Oscar (nom) inees

In my Golden Globes post, I stated how the Oscars are one of the biggest nights in my unwritten autobiography.
As a Media major and a lover of film and celebrities, the Oscars are a big deal. LIKE A BIG DEAL.
It was the one night in my childhood, with the exception of New Years, that I could stay up past my bedtime and admire the celebrities and their acceptance speeches and smile with them as they received the gold little man.
The night of the Oscars would go like this.
My mother, also a lover of the Oscars, would spend all day cooking, preferably something that took hours to cook, so that when the Oscars were ready, so was dinner.
During the gap of when I woke up to 8PM when the Oscars started, I would finish any homework that I had and mentally prepare myself for the big night.
When 7PM rolled around, I would set up the table for the night. I would grab the blue and white checkered table cloth and cover the big coffee table that sat in our living room. I would grab the glasses, utensils and plates and set them on the table. And then I would grab the napkins and arrange them in a fancy way to make the table look presentable.
At around 7:30PM, my mom would serve dinner and we get in our spots (me on the floor, propped right in front of the television and my mom on the couch) and we would watch the last minutes of the Red Carpet Special and transition into the Academy Awards Ceremony.
Typically, people favor the Red Carpet Special because they love to admire the dresses that all the actresses where. I on the other hand, admire something else.
The acceptance speeches.
Specifically the ones where it's their first nomination and first win, or the ones who went from rags to riches.
There is one specific speech that remains in my head.
Hilary Swank's 2005 acceptance speech for Best Actress in Million Dollar Baby
It was Swank's second win in that category, but at that time I didn't know that.
A little bit of her speech was this:
I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream. I never thought this would ever happen, let alone be nominated. And a working actor, for that matter. 
I can't quite put my finger on it, but it was something about that acceptance speech that stuck in the back in my mind for 9 years. Every time I saw Hilary Swank in anything, I would go back to her acceptance speech and how, in my eyes, she was the true image of rags to riches. I think one of the reasons it stuck was because at a young age, I thought celebrities were perfect in that they grew up rich and talented and eased their way through Hollywood.
My childhood brain was completely and totally wrong. 
Swank was just one of many celebrities who grew up with hardships and gained their way to the top and became one of the most notable people in Hollywood history. To that thought, it may be the reason why I love acceptance speeches so much. The moment an actor, who has overcome such hardships, wins that little gold man in their spiffy outfit and holds back their tears is the most inspirational moment, that I sometimes hold back tears for them. It's weird, I know, but sometimes I just can't help it.
And then for my 16th birthday instead of a car or a tiara, I got the opportunity that any media-crazed-hormornal-16 year old would love- visiting the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held.
I couldn't believe it. It was an actual place that stood in Los Angeles and that was open to the public on a daily basis, it was a LEGIT BUILDING.
8 hour car ride later...here it is, low and behold.

There are more pictures of the inside, but I like I said I was 16 year old and still in my awkward teen stage and I wasn't prepared to showcase that stage on the interweb.

Also the tour guide told us that we couldn't take pictures, so there you go.

But I can tell you the jist of it.

When you walk in, there are two pillars with the years 1929-2030 (or something that far into the future) under those years are the movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year. Then you walk in some more and SPOILER ALERT (for any future Oscar nominees and current nominees reading this) the theatre is actually a mall, like with stores inside selling merchandise, but the stores are covered up with curtains so when the celebrities walk through they have no idea that it is a mall....or do they??

I don't know, in my 20 years of living I have never met a celebrity so I really don't know, but when I do meet one (if I do meet one) I will ask them and see and then probably get back to you if you remember this blog post.

Enter in the building more and you get to the entrance way where the celebrities walk through and then enter the main area. Unfortunately, during that time Cirque de Sole was the big deal in 2009 and was doing a performance in the Kodak Theatre, so the main part where all the celebrities sit could not be entered.

I was a little mad about that part, at 16 years old, I was a huge Johnny Depp fan and wanted to sit in a chair where he left his butt mark on one of the seats or sit in the front row and figure out where Jack Nicholson sat because I knew he was always in the front row of everything because he was Jack Nicholson. 

Maybe some day I'll come back and find it, or DREAM BIG and hopefully attend the Academy Awards and be known as the girl who photobombs Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Thompson and then seat jacks Jack Nicholson, I don't know, you never know. 

Later we walked down the path where the winners are taken through to have a quick drink, take pictures and answer any questions that the paparazzo have for them. It was then that I realized that the winning celebrities actually miss like 30 minutes of the ceremony because they are walking down, saying hi, pulling a Jennifer Lawrence and taking a shot and then answering a ton of questions and then returning to their seat during a commercial break, which occurs every 30 minutes of the show, back to their loved ones and then they have to play catch up.

If I was a winner, I would have major FOMO (Fear. Of. Missing. Out) and would rush through all of those just to get back to my seat to not miss the show.

I'm 20 years old and have only missed one Oscar show in the couple years I have been watching the Oscars, just because I fictionally won a little gold man doesn't mean I would miss another Oscar ceremony, the Academy and the paparazzo would just have to understand.

So to conclude this long post and introduce the (nom) portion of this post, the Oscars are a big part in my media life and will continue to be a big part of my media life for years to come. Fortunately thousands of miles away from Los Angeles and San Francisco, I have the opportunity to watch the Oscars live this weekend. 

Attempting to finish two (now one) paper(s) and getting baking ingredients, I will venture out to my friend's Sofie place where we will eat, drink, laugh, and cry until 2:30 in the morning (Sweden time) when the Oscars debut. So hopefully by Monday afternoon/night, if I am not too tired or too emotional, there will be a post on the Oscars, who won, who should have one, who fell asleep and who tripped.

Until then here is a fun fact I learned from newest Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon:

" Pros: The Academy Awards are created to celebrate film.

Cons: The Academy Awards are shown on television"

Enjoy that mind-blowing fact.

3.14

February 25th, 2014
Since Uppsala has (hopefully) settled into spring, the sun has started to rise early and set late which means I am woken up by the sun everyday, which brings me to Tuesday.
Tuesday, I naturally woke up at 9AM (not your usually 10:30 or 11AM), had some yogurt and watched How I Met Your Mother.
When I saw the time, I realized it was 9:30 and had 4 hours until my class was going to start. How I Met Your Mother was the only show I watch on Tuesday mornings and it was too early for me to handle a gory episode of Game of Thrones, so I decided to go for a run.
Not running in a week, really makes a difference especially when it's really windy at 10AM, so I was pretty proud of myself when I ran for 30 minutes and then walked for the rest of the way.
By the time I got home, I hopped in the shower, dried off, got dressed and had a small lunch and by the time I sat down to check the time, it was 11:15AM, I still had an hour and 45 minutes until my class started.
It was then that I learned my lesson that mornings are actually really long. I'm so used to waking up late and only having 2 hours of morning before afternoon hits and I'm up until midnight or maybe even later.
Like really, mornings are really long.
So I ended up making tea in my Starbucks Madrid coffee thermos, left my corridor at 12:35 in time to catch the 12:39 bus to school and ended up being there early which is another weird thing because I'm usually at running in the building 3 minutes before class starts. (Go me)
Two hour lecture later, I was done and quickly went home, relaxed for an hour and then met up with my friend Jenn to head to Norrlands Nation to "work" on essays and then be there for their nightly fika.
Their theme for their fika was pie, which in mathematical terms is 3.14- the title of this post.
Apple Pie and Shepard's Pie and 5 cups of coffee later, I turned up with 5 pages of notes on Integrated Communication and discussing Late Night with Seth Meyer's with my friend Sofie until 10pm when it closed which in my book, is productive. In reality, I'm actually a really bad person to study with and so are my friends, so the fact that I get work done is surprising, even for myself.

3.14

small side note

Also, just to let everyone know, global warming has gone cray.
On Monday- Wednesday, Sweden was clear, sunny and beautiful like it always is but then Thursday hit and this happened:

On Wednesday night, I had an entire outfit planned for the next day and then at 8:45AM, I woke up to this and had to completely change outfits. It was not fun.

But then Sunday hit and this happened:

Seriously, where did all the snow go?

This is ridic and Mother Nature needs to be called Carol because she needs to get her shit together.

End of note.

Wålt Disney

16 February 2014
Note how I now date things European style and not American style. I guess when they said I was adapt to European culture, I would adapt to their dating style.

Any way, Sunday was a busy day, which is unusual for me because Sunday's are usually my days to relax in my room in my pjs and watch movies/TV and just lay around before the busy week ahead.
There was no relaxation on this Sunday, but for a good reason.
I was invited to a staff party at Norrlands nation, as a way to celebrate the month and a half that I have worked. The theme was Disney which seems simple since my entire American life has been surrounded by Disney.
It was actually very difficult.
Looking through my closet, I realized that I had nothing.
Ok, that might be an exaggeration, but here's the honest truth. Living in the semi-cold Sweden winter, I layer up as much as a can and wear any cute outfits that can keep me warm, but from layering and looking good, I realize that I repeat outfits and clothes and I didn't want to risk repeating an outfit, so I went shopping with costume ideas in mind.
1. Sleeping Beauty- pink dress
2. Tinker bell- green dress
3. Belle- yellow dress.
Apparently, in Sweden during the wintertime, it's really really hard to find bright colored dresses at a cheap price, or even in general during the wintertime.
European fun fact:
When it comes to shopping and sales, the clothes go by seasons. For instance, fall showcase fall clothes like sweaters, boots and cute cords, Winter showcases big heavy jackets, snow boots and thermals, Spring showcases dresses and sweaters and pale colors and Summer showcases t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops and sundresses.
It's not like back home in California where in 40 degree weather and a super foggy day in San Francisco I can find at least 4 bright colored yellow dresses.
I came to this realization at 2:30PM and the party was at 5:30PM, and I still had to eat, take a shower and get ready, so in girl-gets-ready-time- I had an hour to find something.
Until at 3:00PM I walked into a store for the third time and saw a dress for about $20 on sale. I grabbed it tried it on, it looked good (thank god), bought it and then hopped on the bus and rushed home.
At 5:20PM, I met up with my friends Kacey and Cassie at the bus stop where we then met our other friends on the bus and headed to Norrlands for the staff party.
We were welcomed by glasses of champagne and then headed inside in the main room to sit and eat.

Pictured: yours truly, Madeleine, Kacey

Disney costumes: (Malificent, Sleeping Beauty and Jane)

Pictured left from right: Keegan, Kacey and Austin

Disney: ???, Jane, and E(mo)youre--cuz you know Eeyore is always sad?

::enter joke drum roll here::

The main room- Norrlands

Our table of 8

Now Sweden/Uppsala lesson

When participating in a gasque (fancy dinner) or staff party or any other party where people dress up and have dinner, there are two things

1. lots of singing in Swedish/English

2. there is a lot of alcohol

Each glass represented a drink that I would have that night.

Shot glass:Schnapps*

Regular glass: water

Wine Glass- white wine

and there was also beer/cider that came with it in a bottle.

*Now let me give you a little note about what I drank. The water was fine, obviously, white wine is my best friend and beer/cider are also my friends but when it comes to Schnapps, there is where my enemy lies.

If you've ever had Schnapps then you might understand this post, if you have not, read these upcoming words and listen to me.

Do not drink Schnapps. 

I don't care where you are, who you are with and what people say, just don't do it.

Being in Sweden, schnapps is their drink and of course being in a foreign country I was all for trying new things and experiencing their drinks/food. 

The way Swedes drink Schnapps is a little different than what I'm used to. Served in a shot glass, I'm used to drinking the whole thing at once and getting it over with and then chugging a soda after words to get the taste out. But not this time. 

As pictured below, and as stated previously, the Swedes like to sing and will sing at any occasion during the meal. Once a song has been sung you take the shot of schnapps and only take a 1/3 of it. Not the whole thing, so you are making the shot last throughout the whole night and have to bear the taste of it. The first time wasn't too bad, and thought I could handle it, but two ciders in and a couple of glasses of white wine later, and then a couple songs later, I still had some Schnapps left that I had to finish. It was at that point in the night, that I had to give myself a pep talk before taking it. I pushed through and then grabbed water and chugged it. It was rough and the taste stays in your throat for a while. I'm not sure how I didn't get sick, but I didn't and I'm quite proud of myself.

Lesson learned while I remain in Sweden for a couple of months, pep talk myself before taking Schnapps and if you are out there reading this, avoid the Schnapps as best as you can.

As said before about the Swedes and their singing, this is a song book that is placed on every table and any person that feels like singing can pick any song from the book, grab everyone's attention and start singing. 

Some (and I mean one) song was sung in English while the rest were in Swedish.

How did I manage that you ask?

I pulled the old Catholic school trick and mouthed the word "watermelon" over and over again to make it look like I was singing. Don't get me wrong, I really really tried to sing in Swedish but it's pretty difficult when everyone is going fast and I'm still struggling on the pronunciation of the first word.

I really did the best I could, guys, I really did.

This was our first course along with the drinks previously stated.

Oh, also did I mention that all of this was free? 

After the main course, these bottles of wine were placed on our table expecting to be finished.

I swear sometimes I wonder how these Swedes survive all this.

The last picture of my drinks, now full with different types.

Note on the bottom of the Somersby cider is a slip of paper.

What I forget to mention was that at each table at every other seat was a slip of paper describing an action that one had to do during the course of the meal.

Such as:

When one takes a sip of beer/cider, they have to shout something in Swedish.

When people start singing, one has to shout something different in Swedish  during the song.

or mine

Discuss the Backstreet Boys and their talent. How I got this one, I have no idea, but I was glad that it had nothing to do with screaming or singing in Swedish or I would have needed more of these drinks to get me there.

After the dinner was done, dessert was served and everyone left their own tables and mingled and then later went home.

An unusual and fun Sunday night if I must say it was one to remember and as rumored will be plenty more in the future. So hopefully my schnapps tolerance and expertise in Swedish singing might improve. 

Until then, goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.

sergeant pepper's lonely hearts club

Valentine's Day
Probably, by far, in my unwritten autobiography, my least favorite holiday of the year. No excessive baking or little presents left in my corridor mates rooms, the only baking I did was make brownies with a friend then eating the whole pan on her bed while trying to find the movie, That Awkward Moment, which then turned into an awkward moment when I couldn't find the movie That Awkward Moment, (see what I did there?)
Anyways, why Valentine's is my least favorite holiday, not because of the lack of boyfriend every Valentine's Day but in the fact that in the states, it is everywhere. Like everywhere. I would go to the grocery store just to get some food for dinner and BAM! hearts and love everywhere. I have to past by a forest of balloons to just get to the pasta aisle and resist the temptation to not buy the Reese's peanut butter cup shaped hearts..
Or when I'm sitting on my couch watching TV and eating Ben & Jerry's out of the carton, there comes a commercial about "being with your special someone on Valentine's Day".
It's just a slap in the face for me and single people out in the world.
Luckily in Sweden, Valentine's Day is not so prominent as in the states, which is another reason why I love Sweden so much.
I walk into my grocery store, and there are balloons forests and the entrance of the store is not covered in pink and red and I can actually go get food without being distracted by chocolate (well, not that particular day...). It was a normal week.
Until Monday when I got a Valentine's Day package from my parents.
Valentine's Day win.

The picture is a little blurry, because as said in a previous post, I fell in the mud on the way to get said package and landed on my right arm. With my arm still in pain, it was shaky from the fall and my left hand is not that coordinated in taking pictures, so that's the reason for the blurriness.

If you are so kindly wondering, my butt and my right arm are perfectly fine now, thanks for the thought, but my maroon cords and sweater not so much. 

The bag of Reese's peanut butter cups was finished in two days and the box of dark chocolate brownies and half of the Hersheys frosting is already used and I'm halfway done with the bag of chocolate chips...so this package is going to good use, for my stomach.

But then one of my corridor mates asked me what I was doing for Valentine's Day and I responded with this:

"Oh I'm just going to a pub with some friends and drinking my feelings away."

He laughed.

I wasn't kidding.

I did do just that.

On Valentine's Day, one of the student nation pubs, Orvars Krog, was hosting a

"Lonely Hearts Club", thus the name of the title, also a play on The Beatles album . The point of the event was for single people (like myself and my friends) to come drink and eat their feelings away and celebrate being single.

Oh and did I mention that sad, depressing music was playing the entire time? 

We planned to meet at 5PM to begin our depressing/fun night. 

Little did I know that I was the first one there, and since the pub was going to be packed I decided to safe a table and wait for everyone else to come. Then I realized, I was by myself and was going to order a drink by myself and sit by myself with my drink.

If that is not depressing on Valentine's Day, then I don't know what is.

But luckily, I ran into a friend who I could stay with and not look so alone and we waited for our friends to show up. We ordered our drinks and ate delicious burgers and talked about our single lives (despite two of the people at the table that were in a relationship)

This was my number from when I ordered my burger. All numbers for food had sad comics on them, it made us laugh.

This is a Valentine that my friend, Madeline gave me which brighten my mood because the last Valentine I got was in 8th grade and when it was mandatory to bring little Valentine's from Target with the latest cinema craze on them along with chocolate. So getting a homemade Valentine with a piece of chocolate at 20 years old, was just as exciting.

Ok, this freaked me out. I ordered a beer, a Staroprammen to bring me back to my Prague days, and took a small sip of out of it and the foam created a heart.

Weird right? 

Like the bartender didn't even mean to do that because the foam was just normal.

What does this mean?!?!?!

Am I going to find love in a lonely place? 

Is my beer like a crystal ball, where it will tell me what is going to happen in my love life?

I'm still so confused about this. We'll see how my love life goes after this beer-revelation. 

I then stayed in Orvars for a couple of hours with my friend Cassie talking and watching the winter olympics that was playing in the bar, until we headed out at around 9PM to head home, since tomorrow we would both have to wake up early for Lördsdag fika at 8AM, not because we are single and sad.

At least I can say for this Valentine's Day I didn't feel sad or alone and I got to eat and drink my feelings away without being judged. And maybe my beer was telling me something in that I will have a Valentine's next year. 

We'll see.

real talk

Ok, lets I'm going to get real right now and talk about an issue that as hit me, my friends here and basically anybody who has been home far away (abroad or not).
Homesickness.

Back in April of 2012 all before I knew anything about Sweden and before all the crazy awkward moments happened, I was in San Francisco State at a meeting to basically know How-to-Study-Abroad. (I think I have mentioned this meeting place before, but the people I was talking to said a lot to make my brain think).
I was talking to one of the guys and told him that I was worried about being homesick. He immediately told me that I was not going to be homesick and that when I come back, I would want to return to Sweden immediately.
The first part got me thinking but the second part was totally true. (Like I don't want to think about leaving here- I'm sorry family- and I still don't want to talk about it)
But let's return to the first part, I wasn't going to be homesick.
Know after 20 1/2 years of knowing myself I always knew I was an independent person and did things my own way with of course the little mishaps in between, but I mean, not ever being homesick? That was a little weird to me.
I didn't officially feel homesick until Thanksgiving/Christmas.
Living in the states for so long, I'm always used to having 3 days off for Thanksgiving and 3 weeks off for Christmas. Well when I didn't have Thanksgiving off, it was weird.
I mean I know Europe doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but when you carry on a tradition for so long and then all of a sudden stop....it's a little weird. I was in Barcelona the days before, so technically I was on vacation but I returned the night before Thanksgiving and remembered that I had class. I looked at my friend that I was with and told her, and she looked at me and said
 "Oh man, I'm sorry"
Me: No, you don't understand...it's Thanksgiving tomorrow. I have class on Thanksgiving
Friend: Oh yeah! It's Thanksgiving tomorrow!
Weirdest realization there, so I drank some sangria to help.
Luckily I did get through it with baking and hanging out with friends.
But let me just say one thing.
IT'S OK TO BE HOMESICK.
It's totally normal. There's nothing weird about being homesick. It doesn't mean that you can't be away from home or that you are dependent on your family. It's something that just comes naturally like happiness or sadness. It just happens.
Since I've been here, I have had moments where I have been homesick. I miss laying on my couch with a cup of coffee in my hand and watching Cupcake Wars while my mom does laundry.
I sometimes miss waking up in my bed angrily because my neighbor mows the lawn at 8AM during the summertime and weekends.
There are times where I miss venturing out to Chipotle and stuffing my face with a fat burrito and then regretting it later on my couch.
Or having some me time at La Boulange Cafe and only going there for the really cute barista and then getting excited inside when he hands me my bowl of latte with a heart shaped foam and then taking that as a sign, but then realizing that he does it to all the rest of the customers and then I eat my feelings in my BLT.
But through all that homesickness, I realize where I am and what I've done. I mean, yes, there are days when its muggy and I chose to sit in my room with a cup of coffee and watch Parks & Recreation or 30 Rock for the fifth time and not go out. But then I tell ask myself, when will I ever watch these shows in my Flogsta room and look out the window to see trees and clouds?
And there are days where I'm with my friends and we end up talking about how much we miss home and all the things we used to do and I know it's probably not healthy for us, mentally, but it's a nice reminder of how much we care about our home. But on the flip side of this, I learn what people do with their families and what traditions they have or what life is like in their home, so through that sad moment you learn a lot about people and who they are.
So it's totally fine to be homesick.
Now that a new semester has started I see all these new students come in and get adjusted to life here, and it reminds me of my first day in Sweden and how overwhelming it is. So if any new students are reading, this, if at any time you feel homesick or having a bad day, just remember that it's ok to feel this way sometimes. It's ok to have bad days and miss home. Everyone goes through with it in their life.
But, don't let that homesickness ruin your day, month or year. Take a day to yourself, talk to people, do something that you like to do, have some me time and then the next day do something different or go have a cup of coffee with someone. It makes things better and helps you grow as a person.

Real talk.

take a walk

In my last winter post, I raved about the snow and how I was like Buddy the Elf, when I experienced real snow for the first time. After the first week, I was still in love with it, but then some Swedish people told me that I was going to get sick of it after the first week and hate it.
I absolutely loved it.
Growing up in California, especially in Northern California, there was winter but not the true winter where it gets really cold and the outside looks like an image from Google. The coldest it has been in California (since I've been there) is 20 degrees (-6 Celsius) and there was like 1/2 an inch of snow, but of course in California, is the biggest deal ever.
Sure it's been cold, cloudy and muggy and there are days where I want to stay in on my couch with a cup of hot chocolate and watch Cupcake Wars and have it feel like winter, but after living in the cold, dark, snowy winter for 2 months, California winter is never going to compare to this.
When I got back from Christmas vacation, it started to snow and that little Buddy the Elf in me started to run around my room. There's something about the sound of fresh snow that makes your morning, even the ones where you skip breakfast and hadn't had your coffee yet. The snow made my mornings. It didn't matter how many layers I had on, or if I forgot to wear tights under my jeans, it was peaceful just looking at the snow. There were even days where, when I didn't have class, I would go for a walk to downtown and walk around the park in the snow, listening to Tina Fey's Bossypants and trying hard not to laugh out loud so the Swedes don't judge me.

Botannical Gardens right after sunset

Uppsala Pink Castle

This is known as the Burning Man/Heating Man.

It is literally a long gold man that lays near the river and is always warm, ALWAYS. 

My friend had told me about this man, and I have been searching for him for days and I'm so glad I found him.

Sitting on this man, I get the view of the river and castle, as pictured above this picture, and contemplate. It's the perfect spot to just sit and think and get your butt warm at the same time.

--It's the only man that can keep me warm in Sweden--

I mean, how can a California person not enjoy this?

Unfortunately, the snow has melted and according to the Swedes, this year is a warm winter. February is usually the month where it snows heavily and then March comes in and saves the day, but not this winter. According to the weather forecast, rain and clouds will be in the air until, cross fingers, the next swoop of snow.
But I will say that when it did snow, I was careful enough to not fall in it, until today when I was going to get a package from my parents and fell in the mud.....awesome.

live from New York! It's Saturday Night!

Ok, so it wasn't Saturday night and I wasn't in New York, but it sure felt like it.
Going out with friends on a Wednesday night and meeting people in other different costumes, it was basically like being in New York. (Disclaimer: I haven never been to New York but from watching countless re-runs of Friends, Saturday Night Live and other shows, I assume that's what it's like).
My friend, Sofie had been wanting to organize a pub crawl for a long time and since other Californians and I had been here for 5 months, the time was right.
First, before anything else, let me explain what a pub crawl is.
A pub crawl is when you dress up in crazy costumes or outfits (because usually pub crawls have themes) and to go different pubs in the student nations and have one drink. The goal is to go to as many nations as you can and then end up at a club, if a student nation is hosting a club night.
It's similar to what we call "bar hopping" in the states, but pub crawl makes more sense in that one will most likely end up crawling the streets of Uppsala at the end of the night, instead of hopping.
We decided to do the pub crawl on a Wednesday so that the pubs weren't too busy and packed, we did have class the next day but not until 10AM, but we were prepared to show up to class in our costumes. Like we were ready.
The theme of our pub crawl was returning characters from the amazing show Saturday Night Live. A returning character is one who has returned to the show multiple times.
This was the group invite created by my friend Sofie...

We ended up going to 6 out of the 7 pubs which was a success and a very fun night.

For returning characters these were some options/suggestions:

Olya Povlatsky

Actor: Kate McKinnon

Years on SNL: 2012-present

Gilly

Actor: Kristen Wigg

Years on SNL: 2005-2012

Church Lady

Actor: Dana Carvey

Years on SNL: 1986-1993

Mary Catherine Gallagher

Actor: Molly Shannon

Years on SNL: 1995-2001

Doonese 

Actor: Kristen Wigg

Years on SNL: 2005-2012

Stefon

Actor: Bill Hader

Years on SNL: 2005-2013

Garth & Kat

Actors: Fred Armisen & Kristen Wigg

Years on SNL: Armisen- 2002-2013

Wigg: 2005-2012

Target Lady

Actor: Kristen Wigg

Years on SNL: 2005-2012

Rosanne Rosannadana

Actor: Gilda Radner

Years on SNL: 1975-1980

Aunt Linda

Actor: Kristen Wigg

Years on SNL 2005-2012

"We're not porn stars anymore"

Actors: Vanessa Bayer & Cecily Strong

Years on SNL: Bayer- 2010-present

Strong- 2012-present

The Girl You Wished You Hadn't Started A Conversation With At A Party

Actor: Cecily Strong

Years on SNL: 2012-present

The decision was not easy. So many good characters to play and so little time to prepare.

Until I went thrift store shopping and got my idea.

Actor: Bobby Moyniham

Years on SNL: 2008-present

It was totally easy. A flannel shirt, which I already had, a pull over sweater which I also had and a trench coat, which I got for 45 SEK (6 USD), so it was a really easy costume.

I even had sunglasses to wear too, it was perfect. 

At 6PM we all met up at V-Dala student nation to start our pub crawl.

Here is the picture of all of us dressed as our SNL doppelgängers

From Left to Right

The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started A Conversation With At A Party- doppelgänger- Cassie

Drunk Uncle- doppelgänger - yours truly

Garth & Kat- Kacey & Sofie

Although it was a smaller group than a normal we still had a good night.

First pub: V-Dala or as it is fully known: Västmanlands-Dala Nation

There we met a guy in our class who was also in a pub crawl and welcomed us into their game of Swedish charades, which is basically charades but in Swedish. And no, I had no idea what the charade said when it was my turn, so I had to have the Swedish guy next to me translate:

My charades were a guy making a pizza

and

Mowing the Lawn

Later we found out that the charades game we were playing was a competition between other people in the pub crawl, and we won! 

Go US!

After hanging out at V-Dala nation, we headed off to Snerikes Nation for another drink.

This is Sofie and Kacey in front of Snerikes Nation paying tribute to our favorite show 30 Rock, specifically Kenneth the Page.

Are you (guys) ok?

Then after about 30 minutes hanging out in Snerikes we went across the street to Göteborgs (or Gothenbergs) Nation and sat on comfy seats and quoted SNL.

After Goöteborgs Nation, we headed around the corner to Smålands Nation where a fellow classmate, Ronja, of ours was working at the bar. We explained to her what we were and entertained her with our characters. She later brought out her boyfriend who was a fellow SNL fan.

Note: Not many people in Sweden are familiar with the show Saturday Night Live. I know they are missing out on so much. My friend Sofie, who is Swedish, knows of SNL because she had studied abroad in the states last year and fell in love with the show. But the rest of the Swedes who haven't studied abroad in the states, have no idea. I think I've asked my corridor mates if they have heard of it and they just look at me weirdly.

My new goal before I leave in June, introduce them to the wonderful world that is Saturday Night Live. It will be done, I already got one of them to love Parks & Recreation. I'm almost there.

 So when our friend told us that her boyfriend (who is Swedish) was a huge fan of SNL, we were beyond excited. Sofie and Kacey acted out their roles as they were a sibling singing group and Cassie and I simple quoted our characters.

He enjoyed it.

We stayed in Smålands for a while and saw that they were having a pop quiz night and tried to join and answer the question...it wasn't so successful. 

But while waiting around, my friend Cassie, decided to check her email and proudly announced that our class was cancelled because our professor was sick.

The SNL Gods were upon us.

With that news we decided it was time to go to another pub to celebrate, until I remembered that it was my friend Erica's birthday (HI ERICA!!!) and wanted to stay to wish her a Happy Birthday since Smålands had WiFi and the pub next didn't. And thank god it was her birthday because right as I sent her a birthday message our friend Ronja came up to us with a full plate of nachos and told us that no one claimed it and they were going to throw it away and wanted to know if we wanted it.

Free nachos? 

WIN.

(On behalf of myself and my friends, we would like to thank our friend Erica for being born on this day because if not, those poor nachos would have died in the garbage. Happy birthday nachos from Sweden)

I didn't get the outside of Smålands pub but this is the inside.

After Smålands we ran (literally ran) to Väsgöta (VG) nation for another drink in their pub.

And then last but not least headed over to Norrlands Nation where they hosted their Wednesday club night and met up with our friends Jenn and Madeline and danced, to not-so-great-music.

No seriously, it wasn't that great but we still danced like crazy.

After Norrlands, there were no more pubs left for us to go, we went and had a nightly burger at Max's and spent the night at our friend Sofie's place, because the city bus stopped running at 12:30AM and we were out until 2AM.

Oh, and at one of the pubs we discussed a Disney themed pub crawl for March, so yeah this will continue on until June. 

Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.