fingerstache

So, Friday I went to the hot shop in the morning.  It was really early since on Fridays the school starts at 7:30!!! I made a few really good glasses and then got moved up to a little bigger mold with a little different shape which was nice.  Then after a really confusing moment with the teachers who thought I was in the 2nd year Nordic Programme I went to the cold shop for the afternoon.  It made me kind of happy that they thought that I could be in the 2nd year program!!! Must mean I am not total crap at this whole glass thing if they thought I could be good enough to be in that program.  Except I seem to have developed a depth perception problem... I am not saying my depth perception was ever the best in the world... but I didn't generally slam things into my own face... just walk into filing cabinets and etc... BUT I have been having a hard time not smashing all my teeth with the blow pipe! I think yesterday I finally chipped a tooth a tiny bit.  Not good.  You can hardly tell, but you know how when you feel things with your tongue they feel like they are the size of the moon or a crater the size of the grand canyon in your mouth.... well it feels like half my tooth is gone... It isnt!!!! I checked... but I keep rubbing it with my tongue and am hoping that it will remind me not to smash myself in the face with the pipe so much... hopefully.

In the cold shop, in the afternoon, I was the only student and Tove (the teacher who looks like my college professor Dr. Rebecca Ambers and so I always want to call her the wrong name) helped me do some more engraving.  Appparently, I was using a dulled drill head and was moving too fast when I did my swoopy waves.  Then she showed me how to do flower cutting! She of course made it look really easy and I struggled for a while but was able to crank out a few good ones.  I did an entire bowl to practice:

The one on the bottom right is Tove's perfect flower... the one on the bottom left is my first attempt... it looks like a moose coughed up my flower.  But I got better:

Then I met up with some other students to go to Nybro for some pizza and a liquor store trip.  It was me, Borsa (aka Bart Simpson/Richard), Bjorn, Fredrick Valentine (one of the Borsa's friends who works with mentally handicapped kids in kindergarten), Hadie, Camille, Karen, another girl who went to Nybro with long hair and came back with a euro fauxhawk and mullet, and some other girls too but I can't remember their names... one had ORANGE hair, a mustache tattoo on her finger aka a fingerstache....  this isn't her but you get the idea:

Then we went to the liquor store and stocked up for the parties that were going to happen in Orrefors that night.  I didn't want to pay for a bag, I always forget about buying damn bags here to I just put it all in my purse:

I thought it looked pretty sketchy, or like I was a homeless drunkard maybe.  Not a normal site in the states at least....

Then when we got back to Orrefors we all went our separate ways for a few hours then were going to get together for these parties.  I went to my apartment and just felt like complete crap.  I think the day of feeling like crap feeling finally caught up with me and I slept from around 6:30-9, woke up, ate some more, declined all party invites, struggled through talking to my absurd roommmate about where to go to find people and trying to get her to leave me alone in my coughing snotty misery... then back to bed to watch movies online.  I slept again until about 9 Saturday morning.  So carting around that heavy purse was sort of pointless... Unless there is a party tonight I suppose.  But who knows if I will go to any tonight either.

Today I had an appointment to go to the Nybro Riding Club.  It is on the way to Nybro, 15 mins by car, 20 by bus and 2.5 hours by walking google says.  I couldn't find a ride so I had to take the 10:05 bus there even though my appointment was at 12:30! So I got off the bus and wandered around the neighborhood and finally showed up at the stables at 11:30 but the lady said it was fine.  She had a group of beginners getting on their ponies to go for a little ride into the woods.  The kids ranged from 3-8 years old I think! It was adorable, they had a pony barn where the horses lived in stalls according to their size.  The smallest pony was TINY and named Sporty Matilda b/c she always tries to run away with the kids.  It really brought back memories.  I got a tour of the facility (they have about 300 students ride a week!) and lots of school horses and lots of private boarders also.  After the tour all the little kids brought their horses into the Ridhuset (indoor ridding ring) and lined up according to size with their parents waiting to be told to get on their ponies! It was adorable.  Then the instructor realized one mom had two boys and asked me to walk next to one of them for her for the trail ride.  The boy was named Marcus and this was his 3rd time on a horse! He was good, they went for a 15 min walk and even trotted some. I just had to grab the horse if it tried to run away or stop and eat grass.  I even asked in Swedish what the name of the horse was... Marcus told me "kim" and looked at me like I was crazy... so maybe I didn't ask correctly... Then they went back into the ridhuset and all got to trot in a group... Racer Matilda leading the way and it was barely contained chaos but the kids loved it!  Then I helped Marcus take Kim's bridle off and hang it up on the rack.  Here they have the nose bands under the bit... very odd looking to me.  I am to ride in a lesson on friday evening at 5PM!!! I can't wait!! She said the people I am riding with might not be as advanced as me but we would see how this goes.  My teacher will be Pia who has taught here for 35 yrs and supposable will get a big laugh out of having an American student... I am not too sure what to think of that... but I am SUPER EXCITED anyway! It was so nice today to just be around horses again and hear them and smell them and just be near them.  It made miss Justin something fierce but it isn't for forever and we will be rockin' and rollin' again! (I will remember my camera when I go for my lesson I promise)

Now I am taking another nap (trying to get healthy again by monday) and then I have a hot video date with my two best friends from high school at 6!  They are amazingly both in NC for labor day weekend and are hanging out together so I get to see them!!! I can't wait! And tomorrow, I might have a video date with my parents!  I think tonight and tomorrow will probably be pretty low key so it might not be until Monday before I write again.  I am alive so don't worry, just not doing anything too interesting.