Bravery, Stupidity and Tonsilitis

Progress of Easter Boycott: Complete (see above pictures)
Fears overcome: 1
Number of times I've been sick since I arrived in Sweden: 5
Number of times I've kicked myself for not buying more cold & flu tablets in Estonia: 1,000,000 Size of tonsils: Enormous

So last week we went to karaoke at this bar called basement. Petrified at the thought of having to sing in front of people (shock, horror), we all decided to get a little tipsy beforehand. It worked marvellously. I think I got up to sing around 4-5 times in total, it was terribly hideous sounding, and to be honest, I just didn't care. The bar was totally empty at first, but after a while it got pretty full, and I definitely think we were the most entertaining group (for future reference, swedish karaoke songs are really boring). Took loads of videos, even more pictures, and had a great time all in all. That fear overcome, I think I can now attempt to conquer my other fear... but that's another story for another time.

We're fully back at uni now, which totally sucks, but there's not a whole lot I can do about it for now. Especially since I've just come down with tonsilitis... I was supposed to go on a countryside walk for my nordic culture course, but I had to cancel because it was raining, and going for a 4km walk in the rain with tonsilitis is not the best thing I could do. So, it totally sucks and I'm in a hideous mood. Fever, chills, headaches - not to mention the fact that I can't swallow OR eat! Gah!

I'm beginning to hate my room.

Beautiful day! 

picturesque gota kanal 

love the helmet action 

Go Karting...I was practically the only girl 

Bicycles, GoKarts, Limbo, and the Dutch Invasion...

So its been relatively crazy in this part of the world for the past couple of weeks, mainly thanks to an invasion of dutch people (turned out to be 3 girls, 9 guys, and one helluva lotta grog). God those guys can drink.

We went Go Karting a week or so ago, which was great. My team came second, but it was totally close all the way. I'm told I was a reckless driver, and my Italian friend Roberto was totally disgusted that a girl kicked his ass :D So we got medals and everything, there was an awards ceremony, where we got to stand on a podium. Totally ridiculous, but lots of fun nevertheless. Was feeling sore as all hell the next day though, tell you what.

Earlier on this week a group of us went on a bike ride to the Gota Kanal, a little north of Linkoping. Took 45 minutes to get there, and oh my god it nearly killed me. This little black duck is just not cut out for bike riding, hehe. Can't say that I'm surprised to be honest, it was never really my thing. I have to say though, the Kanal/lake was really beautiful. It was still frozen, but with really mushy ice. Looked fantastic, and made for some interesting videos of the boys throwing rocks trying to break the harder ice further out. They didn't succeed.

We went to a corridoor party on tuesday night, which lead to an impromptu round of the limbo. I made it through about 4 stages, then unfortunately my socks gave way and i fell on my head. Lots of fun, but mental note for next time: Take off socks before participating in any limbo-related activities.

Finally, the Dutch Invasion. I walked into a room on wednesday night, filled with people playing an interactive computer/television game that closely resembled 'Who wants to be a millionaire'. Put into a team, I can safely say that it was the most confusing game I've ever come across - not helped by the fact that it was conducted in Dutch. I should mention that it is a drinking game, and that being bad at a drinking game very quickly equals lots of drunk people. Needless to say, the person who invented this game was clearly both an alcoholic and a masochist, as it contained components such as 'beer marathons' (one-on-one drinking showdown, beer by beer, last man standing wins a point for his/her team - which resulted in both of our contestants vomiting in the kitchen sink), and a highly competitive pitcher skulling competition. The next night we went to Bar and Kok (pronounced close to 'Shuk' for those cretins out there), a nice little nightspot which goes off on thursdays. We neglected to remember that they had go-go girls on this particular night, which resulted in us waiting in the line for an hour. This is one aspect of swedish life that i will not miss. Anyways, had a great night, and to cut a long story short, yours truly ended up dancing on the bar :o)

So, the Dutch Invasion have now deserted Linkoping for Stockholm, and I'm left here contemplating life, drinking coffee, and figuring out what I want to do when I go to Paris in May.

It is truly a hard life.

Easter sucks...

...So here are a list of things that I, Chloe Jade Barnes, will be celebrating in liu of Easter this year.

1. HG is closed - thus forcing me out of my comfortable nook here in Ryd, and allowing me to fully explore the wonderful plethora of bars residing in Linkoping (actually, I'm not sure if plethora is the correct word...perhaps a little excessive...there are probably 5 good bars in linkoping. lets see if i can find them all).

2. I'm boycotting the holiday that is solely responsible for my addiction to cadbury cream eggs. Its a vendetta people! Damn the man!

3. It's FINALLY warm! Spring has sprung, there are birds building a nest outside my window, and today was the first day that i was able to go outside without my mega chunky jacket on. I'll raise a toast to that alone ;)

4. I don't have to give a damn about uni for a whole week. No assignments, no group work (though Yoann's nutella pancakes are always a welcome group motivator), no homework, and best of all NO SEMINARS!

5. The Dutch invasion is a-coming. 12 Dutch people (I believe 11 guys, 1 girl), all coming to shake things up a bit here in Ryd. Should make for some interesting corridoor parties to say the least. 2 days, no sleep. lovely.

Kirsi, Chloe, Gugu, Jonathan, Angela, Petra, Roberto...all aboard! 

Josh, Petra, Chloe, Kirsi on the streets of Estonia 

Matt, Angela, Chloe, Jonathan, Lex overlooking Tallinn 

ice ice baby 

Fun in Stockholm 

Me and Matt do the Timewarp...80's here we come! 

The complete look 

Estonia Ahoy!

hey hey!

Well, just got back from a whirlwind weekend on a cruise ship headed to Estonia. 300 exchange students, a karaoke bar, nightclub, duty free shopping and a whole lotta shakin' going on. Combine this with exorbitant amounts of alcohol, and, well... you get the picture.

The adventure began in Stockholm on saturday morning: 4 girls, 2 guys, nice mixture of nationalities (dutch, french, german, finnish, australian), and an earnest desire from all to have an amazing time. We planned to spend a couple of hours wandering around Stockholm, perhaps doing a bit of sightseeing before meeting up with the rest of our group and boarding the ferry. Arrived in Stockholm - windy! Immediately set about getting all touristy in the Swedish capital, and tried to find the main shopping street. Had lunch, and after an interesting incident involving 4 girls, 1 toilet, 5 kronas (when it should have been 20), and a veeery long line of totally busting and unimpressed people, we left, and did a bit of shopping. NB: "a bit" = 15 minutes. Did a little bit of sightseeing with the touristy scenic spots, water, buildings, blah blah blah. You get the idea. Caught the bus to the docks, where we met up with the crew and boarded the ferry.

On the boat - cabin is the size of a shoebox. Thankfully get put with my lovely friend Angela (they chose our cabin mates for us!), right across the hall from my other lovely friends, Kirsi and Petra. Go exploring and see the boat breaking through the ice - it looks and sounds amazing (especially when you're attempting sleep at 3am). Took about a million photos of the ice, then realised that they all look the same, therefore 1 was probably sufficient. Ah what the hell, I'm a total tourist - no point hiding it. Had dinner. Then began the drinking games... I'm not going to paint the picture - needless to say, it was entertaining.

Sunday morning: arrived in Estonia!! Running on approximately 3 hours sleep was interesting, so I was craving coffee as soon as we had passed the initial onslaught of grog shops that surround the docks. I was thoroughly amused at the number of old women selling hand knitted booties (for both adults and babies) on the side of the street, and wondered briefly if anyone actually buys them. Did some sightseeing and exploring of Tallinn's city centre. Visited the Alexander Nevski cathedral, which looks good from the outside, and has a totally breathtaking interior. Gold everywhere, hundreds of candles, chandeliers, pipe organs - and no photography allowed! Couldn't believe it, but i guess you gotta respect the laws...
Went to a lookout point, and had an old guy try to sell us Russian passports. Thought that was totally hilarious, and after checking our bags to make sure we hadn't been robbed, we did some more sightseeing. Second only to alcohol stores in Tallinn are souvenir shops - they're EVERYWHERE! Ridiculous. Crammed full of products made with amber - more jewellery than you can poke a stick at. None of it cheap either.

After buying ourselves some cheap grog, we got back on the ferry to head back to Stockholm. More drinking games, more dancing, more antics. Sooo much fun. I'd hate to work on the boat - the staff must deal with so much shit from the students. I totally got attitude from a bartender who kept trying to charge me for water. Dagnabbit.

So yeah, here I am back in my room. We had a DOMD (this big darts tournament in Linkoping) kravall on thursday, which was great. It had a Miami Vice theme, so we all dressed up in our overalls with 80's accessories to complete the look. Totally great night.

Anyways, off to bed! Am exhausted after a totally fantastic weekend where my passport got stamped again :D yay!

Stay in school kids,

Chloe xx