Home, Home on the Range....

Hm, well, just want to blog after talking to you. Hope you have a good date El! and you too, Nikole, have fun at your cousin's birthday party! And, remember, no trans-candy.

Explosions and Cookies

so, explosions, thats what happens when i try to bake cookies. in fact, the cookies i was making were pre made and all i had to to was add butter and eggs. i think i have a skill in making everything dangerous. my mom is so nice that she sent me cookie dough stuff, for christmas, because a year without cookies is a depressing thought. and cookies is about the only thing i can bake successfully (and i dont count the time i put a cup of baking soda instead of a teaspoon). so, back to the story....
on the package, it said to soften butter, you should put the unwrapped package of margarine in the microwave for 10 seconds. so i did that. and apparently, swedish margarine is wrapped in somthing different, and it made a loud POP. and when i opened the microwave, it was on fire. yup, so i blew it out and unplugged the microwave and nobody noticed.....man i feel dumb. anyways im talking to you right now, so i am glad....love and kisses, nikole

Hallo!

Hey, guys!  Does anyone have time on Sunday for to have of the Skype chat?  I'm free all day, far as I know.

So today I taught my English class again.  It was fun, but I have waaaay too many people.  I need an assistant or something.  Kelsey and I also stole Mexican condiments from the caf again, which is a very complex operation involving lookouts, hand signals, planned routes, decoy tortilla chips, large fur coats, and tupperware.  (No I am not kidding.)  But we got a large amount of guacamole out of it, so it was worth it! I love guacamole!  Also, Chinese new year was the bane of my existence, because I kept going to parties instead of doing my homework so I ended up writing my paper at two in the morning and keeping Kelsey up (although she never said anything and I thought she was asleep) and then the next day the prof didn't even collect it and I was sad.  Very sad.  There was much vulgarity of language.  

Even though I love that prof because she's my "Decide Whether the US is an Empire" Class prof which is also my honors class and she has very large glasses and a funny (in a teehee way) haircut and wears wool socks with burkenstocks and is rather sarcastic and sort of shuffles and gets chalk over absolutely everything and is extremely intelligent.  And I love her.  I already said that.  I love you guys also.  

I've been trying to get people here to play SET with me, but not much luck so far.  I guess we're weirder than we thought....  Do people play different games in Sweden?  And has anyone from New York heard of euchre?  I did introduce everyone here to the Game of REAL Life, and they naturally thought it was amazing, because it is.  My friend Chris became a disabled prostitute, except he was also a gay Shiite polygamist with twins.  And I became a disabled shaman and got to enlightenment!!!!!  Hooray!!

Also, I think I'm going on a date tomorrow, except it might not be because Hanzhong's from China and I'm not really sure what they consider "dates" to consist of.  But we're making lunch at his apartment and playing ping pong and probably watching Kung Fu Hustle (woot!), which has all the American requirements for "date".  Not sure how I feel about that.  

Love you both.

Skype!!! 

also, play freerice!!

hej tjejer!

hey girls!! just wondering how everythings going. its getting lighter and lighter here nowadays. i just got my grades back and im actually doing okay, despite the tough begining, not that they really matter...i dont have so much to say, i just miss you guys. i need my elenor and shan shan. booohoooooo. hm so i hope everthings good with you both. i have a busy week ahead, so i might not be online so much. love ya, nikole

Back to School (pour moi)

Hi nikole and el. I am finally back to school. a little sad to leave home, but only seven weeks until spring break :) I may end up working at the state park this coming summer, and that is when my interview would be.
Just finished this great book! : How the Irish Saved Civilization can't remember who it is written by. My grandma Helen recommended the book to me. There's a lot of history, but told like a story and very entertaining. I felt very reconnected to my Irish roots when reading it. (Anam Cara "soul friend" is also a very good book grandma recommended, and is full of Celtic wisdom.)
Inauguration is tomorrow. Will you be watching? Leezanne is going to drive to D.C. with a couple of her roommates...she said that she has no hope to see anything because of the masses, but just being there will be cool.
Classes for me start tuesday, and I will prospectively meet with Taniesha then too (I think we're going ice-skating). Keep in touch, talk to you soon! (p.s. skype next weekend?)

january oh january

haha el, nice pictures. i couldnt watch dr horrible!!!! it is because my computer is in sweden and it said that only ppl from the united states could watch movies on hulu. so dumb. yeah my birthday was good, but it was busy. fanny, lena, and jonas woke me up at 6.30, singing a bday song. but that was cool, cuz i got breakfast in bed AND hot chocolate!! btw i have a webcam now, so if u ever wanna watch me...i mean....nvm. but elena, you should get skype because u can call for free (ask shannon for more details, she and i got to talk on it once already). my skype name is nikole.hampton yep, so this week i started school, and i really like my classes! plus i can actually understant what we are learning about so thats a plus. or i can at least figure it out lol. but i do have a ton of hw, im so bad at motivating for that. tonight, im going out in the town with fanny...and right now i have to work on my projekt arbete (like senior project...i think?). oh, and i wanna write u guys letters this weekend...so i cant say anything more....puss och kram (kiss and hug) JAG SAKNAR DIG!!!!

one more thing: its getting brighter!! i could see the sun when i went to school today!! ive really learned to appreciate sunlight since ive been here.....

?!?!

collectible m&m baby

I think I need to watch Dr. Horrible, because just about everyone I know has seen it and likes it. :) 

I am a huge present slacker, Nikoleson (and Shannon), but yours is coming soon!   Hope you had a good Swedish birthday. :)  Do they do anything differently?  Did you get a cake?  

I am in my third day of the new semester, and so far it's pretty fun.  No ice-skating, tho.  I finally have a Chinese professor instead of TAs, and she's really funny!  Except she didn't send us the homework schedule, so no one has any of their work done.  I also have a research writing class that involves music and dancing and field research...?  Not entirely sure what's going on yet, but there are only 10 people in the class, which is 太好了！(great!)  And my other RCAH class only has 8 people.  Basically, residential college rocks!  The 8 person class is an honors class about empires, and the whole point is to decide whether or not the US is an empire.  The professor is really good, but assigns 很多 功课。 (a lot of homework)  We're going to have a two-page paper due every week, plus whatever else she assigns.  I also switched my astronomy class to a linguistics class, but I haven't gone yet.  

I also apologize for sucking at life and keeping in touch and presents.  Will try to do better.  Love you guys.

Hi Nikole and El.!

Just watching Dr. Horrible's sing along.  Its only free to watch until sunday, and then is $2.00 on ITunes. That's why I'm attempting to load it with dial-up.  http://www.drhorrible.com/mushortio.html Its pretty funny, but not the end of the world if you don't get around to watching it.

Ice Skating must be awesome! It sounds like you could skate around all of sweden; skate all day. I've been skiing often, but haven't got around to ice skating yet.  My "little," Taniesha, and I are planning to go when I get back to Ithaca, but that's at a park, and not along the connected rivers and lakes of Sweden :) I'm glad you liked the presents, and had a good break. You'll do great at the track meet, Nikole, no worries! I'll be cheering for you.  Elena goes back to school this weekend (classes the 12th), and I start again on the 20th, Inauguration Day.  Do you think you'll watch any of the inauguration?

My Grandma Helen invited me over for dinner last night so we could spend some time before I go back to Ithaca.  We sat by the fire and watched a new DVD she got: arial views of England, including cities, parks, the countryside and seaside.  It was interesting to watch, and I actually liked it a lot, but it still made me very sleepy.

Anyway, glad you're doing well.  Talk to you soon, and sending lots of love,

Shannon

hello 2009

hey...i just wanted to write in the new year! and also, shannon, i got your package today in the mail and
1) the finger puppets were adorable
2) i liked reading about soccer in the paper
3) the cookies brought back memories.....

love u