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April
28I would like to personally thank AFS for screwing me over.
I don’t know which genius at AFS is running their travel plans but they need to be replaced. If any of you have any basic knowledge of american airports and how they work you will understand my strife. basically, AFS thought it would be an inspired idea to have us fly into JFK, not LGA, on a SATURDAY AT 5 PM. who the hell thought that was a solid idea? not only do you have to schedule for 2-3 hours to get through customs and then re-check your luggage, go through security, and get to the right terminal but you also have to do it by transferring from a totally different airline. Icelandair, which IS one of the or the cheapest option, also is not in any alliance programs like united, usair, klm, or scandinavian. this means i not only have to recheck my bags but i have to recheck myself and get my ticket from the counter and also most likely repay for my baggage fees. also, because we get in so late in the day (was there NOT a red-eye?) and have to go through the process of transferring to a domestic flight, there are almost NO flights back home without paying a fortune. the only flights available to me near to 8 o’ clock are a united flight ($528) and a usair flight ($472). i am not shelling out all that money just because AFS is awful at travel planning.
so because of all of this terribleness these are my options:
- pay the crazy price of $472-528 to catch a flight home at a reasonable hour.
- pay the price of $183 to fly to washington DC, get picked up by my mom at 11pm and then drive 4 hours home—arriving at 3am.
- stay overnight with other AFS students that are suffering from terrible travel plans, wake up at 6, take a 9am flight to norfolk at $317
- stay overnight, wake up at 4, take a 6 am flight to washington DC, get picked up by my mom at 730 (after her driving overnight for 4 hours), and then driving the 3 hours home in rush hour traffic-oh joy but a reasonable price at $90.
- arrive in new york, take the flytrain to jamaica, NY, take the metro to penn station, take a amtrak train at 3am and arrive in newport news about noon. while this seems like a reasonable option it means an hour metro ride and about 6 hours strolling around new york with a life’s worth of luggage. but it is just $80.
- same as above but take a greyhound bus from penn station. it’s a 9 hour bus ride and still requires i get picked up about an hour from my home but it will only be about $40.
seriously, could they not fly into LGA or EWK at a earlier time of day with a larger airline? could they not just let us pay for our own flights and lower the tuition price?
there are no good options here—AT ALL. -__-
sidenote: my host family is flying to Thailand 2 days before I am supposed to go to my end orientation so I have to find somewhere to stay with all my stuff, too. yay.
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April
26
2012
getting ready for the start of russtiden tomorrow. here are all the essentials.
- alcohol
- lots of free condoms to distribute
- house keys
- red lipstick
- bus card
- debit card
- russ cards
- phone
- extra hair tie
- ID
- russ pants
- russ hat
now, go party. russ kick off party tomorrow, baptism on saturday, and football game that afternoon. so STOKED.
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April
7Copenhagen
So, as most of you know, I have been barely writing about my year in norway. since my last transmission, I have mastered cross country skiing, toured the backhills of western sweden, eaten many varieties of disgusting fish, and as of right now, am hanging out in denmark.
since I think that reflecting on the past seems like a waste of both of our time, I will talk about the present. I have had a slow day today; my host and i both woke up around 10, ate a typical danish breakfast, and am now getting ready to go to the movies with his sister. The past two days have been filled with parties, touring around copenhagen, taking a ridiculous amount of train rides, and consuming more beer than i would like to admit.
i was hoping that after learning norwegian for the past nine months that i would be able to understand more than i do. though, i did choose to learn a dialect and that may account for something. I think i get about 1/3 of it on a good day.
within the first 5 minutes of getting to copenhagen I had a s-tog card and a beer in hand. i immediately knew I would like this place. Copenhagen is an older, more historic, interesting, and captivating place than oslo. in oslo, you get bored after about five minutes but in copenhagen that is near to impossible. on the first day, the weather was absolutely wonderful. 8 degrees, sunny, and a slight breeze from the west-after living in norway for close to a year this was a nice relief.
adam would also like me to point out that the danish government sucks and he has no idea why they have the highest happiness-index in the world. i think that after drinking beer like it was your job and walking around in 8 degree weather you start to understand a little better but eh.
i highly doubt you want to hear about the party on wednesday night-yes, i said wednesday. thursday, i explored roskilde which in its day was the largest port in denmark and at one point, the capital. friday, we explored adam’s hometown of høje tåstrup. & today, will probably be a really slow day which is welcome after 2 or 3 of no sleep.
btw, I SAW A SWAN. THREE SWANS.
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March
3
2012So…this is how we party here in norway.
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29
2012
My friend from Belgium, Simon, came to visit me and this is a photo spread of our adventures in Sweden at the ice hotel and in Finnsnes.
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9
Anonymous asked: why don't you blog more? miss your posts
i don’t know. there just isn’t much happening here. i’m pretty down to just life. also, i don’t really have the energy. after school, keeping my journal, and maintaining another blog I just don’t have the mind to write more. i will try to post something after my weekend in oslo. thank you for the message :)
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22
2012
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24
2011
god jul & godt nytt år!
<3 Kathryn & Ohm
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24
my host mom just took our christmas picture
& my little sister looks like the girl from the ring.
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21
2011
I am being an old lady and trying to get in the habit of sending christmas card to all of my friends, domestic and otherwise. the lucky starting 12 are….
- Anna Iglesias : Steenbergen, Netherlands
- Conner Erwin & Family (my brother) : Clearwater, Florida
- Stoltenberg Family : Taastrup, Denmark
- Patricia Zuraw & family (my godmother) : Virginia Beach, Va
- Delana Smith : Virginia Beach, Va
- Nimra Hitron : Modi’in, Israel
- Alexander Cortes : Murcia, Spain
- Naama Kahanov : Modi’in, Israel
- Levey Family : Berkeley Springs, WV
- Norman Family : Bowie, MD
- Sunny Erwin : Virginia Beach, Va
- Ira Erwin : Virginia Beach, Va
this list makes me feel like an international badass.
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