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December 11 Delayed Stockholm updateWell I've been back from Stockholm for almost a week now, so I figured it was time to upload the photos and tell y'all about it!
As background, Annie is a girl from Carleton who was studying with Josh in Denmark. She's actually my journalism life partner, as we figured out - she's the only one that I've had a class with every single year at Carleton (J-1000 TA group, second and third-year reporting and soon to be Centretown, for those who know what that means)
Anyway, we've always gotten along well and she had a Scandinavian rail pass she wanted to use up and asked if I wanted to join her in Stockholm. Turns out, I did!
I got there Dec. 1 and the first thing I saw when I stepped out of Vasteras airport was, I'm not even kidding, an IKEA. Not a good start to breaking down cultural stereotypes! But I also saw snow, which made me oddly happy. It's been 8-10 degrees consistently here in London and people bundle up like it's -50 and talk ceaselessly about how cold it is. Which mostly makes me stare at them through slitted eyes and tell them they know nothing of cold.
After navigating my way through both the Swedish metro and the Swedish streets past midnight with a huge backpack, I found the hostel, which was by far the nicest hostel I've ever stayed in. It was more like a hotel, with nice double beds and only four people in a room. Unfortunately for me, one of the people in our room was a German girl who snored like a chainsaw. But no matter.
The first day Annie and I just decided to wander around and see what we could find in the old town, or Gamla Stan. Turns out we found a bunch of Christmas markets down every little cobblestoned street we turned. Stockholm, it seems, is rather obsessed with the Christmas season. Only in Swedish, Santa's name is Tompte and he'll burn your house to the ground if you don't give him bread and butter on Christmas Eve. Interesting character to get national pride worked up around, but to each his own!
As the sun sets around 2:30 pm in Stockholm in December, we took shelter that day in a museum, though I don't remember what it was called. It was full of Swedish modern art. The only thing I remember was cracking up with Annie about a 'Wheel of Emotion' which was set up next to the 'Piece of the week' - which this week, was a chair. Vistors could stick a magnet near the word that described how they felt about the piece of the week, such as happy, sad, angry and wrong.
The next day we walked over to the Vasamuseet, which is a museum devoted entirely to the Vasa, a Swedish ship that sunk in 1628 on its maiden voyage. They dug it up 333 years later and now you can go see it. This ship was surrounded by stupidity: everyone knew it was going to sink on its first go, but no one dared to tell the king, because they thought it would upset him - apparently more than the ship actually sinking. Then the guy who found it 333 years later dove down and came up with a box, which turned out to be full of butter. He thought the best thing to do would be to taste this butter. Then he was sick for three months.
That was pretty funny. Then we went over to Skansen, which is a living Swedish village. Kind of like the Ukrainian village in Vegreville or Upper Canada Village. It was also packed with Christmas markets and handicrafts.
Annie left the next day and I wandered around on my own. I tried to take a tour of the Swedish parliament but the English group left while I was in the bathroom and the security guard was too busy trying to buy a Canada Goose Down jacket on Ebay to help me find them. Then I went to a Christmas concert in old town. It was me and three Swedish people watching this old lady sing...I tried to think of a way to leave but it was impossible. She also knew that I spoke English and made a special effort to tell me what each song was about in English. So it was pretty funny.
The trip home was hellish, I hate flying and everything that is associated with it. Long story short, I left the hostel at 5 am and didn't get back to my room until 5 pm.
Now I'm back in London and there's only 8 days left! I can't beleive it. Since I've been back, I went on a huge shopping spree where I got a wool coat and a dress. Grandparents should take note that the wool coat is the manifestation of their combined birthday gifts to me - so thanks! I'll try and post a picture of it soon. It's knee-length and red.
Josh was also here yesterday and we had a fun time, even if it took him seven hours to get downtown! I told him to meet me in Leicester Square, which I realized immediately upon hanging up that short of Picadilly Circus was probably the dumbest place I could have told him to meet me - as it is always packed with people! Regardless we found each other, had some good pizza and then took a long walk by Westminster and along the Thames. I'm really happy with how little I ever need a map - which is to say I haven't cracked my A to Z in monthes!
Today I walked from home to the West End, which took about two and a half hours. This would be like living in Kanata and deciding to walk to Parliament...I just wanted to see if I could do it. Once in the west end, I went and saw Jon Stewart live at the Prince Edward Theatre...which was pretty much the most hilarious thing ever. At the end of the show he walked right frickin' by me...I was fiddling with my mini disc and heard someone say 'Hello' and I realized it was him and my mouth just dropped and I couldn't even say hello back. I have pictures of him, which I'll post later. I've also been compiling pictures which represent an average day in my life in London, so those will go up...sometime. Hopefully. November 12 Back in LondonI’m going to recap Spain backwards, partially because it will be easier that way and partly because this way it will have a happy ending…as the trip didn’t really end so happily. Well, sort of…read on. Neala and my flight left Girona at 10 pm. GIrona is about an hour outside of Barcelona, despite the fact that Ryan Air makes it seem as though it’s in the same city. So we took the hour bus there and then the two hour flight, which was the scariest one I’ve ever taken. Discount airlines are discount for a reason, people. It’s a good thing I’m that cheap…anyway we got to Luton, which is another hour outside London and it was past midnight and freeeeezing cold! We had to wait about ½ an hour outside for our bus to take us to central London, which took another hour. Then it was around 2 am, for those of you keeping score. Now, this bus took us to Victoria station, which is nowhere near where I live. The underground only runs until midnight, so that was out. After another 20 minutes or so of freezing cold outside, our night bus came – and apparently my Oyster card did not have enough money. So Neala lent me the bus fare which I promptly dropped and lost. The bus driver wouldn’t take money and a nice old woman gave me a pound to go use the ticket machine at which point the driver took off when I got off the bus! So then I was alone, got the next bus, got off to change busses and the moment I got on the bus that would actually take me home, the one in front of us broke down and we had to idle for ½ an hour at Euston station. In the end, I got home at 4 am. Here’s the weird thing: the whole time I was really calm and blasé about the whole debacle. Apparently Spain really mellowed me out. I wasn’t even tired when I got back, I unpacked right away and downloaded my pictures, then read some Orwell before going to bed. The cool thing too was that as soon as I saw the London street signs I had a little bit of the feeling that I was home. A word on the pictures: I know there are none of me. Relax. Neala has some on her camera which I’ll grab later. The thing is, I know what I look like, you know what I look like, I looked the same in Spain and to have me in the frame would only block out parts of Spain I want to remember! That and take up space on my memory card. Right, back to Spain. Well, the whole point of our trip, Neala and I had decided, was to relax and really get to know one place, which we definitely did. The hostel was really, really dirty but we met some really cool Australians who live in London and are going to keep in touch with. We met them on Wednesday after having a great dinner at this Cuban restaurant and deciding to stay in and play Gin Rummy instead of going to the pub night. Somehow we still ended up until 5 in the morning…Spain is like that. That day we had gotten up early – in Spain, anyway, - to go to Els Encants. Els Encants (which I think means the Fleas) is where I would go if I had something stolen in Barcelona and wanted to find it again. Basically it was a huuuuge flea market but with even less organization than a regular flea market. It’s probably where random goes when it wants to feel it has a place in the world. There were people everywhere selling everything from piles of clothes you had to sift through to old buttons and newspapers and magazines to electronics and kitchen faucets and power tools. It was pretty hilarious. Then we walked to la Sangrada Famiglia, which is the most famous of Antonio Gaudi’s creations. It’s this huge cathedral that was in the works when he died like, 60 years ago and is still under construction. It’s actually pretty impressive. The next day Neala and I moved hostels, due to the grossness of the first one. Seriously, I refrained from showering because I’m sure that thing had never been cleaned. Furthermore, the Australians’ friends had puked all over everything and decided instead of cleaning it up, he would not clean it up. So we ended up moving hostels with Laurence, the very cool French Canadian girl we met on Tuesday night at the first hostel. That day we also split up and I just wandered around and went for a wicked run along the Olympic Port, where Neala and I had also gone on Tuesday before hitting the Picasso museum. I was impressed with the museum, it was a good length. It covered all his periods without being overwhelming. Also it was in a castle..and castles are cool. Anyway the run was wicked, I went all the way along the beaches and back watching surfers in the Mediterranean. All in all it was a highly satisfactory trip. It kind of fulfilled all of those rite-of-passage things that you expect from traveling at this age. I loved every single second of it, there's so many other cities I want to see in the world and it's kind of overwhelming, but I'm glad that I can now say I've done Barcelona. November 07 BailamoooooooosI'm moving to Spain. The only problem is that's the only Spanish I know...also I don't know what it means.
Regardless, so far this is pretty much the best city I've ever been to. Firstly, the sun was out for the whole day today. You can't even fathom what this means to my pale, sodden, dreary body after two months in London. Neala and I took the train out to Sitges today, a town 20 minutes or so outside Barcelona with 10 white sand beaches. We just lay there for a couple hours...it was awesome.
Secondly, Barcelona is unyieldingly beautiful. Tonight we walked to a jazz club and had to stop two or three times just to admire an amazing building.
The lifestyle in Spain is wonderful as well. We sleep until noon, eat, wander around, have dinner at 10 p.m. and then stay out until 3. It is now, for example, 3:30 am and I'm not a stitch tired.
This is a very laissez-faire vacation for me...Neala and I are taking it one day at a time and seeing what we feel like doing. The other two girls are more into itineraries and guide books.
The four of us had Cuban food for dinner, which was super cheap and hella good> 10 Euros for a plate full of rice, beans, seafood, bread and veggies, plus a salad and two glasses of wine.
The jazz club we went to tonight was amazing. It was free entry because it was jam night. The amount of talent that some people hold in their bodies astounds me. The keyboard player's hands were literally a blur when he was going nuts on a solo.
The hostel is cool, it's a loft-style apartment on Barcelona's busiest street, Las Ramblas. Neala and I have our own room in the apartment on the third floor while the other two are sharing a room with four other people below us. We've got a great view from our balcony.
Tomorrow Neala and I are going to hit Spanish second hand stores, the Picasso museum and then a concert at an old gutted out church.
You see why I'm moving to Spain? Now does anyone actually know what Bailamos means? October 25 Procrastinatory updateWell this week has proved extra-busy with work so the only logical course of action here is to update on my recent goings-on since returning from Denmark.
Since returning from Denmark, school has proved itself to be expecially busy. Thanks, school! My head is in vacation-space so I find myself resenting assignements, only to subsequently remind myself that I am, in fact, here on an academic exchange.
Luckily, this has not prevented me from pursuing non-academic things in my free time. On the weekend I met up with my Dad's cousin Ron and his girlfriend Jan for a curry. I live in N8 and they live in SE17 so it took awhile to get there, but it was worth it! Despite being only somewhat related to him there's always a nice flow of conversation and he's promised to take me to do "something very British" before I leave. The night ended with Jan and I talking for a couple of hours while Ron watched football.
The next night Neala and I went off to Oxford to consort with my relatives on the other side of the family. We stayed with Sheila, who I beleive is Gram's cousin...though someone can correct me on that if that's wrong.
We met up with two of her mom's friends who both work for the BBC world service. He is also doing his PhD in history at Oxford, so his student card got us into some cool places, which I have photographs of and will post when I'm at a computer with my camera!
We returned yesterday. The bus ride back from Oxford is lovely, but the bus ride within London is a painful experience of equal time which was a firm reminder of why I plan to never live here permanently, especially since after the 5 kilometre journey that took an hour and a half we had to walk back to rez in gale-force winds with driving rain. Thanks, London.
Anyway, I made dinner (spicy ground turkey casserole, for those who know what I'm talking about) then we went to see Guys and Dolls starring Ewan McGregor as Sky Masterson. Pretty much, it was one of the best things I've ever seen. So entirely worth £15. After I discovered that none of the other three girls I'd went with actually had any idea what it was about...odd. The singing was all fantastic, Adelaide was played by Jane Krakowski, who also did a fabulous job.
I think my west-end viewage is almost done, though I do still want to see the Producers. And maybe the Mousetrap...Okay, so I'm not done. I'm going to be so poor when I get home.
October 17 75% fuldkorn vejen til et sendere livI don't know what that means. It's on the Cheerios box in front of me. Because I'm in Denmark! I flew out here Saturday to visit Josh. As soon as I got here I was blinded by some foreign ball of what appeared to be fire in the sky...until I figured out it was the sun. I decided London is only ever shades of grey. At night it's very very dark grey and in the day it just kind of gets cranked up a few shades.
Anyway, I woke up at 4 am on Saturday to get the bus to get the train to get the plane...I ended up almost missing my flight because I missed the 5:11 train to Stansted, then the 5:41 train had a fault on it so I got on the 6:11 train, which got me to Stansted at 7...and the check in desk closed at 7:05. I bolted through the airport and barely made it...but I did.
RyanAir, by the way, costs 6 pence for a return flight and here is why: because they suck. They don't even assign you a seat so when you get on the plane it's like a massive free-for-all. Everytime someone walked down the aisle of the plane I was sure that their foot was going to break through. Not comforting.
After I had arrived and let my pupils stretch to places they haven't been in a month I caught the bus to Aarhus and had Danish pastry and coffee with Josh...oh yes, Denmark has coffee! Between the re-introduction of sun and coffee my body isn't going to know what hit it.
Denmark is beautiful though, the countryside between the airport and the city was really cool to see, very Nordic. Very different from England and Canada.
Last night Annie, the other Canadian girl, made a huge Thanksgiving dinner...it was ridiculous. A huge turkey, stuffing, potatoes, parsnips and yams in maple syrup, brussel sprouts (much to Josh's chagrin) and pumpkin pie. They don't sell pie filling or evaporated milk in Denmark so Annie bought a pumpkin and boiled it down and kind of guessed at how one would make filling from there. I made the crust. We kind of thought it was going to be a 'second-string' Thanksgiving considering it was a week after the actual day, none of us had any clue what we were doing, and we were working in a foreign country. For example. we whipped the whipping cream by hand because we couldn't find a blender. And when I was making the crust I eyeballed everything because they measure in decilitres here...why? I dunno. Then it was supposed to chill in the fridge for four hours...but we just did it in the freezer for 20 minutes or so. Also, there were no pie plates so we made it in this weird baking dish that was a rectangle.
It turns out everything was genuinely delicious and I ended up getting that uuuuuggggggggghhhhh feeling you get after Thanksgiving. I still have it this morning, I think. Oh my god. Anyone who knows me will realize that long after everyone else at the dinner had giving up I kept eating stuffing...and eating stuffing...and eating stuffing...Damn the stuffing! But I think there's still some left...
People kept coming in and asking why we had a pumpkin on the table and a Canadian flag up...we kind of monopolized the kitchen for awhile. There were non-Canadians invited...as it was Thanksgiving and there was so much food.
Josh and I are going to get up early tomorrow and spend the day in Copenhagen, so hopefully I will get lots of pictures there, since the whole reason I'm using this thing is so that pictures can be viewed.
A little catch-up... Okay, instead of re-hashing what I've done so far in London, I'm just going to copy and past my LJ stuff into here, which will probably be the new place that I put stuff from London. Sorry if you've already read it.
Well, actually there was a turkey sandwich, but it was for lunch. I was kind of bummed that no one around here wanted to celebrate thanksgiving so this morning I went out and got the makings for a turkey sandwich. I even got a tomato, which turned out to be 7p, which means I'll be buying more tomatoes from now on! Neala and I spent the day the other day going to all the Canadian places in London. Why? I'm not sure. It was really hilarious though. First we went to Canada House, which is in Trafalgar Square. In Canada House, you can listen to Canadian music, read month-old issues of the Toronto Star and check your e-mail for free. The girl that was going in ahead of us mentioned she was from Alberta and I got really excited and it turns out she knew where Stettler was, and then I got even more excited. It was exciting. Well I'm going to Spain! Neala and I met up yesterday to plan a trip to Spain and ended up booking it because it was so cheap. We got a return flight for £25 and a hostel for six nights for around £80 so all in all this will end up costing less than C$200. Whee! Oh yes, I have a hot prof. I was late for print production on Friday and I walked in and this person was standing at the front of the room, but from the look of him (25-ish, nice clothes, good hair) there was no way he was the prof. Now, since my features prof the day before had been an hour late, I figured I had beat the prof, so I look at him and say pfffft, are you the prof? in a highly sarcastic tone to which he replied um...yes? so I said Oh. Sorry I'm late, my bus hit someone. Always. Always. Even if it is sunny out in the morning. Bring an umbrella. It will be worth it. My tummy hurts. I don't know if it's a first-day-of-school kind of ache or a I-shouldn't-have-eaten-that-pita-from-the-sketchy-store ache. Probably it's both. Plus a lack of sleep. For those of you who don't know, I'm in London. In fact, I'll be in London until Dec. 20 studying as a part of this thing at City University. I've been in London being a tourist for the past week with my dad. It was kind of nice to have him along though it got a little frustrating at times for both of us I think. Considering I spent the summer in a town of 5,000 people in the middle of nowhere, it's been quite the culture shock. There have been 5,000 people on every tube I've been on so far, I think. You never really find yourself alone, it's interesting and weird. I got about two hours of sleep the last two nights because of the crappy hotel and my dad snoring so I'm in a rather strange pessimisstic kind of mood in a way. I think this will be a good experience but my mind flips back and forth to how worth it it is to spend three months away from people I love when I could be near them learning similar things. I don't envision a lot of entirely meaningful relationships being generated while I'm here since it's only three months. Likewise, I suppose, it's unliklely that my meaningful relationships will degenerate over three months...see what I mean about my mind flipping? Anyway, I'm living in a house with a family and another exchange student in a part of London called Crouch End...it seems less bustle-y than the rest of London which is nice. The house is purple, which is also nice, because everything looks the same otherwise and I'm sure I'd get lost all the time and end up knocking on doors and asking if I lived there. The sleepiness has probably made this make not a lot of sense...I'll try and write more later when it does make more sense. MSN space, eh?Okay, I'm going to try and use this MSN space thing-y for all my London shenanigans. I suck at group e-mailing and I'm never really sure if everyone that gets them wants to read them so this way this will only be seen by whoever wants to!
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