Baby, your a firework, c'mon let your colors burst.

This is my final post for 2010 people!

Just a few things I'd like to mention:

• I couldn't be more grateful for the life I have.
• Did I think that I would be across the world this time last year, NO, not one bit.
• To all the people whom I've met this year I hope I have in someway made a small impact in your lives as you all have in mine.
• To all the people back home who have believed in me, thank you.
• And for all those who continue to support me while I'm here, thank you more than ever.

And must I never forget mi familia (intermediate and extended). You are my everything. I am so proud and thankful to have such a supporting and loving family. Yes there have been a few tough times this year but we managed to get through them-together. I could not be the person I am today without ya'll.  See you this summer.

I love ya'll more than ever- never forget that.

I finished this year off strong and plan to start the new year even stronger.

 Here's to 2010, may 2011 be even better.

xoxo Ez

It's cold outside...

Merry Christmas

God Jul

Feliz Navidad

Buon Natale

Have an incredible day!

xoxo Ez

Santa Lucia, Glögg, Pepparkakor, Pepparkakorhus & Lussekatt too!

Monday, December 13, 2010 was St.Lucia's Day.

"Saint Lucy's Day or the Feast of St. Lucy (Santa Lucia, Saint Lucia or sometimes Lucia for short) is the Church feast day dedicated to St. Lcuy and is observed on December 13. Its modern day celebration is generally associated with Sweden, but is also observed in Norway, Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Malta, Italy, Bosnia, Bavaria, Croatia and Slovakia. In traditional celebrations, Saint Lucy comes as a young woman with lights and sweets. It is one of the few saint days observed in Scandinavia. In some forms, a procession is headed by one girl. Wearing a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head, she walks at the head of a procession of women, each holding a candle. The candles symbolize the fire that refused to take St. Lucia's life when she was sentenced to be burned. The women sing a Lucia song while entering the room, to the melody of the traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia; the Italian lyrics describe the view from Santa Lucia in Naples, the various Scandinavian lyrics are fashioned for the occasion, describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness. Each Scandinavian country has lyrics in their native tongues. After finishing this song, the procession sings Christmas carols or more songs about Lucia. A traditional kind of bun, Lussekatt ("St. Lucia Bun"), made with saffron, is normally eaten on this day." 

Source of Information: Wikipedia

Group who came during the rotary meeting.

That morning during school I got to see the girls with their candles and robes sing, and then I saw a younger group of students come sing at the rotary meeting as well. It was very nice, especially since I have never celebrated this holiday before. Well, that night my host mom and host sister had me help make lussekatt! They were quite good and it was lots of fun making them.

Another thing we did that night was decorate a pepparkakorhus (gingerbread house). We definetly piled it with lots of godis (candy) and icing.

As I've mentioned before pepparkakor and glögg are basically the ideal christmas snack, and boy have I had my fair share of pepparkakor :)

And despite almost all the snow being gone as of yesterday, it's snowing today. Go figure.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree.

One more thing, the other morning I woke up and found that the Christmas tree had been put up. Nice suprise. I'm excited to celebrate Christmas here since it's not quite the same as back home, but at the same time I know it will be so strange not having my lovely crazy family here. It will be good though, looking forward to the start of winter break Dec. 22.

You've Got Mail

November 30, I sent Cassandra a small package, I promised her that she would get some chocolates from Sweden so long as I recieved a letter/card from her before Thanksgiving. Guess what, sure enough I did. So here is what I sent here:



Yes, I know Toblerone is not Swedish but too bad. The Marabou and Kex are though.



Now, I had also been waiting for a package to come. I was hoping that it would come before the 25th because it had some stuff I could have used for Thanksgiving...and I really wanted to get my new laptop battery. But sadly my package didn't come till December 1. I was still super excited to get it though! So, here is what I got:

17 lbs of pure happiness :)



All of this and my laptop battery. THANK YOU MOM!

Lastly, today I sent 11 Christmas cards off to various family and friends. Still have one left to send though, waiting for an address. I would have loved to have been able to send more but each card is 12SEK ($1.71) to send, which adds up...and when I don't have but 30SEK left in my Swedish account well it leaves me at not being able to send more cards. Well, I am proud to say I did in fact make each card, meaning I had to buy a few things to get them done. But I liked how they turned out, and they were fun to make.

 

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Last weekend. Friday night before heading out we had some hot glögg and pepparkakkor. Which basically is mulled cider/wine and gingerbread cookies.  You can add raisens and blanched almonds to the glögg if you like. I don't mind the taste of glögg, it's actually good but I would prefer to drink something else if offered. So after that, host family and I took a short stroll around the town, since Jul (Christmas) decorations were recently put up. We just peeked around in store windows and enjoyed the very frosty air. In the center of town there is the stairs that lead up to Kärnan. Which is the castle/tower overlooking the town. Well, every year they show this sort of light show projected on the stairs. Luckily we walked by just in time and got to see it. It was pretty neat. After watching to show we continued to walk around some more, I kid you not my toes were frozen. But everything looked so pretty so I didn't let my toes bother me.

On Sunday we went to Fredriksdral, which I have mentioned before. This time they were having their Jul market. So everyone was in the holiday spirit. Ha, it even snowed that day. It was fun to see all the stands with all their interesting and or yummy items to sell.  

The "Santa Claus" in Sverige before Santa Claus.

Snö

Ja, jag är mycket glad att vi hade snö. (Yes, I am so glad we had snow.) 

A day or two before thanksgiving it began to snow and well it has snowed since then...sort of. We got a few inches then it stopped for a few days. Of course since it's been between 7-35 degrees F, the snow has yet to all melt. Until the temperatures rise I'm pretty sure the snö will be here for another week.  Everyday it seems like, the ground keepers or whatever for Helsingborg go around shoveling the streets, sidewalks and park paths. Which is great! Today as a matter of fact as I was walking to school I saw this golf cart sized tractor/cart thing with a big digger/shoveler in the front driving down the street, well up the sidewalk it drives and starts shoveling at the snö. I mean it was so cute looking, there it went just clearing the sidewalk for us. As much as I love the snoö it's a pain in the butt when the snö starts to turn to slush. It's not white anymore-it's gray. It's not fun anymore- it's cold. It's slippery as can be, I've managed to have kept my balance this entire time except for once. I was slowly walking across the street of slushy slippery snö and a car was trying to cross. Of course I didn't want to keep them waiting so I start to sort of run but instead I fall. One foot comes out from under me, can't break my fall with anything but my bum/hip cause I'm holding a camera in my hands (which wasn't mine, so couldn't risk that breaking). But anyway I like to believe that the only people who saw that was 1. the driver of the car and 2. two students across the street...up ahead. Oh and also there was a man walking only a few feet in front of me when I fell...apparently he didn't here me hit the ground cause when I got up he hadn't even turned around to help me. Ohh well. So now I suppose I shall let ya'll see a few pictures of the snö we've had.

  

Nov. 25 2010 - Thanksgiving in Sverige

Yes, I realize that it's been over 10 days since Thanksgiving but I'm finally getting around to blogging about it. Better late than never.

  

Thanksgiving consisted of 24 people, a dozen bottles of wine or so, plenty of food, and lots of dessert.

I spent Wednesday night prepping some of the food I planned to cook for Thursday. Lots of chopping, dicing, and slicing but definetly a major time saver. I was in charge of the  stuffing, savory yams, pumpkin pies, turkey and mashed potatoes.

Well, heres what happened...I did make the stuffing, the savory yams and pumpkin pies. My host mom offered to cook turkey, which was very good I might add. And she helped quite a bit with the mashed potatoes. But, slight issues came up and I also got the cranberry sauce and made pecan and apple pies as well. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed but only because I am the sort of person who is sort of "OCD" about getting things done right. Or maybe it's more of; I like to be in charge of things...and when other people are involved to help but then don't do their part to my expectations I freak myself out. Yeah I really should work on that, I mean if they offer to help that's great! Less work for me, but as my "OCD" goes, I'd rather just do it myself...what's another word for that.....right I can tend to act like a perfectionist sometimes. Don't mean to ramble on, back to dinner.

24 people huh, well 23 to be exact but 24 is a better number. Anyway this included me and my host family (Paul, Birgitta, Emilia(and her boyfriend), Veronica, Marcus, Ida, and Per-Eric). Then there was Dakota and her host family (Martin, Åsa, and Mikeala). Also, Shruti and her host family (Host dad and two host sisters). A few friends of Pauls and another two friends of Veronica's...I believe. It was a very full house but felt cozy in a good way. I can't believe we were able to fit enough tables and chairs in the flat for that many people, it worked out though!

18:00 hrs people were starting to show up as expected. The other host families brought some dishes as well as this was meant for us to all get to know one another, since we students will be moving to one of their homes soon. We set all the food in the kitchen; turkey, stuffing,  mashed potatoes, savory yams, gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, creamed corn, broccoli salad, green salad, bread, cheese...and I think that was it. As I said plenty of food! One by one we served ourselves and indulged in the american tradition. People seemed to have enjoyed the food, which was great! Boy was I full, and to think I had made sure to eat hardly anything before so that I would be extra hungry for dinner yet I only had a plate and a half. Which is still alot, but for thanksgiving, not at all, you have to go all out and just keep eating :)



Bread, turkey, green salad, stuffing, savory yams, creamed corn, green bean casserole, & mashed potatoes.



All that was left for the evening was dessert, always save the best for last! Dessert included a cheesecake made by Veronica. A Cranberry dessert made by Dakota. Also pumpkin, pecan and apple pies made my me.  Everything was delicious, so good. Enjoyed with coffee or tea everyone had a good fill.



Pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, cranberry dessert & cheesecake.

So the night starting to come to an end as Dakota and her host family said goodbye. Followed by Shruti and her host family. Veronica walked Per-Eric home, and then Paul's friends left soon after. The rest of us who were still there started clean up. With all of us helping we managed to get the flat back to normal in a little over an hour. A successful Thanksgiving if I do say so myself. Although I wasn't back home with my family, my host family here was wonderful in making me feel like I was home. So thank you to them!

Ahh, so Thanksgiving in Sverige a first for me, and for all who were there.



Per-Eric brought me these lovely roses.



FYI

Dec. 10 Day ?? Today marks 4 months for me, 7 left. I will be sure to blog this weekend about whats been going on...I realize I've been lacking on that. But I just wanted to let ya'll know that 4 months have already flown by.