frustrating as hell

There are a few courses aside from Swedish that I have to do before I can apply for university.

I assumed that applying to study here would be as easy as studying back home. I just had to contact the local education board, find out where the evening courses are, register and start. Easy as pie.

Well that’s not the case here.

I registered myself for a Swedish course and physics for the upcoming semester. I was turned down for the physics course.

Was it because I don’t have the requirements? No.

Was it because the course was full or cancelled? No.

Apparently I’m only allowed to study Swedish and English through the adult education program. I have been studying for too long. If I want to take these other courses, I’m going to have to finance it myself.

Ok fine. So I’ll finance them myself. But where do I find these courses?

The lady I was speaking to tells me to find them through Google.

Gee… thanks a lot.

ice cream all year round

Hemglass is the company that owns the ice cream trucks around here. The truck music can be heard all year round. Unlike the ice cream trucks in Canada, you can only buy packages of ice cream.

Last week, Fredrik and I ran out of our flat, down the 2 flights of stairs and out the backdoor to catch the ice cream truck. I was thoroughly happy with my ice cream truck experience. Not as much of a selection as the grocery store but still a pretty nice selection.

down by the shore

We’re heading to Sandhamn today for a wee vacation of sorts.

It’ll be my first time in the Archipelago.

Unfortunately the cats don’t get to follow. Don’t think they’d like the boat ride too much anyways.

Every summer, loads of Swedes flock to the Stockholm Archipelago. It’s the Muskoka of Sweden. The Stockholm Archipelago is a bunch of islands, Muskoka has a bunch of lakes. According to the tourism website, there are 1600 lakes in the area.

a dose of crazy

The other day I was doing laundry and I saw an interracial couple in the laundry room. The guy was a Swede and the girl, Asian. For some reason I had a moment of “Ugh…” despite the face that the guy and the girl were of relative age to each other.

I’m fully aware of the fact that my reaction is completely retarded.

In Canada, seeing interracial couples would not even make me blink. Apparently it’s a different story here.

I was thinking that perhaps it has something to do with the amount of old Swedish men with young Asian, I’m actually going to say girls that I’ve seen here. In Canada, there are old caucasian men with young Asian girls but the frequency is not like it is here. Perhaps there are loads in Canada but I don’t see them as often as I see them here.

I’m sure that there are couples out there that are based on love but you hear about way too many couples that are about getting identities and/or money.

I know that my concerns are irrational but there are times that I wonder if people think I’m with Fredrik because I want to get an identity in Sweden. I’ve gotten a few odd looks from people. It also doesn’t help when people insist that I’m from China even after I tell them that I’m from Canada and born in Hong Kong.

But I suppose everyone has something irration that makes them go “Ugh…” I’m trying my best to keep those thoughts contained.

curly hair!

I went to Chiggy’s Touch on Friday to get my hair done and my god, I LOVE MY CURLY HAIR!

More often than not, when you get a haircut, they just style it and out the door you go. I learned so much about how to do my hair and how I should wash it and what not. It was just awesome. To top it all off, all the things I have to do are simple. To think I was worried that I’d have to know how to wield a curling iron and thought I would need a perm of sorts.

It was nice to finally go to a hairdresser that understands where you’re coming from when you say, “Oh my god I look like a mushroom!”

sick but surrounded by everyone i like

We’re reaching the back end of the week Fredrik will be here. Kinda sad that he has to go but our boys need him and so do his boys. At least the key people got to see him and he got to meet and greet some others.

I have been dementedly sick since Friday. Great since we had our appointment for our wedding photos. I did most of those feeling ok. Then things kinda went downhill. Fredrik was feeling a bit ill too. I slept for most of the evening feeling like someone had severely beaten me. God I love having a fever.

Luckily I managed to get myself back together for Saturday. We went to my favourite diner (Patrician Grill) for breakfast. Fredrik got to meet Terry and Terry got to give us our congrats and his condolences.

Then we wandered the streets of the downtown core. I made my first Apple store purchase: an USB Power Adapter. My iPhone comes with the old iPod power adapter with the interchangable sockets. I wanted the North American USB power adapter because it looks like a sugar lump with the prongs sticking out of it. I fell in love with it when I saw it last year (my aunt and uncle has iPhones).

We bought a ridiculous amount of food from Buddha’s for the potluck. Managed to run into nearly EVERYONE at my old work.

There was so much food and everything was so lovely EXCEPT I was loosing my voice. Irene said that I sounded very serious or angry. Someone suggested that I was sounding sultry. I started to relate the term sultry to chicken. Don’t ask why. Mmm… sultry chicken. Maybe I’m mixing up sultry with salty.

We got 2 wedding cakes. One from everyone at the manor. Awesomely crafted. One from Salma which was more targeted towards me.

“Go have your own babies!” is what I have to say to her.

We got Black Metal Brunch at Graffiti with Denise. There was a brief guest starring Genevieve. Linda makes the yummiest food. We’re hoping to go again this coming Sunday.

I got a prescription for Effexor from my doctor yesterday.

I’m still coughing out green chunks and occasionally getting bouts of vertigo.

Today is going to be a full day. Lots to find and we’re going to see the results of our photoing on Friday. Hope they’ll turn out ok. I don’t usually photo well.

OH. I also bought that Juicy bag I had my eye on but had no justification for. Tara bought a Juicy bag and I checked out the insides and what not. Then Denise, Irene, Tara and I had a council meeting. After much debate, my justification is that it’s my wedding gift. Since we went with “no gifts” from our friends. I’m hoping that it’ll arrive at my aunt’s place before I leave. *fingers crossed*

OH. It’s also not a Juicy bag once I get my hands on it. I’ve been calling it my succulent bag. I’m thinking about taking out the Juicy stitching and sewing in “succulent” instead.

back home

This post is posted in Canada.

It’s nice to be “home”. I’m starting to get used to this many homes idea. Sweden is home and so is Canada.

Nice to see the family and will be nice to see my friends.

As usual, I’m missing our kitties. Hope they’re not too upset that we’re gone but Fredrik will be home to tend to them not too long. Then I shall be there to be play mom again.

I’ve had a few nice chats with MY mom. I miss those mother-daughter moments. It takes a mother to understand some of the situations you go though and to comfort you properly. Not to mention share your outrage over certain issues.

I found out that my grandmother had a minor stroke a couple days ago. That’s got me worrying but she’s apparently fine now. Has new medication and is getting good care. I’ll see her in a couple weeks, along with the most of my extended family.

I think these 3 weeks will be fabulous. Really looking forward to the things planned.

Only problem I have now is that I forgot my meds back in Sweden. Hopefully Dr.Head will be able to sort that out for me. I’m most worried about going through withdraws and if things don’t work out, having to restart the meds and going through the bucket of side effects that was OH SO MUCH FUN.

OH CANADA!

Not only does Fredrik comes home next week, we’ll be heading to Canada. 

It’ll be a bit hectic and busy for the first few days but I’m hoping that Fredrik and I will be able to get at least 1 day of quiet down time.

First thing on our schedule includes going to take wedding photos.

Yes… wedding photos. (My mother’s idea and insistence. Her argument is that I’ll never be this young and good looking. How Asian of her.)

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about. Here are a few examples.

See Niagra Falls as part of the background? CLASSY!

Can you imagine Fredrik wearing something like that???

There is part of me that thinks that this could be plenty fun. Especially since I’ll get my hair and make up done. Haven’t had that done before.

It’s like Glamour Shots with a wedding theme.

Speaking of Glamour Shots. Do they still exist? Do people still get that done? I remember some of really young girls and it was a bit creepy. Like those beauty pageants for little girls.

what to do what to do

I have the day off. It’s too nice to stay inside. But at the same time I don’t need to get anything or do anything that requires me leaving the flat.

I should probably vacuum seeing that the mini Ulls and Milos are starting to gather in the corners and plotting some sort of revenge. But it’s too nice of a day to be home cleaning.

I wish I had friends that lived near me that I can go out for a coffee or have lunch with. I know that if we were living in Toronto, I’d be giving Noel a ring as soon as he gets enough beauty sleep.

I guess I can bike to the apotek to get Milo his deworming medication.

I still haven’t taken him to the vet to get his one year vaccine. I can’t find the door to the cat box and he’s too fidgety to take without some sort of restraining device. I’m sure he’ll manage even if he gets his shots a bit late. We don’t have to really worry about the cats getting sick since they’re indoor cats that don’t come in contact with any other animals except for a few bugs that they like to eat. They’re essentially living in a biodome of sorts. The cats do need more cat grass. But that can also wait.

I suppose I should do SOME studying for tomorrow’s test. I hope I get placed into a good class so I can finish this SAS Gundläggande as soon as possible and start taking SAS A + B, math and physics. I’m looking forward to learning some real stuff. I’ve been so bored in this class. I’ve learned all this stuff. At least the teacher is certain about the material she’s teaching. Not like Tatiana who only confused us with her over explaining and always sounding so uncertain.

I’m thinking that maybe I will take Mandarin since I just need 1 more class to make up the 400 credits I need to apply for CSN.

Anyways. Sitting in front of the laptop isn’t going to do me any good. Maybe I’ll start with some sewing.

the open sandwich

Here in Sweden it’s all about the open sandwich. Your deli meat threatening to slip off in a moment. Jam threatening to dribble down your arm as you eat.

Maybe that’s why the Swedes use so much butter and things such as red beet salad (pickled red beets & mayo) to keep their sandwich toppings from becoming floor toppings.

Fredrik and I call them incomplete sandwiches after seeing a bread commercial in Canada. SWOOSH!

Anyways.

Yesterday I was at McDonalds (I was hungry! Yeah I know that’s not the best choice to actually combat hunger.) and there was an old man sitting across the table from me. I noticed that he had the bottom half of his cheeseburger lying on his tray. Then I looked at what he was eating. He was eating his cheeseburger as an open sandwich!!

The Swedes… they’re all mad.