowy ground now bore a harassed, leftover look from the dozens of feet that had trampled it in the heat of battle. Angels' wings were indistinguishable. Three-chambered snowmen were decapitated. The aftermath was haunting.

So that was my fun way of saying that after my run I was pleasantly reminded of the two awesome snowball fights we had last night. :) Then I hung out with Sandra for a little while before we decided to brave the snow-packed sidewalks on our bikes and volunteer for a bit at the Red Cross. (Which, by the way, I'm fairly certain I'm only doing because then I get first dibs on the clothes that come in...example: Glow-in-the-dark dinosaur PJs. Score. :)) We very well may be doing all of our Christmas shopping there. It's the greatest. 

Then I was off to a Swedish-run yoga class. Have you ever tried to learn a new way to work out in another language? Well, it's tough. It's tough to relax, aka one of the main objectives in yoga, when you're constantly straining your neck to watch the other girls who know what the heck the instructor is saying. Regardless, I didn't fair too badly. I was a twisting, bending, stretching Swedish yoga machine. It was great...I can't believe I'd never done it before! In fact, I like yoga in Swedish so much I'll be going to two classes next week. 

So that was the day. I just reread this post and it's sad how proud I am of being productive. Haha for those of you whose attention I kept, congratulate yourselves. :)

kt

Score.

Grandma Bev sent me the motherload of what grandma's do best, and it came today!!!! Get this: long underwear, caramel puff corn, chocolate-covered peanut butter cracker sandwiches, Halloween candy (which I sorely missed), and yes, the first batch of Grandma Bev's Famous Homemade Caramels!!!! I can't get the smile off my face. Now, if only she could muster up a way to send over one of her classic bear hugs, I'll be golden. :) 

Love you Grandma Bev. :)

kt

Baby one more time

Well it turns out you're never too old to jump around for hours with your friends singing 90s songs. :) Until literally 4am last night, French, Dutch, Canadian, and American alike all had a dance party singing every word to all our favorites from N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, Britney Spears, the works. It was a blast to say the least. 

And then today at brunch I put some plans together for yet another adventure I'll be having in the last month of being here...we're going snow horseback riding next week!! I'm so excited. And then after that I have the farewell weekend at a hotel up north with the exchange students, followed by weekend of snowboarding in Åre, the biggest ski resort in Sweden, and then the big holiday party/gift exchange! Time is just going to shift to hyperdrive now, I know it.

I also clarified the due date for my paper today, and it's later than expected. This means I have two options: I could finish it this week and never have to put a single thought into school in Sweden again, or I could take it easy for another week and churn it out when I feel like it. Jury's still out. I think tonight I'll just read for fun and see how I'm feeling tomorrow. :)

Despite boasting how little school I've had recently, I am in for a big week. THREE DAYS this week I have class. THREE DAYS! What is THAT?! Balderdash, I tell you. Just balderdash. I can see the Coe Conditioning taking some big strides this week. Productivity, let's be friends again.

Regardless of how well I spend my week, however, some news I got today will be a cloud stuck overhead until I get home. After months of hearing she's been in and out of the hospital, I found out today my grandmother has lung cancer. It's crap to feel stuck. All my warmest thoughts and prayers are shooting westward, and hopefully ending up somewhere in the vicinity of the U of M hospital. Love you Nana.

kt

quickie

Alright I'm going to make this quick so I don't distract myself too long from research.

Sandra, Anna, Julia, and Eva are all gone this weekend. They left yesterday. It's Saturday, and I already want them back. I can feel that something's missing, and this is just coming from four of the awesome people I've met here being gone! If this is anything like how it will be when it comes time to say good bye to everyone, I'm in trouble. 

Okay back to homework. ;)

SNOW STORM!!!

I'm sitting in my cabin, expecting the whipping snow to blow through my windows at any moment. It's one of those nights where you can actually feel the cold, snowy wind seeping through your walls. Good thing I still have some hot chocolate from a month ago. :)

Well today marked day one of Coe Conditioning. While I was making lunch today, I was so incredibly tickled by the realization of how little work I actually do here, that the concept manifested itself into a full-out one-person laugh fest. I actually laughed out loud for quite some time. (I think I'm alone in my cabin too much...haha.) And although don't misconstrue, I am LOVING this freedom to take another mile on my run if I feel like it, to hit the snooze twice or six times if I feel like it, to watch the next four episodes of Scrubs if I feel like it, to go out for an hour and a half just to take pictures if I feel like it, to ACTUALLY READ FOR LEISURE if I feel like it, to research new cameras online if I feel like it, etc. etc. etc. It's amazing. It's string-free. But I'd be a fool so say it's anything similar to the amount of free time I have at Coe. (I think there are some big implications to be seen here, too, regarding the Swedish culture vs. the American culture, but I'm not in the mood to dive into that at the  moment.) I know it won't be this way when I get back. I am saddling up for my most challenging academic semester at Coe yet, finishing up my Psych degree. This schedule of classes from hell happens to fall on the same semester during which I intend to party my face off with all my friends for my last semester of college with them. And I'll be broke, so season the mixture with a little bit of work, and you have yourselves there a recipe for a much busier Katie than you have now. 

So, I started training today. Kind of. The plan was to run, shower, volunteer, study at University, pick up groceries, come home for dinner, go to yoga, home. Instead I wimped out on a run in fear of the snow (replaced it with a mediocre circuit workout), sent some emails, stretched for twice as long as usual and ate breakfast while watching three episodes of The Office, showered, and packed a lunch. This all took me...yep three hours. Then I made plans with Sandra and Anna, read (FOR LEISURE!) for a half hour, joined those two on the way to University, studied a bit, volunteered at the Red Cross, picked up some groceries, biked through a snow storm to yoga only to find it was cancelled, came home. So it wasn't exactly the largely productive day I need to start getting in the habit of having, but I guess it was a start. :)

Funny side story, too: The streets at the moment are covered with a layer of ice, on top of which is a tightly packed layer of snow. When you throw in the fierce winds that we have had today, it makes biking on the roads quite the thrill ride. Well I was biking along, grumbling at how annoying it was to get all the way to yoga only to find out I could have been in my warm cabin the entire time, when all of a sudden this violent, snowy wall of wind literally tipped Gumpy and me over. It was one of those slow-motion spills, where you can see your fate well before it comes but there's nothing you can do about it, and I sure enough ended up flat sideways in the middle of the icy black street. It was so disappointing that no one was around to enjoy it.

Today was also a big day because another Patty Mraz package came!! I love these. This time we have:

-"The Audacity of Hope," which I specifically requested be purchased from Half-Priced Books, a feat that only Patty Mraz could pull off considering its popularity at the moment

-CANDY CORN!! to show Sandra and Anna, who had never seen it before (and I didn't just show them, we devoured it all in one sitting)

-A burned N*SYNC Christmas Album, personally created by Mark Mraz per my request

-Three silly comics ripped from a day-by-day calendar

-Two newspaper articles, one about the awkward meeting Obama and Bush would have to have, and the other about religiousness vs. spirituality in Minnesota youth

-A pen.

So yes, Patty pulls through again. :)

Well I'm going to wrap this up. Stay tuned for posts in the not-so-distant future that are no doubt going to be cursing the Coe Conditioning and the daunting concept of leaving this place in a month.... 

*muah*

kt

Cool times o0O

The o0O in the title makes a snowman! Get it? We have a lot of snow here...when I got back from Visby I was so relieved when I found Gumpy the Bike safe under the awning at the train station and protected from the three or so inches we got last weekend.

LAST WEEKEND! Last weekend was amazing. I really had a blast in Visby. It was the perfect trip to end the Era of the Eurail Pass with. And along with not paying for my transportation getting there and back (which included train-train-ferry; ferry-train-train), I also lucked out and had a place to stay for free while I was in the town. My friend here, Niklas, called up his sister who lives there and ended up getting me a MATTRESS and my OWN ROOM to crash in for the two nights. So I was already set for good things before I even left my cabin. 

I stepped off the ferry at 11:30pm on Friday night without a map and just an address. I soon learned that it's next to impossible to be really lost in Visby, and found Malin's apartment along the winding cobblestone streets in no time. Malin was awesome; she offered me a beer right away and invited me to join her and her friends in their "Sewing Party". The girls and Malin's boyfriend Bjorn are part of the SCA, the Society of Creative Anachronism (established in the States...), which basically is made up of a whole mess of history buffs all over the world; so they were sewing their dresses for Medieval Week that happens in Visby each year! (It sounds a lot like the Renaissance Festival, but I would be beheaded if they heard me say that out loud. :)) Anywho, they shared with me a lot of the history of Visby, and since they all lived there we planned my itinerary for the next day. Bjorn works at the museum, so I lucked out with his inside knowledge of the town...he shared with me a secret that few tourists actually know: you can actually rent the key that gets you in the ruins that are scattered throughout the town! So I had my plan for the next day and fell asleep excited to explore the city in the daylight.

The whole town is encircled by a stone wall that was built hundreds of years ago to keep out the peasants and the force merchants to pay a fine to enter the town. So right away in the morning I headed off in whatever direction I wanted, with the intention of hitting the wall at some point. The town is just so perfect to wander in. There must be city ordinances about advertising and signage, because the entire town matches itself; every single street I looked down was "the most perfect street to take a picture of"...needless to say I ended up taking over 200 pictures there. So I finally meandered to the wall and was walking along, picturing all the soldiers who positioned themselves for battle there, all the guards who thought they were tough keeping out the sickly and poor, when I came across a section that had fallen apart ever-so-perfectly into the form of stairs that were begging me to climb up them. I obliged, and ended up spending about half an hour running around all along the wall and capturing as many angles of the outstanding view I had of the town as I could. The little girl in me who fell in love with Kevin Kostner when he played Robin Hood was in her element. :)

Alright this description of just two days is starting to get long, so let me skip to the part where I have the super-awesome Key Of Power from the museum. This super-awesome Key Of Power was a power trip let me tell you. With it, I could unlock the heavy-duty padlocks that keep all the common tourists out of the 13th-century ruins and spend as much time as my elite heart desired exploring every corner of the old churches and towers. To walk along hidden corridors and climb back stairways that thousands of people had done 800 years before me was eerie to say the least. In one tower specifically, one that was particularly dark, might I add, I actually psyched myself out too much to spend more than ten minutes inside of it...I was just so shaken by everything that had most likely transpired there, not to mention the lack of sunlight was making it more and more chilling to be alone. Okay so I'm a baby, big deal. :) Anyway, long story short I was really moved by what I saw. In what ended up being my favorite "church" of them all (there were five in total), I camped out where the altar used to be for who knows how long. I couldn't scrutinize the details fast enough. The fact that this church still had parts of its ceiling intact, the fact that anyone could still grasp what its function was from the time it thrived, the fact that the chiseled artwork on the pillars was still distinguishable, all 800 years after it was built, just had me frozen in place. People built this stuff without the help of machines...stone by stone they piled on top of each other until the building finally took shape into a functional, symmetrical, impressionable place of worship. Sitting there in the apse got me thinking about the concept of work, and how it has or hasn't changed in the way we perceive it over the last 8 centuries. It made me feel more motivated than I have in a long time, to say the least.

So anyway, that was Visby. I feel like I might be forgetting parts but that's what really sticks out in my mind at the moment. I finally figured out how to load pictures up here with little to no hassle, so I'll most likely be putting up a lot of what I captured there for your viewing pleasure. I made a friend in the form of a VERY soft and snuggly cat who stars in a couple of them. :)

After my ferry from Visby on Sunday, I met Stacey in Stockholm, where we had a reservation for the famous Absolut Ice Bar...and it was just that! A bar sponsored by Absolut Vodka (exported from Sweden!) that's made purely of ice! Literally everything...chairs, tables, glasses, everything. We had to wear these ridiculous jackets that made everyone in the bar look like penguins, or boxers, however you want to look at it. It was awesome. And then after that excitement we caught our night train and headed home. 

So all in all, it was a fabulous weekend. I had a lot of time to myself to reflect on life in some of the most tried-and-true places in Europe, and it made me feel strong. :) I have thoughts about the rest of my time here, but I think I'll wrap this up for now. Hope to talk to you all soon!

kt

VISBY!

Well hello there! It's 7:32am here and I just got back from arguably my favorite place I've been in Sweden thus far. My weekend trip to Visby was AWESOME. Unfortunately, you're going to have to sit tight for the details because, true to form, I have put off a rough draft research paper due on Wednesday, and will be falling into the black hole of homework until it's done. See you when I get out, wish me luck!!! :)

MOON

Have you ever been able to see your shadow at night? I have. The moon is bright enough these days that I can actually see a distinct outline of myself as I'm walking on the Camping once the sun is gone. Can you believe that? It makes the environment so much more inviting. 

Just an update!

Hello all!

It's been a while since my last post so I thought I'd just give a little fill-in. I'm starting to feel the pressure of this semester coming to a close, so I've been really adamant about sticking around Sweden and enjoying as much time with my friends here as possible before I leave. This past weekend, then, Sandra, Kevin, Benoit and I headed off to the second largest city in Sweden, Göteborg. It's pretty well-known for its fishing industry, so needless to say we saw lots and lots of boats. The city is also home to the largest shopping mall in the Nordic Area, so when the sky opened up and it starting pouring on us midday on Sunday, we sought refuge in the massive shopping center. This felt oh-too American to me, so I secretly promised to not buy anything. It was fun to run around with Sandra and try on clothes though. :) At one point we also spent a few hours inside Göteborg's Natural History Museum, which was incredibly thorough in its displays. They had room after room after room of all types of animal species, from mealworms to orca whales. It was awesome. Overall, the trip was just a pleasant chance to bond. 

Then some excitement for this week was going to the Moose Garden today! About 20 minutes away from the Camping is this world-renound moose garden that sees over 45,000 visitors a year from all over the world. We got to go inside the pens and pet the moose, while the owner gave us all the background of the garden and little unknown facts about moose. They are incredible creatures. It's really sad to know how much of their byproducts are wasted by some of the ignorant hunters who take them out just for their meat and the antler trophy. I didn't know this beforehand, and please excuse the forwardness, but their poop is sterile! Yeah! And since they eat just mainly wood and grass, it's a perfect resource for making paper! I know it sounds strange but it's true...the tourist shop had yard upon yard of moose poop strung like beads all over the ceiling. They sold moose poop soap, that was translucent colored soap with a single moose dropping inside. It was really funny...can't say I've ever seen something like that before.

Well today I might be getting another ear piercing but I'm not sure. Tomorrow I leave for my last train trip, to the town of Visby on the island of Gotland. It's this famous Medieval town that has been preserved to still give off the impression of medieval times...should be pretty interesting! It's actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I'm rocking the trip solo, but I think that'll be good. I've had a lot on my mind lately. And then once I've gone there and back, Charlie the Eurail pass is over! (Moment of silence will shortly follow. :( ) She and I, we've had a good ride...get it?

Send me life updates! Love you and miss you!

kt

It sounds different.

Since I first arrived here in August, I have adjusted to many dimensions of life in Östersund. I bike to get around, all liquor is sold in one location, buying coffee at coffeeshops is laughably expensive, I expose the foreigner in me every time I impulsively smile at people I make eye contact with, there exists a cheese spread in literally every flavor, etc. etc. etc. It took some getting used to, but as I've mentioned before, I feel comfortably settled in here.

One ongoing interaction that continues me through a loop, however, is answering the question, "So where are you from, then?" From day one, hearing the words, "United States" come out of my own mouth has immediately led to my scrutinizing of my new friend's face for any indication of judgment. For lack of a less inappropriate simile, it's like dropping a bomb. I'm never certain what people, namely Europeans, immediately judge about me when they hear that I'm from the States, based on what they know or what they think they know about our country. Overwhelmingly here I have heard that it's not the States that has a bad reputation, it's Bush (he really is not the most favored individual on a global scale...), but I still can't help but assume that I'm simply associated with the whole country who gave him his second term when I say I'm an American. And it has always been tough too because I wasn't all that patriotic to begin with. Like I've mentioned before, I consider my values, my heart, to be a product of my Midwestern upbringing before I'd attribute it to growing up in the States. And so when I'm engaged in open discussions about the States and its reputation, I find myself only able to represent where I come from and what I know, and utterly fail at defending the entire country as a whole. Because I never felt connected to the entire country. Because I never truly felt the idea of being an American pulse through my veins.

Until Wednesday morning at around 4am. Since Wednesday morning at 4am, I have been reborn as an American from the Midwest. I feel like I DO come from a country I belong to; a country that represents MY hopes and MY dreams and MY outlooks on the world. MY COUNTRY voted Barack Obama to be its president. MY COUNTRY took a long, hard look at itself and said we can do better. MY COUNTRY is ready to BE THE CHANGE IT WISHES TO SEE IN THE WORLD. And maybe I'm all jacked here because Europe is nearly 100% behind our decision too, but clearly I'm thrilled at what I saw late late Tuesday night. This was a GLOBAL decision that was made by one of the most powerful countries in the world...you guys don't realize how much all eyes were truly on America that night. Half the exchange program told me the following day that they, too, were up late watching the results pour in. They, too, knew the implications of this decision. They, too, were ready to see America do the RIGHT THING after who can say how many years of mistakes. 

A bunch of us went out to Soup Night and then a bar last night, and I met a handful of new people. Hearing, "The United States" come out of my mouth as the answer to where my home is didn't sound the same...it was something I actually wanted to brag about, something I wanted to tell everyone. The feeling that I was being wrongfully judged had melted away; I'm happy to be judged by my country now. I finally know what it's like to feel country pride. 

The States still has a lot to figure out, and life doesn't suddenly become a walk in the park just because Bush is outta there. Obviously. I'm just thrilled to see that we've hopped on an express train to Global Forgiveness and will most likely be able to make headway in the next (keep your fingers crossed!!) eight years. 

I love you all and I'm really looking forward to seeing you all again in less than two months!!

kt

OBAMA WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...and it would have been difficult to face most of these Europeans if he hadn't! I'll be writing more later, I'm getting ready for the CELEBRATION PARTY!! right now, but I just thought I'd share with the world how unbelievably elated I am. Our country isn't so bad after all. :)

albums

ps-I hope you enjoy the new albums it put up :)

I should be on trial for blog neglect.

Sorry for slacking so much these days on this blog! It's strange because as each day has gone by, I've truly felt that nothing has been happening that would be considered blog-worthy, but then all of a sudden a week practically goes by without posting and I can think of a lot I could talk about!

So here we are. It's November 2nd and the snow is BEAUTIFUL here. Lots of opportunities to be a nice neighbor and shovel. It's legitimately cold, and I am in love with the winter jacket I invested in a month ago. Sweden is definitely a winter country, no doubt about that. 

I think part of my blog neglect stemmed from a general ambivalence I was feeling last week about my time here. Yes I still feel like I learn something new every day and yes I'm having the time of my life in a foreign country, but I mean let's be serious, I've been here for two months now, times were bound to get a little slower. You adjust to your new home and so obviously no matter where you are you're bound to get bored from time to time. I wanted to convince myself that this is SWEDEN!! and STUDYING ABROAD!!! and THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!!! every single day but that just simply makes no sense! haha it's better this way: it's a more realistic way of looking at this experience. This isn't just a 4-month thrill vacation, it's a relocation and a chance to actually reside outside of my usual boundaries. Of course there will be times where life is less thrilling.

So what do we do when it gets like that? That's right, we cut off all our hair. I forgot to mention this last week, but once I returned from my trip I could not stop thinking about how badly I wanted my hair cut off. I was so sick of it. I didn't want to pay to get it cut, so for a couple days I kept on trying to convince my friends to do it, that I wouldn't be asking if I cared about them messing up, blah blah blah, but no one was brave enough. So sure enough, last Wednesday night I took matters into my own hands and started hacking away. Over the course of the next few days, Sandra and Anna evened out some parts in the back, I cut off more to give myself layers, etc., so after about a four-day hair cutting project I finally arrived at the simple 50s-looking boy haircut I currently boast. It's so awesome. I may never grow it out again. I have a feeling that the implications of this hair-cutting spree and what it truly represents about my growth as a young adult may be revealed to me in a few months' time, but at the moment I'm content with saying I was simply sick of styling it. :)

What else have I been up to? I received my first presidential election ballot to date about two weeks ago so that was exciting to send in. I love Gumpy my bike with all my heart. I just finished an 8-page paper for my master's sociology class, which concludes the course. In relation to that assignment, I have a newfound appreciation for the way classes are taught at Coe. Kevin and I ate lunch with Pam Carstens, our exchange advisor from Coe, last Thursday, and it was refreshing. He and I are also preparing for our Election Party on November 5th to show these Europeans how was party American style :) (we have now found Miller Lite AND Coors Light here!!!). I am obsessed with Scrubs at the moment. I will be going to Sicily for May Term. Oh! Duh...and November will be full of tiny little trips: 

November 7-10: Sandra, Benoit, Kevin and I will be going to Göteborg, the second largest city in Sweden

November 14-16: I want to take a little weekend trip to Gotland, the island off the east coast of Sweden, to see the gated city of Visby, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has been described as "arguably the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia"...sweet!

November 19-21: I'm taking a little three-day trip to Prague in the Czech Republic...mildly worried that I haven't been able to convince anyone to join me yet, but not all that concerned if I have to go it alone in the end. 

Charlie the Eurail pass is over on November 16th, and I'm proud to say I will have used every one of the 15 train trips she offered. :)

Well I think that's all for now. I'm sad because Sunday brunch is a no-go today...the majority of our brunch bunch is still working on their papers. Just another lazy Sunday. :) 

Thinking of you all ALL the time!! Send life updates! Love you!

kt