I Am Sterdam! Exploring continued

Meerrrry Christmas Everyone!!! I understand that it is boxing day down under, but here - the Europeans apparently celebrate Christmas twice. Today, the 26th, is "Second Christmas Day" so - if you had a really crappy christmas and want to redo your day yester - come on over here and relive the joy and merriment once again!!!! So how was everyone's christmas'? I heard it ended up being quite sunny down in Australia. I'm sure you are wondering what my white christmas was like? Ah. That is to come. I have missed a few days on my blog and thus would like to go through my last few days in a more linear fashion in order to not confuse myself and of course, most graciously, others. I am ever the polite and thoughtful individual am I not?

So going back again to Anne Frank Day, which I believe to be the second day of me being in Amsterdam. I did some epic exploring on my own - looking around the city, attempting to find the Anne Frank House and basically familiarising myself overall with the place. It's such a well layed out and unified city, all the architecture is so stylised in that classic look and all the canals just really frame the place so well! The city is divided into like a kazillion canals which parallel and criss cross each other and so everything is just basically built around them with bridges going over them - GREAT PHOTO OPP. I'm sure everyone who goes to Amsterdam gets a photo like this.

There's me and my sister while she looks super stylish wearing a fur stole!

Anyway, It's hard for even a photo to do it justice really. And you've probably noticed already, there are a lot of bikes. Everyone rides bikes here and cars drive pretty stupid. People also drive on the right side of the road which is trippy and the road markings are all incredibly confusing. Zebra crossings have traffic lights and even when they say go, cars still go. But mainly, you need to look out for bikes cause roads are predominantly made up of bikes, trams and then cars swerving in between them all.

As I was heading off, it was a very chilly day. I made it my goal to find myself a pair of gloves and some earmuffs - having rather sensitive ears. The cold wind makes me get a ear-ache that is super annoying. It took me forever to find the shops however and when I finally did, I was buggered and wet cause it had started raining. Still, I got myself some kinda cool black "100% leather" gloves. Not sure if they are, but they are like a soft suede leather or something - faded leather suede-y stuff. If anyone can imagine that? All the earmuffs were too fluffy for my standards so I left it there.

After coming home to recooperate and find a map of the Anne Frank House, I was back out again. From the Anne Frank House, I made it my goal to find this place called the Bulldog Hostel which was a place I needed to try and reserve for my trip around Europe later on in July. It's a pretty awesome hostel/hotel - which its roots in marijuana and has a very quirky culture to it.

It turned out that this particular hostel also happened to be smack bang next to the Red Light District haha and on the other side of the town, so I walked past canal after canal, counting them as I had on google maps before I left, and finally - as it started to get dark - FOUND IT! (it gets dark at like 4 here)

I was super hungry so I got some dutch chips, which apparently is super touristy. They asked if I wanted sauce, I couldn't understand any of the sauces except cheese sauce. So I got that. And honestly, it was so much cheese and it was so gross.It looks like only a bit in here... but gosh. I ate a few and felt so sick! Full orange cheese like in America it was. And yeah, but hey! It's what you do in Amsterdam. I'm going to try a different sauce next time....

All of Amsterdam is covered in lights around this time. It's hard to get a decent photo but like all the streets have lights hung along them and so do the buildings. Like massively. It's all very festive and fun to walk under. Here's some terrible photos of that.

At night, I checked out more of the red light district with Angela, but only VERY BRIEFLY on our way to the china town area to have some dinner. I think I saw enough :P I should be going back again to give myself a proper experience later on though apparently. We also had a few cocktails. This is a grasshopper - which tastes like a "8 0'clock mint.. chocolate and mint"

Oh you might not be able to see them, but I saw my first SWANS ... in the red light district!!!!!!!

Still to come, my trip to Cologne Germany to see the Christmas Markets and Christmas Day!

Anne Frank House

Just got back from a crazy big day of exploring Amsterdam on my own and getting lost in this crazy place which is all river canals and little cobbled streets - like literally row after row after row with intersecting more rows and more rows. It's pretty awesome! It started rather wet-ly - it was raining and I didn't have an umbrella and I could not find for the life of me how to get back to Angela's apartment to get another one.

Once I finally did get back, I hopped on Skype for a bit then was back out again - umbrella in hand and my new gloves (as my fingers were really cold) - heading for the Anne Frank House Museum. It was actually really cool and I got to walk through the annexe that Anne Frank describes in the book and read things from it. For once! A museum which I actually know things about! It was so interesting! And Sad. But a good experience all in all.

Also I found this BEER BOOT STEIN - dylan, helen and bill know about this!

 Anywho! I'm super pooped from walking the entire city all day. So that's all. Just a quick update. But I bought two postcards from the Anne Frank House (WITH STAMPS!!! although the stamps seem to be just normal ones) and will post them to the first two people to comment on this blog :)

Farewells and Flying into Amsterdam

Alrighty, so hey I"m in Amsterdam and things are going pretty well I reckon! I'm sitting in Angela (my sister) and Michel's apartment right now at their kitchen table with a crazy cat who keeps swiping me stalking the place and trying to scare the crap outa me. And I'll tell you what - it's working!

I've been instructed by Angela not to touch him, not to look at him and to ignore him but it is a little bit hard when he jumps on the table that I'm sitting on, walks up to me, and literally lifts up his paw and slaps me in the face! No joke. He did that. And when I go to the bathroom, he stands in front of the toilet door and won't let me out, when I try, he swipes at my legs! So yeah, basically, we are pretty good friends now - that just about sums that up.

Pretty funny that this is my first proper blog about being in Europe and the first thing I do is talk about cats. I guess I really am a cat person. Well, I definitely know I'm not a dog person haha. And the thing is, this cat, Pofertje (not heaps sure on the spelling) is just like a dog, a super protective of his house dog, except with cat claws. Good combination? I think so! Ok ok, I'll stop TALKING ABOUT THE CAT. I'm sooo-rrry! You want to know about my trip and how I got to be in house beautiful little town you might have heard of called, "Amsterdam."

Well, the flight itself was long and relatively uneventful as far as a plane trip can get. There wasn't any hijackers on the plane or anyone smoking bongs in the toilet. I was even fortunate enough to not have to sit next to anyone annoying or fat! And that is always a bonus right?

It started I guess at the airport and saying bye to everyone. I'd been pretty good until then, well mostly, because I was trying my best not to think about leaving but I guess it was pretty hard when I finally came to realise that it was definitely happening and nothing was actually going to stop me from getting on that plane and leaving. I was showered with more love than I could have expected by my friends and family which made it even harder to go. It's funny how nice people treat you when you are about to leave the country isnt it? haha

<3

My friends were especially amazing and had put together like a big box of letters for me to take which were to opened at various steps in my trip e.g. Anything from "When you get to Europe" to "The First Time You Use A Swedish Toilet (Use When Toileting). OOoooh There is a giant clock like Big Ben, or not like Big Ben, near Angela's house that is going off right now. It is 9:30am. I wonder how often it goes off. MMmm, so anyway, as far as getting advice from my friends (something I often need in some situations), I am now pretty much covered. I wouldn't have otherwise known how you use a toilet, you know? On top of that, they also got together to take some photos and gave me a portable frame, a dvd they made (mystery dvd I will watch once I am in Sweden) and magnets of photos of themselves. I also got given lots of things I could use on my trip individually from friends like first aid kits, scarves,a leather bracelet that I didn't steal from the neck of an alcohol bottle in the store, sleeping masks and of course, worry dolls! They are TOO CUTE! So thanks everyone who has supported me and helped me, and made me feel so very special as I am embarking on this amazing and long-awaited trip. I love you guys and really appreciate everything you guys do for me!

Oh and here's one of the letters I read on the plane about emergency exits (helen)

Right, so the plane trip. I was on Emirates.They are a pretty good airline I have heard and they have awesome on board entertainment. The costumes that the flight attendants had to wear were pretty cool! Aw, I don't think I got a photo of it actually. It was like a flat circle hat thing with like a shawl coming out on the side. Very glamourous and elegant I think. And oh gosh, I'm telling all of this completely out of order, aren't I? Um, where was I before? Oh right, I was saying bye to everyone at the airport. And that was pretty sad. I had my polaroid camera which my friends got me which I took a few photos as well as a million on my digital camera. There were tears and hugs and I can tell you it was pretty hard to walk through that damn departures door. But off I went, and went to get myself security checked.

Now, I know I'm pretty dodgy so I shouldn't have been surprised that I was the one after seeing about 15 people go through not frisked who got picked to be security checked. Have you ever been felt up by an angry woman? I have (proud face!) They made me turn out my pockets and I explained why I had like a big stash of tissues in there. She also went through my bag a little and waved her stick thing around me. I looked pretty bemused. It was all a little silly. And then I went through to the Duty Free area and I was like HECK YES, I can go get some money back, claiming back on Duty Free for my laptop. My beautiful laptop which is an ASUS btw. PRODUCT PLACEMENT. Only to realise, crap! I ended up last minute deciding to pack my laptop in with my check in luggage cause I could only have 7kg of carry on and my laptop weighs 3 and now I don't have it with me and therefore cannot get my $150. LAME. So very lame. Maybe I can get it on my way back. Wait, no I can't. Damn. Oh well, there goes $150 Smackeroos.

So on the plane, after finally finding my seat, I sat in the wrong seat at first and then was duly booted out of it by the rightful owner of that seat. Man, plane seats are confusing and the crew weren't really helping me find my seat! I found I was sitting next to a couple, a red head guy and an asian lady who didn't talk much. And also, didn't go to the toilet much. I was in the aisle so that suited me. The asian lady only went like ONCE! The whole trip! The guy didn't at all. I went like 3 times cause I was making use of the free beverages thing...teehee teehee. But they got off at Bangkok so it wasn't THAT long to there. That's right, we stopped at Bangkok. Weren't you meant to stop at Dubai, you say? Why yes, we did that too. Two stop offs with people getting off and on on both! Talk about really milking a flight Emirates. Getting a lot of value out of the one trip. People had actually even been on the plane before I got on in Sydney, it had already been in New Zealand Christchurch. Maybe this is a normal thing that planes do that. I guess it is. But it was the first I'd ever known about it.

My, this blog is getting long. I should probably move on if I'm ever going to get out of here and get out of the house and actually see a little of Amsterdam. The plane food was pretty alright. For dinner I had a roast chicken with potatos, gravy and vegies and a nice sorta rice salad thing.

Sorry the picture is so dark. It was dark on the plane and I can't be bothered to whip up my awesome photo shop skills right at the moment. The screens we had to entertain us had a lot of features. I could watch movies, tv shows, apparently could text and call people from the plane but it didn't work,  I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love which was only ok. And I watched a bit of Up and then I think I had a bit of a nap. Oh, the screens also let you see your progress and all this other information like seeing downwards and forwards camera views from the plane and stuff.

Oh and this was the crazy bangkok cleaning crew who just marched on the plane when it landed and people leaving for Bangkok got off. They cleaned the plane as if it was new and couldn't speak English. I tried.

This is the Maccas in Dubai Airport

This is some pots in Dubai Airport

You probably can't read that but it says FINAL BOARDING and I nearly missed my plane from Dubai thanks for it being so sucky and long and silly and me not being able to find a computer anywhere to send a message to

And this is a very unhappy me back on the plane after hating Dubai Airport but also happy cause I got a 3 seater all to myself FINALLY!

Some views from the plane: AMAZING

travelling over Middle Eastern countries and first sight of snow!

EVEN MORE SNOW

JD AND COKE ON THE PLANE? Yes Please!

First views of Holland after getting through the super thick cloud cover

Me looking tired after landing in Amsterdam

Angela outside her apartment in Amsterdam!

And that's all for now. It's not 10am and I wanna go for a wander around the city and potentially go visit the Anne Frank House cause it's just around the corner from my sister's apartment.

Thanks for reading! 

Hope you guys are well in Aus!

IM IN AMSTERDAM

Hi Everyone!

I finally made it to Amsterdam. The plane trip was interesting-ish but mainly it was long. But hey! I'm on the other side of the world now! I've got lots to tell you guys about and photos and stuff to come. But I'll save that for later.

Just letting you know - I'M HERE!!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D yay!

Just a quick update with 13 days to go!

Wowwweee!!!! There is less than 2 weeeks until I'm off! I am kinda going off my nut trying to get everything that needs to get done done! Argh!

That's why I haven't written in here in a while. I did add a clock though! It shows what time it is in Sweden haha so you won't need to memorise time conversions.

So the last few weeks have been fairly action-packed. I've been working a lot, and any spare moment outside of it, beginning to find all the loose ends of the ropes I need to eventually begin to start to tie up. I really should be starting to tie all my loose ends now though! So am madly scrambling to find all them ropes! Dammit though, they keep on evading me!

In other news, my spanking new laptop is now here and boy, is it lovely! I am using it right now. I admit, after four years on a Macbook Pro, I am not used to using it and having never used Windows 7, I am pretty confused. I am getting there. But I have no doubt that making the transition from my crappy mac to a b-e-a-uuutiful PC will be well worth the hassle. Yes, that's right - I love PC.

My real estate issues are still yet to be sorted out but I am still intending to basically move out at the end of next week. My visa is half sorted and if you are wondering, no I have not received my acceptance letter in the mail yet! Lol. I give up with it. I've managed to get a digital copy anyway so whatever. OH and I have also booked my flight to Sweden. I will be over there from Amsterdam on the 6th January! I plan to stay in a hostel in Uppsala for a week in a 6 bed dorm mixed with people I don't know. It should be an interesting experience haha - I'm sure you will hear a lot about it.

That's all for now.
Cheers for reading haha and when I'm off I'm sure it will be much less whinging and more bragging - .... oh who am I kidding, I'm all about the whinging!

Currently listening to: Kill The Director by The Wombats

I'm going to Myriam's place... be back soon!

Well well, it looks like I'm not doing too badly this time round with updating my blog! Remember how I said a few posts back I am going to Belgium for New Years this year? Well, this is where we're going to be staying!

1860 - Myriam's Place in Gent, Belgium

Oh and this is what it looks like now:

Here's a tour of the place t0o while I'm at it:

Er, yeah, I'll be glad to stay here! Thanks Ange :D

I'm Down With Media Arts! Ye Bra!

Clothes Clothes Clothes!

Righto - So apparently Sweden is going to be cold! Apparently Amsterdam will also be cold especially over the Christmas season. I'm thinking that this may call for a little preparation and thought. Australia's winter clothes are probably not going to cut it.

I had planned to get all my winter clothes in Europe, but on the chance that I freeze before I make it to a shop, I think I should probably at least get SOMETHING warm to arrive in. Do you know what this means? Online Shopping! Something that I am quite quite inexperienced with but keen as beans to experience! As my dad is going to Japan soon, he offered to get me some clothes from this store called UNIQLO. This brings me to my first dilemma. Now, I am a winter lover! I love my scarves, and big thick jackets, beanies and layers!

But I do not understand these.

Down Jackets. Huh.

Is it just me who thinks they look unbelievably ugly? I'm super worried I'm going to buy one thinking they are the norm and turn up to Sweden wearing it to find I am the freak wearing a very ugly jacket (like some kind of classic chickflick movie). ARGH! nooooo!!!! Haha. But it's ok! I'm one step ahead of the people who will laugh at me! I've messaged a friend I have in Sweden to ask her whether or not people actually do wear these in Sweden. Yes, that's right! Market research! I'm a genius! So we will see.

In other news, I have been busy with the end of Uni meaning many assessments. One particularly interesting one is a Media Arts sculpture my boyfriend, Bill, is making which I have been helping with. We didn't end up being able to finish it due to time constraints but I think the video more than blows crap out of the water! Feel free to check it out :) N.B All the blur is totally intentional and designy!

Dead Hand (Systema Perimetr): Bill's MEDA Video Submission

(this is not the video, it is a screenshot...apparently Blogger only likes Youtube?)

Well, other than an ugly down jacket - I have read that I will need to buy some thermals. Ha. Who wants to see Annie in thermals? Yeah. Well - I'll be interested to try them!

Also Bra means Good in Swedish. Isn't that funny?

A High Five!

Yew!

Looks like things are "A GO!" with my visa application and even if it isn't sorted out by the time I'm leaving, I can just sort it out when I get to Sweden. Best news I have heard all week to be honest! Fingers crossed there are no more problems there.

So today marks 5 weeks until I'm boarding my plane and heading over to Amsterdam for Christmas with my sister. There is oh so much to do it's pretty ridi-funk-ulous but heck, things are starting to pick up finally and I couldn't be more relieved.

It looks like I may be going to a place called GENT in Belgium for New Years with Angela (my big sister) and a bunch of her friends. It's a 2.5 hour drive from Amsterdam where she lives and apparently Belgian food is AH-MAAZING. I do not know anything at all about Gent except that it is in Belgium. Oh - I know! I'll do a quick Google search!

So I dunno about you - but I think it looks pretty freaking spactacular. What a colourful city full of awesome architecture. I'm sure the city doesn't actually look this colourful, it's the amazing photography skills... but still - I'm pretty pumped. I'll try and get some amazing photos while I'm there too!

What are you guys planning on doing for New Years in Australia? You should make it match or better my New Years plans so I wish I was back home with all you guys :P

53 Days

53 days until I leave for Europe and I am still yet to receive my official Uppsala letter of acceptance so I can apply for my Visa!

LOL

That's ok - I've got more than enough on my plate to deal with while I wait. I have 3 Uni assessments due this Monday (1 not yet started), the possibility of being vacated from my apartment and needing to find somewhere to put all my stuff while I'm away, and the fact I'm in quite the debilitated state after a rather unfortunate case of either mild food poisoning or a stomach bug over the last few days to keep myself occupied.

I really should probably be writing my assignments rather than writing my blog. Yeah - *hangs head in shame*

Hej Da (goodbye in Swedish)

It's Going to be a White Christmas

Hey everyone!

Great news. My flights have been booked and it's looking official that I am indeedy going to Sweden. When am I flying, you ask? Well I'm leaving for Amsterdam just before Christmas now which is pretty awesome as everyone says I'll get to experience a real "White Christmas." Huh - I just thought it'd be interesting to have a look and see what the Urban Dictionary defined it as.... Tell you what. I'm going to take a strike and say that everyone is talking about Definition No. 2! Thank you very much, yes I am quite excited to have a Definition No. 2 White Christmas. And then, of course there is New Years Eve! All in all - it should be a very festive, exciting and adventure filled end of the year to kick off what is to be The Adventure of a Lifetime!

But for the moment, preparation and hardcore saving is what is up in my world. There's just so much to think about, it can drive a person mad! Mad I tells ya!!!! It's ok because I already am mad so it suits me fine haha. As you can see, this post doesn't really have much point - just a bit of a ramble. It's what I do best.

Seriously though, I have been heads down researching and reading everything I can and Sweden sounds like a pretty damn awesome place to live. Uppsala is apparently not a large town but mainly it's made up of students with the partying being mainly at the Student Nations (of which there are 13 which I have to pick one to join... they seem to be clubs) and at the student campus, Flogsta (which is where I will be living!). YEYAH! The Flogsta residents also apparently like to yell and scream out the window and on their balconies at 10pm every night for no reason at all except that it's fun. Sure, why not right?

I have also heard that most people who go on exchange to Sweden end up managing to travel to a lot of other countries too! Some counted 40. 40! I can't believe it. I don't know how one could possibly fit that many. Perhaps I read wrong. I don't even think there are 40 countries in Europe. There probably is - but I couldn't name 40. It must be an exaggeration... I guess we will see. Another thing that is apparently common is to take a cruise to Latvia called a Booze Cruise....  hmm I guess I'll find out why :P Another thing people do is to take a trip up to Kiruna (basically up the top of Sweden just under the Arctic Circle) and go Dog Sledding, Cross Country Skiing, live in an Ice Hotel and see the Northern Lights. I'd like to Snowboard please!

So yup - many things to look forward to. For the moment though, it's boring Australian Uni work and assignments, and working at the printery to save me some moola, and counting down the days until I'm off! Which I believe to be 78!!!!!! WOW.

Just to reiterate....

I'm not sure if I made it clear....

but I'm super stoked about making it into Uppsala University!!!!!!!!

*dances around the rooooom*

I'm going to UPPSALA

Dear Annie,
Congratulations, we are pleased to inform you that you will be nominated for exchange to Uppsala University.

FREAKIN'. AMAZING! YEW - I'M GOING TO UPPSALA!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Journey Begins.

Mindless Rant about my Nexus S

Things to Buy for Europe

• Buy a Laptop
• Get my first ever smartphone for Europe  CHEEEECK!
• Get a portable harddrive 1TB?
• Passport/Visa
• Plane Ticket

After many weeks of research, umms and ahhs, boring the pants off friends and family and even my lecturer at Uni - I have settled on my new best friend - The Google Nexus S.

I think I became slightly addicted to trolling the many forums there are about android phones, and I think I watched every single video available about this phone. I've never been a fan of touch phones but I figured now is a good time as any to get started on learning. I will always love pressing actual buttons - but hey - I wanna video chat with you fellows and having a big screen helps!

I won't bore anyone else about the specs about this phone - there are plenty of forums like I said. But how do I find the phone so far after a week? Yeah - I love it! It's my first one so I can't compare it to others but it runs fine, fast and looks good. It is light and I like the rounded edges compared to the Samsung Galaxy range.

Things to note are that Vodafone offers the phone only in Superclear LCD version rather than AMOLED (because they are really rare) which means the phone is actually slightly bigger. This makes it hard to find cases and screen protectors for it because some just don't fit. Everyone made it for the original AMOLED version before they last minute changed it for most countries to Superclear LCD - which I think seems better anyway. The screen is REALLY PRETTY.

I find it a little annoying how the on/lock button is directly opposite to the volume rocker because I usually accidently press the other when I'm using one of them. The new features that came with Gingerbread seem to be well thought out and the aesthetic of the menu screen is definitely swanky! With a sort of curved, conveyor belt effect. I've had minimal lag on the phone so far and Oh! When you lock the phone, or the screen times out - it has a cool effect similar to how a tv turns off.

The battery is been doing my head in a little. I read WAAAAY too much into batteries and how to extend them and about recalibrating batteries and I think I went a bit nuts gungho about it. My friend Helen will be able to vouche for that [what do you mean, you can't come over because your phone is charging????? unplug it and bring it over! ...but but I caaaaan't .... I'm recalibrating the battery!!!!]

Honestly, the first time I used it after the 8 hour charge - it worked amazing. I used it for 3 days before it died. Well just under 3 days. And then the next time I charged it, it only charged to 96%, and now it only charges to 92% - and says it is full. But according to half of the forum - this is supposed to happen and it "protects the battery" or some rubbish... others say the battery is full but the PHONE itself needs to be recalibrated to read that level as 100%..... some say you need to factory reset, some say take out the battery, some say drain it completely and charge 8 hours then bump charge and then bump charge again - and then others say bump charging is bad for your battery... a group even say don't ever let the phone die!!!!! In the end, I was like stuff this. I don't care - I am over it.

I'm following the general consensus of others in forums like me who say lithium batteries don't have memory and are made to be charged and discharged frequently so just charge it whenever you want and as often you want and who cares. It's a battery.

Alright - I think I've ranted long and hard about my new phone. Point is - it's pretty excellent. Later on - I'll give it a try trying to blog or post a picture from my Nexus S and see how it goes! Oooh - I should name my phone!

Sweden Plans Begin! I want to know what Uni I'm going to please!

Hey guys!

My blog is back on in a whole different and more amazing way! It's spanking new and oh so swanky! It's my usual ramble with a focus! It's been chosen after careful consideration of all the other blogging platforms as my vehicle to communicate to you good people about my big trip to Europe! Seriously - what is it with Tumblr and not letting people comment on blogs?

Well anyway, I'm not going until the beginning of next year but there is so much going on with the preparations - that I'd love to get started now. Plus, it'll get me in the habit of consistently blogging again.

So what's the deal? I'm actually going to Sweden on exchange next year to study at Uni! Why Sweden, you say? Well - it's all a little random but for some reason it seems to appeal to me. It could've been because I used to have a pen-pal from there back in the good ol' days who told me I should go and I said I would. It could be because France is just way to touristy (and apparently smells?). It could be because I like snow. It could even be because of Ikea.... I don't know. It appeals to me and words cannot describe how excited I am to be going!

Right now is a pretty nerve-racking time as I am still yet to hear what Uni I will be nominated for. All I want right now is to have my first preference. Apparently, absolutely everyone has applied for it (perhaps a slight exaggeration) so I have been advised that it may not be "guaranteed" and I could get my second, or even - oh please no - my 3rd!

Preference 1: Uppsala University

From what I hear, the city Uppsala is a student town. It is the fun Uni, located pretty close to the capital, Stockholm and it's always fun there because everyone there is a Uni student. Uppsala itself is apparently the oldest Nordic University and talking to people in Europe - seems to be rather popular. It's also ranked rather well, making it to the top 100 best Universities in the world and wow doesn't the great hall look pretty! It's closer to everything and closer to my sister who lives in Amsterdam. Apparently, that pen-pal I mentioned before - is going there too at the same time as me!

Preference 2: Umea University

Location wise: it's a little daunting. It's basically up, up, then up and right a bit. Yeah, there under the Arctic Circle! So it's going to be cold cold cold - a normal day there is -32 degrees! When it snows, it snows. A normal thing to do there is dog-sledding! Far out? And sometimes it is nighttime at 3pm! But I just researched a bit more, and apparently sometimes the sun shines almost 24 hours a day and the northern lights sounds like something I do have to see. It's super far away from the capital - in fact Umea is the biggest city in the North of Sweden. All I know is that if I'm going there, prepare to be very cold.

Preference 3: Karlstad University

Don't know too much about it - It's a bit to the left of Uppsala and seems like a good University too. My first impression of it is a bit more of a country town. I'll definitely be getting an authentic Swedish traditional experience here!

Well - that's all for now. My neck is killing me I've been sitting on the couch using my laptop all morning. I think I should probably get up and do something - It's a super nice day today and I'm being a lazy poo. Thanks for reading!

First blog down - YES!