Friday, January 29, 2010

New Adventures

So its been almost a month since my last post. I came home for Whitney's wedding the first weekend of January and spent 3 weeks visiting friends and family. I was thrown an amazing coming home party, went to the 20th anniversary party and watched the Bachelor, Idol and Biggest Loser during many girl nights. During my visit home I decided not to return to Sweden because I wasn't happy and myself there. I made the decision to move to the other place I had talked about going to, Utah.

So yesterday I flew out here. Flying over the mountains during this time of year was breathtaking. It felt like I was in another world... the snow covering the mountains, frozen lakes and land... I'd never seen anything like it before. I've really learned to appreciate the beauty in our own country since learning about the differences and similarities between the U.S and Europe... So anyway Whitney picked me up and has been a saint helping me get settled. The apartment complex I'm moving into is awesome... there is free tanning, fitness center, hair cuts, manicures, pedicures and facials. I found out today that you only get one of the free spa service per month... which makes more sense. So there were problems with the room I was originally supposed to move into (basically one of my potential room mates had moved into my room...) luckily the leasing office isn't going to keep me in that apartment, because I would have been the roommate that got the girl kicked from the big bedroom to the smaller one. Then they sent me over to another room in another apartment. As Whitney and I walked up the stairs, we noticed a weird baby-like blanket hanging in the window. Uh oh... my new roommates were going to be freaks. We walk in and there are dirty dishes everywhere... gross. Luckily those girls were also breaking the rooms and had moved people in that weren't supposed to be there. The girl that told me the rooms were all full was this big girl in her full out PJs at 5pm, it was bizarre. So I decided to wait until today and I will move into a completely different room. Hopefully #3 is the lucky charm!

So last night Whitney and I went to Target to buy bedding for me (I only spent $25 on a full cute bed set... score)! Whitney has been amazing giving me extra blankets and pots/pans etc for my new place. But the best gift of all... the hot pink snuggie! I think she's crazy for giving it up but I'm not complaining! We headed to Macaroni Grille for dinner to see Jon and to check out my future employment. I'm pretty excited to get back into serving. All the people seemed way cool... and less of your usual stereotypical servers. I must say, Whitney and Jon's place is gorgeous. I had seen it over Skype but it just didn't do it justice. Whitney has the place decorated extremely well... it all coordinates beautifully. I'm really happy for them! So back to the evening... during Grays Anatomy we made Monster Cookies... I had never had them before and they are delicious! Here is the recipe (below)!

So to wrap up, I hope I am moving in today. Whitney is letting me borrow her car since she will be at work. I am going to explore the area and hopefully find cheap cups/plates/etc. I'm pretty excited for this new adventure, but I still get really sad thinking about not being in Sweden and not seeing Jonas every day. I know everything will work out how its supposed to... but it still gets me down sometimes. So I plan on writing about my experience out here... because as my aunt said, Utah is just as much of a culture shock as Sweden was... so I will write about it and hopefully keep entertaining many of you like before!

Monster Cookies:

Yield:3 dozen
Prep Time: 10 min

Cook10 min

Total:23 min

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 12-ounce jar creamy peanut butter
  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup multi-colored chocolate candies
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup raisins, optional
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 4 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats.

In a very large mixing bowl, combine the eggs and sugars. Mix well. Add the salt, vanilla, peanut butter, and butter. Mix well. Stir in the chocolate candies, chocolate chips, raisins, if using, baking soda, and oatmeal. Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Do not overbake. Let stand for about 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool. When cool, store in large resealable plastic bags.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Home from Berlin

Hi!! We're back from Berlin safe and sound. I'm gunna try my best to write all of the fun/interesting stuff that happened! (Longest post to date!)

Arriving/Full Day 1: So to start our trip Judith and Anders picked us up from the airport giving us our first lesson in the Berlin subway system. We were pros by the end of the trip! We arrived late Tuesday night, so after some tea and snacks we went to bed. Hmmm must not have gone to bed early enough because we slept til 1pm that first day. But when we finally got up and out when went to see some sites. We first went to the Brandenburg Gate. According to Judith the statue was stolen from Napoleon and later retrived and brought back to Berlin. Down the street from the gate is the Jewish Memorial. There are 2,711 concrete blocks to honor the Jews killed throughout Europe during the wars. We also walked through a Christmas market which I really liked. It was fun to see all the German foods, and lit up booths. There was a huge ice hill for kids to inter tube down... too cold for any of us to try. The market was right near the Sony Center... which is one of the main city centers. We wanted to buy tickets for New Years day for Avatar in 3D... anyway the Sony Center was cool because back after the war, the war was built around this part of town which had originally been a thriving city area... but was then cut off from the wall. As soon as the wall went down in '89 they made plans to build up the area again to make it a thriving entertainment area like it originally had been. ANYWAY after we bought our tickets Judith left us (Jonas, Anders and myself) because she had to study at school. So we were left on our own to find a museum we had been recommended by Anna's (Jonas' sister) boyfriend. It was the Stasi Museum. Well we got to the right subway station... but then couldn't find the museum for the life of us. We walked around for awhile before asking a woman working at a pharmacy. Well we had to ask two more people before we were able to find the well hid building. The museum was in the actual Stasi headquarters (Ministry for State Security as they called it). Stasi is the name for the police in East Germany after the war. They spied on their own people (hello, they were controlled by Russia, surprise surprise) to ensure no one was trying to leave... which was basically everyone (well not really). The museum was good because it helped me understand the history after the war much better, but the museum exhibits were only in German which was a bummer... so we had to piece a lot of it together ourselves. A few cool things we saw were how they spied on people (cameras in birdhouses, microphones in watering cans, and machine guns in briefcases) and we could walk through the original offices of the last minister of State Security (Erich Mielke) and also see a jail cell and straight jackets... anyway intense stuff. After this full day of sightseeing we met back up with Judith, grabbed some dinner, Judith and I went to the solarium and then headed home for the night. So the tanning salon was a riot. This super tan, super old woman wearing really tight clothes explained to me how to use the tanning bed with charades twice, even though I understood the first time. Get this, we had to lay a plastic sheet over the bed to lay on... weird! Anyway it was really funny... even Judith had never done that before.

Day 2: This was Thursday, so the day of New Years Eve... once again we didn't get much of an early start but we tried to do some shopping... but found that all of the stores were closed by the time we had gotten to them. So Judith and I went to the grocery store to pick up some food to make pizzas at the preparty we were attending. Big mistake! All of Germany was doing the same... the lines were INSANE. We stood in line for an hour... not even kidding, and it was a big store, like Kroger) The really nice German lady in front of us told us we could put our stuff in her cart. Isn't that nice?? She kept trying to speak German to me as well... I think its funny that they know I don't understand but keep talking anyway... well the guys met up with us right before we checked out to grab a few things for themselves as well. So once we got home we got ready to go out for the night. Jonas and I had to repack our things because we were going to be staying the rest of our trip at this apartment where the party was at. We met up with Megan and Greg at the station near the party. I cried a little when I saw Megan... it was so overwhelming to have a friend from home. I spent most of the preparty catching up with Megan and Greg... I don't think we missed much because all the Germans were playing a card game... but kept speaking German even when none of us understood. We left around 10:45 to head to the party and to meet up with Chris and his group. We must have taken awhile... because we got to the party with 15 minutes before midnight. We decided to stay outside rather than try to go in. Best decision ever... at midnight fireworks went off from every direction around us. It was the coolest thing ever. Some of them were the big fireworks that the city put on... but then all the others were being lit by people a couple feet from us in every direction. It felt really dangerous... but was worth it!! After we finished celebrating outside we went in and just had a great time dancing. The music was just how I like it, none of that techno crap. There were some funny characters that were with Chris' group of friends... especially one French guy. He started by asking me if I was latina and telling his friend I was from Mexico when I said Michigan LOL then he was always lurking by us girls... but he couldn't speak much English and kept asking us to speak Spanish with him... sorry buddy I can't keep my Swedish and Spanish separate. At one point in the night he kept asking to take pictures of me and Megan... even though we told him it was okay, we didn't need any. Well the flash didn't work when he took it, so I just tried to pretend it did. Well he kept pestering us about the camera so I pretended I thought he wanted me to take pictures of him... thats why there are so many weird pictures of him on facebook. Anyway that didn't really work and we finally had to show him the picture didn't take... and try to escape. A few of our friends who will remain nameless got too drunk making for an interesting trip home. But we all made it to our places, feeling content with the great night we had.

Day 3: Well everyone slept in til after 2pm... no joke. Jonas and I didn't start our day til 3pm. We got some yummy yummy Subway and met Judith and Anders at the movies for Avatar in 3D!! Okay I was a skeptic before we saw it. But I'm soo glad we did!! I loved it. I think it was one of the greatest movies I've ever seen! It was beautifully made and an amazing story. Afterwards we went to the nearby mall and grabbed food and a warm drink. I had white hot chocolate... it felt like a great day even though we didn't do much.

Day 4: Everyone met up to spend the day shopping. Megan and Greg met us too (yay) The girls and boys separated so Judith could take us to more girly shopping. So when we were getting off the train, Judith led and I went to kiss Jonas goodbye and Megan did the same with Greg... well Judith realized that she hadn't kissed Anders and turned her head, contemplating whether to do the same. Well as she did this she misstepped and feel into the gap between the train and station!! I screamed and ran over to her to help. She was getting out pretty easily... but it all happened so fast. The guys ran off the train too to see if she was okay. It really was one of the scariest things I've seen, because while acting fast, in the same second I was imagining her leg being cut off... so scary! She was okay, just bruised the next day. Anyway the shopping area was really nice. This area of houses were turned into little shops. We found a few cute ones, but nothing was really calling out at me. All three of us bought clearance winter hats at H&M Divided (the hip, funkier H&M)... and the girls made some jewelry at this really funky awesome bead shop. It was very Betsy Johnson-esk. Jewelry made from bows, plastic animal figures, funky beads... really cool. There were gold spray painted mannequins on the walls wearing the jewelry... and me and Megans favorite was a dead stuffed squirrel wearing a funky broach coker and headpiece. We wanted to take the pictures but it was forbidden and the shop was small enough that they'd known we did it... and we didn't want to get kicked out! Megan made a cool skull charm to put on a gold chain at home... although I really liked the store, there was nothing I had to have. We met up with the guys shortly after this and had a kinda silly lunch at restaurant in a small shopping mall. We said it was the Big Boy of Germany... and they prepared all of our food in microwaves. It was cheap... so none of us really complained, even though Megan's tortellini had some cold spots... oops! Ew lol. But they had an awesome dessert selection so the Swedes indulged. After sitting for awhile we headed to the permanent Salvator Dali exhibit near the Sony Center. I saw a lot more of his work that I never knew he did... we had a pretty good time in the exhibit since Dali's art gave us a lot of stuff to talk about or laugh at. After we showed Megan and Greg parts of the Sony Center and Christmas market then walked to see the Brandenburg Gate at night. We stopped into some cheesy tourist shops per the American's requests. Enough time had passed that we were going to grab a fika (Greg really liked using his new word haha although like me, doesn't drink coffee) but fika turned into dinner, because we went to a place that Judith had been recommending... called Va Piano... and Italian version of Panera. OMG sooo cool. The interior was really warm and cozy. They give you a card, so you put all of your drinks, food or dessert of the card and then just pay it all at the end. We stayed there for a long time, eating yummy pizzas and dessert. Not to mention the free handful of gummy bears on the way out! We all said our goodbyes and headed home. Chris was leaving early the next morning and Megan and Greg weren't sure if they'd be meeting up with us for the flee market, so we said goodbye to them too encase.

Day 5 (last day): It seems like we had a lot of great days, and this was no exception. We met up at Judith's early (well early for us since we had to include travel time) and brought breakfast with us. I finally caved in a took half of a croissant type thing with Nutella inside. Nutella is a German product and if you haven't tried it... I would suggest you do! It doesn't make much sense to me... since its basically spreading chocolate on bread, but its really hazelnut and chocolate. It smells and tastes just like the filling of my favorite packaged cookies in Sweden... so I knew I'd like it. But I had been avoiding all the stands of Nutella crepes and Nutella pastries... but it was our last day. So not only did I eat the Nutella croissant, I took a knife full and spread on extra haha. After breakfast we headed to a flee market that is only open on Sundays. Although it was now the coldest day yet, it was a lot of fun. I found this really pretty sparkly earrings (clipon, oh geezs) that look a lot like a pair my grandma wears. Me and Verda setting fashion standards one day at a time... haha. And some stuff for my dad. So on Sundays ALL the stores are closed in Germany... even the malls. So I was kinda bummed since I had never found anything fun for myself... oops I thought too soon. We started to walk back to the subway and I noticed a really cool shop open. We were freezing so everyone was willing to go inside. Alright, it was amazing. A mix of Bella Mia and Forever 21... but prices worst than either. Oh well... I found 5 dresses I loved, but narrowed it down to two. Some of the only shopping I've done in the past 5 months. Jonas bought one for me for a Christmas present (its what he knew I wanted him to do) and I forked out the cash for the other... actually Anders had to loan me the money since I was out of Euros and this was going to be our last purchase... so no need to take out more. Anyway I'm in love. The store was called Who Shot Bambi and was a German store, perfect!! I had kept us there for quiet awhile and by the time we got back to Judith's flat we had enough time to relax before heading to the airport. Judith went above and beyond to make our trip amazing, which it was. So at the airport the airline we were flying with was similar to Ryan Air, very strict about carry on. The guy even made me put my bag in that box they always have near the gate, but you never really care about. I was sure it wasn't going to fit... but it did! I showed that jerk. But then I was afraid I couldn't get it out... but obviously I did. So we were a little stressed, because this carrier, EasyJet tends to be late... and after our scheduled time to land we only had 25 minutes to make our bus (there were no trains running that late to Jonas' mom). And to make matters worst the plane WAS late, but not late enough... and so we made it. I slept most of the way home since it was so late, and we didn't get to Halmsted until after midnight. Henrik was nice enough to pick us up and drive us the 30 minutes back home. Whew! Lots of traveling... but not as much as I'll be doing Wednesday/Thursday.

So I have to leave late Wednesday night by train to Copenhagen and spend the night in the airport since my flight leaves early in the morning, but too early to make any of the morning trains. Bummer. I will be flying from Copenhagen to Oslo to DC (I think) to Detroit!! I can't believe I'm coming home. Anyway, this might be my last post before I come home. If it is, I'll see you back home!