Today the sixth and tomorrow the seventh marks my 3rd week here in sweden. its been pretty hard, and i have not written in here nearly as much as id like to. but i like to think of time passing like, ive been here for 3 weeks, but like tomorrow will be my 4th monday, and so on, and i think that helps time pass. i miss home, and although im having a good time here, making lots of friends, i still miss home and the constant communication of cell phones. the international office of UNCW made a big deal of the consequences of culture shock after a few weeks of international living, but i dont think i have been shocked too hard, its only the time difference that bothers me a great deal. and that my only tool of communication to the world outside of sweden is my computer, without a wireless connection in my room. i remember there was a girl at the send off meeting for international students of UNCW, and this girl said that in her opinion, you did not need to bring your laptop with you on your exchange program, and that the campus of your university would have plenty of computers to use. WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?!?! if i had taken her advice, i would have been dead from internet withdrawal after a matter of days. and to add, the computers on my campus ARE IN SWEDISH. i can barely understand the basic commands when i have attempted to use these computers, and luckily i have my computer with a 25 foot ether net cable to use constantly in my room. however, i have had problems with my laptop no doubt. ive been here for like, 21 days or so, and my computer has crashed from the blue screen of death at least 10 times, maybe more. i have narrowed it down to my webcam and streaming video. i think i can use my webcam, but if i am doing anything else at the time, it will crash, and if i go full screen in any video stream it will most likely crash. but luckily no data is lost, after a quick reboot everything is back to normal. but i was so paranoid when i was typing my six page paper for class, every time i finished a paragraph, i would save it to my flash drive just to be safe, but fortunately it didnt crash during that 3 day period i was writing.
My friends ian and jake are both still getting settled and start class in the next couple of weeks, i have to remember to wish them both good luck. im sort of jealous of jake because he is in S. Africa and it is summer there and beautiful, and here it is ice ice ice all the time. but i think i am much more comfortable in sweden where i dont have to worry in the slightest about crime, and once spring comes, it will be beautiful here. and i think that africa is such a large continent that it would be hard to travel to many different places, but in europe, intra-continental travel is very easy. i may even have a chance to go to st. petersburg at some point, which is a dream of mine. at this point, im planning on visiting oslo, stockholm, denmark, riga (latvia) maybe finland, maybe france, maybe italy. and henry recently alerted me he might be summering in britain, and if i get the chance, ill hope the pond and spend a few days with him there! that would be awesome.
i need people who are willing to travel with me. i dont really want to travel alone, for safety reasons as well as for social reasons, haha. its unfortunate ive made so many friends here who have already been in sweden for a semester and have already traveled so much, but luckily ive met a few guys that may be willing to travel with me, should be fun.
ive seen two films in the film festival, an american film as well as a swedish one. i enjoyed both, as well as the theater atmosphere. it was a nice reminder of home, and things like this make me think that swedish and american culture are very similar. the way people act, the eaterys, and many buildings are very similar to the way things are in america. but everything is sooo much more expensive here. its not uncharacteristic to easily spend 14 dollars on a simple lunch. its sad and embarassing to say that i actually miss stores like walmart, anywhere open 24 hours. cheap food and drink anywhere will be welcome upon my return to america. i think driving will be difficult after this long period of not.
my parents are coming to see me and leave with me at the end of my program, and that should be fun, and i hope by that time, i can give them a good guide around the city, or maybe the country if they take me on some sight seeing to some places ive already been to. but i hope i dont have to stay too long after my classes are over because im sure ill be ready to be home as soon as i can.
heres to another 3 weeks. in three weeks ill have been here for 6 weeks, which sounds much more daunting than 3 :)
and also, i hope to post on here more often if i have time. i want to be able to remember everything ive done here clearly, and i dont take nearly enough pictures haha.
(ive been listening to a lot of pierce the veil and owl city to apply some musical associations to my memories, but i should stop with owl city, because ive already got several musical memorys with owl city, haha)
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