I've been saving up for and planning this trip for the last two years and don't feel the least bit ready to leave. For a year. In FOURTEEN DAYS. Fourteen days! That's nothing! It took me about a minute to turn fourteen when I was a kid. I'm not sure if everyone understands the brevity of this situation of which I've put myself. I have never moved out of the room in my house that I currently reside. Ever. I was placed in a crib in this room when I was a wee baby, and nothing has changed since. Well yeah I graduated the crib and eventually the twin into a luxurious queen, and I admit that I made the grave mistake of painting my walls lime green when I was a freshman in highschool and now six years later the color raises my stress levels enormously..... I'm still here. As I pack and clean out my room, I found a Christmas ornament that I made in Mrs. Howry's first grade class. I've found shoeboxes filled with notes from ex boyfriends, leftover felt and pipecleaners from middle school art projects, and a bag filled with clothes specifically for zombie costumes. Ok let's be honest. Everyone knows that last one is fairly recent but that's beside the point... I'm now moving to a DIFFERENT COUNTRY. No cushion. No knowing that I'll always have backup pipecleaners if ever I need them. No knowing that there will always be food in the fridge. No sister's closet to be raided should all my clothes be worn and forgotten to be washed.
I couldn't be more excited.
It's time to move on, and time to make it impossible to turn back. Go big or go home, right? I'm ready to start appreciating California for what it is, and the best way to do that is to leave. GV has been home for 20 years, and I will readily tell anyone how much I love it, but also will easily spew every nuance about this town that makes me crazy. Same with this country. Actually I may hesitate about "loving" the US, I'm still convinced that it's high time the Cali cuts itself off at the plate line (Reno can come with) and starts paddling off into the pacific. We have ample farmland to support ourselves, the chillest people in the country, good food, dope cities, dope, and everything from hot deserts to dusky redwood forests. Hasta La Vista USA! Welcome to the Grand Republic of Cali-for-ni-a.
i digress.
I'm moving away. I'm pumped. I'm suddenly really self-conscious about how people at home are going to be actually reading this. So allow me to delve into something a little more concrete about what awaits for me up north. I'm sure that that is probably why you are here.
Right. I'll be living in and going to school in Uppsala, Sweden at Uppsala university. I will be studying Communications (Uppsala's Department of Informatics and Technology) and will be taking Media, Culture and Society; Media Policy and Regulation; Media Analysis; Strategic Communication and Basic Swedish. Please only ask me what those courses will entail once I have taken them. For now, that is practically all the information I can give you, but I will have you know that being a Comm major takes you places! That's right, two field trips to Berlin and London! So stoked! Anyway I am also really excited to be taking Swedish as well. It is such a beautiful language, and I am so excited to have the opportunity to use my new language every day. Language classes and I don't jive too well, because I can easily remember things when they're fresh, but once I stop practicing and my working memory gets filled with other fluff, it all seems to disappear. Soo hopefully the submersion method will work. Also everyone there speaks english, so that's a nice backup. I'll have all the benefits of learning a language in it's home country, but since all my classes are in English, I won't have that pressure to master the language super fast that sort of puts a damper on studying abroad. But I mean, to each his own. It's definitely the freeway to fluency, but also sounds terrifying. I'm perfectly content with an easy country highway to superior conversational skills.
I continue to digress. sigh.
I will be living in Flogsta, a cluster of residence halls in Uppsala for International Students and Swedes. From what I hear from past students "flogsta... that place is an animal house." so. crap. but from what I read it honestly sounds like heaven. Each floor has six swedes and six internationals who all share a kitchen and common area. I hear that it is very easy to meet people in Flogsta and that you'll make fast friends with your corridor mates. I get my own room and my own bathroom to deck out to my hearts content in Ikea goodies and I hear tell that there is a sauna on each roof of Flogsta? Ok so maybe the occasional beer can or cigarette butt will fall on my noggin while I'm walking home, or there may be a toga party going on right outside my room, but I'm going to pay my price for my. own. bathroom. And meeting tons of people from all over the country. So yeah, room 222. Easy to remember on the occasionally drunken stumble home (kidding, mom) (ish). Thrilled.
That being said, packing is hard. Only being here for 14 more days is hard. There are so many people I want to see and places I want to visit before I leave. Some other things are easy, like telling people that I don't really care about their problems because they will be a world away in two weeks. Ok that sounds a little mean, but it sounds funnier if you can see my cheeky smile that goes along with it. Of course I care about your problems, I'm just moving away from them. I have bigger fish to fry. Like fermented herring. Which, yes, of course I'm going to try while I'm there. Why do people keep asking me this? I'm going all the way to Sweden, of course I'm going to slather my rye flatbread in a healthy portion of fish in a tube, and I'll like it goddamnit. Like I said: go big or go home. Why travel all that way if all I'm going to do is try to recreate what I left behind?
Righto. I really should be packing. Or doing another budget to make sure for the 12th time that I will not run out of money. Lordsy I sure hope not. I'm fairly certain that I will be alright. oh btw fun fact: I worked at Ike's Quarter Cafe for the last 2 years and saved nearly 100% of my paychecks and most of my tips to fund this year. All me. So if one more person says "you're so lucky you get to go," I might just punch them in the throat because I worked my goddamn ass off to get here. Sorry. It's a sensitive topic. Annnyway.... packing. Right. I really hate leaving on such a negative note. I think it sounds negative if a neutral third party were to read this. Shoot. OK. I'm REALLY excited, already am friends with some people who will be there and they are rad people. I am psyched, honestly. And I am lucky.. I have to admit even to myself. I have a rock solid foundation of family and friends here in Grass Valley, and without those people I know I would not have the courage to go to Sweden... But shhh don't tell anyone. ;)
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