What is the hell is The Big Apple?? Just some New shit! You have to see the original of course! So yesterday I killed two birds with one stone and got the chance to see the old city of York and also catch up with a friend again and get some nice company for the day.The city is not more than a 40 min train ride south from Durham and shares many features. They both have really big old cathedrals (although the one in Durham is free of charge to enter, and the one in York is not) and other old buildings and streets. Basically just a very nice and charming city to walk around in with lots of small original shops and stone walls etc. And again the weather was much better than expected, just started to rain in the afternoon when it was time for a Frappuccino.
Of course I took the time to do some shopping when I was in a new town. I don't have that many real souvenirs from England so I decided to shop a pair of Union Jack boxers, which I actually thought of buying when I was in Cambridge two years ago, so now I have the UK up my arse! I had also looked at a pair of jeans, but only just week ago, at H&M from their new guest designer line. They are blue (like almost sky blue) with some extra things on them, and after being finally convinced to take them I decided to buy them as well, and £20 for a pair of designer jeans is nothing less than a real bargain! As this "Word of the day" is No X it gets a bit x-rated:
Stud: Nit
(Note: 'Stud' refers to the metal things around the waist on the jeans, and not the guy that drops the jeans, even though he can be referred to as one as well but with a different meaning.)
It has been really super weather the past days with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures. But I didn't bring enough summer clothes with me after the Easter break, so I went yesterday to Newcastle to get some shorts and stuff. Went to one of my favourite shops here in England, TK Maxx, which feels a bit "white trash" sometimes but you find really nice designer labels for up to 60 % less than the normal store prices. It takes some time to go through all the clothes in there, but eventually I found two nice pair of shorts, so now I'm really ready for summer. Also found a cool coloured top in H&M, which had actually lots of cool stuff, so they hold the Swedish banner up high.
Just read that Ice Cube will fill the void after Cyndi Lauper, who had to cancel her show, at this summer's Hultsfreds Festival in Sweden. This is the most funny replacement since David Bowie cancelled his gig at the Roskilde Festival in 2004 just two days before he was gonna perform, and most people were already there camping, and got replaced in the last minute by Slipknot. There were a lot of confused 50-year-olds hanging around then I can tell you! Now I can see in front of me a bunch of girls in crazy coloured hair and neon 80s clothes waiting in front of the stage, and Cube comes out and ask "where mah muthafuckin gangstas at??!". Priceless. Well, this gives me a reason to get my gangsta out and pump some ol' Ice Cube, before he was doing shitty films. Chickity-check yo self before you wreck yo self!!
Today it has been sunny the whole day! So great! I still had to study, but could do it in the sun at least, so not so bad. However, since it was one of the first really sunny days in a while, my skin wasn't ready for all this sun, and like most years in the beginning of summer I burned myself a bit since I didn't have any sunscreen. I didn't have any after sun lotion either, so I took what I had; a pack of yoghurt. Helped to chill a bit, and made me smell like summer strawberries! A bit of tip if you burn yourself and need to cool to skin down and don't have anything else. Tomorrow I have my third exam out of five, so I can see the light. So far it has gone pretty alright I think, even though I can't really know for sure. I was really nervous before the first one I had Wednesday morning. Didn't know how everything would work and stuff, but it was more or less like any exam. On Friday I have my last one, then it's just fun and games. Can't wait!
Now I'm back home from home (hard to say where I feel most at home right now, kind of got three homes at the moment, which is mostly a good thing) in Örebro after a few days visit to Uppsala. Since my brother, who now lives there, needed to get some things I could take mom's car, and drove the 175 km over there Sunday evening. After some difficulties to find where he lives (not as far outside the city centre as I thought) I arrived and then got a ride to Tobias where I would spend the night. I left my bags in his room and then me, him and David went downtown to GH's pub for a couple pints since Cathy, who I know from Durham, would be over from Stockholm and keep her working friend company behind the bar. The place was empty except two other people, who left not long after we arrived, and none of us really expected anything else than a few beers, a nice chat, and then home. However, since the girls had nothing to do other than serving us beers they joined in and we got to try out the large selection of beers in the pub, like 8-10 % Belgian Trappist beers. Soon it was after midnight and closing time, but then we got the offer to head along to an afterparty, which we did. It was a group of people from the student nation who enjoyed some cold beers and a hot sauna, so we quite quickly joined in since I really like to sit in a steamy sauna. Me and Toby headed back to his place at 2am. Who could ever know a Sunday could be so much fun!Even though I woke up a quite much later than I had planned Monday morning I still got some work done at uni. Maybe not as much as I would need, but still better than nothing and compared to what I've done before in Örebro. After a couple hours there I met up with my sister and her boyfriend coming from Stockholm to have dinner at my brother's place with his girlfriend. It was very nice to meet all together and cook and eat together, especially since I had to rush away the night before. Also went for a walk around the neighbourhood, which ended up as a funny photoshot.
Tuesday morning I went downtown to have a bit of look in the shops in Uppsala. Had some friendly company and fashion advices (although we don't share likes that often) from my tenant Karoline. Found a cheap, just ordinary but still cool, white piqué shirt with a blue lines on the collar and on the end of the sleeves at H&M, and a pair of black classic sunglasses from Cheap Monday that together with my outfit for the day, black tshirt and black jeans, made me look a bit like Glasvegas-singer James Allan. Studied a bit in the afternoon, before I got ready to head over to Daniel's place for a party, where I found out I apparently and surprisingly, and much appreciated, was the guest of honour since I made a bit of homecoming, before going out to more than packed Snerikes for the night.Left the city late afternoon yesterday. It was gread to be back, and had a couple of great days in good company of old (and new) friends. Kind of look forward to be back in Uppsala for autumn, but now I look forward to head back to Durham again.
While being here in England, a bit on and off, for about nine months I want of course to do and see as much as possible. So far I've done a lot and crazy much fun, no talk about it, but I haven't travelled so much as I maybe wanted, although there is plenty of time for it after the exam. But in the last two weeks I've been much better at taking the opportunities to see other cities than Durham, and as they it's said; better late than never. First I got to see a little of lovely Leeds the Saturday before the last one. Just a bit more than an hour away on the train it is one of the biggest cities in England, and more colourful than grey Newcastle. Had a great day in good company with Italian food and American ice cream, and looked in a lot of shops in really old elegant gallerias with really fashionable clothes but that were of course expensive, but still found some good looking clothes that more fitted my wallet. Then this last Saturday I did something that is most of the times quite unlike me, and were very spontaneous. At the beginning of the that week Bibo asked around if anyone wanted to go to Manchester the upcoming weekend, and there were some interest but as often nothing really happened in the end. But after waking up from the Informal Ball Bibo rushed into my room saying "Let's go to Manchester, there's a train leaving in one and a half hour and the price is still the same!" So after first thinking in my normal way that it was not time enough and stuff, I thought why not and packed a small backpack, ate quick and took of towards the train station to Madchester where Enrica and Valentina already where on their way to. As I said, it was very spontaneous, so we hadn't booked a room but thought that would be no problem to find. But as we went to the tourist information we were told there was almost not a single bed left in the whole city due to Man Utd playing Liverpool, a boxing fight, and the Irish festival. So in the end we ended up sneaking in and sleeping on the floor in the girls' double room at a hostel in the Northern Quarter. The Northern Quarter is the area of Manchester where you can find a lot of cool small independent vintage stores, book and record shops, and small cafés, bars and clubs. I really liked to hang around there. The rest of the city centre is really nice as well, not as industrial as I thought, with parks and just a urban atmosphere. Even though we were only there 24 hours we saw a lot of the city. We partied a bit in the gay village, then in the entertainment centre, and then in a quite cool basement club near the hostel, passed through Chinatown the day after, went into an art museum where they had a small Da Vinci exhibition among other things, and saw the Irish parade, on our way to the canal side. I really liked the city, and will definitely go back in june after the exams and spend some more time looking in all the great shops, and then head further west to Liverpool. The only bad thing about the weekend was that I dropped my camera quite early during the night so have to buy a new one, but I still managed to take some photos and get the others too. Next stop: London, from Saturday to Thursday, and then back to good ol' Sweden.
Today I picked up my first marked summative essay. Before I have just got back my formatives, which is essays or essay plans that you have to do but that is not marked and therefore not that important, so I was quite excited to see how the result, if I had failed totally or done well. I received a 53 %, which is pretty low but still ok and one of the comments on it were "an interesting essay, abd you have raised relevant points" so I'm pretty satisfied it anyway. After that I went downtown to cut my hair at my regular shop, for the third time, for £7.90 (and then they don't even have student prices on Fridays). This time I was cut by the same girl who cut me the first time and did a very good job. It doesn't hurt that she also looks like a blonde doll, but she talks like a bald drunk, which is a mix I strangely somehow find quite attractive. She talks with a very distinctive local accent so I understood half of what she said, but that didn't really matter as long as it didn't concerned my hair. She asked me in the end if I wanted it 'squared or ... (the other word I didn't hear or understand even when she repeated it) in the back', and the latter meaning just a straight line in the back (who the hell wants that unless you're a hooligan or something?!) so I said I wanted the other thing which ended up perfectly.
I have been a bit sickly the last couple of days, so mostly stayed in college reading in the library in my sweat pants, uni hoodie and slippers or flip-flops. Haven't really cared about my looks that much so haven't shaved in a couple of days either, which I even like if it's not getting too much, and it was the reason I could add another word to my vocabulary. It's very similar to Swedish, but I had never heard about the word before asking a friend here.
When it is as cold as it is here now you just can't go out in your new cool t-shirt and a thin jacket. No, you got to be dressed so you're prepared for the blistering cold, with layers of warm clothes. That of course doesn't exclude you can go out with style, which I show in the photo below:Here I can be seen sporting a pair of very fashionable old washed-out blue long johns, which is absolutely necessary to wear outside under your trousers, but can also be worn solely at home for the comfy and sexy tight look. To that I have a too big fleece sweater in the colour of the season, (mulled) red wine. Further advices, when walking around in the cold snow it might hurt your feet and dry them out. Then you can get a bit of home style pedicure. If you don't have anything to use for your feet, which was my case and I assume is the same for many other guys especially, you can ask your mom for some oil or stuff. Then just put both your feet into a plastic cup with the oil in it, put some socks on to keep everything in place, and just sit back and relax for about 30 minutes. After you wiped off your feet they will be so soft and smooth people will be thrown four stories off a balcony for touching them. Enjoy.
Of course I took the time to do some shopping when I was in a new town. I don't have that many real souvenirs from England so I decided to shop a pair of Union Jack boxers, which I actually thought of buying when I was in Cambridge two years ago, so now I have the UK up my arse! I had also looked at a pair of jeans, but only just week ago, at H&M from their new guest designer line. They are blue (like almost sky blue) with some extra things on them, and after being finally convinced to take them I decided to buy them as well, and £20 for a pair of designer jeans is nothing less than a real bargain! As this "Word of the day" is No X it gets a bit x-rated:
