Kanel Bullens Dag & Autumn

I feel like I just updated my blog, but another week has passed by, very quickly for that matter.

We had no school on Monday, so my great weekend was extended into a 3-day weekend. I woke up around 9.00 and Bemp and Ulrika had already left for work. I had breakfast, and at 11.00, Axel, Anna, and I headed to the bus stop near our neighborhood, which was just a short walk away. We took the " Mjuka Linjen" bus which roughly translates to the gentle or soft bus route. It is not very yfast, and there are many bus stops so it is actually quite a relaxing way to get somewhere, assuming you're not in a hurry. On our bus ride, I got to see parts of Uppsala that I haven't seen before which was neat. We finally arrived at our destination of choice: IKEA. I have now been to IKEA twice since I moved to Sweden, and let me tell you, it is wonderful. The prices are really reasonable, the food is cheap, and the selection of stuff you can buy there is unbelieveable. I had so much fun wandering around IKEA with my younger siblings, and we ended up buying two blankets, a pillow, a stuffed bunny rabbit, a teddy bear, and some clothes hangers. The IKEA restaurant had a long line, so we ate downstairs at the smaller food place and we had french hot dogs. A French hot dog is a hot dog with mustard and ketchup in a baguette instead of a hot dog bun. After our shopping adventure, we went to ridlektion at Lurbo. Monday's lesson was really fun because I got to lead Axel's pony while he lay down on the horse and while he sat backwards, way fun! After ridlektion, Ulrika and I went grocery shopping at ICA. For dinner, we had twirly pasta with hot dogs and ketchup. I never, ever thought about putting ketchup on noodles, but it is delicious. After dinner we watched The Lion King ( AKA my favorite movie of all time) in Swedish, which was different, but the Swedish dubbing was really well-done and Pumbaa and Scar sounded the same as they do in English. 

Tuesday meant the end of my perfect weekend, and going back to school. I woke up at 6.40 and had my oatmeal the Swedish way (swimming in milk). In my Film & TV class we watched a movie called Hets (1944) which is the first film Ingmar Bergman ever directed. It was in black and white, and I found the Swedish quite difficult to understand, moreso than I find on a regular day-to-day basis. I went to ICA and bought a snack during my long afternoon break. I went home after school and Ulrika made red beet soup for dinner and jalapeño bread made from scratch. I never knew that I liked beets until I tried this soup, but it was so, so good. Mom, I like beets now, watch out. The new trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug came out and Axel and I sat by the fire in the living room and freaked out and watched it twice, I can't wait for that movie to come to theatres. 

On Wednesday, I woke up at 7.00 and had breakfast with everybody before going to school. I bought a gigantic ham, cheese, brie, tomato, and cucumber sandwich from the school café and ate that during Filosofi, which was a good idea, because the school lunch was not top notch that day. I met my friend Sara after school and we went on a hunt for mjukglass ( soft-serve ice cream), to no avail. All of the ice cream stands in Uppsala are closed for the fall & winter. We ended up buying ice cream from McDonald's which was good, but disappointing after our failure to find the ice cream I wanted. We went to the city library and The English Bookshop and had a nice walk around the city center before we parted ways. Choir practice was fun and we sang many interesting songs. I had a late dinner when I got home and had a pleasant conversation with Ulrika. 

Thursday morning, I woke up and went downstairs in my pajamas, still rubbing the sleep from my eyes and I had oatmeal for breakfast. I packed my gym bag and took the bus to the gym. I worked out for an hour and then got ready for school. Religion class was interesting, I'm sure, although I understood none of what we are learning. We had pancakes with lingon berry jam for lunch at school, and I was so full afterwards. After school, I went to the city library and returned some items and then I went to HemmaKväll (Swedish BlockBuster) and returned last week's movies. I introduced my friend Louise to the two Italian exchange students in my Swedish lesson and it was so cool to hear them speak Italian to each other. Louise was a Rotary exchange student to Italy last year, and I can only hope that my Swedish will be as good as her Italian at the end of my exchange year. I spoke a little Swedish to Marie ( Annalise's host mom) when she drove us home, the more practice, the better! I watched tv with Anna and Simon when I got home, and we ordered pizza for dinner. I got pizza Hawaii-style (Canadian bacon & pineapple), which is my favorite kind of pizza. Unfortunately, I dropped my pizza on the ground right before I got to the table, but I was hungry and not going to miss out on my favorite kind of pizza, so I followed the 5-second rule and ate it anyways. 

On Friday, I woke up at the same time I do every weekday and had the same breakfast I have every weekday, some people might find this kind of routine boring, but I think it's perfect. I am so settled in to my life in Sweden and I love having a morning routine to start my day. I made it to school on time for English class bright and early at 8.30. I chatted with Louise and worked on my essay, and we used Google Maps to look at her house and her school in Italy. During a break, I talked with Cecilia and her friend Alva and I practiced my Swedish more which is good! I have a tendency to compare my knowledge of Swedish with native speakers, and I always feel inadequate, but I have to remember that they have been speaking Swedish for their entire lives, just like I have been speaking English for mine, so our language abilities in Swedish are not even comparable. We wrote an essay on Candide for my Swedish class, I wrote my essay in English, but it was definitely difficult. I went to HemmaKväll with Cecilia after school and I rented 3 movies for the weekend. I cooked spaghetti and red sauce for dinner. I was really proud of my red sauce because I didn't use a recipe and I just improvised. I ended up cooking way too much spaghetti, so I filled the fridge with leftovers. We watched The Road to El Dorado in Swedish for Fredagsmys which was really entertaining. 

Saturday morning I woke up at 7.30 after a wonderful 10-hr night of sleep. I watched a tv show with Anna and Axel and from what I could understand, the show seemed to be about a Swedish celebrity baby-sitting a group of kids for a day, really funny, but confusing at first. After that, I rode my bike to the gym and worked out which was a nice way to work off some pent-up stress from a week at school and then I rode my bike home. After a quick lunch, Ulrika drove us ( Anna & me) to Sunnersta and from there we took the bus to Gottsunda Centrum, and then we took another bus to Norby. We spent the afternoon at Sierra's house baking traditional cinnamon rolls with her host parents Karin and Stefan. Annalise came over a little later in the day and helped us turn the dough we made into actual rolls. We made two batches with two different recipes, and they were both delightful. At 18.00, the rest of my family came over and Annalise's host parents came over and we had a nice dinner with soup and bread before our massive fika with the cinnamon rolls we had spent the majority of the day baking. I practiced my Swedish with Ulrika, Karin, and Mikael which was fun and the whole dinner was really interesting because I understood nearly all of the conversations we had and a few of the jokes! Compared to a dinner I had with Bengt-Ove's family in Vika the week I arrived, my Swedish comprehension has improved vastly. Who knew I could make jokes in Swedish? The dinner was great and I felt comfortable with the conversation and even participating, which was cool. I am feeling better about where my Swedish is now, although I am still frusturated because I have learned a lot of Swedish but it is a challenge to put it all together in coherent sentences. Lately, a few people have told me that I am "duktig" which is a word that is hard to directly translate to English, but it means good, so when people say " Du är så duktig! " it means something like " You are so good at Swedish, nice job! ". I was exhausted from a long day when I got home and I fell asleep at 11.00.

Sunday morning I slept in until 9.00, so I got 10 blissful hours of sleep. I left my phone at Sierra's house the night before, so we made plans to meet in the city center so I could get my cell phone and so we could check out the new American food store. I rode my bike all the way to the city center to meet Annalise and Sierra which is about 10 km (6 miles) north of my house. My bike ride into the city was really beautiful and scenic. Fall in Sweden is absolutely jaw-dropping. There are more deciduous trees here than in Colorado so when the leaves change color, there are way more trees to admire. Leaves range from deep reds, to bright oranges, to bold yellows and every shade in between. The bike ride took about 45 minutes. We walked around the city center and Sierra took photos of the Domkyrkan and then we had lunch at Kebab House. After lunch we sat by the river for awhile and chatted. I rode my bike home a different way than how I rode my bike into the city, so that was also beautiful. Suprisingly 12 miles of riding my bike was relaxing and not as challenging as I expected, I was able to go at a comfortable pace and my bike ride was definitely the highlight of my day. I had a wonderful conversation with Bengt-Ove and Ulrika when I got home in Swedish and they really understand me and my personality, which is fantastic. We had reindeer soup for dinner, and it was so good, but unfortunately I don't think it is possible to buy reindeer in Colorado. I spent the rest of my evening reading a Winne-the-Pooh book in Swedish which was a challenge. Pooh Bear is called Nalle Puh in Swedish and Eyeore is called I-or. Ulrika and I watched Bron which was dramatic and exciting. I can't wait to find out what happens on the show next week. 

I am really enjoying Fall in Sweden and I am definitely learning more Swedish! Maybe I'll start dreaming in Swedish soon!