MarjorieAnne

It’s sure been a while!

marjorieanne — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:20:37 +0000

In the midst of a very eventful spring and summer, I abandoned my blog. BUT I want to start blogging again this month!

One of those weeks…

marjorieanne — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:26:38 +0000

This hasn’t been my week. Lots of time spent feeling sad, angry, confused, guilty, humbled…
But the sun was shining so brightly for me today and I saw the first flowers of the spring. I took the worlds longest walk around Lund through shops, art gallaries, 2 cemeteries. Along the way I ran into old friends and new ones and I came home feeling inspired and at ease. I even reunited with a mitten I lost over a month ago… found it on a town closeline designed for reuniting people with their lost mittens. Funny how being sad can make us feel like shutting ourselves off from the world but sometimes the world is exactly what we need.

More winter fun!

marjorieanne — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:47:29 +0000

It’s been snowing a LOT! Way more than a typical winter in Skåne (the locals tell me). I’ve enjoyed it but I’m totally ready for spring!! My camera broke over the holidays. Here are pics some Birgitta took from Christmas in Oskarshamn and Elena took of our geographical class excursion through Skåne.

Laptops, Lund, Swedish Santa, and a PS3

marjorieanne — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:52:43 +0000

I just finished my last class of the year. Yay. But I will be conducting a field study and writing a really big paper over break. Boo. Fieldwork is fun, but big papers over vacation? Not as much. My laptops a, enter, and apostrophe buttons all stopped working yesterday so excuse the grammar. Why oh why they have to be such useful buttons? Theres plenty of buttons on my keyboard that i never use. Mats blames it on the fact that I type really hard when I get excited. I told him that was silly. I mean, its never happened to any of my computers before, and ive always been a passionate typer. Then I thought again about the usefulness of these particular buttons. They are all buttons I press a lot so I probably did play a hand in breaking them intended. Darn. It has really been snowing! This is Lena and I after class (which is taught in a castle btw.) This is the Lund Cathedral, built almost 1000 years ago, when Skane was part of Denmark.another campus pic…. hanging out with Santa and the global studies gang in Malmö. This photo marks a big moment for Mats. Playstation 3 was his (early) Christmas gift to himself. He is very happy. I tried playing Uncharted 2 yesterday and felt like all I kept doing was getting lost and trapped in places for long periods of time. I guess Im just as bad a navigator in the digital world as I am in the reality. The good news is since I end up wandering everywhere BUT the direction Im supposed to go, I end up finding a lot of hidden treasures that speedy Mats leaves behind.

New Things

marjorieanne — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:08:29 +0000

I’m back to the blog. It’s been quite a while!

I moved to Lund, Sweden. Into an awesome little ”penthouse style” apartment a short walk from town.

I started grad school at Lund University and met lots of cool people from more countries than I knew existed.

I started ”Swedish for Immigrants” night classes, the only place in Sweden where I feel good at Swedish.

I auditioned and was cast in a Spex show (comedic musical theatre variety show, Swedish university tradition) as Condoleeza Rice. …haha, i know.

I joined a University choir

and a club. and a nation and a union.

I realized in my eagerness to get involved, I had joined too many things. Not unusual for me. The difference is that this time, I cut back a bit.

And despite the fact that it’s already cold and dark here, I’m really, really enjoying it.

Now I was going to post some pics of the apartment, lund, new friends, etc. but they’re not on this computer. Here is a picture I took of Mats on the way to Media Mart instead. While we were walking, it began to snow first time this year. See that little white speck on his shoulder? SNOW FLAKE!!! Pretty exciting, if you’re from South Florida. More pics to come!

The Floating Graduate

marjorieanne — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:34:44 +0000

Things are changing and it feels sooo good.

I’m beginning to relax and recharge before a joyfully action packed summer.

I’ve been feeling an overwhelming desire to be out my element! I’ve lived in Florida all of my life and can’t wait to try somewhere else. I want to experience a whole year in seasons! I want to build a snow man. I want to order food off of menus with no english words and be surprised at what I’m served! I want to live in a city where I can do all of my errands by foot or bike. I want to learn to speak and think in a different language. Learning foreign words is like learning a whole new way of perceiving the world, especially when the words have absolutely no english equivalent. It’s so fun how a little thing like ordering pizza in Swedish over the phone can be so thrilling. I want to make friends with people from everywhere! It reminds me of the feeling I’d get as a kid every time our family went some place new. Whether we were at a hotel, a campsite in the woods, or visiting family friends, the first thing I’d ask my parents is “Can I go explore now?”. So I guess you could say graduating and moving out of Gainesville is actually making feel sort of like a kid again. Wide-eyed, curious, akwardly out of my element, and totally ready to explore.

I’ve been taking pictures all week and will definitely post some soon!

Did hell freeze over?

marjorieanne — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:48:28 +0000

(Brent, Xander, and Mats)

What? Is that fully clothed Swedish guitar player jamming with two brief cladden American men? Is this some kind of fluke incident or has this new era of change in America liberated us to the point that the Swedes are looking conservative?

Uncle Mats

marjorieanne — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:53:06 +0000

Introducing Mats’s niece and nephew: Emil and Elvira. Mats is a very proud “Morbror” (Uncle).

Emil likes spiderman, the movie Cars, and being really wild and crazy. Sometimes when he talks, he likes to through in some English words here and there, which I don’t mind at all!

Elvira enjoys blocks. She is really smily.

*FUN SWEDISH FACT: In Sweden, uncles, aunts, and grandparents are called different things depending on whether they’re relatives of the mother or father. I think that’s pretty cool. Then you never have to say “Grandpa Eldon and Grandpa Bob”….you just say “Morfar and Farfar”. And you never have to ask someone :”Is that aunt your dad or mom’s sister?” The name says it all!

Alcoholic Monkeys

marjorieanne — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:14:19 +0000

Watch the whole thing. Some of the monkeys get totally hammered.

Cat toilet training CONTEST!!!

marjorieanne — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:18:46 +0000

I am teaching Penny to use the toilet.

If all goes as planned, no more little litter box. YAY

Penny is the smartest, most adaptable cat in the world. She skipped almost ALL of the traditional “cat potty-training” steps, accomplishing what takes many cats months to learn in GASP…. 2 DAYS!!!! She is technically already using the toilet with the help of a little training apparatus I made…a litterbox-toilet hyprid, if you will (there’s a picture of it below). The cost to make the kitty trainer-toilet was $1 (the bowl is actually a hanging planter from the doller store- ALL MY NEEDS..!). Hopefully after this, no more scooping poop and no more buying cat litter. Sounds awesome… right?

I LOVE CONTESTS!!!!! (life is really just one big one, right?) So I’m challenging ANY catowner/cat reading this post to a toilet training contest against me and Penny. BE AFRAID!!! (We are 2 days in counting…). Ready? On your mark, get set, GO!

P.S. I’d stop and think before you teach your cat to flush. I’ve heard stories of people whose water bills skyrocketed once their cats learned to flush the toilet . The cats tended to like flushing A LOT… just for the joy of the water spiral around. (Isn’t that cute?:D)

I AM PENNY HEAR ME ROAR!!!