"It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down I had the radio on, I was drivin' The trees went by, me and Del were singin' Little Runaway, I was flyin'" ~ Tom Petty

I have to admit I am a Tom Petty fan... sure I know he isn't the best musician in the world or most original... and his songs are often over played and too many other lame people like them.  I try to think back to when they were new, fresh, maybe still not musical masterpieces but they were cool and good.  They always make me smile and I often think of the song "Runnin' Down a Dream" when I am traveling... and the sun is shining.  Now, I am preparing to travel for a few weeks.  I will leave tomorrow to go my Aunt's for Christmas plus a few days, then Stockholm to stay the night with my cousin to then fly to NC and stay with my parents, go to VA for a week then back to NC for a longer while.  This is a lot of moving around! 

While sitting around with nothing to do today I was watching tv on hulu.com and saw this ad:

Were you aware that Conan was a glass blower?  No, me either but it made me laugh!

I can't believe how today as progressed.  I went to school in the morning and we had to clean some more.  I have cleaned for days now! Luckily, we were done after lunch so I got the afternoon off to cleaning.  I decided to celebrate the first "official" day of winter with some cross-country skiing.  The weather was beautiful but FRIGID!  I never know what exactly to wear for these skiing expeditions... it is cold out, of course, but I work up a bit of a sweat doing it... then I am sweaty and cold at the same time...  I have felt this before while riding, but it hasn't prepared me for this kind of cold really.  Today, I didn't wear a hat... 

and here is a brief recap of the day in pictures:

 The morning view... OK, it was like 10 in the morning...

 A snowy haze... I don't understand it but it is beautiful!

The sun at its HIGHEST today... thank goodness the days are going to start getting longer now!!

 The beginning of the ski adventure... 

 beauuuuutiful snow as far as the eye can see!

 burying houses... not really... but almost.

 This is the sidewalk... in case you couldn't tell...

 The now on the top of the rails of the this bridge was over my head!!!

 So, I had to bend down to look at the little river underneath.

Big surprise... it is frozen.

 Now my ears are starting to get really cold... 

 A Swedish Christmas card image?  What? I can't hear you... I can't feel my ears...

 I will take this short cut home... through the snowy woods...

 This is where I found all those mushrooms in the fall.  There isn't a lot of sun here... it is even colder and now my ears are actually starting to burn with coldness.

 Nearly home, this is Stugby... it is glowing because the sun is actually shinning here... doesn't matter though, I can't feel my chin either!

 The snow is so beautiful when there are shadows!

 Here I am catching my breath... aka laying on the ground (ok, I was standing but I wanted to lay down) trying to breath in the icy air which is literally freezing my lungs and I saw this tree... and BLUE SKY!

 There is a lake somewhere under the snow on the other side of that little house...

 My eyelids may be freezing off...  or maybe there really are a million little red houses in the snow... I don't know any more... 

 I bet that tree is cold... looks like my lungs which are forming ice crystals now...

 And, there is that frozen lake again... and the SUN hooray!!

 At this point I think I was gasping for air and trying to warm my nose, ears and chin with my hands which were sweaty from trying to push myself along on the damn skis as fast as possible on flat ground to get home to the warmth.  I don't know why I took the picture... probably just wanted a reason to stop and breath.

 HOME!!! THANKGOD!!!

 And, this is the view from my window... more snowy haze... it has been happening every morning and evening recently.  At first I thought the snow plow stirred up all the snow going by at a million miles/hour but I don't think so anymore... I think it is the air literally FREEZING!

And, here is my Christmas Candle (nearly done!) and my train ticket to go to Norkopping for Christmas tomorrow! 

“I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it” ~ Einstein

There is a LUNAR ECLIPSE TONIGHT!!! Apparently, it is very rare to have an eclipse at the same time as the winter solstice... so if you are in America look up! If you are in Sweden wake up super early because we will only be able to see the beginning of it right before sunrise... boo, well thats not that early really... 8:30!  But, it is an exciting night astronomically speaking... who knows what could happen?!?!?

I am getting very excited about Christmas here and all that it has to offer and recently found this article which helped explain to me what I am about to encounter in the gastronomical side of things:  Dissecting the Delights of the Swedish Christmas Smorgasbord.  But of course I will keep you up to date with pictures and personal antidotes about my experience.  At school on Wednesday we are going to have traditional Christmas porridge and some singing I think.  Should be interesting haha!

I was talking today to Vegard, Sigrid and Bjorn about Christmas traditions that we all have.  They asked what my family does, being such a mix of American and Swedish.  I said "Well, for a few years we lost power on Christmas Eve so it was hard to cook and see, so that started the tradition of having pancakes by candle light.  Then, we open maybe one present on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning and have chocolate and fruit all day and then a sort of lunch smorgasbord."  For some reason they were all very confused looking and finally go "doesn't it take a long time to make pancakes by candle light?"  and I was like "what?! The normal amount of time, we have a gas stove"  and everyone bursts out laughing.  They had thought that we cooked the pancakes OVER candles!  They pictured us every year slowly cooking pancakes over candles and waiting for HOURS to be able to eat half cooked pancakes!  We all started to laugh so hard that tears were coming to our eyes!  Now, I keep picturing a sort of Oliver Twist "please sir can I have some more" moment with half cooked candle pancakes! That would be horrible and certainly wouldn't leave much time for sitting around... what a mess!

Annnnway, today... I worked in the cold shop CLEANING like crazy.  Well, actually, for the first 1.5 hours we finished the bottoms on stuff we have given to the school to sell in the shop for money... it was weird to see stuff that I had made getting signed "Riksglasskolan OF '10" and going to be sold.  Also many of my flower cutting pieces are going to be sold like the big bird plate and some practice pieces I have made.  It makes me happy that they can help raise money for the school but feels weird.. but then some of MY stuff will sell.  Stuff that I have made or decorated will sell for real money!  After break we cleaned the cold shop.  We scrubbed the water bins and cutting wheels and organized the materials rooms.  It was intense and will continue to tomorrow I think.

After lunch I got to go to the factory and work for a while.  I practiced cutting glass straight when it is hot.  This is tricky for a variety of reasons, it is HOT, it is hard to cut something round straight and it is not right under your nose, you have to do it off to the side.  I practiced over and over for about 2 hours and finally my thumb couldn't be hot any more and my middle finger was exhausted from trying to cut the glass with the scissors.  I can't find a video of it... but is sucks and is super hard and very useful so I have to learn it.

Here are the pieces I made on Friday with Sigrid:

These are the same size as the other bowls... perfect for you pet or peanuts.  I was trying to make the sides go out more and I like the shape of the one on the right.  Sadly, while walking them down from the factory I slipped, clonked them together and they both chipped.  

The whole factory smelled of bacon today also.  This was because Stig-Allan cooked bacon there for literally 3.5 hours.  He was cooking a meal for 34 people from the factory of bacon, sausage, sill and potatoes I think.  It looked good and the bacon was great! I think I may have been the only student he let try any of the food! But here is he cooking in his apron: 

There are big cooking ovens and dishwashers in the corner of the factory because they host a hitsill night.  That is where they cook and a do a blowing demonstration for tourists.  Stig-Allan didn't cook the bacon on our furnace or anything!

The snow is really starting to pile up here...

 There is a road on the left you can kind of see... between the mountains of snow.

 The school building is starting to get covered as well!

 That is a normal one story building behind that snow... the snow is like 10 feet tall I think!

Such a different view from when I came! 

"Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know... the birth of Santa." ~ Bart Simpson

Today I packed up all my Christmas presents (yes, glass) and stuffed them into a hiking bag and feel like a modern Santa... who needs a sack when you can have a padded hiking bag?!?!?

It took a few hours, but it was OK, I enjoy wrapping and decorating... but I don't know if they look very good.  It was hard to wrap everything with enough padding to really do the trick without making it look completely lumpy with the wrapping paper on the outside.  I don't think people will mind though... I mean, they are coming all the way from Sweden!  

I tried to listen to some Christmas music while wrapping... get into the mood you know... Turns out I only like a few Christmas songs... and in general really hate all the rest.  Made me feel more like a Grinch then Ole Saint Nick.  But, I remembered this classic and didn't realize there was a music video until now!!

Who doesn't like "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer"?!?!?!  It is a classic!

Now I am trying to organize my suitcase... do the laundry that I really need to take with me and put my passport somewhere where I won't forget it!  My room is getting smaller and smaller with each passing moment and every time I take something out of my closet.  By tonight it will be impossible to walk around!!

I am also patiently waiting for two very nice video chat dates!  Val and Jenny are going to talk to me around 6pm my time! We are starting to have a regular chat date... once a week or every two weeks.  I miss them just being a phone call away when ever I want to chat.  Then after that Sam and I are going to talk :)  and at some point I am going to make some dinner... uhg, I am getting tired to cooking recently, it is like I had no new ideas when at the grocery store.  I am starting to feel like I eat the same thing all the time.  Maybe Sam will have some delicious suggestion.

I noticed today that the snow plow has covered up our mail box again! I don't understand... they don't bury other people's down the street and ours was clearly cleaned up!  Tomorrow I am going to call the post office in Nybro to see what is being done with our mail and if I can go pick it up one day... I have to imagine that I am getting some mail... something right?  Bank statement or something! Mostly I am just paranoid about missing my letter from the migration board about my residence visa extension!  Stupid snow plow!!!  

I just read this blog... it is hilarious and so true! I am one of those people who have a really hard time ending conversations or in general just chit-chatting with people.  Luckily for me Sam is very good at both those things and often comes to my rescue... but here is how I often feel:

The Four Levels of Social Entrapment

I am glad I am not the only one :)

"Procrastination is something best put off until tomorrow." ~Gerald Vaughan

I am currently sitting in my room procrastinating... I should be packing all the glass I am going to try to take back to the states, doing laundry and in general organizing my life.  I am doing none of those things... I am eating pepparkakor and making mix CDs.  I should also be showering and eating something good for me... but where is the Christmas spirit in that?  So, I decided to further procrastinate, but try to do something productive in that time... so here I am posting!  Lucky for you all I am such a good procrastinator!

So, yesterday was Friday... who doesn't love Fridays?  Someone who doesn't enjoy getting up at 7 to go to school?  Well, they must not be going to glass school!  I got to school and got to work with Sigrid, she is Vegard's wife and is in the second year class.  She is really good and super nice but I haven't spent that much time with her since she is more advanced and has kids so doesn't hangout much.  Unfortunately she did not feel well and so had a hard time blowing, it is amazing what that heat can do to you when you are congested or feverish feeling already.  We made a few good things and then decided that in the afternoon maybe we should just go to the cold shop... it was one of those days.  She also pointed out that I have been using a pipe that is not round on then end.  Normally pipes are nice and round, which I assume helps you keep the piece round... mine was much more of a long oval I would say.  I had found it to be a good size and not bent which is the problem with most of the pipes and so Vegard had set it off to the side so I could get it everyday... apparently neither of us noticed the glaring problem is the oval shape.  Whoops.  

Here is what I did on Thursday:

 I am specializing in high end, hand made, customizable cat and dog food bowls...

 Please place your orders with you local authorized retailer...

The one on the right is an awesome purple color and kind of looks like a volcano.  The punty was too cold to work with it so it had to stay that shape... which is a pretty cool shape luckily.

During the morning we had a very nice "fika" (coffee) where Marianne and Micke gave us coffee cake (home made), fruits (clementines and figs), and chocolates!  Normally this takes place on cleaning day which was the day before but we got it a day late because it was harder to organize with lactose and glutton free and vegans in the class.  It was really nice and gave us all a bit of a sugar high for the rest of the morning.  Needless to say when it was time for lunch, at 11 (super early on Fridays) I wasn't hungry at all!

In the afternoon I went to the cold shop and worked on a tea pot I am doing some flower cutting in.  I finished the design but I need to grind down the top and for some reason the tea pot felt very fragile so I decided it might be best to put it down for the day.  Instead I helped Rosanne who was putting together a glass box.  Tiffany style, with the silver holding the pieces together.  I didn't do much but help apply copper tape to the glass for the silver stuff to stick to when she heats (what is the word I am looking for? Soder? that doesn't look right... but sounds right... anyway something like that) the metal to hold the pieces together.  I want to do that one day too, maybe make a Christmas Star for the window?  I don't know... maybe I can come up with something really cool while on break!

After school I took a much needed nap and then went to the riding stables.  This would be my last time for a while since I will be away for so long for Christmas so I was super happy when I saw that I got to ride Poseidon and it was a jumping lesson!  He was happy to see me too I think, he instantly searched me all over for treats and happily stood with his head hanging out his door while I groomed him.  Everyone always ties the horses up in their stalls to groom them and Poseidon is so good at standing still that I let him look out and he really seems to enjoy it.  We jumped a combination (three bounces, where the horse only puts their feet down and then jumps again instantly over the next jump) to a large oxer on a bend.  So, it was 3 bounce to a 3 stride right turn to an oxer and then the next time you did the 3 bounce to a left turn, huge 4 stride to a super wide oxer.  If you remember Poseidon is a great jumper but a bit of a scared-y-cat when it comes to new jumps, so the oxers were a little interesting the first time.  He leapt over them with a good 2 feet to spare the first few times.  Pia kept making them higher and higher which I loved and Poseidon wasn't too sure about.  Finally, at the end of the lesson I was allowed to jump the two oxers one last time in a figure 8 instead of with the bounce and she jacked them up from 3 feet to about 3'6"!  I knew Poseidon might look but hoped he would be fine, NO! He stopped to the first one once but I got him over it the second time... but he had to jump like a deer he thought and Pia said he could have jumped the top of the standard he jumped so high!  I nearly got jumped off the horse and of course cursed as we were flying through the air!  We kept going to the next one and he stopped again (super frustrated with myself!!!) and then jumped on the second attempt (this is the wide one) just like the first one but I was holding on better and he was so proud of himself he bucked and snorted around the corner.  Pia let me go one more time to make them a little more, well, sane and Poseidon was much better but could have easily cleared a 4'6" jump with his enthusiasm.  Pia again pointed out that good breeding (father and grandfather were WEG competitors) doesn't always do much for the brain.  It reminded me of Justin having that much power and ability in a horse. Always brings a HUGE smile to my face.  I can't wait to see Justin when I am home!!

After riding I hurried to dinner (nearly late as usual).  Jukke had heard that the pizza place in Orrefors had opened back up! His wife is also in town for Christmas so he wanted us all to meet her!  Jukke is so obviously in love with his wife, he talks of her so fondly and sweetly, he face lights up when he says "my wife" and he smiles like a loon when he talks of their future together.  Everyone we ran into over the course of the evening he rushed her up them and said "have you met my wife? Itu this is..." She was a little tired (27 hours of traveling) and there were a lot of people at dinner so I didn't get to meet her much but I hope to talk to her more over the next few days.  They are an adorable couple and it is nice to finally have a face to go with "my wife."  

After dinner a few us went to Bosse's for a while to hangout and have a few drinks.  We played some Bullshit and in general made fun of each other.  After a while Thomas and I noticed a strange wax sculpture or sort of voodoo contraption in the shelf.  We finally got Bosse to tell us what it was and show us.  He makes these sculptures or towers entirely out of candle wax and has a competition with his friends where he grew up I think on who can make the tallest one with the least amount of candles.  He started to show us the technique and Bjorn and Nick got really into it:

 You have to blow on the drips just right to get them to make long chains...

 don't burn each other...

 Or accidentally heat up an existing part with your candle and melt it away.

Finally, sit back and admire your smokin' masterpiece.

And, in case you forgot what it looks like here...

It is dark and snowy and the lakes are freezing over. 

There is even snow under roofs.  This is that cute gazebo I took a picture of last week maybe.  There is maybe 2 feet of snow on the floor of it.  Not so cozy and romantic any more...

Now, I am going to try to organize... or maybe just go to bed with a movie and some chocolate... we will see.

"A good holiday is one spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours." ~John B. Priestly

Well, this week continues to fly by! I didn't wake up confused this morning which was really nice.  I did instead hit my snooze button like 5 times and then had to fly out out of the door and eat some kanelbullar on the way to the factory!  Whoops!  When I got there I learned that today for once, I didn't need to rush... it was cleaning day.  Yuck.

Apparently, every time there is a break the last day is usually cleaning day... but it always ends up just being one or two students there who have to do the work that all of the students should be doing.  So, this year we cleaned before anyone left (people are starting to go home tomorrow already for Christmas!).  We had a long list (which included "hoovering" or vacuuming the floor in the factory!) but we got it done quickly and were able to blow some before lunch!  Vegard and I worked on making those same bowls which are wide at the bottom and straight sided, kind of shallow.  It is kind of hard to explain... sadly I didn't take any pictures of the ones we made yesterday because the trolley with all the glass on it was in the cold garage of the factory.  I went down to look at what I made and had to stand freezing with Morton for about 3 seconds, long enough to locate out pieces then run back upstairs! It was weird being downstairs, that is where they keep the pellet and powder glass and they have a HUGE mold room which takes up like half the factory!  I wish it hadn't been so cold so I could have investigated better... oh well, next time I will take a coat!

In the afternoon I was back in the factory and Vagard skipped the cold shop to work with me again.  We asked Åke to show us how to make brandy glasses... well, it turned to be very difficult.  You have to blow them quit thin and very quickly.  I tried to make 2 and couldn't get anywhere close the the right shape, kind of disappointing but now I can practice on them later when I bored maybe?  So, instead we decided to make BIGGER bowls and bowls in color.  We made a few good ones and both lost a couple.  It was a strange day but I was pleased with it in the end., and interested in seeing my pieces again tomorrow!

After school I went to Rosanne's to help her fix her desk.  Her apartment has been in a complete wreck pretty much since she moved in because her desk wasn't right and she didn't want to unpack/put stuff away before it was right.  So, finally we got that fixed and I have no idea if she managed to clean her apartment at all or not... I went to the gym with Martin, Kresten and Bjorn.  I could feel when I was doing my arms that I had spent the day making some bigger pieces and that I couldn't push as much weight around.  I didn't do too much of my legs because I ride tomorrow and didn't want to be exhausted in those muscles either!  It was a calm gym day.  Then I took the hottest shower humanly possible at the gym.  The stall furthest in has a curtain (thank god!) and I stood there and turned the water on as hot as I could stand and just stood there for, apparently, a very long time.  I have not been able to get a shower with consistently hot water in my apartment and really missed just super hot long showers.  When I came out of the room all the guys were waiting on me and thought I had done the sauna for once... but they said it was nearly the same thing.

This evening we had game night at Kresten's.  I wasn't sure what to expect... drinking? eating? boring?  It was a pleasant and SUPER low key.  We played Monopoly cards (instead of the board game) and then a Titanic board game.  It was me, Kresten, Nick, Jonatan and Bjorn this evening, sometimes it is more or different people I heard.  Around 10:30 I went to go back to my apartment which is literally the next door in the hallway and I was LOCKED OUT! WHAT THE HELL!?!?!??!

I knew the girls for some reason had started to lock the front door of our apartment, but I hadn't heard why.  Usually it isn't until 11 or 12 or some reasonable hour... often I AM locked out but I can understand that they have all gone to bed but not tonight.  I had to stand and bang on the door until Saara finally opened it.  She didn't really open it, just cracked it a little and looked at me like I WAS THE IDIOT!  Oh well, I am sure I will have a little more tolerance for her absurdities after I have been away for a while and don't have to deal with her.  She and my other two roommates have started fighting and arguing and trying to get me to pick sides.  I try really hard not to pick sides and stay out of it but sometimes Saara is just being absurd and won't take anyone else's opinion into consideration or anything.  It is impossible to keep my mouth shut when she tried to walk all over the other girls and then complains about their mess when she hasn't cleaned in WEEKS. Ok, I will stop ranting.  Thank goodness for the break!

So, looking back over this I realize that I have had a very productive day and did a lot... tomorrow I will be in the factory in the morning then probably the cold shop in the afternoon, maybe.  Depends on who I get to work with or what I get to do.  I want to make those wide, shallow bowls with two colors!  We will see.

PS: Sorry for no pictures today... it was too cold to take any... it POURED snow all day (several inches) and the wind blew like crazy.  I said in the factory that it looked like a blizzard out side and Vegard just laughed and said "no."  haha, well we don't all come from the NORTH POLE! It was a blizzard I tell you!

I kind of miss these guys now that I think of it:

"My favorite time of day is to get up and eat leftovers from dinner, especially spicy food." ~ David Byrne

Today I was invited to dinner... it went something like this:

"Want to come to dinner?  It's The Last Supper." - Anniina

"Jesus's?!?!" - Vegard

"No! Kirstens!" - Anniina

"Well, now I don't know... Jesus's or Kirsten's... Of course! I'd love to come!" - Me

Kirsten is leaving for Christmas break tomorrow so she and Anniina had Thomas and I over to dinner tonight.  Annina leaves on Friday and surprisingly Thomas is staying here for Christmas! I hadn't heard that yet, it is kind of sad and lonely, but apparently Vegard and his wife Sigrid will be here also with their kids.  I am not leaving for Norrköping until Wednesday!  It was a delicious dinner of spinach risotto with chicken and some banana dessert cake! It was a great meal for a cold, cold day.  Now, I am home, sitting on my bed with my holiday count down candle burning (I have missed a few days!) and pleasantly full belly, kind of like a sleepy puppy.  

Today was a good day, I wasn't sure if it would be because I didn't sleep well and woke up late and confused.  There is nothing worse to the start of the day then waking up late and confused.  I was confused why I was so tired, what time it was, was the sun shining, did I have time for breakfast, how much did it snow last night, why did I have to pee soooooooo badly?!?!? It was weird.  I made to school in plenty of time and even managed to eat some breakfast!  But my brain didn't catch up for about an hour I think...

I was in the hot shop all day.  I worked in the morning alone blowing into a mold.  I asked Åke for a difficult mold that I haven't done before and he found me a bowl and an optic mold.  I was to blow into the optic mold, make some stripes into the glass then blow in the mold and twist them a little while I made a bowl.  It looked really pretty when he did it... my stripes didn't twist much really.  The furnace was super hot again today which made it super hard to gather enough glass to make the bowl a reasonable thickness and keep control of the glass!  It was super frustrating but I made a few good ones and did have to concentrate a lot.

In the afternoon I worked with Vegard.  We have realized that we do not like free production so much... we like to have an agenda and a plan to work with.  We like a new tasks to complete each day.  Today we decided we wanted to make these flat bottomed bowls that are kind of a cylinder, being wider then it is tall... just a few inches tall with very straight sides and a wide bottom.  We went to Åke and he was like "there is a mold for that" and we said no, we don't want a mold! So, he got Micke who also said there was a mold but then finally agreed to show us... apparently it is pretty tricky and much further along then things we are supposed to be trying.  He showed us once and then we started working.  We both made 2 really good ones,  not as big as Micke's but nice size.  It was amazingly hard to get them as wide as we wanted, but a nice challenge.  Vegard said "well, we better start thinking of what we want to make tomorrow since we have finished these!"  I don't think either of us thought it would be an exceptionally good day, or even a good day but were both pleased with our very good afternoon!

After school I borrowed a shovel from Stig-Allan and shoveled around the mail box.  The snow plow has buried it and we haven't gotten mail for maybe 2 weeks because the mail person can't get close enough to it with their car to reach out and put the mail in.  Which I feel is kind of lazy... they have to get out to walk it into many of the apartment buildings here, and they can't step out with ONE FOOT to reach ours?!?! The other day I asked Olaf (the grounds keeper for the school who has a snow blower to clear us a path to the mail box hoping that would enough but still no mail.  I got a HUGE snow shovel and started clearing enough room for a car to pull up and then away again around the mail box.  God, it was so hard!  Luckily the plow hasn't cleared the roads down to the road so I just dug down as far as the road was cleared.  I was nearly done then Kresten (the Dane who lives in the building) came along and helped me which was nice.  It sometimes seems like the people in the house don't really care about anything other then complaining, he was the only one who helped.  Oh well.  Now I am hoping that the mail box will be jammed packed tomorrow, but I am a little worried that we may have to go to the post office or Tempo to get a pile of mail that has been building up and they don't carry with them everyday.  Here is my, and Kresten's, completed clearing:

 So I decided after clearing all the snow that I didn't need to go the gym today... I did my cardio and upper body muscle training with all the snow! And, maybe it helped me "build character" haha!  

Gotta love Calvin and Hobbes!

Here is a picture of the pieces I made yesterday in the hot shop:

The vase has a nice squiggle to the neck, and the bowl has an out turned lip! I am pleased with both but I think I still have some work to go on the squiggle neck one.  

Now I am off to bed so I can wake up like a normal person tomorrow hopefully and have another successful day in the factory!  I can't believe it is Wednesday already!

"The soul never thinks without a picture." ~ Aristotle

So, we have the rest of the pictures I tried to upload last night:

 This is my walk to Tempo one day around 3:45 pm... very dark but lots of Christmas lights (this house is totally better in real life... less scary and more pretty)!

 And cold snow!

I walked the long way back and went through some woods and saw this! 

 How adorable and romantic is this?!?!?

 More Christmas decorations (totally life size!)!

 The tree was hard to picture, it isn't crooked like it looks.  It was next to the one above.

 This is a Christmas soda... "like cola with Christmas flavor" Rosanne said...  I did not enjoy it honestly.  I pictured coke with cinnamon and cloves and that sort of flavor.. I have no idea what these flavors are but they are kind of gross.  I don't understand how my roommates drink so much of it.  Maybe you have to grow up with it?

Saturday night I went to a party in Pukeberg with the design students who are there.  Here we have a German, maybe another German and a Thai kid who studies in NYC playing a drinking game. At first everyone was divided but then a drinking game got going and the schools started to merge... some people sucked and stayed separate but the cool kids made new friends ;)

 This is the Orrefors crowd.  There were more of us, but these were the party kids!

Rosanne (orange hair), Bjorn, Haidi, Josephine and Bosse

Po had to drink the gross mixed drink at the end of some drinking game, it was a mix of beer, cider, water and something else foul.  I just loved his face in this picture! 

 Then we played Loopy Lou! It is a kids game where you spin this guy in a airplane and whoever looses must drink.

 Apparently, no design school is complete without a mangled skeleton! This totally creeped me out being all out of whack in the head like that!

Thankfully Po and Rosanne fixed it!

 General late night absurdities...

 And passing out on the couches at the school!  It was nice to party somewhere away from Orrefors and have a place to stay! 

We woke up this these killer icicles the next morning hanging off the school.   Then we all went back to Orrefors, climbed into our beds and didn't come out all day except to eat...  felt like I was back in College haha.

Here are some bowls I think I made on Friday, amazing similar in size for not trying. 

AND!!! Here is what I have been trying to make for WEEKS now! It is still not perfect but much better! 

 (Same one, different angle) Marianna (teacher) has been telling me that is super hard and normally 3rd year students try to do and sometimes don't succeed and that maybe I am spending a long time trying something I may not get.  BUT I AM GETTING IT! HAHAAAAA!

 (yes, still same one, but it is the best yet!) AND I made a even better one today!!!!

Maybe she is trying to use reverse psychology and actually inspire me?  Maybe?  Probably not.

 This is my double color piece.  Sadly I didn't get two good colors and you can barely tell they are overlaid on each other! I will have to try again sometime with better colors.  But it turned out very nice!

 I have some bubbles in it because the new furnace at the factory sucks and constantly has bubbles!

 And here is a much better picture of the plates I made.  They are both very nice and round... maybe not so perfect but I am pleased with my first real attempt and not just playing around.  One is very keep-able the other has a thin spot in the bottom from the punty getting stuck on it.

This is the keep-able one! Look at the nice curve at the edges and shape! Maybe I can make more after Christmas with a foot on them to raise it up off the table a little. 

 This is what I worked on today in the cold shop.  I am doing that flower cutting design in a tea pot and had to practice with this very tricky wheel so I made this design and practiced and cursed and practiced and cursed and finally got it pretty nice.

 I tried to make it so you can see it better but it was hard.  It is the same repeating pattern that overlaps a few times.

I am pleased to announce that I have gone to the gym two days in a row! And, today I was even sore from yesterday! I have finally gotten it to the point where I can do the same weight with the front of my arms as the back and all the other sides.  I have found muscles I didn't know I had, like under my arms around my ribs... I just feel bones but apparently there is a sore muscle there! Hooray progress!!

Tomorrow I am to spend the whole day in the hot shop.  I am not sure who I am going to work with as the first year students are going in the cold shop in the morning.  Now that we have moved to the factory all the time for hot working it is different.  The whole factory has a different feel and the furnace is very different too. It always has bubbles and never consistent heat.  Makes it tricky to know what kind glass you are going to get.  But I have a theory that if we can survive working with it once we get into the real world a normal furnace will be a delight to work with!  Also, we work next to the second year Nordic students.  They are not making us feel very welcome... they complain that their teacher helps us some, we have too many pipes, don't do things right, take up their space and bla bla bla and do it right in front of us! How can you complain to a teacher that is helping a student that the teacher shouldn't be helping them but helping the complainer when she is in the middle of helping the other student!?!? It is absurd.  I mentioned it to Rebecca who said she would mention it in their teacher meeting, but hopefully after Christmas they will have the place more organized and give us more space and designated glory holes.  Or maybe they will learn to stop bitching and moaning and just make the best of the situation... and that we don't really care if we are in the way.

But, now I am off to bed for some much needed sleep! All this gym-ing is tiring and my brain hasn't turned off once for days it seems... I can't believe how this month is FLYING BY!  Soon I will be at Eva's for Christmas then back in NC to see the family!