Tack tack Hej då, Sverige!

I am sitting in bed at Orwar and Marie's house, getting ready to go to sleep for the last time in Stockholm...
I'm excited to be home but I am anticipating a lot of reverse culture shock and missing Swedish things.

Here is what I have been up to during my last days in Sweden:

Thursday, Cajsa, Theodor, Oliver and I decorated the christmas tree (Julgran) before I went out to a pub at the University with my classmates and professors, which was pretty fun.

Oliver, Theodor and me in front of the Julgran

Friday I finished off some last things, said goodbye to most of my friends then got thai food with Zoe and watched TV at her apartment. Great last night in the city.

I stayed an extra few days after most people on the program left and got to spend time with both my host family and Orwar and Marie.

On Saturday I spent some time with the boys in the afternoon; we played outside and Theodor helped (?) me pack.

I wish I could bring this home!

The boys outside the house

That night I went to Orwar and Maire's house for dinner and their son's girlfriend Victoria was there with her baby Jamie. We had great food and conversation and they gave me a beautiful silver necklace from Marie's shop as a christmas present.

Baby Jamie and me

 Today my host family and I went into Stockholm and had lunch at an Indian restaurant. Then we went to the tallest tower in Stockholm (155 meters), which is a big deal for swedes but seemed no higher than your average skyscraper to me... Anyway, we couldn't see much because it was pretty foggy today but the boys seemed to like it, and it was a fun thing to do.

view from the top of the tower

After that we went home and had fika and exchanged gifts. I got the boys some toys Cajsa had told me they wanted, and they seemed thrilled. They got me a book about Sweden (in english) with a lot of pretty pictures, and a giant bag of candy. I will enjoy both on the plane. Then we all made a beautiful gingerbread house together. After that we had dinner and shortly after that it was time to say goodbye. The boys gave me running-start hugs and Theodor told me I could come back any time and I wouldn't even have to go to school. So cute.

Fin!

So now all that is left is a 9 hour flight to Chicago, a two hour layover, and an hour long flight to Minneapolis.


I hope you all enjoyed reading my blog this semester! And I hope to see you soon in the states!

So many cool things!

 Oh boy you are going to be happy you read this blog post...

First off, I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL. Now only fun things until I fly home Monday morning (excuse me...what!?) And there have already been some!


Monday was Sankta Lucia, and we had a little fika at school then Mats' parents came over for dinner. It was very nice. 

lussekatter, pepparkakor and glögg for fika

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend Dru was recruited to be Sankta Lucia

Tuesday I got to relax at home during the day, then when Mats, Theodor and Oliver got home we went cross country skiing in the woods by my house. I only fell twice..ish! Then I went to Zoe's house with Janie and we had some drinks there before going to a bar.

silly Oliver

Theodor going down the hill. At least two of my falls occurred here

Today I went to Fotografiska, the photography museum, with Zoe. We ALMOST didn't go because we were...tired... but since its the last week, we decided we had to go. So we went. And it was cool, we saw an exhibit of portraits of Andy Warhol dressed as a woman, and then an exhibit on the evolution of fashion photography. As we were leaving the fashion photography part, I was about to walk out the door into the hallway but I stopped because there was a camera man filming this woman and two other people talking to her (giving her a tour I suppose). So we just stood in the doorway for a minute, and then as they were walking away, we realized the woman was... wait for it... SWEDISH POP-STAR ROBYN!! I'm pretty sure most of my audience here is over the age of 30 and American and might not know who Robyn is... but she is HUGE (in terms of fame... shes actually a very tiny person) and so good and fierce. And Zoe is pretty much her biggest fan. Watch this video and you will get it. So that was a pretty cool thing. Unfortunately we couldn't meet her or anything because she had this camera on her, but she was like TEN FEET AWAY. So cool.

Then, tonight we had a Juleboard (Swedish Christmas buffet dinner thing) with all our host families and contact families that the program put on. I ate herring with 3 different sauces and a couple Swedish meatballs and candy and then felt sick for a little bit. My stomach does not like fish and is not used to meat anymore. But it was a fun thing to do.

The whole family!

Me with Thedor and Oliver. They are jätte silly.

Tomorrow I am going shopping during the day with some friends, then decorating the christmas tree with Cajsa and the boys, then going to a pub night with all my classmates and professors. FUN.

Then Friday then Saturday then Sunday then HOME. This is ridiculous.

Miriam's visit to Stockholm

Last Tuesday through Thursday my friend Miriam, from Grinnell, came to visit. She had been on a women's studies program throughout Europe that ended in November, so she had time to explore more of Europe. Tuesday night when she got here we had dinner with my host family, I made stuffed peppers. Then Wednesday we made Swedish pancakes and pea soup for lunch then went to a market at Hötorget, stopped for fika then explored Gamla Stan and the Christmas market there. After that we went to Zoe's house where we met up with Zoe and Janie and then went ice skating at the Kungsträgården rink, and none of us fell! After skating we all went out for Thai food with my friends Janie, Kat and Dru.
Thursday we went on a walk in the woods by my house, explored Sergel storg, went shopping, then went back to Gamla Stan again before her train left at 5pm. All in all it was a fun visit, i think! Unfortunately my camera was dead the whole time so I don't have pictures...


This past weekend I went to my friend Kat's house on Friday for sledding and sauna, worked on papers on Saturday, then went to Skansen for the Christmas market then my favorite cafe, Choklad Bollen to study, on Sunday. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Guess i'm not very good at sledding

Carolers at Skansen

Market at Skansen

Market

Chokolad Bollen Cafe

giant bowl of chai tea and a candle at the cafe

Explosions

If any of you have been reading international news, you probably saw that two bombs went off in central Stockholm (on Drottninggatan) last night. One was a car bomb, the other a suicide bomber. The only death was the suicide bomber, but the security police and media received messages threatening the Swedish people 10 minutes before the explosions. Everyone I know is fine, but we all shop on that street fairly often and are pretty shook up about it.

Here are some news articles if you want to read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11977524
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/world/europe/12sweden.html?hp

I will have a real update about fun things with pictures soon...

Snow and Lights

There are a lot of both here. I love it.  This week was a pretty average week, but I did some fun things...

On Thursday Zoe and I went shopping for these paper star-shaped lights that are everywhere here, to bring home. I bought one that is cream colored and has gold accents. Then we both went to Orwar and Marie's house for dinner. Orwar made a delicious fish dish and chocolate pudding for dessert.

Friday Janie and I went to Gamla Stan (old town) for the Christmas market there, and to go to some of the kitschy souvenir shops. We both bought some gifts for friends/family. After, we stopped at System Bolaget (the liquor store) and bought glögg (mulled wine), then went back to her house with Zoe and had glögg with pepparkakor. Then more of our friends came over and we made swedish pancakes with jam and drank wine and talked and danced. It was a lot of fun.

Gamla Stan Christmas market

Glögg!

Janie makin pankakor

ready for pancakes

Today my host family, Janie and I went to a chirstmas/advent concert at a church in Brottby (the church is over 800 years old, no big deal). It was mostly a choir, but there were also some songs with a bassoon, oboe, flute and saxophone. Then we went back to our house for fika. The boys were being really silly and fun. I'm going to miss them.

Also today I wrote 4 out of 11 pages on the perception of Immigrant women as "othered" in Swedish society as both an immigrant and a woman and the intersectional oppression and disregard for the persistent sexism in western society that creates! For my "women in swedish society" class. FUN FINALS.



In other news: I've been working on this sort-of photo project, which is just pictures of light in Sweden (some natural light, some holiday/artificial lights). Its been a lot of fun and makes me notice the times there is pretty light, which is good since it is dark so much. Here are two of my favorites from this week:

COMING UP:
My friend Miriam is coming to visit from Tuesday to Thursday this week.
FINALS! AH!
I'll be home in two weeks! WHAT!?

Advent fika

Today we went up to the small village of Herräng (see "A" on map), about an hour and a half north of Brottby (2hr 15 min north of stockholm), where Cajsa's mom lives, to have Advent fika and go to the Christmas market (Julbazar). It was pretty cold there and the snow was about up to our knees.

When we first got there we had glögg (mulled wine) and pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies). Then we had venison and potatoes for lunch before bundling up and walking to the chirstmas market. The sky there was SO beautiful, especially once the sun started to go down. After the market we went back to Cajsa's mom's for Advent fika with coffee, saffron buns, more pepparkakor and a cloudberry cake. It was jättegott!

For reference, I live in "Vallentuna"

pony rides at the market!

picking out ornaments

beautiful sunset (at 3pm) and lots of snow

Advent fika table

Thanksgiving i Sverige

Last night some of my friends and I put together a little thanksgiving feast at my friend Kat's host family's house. We each brought something and everything turned out SO WELL. Especially the turkey that kat made, which was so juicy and delicious it was hard to believe she had never made a turkey before. It was a beautiful table, filled with everything you need for thanksgiving: turkey, stuffing, gravy mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans (my contribution), salad, wine, and pumpkin pie!

Sunday is the first day of Advent (which is a bigger deal in Sweden than in the US), so we are going to Cajsa's moms house for the whole day, and going to a christmas market by her house. Jag är jätte excited.


A little update on what I've been up to since returning from vacation: 

We had a birthday dinner for my friend Janie at her host family's house. Her host mom made delicious food and we sang the Swedish birthday song when she brought in the äpplepaj for dessert.

My host family and I went to a D.I.F Hockey (the biggest Stockholm team) game, which the boys loved, especially since they got autographs from all the players after. Then we went out for gallets and crepes.

My friend Zoe and I made pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies), but since we didn't have cookie cutters we just made fun shapes, including viking ship, viking helmet, the swedish vowels (å, ä & ö), tre kronor (three crowns- a swedish symbol), rocket ship, saturn, our initials, and a bunch more. Our Swedish professor recommended eating them with blue cheese, which we did and it was delicious.

I had some of my friends over for a dinner at my house with my family. I made vegetable wellington and apple crisp for desert. It was a lot of fun.

School. Finals are coming up. Its starting to get a little stressful.