Christmas Update

Well Christmas Eve turned out to be really nice! The family exchanged presents, and I was expecting to just get a few from Jonas' sisters and one from his mom... but they really included me and gave me quite a lot! It was nice doing it at night because it went much slower, and each gift was really examined and appreciated. The rhyming was fun too... trying to guess what each present was. Of course, I didn't get any of the rhymes in Swedish. Anyway here is a summary of some of the gifts I was given:

A super cute cupcake tin with cute cupcake ingredients
Cute knee high white fashion socks
Body Shoppe bath set
Best American Cookbook (in Swedish lol)
Shimmery body lotion
The nighty I mentioned already
Tea
And Jonas' grandma gave us money! which I hope to spend in Berlin

Anyway after presents we had desserts and played a fun card game... although it was in Swedish I was pretty good! Came in second :)

Today I'm skyping with Matt and my family... I am looking forward to both! Thank you everyone for my Christmas wishes!

God Jul and Merry Christmas!!

Hi everyone! So I have been in Bastad since Sunday after I took my last exam. Jonas and I had a very interesting bus ride from Jonkoping to his moms. We sat in front of this guy who was making these weird grunts and nasal noses... WHILE he was saying 'satanic' chants... needless to say it was a strange beginning to this holiday break.

Yesterday we put up all the Christmas decorations, which is typical to do the day before (not the day after Thanksgiving like we do!). Jonas and I trimmed the Christmas tree and made a gingerbread house which is on display (pictures to come later).

So today is Christmas in Sweden, or they at least celebrate today. So the festivities started by watching a very old Disney Christmas special that is aired every year. It had all the happy clips from movies like... Cinderella, Robin Hood, Lady and the Tramp, Jungle Book, short Mickey and Donald Duck clips... and the list goes on and on. It was funny because they have dubbed all the cartoons in Swedish, which they usually don't do. We had a Christmas fika while we watched. Next I helped prepare the Julbord (Christmas table, with all the food for dinner) The dinner was in stages and here is what we ate that I can remember (well, what was on the table... I didn't eat everything) Round one: Herring (in many different forms) and crisp bread, red beet salad, cheeses, sausages... Round two: Salad, shrimp, thin salmon (looked raw, didn't eat it) weird eggs... probably more that I'm not messaging and Round three: meatballs, ham, yummy apples, special potatoes, sausage and who knows what else! Anyway, I've been very selective of what I eat these past few weeks in preparation for the wedding and super small jacket I have to fit into! So my dinner really was... shrimp salad, apples, a taste of herring and a piece of bread. VERY EXCITING I KNOW!

Now we are preparing to exchange gifts... so I will have to update more later. But as of now... Anna showed me the gift she got me, a very cute nightie, but she wasn't sure if I'd want to open that in front of everyone else! One tradition is you give a rhythm along with the gift to the person it is for, kind of as a clue.

I will write more as I experience more. I miss home very much and Christmas is no where near the same!! I love you all and hope you're having a very merry time with family and friends. See you in 16 days!!

Luke and Lincs Talky Blog

Hey :) so Luke and Linc (two friends from home) have a video blog that they update each Thursday. They have a goal of getting 100 followers by New Years, please follow their blog and help me help them!

http://lukelinc.blogspot.com/2009/12/talky-blog-sette.html

festive weekend

Hello all :)

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday preparations, I miss Christmas shopping and ugly sweater parties. (Yes they have Christmas, but I'm low on the cash flow so I'M not Christmas shopping, and I've thrown too many events at my apartment the past month to throw an ugly sweater party). Anyway, I had a pretty enjoyable weekend. On Friday a group of people went to Harry's (my work) for 'after work' a free dinner buffet and then we headed over to Joel and Amanda's apartment (Joel... Tommy Lee from Bday party) to watch the Swedish Idol finale. Apparently their final is the largest in the world. It was pretty good, the guy I thought would win did. The song that was the winners first single was pretty good. I don't know if this link will work in the States... but check it out: http://www.tv4play.se/noje_och_humor/idol?videoId=1.1390994

Okay I think its really good!! And don't be alarmed by his tight skinny leather pants and blonde hair, its normal here. LOL but anyway while we were waiting for the results to be announced we were switching between that and the Noble Peace Concert being hosted by the Smith family (as in Will Smith's family) that was really good too! I also was able to watch President Obama give his acceptance speech will receiving the Noble Peace Prize. I'm not sure if they aired that at home or not... but it gave me pride to watch :)

So today is 'Lucia,' I woke up at 7am (keep in mind I went to bed after 3am after work) to watch the ceremony. I had to ask Caroline (because Jonas couldn't really tell me) who she was. Lucia was a Christian in Italy (so why is she being celebrated in Sweden... I wondered the same thing) who helped the poor. Anyway she was persucuted for her beliefs and burned at a stake and stabbed. So now she is portrayed wearing a headpiece of candles to represent the flames and wears a red sash around her white robes for the blood from the stab... yaaa so anyway she is accompanied by a choir (all holding candles) in a church while she enters walking through praying. Anyway I was told it was really nice... but it was kinda boring and early... I also went to church with Caroline and her parents who were visiting and another girl. I had to wear a goofy translation headpiece so I could understand the sermon. The guy was sitting two spots away from me so I was joking with Caroline that he should just whisper in my ear... LOL yes, I was the only English speaker there. But it was cool to attend a foreign service.

Well its finals week (like the rest of you) and its gunna suck. Good luck everyone, I miss you and love you! See you soon!!

Hipp Hipp Sopa

Kat, dad, anyone who I can usually get a laugh from... this is for you:

If I haven't already mentioned the worst part of my job... it's when we have to sweep all the trash from outside of the club (cigarette buds, napkins, hot dog chunks, beer cans). So Saturday night, myself and two of my fellow closet coworkers were outside sweeping and 4 times, 4 times, a van full of drunk people drove past us yelling.... "oooooooooooooh sopa!" I didn't really get it and finally after the fourth time Sophie and Alex explained that in Swedish the word 'sopa' means both 'sweep' and 'suck' as in... you suck. Get it? It's based off a comedy clip...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUE08pltk1s

I actually thought it was hilarious and I hope you guys do too. Enjoy my humility in Sweden. LOL

Celebrations.

Hi everyone! Well to begin, today has been one year since Jonas and I met... awwww. And how are we celebrating?? He's taking me to New Moon!!! But as most of you know... my birthday was Friday! I had a really great day, but it still didn't top last year, which I got to spend with so many people who I know care about me :) Jonas took good care of me all day. He surprised me with Ugg boots that I didn't even ask for (but NO girl complains about getting Uggs)! The first thing I thought of was Melissa and Kat, I feel like I can officially be in the club haha. The only problem is... his friend had them imported for me, and they are a size too big... but its the thought that counts and better too big than too small! He also got me a tanning gift card which I really appreciate, especially since I want to have some color for Whitney's wedding! We went out for a nice lunch... and then got ready for the 'Born in the USA party!' If you haven't seen the pictures yet, the idea was that everyone dressed up as their favorite American! I was really impressed with the effort. I created a 'American Goodie Bag' with treats from the states for the best costume (it was a twix bar, pringles, oreos and budweiser) The top three costumes were: Tommy Lee, Risky Business Tom Cruise, and Phoquin Phoenix. It was really funny because during this part everyone was really loud with ooohs and ahhhs and cheering after everything I said. But the winner was Tommy Lee, our friend Joel who had actually bought parts of his costume off the internet (annnd not to mention he had a sock in his pants... you get the idea) so his effort was rewarded and he shared his treats with the party. The apartment was packed with about 30 people, so it was crazy. A lot of people baked treats... a cheesecake, a peanut butter chocolate brownie cake (please her heart) a huge gingerbread cookie with birthday message and I made 30 cupcakes (without muffin tins... so they were every shape EXCEPT round lol) and it was all eaten! Not by me lol. After hanging out for a while, we headed to the student pub which was open for a special night. Usually they are only opened Wednesdays.

Like I said, I really enjoyed my birthday but last year meant so much to me. Almost every night that week, I spent with close friends celebrating. I just really miss you all and can't wait to see you in 5 weeks :) :) :)

Oh I should also thank Kelly for sending me a package in the mail, and my mom... but I'm still irritated because one of my mom's packages didn't arrive. Some of the girls at the party said it was probably because she put food in there... hopefully it will come tomorrow.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Puss och Kram, Alyson

YUCK!!! thanks enrique for the link!

Here is an article from an online Swedish newspaper written in English. My friend Enrique posted this on his facebook page. Stockholm is much more north than where I am, so our city has been even gloomier!!!

Stockholm suffers nearly sunless November

Published: 30 Nov 09 16:02 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/23568/20091130/

The month of November was one of the gloomiest on record in Stockholm, meteorologists said on Monday, as the Swedish capital registered only 17.5 hours of sunlight for the entire month.

The sun shone on average for only 35 minutes a day during the month, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) said.

In the past quarter-century, only the years 2000 and 1993 had darker months of November, with eight and nine hours of golden rays respectively, while the average for the month is 54 hours.

Because clouds trap heat and prevent clear skies and crisp temperatures, November 2009 was also one of the warmest Novembers in 25 years.

The average temperature in Stockholm was 5.6 degrees Celsius (42 Fahrenheit), compared to an average of 2.9 degrees over the past 25 years. Only the year 2000 was warmer at 7.0 degrees.

Stockholm, one of the northernmost capitals in the world, also has less sunshine in November because of the shorter daylight period, with around seven hours of daylight in November.

By contrast Sweden has long sunny days during the summer months, on average 292 hours of sunshine in June and 260 hours in July.

Thanksgiving 2.0

Last night a classmate of Jonas' (Anna) threw her own Thanksgiving dinner. She lived in the States and Thailand for a while and said she learned from the Thais the important of tradition (Thai people celebrate all holidays, kinda like us... cinco de mayo anyone?) Anyway, she did an awesome job! While she was cooking she had arranged a scavenger hunt for us! We were in 4 teams. Each destination had an envelope with a task. And then we had a list of things we could do for extra points (example, take a picture with the whole team on a swing, with a dog, with an old lady over 75) The first task was to make a turkey mask and take a picture with 3 strangers wearing it LOL then some of the other tasks were puzzles or questions. One task was we had to write a Haiku, well 3rd grade with Mrs. Fedoroff came flooding back to the Haiku poems we had to write, 5 syllabls, 7, 5. BOOM. We were the ONLY group that knew what a proper Haiku poem was :)

Here is the picture we had to write a Haiku about:

Big Bird's friends betrayed
On the table he was slayed
A good meal was made

Needless to say, OUR GROUP WON!! It felt pretty good because another girl in another group was talking a lot of trash and was pretty competitive (like me haha).

Here are some other highlights of the game:

Asking people to wear the turkey mask. Swedes are very very shy/reserved (until they are drunk) and so we could only get Asian exchange students at the bus stop to do it haha and even that was a challenge, but hilarious.

Second, when we asked an old lady to take a picture with us (well only one of our team mates could ask in Swedish) she told us no, and I still wasn't sure why, but I think she said she was scared. BUT for the points I still took a picture of her LMAO "its all about the competition!"

Highlights of the dinner: TURKEY AND PUMPKIN PIE!!! I think I mentioned in my last blog that the turkey was too expensive for us to buy, but Anna is a baller and bought enough Turkey and chicken to last a week... seriously. And another American there is married to a Swedish girl (its a very cute story: David studied as an exchange student here 2 years ago and Kiki his wife was his 'host Swede' meaning she was his contact person in Sweden to help him if he needed it, and now they're married!) Anyway he still lives in the States, shes working on getting her visa, but HE BROUGHT CANNED PUMPKIN from home!!! Did I mention in the last blog I went to 4 stores (5 if you include the Asian food store LOL) looking for pumpkin, but they don't sell it. So I was so so happy that there was a real pumpkin pie with whipped cream!

Happy Turkey... (i mean Chicken) Day!

Well I need to update my blog, don't I?! Before this past week I didn't feel like I had much to write about... now I have too much. Lets start with last Wednesday. Jonas and I participated in a dodgeball tournament. It was a ton of fun. Each of the teams dressed in a theme, ours was pretty lame... but others were really funny. Jonas dressed up as Bjorn Borg (famous Swedish tennis player) and then a few of us dressed up as tennis players or wore shirts saying "I love Bjorn Borg" The other team were.... the nerds, hulk hogans, Christmas themed, ninjas, 80s aerobic, and the frenchmen. Our team was undefeated! But at the game for the winner we lost. Then we had a catered pasta dinner after :)

Alright, now to talk about the past two days. As many of you know... I booked a ticket home! :) I really need a trip home to see everyone to keep me going here. I'm pretty lonely here... and I only think its because I left SO SO many amazing friends back home! So I fly into Detroit Jan 7th. Buuuut On Jan 9th I am going to be the MOH in one of my best friend Whitney's wedding in Tennessee. So I'll officially be back in town the 10th through the 21st! I have so many things I'm excited about; besides the wedding, there is the Deephers 20th anniversary party and Kellys sister, who is like family, is having her baby in December!! So I think its going to be a great great visit.

So yesterday was Thanksgiving! I know everyone loves Thanksgiving, but isn't it the same every year? Ya usually. That's why I think yesterday was so so special for me. I planned a huge dinner and had 8 people join me. Jonas helped me go shopping for all the food on Monday, and on Tuesday I created a 'Thanksgiving Game Plan' which I was teased about yesterday haha! But I had to so I could pull the dinner off!

Here is the menu:
Whole Chicken (the turkey was really expensive!)
Mashed potatoes
Campbell's green bean casserole
Candied carrots
Reeve family rolls
Jello with whipped cream
Swedish apple pie w/ Häagen-Dazs and vanilla sauce (made by Krister, so so good!)
Chocolate chip, cranberry oatmeal cookies

It all turned out really good! I was especially happy that I was able to make my family's dinner rolls that we have at every holiday. Usually my grandma, aunt or mom makes them, never me! And I've heard many horror stories of them not working out. And the best feeling was when I pulled the rolls out of the oven and it smelled like home. I've never experienced that before. It really was special! I felt just as happy for Krister who had never baked ANYTHING before and made a huge amazing Swedish apple pie. Our family always has jello with our holiday meals for fun. The adults eat the fancy gelatin and us kids always ate the flavored jello with whip cream. So I tried to make jello for my meal... strange enough they call it 'jelly' here in Europe and it wasn't as firm as Jello from home. So it kindof turned into a big joke at dinner. Anyway it was a really great night of food, football (Krister has NFL ticket so we streamed it live) and Beatles RockBand. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

11 months <3

Hi, sooo cold and wet here. Today Jonas and I went out for a nice lunch to celebrate our 11 months... just so weird how much time has passed... and how far life takes us. Update, I did get that project leader position and now of course I feel like I might be in over my head :( I was going to attend the boys poker party tonight, but instead I picked up a shift at work... I need every kronor I can make, so can't say no when opportunity is there! Alright, time to watch the Office and relax as much as I can before work.

Oj!

Oj! Its my new curse... so its strange to adapt to this culture... the more I learn the language and the people, the more I'm changing. NOW instead of saying Oh! or Oops! I say Oj! (which is Swedish.. its pronounced... like ahoy! without the 'aha') Oh brother... (or maybe I should write oj brother, hehe).

Anyway, here are a few updates. So remember that student paper I sent my 100 words to, for that 'handsome prize,' well they published my story and picture (yay!) BUT NO WORD ON THE PRIZE YET!! I feel silly asking for it LOL what do you suggest I do?? I also forgot to blog about my first grade. The class that I took the 4 hour exam for... I got a B on the exam aka my grade in the class. Normally I'd be a little disappointed with this... but NO ONE got an A and there were only 2 B's, mine being one of them. SOOO under those conditions I was pretty happy! And with the Swedish system, a B also earns me 'high distinction' in the class. I'll find out my other grade in 2 weeks... kinda a long time to wait...

In an hour and half I have an interview for this position as the project manager for the Spring Ball 2010 for school. Its strange because I've had a few people already tell me they wanted me (they being the Student Union) for the position, but it seems like a few people are interviewing... so we'll see. I also think I'm going to e-mail this girl I met about helping with this huge Swedish Fashion Show our school puts on.

Anyway, today has been one of those days that I wish I was home... I wonder if this place will ever feel like home.

Hawaii and Haircuts

Hi everyone! Missing you lots. Its strange... some days I'm really content here, but then in an instant I just want to be home. But one thing that has helped these days is I bought a gym membership... yaaa I splurged, but I need it! So guess what I've learned since joining... all of the good looking guys in Sweden have been hiding there. Yoowza, there are some super hotties at my gym! Its actually a little extra motivator! The past few days I've been going at night... the sun is set by 5pm, like really dark. You know you're on the other side of the world when the moon and north star is shining at 4:30pm. Anyway I hope I can stay motivated and get in better shape!

Well yesterday was Ander's birthday. Judith had asked me if I'd help her with a party for him. We gathered some of his friends to surprise him. He thought he was just coming over for cards and cake... but we had a whole Hawaiian themed party planned! The theme was in honor of Anders since he studied in Hawaii and because its getting so dark here. What we did: made mini Hawaiian pizzas for everyone, some Swedish treat... Meringue Swiss (ice cream, banana slices, chocolate sauce, whipped cream (always homemade!!), and some candied meringue stuff), tropical cake, punch and maybe the highlight... a trivia game we made about Hawaii. We made two teams... and had the boys wear my bikini tops... just for the fun of it. They were really good sports and it was a ton of fun. I have pictures but swore not to ever put them online haha.

I feel awful and guilty about something. I once dated a guy whose mom cut his hair. Ever since then... I really believed that I could cut a mans hair. Never had I been given the opportunity until today. Chris knew I'd never cut hair before but totally said I could try to cut his. OMG NEVER EVER EVER! think you can cut hair!!! I sucked. Luckily his cut turned out okay... except I kinda messed up the back... a little short and crooked, I feel so bad about it! He didn't seem upset... he knew what he was up against. Ugh anyway, lesson learned. Never touching the scissors again! And I advise the same to all of you.

Public Transportation

Hej! Soon enough I will be able to write this blog in Swedish... bahahah I wish! But I did have my first OFFICIAL Swedish lesson today... too bad I didn't learn much since its basics that I've known for awhile... but hopefully soon :)

Anyway, Tuesday I got fika with Jake... we had a nice time and then I had to venture to town to buy a bus card. It is much cheaper to travel if you buy one, buuut I've been avoiding it since I don't like to pay to go on the bus... and only like going places that are in walking distance (which doesn't include Caroline's place... which is where I was going). Anyway, I couldn't find the desk to buy the card, so I went into 'Tourist Info' A disclaimer: In Sweden ALL lines(Banks... Bakeries...Post Office) are regulated by what they call 'Que' Ya know, you take a ticket with a number and have to wait til your ticket is called. Okay, I know its not a difficult process, but its a big thing here. So anyway I knew I needed to take a ticket to be helped at this tourist place... So I hit the button and no ticket. So I hit the button again (of course, why wouldn't I lol) and then the machine started making a gurgling noise... hah. So (without a ticket) I asked the man at the desk my question. Then when I was about to leave... I pretended to not be sure... "Uh I think your Que machine is broke." LOL and THIS is why I am going on about this... he replies, "Is that what you call... Sabotage?" WHAT?! LOL I don't even know what I said back, but I know I was laughing.... those darn Swedes...

Okay... so Tuesday was a victorious day because I made it across the city by myself using public transportation... got on the right bus and made it to Caroline's!! We had a really nice time catching up (its been awhile due to exams, the mini break we had...) But I would like to document the events that happened during my attempt to get home. First, I RAN to the bus stop because I saw the bus coming in the distance... DID.NOT.MAKE.IT. Ugh. No big deal, it comes every 10 minutes. Sooo then at the stop I was alone with this punk ass 12 year old kid (looked like he should have had a skateboard or something) but I started to really take notice of him because he kept SPITTING. It was really weird, I kept hearing him spit... so I actually started to count how long it was between each spit LOL on average he spit every 20 seconds... pretty OCD if you ask me. Hah.. so now the bus has arrived and I want to grab a seat upfront so I can see the sign that says which stop we were at so I wouldn't miss mine (on the first trip I was in the back, and people were standing so I couldn't see...) So I grab a seat right up front, and even asked the lady if I could sit next to her. Swedes have space issues and if possible, DON'T like sitting next to strangers (I will write my train story after). So I sit, then after the next stop as people were getting on, her and the man I was also sitting by got up and moved seats! I couldn't believe it, were they leaving because of me? Well, two elderly people sat next to me instead and I didn't know if I should stay or not... I felt like I was in THEIR space... oh and guess what... I was. A few stops later I noticed a sign that implied the seats were for old and pregnant people... LOL ooh so that's why those people moved... and I did not. I felt like a jack ass. Anyway, those are my bus adventures... just call me Rosa Parks.

(Train story... When I first arrived in Sweden, at the Stockholm airport I got on the Arlanda express that took me from the airport to the next train station and sat next to a girl my age. Um, she GOT UP and relocated. This all happened BEFORE I realized you don't sit next to a Swede if you don't have to...)

Well there you have it... I might go to movie trivia tonight, work tomorrow and a party Saturday... hopefully more stories later. OH and enjoy these lovely pictures I took from my kitchen window.

Week from Hell.

Well, its been one hell of a week... and not in a good way. I survived the hours and hours of studying, the 4 hour exam I took on Wednesday and the 12 hours it took me to write my paper that was due Friday. SO I survived it all, and you would think I could enjoy my mini break before classes started back up.. but nope. Due to unforeseen circumstances a certain someone has kept me teary eyed all weekend. Not to mention I have a cold and feel like crap. Well I get to Skype with my best friends from home... so hopefully that will make me feel better. Hopefully I'll have a more enthusiastic update next time. Until then... Puss och Kram (Kisses and Hugs)

BERLIN.NAKEDSWEDES.HARRYS

1. Biggest update: If you haven't read on Facebook already, I'm spending new years in BERLIN!!! I am really excited! Its going to perfect; I'm spending it with some of my closest friends here. Going is; me, Jonas, Chris, Anders and of course Judith (she lives there)! I am excited to meet her friends... and little did I know, Berlin hosts an outdoor party bigger than NY! We will arrive the 29th and come home the 3rd. Before and after that we plan on spending the holidays with Jonas' family.

2. Weird update: So yesterday I worked out at the gym (thanks to Caroline lending me her gym card). Usually I go home to shower, but on this occasion I had to get to class after (last class of the term!) so I needed to shower there. Okay, none of the showers had curtains and I got an eyeful of naked Swedish women! Okay, I know its not that big of a deal... but I thought groups of naked women showering like that only happened in movies from the 70's (prime example, the horror film Carrie. That opening scene scarred me for life!) It was definitely worst that showering at the field house haha. I made my way to the back showers where no one was and privately showered alone. I know, I'm such a prude.

3. Sorority update: My sexy friend from Greece and I were talking about our Greek system. He didn't seem to know much, but I was rambling off the alphabet and talking about our sorority, Delta Phi Epsilon. Well guess what ladies... according to the authentic Greek... our sorority is pronounced Thelta Fee Epsilon haha imagine singing our cheers the that... not so good! (D is for Thelta.... hahaha) Anyway I thought maybe some of you would get a kick out of that.

4. Work update: So I worked 10 hours last night, and I have another 5 tonight. I'm not complaining because I need the hours... but last night was definitely eventful. Let me share the highlights.
-Two foreign business men offered to take me on the grand tour of Jonkoping, no thanks.
-A guy told me I look like Scarlett Johansson. It is my favorite compliment and no one has told me that in a long time so I told him it made my night. Well he kept coming back... insisting to surrounding customers that I looked like Scarlet. Then he publicly asked for my phone number, I declined and explained I have a BF. He then started involving an older drunk woman in our conversation who proceed in grabbing my face and bringing it close to hers examining it and telling me how cute it was. YIKES. Uncomfortable. So now the guy asked me if I wanted HIS number in case things didn't work out with my bf (only calling me Scarlett). I declined again and he left, ONLY to come back one more time and try the whole thing over again, WOW it was exhausting.

BEST HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT!
So there was this French guy in my class that I wanted to blog about, but that's kinda weird since I didn't really have anything to say. But he is exactly what you would expect a hot french guy to look like. His accent is super thick (I'm not a fan of French accents) BUT he is some nice French eye candy. Okay, well he came into the pub last night. I think we had only exchanged words our first day of class together (something like, "Excuse me" haha) but when he saw me working he was like... "You work here!? Does that mean I get to hang my coat for free?" Alright cute Frenchie just because we were classmates and you're hot doesn't mean I'm going to hook it up. So I told him no and asked him "Do you even know my name? (playfully, I wasn't bitchy) and after he paused for a moment, in the most exotic pronunciation of my name he goes... Aly-zon! Well my heart melted for a second and then his friend goes, "Well what is HIS name?" And in my best French impersonation I replied. Jzeremy! Well they all thought it was a riot and paid for their jackets and before he left Jeremy asked, "Well may I give you a kiss for free?" AHHHH so I let him kiss me on the check and was giddy for a few minutes haha. He came back a few times, and when he left gave me an intense Frenchmen stare. I think they teach those boys how to woo women. Aren't they known for that?! Well he did good. HAHA

Well I have to study basically from now until Wednesday. Wish me luck, miss you all!

Hinez verses Euroshopper!!

Mom, you may or may not appreciate this... but I must claim defeat. After doing a taste test I am admitting that Hinez ketchup IS better than Euro Shopper brand :( For those of you confused, let me fill you in. So at the grocery store Hinez Ketchup costs about 35SEK ($7... YES $7). The nice, cheaper alternative... Euro Shopper costs 8SEK (just over $1) so OF COURSE I refused to buy Hinez, but was repremanded by Jonas that Euro Shopper sucked. Well, we were at a discount store and found some Hinez Ketchup for about $3 (OH HAPPY DAY!) so I suggested we get some since Jonas has been suffering due to the cheap ketchup. And let me tell you... from the moment it hit my lips, i knew, that it was a superior ketchup. But, although I am admitting defeat, I refuse to pay $7 for ketchup and so Euro Shopper will still be my brand of choice :)

Alright, enough of that. The student paper JUNITED sent an offer for students to write about a "culture shock" since arriving which would then be featured in the paper. Sure that would be cool, but I was intrigued by the promise of... "best entry receives a handsome prize." Handsome prize?! That term is only used on game shows... so I had to take the chance in finding out what the student Swedish paper considers a handsome prize. I tried reviewing my blog for good ideas, but none that I thought was good enough to compete. So I wrote a story from my first visit to Sweden.... here it is!!

"Since arriving in Jonkoping, my Swedish friends have been raving about Max burgers. The evening came when we were finally going to treat ourselves to this highly praised meal. My friend Anders has a car, but instead the guys informed me we were going to walk 30 minutes to get there. I am from the States, so walking 30 minutes to get anywhere, especially fast food sounded like a long time! Not only that, I was surprised that Max is conscious of their carbon emissions and plant trees to offset the effect. Now that’s a breath of fresh air, literally!"

It could only be 100 words, but I hope I win!! Other than that... I should be studying for my final exam or working on my final paper. I'll get around to it, what I really want to do is watch Hocus Pocus tonight! Well I want to wish Kat a happy 21st birthday on the blog :) I hope you had a great day (yesterday)!

HAPPY NATIONAL CINNAMON BUN DAY!

Well today is national cinnamon bun (kanelbulle) day here in Sweden. Has this made headlines all over the news and papers... I wouldn't know :) but it seems to be a pretty well known 'holiday' here. Jonas and I took a walk today (to be described later) and tried to find an open bakery... but they were closed. Do they not want to capitalize on this day devoted to the nations favorite baked good!? So instead of eating a cinnamon bun, I'm lighting my cinnamon bun scented candle from IKEA, that's pretty patriotic.

So this walk... the afternoon looked like a sunny autumn day. We decided to take a walk around the lake. We stopped in my favorite imitation dollar store (ö&b.. i call it an imitation because everything is U.S. dollar store quality, but normal priced!) When we left, it was pouring out! The store is about a 35 minute walk away... we tried to wait out the rain a bit... but finally decided to head out. Bad idea. I had my scarf (you always have to wear a fashion scarf in Sweden, its like country dress code) wrapped around my head like an old Russian grandma and tried to bear the weather. Okay, my face was freezing and we had to walk around the lake to get home... which is the worst place to be when its bad weather because its colder there and the wind is even more intense. Needless to say I was a baby and pretended like we were never going to make it back. As you can see from this blog, we did.

Good news everyone. Starting at the end of the month I will begin a Swedish course. I hope I learn more than I already know (because I've learned quite a bit on my own.) I also hope that they offer more than just this introduction course for us and that I can get into higher levels later. Oh, I'm almost done with my first 2 classes. Just 1 presentation, 1 paper and 1 exam. Yay!

Okay Jonas and I are about to watch District 9... have a good week!

IDOL UPDATE

i thought this was soo embarrassing... so right now they are in the semi finals of Idol. So the Swedish Ryan Seacrest announced the name of the girl going through to the next round. BUT the girl who lost, thought that he was announcing the name of the girl who lost... so she starts screaming, hugging the other girl joyously and jumping around, EVEN HUGS the ryan seacrest wannabe... and on live television he has to tell her she lost. OMG so embarrassing. And think of this, it was all in Swedish and even I felt the horror of this moment. Oh my oh my. Well she can always make it through during the Wild Card round!!

House music sucks.

Hi!

So last night Elin and I walked 45 minutes to Caroline's house. Her friend Sybil was visiting from Switzerland and they were preparing a girls night dinner for us! We decided to get some exercise before hand... ya know so we could have an extra portion. The walk wasn't bad, but then we couldn't find her place in the dark... and it was starting to rain. Anyway dinner was REALLY good... seafood pasta (Kel, if it had been spicier it would have been like our pasta from Bahama Breeze!!) With swiss chocolates and mousse for dessert, yum yum! Sybil was super sweet and I was happy to meet her. It made me want to go to Switzerland... or drink some Swiss Miss (jk). After dinner Caroline, Sybil and I went to the student pub for some dancing. Yaaa the DJs sucked. And everyone dancing sucked. Hah, I just think everyone was super drunk and were partaking in some serious dance moves... throwing elbows and trying to break dance. There was was a guy who was super flamboyant (not common here) wearing a dress and crazy high high heels... which he stepped on me with... OUCH. Possible highlight of the night, when I look up and one of the duo of crappy DJs (they were playing 'house music' aka similar to techno) WAS PLAYING A JAZZ FLUTE. bahahaha I started thinking of Anchorman... and just giggled at the idea.

Sooo tonight 'everyone' is going to Club Caj to see this "world famous DJ" perform (Joachim Garraud). I was planning on staying home, especially since I went out last night... BUT just to make sure I wasn't making a mistake, I looked up a video of him. BOOOO more HOUSE MUSIC, yuck. I just don't know how people can enjoy dancing to it! So here I am, kinda watching Swedish Idol and about to watch The Time Travelers Wife and eat some Reese's Pieces sent from home. Waaay better. Missing friends/home more than usual today, MWAH... love you all.

PB Capt Crunch tastes better in Sweden

I'd like to give a shout out to Jenna, Elin, Kristor and Adrianna (newest people I've learned are following my blog)

But today is a great day! I was woken up by the doorbell and I got to sign for TWO packages from home!! One box was basically filled with snacks...

PB Capt Crunch
Special K bars
Granola Bars
Instant Pudding
Kraft Mac and Cheese
Vanilla Extract
Non fat cooking spray
Reese's Pieces
Peanut Butter Cups
(amazing so far right!?)

And the other stuff I got was...
Tights from Target
Stationary
the DVD left behind that Kelly made me
Halloween Decorations (I already hung the Scarecrow wreath on my door mom!)
Self Magazine
Baking cups (for muffins)
Measuring cups (for AMERICAN recipes, none of this deciliter stuff anymore!)
Microwavable Wax... because Nair just isn't cutting it!
Beauty products (liquid foundation, Stridex pads, eye makeup remover!!)
And I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff, but it was like Christmas!!

THANKS AGAIN MOM!

Friday night people came over... I thought it was mainly gunna be guys from Jonas' program... but a few girls showed up too, so it was a good time. Judith made this snacks for the party LOL and she basically just took ingredients lying around Anders apartment... ham, cheese, crackers... and made these little 'German ham puffs' or thats what I started calling them anyway. One of the guys that I met that came over was from Boston (all american... but hes half swedish) He totally loved my pumpkins... and understood my love/need for the fall decorations. So he took us to this chill lounge with laid back music that changes each night... so not your typical swedish hang out, but i liked it.

Saturday night I got more tips than usual from the Swedes... and two of them were because I was confusing them... hah so they tipped me because they felt bad? Not sure... but this other guy gave me 100 kronor ($15) for getting his phone out of his coat for him... VERY NIIICE!

So lets see, Sunday Jonas' mom and husband were stopping by, so we all got together for dinner. It was her birthday so I made some zucchini bread... it was very tasty! I started watching a new TV serious from back home, Vampire Diaries. It is a total rip off from Twilight... but its a new guilty pleasure! Classes are just about done for Autumn 1. I just have one group project, a paper and an exam... easy breezy. Tonight we are having dinner at Caroline's and I'll get to meet her good friend Sybil from Switzerland. THATS IT. Miss everyone back home, hope you're enjoying the fall weather and Happy October tomorrow.

Pumpkins and Pie Charts

Monday night we went to Ikea for a date night. Who doesn't love $2 meatballs and cheap Scandinavian designs :) I am now a proud owner of the perfect dendrobium orchid (Caroline, we have to water when you get back from Stockholm!!) Poor Jonas, it took me at least 15 minutes to pick it out... and then right before check out we came to a new selection, and I spent another 15 minutes and switched plants.





Here is a picture of the super talented pumpkins I made since 1. I can't afford cute fall decor and 2. since they don't really sell it here anyway.










Here is a pie chart of how the 2009 international students break down (at my school). There were about 1000 new international students. Go North America!


As promised... two funny memories, and oops they arent from recruitment but initiation...

When Natalie broke the clothes hamper during her skit (winter initiation) and I started laughing inappropriately. and couldnt stop.

My discussion with Kat about peeing in the field house showers and picking noses... fall 2008

I wish it was October.

Things that made me happy this weekend:

-Taco buffet at the student pub w/ all my good friends
-The sun still shining, although its supposed to be cold/dark outside
-The joy on Chris and Anders face when I offered them homemade kladdkaka (Swedish brownies) when they came over to borrow a basketball.
- Extremely long facebook messages with Melissa
-When Judith kept coming to talk to me when I was working in the coatroom, but then would run off not to get me in trouble
-My debate with Jonas whether the 'pizza' we made was really pizza or a hamburger pot pie
-Talking on the phone with Kelly
-Getting an e-mail about my Swedish ancestor Celia (see below)

Things that made me sad this weekend:

-Realizing again, I am supposed to be Whitneys Maid of Honor, and cant afford to get to the wedding
- Being yelled at by drunk Swedish people wanting their coats
- Knowing that somebody hurt one of my best friends feelings back home
- Internet still not working for Skype

More happy than sad, thats good!!

For my own personal record... Cecelia Rasmusson Peterson Bott born September 28, 1857 in Gislof, Tralenberg, Malmö Sweden. Her parents were Martin Rasmusson Peterson and Meita Maria Hansen Peterson who joined the church in 1862. Cecelia joined in 1869. The family was baptized in the Baltic Sea. Family began immigrating to Utah in 1874. Cecilia and her sister were the last to leave in 1876. Wooo!

Oh, and I wish it was October, because then I can break into my October funds... I'm a girl on a budget ya know!

Good luck with recruitment girlies :) I miss and love you!!

"You're SO American!"

Well thank you, because I am proud of my country. BUT you meant it as an insult.

Ugh, sooo on a few occasions I have had people decide to point at me and say, "oh that's so American!" It is really offensive, because its like they view me as a walking stereo type or something. I would never point at someone (lets say from Holland if they were wearing wooden shoes... haha) "You're SO Dutch!" or to someone from China eating rice, "You're SO ASIAN!" (Well unless they told me they have no brothers or sisters... haha Kat, I might have some of the Chinese girls over to my apartment soon... long story. I'll write about it if it happens... and I'll totally find out, this has been my one and only mission since getting here) It just doesn't seem nice to me, so why do people think they can point at me and tell me I'm SO American? Today Jonas invited me out to lunch with some of his classmates. The one guy was asking me what I missed most from home (besides the obvious). And I was trying to explain I miss having my money go far (everything is SO expensive here) and that is when he decided to point to me, adding that all Americans care about is spending money and buying/consuming. He didn't say it nicely either. SO I asked him, well have you ever been to the States (because if they haven't, I tell them they shouldn't believe all stereotypes) and he said yes (only California, where all Europeans seem to go...) and then continues to explain, "where the fattest people in the world live! Everyone is America is fat! OH, I mean you're not fat!" SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!? I just can't believe someone would be so rude. Anyway... enough about that.

Let me just say, we are loved here (Americans) and... not loved. It is just really strange to learn how the rest of the world views your country. Because like my friend Jake told me once, the whole world is here in Jonkoping (which is true). Well I don't want to get in it much more than that.

Funny story, so for the past couple days Jonas has been complaining about an Indian guy in his group. When I went to meet up him and his classmates... IT WAS THE SAME GUY THAT YELLED AT ME LAST WEEK! We all had a good laugh about it. Then it kinda made me sad that so many people dislike this guy :( We went to a yummy yummy Asian buffet for lunch where we got to have cheap ice cream for dessert... Pear flavor... not so good!

BUT I WANNA GIVE A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO MY AMAZING DZ ANDREA!! MWAH MWAH MWAH!!

"Are you going to blog this?!"

First off, let me start by saying hello and welcoming Sarah Bobby as my newest follower :) :) :) Second, the title of my blog is exactly what Caroline said to me this evening after we went tanning together. And by 'tanning together' I literally mean we went tanning together!! YIKES! So here in Sweden they have drop in solariums (tanning beds) meaning... no one operates them, you just put your money in and the bed starts. It is pretty expensive to tan here, and Caroline told me that she and her friends used to get in the biggest bed and share it, splitting the cost! Well I really have been wanting to go tanning and today was our day. I'm glad Caroline and I are close enough to be comfortable with being that close to one another! It was pretty fun, and we were laughing a lot about the situation... which made me think that this was something I totally could see myself doing with Kat. Lets just hope the Eurobeds don't burn me! MISS YOU ALL

Did you know Giraffes speak Swedish :)

i thought this was highly amusing and wanted to share... last night i dreamed that jonas and i bought a house together. the best part of this house was that through our living room window we had a giraffe always outside watching us. and this giraffe spoke swedish to me. HAHA all he said was 'god nat,' which is Swedish for 'good night,' but I consider it an honor to have dreamed (even if just a little) in Swedish.

On a side note, I have been trying to work on my Swedish a lot since last Friday. Jonas and I will speak Swedish to each other often after dinner, or I am always practicing new phrases with friends. I mentioned watching Swedish Idol (which is in Swedish, but I understand bits and pieces) and tonight we watched another all Swedish-speaking program. Jonas' cousin Tina is a famous celebrity cook here, and she started a new show 'Tina's Cook-along.' We watched it tonight, and Jonas' other cousin Karin and her daughter were on the show because Tina and a celebrity guest was cooking for them (and a few other celebrities.) My new goal is to get Jonas to get us on Tina's show... come on, who wouldn't love the American girl trying to speak Swedish?!

editors note: I would like to thank Kat for making this beautiful picture for me, which now can help everyone vision my giraffe. Also, for any swedish speaking blog followers, I have been informed (by Jonas) that I spelled 'god natt' wrong, my apologies... but me and my giraffe have an english accent! :)

DAMN SWEDISH 'CRACKERS!!!'

I am not happy right now... I've spent a lot of time figuring out how to calculate the nutritional information from Swedish packaging. Instead of giving the nutritional information per serving, they give the information per ever 100 grams. This has pros and cons. Pros are you can turn everything into a percentage. For instance if the package says there is 10gram of fat, then you know that 10% of whatever amount of the thing you eat is fat. It helps put nutritional info in a different perspective... but like I said, there are cons (its not quick to figure out the information per serving.) Lets just get into why I'm irritated. Here in Sweden they have something called Kex. Sometimes its more like a cookie and sometimes its more like a cracker. Its very irritating that people can't seem to define it. Anyway, Jonas told me they were crackers, and I thought that meant they weren't cookies... ah. Anyway this afternoon I took the time to figure out how many calories were in each one of these little devil crackers. There are 400 grams in the package, and for 100 grams there was 490 cals (WHOA! never read that before!!) So I counted how many damn flat cracker/cookie/biscuits were in the package (28) So I divided that by 4 (the 400g/100g) so 100g equals 7 cookies, and each of those cookies had 70 calories. I AM SO PISSED, because they are good... but not that good. And I've been eating these cracker/cookies as a snack... and that is an awful snack! BOO! Damn you Swedish cracker/cookies!

(Hah I just reread that whole little math section, and it takes me back to middle school math problems haha! Oh and I really miss Kraft macaroni and cheese... I have the blue box blues!)

LOVE

So, I am officially freaked out by my hair dryer. I still only have my dryer from home... so it works when I plug it in the converter plug, but voltage here is much more powerful, so even when I have my dryer on the lowest setting.. its still really powerful and gets really hot. Last night my hair dryer officially turned itself into a death ray. IT WAS FLASHING NEON GREEN LIGHTS! that is not normal!! My heart would literally skip a beat everytime it did it... and I only used it for maybe 4 minutes and it flashed at least 3 times. I'm not talking a little spark, I mean I could see the light out of the corner of my eye, and then freakishly in the mirror as well. Eh, I get freaked out just thinking about my hair bursting into green flames haha.

Last night was day 2 of work. I really don't get many hours there, but its better than nothing. I met another new girl there and she was pretty cool. I just really miss my old coworkers (especially Mandy) and being at a job I love :( But I did make $15 in tips (I'm not supposed to make any) because drunk people don't take their change! NICE!! So, I am dedicating this blog to Jonas, although he doesn't read it... but he deserves it. He truly is the most wonderful boyfriend and I love him more everyday because of it. First, he went out with some new friends from class and was pretty bummed I wouldn't be able to go to the party with him. So when it was time to go out, Jonas suggested that the whole group go to Harry's (where I work.) So he came to see me :) He was so cute (I didn't hear this til afterwards) but when they got in, before I saw them and they were waiting for me to take their coats... he kept saying, "theres my girl! theres my girl! that one, with the brown hair!" haha he's so sweet, and one of his classmates said he was talking about me all night. Well I didn't get home til a little after 3am and when I did I noticed all my lights were on. Jonas had been in my apartment and when I walked into the kitchen to get a snack, I found a plate prepared with the cutest Swedish snack for me! (2 slices of our homemade bread, each with cream cheese, sliced cheese and blueberry jam on them... sounds weird, actually delicious!) It melted my heart how sweet he is, and it makes up for all the days when I'm homesick missing you all.

So today I have to catch up on some reading, workout (inspired by my girl Andrea) and then maybe hang out with Anders' girlfriend Judith some more. I hate when the weekend is over, because I love having so much free time! OH and GO BLUE, was thrilled when I heard about our victory over Notre Damn! YAY!!

its a beautiful daaay!

Well ever since I blogged about the cold weather here... its been super nice! Today felt like summer, not even kidding (its kinda a big deal here). Yesterday Jonas and I took a walk around the lake yesterday (yes... the same lake I claimed I was going to run around.. that still hasn't happen haha) Last night Caroline came over and had dinner with us. The game plan was to have grilled cheese and tomato soup. yaaa... Jonas made some weird version of tomato soup (kinda distorted my American sandwich/soup classic). His soup had onion, macaroni noodles... garlic lol. It was good but more like a goulash. And then we watched Idol (aka, Swedish Idol) Obviously its in Swedish, but they sing in English so its still pretty good for me to watch. (Btw, heard that Ellen is replacing Paula on American Idol!)

Okay, so I would like to discuss my adventures in cooking. Before moving here, I had never really cooked a meal on my own. Now, I cook meals a couple nights a week now. So here is how I've progressed. Meal 1: I burned the potato-fries. Meal 2. I burned rice (is that even possible?) Meal 3. Didn't burn any food... but I burned a corkboard pot holder. It was under a pot, on the stove top... annnnnd I let that baby cook! Haha That was week 2. Now after week 3 of trying to cook I have improved a lot. Tuesday I made AWESOME cheeseburgers. I even spent the big bucks for kraft singles (the cheese haha) It cost $3 for 10 slices. YIKES, at Kroger's its $1 for 24 slices. Wednesday I made a crunchy cornflake chicken that tasted like chicken fingers (but much healthier) and Thursday I made scones for breakfast, and then Jonas and I made two loaves of a apricot/nut bread. Tonight I'm baking a special treat for Anders and his gf Judith (shes visiting from Berlin and they are coming over for tacos and I am teaching them Euchre). He loves cinnamon and apples so I found a cookie that will be really good :) So why am I cooking so much? It is really expensive to eat out here! An average lunch costs $10-$12... now that I'm buying my own groceries I know that money could go towards some items that will last me a few days, rather than one meal. WOW look at me growing up!

UGH I feel like this blog is so boring! Hmmm I got in a confrontation with this Indian guy in my class. He interupted me and a friend talking, and was really hard to understand. After I understood what he asked, I still told him I didn't know what he was talking about... meaning... I didn't know the answer to his question and he freaked out on me saying "I AM SPEAKING TO YOU" Whoa! Easy buddy! So I busted out with some Kropp attitude and told this guy what was up. Omg I'm ending this blog til I can think of some more interesting stuff to talk about.

Hmm so I finally had time this morning to check out the fiction section at the school library. So depressing! They only had 3 small book shelves with literature in english.. boo! So I checked out Jane Eyre... they had all those books you always hated reading in American Lit, or Humanities (A Raisin in the Sun, A Tale of Two Cities, Canterbury Tales) haha well if thats the only choices I have... I might become very educated in English classics haha

Alright, boring entry over. Have a good weekend everyone... and it is weird not being in America to have all the reminders of 9/11. Take care :)

ONLY UPDATE WORTH WRITING: I LOVE ANDREA :)

Hello Autumn in Sweden

Hi everyone! So fall is definitely here in Jonkoping... and some days are better than others. On Thursday, the day of my job interview it was pouring, and pouring.. and pouring. And then the next day was so windy I literally thought I might fall over! They don't tell you this on the website... but the general consensus is the weather is pretty awful here. Yay! So anyway, I mentioned my job interview... it was more of a meet and great because I guess I had the job before I even said much. I was really lucky, this woman in Jonas' group for a class project just hooked the job up for me. So anyway, last night was my first night. I am working in "the closet" as they call it. Now I have to describe the differences about Swedish pubs/clubs. 1. No one tips ever for anything. They might tip the bar a little bit, or the waitress a little bit if its a nicer place... but that's it. 2. Coat checks are a huge thing. Everyone checks their coats, purses, umbrellas, whatever. It costs 20 SEK (about... $2.50) and no tips. The only way I get a tip is if a drunk person walks away without their change... (which happened last night.. ya!!) Let me tell you... checkin coats got crazy!! Well 1. everyone is speaking Swedish... some of it loved that I was American and remembered and talked to me in English on their way out. Some were just drunk and super confused that I couldn't understand them haha. I think I did really good for my first night. I was much quicker at retrieving the jackets at the end of the night verses hanging them... but quick none the less. It felt good to be back in a restaurant, since that's what I know. But none of the girls introduced themselves to me... of course, typically Swedish girls. But hopefully that will change over the next few weeks. I'm only really working the weekends. At they are late hours, I didn't get off work til 3am last night!

So I am going to write about my nightmareish experience trying to shop in Sweden. I wanted to buy normal black work pants... nope. Can't do it. They ONLY sell skinny legged pants. I was disgusted and mad at the whole country. So after trying on a zillion skinny legged pants, I found one pair that didn't make me want to commit suicide. But then I looked ridiculous with the shoes I had to wear with them. It was pretty depressing all day. I had to peel the pants off me after work last night because they are so tight. And its a good thing I'm not working til next weekend because Jonas and I ate homemade scones for breakfast and I ate so many I doubt I could fit into those pants right now haha.

Other highlights from the week:

Wednesday: We went to an 'American Beer Pong Tournament' everyone had to dress up which was fun, Jonas and I went as the Detroit Pistons. They served pan pizza (which they had to special order from a place like 15 minutes away by bus, Sweden really only makes thin crust pizza with goofy toppings) and Doritos.

Thursday: Job interview. Stood in the pouring rain outside for about 45 minutes because the woman told me the wrong time for the interview. The doors were locked. FML

Friday: Me and this girl walked around the city for an hour looking for this store I passed earlier in the week. In the window of the shop they were selling limited edition Italian soda with painted pinup girls on the bottle. I fell in love with them. We finally found the store and I bought $15 worth of Italian soda just so I could have the bottles haha, crazy. They didn't have the purple-pinkish bottle, but I have the other 5. We also went to a crayfish party... we kinda went really late because I'm super sick of crayfish.

Saturday: Worked. Sweden won their soccer game verses Hungary... the bar went insane!

Sunday: Being lazy all day, a little homework, maybe pop in a DVD... I feel like I should be doing more HW. Well everyone enjoy their labor day weekend before school starts! We don't celebrate that here... oh well! MISS YOU GUYS!!

Nyponsoppa

Nyponsoppa was the Swedish dessert we had last night. It is this thick warm juice made from rosehips! What is that? Anyway, we ate it with vanilla ice cream and little almond cookies. It was pretty good. With the ice cream the nypon tasted like a warm orange creamsicle. I've added a picture from the Internet what it looked like. We also played Family Guy Monopoly and that game from Inglorious Bastards where each player has the name of someone famous on their head and has to ask yes or no questions to figure out who it is. I was Jay Leno and some Swedish hockey player for the NY Rangers... I was not happy about that. We had made a rule no Swedes since out of the four of us I was the one who didn't know many. So to help with my Swedish, Jonas reads Swedish children's books with me and one that we read last week was called Babapapa, about this huge blob creature trying to make friends. Anyway, Jonas put Barbapapa on Chris' head as the famous person Chris had to guess. He figured it out right away because I couldn't stop laughing, it was a lot of fun.

FRIENDS

So this blog is dedicated to my new good friends Caroline and Jake. I've mentioned them before, but now that the crazy parties have settled it nice to write about what I've been doing with friends. So Jake is 22 years old during his second year at JIBS (Jonkoping International Business School http://www.hj.se/eng/ ) and Caroline is starting her first like me. Both of them are earning the Bachelors degrees (or the Swedish equivalent to that!) and both are Swedish. Jake is fun and lets me talk and talk and talk haha so bless his heart. We met up for fika yesterday (fika= Swedish coffee break). At the Studenthus (student house, like the UC) you can get a coffee and cookie (tea or hot cocoa) for 10 kroner (Swedish unit of money). Right now the exchange rate is 1 US dollar is equal to 7 SEK (Swedish kroner) so thats really cheap! I always get the 'O'Boy' hot chocolate haha.

Last night me and Caroline had girls night. We started by going to a group aerobic session at Friskis (no not the cat food... haha http://web.friskissvettis.se/default.aspx?mid=984, the site is in Swedish but might be cool to look at!) then getting a few items to cook with and made a really late dinner. The aerobics was... interesting. The instructor kept making this squealing noise (no joke) I guess to encourage us? Yikes we laughed about it the whole way home. We made a fairly healthy dinner... only so we could destroy it with the pint of Ben and Jerrys she had in her freezer. Girls, sit down. A pint of Ben and Jerrys here costs $7... isn't that INSANE! So I thoroughly enjoyed the Raspberry Bohemian while we watched the Sex in the City movie. So it was a lot of fun, and tonight her and my friend Chris are coming over to have this extremely Swedish dessert that I'm going to have to write about after I try it... Anyway, Caroline asked me about the sorority and I gushed about you girls for as long as she would let me. I'm so glad to have a new good friend, but I really miss you :(

So to wrap up... on my way home I fell into a bush. HAHA for real and it hurt. So Caroline lives really far from me (I live walking distance to everything, and shes at the edge of town). So I borrowed Chris' bike. Well... my feet didn't even reach the pavement when I was sitting on the seat. So I had a REALLY hard time getting on and off the bike. So when I was trying to get on the bike to ride home, I feel over into a tall line of bushes, and hit my knee on the sidewalk... so embarrassing! My dress was covered in burrs lol and Caroline told me I looked like a kid learning to ride a bike (Stephanie... I haven't forgotten how to ride a bike, I swear!) Anyway I was scared the whole way home, because I didn't know what I would do if I had to stop my bike for a car... luckily I rode the whole 20 minutes ride home without stopping the bike once and did a Evil Knievel dive off the bike once I got home.. haha. Anyway its Saturday so time to study and clean. LOVE YOU ALL!

Lets talk school... thats why Im here right?!

So classes started this week. The semester is set up different here, really different! So I have 4 classes this semester, but only 2 at a time. So from now until the end of October I have two classes... then take my exams and start the second set of classes that will go until Christmas. Pretty cool huh!? So right now my classes are (okay, I literally just had to get up and check my folders to see what the names of my classes are... haha!) Introductory Analysis of the Experience Industries (aka the Swedish way of saying the Entertainment Industries) and Doing Business in the Media Industries... SUPER COOL HUH!? Actually I think its going to be awesome. However the damn university tricked me and the other people in my program. So when I applied it said, 'no economic background needed' So I get here and find out, I am earning an ECONOMICS degree!!! WHAT! I almost failed macro econ back at Dearborn lol, how I am supposed to earn a degree in it?! 99% of the other students were pretty shocked by this news as well... but I've already decided its going to be okay and I'm going to make it work! So the group of people in my program is really small. The school only accepted 20 kids out of 300 that applied to the program... and from that 20 that accepted only about 10 actually came. So thats pretty small! Our classes are bigger because other students find the class topics interesting as well, so they take it as elective courses. Get this, my Business in the Media class has 41 students in it, only 1 being from Sweden!! Can you believe that?! Its crazy that I have kids in my class from (these are the places I can remember...) Greece, France, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Turkey, Hungary, Lithuania, Germany, Belgium, China, Singapore, Russia, Iraq, Thailand... okay I can't even go on! But anyway, the first week of lectures went well, and today I survived the first econ lecture! So the focus this week was school... I applied for my Swedish civic number (that anyone gets who lives in the country longer than a year... this gets me my free health care baby!) and I tried out a Swedish aerobics class at the nearby gym... probably the highlight of my week. Being yelled at by a sweaty Swede to "KOMEN IGEN!!!" (the instructor encouraging us to 'come on!') haha He gave me a shout out, welcoming me since he knew I wasn't Swedish... it was really fun, me and my friend Caroline are planning on taking another class tomorrow.

The only other thing I was planning on blogging was my Inglourious Basterds experience. So for those of you that have seen it know that the film is half in subtitles. Yup... the subtitles were in Swedish here... so since the actors were speaking German/French and the subtitles were in Swedish I missed a lot of the movie... bummer. Anyway, still alive and having fun. Thinking of you and wishing you guys a great weekend!

SWE (Student Water Event!!!)

I have gone to the dark side... of partying that is. JUST KIDDING. But Friday night I attended the craziest, I mean CRAZIEST party ever! There were 1,500 students at this water park. There were many pools, one of which was turned into a dance floor. It was crazy... while dancing, people would be standing in circles splashing, so I was dancing in circles of water... intense! Here's the crazy part... there was an outside dance floor as well, that began suds-ing! It was this crazy soapy dance party (lol which felt like a creepy orgy since everyone was slippery... okay eh haha but kinda fun!!) There was a drinks tent, free hamburgers and hot tubs. My group was able to over take one hot tub, and we counted and we got about 35 people in it... they are normal sized! Here is the link for pictures from the party, taken by a local newspaper. I'm in a picture about 13 down from the top.

http://www.jnytt.se/insparkenbildspel/1368

Anyway it was a fun night, and afterward as many people that could fit were crowding on the last public bus heading towards the university for the night. Funny story: so Jonas and I were holding on to a pole on the bus, I turned to kiss his hand (uh don't ask why, it was late and I was being affectionate!) and I kissed this guy who I didn't knows hand!! HAHAHA He seemed thoroughly amused, it was so embarrassing lol but funny. Jonas' two best friends ended up being on the bus too but they were heading to the only Mexican place in town. We decided to join them and I was pretty excited for it... but shouldn't have been! It was owned and operated by an Arabic man, and it was the WORST nachos I've ever had! LOL and there was corn on the nachos but no cheese LOL

So needless to say we've been laying low these past few days. Our kick off group (JIBS Tigers, aka American Football Players) won the best group for the week. YAY! And tomorrow is my first day of classes... wish me luck!!

I miss you!!

So I'm starting to feel the chaos of this week, I stayed in last night after learning a fun game called Caps... but instead of going to the club with everyone I came home and unpacked some more. Kinda cool thing happened though. When Jonas and the guys we had been hanging out with got to the club (I wasnt there) they werent able to get in because it was so crowded, so our whole group (welcome week group, aka american football players aka tigers) came OUT of the club to join the other 4! It was totally something our sorority sisters (who I miss so so much) would do! So they decided to come to the park right outside of my apartment and have a little after party by the fountain. (which is illegal to drink in public places in Sweden!) But Jonas made me wake up and asked me to come join everyone, which of course I did.. I had only just gotten into bed. But the scene was pretty cool, Jonas brought blankets and candles down and so we all had a cozy hangout with about 15 of us.

This morning I met up with a girl that I met on the train heading back to the US when I visited Sweden in April. I think thats pretty cool that we've kept in touch and are still getting together. Shes very helpful always giving me inside tips about the area, but she moved away from the city I'm in... so Ill only meet up with her when shes visiting her family.

Tonight is SWE largest Student Water Event (in Scandinavia) I really wanna make the most of tonight because the week is almost over! Other than that... I feel like a 18 year old college student because I'm eating really basic food (pasta, sandwiches) because I havent gotten around to cooking yet... burned my thumb on the studpid Swedish stove lol... okay enough for now. I truly do miss you guys but I'm going to pretend youre all with me tonight and party my pants off :) LOVE YOU!!

Pictures and such

Hey, so I'm having a hard time uploading pictures on my blog... just really slow. Last night was the beach party at a club in town, and tonight is the toga party. I'm really excited for that... especially because I never went to one in the sorority! Anyway we are heading to the ice arena to hear a few 'academic' speakers, but Jonas says they are supposed to be really good, and then to IKEA for some necessities for the apartment! Check facebook for newly updated pictures, and I'm trying to remember to take more!

too much to update!!!

Sooo I should have written about camping in Sundsvall sooner, but I didnt and now much cooler things are taking place everyday... so heres camping: I ate sour herring, it wasnt so bad. Jonas is super cute when he dresses in his flyfishing gear and I wore the same outfit for three days :)

Now to the good stuff!!! ITS INTRODUCTION WEEK here at school. OMG it is AMAZING!!!! So we were put into groups with second year students (this is a whole school event, not just master students) and each group has a theme. Mine and Jonas' group are the American Football players... im serious lol. So yesterday was a jam packed day... of course there were intro meetings, etc. but the fun stuff is that we met our groups and bought our 'overalls' (more to be explained later) and partied. Some of the other groups are the firefighters, doctors (with a nurse blowup doll, of course... only in sweden can a group of students get away walking through town with that!) rockstars. So the overalls... they look just like mechanic jumpsuits and they are green to represent the business school. You get to decorate them, and the cool thing to do is to collect patches from parties and events you attend. I guess there are a lot of rules about the pants too... like you can only wash them if youre wearing them at the same time haha So our group is really cool. The guys are awesome and I've met so really great girls. Tonight is a beach themed party, tomorrow toga, Thursday is going to the student pub and Friday is the biggest pool party in Scandinavia!! So anyway today we played games at a nearby park. I officially hate the Black Eyed Peas song 'Tonight' because they play it every 20 minutes (its the theme song for the week) But our group has learned the dance from Remember the Titans and we sing the song and chant (it feels very much like being back with the sorority... miss you guys!!) Our team did pretty good today, each group earns points and the group with the most points at the end of the week is named best team or whatever. But imagine this, hundreds of kids in these funny green pants... its awesome. One of the games we had to play was to see which team could make the longest line of clothes... meaning you had to take clothes off. I decided to be pretty modest, but one kid got naked in our group (which got our team extra points... only in Sweden lol) there was extra points for underware... so I had an undershirt on and I shimmied that bra off for the team!! But, I was never exposed or anything! I really wish you guys could be here experiencing this with me. Its unlike anything Ive ever done... and its so much fun!

Oh, so I was walking home today after saying goodbye to the girls and I called Henrik to say hello since Ive been too busy to meet up with him and after talking for a minute he told me to stop... and there he was!! We ran into each other! Isn't that amazing! Anyway hes having a hard time believing I'm really here!! Its so funny/cute. But I'm going to get ready for the party tonight. Love you guys!! Send patches!!

this is how they do it in the north!

So this blog shall be quick, mainly because I don't have much time on the computer while in Sundsvall (northern Sweden, yes... MATT I realize all of Sweden is 'north' but this is even more so!) Soo last night I ate moose. Thats my highlight haha its a lot like steak and it was really good. I've been meeting family and friends of family these past few days of our visit. One especially cute girl is Jonas' half sister Matilda. Shes 4 and a half and talks to me in Swedish non stop although she knows I cant understand her. Shes been saying very funny things about me coming, such as... 'when is the one that speaks english coming' or 'the only english i know is 'hello kitty' its very sweet. So tomorrow we leave to camp. I have to wear some silly green hiking pants... and rubber boots, but i guess thats how they do it here in the north. we are sleeping in a trailer that attaches to their car or the 'caravan' as they keep referring to it. to be honest im not too excited because i KNOW there wont be s'mores... whats camping without smores!!

So today was not what I expected. We drove like 2 hours to see this (this is the translated saying) 'world heritage' which is this special area of land in Sweden (but there are other places in the world like this as well). I thought we would be hiking or seeing something, but nope... we just drove on through lol. But it was kinda cool once I finally understood what it was. This area of land has been raising like 9 mm every year... like actually getting higher. During the iceage the land was packed down and compressed and now its slowly uncompressing? hah well thats how I understood it! After walking through town and lunch at the Swedebank Icearena (HOME OF THE MODO HOCKEY TEAM!!! lol) we stopped for fika (coffee break) at Jonas' dads, wifes parents summer home (mouthful!) So I felt very Swedish walking through their gardens picking and eating random berries lol Then the grandmother gave us fresh baked cinnamon rolls (kanelbulles!) and these yummy cookies, which everyone drank coffee besides me... I had lemonade. Everyone still gets confused when I tell them I dont like coffee... anyway it was a nice visit with very nice people.

Look at this, my blog is longer than I thought. Im going to go now, but not without sending a shout out to a few of my favorite readers :) Hi Andrea, Matt, Kelly and Stephanie and anyone else that has been following, I love you all!

Parties!!!

So the past few days have been so much fun! Thursday night was that kraftor dinner party. I took pictures of the beautiful decorations, crayfish and the people I met. (I'll post them very soon.) Usually you wear funny hats during dinner, but our group didn't do that... but we did sing funny songs in Swedish. The host was very sweet to find a song in English to put in the songbook for me! I couldn't believe the group of girls I met that night, they were all so beautiful. That seems to be the trend here! Hah, it doesn't bother me though, I actually appreciate all the beauty I'm constantly surrounded by. Anyway I had a wonderful time. Actually eating the crayfish required lessons which Henrik so kindly assisted me with, hes the one thats been hyping up crayfish since April haha. I only ate 2, which isnt much since some of the guests were eating over 10-15! There were 14 people at the dinner all together.

Party number 2 was last night and was the Gold party that Ive been waiting weeks for!! Jonas and two of his best friends Henrik and Staffan work for Absolut and through a really lavish party at the end of summer every year for the past 4 years. They did an AMAZING job building the party site, with fabric draped over Staffans back patio. There was gold trees, and golden fruit... it really was awesome. I was very happy how my gold outfit came together, cute dress... gold accessories, nothing too crazy. Jonas and the other 2 party planners had gold suspenders which were funny, and spray painted their shoes gold. Anyway the girls from Thursday dinner party were there and since we had already met, we really hit it off. I hung out with them a lot of the night and it was so nice to feel like one of the girls! There was another American gf there, Colleen... so we had some fun together too just bonding over our similar experiences. Of course so was pretty jealous that I'm here for good now, its hard to not fall in love with Sweden once youve been here. So I was told by one Swedish guy that he is over every girl being blonde (in Sweden) so he is only attracted to brunettes and Asians... seriously haha. Anyway after the party there was a bus arranged to take everyone from the party to Pepes, a nice night club in Båstad (where I've been all week). Christofer has all the pictures from last night on his camera so I'll take a few from Facebook once theyre posted and put them here.

Other highlights from this weekend:

Yesterday was the first morning I had pancakes (AMERICAN PANCAKES) without maple syrup. I was pretty sad lol but Louise (Jonas' sister) made some vanilla yogurt and we ate the pancakes with that and fresh picked plums from the backyard. It was nothing compared to pancakes back home, but very good! Chris and Anders were here this weekend for the party so it was great to see them again (even though we will all be in Jönköping together soon!) Emil (whos apartment Ive moved into) and another guy were here also... so today after eating funny pizza (I can't even begin to describe what was on it, but delicious... come on... its still pizza!) we went to the ocean. We were at a special spot that had a cliff to jump off of. It was late in the afternoon so it was very relaxing. OHHH Sweden is under attack. LADYBUGS are everywhere!! Im super serious (I guess its even made the news.) I was starting to HATE them because you couldnt move without having one on you or accidentially killing one. To be honest after a couple of hours I wasnt 'accidentially' killing them anymore haha. Well I've written plenty! I can't believe its almost been a week since I left... still feels like a vacation though. Have to pack now because we are leaving tomorrow. Miss and love you all.

What a trip

So, Im here, safe and sound. The trip was pretty stressful and rough at times but theres no need to dwell on the bad parts, since there were many good things too. But for those that dont know, I had to fly to Boston, to Iceland, to Sweden. And then take 3 trains to get to my apartment. YIKES So first funny thing that happened, I packed a jar of peanut butter because I was under the impression peanut butter was expensive and tasted different here... Jonas has since corrected me after I was teased for bringing it. ANYWAY I guess they need to add peanut butter to the list of items you cant bring in your carry on at the airport. They tried to take my peanut butter, but the woman felt so bad she just decided to 'test' it. She literally tested the air around my peanut butter to make sure I hadnt put anything in it? Seriously... LOL

I made friends on each plane, I was lucky to always sit by girls.. all from Canada strange enough. Anyway, after I finally arrived in Sweden I was waiting with one of the girls for my bags. I wish I had taken a picture... but my one nylon bag that I knew wasnt going to make it... didnt. The bag had a large rip in it and my clothes were close to spewing out (yes Kat, spewing LOL). Sooo I had 3 large backs and my backpack. I knew that getting around the trains by myself would be hard... but it actually was impossible. The first train was easy to load my stuff onto because I had a cart with my... but then cartless I was in trouble. I actually was a mess, and the Swedes could tell. Lucky enough on my way to my second train, as I was ready to breakdown (I only had 15 minutes to find my train and get there) a guy helped me with my bags and it was a good thing he did, because the platform was SOOO far away, up 2 flights of stairs and then down 2 flights, with all my bags. Anyway he was very helpful and actually found a guy going to my next station that helped me. It turned out once we started talking that he was going all the way to Jönköping (my new town) so me and the man from Turkey lol traveled the last 3 hours of my trip together, but he was my bag boy so it was worth it. Jonas was surprised to see me with only 2 bags and then I turned and pointed at my new friend and said he had my others lol. Henrik (not Jenna's Henrik) came to pick me up as well, and Jonas' mom was at my apartment waiting for us. It was a very nice welcome. Anyway it doesn't sound too bad, but it was a long journey. We headed back to Jonas' hometown of Båstad that night after a delicious dinner of McDonalds (yes lol) and jamming to Elton John... WELCOME TO SWEDEN.. right? Anyway I visited with Jonas' sisters, Louise and Anna and crashed.

Today we went to the beach, we are about to eat pannkaka (pancakes) and relax today. We have been invited to a dinner party tomorrow for Kräftskiva (crayfish dinner partys popular in August lol) and then Saturday is the GOLD PARTY (that everyone has heard about). Ill update soon, but know I miss you all already.

Almost time!

So I've been telling everyone I was going to set up a blog of what I'm up to when I move to Sweden. Tonight will be my first blog to update everyone how crazy this past week has been. I've been really lucky to spend a lot of time with my close friends before I leave. Rachel and Brandon were married last weekend, which I was so happy to be apart of as a bridesmaid and tonight Luke and Jenny were married and I was able to help run the ceremony as the coordinator :) Both weddings were beautiful/fun and I couldn't have asked for a better way to say goodbye to two of my best friends. Thursday night was my last night at Applebees... end of an era for sure! It was very bittersweet. I was so happy that so many of my regulars and friends from over the years came in to say goodbye. Its hard knowing I'm no longer apart of the gang anymore, but it feels good to have a reason to move on.

Tomorrow I have family coming from Saginaw and Georgia coming to say goodbye to me. I'll be home all day so friends are stopping by too (anyone is welcome! just give me some notice first). I better finish packing soon because I am running out of time. Honestly I'm tired of it. It seems like no matter how much I pack, or decide not to pack... there is just more stuff to figure out what to do with. And then before I know it Monday is going to be here and it will be time to go. My flight leaves around 5pm for Boston, then Iceland and finally I'll arrive in Sweden on Tuesday. I just hope I'm able to make my trains (yes, 3 to be exact) with all my luggage and make it to Jonkoping to finally see my one and only! So I will keep everyone in suspence until I arrive in Sweden... so until Tuesday/Wednesday... wish me luck! I will miss you all and have cherished my time with you.