Lots of things to briefly catch up on.
The day after I arrived back home from Deutschland, a bunch of our exchange student friends organized a 'Running Dinner', in which you split into pairs and are assigned one part of a meal to prepare, appetizer, main course, or dessert. We had quite a lot of people, 15 teams, which made for a really nice evening. We started out in Kronasvagen and had some crazy delicious homemade guacamole (made by mexicans). Myself and Jane then 'ran' to my place to warm up our crustless quiche and Taiwanese fried rice to share with many Germans, then headed across the path to eat the best brownie I have ever eaten with some Finns. I really love the community here... I don't know what I'll do when I get back home and don't have 30+ friends living within a 10-minute walk from me!! I try not to think about that and just remember I still have 5 more months here...
That Friday we all went to the Uppsala University Royal Academic Orchestra's performance of Mahler's second symphony, as one of our friends (Timo) happens to be a genius on clarinet. It has been a long time since I've been to a classical concert... it was quite long, but really beautiful. The orchestra had a dress code of black, white, and red, and there was a really entertaining Swede at the end of the violin row with a tuxedo and red socks on. He was really into his violining and his (classic Swedish) hair kept flapping up and down, we tried hard not to giggle (with somewhat limited success)...
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| photo stolen from my roommate's facebook page... depicting typical young Swedish male hairstyle :P |
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| inside the Uppsala University concert hall |
13 December is St. Lucia day, an unusual holiday with a very unusual history. In the evening, a few friends and I went to the V-Dala nation for some sweet things and a Lucia concert.
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| Glögg with almonds and raisins, lussekatter (saffron bun), pepparkakor (thin gingerbread), and some toffees |
The next week was full of dinners and goodbye fikas, and a big highly entertaining German goodbye party with some glühwein, fencing, and a nativity scene made of bratwurst and bacon.
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| Florian's landlord fencing with Andrea |
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| Nativity scene reproduced from an internet photo... impressive!! |
Matthew arrived here in Uppsala on Tuesday afternoon after my exam for Forest Environment and Conservation. The first day, we just explored Uppsala... got a kebab, did a bit of shopping (of course went to H&M), then went to Flogsta and had some tacos with my Spanish and Mexican friends to celebrate the end of studying before Christmas. The next two days me and Matt took the train to Stockholm, visiting the Vasa museum and Skansen one day, and IKEA Kungens Kurva and Gamla Stan the next day. Skansen was supposed to have an excellent Christmas market... but when we got there, all the stalls were closed... apparently it had closed the previous Sunday. Why??? It's a Christmas market!! We were pretty disappointed. We did get to see some interesting replicas of historical nordic buildings (I thought they were interesting anyway) but the best part was the "Nordic Animals" section. We got to see reindeer, moose, lynx, bison, owls, Icelandic horses, and wolverines!
IKEA Kungens Kurva is the biggest IKEA in the world. They offer a free shuttle bus on weekdays running from the Stockholm central station (which we took of course). It even has free Wifi. Needless to say Matt loves Sweden. Gamla Stan, at least, still had their Christmas market open, but it was quite small. At least Matt got to try some (overpriced) glögg, complete with raisins and almonds and accompanying pepparkakor.
Christmas eve was spent creating two masterpieces, Ponderosa cake and Apple bacon stuffing for 12. Finally my kitchen was empty (all the roommates have gone home for Christmas) so we actually had clean utensils to use. We packed everything into paper IKEA bags and took the bus out to Jane's place in Ultuna, and had a very non-traditional Christmas dinner. Two girls from Slovenia made a potato and onion dish with chicken fried in egg and fried salmon (MMM), the three Italian guys made the best lasagna I have ever tasted, Jane made some really interesting green bean noodles and dumplings, Pien and Carina made a dutch cream vegetable dish (complete with brussel sprouts)... LOTS of food in any case.
Around 10:30pm we went to the cathedral for midnight mass (packed of course). Lots of Swedish songs and Swedish words. I think Matt was woken up by the bells signaling the end of the service... zzz after lots of food and a lot of stuff you can't understand!
This morning we opened our stockings sent over to us by our lovely mum, and watched Frosty the Snowman :) And of course, I made Matt try julmust, traditional Swedish christmas soda that just tastes like Dr. Pepper mixed with coke. I must say I am not a fan... but they sell tons of it at Christmas! Stacks and stacks of cases in every grocery store and in cafeterias.
Me and Matthew also went to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Hollywood version) this week on opening night. It was fantastic, despite terrible choices for most of the main characters. Plenty of Swedish brand placements, but unfortunately the few spoken words in Swedish were cringeworthy. And cringe the (Swedish) audience did. However most people jumped up and down (or whispered excitedly) at the scene filmed in Uppsala's main street!! I certainly did. Every time I saw something I recognized, whether it was the brand on a coffee cup or the fridge contents of the characters, I was whispering to Matt "Look!! I have that!!" But overall, I must say that I prefer the original Swedish film.
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| "LOOK! Wayne's Coffee!!! We have that here!!" |
This week me and Matthew will go see a Sirius bandy game, and go on a two night ferry to Helsinki, then it's already time for him to go home!! :(
HERE is a link to this round of photos!
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