A very Swedish day

It feels like a traditional Swedish day today, even if my everyday life doesn't look like that normally. I helped Jonas to cut down a birch tree in the garden, or I'd better say half of a birch tree, because the other part is still waiting to be cut down tomorrow. I really like to climb up on high stepladders and cut wood into small pieces. It isn't actually a normal hobby to Swedish girls to cut trees at weekend, but it feels quite Scandinavic anyway, because there's so much wood here. Karin and Ylva prepared pancake with bacon for lunch and we ate them with selfmade Lingonsylt (eng. lingonberry jam) over the top and drunk milk. (I never used to drink milk for lunch before I came to Sweden, but here it is absolutely normal.) The Swedish traditions continue with Fika. This means a small coffeebreak with some chocolate and/or cookies between lunch and dinner. Today we had Pepparkakor (thin, crunchy ginger bread) and Glögg (a warm punch that you drink with almonds and raisins in it), which are both typically Swedish and very delicious. One thing that is also different from what I know from Switzerland is the daylight. It gets dark here around 3 or 4 p.m. so that I can't see the sun at all, when I have a long schoolday. On one hand it's kind of annoying and irritating, because I feel like I soon have to go to bed when it's just time for dinner. On the other hand I like the early darkness, because it's something new to me and belongs to the nordic winter.
There's just one week left until december starts and I'm looking so much forward to St. Lucia's day, Christmas and of course the New Year's Eve. But most of all: I'm still waiting for snow...

The remaining wood saves a warm and cusy livingroom during the long and cold winter.

It contained a lot of work

 Heart shaped Pepparkakor. Ylva, Karin and Jonas told me that if you lay one in your open hand and manage to knock it into exactly three parts with the other hand, you can make a wish. I've succeeded!

Alcoholfree Glögg. You heat it up and serve it in small coffee cups with almonds and raisins. A perfect drink for cold days.

London - day 6

Wednesday; British museum and taking leave

The last moring in London started as usual: with breakfast. Then we packed our luggage and gave them to the reception when we gave our keys back. We were allowed to leave our luggage there until noon, so that we could go to the British museum without that much stuff. And so we did. The British miseum is really really big. There are so many different exhibitions that it was simply not possible to visit all of them. There was one with the name "Life and Death" where they showed up how many pills and how much medicine a human takes in its whole life. That was really impressive. I also liked the room of clocks and watches. All the antique clocks with their extraordinary system were a real pleasure to observe. However, we decided to meet up after two hours, so that we have enough time for lunch before we had to go to the airport. Because it was one of David's wishes, we went to PizzaHut, after picking up our luggages at The Jesmonds. It was a good meal that made us full and ready to leave. We first had to travel 1,5 hours with the metro until we reached the London airport. After the safety check we still had some time that we spent with writing holyday diary or checking out the airport shops. Finally we could bord and take the flight home to Sweden. This was a really cool journey. I'm sure, it wasn't the last time, I visited England.

 The last few seconds on English ground

And finally in the air again. Goodbye London!

Oh, right! I almost forgot to tell what I did in the rest of my autumn holydays. I visited Swedens biggest cinema together with Sofia and Segen from my class on thursday. We watched "Thor - the dark world". The biggest cinema of Sweden takes place in Heron City, a shopping mall twenty minutes bus travell from my home. In this shopping mall you can also find a very huge ice cream bar. I promised my self to go there once again and test some of these delicious looking ice creams.
On saturday was a little home party for AFS students from Stockholm. It was cusy and nice to meet them again. Now school goes further and so does everyday life. It's late autumn now and almost all the trees are leafless. I hope the snow comes soon!

London - day 5

Tuesday; London Eye and Mamma Mia

This day was our last full day in London and we planned a lot for today as well. Like the day before, we split up in the same groups. Ylva and Karin wanted to go to Tate Modern, an art museum and David, Jonas and I wanted to ride the London Eye. It took quite long to stand in the queues (first for to buy tickets and then for actually riding it), but I found it okay. Then we finally could go into one of the gondolas, which rode the whole way round in about 20 minutes. The view was amazing. I recognized some of the buildings where we were on the days before and just enjoyed to have such a wide horizon. In the end of the ride, we had a little time until we would meet not just Karin and Ylva, but also Karin's brother Frederik and his wife Elisabeth with their three children for a Turkish lunch. So we walked slowly to our restaurant with a little detour to Tate Modern. We didn't see that much of the exhibition, but what we saw was quite... abstract. By the way, at the moment they have an exhibition of Paul Klee, who is Swiss (just wanted to mention that and feel cool :-P). Anyway, we met  the Blomqvists who travelled to London at the same day as we did, but would stay a whole week. Once more in my life as exchangestudent I got asked why I actually chose Sweden, what I like most in this country and how it is different from Switzerland. I'm sure I will get asked this a hundred more times under my year. I don't know if you already know it or not, so I will try to explain it. Why did I choose Sweden? Well, it was clear for me, that if I would go to an exchange year, I would go to Sweden. Since we once visited my mother's Swedish letterfriend in 2005, I was kind of fascined by this country. I always wanted to learn the language and come to Sweden again. In my primary school some of my classmates even thaught that I have Swedish roots (I haven't), because I always wanted the Swedish footboll team to win, whenever they had a game. Therefore I signed in myself in the AFS program one and a half year before my departing, so that I surely get a place in the list (there's a list for every country with a counted number of places and if it's full, you have to choose an other country). What do I like most in Sweden? This question is always quite difficult to answer. I like a lot of things in different ways which I can't compare. I like for example that I don't have any pressure in school, or kannelbullar (a kind of cinnamon muffin), or when I get a compliment for my Swedish, or many many other things I experience here. It's the whole adventure I like. Everything makes a part of it. What are the differences between Sweden and Switzerland? Well, even if many people don't think about two different countries when they hear theese two names, there are a lot of differences. You can find them everywhere; in the manners, the schoolsystem, the food, and so on. You best travel to Sweden and Switzerland yourself and build your own opinion. ;-)
     Okay, now I digressed a little bit... Back to the topic. It was funny to meet some hostrelates and have lunch toghether with them. When we were finish, we took leave from each other again. The Blomqvists wanted to go to Tate Modern and we went over the Millenium Bridge and then further to the museum of London. It was a really great exhibition, which showed London from the stone age until today. We were quite long there and had a look at all the things they found from previous times. Because we ate quite much for lunch, we just went to "Pret à manger" (a cafe, where you also can buy fresh food) and ate a salad or sandwich. Then it was time for theater. We watched "Mamma Mia" live on stage and sat in the highest tier of the theater. It was a lot of fun to watch it and hear all the famous songs from the very popular Swedish music group ABBA. The actors and actresses earned a lot of applause from us all. And so we finally made us ready for our last night in England.

 This is what you see when you stand in the queue

 Me...

 ...and David...

 ...and Jonas in the gondola.

 Five Blomqvists, four Lindmarks and one Andraschko :-)