Life!

Ugggh I don't even know where to begin! It's so late and I am so tired....but I must blog. Sigh....It's so hard to keep my eyes open. I just drank some lovely "sleepy time" tea that Laura gave Lisa and me for our birthdays, and it was fantastic....and putting me to slip bizarrely quickly....

Um, anyway! Right. Focus. So, last thing was Gröna Lund and Junibacken. Well, the Thursday after that, we went into town and shopped a lot! I got many souvenirs....oh you just want to know more, don't you? Well you can't. Mwa ha ha. :P I also got an adorable colorful dress. I love colors. ^^ Then we met Lisa's parents at their work, for it was Nils' last day and there was a little retirement party for him. We ate lots of strawberries and cream and it was awesome!

I have no idea what we did on Friday...which actually kind of concerns me.... O.o Um...hmm....

Well!!! On Saturday we went to town again to see the royal wedding. We went to town, did a tiny bit of shopping, looked around in NK, an INSANELY expensive mall, and then saw crown princess Victoria go by with her new husband, in her lovely little carriage! It was cool, but my camera died right before she came along.... :/

After that we went to Veronica's house and "camped out" in the little mini-cottage in her backyard. It's tiny, but we had a blast! We made macaroons and chocolate caramels and had saft (Swedish sweet drink, kind of like lemonade, but not lemon...), and talked and sang and painted nails all night. Oh, I love you guys! Kram! <3

Sunday, I believe we went swimming. Lisa, Sara, Anna and I went to Kottlasjön Stranden (the little beachy part of the lake). Monday was Lisa's and my little birthday part thing, which was just plain awesome. Veronica, Tessan, Laura, Max, Pauline, and Otto came. I had never met Tessan or Otto before, but I liked them both a lot. Tessan is absolutely frickin' adorable and so incredibly bouncy! Not to mention she gave me colorful shiny blow thingies that make awesome noises. ^^ Oh, yeah. Anyways, we ate tacos outside and talked a lot, then ate our cute cake and opened presents. Laura gave us that delicious tea I mentioned, Tessan gave me those fantastic noise-makers, Pauline gave me some shower gel that smells like raspberries (YAY!), and Max gave us both fancy pairs of sunglasses and then gave me a HUGE book of Swedish landscapes. It rocks. ^^ Then we all played the skittle game and became quite miserable before going outside and playing laptag. Then there was much more talking. And then I fell asleep...whoopsies! ;P Sorry 'bout that....Here are some pictures! I don't know why they're going so crazy and being in weird places...but you can see all of them on Facebook! :P



















Tuesday, we went sailing! Oh, it was such a relaxing day. I mostly just sat in the sun and wind all day, on the water. It was so nice, to lay there in the fresh air, bobbing all around, with adorable Selma lying on top of me. Geez, I'm going to miss those dogs. Anyway, we sailed from the little Lidingö harbor to Stockholm to pick up Annika and then sailed back. I loved it! :) Though I got sunburned....how on earth did a girl from southern Utah get sunburned in Sweden? Haha! After sailing, we went on a long walk with Veronica and Max and the dogs. The weather was just so perfect!





Wednesday, Lisa and I hung out with Veronica for a little while at her house. We mostly just lay in the nice warm sun, drinking saft and listening to music. It was actually really hot! I hid under my lawn chair instead of lying on top of it. ;) Then I got the next step of my TBE vaccination, and then we went to Willy's, the grocery store, and looked at Swedish movies. I bought lots of cheap and good Swedish films to help me learn...like Anastasia! Oh, I LOVE that movie! And now I can watch it in Swedish! YAAAAY!!!

Today, Sara, Elsa, Lisa and I were going to take out one of the small boats that Sara can borrow (she's amazing, and at 12 years old completed lots of training and tests that allow her to borrow the little sailboats from the seascouts) and sail in the afternoon, but poor Sara got really sick last night and we couldn't go. :( Oh, stackare, Sara! Kram! <3 Minus that, today was perfect. It was incredible weather all day long, and Lisa, Elsa and I went swimming at Kottlasjön again. And yes, I actually swam! Lisa has done it! I can't swim far, it's true...but still, so many people have tried to teach me. And now Lisa has! :D So we swam a lot, and the water was perfect, and the air was, too! It was so incredibly nice because when we got out of the water, it just felt perfect, and we didn't even need to hurry and dry off - we just lay in the sun eating sandwiches and drinking saft. ^^ After some more lazing around in the sun, we met Max and his friend Iwan at Vallen and played some football (soccer :P).

Tomorrow, we leave for Örebro! It's midsummer and we're going to go see the Gripsholm castle before meeting all the family in Örebro. Saturday we will also spend there, and then we'll come back on Sunday, so I won't post for a little while. Monday, the gang is going to get together and have a bbq! So...more on everything later! Hugs and kisses to all of you! <3 <3 <3 Good night!

H&M

If there's one thing you need to know before going to Sweden...it might be that you will never see a Wal-Mart. HOWEVER! Don't worry, there are three H&Ms on every street. :P



Seriously, click on the picture and check it out: there's one on the left, as you can see clearly. There's another on the right. If you look in the center, it's kind of hard to see, but do you see the "T? Underneath that is another sign with red letters. Guess what those letters are? Yup, H and M.

Junibacken and Gröna Lund!

Junibacken is where Madicken lives. Madicken is a wonderful little story by Astrid Lindgren (author of Pippi Longstocking), and I almost bought the book from a second-hand shop, because it had my name in it! It belonged to Solveig! :D But I didn't. Because it was expensive.

Anywho, we went to Junibacken! We meaning Lisa, Sara, Veronica, Anna (one of the sweet little neighbor girls), and me. What day was that? Um...Monday! Yes! And it was awesome. It's all about Astrid Lindgren's stories, and you can run around through all the little houses, and of course ride the story-train that shows you scenes from all of them, too! It was awesome, but you're not allowed to take any pictures of the story-train, so yeah.... :/



But we did get to ride Pippi's horse! This is Veronica and me at Junibacken.

Then on Wednesday we went to Gröna Lund! Gröna Lund is an amusement park much like Lagoon in Salt Lake - they even have a ride called the wild mouse that's just like the wild mouse at Lagoon - but in Stockholm! Lisa, Sara, and Anna all refused to go on the crazy rides like Insane and Free Fall...but it was still awesome, haha! I think my favorite might have just been the crazy "fun house" we ran through, with all the tunnels and moving floors. :P The laugh house with the mirrors was fun, too!






Anywats, so there's that! I'm going to put up more pictures from the events on Facebook soon, so you should check those out. And of course, please comment with your thoughts! Love you all! <3

Observations on (What I've Experienced of) Life in Sweden

Lisa and me in Stockholm!

I've been here for a week and a half, so obviously this post shouldn't be relied upon as the source for information on Sweden...but I have noticed some interesting things. Please note that some of these may not be so much Swedish as specifically Lidingö-ish, and others may be not so much Lidingö¨-ish as Malmer-ish. :P But I think they're cool!

First, the fashions are crazily different here! I wish I could just walk around town taking pictures of everyone to show you what I mean! But almost all the guys on Lidingö wear their hair slicked back, and wear short-shorts (not like girly short, but shorter than I've ever seen a man wear in Utah) in really bright, and even patterned, colors! Add to that oversized sunglasses, sometimes even in pastels. To me, and I think to anyone from good ol' little Utah, they look so gay! The remarkable thing is- they're not!

As for the girls, most things I've seen worn here would be accepted in "the world I know", though it's not necessarily what's popular. All the girls here are wearing leggings with either a long top or a short dress (you can't always really tell the difference). But flare jeans are a death sentence (and are still accepted, though not popular, in Utah) here, and high-topped converse are all the rage. (Those are going out fast in Utah as far as I can tell. The lowers ones are still okay.) But weirdest of all is this one combination I'm seeing everywhere: floor-length, flowy sundresses paired with high-topped converse and a denim jacket. O.o Yeah, that's one I don't think I'll ever understand. But denim jackets in general have been out as far as I'm concerned for...well, I don't think they've really been "in" in my lifetime!

Anywats, next! They eat lots of fish here. (This may just be a Malmer thing.) That's not to say that they eat it constantly, as I was kind of led to believe. But they eat fish a lot more frequently than anyone I've ever met, which is actually way cool. I adore salmon, and I think I've had more in the past week and a half than I've had in a whole year before now! It rocks! All of the other fish I've had has been great, too! (Still can't quite handle shrimp, though...) Also, bread- all types and varieties of delicious bread, far more fresh than the typical American options and almost never pre-sliced - is a staple of pretty much all meals. We have bread and butter, with cheese or caviar if one likes, for breakfast. It's also a good snack. It's also a common part of lunch. And sometimes it's on the table for dinner as well. Being a bread-lover, I don't mind this at all either. ^^

Next: the toilets. Swedish toilets are weird, and kind of awesome. They don't have much water in them to begin with, and then when you press the button (there are two buttons on top, one normal strength and one a bit more), all the water comes whooshing through right away and just gets straight on out of there, taking everything with it. I think they're much more effective than American toilets, and probably use less water, too.

Next: If it's sunny, you go outside. If it's raining, you do not. Unless, that is, you're a crazy American who likes to take off your shoes and dance in the giant puddles. Which I am, and I did. Yesterday. :P

Hmm, I think that's all I've got for now. It's late now so I've got to sleep, but so you know (for those of you who are wondering), on Friday Veronica came over and we made green pancakes for lunch and just hung out and were silly. On Saturday we went to Skansen (more about that later), and you can check out the pictures (some of them, anyway) on Facebook. Sunday I met Lisa's grandpa and I played in the rain. Today we went to Junibacken, a kid's park based entirely on Astrid Lindgrin books (author of Pippi Longstocking- more about that later, too). After that, Lisa's brothers took her out for dinner and a drink for her birthday, and I hung out with Elsa, Veronica, and Max. I don't really know what our plans are for the rest of the week...but whatever we do, it'll be awesome. :) Love to you all!!!!!



Veronica!




Sara at Skansen!

"Where are the whale?"

...or so I said when trying to say, "What are the choices?" :P

SOOOOO! I'll try to keep this brief. Sunday was nice, I met lots and lots of people! Communicating wasn't quite as difficult as I thought'd be. Monday we met Max and hung out with him in the afternoon. He looks like a vampire with his pointy teeth....but he's cool :P Except that we mostly talked in English (forgive me!) because he simply could not speak slowly while speaking Swedish! Gah! It was fun, though. :) On Tuesday, we started Lisa's MoPed (it hadn't been used for ten months), went to the Lidingö Centrum (mall, essentially), rode her bike to a park by the water to join a picnic with her Swedish classmates.

At the picnic I met some more of Lisa's friends and got to see some of the ones I met at the Utspringet (seniors running out of the school) again. We met Laura, Ida, Erlin, Agnes...oi, that's all I remember. O.o But it was great! I got to get to know Ida a little better, and I really like her. She reminds me a little bit of Krytal and a lot of Michaela. (I have probably now spelled many names wrong...sorry!) After eating we played Kubb, Sweden's "national sport", haha! There are two teams, and each stands on a side and sets up a line of little cube thingy-ma-jiggers, and there is a big block, the "king", in the middle. The teams take turns throwing sticks to knock over the other team's cubes, and to sum it up in really basic terms, once a team gets all of the other team's cubes down, they have to knock down the king, and then they win. It's actually a ton of fun!

After that, we walked back home and got on the MoPed again, and Lisa took me to the place where they give vaccinations, and I got a vaccination for TBE, which comes from the ticks here. It doesn't exist in the US, so yeah...Then I met Pauline! She's incredibly sweet, and we all sat in a tree and talked! :)

Wednesday, we went to Sara and Elsa's Avslutingar (basically graduations- they have one after each grade). They got all dressed up and both looked so lovely! Then Elsa had plans, but Lisa, Sara and I made a blueberry-banana-vanillasauce-icecream-etc milkshake and went on a walk with the dogs, dear little Selma and Alfonz, and then we went swimming! Okay, kind of. I didn't actually swim. Kottlasjön is dark and cold...and you get into it by sliding down a big slippery rock. When one is not at all certain of his or her swimming skills, one tends to have a problem with that. So I kind of just stood there in a crack in the rock so I wouldn't fall. Sara and Lisa went further in, and said that it was warmer out there...but I was scared. Meh. :/ If we go again, I hope that I will be a little braver and take out my floaty device to help me in the big scary black water. ^^

Thursday...oh, today! Right. Today, Lisa introduced me to the subway! Weeee! Actually, the subway trains were not that exciting. They're pretty much just like the Trax in Salt Lake. But the underground stations are all designed differently and they can be quite fascinating!

Oops....I just keep getting less and less brief, don't I? Well, this is important stuff! We went to Gamla Stan (Old Town)! I saw the old castles and the streets that they say were washed in blood when the Danes ambushed Gustav Vasa, and the Royal Palace of course! I really don't know what to say about it all....look at the pictures on Facebook. ^^ Ooh, and guess what! I spoke Japanese today! Haha! It was actually quite funny. I wanted a picture of Lisa and me together, but the only lady around was Japanese. I said to Lisa that we should ask her, and Lisa was thinking, "Um, I don't think she'll understand..." But I spoke Japanese and she was much obliged! It was actually INCREDIBLY difficult. :/ I'm totally losing my Japanese....but my Swedish is getting better! I understood more of what Max said today, though that might just have been that he was talking slower. Anywats.






After looking at Gamla Stan, we met Elsa and shopped for a while before meeting with their dad and looking for a new phone for Elsa. Then we came home, ate, and hung out with friends. And now it's about time for bed. ^^





Love to all of you!
<3

An American in Lidingö!

I made it! Oh, Sverige, Sverige....you are so green!

So, Thursday morning we got up early....four AM, I think. We went to the airport and got our boarding passes and checked our luggage, which was way confusing because mine somehow became 6 pounds overweight and we had to stuff random clothing items into Lisa's carry-on, and Continental was for some reason charging Lisa $25 for even her first bag...weird. But eventually we made it on to the plane, frappuchinos and all (sorry about the spill, Lala dear!).

I know I don't have much experience to speak of - it was only my first flight, ever - but....Continental is lame. The entire Continental staff, at the airport and on the plane, seemed rather unhappy and snooty. Continental also charges $6 for any in-flight entertainment, and their orange juice and muffins are bland.

Oh, but clouds are amazing! I took many pictures out the window of the clouds while flying. Silly, I know, and they didn't turn out very well....but they were just so amazing! So I will post pictures of them later. ^^ Anywats, I slept through much of the flight, despite some heavy turbulence, and we arrived in New York!

....well, Newark, anyway. There, Lisa and I changed and freshened up a bit before checking in for our next flight. SAS allows two bags per person, so we were able to check my nice big extra "carry-on", which was awesome. We got a sandwich and a parfait to share while we waited for our flight, which was delayed by half an hour. While waiting, we encountered Emma, a Swede whom Lisa met in August while in New York. Then the plane arrived and we got on board!

If you are going to fly to anywhere in Scandinavia, or Germany, don't ever consider anything but SAS. They rock! As soon as you walk through those SAS doors, Swedish is all you hear. Which is a little bit intimidating at first, I'll admit. But they're all so helpful and happy that you can't help but feel a little better already! I was still insanely nervous, particularly since I could barely understand a word they were saying. But I began to relax when the wonderful Swedish flight attendant brought us pretzels and orange juice for a snack. Then Lisa and I put our complimentary pillows behind our backs, put on the comfy SAS headphones, and engaged in some free SAS entertainment. Yay Midsommer Murders, Alice in Wonderland, Happy Feet, and Dear John! Then came dinner....hot potatoes, meat in some sort of tasty sauce, broccoli, a fresh salad with pepper cream dressing, a soft baguette with butter and brie, a little package of crackers with the same, a glass of orange juice, and a piece of tirimasu! Oh my goodness, they're fantastic! Needless to say we were quite full after that. I slept for a while, and then when the sun came up Lisa managed to sleep for a little while on my shoulder. The poor thing has a terrible time trying to sleep on airplanes.

At 7 AM we arrived at the airport in Stockholm. To Lisa it felt something like midnight, which it almost was, Utah time. I felt pretty good time-wise, since I had been working myself up to it all night...when it was 2 AM Swedish time, it was already dark on the Atlantic, so it wasn't too hard to convince myself that it was maybe 11 PM. So everytime I woke up after that I convinced myself it was a little bit later, and by the time we got here, 7 AM felt about right. Which isn't to say that I wasn't incredibly tired.

So then we were in Stockholm! Well, kinda. The airport is actually quite a ways away from the city-part of Stockholm. But we were definitely in Sweden. :P Lisa and I put on our cowboy hats and checkered bandannas and went out to meet her family. Amid much squealing and hugging, I was introduced, and then we headed home! (Minus my luggage, which instead of going to New York and Stockholm had been sent to Houston and then Frankfurt... O.o)

Stockholm is not as cold as I thought it would be. I mean, it's cold....but nice, I think. I mean their summer feels kind of like autumn in the Utah mountains, with a crisp refreshing chill still lingering in the air...but I don't think it's freezing. Unless the wind is blowing. Vinden är mycket kall.

On Friday, after showering and resting for a bit, we went to the "graduation" of Hersby Gymnasium (high school) on Lidingö. Friends and family line up outside, and at exactly noon, the graduating class is let out and runs out the school doors! It was actually really cool, and I think more fun than what we do in America. :P Oh, and it was my nameday, so we ate cake outside in the sun! Then for dinner, Lisa's brother Gustav came over with his wife Christine and their daughter, Siri. They were all very nice, and Gustav reminds me of my old voice teacher, Brodie. :P And of course, Siri is just plain adorable.

On Saturday we slept until 11, and then Veronica came over for a little while. She's very energetic and sweet, and I hope we can all hang out again soon. Then we went to Sara's dance show, where she was a part of two dances. She did very well!

Today we are celebrating Lisa's birthday. This morning we were awakened in bed by her family singing and bringing her breakfast and gifts, and then Elsa and Sara sang a beautiful song they wrote to go along with a poem of Lisa's (the one on her blog). It was the sweetest thing ever and they had me in tears! Later, she has some 26 relatives coming over, I think. This should be fun, haha! I have been speaking almost entirely Swedish so far, but now I will have to attempt to talk to some Swedes who don't even know English, like her grandma. We'll see how that goes.

Tomorrow, Lisa and I are going to go to Hersby after lunch and meet Max. I think that's as far as we have planned...more on all that later. Love to everyone in good ol' Utah! Miss you guys!