I feel like I have so much that I need to write about, so I guess I can start with the most recent event. STOCKHOLM. Amazing, amazing city. A weekend was, by far, not even close to being enough time to properly experience this city. A group of us: myself, Ciara, Niamh, Alison, John, Robyn and Aine, met up in Stockholm. We flew from Karlsruhe-Baden (Aine flew from Dublin) to Stockholm-Skavsta. Stockholm-Skavsta is not IN Stockholm, but rather about an hour and a half away in Nykoping. When we told John this, his exact quote (as we were landing) was: “Fuck Ryanair.” True that.

We kept ourselves busy during the day with seeing the magnificent sites around the city. Our hostel was in Gamla Stan (the old town) which was beautiful to walk around. We took a ferry to Djurgarden for a visit to the Vasa museum. We spent the better part of the day there and came back to the hostel to reassemble, get dinner and head out for a night on the town - which didn’t actually happen. Rather then spending the 100 Kroner to get into a club, we got into a snow ball fight. The truth is, we had more fun smashing snow in each others faces than we would’ve in a club.

The next day, Sunday, we took a stroll around the Royal Palace and caught the changing of the guard. Robyn and Alison took off to visit the Nobel Museum, Ciara and I went to hit the new town for some shopping and coffee. The snow was terrific, but it made everything exponentially slippery, so getting up and down the hill to the new town was a little tricky.

Sunday night found us at an Irish pub for dinner and drinks - if you ever find yourself in Sweden, do yourself a favour and try the pear cider. It’s sweet, but delicious and I can imagine it only tastes better in the dog days of summer. We had to race from dinner to the Nordic Hotel for our reservation and the original Absolut Ice Bar. We stayed for about an hour before heading back to the Irish pub, closing it down, moving to another bar and closing that down.

The bus to Skavsta was a little rough the next morning. The coolest thing did happen there though. I was rocking Tallinder Sabres jersey and one of the employees there complimented it. He was a Flames fan. It was cool, we talked hockey for a couple of minutes before I had to skeedaddle.

Which is what I need to do right now, actually. Peace!

All Stockholm photos here!

We’re on Winter Break and have a week off, so that could explain my boredom and inbox full of registration e-mails from the above sites. When classes start back next week, everything will go back to it’s ignored and disrepair state. I really need to get dedicated about this. Really. I’ve got less than 12 weeks left and I am resolving NOW (almost 2 months after New Years) that I will blog more.

Oh yeah, that reminds me, I think I’m going to start vlogging as well, on youtube: here, maybe. We’ll see.

In lieu of writing about Mont St. Michel, Normandie, Amsterdam and so on, I’ll leave you with 25 things.

1. I hate writing in anything other than black ink. Blue irks me for some reason and I avoid it wherever possible.

2. In the year 2008, I boarded 24 different airplanes, drove thousands of kilometres and took countless trains. My carbon footprint is that of Big Foot.

3. I’ve had a horse fall on top of me and lived to tell the story.

4. Despite having stood in front of the Tower of Pisa, laying on a beach in Nice and seeing the remnants of the Berlin wall, there is nothing quite like walking through the doors of HSBC Arena.

5. I am an only child.

6. I intern at the European Parliament, and it is the coolest thing I may ever do.

7. I like to think that I’m an a pretty good photographer.

8. I go everywhere with my iPod, it’s like a detachable appendage. It makes me a little nervous to not have it with me.

9. My iTunes library currently has 4,146 items, or 13 days worth of music.

10. Clearly, I am an Apple person, I’ll never go back to a PC.

11. I am a law school hopeful thinking about a concentration in International Human Rights, but nothing is set in stone.

12. Even though I still get homesick, I’m not sure that I will be back in the U.S. for the long term, I dream of establishing a life somewhere in Europe.

13. Through studying abroad, I have found some of the best friends a person could ask for, truly. It would take ages to name all of you, so I just want to say thank you.

14. That said, there is nothing like coming home to DT 305 07/08. Marissa, Analise, Coop & Dies are four of the best women I’ve ever been lucky enough to know.

15. My mom is my very best friend and I tell her everything.

16. I have an awful sense of direction and it doesn’t take me much to get lost, however, once I know how to get somewhere, I won’t forget.

17. I love Nashville.

18. My title for my favourite European city is tied between Berlin and Zurich, I’ve never felt so comfortable and so happy as I did in those places.

19. I drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee that I call Hank.

20. The only things on my desk are my computer, a bottle of water, a birthday card that my mom had my St. Bernard sign with a muddy paw.

21. That same St. Bernard is one of the most important things in my life.

22. I like to be on the water, so summers are great because every weekend is spent at the lake/on the boat. Happiness is a trip up to the Niagara river.

23. I like to shop for purses and make-up.

24. I wish I were more creative, in terms of being able to draw or paint and I’m jealous of those who can (Andrea.)

25. I’m a Scorpio, and Irish which boils down to having a pretty quick fuse.

Er, lecturer just made a diagram and I missed all that.

Classes started this week and I am taking 11. A plethora of business classes, a couple about European Integration and 2 French classes. For one class, I take the final next week and one class doesn’t start until Novembre. It is a different kind of ‘downtime’ from Antwerp, for sure but it’s all good.

I’ve met some really cool people here too: a guy named Miks from Latvia, Yasmeen, Andrea, and Candace. They are all wonderful and different in so many ways, I love the diversity of the four of us all spending time together. Yasmeen, Andrea and I (and maybe Candace) are presently in the infancy stages of planning a trip to MOROCCO, which would just be amazing and hopefully the act of getting to Africa will not be financially prohibiting but, if you really, really want to do something then you’ll find a way.

Until the next time,

Bisous!

exhausted

more later.

I’ll be in classes soon, too, but it’s not the same. It’s not my profs, it’s not my poli sci department.

But I’m going to France, so it’s not like I can’t not be jazzed for that.

When I was assessing my luggage situation this summer, I decided that a suitcase was not good. It was too bulky to drag on trains and really, it didn’t fit everything I needed/wanted to take with me. This time, in addition to my massive pack that is comes up to my hip (on a 5′9″ frame…), I bought a wheeled hockey bag. It was the best investment that I’ve recently made.

easton stealth and too many clothes

And that is really, honest to God, all I’ve got to write about: an easton stealth.

I’ve started sorting through clothes that need to get packed and I don’t know… it’s looking to be as dire of a situation as it was last year. When I first started packing for Belgium, my suitcase was full after jeans and shoes. Full meaning the 50 pound weight limit. Eventually I whittled it down but for the entire semester, I had 4 pairs of jeans, 2 tee-shirts, 2 hoodies and 2 sweaters. Um, I need variety, so this year I say FUCK WEIGHT LIMITS. I don’t have the option to underline, but if I could, I would. I mean business this year (I do what I want, you don’t know me!).

I also indulged in new luggage for this trip. I had a regular suitcase last year, and it is HUGE and takes up lots of precious space. This year, I’m going with a wheeled hockey bag. It has as much space, really and it squashes down to nothing so I can stuff it under my bed without a concern. I am going to make the most of this 18 square meters.

Also, you know what really pisses me off? I’ve been watching with Olympics with a borderline obsession, and I have seen ONE PART OF THE EQUESTRIAN GAMES AIRED. ONE. NBC, there is a lot more going on in Hong Kong than day 1 of Dressage, but thanks. The three day eventing final was TODAY and YOU did not air it. But Serbia v. Croatia water polo gets aired. That’s great. No, really. Thanks. 

With some extra time, I’ll whittle away at my 100 things, too:

21. I plan to have this 100 things done before I board the plane for Paris, even if that means I am finishing it while sitting in Washington-Dulles airport.

22. I have 4,609 songs in my iTunes, totalling 14 days, 10 hours, 27 minutes and 32 seconds.

23. I am a facebook bumper sticker addict, really. I think it’s becoming a borderline problem, and my friends probably hate me for the number of them that they receive on a daily basis.

24. I scored a 98 on my Grade 10 Global regents without cracking a book.

25. I’ve changed my major several times. I started as an education major with a concentration in history, changed to strictly history, then International Business/International Relations, then added Communications. Dropped communications and bumped German up from a minor to a major.

26. That said, despite having 8 years under my belt, my German is still atrocious.

27. I would like to work in the NHL for a little bit, but doing what, I don’t know. It’s just one of those things that I would like to try.

28. Seton Hall is my dream law school, Vanderbilt is a close second. I’m not sure that I can get into either one of them.

29. I visited Philadelphia my freshman year and I fell in love with the city. I thought about transferring to the Jesuit school (St. Joe’s) down there.

30. I took golf lessons several years ago and hurt my instructor but I want to start golfing again.

 

I’ll count myself lucky because I only had to go back once. I met one girl there who was back for the FOURTH time. The people there really aren’t the friendliest either, nor do they have any obligation to honor your appointment.

Regardless, I don’t have to come back and that is really just fantastic!

My flight is delayed so I’m going to go kill some time on Facebook and maybe come back to do more of my 100 things.