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.

Winter Break: Rome and Barcelona

Last week I was on winter break so I went to Rome and Barcelona with some friends from the program.

We left Stockholm on Sunday and after a little "flight canceled" incident, we arrived in Rome via Copenhagen. While in Rome we saw the Trevi fountain (in the day and at night), the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and Vatican City. Everything was gorgeous and so detailed it blew my mind.

Trevi Fountain

St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican

 While in Rome we also ate lots of pizza, pasta and gelato (7 times in 3 days...). And drank lots of wine. It was raining pretty much the whole time we were there, but it was okay, it was still a beautiful city.

As much as I loved Rome, Barcelona was by far my favorite place I have been in Europe. We saw a lot of the Gaudi designs (Casa Batlló, Sagrada Familia, Park Güell), which i loved, and got to go to the beach! We also went to this fantastic market and bought cactus fruit (because how many people can say they've eaten cactus?), and then a GIANT mango, bread, cheese, and wine for lunch. It was delicious. We did some less cultural but equally fun things as well, like went to Espit, a shots bar where they had hundreds of different shots, including Harry Potty and Boy Scouts, both of which included fire. It was pretty cool.

The only bad thing about Barcelona was that a lot of people kept trying to rip us off (cab drivers, waiters, etc.). It lead to a pretty frustrating last night there, but I think in general it was still a spectacular city and trip.

My favorite part was probably the veiw from the top of Park Güell, because you could see the whole city and the ocean in the distance.

Hanna and I in Park Güell with the city behind us

Janie and I at the beach

The cactus fruit we bought at the market

Casa Batlló

Sagrada Familia

Now I am back in Stockholm with only 5 weeks to go, 7 hours (or less) of sunlight per day and hopefully a few more adventures to come.

Halloween preparations

Today Mats bought a pumpkin at the store, so after dinner I taught them all how to carve it! They were pretty grossed out by the pumpkin guts, so they made me do that part, but then I helped Oliver draw on the eyes and Theodor draw on the nose and mouth and then cut it out for them. They were thrilled when it was done. They ran into their rooms and put on their costumes then turned out all the lights so the pumpkin would glow. Then I baked the pumpkin seeds with salt and they turned out delicious.

Halloween has really only been celebrated here for about the past 5 years, so the whole carving-pumpkins thing was new to my family. I'm glad I got to help them start a new tradition!



I never really updated much on my family beeing here, but it was great! We saw the Vasa (an 17th century swedish war ship that sunk minutes into its maiden voyage, but was taken out of the Baltic Sea in the 1960s and put in a museum), had many delicious dinners at Orwar and Marie's house, went to Skansen (an outdoor Scandinavian museum), had pancakes and pea soup (a Thursday tradition in Sweden) with my host family, and went on an archepelago tour that ended in the town of Vaxholm, where we got to do some shopping. Everything was so fun!

Rudberg Familj!

My family arrived yesterday! Saturday we attempted to go to the chocolate festival at Nordiska Museet but the line was SO LONG. So instead we walked around the city then went to Orwar and Marie's for a delicious dinner of salmon and homemade coffee ice cream for dessert! Today we went out to lunch and on a "Under the Bridges of Stockholm" boat tour with my host family. It was a gorgeous day and a fun tour. Then we went to Orwar and Marie's for dinner again, this time with their friends. It was a very traditional Swedish dinner with a salmon cake, herring, meatballs and strawberry-rhubarb pie for dessert. We also had Aquavit ( a swedish liquor) and sang Swedish drinking songs.

More fun things to come!

10-10-10 in Amsterdam

After spending a few days in Nantes, I hopped on the train to Amsterdam with my friends Zoe, Emily and Charlotte. Many people from Grinnell were meeting up there in honor of "10/10," which is the biggest party of the year at Grinnell and takes place on the Saturday closest to October 10th.

Over the next few days we toured the Anne Frank house (very interesting), went to the Van Gogh museum, went on a canal tour by boat, rented bikes and biked around the city (EVERYONE in Amsterdam bikes, I have never seen so many bikes/ such a bikable city), ate lots of stroopwafels, went to an outdoor market, and partied with cool people, mostly Grinnellians.

The red-light district was a very strange place to see, and somewhat frightening. In some areas it was just a narrow alley and the doors with the red lights and girls looking for customers were literally inches away. The existence of "coffee shops" and the whole marijuana culture was also very interesting. That's all I will say about that...

Anne Frank house (middle)

"homomonument"- one of the few monuments to homosexual people in the world

on the left is the symbol for Amsterdam (from their flag)- they do love bikes!

"Travel Hotel"- our hostel, with a private room. Just outside the red-light district

The whole city is made up of canals- So pretty!

Me on a bike

Amelia et Laura à Paris!

This week I am on fall break, and I spent the first weekend in Paris, with my friend Laura from Grinnell, who is studying in Nantes, France. I got there Saturday morning and we met up, then went to the Eiffel Tower (not up it, just saw it, it was too cloudy to see much from the top), the Champs Elysées, and the Arc de Triomphe. Then we picked up a baguette, cheese, wine and chocolate and had a little picnic in a park right next to the Arc de Triomphe. There we met our friend Ria, who graduated from Grinnell this past spring and has spent the past month traveling around Europe.

Laura and me in front of La Tour Eiffel

Ria, me and Laura in front of L'arc de Triomphe

Champs Elysées (notice- no lanes!!)

After our picnic we tried to check into our hostel, but there had been a problem with confirming it, so they set us up in a hotel down the street for the same price and Laura and I got our own room with a sink and a shower! Great deal.


Then the three of us went and got more cheese, bread, wine and chocolate and sat in the park by the Eiffel Tower and ate dinner/talked, and at 8:59 the tower started sparkling! (It is lit up throughout the night but sparkles at a minute before every hour for 5 minutes.) It was beautiful!

We decided to get a better view, so we went to the gardens of Trocadero, which is across the seine but has a great view of the tower. There we heard live music (it was "Nuit Blanche"- a culture festival in Paris), and saw the tower sparkle again!

The sparkling Eiffel Tower from Trocadero

The next day Laura and I had pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) for breakfast and went to the Musée D'Orsay, which was spectacular because I love impressionist/post-impressionist art. After that we went to the Obelesque, met up with Ria and had lunch at a café near by. Laura and I didn't want to wait in line for the Louvre because it takes hours, but we went there anyway to see the glass pyramid.

We tried to go to the Grand Palais to see their Monet exhibit, but it was 23€ (over 30 dollars), so instead we split a banana and nutella crèpe in the park before we had to leave for the train.

After a 2 hour train ride we were in Nantes (west coast of France). I am staying with Laura's host family here. They have 4 kids (3 girls age 12, 10 and 5 and a 7 year old boy). They are all lots of fun. Last night we made sweet potato turnovers for them, and the kids all helped. Timothé had a clever idea to prevent crying while cutting onions...

I'm looking forward to spending two more days here, then it's off to Amsterdam! 


(p.s. these are all Laura's pictures, because I didn't bring my camera cord. You can read more about her France adventures at www.lockwoodinfrance.blogspot.com)