Just wanted to say...
that I am deliriously happy. It's awesome. And amazing. And I'm not even quite sure why I'm this happy.
One reason definitely has to be people. I haven't felt this comfortable and at ease with a group of people since like the third year of high school. I went to this big Foo Fighters concert with Katie, Vanessa and Paxton on Saturday and it was amazing--not necesarily because I love the Foo Fighters (because I'm not the biggest fan) but because they're all such cool people and it was just a great experience. It sounds wrong but I LIKE doing things without Carl. I like being the vaguely ignorant American whose finding things out for herself. Sometimes when Carl is around, I feel like I'm cheating because I can just say nothing and he'll take care of everything. But it's very nice to try to take care of things myself. We actually had craptastic seats--nosebleed and practically behind the stage--because we booked the tickets the night before. But as we're sitting there and waiting for the first opening act to start, some security people come up and ask if we went to go down to the floor. YES PLEASE. We actually ended up like three feet from the stage at one point (while the second opening act, which I really liked, was on) but then Vanessa had to go out to get Paxton and the security wouldn't let them into the closet standing area so I went back to stand with them. I made some efforts to mosh but I decided on just bobbing up and down because my feet were already killing me. These two guys next to me were totally out of their heads, which was annoying, but they left me alone so that's cool. After the concert, I had to wait at T-Centralen for upwards of half an hour for my train and got to witness various interesting aspects of Stockholm night life (puking, drug deals, flashing).
Today was Sami (or is it Same?) National Day, the Samis being pretty much the Native American equivalent in Sweden. There was some kind of event being held at Skansen, which is a living museum and zoo and is close to my apartment, so I decided to go and meet up with some people. A bit disappointing! There was no real events but a lecture in Swedish. But I did get to eat some reindeer (delicious!) and lasso another reindeer (it was stuffed) so I can't complain. I did miss the last bus to my place by two minutes so I decided to walk. It was so beautiful--snow everyone and Djurgarden is ecspecially beautiful because it's mostly parks. I was so disappointed that my camera wasn't working; I would have loved to snap some shots of Grona Lund, the amusement park here, which looked so creepy and beautiful completly empty and covered in snow.
So basically, I am relentlessly happy here in Stockholm. The only thing upsetting me is my independent study, which is because I feel guilty because I haven't done enough with it yet. I know that when I really sit down and get started (on Wednesday?) I'll feel better.
One reason definitely has to be people. I haven't felt this comfortable and at ease with a group of people since like the third year of high school. I went to this big Foo Fighters concert with Katie, Vanessa and Paxton on Saturday and it was amazing--not necesarily because I love the Foo Fighters (because I'm not the biggest fan) but because they're all such cool people and it was just a great experience. It sounds wrong but I LIKE doing things without Carl. I like being the vaguely ignorant American whose finding things out for herself. Sometimes when Carl is around, I feel like I'm cheating because I can just say nothing and he'll take care of everything. But it's very nice to try to take care of things myself. We actually had craptastic seats--nosebleed and practically behind the stage--because we booked the tickets the night before. But as we're sitting there and waiting for the first opening act to start, some security people come up and ask if we went to go down to the floor. YES PLEASE. We actually ended up like three feet from the stage at one point (while the second opening act, which I really liked, was on) but then Vanessa had to go out to get Paxton and the security wouldn't let them into the closet standing area so I went back to stand with them. I made some efforts to mosh but I decided on just bobbing up and down because my feet were already killing me. These two guys next to me were totally out of their heads, which was annoying, but they left me alone so that's cool. After the concert, I had to wait at T-Centralen for upwards of half an hour for my train and got to witness various interesting aspects of Stockholm night life (puking, drug deals, flashing).
Today was Sami (or is it Same?) National Day, the Samis being pretty much the Native American equivalent in Sweden. There was some kind of event being held at Skansen, which is a living museum and zoo and is close to my apartment, so I decided to go and meet up with some people. A bit disappointing! There was no real events but a lecture in Swedish. But I did get to eat some reindeer (delicious!) and lasso another reindeer (it was stuffed) so I can't complain. I did miss the last bus to my place by two minutes so I decided to walk. It was so beautiful--snow everyone and Djurgarden is ecspecially beautiful because it's mostly parks. I was so disappointed that my camera wasn't working; I would have loved to snap some shots of Grona Lund, the amusement park here, which looked so creepy and beautiful completly empty and covered in snow.
So basically, I am relentlessly happy here in Stockholm. The only thing upsetting me is my independent study, which is because I feel guilty because I haven't done enough with it yet. I know that when I really sit down and get started (on Wednesday?) I'll feel better.