Lucia och Jul

Lucia: Lucia is a tradition where santa lucia the saint of light or something comes and spreads light to Sweden since it is really dark this time of year. So on December 13th Lots of people go to church and then you sit in the dark, church bells ring and you hear some very beautiful music. Then Lucia appears walking down the aisle wearing a white robe, red sash, and candles in her hair, with the choir behind her. Its very beautiful. The songs are so wonderful and the whole presentation is so eerie, but really cool. I got to take part in Lucia with my rotary club, so one lunch i dressed up as lucia candles and all, with 6 girls singing behind me. It was really cool and everyone was telling me it was jette fint! very nice. I went to 3 different lucia torgs and they were all magnificent. Me as Lucia

December has been busy.

Jul!! Christmas is celebrated very different here. First off its all celebrated on christmas eve. So i woke up and 'tomten' (santa) came, he left clues around the house leading to the presents, so that was different, but fun. so then we opened gifts. Then we ate breakfast. we had julgröt, which is rice porridge or something. Its very good. They hide an almond in it and if you find the almond you will marry next year. I got the almond, so i guess i am getting married soon :). Then we chilled and Fikad! SO many good cakes and so much chocolate and good glögg and everything, so good, i probably gained like 5 pounds from eating so much. Then after fika we watched Kalle Anka! Kalle Anka is the swedish name for donald duck and hes more popular than mickey mouse! But thats a tradition for like 50 years here and you watch it and sing along and it was so fun!! i am going to start watching it every christmas eve at 3.00! Then when that was done we did the gift exchange. You buy 2 gifts and put them in a lottery and write a poem about them. so that was cool, i would have liked it better if i knew what the poems meant, but it was still fun. I got some tomten and a fly swatter, yeah it is random hehehe. Then we just hung out and then ate Jul bord! so good, really good food, like ham and potatoes and sill (not so good) salads and so much more! it was really good. yeah that was basically christmas. It was strange though waking up on christmas though and it just being another day. Santa comes here usually, after kalle anka and he knocks on the door and asks if there is any good children at home? Then yeah thats santa, not he comes in the chimney, so it was different. God Jul!

Jul

Jul Bord
Gifts
Kalle Anka
Fika
Breakfast

Första advent

Last weekend was the first of advent, and for most of us thats no big deal at all, but here its a BIG thing (kind of). We decorated the house. Its strange, swedes are not like religious, but you can see a manorah in every window, and every house house a advent reef and like stars in the window. its weird to me because they mix the religions when they dont practice a religion. weird. also strange to me that its ok to have like Santa clauses at school and manorahs and things like that. then we went and fikad at mormor morfars house. we drank glögg! its like a hot spiced wine thing, you take little sips of it and put raisins and almonds in it, its pretty good. we eat like sooo much gingerbread its going to start coming out of my ears! and of course we also drink julmust! its like coke but with some different spices or something, its really good, its weird to them that we dont have like a typical christmas drink, well i guess egg nog, but yeah. then for breakfast we had Christmas porridge, yeah it was ok. and at dinner we had the whole family over and were eating, and then they would all break out and start singing Christmas carols. it was so funny, i would just sit there and smile. then after every song you skål (cheers) it was so different. that was basically last weekend, i am starting to notice some cultural things now, which is really fun! on thanksgiving i made a feast. Juliana and Phil came over and we all helped cook the meal. it turned out really good. like for our first time and none of us being able to cook, it was good! my family really like the sweet potatoes and marshmallows, that was good. then rugved and hannah came over and celebrated thanksgiving. it was really nice and i felt like i had a new family :) i was proud of myself, even though i couldn't find any sort of pumpkin to make a pumpkin pie :( its been snowing alot here and has been really cold, like one day i walked to school and it was -19 out side! i froze to death, i was seriously considering rolling in a ball on the side of the road and dying hahaha. not really, but it was cold. but i have been sledding and thats always fun. oh i get to be Lucia for something on st. Lucia day!! im really excited for that! i move families on the 28th :( i get to live with my counsler at his house (where i went hunting) for 2 weeks, so that should be fun, but i dont want to leave my family now! but now i get to see more culture and stuff. yep there you go.