Lately

Lately, I've had some rough hits to my life. A childhood friend is gone and my special guy is back across the sea. I've lost some friends, gained some others, and rekindled some friendships that I realize now are so precious. So with these dark days have also come some rays of sunshine. I've been doing very well at work, getting lots of compliments on what I've done, and my money situation is relatively sorted out.

Nowadays I have some goals I'm hoping to make some progress on:

Learn some basic Swedish
Get back into my CPA studies
Workout more often
Cook at home as much as possible
Finish the book I've been reading now since June. :s


The biggest challenge is just staying motivated to do these things. It's way too easy to come home from work and do nothing.

So I'm starting today. I'm going to go out and have a walk since it is beautiful today, which for Seattle these days will become few and far between. I'm going to precook some food for this week. I'm going to do a half hour of Swedish, and then read my book. CPA studies start tomorrow. After all, it is still my weekend. :)

In the face of loss...

No words can describe the immensity of this loss. A beautiful girl has been taken away from us and all we can do is cling to one another and grieve. Things like this should not happen, and when they do it becomes all the more apparent that we are subject to forces other than what we can control.

My heart broke at the news and it continues to ache as I think of all the childhood memories tied to that one precious person. I pray with all of my heart that she is at peace and that there is joy where she is now, for there is none here. It was too early, she was too young, and nothing can now be done but to hurt and to cry and to remember.

There are times when we can only sit in stunned silence as emotions rip through our chests and we wonder at the frailty of life. To wonder at the one moment that can tear away a life from this world so suddenly where we are left with nothing but an empty shell of what once used to be so full of life and love and spirit. There is little that can be done to comfort us when we know in our hearts that our world has been irreparably changed, and not for the better.

To those who knew and loved her, I add my voice to say that Chelsea Garner, you will be missed. I wish I knew you better as a young woman, but I have many many lovely memories of you as a little girl. We played together, grew up together, and made fantastically awful childhood movies together; along with our brothers we would make-believe for hours on end. My childhood was shaped by you and your brother and those games that we played, those summer hours in the pool, and I am saddened beyond measure that you will not be able to share in those joys again.

The day wears on and so will tomorrow, but something in the world was broken that night. A life was cut short and in so happening, all of us will never be the same. We cling to each other and those that we have around us and give ourselves over to the pain. It’s good to grieve. It means that what was lost was important. My heart goes out to you Terry, Jeremy, Joe, and your families. I send to you my prayers for strength and hope. May you find comfort and love in each other in this time of loss.

Leaving on a...late....jet plane...do do do dododo do do

While my flight is delayed, I'll be updating you on my life. :) yay for multitasking...

I started work on the 6th, and I have been knee-deep in training since then. This week is the last of it, and on Thursday I start the "real work" *gulp*. So far the training has been great. It's been mostly review for me, which is nice since I'm not trying to learn a bunch of new stuff. The only new material is just working the EY system and knowing where to find things and how to do the many tasks that are done online. EY is Ernst & Young, for those of you not familiar, and its the accounting firm that I work for. I'm going to try and refrain from using untold numbers of acronyms, because I find that anoying, but this is one tha is necessary.

The people I work with have been great so far, and living in hotels with a food allowance has definitely been sweet. I've been in california this last week, and will be there through wednesday, hence the airport reference.

My field is in Business Risk Services, and I will be working as a business consultant to the clients I'm assigned to, helping them with various issues they've hired EY to help them with. Luckily I've been assigned to clients mostly within the downtown Seattle area, so my traveling won't be too extensive. I'll be working a lot on the State of Washington account with their performance audits, specifically on the utilities account. I'm really excited about this assignment and getting to know the inner workings of these government offices.

All in all, I'm super excited about my job. I have really loved everything I've heard and been told so far. This seems like such a quality firm to work for and I'm just so glad that I get to work for them. I'm hoping this isn't just a honeymoon period, because at this point, I can really see myself working for them for a very long time.

A view of the new place.

Here is a video of my new place that is mostly done. I brought home a new load of stuff to squeeze in places, but it shouldn't be too hard. It's so cute and it's nice to have a place that's MINE!!!




Boat race weekend was great. The boats went roundy roundy, and the sun went scorchy scorchy, and my skin got reddy reddy. Alas, I did get a sun burn, but just my knees and my arms...not to bad. It stayed under 100 degrees, which was awesome (and almost unheard of) and my pick won the unlimiteds (Yay O'Boy Oberto!).

Drove back to Seattle today with my last load of crap from my parent's house. It's amazing how much I can cram into that little car. And the weather that greeted me was cloudy and rain. *sadface* I'm hoping it will get nice again soon. I want to go to the beach!

Blog #50

So the moving process is complete!

The unpacking, however, is far from it...
The kitchen is almost complete, thanks to my wonderful dishwasher which is now working. The bathroom is a work in progress, but the room is far from done. I'm gladly looking at a slowly growing pile of empty boxes.

This weekend I'm heading back home to enjoy the intense heat of the Tricity's boat races, and I have every intention of NOT BURNING. Whether or not that will happen??...I've been successful some years...

Daddy is doing the rescue diving again so we again get the special passes and sweet views. Mom and Dad are already there, and I'm excited to go.

K and I are reading a book together to try and breach the drastic distance we are from each other, and I am very far behind. He's had a little more free time than I, so I gotta get on it.

Milestones

Tonight it particularly poignant for me: it is the last night I will be sleeping at my parents house under the label of "living" here.

The beginning of this month was all about my exams. I studied like a mad woman and took them two weeks ago. With those thankfully done (I won't find out my results until September) I took the next two days to do some apartment hunting. I soon learned how stressful it is to try to find the "perfect" place and headed home exhausted from the VERY long week with the idea that I would take the weekend off and start the real hunting the next week.

I got home, and collapsed on the couch, with every intention of doing nothing for the next three days (with the exception of celebrating my dad's birthday that evening). A fantastic night's sleep in a proper bed helped revive me since I had been crashing on Michelle, Rachel, and Julie's couch for the past week. But as I came downstairs that morning, my mom was happily clicking away looking at apartment ads. After a conversation with my dad, they decided that it would be best for my mom and me to head back to Seattle that night and try to see some places that weekend. I was reluctant, but we soon had several appointments to see places, so I repacked my bags and we headed again to the west side.

LONG and painful story short: I found an apartment that is FANTASTIC! I'm so excited about it because I think it's just beautiful. I almost didn't get it, but called the contact I had and convinced them that I was a good candidate for the place, and it helped that I was willing to move in asap and pay for part of July.

Which brings us almost current. We signed papers on Tuesday and I've been packing ever since. Tomorrow my mom, brother, and I are moving me in with the truck and my car loaded with all my things and furniture I've inherited from my great grandma (its nice stuff!). I am so thrilled to be getting my own kitchen and bathroom...my first time living on my own! So many people say it's not what it's cracked up to be, but not many people have had the living situations that I've had. I've moved so many times in the last five years, I can't even count, but with the sorority you basically move every quarter just to give you an idea. In the last year I've moved now three times, not including massive packing for travels.

I'm so ready for my own place with my own space--to feel like a real adult. It's a little sad to think that this is really the end of living at home, but it is so time. And there is always visiting. It's time for me to make my own home. So cool.

Bored Ramblings

I've been extremely lax on keeping up with this blog site. Since I've been home, there has been lots of people to share the mundane details of my daily life with, so I haven't felt the need to journal them. But as uneventful as I feel my life is right now, some fun things have been happening...

The wedding of my friend Jessica was really fun. Cassy, Katie, and I really enjoyed ourselves (if I can speak for the other two), and Jessica was absolutely glowing the whole evening. Even with the tears that appeared, there was genuine happiness through the evening and I think it went off quite well. The one downer was that I had borrowed my mom's camera, mine had been acting funny since our canada trip, and it ended up missing by the end of the evening. I left it at our table my friends and I had been sitting at, after I had filled the memory card, and when we went to leave it was gone. I was so upset because I had some really great pictures, but not only that, my mom had pictures from our vacation that she hadn't copied yet... :( Sad sad day. It still hasn't turned up...but I'm still hopeful someone will find it amongst their stuff and have the decency to return it. Anyway, that part sucked, but the rest of the night was fun. Cassy, Katie, and I went out to a casino afterwards and reveled in our perspective singledoms.

Onward in time: last week, I spent a day with my grandmother working on the awesome quilt that she's making for me of my sorority and college t-shirts. We finished getting the t-shirts all cut up into perfect little squares, and now its just a matter of her putting it together. I can't help much with that part because of my sadly underdeveloped sewing skills. I can stitch a mean patch and sew up a hole, but the sewing machine scares me a little...

This weekend my brother, his girlfriend and I (yes, I love being the third wheel) saw the new Disney movie WALL-E, which I think is FANTASTIC! For those of you who may not know, I am a total freak when it comes to musicals. I love many of them and like most of them, and there are only a few that I sincerely cannot find any redeeming qualities in. That being said, when the opening montage of the movie featured the uniquely recognizable voice of Michael Crawford singing "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello Dolly, I just about fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard! My brother was laughing quite hard as well. Our family has a unique relationship with that musical, since both my parents were involved in a local production of it where my dad played Barnaby Tucker and my mom played Minnie Fay. So that started the show off on a fantastic note and it just got better. It was so good that all three of us went to see it again on Sunday with my parents. My mom also got a huge kick out of the opening scene. Moral: GO SEE IT! It's really awesome, even if you don't know Hello Dolly, and if you do it's just that much better!

Saturday was spent studying for me (as most days are), but that evening we went to Hermiston to watch my brother race the race car he and my dad and papa have been working on (and working on...and working on.....). He did pretty good in the races, and it was quite fun to watch him go round and round. He even spun out once, which added some excitement (and took a year off my poor mom's life). The car doesn't have a lot of "umph" to it, so he didn't place very high, but he stuck in there, didn't get lapped by the much faster cars, and the car itself ran pretty good. Over all, a successful night for Wall Racing (we even have our own t-shirts!).

But as I said before, these have been the highlights of my days. Mostly I'm just studying my brains out...literally...I have to pick them up off the floor sometimes. :) I do a lot of studying at the S-bux in the town next to mine. Today I was doing my usual thing, and this guy walks up to me and asks if he can interview me for the Yakima Herald. They are doing some kind of Fourth of July special thingy and each reporter is interviewing lots of folks. So I said sure, and ended up talking a lot about my friends who've been in Iraq, my time abroad and how that affected my patriotism, and the European perspectives on the US that I came in contact with. Who knows if the article will turn out any good, or if they even run mine, but it was fun to be asked.

Well this blog came to you courtesy of the fact that the rest of my family has gone to bed, and I'm sick of television, so this felt like a semi-constructive thing to do. But now its time for bed I think. T-minus one week to go for my exams and then it's FREEDOM! At least until work starts, but I can dream...

Playing with Helium

To celebrate the death of my brother's birthday balloons, I present the following videos for your entertainment.

First we scared the dog...



Then the chipmunks came to visit...


As you can tell, we enjoy killing our brain cells. :)

4 Days in Canadian Bowels

Our trip to Canada was so fun!!! For as calm and uneventful as my birthday was, this birthday-vacation totally made up for it!

We headed up to Canada on Wednesday. The original plan was to stop in Anacordes and to cross the ferry to Vancouver Island on Thursday. But we decided instead to head straight for Vancouver and to cross over on the Vancouver ferry. We stayed the first night in Nanaimo and drove up to Qualicom Beach on Thursday.

At Qualicom we spent the afternoon checking out this butterfly farm, which was really neat. We saw many different kinds of butterflies along with tropical birds, orchids, turtles and some spiders, an iguana, and other lizards. It was quite beautiful and VERY warm in there. The outside temp was around 50 degrees, but inside it was tropical heat!

Next we visited this amazing animal recovery shelter were they take in animals who have been hurt. They try to rehabilitate them so they can be released. Sometimes they are successful, but sometimes the animals "imprint" on humans, so they can no longer survive on their own. The ones that they plan to release can't be viewed, but you can see the others that they keep there. You can also "adopt" an animal! If you adopt an animal the money helps to support the upkeep of that animal and you get a certificate and all the information about your animal's story and history. So of course-I had to adopt one. :) I adopted a Barred Owl named Blue. I'll get my certificate in a few weeks I think. That really made my day. There were many other animals: bears, bald eagles, great horned owls, ravens, hawks, and many other birds and lizards.

After that we headed to the hotel, relaxed and then had a nice relaxing dinner at a place down the road.

Friday was our outdoor warm up adventure, to help prepare us for the crazy day that was to come Saturday. We started off bright and early with a hike up to one of the self guided caves in the cave park. We spent about an hour and a half hiking in and out. At the back of the cave there was a waterfall that was really fun. Marcus and I were able to climb pretty far up the waterfall to the point where we couldn't hardly hear mom and dad down at the bottom anymore. It was fun to scramble around that cave and it got us into the mood for our intense caving to be done the next day. Afterwards we went on a hike around a river and waterfall. It was a leisurely hike, and once again, very beautiful.

We lunched at a pizza place and then headed out to the Cheeseworks farm! (My idea.) I got to taste cheese after cheese after cheese which just made me happy. :) The farm was a self guided tour, so we walked around and saw pigs and goats, bunnies and cows. You could pet the goats and the sheep and I even let a baby cow suck on my fingers. :) I know that sounds weird, but I used to do that with the calves that my aunt and uncle used to raise, so it was fun for me.

That evening, we tried to find an Irish pub...we found it! But it was closed. Sad news. Apparently, Canadian Irish pubs out in the middle of no where are seasonally open...and still not open for the summer! So we had to settle for a random bar and grill.

Saturday was our big day! It started off with our repelling training. We met our guide Laura, headed up to the side of a mountain and repelled off a cliff twice. Then we tried to climb a little. Marcus made it up, but it was very very slick because it had been raining. Neither my dad or I was able to make it (and took a couple of good slips and swings on the ropes), even as much as I love climbing I was ok with not trying again. I new we had much in store for us later on. And I was right!!!

After a quick lunch we hiked our 20 minutes to the cave opening and dived into the darkness. This was probably one of the most intense adventures I have ever been on in my life. It was a 5 hour tour to the bottom of this cave. It required crawling through spaces that were about 1.5 feet high, 2 feet wide for 10-15 feet. We had 3 repels, one was 7 stories down! We crawled, wiggled, squated, balanced, climbed, scrambled, we rarely just walked, all the while trying not to touch the Calcite formations. Calcite will stop growing if you touch it and it's very fragile. All of our climbs were down waterfalls. We saw some fantastic rock formations.

We reached the end, stopped by water, no one has been able to explore farther, so we headed back. The 7 story waterfall had to be partially rock climbed back up, but 2/3 of it was a ladder climb. There was a cable ladder for the next climb up, but the third climb was purely rock climbing.

It was quite amazing to get back to the opening and realize just how far we had gone and survived to come back! Not that any of it was exceptionally dangerous, but it's such an accomplishment to realize that you've done it! What a high! My whole family did it: mom, dad, Marcus and me. Mom had some hard struggles at some points coming back, but we got her through! It was so incredible and something I will never forget.

We were all hurting that evening, and the next day the sore muscles were really screaming. The ride home was quiet and pretty uneventful, other than the fact that we had a minor map misreading and ended up skirting Vancouver and went through a different boarder crossing. Got home, and crashed!

I think I got some good pictures, but my camera got kind of messed up at the butterfly place. So I'll get up what I have and any that I can steal from my brother and mom sometime soon. No pictures from the big cave, but we have some from the little cave, that can give you some ideas.

Now that we're back, my life is going to be consumed by studying! The library will become my second home I think. Anyway, signing off for now!

It's My Birthday

It's now officially my birthday.

Woo hoo 23!

I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. I think I may have a better idea tomorrow. Right now I'm just stressing out again about my cpa exams and wondering if I'm going to be prepared for these next ones.

I don't have any major plans really for my birthday. I'll be going with my mom to get my first pedicure ever tomorrow morning, but other than that....nothing. I've always wanted a big crazy party, but that's hard to do when my birthday has fallen during finals for the last 4 years and then this year I'm living 200 miles away from all of my friends. :( Ah well. Maybe next year I'll have a big sh-bang.

Other than that, I'm just back in g-view these days. I made it home ok from my trip, was jet lagged for about a week, and had SO much fun wine tasting at my friend Jessica's bachelorette party this last weekend. I already feel like I've been home for so long but it's only been 2 weeks! I'm still hoping to get up a narrative on our Turkey trip. There was so much fun stuff! Its really more for me than for anyone else (kind of the way this whole blog is), so I'd love to get it written down.

I miss Europe. I want to go back. And I REALLY miss public transportation with gas at 4 bucks a gallon. That was a shocker when I came home. Even though I read about oil prices rising it was crazy to come home and actually see those prices. Just so everyone remembers, in February (when I left) prices were still around $3.20. BUT it is SO nice to be back where food is more reasonably priced and the produce is BIG. :)

Anyway, this week my family and I will be heading up to Canada for our cave diving adventure. I'm really looking forward to that and I think it will be comforting to be doing some traveling again. I have a severe case of wander lust mixed with cabin fever because I don't want to drive with these stupid gas prices and should be studying anyway.

I'll get up the pictures from the bachelorette party soon, I hope, so be checking my pictures for that!

Wrapping up...

Today it's 3 days left for me in Brussels. I'm really very sad to be leaving, but I'm going to enjoy these last few days! I've had so much fun while I've been here. It's been such an experience, although I am ready to have some good old American Food. :)

It's been quiet since we've been back from Turkey. Not much going on, except I've been fighting some headache and throat issues. Not really a cold, but just annoyances. Too much fun in Turkey, I think, gave me some trouble.

The trip home from Istanbul was great. Lufthansa is now my favorite airline because they serve you food even on short inter-Europe flights! Better than SAS, Swiss, or Brussels Airlines. I'm hoping to get a big blog about our trip written up on my flight home. I leave around noon here, and get back to Seattle about 9pm. I'm gonna try to stay awake the whole time, so I'll need stuff to keep me entertained since the movie options on US Airways are never very good.

In the mean time, I've loaded up some pictures and have posted a new slide show below, so check those out. Be sure to click on the slide show or the link below it to go to the actual picture site so that you can see all my captions.

This weekend will be the big farewell to Brussels. I have to buy my chocolate tomorrow to bring home since the shop isn't open on Sunday. I've been worried about buying it sooner because our apartment is not air-conditioned and it's been really warm. I've heard it's supposed to be around 100 degrees in good ol' G-view, so that's going to be a shocker when I get back!

Lastly, I'll leave you with a video of the Whirling Dervishes that we saw in Istanbul. The boyfriend of the girl we were staying with sets up these shows so we got in free! It was about an hour long show, but what you see here, pretty much sums up the whole hour.

Here I am baby!

Hey all and Hello from the land of Turkey! Our flight went fantastic and we made it with just a little drama to our friend's place. We're on our way out to eat dinner, but I just wanted to let you all know that we are having a great time and everything is going just swimmingly. :)

Much much more to come!

On our way!

Merhaba! (Turkish for Hello!)

I'm finishing getting packed and at 3:30pm we head on our way to the airport! Today I get new stamps in my passport! Woo hoo!!!! For those of you who were wanting some more information on Istanbul, you can read this article on Wikipedia, or go to this Turkish embassy site. In case you are interested in random trivia, one of Istanbul's sister cities is Dallas, Texas. :)

Our first big adventure will be trying to get to our friend's place. She won't be able to meet us at the airport, so we are going to try to take a bus. This is gonna be fun!

So signing off for now! I'll be back soon with lots of stories and pictures for your viewing pleasures. :)

Great article

I read this article on the CNN politics website (of all places) and was really impressed by it. I know Bishop T.D. Jakes from his visits to my church in Seattle and he is an incredible orator. His words are powerful, but chosen with great care, and show what I believe to be the right spirit with which to approach these times and issues. His views on the current political and spiritual situation in our country very much reflect my own, so I wanted to share.

Sunshine makes me happy

It's GORGEOUS today!! It's 70 degrees outside and bright and sunny, and what am I doing? Writing a blog. :P

Because its so nice, I'm going to try to keep this short so I can go wander around in the sunshine...maybe go have a waffle. :)

K made it home safe and sound from Stockholm (no missed flights), and we spent a wonderful night out Saturday at a nice belgian restaurant and then a jazz club. The restaurant had fantastic traditional belgian food, and the group playing at the club was really good. They were a trio (drums, bass, and tenor/soprano sax) with a guest piano player. The interesting thing was they were all pretty young (like mid 20s), but VERY good. They played their own songs for the set that we saw. I think the sax player was Irish, but I wasn't sure. He had a light accent and spoke only in English, but from the little he spoke, it was hard to tell where he was from.

Yesterday was also a gorgeous day, so we went out and had a huge all you can eat brunch at a swanky little restaurant. It was a little spendy, but the food was absolutely worth it, especially all you can eat! We wandered around afterwards and ended up in the big park next to the royal palace to read. I had a headache so Les Miserable was not exactly keeping my attention. Instead, I people watched, and thoroughly enjoyed watching this dad trying to teach his two little girls in summer dresses how to do cartwheels and headstands. The one must have been about 5-6, the other was probably 2. So cute!

That evening we headed out of the park and decided to go see a movie. We saw There Will Be Blood, which is about this oil tycoon and his very messed up life. We had no idea what it was about, but it was in English and had won a bunch of awards, so we thought we'd give it a try. Not the highlight of the day, we'll just leave it at that. I don't recommend it. Afterwards we headed home and I made twice-baked potatoes for dinner. Yum!

So now I have to start getting into travel mode again. Wednesday we leave for Istanbul! We bought a guide book to help give us an idea of what exactly we are getting ourselves into, since neither of us know much about Turkey and are totally unfamiliar with the language. This will probably be one of the most exotic places I've been...so exciting! I'm hoping it will be warm there. So much to plan though in the meantime. It kind of snuck up on us, and we have a lot of questions for our friend we'll be staying with. Like what should we bring to wear, what are the things we should bring that we may not think to bring? Baklava and Turkish Delight, here I come!

I'm not sure that I'll be able to write any blogs while I'm gone. I'm not planning on bringing my computer, so it will probably just be an update when I get back, as per usual.

Between the spring weather and traveling to far off countries, I'm just giddy!!!

I have a new respect for outlet malls...

Today was a shopping adventure...really, a failed shopping adventure...

I had the idea that today was the day! I was going to go out and do some Shopping, with a capital S! I wanted to get some stuff for the people back home, and maybe find some clothes or fun stuff for myself. So I headed out.

As I was walking down the street towards the shopping district, I realized that there were a lot of stores that were closed...on a Friday...that's weird. Now granted, most everything is closed on Sundays and most stores close early compared to American standards, but usually things are open on Fridays. Then it dawns on me. Yesterday was labor day for Europe. And unlike in the US, labor day is not a consumer focused holiday. In other words, I'm guessing that many stores closed on May 1st and intended to stay closed for the weekend. Strike one.

But I figured, I'm on my way, I'm sure some stores will be open. And yes, some were. Many were not. I checked out every clothes store that was open.

Next was the size issue. I had forgotten/spaced/not realized that they size totally different in Europe. So when looking at dresses and pants, was I a 24? 38? 42? Strike two. I eventually found a store that had these fantastic tags that told what size the clothes were in something like 10 different countries! Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, UK, Australia (?!?), and the US (!) as well as some others. I figured out I was about a 38-40. Ok!

So now that I know what size I am, I start seriously looking for clothes. I eventually come to the realization that if its not in a teeny-bopper store, shirts start at around 25 Euro, pants and skirts at about 35 Euro, and I didn't see any dress under 60. Now those prices look reasonable if they were in dollars! But with the all mighty dollar running about $1.55 to 1 Euro, the word I'm looking for is "ouch!" Strike three.

Keep in mind that I haven't been seriously shopping for myself in a long time, so I was kinda flustered with the whole sizing thing in the first place. Add in the sticker shock and I was pretty much done. I spent about an hour and a half walking around to different stores and didn't find anything that I could bring myself to buy.

Now I know by this point my mom is probably either laughing at me or frustrated that I didn't buy anything, or both, but fear not! I haven't totally given up. I'm going to bring in the big guns next time. If there is anyone who knows how to spend money on clothes, it's Kristoffer. So the strategy next time? Bring the man.

And as a last note: Happy Birthday Grandpa! Thinking of you today!

1st of May

Today is May day. It's special for many reasons.

Today is labor day for many countries. People go out and march for the rights of workers. They chant their songs and hold their banners and support their cause.

Today is also a celebration of spring. Some cultures dance around a may pole in celebration of this beautiful time of year.

But, today is, most importantly, my parents 26th wedding anniversary. And while I don't know what their plans are to celebrate this year, I hope that they have a wonderful day and enjoy some time with each other.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Lightning Storms are Sweet!

We just had a pretty good sized one. Lots of down poring rain. Now the suns coming back. :)

That's pretty much all I had to say. Glad I wasn't outside.

Home alone...and enjoying it?

So Kristoffer is off in Stockholm this week. I didn't feel like I could afford another trip to Stockholm since we're going to Turkey next week. Plus I needed to be studying. And while staying in a hotel for free is a nice prospect, it's not so conducive to studying.

Speaking of studying, for those who are keeping tabs...I've decided to move my two CPA exams I was going to take at the end of May to the beginning of July (you can't test in June, for those of you wondering). I don't feel like I am prepared or can become prepared by the end of May, so I've pushed it back as far as I can. Better to pass these two and wait to retake the other two sometime after I start working.

So other than that, it's been pretty quite around here. This weekend we spent a lovely Friday night out. We were trying to go to a nice restaurant that was featured in my guidebooks, but everywhere we went the menus were ridiculous (ie. ~$75 for just a main dish). So we tried to find a more moderately priced place, and ended up at the most touristy restaurant imaginable. It was recommended in my top 10 guidebook, but it must have changed since they wrote it. It wasn't that great. Kristoffer ordered a "seafood platter," and that's pretty much exactly what he got. :) A huge tray filled with ice and oisters, clams, mussels, prawns, and crayfish displayed on top. He was expecting some kind of potatoes or bread or something to go along with it, but nope! Just a bunch of seafood. I had a much safer (and cheaper) dish that was pretty good. It's called Flemish Carbonnades (pictured right), and it's just basically a really good stew. So anyway, the dinner was interesting, but just way to touristy a place.

After that we had hot chocolate in the Grand Place which is really beautiful at night, all lit up (pictured left). Plus the weather here has gotten gorgeous, so it's pleasantly warm during the days and stays warm far into the evening. It was a beautiful night.

Something to note about Belgian hot chocolate is that it is literally chocolate melted in hot milk. Sometimes they melt it for you, but sometimes they bring you hot milk and hunk of chocolate or a bowl of chocolate pieces to put in the milk yourself. It's REALLY good, and oh so rich. Yummm....

Saturday we did some errands that we'd been needing to do, like buying light bulbs for all the burnt out lights in the apartment. :) And that night we went out with Kristoffer's friend Aron and a bunch of Swedish friends to celebrate Aron's birthday. We went out to a Latin club called Havana, which played some really great music, and we got our dance on! It was lots of fun, but we left early (and by early I mean 2am) because we had to get K ready for his trip Sunday. (Most clubs are open and populated until 5-6am, so everyone else was still dancing away when we left.)

After K left on Sunday, I've just been doing my thing: studying, relaxing, watching West Wing, avoiding the dishes... I think I have also solidified the fact that I want my own place when I get back. It's fun having a home to yourself. :)

Another day...

Study study study...

Another day of studying in the parliament. It's the last day, though, that I get to use the nice desks. The parliamentarians come back tomorrow. Nothing much exciting going on, except a fun email! Apparently, I get a free computer bag when I start work this August, to go along with the company computer I will be assigned. I could choose between 4 designs and I picked the rolling bag (that retails for $100!!! Wow). I figured my feet, shoulders, and mom will thank me for not trying to carry around my work on my back anymore. All of the bags were super sweet, but I think this was the most "professional" looking, if maybe not the coolest. Plus, I think it will be much easier to carry around a purse and pull a rolling bag, than trying to carry both bag and purse on shoulders (in heels, as well). :)

And Happy Birthday Grandma! Love you lots and lots!

New pictures have been uploaded!

Today I have infiltrated the European Parliament building and am using their fantastic internet to upload my pictures from this last week. I am also getting to use a great big wonderful desk to study on and a big comfy chair to sit on. Since the parliament is in session in Strausburg, France this week, everyone is gone and I was able to get a three day pass to bum around the parliament! Sweet. There is nothing like having connections. :) I can't wait till I have a desk like this!

So a new slide show is now being featured of our trip to Paris. Click on the slide show to get to my albums to see the Paris and Brussels pics from this last week, as well as my other pictures from past trips. Some of them are mine and some of them are Katie's. If you have any problems accessing the pictures let me know.

Back into the swing of things...kinda...

Cassy and Katie are now home safe and sound back in the US. And I am left with nothing but studying to do. :(

Well, that's not entirely true. I have the Istanbul trip to look forward to, but that is little consolation when I see how much of my books I need to get through before then. AHHH!!!! So much to do....yet here I am procrastinating... Oh well. You all wanted an update anyway, I'm sure!

This last week was an absolute blast. Cassy, Katie, and I had so much fun exploring Brussels and Paris that we practically walked our feet off. We saw all of the typical touristy things. In Brussels, the Manakin Pis, Grand Place, the cathedral, the Royal Palace. The first day was our grand tour, where we walked the city from bottom to top. Hitting all the major places, plus the musical instrument museum where we got a free concert. The soprano who sang was fantastic. This skinny, pretty little thing, and out came this huge gorgeous operatic voice. WOW! We had great timing since we didn't even know about the concert, but got there about 15 minutes before it started.

Before that, however, we saw a huge "to do" happening in front of the Royal Palace. We stood around for about half an hour watching the soldiers all lined up in front as well as a military band playing songs. The street was all blocked off and it was obvious that someone important was coming. Turns out the President of Hungary was arriving just then and we got to see the royal welcome. Would have been a great experience except that the Brussels weather did her thing and decided to pour rain just during the 45 minutes/hour we were standing there. Ah well, good introduction to the weather for C & K.

The second day we managed to get ourselves kicked out of a museum. Well ok, not really, but we got in trouble twice. Once for drinking water, and once for sitting outside on a terrace that apparently wasn't supposed to be open for the public. No signs. Door unlocked. But I guess you're supposed to know that, somehow? So we were pissed and kicked ourselves out. Stupid country.

WARNING, Rant ensuing: So, I have two more complaints against this country! Case Number One. Apparently they have city wide breakdowns of the few places that will accept credit cards (reference my earlier blogs on my issues with cards in this country), namely the train station and museums. Grr... We went to buy our Paris tickets, me fulling planning to put it on my credit card since its a bit of money. We get through booking all the tickets, we go to pay, and "Oh, you will need to pay with cash because our card system is down." WHAT?! You couldn't mention that before we booked? Good thing between the three of us we managed to have enough cash to get the tickets bought. Nothing works in this country when you need it. The failed credit card machines followed us the next few days.

Case Number Two. I get on the internet on Monday to check to see if C & K's flight is on time and to check bus schedules. THE INTERNET IS NOT WORKING! Now we've had problems with it working badly, but never it just fully not working. So I think, ok, its probably just a temporary thing. NO. It's down for THE WHOLE WEEK! Such a pain, considering we needed it to confirm bookings and reservations and such. Of course it would pick the one week my friends came and the internet was actually a necessity for communication.

Oh, OH! Case Number Three! So I'm on my way to get to the airport to meet C & K, and guess what... That's right! The bus I need to get to the airport on time BREAKS DOWN! This was not such a big deal, but I ended up having to take a later bus and getting there well after C & K got out. Annoying, and just one more issue I have with the reliability of things in this country.

Ok, rant done. Just needed to get that off my chest. :) Things aren't so bad really. But when you go to Paris and things work so smoothly, you realize that Belgium really is a little backwards.

And on that note... PARIS! Our trip to Paris, was really great. We got there, ended up at a pretty nice (and cheap!) hostel, and road that subway system to every touristy thing in the city! Thanks mom and dad for the Paris map you gave me! It had the subway system on the back, which was FANTASTIC! Luckily, I new pretty much how to get to everywhere already, but with the map it made it super easy. So below is an outline of pretty much what we did. Keep in mind that Paris is HUGE and that we rode the subway between just about everything.

Day 1:
-Catch the high speed train to Paris at 8am
-Check in at hostel and drop off bags
-Climb the Eiffel tower (top level was closed for wind. Two tries and two strikes for me on that) one.)
-Lunch: sandwich and over-priced drinks at a touristy cafe
-Notre Dame (Brave Kathryn hiked the stairs to the bell towers all by herself!)
-Back to hostel and a three course meal/long night out at a fantastic restaurant. Bravo to C & K for their first try at escargot!

Day 2:
-Up at 7am to get to the Louvre Museum before it opens (to get to the Mona Lisa before the lines start)
-In the Louvre, saw the Mona Lisa (still underwhelming), Venus de Milo, and many other fantastic works of art
-Walked to the Opera House
-Opera House tour
-sandwich lunch in a park at the foot of the Champs Elysees.
-Saw the Arc De Triumph
-Saw the stained glass windows at Saint Chappel
-Hiked the massive hill of stairs to the Sacre Couer for the best view of Paris
-Had ourselves a Crepe
-Snapped a picture of the Moulin Rouge (in the daytime. No sketchy redlight district at night this time.)
-Back to the hostel to pick up bags
-Dinner near the train station
-Back on the train and pulling into Brussels around 11:30pm.

Then, I met up with Kristoffer at a house warming party. C & K went back to the apartment because they were tired (NO KIDDING!). And I pretty much was falling asleep on my feet. Got home around 3am and SLEPT IN!

Saturday was a lazy day. Had some coffee, bought some chocolates, and watched some House. That night we went to a jazz restaurant, where they serve Italian food and play live jazz, blues, and funk. It was so fun! Great way to end their stay, and over all a really fun week.

I'll get some pictures loaded sometime this week, but I've got to sort through them first. Anyway, quite the adventure. There were some iffy moments, but for the most part everything went really smoothly in Paris. Quite a "Tour de Force" if I do say so myself! :)

TP and Bruges

I’d better get an update written today before my friends come; otherwise it’s probably going to be another week before you hear from me!

Cassy and Katie are coming in today (woo hoo!) at 4:40pm, and I’m really excited! It will be great to get to show them around to all the fun places I’ve already seen and see some new things myself.

But, anyway…This last weekend!

On Friday, as you know, was the infamous Swedish Trivial Pursuit game at K’s boss’s house. It turned out to be quite the get together since 9 people showed up, so including Paula (pronounced Pow-la, yes pow, like POW! in the batman shows—the hostess) and her husband Peter (pronounced Pee-et-er) there were 11 of us to play. This was great, because it meant we could play on teams, and I would just be a third wheel.

Dinner was fantastic. Very Swedish. It was a stew with beef and onions and really great spices, with sides of boiled potatoes, salad, 3 different cheeses, baguette, and Swedish “crisp-bread.”

Afterwards, I was given the honor to draw names, and I happened to draw them perfectly so that all the teams of two were people who were already sitting next to each other at the dinner table. Then we thought that, to make it fair, I wouldn’t be on K’s team automatically, but instead I would draw a name and that’s whose team would get me. Luckily, I drew Peter, who was K’s partner anyway. I had the magic hands that night!

So Swedish Trivial Pursuit IS in Swedish and many of the questions are very Swedish/Scandinavian based (hence the reason I got to be a third wheel). I did manage to answer a question about the Casini Space craft (which planet was it sent to collect data about? Saturn.) and who was the first black actress to win an Academy Award? Halli Bari. So I didn’t feel totally useless, but it is frustrating when for the most part you have NO chance of knowing the answer. Our team didn’t win, but it was a fun night anyway, and a great chance to get to know the people K work’s with at the Parliament better.

Saturday was a late start since we didn’t get back till 3am. We managed to crawl out of bed around 11am and took the train to Bruges.

Bruges is a small, medieval, VERY touristy little town towards the north shore of Belgium. They have huge old gothic buildings everywhere and are very famous for their handmade lace industry. We got there around 2:30, started wandering around the town, which is full of horse drawn carriages, canals with swans and ducks, and these really ancient, beautiful buildings. It’s all very “European,” and with the sunny day it was quite romantic. When the cars and mopeds weren’t driving by you almost felt like you were back in the 1800s.

We visited a small convent and the great cathedral in town, and had ourselves a funny surprise. In the Cathedral there was a choir singing, so we sat down to listen for a while and suddenly K leans over and whispers, “They’re Swedish!” And sure enough, they were a mixed choir from a town about 70 kilometers outside of Stockholm; this was their first trip to Belgium. They sang all sorts of Swedish folk and traditional religious songs. They were very good. I have some video of the performance I will try and post. K had a chat with the director afterward, who said they had just gotten done with a tour around Brussels. It was a fun coincidence to go all the way to Bruges and end up hearing a Swedish Choir! You just can’t get away from those Swedes!

The rest of the day we wandered some more, saw the two main town squares and headed out to see the old windmills before dinner. It was quite a walk, but worth it. They are on little hills that provide a great view of the city. Afterwards, we walked back to a restaurant that my guide book suggested for a traditional Belgian dinner of Waterzooi (a fish stew, this one was made with 5 kinds of fish!). We finished off the night with a quiet walk back to the train station, now that all the other tourists were gone or eating dinner.

Sunday was spent grocery shopping, studying, and doing laundry, which turned out to be a fiasco. We use a laundry facility that is around the block from our place and it’s usually not to busy and pretty clean. We threw our clothes into the washing machines, put in our wash tokens, and NOTHING HAPPENED. The machines didn’t start, the light didn’t come on, the doors didn’t lock, and we could not get our coins back. Considering that each wash token costs 2.90 Euros (about $4.50) and we had just lost 2 of them, we were upset. Some other girls were there who said that they had a similar problem and had called the service man. Long story short, it took them 30 minutes to come fix the machines (seemed like a breaker had flipped) and another 20 to get our coins refunded (because of course he didn’t speak English). So the whole process took twice as long as it usually does. What a pain. But at least we didn’t loose our money.

Other than the laundry thing, it was a very nice weekend. My studying is coming along pretty well, though it could always go faster.

A slide show from Bruges will be up soon, as well as those videos of the choir.

Bye bye for now!

Tip of the day...

...Don't leave your wallet at home.

I'm walking out the door to go study at my cafe. Keys? Check. Books? Check. Pen and highlighter? Check. Cell phone? Check. Have a nice two hour study session. Go to pay for coffee and a bottle of wine for this evening...NO WALLET!!! Luckily, this is my favorite cafe, so I've only been in there just about every other day. So, they know me. Plus we've bought bread and stuff from them before. I ask if I can leave my camera (yes, I had my CAMERA in my purse, but NOT my wallet, oye) while explaining that I live just around the corner. He says, no problem, waving away my proffered camera. I race home, I'm sure beet red, and there's my wallet sitting on the table. Right where I knew I'd left it. Race back. Pay.

It's nice to be a regular.

And then the internet started working...

I have finally manged to get a slide show up and running! You can click on the slide show to go to the picture site where the pictures are bigger and include my captions. Currently showing are my pictures from Waterloo. Unfortunately, they are not as fantastic as I would have liked. Circumstances as they were, it was difficult to take very good pictures. That and I was often so into looking at things that I forgot to take pictures of them at all! Grr... Oh well, I'll just have to go back. :)

Well, its 11:45am. I'm still in my pj's. I need to study. Time to get dressed.

Looking forward to Swedish Trivial Pursuit tonight, and a free dinner! Whoo hoo!

My cafe

I have a new friend! Her name is Dodi and she lives right next to my favorite cafe. She is always so happy to see me when I stop into the cafe, and she has fur, four paws and a little wagging stump.

Yes, Dodi is a dog. She belongs to the owners of my favorite cafe. One of the first days I was in the cafe, Dodi came over to say hello, so I pet her for a long time. Now, every time her owners walk her through the cafe, or if she manages to escape from the back room, she has to come over and say hi.

This cafe is just around the corner from our place and they serve fantastic coffee. Plus, when you order you get this neat little tray that includes your sugar, cream, a chocolate, and a glass of water. All for much cheaper than some of the other cafes that only give you coffee. Maison Renardy is owned by a family and they make their own chocolates, candies, bread, pastries, and desserts. It's a great place to study, or to just have my daily coffee fix. It's so fantastic. Plus, the people who own it are very kind and friendly, much more than at other places. I just love it!

There is just something really fantastic about European Coffee. I think it's the fact that it's always espresso. You never get drip coffee. It's really strong, with thick milk, and you almost always get a little chocolate with it.

Besides spending my days studying and drinking coffee, not much else is going on. We're going to a party on Friday hosted by Kristoffer's boss Paula. It's a dinner and Trivial Pursuit night. Swedish TP of course! So, this will be my third time playing Swedish TP, and I think I've only ever played the English version once! Oye. These Swedes and their trivial pursuit.

Weather and Waterloo

Ok, ok, I suck. I didn’t get my blog written yesterday. But in my defense, I was studying so I was doing something productive! Kinda. Anyway, to make up for my lapse here is the longest blog ever (I think).

So, another pretty low key week here. It’s actually sunny today, which is a change from the normal bi-polar weather that’s usually going on. It generally follows something like: gray. wind. clouds. rain. clouds. DOWNPOUR. wind. 100 MILE PER HOUR GUSTS. sprinkling rain. sun. couds. wind. repeat. Each of which lasts for about 5 minutes. That’s a pretty normal day. And I thought Seattle was known for freaky weather.

Anyway, this last weekend! I had a really fun trip to Waterloo. Kristoffer had a test at a school there, the city center is about 12 miles south of Brussels, and so I decided to tag along. The test he was taking is something like the SAT’s but slightly more important. They use it to determine who gets into classes in the Universities since you don’t actually apply to a university, but you apply directly for whatever classes you want to take. So students retake this test quite a bit because the higher your score, the easier it is to get into the classes you want.

Saturday started at 6am with us trying to catch a bus to be at Waterloo around 7:45. K’s test started at 8:30am. A frantic run around the train/bus station finally ended with us finding and jumping onto the bus, the doors closed and we were off! We barely made it; thank goodness the bus was late leaving! I’ve had a lot of close calls with transportation these days.

We got to Waterloo and Kristoffer needed to take a taxi from the bus stop to the school, but after calls to THEE two taxi companies that service there, both said “Not possible” because apparently they weren’t open. A panicked Kristoffer and I finally managed to find a cab that was just driving down the street (pure luck!), and I sent Kristoffer on his way.

So there I was at 8:15 in the morning in Waterloo. Keep in mind that this is still Belgium, and in Belgium NOTHING opens until 10, 9:30 at the earliest. So I sat on the bus stop bench, and ate my croissant and juice I had brought with me, trying to decide what to do. Instead of waiting around for the tourist office to open, I decided to take a walk down the main street and look at the shops. Waterloo is very beautiful.

About 9am. I found an Ibis hotel, which is a chain similar to Motel 6 or Best Western. I stopped in to use the restroom (and warm up a bit), and was able to get a free map of the city from the receptionist. I realized that it wasn’t so far to the actual battlefield from where I was. I was planning on taking a bus but since I had much more time than money, I embarked on the 3-mile-or-so walk.

For those who may not know, Waterloo was the great battle between Napoleon and the Allied forces lead by the British Duke of Wellington, where Napoleon and the French were finally defeated on June 18, 1815. The landscape is mostly farm land and has been kept/restored to how it was at that time.

The Sunken Road to Ohain on the bus tour

I bought the “I-want-to-do-everything” pass (student rate, woo hoo!), and started my morning off with the BUMPIEST bus ride around the battlefield. Imagine riding down the bumpiest row in an orchard that you can remember, now add a hard seat with no real cushion or springs and a bus with suspension made to handle a full load of people. Only it was just me and one other guy. We’re talking enormous potholes. Anyway, hopefully you get the picture.

The tour was in 3 languages and took you to all the different farms and key areas of the battle. Really fascinating. After that I saw the Panorama display of the battle: “An immense fresco places you in the heart of the battle, completed with amazing sound effects.” I think amazing is a little over the top for a descriptor, but it was a beautiful painting none-the-less. When I came out, it was raining, so I ran to the visitor’s center to see the Audiovisual show and a Film of the battle, both of which I got to see all by myself in these huge theaters (there was hardly anyone there that day). The show was a model of the battle set up with lighting and miniatures and showed you hour by hour the movements of the troops in the battle. The Film was cheesy, and more for kids. I came out from that and it was still raining.

Now, I need to digress a little and explain to you why the rain was a particular problem. That morning I had asked Kristoffer to check the weather. As I’ve mentioned before, this is almost a futile effort because of the sporadic weather patterns in Belgium. However, being that it was 6 in the morning, and I wasn’t really awake, when he said, partly cloudy with some sun, I believed him and didn’t bring my umbrella. Really stupid.

So now it’s pouring rain, and the last attraction that I had to see in that area was the Lion Mound. The Lion Mound is a huge conical hill that was built by the Dutch on the place where the Prince of Orange, their leader, was wounded in the battle. There are 226 stairs to the top which is crested by an enormous statue of a lion that is glaring down toward France (oh these Europeans and their symbolism). Being the super tourist that I am, I thought, “Oh it’s not raining that hard, and I’m from Seattle!” So I whipped up my hood and started up the hill. What I didn’t count on was that it would start monsooning, and that when I got to the top of the hill, not only would it be raining, but crazy-windy as well. So after I staggered up to the top, I hid on the downwind side of the statue so at least I wouldn’t get the wind. Snapped a couple of sad pictures, and slopped my way back down the stairs, which now all had puddles on them. I was the only person climbing at that time, to state the obvious.

So now, I’m soaked from the knees down, my jacket is dripping, I’m sweaty from the climb, and it costs 40 cents to use the bathroom. On principle I refuse to pay for toilets unless in dyer emergency, so I instead wandered over to the wax museum, to warm up and dry a little. The wax figures were nice, but what was really interesting was the battle debris that they had on display at the end: Napoleon’s sword and hat, musket balls, armor, and even skulls that had been found. The skulls were discovered in the foundations when the museum was built and it was very obvious that the men had died from battle wounds.

It was still raining, so I decided to have some lunch at the Napoleon Bivouac Café and Restaurant. I sat as close to the HUGE fire as I could to dry a little more. Had a coffee and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. and spent the meal rereading Victor Hugo’s description of the battle of Waterloo from Les Miserables, which I am crawling my way through now. I wanted to see if he accurately described the battle, and from what I had seen that day, I think he did very good job.

By the time I was done, it had stopped raining, the sun had come out, so I opted to go ahead and walk back into town.

The last visit of the day, was to a museum next to the bus stop where Wellington had spent the night before and after the battle. It was a lot of the same information, but added some more history from the British/Allied side of the battle.

I met up with Kristoffer after that, and we had some coffee and then headed back to Brussels, in the midst of another monsoon. Crazy, ridiculous weather.

That night we had dinner at a friend’s house, and Sunday was a much more relaxed day. We visited the comic strip museum in the afternoon, since apparently Belgium in the birthplace of comic strips. And if one needed any more proof that this is a strange country, the man who created the Smurfs was a Belgian from Brussels.

Well, I think that brings me pretty much caught up! This was a super long blog for only chronicling one day, but it was just such an eventful day, all by myself, that its fun to share all the details.

If anyone wants to know more about anything I have done or seen, let me know. It’s hard for me to know what details to include so much of the time, so if you want more descriptions or a fuller account of anything specific, I can do that!

Now I’m off to study. That’s my primary activity these days.

Oh! A couple of notes for you brave souls who are still reading.
First: I got my start date for Ernst & Young: August 6^th.
Second: If you haven’t noticed, my itinerary has been updated. We’ll be heading off to see the land of Turkey at the beginning of May for our last excursion! We have a friend we know that has been studying there for a while, so we’re going to crash at her place. Istanbul, here we come!

Me and Napoleon

Angela and Michelle's Visit + Antwerp & Amsterdam

The long awaited update! So, I’m going to try and make this as interestingly brief as possible, including only the most important details. yeah. We’ll see how well that goes.

Ok, the last thing I really left you with was back in Sweden! (Sheesh, that seems like forever ago.) So….

Antwerp's Grote Markt

Monday, March 24:
We got home from the airport late after a whole day of traveling. My friends Angela and Michelle had already been in the city since 6am Sunday morning, so we were anxious to get home and get the apartment cleaned up for when they came. They managed to get to our place without too much trouble, so that day ended well.

Tuesday, March 25:
After a very late start, since A & M where still jet-laggin a bit, we started out on a walk to see some of Brussels. Come to find out they had managed to see most of the really touristy stuff the two days before, so our itinerary was slightly less of the Day 1 tourist attractions.

We started off walking past the Royal Palace (yes, Belgium is a monarchy), which isn’t open for tours this time of year. Sad. So we took lots of pictures of the outside and the guards doing their walk. Next stop was the Musee du Jouet, a toy museum that had toys dating back to the 18^th century. We almost thought we were going to get to see a marionette show, but for some reason it was cancelled or wasn’t actually happening…some woman came and made an announcement in French and all the children dispersed, so we weren’t sure what happened there. Anyway, a very quirky, unconventional museum.

After that we had coffee across from the Parliament building and decided on the course of action for that night. We tried to go see the Cathedrale des Saints Michel et Gudule, which looks quite a lot like Notre Dame de Paris, but we only managed to get in for about 4 minutes before it closed. After that we went to Grand Place to pick up some touristy stuff for A & M to bring home. Dinner and bed was the final note on the agenda.

That night I also found out about the passing of my Great Grandmother. A tough night, but everyone was really understanding about everything. So thanks to Angela and Michelle for helping me not let that put a damper on their time here.

Wednesday, March 26:
I hung out at home that day. A & M went to an Army museum, I think. Kristoffer took part of the day off to stay with me, and we spent the afternoon in a café around the corner. We had dinner that night in this great asian restaurant. They have this fantastic calamari dish that I love. But anyway, this was a quieter day.

Thursday, March 27:
I decided to go with my friends on an overnight trip to Antwerp (in northern Belgium) and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. We had a little snafu with our train ticket to Antwerp. For some silly reason, the guy in the ticketing office had sold us a ticket that wasn’t valid until 9am, but had told us that we could take the 8:20 train. This wasn’t a matter of miscommunication. We knew our tickets wouldn’t be valid to leave the Netherlands until after 9am the next day, but another lady the day before had said that stipulation did not apply in Belgium for our initial trip. Of course, on the train, the ticketer told us our tickets were not valid and we had to buy an additional 7 Euro ticket to get to Antwerp. Sillyness. But very typical of this country: the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. There are a lot of things that don’t work in this country, this has just been added to my list.

ANYWAY, once we got to Antwerp it was great. We stopped at a café, because nothing else was open yet (lame considering we had paid to be there that early!), and then went to a really great Museum called Rubenhuis. It’s the house of this famous Belgian architect/painter, and it was really interesting and a beautiful estate. We wandered around Antwerp and saw the main market (Grote Markt), an ancient fortress which is now a maritime museum, got lost a couple times, got back on track, and saw the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe-Kathedraal (which was GORGEOUS, but cost 2 Euro to go all the way into, so we didn’t, plus no time).

One thing to mention about Antwerp: it’s is in the northern part of the country, which is the Flemish area. They speak Flemish which sounds (and reads) like a strange combination of Swedish and German. There were words that I could pick out that were like Swedish and there were words that Michelle and Angela could pick up out that were like German. Weird. Good thing they all speak English!

Next we went to Amsterdam and found a cheap hotel. We wandered around a bit, and even saw the Red Light district, which was sketchy. We were pretty tired from wandering around Antwerp all day so we crashed a little early.

Friday, March 28:
We started off the day with a decent hotel breakfast and headed out to see the sights of Amsterdam! After dropping our bags off in a locker at the train station, we took an ubber-touristy canal ride which was somewhat interesting if not just visually nice. Then we went to the Anne Frank Museum in the house where she and her family hid from the Nazis for over 2 years. It was really fascinating and very well presented.

We tried to go see the Jewish Museum after that, but got lost on our way so we decided to head back towards the train station. A massive hunt for souvenirs ensued where I was looking for these really cute little magnets that we had seen the night before. After scouring every souvenir shop we passed for about an hour, we finally found the place we were at the night before! yay! Never again, will I think “Oh I’ll just buy it tomorrow…” What a pain.

Hopped the 6pm train home (literally! we jumped onto the train as it was pulling out!) and got back to Brussels about 9pm.

Angela & Michelle in the Canal Boat in Amsterdam

Saturday, March 29:
A & M decided to take another day trip out to Bruges near the west coast of Belgium, I was pretty wiped from the last two days, so I decided to stay home. We had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants nearby. I bought a rose on our way home for the little remembrance thing I was going to do for Great Grandma the next day, and we spent the rest of the afternoon in our café around the corner called Maison Renardy. This place is a favorite of mine and I’ll have to write more about it later. That night, after A & M got back, we took them to the proclaimed “Best Pomme Frites in Brussels.” It’s pretty much a Dick’s restaurant style, outdoor, walk-up-window, fast food place that serves darn good fries (Pomme Frites). And since it has no dining area, all the bars around the area allow you to eat your food with a drink purchase from them. Pretty good deal, and again, darn good fries. Maybe not the best I’ve ever had, but good good good.

Sunday, March 30:
Michelle and Angela left to go back to the states.
The rest of this day is chronicled in my previous blog, so I won’t repeat that again here.

YAY! almost caught up!

This last week nothing very exciting happened. I quit my job, and spent a lot of time at my favorite café studying. Tomorrow (I promise), I will write about my excursion to Waterloo yesterday, which was quite fun. And perhaps post some pictures if the internet is cooperating.

Alright, signing off cuz its time for bed!

A Lake and a Rose

Alright. Well, a lot to catch up on.

This last week was a pretty eventful one. My two friends, Michelle and Angela, came to visit. And for those of you who may not know, my great grandmother passed away on Tuesday.

As far as the time with my friends, I will write more stories later on. This week will be quieter, so I will try to write about what all we did (which was quite a bit). Suffice it to say, Tuesday and Wednesday we saw the sights of Brussels, Thursday and Friday we took a trip to Antwerp (northern Belgium) and Amsterdam (in the Netherlands). Saturday I stayed home while they went to Bruges, and Sunday they left early in the morning.

But what I really want to write is about my great grandmother. She was 100 years old. I should warn you, that you might need a tissue (especially if you’re family); at least I do.

I got the phone call Tuesday night from my mom that she had passed. I had to make the very difficult decision about whether or not to come home for the funeral. After much discussion and heavy thoughts, I decided, with the full support of my family, to stay in Brussels. I will get a copy of the services; my thoughts were that the stress of traveling all the way back to Grandview, especially for such a heart wrenching thing as a funeral would not be at all pleasant or practical. This was not unexpected, and I felt that I had said my goodbye, and kept all my promises. I feel good about my decision, and at the suggestion from my mom, had my own little memorial service yesterday afternoon.

I bought a beautiful dark pink rose from a flower shop on Saturday (my fear was no shop would be open on Sunday, since nothing usually is). Sunday, after my friends had left, Kristoffer and I went down to a very pretty park south of where we live. There is a lake there (much like Greenlake for you Seattlites). I found a beautiful little spot, where a tree was growing on the waters edge. I put the rose there at the base of the tree with a note on it: In Loving Memory of Veva Whitney; Born December 23, 1907; Died March 25, 2008; Rest in peace knowing you are loved and remembered.

I read a letter aloud at the tree that I had written to my great grandma. I might post it sometime, but it’s a little too painful for me to look at right now. Afterwards, we sat on a park bench for a while to just let me cry. It was a nice afternoon, if a little cloudy. That night we had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant, to celebrate her life.

That’s all I can manage to write for now.

I love you Great Grandma. I’ll miss you.

Snow for Easter

While a "White Christmas" has always been an elusive event when I was growing up, it was always hoped for. But as far as I can remember there was never any desire to have a White Easter. In Sweden, especially in Dalarna, it is absolutely expected, and Easter is the biggest skiing weekend of the year.

It's a beautiful, clear, blue, sunny, Easter day, but the snow here looks like what you'd see up in Snoqualmie in January. SO MUCH SNOW, and it's SO COLD!

Anyway, the last few days have been very busy, running around the Swedish countryside, and seeing lots of Kristoffer's friends and family.

I left off last blog saying that we were probably going skiing. Well, we did. We rented some cross-country skis, did about 3 miles, I fell twice, and I was done. Its hard work going on those skis.

The next day was more fun. We took a snowmobile ride Thursday up to the top of Klappen, the closest ski area to Lima. Kristoffer's dad drove the snowmobile and Kristoffer and I got to ride in a sleigh that they pull behind it. Not quite what I think of when I hear snowmobiling, but it was fun non-the less. We drove to the restaurant at the top of the mountain, had lunch and drove back. Then K and I took a ride up around the mountain's behind their house. The snowmobile is a two-seater so I just rode and let K drive; the machine was a too big for me to feel comfortable driving it and I don't know the area.

That night we drove out to their summer house on lake Tisjon (pronounced Tee-hwen, or Tee-shan, or Teesin depending on...nothing but however you want to pronounce it), where the lake is about a mile across, about 5 miles long, and frozen about a yard thick with a 6 inch layer of snow over the ice. Crazy. You can walk on it, no problem, ice fish, drive a snowmobile, or a car onto it; its pretty much like solid ground.

At this lake there are tons and tons of these tiny "summer houses" that are very primative, generally no electricity, no running water (especially in the winter) and (with the exception of Kristoffer's parent's house) no indoor toilet. But they are all beautifully kept and modernly furnished on the inside. These houses line almost the whole perimeter of the lake and are all very old.

We went to a neighbors summer house for dinner that night and had some sort of Swedish shrimp-mayonnaise-cake. In general, traditional swedish food is very good, but my one complaint is the excessive use of Mayonnaise bases in their cooking. Its really hard to describe the food, and I think it would be boring if I tried here, but I'll just say that about half the things they eat have either mayonnaise, sour cream or some sort of other cream type base in it.

Another fun thing about Sweden is that they have so many different dialects in this country that people who live even just 40 minutes away from each other, cannot understand the dialects of the neighboring counties. Everyone speaks standard Swedish to a functional degree, but people who live in these small areas speak basically their own language. It's a form of Swedish, but they have different words for things and even grammatical differences. In Lima, they speak Limamal. In Malung they speak Malungsmal. Someone who grew up in Stockholm cannot understand these dialects if they are to hear them. So while I'm getting the hang of at least being able to follow a topic of conversation in swedish, its totally worthless when we get here and everyone speaks Limamal; I can't understand a darn thing.

So Thursday evenings dinner was spent with me mostly staring at my plate and trying desperately to follow even a bit of the conversation. Luckily, there was one other woman there who was from Stockholm and spoke English, so we talked for a while, and at least when she spoke Swedish I could get a hint of what they were talking about.

Ok, enough of Thursday. Friday we tried to go see a ski competition up in the mountains, but it's so crowded here for the Easter weekend it was really impossible to get a parking spot. When we finally got to the race, it was about 20 minutes after it had started and it was pretty much over. So that was a bummer. Afterwards we had coffee with Lars and Frieda. Lars grew up with Kristoffer and is engaged to Frieda. We stayed with them when I was here in August, so it was fun to chat with them again.

Friday evening we went back to Tisjon for an Easter dinner. K's mom made TONS of food. So much so I pretty much made myself sick with all the rich dishes. Great food, but not such a fun night afterward. :S

Saturday we took a ride out on the lake on the snowmobile. We drove all the way to the top of the lake and back to an island where they had a fire pit. We roasted hot dogs and watched people ice-fish. Then we went to the bottom of the lake and saw some of the oldest houses on the lake, which aren't so different from the not so old houses on the lake. Then back to their house to warm back up because it was freezing cold.

That evening we went to a big birthday party for Kristoffer's Uncle Olf who was turning 40. It was a huge party with a big dinner, games, live music, dancing, and lots of drunk Swedes. Basically, they have huge parties for every 10th birthday: 30, 40, 50, 60....and they are fully willing to admit that they use any reason to have a party. :)

It was a very fun evening and, of course, I got pointed out as traveling all the way from America just to come to little Lima for a birthday party. :) Once that was announced, everyone who knew even a little English wanted to practice on me...I was exhausted from talking by the end. It's really draining to talk to people for an extended period of time who don't really speak your language well. It's hard to know if they are understanding everything you are saying and you hope that you are getting everything that they are trying to say.

So that brings us to today. We are going back to Tisjon for another Easter dinner tonight. Easter is a much bigger deal in Sweden than in the US. It's much like Thanksgiving or Christmas. They get Friday and Monday off, and a lot of people have the whole week after Easter off. They have special easter food and celebrate with candy and easter eggs much like us. I don't think they do easter egg hunts, but they have a lot of other funny traditions that involve witches and more pagan things. The children do a "trick-or-treating" thing much like halloween, but they just dress up as bunny's or chickens and go around asking for candy.

Tomorrow, we head back to Brussels. We have to leave very early in the morning to catch the train back to Stockholm, because the trains don't run very often since its a holiday in Sweden. Our flight leaves at 4:20pm and we should be back in Brussels around 7ish. My friends Michelle and Angela are already in Brussels and will be staying with us for a week. Should be lots of fun!

I hope I'm not wearing everyone out with these ridiculously long blogs, but this is also a way for me to kind of exhale from all these experiences.

I also should give an update on my CPA tests. I didn't pass the ones that I took in February, so the plan now is to try and retake those in July. I am feeling a lot of pressure to study well for these next ones I have in May, so hopefully the next round will go better. I'm pretty bummed that I didn't pass either test, but I knew it was a long shot when I took them.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and well wishes. I get a little homesick every once in a while, especially when I'm really hungry and just want some American pizza or tacos or something. It's always nice to read your comments and get emails from home.

Anyway, more stories to come from this next week with my friends!

Lima for Easter

I had originally prefaced this blog, saying it would be a quick note. But since it has turned out a bit longer, here is I guess a standard update. :)

We made it to Stockholm, no problems, and had a fantastic time there. We stayed with Kristoffer's friend Anders for the weekend and enjoyed the company of many of K's old friends.

Saturday we had a day out on the town. We ate at a fancy Swedish restaurant, went to the Opera, had coffee in the swanky part of Stockholm, and finished with a night out on the town.

Sunday was more laid back. We had brunch at an all-you-can-eat buffet, with live jazz music. The food was a mix of Swedish breakfast and lunch foods, and of course the meatballs were the best. That night, we had a big dinner party with K's closest friends (who are mostly vegetarians so we had very good vegetarian food) and played Swedish Trivial Pursuit, which, yes, is in Swedish.

Now this is actually the second time that I've played swedish TP, and it went pretty good the first time; people just have to translate the questions for me. The only problem is some of the questions are pretty Sweden-centric so I'm no good at all with those. This particular time playing it, the questions were really dumb and almost totally about sweden, so it wasn't very fun. But the rest of the evening was great.

Monday we took the train to Lima, which is usually about a 4-5 hour train ride. Unfortunately, our first train was late coming into the half-way station, so we missed our second train by 8 minutes, and had to take a greyhound-style bus the rest of the way. So we left at 1:44pm and should have arrived in Lima around 6:30, but instead we got there about 9pm.

Today we went to a meat buffet for dinner with K's parents and grand-parents, which was very good.

One of the funny things about Lima is its so small-town that everyone is curious about an American coming around. On the bus ride here, a woman asked me where I was from, and it turned out she was from Michigan, but had married a swede after studying abroad and had lived in Sweden for 30 years. Then today at dinner, a couple sitting next to us asked me where I was from because they had done a lot of traveling in the US. They had recently been to DC this last July, and of course remarked at how hot it was there! Anyway, my American English attracts some attention.

Tomorrow, we may do some cross-country skiing (there's about 2 feet of snow here, definitely still winter), and Thursday we are going to K's parent's "summer house" which is about a 20 minute drive away, but it's "farther in the woods and on a lake." So that makes it a vacationing spot. :) Small country.