Midsummer today, London tomorrow

Leaving for London tomorrow morning, the car leaves home 6.30 and the plane arrives around 10. Then we’ll just dump the luggage at the hotel and start the SHOPPING! I’ve already done the touristy stuff, so this time I’ll do the rest. A one star Japanese restaurant awaits us at 7 Saturday night and after that I’m meeting my Masha for a night out. God I’ve missed her so much, we have so much to talk about and to celebrate. A part from that and maybe to se the Queens We Will Rock You show there are no reel plans and my family and I and Masha, as often as possible, will do whatever we feel like. We were talking about seeing the England – Germany game on Saturday, my father said that it would be quite fun to pretend to be Germans pretending to be English so that they wont be hated by the whole pub or that we could just wear the German teams collars. Another option was to do something really touristy during the game because there won’t be a line for anything at that time, all the Englishmen will be too occupied. But I hope we’ll se the match and I will try to hide as good as I can that I’m supporting the German team, they are the only team I’ve seen playing so far in the match against Serbia and since I saw that with a German I had to cheer for them and now it feels wrong to stop.

Midsummer party =

Dancing around the midsummer tree

“Säcklöpning” and spitting frogs

Strawberries, “kanelbullar” (that my mother makes) and the most delicious strawberry cake.

Vegetarian hot dogs

Summer songs and flowers in my hair.

// My luggage is a mess //

Before the real dancing starts you have too... warm up

I'm a vegetarian that sell hot dogs, I find that weird

Sitting inside in the hot dog stand today, at the ninth hole at Flommens golf coarse, being fried in the fat oils coming from the hot dogs I thought that “I just can’t wait until I get to Kenya so that I will se beautiful new places and not the inside of this stupid wooden box”. I regretted that thought two seconds later when the door flew wide open and all the napkins flew out with the wind witch forced me to take a step outside. Sun, sun and more sun, a few white clouds, the beach cabins in different collars and the golf course’s green grass, a landscape I’m so familiar with that I forget how beautiful it is. And just behind the sand dunes is Oresund with its blue and green water and white sand beach and the bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark. It is not a place where the nature runs wild or anything like that but it is a place where people have succeeded to not totally destroying nature’s beauty with their impact. If you have time a sunny day in July, take the buss down and go to the beach, walk the streets in the old parts of Falsterbo and come and say hello to me in the wooden box at the ninth hole of Flommens golf club.

// Stop spitting out your snuff (is that a word) on my green grass //

The goodbyes have started

62 days to go until I leave Sweden but already the goodbyes I have to say have started to go out. Due to friends traveling, me traveling and working and other factors I have already said bye to some of my friends, some I’m sure I wont meet again others I’m not sure about and therefore have said goodbye to just in case. If you didn’t know this before I’m telling you now, goodbyes aren’t fun! Some people are of course a bit harder to say goodbye to, like the one I said today. This was one of those just-in-case-goodbyes, a goodbye I’ve known that I have to make since I met this person but still it sucked. I’m not even sure this person understood that I was saying a just-in-case goodbye. Hopefully we will meet again, at least that is the plan but I know from previous experiences that plans often are changed. I hope this plan wont change.

The 20^th of August is the official goodbye saying day. If you feel like it, come by my place and make it even harder for me by giving me another hard goodbye to say. Friends and family will be gathered to say goodbye to the summer and me and to have some fun before school and work starts again.

// Still cant stop thinking about the old woman at the museum //

Sick again, as always

Fever, cough, pain in my troth and ears, itching eyes, and the same pain in all my joints as I had last summer have returned. I’m fine when the pain medication kicks in but an hour after that the effect wears off and I start crying all over again. I’ve been looking forward to tomorrow for a week now and nothing is going to stop to have a great time. I have now found a couple of new friends called Voltaren, Ipren, bottle after bottle of water, vitamin pills for vegetarians, vitamin C pills, soup and big cups of tea with one half tea other half honey that are all gone get me better. I get by with a little help from my friends.

This thing I have, this bad immune system or what ever it is that gives me the same crappy symptoms every other week I starting to really piss me off. I can’t keep my life, training, work, school or anything up for more than three weeks without it getting an abrupt end because a new sick period decides to start. I want to train! I want to train! I want to train for god’s sake! But I can’t. Instead I have to sit home feeling fat and useless.

It is gone be truly interesting to see whether or not Kenya will do me well when it comes to my health. I’m a bit worried since the only connection I see between the times I get the pain in my joints is that it comes when it is warm outside (the fever and the rest comes and goes when ever it see fit) and I think I recall reading somewhere that Kenya’s weather is warm most of the time, or at least warmer than in Sweden.

// AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa I’m crazy!! //

At least three people killed and over 20 wounded

NAIROBI. At least three people killed and over 20 wounded due to two explosions during a political meeting in Nairobi yesterday. According to the police the meeting was a protest meeting about the proposed new constitution held at Uhuru Park at the heart of Nairobi. (SYDSVENSKAN). According to the Guardian (UK) the numbers were 5 killed 75 injured and African News Live says the same.

In August the country will vote about whether to take on the new constitution or not. According to African News Live people opposing against the new constitution usually dislike the clause regarding the law that it will be permitted to do an abortion to save the mothers life and/or the clause that would recognize informal courts used by Kenya’s Islamic community. The constitution is supported by both the president and the prime minister but opposed by many other political leaders in Kenya. The pictures shown at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/jun/14/kenya?picture=363667867 are all horrible, showing the chaos that breaks out when something as horrible like this happens.

SHE STABBED ME!

Well she didn’t really stab me, actually I didn’t feel it at all, but still 3 shots in a day?! I think that’s over doing it, and then of course there are 2 more in July and they toke some blood from me just a week ago to check my blood type (just incase a lion or something tries to eat me and I need a blood transfusion after the attack). Take my advice if you are like me and have a serious phobia against needles (yes I know it is a silly fear, but I can’t make it go away) then don’t go to Kenya. But then again you should never let your fear stop you from living your life; I for example went on a Canopy Tour in South Africa, at heights over 19 meter above ground I soared between the trees on cable wires hanging from a harness and trust me I get dizzy just by wearing high heels (I do that every day though). I hated every minute of it but I did it, and now I’ll never have to do it again but at least I gave it a try. So now I just have to live through being stabbed a couple of times so that I can go to Kenya, no pain no gain.

// At least I didn’t faint //

Klart!

Go out in style!

(Is it only I or does the flags seem a bit much to you too?

)

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL MY WONDERFUL FRIENDS

Last day at Malmö ProCivitas, I didn’t think I would miss it but I already do. It is a great school with some fantastic teachers and students witch are very hard to part from. To all these incredible people I want to say thanks! Thanks for making the last two years the best in my life so far, for making me a happier more outgoing person, for teaching me things valuable both for future studying, work and life. How will I manage without all of you? I hope we meet when I get back!

Seeing all the third graders graduating, dancing, singing, being slightly (or more than slightly) drunk made me think about how my graduation will be. I’ll be in Nairobi without my family, and instead of a hundred or more graduates we will be seven. I doubt there will be a champagne breakfast like they have at ProCivitas and the after party might not be as big. I don’t even know if I’ll get one of those white student caps that I’ve dreamt about for so long. There won’t be a fancy car picking me up from school and driving me home to my waiting family and friends. But who cares? It is all worth it! It will not be the same but there is nothing that says it wont be better in Nairobi. And when I come home I promise I’ll throw the best graduation/reunion party ever so that I get the chance too meet the people who’ve missed me (the very few) again.

// SECOND YEAR (OVER)!! //

Sommartider HEJ HEJ!

Copenhagen Distortion

Sunny Saturday was spent in Copenhagen at the festival Distortion. First sitting in the sun by Knippelsbro, then pizza on a bench by the channel together with some very loud seagulls, a quick bike ride to get some warmer clothes, back to Knippelsbro for the two minute rave between 22.00 and 22.02, trying to find two of my friends in a huge crowd of people (failing), staying at Knippelsbro till about 03.00 and then finishing the night by playing table soccer winning one game and losing the other.

I’ve never played table soccer in such a serious way before, never heard that there are so many different rules, you can’t spin the players and other tings. Just happy that the two guys we played the last game against didn’t play by the German rule that you have to crawl under the table if you don’t score at all during the game.

All in all the day was great and after spending the night in Copenhagen I was home around 15.30, in good time to be able to sleep for 11 hours.

// "I have the last piece of bread in the world" //

Save the Children

Yesterday was the last day of the weakly activities that the group called “Alone and strong” holds for children (14-18) that has immigrated alone to Sweden and who live together at a home in Malmö. I’ve been a volunteer for this group since the fall and it has been a truly rewarding experience, I’ve met some great young guys and learnt a lot from them. The group is a working group connected to the Save the Children organization and organizes activities such as bowling, movie nights and visits to the theater and so much more. Some of these guys go to school, some work and all have different after school activities, what we do is just seeing to that they get to get out and do things they normally wouldn’t do and get to practice their Swedish and have some fun.

Yesterday, thanks to the good weather, we were at the fields in Västra Hamnen playing bränboll and barbequing chickens sausages, vegetarian sausages and bananas with chocolate. First there were just a few guys from the home that wanted to come, it is usually like that when they don’t understand what we are gone do, but after a while of playing bränboll and eating hot dogs more guys started to show up. The guys had been texted by their friends that had explained what we were doing, and as most teenage guys sports and food usually is enough to make them interested. It was a very successful afternoon and we all had a lot of fun. Just trying to explain to these guys what brännboll is was fun, some of these guys knows almost no Swedish and some no English either (it’s very varied) so when we tryid to explain what bränd (burnt) and lyra was it didn’t go so well. Many of the guys also miss took brännboll for baseball and cricket but in the end they all got it and some played very well. We played three rounds and in between we ate. For many grilled bananas with chocolate was also something new but everyone liked that too. We talked and hung out until it started to get darker. Then we walked with them back and that was the end of the activity.

It is quite sad that I might not meet them again, there might be some activities during the summer but I’ll be working so I might not be able to go. Thanks to these guys I appreciate life and school so much more and I’ve gotten to know so much more about their home countries, cultures, languages and more. And I’ve had lots of fun.

// Khoda hafez //

The Masha and Svetlana story

I tried to add the song Palace and Main by KENT because if Masha and I have a song, that’s our song, but I failed.

Masha has left the building; now the building is a very lonely and sad place.

The creator of the little black book and the one who gave me my own black book to write in has now left for London. The bad part about being friends with a model, is that when your going to spend your summer in Falsterbo doing dishes and serving at a restaurant all day she is going to be in London, Berlin or Copenhagen dressed in beautiful clothes and high heels with gorgeous male models working the runways in the day and dancing all night. But she disserves it; she disserves to have the best time of here life because she is one of the best parts in mine. My Masha took care of me from the first day of school, she turned the shy little girl who wouldn’t say a thing out loud and who had no sense of style into some one who can utter her mind and opinion with a strong voice if she see fit and who can walk in high heels and dress quite okay from time to time. Masha has now and then given me these collages printed on paper, pictures and text that for us makes perfect sense and describes our lives. These collages, our just some of them (some are still waiting to be printed), I have put together into a big black book that is gone be filed with collages and pictures that depict the story of Masha and Svetlana.

Before we said: were ever Masha goes Svetlana goes and were ever Svetlana goes Masha goes but this motto wont work anymore. Masha is a true model and true models need to travel the world. The thought of dragging her to Kenya with me in one of my suitcases, however tempting it might be, it is just not a possibility. My addiction to my heels might be serious but after a wile I’ll cope with being forced to where flats but with Masha it is too late. She will never be able to take the heels of and be “normal” in height, because both she and I know that being 181-184 cm just isn’t enough.

// I MISS MY MASHA //

21st of August I’m leaving and the 22nd of August I’m putting my feet on Kenyan ground for the first time!