Lucia and Stockholm

On Friday we celebrated Lucia because Lucia was actually on Saturday. It was so awesome, I love Lucia. It started off with a fika in school. We got safron buns and orange juice which I had with the girls from my teknik class. I love safron buns. They are so yummy because they are not really sweet so they taste good. After fika I went to art class, but we didn't have enough time to do anythingso Elisa and I stole paper for our light saber costumes for the Christmas party we went to on Friday night. During art class we went to watch Lucia in the forum. It was so cute. Little kids came from an elementary school, they were in grade 2 I think. There were so many sjärngosar, or however you spell it, which are what the boys are in Lucia choirs. I felt bad for the little boys because they have to wear pointy, cone hats with stars on them and they have to wear dresses. I think some of the boys were embarrassed because when they went to the mic to say their little speech they covered their faces with their star wands. After the star boys came in the Lucia tåg followed. There was only one Lucia and a bunch of attendants. They were so cute when they were all singing.
After we saw the Lucia tåg we had a special lunch at school because it was Lucia. We had rice pudding which was so good. I love rice pudding and they eat it with milk, sugar and cinnamon which makes it even better. Elisa and I had to eat quickly because PeO was coming to get us to take us to Hjo for a Lucia tåg there.
The Lucia tåg in Hjo was amazing. It was at a music school and they were so amazing, but their Lucia was a little creepy looking just because she had giant eyes, but didn't move at all because she was afraid of tipping the candles or something probably, so she just stared out with her giant eyes. But they were really amazing. Those boys didn't have to wear dresses and cones, they got to wear dress shirts and red ties. After the Lucia in Hjo, we ate lunch again. I thought that we were just going to watch Lucia and then go home so I told Elisa that we should eat before, but then we had to eat again and we were really full. But the food was pretty good. We had ham and potatoes. And I met a man who had been on exchange in Oregon, it was kind of weird because he started talking to me in the coffee line and it was so weird to hear a North American accent instead of a British/Swedish one.
PeO dropped Elisa and I off at school because my bike was still there, but we were done school. We walked home because Elisa didn't want to bike in the snow. We saw yellow snow on the way home and she asked what it was. She is so cute sometimes. When we got home we worked on our costumes and went to the square because Elisa needed to pay a bill or something and we needed to buy presents to take to the party.
After supper Maggie took me and Elisa to the yellow house where I got to be Lucia!!! It was so much fun, but scary. We changed upstairs and I got my crown, but we didn't light me until downstairs because that could have been bad. But when they light me I was standing under a fire detector that kept going off. I was really scared of burning myself because I didn't have a wet cloth over my hair. I don't think I sang very well because I was so nervous about the candles on my head and I was really hot. Now I understand why the Hjo Lucia didn't move so much. But it was so cool to be Lucia. We sang for the handicapped people in Tibro because they were having a Christmas party. After we sang we got boxes of chocolate from them.
When my magnificient performance as Lucia was over we went home and got ready for the Christmas party. It was at the Church and was Starwars themed. Everyone had such good costumes, but Elisa and I looked pretty stupid. Neither of us have really seen starwars so we dressed up as lightsabers. We just rolled up paper and put it on our heads. But other kids had really cool costumes like princess leia and that fat worm guy, and the robots and a fat blue guy. It was really fun. They had a Lucia tåg at the party too, but instead of Lucia they had Leia as Lucia and the others were dressed as other characters. They changed the words to the songs so they were about starwars. It was really funny. Then for supper we had a corv, sausage, buffet. It was good and for dessert we had an ice cream space ship.
After supper we played Starwars games where we had to make stuff from starwars, my team had very little starwars experience so we made the gold bikini and put it on my host counsellor's son because he was one of the judges. Then we had starwars trivia. After that we had a present exchange. I love their present exchange game. You role a die until you get a six, then you get to take a present. Then you roll again and if you get a six you have to trade. I was happy because I ended with what I wanted. I got a cookie cutter and a sucker. After the present exchange it was almost one in the morning and Elisa and I were going to Stockholm in 6 hours so we walked home. I like walking around really late at night/early in the morning. It is so quiet and not that cold and very well lit.
On Saturday we went to Stockholm at 7 am. It takes about 4 hours driving, or maybe 3. I don't know PeO drives pretty fast. So we stopped at McDonald's on the way to have breakfast. I like McDonald's here better than in Canada because it sometimes has really food like I had a sandwiche for breakfast with lettuce, cheese and ham. And I had Oh Boy, their hot chocolate mix. When we got to Stockholm the first thing we did was go to our hotel to drop off our bags and car. It was a very nice hotel in one of the richest parts of Stockholm. It was so nice. It had book cases all over and it was just very nice. But the elevator was really really scary. There was no door on the inside so you could see the wall go buy and you could touch it. It really freaked me out. And one time when we were in it it stopped and I freaked out a little bit. Once we had dropped off our stuff we set out walking to the Vasa museum, the Vasa was an old battle ship that sank, then was rescued from the bottom and then put in a museum. It was cool to see it. It had so many carvings on it because it was like to show off, but that is why it sank I think. I'm not 100 percent sure though. but we got to see conditions on board and they recreated the people that had died and stuff, it was interesting. After the Vasa Museum we went to a children's museum about Swedish Children's Authors like the lady who wrote Pippi Longstockings. it was so cool. They had recreated the settings from the stories and you could go in them like Pippi's house was a jungle gym. And there was a train that went from one part to the other and all along the train ride it had reenactments of the stories and speakers told the stories as you went. That was one of my favorite parts of Stockholm. They had a Lucia Tåg at that museum too, but Lucia was a boy. But we didn't watch them that long because we had lots to do in only 2 days. After that we had lunch I think. Yeah we ate at an italian restuarant which was kind of weird because they made you leave your coat at the front but you had to pay 8 crowns each. But they had really good pizza, because most pizza here is thin crust, but it is always soggy, but there it was thin crust and crispy. It was so good. After lunch we went to the Nobel Museum, which was cool, but it was mostly about the literature winners and I wanted to see about medicine and peace and science. But they had all the winners going around on a mobile around the roof and there were so many. Nobel day was on December 10th and they show it on T.V. and like everyone in Sweden watches them eat and then dance. After the Nobel Museum we went out to a Julmarknad in the square outside of the museum. PeO bought marzipan pigs for his dad and Marie's dad for Christmas. It was really dark out already because it was around 4. We walked back to the hotel after the Julmarknad. It was cool because we got to see all the stores. I like Stockholm because it is more like real Europe, or at least what you see in movies. It has old buildings, but also has shops with cutting edge design and is a melting pot of cultures. I heard so many people speaking English and other languages like French, Italian, Spanish... It was so interesting and to see all the different stores and restuarants. And there was a fresh food market. I love Stockholm. We walked past NK, like Swedens Sak's. They have huge window displays every Christmas. They were so cute and fun and colourful. I took pictures of them. While we were looking at them Sweden's Lucia road by in a horse drawn carriage and all her attendants were on horse back. It was so cool. I took pictures, but it was dark so they weren't very good. but it was so cool to see Sweden's National Lucia. On our walk we also saw Sweden's Reich and other government buildings. When we got back to the hotel we had hot chocolate, coffee and I had glögg. It was nice to have something warm. Then we went for supper. We went to TGI Fridays. I think that was my first time eating in a TGI Fridays and it was in Sweden. I enjoyed have North Americanish, restaurant food again. And the menus were in Swedish and English! But I know most food words in Swedish now. I had pasta for supper. The waiters all had TGI Friday santa hats on so when I came back from the bathroom when we were about to leave, PeO had gotten each of us one too. Elisa, Viktoria and I had our picture taken out side of the restaurant with our hats on. I will write more later. I have lunch now and we get special christmas food.
So after supper on Saturday night we walked back to the hotel and then Viktoria went up to the room to study and Elisa and I went for a little walk, but everything was closed so we didn't walk very long, we came back to the hotel and sat with PeO and Marie for a little, but we were all pretty tired so we went to bed.
On Sunday we woke up and had breakfast in the hotel, it was really good. We got to make out own waffles, Viktoria made mine and then I made ELisa's but I put too little batter in so her's didn't work out so well, but she was able to fix it. After breakfast we went to the National Museum, Viktoria stayed at the hotel to study. The National Museum was really nice, I like the Reniessance paintings the best. I like to see old people and old clothing. But I was in Reneisance and we had to leave because we had a tour in the Statshuset, but I didn't know what time it was so I made us a little late for our tour. The Stadshus is the city hall and where the Nobel Prizes are held. It was really cool because I saw the Nobel Dinner on T.V. on Wednesday and then I was in the room where it was held. There was a really beautiful ballroom where all the walls were covered in tile mosaic of gold and other colours. One of the mosaics was Lady Stockholm or something with landmarks from all around the world on either side of her, it was supposed to symbolize who the world comes to Stockholm or something. The tour was a little boring because it was in Swedish and I didn't understand everything.
After our tour we went back to the hotel to get Viktoria, then we had lunch in McDonald's on our walk to NK, the really fancy department store. The department store was really cool, but really expensive. I bought a safron bun stuffy thing and a marzipan pig. Oh and I found a cheese slicer in the shape of a moose that I bought even though it was really expensive. After NK we went back to the hotel and then we left for home. On the way home we mostly slept, but we stopped for supper and this sketchy little place. It was sketchy because we had to go off the road into the dark forest a bunch and then it was just this place with cold sandwiches and this weird girl speaking weird english on the phone. But we eventually made it home, and that was my weekend.

So last weekend we had a district thing with just the inbounds in my district. It was in Tibro, well actually the forest around Tibro. We stayed in a building owned by the Mission church in Tibro. It was so much fun. On Friday night a lady from my Rotary club came and did our hair because she is a hair dresser. And we are sausages and meat balls at like 10:00. But it was fun to just sit around and talk. There were only 5 students there, but there are only 6 kids in my district anyways. It was kind of a good bye to the two brazilians who are going home after Christmas. That is really sad because then I will be alone in Tibro. So it was kind of a sad weekend, but mostly just super duper fun. On Saturday morning we made breakfast all together and then we washed our hair in the sink because we had no shower. After breakfast we made gingerbread houses. I burned my finger on the melted sugar. Here they use melted sugar instead of icing to put the pieces together. But we couldn't find the powdered sugar to decorate with so we gave up and would do it after we got powder sugar. We watched Pirates of the Carribean instead. Then my host mom came to get me because I had to go into town for choir practice. The other exchange students went into town to another church to watch a Lucia performance and there was a Christmas auction there too. I walked over to that church after choir practice and met them just in time for Fika. We had saffron buns and pepparkakor and juice. I love saffron buns. We got a little bored after awhile because we were supposed to be watching the auction, but they were selling tea clothes and things that weren't all that interesting so we went outside and played with snowballs. We still had a little snow then, but it is all gone now and it is raining out. Then we walked to the Ica and bought candy and chips. I bought these cool chips that are in the shape of stars. The Rotary lady came and got us and we went back to the forest house. She had to go back to town to pick up Elisa because there was not enough room in her car. But they were taking a really long time to get back so we were concerned and called Elisa, but it was okay they were just picking up some things from her house.
On Saturday night we ate pizza and then the Rotary lady made us a fire out side where we roasted marshmallow santas and had sparklers. But then she threw the bag of our garbage on the fire which was really not cool and I tried to blow it out because you aren't supposed to burn plastic. And it was really gross. She was picking threw it all and roasting it with the roasting stick. She stuck pieces of pizza and orange peel on the stick and then asked if we wanted to roast hot dogs with it. We didn't. Anyways after our fire we went inside and the Rotary Lady left us and we played cards and talked about stuff. Then we finished watching Pirates of the Carribean and Paula found our powdered sugar sitting by the fire place so we decorated our gingerbread houses. Then we went to bed early, at like 11:30.
On Sunday we made a huge breakfast of all the left over food. We had meatballs, bread, cheese, pizza, hot dogs, salad and oranges and other things I can't remember. We ate so much. Then we had to clean up because we were leaving. Then we went home.
When I got home I got ready to go to choir. Then Maggie took me to the big church where we had practice before the Lucia crowning. We practiced all our songs for about an hour and then we fikad! We had juice and pepparkakor and saffron buns and sandwiches. Then we had to get ready to perform.
It was really cool. The Lucia girls all came in singing. But Lucia's candles weren't lit yet. Then we joined them in the same song and then sang a few other. Then the girls each did a reading, but Lucia forgot hers. Then we sang more songs and they lit Lucia's head on fire and then we sang more and then they had collection and some readings in Swedish. Then we sang a few more songs and then the Lucia girls sang themselves out. It was really cool and fun. But I've decided being Lucia is scary. Skövde's Lucia had wax running down her face. But I was in the newspaper today because we sang. Last weekend was so much fun. It was probably one of the best weekends I've had here so far and we didn't do anything outstanding, well other than the Lucia lighting.