Update...

Hej Hej Everyone!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but I find there really isn't anything to blog about.

I'm starting to feel better now, thank goodness, but I'm still having a problem with my ear, but I just bought ear drops to see if they help.

I'm leaving for London this Saturday and I'm pretty excited, it's just Emily, Kristen, and I, and we're going to plan out our trip sometime Thursday, either before or after my Basic Swedish class.

Speaking of which, that class is going well, I don't think I'll pick up the Swedish accent like I did the German accent, but what can I do, it's a little hard actually. It's similar enough to German that I think I will be good at it. Let's see..... Jag bor pa Sernanders vag nio i Flogsta... That means (without the proper accentage above the letters) I reside at Sernandres vag 9 in Flogsta.. Jag heter Lindsay (my name is Lindsay), Jag studerar Anthrpologie (I'm studying Anthropology)....uh...Jag kommer fran Amerika/USA (I come from america/usa). I think I'm picking it up rather well, and the grammar doesn't seem too hard, which is good.

Tomorrow is Emily's 20th birthday and I'm pretty excited. We're going to get manicures and peduicures in the afternoon, then shopping around a little bit, we're going to look for rain coats since it's rainy in the U.K.. And then everyone is going out with us to dinner, then we're buying a cake at ICA and then we're either going out or watching a movie, depending on what Emily decides to do.

I have to pay my rent for the month of March by the end of the week.

I'm enjoying myself and that's pretty much all there is to talk about, hahaha.

There will be another blog about London within a day or so of when I get back, and I expect it to be a long one.

Hope everyone is doing well in the good ol' USA. I'm looking forward to the food when I get back ;)

Hej da

Lindsay

Berlin...

Hello Everyone!

First off, I'm sorry that this took so long for me to post, but I'm sick and haven't really felt like writing it all down, but now it's here!

I had a great time in Berlin.

I really tried to use my German skills, but I was extremely intimidated so I didn't use it as frequently as I would've hoped.

So our trip starts off good. We met at about 9am to get to the airport early for our 12:50 plane. Getting there was very easy, take bus#2 downtown, walk 2 blocks to the train station, buy the tickets, get on the train and get off at Arlanda Airport. We got our tickets very easily though we had to wait a half hour before there were people at the counter to actually check us in, we were there terribly early. We made it through security easily, we don't have to take off our shoes here thank goodness. Our flight was delayed until 2:30 due to heavy snow fall in Berlin. While waiting, we kind of just hung out and played cards. I, being the graceful person that I am, found myself on the ground at one point. I went to get up and get a bottle of water when I slipped on my purse and toppled to the ground, but I got up quickly and laughed it off, it all happened so fast.

The flight was uneventful and went really fast, it only took us an hour and half to get there. When we arrived, we weren't connected to the airport, so we had to use the stairs to get off and then they shuttled us to the airport, it was actually pretty cool. After people used the bathroom, we proceeded to try and figure out how to get to our hostel, Hostel Schlafmeile. We weren't getting anywhere by asking people, so we gave in and got into a taxi to take us there. Since I could speak some German, I was instructed to sit in the front of the taxi van. A half hour later, we made it to our hostel. After checking in, we asked the people who run it, one of them is from New Zealand :), where we could find a pub. We didn't really use their instructions since we kinda got lost, but we found this pub called "Bariton." I had to help people figure out what they were ordering, and my first meal in Germany was a Quesadilla. We were there for a long time, about 3 or 4 hours, and there was this awesome Irish Folk band there, and apparently we were being really loud since they came and asked us where we were from in between sets or whatnot. On our way out, we found this park across the street so we obviously went and played there, a few of them were a little impaired which didn't help with walking on ice, a lot of people fell on their behinds. We made our way back to our room, which was like a store front, which was weird. We found out that we had 2 roommates with us, but they weren't there at the moment. We all got ready for bed, and Kristen, Stefan, and I played go fish for a while, and as it turns out, I am very good at go fish. Our roommates eventually showed up and as it turns out they're from Melbourne, Australia. They are living in London at the moment doing Rugby or something like that, they're names were Billy and Chris. In the morning, everyone was really tired, but the girls took over the bathroom for a while. Mary Beth and Matthew, first nicknames "The Boy" and since nicknamed "Tomcat" due to his cat-like dance, went to breakfast with the Australians at the hostel owned restaurant while the rest of us finished getting ready, and eventually met up with them. Since Emily, Mary Beth, and Tomcat didn't want to go a Concentration camp, they left with the Australians and took a free tour of Berlin, while Stefan, Kristen, Jackie, and I went to Sachsenhausen Concentration camp. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the camp and it was probably the right way to see one, when it's dreary and cold outside. We were there for a good 3 hours and decided to take the train to Potsdam. We walked in the wrong direction at first,and by the time we turned around, Stefan's hip was hurting him (he hurt it playing hockey), so we had a late lunch. Afterward which ended up being another 2 hours on the train. The train ride back was interesting. Stefan was wearing his Canada jacket, so the guy we were sitting next to asked if the US and Canada were in a Union, when he said no, he went on this racist tirade about America and the Turks. I was really angry, so I pretended that I didn't know what was going on, and Kristen was laughing by herself on the other side of the train. It was interesting, and now I can laugh about it, but it was bad at the time, my American Pride came out during that time. Anyway, it was dark when we got there and we went the wrong way, so we ended up eating in the train station and then heading back to the hostel. After another long train ride, Jackie took a nap while Stefan, Kristin, and I played go fish again. The other group left for a bar crawl when we left for a late dinner, where I had kangaroo and a glass of wine! Our next stop was place called The Matrix, and I can honestly and legitimately say that I am not a club person and I have no urge to go to another one the rest of my life. It was about one in the morning when we got back, but while I was trying to sleep, the others were trying to open our door and failing, so I listened to them for about 5 minutes fiddle with the lock until I just decided to open it up for them. The next day went more smoothly, since the other group had seen what we were going to see today, they stayed in bed and went to the zoo while we went on our own tour of Berlin. We were about a ten minute walk to the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall, so we walked along the wall until we got the the East Train Station. The Wall is interesting and very colorful, and something I think everyone should see once in their life. I actually stood in both sides at once, which was pretty cool. After we found our way to the S-bahn, we went to see Brandenburg Gate. Unfortunately, the gate is getting a face lift, so there were things covering one side of it, or something. Fun fact, the hotel that's right in front of it is the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from the balcony, Kristen took a picture of it. We strolled our way to the Reichstag where I thought I could get warm, but after waiting in the line for an hour, we went to the top and it was not indoors. I would've appreciated it more, I think, if it had been warmer. We were so cold that we decided to go to lunch after we got out, we ate at a car dealership or something, I don't remember what kind of car it was, but it was German, hahaha. The food was delicious, and thankfully the waitress explained what the menu said, because I really had no clue. We then made our way to Museuminsel, an island with a lot of museums and the Berlin Dome. We didn't get into any museums because we turned a corner and saw the Berlin Dome, and spent a good 2 hours in there. It was beautiful and huge, and I loved it. I'm still awestruck when I see pictures of it. For reference, it's the inset picture. I remember thinking that however beautiful it is, there isn't a real need for anything that extravagant except for tourists. But there isn't anything I can really do about that, I would've given the money to something that needed it. We could've stayed for the 6 o'clock service but we decided to leave and meet up with everyone else, and get our luggage that thankfully the Australians let us leave in there since we were kicked out. When we finally got back to our Hostel, they weren't there yet, so we sat in a place called "Schmitz" where I had the most delicious hot chocolate. Eventually the other group got there and we figured out how to get to the airport. We ended up taking the train to Alexanderplatz and then jumped on a bus that took us to the airport. We were getting there pretty early thinking that things would be open there, but we were very very wrong. We got to Tegel airport at approximately 10pm. and there was NOTHING OPEN, and a few of us were starving. We found the place where we were supposed to get our tickets, but they were closed too, so we settled down. My group was getting hungry, so we made up our minds to see if we could go find food, and if all else failed, we were going to take the bus back into the city and get something there. We left our bags with the others, Mary Beth, Tomcat, and Emily, while we tried to find food. Outside, we thankfully found someone with Burger King, and Kristen asked where they got that, and not speaking very much English, the lady said go over a bridge and walk and walk and walk. We took her directions, and after a while I found the sign that pointed to Burger King. It was in the middle of no where, and it felt as though it took forever to get there, however it was only about 1o minutes. When we got back to the others, about an hour later, they were being kicked out of that terminal since it was being closed, so we were instructed to go to a different smaller terminal. We ended up sleeping on the floor of the airport. I didn't get much sleep, I was too uncomfortable. At about 5:30 am, we got up and went to get our tickets. We were all exhausted, and a little testy. The flight seemed to fly by, pun intended, since I fell asleep as soon as I got on the flight, however I missed free muffins and I was starving. Arriving back at Arlanda, we got back on the train to Uppsala and then the bus back to Flogsta. I slept for a long time, however I could've slept for another day and a half.

Since then:

Saturday was a lazy day. Sunday I went to church with Emily and free pancakes. Then at night, Emily, Jackie, and I had a Valentines Day dinner and movie. Jackie cooked, and we had fajitas. I started feeling sick then. We watched Finding Nemo, such a great movie, and I made my way back to my room. I had a bad headache by the time I went to sleep, so I took medicine. The whole night was bad. I kept waking up with that pounding in my head, and I was dizzy and lightheaded, and I almost fell over when I went to the bathroom in the morning. I barely made it to class that night, but I did, I'm such a good student.

Today, I had a full blown cold, but Emily and I went into town anyways and had fika. We were told by our interpreter at church that we had to eat a certain pastry before Ash Wednesday, so we had that. I had to go to my first Swedish Language class at 4:15, and it went well. I think I will sleep a lot tomorrow to help this cold along. I hate being sick, and being in a foreign country doesn't help.

Well, that's it, I will try to write more frequently, but I can't promise anything. Sorry for such a delay.

Lindsay

Super Bowl 44...

So I lied. Sorry about that, I said that I would write again on Saturday, but I didn't.

Well, Saturday was a fun day. I bought some University apparel so I can be all decked out when I get back home. I also bought a pair of cheap leather walking flat boots. So far they are awesome and I wear them everyday. The funny thing is that in the beginning of the day, we ended up hanging out in MAX again, Emily and I had met up with others and they just so happened to be there. It's becoming our hang out place. Later that night, Emily, Stefan, Jackie, and I, had another card game night. We ordered pizza which was a little strange, but good none the less. After a while, Emily and I made our way to ICA to get something sweet to eat and brought it back up for the 4 of us to eat. We played games until midnight when we were all getting sleepy.

On Sunday, Emily and I met to go to church in Building one. The previous Sunday, we had gone to get free Swedish Pancakes an found out that it was provided by a church group and they invited us for the next week. The whole thing was in Swedish, but we had an interpreter for us, but everyone was really nice about filling us in what was going on. We met yet ANOTHER Canadian, Heather, who is from Vancouver, who is studying Neuro-Science. At the end, we were chatting with the locals and they are all very nice. At one, Jackie and Stefan came to get pancakes. We were supposed to go to a pub to watch the Super Bowl, but we ended up going to Stefan's corridor to watch it. Before though, we went to ICA to get some snacks and we ended up getting ingredients for Taco/Bean dip, and it was delicious. Anyway, watching the Super Bowl in Sweden was weird. It started at midnight and it ended at about 3:45am. The commercials were a weird experience. Sweden doesn't have as many commercials as the US, so I saw the same 5 commercials every time. They also don't show them as often, so when the US was watching the cool new commercials, we saw the stadium from afar with no sound, it was strange, but what are you going to do.

I leave for Berlin on Wednesday and I am excited! So I probably won't post until I get back on Saturday.

If you want to see all the pictures of me that are on Facebook, my dad made a website so everyone can see them: lafrey.shutterfly.com

Enjoy and Talk to you all later!

Lindsay

Copenhagen...

The Arrival:

Getting there was interesting. It started out good, I woke up at around 7 o'clock to meet everyone at 8:15 to make the 8:20 bus to the train station. It was all going well, we transfered trains in Stockholm and we were on our way. The train was going really slow because it was snowing, so we ended up being about 75 minutes behind schedule. We were stopped in Malmo for about an hour before they finally said in English that this train wasn't going to Copenhagen. So we get off the train with others who were also stranded. We found some people to follow that were also going to Copenhagen. It turned out that due to the Blizzard that they were experiencing, no trains were going or coming from Copenhagen. We were a little tiffed, but they said that they were having buses come to come and finish the last 45 minutes. We waited outside for about 30 minutes in the blizzard with a whole mob of other people. We were proactive in figuring out if the buses that were coming were going to Copenhagen, and we were eventually one of the first people on the first bus, however, when the others found out too, there was a whole lot of pushing and shoving to get on, it was definitely an experience. We were under the impression that the bus was taking us to the Central station, however, we were brought to the airport. So we were confused. Someone told us that we could just hop onto the metro and that would get us there. So we bought tickets for the metro but we apparently went to the wrong place. We almost got on a train that would take us back to Malmo, which would not be appreciated. We eventually found where it was and we bumped into the people we met at the Malmo train station again, and they gratefully helped us the rest of the way, on two metro trains. At about 8:30, we arrived at Copenhagen Central Station, we were expected to be there at 3:30. We were starving, so we ate McDonald's for the first time since arriving in Europe. While eating, we figured out how to get to our Hostel. We had to call them a few times during the day so they knew us well. Our hostel was only about 5 blocks away, so we made our way, in the slush, to our hostel and we were very happy to finally be there. We had our own room for 5 people and it wasn't that bad. We went to sleep early since we were exhausted. We woke up to check out of there by 10. We then had all day until we had to leave. We first thought it would be a good idea to figure out where we would be getting on our bus home. After a few failed attempts, we finally found it. Our first stop in our quest in Copenhagen was to find a place called Christiania, a place sovereign from Danish law, and only has a few rules, basically a hippie colony in the middle of Copenhagen. We of course got lost on the way there, but finally found it. The experience was weird, I felt very uncomfortable there and wanted to get out fast. You can't take any pictures in there, so I don't have many. We were only in there for about 10 minutes, and that was enough. The sign to get out says, "You are now entering the E.U". We were taking pictures of that sign when a car almost hit us. I had a bad reaction time, but I got out of the way quickly enough. It all happened really fast, but all was well. We then went to meet one of Jackie's friends, who is studying there, for lunch. She took us to the picture above to find a place to eat. We ended up eating at a wonderful place with a fireplace, which was nice since we were all freezing. We had a delicious meal and went on our way. We walked further along and ended up at the Palace. 4 houses, one belongs to the queen, one her son, her other son, and a guest mansion. After spending time with the marching guards, we made our way to The Little Mermaid. She's very small, but worth the walk. After an hour or so, we made our way back to the train station, walking along the main shopping street. A few blocks away from our Hostel, we found an Organ donation party happening in a square and they were serving free hot chocolate. There were DJ's playing music, and it was all really cool and fun. After spending some time, we made our way back to the train station to wait for our bus. We all had our own window seat, comfortable for sleeping. The trip home went well. At the border of Sweden, we had to go through customs and such. Then in Stockholm, we had to transfer buses. When we arrived at Uppsala Central Station, we ended up running to catch the #2 bus back to Flogsta. I immediately fell asleep and had a relaxing day yesterday.

I will write again tomorrow :)

Lindsay

Leaving...

Hej Everyone!

Yesterday was a relaxed day. I woke up and had free Swedish Pancakes with Emily at one. They were delicious and the people who make them have church before, and they invited us, and we're going next Sunday. The rest of the day was leisurely. I was planning on staying up until 2 am to watch the Grammy red carpet, but at one am, the power in either our corridor or building or whatnot went out, so I figured that was my cue to go to sleep.

Today I woke up and met Emily, Stefan, and Jackie at MAX. Emily and I went then to try and buy sweatshirts, but the place isn't open on Mondays, just my luck. We then decided to see if we could buy sneakers, and I found a pair I liked, but they didn't have my size :'(. Anyway, we came back and I had a few hours until I had to leave for class, so I watched the Grammys (I taped it). Class was good, if a little boring, but we had to get into groups and I met two more Canadians and two Australians. After class, I sped walked to the bus stop because I didn't want to hang around at the bus stop for another 20 minutes. I made it just in time! Thank goodness! When I got back, we were meeting at Emily's to buy tickets to Berlin for next week since Dog Sledding failed. Emily, Jackie, Mary Beth, Matt, Kristen (also from ISU), me, and maybe Stefan are leaving next Wednesday at noon and getting back early Saturday afternoon. I am really excited because I will be able to practice my German!

Tomorrow Kylee, Jenny, Jackie, Emily, and I are meeting up at 8:15 to leave for Copenhagen. We're getting back early Thursday morning. I won't be able to watch Lost until I get back, so please, please, don't post anything about it!

I'm off to bed now :)

(Picture: Emily, Me, Jenny, Kylee)