s t u d y a b r o a d

SARAH READS IN SWEDISH.

LISTEN. BE AMAZED (or, cringe if you actually, you know, speak Swedish).

This is all Maria's fault.

My university is hosting an international poetry reading. Students are encouraged to bring and read a poem in any language other than English. Maria is bringing a poem in French. She's mentioned a couple of times that I should bring a Swedish poem and tonight she found the perfect poem for me. And by "poem" I mean: reading exercise from my Swedish textbook.

So...I typed it up and emailed it to the coordinator along with the English translation. If he asks me to read it then I'll have to hit up Laila for from pronunciation help because I have a feeling that after two years of not having anyone to practice my Swedish on my pronunciation will be dismal.

My "Poem":

Det här är Steve.
Han studerar svenska och kemi i Lund.

Han tänker mycket.
Han röker mycket.
Han känner många studenter.
Han köper många öl.
Han ringer till många kompisar.
Han tittar på många videofilmer.

Han läser sällan.
Han klipper sällan håret.
Han vaknar sällan före tio.
Han tycker att livet är skönt.

Förra veckan var Steves farmor i Lund.
Då rökte han inte så mycket.
Han köpte inte så många öl.
Han tittade inte på videofilmer.
Han klippte håret.
Han ringde inte till kompisar.
Men han läste mycket.
Och han vaknade klockan halv nio.
Han tyckte att förra veckan var jobbig.

This is Steve.
He studies Swedish and Chemistry in Lund.

He thinks a lot.
He smokes a lot.
He knows a lot of students.
He drinks a lot of beer.
He calls a lot of friends on the phone.
He watches a lot of TV movies.

He seldom reads.
He seldom cuts his hair.
He seldom wakes up before ten.
He thinks that life is nice.

Last week Steve's grandmother was in Lund.
So he didn't smoke that much.
He didn't buy that much beer.
He didn't want TV movies.
He cut his hair.
He didn't call his friends.
But he read a lot.
And he woke up at eight thirty.
He thought that last week was hard.

So...I understand most of the lyrics. That being said, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS SONG.

What makes a person a writer?

Do you consider yourself to be a writer?

What qualities does a writer posses that other people do not?

Is it possible to be a writer but not fit into the stereotypical idea of "the writer"?

GO VOTE

So I got up at the crack of dawn to go vote. I stood in line FOREVER. Then I get up there to find out they had a typo in my address so I had to go and re-register. Then they thought I'd messed something up, but the dude was told he just needed to check my driver's license. So then I had to go get back in line. But they let me cut to the front.

Then I voted.

Also, while I was standing in line, the machine that processes the paper ballots like freaked out, and they had to take it apart to fish out a ballot. So now all of the ballots will have to be collected and either hand counted or taken someplace else to be electronically counted.

LOL

Oh American elections, never change.

I found on youtube some hymns in Swedish. Some of them I sang while in church (most of them actually)

Watching/Listening to these reminds me of the epiphany that Laila and I had one day after church--no matter what language we worship God in, he understands it. We had a shared moment of having our minds blown. It seems obvious, but it's incredible to think of all of the languages throughout the world, and God knows them all.


How Great Thou Art/O store Gud:


På en avlägsen höjd/Old rugged cross


Öppna mitt hjärta för dig Gud/Open the eyes of my heart Lord


Thus concludes my update of random Swedish hymns. Tack.

But hey, I love Christy, and everyone else should love it too. It was a sad day when they canceled the series, and the made for tv movies were not nearly as good (mostly because the actress playing Christy had two expressions which I like to called: "Blank face #1" and "Blank face #2" Sad, sad times.

I was organizing pictures today, and I came across these pictures that are dated March 20, 2007. I noted that I had taken them within minutes of each other. These pictures accurately sum up the weather in Växjö:

On the buses in Sweden, they announce "Next stop...[insert stop here]" although in Swedish it's "Nästa Hållplats...[insert stop here]" and within three days, all of the exchange students could easily understand and mimic the automated announcements ("Nästa Hållplats...Smeeeedsss-vägen"). It was something that united the exchange students, something we all had in common--heck, I even created a facebook group about it.

So when Paul decided to get a tattoo, he naturally chose this wonderful phrase:



That's a real tattoo. I know. I know. How awesome is that?

Sarah's Summer Summary:

(Yes, I am absolutely terrible at keeping this journal updated. Let's pretend that instead of me spending a summer procrastinating, I instead spent it busy, busy, busy--which is true, I was busy...but I was also procrastinating...Gotta get it all out of my system before school starts, right?)

This summer started out on the right foot.

It truly began when Abby and I burned our Transatlantic Romanticism and Transatlantic Studies textbooks.



See how happy that made us? It's not our fault that the bookstore wouldn't buy them back. It should be a crime to make a student spend $100 on textbooks for a class that they won't be able to sell back. On the upside, Abby and I got quite a kick out of burning them. We are such rebels.

( And the summer only got better from that point onward )

Dear ABBA (Frida, Agnetha and Bennybjörn),

Tonight I went to see Mamma Mia. Yes, that's right, I finally got to see Mamma Mia. After all of my thwarted attempts to see it, perhaps at last the ABBA!curse has been lifted (I'm still bummed that not one of you came to find me when I was lost in Sweden though...seriously, there are like four of you. How hard would it have been to find one American girl wandering lost in Sweden?).

A+ job on the movie. It was brilliant. In fact, the theater burst into spontaneous applause when it was over. I am so not even lying.

It was amazingly awesome. I loved it. Even if Peirce what'shisface shouted S.O.S. Which made me a sad panda. btw, my sisters and I totally rocked out S.O.S. way more hardcore than James Bond could ever dream of. But that is beside the point.

The point is, ABBA, I forgive you. I forgive you for thwarting all previous attempts to see Mamma Mia, and I even forgive you for not finding me lost when I was in Sweden (although, seriously, Agnetha could have totally come and found me. She never leaves Sweden, she's got to know the country like the back of her hand by now. And she's a shy person, and I'm a shy person. It would have been perfect. WE COULD HAVE HAD FIKA TOGETHER).

Much love, hugs and kisses,

Sarah

I am finally going to see Laila on Monday, and I am very excited. It's a little crazy, we live, what? three hours apart? And we haven't seen each other once in the past year. Obviously we fail hardcore at planning.

Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures.

One year ago (tomorrow) Johan and Kristian took me up to Stockholm. Best and at the same tine, worst, road trip of my life. Rather than dwell on the sad parts, I've decided to post pictures instead and remember how much fun I had.

( Pictures + funny stories )

I've changed a lot in the past year. Going to Sweden was a catalyst for change. I think that coming home taught me a lot more than leaving did (for example: Don't write letters to people when you've been awake for more than 24 hours, lol). Coming home forced me to take what I had learned while I was in Sweden and really apply it to my life. It wasn't always a fun and fluffy-bunny process, but I'm glad I went through it.

I want to go back, but I also realize that everything happens in God's perfect timing. I still want to teach in Sweden, but I'm even more excited to find out where God wants me to teach. I learned a lot about friendship too. Sometimes being a friends means knowing when to say goodbye. And I am so totally psyched about learning how to teach others English. English-learners of the world, be prepared (and slightly afraid).

PS: I got my hair cut today. Now it's super short.

Click here to watch a (soundless) video of my mother and sisters and I dancing in the kitchen. Well, I'm not dancing. I am safely out of sight behind the camera.

FYI, my mom apparently burst out dancing like that in the middle of Piggly Wiggly. Emma apparently died of embarrassment.

My sister Emma graduated today. I missed Dan's graduation last year because I was in Sweden. He was at the ceremony and doing his graduating thing while Almut and I were having a goodbye picnic by the lake. So weird to think that that was a year ago!

I'm so proud of Emma (and Dan too)! She far too talented for her own good and is going to rock out college. :)







( Speaking of that goodbye party... )

More graduation/party pictures can be found here

This is what the TV looked like earlier today. FYI, I live slightly to the left of where the dude is pointing. This is why the so-called rain storms in Växjö really didn't faze me.



Thankfully the tornadoes, hail the hurricane force winds have skirted around my house--but there are storms moving up from Illinois, so who knows, I may see some excitement yet.

( More pictures )

It's kinda remarkable how much easier it is to be at home for the summer when I'm not suffering from jet lag and reverse culture shock.

I'm still a cashier and hopefully this summer I'll get more hours. It never ceases to amaze me how being a customer can bring out the stupid so strongly in people. The credit/debit card reader is a great example of this: if I give someone verbal instructions (in addition to the written instructions on the machine itself) the customer will, without fail, do the exact opposite of whatever I just told them.

For example:

Me: Press the green button to run your debit card as credit!
Customer: *presses red button and cancels transaction*

This happens about every third customer. What happened to people's listening/reading comprehension skills?

Also, I've spent a few afternoons out in the lawn and garden center outside during which time I have had the opportunity to display my spectacular lack of knowledge of all things green and growing (remember, I killed Lars the Cactus). Usually I can just say: "Oh, I'm just a cashier from inside who they brought out to do the watering, let me go find someone who can answer your questions!" But there are, unfortunately, a few highly determined and scary old ladies who grip my arm and demand that I show them the spikes.

Spikes, contrary to my first thoughts, are not to kill the dreaded lawn!vampire, nor are they for tomatoes or other vine-y plants to use to grow on, they are, in fact, plants.

Green plants. With long, spike-y leaves. Hence the name, obviously.

I trained a new kid today. His name was Sam. I'm sure there is a Green Eggs and Ham joke here--I'll let you know when I think of it. He was concentrating so hard on doing everything right. I mean seriously concentrating. Tongue sticking out has he rang people up and everything. He also was trying valiantly to fold the shirts before he put them into the bag. Sadly he'd never folded a shirt before, but the origami-esque shapes he managed to get those shirts into was quite impressive.

My sister Emma graduates on Sunday. I had to miss Dan's graduation last year (he graduated the same day my friends were having a Goodbye Sarah and Almut picnic by Växjösjön--I believe this was the day that Almut and I united against Kristian and Simon and insisted that one goes "out" of the water, not "up". Silly Swedes). Emma got her honor cords tonight, and apparently she and Mom broke the rules and crept out before the ceremony was over. Tsk, tsk. I remember having to sit through the entire thing.

I bought the first two seasons of Bones on DVD and have been watching them after work and on my days off. Allyson would probably not approve that I am plotting out a fanfiction instead of original fiction (just like she did not approve of my short story written to please my class), but in my defense, I'm writing it to practice writing mysteries and not because Booth/Brennan is super romantic. Honest.

This coming semester is going to be hard. 18 credits. A job. My capstone. But I'm also kind of excited. I also need to come up with ways to get out of taking poetry in the spring. My loathing of poetry knows no bounds. I tore one poetry book to shreds and then I burned another.

Now Emmy and I are going to watch Bones. Don't tell her I called her 'Emmy' though, cause then she'd probably smack me.

My friend Ashley had her last German class today. It was a 400 level class, in fact it was 499. Anyway, after Spanish she was telling me how her class was going to have a party and have pizza and play taboo, and she said: "You should come!"

So I did.

May I remind you that I can't speak a word of German?

Anyway, I showed up and they were all sitting on the floor playing taboo, and Ashley gestured that I should sit down next to her and watch the game. It was a lot of fun, and very similar to my first month or so in Sweden when I sat back and just watched and listened. Swedish and the three or so weeks with Sabine must have rubbed off on me, because I could understand the gist of what was going on and a surprising amount of random words.

After taboo we had pizza and watched German music videos. They decided that they needed to play some Swedish videos for me (Ashley had told them, at least from what I understood) that I spoke a little Swedish and Spanish and I guess since Swedish and German are more similar to German and Spanish, they latched on to the Swedish. They played Jag måste kyssa dig and Boten Anna randomly and then went back to German music videos.

Listening to the German was disorienting in a similar manner as listening to Italian is. At one point I turned to Ashley and spoke to her in Swedish ("Han är från Sverige" --when they started playing Boten Anna), whoops.

Towards the end of the final exam period, Ashley taught me how to say: "Danke Das machte spass" and then she told everyone that I wanted to say something, so I said it, and the class applauded. lol. It was fun :)

Anyway, with a mixture of German and Swedish in my head, I went off to my Speech final. FINALLY no more speech. It was such a boring class.

I'm a little later than usual today because I went to my aunt and uncle's house for lunch this afternoon. And let me tell you, it was amazing. I get so sick of my own cooking sometimes...

( Onward to the notes )

( Click here to see a DIAGRAM )