Hej, Vänner!

It probably comes at no surprise to most of you that I am currently recovering from, undoubtably, the worst flu of my life. My habit of collecting diseases, head injuries, and broken bones while traveling is as reliable as the sunrise. In fact, I realized yesterday that the chance of me living somewhere for five months and NOT breaking a bone is slim to none. And I'm thinking about monetizing this opportunity and taking bets. My money's on an arm.

My head is still filled with that dreamy lightheadedness that makes everything involving brain power take twice as long, but I'm doing a lot better. Yesterday, I woke up with a headache that legitimately made me wonder if I was dying. I finally lifted my head long enough to take a sip of water and, no exaggeration, I've never been in so much pain.

I've also been dealing with a lot of friend problems this week as well. Which is pretty annoying in any situation, but the fact that I was sleeping for 20 hours a day made it a million times harder to deal with the real world.

And I missed a handful of really big parties here in Uppsala. And there are pictures all over Facebook and I'm crazy jealous of all my healthy, gorgeous friends and their huge, happy smiles together. The fear-of-missing-out is a constant demon.

But there WAS this boy that skyped me like twice a day while I was gasping out my last will and testament. At one point, he talked me to sleep while I was in a feverish delirium and coughing up some kind of vital bodily organ. I'm not about to get all gooey about it, but give the kid some props. When the entire world was falling apart, inside and out, it was massively nice to have someone that wasn't horrified by my devolving existence.

In other news, I'm going to Helsinki in two weeks! The first time fell through (going to Finland over one of the coldest weekends in a decade didn't seem like the smartest use of time), but Viking Line (the cruise company of Scandinavia) is having a deal of free (literally, seriously, truly) Stockholm-->Helsinki-->Stockholm trips. I'm catching one of those freebies in March, and another in April for a huge rager at my friend's college, Åbo Akademi University (that may or may not involve beer pong and a lot of dancing).

I just thoroughly abused my right to parentheses.

There are a lot of other parties coming up, such as the Kroppkakegasque. Everyone gets really dressed up and eats a lot of these knish/dumpling things (Kroppkakor) and gets drunk and dances. And tomorrow I'm supposed to be going to a mixtape circle, where everyone just sits around and shares music. Isn't that such a cool idea? It's an entire club here. They have meetings like one a month. My nation also hosts a whiskey tasting club. Very sophisticated, much different from my habit of throwing it to the back of my throat as fast as possible and swallowing with a gulp of soda.

My new class, Political Theory, is REALLY cool. In Sweden, you take classes in blocks and I only have to take one at a time to keep up with my Boulder credits. Anyways, theory has always been really interesting to me and I get to make a presentation on Tuesday about Marxism and Utilitarianism. It's only supposed to be about 3 minutes long, but I started typing and now I'm about three times the limit on the paper version...so that's an issue. I fucking love Marx, though. You have nothing to lose but your chains! Workers of the world, unite! Stand together and demand your piece of the pie, you know? Mmm, Karl. Preach it, boy.

Hope everyone had a healthy week!

Here Comes The Sun

Well, I guess I'm going to Latvia. For $65 roundtrip with a buffet dinner included, I'd probably go just about anywhere. Just one of the many reasons my thought process resembles that of cattle.
The sun has graced this beautiful little town today. And the temperature peaked above freezing. I swear, stepping outside and not being consumed by bone-chilling wind made me giddy with excitement. The wide smile on my face from being able to feel my fingertips as I walked to class is probably one of those things you can't truly understand unless you've lived in Sweden...
I just got back from Paris. It's incredible how one city has the ability to take your breath away with its beauty and history, and then disappoint you with its rude shopkeepers and filthy Metro stations. I know about four words of French (seeing as I took Spanish in high school and currently live in Sweden, I'm not feeling too guilty about this ignorance), but I was terrified to ask someone to speak English (make no mistake: everyone knows the language, they simply don't like speaking it). This incredibly offensive question was met with disgusted looks and passive aggressive comments under their breath. I know, Americans suck, we're egocentric capitalists with gun holsters and rolls of fat adorning our hips. But if you could politely speak to me in English while I purchase something from your establishment, I'd be a lot more inclined to throw down some cash to help support the economy of your far superior nation.
Coming from Sweden, the nation of sharing and gentle, warm people, any city would feel cold. And, granted, French is one of the most beautiful languages I've ever heard. I'd probably like it a lot more if half of every word wasn't silent, simply because looking like a damn fool every time I attempted to speak French got old really fast. I mean, "Les Halles" is pronounced "lay all". Riddle me this, France.
Ok, so, back on track: Paris is gorgeous. I would wake up and wander around past Notre Dame, down along the Seine to the Louvre. I'd just glance to my left and see the Eiffel Tower. On my right were rows of shops selling barking pets, savory crepes, bouquets of flowers, and colorful pastries. My friend's apartment was in the heart of the city (Rue de Rivoli), so it was always alive with people, sounds, and smells. I ate baguettes. I wore femme fatale lipstick on a daily basis. And for a week, I had my finger on the pulse of international fashion, history, and culture. Honestly, I don't think I could have handled much more than a week. Love it or hate it, there is no city on the planet like Paris.

So I just spent the past like 2 hours writing this and watching a Netflix movie and ordering books online and eating. I'm going to go try to be a productive member of society now. At 23:00. On a Friday. Internet: 1, Anna's Social Life: 0. But I'm supposed to go this party in Stockholm tomorrow so can we call it a tie?

Trip Developments

I don't really know what to write about and I have a pile of homework as tall as the Eiffel Tower (what's up, flying to Paris TOMORROW MORNING)...so, logically, I'm writing a blog entry.

A handful of people here are planning a trip to Kiruna, which is a small town in Lapland that a lot of people visit in the winter to see the Northern Lights, dog sledding, a hotel made of ice (which, surprisingly, is named the "ice hotel"), and get a little taste of the Arctic Circle. As I'll be just getting back from the city of lights, I thought I'd take a couple days and recover before I jumped on a 14 hour train right to the top of the world. So I will not be a part of this trip (though it sounds phenomenal).

A trip to the Czech Republic is in the works as well. One of my American friends knows someone studying in Prague (or Praha--I'm working on calling places and people by their native language names) and figured the roundtrip would cost under $200. A European world capital for a couple hundred? Pretty tempting. The "downside" is that we'd be crashing on a floor. But, I have to admit, I'd crash on floors every night of my life if it meant I could explore the world every day of my life. But I've been reading a lot of travel books lately, just compilations of travel tips and short stories, and Prague seems to be a pretty frequent destination for adventure-seekers.

Amsterdam is, obviously, also on our short list. I have a friend from Colorado studying there at the moment, and she's generously offered another crashable floor for a couple nights. Only an idiot would turn that down. Come July, Amsterdam is changing their laws to ban foreigners from accessing their more...herbal...commodities. I think a couple of us were talking about experiencing the Netherlands before this very unique capability is stripped away. Sooo...I might get into a bit of trouble for this paragraph.

Copenhagen would be so beautiful in early spring! Denmark is another very popular vacation destination for Swedes, and everything I've seen and heard leads me to believe that it's a charming, gorgeous, friendly place to visit. I have a friend from home currently studying around there, so the Danish capital is definitely someplace I'd want to see in the future. I'm also kinda hoping to see Elsinore and nerd out a little.

In the back of my mind, I'm thinking about pushing London in sometime between Prague and Amsterdam. One of my really good friends from Colorado was thinking about coming to visit Great Britain over his break and I wouldn't miss the chance to see the Tower of London, Abbey Road, and Big Ben. And him...I guess I'd also like to see him. We had joked about "meeting in the middle", but I guess he's getting the short end of the stick with his 7 hour transatlantic flight versus my 2 hour jump over to England. London is also generally considered the cheapest and easiest city to fly to and from the United States, so if anyone out there was hoping to wander around Europe and didn't know where to start...might I suggest London?

I'm slowly realizing that this is probably going to be one of the greatest years of my entire life. Traveling on a dime, seeing unbelievable places with people that are equally excited about that street sign in Dutch or the little kid in the supermarket that's speaking rapid Swedish. I know it's one of the cheesiest, most vague things ever spoken, but I think I'm falling in love with the world.

Thank you for reading!