CRUISE to Helsinki, Finland!!

It's about 1:40pm on Saturday afternoon here in Uppsala and I think I can finally say that I'm feeling comfortable with the idea of being abroad until June! Up until just a couple days ago I still hadn't unpacked, so I've been living out of my suitcase haha. Unpacking was one of those things that I just couldn't bring myself to do until it felt right...and it finally felt right when we got back from Helsinki on Thursday!!
The cruise was such a blast!! We only paid 25sek to get on the boat, which is the equivalent of about $5.00! Sooo cheap! I had assumed the boat wouldn't be very nice since the tickets were so inexpensive...but boy was I wrong! This was a legit cruise ship, complete with a couple different clubbing rooms, a casino, a string quartet serenading the entrance as you walked onto the boat, glass elevators, and very fancy restaurants! Overall a very classy and fancy ship! There were four people to a cabin, which was definitely a tight squeeze! The beds just pulled out of the wall and then we shared a very small bathroom.
Now of course since we're all just poor college kids we didn't indulge in the fancy restaurants, so we lived off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for 3 days haha.
I guess the cruise to Finland is commonly known as the 'booze cruise' because you can get alcohol so cheap on the boat. With alcohol being monopolized in Sweden and so expensive, it's pretty popular for people to stock up on their alcohol supply on the ship because you can get it all 'duty free' or tax free! I bought this small bottle of vodka that's bright pink, called 'Girl' and says 'For Women Only' across the front of it! Of course me being the girlie girl that I am, I got it just to have the bottle haha! Pretty hilarious I think!
Anyways, the ship left Stockholm at 5pm on Tuesday and we got to Helsinki at 10am on Wednesday. We spent most of the day just walking around town and exploring the cool buildings! Exploring for a long period of time was a little difficult because it was FREEZING!! I'm talkin like 20 below zero!! I don't think I'll ever complain about another winter in Colorado because it pales in comparison to the frigid temperatures of Finland!! We did manage to see the capitol building and main cathedral and then ended up going to the National Museum of Finland, mainly just to have somewhere warm to stay for a little while haha. We also ate lunch downtown at a small, inexpensive pizza place. However, when I say 'inexpensive,' I'm talkin like $11 for the meal, which in reality is not that cheap haha...but all the food in Europe is more expensive than the US. Like a regular Big Mac meal at McDonalds would be like $6 in the US, where as it's about $9 over here, CRAZY!!
Anyways, we had to be back on the boat by 5pm and got back to Stockholm around 10am on Thursday morning. Overall it was a perfect first traveling experience! Definitely check out my pics of Helsinki on facebook if you haven't already!

My First Weekend at the Nations!!

It's about 8:00pm on Sunday night over here and I've survived my first full week in Sweden!! I just got done making a frozen pizza for dinner and can officially say that frozen pizza tastes the same in every country haha. Those that have lived with me know that I'm basically the queen of frozen dinners and will always choose the microwave option over actually cooking a real meal. However, as of right now, our kitchen has no microwave!! I know, shocking right?? So I've been forced to rely on the stove top and oven...such a rough life haha!

Anyways, I got my first taste of Uppsala's night life this weekend and let me tell you, it is CRAZY!! They put Colorado's clubs to shame!! The school has 13 different 'nations' that every student joins within the first week. I'd relate them to greek life in the US, with the exception that they're not exclusive, you pick which one you want to join (as opposed to them picking you), and they're all co-ed. Each nation historically relates to a nation within Sweden, so most of the Swedes will join the one that correlates with their family background. As an exchange student, your family background obviously doesn't matter so you can join whichever one 'feels' right. They all have their own building where you can go to study and hang out during the week and then a few of them have their own club night every week. 

I went to 'Varmlands' Nation on Friday night and it was such a blast!! Everyone goes out way earlier here so we got there at like 8pm and it was already packed! They have different types of music playing in every room and it's essentially one giant dance party! They play some Swedish music, but the majority of it is American music. The top played artists I've heard so far are Backstreet Boys, Rhianna, and Keisha!! On Saturday night I went to a Gossip Girl themed party (which was right up my ally haha!) at 'Sneirkes' Nation. They're way into American TV over here, so everyone went dressed up as 'Upper East Side' rich kids...all the guys in their sweater vests and bow ties and all the girls with giant bows in their hair and tons of jewelry. Overall the club atmosphere is a lot more layed back than it is in the States, at least in my opinion. When you go to the clubs in Denver you have to avoid creepers the whole night and everyone is always grindin all up on each other. I'd say it's not nearly as sexual of an atmosphere...everyone just dances however they want and guys aren't necessarily just tryin to 'get some' by the end of the night. I'm sure the fact that I can legally order DELICIOUS cocktails helps too!!

I'll also point out how big of a deal red cups are!! I've talked to several Australians and other Europeans that told me how they have 'Red Cup' themed parties back home. They're much more into drinking songs than drinking games, so they rarely play beer pong or flip cup...but when they do it's the theme of the party! Red cups are also pretty expensive over here because they're such a rare commodity...pretty crazy how something we're so used to can be such a big deal in another country. I'd say that can be applied to a lot of things in life! 

So that pretty much sums up the party life over here...definitely a blast!! I'm taking a cruise to Helsinki, Finland this week so I'll tell you all about it in my next post and will hopefully have lots of pics from the ship!! Byeeee

The Beginning: from STDs to Sour Milk!

It's about 10:30pm here in Uppsala and I've officially been overseas for 5 days!! I must admit these have been some of the most terrifying and exciting days at the same time. I'm living in what they call 'dorms,' however the living situation is way different from dorm life back at CU. First of all, my building is  called Rackarbergsgatan (I know, quite the mouthful!), so anytime someone asks what building I'm in its a struggle to pronounce! I live in a corridor with 4 other rooms, but at this point I've only met one other girl in the corridor and she's originally from Sweden. Overall my dorm is a little lonely at the moment, so I spend most of my time on campus or in town where people actually exist haha.

Uppsala's campus is very different from CU. Instead of having all the class buildings and dorms in one central location, the town of Uppsala itself is the campus. So all the school's buildings are spread throughout the town. I'm pretty happy with the location of my dorm though because it's centrally located to a lot of the class buildings and the main part of town!

Uppsala is also very different in that I'm only taking one class at a time. On top of that, I only have the class for a couple hours, 3 days a week! So there's tons of free time which naturally means sleeping in!! (that is if I ever get rid of this jet lag! waking up at 4am every night since I've been here is getting a little old...) Overall, a very different school environment. But that's why I'm studying abroad in the first place, right??

The school definitely requires you to be more independent and does not hold your hand through the adjustment process, so I ended up missing the first hour-in-a-half of the first day of class on Monday. Let's just say direct communication from the university is not its strong point haha. 

Later on Monday, we had our exchange student orientation where we learned all about the basics of Uppsala. One of the first things they told us is how prominent STDs are throughout the town, specifically Chlamydia! Basically my first impression of Swedish boys is that they drink a TON and just wanna get in your pants (not exactly that different from American boys haha!)

They also explained to us how introverted Swedish people tend to be...and believe me they weren't kidding. Your typical Swede is very non-confrontational and will usually only talk to you if you say something to them first. And this only applies if you ask them more than just a yes or no question. Otherwise, they answer you with a direct yes or no and then just stare at you awkwardly. I personally find it somewhat humorous because the main bulk of the international population here come from either America, Canada, or Australia, all of which breed very outspoken and energetic personalities!

My first trip to the grocery store was an adventure in itself. I bought what I thought was water...and was not. Learned pretty quick that carbonated water is very popular over here and its actually quite difficult to find regular bottled water. I also bought what I thought was milk...and most definitely was not! Apparently 'sour' milk is very popular over here and I can say from personal experience that it does not make a good bowl of cereal! It's much thicker than regular milk and smells real funky. Also, their mayonnaise comes in a tube...need I say more??

Lots more to tell but I think this is long enough for now...promise I'll post pics very soon!