I hate Swedish doors

It's been a boring week.  That's not to say I haven't enjoyed myself.  I sit here on thursday night (2/7/08) rather anxious to go to sleep and wake up, because tomorrow I leave for Amsterdam.  I'm going to Amsterdam? Wow, this is gonna be crazy.  But that's a story for next week.  So, reeeewind to last friday, when I posted last.  Twas the night of the welcome dinner, and welcomed we were.  Dinner was good, but not filling.  We had mushroom soup, pork wrapped in bacon, mashed potatoes (I loaded up on those), chocolate cake and coffee for dessert, and, as always, beer, but this beer was provided by the university, oh yea. We were sat with other random exchange students to "diversify", which was awkward at first, but now I'm friends with the people that I met at my table. There was a cool slide show about Sweden, it famous people and accomplishments and some funny additions, everyone enjoyed it.  The dinner lasted around 2 hours, and after it was the usual party at HG, but everyone looked nicer than normal.  I don't need to recap that, you've all heard it already.  However, the next day, I woke up to check how much money I had left (as it tends to crawl out of the wallet unintentionally), and was surprised that I had saved so much, except that one thing was missing: my ATM card.  Oh Sh•t. Pants, no. Shoes, no. Jacket, no. Floor, no. Sink, toilet, bed, ears, socks, ceiling, no no no. What happened? It was gone, and that is my only source of cash. Ok, breathe, think, when did you use it last. Hmm, two days ago, why would it be gone? So I went through the usual panic, walked my route home from the night before, but it was nowhere.  Fortunately, when HG opened the next day, I was standing at the front door and asked if any cards were recovered. Blue, Selco, David J Anderson.  Yes? YEEESSS!!!!! I'm saved, and I didn't even have to tell mom and dad (until now, sorry guys) and better yet, I didn't cancel it.  Ok, back to normal. Bought some beer and chips with Sam, then went back to my place.  It had snowed quite a bit that day, so Sam, Brody, Arne and I stood outside my window with the music playing and sipped our beers that had been cooling off in the powder.  A cool, unique Sweden experience.  Then came the usual Saturday night corridor party, this time, next door to my building.  Again, no need to explain; just plain craziness. The next morning I woke up feelin' good, made eggs and toast with avocado, sat around lazy all day, read a little and watched a movie.  That night I went to a corridor to watch the Superbowl (which started at midnight my time), but only got through half of it.  Boy did I watch the wrong half.  Giants 17-14? What the hell? Sucks for you Brady.  Class the next day at ten, followed by reading and boredom, then I feel asleep, waking up 30 minutes before my first Swedish class at 5:15.  I ate a slice of pizza on the ride to the University, it was cold (not the pizza, the weather and my bare hands).  I made it to class, learned how to say Jag heter David, vad heter Du? (guess) and some other things, like the numbers, the alphabet, and how to actually pronounce the letters, which is not an easy task.  Oh well, I'm learning.  I have that class each monday night with two buddies, which is good.  That night our group went over to Mick's (another Australian) for a pasta dinner and conversation, it was nice, relaxing because everyone was tired.  I headed home early.  The next day I met with my Bio-class group to create a powerpoint presentation, and ended up taking over because I understand the material and spoke/wrote better english.  We presented today, it went well, I'm just glad its over with.  That tuesday I bought my drunksuit, I mean overall, the blue onesie that is a very Linköping-only item (more like phenomenon). Also bought my swedish textbook and dictionary, woohoo (not really).  That night (Fat Tuesday, oh yea) I had the boys over to my place to eat pizza before we went out.  We went early to HG so we didn't have to stand in line, and the night got progressively drunker.  I didn't have class the next day, so I was out until around 2 am, doin' the exchange student thing.  Went on a little bike ride with Sam the next day in search of a gym we had heard about, but could not find it.  I cooked dinner with Arne that evening (actually he cooked, he's good); we just had some pasta with homemade, delicious sauce. I fell asleep on the couch watching the simpsons (he has cable, which I'm jealous of because I only get three channels and the TV cuts out half the time, so his TV is better).  Speaking of falling asleep, I have been taking lots of naps lately, mostly because I have been sleeping horribly.  I don't know why, I just can't stay asleep and I've had some really strange dreams. And so it goes. Last night Sam, Andreas and I booked our rooms in the hostel in Amsterdam.  They were more expensive than we preferred, but we paid for the stupidity of waiting this long to get the rooms, again, so it goes. Today (thursday) was 4 hours of class, including the presentation, and then hangin out in my room.  I'm pumped for Amsterdam tomorrow, we get on the bus for Stockholm at 9, then fly out at 2, and check into our hostel at 8.  If everything goes as planned, by this time tomorrow I will be enjoying myself  in Amsterdam, maybe having some delicious *cough* coffee.  Well alrighty, that's been my week.  Pretty boring huh? Yes I know.  But oh well, I have to write it down, its part of the process. Actually, three of the nights were really good parties, but I left out the details cause most of you don't care to hear about them, but they're in my head, and photos. Ok, I'm gonna go eat some cookies and milk and watch 'Crash'.  Happy Chinese New Year.  Thanks for reading.