i hate goodbyes.

i never know what to say or do.. and it doesn't hit me until long after the person has gone.

i know, i've been TERRIBLE with updating.

i do, however, have photo albums posted for you all to see.

this one is from my eastern europe tour:
http://uci.facebook.com/album.php?aid=503&id=311400004

a week later, we headed to barcelona:
http://uci.facebook.com/album.php?aid=503&id=311400004

erica and i departed for prague, bussed it over to vienna, and then to bratislava. it was wonderful. we met up with helen in prague and i think that made our stay even more enjoyable. i can see myself living there. vienna was beautiful; the buildings were incedibly grandiose and lavish. erica had to fly out of the bratislava airport so we took the bus there and hung out for a couple of hours before parting ways. as a last stop i made it to budapest and spent two nights there. not too much to see in terms of sights, so i spent the latter half of my day at the thermal baths.

i came back to copenhagen for a day and left again for barcelona the next morning. i would have to say that it was the perfect end to my travels. not much sightseeing was done, and i thoroughly enjoyed it. sometimes traveling can get uber-tiring with waking up early and making it to all the museums and sights and taking a superfluous amount of pictures that you don't even know what they're of when you look through them again. sam, ian, and i flew into the city and met up with dave. the first three days were devoted to the primavera sound festival. now, i am not a huge fan of festivals, but this was the best one i've been to yet. the venue was huge, and there weren't too many people. you could get to a stage 15 minutes before a band started playing and you could easily make your way up to the front. i saw many acts that i thought i would never think twice to see (because either of ticket sales or just $$). the (good) acts usually started around 9pm, and we wouldn't get back to our apartment until 6 in the morning. our days were spent lazing around the beach and walking around the city.

ian and dave left us after the festival, and we stayed with an acquaintance of sam's. needless to say, we were a bit reluctant to stay in an apartment with people we didn't know, but it turned out to be the most amazing time. right now i am planning on going back next year. those we hung out with are british and i found myself speaking with an english accent at times. i love it.

+++++++++

and so now i sit here in my room at 916pm, and the sky doesn't get completely dark until after midnight. today is the 15th, and i leave in five days.

it goes without saying that i am upset. ever since i came back from barcelona i haven't been able to sleep properly and i feel nauseous a lot of the time. i honestly had a great time here, and i must say that extending my stay here was the best decision i've ever made in my life.

it's unfortunate that the best friends i have here will be thousands of miles away come wednesday. i, however, do believe that i will see again those i truly care about, whether it be in a year or a couple.

i can't say that i'm not dreading going home either, because i have friends and summer school and everything else lined up.

life is beautiful.

"so you're going to be traveling for two weeks and then come back for two weeks? wow."

i leave for prague tomorrow.

it hit me. hard.

i think i pretty much have the best friends ever here.

it's pretty awesome seeing your whole floor get wayystered out of their minds and holding a dance party in 10-1. [we had a tour de cuisine and i drank a bit more than anticipated*] and then taking it downstairs to the bar where you dance some more and rasmus accidentally pushes me over and i hit my head and i start crying and then i can't stop sobbing because i have to leave in a month. rasmus is probably the best boy ever because he spent two hours of his life at three in the morning trying to console me.

that's it.

* the tour de cuisine consists of visiting every kitchen on the floor [there are 5] and spending half an hour in each. the kitchen provides everybody drinks and it's appropriately decorated according to a theme.


ian's kitchen's theme? america! of course they had that team america song playing and i discovered that i suck immensely at flip cup.


yes, precisely.


we had a "don't touch the floor + tag" theme? hahaha. drunken twister was involved.


big R and mia


<3 max & jessica


i love these boys.

ps- mange tak til jessica for the photos!
pps- i realized i need to take more pictures.. of people.. and of the city. starting... now.

basically, i love my life (here) and i never want to leave.

highlights:
+ travel in two weeks to prague/vienna/budapest, and then a whole week in barcelona where i get to see 3435 of my favorite bands and lie on the beach!!!
+ new bff luca; i'm so lucky to have met my male counterpart. it's very rare that i click with somebody so well. we get lazy and watch movies and smoke and talk about life and eat.
+ hygglie and dance parties the overall laid-back atmosphere
+ student life in europe, period.
+ i'm really going to miss my bike
+ yesterday marked the official inauguration of my dormitory. to me, that just meant free food and beer for twelve hours straight.
+ i like beer... way too much
+ i attended a Shabbat dinner tonight. um, which poor college student would turn down free alcohol and a 5-course meal? anyhow, it turned out to be a more than enriching experience for me; i'm learning a lot about judaism. i love customs, culture, tradition. the feeling of community makes it even better.

i have two papers to write in two weeks. wish me luck (i'll need it, considering all the distractions i have at the moment)

xx

stockholm, berlin, og mere

wow.. where do i begin?

i've been terribly lazy with updating this thing. and for that i apologize, but i don't know who's reading this anymore anyway? then again it might be good to have this for my own reference in the future.

it's tuesday night after easter weekend. thank goodness easter is over with, because all the grocery stores were closed from thursday through monday! i was practically living off instant noodles the whole weekend. not that i celebrated it to begin with anyway... i just recall that when i was younger my older cousins would hide eggs in my backyard. sometimes they were plastic and filled with candy. i didn't even find out until a couple years ago that this is just as big as christmas. except that my family doesn't celebrate christmas, either.

and so i attended seder this year instead. today was passover, and i was enlightened by my jewish friends with a quasi-traditional meal. matzah ball soup is extremely good; i am impressed with ian and sam and max and everybody else who pulled this off for all 18 of us. i don't have pictures. just lots of leftover wine.

i do, however, have pictures from stockholm. overdue pictures from stockholm, and those from the trip to berlin made with jonas last weekend.

berlin:


world clock in alexanderplads


the only touristy picture of me in front (i mean behind) the brandenburg gate


smell jars! the stasi (their equivalent of the CIA or KGB) kept a file on practically everybody living in east berlin during the cold war... and this included your sweat on a rag during interrogations


first meal in germany. macaroni (tubes!) was surprisingly good. it was kind of a dumpy bar after 10pm so i wasn't expecting much.

THE FOOD THERE WAS SO GOOD. SO CHEAP. but too bad jonas doesn't like sushi :(


selvfølgelig!


if i can recall correctly, this is where lynly did her "liberation!" monologue


we climbed the tv tower.

in sum, i love berlin. despite having only spent two whole days there, we got a lot done. jonas wouldn't let me see knut, the first polar bear born at the berlin zoo in 30 years. i think i will resent him forever for that. rich history, diverse culture.. i could see myself living there. mange tak to jonas for a great trip.

aaaaaand then theres stockholm from latter january with cindy!


our hostel... on a shitty boat.


this city was simply breathtaking. way bigger than copenhagen than i thought it would be. we were lucky enough to have clear skies on our side during the whole trip.


gamla stan, the old city


it was freakin cold though, but i took this opportunity to make my first snow angel outside skansen, the open air museum.


he tried to eat me.


the city from yet another tv tower




traditional swedish dessert called semla. we saw them everywhere, and we couldn't find swedish meatballs, so we settled on this. it has marzipan inside! mmm marzipan.

i love my life right now.

i booked my ticket back to america yesterday. i go back on june 20th.

tomorrow i'll be planning my trip to prague/vienna with erica :)

thats it for now, bye.

love, me

lately i've been thinking too much about how i'm going to have to leave again in three months. i've almost cried everytime. so let's not think about it.

denmark has been way too good to me. i turned 22 last thursday. my good friend judith took me out to brunch, and we were going to visit louisiana, the modern art museum. and then i got my purse stolen. it only costs around $1000 to replace everything inside. i didn't let it get to me. eh, shit happens, right? correct. my day only got better. mia and samantha made mojitos and nachos with me after i got back from the police station. that night everyone was there and they threw me a huge fest complete with three different kinds of homemade ice cream, two cakes, one pie, brownies, everything. i couldn't have been luckier. my gut couldn't have been luckier. hah. and then i found out that i got a shitload of money from uci.. more than enough to compensate for the lost contents of my purse.

i held a dinner party last saturday. it was successful, there were 14 of us, and i only spent a little over $100. for wine, appetizers, chicken, the works. then i made the right decision to go down to the bar and i actually had fun. huh, imagine that. i didn't come back up until 430 in the morning. european boys are so much fun to dance with. i also met a wonderful italian, so i'm hoping that this is a potential.

i don't know, everything has been pretty much a blur to me.

i wish i still had my camera. i'll go shopping next week, after my final. right, my final. i still have 8 chapters to read. guh. wish me luck. after that, i've only got two papers left. i love my life.

i'm pretty sure that i'm still going to berlin with jonas for easter break. come the weekend of april 22nd and the UC study center is paying for a weekend trip to helsinki?! oh, and sam and i booked our tickets to primavera sound in barcelona. three days of music until 4 in the morning!! jesus, it's going to be amazinggggg.

did i mention that i love my life? i am so lucky to have the friends that i do now.

i'm done being ghey, so it's back to studying, i guess.