High School Musical Style

So onto my next "Start of something new" (get it?! high school musical reference). I'm finally finally finally in Berkeley after waiting for this for freaking ever! I'm about to start my rest of summer job as a Team Advisor (TA) for the Medicine and Healthcare sessions of the National Student Leadership[p Conference in Berkeley, CA. I went to this camp at American University in DC when I was in high school so working for it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do something different with my summer.

Long story short, I'll be living in the dorms here and working 4 different 10 day sessions with a few days off in between each one. My days are going to be exhausting (especially until I find a new eye sleep mask). It's definitely a 7 am (if I want to run at least) to 11:30 pm kind of shindig. Let's hope the coffee is always a flowin'. I'm beyond stoked though, I can't wait for the first session to start on Monday. The past few days have been just a bunch of staff training so it's been fun getting to know all the other staff and exploring the city a bit. I've been going running every morning in different directions (ok, it's only been two morning since I've been here so basically one day I turned left and the next right), so I can sort of get a lay of the land. THERE ARE SO MANY RESTAURANTS. Like no lie everywhere. And lots of ethnic cuisines too which I cannot wait to try! It's also kind of nice because the area is definitely very gluten-free friendly. There is even a ice cream shop, C.R.E.A.M. (Cookies Rule Everything Around Me) that has gluten free cookies and they make ice cream sandwiches, um nom.

throw back pics with Caitlin before I left, if only we still had the plaid shirts!

A busy day at the Norfolk airport?

The typical tourist attempt of pictures of famous things (can you see the golden gate way back there?)

CREAM

All that legit staff business

Who doesn't love TOMS?

All the Med girl TAs looking snazzy in our polos!

On to the Next

So I took a few days off from keeping track of anything. Why you may ask? Because I was at the beach thats why! And to me the beach I have an excuse to eat lots of sugar laden junk and do absolutely nada. Jealous?

Before the beach, I spent a few days in Virginia Beach and got to hang out with family friends who used to live in Fort Smith, the Crocketts. That meant a week of cuddling/sun baking/divalicious cool girl time with this beaut, Caitlin. We go WAY WAY WAY back and our cool girl shenanigans deserve an entire blog post on their own!

of course photo-bombed by my own dad

The morning we (the "we" being my mom, dad, and myself) were going to the beach, we got to participate in a 2-mile walk to support CHKD (it's a hospital that has a kick booty PICU). We were walking to support two of my cousins and their family and to honor their sweet little angel baby girl that passed away a few years ago. We all wore our matching "Team Taylor" shirts and walked our little booties off! The walk was fun even if it started at SEVEN THIRTY AM! Yep, which meant a nice little 5:30 wake up call for this girl. But before and after they had lots of food so I got a chance to eat breakfast numero 1 and 2 of the day! Basically right after we crossed the finish line, the whole beach crew (cousins, aunts, kids, the whole shebang) started to round everybody up to make the annual caravan. EVERY HAS TO FOLLOW EACH OTHER TO THE BEACH, it's basically an unwritten rule (well now I just wrote it). You'd think after probably 25 years, the directions would be engrained in everybody's head, but just in case. Nevertheless, we made it to the beach and even stopped at a farmers market (breakfast number 3) and LOADED up on fruit. The peaches were TO DIE FOR. The whole week (or half week) doesn't need a recap other than I ate lots of homemade ice cream, went to the beach, got some Tommy Hilfiger jeans for SEVENTEEN DOLLARS, and oh yeah i ate more ice cream=) The worst part is always leaving and it was doubley tough because I had to say goodbye to my parents for the next two months so of course I was all blubbery and embarrassing but I guess if I hadn't been embarrassed by the no makeup/tornado hair I had been rocking all week it wasn't too bad.

Now I'm back at the Crocketts and I'm having a minor panic attack over how to fit everything in my suitcase for my trip to California. Yikes.

Early morning snoozin'

I could live here...

candids at their best

One Suitcase and Two Months

So now that I'm back from Sweden and (semi) well rested, I've realized I kind of missed blogging the last few days. It was weird not mentally recapping my day every night. So, get ready for this, I'm going to keep on keep on blogging! The rest of my summer is looking like it's going to be pretty nutty anyway, so hopefully I'll have some good stories! Now onto my current crisis of the moment...

I have to fit the next two months of my life into one suitcase. For a normal person, that might not be such a huge issue, but I have a lot of clothes. A lot of clothes. Oh and, I'M GOING TO THREE DIFFERENT PLACES WITH THREE DIFFERENT CLIMATES. Ugh, thats annoying. I guess I should set the stage a little bit. First, I'm leaving tomorrow for a 2 week trip to Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks to soak up a little sun on a family beach trip. Then, I'm flying from Virginia to California to work as a Team Advisor for the National Student Leadership Conference in Berkeley (I know, you're probably thinking "huh?" but I attended the camp in high school so it's not completely random). From there, I'm flying directly into Fayetteville THE NIGHT BEFORE RECRUITMENT STARTS! So technically I'm not even coming home before I have to be back up at school. Which complicates things even more because I won't have time to come get my things for school so I sort of have to pack now so I can do those slightly important things like oh, um, SLEEP ON A BED, and maybe SHOWER! LOL

Needless to say, I should be being productive and packing right now....

The opposite of Hej

It's been the best last two days in Stockholm. Like borderline perfect. I don't know how it's possible to be so ready to go home yet so sad to leave at the same time. That's what I'm feeling for sure.

SO yesterday, I got to sleep in a little bit (we didn't have to be ready till 11), so I woke up and went for a leisurely (and I mean leisurely) run along the water. On my way back to the boat, I stumbled upon a grocery store that has ended up being my favorite yet. It had a flippin moving walkway to take you up to the second level, too legit. And it had lots of Swedish chocolate (which KLAPROCK be prepared, you're all getting it as souvenirs). Then came the best part of the trip so far, the boat ride. You're probably thinking "what's so special, you're living on a boat?" but this wasn't just any boat, it was some sort of cool sightseeing/lunch cruise/island tour boat. The boat went an hourish out to an island (where people could get off if the wanted), then back to where it left from. We ate lunch on the boat and it was a Swedish smorgasbord with everything you can think of. I miraculously managed to not accidentally eat any pickled herring so it was a success for sure. And then came the dessert buffet, yes dessert buffet. Anyone that knows me can guess how that went...The weather was beautimous too, like seriously perfect, no words can describe it! After the boat ride we had free time so some of us went and hung out on a cafe along the water for awhile. Stockholm is basically like Lake Ouachita on steroids because everywhere is surrounded by islands so its like the lake smack dab in the middle of the city. I even got to take a little cat nap on the grassy bank, once again-perfection. The group I was with all thought we knew where we were meeting for dinner but whoops, WE DIDN'T! Thankfully we happened to see the group through the window when were walking down the street or else we would have stayed lost for quite awhile.

The weather stayed perfect for the last day too. First up was the ABBA museum. I had been kind of museumed out so I wasn't exactly looking forward to it but it was SO fun!! There were all kinds of interactive things like music videos and singing. The cool part was that once you scanned your ticket for the interactive things, you can log onto the website with your ticket number, it saves all your "performances." We even got the professors to bust out their favorite ABBA songs. After that, free time was on the agenda. A few of us went and had a nice little lunch outside before I split off to pick up some last minute things. I felt really comfortable finding my way around and I didn't even mind being by myself. It was a teeny bit nice to be able to do all the things I wanted to do at my super fast shopping pace! I headed back to the boat for a little bit then I went to wander around the Sodermalm district. It's right up the hill behind our boat, so it was that I could explore but still be close to where I knew. I even went thrift store shopping (with $20 in my pocket). Then came the rain...thankfully I had my umbrella because I got caught in a freaking downpour. The group met for dinner at the same place we ate the first night in Stockholm, O'Connells. Not my favorite food but it was free so that's good! Of course we HAD to get ice cream on the last night (just like every night). I stuck to my guns and continued my different flavor every night tradition. I couldn't tell you what it was called but it was YUM! The taxis are coming at 6:15 (AM) tomorrow so the whole group is just taking it easy and hanging out tonight.

This trip really has been spectacular and I'm so beyond thankful I've had this opportunity. I'm ready to be home but I know the second I get back home, I'll just want to come right back=)

my room...my whole room

the walk to our boat

the Nobel Museum square

hungry?

Just call me royalty

Yep, I love fish

The Vasa Museum

Dinner the first night in Stockholm

Gorgeous church in Uppsala

How I entertain myself at museums

oh just stop it

The view from the city hall tower

perfect timing?

Obsessive

The site of my afternoon nap, jealous?

ABBA shenanigans 

Yep.

cool girls at the museum

Peace out Stockholm, it's been real!

Just call me princess

Here's my last two days in a nutshell..

Yesterday museums/tours were on the agenda. The morning started with a tour of city hall, which is the view from my cute little port hole window! City hall is is basically like the Capital building. Half of it (the part we didn't tour) is used currently as political offices etc. We got to see all the pretty rooms though! One of the biggest rooms in City hall is called the "blue room" (even though it's no blue...the architect was being a diva) and it's actually where the Nobel prize banquet honoring the winners is held. So many people attend that it works out to where everyone gets about 60 cm of space that night, except the winners and the royal family get a whopping 80cm! After city hall, we got to climb up 5 bagillion flights of stairs (the elevator was broken) to go to the top of the tower thats attached to the building. Lunch was a trip to a local food hall type place where I had my first truffle, so yum. By this point, everyone was dragging but rest assured, another museum was in our future. Let's just say the Modern Museum (think very very very modern art) was an experience I probably can't replicate. The weather was beautiful so a few of us went and fika-ed for a little bit before doing some light shopping before dinner. The dinner of the night was Salmon. JUST KIDDING!! I actually had grilled char with risotto and it was so yummy, just like all the seafood here. I went off the deep end and got wild with panna cotta ice cream for tonights dessert (I know, someone should hold me back I'm such a wild woman).

As for today, just call me royalty! The first thing the group did was made our way to the royal palace (who knew Sweden had royalty? now you do!). Everything was ornate and over the top (not quite Versailles but working it's way there). Lots of Asian tour groups, they were so cute with their little fanny packs and white tennis shoes (when they weren't running into me). Then came fika (duh) before the formal changing of the guards. They have a little "guard changing thing" every hour but they put on a little show once a day. The annoying part was they had areas roped off for people to stand behind but people kept climbing over them which pretty much made it to where I couldn't see squat. Of course apparently there was supposed to be horses and there wasn't so I probably would have been annoyed anyway. It started drizzling a little bit and of course my umbrella was in someone else's backpack but it wasn't too bad thankfully. On my way back to our boat I actually walked right up from the Subway station to the street just as the first runner of the Stockholm marathon passed by! The marathon route went right past our boat which made some pretty sweet views. How someone can run that far in 2:16 in stinkin nuts. In other news, I have officially reached my candy/sweets limit. I've just eaten too much of it that it's making me sick to my stomach haha Also, I'm reaching my food limit in general. I don't think my body can take much more of this rich food all the time, it needs a break! No worries though, I got a chance to faceTime the rents and I asked my mom to pick up some fruits and veggies for me (because that's honestly all I want to eat for the next month, I miss them!). Speaking of food (I know I rock at the convo segways), dinner tonight was at one of our professor's friends houses. They fixed a traditional Swedish feast for us. And by traditional Swedish food I mean smoked salmon, pate, bread/butter, and a few other sort of questionable things. I ate way too many potatoes (like if I never see one again, that would be too soon). Dessert involved, you guessed it, ice cream. It was just vanilla so nothing fancy but I ate too much of course (surprised?). The dinner was fun though because the hosts are a pretty neat Swedish couple. The husband was even an Olympic athlete!!! The professor from the Karolinska Institute lives near by so he along with his two precious little daughters came to feast away with us. Small world, but he actually did his undergrad at UC Berkeley (which I'm working at this summer), so I got ask all my weather/clothing related questions. When I got back to the boat and got lucky enough to hang onto Wifi long enough to FaceTime my parents. I'm not homesick per say, but it was nice just to catch up for a few minutes. I wish I could move my home life to here, then it would be perfect because it's not really home I miss, it's more the conveniences of home. Things like an actual house, closet, family, pups, kitchen and the like. But I'll be home soon enough so for now its Viva la Sweden!