So this weekend was Midsommar. Midsommar was actually on Saturday, but they celebrate everything the day before so we celebrated on Friday, but the actual solstice was yesterday. So yeah. I went with Jessica and her Rotary counsellor to his mother-in-law's cabin. It was on an island outside of Mariestad. It was really beautiful. The lake was right there and there was a herd of cows roaming free, which made me miss cows. On Friday morning I had to wake up at 6 in the morning because my host dad was going to drive me to Mariestad and he started work at like 8 or something. So it was early. Jess met me at the prison, where my host dad works, as a guard, not like an inmate work program or something. Then we walked back to her house and picked flowers on the way so we could make flower crowns for our heads when we danced around the pole. It was a really nice morning. I had a nap when we got to Jessica's house and she went somewhere, I can't remember where because I fell asleep shortly after she told me. At around 11 Jessica's counsellor came and picked us up. She was moving to his house friday for the last little bit she is in Sweden. So we had to take all of her stuff. Then we went to Arne's house and dropped off all of Jessica's stuff and picked up his wife Lena. We fed their turtles and then were off to the island. I love Jessica's counsellor and his wife and her mother and her brother. They were so welcoming and amazing. We had lunch, super good pasta salad and some other salads. And it was so fun to sit and talk with them. Then after lunch Lena helped us make our flower crowns for our heads. It was kind of weird because we just like chopped big chunks of their pushes and picker her mom's flowers for our crowns. But they let us. After we made our crowns it was time to go down to the midsommar pole. When we got their Arne was digging the rocks out of the whole for the pole and he found 2 toads. Jess started playing with one and kept trying to get a picture with it but each time I was about to take the picture the toad would jump and me and so I quit trying after 4 attempts. I don't like toads. Then we covered the pole in branches and flowers. It was really cool because like the whole island came out and helped cover the pole and set up. Then we started dancing around the pole. Except it was mostly children and their parents who danced but Arne and Lena pretty much organized it so we danced too. They announced to everyone that this years midsommar celebration was international. After we danced we had a tips promanade, which is where you walk around and answer questions. Jess and I answered the children questions instead of the adult ones. Except we missed on question so all of our answers were one off and we only got like 4 right. It was a little embarrassing. Then it started to rain a lot which was lame. So we went inside and were going to reconvene after the rain stopped. We fikade with like a billion different cakes and stuff. Oh yeah and at lunch we had strawberry midsommar cake. It was so good there was like a layer of apple sauce stuff which was very tasty. When it stopped raining we went back out and played more games. We had like different relay races and a tug a war, girls against boys, and then we had an egg throwing contest where you had to throw and egg back and for to your partner. Jessica was my partner and I was the one who got egg all over my hands. Oh well I got candy anyways. After the games it was time for supper. I love midsommar food, well it is the same as Christmas and Easter food, but it is still good. We had meatballs, potatoes, sill, prince sausage and eggs. They didn't have svensson potatoes, but I had those at daycare on Wednesday when we celebrate midsommar. Supper was fun too. Oh yeah and when we were playing games all the cows wandered over to see what we were doing and they just stood there watching and then all the kids ran at them and chased them away. After supper we went back out to the field and played brannboll. It was funny because the Midsommar pole was one of the bases. Our team won! Then there wasn't a whole lot left to do. We played cards and then went to bed. Jess and I put 7 kinds of flowers under our pillows because then we were supposed to dream of our futures husbands.
I was supposed to go home the next day, but I decided to stay one day extra because it was so nice out. We had a nice breakfast and then we went to the forest to find mushrooms. There weren't any. Well we found like 10 very, very small ones. After looking for mushrooms we went swimming. It was rather cold. But once I got used to it it was fine. Jessica is chicken and wouldn't even dunk. I was swimming around. After a while it was very pleasant and I didn't want to get out. There was a snake in the water. It was swimming by us. But Lena said it wasn't poisonous and then it just swam away and everything was cool. After that swim we played this game that Arne taught us. There were like 10 sticks and you had two balls on a piece of leather and you had to throw the balls and nock down the sticks to get points. The balls reminded me of bluggers or whatever they are called from Harry Potter. We had lunch and then a fish was dropped off in an ikea bag by one of the neighbours. Lena's mom, Marianne, gutted it which was cool. Then Jess and I just laid in the sun for a while. Jess was sick. Then we went swimming again. No snakes this time but this time Jess didn't even get her suit wet. After swimming we went back and changed. Then we tried to get a picture of the cows eating the leaves and flowers off of the midsommar pole because they often do that. But we had to go eat supper before the cows got to the pole. After supper we went back to the pole but the cows weren't there. Then they came running. A stupid little boy was chasing the cows towards Jessica and I. I was actually a little bit afraid for my life. Jessica hid in a bush. So we didn't get our picture. We went back and played cards. I drank coffee when we night fikade so I was super wired when Jess and I went to bed so I made her stay up talking to me. I eventually fell asleep. The next morning we ate breakfast and packed up. Then they found a snake in the greenhouse. They thought it was poisonous so when it came out of the green house, I was in the bathroom, Jess's host uncle cut it's head off with a shovel. I came out right after he did it and the snake was still moving. It was so gross. It was still moving it's head and sticking out it's tongue long after it's head was separated from it's body. It was really gross. Anders took it and put it under a tree. Then we left.
