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.