Last Tuesday was my 18th birthday! I'm of full age now! Unbeliefable.
In the morning my hostfamily woke me up with the Swedish birthday song, kanelbullar and presents, lots of presents. The present I love the most is a photoalbum with many pictures of the begining of my exchange year, London, Christmas, the sportholidays in Åre, AFS activities and Easter. I love to look through it and remember all the things we did so far. I almost can see myself as an old woman sitting in her armchair and thumbing through the book with a smile on her face.
On a normal Tuesday school starts at 9 o'clock, but the 6th of May we had the first of a row of National Tests - English essay. It went quite well for me, I had good ideas and no problems with the flow of the text. On the menue list of the school cafeteria stood "Kitchen's surprise", so I hoped that meant something good. And it did: Pizza! After lunch there were suddenly just one friend and me left, all the others disappeard without saying a word. We actually had a long break before the next class started, but my friend (the one who stayed) said that we could go there a little earlier and start with our "personal work" so that we're finish earlier. I believed her and so we went upstairs, where the classrooms are. But we didn't go to our chemistry classroom. At the end of the corridor my friend turned left and - there they were! All the others who disappeard after lunch stood there and sang and danced for me. That was so cute. Together we ate the cake which one of the girls baked for me and just had a good time. After school I opened the presents I got from my family and friends from Switzerland. In one of the presents were the ingredients for my birthday cookies, I just had to add butter. Therefore I baked cookies which we ate for dessert after a very delicious birthday dinner. It was a beatiful day and I enjoy being 18, even if I haven't realised yet what this actually means. I sure find out soon :-)
One of the presents: a pillow with the lattitude and longitude of Stuvsta, the place I live.
Birthday Girl :-D
Lots and lots of gifts! Thank you very much :-)
Last weekend, after Valborg, we started our (or actually David's) long planed trip to Helsinki. David invited his friend David to the trip in stead of throwing a birthday party. On Friday afternoon we jumped into the car and drove to the boat - Silja Line. David, David, Ylva and me shared a room with view to the promenade in the middle of the boat. Karin and Jonas had a room with view to the water. Ufortunately Karin and Jonas' room was on the deck where all the drunk party guests were, so they didn't get plenty of sleep that night. Our deck (the one above Karin and Jonas') was really quiet, but we weren't often in the rooms anyway. After leaving our bagage, we went on a round tour and checked out the boat. There were many restaurants and even more drink bars, a play room for kids, a playstation lounge for a bit bigger kids (like for example the Davids) and uncountable Souvenier shops. At one end of the boat there was a small scene and with a disco floor. At the other end was the big room for the breakfast and dinner buffets. At six o'clock - the boat had already left the habour - we went to one of the restaurants and ate a very delicious meal à la carte. We decided to sit there a long while, because we didn't want to do that much in the rest of the boat and it was a smart idea to go to bed quite early. The next day proofed to be long but exciting.
After breakfast at half past six Swedish time and halv past seven Finnish time, the boat arrived Helsinki's harbour. Firstly we went to the known church in the middle of a rock. I normally don't use to get excited about churches, but this one was really special and worth a longer look. The rest of the day we spent shopping or at least looking through shops and laughing at the Finnish names for things. We only took a short lunch break in an old café. In the evening, back on the boat, we ate an early dinner and went to the disco floor afterwards. There was a so-called "Moomin-Disco" for kids and David (the my-hostbrother-David, not the his-friend-David) succeeded to argue Ylva and me into dancing with him. When the Davids got tired, Jonas followed them up to the room, Karin, Ylva and me stayed beside the scene, because there would be a show from the staff. A band was playing and six women with very tiny but sparkling underwear showed a rhythmic dance. I forgot to tell that the theme on the boat was Brasil, so everything, also the show, was in brazil style. Beside the dancers there were six men who showed tricks with a football. It was entertaining and funny to watch. Jonas was a bit disappointed that he missed the show.
The most of the drunk party guests went off in Helsinki, so this night was a lot more recreative for Karin and Jonas than the last one. The next morning we ate breakfast again on the boat and soon we arrived in Stockholm. It was a wonderful trip with many moments to laugh, good food and a lot to remember!
When the boat took off we had a look at the archipelago and took some pictures. It was very windy, so we didn't stay outside that long.
Here a picture from the restaurant we ate at on Friday evening.
Helsinki habour
This is the church from outside. I know, it doesn't look any special or interesting on this picture...
...but when you're inside, it really looks different. That is what I call impressive architecture.
David and David
Me in front of the Silja Line.
Yesterday, the 30 of April, it was Valborgsmässoafton (eng. Walpurgis Night). In the evening David, Jonas and me went down to the lake ("Trehörningen") where they installed a huge pyre for the bonfire. Alongside the fireplace were some small market stands which sold hotdogs and coffe or candyfloss. At 20:00, short after we arrived, they lighted the pyre. It didn't even take five minutes for the pyre to burn and soon we had to take a step back away from the heat of the growing bonfire. In one of the market stands a band was playing music and everywhere were crowds talking to each other and having a good time. At 21:00 there was a firework a bit away from the fire. David, Jonas and me didn't stay any longer, because it was getting cold and we were afraid that it also was starting to rain.
By the way; at Valborg you don't jump over the fire like some rumours (existing in Switzerland for example) say. It neither is a meeting for witches who come together from the whole country, riding through the night on a broom. It simply is kind of a welcome party for spring. Well, the ironic part of the whole story is that last weekend it was temperatures up to 21°C and last night, after Walpurgis Night it was snowing again. Now it's raining all day long. Nevertheless it's a beautiful day, because it's David's eleventh birthday and we are expecting relates on the afternoon. If you are wondering how this is possible on a perfectly normal Thursday; it's 1st of May, a holiday in Sweden. Therefore I'm enjoying an extra long weekend. :-)
Here you can see how high the pyre was
Setting the fire...
...and soon it looked like this!
Even from this distance, the heat from the bonfire was burning in the face so that it was hardly possible to look at it for a longer time.
The band was playing different songs, from oldies to instrumental pieces until the firework started.
