Silly Americans

After returning from my country house yesterday, eating dinner at my dad's new place, after spewing my guts out from the cream in the vegetable mash (lactose intolerant) I ran over James' and we had some shots and Danish lager, it was merry. But I skyped with his Puritan friends over in Champaign, Illinois, what recluses! They're silly for calling a man with a scarf (dressed really quite ska-like) a woman! And they asked why I wasn't in the kitchen "why isn't the woman in the kitchen when you guys are hungry?"

They weren't kidding.

Now I'm off to meet my good freind Regina in Town, o lala!

Regina and I in New York last year catching Asobi Seksu, rummaging through Williamsburg Arts & Crafts Fair, hunting rarities in Record Stores in Downtown Manhattan, clubbing in Greenpoint, chilling at our place in Williamsburg:

Christmas Fairy Tale

This summarises the days I spent at my country house outside of Gothenburg celebrating Christmas. It was very quiet and cosy and we just watched movies and ate loads of fresh home made food, really. Didn't get much reading done. But whenever we did go outside it was vastly beautiful and very cold (-15), my step-mom freaked me out by saying "your tights will mesh with your thighs!"

My dad bewildered by saying that mice lie deep in the snow to stay warm in the winter. I don't think that's true. The tiny little wild forest mice came in from the cold, traps were set in most corners, my step-granddad said "the best way to kill them is to shoot them" so they brought forth a shotgun.

Here is the proof:

Where I slept:

Living room

Frontyard view:

Various views from the terrace:

We're in the yellow house!

Christmas dinner:

The day after, traditional Swedish food: lutefisk

Ice skating, the winning activity of the visit:

Glad to be back in civilisation!

I am the Angel of Cakes!

It's really cool when your step-mom's parents adore you!

Bake you cakes and call you Angel!

This stay at our country house isn't too bad after all, very overindulgent in terms of meat, whisky, wine and schnapps. I don't like schapps.

But I like having lunch from 2.30-6, having glögg (mulled wine) and Roquefort on gingerbread as an appetiser, have intermissions between the meals and then two mains and finally dessert in the couch with great Swedish coffee and home made gingerbread cake, saffron buns and all that jazz!

Now I am off to watch Chaplin in The Great Dictator, shazam!

But not gonna lie, I miss the spontaneity of Dundee and the lovely grazable people!!

I miss...

going out in Dundee with Ken (yeah we're in Kings and Cowards together, me and this master of music) and Andy (womanizer, you need to treat your women better)

because you meet loads of people that you love (Kirsty)!!!!!

.. and some really funny chaps (Aled)

.. chilling at Lindsay, Annuka and Mandi's (here with Paul)

...Dan and Annuka of Dizzuka!

See you soon - I come bearing more Christmas-y spirit!

Geneva trip!

Annuka is the bomb!

Oawaiy!

I have booked a flight to Geneva to visit Annuka!

And skiii!

Finally!

Oh what fun!

Finally, made it over to Scandinavia!

Ah!

After being "trapped" in Dundee for an extra few days (I really don't mind cause some really cool people are staying there over Christmas) I managed to fly home yesterday in this really old tiny miniplane. I looked at my ticket prior to boarding and was like "oohh" good I get to sit in the front.

12A was 3 rows from the far back of the plane, 3 people per row, you crouched as you were boarding, and the aisle was for skinny people only. Like a business class jet from the 80's.

I was passed out the whole time like a baby probably dreaming obscenities not drooling too much, I missed breakfast and as I left the aircraft the stewardess was like "Nice to meet you!"

I was like "yeaaah..."

Everyone was way too keen for my sleep-deprived liking.

But when I got out of the airport and on the train I remember what I miss about Scandinavia, and what I only fully appreciate when I have been away for a while - everyone is so attractive, was eyeing up quite a few bodies on the journey home! And everything is so pretty, the architecture is nice, clean and minimalist - Scandinavia is (too) vain for it's own good!

We celebrated Christmas at mom's yesterday, pretty awesome with a Swedish julbord, meatballs, eggs, smoked salmon, herring, ham, the lot!

The present I appreciated a lot was the stack of LP's I got (basically making up my collection since I only own 3, Jon & Vangelis Private Collection, Jean Michel Jarre's Equinoxe, and Latin Kings) including Steppenwolf, Joe Cocker, Elton John, the Animals, Rolling Stones, Beatles, etc and some crazy titty covered LPs.

Now we're off to take the bus up to our summerhouse outside Gothenburg to celebrate Christmas at dad's!

Best hurry!

Yesterday's julbord:

Snaps! C'est trés degoûtant!

Mom as Post-Modernist Santa Claus!

And tomorrow it will be over!

Lindsay and Annuka skipped town today, in fact a lot of people are leaving. It's strange to see Dundee empty itself out so rapidly. I wouldn't like to be a permanent resident here if it's like this. I still have one more exam to go.

I am very scatterbrained at the moment, but it shouldn't be too hard. Management is more fun than Neuropsychology (yesterday's exam). During this exam period I have been sleeping over at Kirsty's, I can't sleep more than two hours because I only have nightmares about the exams in which I am only able to write 2 sentences per question...

Thankfully, exams have gone well and I am simply being paranoid. Monday's exam went well! I am quite happy about that one.

Alright more studying. I will post pictures of lovely faces (Annuka)

here's a photobooth of me right now for those who care

(the face I pull when I listen to Memory Boy by Deerhunter)

Studying with Different People

Studying is not enjoyable.

Let's rephrase, revising Neuropsychology is not pleasurable.

It may sound interesting but completely clashes with my humanitarian subjects, Economics and Management. I don't want to memorise the resting potential and action potentials then I would have chosen biology.

To memorise is not to gain knowledge even if in psychological theory it may be so!

Off to a Festive Monday party in a while, hey my nights are still quite fun, but after a very successful weekend (with my soup and wine party on Friday) I think I'll take it easy!

cheerio!

In London it Barely Snowed/ In Dundee it Overflows

I was in London over the weekend it was pretty rad!

On Friday I didn't bring my camera out but I stashed my stuff at Nina's place, she lives in the Westminster dorms. Then we hopped to Camden, met up with Nina's 15-minute friend who she met on one of her late night drunken escapades, in Cardiff! Louis was his name.

We went to Vinyl Bar, the DJ is a show stopper, check it out for hot 90's club stunts.

Ivy and Scott joined us, and showed us what its like to dance in Ibiza. We took the night bus and ended up back where we started from:

The day after we didn't wake up as early as we would have liked to but still made a quick tour around the Saatchi Gallery in Sloane Square:

We went outside to look for Louis, Wetherspoon's and booze for Donna's Birthday party

Pretty faces: Jelena, Donna, Emelie and Ridde.

Mo transferred some of his skills to me, now I know what all the buttons do!

This was possibly the craziest night bus ride, half an hour before the tubes reopened.

Louis camped at Nina's. The next day we somehow managed to get up and go to Brick Lane:

Happy buys at the vintage market.

To round it off we drank at Jack Horner in Tottenham Ct Rd before catching HP 7!

On Monday it was time to leave, but my train was cancelled due to the snow so I hopped on an earlier train in hopes that I would find a seat for some of those 5.5 hours which amounted to 8 hours in the end:

Chris got me at the train station but I didn't need his help to carry my bags. We went to the Nether Inn to have dinner with Annuka:

Annuka and Chris are the loveliest little things. They grew with their burgers.

Chris forced us to go see chick flicks at his place.

Outside my house before we went down the hill on plastic packaging yesterday night.

Dundee is getting all the more snowy: these pictures show nothing compared to how it is now..

It's an Alp village, lead me to the nearest slope!