pictures from christmas

Christmas

This christmas has been a great one :)
yes it was really difficult not being with my family in our condo in colorado, skiing on the chamagne powder but i realized im so lucky to be here in sweden i should appreciate the time that i have here and enjoy the culture.

swedish christmas is different than the christmas we americans have. now i know different families have different traditions in the US but ours is to be in steamboat springs colorado, skiing christmas eve, reading twas the night before christmas, making sugar cookies, making candy apples (which i attempted to make here in sweden minus the carmel.. but i think everyone liked them?), waking up christmas day opening the presents santa left, and sledding in the snow.

the christmas i experienced started with the tradition of Lucia. This is originally italian but the swedes celebrate it also. basically its little girls getting dressed up in white robes and singing swedish christmas songs. i went to a performance with my host family 2 weeks ago (there is a picture included.)

the weekend before christmas i had a baking/gift exchange party at my house. a couple of my school friends and friends outside of school and 2 exchange students came. i will include pictures. it was a lot of fun. i think we polished off all the cookies because they were that good!! i just had to make another batch the next day to take to school.

The last monday before christmas we had to go to school. most of my classes we just had fika (coffee and pepprakoka..spelling?) i brought some of my cookies and i think everyone liked them! it was pretty funny though because everyone looked at them funny because they do not eat sugar cookies with frosting (mine were trees with green frosting on them) they are used to gingerbread cookies (maybe thats why everyone here is so skinny??) on tuesday it was not required to go to school but the music department of the school (band/chorus) were putting on a christmas program. i went with a couple friends and we watched our classmates sing. suprisingly it was really really good. instead of it just being your regular high school chorus (these students specialize in the music studies in school) so that is why it was really good. they also had dancers perform and a skit with tomte (santa clause).

so on wednesday i met my friend beata in town and we did some last minute christmas shopping. later i went to my next host family and made kneck with them and had pepprakoka and glogg. it was really cozy and it was nice to talk with them. i will include pictures. after i got home eva and mats had prepared the typical christmas food. 4 kinds of herring with knekabrod (hard bread) as the starter then grun cole (green cabbage only in this part of sweden (halland) do they have the green cabbage) rod cole (red cabbage) skina (ham, very typical all swedes have ham at christmas) and lets not forget the kotbullar (meatballs) or the spare ribs. :) after dinner anton and i decorated the tree (picture is included) then we had the chocolate balls that mats made..mmm yummy!

on christmas eve we went to evas parents house and her sister and her family were there. we went for lunch and had what apparently all swedes have at christmas eve... this weird looking sausage (which looks bad but tastes good) potatoes, spare ribs, and stale bread but you put it in the broth of the sausage and spare ribs and its really good. then we had rice pudding with pineapples and fruit sauce on it. that was pretty yummy. after this we were suppose to watch donald duck, because there is the same cartoon episodes on tv every year... the same ones every year no joke. but we missed it because we didnt realize what time it was. so we exchanged presents (everyone bought a present at least 100sek) so we played a game using a dice and it was really funny. its too much to explain just typing but maybe next christmas i will have to show my friends this game! from evas parents i got money for shopping and from her sister i got earings and a necklace that she made (its realy really nice!) then we went home and opened presents (in sweden they celebrate christmas eve) so i got some slippers, lotion, perfume, a nice blouse,and a address book to keep track of my new friends :) all in all i was expecting maybe 2 presents so i was so suprised to get more! we sat and had some glogg enjoying the evening.

on christmas day we went to mats parents house to have dinner with his family. the food was really really good (same thing as i explained for the day before christmas) after dinner we had an opening of presents, from mats parents i got nice gloves and a nice scarf. after this i went to my friend hanna nilsson and her family. they had gotten me christmas presents (a bracelet, lipgloss, and the big suprise... going to see avatar!) so we took a fika and hung out then went to the movie! there were a lot of people at the cinema, apparently everyone goes to the movies on christmas day night. but the movie was reallllllyyyyyyyyyyy good i recommend see it if you havent yet! i just love staying at hanna's house here family is so welcoming and they love speaking english. and kirsten and hanna are just so nice i love them :) my favorite part was that the bed i got to sleep on had a comforter like the one i have at home!! (haha had to include that hanna :) ) the next day we went to watch hanna surf. no the season hasnt started yet but this was a holiday surf day so they got dressed up in santa outfits. i will include pictures. but it was really cold! im gladim waiting till the summer to go surf (yes, thats right, apparently her and her family are getting me out on the board! its wind surfing not board surfing). so kirsten (hope im spelling that right!) and i went for a walk on the beach then took some coffee to get warmed up! then i came home and relaxed from the busy holiday.

all in all this holiday has been really good. i missed my family a lot and i had wished i were at home but like i keep saying.. im only here for a year and i will be home for christmas next year and the year after that.

this week i will do some holiday sales shopping and enjoy the new year with new friends and famliy! more updates on that soon.

i hope everyone had a great christmas!! :D and for close friends and family expect a christmas greeting from sweden (most likely it will be late due to the fact that my family is in colorado but you will get it soon!)

Waitttt... its December!?!??!

Can you believe its december already?

I have to admit, it doesn't feel like december here. Everything is still green!! Its strange not hearing people say happy holidays or merry christmas, in swedish its god jul. but u dont hear it said all the time as it is in the US. If any of you are wondering, yes i am homesick. i think this is probly the hardest month so far. but this is jump a bumb in the road. janurary is a busy month with visitors (cousins and my uncle) then i move to my next family in feburary. so i believe time will go by really fast after this month. :) So far the christmas things i have been to was a julmarken in a town 30 minutes outside of varberg. i went with my next host mom and host sister. we listened to christmas carols, drank glugg and had typical swedish christmas food. it was a mysig tima. :) or cozy time. (the swedes love saying mysig, cozy) then saturday i went for a ride, and we met with my rotary counselor and talked with him about what we have been up to. then sunday i went with him and his family to an innebandy game, or floor ball in english. it was a lot of fun and really intense! varbergs team is the best in all of sweden and has the worlds best player. :) how cool is that!! they played stockholm and won 6 to 2. i will add a video to this blog so you can see a little clip of it.

in school i have started a massage class. i absolutely love it! the teacher is great (ann) and she lived in california for 4 years so her english is really good. :) its kind of hard with the translation but when she shows me what to do, i kno what she is talking about. i gave my first massage today and it was to a guy (we were not able to chose) and it was hard work! cuz apparently for guys you must u A LOT of pressure! but the guy said have u done a massage before!..umm no?.. really!?!? u must be kidding me he said. haha so i think he liked it and the teacher said i did a good job but its only the first massage. so many more to go :) if i keep with it and work hard i can get a diploma in the class, come back to the us take a test to get me certified and battabingbattaboom ill have a lil job on the side in college. but its easier said than done.

i got my french test back today, if any of you remember me talking about all the studying i did. wellll lets just say i wont even say the grade because it was that bad. but, im still practicing and it was a hard test. and ive only taken french 3 years. so we will see how that goes, i think i may get extra help outside of class :)

in my history class i have to do an interview with an elderly person to learn about varbergs history from his or her time. thankfully my person speaks english. i believe i will meet with him/her next week for the interview, so i look forward to that :)

today i sent my christmas package for my family to the us... fingers crossed i hope it gets there. it was so confusing becuase no one at the place i sent it from spoke very good english! so hopppefully it will work out :) i can't believe break is in less than two weeks!!! time is going by sooo fast! i look forward to christmas and new years but i think i will be pretty homesick.

more updates on the festivities for christmas soon!!!

There is a pic of Hanna (next host sister, and eva)

a pic of the market... the candy side of it, my camera died before i could get a pic of anything else.

what we ate, some typical swedish, and the drink is glog (mmmmsooo deliciousss!!!)

next is the fastest driver in sweden. i dont remember the name but he was ther with his car!

next is a pic of the game, varberg is blue stockholm is white :)

Time Flies

The past couple of weeks have just flown by! I don't even know where the time goes. Can you believe it is already December??!??!

Before Tyler got here there was the 200 dagars, which is a celebration with all the 3rd years and we dress according to the theme. this time it was red carpet so i was Audrey Hepburn, and in the picture above i am with my friend Emmie who is Fergie. It was a lot of fun and celebration that it is getting close to graduation! next will be the 15o dagars, then 100, then 50.

The first video is of me riding Shackis, we jumped for the first time this past saturday, I have to admit i do miss my horse but it was great to be able to jump once again!!!

This past week my boyfriend, Tyler, stayed with us and we went around visiting Sweden and such. We were in Gothenborg, Varberg, the market, the harbor, Karadal beach (near where I live in Askloster). we also went to a hockey game against two rivarlies gothenborg and stockholm. they tied 3 to 3. We also celebrated thanksgiving with my host family, and their friends camilla and lenart and their kids ( the family i was supposed to stay with come feburary but camilla has cancer). Thanksgiving ended up being a huge hit! everyone loved me and tyler's cooking :) i was really nervous about the turkey and stuffing but eva did the turkey and pie while tyler and i did everything else!! talk about busy!

Eva and I had our Cocktail party, that we have been planning for awhile, so that was quite exciting! it turned out to be a hit! people didn't leave till 2 30 am!! :) it was fun to mingle with everyone and to dress up in the pretty cocktail dresses and such.

I also brought Tyler to school with me. He was really nervous going to school because he was not used to the language, the way people dress, or how big the school is, but after the first day it was ingen problem!!! (no problem pa svenska). i am glad he got to meet all of my friends, the ones he is with in the picture are lejla and denice.

When we went to GBG (gothenborg) we walked by Lisberg, which is the biggest theme park in Sweden. The rides are closed now but they have the jul celebration, which is the christmas celebration in december and they have about 5,000 lights (i think it could be more or less but its A LOT of lights) that decorate the whole park! It looks beautiful with the snow, that is, if we ever get any. hopefully i will have the opportunity to go there sometime this month!

Included in the pictures are the typical swedish fika, mmmmm yummy! the cinnamon roll looking thing called kanelbullar and kaffe (coffee). there is also another fika, where we have sandwiches, but as tyler soon found here, swedish sandwhiches are onesideded. personally i like it better that way, you can mix it up more and there is less of the taste of bread.

Now that tyler is gone its quite lonely, but i will survive. he will be back again soon hopefully! but ive realized that time is going soooooo fast! i wish it would just slow down sometimes! Its already december! In January I will have been here for half a year, now that's weird to think about.

Update on school:

i took my dreaded french exam last week, it was veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy difficult. but i got through it and hopefully i didn't do too bad.

In my International Relations class we have just finished war and peace (I studied the Iraq and American war) now we are studying about Manskliga Rattigheter, translated, Multicultural Society. we are learning about different cultures and traditions and also about swedens culture. This is great for me because i get to learn more about swedish culture!! Some of Sweden's culture; Midsommer (midsummer, lots of celebrating and wearing flowers and old style typical swedish clothing, usually in July). Folkhemmet- the idea of a perfect swedish family (kind of like the american perfect family, mom dad two kids, you get the picture. Lagom-ideal (this is very swedish saying, it means inbetween, most people here like lagom. its a bit difficult to explain but it basically mean inbetween) the sprak (the language, of course). Musik (music, there is a lot of rock and roll here, from what people have told me the music in darlarna and varmland is quite "special" (thats toward the north of sweden) i haven't been there so i can't say much on that). the idea that swedes are very shy, in america the gretting is with handshakes and mr or mrs, but in sweden its not very common to see handshakes and greetings with mr or mrs. its all first name basis and the swedes like their own space. (thats why they toilets in school and many restaurants is a little room with its own sink and there are 5 or 6 of these lil stall rooms). Dalahast (which is a wooden horse and its typical swedish) Jantelagen (this is an unwritten rule that everyone is supposed to be the same. swedes are all about everyone being equal so i think this is a saying more or less, its hard to translate.)

this is what i have learned so far, but its only been the first day of notes, so more to come!!

I hope everyone back home has had a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and no they do not celebrate either of those here, this is Sweden not America (for those of you that have asked me this question :))

more bloging next week!!!

happy holidays!! (how kul, happy holidays, finally we can start saying this because it is the holidays!!! :)