21:00 13-1-2008

So much to tell, so much I want to go to sleep…I’ve been overpaying for text messages on my US phone for a couple days now. Last night I decided that unfortunately enough, the only way I was going to get to do anything is if I walked down to school where the other UNC guy has his room (john tanzawa). Unfortunately is was raining a little and the map I had only had half of the route on it (the 2nd half), and while I had checked out the route to school online before, I had to do it from a 5 day old memory. Didn’t get lost and got in touch w/ Mikael, my friend and unofficial exchange buddy who was at UNC this fall. So I went and checked email for important stuffs, then hung out with a gaggle of exchange students. We played a very convoluted version of Kings with screwdrivers…I was as lucky as always and drew the 4th king out of the last four cards. Everyone was pretty cool, there were even a few of the exchange buddies around who helped us get to the Soder, a place with a bunch more bars and clubs than downtown proper (where HHS is located). We stayed out ‘til closing time (3am) and people’s drunk-hunger made us miss the last train home at the metro but we piled into cabs and made it home just fine.

I crawled out of bed around noon today and immediately got a text from Tanzawa letting me know when he was going cell phone hunting. I needed a charger and to buy some credit for the prepaid card that was given to us in our welcome packet so I decided to hop the metro down. I had to find the stop first, easier said than done since I had the aforementioned useless map. I bought my month long pass (620 Kronor, just under $100) which, as usual, is a pretty good deal since each ride is about $5. So we ventured out, actually ran into another couple exchange students at the Phone House, walked down to the Gallerian (relatively nice mall), got what we needed and decided to wander around some just looking at Stockholm. We walked a couple miles, saw the Nordika Museet and the Vasa Museet which I will have to get back to for picture taking soon. Then we got lazy and hopped on the metro back towards school. Tanzawa and I feasted on some delicious Indian food, we both requested spicy and were well rewarded with runny noses and sweating.

Now I’m just biding my time ‘til tomorrow for orientation. Still no internet. Poop.