Hello from Sweden!
My first day is already almost over. I'm sitting at Merlina's desk in her apartment that she shares with Mireille from Canada. The girls are just about to finishing up with dinner. As both of them are doing their Master's Degree in "Leadership towards sustainability" and thus are very conscious about environmental issues I get treated to a vegetarian and organic dinner!:)
We had a nice day today. Getting here was some kind of adventurous though.
Andy dropped me off at Berlin Schoenefeld Airport around 2 pm and then I had to wait in the line for check in for over an hour. It was pretty ridiculous because literally nothing was moving and people started getting impatient. Whenever I was like second in line they called for all the passengers of the flight to Geneva/Madrid/Glasgow each of which was scheduled way before my flight to Copenhagen, so I had to let all these people pass me and ended up being pushed back in line a couple of times until I was finally able to check in my trolley.
(The trolley I ordered at Tchibo arrived on Saturday but I realized it it way to big and to I called there and changed it for the smaller trolley. It'll be sent to my house some time next week hopefully).
When I was trough security I realized it was only like 30 minutes before our scheduled departure time but our flight had not yet been assigned a gate. Around 4.15pm they finally released ther information that we wouldn't leave Berlin before 5.15 pm. I was starting to get very worried about the train I had to catch to get to Sweden from Copenhagen but what was I supposed to do? So I was happy that at least we quickly proceeded to boarding and had a smooth flight to Copenhagen.
I had to walk through this huge airport, passing what seemed like several dozen clothing stores and all kinds of stores - a huge mall inside the airport.
After I had received my trolley I started rushing through customs and to the train station which was luckily very easy to find.
I got a round trip ticket to Karlskrona, the danish guy understood my English and it turned out I was able to make the 6.56pm train to Kristianstad. I spent what was left of my danish krowns on a cookie and some apple juice and then boarded a very crowded train. It is a joke between Andy and me that however crowded a train or subway is, the one seat that's usually available somewhere around always ends up being mine - I hardly ever have to stand on public transportation...So I had to grin to myself when I sat down on the one free seat in the whole waggon. We passed the "Oeresund" which connects Danmark and Sweden and it was pretty impressive. After that I just read a little in the magazines I had puchased in Berlin and it began to get dark pretty soon. I managed to get a glimpse of some of the typical swedish houses though.
At 8.40pm I arrived in Kristianstad and luckily the red busses that all went to Karlskrona were really easy to find. I listed to a ???- tape on the way and realized how tired I was. Just from paying attention all the time, from waiting and walking around, I was really exhausted. I had smsed Merlina a couple of times during the day so she knew I was okay. Around 10.30pm we finally arrived Karlskrona and Merlina was already waiting for me at the bus stop. It was so great to finally see her again.
We went straight to a party hosted by 2 TAs of her university. There were what felt like 200 people there, I was introduced to at least half of them, grabbed some water and then we sat down and talked to some people - some of them German, on Swedish guy named Emil etc. Around midnight we took a bus home and just fell into bed. The apartment Merlina lives in isa pretty big, certainly more than enough to fit 2 girls....
We slept until 8 this morning when the alarm clock woke us up. After a quick Muesli/breakfast we headed to the harbor where the boat was waiting for us to take us around the "archipel", all the islands on the coast of Karlskrona that also belong to the city. Obviously, a lot of people have their summer houses on these little islands. We took a tour around the islands, got off halfway and were takend back by a bus. By the time whe got back to the harbor I was ready for bed. Maybe it's the different kind of air here or whatever ' I'm really exhausted without really having done anything.
We sat down at Wayne's Coffee place and I had a big pot of steamed milk. The city is very pretty, also quite small so you run into the people from university, from the program etc. all the time which is nice.
Merlina and I talked about the wedding and other stuff. I'm now sure that I'll invite three of my former teachers I really like plus my old babysitter families for the ceremony and the champagne reception afterwards. I wasn't really sure if it was an appropriate thing to do but Merlina also thought it was good idea...
We walked back to the apartment and laid down for a little bit watching "Crazy beautiful". Great movie, one of my favorites.
Well. and here I am now writing this....Merlina is also tired so we won't be doing anything wild tonight. Maybe watch another movie.
Merlina has to go to class very early tomorrow morning, I think I'll stay here and sleep in or do some of my own work. I brought a book for my one-to-one-tutorium next semester, I have to read 2 chapters and write a summary. Maybe I can get myself to do that and meet Merlina later. She has Swedish class in the evening, I'll definitely join her for that.
Tuesday she'll be off from school and we'll go out and do some shopping in Karlskrona. I found a nice store that has decoration stuff, I definitely want to check out that one.
I'm feeling good here even though I miss my honey terribly. Really, not just a little, terribly. I just don't want to be without him. Well, Wednesday we'll be together and being here and spending time with Merlina is also so rewarding as always and so important to me. I'm so happy I got to see her after 9 months...;-)
How about you?
Jenny, how are you doing in the U.S.?
Jessy, you haven't beejn updating your blog lately, are you okay?
I'll probably write more tomorrow morning when Merlina is in class.
I love you guys.
Bye.
