Ms. ArmoredThirteen

Keeping in mind I’ve only visited 1-2 towns from each place

• Sweden, Stockholm and Visby: The language is gorgeous sounding I like listening to people talk. I like how everyone walks in the street. People are very nice. I had a sense of belonging like I had already been living there so that’s a good sign for moving.
• Estonia, Tallinn: Holy shit I got to walk on a real castle wall. There’s a meshing of modern and medieval architecture that works stunningly it’s so amazing. Rich history everywhere.
• Latvia, Riga: Grafitti game is on point. The art nouveau is incredible but I preferred the castles tbh. There is a very palpable tension between Latvian and Russian that put me on edge. Like if I said thank you in Latvian some people would get upset at me, but if I said thank you in Russian other people would correct me “this is LATVIA”. I bring this up as a favorite because it reminds me that visiting for a few days doesn’t mean I understand the area.
• Netherlands, Amsterdam and The Hague: To get off the plane and out of Amsterdam skipping it entirely was super easy. New Years in The Hague was unreal like nothing I’ve ever seen. Indonesian food is very good here too. Everyone here bikes, transit flows well, the trolleys are fun to watch. I question how many people fall into the river that has almost no guardrails anywhere.
• Sweden again, soon I’m flying north to play in the snow and work my way back to Stockholm. No reports yet but I love cold and snow so I suspect I’ll be happy there too.

I’m going to try and swing getting there on a student visa. I need to save enough to pay for housing and tuition, I’m guessing about $30k should get me there if I also find a part time job while at school. My Swedish is incredibly basic so far but I’m getting decent at reading. A lot of it is close enough to English I can kinda get the gist of text within known contexts. Listening to it though is still well beyond me, it sounds like actual elvish it’s wild to me. I want to learn it so much though I want to be able to speak such a pretty language

Oh that’s like my hometown in the spring. Slush season

Why is that the worst season?

Yeah this is me in about 10 days. Almost a month vacation to explore Sweden and the Baltic states. Going to get back to work and have like 5 months before I attempt to move to Sweden. I’m dreading being back at work for that time I really hope I can pull through and save up enough for the move while being burnt out

My roommate and I used to date and I’m still in love with them. We’re making it work well but everything is messy

I went through a lot of therapy to get past my fear of telling people I love them and getting broken up with shortly after, the day I was going to tell my now roommate I love them they broke up with me out of nowhere. We didn’t even date that long and the breakup was nearly a year ago and it still hurts. I don’t have many regrets in life but not telling them sooner is one of them

I had lower surgery shortly after they broke up with me. I was so excited to have someone there for me emotionally and physically after surgery. Now I have nobody and I’m scared to have sex. I don’t know how to work past this and therapy hasn’t been helping

I just want to be able to connect with someone without the crushing weight of trust issues around every corner. I miss being with my roommate so much, one of the happiest and most exciting relationships I’ve ever had

Me in my 30s and never even tried to get a license. Probably never will tbh I’ve made it this far