The last post!

It’s really happening. It’s really my last day. On my last day I was a busy bee. I woke up in the morning early because Camilla wanted to meet for coffee early, but then I got a message from her in the morning saying hey lets meet later. So I called my friend Elin, she had gotten knee surgery on Monday and had asked me to dinner at her place on Wednesday but then felt sick, then Thursday and felt worse, but she felt better and said that I should come over for lunch. She said to come at 1pm which meant I had time in the morning. There was an exhibit at the palace armory that I felt seeing signs for called Royal Vintage, so I decided to check it out. I biked to Old Town and got there when the museum opened. It was a really cool exhibit of gowns that the princesses and queens of Sweden have worn.

Most of them done by Swedish designers, which was cool to see. There were also exhibits in the museum of carriages and just other clothing and artifacts from the Royal Family.

It’s so odd to still have a royal family to me, just because its something we don’t have. After I finished there, I was cold; it was really cold in the museum because it was underneath the palace. I needed a cup of tea; I went to a café in a cute square near the palace and sat outside drinking tea and eating a pastry.

I was done eating and I still had about an hour and a half before I needed to leave. I wanted to go to the abbey that I had walked by a few days earlier, where all the kings and queens are buried. What a beautiful place it was, but the even more beautiful part than the church was coffins that they were buried in. They were decorated with gold and so shiny. Just glowing in the dark of the church.

Perfect things to buried in. It was time for me to go to central station after the church; I walked back through Old Town to my bike and biked over to central station.

(Look at these mail boxes, so cute)

Where there was a gymnastics group performing, I had a few minutes to sit and watch before I needed to catch the train. I got on the train and got to Elin’s about 30 minutes later. She lives in a cute little Swedish version of suburbs.

Poor girl has crutches and bandages on both knees, her friend Martina was there also, and Sofia and her boyfriend also. We made soup and some other things for lunch and sat outside and ate.

As we were eating the topic of the states came up and they started talking about Arkansas, and Lyndsey. Then Elin was like hey I have a scrapbook we should look at it. So she got it and we looked at their trip to the states, there were lots of pictures with them and Lyndsey. It was so great. I met them when I visited Lyndsey and now here I am in Sweden with them.

Small world. Around 4 pm, everyone else had left and I had told Diana that I would come out to her house that was little farther in the same direction as Elins. I said bye to Elin, and I almost cired. Its sad not knowing when I will see all these friends again. But by time I was leaving and on the bus to Diana’s I realized it was pointless to go all that way because we had to be back in town by 6pm for dinner. So I got off at Drottingholm and waited for Diana there, I laid on a bench near the castle and the water. Then she told me her bus was coming and I got on the bus and there she was. We rode it back to central station to get the bike. And took the bike for one last double bike ride through the city. I biked this time and Diana sat behind. I finally figured out how to do it. Yay. On my last day. We then waited at Mariatorget Square for Izabelle for dinner. We went to get a quick dinner and Camilla met us there. We ate and then went to bowling, Camilla came and bowled one time and then gave up, but before she left she gave me a gift, it was all the best Swedish candy and a Camilla Wellton wallet. It was very sweet of her. The rest of us stayed and bowled for 2 hours. I was winning until I suggested we do crazy bowling.

And then I got like no points the whole game. It was super fun. I felt very American bowling.

It was nice to have friends together at the end to say bye. After bowling, we went to get ice-cream and then everyone but Diana went home. And we were sitting outside and Moon, my roommate’s girlfriend walked by and said they were going to karaoke. We thought it was a sign, because Diana and I had been wanting to do karaoke for weeks. So we went to this place she said, but it was a Thai bar, so everyone there was thai but we didn’t care we just wanted to sing. And then a guy thought Diana was very pretty so he bought us free drinks and we sang our song “Underneath Your Clothes” by Shakira.

We hung out for a bit more and around 11:30 headed home. I cleaned a little more and made sure I had everything. Set 2 alarms and went to bed.

I woke up in the morning very anxious; nervous I would miss my flight. Jennifer said she would drive me but she had been sick for the past few days so I was scared she would not wake up or be too sick to drive me. But she came at 7am and I had my room all cleaned and met her downstairs with my bags. We got to the airport around 7:40am, plenty early. I checked my bags, both overweight but it was a boy checking me and he let me slide. J So I didn’t have to pay anything. Woo. I said goodbye to Jennifer and that was it I was leaving Sweden. Everything went well with the flight; the meal was even Swedish meet balls and mashed potatoes. And I had a window seat! It was great. Now I am sitting in Chicago airport waiting for my flight to St. Louis. It feels funny to be back in the States to be honest, everything is in English, and the portions of food are huge. And the best part is that when I was getting lunch the woman was like where are you from, and I said here. And she was like no way, you are from the Ukraine or German or somewhere in Eastern Europe. Ha ha. I told her I wasn’t and everyone who worked there was like yea you look really European. It was so funny. I loved it. Anyway this is it. The end of my blog. The end of my summer in Sweden. It was truly an amazing experience that doesn’t even feel real right now, it doesn’t even feel like I was just in Sweden this morning. But it was real and that’s the best part.

(My airport arrival :) )

Thank you all for reading my blog. I hope you found it entertaining. J

Grona Lund!

What does one do when you only have 2 days left in the city? That was the question.

On Thursday morning I needed to wash my sheets and the carpet from my room so I spent the morning doing that, as well as carrying a heavy package 10 blocks to the post office because it wouldn’t fit in my bags. After that was done I had nothing left to do but relax. Izabelle told me that she was taking her sister to Grona Lund, the amusement park all day. Since I had only gone one time and ridden one ride only, I thought it sounded fun. The park didn’t open until 3pm, and around 1pm I decided that I wanted to bike there to meet them, but I expected it to take me longer than it did. So I biked around the city a bit and then went and sat near the water with a nice view of Stockholm. I was right near the Vasa Museum and had some time till I was meeting Izabelle, so I went inside.

I remembered seeing it but I didn’t remember it being so impressive. Its really really cool. I see why all the guidebooks say that it’s a must see. I spent an hour or so just walking around the ship. It’s amazing that it is so perfectly preserved. It’s rare to see a wooden ship like that looking so good. By the time I was done looking, Izabelle had texted me saying they were a few minutes away. I hopped back on my bike and rode over to Grona Lund.

We bought a day pass for all the rides, and boy oh boy did we use it. The day was a little gloomy, it looked like it may rain and there was also a concert going on that evening so barely anyone was in line for the rides. It was awesome. We barely waited at any of the rides. We must have gone on at least 10 rides within the first 2 hours.

There was one crazy ride that I can’t even explain to you but you get tossed around a lot and I got a bruise from it on my stomach. The scary part about these rides isn’t that they are scary, because they are a lot more tame than those at an amusement park in the states, its that all these rides are like right next to the water. There was a ride that you just go straight up and then drop and at the top it was the best view of Stockholm I have seen. I really wished I could have taken a picture. It’s too bad I had to drop. J Around 6pm we were hungry and feeling a little nauseas from all the rides. By this time Mathilda, Isabelle’s older sister, had met us there with their little brother who is 3 years old. Her little brother loved this artist who was performing so they brought him to see him, it was his first time at the amusement park. He was so cute. We ate dinner, and dessert, of cotton candy. Which is not called candyfloss in Sweden! It’s called Sockervadd. Not as fun.

Then we headed over where the concert was going to be, it was full of young girls with Eric Saade written all over their faces, and screaming. It was crazy. We listened to the concert for 2 or 3 songs and then went to ride more rides; Mathilda and her brother watched the concert.

We rode the ride that gave me the bruise again and this time at the end we got stuck upside down and they had to have 3 guys come over and push it up. It was funny. We also rode the bumper cars 2 times. When the concert was about to end we got Mathilda and her brother and went on a few more rides with them.

By this time it was 10pm and I still had to bike home. I biked all the way back and when I got back Izabelle texted me and said they had just gotten out of the parking lot. That’s how many people was this entire concert. So crazy, because I live on the other side of Stockholm and I beat them on bike.

A Summer in Review

At the request of my dad, I have decided to write a little summary about my trip.

To be honest I feel like it flew by, and that I didn't get to do half the things I wanted to do. I guess my idea of what this summer would be was really different then what it actually was. In my mind I was going to be working 4 days a week, 9 to 5, and then on the weekends I would have time to go explore Sweden. I would go on weekend trips around the country and just experience Sweden. Instead I experienced the inside of a studio in Sweden. I worked almost 6 days a week every week, 9 till 5 or 6 or 7 or 8. With the reassurance that it would slow down soon, but it never did. But I know that I'm just bitter about it right now because I know I have to leave in 2 days with still so much I want to see and do. Yet the truth of the matter is this was one of the best summers! I'm so happy that I got this opportunity. The best part I think is the bragging rights Ill get because of this, I can make everyone jealous. Just kidding, just kidding, the best part was meeting some amazing people. I made such great friends here and that made this summer what it was. I also learned so much about myself, I had never spent so much time by myself. Its really odd when you don't have an sort of built in 'friend machine' like school, where you see the same people every day and there are a lot of people in your situation trying to make friends. Everyone here already had friends and a life, and I was the one looking for friends. So it involved a lot of putting myself out there. And a lot of doing things on my own if I couldn't find anyone to do it with me. And Im so happy that I was able to do that, in times when everyone I knew was busy I still got out and did things that I wanted to do because I wanted to do them. As far as the internship goes, Camilla's personality was something that took a lot of time getting used to, she doesn't beat around the bush, she was always honest. And I took it as though she hated me, I realize now that she didn't hate me. But she wanted me to grow. And boy did I. I have learned so much about myself and the person that I am and I had a lot of fun doing it. And I lived in Sweden! It is a beautiful country and it seems that people here are always asking why did you come to Sweden out of all place, but I am so happy that I chose Sweden. The city is really breathtaking and the weather is great. I got to travel some too, going to Venice, Paris and London for a little bit of time. I wish I had gotten to travel more but this summer was about my internship and I learned a lot from it. I will never forget all the good times I had this summer, and all the lessons I learned. All the laughs I had, made all the hard times and stress worth it. And seeing that collection walk down the runway made me realize that fashion is what I love and if I can work with people like I did this summer for the rest of my life I will be happy. I also lived with boys for the first time ever, which was an experience. Also living with completely random people, but they were all so friendly and all together great roommates. I don't know if I have anything else to say. I guess if you want me to write anything else let me know. :)

Something you gotta do in Sweden before you leave.

With only 3 days left in Stockholm, I had to do something really touristy today. Guess what it was? The most Swedish thing most people can think of.........

So did you guess it? Its IKEA. Yes I went to IKEA, Izabelle needed to go and I needed to go eat swedish meatballs before I left. It was huge and so cool. I wanted to buy half the rooms but seeing as I spent the morning packing and my stuff doesn't even fit in my suitcases I figured buying a whole kitchen wasn't a good idea. When we got there we ate lunch first, swedish meatballs of course. So good. For some reason they are just better at IKEA. I remembered being there when we came to Sweden with the family, and I took a picture of me with the meatballs for you Jess, since I knew you would have loved to be eating them too.

After eating lunch we just wandered through the whole store. You could spend all day in there really! Its crazy!

(A whole pile of Swedish fish and each bag is only 10kr!!!! Dream come true)

We had to head back to Stockholm city around 3:30 though because Izabelle had to work. So we took the free IKEA bus back to the city. Once we got back to the city, I had a few things I needed to buy so went shopping along the main street, I was carrying curtain rods that we had to buy for Camilla though, which made it kinda hard. I got home and had to finish packing, just to make sure that I was done so that I could relax these last few days. I also cleaned my room. I had to get a box because my bags were going over weight and Camilla said she had just thrown some away at the studio, so I went over there to get them and to drop off the curtain rods, photos from the summer and an illustration I had done for her as a goodbye gift.

It was weird to go back to the studio, it all clean and the whole collection hanging up. I knew it was the last time I would be in there. So I just stood there and looked at it for a bit then headed home. My room is now all packed and clean. Just have to wash my sheets and the rug and then Im done. Its getting sad to think about.

Museum Sandwhich

My day was a museum sandwich to sum it up. Maybe thats all I should say. What a great blog post that would be. ;) But basically it went Tate Modern, From Somewhere (redesign company), Victoria and Albert Museum. Ill start at the beginning though for all you loyal followers. I woke up and Adam was leaving for work, so I made myself some tea, got dressed, ate some breakfast and began my day of 'hallering'.

(Adam's Living Room)

I first wanted to go to the Tate Modern since Nick raved about it, and now I see why. As a lover of modern art it really was a wonderful museum. The best part, a whole room of Mark Rothko, I sat in there for probably 20 minutes in awe, he is probably my favorite artist.

Followed by Roy Lichtenstein, which they also had.

The whole musuem was just such a great stop, very inspiring as I head into the start of school soon... After spending a few hours there, I walked accross the river to the subway and followed the directions I had written down to get to the From Somewhere studio, but when I got to the subway stop that it had told me, I was no where near where I should have been, and I had no map, my phone couldnt call adam and somehow my paper with directions fell out of my pocket.

(Baker Street Station Wall)

So I asked someone how to get to Portobello Road, and they were like well you are way off, you need to go to Notting Hill, which was another 15 minute ride on the tube. Oh boy. I got to Notting Hill and still had no idea where Portobello Road was, but I asked around and wandered and finally found it. It was exciting on that street, everyone had their goods outside and there were just lots of people on the streets, lots of really cute shops and beatiful townhomes down the side streets.

I found From Somewhere, and they were all in the middle of their lunch break. But they let me in, they were all very nice and I talked to them about the future and what they are doing and how they are doing it. And it seems promising. I just need to make sure I keep in touch. After that, they pointed out a closer way to get to the subway so I headed to the Victoria and Albert Musuem. Man is that place overwhelming, its HUGE! And there is so much to see. I wandered through gallery after gallery of everything from Chinese art to ironwork to photography to masonry. It was insane.

By this time it was about 5 and I needed to go meet Adam at work. But first I wanted to go buy us tickets to see a show that night. I had research a half price ticket booth and now it was just finding it. At this point I realized a map would have been very beneficial but Id made it through the whole day without it so I figured I didnt need one. I found the ticket booth easily, and bought us tickets to We Will Rock You, a show that only plays in London and is centered on Queen songs. The problem was getting from there to Adams work, when all I had was the street name. I followed signs to Soho, but that didnt help too much. I found Soho square and remembered being there, so I just relied on my gut sense of direction and somehow miraculous found it within not too long a time.

(Adam working away)

I got to his work and talked to some of his coworkers and at 6pm, they told him to go home. We went back to his place and changed for the show.

(Nick you would have loved this show! Wish you could have been here)

The show started at 7:30, it was a very interesting show, the storyline was a little odd but very entertaining and just fun. Neither Adam or I knew many Queen songs but it was a great time, everyone clapping and dancing in their seats when their favorite songs were sung, and the actors looked like they loved it too. After the show we were hungry so we found a cute little dinner place and got mini burgers and wine.

We tried to decide if it was better to stay up till I had to leave at 3am or go to bed for a few hours. We got back to his place by 11:30pm and thought we should sleep, we both set alarms but something went wrong because at 4:46 I hear Adam knocking on my door and I was still asleep, turns out we both overslept. I got dressed quick and hopped in a cab to the train station, but my flight was supposed to leave at 6am, there was no way I would make it. I got there and my flight had just departed. I was so mad at myself, all this planning to get there super early and I had missed my flight. Next time I will set 2 alarm clocks, so that this cant happen again. Anyway there was another flight at 10:50am to Stockholm. So I spent 4 hours in the airport waiting for my flight. It went smoothly then I had an 80 minute bus ride, which I tried to pay for on my card and it wasnt working, for some reason I think their machine was broken because other peoples cards didnt work either. And then this boy about my age offered to buy me a ticket, and I could just go to the ATM when we got into the city. So thats what we did. I got back to Stockholm and then we got an ATM and I gave him money and thanked him a lot for helping me out. I was so tired at this point. Ive spent the night showering, packing a little, and updating this blog. But now its time for me to go bed.

Grandma & Grandpa, today is the day I finally got to go in to Westminster Abbey

(The right way to start out a sunday morning)

A relaxing day in London. The church service that Adam goes to starts at 11:30am which meant we had a little time in the morning. He got a basket of fresh pastries delivered to his door which we ate, then went to a coffee shop for an hour or so before the service.

The service had a surprising amount of young people and last for about an hour and a half. It ended around 1pm and we went to a building nearby that had a restaurant on the top floor with a nice view of London, we got coffee there and enjoyed the view.

Then we headed back to the room to get the belt that Adam had bought Alex for his birthday, but needed to be exchanged for a different color. This took us back to Brick Lane, where there was tons of activity for a sunday, markets eveerywhere, booths of all kinds of foods, people getting their hair cut on the side of the street, and us in our church clothes. Ha ha.

(Vibe cuts... a hair cutting booth... never seen that before)

We walked up and down the street a bit after returning the belt and then we made our way towards Westminister Abbey. Of course, making our way there took forever, because the subway we needed was closed and the signs were all wrong and we walked from one stop to another to another before we decided to just take a cab. We got lunch on the go and ate it in front of the abbey as we waited for the organ recitial to start.

(Looking stylish while waiting for the organ recital)

The organ recital lasted 30 minutes and was a perfect thing to do on our relaxing sunday. And I finally got to go into the abbey. (There is a back story here: when Jessica and I went on our trip to England with Grandma and Grandpa, we tried to go to Westminister Abbey but the grandparents were walking quite slow and by time we got to the abbey the person at the end of the line was holding a sign that said 'we are the last ones in the abbey today'...so we never got to go in) but now thats all changed. :) The songs were played beautifully and the building just takes your breath away. After the recital we walked around inside a bit but they were having an evening service so we couldn't hang around too long. We walked around parliment a little, then through St. James Park, around Buckingham Palace and Green Park. Lovely views and greenery.

(My model poses in front of parliment)

(Adam said he sat under this tree alone... we just wanted proof that he has sat under this tree with friends too)

It was time for dinner and Adam took us to Mayfair area, which is a very nice part of town, lots of nice cafes, shops, little alley ways, we found a good place for dinner and sat there eating, drinking, having a jolly good time on Alex's last night. After sitting for hours we walked around the area some more and went home.

Alex worked on some homework, Adam and I talked politics. And then it was bed time. I said goodbye to Alex, and went to bed. Im so happy that I got to spend this time with them. Im so lucky to have the friends that I do.