Photos Galore!

I retrieved my photos off of my hard drive and they are up! There are a bunch of videos at the end of the Sweden/Norway set. The problem is not fixed, but at least I was able to get the data off.

Ireland & Norway (finally!), plus the new move

Okay, I am finally back in the USA, but no longer in Colorado. Yes, I am in Maryland now! The week at home flew by WAY too fast. It was fantastic though! I got to see my roomie, have dinner with Tara and Colleen, spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa, have the ENTIRE Mazza family over for dinner, bake too much, visit the Ragans, and attend Grandpa Don's 90th Birthday Party! I also got my laptop and ipod fixed, went to the gym, and went canoing on the lake. Thank goodness for my messed up sleep schedule (from the eight hour time shift), otherwise I would not have been able to accomplish so much!

I moved to Gaithersburg, MD last Wednesday. My flight from Denver was overbooked, so I volunteered to take a later flight and earned a free ticket...yippee! I was thankful for my smart packing decision of limiting myself to one big suitcase, one small, and a backpack when I arrived because I had to navigate the buses and the metro. The girl I am leasing from picked me up at the closest metro station, which was super nice and much appreciated! I like the house I am living in - it is not super far from the office and the commute only involves one bus change. It is a safe area with a grocery store, parks, etc. nearby. I have been very lucky because this week was "cool" (relatively...hot for Coloradans) and not incredibly humid. I know that the time will come though!

I love my job thus far. My boss is great, but will not be around much because he travels quite a bit. His secretary is incredibly sweet, and has been great about showing me around and making introductions. I have my own cubicle and phone line, which makes me feel quite important. The one problem I have is that I cannot use my own computer (I have to use a Sodexo laptop in order to be on the Sodexo network), and I miss my MacBook all day long! I will never go back to owning a PC. Anyways, Thursday and Friday were a whirlwind of introductions, getting lost, and attempting to figure things out. I know that I am going to forget my ID card (required to enter every single internal doorway) one of these days and be in huge trouble! We are in the process of hiring another person for the Corporate Citizenship department because right now it is just Arlin (my boss), La'Shaune (his secretary), and me (haha). I attended two presentations of potential hires each day. I also made a lot of copies, had a conference call, a webinair, and received training on a new database that I will be working on next week. I have several projects to complete over the course of the summer and I love them. Several involve collaboration with people from other departments, so I will be able to see what other areas of the company are like.

Today I also went to Trader Joe's...YES! I am not going to lie, the fact that there is a Trader Joe's in Gaithersburg was a huge motivator for me to brave the humidity and move here. Haha. For anyone not familiar with its glory, Trader Joe's is a smallish grocery franchise, that features tons of organic and natural stuff, including, of course, tons of vegan deliciousness. I finally figured out the bus route there today and was not disappointed. I found cherry chocolate chip soy ice cream! Yippee! I also confessed my love of the company to the cashier guy (beginning with New Year's in Tucson, 2007) and I think he thought I was a little crazy. PS - apparently we cannot get these stores in Colorado because they sell their own brand of wine in-store, which violates state liquor laws. I say that is lame.

But let's backtrack a few weeks, to May 26th through 30th, to be specific. Where was I then? IRELAND! I LOVED Ireland! I miss that place! It was very green, true to its name! I flew into Dublin from Göteborg on Monday afternoon. I appreciated the fact that the Dublin Airport was in fact, in Dublin, unlike most of the other Ryanair Airports. I checked into my hostel, which was located right downtown. I stayed there Monday night and Thursday night, and it was one of the best that I have ever been to. Anyways, the first stop on my agenda with Trinity University in Dublin to see the Book of Kells. Wow! That was incredible. There was a great exhibit about the Book and its history. Plus, I actually got to see it. It was much smaller than expected, which made the ornate text and obsessively detailed illustrations even more incredible. The book, or I should probably say books because there are four volumes, dates back to 800 a.d., so it is amazing that it is still here today!

Trinity University

After The Book of Kells, I walked around and explored a bit. Dublin is a very multicultural city. I was really surprised by the amount of Polish restaurants and grocery stores; I wonder why the large influence? Everyone was incredibly nice and smiley, which was welcome after Sweden (the smile part and some of the nice)! I did not realize that the official language of Ireland is still Gaelic - most of the signs are in both Gaelic and English.

On Tuesday, I set off in the rain (yay Irish weather) to join a day tour. I liked this particular tour because we were in one of those fifteen passenger vans instead of a huge bus. Our guide took us to tons of amazing sites around Dublin. Our first stop was Four Knocks Passage, an ancient tomb. It looked like a little grassy hill at first, but then we saw the secret entrance. This particular tomb was over 5000 years old, which older than the pyramids! Our second stop was Mellifont Abbey, the first in Ireland. Only the very skeleton of the foundation remains because most of the stones were moved a long time ago for use in other building projects. How sad is that? However, one can still see the general layout. We went to see the high crosses at Monasterboice next. These HUGE crosses are probably ten feet tall and pure stone. They are covered with engravings of scenes from the Bible. I have no idea how they have managed to stay standing for so long! We had lunch at a cute little pub before our next activities. I had cabbage and potatoes - my very favorite! Afterwards, we moved on to the Hill of Slane...and ventured back out int the rain. There are some ruins of an old monastery on the Hill, but it is famous because this is where Saint Patrick first came to proclaim Christianity. I saws tons of cute cows too, which made me very happy. The final destination for the day was the Hill of Tara. This place was awesome! To the uninformed person, it looks like a bunch of small hills with some adorable sheep frolicking around. However, it was actually the meeting place of the ancient kings of Ireland! The kings were crowned there and the high king was chosen as well. There are also several underground chambers and burial places, hidden in the hills.

Monk washing up building at Mellifont Abbey

I set off for Galway when I returned to Dublin after the day's tour. I arrived after dark, so I only checked into my hostel and made plans for the next morning. This hostel was not anywhere as nice as the Dublin one, but I put up with it for two nights. Wednesday morning, I decided, was Cliffs of Moher day because the weather was supposed to be nice. I had to choose a big tour due to the absence of any small ones, but it turned out great. The guide was a tiny old Irish man, and he was hilarious! I would have paid much, much more just to go on a tour with this guy! The whole time he told stories about drinking too much, leprechauns, and faeries, and hitting on all of the girls in the bus (which was enormous by the way). It was great! He also drove on the "wrong" (for Ireland) side of the road for a bit "to make the Americans feel at home." But really, I learned quite a bit about important things too. We drove through the Burren, which is this weird, flat rocky landscape. All of the rocks have deep cracks, and tons of wildflowers and plants grow in them. There are also ancient remains in some! There are quite a few ancient tombs in the area, and really important artifacts have been found. Plus, it is incredibly beautiful! We drove along Galway Bay, saw a few castles, a lot of sheep, and horses. We went to a faerie ring and heeded warnings from entering...faeries kidnap people there. Oh yes, and we also saw the Cliffs of Moher:

The Cliffs of Moher

Let's see...INCREDIBLE, right? The weather that day could not have been more perfect! I took a million photos at the visitor's place, then crossed the "Do NOT Cross" area and took two million more. That was a really good decision because the view was much better. I was very careful and stayed away from the edge. I compared my photos to the ones in the gift shop, and have to say that many of mine are better. Yes, I will brag about it because I am self-centered.

View of Galway Bay from the Cliffs of Moher

On Thursday I walked around Galway a bit. It is a university town, rather small and very cute. Oh! On Wednesday night I also went to watch some ceili dancing...that was super fun! Anyways, Galway was great. It is a really cute little down. Across the river running through the center is Claddaugh Quay, the place where the Claddaugh ring was first made. I bought a new ring while I was in Ireland to replace the one that I lost on my first day at CC (that was devastating because I had been wearing it ever since I bought it at my last dance competition). I headed back to Dublin Thursday afternoon to stay the night before my early morning flight on Friday. I took the bus to Galway and back...good choice...we passed though so many cute little towns and I saw a ton of the beautiful countryside!

Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin

I returned to Sweden on Friday afternoon (and to my DISGUSTING house) to study up for my Monday final in Economic Geography of Asia. I enjoyed that test...seriously. I spent the weekend packing and getting everything in order for my departure the the USA. My final was a three hour, six-essay ordeal in the afternoon on Monday. Dad and Kenyon arrived in Stockholm the previous day (Sunday) but I left them to fend for themselves because of the exam. I took the train up to meet them on Tuesday morning - yay! It was so nice to see part of my family again! We covered so much ground in the next week that it was crazy. Our Eurail passes were awesome and we all agree that taking trains is THE way to travel! I even like sleeping on trains, and Dad and I devised some rather good strategies for taking decent photos as the car speeds down the tracks. The run down:

• Tuesday (June 3) - meet Dad and K, travel to Gävle, night train to Lulea
  
• Wednesday - explore Lulea, night train to Kiruna
• Thursday - Kiruna (furthest Northern city in Sweden), stayed in a great hostel, and our first experience with the midnight sun (it was sunny at 2:00 am...I kid you not)
• Friday - train to Narvik, Norway...this boarder-crossing journey is famous for its beauty! We saw reindeer, a moose, gorgeous snowy peaks, Abisko (famous from my Swedish workbooks), and the amazingly long Tometräsk Lake. Santa was also on our train, seriously...he was visiting from Japan. For some reason, the scenery completely changed when we crossed the boarder in to Norway and everything became super gorgeous. We stayed in Narvik Friday night at a great hostel, even though the sauna was locked, much to Dad's dismay.
• Saturday - hike in Narvik, great views of the amazingly beautiful fjord there, Dad and K went to the World War II museum, bus to Tronheim, walked around Tronheim and enjoyed the summer festival, train to Åndalsnes (adorable little town, right in the middle of several fjords...I am moving here), which was an incredibly beautiful journey, stayed at the most adorable hostel ever
• Sunday - Dad rented a car so that we could drive over the pass that we went over on Friday's train...we stopped and took way too many photos, saw so many amazing waterfalls, adorable lambs (I tried to pet one and failed), over four feet of snow at the top and skiers, the Geiranger Fjord (we took a boat trip in this one...wow!), trolls galore, and almost had a scenery overload. We stayed another night at the amazingly cute hostel because it was just that great.
• Monday - train to Oslo, which was late...so we missed our connections and ended up getting back to Göteborg, Sweden after the last train for Jönköping had already departed. We were able to get on a bus in the middle of the night, and arrived back three hours before my five am fligh
• Tuesday - I went back to the USA (Jönköping to Stockholm to Frankfurt to Denver) and Dad and K went to Copenhage

Wednesday - I wake up at 4:00 am and bake three cakes, two batches of cookies, and pancakes before 9:00 am...yay!


I am having issues with my external hardrive, which is also where all of my photos are stored. I do not even want to talk about that. In the mean time, about a third of the Sweden/Norway photos are up and hopefully more will be soon. I think that the photos speak for themselves.

Photo Mess of Insane Proportions

The good news is that all of my photos made it though the crash of iPhoto, which I used to like, and now I am not so pleased with. The bad news is that they are a huge mess and are going to take hours to reorganize (I have over 4000). SO, I think that I may have to wait until I am home next week to clean them up. Sadly, this means that I cannot put up photos from Ireland for another week or so...and I took some really fantastic photos there! Maybe if I pack really quickly tonight, I can work on it, but we shall see...

I also just remembered something else fantastic about Ireland - almost everything there is LABELED vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, etc! I cannot even describe how cool this is! I was absolutely raving about it in one grocery store to the checker lady, and I think she thought that I was a little bizarre, but it is a BIG deal. I usually have to spend a ton of time meticulously checking everything...plus, in the EU the preservatives/additives are numbered, so I have to check the numbers to see if any of the animal derived ones are included. I suppose that this might be a little more helpful than the vague US system (ex. "Natural Flavors" - what the heck is that?). ANYWAYS, it was super awesome. Oh yes, and I even found vegan fig newtons...which I have not had for four years.

I have my Economic Geography of Asia final today. It is a five hour essay test, which I think will bring back memories of AP exams in high school. I also need to pack EVERYTHING because I will be returning to Jönköping right before I fly home next week. I think that I might go to jympa as well because it will be the last time I can go. I am super sad about that. I love jympa. I have a feeling that this may turn into an all-nighter, depending on how long the packing takes. I am taking a SUPER early train to Stockholm tomorrow to meet Dad and K though! EXCITING!

I am working on laundry yet again, and need to get back to studying. I also need to stop eating frozen cookie dough...I made it last week because I had some ingredients that I needed to use up with the full intention of actually making cookies. Well, that did not happen because the only thing I like more than fresh cookie dough is frozen cookie dough, so yes, big mistake there.

Greener Than Ever

I am back from Ireland...and quite sad about it, to be honest! Ireland was INCREDIBLE! That place is so gorgeous! The people were so nice too! I had almost forgotten what it is like to walk around and have people smile at you. Swedish people are so reserved it is ridiculous. You smile at a Swedish person and they look at you with this expression that says, "Why are you smiling at me you STRANGER?!" Yes, that is a very sad, and very true fact. Anyways, it was also nice to be surrounded by English. Even though the official language of Ireland is Gaelic, everything is in English too (or just in English). I appreciated the fact that I knew what was going on around me 100% of the time. But most of all, I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IRELAND!

I took MANY amazing photographs, but am unable to access them at the moment. My computer decided that it would be fun to lose half of my entire photo library last night, and I am still working on fixing that problem. I still have the photos, backed up on my external drive, but I am in the process of burning them all to DVDs as a precautionary measure before I start trying to fix the problem. Last night there was reason to panic, but now I am feeling more in control of the situation. If I lost my photos...over 3000 of them...oh boy, I do not even know what I would do.

My CC email + gmail configuration from heaven is also not cooperating, so I have to use stupid Outlook Express to access my main email account. That sad excuse for a program makes me want to rip my hair out. Otherwise, it was a lovely day today. I went to the gym for jympa, but I neglected to drink water beforehand and it was not very enjoyable. I need to study for my final on Monday, but I have so much other stuff to do! I will get to it though...I need to solve this photo project first though, so that I can stop worrying about it.

I will post about the Ireland trip as soon as I fix the photos and get some of my other tasks accomplished. I am really excited to see Dad and Kenyon on Tuesday AND super excited to be back in Evergreen in a week and a half!

Time is flying...

I cannot believe that it is already Saturday! I am working on laundry (the project always takes a minimum of three hours) and papers. I leave for Dublin on Monday morning...SO EXCITING! Seriously, I have wanted to move to Ireland for practically my entire life, so I am seriously hoping that it lives up to my expectations. I wish that I could bring my fantastic rainboots, but I know that there will not be room in my backpack and it would probably make me go over the weight limit. Ryanair has really strict policies for carry on luggage, concerning size and weight. They charge people quite a bit to check bags, so I always make sure that I can carry on. Luckily, I have my gortex hiking shoes to brave the wet weather.

This week was quite busy...again! I am so thankful that I somehow managed to motivate myself into starting and finishing my final for Economic Development last weekend because there is no way that I would have time to do that this weekend. I am almost finished with that class, which is a really good feeling. We had our last lecture two weeks ago, but we have a group paper due along with the final on Friday. I already turned in the exam (on Monday...this must be a record for me!), and the paper just needs a final edit. I wrote it with two of my friends from class, and I am happy to say that it turned out pretty well. I think that it was my first time writing a group paper since elementary school. It turned out to be a little higher than elementary work, quality wise...haha. The teacher (not a professor) is grading these as pass/fail, which really distorts the incentives to work hard. My group did though - we looked at the influence of investment in education and R&D (research and development) on South Korea's GDP growth, made our own model, ran a regression...it was intense.

I had my last lecture for Economic Geography of Asia on Thursday. I have really enjoyed that class...for the most part. The lecturer for the first and last two lectures was the head of the Economic Department at JIBS. He is also a good friend of Mark, one of my professors and thesis advisor at CC, and was a great lecturer. He may visit CC in the fall (he comes to our school every now and then). I have the big final for that class on June 2, and then I am done! I think that one is going to be a little challenging because it is an essay test - eight or nine questions and five hours. I have a feeling that it is going to bring back memories of AP essay writing...THAT seems like a long time ago!

The big, nasty Swedish 2 final was yesterday. I definitely failed it, but I am feeling okay with that reality. It was an incredibly difficult test. Though I prepared for it, I would have had to memorize the dictionary to get a high score. It was rather ridiculous! Most of the others in my class felt the same way, so I know that I am not the lone slacker (about half opted not to take the exam at all). I do not get credit for my Swedish courses from CC anyways - they were 'extra' - but I am glad that I took them. I learned quite a bit of Swedish and it was important to me to learn at least some of the language that I am continuously immersed in.

One of the major accomplishments of the week was FINALLY confirming a place to live in Gaithersburg this summer! I feel so much better knowing that is taken care of. The house that I am renting a room in is quite close to my office and not very far from Trader Joe's, which was pretty much a requirement...haha. I am getting very excited to start that adventure! I have been working diligently on a few different Sodexo and Relay projects...trying to get them finished up before summer. I am also SUPER EXCITED for my week at home! I have lists and lists, and yes, more lists of all of the things that I want to do. It will be wonderful to be back in Evergreen! I have also received a large amount of pre-reading for my course at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in August. That is going to be a phenomenal experience! One of my professors is writing a book on the 2008 Elections and we get to read the rough draft copy. How cool is that? The course is really intriguing because one professor is a staunch republican and the other is a democrat. We mix the glory of CC teaching with an internship at the Convention, plus other group work and such. I cannot wait! Now, if Hillary would stop being such a sore loser and drop out instead of making comments about Kennedy being shot in June to Obama, everything would be great!

Also, because I am obsessed with vegan news, Opera is going vegan (and gluten-free) for three weeks! I not one for celebrity gossip, but she has a major influence on people, so this could be really good! I hope that the health effects, as well as the environmental, social, psychological, and economic benefits get some fantastic press!

Last Full Week

First of all, I could not be more delighted that the lilacs are blooming! I have been collecting a bunch every single day and my room smells amazing.

I realized this morning that this is my last FULL week in Sweden. Wow! Where has the time gone? I was completely wired last night and did not go to sleep until after 5:00 am. That was rather inconvenient, but I discovered that it is completely light outside at 4:00 am! I am really excited to travel up north with Dad and Kenyon in a few weeks to see the midnight sun. I think that Northern Sweden in the summer time could be the perfect place for Relay!

Last week was rather awful, so I would prefer not to talk about it. I started and finished my home exam for Economic and Institutional Development this weekend and am really glad to have that out of the way. The first part was regurgitation, but the second section actually required critical thinking and I sort of enjoyed it. How sad is that? I need to finish up the group paper for that class this week, but there is not too much more to do for that. I cannot take my final for Economic Geography of Southeast Asia early, so I will have to endure that on June 2. I have really been enjoying that class because it is so much better than the Economic Geography course that I took last quarter. The one thing that bothers me though is that we do not discuss current events. Last week there was not one word said on the earthquake in China or the cyclone in Burma. I could not believe it...I mean, people know about that...right? My last class Swedish, is on my hate list at the moment. I am still irritated about my presentation. In addition, we had to take the essay exam on Thursday and I know that I did poorly on it. I was extremely tired and my brain completely checked out. Oh well. I do not get credit for that course from CC anyways (thanks a lot, CC). I still have to take the nasty final for that class on Friday, which I already know is going to be three hours of awful.

It has been kind of chilly and rainy here, but the sun is out today! I have not been able to walk on the trail along the lake due to massive amounts of bugs! I feel like a windshield in the Midwest when I brave the journey. My alternative is walking on the path along the road, which is much less enjoyable but bug free. I hope that we have an extremely short cold snap to fix that little problem! It is really a bummer because I have to walk from home to downtown at least two time a day, but more often three or four. I have become so used to walking here that it almost seems strange to me to think of driving! I suppose that I will not be driving much this summer anyways, so it does not matter.

The other day when I was walking into town and picking up trash, I had this really interesting thought. I try to pick up trash wherever I am walking if I am not in a hurry, even though it makes me grumpy that I will completely clean up an area and it will be gross the next day. Anyways, I was thinking about the TYPE of trash that I always see: candy bar wrappers, cigarettes, soda and alcohol bottles, bags from fast food restaurants...and thought: is there a correlation between IQ and littering? I mean, everyone knows that littering is wrong and usually a little enforced criminal offense. However, people still do it. Furthermore, the type of people who litter are also the ones stuffing themselves with soda and hamburgers and all other types of junk, along with alcohol and tobacco. That sounds pretty idiotic to me. When was the last time that you saw a soymilk container on the side of the road? I have never seen that! I think that someone should do a study on this topic because I hypothesize that there is a definite correlation.

No Love for Swedish

I am absolutely wiped out today. I have been so tired for no apparent reason for three days. I think I need to go on vacation...again...haha. I wish that I could say that yesterday's Swedish presentation went well. I worked really hard on it and felt pretty proud of myself. However, my teacher felt otherwise. She was so picky on the comments after every person's presentation, ex. "You pronounced 'x' war like 'y' in the second minute of your presentation." Wow, pardon me for not having Swedish as a first language. Today, we had to take an essay exam and then endure a few hours of class. Then, we received the presentation grades. Let's put it this way: I am pretty sure it is one of the lowest grades I have received ever. Right down there with the test on the human skeleton in fourth grade that I failed on purpose. Granted, it does not count for a massive percentage of my grade, but I felt that it was quite unfair. Everyone was graded really harshly, which should make me feel better, but it does not. I guess that it is just one more reason why I cannot wait to go back to CC!

Many of the people that I am currently forced to cohabitate with really make me question the future of the human race. I mean, honestly, I am one of the younger people living here - technically, I should be one of the less mature people...right? Apparently not. However, I am still immature enough to be passive aggressive and offer a list of tips for these individuals on my blog:

1. Dirty dishes left outside of your room will not be removed and cleaned. It does not matter how long you leave them there. Dishes left in the kitchen will not be cleaned by others. Yes, it is earth shattering, but do your own dishes!
2. If you break glass, you must clean it up. Broken glass is dangerous and it poses a risk for other people who may happen to use common areas, such as the kitchen.
3. Trash should be relocated from the kitchen, hallway, etc. and taken to the dumpster outside. It may come as a surprise, but we actually live in Sweden, not Italy. Trash does not relocate itself, though it may seem that way, judging from the excessive amount of trash outside.
4. Food should not be left on the floor, counters, table, or anywhere besides a cupboard or refrigerator. Does it come as a surprise to you that there are insects migrating in droves? Do you wonder why your living environment often smells similar to a dumpster? This tip is your solution.
5. I will refrain from giving dietary advice. However, if you choose to cook with grease, take appropriate precautions and clean up after yourself afterwards. Besides clogging your arteries, grease also clogs sinks. It also makes counter tops and stove tops disgusting.
6. Clean up after yourself in the bathroom. I will not go into details, in order to keep this 'clean' (pun completely intended). Also, mirrors are designed to be reflective. If a mirror is covered in spit and toothpaste, it no longer serves this purpose.
7. Stealing food is wrong. People do not appreciate it.
8. If you are going to have a party, please party elsewhere. Being loud, obnoxious, and intoxicated does not foster healthy neighbor relations. If you choose to forgo this advice, please refrain from singing drinking songs...in high pitched voices...and screeching.

I could list more, but I probably sound like a full-blown pessimist, which is not actually the case. But sometimes, it would be nice to be able to prepare a meal or walk outside my room without the risk of contracting a disease.

Tomorrow I am going to go and find some lilacs!