Sunday, January 22, 2012

9 Things We Miss About The USA



After our first full day of a foreign country the ten things we miss most from the USA:

9. Family and Friends. Of course 
8. Knowing Where Everything is. We haven’t even left the campus yet because there is only an average of 6 hours of daylight and we have been busy getting our apartment livable.
7. Restaurants & Stores Open Most of the Day. Most things here close at 2pm or 6pm and aren’t open weekends.
6. Random Household Things. We couldn’t find a lot of things that we could easily get at Target. Some examples are hangers and a body mirror. Plus we don’t have a microwave or a toaster.  Everything we buy here we will most likely throw away at the end because we won’t have room to take it home, so we are going try to live without certain things.
5. A Television.  Coming from watching Jersey Shore every Thursday and Teen Mom every Tuesday, no TV at all is difficult.
4. The Exchange Rate. 100.00 US Dollars are the same as 685.00 Kronar.  It’s pretty scary seeing a frozen pizza with a price tag of 27.00. (which is only 4.00 US Dollars, so everything is about the same price as in the US so far.)
3. Grocery Bags. In Sweden when you get groceries you have to buy your own plastic bags, and carts for that matter. The first time we were there we had no idea and stuffed everything in our backpacks.
2. A Strong Internet Connection. We have internet here, but only in Brigitte & Mariah’s room as of right now, and it does not work very well at all.
1. The English Language.  Most importantly. A pocket dictionary is pretty much worthless.  Grocery shopping when almost everything is in Swedish is really difficult, but one thing they did have was Oreos.

It has only been one day but we know we will adjust soon.
Soon to come is the “10 Things We Love About Sweden.”

-Mariah, Kari, Shanda, & Brigitte

4 comments:

  1. Number 10 should be how much shanda misses me (feeling not mutual) but i know that she is crying herself to sleep every night and counting down the days until she can come back and ask me to hang out in which id reply "no get off my porch" hope you girls are having fun dont get taken.. ps 1st comment ? woot !
    jace

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  2. If Mariah was successful in setting up the VPN, you should be able to watch Teen mom and Jersey Shore on mtv.com. Jeff (Brendan's brother) and I watch it every week here in Australia since they are our guilty pleasure shows. Nothing satisfies your cravings for America like a little Jersey Shore! Just make sure the VPN is on so that your computer thinks you are in America, then things like mtv.com and hulu should work. If one of you has a subscription to Netflix on demand, that should work too.

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  3. Hi Liz, yes Brendan told me about it and 2 of us bought it and are using it currently. The internet isn't the best here and only wants to work some of the time but I got a little One Tree Hill in the other night and I loved it!

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  4. jace, you and i both know i would never ask you to hang out with me on your porch. that would require me to come near you. i do not miss you

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