To everyone who has commented on the amount of time I spend in class: You’re right! Last period I was hardly in class! It is the norm to take 4 or more classes per semester (2 each period) for a total of 30 or more credits per semester. I was taking 3 courses: Measurement and Instrument Analysis, Manufacturing and Automation, and Swedish Level 2. I have Swedish for 4 hours a week, MIA for 6-8 hours a week, and MA for 6-8 hours per week. Total of 16-20 hours in class… I guess a decent amount, but when they are clumped into 2 and 4-hour sessions, I typically have 2 days a week without class! :) I like this system.

Thanksgiving went pretty well. I was in charge of the turkey and stuffing and all the guests brought other traditional Thanksgiving foods like mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, mixed vegetables, pecan pie, wine, etc. We also had a few twists on the traditional like potato salad and muffins. They were also very good and added a little something extra to the meal. :)

When I was shopping around for the turkey early that week, I found myself getting so frustrated because I couldn’t find any napkins with turkeys on them… then I realized that Thanksgiving is only a holiday in the US so I’d be hard-pressed to find those king of decorations in another country! Needless to say, I felt like slapping myself for the way-too-long lapse of stupidity! Ha ha ha.

The turkey turned out quite dry and I blame it completely on the Celsius-Fahrenheit conversion. My recipe gave Fahrenheit and the oven here is given in Celsius… luckily a clever Australian friend pointed it out and prevented the turkey from getting completely charred! Thank goodness for cranberry sauce and gravy, huh! The stuffing was complement of my mom who sent me a huge care package early that week which contained to boxes of Stove Top. Talk about saving the day; what is Thanksgiving without stuffing?

Two days later my Scottish friend, David, and I had our birthday party. Our birthdays are on the same day and year – I’d never met anyone with the same birthday as me before. I’m really lucky to share his birthday because he and his Swedish girlfriend, Pernilla, threw an awesome party. About 14 of us went to Pernilla’s parents’ summer cottage on the archipelago. When we first got there, we went out for a walk and happened upon a quarry… we threw all sorts of objects in it to break the ice… for at least an hour… I think it’s a good thing to be easily amused sometimes. :) Pernilla also pointed out the creator of H&M’s summer cottage to us!

That night we had appetizers made by Nicolas and a traditional Swedish dinner with meatballs (that we all helped to make) and potatoes. During dinner it is tradition to take shots of schnapps… we took three. I had also been drinking wine so I went to bed soon after dinner. ;) The next morning was rough on a few of us – especially me. I never used to get hangovers but I think my 23^rd birthday represented many new beginnings. Crap, it sucks to get old!

In late December we had to start saying good-bye to the friends that wouldn’t be returning after the holidays. It was very sad but I’m happy to have met such great people. I am so happy I extended my time here in Sweden; I am not ready to leave… I don’t think I will be in June either but at least I will have had 5 more months.

I stayed with Claire’s family in Scotland from December 23^rd to the 27^th. She was so sweet to invite me so I wasn’t alone on Christmas! I had so much fun with Claire, her family, and her friends. She also showed me all around Edinburgh which is a beautiful city! On Christmas Eve we went to midnight mass to sing Christmas carols. I didn’t know some of them but most of them are also songs that are common in the US. We went to a museum and were looking at a bed from the 1600s when Claire reminded me the bed was older than my country! Ha ha ha. It’s so funny to think about that sort of stuff.

During my stay, I saw Edinburgh’s castle, the Royal Mile, and the Botanical Gardens just to name a few things. I also got to try haggis, porridge, a toddy, tennis balls (sort of biscuits shaped like muffins), and chips with salt n’ sauce. The sauce of the ‘chips with salt n’ sauce’ tasted like the result of mixing gravy, sweet and sour sauce, and barbecue sauce… it may not sound good but it was actually tasty. It was great because the weather was pleasant while I was there… I didn’t expect to see the sun but it peeped out every once in a while and kept quite dry!

On January 13^th, I left for my ski trip to Åre with BEST (city center and mountain shown in picture). I took my backpack, my large leather purse/tote, and my pink athletic bag which ended up being less than most of the people there! I’m getting so good at packing light! Our train left at 11:30 pm from T-Centralen and I was in a room with Pierre (Belgian President of our LBG), Paw (Danish), Hanna, Taru, and Simo (all 3 Finnish). We all talked and drank until around 4 am. Taru, Hanna, and Paw did most of the talking and I said close to nothing because I was so tired from all the traveling. Taru and Hanna were telling us about the Finnish language – how it doesn’t have any prepositions (so learning the concept of them when learning English was very difficult) and has verbs that mean two different things depending on whether an ending is added signifying that it was done completely or done but not-completely. The example they told us about was sex and marriage; they use the same stem verb but whether it was done completely or not makes the difference… of course marriage uses the completed suffix.

We arrived in Åre at around 7:30 am, walked to our apartments, got our stuff inside, got ready to head out, rented equipment, and went on our way. The walk seemed to go on forever but I think that’s mostly because I’m so out of shape! I decided early on to stick with the other beginners (Jasmine, David, Bruno) because I’d never been on a mountain before. We went up the same lift as everyone else and once we got to the top we saw that the only way to go down was a red (intermediate and very steep looking) slope. We all started out really slowly but I lost control quickly and zoomed straight down the slope… on my way down I was thinking I would either die or at the very least break a few bones. Amazingly, I arrived at a different lift intact without falling. After that ordeal we made it slowly but surely to the blue slopes where I felt much more comfortable.

That night everyone went to a community center sort of building to have punch, munchies, and talk. We played the name game and it was quite fun. We also had races in black garbage bags… tradition in Scandinavia. Alessandro was my partner and we came in third place so got little Viking key rings. After that, everyone came back to our room (Me, Jasmine, Simo, David, Peter, and Raphael) to drink and talk more.

On Monday our small group stayed together and on the blue slopes. The lifts all stopped operating at 3 pm every day so that day I went to “After Ski” at a club called Bygget with Peter, Simo, Jan Henrik, and Lisa. I got a cider (which is incredible here; like a fruity soda with about 2.8% alcohol) and Lisa took me closer to the front and she taught me the special cheers and dances of the band that we were listening to. The band (Marmelad) was really good – they played a lot of songs I knew too which was great. Later that night we all tried to get into clubs but they all had very long queues and we didn’t want to wait, pay a small fortune to get in, and then get kicked out an hour later. One of the Swedish girls from Uppsala, Fanny, met some friends and invited us to their place for a small party.

Skiing was fun again on Tuesday. I was getting used to it again so I was trying to go faster and improve my form. That day Peter was really hung over so he hung out with the beginners. We went up to the top of the second highest mountain and it was really windy! The snow was blowing off the sides and stung my face… goggles would have been really helpful but I forgot to bring them from home. Oh well. :)

The international evening was fun… as it was in Norway! I actually sang the national anthem this time but cut it quite short since I wasn’t drunk. I got to try a few new things like sausages from Denmark, Italy, and Portugal, Italian Limoncello, and Swedish vodka. I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches again and bought some wine from California at the System Bolaget. I also tried out the Austrian tradition of dipping a chocolaty wafer in vodka, lighting it on fire, and then eating it! It was hot but I didn’t really get burned… a definite plus… I was quite nervous about that.

On Wednesday, I rented a snowboard and went out by myself to try to teach myself. It was really hard especially without any help. I kept walking up the bottom of a bunny hill, going down, falling, and then walking back up. I don’t think I fell so much when I was learning to walk! I fell on my wrists, knees, and butt and the worst part was trying to get back up after falling. After a while I decided to get something to drink in the lodge and then go out again. On my way to the lodge, the lift operator asked me how it was going. I told him it was tough and that it was more difficult than I thought it’d be. He recommended I go to an even smaller hill just below the one I was at so went and I got some water and a hot chocolate before trying that one out. I was almost on my way back outside when I saw some familiar faces in the lodge. It was the Swedish girls from Uppsala and Jan Henrik! They invited me to sit with them so I did… I figured I could use the longer break.

Fanny and Maya offered to stay on the small hill with me and give me snowboarding tips. It was so sweet of them! They had a lot of good tips and really helped me. Fanny even let me have her wrist guards. We went to the bus stop at 3 pm to catch the last bus back to town but were informed that a truck had fallen over in the road between town and where we were. We had to go back using the slopes. Luckily, the slope we took was blue but I was already so tired at this point. About half way, we laid down on our boards and rode them like sleds which was so much fun. We went really fast and we had to be careful because braking was difficult and the slopes were sort of thin; there were a couple times when I almost ended up in the trees. ;)

We went straight to Bygget for the after ski and were so early (after ski started at 5 and we got there around 4:30) that we got spots right by the stage. After ski was fun and then we went back to eat and then that night we went to Bygget again. It was really crowded and really hot! Dancing was fun but I was in pain and exhausted. I left sort of early with Juan and Peter joined us soon after. People came back to our place and drank a little bit but I think most people went to bed pretty early.

Thursday I was so sore from my first day of snowboarding that I didn’t last very long and then went back to town. I went to Max (Swedish version of McDonalds) and stood in line forever so once I got my food I just wanted to sit down, eat, and leave. I didn’t see any open places so I asked a guy who was alone at a table if I could sit with him. He said yes and soon started talking to me quite a bit. His friend came, sat, and joined the conversation. They were both from Denmark and really nice guys. We talked for about an hour and then they left for the last hour the slopes were available. It was nice to randomly meet a couple nice guys.

I went back to our apartments, and took a shower. We all went out to eat at an American Bar & Grill and people kept asking me what they should get. I said it’s normally best to stick with burgers at those kinds of places (instead of Mexican or Italian dishes) but I didn’t even take my advice. It was fun but the food I ordered (taco plate) wasn’t that great.

We hung out at our hostel for a while and then a few of us headed over to a game room. I watched a few games of pool and then it was time to leave. We took the bus back and I sat next to Juan – thank goodness I got the window seat! We arrived in T-Centralen at about 8:00 am. Saying bye to people was sad but...

Gary Diehl flew in to Stockholm that Friday, January 18 at 3:30 pm. I went to Arlanda Airport to pick him up because he was nervous about being in a different country for the first time. I was really happy to see him… it’s strange to be here and almost feel like I’m all by myself but then having someone from home here makes it feel like I’m definitely not alone.

Gary and I walked around a lot. He was trying to figure the language out and was actually pretty good at it. It was especially fun when neither of us understood what was going on and had the “deer in the headlights” look. Due to my extreme skill, I was able to catch a few of these moments with my camera. We went to the Natural History Museum, the Vasa Museum, and walked around Gamla Stan and Södermalm a lot.

My classes actually started the week Gary was here but I figured I’d just skip them so I emailed my professors and said “I don’t feel well and won’t make it to class.” It was true… I did have a cold (hence didn’t feel well) and wouldn’t be making it to class. Yeah, I’m aware that wasn’t the best way to go about it but it didn’t work anyways. I received an email back from the professor of my construction project class. He wrote in Swedish and then translated it into English for me. I read the Swedish version and understood that it was important to make the first class (Gary’s last full day in Sweden) which was from 9am to 5pm but not necessary. However, when I read the English version he said it was imperative that I attend the first class because we would get into our groups, go on a team-building field trip, get our first assignment, and give a presentation!

So I felt terrible that I had to go but Gary said he had a great time sleeping until 1:30 pm and then wandering around Stockholm while I was busy at work. I distinctly remember sending him a text message around 11 am that morning telling him to get out of bed and do something but he was smart (apparently we both know each other quite well) and turned his phone off!

After my class, we went to the Pelikan (restaurant recommended by Claire) to get some famous Swedish meatballs. It was really good and then we went to Claire’s to watch a movie and take it easy since Gary left the next morning.

Another entry will be coming really soon… there’s just so much to say! :)