Swedish Husker

• Swedish Meatballs
• Little Smokey’s
• Herring
• Mustard Herring
• Bread
• Knackebrod
• Butter
• Christmas Ham
• Boiled Egg Halves
• Italian Salad
• Potatoes with Anchovies
• Sill Salad
• Boiled Potatoes

These things are all part of the Swedish Christmas Eve dinner that we are about to take part in.

I was just thinking.. I wonder if finals are this awful in other countries/other schools. So if you have never been to a University where you have extremely important/ hard tests all at once I will fill you in… It’s like this…

One week away, dead week. Why do they call it dead week? I think it should be called want to pull your hair out and light it on fire week. Any class with final projects/ final papers makes you turn them in this week. Once those are done you realize that you have 4 exams covering everything you learned in 5 months all in the same day and you don’t even know how to study anymore. And when you try to study all the notes you took start to look like japanese and russian mixed together to form a new language…

You drink so much coffee that you start peeing brown and you can’t sit still without shaking so much that you fall out of your chair when trying to write. You have no money to spend on food because you have no time to work, and you have no time to work because you have to study so that you can get a job that gets you money to find food. Right?

Then finals week rolls around. It’s Monday. And you realize that you mixed up the time of your final. OH MY GOD DID I MISS THE EXAM. Oh wait, no, you are just 2 hours early for it. Then when you do actually have the final you get done first and feel like something is wrong. Why am I the first done, did I do the essay wrong? Should I have written more than 6 pages for 2 essays? Did I not include enough examples? Did I read the wrong book? Am I in the right classroom? Is this the right city? Oh wait… maybe you were just more prepared than others…(I hope.)

Tuesday. This test was so easy! I am so going to get an A! I feel like I aced that test. Oh yeah! ……… Then the grades come. #%$&!!!! Okay an 80% is not that bad. But it’s definitely not an A. Oh well. At least it’s passing…

Wednesday. This day is a trip to campus to take another exam. Wait a minute. No one is here. Why is no one here? Where the hell is everyone? Where are my notes… maybe I’m early for this exam…. wait a minute. It says the exam was on the 13th. The 13th. THE 13TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT WAS YESTERDAY!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh I am going to fail this and then I can’t take the next class next semester and then I can’t graduate and and…

Whew. My professor is going to let me take it late. What a nice guy.

And that is where I am at so far. It’s almost 1am I have all day tomorrow to study and one test left. Is it possible that I will survive finals this semester.

One can only hope.

Today after class I fell, slipping on the ice on campus. I tore holes in both my knees of my jeans, my knees bled, cut my finger and was very embarrassed. It’s the week before finals and the beginning of December. I am afraid of driving anywhere because it is so slick, and it’s too cold to walk anywhere.

On the bright side, I have already studied a lot, and feel like I will actually be motivated to keep it up. But I am finding myself dreaming of Pawley’s Island, which is where I spent last summer with Ross’ family…

Today has been a wonderful day. Well sort of… I injured my foot yesterday when we were digging holes so I get the day off today!! So I have been reading and drinking coffee all morning.

We have been working really hard the past few weeks to get this new dorm ready that was just built. So its been lots of digging in dirt and digging big holes and planting things that are painful to touch, like Rose bushes. And usually this is what I look like when I come home.

This is the third day this week I am not working.. which is really going to hurt next time I get a paycheck. But for some reason I have caught some kind of flu where I can’t keep anything down. It just plain sucks!!

So far this week I have finished a Stephen King book and now I’m working on an Anne Rice. And in between trying to brush up on my swedish!

Today I am getting lots done!! Laundry, coffee drinking, getting a refreshed with the swedish I have already learned, coffee drinking, and after lunch I am going for a bike ride… even though its 95 degrees out!! I’ll probably be dehydrated from all the coffee but at least I’m biking and not running!! I had such a nice chat with Jens and Viola today. Hope to talk to them soon again!!

Have a good weekend everyone!!

Kram

I am still missing Sweden so badly right now. So to try to help it I just try talking about it with Ross telling him about things we did and things that I want to do with him. One of my favorite things was walking on the paths in the woods. One place I really want to go to again is Stan’s head. The path that me and my two aunts and Lauren walked. I remember this one trip really well because as soon as we reached the top of the hill it started raining and everyone left, we waited it out and had the place to ourselves for a while. We had an awesome lunch of Farmor’s egg sandwiches coffee and coke. I am not sure how long we sat there talking and enjoying our picnic but its one of those memories that I love to look back on often and I can remember like it was yesterday. Especially since Jenny was quite pregnant and felt sick when we got back down. She says she was no fun when I was in Sweden, because of the pregnancy. But I would say that hiking up that steep of a hill and back down while pregnant is being a pretty good host to me! Hopefully we can do some hiking the next time I come!!