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.