feelin' emo?

Exercise makes for a fairly good hug substitute... :)

Booyah!

Also, it's nice to know that I can causally jog 2km in 10mins...

Sweden: Week 1

Hej, hej!

Jeg heter Kat! Jag kommer från Nya Zeeland men jag bor pår Sernanders Väg i Flosgsta. Jag talar engelska och lite franska. Jag pluggar psykologi!

Jag vaknar klockan kvart över sju och jag stiger up klockan halv åtta!

... and that's some of what I learned in class last week ... I can't remember it all by heart - but I know what I meant to say! :)

My word of today is: skit-trött... :) Which is how I've been feeling much of late!

Initially because I was so stressed and upset and more recently because I've been going out so much and having such fun with my new friends!

I've been super busy and so haven't really been keeping my hand diary - but a basic overview of my last week has involved:

• lessons from 9am-12noon every weekday since Wednesday...
• my first ever visit to IKEA... which was an experience, to say the least!
• going to Stockholm to experience the Gay Pride Parade (AKA the "Paride")
• going out on Friday night for SIX HOURS!!! Then walking over 3km home in 4-5" heels!
• meeting a vast number of totally awesome people from all over the world
• getting lost in the enormous ICA Maxi supermarket nearby...
• walking to and from class every day...
• learning Swedish words/grammar
• getting my mobile phone working... (and in the process - tell the cellphone store man "jag talar inte spanska" instead of "jag talar inte svenska"... Woops!)
• (mostly) doing my homework
• Skype-ing my family
• receiving a letter from my Mama! ( <3 )
• trying to fix my light in my room and being a bit of an epic fail
• going to a lake
• having barbecues...
• leaving my camera in England... thus not having any photos for the first week... :|

And heaps more...

I am, despite initial worries, having an awesome time! And, as Mummy and Daddy oft repeated the first few days - the experience is getting better and better!

I send my love to all of you at home! Especially those of you with Birthdays around about now!!!

I miss you all so much and can't wait for you to come visit me (nudge, nudge)!!!

Love, Kat

xxx

Shake and Shake the Ketchup Bottle... None'll Come and then the Lot'le!

Well. Talk about a baptism by fire!

Plane landed in Heathrow 40 minutes early... which I made up for by waiting for Vicky and Craig who were stuck in traffic (four lanes of it! In both directions!)

... Vicky and Craig live in a proper English semi-detached cottage! :) I have a basin in my bedroom, it's awesome!

The first night we went out for tea to a local Turkish Grill - t'was nommy! And then blissful bedtime!

Saturday was spent preparing for the Big Kennedy BBQ (16 people!)... I had a good time wandering around Sainsbury's looking at all the different things... And some familiar ones... Sacred Hill wine cheaper than at home, for example...

I always thought that the British Pound spent like the New Zealand Dollar in that if you pay 3.50NZD for a cup of coffee in NZ you'd pay 3.50GBP in the UK for the same cup of coffee (thus, everything's kind of twice the price for me) but in reality you'd pay 2.00GBP for that cup off coffee (not that I've actually had any coffee since I left home (!) )... So things are slightly cheaper than I expected... Which is nice!

At the BBQ there were 11 Kenedy/Saunders/Morgans plus 4 family friends + me! It was really lovely to see everybody for the first time in 8 years! Boy, was I exhausted afterwards, though!

A proper, English BBQ with table cloths and all!

Then, yesterday I spent with Bethan in London... first she met me off the tube at Turnpike Station and I met the lovely Marion. Bethan and I chatted easily for about an hour while Marion made roast beef for lunch... Yum! :)

After lunch Marion dropped us back at the station and Bethan guided me to Embankment where we walked, and talked all the way over the Thames and to the Tower Bridge.

Bethan opposite the London Eye

There were so many people! I could really tell that more people live in London than the whole of New Zealand... and next time I go in I'd definitely like a smaller bag!

The Tower Bridge taken from the London Bridge

I have today off, as it were, and I'm sitting in Vicky and Craig's garden, working on my sun-tan! This evening Vicky's shouting me a pedicure! :)

Travel Tip for the post: Big bags in big cities are a bad idea... they're heavy and you're constantly worrying about the shady-looking person next to you... take a smaller bag that you can easily swing into a protected position!

Until next time!
xx Kat

Hong Kong

I am now, briefly in Hong Kong... Hong Kong International Airport has free wifi (*glares malevolently at Auckland International Airport*) - I mean, seriously?! The hell kind of airport doesn't provide free wifi in this day and age?!

That said, a rather large part of me wishes that I didn't have to have my laptop with me at all... Samwise is a HEAVY beast!

The flight over from Auckland was fairly uneventful... I slept for most of it (yay!) and woke up only for the meals (dinner and breakfast) because... well, I'm me, and meals are important!

Beef stew with mash and peas. A warm (!) bread roll... pasta salad and weird cake thing.  Cheese and crackers... and a glass of lumpy OJ - om nom nom!

For dinner I had a beef (and red wine?) stew with (cheesy?) mashed potatoes and peas... there was also a pasta salad (I ate the lettuce out of it) and a weird cake thing with whipped cream... but I didn't finish either of them... I've saved the cheese and crackers to snack on now while I wait for my next boarding call...

Breakfast was fun... I could chose either scrambled eggs with baked beans or hotcakes with white chocolate, fruit compote and vanilla syrup... no prizes for guess my choice there! Mummy and Daddy, you'll be pleased to know that I ate the accompanying fruit salad first... I didn't have room for all my breakfast either!

Hotcakes with white chocolate, berry compote and vanilla syrup... Served with fruit salad and berry yoghurt. Washed down with OJ, Chinese Tea and cold water - yum!

As I said before, the flight was uneventful - but it was the most turbulent long-haul flight I've ever flown!

Now, for a little light facebooking and a little wander to find a drinking fountain...

See you next from London!

xx Kat

Square One - We Meet Again!

And so, it has come to this... I am weighing my knickers on the kitchen scales...

Because knicker-weighing is how all normal people pack!

(My Mother would like me to assure y'all that these are clean knickers that I'm weighing with her kitchen scales)

It all started out when... having packed my clothes (which I'd already paired down from want to would-really-quite-like-to-take to what I thought was "essential") I'd filled only half my suitcase... I decided to weigh the case (we have a special suitcase-weigher) to see where I was at... Well, let me tell you where I was at: 22kg. And what is my total weight limit? 23kg.

Cause for mass panic and no small amount of tantruming...

Now... 36 hours and a different (slightly smaller/lighter/more rickety) suitcase later I am at 23.3kg and hoping that AirNZ will let me get away with it... Pleeease!!!

It's amazing what is/isn't truly necessary when you're truly desperate for space!

And before you tell me - as almost everyone has... get rid of a pair of shoes or two... I'm only taking 3 pairs! And I'll be wearing one pair of 'em on the plane! I've got me Chuck's (plane shoes), a pair of running shoes for when I go to Frisky and Sweaty and one (just one!) pair of silly, but beautiful high heels... because a girl's gotta allow herself to feel pretty from time-to-time!

But my Travel Tip for this post... would have to be "seriously, weigh your knickers (and everything else)" you may feel silly at the time but I've probably cut a total of 15kg out of my suitcase by making weight-based decisions!

Until next time... Kat xx

13 sleeps to go...

So! I'm two weeks out from leaving for London and the start of my Biggest Adventure to date...

There are so many things in my life (in everybody's lives) where I've said "I'd love to do..." and I've not done it... and here I am a little over 18 months after waking up and thinking "Sweden. Sweden would be an awesome place to go..." and I'm actually going!

There were a few rigmaroles which had to be lived through to get to this point but I am Here and I'm actually going to Sweden! How cool is that?!

I'm fairly sure I'm up-to-date on most of my e-mailing/paperwork requirements... I think.

But my List of Things to Do Before I Go is still pretty huge...

• pack
• have a tea party
• e-mail family members to work out what I'll be up to in London
• panic a little
• get a family photo
• see my Grandma
• panic a bit more
• double check all my paper work and pick up my ticket from London to Stockholm
• work out how to get from Stockholm to Uppsala/Flogsta (in practice - I understand the theory!)
• panic a lot
• tidy my room
• clean my room
• clean my bathroom
• actually pack
• PANIC
• etc... etc... etc...

Today I'm starting to prepare for my 25+ hours of flying (plus 5 ish hours in transit) I'm taking immunofort to help prepare my immune system for the germ-y aeroplanes... and I'm starting to really concentrate on my hydration... both internal and external... Water, moisturiser and I are taking our relationship from BFF to SBFF4E (super BFFs 4 evah!!!) I dun wanna dry out!

But what am I actually doing? Well I'm blogging this... and I've just discovered Janet Evanovich (I know, I know - took me long enough!)

But I'll get there eventually! And my sanity will surely follow...

Xx Kat

I Live a Positive Journey

Today I got my Tarot cards read... it was really fun/interesting/informative! I am now even more convinced the my decision to go on exchange to Sweden was the right one for me... even if it has lead to some inevitable, but upsetting consequences... Already, I know!

So... the purpose of this blog is to chronicle the process as I head off to and, later on, experience Sweden!

Eeeek! I'm so excited!

Two and a half weeks ago the VicOE people confirmed that I'd be nominated to Uppsala University... and today I've finally hear back from various Vic Administrators that they're willing to accept my courses!!!

Oh. And just to explain the name of the blog: "jag taler inte spanska" is Swedish for "I don't speak Spanish" - it's the first phrase I even learned in Swedish!

My goal is to, one day, be able to type an entire blog post in Swedish...

Wish me luck!