And now I am. Done, klar, finito that is. I even returned my last book to the library this afternoon. This must be the earliest summer break I've ever had, and I guess it will be the longest as well. April 30 until beginning of September, that's 4 full months.

Now I have to find a hostel fot Toronto and a flight to New York for when I'm leaving for Sweden. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go straight to Newark on the 19th, and just see Nicole this weekend, instead of visiting her before my flight back. It feels like the best choice right now.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm gonna go back to Filene's and (almost for sure) by a dress I saw last weekend, to wear for the wedding. It's really cute, but when I tried it on then I didn't think it would be that good for the wedding. But actually I don't know what kind of dress would be better, so I think it should be fine. I'll have time to return it my last week here, if I 'd change my mind. So I'm gonna take a pic with it on and ask for some advice from home... But it's been on my mind this whole week, so I just hope I won't be disappointed when I see it again, or that there's no more in my size of course.

Friday we're planning to go to Little Five Points, where we still never went. I think it's a nice neighborhood to walk around with little shops  and cafes. At least that's the impression I have of it, we'll see how it really is...

I don't really have any news to contribute today. Well, I finished my two finals, not sure how it went, it's all in the hands of my professors now. But I still have a paper to finish, and the professor keeps extending the deadline, which believe it or not, is not good! I can't get anything done on it, because I know I have all day tomorrow as well, and if I really need it the night too. First deadline was last Friday, but he extended till tomorrow Wednesday, I think because our whole syllabus had been pushed forward. Ok, fine, that meant I didn't spend a minute on it last week, and not this weekend either. Today when I arrived at the exam they were discussing what time tomorrow it should be turned in. The building apparantly locks at 5pm, so before that - and it needs to be in hard copy. Then I guess someone objected to it, so he said ok, you can drop it off Thursday morning if you like, at 8 am when the building opens. Now I really don't plan on doing that, but since I know it's possible I probably won't finish it tomorrow morning as was my plan.

I really hope I will though, because tomorrow at 5 I'm meeting a friend for ice-cream to celebrate my summer freedom... Well, maybe not the main reason seeming he's not gonna be done by then, it's actually more of a good bye ice-cream. But if I finish my paper by then, I can at least celebrate on the inside ;)

Now I'm going to Publix to buy some plums for Heather. We're going for a midnight breakfast at the student center, and she's been craving plums for days now, so I'm gonna get that on the way there.

Next time I write I should be done, klar, finito with Georgia Tech.

So, the last weekend before final exams. I should be studying obviously, and I am. Multitasking.

But for a couple of hours me and Heather went downtown. We wanted to see the Modern Design Museum, and I didn't expect it to be very big, but  it was really just two or three rooms all together.  Anyway, we walked around empty hallways in that building and ended up in the Marriot hotel lobby, where we decided to take the glass elevators up. They were just facing the inside of the hotel, but went fast upwards... 47 floors. It got a little scary up there, but at least we got a nice view and realized how green this city is. 

We came back to the museum and took some photos in one of the rooms among the many little red spinnig stools.

Then we walked back home. And on the way back we saw a man in a wheelchair falling over. He was lying on the sidewalk across the street on his back, not being able to get up. Some people helped him up, but I couldn't help thinking what if no one had been around. He was really helpless in that situation.

And yesterday I went to Heather's dorm to find some hostel for our trip. We sat in a common room, and a guy whe knows came to talk to us and when we said what we were doing he had juist the place for us. He's been stating there many times and thinks it's really good. The location is definetely, in NOHO. That's what I was hoping for, rather than one of those that are way up on 120th or so. So we booked it without thinking too much of it. When I came home I just thought I should read some reviews anyway. And maybe I shouldn't have - there were like nothing positive written about it except the location. But never mind, we got one strong personal recommendation so we'll just trust him. Plus, we really just plan to sleep there, so it doesn't really matter if it's a tiny room or so. I'm gonna stay all postitive about this trip! I also have a hostel for Montreal, still picking for Toronto. The thing about hostels in Canada is that they all have good reviews, compared to AMerican ones. And there's a lot of them, So I'm gonna try to figure out which are in good locations and so... Lots of vacancies so far, so it should be alright. In a week I'll be back in NYC - so excited!!!

Yes, finally! Last night Heather called me: Marie, Marie, Marie... did you book your tickets yet?! And no I didn't, because I hadn't had time to decide how to do it, since last week when she told me she wouldn't be able to go to NY with me, and Nicole told me she was going away the weekend I wanted to visit her in NY. So for a while I thought I wouldn't get there at all. Anyway, Heather found som e good tickets last night, so we just booked it. Just like that, no point in waiting! It's funny, when I was on the white water rafting this weekend a guy toild me that Tuesday is the day to buy tickets, that's when they're the cheapest. And I guess that's really true then...

The itinerary: On May 3rd we're going to NY, early in the morning. We'll have 3 1/2 days there, then I'll fly to Montreal on the 6th. I plan to stay abt 2 days there, then go by train to Toronto, from where I'll also do a day trip to the Niagara Falls. I'll fly back to Atlanta on the 12th and have then one week until my flight back to Sweden. I still don't know if I'll visit Nicole for a couple of days before that, as she also left a message the other day saying she's no longer going away that weekend. So everything that was going wrong, is turned back around! Great!!!

Have to go to class now, in order to turn in my Amelie-paper on time. Less than a week now until it's all gonna be over!

Sunday brunch today at a place just a block from where I live. I never went there before, but it seems really popular, we had a 20 minutes wait for our table. Then crêpes with strawberries and blueberries and they were really good, but to be honest it could-ve been better and it's not a brunch to be full on until dinner time. So I'm gonna have an early dinner today I guess.

Yesterday I went to the High museum of art as planned. It was a really good collection, but I was too tired to really appreciate it. There's a few pieces I remember still though, for example this Reverend Howard Finster who made art filled with biblical texts and messages (apparantly he created something called Paradise Garden) - anyway I just loved the style of the text incorporated into the images and onto objects such as a bike.

Another artist is Mattie Lou O'kelley who made colorful, detailed paintings I just really liked. Here's one example, although it doesn't come out very well here.

The coming week will probably not be too exciting, there's not really time for much. But on Saturday I'm going white water rafting, the last trip with the exchange students. That should be fun, but apparantly very wet - so I hope it's a sunny day!

Yet another week, only two and teo days to go. Yesterday I went to the movies with Heather. We saw 21 and The Other Boleyn Girl.   They were both pretty good, the second one was the only one I had any expectations on and it didn't really live up to them, but still pretty good. So it was a good afternoon.

Here I am with Patrick Dempsey. That seems like a good movie too.

 

Tonight we had steak and beer at my place. And really nothing but the meat, no salad, no nothing. Just meat - so good =)

 

Tomorrow the plan is to see the art museum in the afternoon, but I'm still not sure about that. If it doesn't happen I will really try to get some work done. I have a long paper I have to get started on, plus a group project and a book to read. So there's always something!

I might have slightly different plans for May, but I still don't know anything for sure, so I'll just wait to write any more about that.

Time for some sleep, and tomorrow I'm gonna sleep long for once. That was a long time ago now!!!

I'm feeling so excited right now! I've started thinking about travelling when school's over and come up with a pretty good plan. I'm thinking about going to Canada. The plan would be to fly to Toronto the day after my last exam (April 30) and spend about 3 days there, one of which I would take the train to the Niagara Falls, then I'll get on the train again and go to Montreal and spend about 3 days there. Then fly back to Atlanta. I think that would be such a great trip and I should really just buy the tickets asap so that I don't need to keep thinking about it.

That means I will be back here on 6th of May or so and have about a week here before I go up to New York for a few days before my flight back home on the 19th.

Alright, just had to share that plan with someone, even if no one's reading it, at least it's made public ;)

I'm back from a nice weekend in Savannah. We left on Saturday morning in a full car, we were 6 persons. It was about a 4 hour trip and once there we had lunch at The Pirate's House. A southern style buffet with live pirates walking around scaring the customers. It was good, eventhough I couldn't quite relax after a hand unexpectedly scratched my back through a window behind me (pirate). This was in one of the oldest houses in Savannah, or Georgia. While eating it was pouring down outside, and it didn't stop just because we payed our check. So we took our car and tried to find parking more central. Then we walked around with umbrellas and the rain came on and off the rest of the day.

Savannah is wonderful with all its old buildings and little squares and trees everywhere. I really liked walking around there.  The historic district is basically the whole downtown, so it's all that old look. So called Spanish moss is hanging from all the trees, making it look kinda creepy, or maybe just adding to the charm.  In the evening we met up with the GT bustrip students for a ghost tour. Apparantly this is a very much haunted city, with ghosts in every second building and square, believe it or not.

Sunday we started the day ( a little later than planned) with brunch at Clary's, a well-known place even though I've nevere heard of it before. I had pancakes, bacon, eggs, potatoes - a real American breakfast. It was good, and lasted until dinner in the evening. After that we went out to Tybee Island and the seaside. We walked along the white beach there and sat in the sand for a whole with some soft ice-cream. It was so wonderful, and the sun was shining as well!  (the payoff being a red forehead and nose-hopefully better in the morning) After the beach it was time to get into the car for the 5 hours back to Atlanta. As a finish to the trip we had Chinese food in the restaurant which is at the bottom floor of my building.

I had a really good trip, even though it would've been better without the rain of course! Just wish I had done more of this earlier on, now there's really not much time for any longer trips.

After a nice spring break with Dad in Chattanooga, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, Gulf Coast and back to Atlanta, I've almost made it through another two weeks of classes. This last month will be packed with papers, projects and finals. It's really getting close to the end now.

Anyway, in between all the work me and Heather have a list of things to do and see. Last Sunday was a good start. We were actually gonna volounteer at the Marathon that went on in the morning, but when we got there we ended up not doing it anyway. After checking in (and getting t-shirts) we couldn't really find anyone responsible where they sent us to and there were already a bunch of volounteers doing nothing there, so instead we ended up going to the CNN building. We had a nice guided tour there, seeing the news studios and hearing about their news production and the n had some Chinese food in the food court there. Since we didn't do the marathon it was still early afternoon and we figured we had time for another object on our list - the World of Coca-Cola. The grand finale of that visit was the tasting of drinks. They had about 8 different drinks for 5 different continents, and we actually went through all of them. When we came to the end we thought it was weird that not one of the drinks were actually a Coke, just other of their brands. That' when we realized another part of the room with only Coke. I was sooo full at this point, but we still tried the different Cokes as well. And on the way out we even got a bottle of Coke, produced right there (or at least poured into bottles there). I just wanna add, that this is almost the only sodas I've been drinking since I got here, so I'm not feeling too guilty about that=)

Early Saturday morning I'm going in a car with 5 other exchange students, one of them Heather the others I don't know, to Savannah. I'm really looking forward to that. We're staying at a hotell untill Sunday, so it's for the whole weekend. It should be fun. It's actually the same weekend as the bustrip for international students is, the one I didn't get a spot on, so we might see them there as well. I'll try to write next week about the trip and maybe post some pics too.

So tomorrow dad is coming to town. I'm gonna go meet him at the airport in the afternoon, we'll rent a car and then we'll be off. The plan is to go to Nashville and Memphis first, we really haven't had time to plan anything yet, but I'm hoping to find a travelguide at the library. Then we should be driving down to New Orleans and then probably a few days in Florida on a beach if we have luck with the weather. It's gonna be a couple of days in each city, but I think that's fine. It'll be a good length route for the time we have. I'm really looking forward to it, it's gonna be great to see something new!

And it's gonna be dad's birthday next week, so I'll have to come up with some nice celebration for him. At least I got him a present today. I don't think he'll be reading this before he gets home again, but to be on the safe side I'm not gonna write what I bought him. He's probably at Arlanda now, waiting for his flight... I'm glad I don't have to do any long flights this time!

I'll be back after our trip with some pics.

Saturday I and Heather went to my professor's exhibition. It was only a few blocks from the MARTA station, but it didn't feel a very safe place to walk as it was getting dark. When we were leaving and telling Özge we were taking the train, she told us she would drive us instead if we waited a bit longer. So that was really nice of her. I don't know, everyone always tells you to be carefull here, about every neighborhood, but it's hard to think like that coming from a Swedish small town. Or even from outside of town, where I easily walk through the forest alone in the middle of the night. So walking arm in arm with Heather the other night I was almost trying to make myself feel scared, because I'm supposed to. I would probably feel a little uncomfortable without an effort, but I can't really see anything happening to me, so it's hard getting used to this always being careful. I don't like that. I wanna be able to walk where I want, when I want.

Both of us got really inspired by the exhibition, so afterwards sitting at Starbucks we took paper and pen and sat there sketching. I should do that more, it's the only way to get better. Even if not drawing, I should write things down more often. I have my notebook with me most of the time to put thoughts and observations down, but I never use it. I should, even if I never use it for anything it's such good memories of those small moments I would otherwise never think of again.

A result of creativity:

These are all the books I've bought here, and that I need to read, at average one to two each week. Even though a lot of them are used books, I spent lots of money on them. There are still a couple I didn't buy yet, and a few I found at the library. My first thought was to sell the books back at the end of the semester, because there's no way I could put all those in my baggage when going home. But now I know several of them that I wanna keep because I like them. So I'll find a way...

This morning I woke up at 7 to go jogging with Heather. We're gonna be really good and go every second morning. That's the plan, and I think we'll pull it off, because despite the early start, it feels really good. Today the park was almost empty so we even went to the playground and worked our abs on the swings =). That's the most fun work out, and I can really feel it in the muscles already.

I was gonna sign up for a trip to Savannah today. It's again for the exchange students, but this time also for other international students and with a limit of 46 persons. Sign up started today and when I got there in the afternoon it was already filled up =(. I really wanted to go and now I can't... But I'll have to come up with something to put me in a better mood. Not tonight though, I have to read and research for group projects... Can't wait for spring break.

We didn't play any badminton today, but we did go jogging. Me and Heather went to the big Piedmont park, about 15 minutes away from my place. We were away for more than 2 hours, we walked a lot of that time, but did good on jogging as well. And situps. It was a really nice day, sunny and warm and the park was crowded with people. And there was almost as many dogs as persons. We saw small dogs, big dogs, tiny dogs, huge dogs and puppies and they were all adorable. I'd like to have a dog to walk with in the park!

We almost decided to go again on Monday morning, almost because I don't know if I'll be done with my essay which is due Monday afternoon. But I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow. That's why I'm at the computer right now - only I'm obviously writing my blog instead. At a complete lack of discipline...

 

Fridays are now almost an official shopping day for me and Heather. And we've started finding new places everytime. This time a Marshalls. And I guess that's not a very good trend, if I wanna have some money left to travel for, and to eat for... at least i paid my remaining rent the other day, so i don't need to think about spending that money. I mean I'm really not spending that much money on shopping, I'm just buying things with a good price and things I think I need. Of course there's always some argument for why I need it, if it's something I like. After shopping we went to my place and bought Chinese food downstairs. It was really good, I didn't try it before, but I had some really tasty sweet sour chicken. And my fortune cookie said: You will travel to many exotic places in the next few years. Promising! I'm thinking Korea/China, and Brazil. That's exotic enough for me and I have good reasons for going there too.

 

 

 

Objects in photo may be smaller than they appear (i.e. the bag is not as big as it looks)

 

Tomorrow me and Heather are planning to go jogging in the park, and to play badminton. It's gonna be a healthy day, ánd I shouldn't have to spend any money, which is my goal for the whole weekend. Except Publix for food of course. And if something else comes up, you never know...

Oh, and here is a photo of my room. That's where I lived for two months now, and where I'll be for another two months plus. I can't believe I've already been here almost half the time. Well, it's half the semester by now and then another two to three weeks, for which I haven't planned anything yet. And I don't think I have to for a while, but I don't want it to be like with spring break, last minute decisions. For spring break by the way we have decided to go to Miami, which should be a lot of fun, but it's gonna be expensive, as I still haven't got the tickets. I actually though about driving down and then take a couple of days to drive down the Florida Keys, that would be really cool, but I don't wanna drive 10 hours by myself (since my friend is flying down from Chicago).

Time to sleep now I think, if I'm gonna get up in the morning to write on my essay before the work out schedule starts!

Today in class my film professor said she has an exhibition opening next week and gave out flyers for that. She makes comics, or just single images, with some everyday observations, she adds one for each day on her website. Some of them are really good, some make more sense than others. Anyway they're kind of funny so check them out: Ordinary Comics, Özge Samanci. I really like some of the little details she puts in, like the "no exaggeration in our size difference" in Feb25. And also some of the spelling and grammar mistakes, which really bugged me at first, especially in her ppt presentations in class, but now it's just kind of cute, charming... She's a cool professor.

I think I know which machine this is, I should try its maternal feeling towards me =)

Early start today as we were meeting at 9 for the bustrip to Birmingham, Alabama. And I can now officially cross another state off my list.

Our first stop was Chris McNair Studios, where we had a Southern lunch - cole slaw, mashed potatoe salad and chicken. Before lunch, Mr McNair talked about his photographs. He was a photographer during the Civil Rights Movement which to a great extent took place in Birmingham. His daughter was killed at 11 years in a bombing of a church during that time, and many of the photos depicted her. There was also a memorial room with clothes, school books and other of her things.

After silencing my screaming stomach we went on to the Civil Rights Institute, which was basically a museum about the movement. Many interesting items and information from the time of segregation. McNair said, however, that there is probably an even greater segregation today than at that time, if, for example, looking at the schools.

And something you might find funny, or not: a group of blind people were at the museum. One of them asked someone working there for the restroom. The man pointed him towards it.

Last stop was Sloss Furnaces, a historic landmark. Here they started producing iron in late 1800's, and it was around this industry the city of Birmingham grew. Now it's closed down since many years, but everything has been preserved as a historic symbol of the city's past.

That's pretty much it. And, yeay, I actually snapped a few photos!

Shopping Friday yesterday again. Me and Heather wanted to find TJMaxx and looked up on the map that there should be one close to the Lennox mall. So we went there, thinking it's not gonna be that hard to find, but of course we didn't. But, that's ok, we found Filene's Basement instead and I don't know how many hours we spent there. I bought a pair of PJ pants, the one's I brought have for some reason developed a big hole in them after many years of use. I love my new ones! I finally found a pair of shoes, the only ones in my size were red. I guess I would have chosen the black or brown if I could've, but I'm liking the red too. Original price $80, Filene's price $49, sale price $15 !! How's that for a bargain =) I also bought a belt, but I'm gonna have to return it, turned out to be too big. Or long, or what ever you say about a belt. And don't have any tools here to make another hole in it. Anyway, 30 days to return it, that's good about American shopping, compared to the Swedish 7 or 10 days.


Today I've only been lying in bed, reading my book for Russian Lit and Film; Heart of a Dog. About a dog which by a surgery slowly turns into a human. Weird, obviously, but fun. And a really short novel, so no pressure.

Rain all day.
Which is only natural, and good so the grass will get green.
But it still kinda sucks. When I for once had a long afternoon
off. I don't know what I would have done if it had been sunny,
but probably something other than staying in.
I should have done some of the readings for next week,
so I don't have to in the weekend, but time goes so fast even
when I'm doing nothing.
Or actually I've been planning for spring break. Or trying to.
We can never make a final decision. I think it's between Puerto
Rica and Miami now. It depends on lodging.

Sunday I'm going to Birmingham, Alabama with the other
exchange students. I have to bring (and use!) my camera
this time. I'll report back on that.

01:47 AM. Tired. For once. This whole last week I've had such a hard time to sleep. Hours every night. And tonight I have an essay to finish before I can sleep. And as I'm writing this I feel how the tiredness is going away. So typical, by the time I'm done writing, I won't be able to fall asleep anyway. But maybe that's my punishment. For watching Prison Break and surfing Facebook instead of doing the work in the evening. Now I have to stay up all night. And I should not be writing my blog right now either. Not so much because of the essay, more for the reason that tomorrow I'll look at what I've been writing here, and it's all nonsense... So I forgive you for not reading this. Pointless. Just an excuse for not doing what I should. Still - at 01:55 AM.

Keep listening to Idol Amanda's song... People will be people always.

Ok, I just ended my essay with ... I'll have to do it tomorrow morning, which means I have to get up early again. But no more complaining. I guess most things happen while you're awake anyway, so why wanna sleep so much... Nothing good will come out of it. Enough of late night philosophies.

First test over with, and new one tomorrow. And for this one I'm actually studying, although it should probably have been the other way around. I didn't feel too good about today's exam, but the one tomorrow is in my film class, and I think I know most of the terms pretty good so... We'll see! Then I think I'll have to spend the whole weekend on projects and essays and presentations =(

So last night was the Hawks game, they actually won, but were pretty close to loosing, so it was a good ending of the game! Otherwise it was kind of boring, as I didn't sit with those I wanted... I did, however, meet a Swedish guy, but only as we left the arena and it was really crowded, so I'm not sure where he disappeared to. It's funny, Heather, from Korea, is somehow really good at spotting Swedish people. She knew there's a guy in her building who's Swedish and the minute she saw him she thought that it had to be that guy. And it was. Same thing yesterday.

Tonight I dreamt that my dad gave me a million dollars (or kronor?) cash tied up like a bundle of news papers. I was really happy, think of all the things I could do with that money! Then came my mom and asked if I knew where that money came from, am I sure it's legal, does it not seem a little suspicious? Hmm, maybe so, I guess my dad must have commited some crime. So I started thinking about the best way to put the money into the bank, without any suspicion, how often and much could I deposit at a time? But my mom wouldn't leave me alone with my new-gained fortune, she made me feel guilty for keeping stolen money, so I asked her: what if I give half of it to charity, to the starving children or something? No, Marie you know what you have to do... she said. Yes, the only right thing would of course be, it turns out, to throw it away!

So, even if it all seems to be about school right now, at least I have my dreams!

Oh no not another cold... especially not now, when I have so much to do. I have tests both Thursday and Friday, which means I should be studying now, since I wont be able to tomorrow night. But I just can't get to it. Eventhough I have nothing else to do... Where's the discipline in me?

So tomorrow night I'm going to a Hawks game. That's Atlanta's basketball team, they're playing the L.A. Lakers and I'm going with the international students. I think it will be fun, even if not the ideal way to spend the night before a midterm :-s

I think this weekend I'm going to IKEA... again, I know... but this time I'm gonna buy some stuff. Or food to be precise. I want knäckebröd, and maybe some Ahlgrens bilar or Marabouchoklad and köttbullar. Vad jag allra helst vill ha är semlor, men tror knappast de har det där...*tår på kinden*

Thanks for the comments, keep 'em coming!

Quick summary of the weekend:

Saturday I went to a big shopping mall with Heather. I'm a little dissappointed that I didn't find anything worth buying, especially as I really need some more clothes. I was a very good girl when packing, not bringing too much, but now I'm thinking I didn't actually bring enough. I need some more clothes! And another handbag. And shoes ;). Anyway, it was still a good day, thanks to our lunch: Cheescake Factory! I had a really good sandwich, but I was only able to finish half, so during the whole time in the mall I went around smelling the other half of the sandwich (which was then in my bag, and later eaten for kvällsmat).

Sunday, or today, Kahee picked me up for lunch. (I'm realizing this is turning into a food log, but iI can't help it) We went to the Flying Biscuit, which is supposed to have good food. When we got there, there was a long line of people waiting outside. That should be a good sign! We didn't have to wait as we took two seats by the bar instead of a table. I had pancakes, again I could not finish - these American sizes, it's crazy! Afterwards we took a walk to the big park nearby, which I didn't go to before, but think I will again. It was really nice in the sunny weather we had today. I guess it's not that far from where I live, I just never walked in that direction yet. The rest of the sunny afternoon we spent on campus, inside, studying like two good students should the night before classes start again =) And last, we drove to an Asian supermarket, like any supermarket, except all the Asian food, and all the Asian customers... But it was a good day. I was dead tired after the hours with my head in the books, but for some reason not a bit tired now. When I need to be. When I need to sleep. I'm glad my class doesn't start until 11 tomorrow. Or today actually.

Tuesday is supposed to be raining, but other than that it seems like the temperature will go up a little bit this week. I certainly hope so. I guess this turned out to be a little longer summary than I had planned on, I'm just thinking that staring at a computer screen should make me tired, and maybe it has helped a little bit. So I'm gonna give this sleeping-thing another shot now, I hear it's good for you. nighty night...

My first photos since I got here.
Nightview from my window.

Last night I went with my new roommate and her friends to the High Museum of Art, where they have a Danish film festival, the movie of last night was After the Wedding by Susanen Bier. I thought I had seen it, but I guess I hadn't. One of the leads was played by Rolf Lassgård so I got a dose of Swedish as well. Really good film anyway... afterwards we went to LocaLuna, a latino club. It was a good night, especially as my alternative was staying home!

And today it has been snowing all day... let's see if it's still here in the morning. Heather came here today and we made dinner. With dessert of course, choclate ice-cream... Other than that I haven't been doing much today. Laundry, unpacking the last things, trying to decide where to put what, watching tv online, manipulating Mona Lisa's eyes for a project, and I guess that's about it. Tomorrow I have to do some school work.

new room and more

So yesterday I moved all my stuff (weird how I can already have so much more than what fits in the bags I came here with) with an IKEA cart from the 2nd floor to the 6th. And I can see clearly now... but window next to the highway has its downsides as well, as night traffic is as busy as day traffic in this country. Noisy, that is, but I guess I'll get used to that. Nyway, I'm gonna need some help rearranging the furniture. It's placed really weird. It's really heavy. Can't push on these carpets. Maybe tomorrow I can ask my new roomie, she's from Venezuela, and is studying English here. There's another girl living in the apartment too, I met her just shortly today, she didn't seem very intrested in talking and... let's just leave it at that.

Oh, and today it snowed! Was sitting at my desk reading, when I looked up I saw snow falling outside. Didn't stay long on the ground though, I think tomorrow it'll be raining.

Tomorrow evening I'm going to a welcome reception for the international students. I'm only going for the free food.

Monday's a holiday, but haven't made any particular plans. There's enough to do. I always have something to do here, but I still get a little lonely every now and then.

Free food remark, by the way, was a joke. Reception will be fun.

First, and hopefully not last, post

Already more than two weeks since I left Kalmar now, and a lot has happened since.

Kalmar - Copenhagen - London - Newark, where Nicole picked me up at the airport. I spent a few days with her in Scarsdale. On New Year's Eve we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then we spent the night at James Joyce where we got in at a special price ;) ( right Nicole?!) It was fun, just like the old au-pair weekends!

White Plains - Atlanta, back to reality.

First day here was an orientation meeting on campus with other transfer and exchange students. I met two nice girls, both from South Korea, although one of them lived here for several years already. I am at this point realizing that most, almost all, other exchange student at GT are from Asia. Not any Europeans in sight so far. And I'm guessing I actually met more Koreans than Americans since I got here!

I am in fact sharing apartment with one, however, not for much longer as we're both changing apartments. We had the incredible luck of beeing placed in one of the few apartment with no windows in the bedrooms. Just too depressing... So hopefully I will be moving tomorrow already, this time to a four bedroomer which will also save me a few (or more) dollars a month.

So now my second Atlanta weekend has come to an end, and already assignments and readings are piling up. Have bought books and books and books and still I don't have all I need. I'm happy I decided to drop one of the literature courses, there's no way I could've pulled the first schedule off. I think I got a good selection of courses now though, it's gonna be a lot of work, but they all seem interesting. This first week has been kind of crazy, figuring everything out, but it's starting to feel pretty good now.

More than that, I've been doing some necessary shopping, went bowling with Patrick and his friends, oh and today I was actually at IKEA... where I didn't buy anything, it was my friend who needed a table cloth, and I guess that's about the one thing you can not find there. So this far things haven't gone all too wrong, I'm not homesick, and well... I guess that's all for now. Better get some sleep before a new week with new challenges!
(varje bra text måste ju ha en knorr på slutet;) )