I'm cramming in 6 days into one post to make up for the lack of posts, so buckle your seat belts and let's go.
April 26th, 2014
Before I talk about April 26th, there is one thing you should know about me, if you are not a family member or a person who has lived with me.
I am not a morning person. Like not at all. When I wake up, I don't speak or look at people, I have uncontrollable bed head and if I do speak, it's in mumbles.
Well, here is some surprising news that may come as a shock to many people.
Sweden has made me a morning person.
I know it's weird and shocking, I'm still processing it myself, the main reason for this new transformation is that the sun now rises at 4:30AM and doesn't set until 10PM, so I'm woken up by the sun at 5AM almost every morning.
Which is what happened to me on Saturday April 26th. Scheduled to work, Lördags Fika at 8:30AM, I woke up voluntarily at 6:30AM an hour before my alarm went off and was wide awake. A normal human being would roll over and go back to sleep, knowing that he/she had an hour left of sleep. But then again, Sweden has made me into a morning person, so in this situation, the normal person in me is gone.
I took my time getting ready at 6:30AM, doing my hair, putting on makeup and actually thinking about my outfit (let it be known that I'm working in a cafe wearing a work t-shirt and a bandana and will not be seen by people until 1PM, so appearance is not an important factor here).
I left my apartment at 7:30AM (when I was supposed to wake up) and happily walked to work in the bright sunshine, with no coffee or breakfast in my stomach (I get free coffee and breakfast at work, FYI).
When people say that studying abroad has changed them, they are not kidding, studying abroad in Sweden has changed me in that I'm happy in the morning with no coffee or breakfast and voluntarily wake up an hour before my alarm. I'M REALLY CHANGED GUYS.
Anyway getting to work at 8:15AM (15 minutes early, I know) I assembled sandwiches and desserts took money transactions and even got to bring food home. Per usual.
Then...at around 7PM, Kacey and I headed off to our friend Camilla's to have a BBQ and introduce s'mores to Swedes.
Since graham crackers, to my discovery, don't exist in Sweden, Maria Cookies are the semi-okay substitute for s'mores. Luckily marshmallows and chocolate bars do exist and let's be real. Those are the best part of a s'more.
April 27th, 2014
I HAD A VISITOR!
Early in the fall, I got a message from a friend, saying that she would be in Sweden in the spring with undetermined dates and if she could stay at my place for a few days, still in my "I can't believe I'm in Sweden"-high, I said yes.
Fast forward to the morning of April 27th, when I'm cleaning my room, putting in a lightbulb in my bathroom because it had been out for a month -that's another story, borrowing a bed from my corridor mate and putting on clean sheets and making my room look presentable and grocery shopping.
Arriving at the train station at 3PM with "Welcome to Sweden" chocolates in hand, my friend Anne-Marie came. Helping her get situated in my room, we walked back to downtown to take her to her first Fika (coffee & pastries with friends).
As a newbie to the FIKA world, I recommended a kanelbulle (far right), which in Swedish means cinnamon roll, and I, as a pro in the FIKA world, had a cinnamon and apple roll which is the gigantic pastry.
After fika, I showed Anne-Marie around Uppsala and then headed home for dinner and prepare for more FIKA and Uppsala the next day.
April 28th, 2014
Waking up at 10AM despite the sun shining so bright in my room, we got up make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pancakes (recipe to follow in future post) and then headed off to introduce Anne-Marie to Swedish waffles.
After sitting in a waffle coma for 30 minutes, we headed off to downtown to show a little bit more of Uppsala and then went to ICA to get food for another BBQ that we were going to and then decided to take a pit stop at the river to enjoy the sunshine.
Despite it being muggy, it was actually really bright for us as seen in this picture taken by my friend:
This specific BBQ involved the International Media Class that have been through the program for the past 10 months and realizing that the year is coming to an end and we haven't done anything together a BBQ during the Valborg week was a must.
Now when I saw International, I mean that the majority of the class is American/Swedish with few people from other countries, but I mean it's still International.
BBQ-ing hotdogs covered with fried onions (which I found out is a thing to do in Sweden when eating Hot Dogs), and introducing S'mores to Swedes, which to the American's appreciation were highly accepted, hashtagAmericanwin
This is Alice from Sweden, trying her first s'more, and loving it afterwards, and of course, she had s'more.
After the BBQ, Anne Marie and I headed back home to get an early night's rest so we could head to Stockholm for the next day.
April 29th, 2014
Up at 7AM to get ready and help Anne Marie with her laundry, eat breakfast and head off to Stockholm for the day.
Our itinerary consisted of going to the VASA museum, Swedish meatballs and then an alternative tour of Stockholm.
We attempted to go to the VASA museum, but ended up getting lost and confused. But we took advantage of the extremely nice weather and took some pictures.
Please mind the small piece of hair sticking out the side of my head. I didn't have time to do my hair that morning and put it up in a ponytail. That piece of hair has a mind of its own.
Walking around some more, we decided to have some lunch and trying to be as Swedish as possible, we went and had Swedish meatballs.
Called Bakfika and rated highly on Yelp, we enjoyed endless amounts of bread, meatballs and mashed potatoes with lingonberries on the side.
The waitress literally handed us a huge basket of bread and told us to take as much as we wanted, I took one of each type. And with butter that had sea salt in it ERMAHGERD, Swedish bread had never tasted so good.
A direct quote from the Swedish Chef
"Flugfie floggie gershy germie meatballs"
With full, satisfied stomachs we walked around the Old Palace and to Old Town Stockholm and then headed to have some fika and some delicious kladdkaka ( Swedish chocolate cake)
I've seen these buildings so many times and have many pictures of these but they still surprise me every time.
Chai Tea Latte, Regular Latter and a kladdkaka
and a kanelbulle of course
After fika, we met up to take the alternative tour of Stockholm, having been to Stockholm a few times, it was nice to take a tour so when I come back to the states (which I still don't want to talk about) I can actually know what I'm talking about when showing pictures of Stockholm.
Here are some of the things that I learned (and remember a month later) about Stockholm
1- The majority of the kings in Sweden were named Gustav.
2- As stated before in my Copenhagen post, Swedes and Danes do not like each other, which the tour guide emphasized many times throughout the tour.
3- Swedes love Eurovision! Which I have mentioned before many times and which I will mention in detail in a future post
4- When the present King and Queen of Sweden got married, ABBA performed at their wedding, singing the hit song "Dancing Queen".
5- The only subject that Alfred Nobel did not accept as a Nobel Prize was Mathematics. Legend has it that the reason why was the woman that he loved left him for a Mathematician. The moral of the story to this, Math ruins everything.
6- There is a concept in Sweden called "Latte Dads" in which men are on paternity leave and take their children and meet up with other men on paternity leave and have coffee with each other and their children. This concept is important because in Sweden, everyone is equal, so when a women is on maternity leave so is the husband, and it's not just a 3 month leave like in America, it's a year. #reasonswhyilovesweden.
7- The picture below is the tiniest statue in Stockholm. Called the "Moon Boy" it is placed so the boy is looking at the moon and its head catches the sunlight. During the dark, cold winters, some people will knit sweaters and hats for him to keep him warm. The tour guide also stated that if you rub its head and make a wish that your wish will come true, but to not rub too hard or you will get pregnant.
I didn't rub the Moon Boy's head hard, so Mom and Dad you can breathe now.
8- Unfortunately, the tour guide hadn't had very good experiences with American visitors, due to the fact that the questions they asked were a little embarrassing (there were 5 Americans in the tour when she stated this). For example, while discussing the Vikings, an American (in another tour, not this one) asked (in a Valley Girl accent) "Do Vikings still exist?" "Where can we see the Vikings?"
Anne Marie and I looked at each other and shook our heads and one American face palmed.
As much as I love America, sometimes I just have to shake my head.
So if you are wondering, according to the tour guide, all Swedes are Vikings. Vikings do exist, they are just not in the stereotypical outfits of horns on their heads and fur shawls. Swedes have the Viking spirit in them.
So there you go.
9- Below is the narrowest street in Stockholm, only 3 meters wide, claustrophobic people are not recommended to come down.
Once the tour was done, it started to rain so Anne Marie and I headed home, made hamburgers and apple pie and hung out with my corridor mates until the next day when Anne Marie had to leave.
April 30th, 2014
Waking up at 8AM, helping Anne Marie pack and making Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes, we headed out to Centralstation, said goodbye to Anne-Marie and then headed off to Sofie's house to celebrate Valborg.
Valborg is the celebration of spring. Since Sweden has limited sunlight during the winter, celebrating sunlight and more hours of sunlight is important.
The day is filled with people celebrating and hanging out outside soaking all the sun that they can.
Arriving at Sofie's house at 10:30AM, there was French toast made by Ali, shot Parchisi, mimosas, cider and then shot Twister which I participated for the first time.
After shot Twister, we headed out to Ekonomikum park (where I attend my classes) and laid out in the sun and hung out.
Also, everyone had the same idea to hang out in the sun.
This is Cassie and Kacey, as you can see Cassie really likes milk. Trying to be the healthy one in the group, she got her Vitamin D, Vitamin C, and Vitamin B(ailey's).
Left to right: Sofie's friend Elin, Jenn (who is not paying attention) and Madeleine.
Kacey
The Sun!
Ugh it's so beautiful.
After hanging out in the sun for a couple of hours, we headed off to ösgöta Nation for the champagne gallop.
The Champagne gallop consists of buying a bottle of champagne for 100 SEK ($15) and spraying it all over people and getting them wet with champagne. However, if you don't feel like getting soaked in champagne, water is provided as well.
This is Cassie and I before and after the champagne gallop. Note how happy we are despite the fact that we are drenched in bubbly champagne.
The rest of the gallop consisted of dancing to house music and just soaking in the moment and soaking in the alcohol.
Semi-dried and hungry due to all the dancing that was done, we headed off to ICA to get some food and then went to Sofie's friends house to eat and play shot parchisi.
At around 10PM we headed back to ösgöta nation to their club danced until 12:30AM until the exhaustion hit and my friend Jenn and I headed home.
May 1st, 2014
After the long day and long week filled with events, trips, people, champagne, lots of sunlight and dancing, today was a day to just sit and relax.
12PM I headed to my Sofie's house
1- she was hosting a shrimp dinner
2- my kitchen was being filled by my German corridor mates and I needed somewhere to bake a cake.
At around 1PM, people started to come over and Sofie, Kacey and Elin prepared the food.
What seemed like endless shrimp, with bread, garlic butter and flavored mayo, we filled our stomachs to the point where it left some of us to take a nap.
This is the sunset at 8PM. From May 1st to today 27 days later, the sunset has increased to set at 10PM with leaving hints of blue at 11PM-2AM.
Valborg tired not only myself but the citizens of Uppsala, as it was dead quiet for a week straight, which goes to say that Valborg did us well.
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