Welcome to Sweden

These last few days have been an absolute whirlwind! I’ll provide a day by day update.
Saturday:
We landed in London at about 8:00, the air traffic was pretty full so we spent a long time circling around before we actually landed. The London Heathrow Airport is enormous and there is tons of shopping in there. My friend Monet would have been in heaven, all of her favorite stores were there. (Gucci, Chanel, Prada, tons of show stores, Harrods) We waited there for about two hours and then caught our flight to Stockholm. Unfortunately, Sonja was pretty uncomfortable during this time and experienced some panic attacks. I slept the whole way to Stockholm, so that went well, but Sonja was still having anxiety. At the airport I switched my money and got a sim card for my phone, finally I could communicate with the outside world. Currently, 4 people have my phone number and I can't even remember it. I know, I'm cool. Then we caught the Arlanda express to Stockholm's central station. From there we took the subway to Peter's house where we were staying for the night before going on to Eskilstuna. I am pretty sure we made a lot of peoples days because you would have to laugh upon seeing us dragging 3 suitcases each. I dropped my laptop like 5 times and now the speakers are a little messed up. By the time we got to Peter's, I was sweating so much I had taken off my coat was wearing a t-shirt in 0 degrees Celsius weather (32 degrees Fahrenheit). I am trying to switch into using European measurements like Celsius, military time, kilometers, and Swedish kroners. It’s not really working out to well, haha.
 After we got to Peters, we had to shower. I mean after that sweat and 10 hours of flying and an 8 hour car ride, I was ready for one. But being the idiot I am, I couldn't figure it out so my first shower in Sweden was ice cold. Then, I went to blow dry my hair and about 30 seconds into it, there was a pop, some lights went out, and a burning smell. But after much debate I plugged my blow dryer in again and used it for 5 second increments, turning it on then off and so on, it was pretty annoying. But I did end up getting my hair dry. Then, I plugged in my straightener. The light went on for 1 second and then came off and it never worked. Hopefully it will work back in the US. So I didn't even try the curling iron.  So the first night in Sweden my hair looked terrible, pictures to come soon. Then I plugged in Sonja's power surge protector super outlet plug and the entire apartment went black instantly. Needless to say, plugging things in is quite the challenge. Luckily, Peter took it well that we blew his fuse a few times. Wow, this was a pretty pointless paragraph but I know my mom will appreciate all the little details.
Peter got some Thai food and we chowed down, took a shot of absinthe, and went out. First, we went to this cute little trendy bar and I had a peach cherry martini thing which honestly tasted exactly like the Welch's white grape peach juice. Just in case you were wondering. Then we met up with some of his friends and walked to his friend Martin's house. It was a totally cute little loft place. We hung out and talked about Swedish stuff, music, and everything. It was real chill. Then we went to the Swedish clubs! I was so nervous about getting in because usually the minimum age is 23 and they denied the people right in front of us. But luckily our group got in and I didn’t even have show my id! Well, we only went to one but it cost like 160 SEK to get in which is like $25 in us dollars. It was called Sturecompaignet, and it’s on that Swedish social website, but I think I must have missed the photographer. But it was awesome, really fun and huge. There were all these private rooms and stuff. Everyone thought I was Swedish and would just come up to me speaking in Swedish, which I could not understand. So mostly I just stared blankly at them. People also asked me if I was French? I don’t know where that came from. I wish that I could just wear a sign around my neck that says ENGLISH PLEASE! All in all it was an awesome first night in Sweden!
Sunday:
We woke up with extreme jet lag and began our journey to Eskilstuna. So, once again we packed all of our bags and headed to the subway. The elevator was by far the funniest part. I kept trying to open the door and but then my bag would fall over and the door would close. Then the process would repeat itself, I am very comical. Then we took the subway back to the central station and got a quick train to Eskilstuna, which once again was an adventure with all of the baggage. The ride to Eskilstuna was only one hour. Once we got here Margarethe, our professor and program coordinator, picked us up. She was so nice and hooked us up with blankets and pillows. I found out my clinical schedule as well. At capital we only have to do 12 hours of clinical a week, but in Sweden they have to do 32 hours! My first week, I will be at a care center for people with Dementia. I will have clinicals at 8am on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 8am. They are about 1.5 km away (roughly 1 mile). So that means a cold morning! I will probably get about 24 hours done in my first week! I will only have clinicals for 5 weeks since I will finish my hours so quickly. I will also do 2 weeks in the clinic and 2 weeks doing home visits. She even said I could spend a day riding in the ambulance here! We saw the nursing lab and whereas everything is mostly the same they only go to school for 3 years. They count everything by terms so I am in my 7th term or semester. The nursing lab was a lot like ours and next week everyone has return demonstrations which they are all getting nervous for. I laughed when I heard that, yep nursing is stressful and hard everywhere! Sonja was still having issues with panic and anxiety and expressed interest in going home, she decided to sleep on it and decide in the morning.
Then, Margarethe took us to our apartment! It was in a tall building and we are on the fourth floor. It is very tiny but cute at the same time. We are on an international students hallway. The other students are mostly chinese and very nice. There are two finnish girls and a german guy. Our apartment is pretty much a studio. There is a bed and a cot. There are 2 tables. No microwave, no television, and crappy internet. No wonder this is so long, right? But, I'm here and I am going to be reading a lot of books! Wooo Hooo! After that we were dropped off at Lidl's, which is the Swedish version of Aldi's. The food was really weird there. Couldn't read the labels so I think I bought salt, butter, rice, noodles, pringles, bananas, kiwis, tomatos, yogurt, bologna stuff, potatoes, American pizza, cheese, tortilla chips, bacon, eggs, spinach tortillas, and avocado. Wow, yum. We walked back in the miserable cold and I unpacked. Sonja being unsure about staying chose not to. Then we cooked the American pizza, haha joke, ew it was nasty. There was no oven so the community microwave did the job. Around 820 or 2020 we decided to go looking for a restaurant since we already hated our food and I couldn't figure out how to work the burners on the stove. (Side note: I have since figured it out, trickier than you would think though.) We walked around, but it was Sunday and everything closes super early here so there wasn't much going on. We happened upon a movie theater. So we had popcorn for dinner and watched The Social Network. Lucky for me I didn’t fall asleep during the movie this time. (haha Sarah and Dan) Sonja did though. There were Swedish subtitles on the movie and we had assigned seats at the theater. It was weird and small and all the people were staring at us because we were obviously not from this very small town of Eskilstuna. Still I enjoyed myself. then we walked back and I decided to cook some potatoes in butter and make fried bologna. It was really really nasty, but I was just hungry enough to eat it. Then I tried to skype and crap and found out firsthand how bad the internet here sucks. So after a few dropped calls and stuff I gave up and went to bed, it was like 1am here anyways. Thanks Rach for the Chelsea Handler book which I read before bed.
Monday:
So we slept in for a bit and then met up with Margarethe. Sonja made the decision that she wanted to go home. She has been dealing with panic and anxiety since we have been here. Based on her health, she decided it would be better for her to leave. I was obviously crushed. So, while she booked a flight home I got my student ID card and computer access code. Yay, now I can use the fast internet at the library. Sadly, it closes at 10 here which is only 4pm in the US. So if you want to skype me you better be on early in the day! Then I signed my contract and bought more minutes for the bat phone. Can you believe I used them all up with only 4 contacts? I guess I called my mom a bit haha. Then I went and ate by myself while Sonja went back to the apartment. It was an Italian place but the food tasted kind of like curry, still one of the best meals here yet. Whatever, it’s hard to order food because some people really are not that good at English. Then I came back and hung out with Sonja. We went back met up with Margarethe and finished final details for Sonja's departure. I’ll be on the train taking her to the Arlanda station at 545 in the morning. Which in the US will only be 11 at night!
We ate her final meal here at McDonalds, ew I know, but seriously needed some American food. Then we came back to the apartment showered and I wrote this instead of doing homework, yeah good choices. I am doing fine myself, except for being sad Sonja is leaving. It’s harder than I thought to make friends here but a few nursing students have already reached out and emailed me I hope to meet up with them soon. I think this will be a great experience but lonely all by myself. I plan on staying positive and making the most this opportunity. Love and miss all of my friends and family. Sorry this was super long and at times boring but now you know everything I am doing!
Tuesday
My internet sucks that bad that I am unable to access the internet to post this blog in time to begin another day. Right now I just dropped Sonja off at the airport and I think it’s safe to say that I am the loneliest girl in Sweden. Neither of us could sleep last night knowing that she was leaving and I had some very strange vivid dreams when I did. My dreams have been so real lately. When I took a nap yesterday I had the weirdest dream but I was in America in the dream and I knew I was in Sweden. So I kept telling myself this is a dream Holly, wake up! It was the weirdest thing ever. I am waiting for a bus to take me to Vasteras where I will catch another bus to Eskilstuna. This was a very lucky morning for Sonja, our cab driver to the train station was very nice and understanding and gave her back the tip. Then we caught our train and got on the wrong one to the Arlanda airport! But the ticket checker lady was super nice and let us ride for free, when it would have originally cost us around $100. Then they didn’t charge her extra for her overweight bag and she had an additional bag that wasn’t checked but still had the original receipt from her first flight and didn’t have to pay extra. She departs from here at 910 to London and then to JFK in NYC and finally she will arrive back in Ohio at 2200 tonight. Her journey will be close to 17 hours long! I am very sad to see her go, but in the end it was her decision and she felt comfortable with it. I am not the most familiar with anxiety and panic attacks, but I did witness many of hers firsthand. She was very unhappy here in Sweden. She finally started to become her old self when she booked he flight home. I am really going to miss her and I don’t have a single friend yet. I really hope that changes soon, I never realized how hard it was to be in a different country where you don’t know anyone until now. I can’t speak the language or read any of the signs. Everyone says the first week is the hardest and I hope they are right. Here I am sitting in this stupid airport crying about being alone, but I know the future is bright and things can only get better. If only this cappuccino I am drinking didn’t taste like absolute crap, I got it from a convenience store inside the airport. My bus will be here soon and I will get a nice view of the countryside, so until then I am going to people watch and read.
Ahhh…. Finally got a decent internet connection at Malardalen Hogskolas in Vasteras! Posting finally!
Love and Cheers!
Holly