Jill

all my single ladies

2010-10-27T01:23:00.003+02:00

friday

sisters are the best

2010-10-23T07:01:00.000+02:00

click here

road trippin

2010-06-07T20:24:00.000+02:00

road trip road trip road trip!

On Friday when I landed at Arlanda from Copenhagen I got a text from Brooke ( a friend of Lucy and mine who is from ontario and used to ski race with us) saying "I rented a car I think we should leave tonight because I have to be back by Sunday night!"

So i raced home (after sitting on the Arlanda express for quite some time as there was an accident on the tracks and no trains were moving) jumped in the shower, put some clean undies in my backpack , and Brooke picked me up outside my building!

At 10:46 we were cruising down the highway to goteborg under the midnight sun..
Or so we thought we were going to Goteborg... after about an hour and a half of "wow! not many people going to goteborg this weekend!" and "o hey uppsala!" .. we realized uppsala was north of stockholm.. and goteborg was south.. and the E4 N highway was a bit different then the E4 S highway that we actaully wanted!
So add about 3 hours to our drive and a hilarious venture into northern Sweden. We laughed it off.

we forced ourselves to get at least an hour out the other end of stockholm so our friday night start to this road trip wouldn't be completely pointless, and then called it a night in the back of our tiny car in a cute little lakeside town called Mariefred.

our pimp ride. not a comfortable night.

after about 2 hours of sleep (due to the good ol midnight sun and one reaallly squishy sleeping arrangement) we hit the road to goteborg, egg mcmuffins and coffees in hand.

Goteborg was really beautiful, and although we were beyond exhausted, i still found this funny.

this is brooke

we then ventured into the most westerly point of the city called Saltholmen. It was full of beautiful houses on these little islands all connected by bridges. We sat on the rocks and enjoyed the view and got a little bit zen.

a really sad downward dog. note to self: get yoga pass upon return to canada.

that night we went out for a great dinner and a few glasses of wine to guarantee an easier sleep that night. we then got cozy in our little car and slept in a parking lot.. in a city park. HA

had a better sleep that night, and started the day with a great coffee. It is officially official, a great coffee means a great day.

doesn't get any more swedish then this!! (note unintentional H&M in background)

We decided to kill part of the drive in the morning and drove to a cute town on a lake called Mariestad (marie must be verryyy popular)

a picnic and a tan on a dock made a pretty perfect day.

This road trip made so many amazing memories and I am so glad we did it (no matter how many strange situations we got ourselves into) and feel much more satisfied with leaving this country on Saturday now that I have seen more of it. Brooke left Sweden today for the south of France before she heads back to ontario so I'm glad we got to chill together before we both go back to real life.

Today is winding down and tomorrow will consist of a run (i must!) and a hefty amount of room cleaning. ANGELA arrives at noon on Wednesday and i am SO excited! Many crazy European adventures to come!!

Can't wait to see everyone back home!! I probably won't get another blog in as Rome and Greece are going to be packed with craziness and time on the www will be limited. See you all on June 25th (mom see you at the Edmonton airport? ... weird)

Bisous.

hey time, slow down!!

2010-06-07T09:36:00.000+02:00

whoa whoa whoa! It is the Monday of my last week in Sweden and I am wondering where the time has gone!? I have had so many great experiences since arriving here in January when the sun literally didn't shine, to now when the phrase "midnight sun" could not be anymore accurate. Seriously, the sun NEVER goes completely down.

The past week has just flown by as I had an amazing trip to Copenhagen with Cara and then literally got off the plane and into a car that Brooke rented to spend the weekend on a road trip to Gothenburg (in Swedish: Goteborg, pronounced: Got a buryyy... or something) in south west Sweden.

So... here's some photos and stories from the beautiful, and full of overpriced hostels, city of Copenhagen (in danish.. Kobenhavn?) Denmark.

The weather was AMAZING which made the city even more stunning. This is Cara and I over one of the canals that runs throughout the city...

I love europe!

This is the entrance to the hippy village of Christiana, where fat doobies are smoked all day long mon! After this photo some huge scary rastah mon told cara her camera would be destroyed if she took more photos... so we stopped, then noticed all the "no pictures" signs.

climbing a very narrow old church with an amazing view from the top..

the top

we were walking to see the "little mermaid" a famous statue in the water in the city, and cara said "I feel like this is going to be really anti-climactic once we get there." Indeed it was. This screen was in the water to show a "virtual mermaid" with a sign next to it saying "The little mermaid is in Shanghai for the World Expo".... cool.

sun=smiles, and sunburn

finishing the trip off with a canal tour

So this was Denmark! So glad we were able to squish the trip in last minute, now I have officially done all of Scandinavia!

Next Post: ROAD TRIP!

xoxo J

easto heads south

2010-05-26T13:54:00.000+02:00

easto just left this morning back to roma and we had a splendidly fabulous time! (especially that last night eh easto.. hahaha i hope you made it to the bus/plane)
i have ONE more class on thursday evening and all of my assignments are handed in. finito folks!
now that emily's left and school is over it's really hitting me that my time here is coming to an end. even lucy has left for berlin! its been amazing, but i really am getting excited for my departure from here. and to see ANGELA!
cara and i are going to plan a trip to copenhagen for next week to have one last trip together which will be awesome!!

......
................
..okay you probably guessed it, i'm really hungover and can't come up with anything creative to write.

hej da

May 12th

2010-05-12T21:20:00.000+02:00

It's ALREADY May 12th!?!
Mom and Dad left Stockholm today (luckily dodging the wrath of volcano ejgjghalsdjfhasdkjfhasusjdfasjdflasjfasfh) and i leave Stockholm a month today!!!!
As much as I will miss this place, I am super excited for what comes after it, being rome, greece, and home!
I had an awesome time with Ma and Pa. Eating at amazing restaurants, Travelling through Norway, showing them around Stockholm, and sending home a ton of winter luggage.

Here are some photos from our excursions:

sun spot hang

pretty oslo

coffee shop chic

awesome naked grumpy baby in oslo

being barfed up by a troll in bergen

THE SKI SIMULATOR

funniest ride in the WORLD (in norway?) it takes you down the kitzbuhel downhill. I've never felt so ill after a ski race.

Part of our fjord adventure to bergen! train, train, boat, bus, train

2 more projects to go and I am done my third year of uni! (this term was reaaallllyy hard right?) Emily Easto is gracing me with her awesomeness next wednesday for some silly jill and easto fun. Then Ange is out, then i'm ouuuuttt!!!

Going to continue reading La Prisonairre (spell that?) now. Its good!

xoxox

Yill Erin Mingay Young

and this guy is awesome!

2010-04-25T19:51:00.002+02:00

http://www.myspace.com/deertick

McGenius

2010-04-25T19:49:00.000+02:00

I've been giving McDonalds a bit too much business these days. (and that stops NOW). but I thought this was funny in a gross.. not that funny sort of way. I'm lovin it!

ASIA

Across Asia, you can pick up a McHotdog Mega Breakfast Sausage.

Sausage and Egg Twisty Pasta, a breakfast item. Sausage, eggs, and pasta in chicken broth and “other greens.”

Bacon potato pie. It’s like an apple pie, but with mashed potatoes and bacon.

Cheese Katsu sandwich, a fried pork sandwich stuffed with cheese.

Double Beef Prosperity Burger from Malaysia. 2 beef patties (or chicken patties) dipped in aromatic black pepper sauce and layered with fresh onion slices in a sesame seed bun.

The Ebi Filet-o, a fried shrimp sandwich. In Hong Kong, it’s known as the Shrimp Burger

Shake Shake fries. You dump your fries into a bag, sprinkle seasoning on them, and shake. There are several different flavors including seaweed, chargrill, French onion and salt and pepper.

McWings – deep fried chicken wings.

Fresh corn cup, a nice alternative to fries.

Banana pie.

The Shogun burger, served in Hong Kong. It’s a pork patty with Teriyaki sauce and cabbage.

Bubur Ayam, which literally translates to “chicken porridge”. Chicken strips in porridge, with onions, ginger, and chili peppers.

McSpaghetti. Spaghetti noodles served in sweet tomato-based sauce.

McRice burger. A ground beef burger, or chicken fillet, served with special sauce in fried rice cakes.

MIDDLE EAST

The McArabia is made with grilled chicken or grilled kofta (beef with spices). Comes with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and garlic mayonnaise, wrapped in an Arabic style pita bread.

The Chicken Big Mac. Two breaded chicken patties (de-boned breast meat), lettuce, sesame seed bun, McDeluxe sauce, and cheese.

The Recette Moutarde (mustard burger on ciabatta bread). Introduced in Morocco in 2006.

The Veg McPuff Pizza. Rectangular dough, filled with tomato sauce and vegetables.

The Paneer Salsa Wrap. Cottage cheese, drenched in cajun seasoning and then wrapped in flatbread and fried.

The Chicken McCurry Pan. It starts off with a rectangle dish made out of dough and is topped with a tomato-curry sauce, spiced with thyme, basil, and oregano, chicken, bell peppers, and cheese.

EUROPE

In Italy, not surprisingly, they serve their burgers with pancetta and usually are on ciabatta rolls.

CBO: Chicken, bacon, and onions

Croque McDo. 2 melted slices of Emmental cheese and a slice of ham toasted between 2 flattened hamburger buns.

BEER! Offered in Germany, France, and a few other locations across Europe.

Onion rings, sold in Turkey and a few other countries in Europe.

The Lakse wrap (fish) is sold in Finland and Norway.

The McTurco, sold in Turkey, is 2 burger patties covered in cayenne pepper sauce, and vegetables, and served on a fried pita.

The Little Chorizo Melt, offered in England: a 100% beef patty in a herb watersplit bun dressed with chorizo, a cheese slice made with Emmental, shredded lettuce and rich tomato sauce.

The BACON ROLL, also from England, is just slices of bacon on a hard roll with ketchup.

NORTH AMERICA/SOUTH AMERICA/OCEANIA

Traditional grilled cheese sandwich, served in Canada.

My Poutine, also from Canada. Consists of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.

McDonalds Pizza. Started off as a family sized pizza, but turned into an individual-sized pan pizza.

You can order gallo pinto (rice and beans) at the McDonalds in Costa Rica.

The Kiwiburger, sold in New Zealand. It’s a beef patty, with an egg, tomato, lettuce, cheese, onion, cooked beetroot, sauce and mustard on a bun.

Big Mac not big enough? Try the new TRIPLE MAC in Argentina.

McMolletes, served in Mexico, are refried beans, cheese, and pico de gallo served on an English muffin.

McPatatas, also from Mexico. Thick cut cajun steak fries.

The McDonalds deluxe breakfast in Hawaii comes with spam, rice, eggs, and sausage patties.

The McLobster roll is served seasonally in Canada.

come back sun!

2010-04-22T18:22:00.000+02:00

the sun was out for a couple days and made stockholm such a beautiful city!!

shots from the Canadian bike tour!

can't wait to see mom and dad next weekend!

(smarten up icelandic volcano, you are causing lots of problems)

Fun Frowning in Russia

2010-04-09T11:35:00.000+02:00

I Just got back from an utterly AMAZING trip to Russia! I am tired, tired, happy and full of vodka.
I'm going to try to sum up the coolness of this trip for you all in a not-too-long post because I am very tired. I really just recommend you apply for your Visa and explore this place yourself because it is just NUTS.

So, here we go:
The trip started with a lovely overnight boat ride to ye old town of Helsinki, Finland. The rumors are true, this is not exactly a tourist destination. Pretty city, similar to Sweden, lots of double consonants in the language, nothing too special. The Mcdonald's was top quality though which we found out due to Cara's extreme hangover!

The streets of Helsinki.

We had a long lunch and went to a really awful Museum about the history of Finland, don't go

all museumed out..

At 6 o'clock (more than enough time in the city), we said adios to Finland and hopped on a train to Moscow. Due to really scary border guards, a bumpy train, and rock solid narrow beds, not much sleep was had on this train.. but it was an experience!

The Moscow Express!

Russian borders are the most intense passport checks I have ever experienced in my life. You get frowned, stared, and grunted at, your passport gets stamped about ten times and read cover to cover, and you are not allowed to move from your cabin for about 2 hours in the middle of the night. Fun!

We all got reaaaalllly close.....

At around 9 am we arrived in Moscow to a train station full of frowns. With a huge group of greasy haired, exhausted students we hopped on a bus for a painful (but still interesting) bus tour of the city. It was great because Moscow is SO huge and complicated to get around so we covered all the sites and figured out what we wanted to explore further.. By the end the tour guide was talking to 40 people all fast asleep, including myself.

Finally able to use the washroom during the bus tour...

this was actually a stinky hole in the ground, glad camp gave me good aim!

So, Moscow was unreal. We made some awesome new friends, watched the sun rise, and saw amazing sites. Finally that ninth grade social studies unit on Russia has paid off!! Here are some photos:

St Basil's Cathedral at night

Tour crew made up of : Mexico, Aus, Norway, NZ et France!

les filles!

Subway Station in Moscow! AMAZING! This isn't one of the bombed ones, but we did go in to one... sketch!

Victory Square

The three days we had in Moscow were most definitely my favorite of the entire trip. The vibe of the city was different then anywhere I have ever experienced. Although I was mistaken for a Russian once or twice (due to my ukrainian perma frown) , we were stared at by everyone for being the obvious foreigners that we were. This is definitely not a city to go to for relaxation, but still a must see!

At midnight on the 3rd day, we hopped on to an even dirtier train than the first to head to St. Petersburg. Without any walls between bunk beds, we clenched our money and passports and enjoyed a sweaty stinky night with Russian travelers.

I will be a-ok if I never experience a train like this one again.

Now some photo's from St. Petersburg, a beautiful city (and capital of crime!) with a much more European feel than Moscow.

Off the train, and back on a bus tour..

Church of Spilled Blood (I'm pretty sure that was the name anyways)..

I don't think they put quite enough detail into the design of this building.

Me being cute

Just being cute again!

The Hermitage (I am museumed out for a looong time)

Thibault at St. Peter and Paul's Fortress

From St. Petersburg we hopped on a bus to Tallinn, Estonia to Finish off the trip. This was probably the most painful bus ride of my life (although i managed to not throw up so maybe not the MOST painful). The bus driver kept the temp. of the bus at about 100 degrees and we spent about 3 hours crossing the extreeeemely tight border back into Estonia. Apparently they are essentially responsible for monitoring who gets to enter the whole of Europe, so they take they're job VERY seriously. For example, being a Mexican with an Egyptian visa means you are going to take a very very long time to get across!

Tallinn was a cute city, nothing extraordinary after being in Russia, and we were all exhausted from the bus so we strolled around and enjoyed some Estonian cafes. Ye medieval town of Tallinn.

Okay, you are all probably as bored of reading this as I am of writing it. So, because I hate long goodbyes I will finish like this. Great trip, great friends, great fun! Time is flying though! I get to see mom and dad soon and I am so excited to show them around, especially now that the snow is gone in Stockholm.

Flight is booked home for June 26th. See you all then!!

XOX

ps. I think my English is getting worse from hanging around so many foreigners, so my apologies for confusing sentences.

That Time I Went to St. Anton Alone...

2010-03-29T19:53:00.001+02:00

Back from the beautiful St. Anton! Truly a huge and amazing ski area, that REALLY loves its apres ski scene (experienced this first hand).

My trip, although done solo, was an awesome experience and I enjoyed every moment of it, lonely or not. First off, I was/am very impressed with myself for actually getting to the small ski town, via train, plane, bus, train, plane etc. I'm getting good at this! So no problems there and made it to my beautiful hotel room right on the side of the hill with zero glitches.

Sketchy! But overwhelmingly beautiful when this little guy flew through the alps.

Room for two for one please!

The first ski day I was up early, and after eating one of those awesome euro breakfasts at my hotel (meat cheese nutella muesli YAY!) riding the most massive gondola I've ever been on realized this was the most expansive ski resort I had ever set foot on... o yeah and there was no snow. But the sun was shining and so I enjoyed the day exploring the area and soaking up some much needed vitamin D. Legs DEAD by 2:30, so I met up with some of Cato's austrian ski instructor friends for food and beers... which progressed into austrian drinking games and the legendary experience that is St. Anton Apres at the Krazy Kangaroo. In bed, watching jurassic park in German by 8 30. Perfect!

Ski Day Two: up early again with the sun beating down already! On day two, because the snow was still lacking (..note foreshadowing for day 3!!) I decided to take the ski bus to Lech and Zurs, two of the areas that are under Ski Arlberg and work with the pass you get for the area. Getting on the bus was an experience in itself, people do not do line ups here, they push, they shove, they are ruthless!!! But I got on the first bus, squished up against the door but I made it! Lech was very cute, not that exciting of a hill as most of the fun looking stuff seemed to be closed for avis/lack of snow, but it was cool to see and I got some good runs in.

Bus Stop in Lech.

Zurs was pretty sweet! I played on one chairlift for a while that had a sweet run down the side of the mountain, finally something close to powdah! Legs=DEAD. Decided to start making my way back to St. Anton and then ski out to the hotel for a hot relaxing bath, and then BOOM, it starts snowing.

This is what happens in europe when it starts dumping and gets windy, EVERYONE beelines to the bar...

MAYHEM!

I explored the town of St. Anton that afternoon and experienced one of the lonelier moments of my life, involving me eating dinner alone in a pub thing close to my hotel.. with a book. Just picture it, wallowing in self pity! The night also included me watching BBC news and learning alot! (only to find out the next day that Disney channel was also in English!!) Moving on..

hey powdaah!

Woke up to a bluebird ski and a beautiful fresh layer of snow covering the ground! I booked it straight away to the top of the mountain to get my first powder turns of 2010 in!! Felt so good. Minus the really sketchy ice patches underneath the pow, 2 more feet of snow would have been nice. I did some laps at the top of St. Anton and got bored of the sketchy crowds, so I went over across the Valley to Stuben (correct me if that's not the name). UNREAL! This place was what I came for, absolutley no one on the hill, so I did laps and laps of fresh track runs until I could feel the goggle burn developing on my face about to explode. SO FUN, I am the only friend I need on days like these!

Fine Dining on the Chairlift

my playground

So the ski legs were in shock after this day (which ended with an EPIC run on the other side heading back to st. anton), and I possibly had some sun stroke, so at 3 I said goodbye to the beauty of the alps and went back to the hotel. This night went something like the last one.. but this time I had Hannah Montana on the disney channel to keep me company, and yet another sophie kinsella book that the cute little bookstore in town had.

One last story for the road: I was pretty convinced that I had everything planned for departure day to a tee, I thought "o yeah, I'll get up early, have a nice breakfast, go to the train and catch the 9:43 to get to the airport about 90 min early for my flight out of Innsbruck" NOT. Hey all you europeans out there, thank you so much for kindly informing me that daylight savings occured on Saturday night, and if i wanted to make it to my flight with more then 10 minutes to spare, i should probably change my clocks!

This was the most stressful, white knuckled train ride of my life. But I made it!

O yeah, then I finally got to stockholm at 10 pm and they lost my skis. (don't worry they got to me today - next day)

All in all, this trip was what we like to call "Executive Skiing" at it's finest. I would love to go back to St. Anton any day with some of my favorite ski buddies to share the fabulousness of it all. (Dad?!)

Back in Stockholm (snow-free stockholm yess!), and planning for my Russia trip which starts Wednesday! I know what you're all thinking... "don't you go to school!?" Well the answer is.. no not really. Ha! Kidding I have a class tomorrow, Spring term is starting.

That's it thats all.

Much Love, J

Sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite..

2010-03-22T22:24:00.003+01:00

seriously, these things suck

Antsy Pants

2010-03-19T12:42:00.000+01:00

I cause problems because I like to deal with things right away,
isn't that backwards? Problems are supposed to come to people who are too lazy to deal with things. Apparently not.
I am going to learn to be one of those people who can sit, and let something work itself out, because I think usually letting something work itself out works better then letting my antsy self try to be a problem solver. When my antsy self takes over, it seems to result in 300 Euro hotel cancelation fees. Now that my antsy self has gotten me into this situation, it better get me out of it, time to not sit back because I know this won't sort itself out. Lets go antsy self, start making phone calls...

There is no conclusion to this psycho-babble.

fingers crossed

Mid-march resolution: chill

sjfhasdFSFKLAHSLF!#!(P#%@#KLSDG

2010-03-09T13:46:00.003+01:00

I have never known anyone to skype as much, and as loud as my roommate.....

that is all

this deserved it's own space..

2010-03-08T22:35:00.000+01:00

PHO GOOD!

Danke Monsieur Vuong!

Ich Liebe Berlin!

2010-03-08T15:15:00.000+01:00

Hej hej!

I just got back from Berlin and am happy to say that the city can be added to the list of 'coolest places to visit', wherever that list may be.

I was traveling with Taylor Woolsey, who although showed up a day late due to food poisoning a la London, proved to be one of the coolest travel buddies a girl could ask for and totally made up for the food poisoning delay by just being her rad self!!

Before tay got there I killed some time with the all you can eat breakfast buffet at the hostel and then went to the Hamburg Bahnhoff Modern Art gallery which was awesome and a great way to kill some alone time. The place is HUGE! The exhibition that was up was by an American artist named Walton Ford, called Bestarium. It was huge animal paintings that all had a story along with them, very cool, hard to describe. The rest of the gallery was awesome to, great collection and really cool building.

Walton Ford - Eothen

Tay and I had a pretty chill night the first night, involving some beers, german food, haribo gummies and good conversation. All to gear up for the walking tour that we planned to take part in the next day to cover pretty much every tourist site you would want to see in berlin in 3 and a half hours.... it went something like this:

tay- brandenborg gate

smiling in the holocaust memorial?

berlin graffiti is AWESOME!

Humboldt Uni and Book Burning Site

pretty cathedral.. surrounded by trickster gypsies

The only way to warm up...

Good tour! Cold tour!

Tay's friend and supercool roommate and fellow chief hector attendee Kate showed up that night to come play in berlin with us!!

Taylor, Kate, and the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall

i loved the wall!

Two of Taylor's friends met up with us in Berlin that day who she met working on the golf course in Canmore last summer, Thomas and Fabzi. two coool german dudes! They drove us around, took us to good restaurants, and showed us some very cool parts of town. There is so much to see in Berlin it is unbelievable!

After a night on the town, the boys took us to Potsdam, a cute old town, and one epic site to see for international relations students...

site of the Potsdam conference..

Sanssouci castle..

After the we parted from the boys, we decided to continue the food tour of berlin for our last night. (one of) the restaurants we went to I could rave about for DAYS. Monseiur Vuong - best vietnamese food EVER. EVER. Capped the night off with a Milka bar and hit the hay early to prepare for a long and early travel monday.

This was a long post. so in summary: Berlin is an awesome place, it is young and seems to be trying to put its dark history far far behind it. There is so much to do and see and I couldn't have asked for better company to experience such a cool city with!!

okay, nap time before class,

xox J

young+woolsey=trouble?

2010-03-03T19:14:00.000+01:00

finance presentation... check!
packing as lightly as possible... working on!
flight to berlin... late tonight!

off to get into trouble with taylor woolsey.. ciao until monday

xo

sushi dreams..

2010-03-02T21:40:00.000+01:00

I just can't seem to get Yuji off my mind, I think this means its love..?

why hello...

Table for 1, July 20, 8 pm please. Arigato

RO MA RO MA MA, GA GA O LA LA

2010-03-01T17:45:00.000+01:00

(insert tune to lady gaga song into title... props to teacha sunny kerr for that one)

its official!! I am connected to the world wide web again (via old school wire into wall.. better then nothing), and not being hunted down by the swedish police any longer, so i can finally tell you all about the amazing city that is ROME!

FRIENDS!

i will start by saying, Rome is great! The weather: Perfetto!
   The food: Delissio!
   The buildings: Bella!
   The wine: Cheapo!
   The friend: Awesoma!
You catch the drift...
I really could talk about the weekend forever.. so I'm going to do my best at a mini version of the trip as I do have a lot of reading to get done. (but the internet is so fun that probably won't get done..)

WEDNESDAY: early early flight, arrive in roma! see emily! eat pizza! drink cappucino! .. went for a long beautiful walk that ended in some unhappy feet, and met emily's exchange friends and saw her castle of a school, I go to the gossip girl of sweden, emily goes to the gossip girl of rome. Went to the pantheon during the walk which was overwhelmingly huge and beautiful.. very nice! We went out for an amazing pizza dinner that night which started my 4 day weight gain plan, these people know what they're doing with food and i had to try it all! Early (ish) night that night to prepare for the next couple days...

discovery thanks to emily: Suppli = fried rice balls YUM

Colluseum!

The next day involved tourist sites.. colluseum.. roman forum.. shopping... spanish steps..trevi fountain.. and getting ripped off on gelato. Emily taught me the ways of telling the tourist trap tour giver guys and anyone else that hollers at the "blondies" to beat it! What a crazy place!

I decided to wait until I go back to rome with Angela to actually go buy tickets for all the tourist stuff (including the Vatican) to avoid going in alone/ making emily pay plenty of euros for things she's already seen. Just walking by all this stuff was just as amazing though.

Now that I really think about it, I did and saw sooo much over that few days. Life is good!

Quick update on Friday (I'm getting tired! hehe) Went for a nice lunch and walked around Camp Di Fiori and through all the cool narrow streets with awesome vintage shops. Took it easy that day as we had emily's friends over for dinner and went for a big night out on the town!! BIG NIGHT!

we could go ahead and call saturday a write off... don't worry though i DID continue my pizza eating plan.

All in all, this trip was amazing! Emily lives in such a cool city (that has sun!) and it was awesome to see what she's been up to over the past year. I ate a ton, didn't sleep much, and partied pretty hard... but..... when in rome right!? ( note shameless use of cliche phrase...) The phrase is popular for a reason... because it's TRUE!

I was so excited coming back into Stockholm because the snow was melting, but fear not! I woke up this morning and it was dumping again as usual.

I'm so stoked on the hockey game last night, I went with my fellow Canadians (and Americans..) for some beers and to watch the game, INTENSE. Vancouver looks beautiful, and i probably missed the biggest party that city will ever witness. owell. GO CANADA!!

I have so much to tell but it would take days to type, so I'm going to stop here.

I also wanted to say thanks to everyone who tried to track me down when I was on interpol's most wanted list, good to know that people love me!! That was up there on the wierdest things that's ever happened, but maybe it's a good wake up call to remember to be extra careful while travelling, and not to name your child Lotus, and to buy this girl a blackberry!

XOXO ciao!

shred in stockholm

2010-02-20T15:21:00.000+01:00

so rumor has it that Stockholm hasn't seen this much snow in years and year and years. apparently it usually snows and melts right away, although every morning I wake up, it's snowing more and more!! (and not melting)

so, after old man winter got the best of me yesterday when he placed a huge chunk of ice under my foot while I was running and I rolled my ankle in the most painful way possible and then limped home in the blowing snow, I decided to tell him to get bent and went skiing today!

FINALLY! SKIING!! YAY!!! This awesome Swedish girl that I met named Louise took me to Hammerby Backen, which is sort of the Rabbit Hill of Stockholm, but..... smaller? yeah way smaller.

cute!

Old Man Winter decided to bite right back and gave us a FREEZING cold, extremely windy, snow blowing day. But we made the best of it and actually really impressed ourselves with how long we survived.

brrrr! but stoked!

hej louise!

Sitting in bed now eating soup and defrosting the body! Great to get out on the skis, I was starting to think they wouldn't get any use... but look at me go. Meeting cool people is great!

XOXO J

taking the skis on a city tour..

How to gain 10 pounds in Riga, Latvia...

2010-02-14T17:42:00.000+01:00

1. To save money from buying food on the cruise ship to come.. buy a jar of nutella, some bread, licorice allsorts and cheesy nacho chips for a nutritious cruise to the Baltics.
2. Take advantage of cheap XL Milka bars in the duty free on the cruise ship. It is almost Valentines day afterall...
3. Eat at LIDO, the latvian food restaurant where portions are HUGE and greasy , and beers bigger then your head are about 2 dollars.
4. Go to every restaurant and cafe you can... because it's cold outside.
5. Go to the central market in Riga, where Baba's sell huge loaves of bread, homemade pickles, and lots and lots of cheese for dirt cheap.
6. Drink, a lot. It's about the same price as a diet coke.
7. Get another Milka bar as soon as you have returned to the boat.

HI I'M BAAACK! and exhausted!
Riga was very very cool!
The ship was really fun at the beginning.. so we thought until we were all woken up at 2 am for the rest of the night from the sounds of ice bashing against the sides of our windowless ship cabin. No sleep came after this as the only thing going through each of our minds was.. "near, far, whereevvver you are, I believe that the heart will go oonnnnn" (Titanic theme song) After complaining to the ferry info booth the next day, we learned that it was very obvious that the ice would be loud in a c-class cabin in the back corner of the boat. Right.

Not so nice ice, and Baltic cruise for 3.

Riga was a very cool city. Very VERY old and beautiful and clearly has a heavy past that is so recent that it is still in the minds of many of the people who don't always come across as welcoming to foreigners. The Occupation Museum was really interesting and it was hard to believe the years and years of suffering that these people went through due to Soviet and German invasions.

Some other highlights of the trip include:

the awesome lucy! (brooke is awesome too!)

brooke. big. beer.

the classic Latvian restaurant LIDO. one time experience.

Central Market

A night at the Latvian National Opera - I fell asleep about 6 times but I really did enjoy it!

What a beautiful city!!

(British) Russian Dolls!!

Congratulations on your recent freedom Latvia!!

(Freedom Monument - built in 1935.. and Latvia actually wasn't free until 1991, so someone jumped the gun)

The whole trip was awesome and the cruise ship kind of redeemed itself by giving us a longer, quieter sleep on the way home. I couldn't have asked for better travel buddies, maybe just dry shoes. I can't believe I just went to Latvia!!! Who would have thought!

Back in Stockholm now for the week to get some school work done and catch up on my sleep. I can't lie, I'm pretty sick of winter, but Italy is coming up very fast so that will give me a nice break and then the snow should then be realizing that it has overstayed its welcome here in Stockholm.

I hope this gave you somewhat of an idea of what a crazy place Riga was. Different then anywhere I have ever been and I definitely learned a lot about the world!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYBODY!!

talk to you soon!

xox J

see yuh in riga!

2010-02-09T15:19:00.000+01:00

dear clare,
I hope you enjoyed your jujubes, I didn't even want them anyways...

pass them through the world wide web YO!

went for a run this morning, shoe digging into heel causing pretty nasty bloody socks.. i don't know what's up there, but it didn't hurt bad enough to stop!

other than that, just sipping tea, reading some finance articles and relaxing on this socked in grey day in stockholm .

(i love sentence fragments!!!)

Riga TOMORROW!! we are catching a ferry tomorrow night for some awesome latvian fun. I will take lots of pictures and fill you all in on Sunday!

Hope you all found a Valentine! (because i didn't... minus my sisters of course) Maybe we can all meet on a skype date over a glass of wine and talk about what love really is?

see you on sunday.

mucho love

ps. happy anniversary mom and dad? I think I'm close anyways? you guys are totally the cutest couple out there!!!!!!!! XOXOXO

Monday!

2010-02-08T09:13:00.001+01:00

Hi Monday and everyone reading!!
Quick post before i run out to start a bank account so I can officially get rid of this stupid cash withdrawal fees! I would have done this yesterday but my internet was on the fritz so it didn't happen..
here goes...
Our welcome dinner was Saturday night, it was suuuper fun! I sat with some awesome swedish kids and ate a shrimp appetizer thing on rye bread? I don't actually know what it was but it tasted good! And then of COURSE two huge meatballs, potatoes, and root vegetables! with gravy and ligenberry sauce obvi!
we went out after the meal and had a pretty hilarious night... here are some photos, I wish I took more but I was being a little bit lazy with the camera:

Cass and I were about ready to get out of there at this point..

Cass and a swedish fellow..

my 2 new swedish friends!

This was from the concert on Friday!

oops i'm sideways

and lucy on my bed

that is all! must get dressed and go to Swedbank!!

Love you all!

xo J

o yes! One more thing!!! Just booked my flight to Berlin from March 4 to 8 with Taylor Woolsey!!!! Excited!!!!!!!!!!

Slut Rea Lisation

2010-02-06T14:10:00.000+01:00

teeeheeeee, in sweden the sign "slut rea lisation" is up in a the store windows to say there are big sales. OR theyre all realizing they're sluts!!! maturity has not improved.

last night I saw this band

http://www.imfrombarcelona.com/

at this really cool place called Debaser which is a music venue on the south island in stoockkhoolm! the band was really really good, it was really really fun! and SO much better then going to stupid clubs. dear clubs, I hate you! from now on i'm only going to go to shows, because they are way better and the people are nicer and the boys and cuter!

lucy and I totally indulged in a swedish plate of protein in this cute "granville island style" market that we found in ostermalm. I sent lu to make the order and she came back with a plate full of every kind of swedish meatball creation that exists and we ate it all with lingenberry sauce and pickled cucumbers!! my body was so excited for the iron!! so then with all that energy we tried to find the best Kannelbulla (spelling? = cinnamon bun!!) in stockholm and we ended up at my favorite hot chocolate dungeon to eat cinnamon buns like vikings!!

other than this...
all of my shoes are leaking, so my feet get really wet, this isn't good.
the chip on my visa isn't working, i spent some quality time with the RBC man over skype, as I also had questions about my visa bill, but I think on monday I will put in an attempt at opening a swedish bank account!

okay,
I need to contribute to the group paper I have to write.....considering I know nadda about the economy, I have alot of reading to do!

Love Jill

SHHHH

2010-02-03T15:23:00.000+01:00

some swedish boy just turned and "shhh'd" me in class!!! who does he think he is. I'm pretty sure he was kidding because he was on facebook for most of the lecture. or maybe he's stuck in the junior high flirting fashion of just being a huge asshole. ha, silly swede. still kind of scary i felt my face turn bright red :)
anywho, i found a partner to write my finance paper with, some cute little swedish boy named victor, and pre-warned him that I am going to be traveling so we must work around my dates! he seemed quite alright with this.. so i'll take it. next step... writing the actual paper.. economics anyone?

other than this... its snowing AGAIN, yucky day. Lucy's coming here again tonight for some hanging, we're going to go explore Sodermalm tomorrow which is the south island where the hippies live! and we allll know i love hippies!!!!

sound like i'm in a good mood? here's the explanation:

and nothing else matters...

xo
J

Fashion Smashion Week

2010-02-02T23:13:00.000+01:00

Ola Amigos (Wrong country I'm aware!)

So it's Fashion week here in Stockholm, and of course, if your a nobody (such as myself) this means absolutely nothing to you but I decided to go check it out anyways. Went for a nice walk with Cara this morning and we circled the Mercedes tent and admired numerous 8 foot tall skinny blonde fashionable girls walking around, and then a lot of not so tall pretentious looking well dressed people. Really wasn't that cool, but how many fashion weeks happen in Alberta? I had to check it out.

Hi, I'm Jill Young! you don't know who i am!!? Let me in to the show!

Anyways, the mornings here lately have been pretty nice so I try to spend them outside to soak up as much Vitamin D as I can... Proof of sun:

We had a pleasant little walk, I picked up a sketch book and new pencil (I know.. yay pencils!!) so that I can start keeping my brain a little bit busier.. which I think is important, actually I know this is important otherwise I just think myself crazy!

I also picked up the ultimate "Europe on a Shoestring" travel book so I can plan some serious adventures!! So many great looking trips, MUST DO ALL OF THEM!!

I had a class tonight and then decided to force myself to get out of the house and joined a couple people to go to the school's once a week basketball night that they hold at a high school a couple train stops away. It felt great to go out and do something different and talk to different people, so I will probably try to keep this up! and of course.. my pro baller skills came right back (props to clare for teaching me those)...

Trying to plan a trip of awesomeness with Taylor (the great!) Woolsey for the beginning of March now as our schedules do not seem to match very well! And I just got informed about a Russia trip that gets held for students separately from the one that my exchange committee holds. It's put on for University students in Scandinavia and sounds pretty cool, they cover a lot more ground then the original trip that I was thinking about soooo ... Mom and Dad I will send you the link for your opinion.

aannnd the American boys have just convinced me to partake in Superbowl Sunday (the school actually holds an event for it here!! ahah) which takes place at 1 am next Sunday... I'm going to feel sooo at home. I really just want to watch The Who in the half time show.. I don't even know who's in the game.. go saints?

Ok, must get some sleep. Staying busy is good. I must stay busy.
Until next post
All my love,
J

untitled..

2010-01-27T10:45:00.001+01:00

God Morgon!

I don't know if I will ever get used to waking up and really having no pressing need to get out of bed, when does this ever happen! I should probably take advantage of it, but I got up early anyways.

Lucy left Stockholm yesterday. I was a bit sad to see her go as it was super nice to have an old friend to hang out and visit with, although at the same time really excited not to have to share my single bed anymore! (I know you were too lucy!) I gave her a 2 day quick tour of stockholm, which included a long run along the water, a walk into Old Town where we went to Kaffekoppen (correct me if that's the wrong name) which is a medieval style cafe that serves the most amazing hot chocolate in these huge soupbowls, amazing! We did a lot of walking and shopping and talking and eating. My favorite things! Went in to the Acne clothing store where I fell in love with a really cute dress, if anyone wants to sponsor a student wardrobe, please contact me!!

Yesterday we walked to the Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art) which was really cool! It was full of awesome pieces of artists that I used to study in high school and had an exhibit of this Swedish artist called Evert Lundquist. I really enjoyed the regular exhibit especially the Duchamp stuff ( in grade 12 Mr. Lund thought studying Duchamp was the best thing ever!! I'm not sure I agreed then but seeing work in person gives me a new appreciation for it), the Lundquist exhibit was really beautiful but I found his work sort of depressing and uncomfortable. Maybe I was just having a really emotional day, but the whole experience left me feeling really unsure about everything.. (i'm not really even sure how to describe what i was feeling!!) Anyways, it made me miss the days of trying to tell Grandma what I thought about pieces in the gallery in Edmonton and inspired me to maybe pick up old hobbies of painting.. or even just appreciating art like I should. Not really sure if that emotional vent made sense, but o well it doesn't have too. In summary it was a really cool gallery! YAH!

Lucy

So the day got reaalllyy cold and lucy headed back to Uppsala. I had my (easy!!) entrepreneurship class, which I am so relieved that it's easy I can't even explain, just to give my brain a break from the finance class from hell!! I can't remember if I said this in the last post.. but something I have learned about myself already being here is that I am really not that interested in the Economics side of finance, for now anyways.
After class we went out to this australian bar with a bunch of Aussies to have a beer as it was Australia day. All I can say is..... LOTS of accents! oi mate!! (ah!)

That's about all, I'm sorry if my blog is getting a little bit dull, I will probably just be hanging out in Stockholm for the next little while until I plan some trips! I think Cato gets back to Copenhagen this weekend so I'm really hoping I can head there for some quality cousin time.

I think I will face the cold and go for a run to kill some energy/ try to enjoy some of the rare moments of daylight. Its supposed to drop to -20 this weekend so I will probably be spending it in cafe's and in bed!! No one told me it was going to be this cold!!!

Alright now I'm just rambling.

Sending all my LOVE,
J

( A rare moment of sun!! Apparently today is 4 min 32 seconds longer then yesterday WOOO!!)

I Love Lucy

2010-01-24T22:04:00.000+01:00

Hello Blog land!

(This Semlan bun was Lucy and my Fika today- Swedish tradition to break for coffee and pastries midday- mustn't eat these often if I want to only take up one seat on the airplane... although now that the second seat is free for oversized people... just kidding!!)

Well well,
Here I am lying in my bed with one of my favorite people in the whole world LUCY LYNCH!! I was feeling pretty homesick last Friday (actually I've diagnosed this not to be homesickness but to be.. difficulty adjusting to living in the same room as someone from a totally different culture in a new kind of scary place... that sounds about right doctor jill!) So anyways, I decided to hop on a train after my Friday class and head to Uppsala to see Lucy and Brooke (brooke is from ontario and used to ski race too!). This was especially needed after I went to this class and realized I'm the ONLY girl (probably the only person that isn't totally dedicated to finance and economics too...)!! Tomorrow I am going to see which intense Swedish business school, ralph lauren wearing, comb-over haired boy wants to do our group economics paper together.. how fun!

Lucy and my breakfast of champions! (Sydders, the bulk candy collection in this country is UNREAL!)

Uppsala was pretty awesome, and only about a 30 minute train ride away, so it's good to know that I have friends so close. It's a very cute little town.. very little, but beautiful and it was nice to see where Arden went to school! Lu and Brooke both have really nice single rooms that are super homey so this made me a little bit jealous, but we had a lot of fun, drank wine, ate cheese and relaxed! Today Lucy and I decided to hop on the train back to Stockholm to continue the adventure. I'm so glad she came back with me, I wasn't quite ready to part! We went for a great (LONG) run way into this beautiful park full of old castle-like buildings and Swedish people out walking. We made it back by dark and made a cous-cous creation dinner and have been watching Jersey Shore (awful but amazing MTV show, Clare knows..) and just watched that movie Men Who Stare at Goats which was a little but crazy but kind of good. Just having an early night so I can wake up early and get some Econ readings done and then show Lucy around the city.

Lu and Brooke in their cute little town!

The Cathedral in Uppsala, pretty pretty!

So now, with soya sauce spilt on my running shoes (go lily!.. hahah) and an awesome friend next to me, I will sign off for the night. Hoping for sweet dreams of waist deep powder, and then making it become a reality ASAP because these ski legs are getting itchy!!!

Love you ALL!
xox J

Training through Sweden is sort of similar to traveling through Alberta... white and flat.

I go to Lidel Every Single Day...

2010-01-20T18:41:00.000+01:00

(learned these self shot skills from Eric Young, PRO self shot taker!)

Hej hej!!! Just a quick update here. O yeah Lidel is the grocery store right outside my building and i'm pretty sure we go in there everyday the people working there know we speak english now.

I'm super relieved right now because late last night I found a class I could replace this Economics course from hell with. I'm still waiting to be officially registered but it shouldn't be a problem, I refuse to go to International Trade ever again!!! muahaha So I'm replacing it with a more friendly course called Entrepreneurship and Gender! (go women!!)

Today.. Cara and I walked to the Nobel Prize museum which is in Gamlastan (old town). I think its the most beautiful part of Stockholm. At the entrance is the Royal Palace where we stumbled upon some sort of military ceremony type thing.. we weren't exactly sure what was going on and were too cold to investigate but it was pretty cool! I want to be a princess!!!
I don't know how we found the museum, I think it found us thankfully. It was pretty neat, quite small and didn't have that much stuff going on but it was still cool to learn about the history of the prizes and whatnot. Maybe museums just aren't Sweden's forte? (just kidding sweden!) I think I'm going to go for the nobel peace prize... just saying.

This is the entrance bridge to Gamlastan...

Stopped in at a super cute cafe that was kind of a dungeon, perfectly cozy on a FREEZING cold day, then made our way back home and avoided all clothing stores! (impressive right!?)

Now I'm just hanging out.. reading some financial reports for a class I'm taking (honestly deathly boring, who would want to write 50 pages about this stuff! They would be the worst dinner date in the world!) and getting ready for a night out with all the exchange students to this (apparently really cool) club called Cafe Opera. It's built in the Opera house in stockholm and actually looks beautiful!

Sorry about the rushed post, but my hair is drying in all sorts of weird ways and if I don't do something about it soon it could result in complete disaster!!

Love to all,

xox J

Back to school, back to school...

2010-01-18T19:37:00.010+01:00

Wow! We have a lot to catch up on! The days are just flying by here... not just because the sun goes down at 3:30 but also because I've been so busy! I'm not sure if I mentioned it last time but we trekked out to Ikea last Saturday (sooo Swedish right!?) to pick up some things to make our little white rooms a bit more homey. It was quite a trek from Stockholm so of course we went straight to the Ikea restaurant to have some Swedish food, so good! My room feels quite a bit better now, with a real duvet cover and blanket and everything!

I realized I'm a bit of a psycho when I bought a set of Ikea curtains and my friend Cara from NZ and I constructed the most poverty looking curtain wall i

n the middle of my room to give my roommate and myself a little bit of privacy. My roommate was happy about the idea, and I was VERY happy about it. I never knew how much I like time on my own, although now that there is a bit of privacy, no matter how hideous it looks, I fe

el significantly better. It definitely isn't sound proof though... I'll probably come home fluent in cantonese!! This is Cara poking her head out of our amazing creation... (note how awesome the curtains in the background are)

On Sunday I woke up and went for a really nice run. I'm not really sure where I went and was memorizing every turn I made to make sure I didn't get lost, but it was all beautiful and the distractions made me feel as though I could run forever! The sidewalks are pretty sketchy right now but it definitely kept me on my toes! I forgot a touque to run in so I wore the team Canada hockey headband to represent. Haven't been able to drag any of the friends out for a run yet... they aren't quite seasoned for the snow. They say stores are closed on Sundays in Stockholm, turns out this is a huge lie! We went shopping yesterday and I bought some beautiful boots at Topshop and a jacket at this Swedish store called Monki! There is so much great stuff here... must practice self control!

Pia and I beginning our afternoon shopping. PUB is a mall... not a bar!

Today... I started SCHOOL! ahhh I was really

enjoying not being a student for a while there! But back to reality, and was it ever a shocker! I'm questioning why I didn't do more research on schools and pick one where I could take easy courses and really enjoy traveling... but I tend to do this to myself a lot, so I will suck it up and work. I had international trade policy today which I was expecting to be really easy until the prof started unleashing these crazy equations with letters and curvy lines (all things I haven't had to learn since first year? or never?), anyways, I have a test on it all on Monday, really excited.

After class, rather then doing something as lame as studying, Cassandre (Paris), Pia (Aussie), and I decided to go to the Vasa museet. Its a museum focused on this war ship called the Vasa that was built hundreds of years ago for some king dude, and sunk before it even got out of the harbour. ( A bit of a laugh to make a museum about this I think.. VasAMUSING if you will..) Anyways, it was sort of cool, the ship was really well preserved even though it was at the bottom of the ocean for something like 300 years because of the low salt levels in the Baltic sea. (don't quote me on this :) ) So, it wasn't the most awesome museum I've ever been too (is there such thing??) but I'm glad we went, and we had a great walk home and then went to our second Swedish lesson. Still hopeless

at Swedish, now I just smile and node and say YAH!

for mom: I bought a coffee maker! You win, it was easy, I am just crazy.

Well, I guess I must hit the books.... I'm so glad exchange is only pass/fail!

Alskar, (Love)

xox J

ps: apologies for any wierd formatting, I'm still trying to figure this program out... computers were never my strong point. I'm trying to post more photos but getting these two on just took my about 25 minutes... which is not going to help with my studies!

I'm new here...

2010-01-16T23:11:00.002+01:00

Hej from Stockholm Sweden!

I'm starting this to keep whoever is interested in my new swedish life up to date, might make it a little easier to stay in touch so lets hope i keep it up!

I will give you the long story kind of short on the past couple days to fill you in on what you've missed, enjoy!

...

After about 4 days I'm already starting to feel really at home here. I've made some awesome friends, Pia from Aus, Cara from NZ and Cassandre from Paris. They are all a ton of fun and I'm sooo happy that the friend part was that easy!

I am living in a residence in central stockholm right next to my school with a nice girl from beijing, she is really quiet and there are clearly some cultural differences between us, but it will be a good experiance.. right?!!

My school is beautiful, it's a single building on one of the main streets called Sveavagen and looks like something from Harry Potter. Spiral staircases, huge wooden doors, marble on the walls.. amazing!

I haven't had a lot of chances to really get to know the city yet, but its really easy to walk through, and what I have seen is beautiful! Beautiful city, beautiful people! (beautiful boys!)

It's a bit cold, but once I think about the minus 50 back home it makes it seem like spring here.

Everyone speaks English here which is a huge plus, because Swedish is probably the most confusing language I've ever heard, they are offering us free swedish lessons at school though so I will do the best I can!!

I need to cut this short because these Euros I'm living with force me to party alll the time!! Time for bed to catch up on my sleep. Tomorrow I'm going to join a Swedish gym and work off some Swedish meatballs!

Good night! (Good Afternoon in Canada!)

xo J

PS LUCY IS HERE!!!!!!! She called me today from Uppsula and I am so so so happy that she made it!