Rica Royal Hotel Umeå

... for 5 weeks each, but we go for 3 hours a day, and about 4 days a week. At the end of the 5 weeks, we start a new class. Each semester I will take 4 classes total. This system keeps students from studying many different subjects at once, and focuses our attention to tiny details that could be overlooked by taking 4-5 classes at once. Right now I am taking a class called "International Business Environment." It's fantastic.

I've been hanging out a lot with ...

... Bruno (Peru), Annia (Germany) and Maria (Russia). We all exchanged emails and phone numbers and it was simply just a jolly good time.

August 31st I will begin my first "module," or class on International Business Environment. Here in Sweden, students only take one class at a time - classes last (on average) about 4 hours a day.

Need to get to bed early tonight, as orientation starts at 10:15 am tomorrow!

... the day - traveling in my pajamas with no make up. I forgot how gorgeous the people of this country are! Very well put together and model-ish looking. Not all of them are blond hair, blue eyed, but a great majority of them are. Glad to be here and up the brunette percentage.

As soon as I arrived in Historiegrand (our building complex) a student approached me and asked me if I needed help (I was carrying 4 bags ...

... Hällnäs, Bastuträsk, Jörn, Älvsbyn, Boden 2) Boden, Murjek, Narravaara, Gällivare, Fjällåsen, Kaitum, Sjisjka, Kiruna

... are so many traffic rules and other rules in Sweden, I don't know how people don't just one day go crazy and say, "I don't want to follow them!" The taxes in Sweden seem to be mostly good, because they keep people from becoming too rich. But, even I would be upset if I paid taxes on my income, then had to pay taxes again on the money I saved from that for my pension, then had to pay an additional tax just for being old. Car-owning Swedes pay a ...

... is hillarious. One of the characters is a quiet, six-year-old boy. All the children in his family are quiet. Their parents are members of a strict Christian sect named "Laestadianism," or something else in English, named for Lars Levi Laestadius. We later learn that the quiet boy's father is controlling and abusive. The father had followed a strict version of Christianity his whole life. But, then, he stopped believing, and "in the Lord's place he inserted ...

... including myself, still haven't been told what was really going on. I believe that truth about Vietnam War politics are still relevant today. One might ask the question: Did Iraq steal the oil in Iraq from the USA? What did American and British companies stand to gain from a U.S. occupation in Iraq? And, most importantly, will the Iraqi people become more free or less? Even in October of 1970, Philip H. Trezise commented in a Department of State Bulletin ...

... ican doesn't know what's going on in the world, nor what a huge, controlling part our country plays. I tell him Am**icans don't question things. We're copasetic; we don't think outside the box. At the same time, all of our mass media is controlled by v**y rich businessmen and adv**tis**s who would nev** dream of actually telling us what's going on. Most Am**icans have no connection to the poor people in Africa or Latin Am**ica, no knowledge of how people suff**. More of ...

... and three-letter answers. But, then, Anders gave me a puzzle meant for the types of kids who could probably read Pippi Långstrump in a single afternoon. "This puzzle's impossible!" I yelled, convinced it was meant for Swedish geniuses. Anders has recommended I watch one tv show titled, "Fem Myror Är Fler Än Fyra Elefanter." (Five Ants Are More Than Four Elephants.) It's a kids' show, where they pronounce the words slowly so kids can repeat along. It ...

... friends so far have been three crazy girls I met Saturday night. They were twenty and drunk and funny, and their funny drunkenness made them aggressively try to keep from ever being one of the ones not talking. They were very nice. But, they pushed their "snus" on me. I trried to resist, but I told you before Swedish girls are strong. Pippi Långstrump can lift a whole horse over her head! "Snus" is a Swedish alternative to cigarettes. It's tobacco in a little ...