change is inevitable here. i have been in two different host families and the changing of it all is very difficult. i love both and it is hard to feel like i am abandoning either. i go back to my old host family at the end of next week and then i will have finally felt like i have settled in. 

i have loved every moment at my new family too. it is really amazing having the ability to live with another DIS student and have that safety blanket of someone to always talk to. there are also other accessibility things at the new host family that are really amazing too. though this is a temporary situation, it makes me realize i need to get better about asking for things that i need back at my permanent home. for example, my electric scooter is being stupid and dies every five minutes because it is meant for a child and a child isn’t meant to commute 5 times a week.

(daisy and me)

(milo)

this weekend was not that eventful and that was totally okay with me. i went out on friday night, but then got tired and went home. then, on saturday, i had to get my resident permit that allows me to stay over 90 days. it was very nice that i never had to go do anything before departure day. that night, i went to bed early and that made me even happier.

the struggle of being in the suburbs of the city is that your motivation for things has to be a lot higher to actually do it. for example, when going out, i have to have the motivation to take a bus and two different metros to get to the place at least. then, having to time it exactly down to the minute when i will leave. to go to the grocery store, i will have to budget, bring a tote bag, have a list, take a bus and a metro, then, visiting a friend in the north when you live in the south is so complex i haven’t even attempted to try.

i think right now i am most frustrated with the accessibility of a lot of things. the elevators are tiny, making me question what it would be like to fit a wheelchair in there. there are so many stairs without elevators. i went to a professor’s house yesterday to have breakfast with my class, and i found out that danes walk so fast. 

next week is my core course week, where we will be spending the entirety of that with my core course. if i am being honest, bonding with people has been very hard here. it’s hard because you know it will come ot an end in just three and a half short months. i am supposed to make friends, memories, travel all around europe, and put energy into doing well in my classes too. do you remember the saying about the three things in college you want are doing well in classes, having a good social life, and sleeping well and in doing so, you can only have two? well imagine that with twenty different things at once. living here makes me realize i want to bring a lot of things back to the states in terms of mentality. i am excited to dedicate myself to only select things that make me happy and joyous when i get back. 

i also have the thought often about making this a more permanent thing. i have known for a while that i don’t want to settle in minnesota. the pacific northwest really has my heart, walla walla too i guess. in many ways, scandinavia resembles the pnw to a great deal. no one talks to each other, everyone has a motive of where to get and will get there, the politics, and most importantly, the fact that neither place has good drivers. however, scandinavia has one thing on the pnw in the fact that their metro system actually works so that the bad drivers can just take the bus instead.

i am in the midst of planning a trip to italy and logistics are making me so scared of adulthood, but that is another problem for a different day. all of that is to say that i give myself affirmations that this is temporary, i will make friends, and this feeling won’t last forever.

nadir i have stolen you most prized possession, your golden bagpipes. in order to get them back you need to wire transfer me $2.87 and film yourself doing the macarena.

tata for now tee ta for later