My 2012

January

This was a fairly slow month for me. I wasn’t very motivated with Uni, or with anything really. Sweden’s dark winters really drag me down sometimes and I felt quite tired. I was working quite a lot and had very little energy. I turned to crafts as well, making jewellery and writing fiction with a friend. In just a few months we wrote over 500 pages. One of my oldest friends had a Pretty in Pink party in the middle of the month, which was great fun. She also took me out to the stables and I got to ride a horse for the first time in months, a lively 4-year-old mare that almost bucked me off, but with great gaits. I was also training BJJ at Prana, which was damn hard work but still fun.

February

I cut off my hair! After trying to let it grow out after the 2011 black haired phase I had to face the fact that it was too damaged. More than 4 inches chopped off and it felt strange! Good for training though.

March

What to say about March... probably one of my best months ever. On the 10^th I was at a big BJJ competition where I could not compete, and did live commentary on our Facebook page, all great fun and so nice to be part of that team, all love for Prana. Later this month I also flew over to London to meet my friends Gina Freya, and stayed at Gina’s place for a week. It was meant to be for a weekend but I missed the plane home. All rather embarrassing, I thought I was going on a Tuesday but it was Monday. All I could do was to buy a new ticket and go back to Gina’s house for another two days... This is also the month where I met D. I was merely looking for more LFC fans to follow, Gina followed him and I thought why not. That he was terribly cute didn’t really hurt... He started talking to me almost immediately, turns out he had already been following me for 3 years. Huh. I also bought my first ever pair of Louboutins, at the Louboutin store at Selfridges. I think the pair of shoes the guy who helped me wore were worth more than  ten of mine, but it was a great experience and lots of fun. To this day the shoes I bought have been used twice, I take very good care of them!

April

Another exciting month, this is when I applied for and got accepted to Leicester University for an exchange year, and suddenly everything sort of fell into place. This is also the month where I had to sign up for another module at Uni because I needed to have it done before I went to England. With double modules at Uni plus work I almost burnt myself out, and had to sacrifice something, it ended up being training, something I wasn’t too happy about but I simply didn’t have time. This is also where the girls of the Student Lawyer Association threw the Gentlemen’s dinner, where only men were allowed to go and the girls served and entertained with song and dance dressed in black with sparkly masks on. A great success!

May

This was in many ways an amazing month as well. David came to visit me, a great gamble since we had only talked on the phone and some video Skype, but he was brave and booked a plane ticket to Stockholm to come and see me, with no hotel booked or anything. In the end it was the best weekend I could have wished for. Late May we had a brännboll (sort of like softball) tour against the economy students and when I saw a picture of me on Facebook I realised something had to be done, I was getting quite big, a lot bigger than I wanted to be. Not training at all had not been a good decision, obviously.

June

Straight after the end of term I went to London to visit David, and we also went up to Liverpool to visit his family, where I got to see Anfield for the first time when david took me on a stadium tour! Looking back, it really went fast with all of it, but it was also very right. After I got back, I missed him so much I asked if he wanted to come over to Sweden again to see my family, and so he did! Midsummer celebration at my cousins summer house, with games and activities. All lots of fun and so much laugh, but I also realised how out of shape I was! I started talking walks, one hour every day, and with smaller portions, the weight dropped off me. It was something I had to do for myself and I succeeded. Almost two stones (about 12 kilos) later, I felt a lot better. With the nice weather, there were also several good days out in the sun with friends.

July

It felt like all I did was work, work work work. This is also where I realised I was going to move to England in a foreseeable future, and the so the packing commenced. Boxes everywhere. Papers to fix. So. Many. Papers. I tried to cram in as many fun days as possible, but it was hard.

August

It started out ok. My apartment was rented out, everything started to fall into place, I had my flight booked, all was good. I had a lovely day with friends at Gröna Lund, going on roller coasters and having a great time. Then it all fell apart. I got attacked at work by one of our costumers, who got angry because I told off her son, got spat in the face and kicked. Crying, I locked myself into the office while she was screaming by the counter. The guards were there almost immediately, but I had to wait for the police. I sat there for hours, and when they finally came I felt numb. I had no replacement so I had to close up, and looking back I should have closed up straight away when the police left. Luckily enough, my dad drove to Stockholm as soon as he found out, taking me home. The support I got from friends both in real life and on twitter was like nothing else. I was meant to work for another two week but I was put on sick leave from my doctor, who didn’t want me to go back. I still haven’t been back to the restaurant to work, only to get some papers, and I doubt I will. Its still haunting me, and I worry a lot over the trial coming up. Later this month another disaster hit. I found out that I didn’t have enough credits to qualify for a student finance aid, and without that I wouldn’t be able to go to England. Chaos ensued. I had two possible exams I could take, one two days after I found out and one a week later. I had to cancel my flight, and start studying, with that pressure hanging over me. I took the exams, and the same day as the last one, I flew over to London, not knowing if I could stay or not. I missed David’s birthday which was what hurt the most, but in the end it was a wonderful month.

September

We spent September in Liverpool, in a sort of state of limbo. On the 2^nd I got to visit Anfield again, when we went to see Liverpool play against Arsenal. They lost, but I had fun anyway! We didn’t really do much during this month; I was worrying a lot over my student finance and had some meltdowns when it all looked grey, especially when I found out I had failed both my exams with 1 point and 4 points respectively. Even though I knew I hadn’t had any good preparation with only days available, it still felt like a punch to the stomach. I couldn’t do any real planning because I wasn’t sure I would get to stay, and we had to cancel our much-awaited Italy trip. When I submitted the cancellation I cried. But, this was also the month of my birthday, and David managed to cheer me up a lot with wonderful gift and a surprise dinner at 60 Hope Street where we had some really amazing food. At the end of the month it all sorted itself out when my dad got me a bank loan instead of the student funding, I got to stay! In a bit of a haste we drove down to Leicester and ended up signing for a student room, not exactly the apartment I was hoping for but with this late notice it was the best option. I got my own bath and lovely flat mates!

October

This is where it all really took off. Uni started, and the first month was all confusion for me. Everything was new, and even though a lot was similar I still struggled. Tutorials were different, case law different, lots of things were different. But it all started to work out eventually, soon as I got into it.  I also managed to get a letter from Leicester Uni stating I had earned some credits here, and so, the student finance was solved. Big sigh of relief! I enrolled with the Equestrian club and had to do a trial to see if I got on the team. Luckily my dad was visiting me that month so I had some good support, and made it to the team! I also managed to miss the first week since we had tickets to two Liverpool games, so when I came back I had missed the intro lectures to all of my modules. Living on the edge. Luckily, in this organised country, everything was available in handouts. Thank God for that! We also had our first social with the equestrian club. Dressed as zebras we partied all night. With face paint. As you do.

November

Had my first competition with the riding team! It didn’t go as well as I had hoped, for me individually, but our team did well, with Alex winning the overall individual. Jumping an entire course scared me to pieces, but I ended up doing a clear round with ok scoring. Uni went better, and I also got to see my 4^th Liverpool game. Overall we’ve had some really good luck with tickets, especially considering we only have regular membership and no season tickets. I also helped out at our A teams competition, and again jumped an entire course, this time over 90 cm fences since that’s what the A team compete over. Nerves! We also had another social, this time cowboy themed! We found out a little late that the theme of the nightclub we were going to that night was Pirates, but whatever!

December

The first two weeks of this month were spent at Uni, then I called it quits and left for Liverpool for some well earned rest and another Liverpool game! We celebrated a lovely Christmas with Davids family, and on the 28^th we flew over to Sweden to celebrate new years, where we still are, for another week or so.

So, that was my 2012. It feels like it has just flown by, it’s been a great year despite all the turmoil. I’ve had some wonderful people around me through the rough times, and the good times have definitely overshadowed the bad. For 2013 I wish for less drama, and much love. I have another semester left at Uni, exams to pass, I have to figure out where to be during the summer, and this autumn I start on my final year at Uni, with my dissertation coming up before I can get my Swedish LLM. That’s as far as my plans go, after that it’s blank! Hopefully we are going to Portugal during Easter, I really need some sun!  Anyway, thats it for me now, but I’ll be back!

M xx

Day 129, Storvik

Hello there!

So, uhm, sorry about the long absence, I just... forgot?

Anyway, quick recap, I've been studying like a good girl at Uni, on the 11th December I threw in the towel for that semester and went back to Liverpool to have a well deserved Christmas holiday with David and his family, which was fun and a bit different, even though I had a pang of homesickness on Christmas Eve when everyone else was celebrating at home. On Christmas day it all got better though, with good food, gifts and all the relatives coming to the house to visit. It really does feel like a second home and I'm really feeling like a part of the family.

Uni is different, but fun! The common law system is very different from our civil law system and sometimes I forget myself and try in vain to argue for my (wrong, in this country) opinion until I have to give up. After 3 years learning a system its hard to try a new one! After I went to my first Criminal law tutorial back in October I went home crying because it felt like I didn't know a thing. Then I figured out the system and changed my way of reading up for the tutorials, and then it clicked.

I've been competing twice, with the team finishing third both times, so I even got ribbons! I was absolutely terrified the first time I was going in to jump, the fences are about 85-90 cm and I haven't been jumping since I was 13. I cleared it though! On my second competition I missed a fence and got eliminated, earning quite a lot of penalties for our team, clumsy! Turns out I'm a good rider on my own horse and not as good on stubborn ponies, haha.

For now, we are in Sweden visiting my parents house, the plan was to go and visit my friend for NYE but unfortunately we couldn't go and ended up being home for a quiet evening together, toasting the new year in cider. Probably the most laid back NYE I've ever had, but I didn't mind, I have many more left to come!

I have planned to do a resume of my year during my time here, but I probably shouldn't promise to much since I've been neglecting this blog so much...

Until then, take care!

xxx M

Day 61, Liverpool

So we got to attend our first winning game on Wednesday! LFC beat Anzhi 1-0, which was awesome since they have drawn our lost all the other times we've been to Anfield... This time we had amazing seats near the Kop in the Centenary stand, with an amazing view. So much fun to be there again, this is our fourth game in two months, we have been very lucky to actually get tickets for two PL games and two Europa League. Usually EL is a lot easier to get tickets to than PL.

Yesterday we celebrated 7 months together by going to the opening night of the new Bond movie. Won't spoil anything here but I was quite emotional at the end. Such a good movie.We went to the Fact Cinema in Liverpool, nice comfy seats and everyone was really quiet and well behaved, not like when the teenage brigade lays into the decor in Sweden...

So anyway, today we headed back into town for a nice dinner at La Tasca, a spanish restaurant close to the city centre for one of my favourite ways of eating: Tapas. We had some Serrano ham, paella, tortilla, chicken romesco, lemon chicken and pork belly, and churros dipped in melted chocolate for dessert. David hadnt tried tapas before but luckily enough for me, he was very keen on the idea. The place was wonderful, nice athmospere without getting too noisy, and the food just to die for, everything was well cooked and we finished off each pot we were served. I was going for some Sangria but since D was driving and I wasnt too keen on an entire jug for myself I skipped it, that might have been quite clever of me...

                                                        Picture from johnlewis.co.uk

                                                       Picture from store.liverpoolfc.tv

Also got some shopping done, besides some nail polish for my now very vast collection and some dvds I also got a new polo shirt to ride in and a scarf from the LFC store, and a nice Barbour coat for when the weather gets colder. Didnt plan on buying one but I feel in love and it just had to be. Hopefully it will last for a long time!

So anyway, I'm off to play FIFA!

xxx M

Day 59, Liverpool/Leicester

Hi people! Sorry for the long absence, I havent really been in the mood to blog with all the hassle I have had lately, but today I can share the happy new, we have finally beaten CSN and my student grant is coming in. Such a relief, this has been weighing on me for quite some time. Its been a hard few weeks on a fairly restricted budget courtesy of my way too nice father who stepped in and helped while we fought this battle, but now its done.

So, anyway, I started uni four weeks ago, I had originally planned to do Contract, Torts, Intellectual property and family law, but family law clashed so I ended up in the dreaded Criminal law, which is without doubt the hardest module I am taking this year. Its all very different from our Swedish system and half the time I am very unsure of what my lecturer is saying. Our textbook is a bit clearer though.

The system here for Uni in general is very different from what I'm used to. In Sweden we rely on a big, fat book containing all the laws we could possibly need, whereas England provide you with something called a "statutory booklet", which is basically a thin little booklet with the statutory acts. I estimate my contract one to about 15 pages and that's it. Here we also have one or maybe two textbooks per module and instead we read lots of cases, journals and articles, often up to 30 pages long. I am yet to find out where I can find those cases, I think we might have something like Zeteo but who knows?? Also, here we do all four modules at the same time, and write exams for all four in January and June. Stress doesn't even begin to cover it when you have a mountain of material to work through and no real idea of how to organise it. How did I do this in college?? (Gymnasiet, Swedish peeps)

Contract law is amazingly fun here, very similar to what we did in Sweden without being identical, makes for lots of interesting comparisons and discussions. Intellectual property is also very similar due to the simple fact that its mostly based on European law, Torts is terribly vague since our lecturer is quite shit, and Criminal law is... help.

So, I ended up in a student hall since I didn't know if I would get any money from CSN, but its really nice! I have some awesome flatmates (all girl flat) and they are all very neat, so we have an amazingly big and very clean kitchen. Perfect for predrinks! Hehe.

I also trialled for and got into the riding team for Leicester Uni, my first competition is the 7th November, bit nervous! You compete on borrowed horses in both jumping and dressage, and the points are then combined for the final score. I've had two lessons so far on two different horses, and I love it, I've missed the riding, and even though this is not really the same as what I used to do, its still horses.

What more? I've been to three Liverpool games in total now, and going to the fourth one today, a Europa League one against Anzhi, which I look forward to. Tomorrow David and I are celebrating 7 months together by going to see the new Bond movie and going out for dinner. I look forward to that a lot.

We also had our first social with the Riding club (a social is basically a night out at a club, often with a theme of some sort) the theme this time was Zoo project, so all us riding girls went as Zebras, with face paint and all! Next social is cuban night with cocktails, and of course the Halloween bar crawl.

So, that was a quite lengthy update, I'll be back with some more!

Xxx M

Day 27, Liverpool

Hello. Well, the days go past slowly... I'm sort of enjoying the calmness this weekend because next week wont be as calm, I have apartments to look at and there will be a trip down to London to visit friends, REALLY looking forward to that, its going to be so much fun.

A few days ago we were in town, and walked past a guy holding lots of shopping bags. I remember looking at them thinking "Oh Flannels! Where the heck is that store located, I want to go..." and then I looked up. It was Joe Allen! No wonder he had like 3 bags from Flannels... He was out with his girlfriend, their little baby in a pram and either his or her mom. Both David and I REALLY wanted to go up and say hi and ask for a picture, but I got way, WAY too shy and didnt dare to. I regret that now, having a picture with him would have been amazing. Oh well.

Speaking of... We were at Tesco today for some food shopping, and I finally got to see the Scouse women who go out with their hair in hair rollers! Unbelievable, I would rather be dead than doing that. reminded me of when we went to a restaurant in town in june (The Restaurant Bar & Grill) and I went to the toilet... The amount of makeup girls wear here! Mind you, I wear a LOT of makeup going out but I felt like I barely had anything on. They never wear coats either, which baffled me even more. Maybe because I am from up north in Sweden, when we go out there we have THICK coats on so you barely see the dress underneath. Here they walk around in town in ONLY the dress. I got cold just seeing them. Apparently that restaurant is sort of a hangout for footballers and such so the girls dress up to the nine and hang around in the bar. I did spy some gorgeous dresses though.

Anyway, moving on... Food shopping! In Sweden (Lots of that now!) most eggs you buy are white, and brown eggs are way more expensive and packed in clear boxes so you can see that they are brown. I always bought brown eggs for breakfast and such where you could see the shell, and white ones for cooking since they felt more common and didn't look as delicious. Here its the other way around, most eggs are brown (thats standard) and white eggs are sold in packages and named "Posh Bird"!! I laughed so much when I saw that, its all about context isn't it?

I've also had the chance to taste some British food things, like chips (Pommes frites for you swedes, we are still fighting that battle here...) with vinegar on, and today a little meat and potato pie from a local bakery. They came fresh from the oven when we came in and they tasted amazing. What could go wrong with meat, pastry and potato? Will definitely have more of those. Next on the list is fish and chips, its strange that I haven't had that yet here actually!

I also still sort of double take when I walk past the wine and alcohol areas in say, Tesco. It looks so strange to me with all the bottles next to the regular food. That's what you get when you come from a country where its available from one store only. Its so convenient this! I use wine quite often in sauces and food in general, and not having to go to a special store to get a decent one and not just cooking wine that taste rank is definitely appreciated. Oh, and not only do they have it everywhere, there is also a store called Bargain Booze where, yeah, they sell really cheap alcohol. Its SUCH a scummy place you have no idea. I haven't been inside but we drive past one every time we go into town and I still snigger over it. I'm such a child.

Day 24, Liverpool

Well there always seem to be some kind of trouble and confusion here! But next wednesday we are actually going to look at rooms and apartments. I misunderstood the pricing a bit, because apparently bills are not included by default here, but I finally gathered some courage and called a letting agent and told them I needed something furnished with all bills included, so its sorted now and I'll be showed something suitable. Christ.

I've noticed something funny here, in England there is not the same system as in Sweden, here the estate agents handle rental apartments as well, and since you can actually own your own apartment here you get lots of private landlords, who in turn use the letting agents to handle the administration. Very interesting for an aspiring lawyer! So now I have lots of paperwork to get in order, sigh.

It was my birthday on Monday, and it was lovely. I was woken up to breakfast and gifts on the table. I got a pretty Liverpool shirt with Allen on, a polka dot dressing gown, a bottle of nailpolish from OPI that I have been wanting since forever (OPI Ink!!) and a cuddly horse from the movie Brave! We then went to West Kirby which is by the sea and went out for a walk on the Lido, it was windy and we got some sprays but I loved it, the smell of the salty sea is one of my favourites.

Later that evening, I was told to dress up nicely for dinner, and we got in the car and drove to the city centre. I had no idea where we were going at first but then we turned onto Hope Street... yes, 60 Hope Street, where we had a lovely meal. We both had the roast breast of corn fed chicken with pan fried potato gnocchi, pancetta and tomato petals for main (I'm quoting this from their website, sorry I couldnt remember all of that by heart...) and it was just sooo good, served in a simple broth that was just bursting with flavour. For dessert I had raspberry bavarois with milk chocolate malteser parfait amd frangelico chocolate sauce. Don't ask me what a bavarois is, but it tasted like a mousse, set on a base of marzipan cake. Frangelico is a liqueur if I'm not mistaken. The malteser parfait was like nothing else I've tasted, so smooth and tasted so much of milk chocolate. 

We have also managed to buy tickets for two more games at Anfield, so we will be there at both the 4th and the 7th october. The 4th is an Europa League game against Udinese, and the 7th is a PL one against Stoke. I bloody hate Stoke so hopefully we will win that one. We have AMAZING seats at the Udinese one, and ok ones at the PL game. We got the Stoke tickets on general sale so we had to make do with what we could get. We COULD get tickets to the Fulham game as well but there are only quite crappy seats left so it didnt seem worth the price.

I'm hoping I'll have something more interesting to share soon, like pictures from Leicester and some Uni things, for now its just a lot of organizing going on here and trying to sort out courses and such. I'm really getting to practice making phone calls and not procrastination here!

I also got to Skype with Emma this Sunday, which was much needed, even though I do love it here it is hard to not have your friends around, especially now before Uni has started when I'm mostly in the house with David. Anyway, wish me luck with the rooms and apartments, hopefully I have signed a contract next week!

Xxxx M

Day 19, Liverpool

So I got to stay! It has been a long wait but finally we got to talk to a nice woman at CSN who actually knew how this worked. I won't dare jinxing this too much before I actually have the money in my account, but apparently I only have to send a letter from Leicester Uni to them to confirm I am participating in my studies as I should. Not entirely sure I understand what good that would do, but if the woman says that is all I need thats good enough for me.

We havent been doing much here since I last wrote to be honest. I got the results from one exam where I failed with one lousy point, which resulted in a bit of a meltdown here when all the tension built up just... released. I wrote a lengthy blogpost about that but in the end it felt a bit too personal so I ended up scrapping that. There were tears and sobbing en masse, but its better now and everything will be fine.

On Monday its my birthday, and David has bought me a gift. He dropped me off at John Lewis (Sort of like Åhléns but bigger, for the Swedish people) and I strolled around looking at glossy KitchenAids and other fun kitchen stuff. It dawned on me there that I'll get to buy a lot of these things for the apartment I'm getting for the year being here, and that warmed a fair bit. Then David came back with a HUGE bag from the Disney store. That man knows me too well. He did mumble something about "I asked them for a plain bag but they didnt have any..." but I'm quite happy knowing I'll get something Disney! Woop!

I'm trying ot get things planned so I'll have stuff to entertain me with, its going fairly well. Yesterday we went to a restaurant to sort of send off Davids little sister who moved into Liverpool city centre today to start University. It was all great fun, I got to meet the other, elder sister as well and we probably annoyed the waiters to no end since we all ordered from both the specials menu and the regular menu and then swapped plates when they served them...

Today I've been listing up some apartments I want to see, I have five interesting ones, fingers crossed that I can get one of them! We are going to Leicester on Tuesday and hopefully we can view all five. I was offered a student room at Leicester Uni but they were in the oldest buildings, just a room with a bed, little desk and a wardrobe, and to be honest I have been living on my own too long to be able to handle a shared kitchen. Even staying here with Davids family is a bit hard, I'm used to planning and cooking all of my own meals and its just different here. But its also very comfortable the nights where I just get served a hot meal with no effort. I'm quite blessed.

Tomorrow I have a Skype date planned with a friend, which I look forward to a lot. I really do miss my friends, even though I love it here more than anything.

Xxxx M