On Friday I spent the morning in the hot shop blowing MORE molds! I want to do something else next week. I am not perfect but I am bored and I am pretty damn good if I do say so myself! I listened to music and jammed out to some Old Crow while making the schnapps and water glasses. It is hard to be awake enough to blow glass at 7:30 AM!
In the afternoon I went to the cold shop. It is nice to break up the days some and it was so quiet in the cold shop compared to the hot shop!!! I worked on the flower cutting I was doing before and did a new pattern. It had curved lines which are REALLY hard! But I did it and next week will do more practice at the curved lines I was making the leaves and had a really great flower and slipped on the wheel and messed it all up and yelled out "F*CK!" pretty loudly and then looked up and started to apologize but no one had noticed b/c they all had ear plugs in! Haha good to know for future cursing. Here are some pictures of what I have finished:
You have seen this one but now it is finished! I like it a lot! I can't believe I can do that!!! Tove said next time I should make the leaves a little bigger maybe.
This is the new one.
Those curved branches are the bottom were SOOO hard to make!
The bowls together...
I was thinking of giving the one on the right to my Mom for her birthday (Sept 11) but it is not nearly as good looking up close. So, she will have to get something else for her birthday. BUT everyone should wish her "Happy Birthday!!"
After school I went to Nybro with Rosanne and had a coffee. It was really nice to just chill away from Orrefors. There is nothing wrong with Orrefors but all there is here is the Factory, the School and our building. You get kind of bored with it. We talked girl talk, about boys, people we have met at school and how important it is to eat pastries! Then she drove me to the riding stables!!!! Here is a google map if you want to see it.
Here are some pictures to make up from last time forgetting the camera:
This is the pony bard/office/bathroom area with the indoor riding arena behind it.
This is looking back towards the road into some of the paddocks.
Yes, those are stone walls (!!!) that they still use for fencing.
This is the pony barn I was talking about last time. You can see how many stalls there. They are all full even though you can only see butts sticking up at the far end.
The end closest to me is full of ponies this size.... FREAKIN' ADORABLE!!
The horse barn for school horses and privately owned horses.
So, I go up to Ingrid, who I met with last time when I get there and she goes "I am glad you did actually decide to come!" which seemed a little odd. She has told Pia that I am coming and what to expect (I am just American... not a bat shit crazy monster!). She shows me the print out that shows I am to be in a lesson with 4 others and I am riding a horse called Wagner. And I go "OK, great... Wagner!" and she goes "yeah, here we pronounce it VVAAAGGGGner, he is dutch." So we go get the tack and his brushes and go to the horse barn...
Meet VAAAGGGGner:
"he is kind of grumpy around his stomach so we should tie him up" Ingrid says.
Yes, look at those knee pads on that saddle! It is the polar opposite of my little saddle... BIG, knee pads, high back... BLACK!
But, Vagner won me over... and he got all of apples that I had brought for him.
I mean look at that face! How can you resist him???
Who does he remind you of???
Sticking his nose into everything????
Yes, me too, my Justin!!!
This is where we rode because it was rainy outside. It is pretty big but I think I got spoiled at SBC because at first I was thinking a whole lesson's worth of people couldn't fit in here!
So, I am tacking up my Justin look-a-like... except the body... and really he is nothing like Justin. And this other guy who is getting ready for the lesson tells me that Pia (the teacher) would like us to get on ASAP since it is her son's birthday or something. I was a little confused. So, I grabbed my helmet and followed this guy and his horse, Lady, out the door. I expect to mount in the ridhuset (riding ring) but no we get on outside and ride into the ring... the doorway of which is not much bigger then a normal person's door... OK a little bigger but not a whole lot... Luckily Vagner is an old pro and we squeeze through. We go in, I introduce myself to the teacher, she is like "so how much Swedish do you know?? hmmm, OK well we have to make the best with what can do..." which made me a little worried that she was unhappy to have me in her lesson. She seemed a little grumpy at first but definitely got more chatty and easy to talk to after a little bit. We trotted for what felt like an eternity (I must be out of shape), Vagner rides like he looks... a kidney bean with a giraffe neck. So I was to sit ramrod straight up and back, hands up, solid contact (luckily the word for that is same in both languages) and make him trot his ass of. When ever we would do something difficult for Pia to explain she would call me to the middle and I would watch everyone do it, tell her what it is called in English and then go do it myself and catch up with the lesson again. It worked out well. The only thing that was very confusing was talking about a half-halt. Then we got to jump a gymnastic!!!! We went one at time through a 4 to a 4. For those of you who are non-horsey I would jump a jump, canter 4 steps, jump another jump, canter 4 steps and jump a 3rd final jump then canter away, gallOp as it is called here. Vagner is very good, he gets a little strong at the end and the first time tried to leave a whole stride out! But I did it again and got him to do it right and I think Pia was pleased that I could do it. Yay, she doesn't think I am a complete beginner! She said that my upper body is a little fast over the jumps (what's new about that.... whoops!) but my arms and hands were great (THANKS KIT!!!).
I had a great time with the lesson and can't wait for next week! Except, next week we are doing dressage which I don't really do... It will be a little weird if I have to do it on Mr. Giraffe, I mean VAAAGGGner. It wasn't until the end of the lesson when were trotting to cool off did he finally put his head down for a while to breath some oxygen... You know the oxygen is awful thin in the stratosphere!
The place is just like any other big riding school. There are the people with their own horses that look down at you on a school horse, the people with their own horses that are really nice but a little crazy seeming. The fat lady on a dressage horse whose backside is as wide as the horse's... trying to make the horse leap into the air when the lady could barely even leap onto the poor horse! The people decked out in all the right clothes, looking just so on their horses who can't ride at all. Their are horses that are too hot but then when they go to jump can barely make it over the jumps. Ponies who are adorable and amazing jumpers but unless you get them to the jump just right they wont go... but add in a few more body vests then you see in the States.
Then I got picked up from the stables by some friends who were on their way back from Nybro to Orrefors. I got home and Rosanne and I made dinner which was great! We had green beans, french fries (those 2 were my contribution if you hadn't guessed already) and some white fish. Then we got ready for a small party down the road.
At the party I found out that some of my new facebook friends from here noticed I have a blog and have read it!!! Can you believe that?!?!?! I was surprised and suddenly felt like they know me a lot better then I know them! Haha oh well. BUT I did learn that I was wrong about Rickard (the one that looks like Bart Simpson and everyone calls him something with a B... Bosas or something I can never remember). He is not old and he didn't work in the factory. He is 21 (he claims) and has been going to this school. Which makes him seem a lot more reasonable to be hanging out with all the younger people. I also got know some more of the people at the school. There is a Finish guy who kind of intimidated me in school with his tattoos and hat and etc but he is really nice named Yoka or something. There is a Danish guy who is in the 2nd year Nordic program named Mortin who never talks and we mostly just awkwardly smile at each other when we get in the others way. But I talked to him some too! We both agreed it was nice to actually get to know each other some finally. He lives with this Danish girl, Josephine, who went to yoga with us the other day and is the 2nd year Nordic line too. She was really nice and tried to help me in the yoga some when I had no idea what was going on. There is the girl with the fingerstache who I still don't know very well but I think we drunkenly bonded some. I drank half of Rickard's orange juice so I need to remember to get him some more!
I left the party earlier then most and went home and passed out the second my head touched the pillow! I had had a looooong exciting day. The sad thing was that of course I couldn't sleep in! WHY?!!?!??! what is wrong with me now!?!?! Did I get this from hanging out with Val too much this summer (she never sleeps in) and now am cursed for eternity?!?! I hope not! But I am going to go for a walk while it is sunny! Thanks for all the good luck wishes with the riding!!! Have a good Saturday!
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