Fall Break was absolutely fantastic. I had the opportunity to visit Stockholm for the day with Ulrika, Anna, and Axel and we went on a boat tour around Djurgården and saw many beautiful buildings and islands. We had lunch at Pizza Hut with Agnes, Egon, and Filippa (Anna and Axel's cousins). We also visited Globen (Ericsson Globe) which is an arena in Stockholm that is the world's largest spherical building. We had wonderful fika and apple pie with Ulrika's sister, Monika. That evening, we had delicious Indian food for dinner (and fresh-baked naan) with Roger, Egon, Filippa, and Agnes. That day in Stockholm was one of my favorite days in Sweden that I've had so far, I got to meet and spend time with so many wonderful people and also visit what I am now conviced is the most beautiful city in the world, Stockholm.
When we took the subway to Roger's apartment, I encountered quite possibly the longest escalator I have ever seen. This photo does not even begin to do it justice.
View of the sunset from the top of Globen SkyView (A round glass elevator that goes on top of the arena)
'Cause I'm on top of the world!
This is a cool giraffe thing I saw on the boat tour, I don't even know what it is, but I love giraffes.
STOCKHOLM.
STOCKHOLM, again.
More Stockholm.
I accidentally took a picture of my leg, and I thought it looked cool, okay?
Another fun part of Höstlovet was celebrating Halloween in Sweden. In recent years, Halloween has grown to be an actual, celebrated holiday in Sweden, and the Swedes are finally catching on to the idea of trick-or-treating (In Swedish: bus eller godis). It never occurred to me before, just how American celebrating Halloween is, so I was beyond excited when my younger host brother Axel, asked me to go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with him. I had no idea that I was going to go out on Halloween night, so I had no costume prepared. But I followed my Dad's motto: "Improvise, adapt, overcome".
My host family's house, all decked out for Axel's Halloween party.
More Halloween decorations.
Axel dressed as a ninja and me dressed as a monkey? Note the clever improvisation of my costume: recycled 3D glasses, monkey gloves, ears, and a tail, and some faux fur wrapped around my winter jacket. Halloween was so much fun this year, and I had a great time going trick-or-treating with Axel. We got quite the haul of candy, even from neighbors who were unaware that it was Halloween. I had definitely missed trick-or-treating and celebrating Halloween in Sweden was wicked.
I had more adventures than just visiting Stockholm and celebrating Halloween during Höstlovet, I also recieved an amazing care package from my Mom, visited Dalarna and my host dad's side of the family, toured the Falu Gruva (Falun Copper Mine), chopped downed tree trunks into firewood, and took a dock out of a lake. It was all spectacular.
Anticipation.
Suprise! I officially have the best mom in the entire world. She sent me two gigantic bottles of maple syrup, new converse, new socks, wrapped Christmas presents, and my favorite winter sweater. The package weighed 12 lbs ( 5kg)! If you're reading this Mom, thank you again!
Falu Gruva is a copper mine in Falun that we got to take a tour inside of! I don't remember how deep we went into the mine, but it was cold, dark, and also eerily beautiful.
From the left: Anna, Axel, and me after completing the mine tour (hence the orange ponchos and hard hats).
Pushing wood through the wood-splitter, harder than it looks.
Bemp (host dad) and his brother Anders pulling the dock out of the lake, as shown in this picture, I helped out a lot.
Chopping wood and doing that one annoying photo pose, nailed it.
I had a magnificent Fall Break, I ate moose meat for the first time, experienced wonderful sight-seeing in Stockholm, chopped wood, went inside a copper mine, celebrated Halloween, and overall had a great time off from school. I am so thankful to my first host family for taking me to all of these places, showing me more of Sweden, and giving me memories I'll never forget.
I completely forgot to mention how beautiful the changing of the leaves is in the fall in Sweden, it's indescribable.