Home Again - Relaxing Weekend

I just spent the past week in Åre, Sweden with a huge group of Rotary exchange students. We had a week of skiing and other shenanigans.

I got back from Åre at 6:30 on Friday morning and my host dad Stefan was waiting on the train platform to take me home.

 We drove home and I had breakfast with Karin and Stefan (my host parents) before they left for work. After eating breakfast, showering and doing a little laundry, I felt fully exhausted from my 10 hour journey on the night train so I spent most of Friday morning watching tv and taking a nap on the couch. Friday was a day of much-needed relaxation after an incredibly busy week. We had sushi for dinner on Friday evening and I provided my host parents with quite a bit of entertainment as they watched me attempt to eat sushi with chopsticks; laughter ensued. I also FaceTimed with my best friend Jae Jae and her little sister, and I introduced them to my host parents.

 After dinner, we ate pistachio ice cream,drank coffee and watched a black comedy film from 1978 starring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase called Foul Play. The movie was very good, but there were quite a few scary moments that caused me to jump, also resulting in a lot of laughter on the part of Stefan and Karin. 

I'd never seen Chevy Chase or Goldie Hawn this young before.

Easily the scariest movie villain ever.

Saturday was also a very relaxing and fun-filled day. After a chill morning at home, we headed off to Gränby Centrum (the biggest mall in Uppsala). I'd heard a lot about Gränby Centrum before, and after 7 and a 1/2 months of living in Uppsala, it seemed like it was finally  time to go check this place out. 

The mall was two stories tall and filled with all of my favorite stores in Sweden including: Intersport, H&M, and ICA. Yes, one of my favorite stores is ICA. For those of you who don't know, ICA is a grocery store, on par with King Soopers. 

While visiting the wonder that is Gränby Centrum, it became apparent that something was missing from our shopping experience. To remedy the situation, Stefan, Karin and I made a necessary stop at the Naked Juice Bar to get some fruit smoothies. Obviously, I had to document this epic moment and send it to Cecilia. 

With my Very Berry smoothie, delicious!

Later on, we left the magic that is Gränby Centrum behind and drove to a chocolate/candy store in Boländerna where I picked up lots of lördagsgodis. Lördagsgodis directly translates to Saturday candy, and it's somewhat of a Swedish tradition to buy this kind of candy on Saturdays. I'll explain lördagsgodis in more detail another time. Once we returned home from shopping, we had a light lunch of sandwiches and coffee and then I spent the whole afternoon in the living room hanging out with my host parents and listening to E.L.O.'s Greatest Hits.

 I skyped with my parents for 15 minutes and just caught them up quickly on my week in Åre. We had superb hamburgers with homemade hamburger buns for dinner. Our evening plans consisted of going to Filmstaden and seeing 12 Years a Slave. I was very impressed by the movie, especially the skill of the actors in their roles and the  stark historic reality that the film portrayed. I was so focused on the movie that I completely forgot about my lördagsgodis.

This long weekend has been excellent . I've really enjoyed laughing and joking around with my host parents and just getting back to my regular life in Uppsala after an adventure-filled week in Åre.