Isabel And The Unpredictable Nose-Blooders

Hey,

It's Isabel here!

Last time I posted I told y'all about the day that I moved in to our new apartment, in a different country.

After we finally arrived at our new home we were all exhausted, but mom says that "you can never be too tired to do something until after it's done - or else it will never get done!". Something like that...

We didn't really have any food left from the airplane ride and the few sandwiches Max' wife had made us were gone within seconds.

Well, so after some short rest mom decided to go grocery shopping.

She did have to wait until the next day, though, since all stores were closed by now. None of us needed anything more to eat anyways, since we were all asleep just as fast as we had eaten those sandwiches.

So the next morning we had no breakfast and mom was heading to the grocery store.

She asked Harper if she wanted to come along but you can probably guess her answer. There would most likely not be any cute boys at the grocery store looking for some fresh salad or lactose-free butter, so it was not worth it by her means.

I, however, decided to tag along. No idea why - grocery shopping really isn't that much fun. You can't even sing "Thrift Shop" while doing it, cause the lyrics won't match ("I'm so pumped; got some cheese from the corner store!").

I quickly grabbed my bag and slid my iPod in it. Ready to go!

The store was just two blocks away, which I guess is great if I'm ever hungry for some more mayo!

I skip-jumped my way forward and mom was far behind as I tried to push the entrance door inwards. It however opened up by itself, straight in to my face!

I must admit, I push doors that say "pull" even if the sign is in English.

My nose hurt a little and right infront of me was now this man who just stared at me.

"Uhm... sorry!" I said hiding my nose with my hand, feeling a few drops drip down on my curved palm...

His English wasn't great but I think he tried to ask me if I was ok, and I nodded and backed up to let him pass me by.

By then my mom had caught up with me and she also asked me if I was ok.

I put my hand down to answer her but didn't get to say a word because down came the niagara falls of nose blood.

My mom quickly got a tissue from her bag and handed it to me.

"Wait here, I'll see if they have some paper inside!" She said and walked inside the store.

I was left sitting on the edge of the sidewalk with a bloody nose. In fact it wasn't just my nose that was bloody, the lower half of my face was too, as was my shirt and my shoes.

I did however know that I was supposed to plug my nose with my fingers for about 10 minutes, and hopefully that would help stop the nose bleed. So that's what I did. It must've looked odd - me sitting there at the side of the street, drowned in blood, holding my plugged nose up in the air and breathing like a fish on land cause I hate breathing with my mouth.

Through the window of the store I could see how my mom talked to the cashier and how she handed her some paper towels.

My mom came back outside and told me to stay where I was until my nose had stopped raining bleeding.

It would have been fun if Harper had actually came along and there had been a cute guy... And I would have scared him away with my nose-blood-sea! Mwohahaha!

Once I finally let go of my nose and the bleeding had actually stopped, mom came back outside with a large fabric bag in hand, stuffed with groceries.

"Do you really think we need that much food?" I asked her.

"Well," She said. "Based on how much you guys ate yesterday, I'm not even sure this is going to last until dinner!"

It is true though, my dad could eat a whole bear if he hasn't had breakfast that day!

As we turned around the corner to our block I cheerfully jumped up the stairs and opened up the door singing some Frozen song lyrics (you probably know which one I'm talking about).

I kept singing as I helped mom set the table ("Who knew we owned a thousand salad plaaaaaaates?").

"For the first time in forever; we have cereal, we have milk!"

...

"And I know it's totally crazy, to dream I'd be a princess... But for the first time in forever... nothing's in my waaaay!", I finished it all off with, as I brutally carefully pushed Harper to the side and flew in to my room. I'm Cinderella, you know? And we all know who the mean stepsister is, right?

As I laid there on my bed I did think some about my friends in Washington D.C. ...

I missed them, but they would probably love to hear that I'm an undercover princess that has fought against nose-blooders! And I'd tell them all about it on Skype later that night...

Which reminded me, I still needed to get my shirt cleaned up and my shoes too... But, hey, that's what it takes to be an undercover warrior princess!

~

Next time I thought I'd talk some about school... Hmm... Well, we'll see!

Bye for now,

- Isabel

Isabel's Thoughts On Moving

Hi, this is Isabel talking.

Earlier this morning I was looking through my photo album on the computer... Who am I kidding? I of course mean at 3 AM when I still hadn't gone to bed, but same same. I'll excuse it with that I haven't quite settled into Swedish time yet.
Well, anyways, I found some photos of me at the airport. I knew mom had taken my picture, but not that she was this terrible with the camera settings...

Ehumm...

Anyways once more, I thought I'd talk about how this day felt for me. Cause, you know, this is a blog after all and I'm not really sure what to type on here yet so this is what I'll go with. Yeah.

So on march 15th, this previous Saturday, we left our pretty small but still nice house in the outskirts of Washington D.C. I knew this would be the last time I saw our house, at least the inside of it...

But I'm not going to get overdramatized about the whole moving-thingy.

Of course I was a bit scared, but flying seemed cool. I had done it before, but not for the full 10 hours!

I knew I was going to miss my friends, but to be honest I don't really have many friends. Sure I know loads of people, living in a big city and all, but they're not my friends. My friends are the people who stand up for me and are truly kind, which sadly isn't that common... Or at least it wasn't at my old school! I'm hoping for it to be better over here... But really, I might just be a bit too weird for most people.

Anycow, we had decided to fly from the smaller Dulles airport, instead of the central airport.

The Dulles airport was slightly cheaper and not as packed with people.We arrived extra early so that we could check in our luggage - we had A LOT.

My mom was kind enough to let me and my older sister have some fun instead of standing in a line all day. My dad wanted to come along but mom wouldn't let him, haha!

Well so under my sister's monitoring, I got to look in some shops.

I love love love the souvenir shops in my home town! Why? Cuase there's pandas everywhere! And I love pandas!

Sadly I didn't have my own money, just the money that our parents had given me and my sister to share if we wanted any souvenirs at the airport.

So we had to agree on everything. Hard if you're as different as me and my sister!

I wanted to buy panda poop (it wasn't even real!) and a fuzzy panda hat with attached panda paws (AWEEE <3) but she wouldn't let me. She told me that she wouldn't be able to use it cause she'd get my lice (I DO NOT HAVE LICE.) and she looked oddly at me when I presented the beautiful tin of panda poop.

*sigh*

Le beautiful panda poop.

So we decided on this little cool "secret" box.

We knew mom likes glass sculptures and since we couldn't agree on anything we wanted she was kind enough to give us some money, we decided to get her this cool little thingy.

My sister, Harper, got some gossipy magazines. I had brought along some magazines from home to read, and mom had actually got me some old Swedish kids magazines! She said I could use them to learn some Swedish... I gave it a try but I didn't understand a heck. What in the world is a "blomsterkrans"?! I was happy that I had my copy of Dork Diaries "A Not So Popular Party Girl" with me, this was the fifth time I read it.

There was also this big nutcracker-looking guy, which I thought was so cool and perfect for me!

I asked my sister to get a photo of me in front of it, but she said that "we'll do that... later"... and she went off looking at this cutout of Justin Bieber. *rolls eyes*

The nutcracker-guy was sad we didn't go over and talk to him, I could see it in his eyes.

Luckily when we walked back over to mom and dad they were just finished. Mom said we had some more time to explore the airport, so we walked back over to the shopping isle and this time I asked her to get my photo in front of the giant Nutcracker-guy. She agreed and Harper was kind enough to lend her her camera... If mom had just known how to work the settings. *shakes head*

Even more luckily, Harper got so annoyed at mom's wholehearted but honestly pretty bad attempt at being a master photographer, and grabbed the camera and got some shots of me. She agreed to do it only if she could post them on her instagram later. Sure. I'm pretty sure she'll blur out my face, though.

Anyways, here are the (un-blured) photos of me at the airport, that my so wonderfully kind and loving sister took of me (that was also part of the agreement):

I had to climb on top of this high fence!

He's so big!

My mom thought it was odd how they still had the Christmas decorations up. But I thought it was good, I mean that nutcracker-guy was in desperate need of some friends! May it be trees dressed in ribbons and lightbulbs, as long as they're nice to him!

This is the last photo we got of me before we entered the airplane.

We're waiting at our gate for our slightly delayed flight to arrive...

When we finally got on the plane I and Harper sat down in our seats and started packing up all our magazines and snacks... Sorry mom and dad for not helping with the carry-ons!

The seats were 2+2 and since it turned out that one of the rows we had booked had an emergency door by it, neither I or Harper could sit there. Didn't bother us much, since both of us wanted to have a window to look out through...

But it meant that I and Harper had to sit together for 10 hours.

Mom offered me to sit with dad by the emergency door, since Harper demanded to sit by a window so that she could get some photos of our city from above. I also wanted a window though, and said no. It was worth standing Harper and her annoyingness, cause the view was amazing!

Sorry about the bunch of photos, but doesn't it look cool?!

When we passed through the clouds, the city lights slowly disappeared.

Since it was a night flight they turned of the lights. I found this annoying and turned on the light above my and Harper's seats.

I started flipping through the Swedish magazines and Harper started watching a movie on her iPad...

It seemed like everyone was sleeping so I didn't want to disturb anyone. Instead of talking to mom and dad I decided to just look out the window.

The moon looked so cool. I turned off the light above our seats, since Harper was watching a movie anyways, and just looked out at the brightly shining moon.

After some thinking about all random things in the world - pandas, chocolate and ballet shoes - I looked over at the monitor attached to the seat in front of me where my dad was sitting and now snoring loudly.

A long way to go...

After a few hours the air hostesses served some food. But apparently it ran out before they reached our row... So we had to wait for another 30 minutes.

The food wasn't even very yummy either. I had never had airplane food before, and I wish I could still say that I haven't...

A dry bun, yucky chicken with slimy sauce, oh and some fake mashed potatoes mixed with over cooked broccoli - bon appetite!

We each got a piece of hard bread, too, even harder than the rock-related bun. I wasn't sure if it was really "healthy oaths and organic seeds", or just one of their trays cut up in pieces.

Then, after a loooong and boooooooring flight over the plain blue atlantic ocean, we saw land! Sadly it was just Ireland and not Copenhagen where we were destined to arrive.

Which meant we had another two hours to go... yay...

Apparently I had fallen asleep and not noticed the air turbulence we had experienced when flying over Great Britain. When I woke up I found Harper nervously clutching on to my mom's arm which she had stretched out from her seat in front of us. I couldn't help but laugh, but Harper claimed she was just massaging mom's arm which was aching after all her crossword solving. Pfft...

Then, finally, the belt sign lit up again and the a voice in the speakers announced that we would be landing in Copenhagen in about half an hour!

The landing went ok, I had experienced better, but it was fine.

When we finally got to leave our seats, after waiting for the whole isle to be free, I almost ran out of the plane - I was so excited! But mom stopped be and told me that she thought it would be a good idea for me to take my carry-on with me... I also got the mission of waking up dad, which was pretty hard. We were lucky that we didn't have to use that emergency exit during the flight - we probably wouldn't have been able to get him out of the way!

Then finally, when dad's snoring had stopped, and I had all my stuff tucked down in my pink and silver striped carry-on, I could walk out of the plane like a proper young lady, tell the air hostesses and the pilot "farvel" (sigh, I need to know Danish too now?) and lastly run through the now empty tunnel leading up to the immigration section of the airport, looking like a total loonycorn and screaming.

Harper followed me but kept looking down at her phone, covering her face with a see-through plastic bag (*sigh* sisters...) and tried her best to ignore me.

When mom and dad caught up with us we had to stand in another line.

We had to go through a check up and Harper complained once more about how she had to untie and once again tie her new platform converse. *I'm not even going to react to this in any way*

Then, after waiting for all of our luggage for HOURS, we made our way out into the airport. There weren't nearly as many stores as at the Dulles Airport. My dad, however, did spot a place where they sold kebab and asked my mom if he could buy some. Apparently he had slept through the whole (10 HOUR) flight and not eaten any of the airplane food. To be honest, I hadn't either, and I and dad begged mom to let us buy something to eat. She let us even though Harper complained about how the wifi at the airport cost money and how she didn't want to sit down and wait for us while we ate. Mom told her to check out the stores at the airport, and she agreed to let us eat.

When she came back she seemed even more annoyed and reported to us that all they sold was MnMs and danish magazines. Apparently all the good stores were only accessible for travelers, and since we had now passed the security check we couldn't go back. Mom told Harper she could have some kebab too if she wanted, but she said she'd rather have MnMs.

When we had finished our meal and we walked through airport entrance it was full of people standing there with flags and signs. Of course there was no one with a sign for us, or well I didn't think there would be. But it turned out dad's friend Max was there waiting for us. He had a small sign saying "Välkommen, familjen Palmer!"which apparently was swedish for "Welcome, Palmer family!".

I acted like a superstar getting welcomed by her fans, while Harper once again pretended she didn't know us.

He greeted us and we made our way through the crowd.

Max helped dad buy some train tickets while I and Harper went in to the small shop over by the doors.

Harper found another gossip magazine and looked at it surprisingly. "They have Justin Bieber over here too?!"

I rised my eyebrow at her and walked off. *sigh* She needs to get out more often...

Mom, dad and Max kept running up and down the stairs so that they could get all of our luggage down to the train station down in the basement.

They filled the elevator with bags and one of them went in there, then ran up the stairs to help out the two others up there to fill up the elevator.

I and Harper had to watch over all the bags downstairs.

I asked dad why he couldn't just stay in the elevator when it went up again and he looked confused for a moment. Then he started laughing. "Oh yeah, that's actually a pretty good idea!" *sigh* Dads...

On the train it was packed and it didn't help that we had like 10 giant bags with us.

The train tracks crossed a bridge over which Max told me and Harper was the Öresund, a channel separating Denmark from Sweden.

We entered Sweden and it didn't look too exciting... Sand and dry grass - yay!

The first stop was Hyllie, then came Triangeln, then the Malmö central station and then Lund's Central Station. This was the city where we were going to live and where Max was living - Lund. Sounds typically Swedish if you ask me.

We made our way off the now slightly less crowded train with the help of Max.

Max had gotten us a moving company truck so he and our parents were now busy loading up the truck with the help of the drivers.

I and Harper sat down in Max' car. I had to sit in the middle cause I'm "little"...

Eventually we got home and the truck was already parked out in the street.

We were going to live in an apartment, which was new to me.

We walked up the stairs tugging our carry-ons in our arms. On the third floor there was a door with no name sign on it.

"Well, this must be it!" Said mom and sat her bag down. She took a pair of keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

The hall was long with white, textured walls. I had seen the photos in the add for the apartment before we bought it, and mom had even printed them out and put them up on the fridge. But it was so different in real life.

Of course, the walls were still white, there was a shelf to the right of the door, and a cute little puppy hook that I hung my jacket on, but actually being there felt so different.

Harper walked down the hall and asked mom where her room was going to be. Mom said that there were three bedrooms, but we already knew this and Harper asked once more.

"Check them out first," dad said as he made his way through the door opening. "And make sure to look closely."

"There's something wrong with them?" Harper interrupted me as I was about to ask if there was a treasure in one of the rooms.

"Hopefully not!" Mom said pantingly as she sat down two more bags on the hallway floor.

"Well, all I know is that..." said dad mysteriously. "Whoever gets there first gets to have the room!" He finished and ran off through the hall and opened door after door. "This could fit a double bed. Should we take this, Catherine?" Mom just sighed and rolled her eyes that hinted a small smile.

Harper was almost as quick as she let go of her bags and opened the door at the end of the hallway.

"Hmm..." She said, looking through the door crack. "A cylindrical room?! No way I'm having this - my posters would look terrible!" She shut the door and opened the second door. "Ooh!" She exclaimed. "This is mine! Izzy, you'll get the Cinderella scrub."

I took a pause from my wall inspecting and walked up the hall to check the room out...

As I opened the door I exclaimed "I can't believe this! This is so cool!"

The room looked like a room in a tower, which actually is what is. There's a tower built into our apartment building - isn't that cool?! I cheered and jumped, I'd gladly be Cinderella if I got to have this room!

Suddenly I felt dad's hand on my shoulder. "Aren't you gonna go in there?" He said, smiling.

I basically flew across the floor and landed on the old foldable bed.

"Aow!" I said, as I noticed there was no mattress on the bed, just a blanket.

"We'll get you a new one. Don't worry, Cinderella." Dad said jokingly.

Mom walked up behind him and looked in to my room. "So this is the mystery room?" She said. "I suppose it was hard to get a good photo of it without making the walls look odd. But Harper could probably get some good shots-"

"As long as that rugrat lives in there I'm not entering that room!" I heard Harper yell from her room, which was next to mine.

"I don't care," I replied. "I have mice!"

I could hear how Max entered the hall and mom and dad walked over to him and started talking about going grocery shopping. I didn't hear much more cause the horrific sound of Justin Bieber's song "Boyfriend" filled the whole apartment.

I sighed and thought to myself; "It'd be pretty great if they didn't have Justin Bieber over here, actually."

- Isabel