Sunday, June 20, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Royal Wedding
Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling were married today in Storkyrkan in Stockholm. Det Kungliga Brölloppet, or the Royal Wedding has been the subject of a media circus for many weeks now, culminating in today's tv special. It's Swedens first royal wedding since the king's back in the 70's.
Here is what I will remember about it:
Very, very long. The program was playing on tv before I woke from my fever-induced sleep at 15.30, and is still going strong now at 00.03.
Tv. The whole week was filled with wedding-themed movies like Four Weddings and a Funeral.
This is a pretty big deal. Apparently this is the first time a Crown Princess has gotten married. There are also lots of Victoria/Daniel themed things to buy, like plates, jewelry, chocolates and such.
Daniel Westling. He's a completely normal, non-royal Swede. Back in the day, this sort of thing wasn't allowed.
The hosts. There is one programledare who had one of the strongest Finnish accents I've ever only partially understood.
Pre-wedding concert. Ugh... opera. And Salem Al-Fakir was only vaguely okej.
Hymns, psalms, prayers. In abundance.
Lots of royalty. the Norwegian King, the Danish King, a few foreign dignitaries.
Kärlek, glädje, äktenskap. Words that mean love, joy and marriage respectively.
Long speeches. 'nuff said.
Here is what I will remember about it:
Very, very long. The program was playing on tv before I woke from my fever-induced sleep at 15.30, and is still going strong now at 00.03.
Tv. The whole week was filled with wedding-themed movies like Four Weddings and a Funeral.
This is a pretty big deal. Apparently this is the first time a Crown Princess has gotten married. There are also lots of Victoria/Daniel themed things to buy, like plates, jewelry, chocolates and such.
Daniel Westling. He's a completely normal, non-royal Swede. Back in the day, this sort of thing wasn't allowed.
The hosts. There is one programledare who had one of the strongest Finnish accents I've ever only partially understood.
Pre-wedding concert. Ugh... opera. And Salem Al-Fakir was only vaguely okej.
Hymns, psalms, prayers. In abundance.
Lots of royalty. the Norwegian King, the Danish King, a few foreign dignitaries.
Kärlek, glädje, äktenskap. Words that mean love, joy and marriage respectively.
Long speeches. 'nuff said.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Mattress Castles
All good things come to an end, of course. But I will start from the beginning. We exchange students had planned to meet in a village called Yngsjö for three days. It was Caienna's idea, one that we congratulated her on. Unfortunately, things didn't work out with the cabin that we were going to stay at. The pipes had frozen over the winter and since exploded. So. No Yngsjö after all.
So we decided to meet in Höör instead, at the scout-building. We came up on Saturday and got settled in. There was a room that was filled with mattresses, two piles that went all the way up to the ceiling. It was only natural that we would spend a good deal of our time with mattress-architecture.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Greg. Greg is a former exchange student who has returned to Sweden to take advantage of the less expensive college fees. Greg is studying linguistics which is very interesting to me. He's also studying Mandarin Chinese. He was also our förmyndare, chaperone.
Caienna's host parents came at around five o' clock to help us with dinner. They sent us out into the woods with knifes to get some marshmellow sticks. Greg, Chad, Christoffer and myself tryed to start a fire for a good twenty minutes before we resorted to lighter fluid. That's really how you can see the measure of a man, the amount of time before he gives up on matches.
Dinner was hotdogs and vegtables. After we ate Greg showed us a tower made of timber and binder-twine that was constructed by ten year olds.
The rest of our weekend and monday was basically lots of mattresses and bookworm. Bookworm is a very addicting word game that Christoffer has on his iTouch. At the end of our trip I had played a lifetime of bookworm in the darkness of several different mattress castles.
We left our mattress shrine at five on monday weighed down with lots of leftover food that was originally intended for the five or six people who didn't come. Chad had already left early in the morning because he had to meet with his Rotary Club and get ready for his departure at ten in the morning the next day. That weekend was our last time with Chad.
Breakfast:
Chad asleep in a pile of mattresses:
Grilled Dinner:
Matress fort under construction:
So we decided to meet in Höör instead, at the scout-building. We came up on Saturday and got settled in. There was a room that was filled with mattresses, two piles that went all the way up to the ceiling. It was only natural that we would spend a good deal of our time with mattress-architecture.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Greg. Greg is a former exchange student who has returned to Sweden to take advantage of the less expensive college fees. Greg is studying linguistics which is very interesting to me. He's also studying Mandarin Chinese. He was also our förmyndare, chaperone.
Caienna's host parents came at around five o' clock to help us with dinner. They sent us out into the woods with knifes to get some marshmellow sticks. Greg, Chad, Christoffer and myself tryed to start a fire for a good twenty minutes before we resorted to lighter fluid. That's really how you can see the measure of a man, the amount of time before he gives up on matches.
Dinner was hotdogs and vegtables. After we ate Greg showed us a tower made of timber and binder-twine that was constructed by ten year olds.
The rest of our weekend and monday was basically lots of mattresses and bookworm. Bookworm is a very addicting word game that Christoffer has on his iTouch. At the end of our trip I had played a lifetime of bookworm in the darkness of several different mattress castles.
We left our mattress shrine at five on monday weighed down with lots of leftover food that was originally intended for the five or six people who didn't come. Chad had already left early in the morning because he had to meet with his Rotary Club and get ready for his departure at ten in the morning the next day. That weekend was our last time with Chad.
Breakfast:
Chad asleep in a pile of mattresses:
Grilled Dinner:
Matress fort under construction:
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Robin Hood
Good movie.
Saw it Wednsday night with my friends Saksaalainen (Philipp) and Gabbebjörn (Gabriel). They are two of my good exchange student friends. Gabe is from Costa Rica and Philipp is from Germany. He's going back to Germany tomorrow from Kastrup :(
Nicknames:
I nickname most of my close friends. I have been a big fan of nicknames ever since I saw Disney's film version of "Holes". Almost none of the contacts in my phone are saved under their real names.
Gabbebjörn - A common Swedish shortening of Gabriel is Gabbe (Gah-beh). I thought that Gabbe sounded a little like gummi as in gummibears. Björn means bear in Swedish. And simsimsalabim, voila, there you go. That is just how my brain works. We also call him "Gabe".
Saksaalainen - This one is much less complicated. One of Philipp's ambitions is to learn all of the nordic languages except for Danish on the grounds that it sounds too weird, so Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic and Faroese. His other goal is to become a viking folk metal rockstar, but that's another story.
But I digress...
Saksaalainen means "German" in Finnish. I chose that nickname because he's German and that he likes Finnish, but mainly because it sounds REALLY COOL. I think that the root "saksaa" comes from "Saxon". We also call him "Tyskan" (German in Swedish) and "Phil", which causes a fair bit of confusion.
Chadstopher, Skägget, Beardman Ball, Karl Bulle: These are all nicknames for Chad. "Skägg" means beard in Swedish. "Skägget" means "The Beard". Karl Bulle is like direct translation of his name. The rest are pretty self-explanitory.
Saw it Wednsday night with my friends Saksaalainen (Philipp) and Gabbebjörn (Gabriel). They are two of my good exchange student friends. Gabe is from Costa Rica and Philipp is from Germany. He's going back to Germany tomorrow from Kastrup :(
Nicknames:
I nickname most of my close friends. I have been a big fan of nicknames ever since I saw Disney's film version of "Holes". Almost none of the contacts in my phone are saved under their real names.
Gabbebjörn - A common Swedish shortening of Gabriel is Gabbe (Gah-beh). I thought that Gabbe sounded a little like gummi as in gummibears. Björn means bear in Swedish. And simsimsalabim, voila, there you go. That is just how my brain works. We also call him "Gabe".
Saksaalainen - This one is much less complicated. One of Philipp's ambitions is to learn all of the nordic languages except for Danish on the grounds that it sounds too weird, so Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic and Faroese. His other goal is to become a viking folk metal rockstar, but that's another story.
But I digress...
Saksaalainen means "German" in Finnish. I chose that nickname because he's German and that he likes Finnish, but mainly because it sounds REALLY COOL. I think that the root "saksaa" comes from "Saxon". We also call him "Tyskan" (German in Swedish) and "Phil", which causes a fair bit of confusion.
Chadstopher, Skägget, Beardman Ball, Karl Bulle: These are all nicknames for Chad. "Skägg" means beard in Swedish. "Skägget" means "The Beard". Karl Bulle is like direct translation of his name. The rest are pretty self-explanitory.
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!
Well, I think the title pretty much says it all, but just in case there's still some confusion, NO MORE SCHOOL!! WOOOO!!!
I came in at ten o' clock and had fika with my class. Then we sat about and waited until our avslutning in the auditorium. We ate our cakes and cookies and talked. Then Ubbe, or Urban as he is actually called, organized a game of charades.
My Class SP2D and our teacher:
Then at twelve we all filed down to the aulan, the auditorium and took our places. There were a few performances by the musik program and the rektor, principle of our school section (called rektorsområde, there are something like nine rektorsområden in the whole school) gave a little speech. Then he introduced Gabriel and myself.
He gave us each a little memento of Ystad in the form of a book and then we said a few words. I had actually typed up a little speech. Incidentally, I had forgotten that very same little speech in my thumb drive. I started shaking all over and my mind went totally blank. I barreled through the whole thing and ended with a thank you to my class, my teachers, Rotary and my host families. Then I shuffled off to the side amidst applause. Then Gabe went up and breezed through his improvised thing and we both sat down. Applause.
Apparently, we both did pretty well, and the shake wasn't noticable. So that's alright then.
I came in at ten o' clock and had fika with my class. Then we sat about and waited until our avslutning in the auditorium. We ate our cakes and cookies and talked. Then Ubbe, or Urban as he is actually called, organized a game of charades.
My Class SP2D and our teacher:
Then at twelve we all filed down to the aulan, the auditorium and took our places. There were a few performances by the musik program and the rektor, principle of our school section (called rektorsområde, there are something like nine rektorsområden in the whole school) gave a little speech. Then he introduced Gabriel and myself.
He gave us each a little memento of Ystad in the form of a book and then we said a few words. I had actually typed up a little speech. Incidentally, I had forgotten that very same little speech in my thumb drive. I started shaking all over and my mind went totally blank. I barreled through the whole thing and ended with a thank you to my class, my teachers, Rotary and my host families. Then I shuffled off to the side amidst applause. Then Gabe went up and breezed through his improvised thing and we both sat down. Applause.
Apparently, we both did pretty well, and the shake wasn't noticable. So that's alright then.
Västra Hamnen
Last Tuesday I went into Malmö with Chad, Chad's host sister Cecilia and Marcus. Cecilia showed us around Västra Hamnen which is considered to be one of the more beautiful parts of Malmö. It's also where Turning Torso is, a giant twisty skyscraper. We walked around and saw the sights; the sea and the gallery in Turning Torso.
Cecilia told me a little about Malmö that I didn't know, there are lots of different neighborhoods. Västra Hamnen is where all the rich people live, there are lots of expensive apartments with glass walls that look out over the sea and immaculate landscaping. It's home to Malmö's best (and most expensive) ice cream and a plastic surgery clinic. In constast, there is an neighborhood called Rosengård. That is basically the ghetto of Malmö. Malmö is a pretty big city, with over 290,000 million inhabitants. It's Sweden's third largest city, and there is still lots of it that I haven't seen yet.
(you can see bigger versions of all pictures by clicking on them)
Cecilia told me a little about Malmö that I didn't know, there are lots of different neighborhoods. Västra Hamnen is where all the rich people live, there are lots of expensive apartments with glass walls that look out over the sea and immaculate landscaping. It's home to Malmö's best (and most expensive) ice cream and a plastic surgery clinic. In constast, there is an neighborhood called Rosengård. That is basically the ghetto of Malmö. Malmö is a pretty big city, with over 290,000 million inhabitants. It's Sweden's third largest city, and there is still lots of it that I haven't seen yet.
(you can see bigger versions of all pictures by clicking on them)
National Dag
Last Sunday was Swedens national day. The nearest I can compare it to is the fourth of july with lots of swedish flags and patriotism.
We went in till stan, into Ystad to see the celebration, such as it was. We started by österportstorget and followed the brass band (in which Rolf plays in) and the old fire department (in shiny metal helmets and everything) and the people dressed in swedish folkdräkt, folk-clothing. We all ended up at stortorget where there was a long speech about the greatness of Sweden and Ystad followed by the national anthem Du Gamla, Du Fria, (Ye Old, Ye Free).
After that there was was something of a carnival near the old church. They had lots of vendors selling things like candy, souvenirs and ice cream. There was a stage set up where they had some music going. They had an oriental dance demonstration and a giant bag of balloons which they turned up and released all of them up into the air. There was even a dog obedience competition.
We went in till stan, into Ystad to see the celebration, such as it was. We started by österportstorget and followed the brass band (in which Rolf plays in) and the old fire department (in shiny metal helmets and everything) and the people dressed in swedish folkdräkt, folk-clothing. We all ended up at stortorget where there was a long speech about the greatness of Sweden and Ystad followed by the national anthem Du Gamla, Du Fria, (Ye Old, Ye Free).
After that there was was something of a carnival near the old church. They had lots of vendors selling things like candy, souvenirs and ice cream. There was a stage set up where they had some music going. They had an oriental dance demonstration and a giant bag of balloons which they turned up and released all of them up into the air. There was even a dog obedience competition.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Avskedsfest
Last Saturday was Mr. Chad Balls going-away party. Chad was first introduced to me as "the other Rotary Exchange Student in Ystad". Today he is not only my fellow exchange student, he's one of my close friends. The theme of the party was "Dress Like A European".
I decided to go as a Frenchman. I think Chad was expecting me to be a Russian because I study Russian all the time. Unfortunately, Russians are really more a fur-coat wearing kind of people, which doesn't really go with the summer weather. I threw a costume together earlier that day: a striped shirt, a vest and a pair of black pants which I rolled up at the bottoms like I've seen Valou do. Lena dug out a berrete that Kristine got while she was in Paris and suggested a scarf. I found my old red hankerchief and tied it into a kind of bow. The final touch was a fake mustasch that Chad got earlier. All together, it looked a little something like this:
I went in on the bus. It was really strange when I got on in Glemminge because there was another Frenchman on board. I assumed that he was also going to the party, rightly as it turned out.
The party was supposed to start when I arrived at six o' clock, but it was mostly only his adult guests to got there then. It was his last host-family and some friends of his current host-parents. Chad's host dad was dressed as a German with leather shorts and high stockings.
Everyone was assembled at around seven. The Australians finally came after getting a little lost in Ystad and Filip and Marcus, the Swedes in attendance, were there a little after that.
I, of course, was a Frenchman, but what about everyone else? Well, Chad was dressed as a Swede with tight jeans and flattened hair. Sarah and Teagan had togas and Emily had a vaguely spanish dress. Filip was also a Frenchman and Marcus was... well, I'm not sure what he was. He just had a really nice suit on. We decided that he looked like Barney Stinson from "How I Met Your Mother".
We started with dinner; bread with cheese and butter, salad, potato salad, turkey sliced up like lunch meat but intended to be eaten alone and a whole rullebär, wheelbarrow, of drinks.
After dinner we sat around and talked. Filip had a baguette with him as part of his costume. I think it was really only intended to be a prop, but Chad must still have been hungry because he had a few bites. Then Marcus had a bite. Then Filip said that it was a year old. No more bites were taken.
We had a kings dessert of pies and cakes and muffins and ice cream, but I was far too full to put away any more food. There was also a lot of candy sitting out.
After a while it was time for the Australians to go, so I went with them to the station. When I got back it was quite dark and I found everyone playing poker betting the candies they hadn't eaten. I joined in as a spectator for a while. Finally we decided to watch a movie. It was quite late then, Lena picked me up at eleven thirty while the movie was only about a half hour in.
I decided to go as a Frenchman. I think Chad was expecting me to be a Russian because I study Russian all the time. Unfortunately, Russians are really more a fur-coat wearing kind of people, which doesn't really go with the summer weather. I threw a costume together earlier that day: a striped shirt, a vest and a pair of black pants which I rolled up at the bottoms like I've seen Valou do. Lena dug out a berrete that Kristine got while she was in Paris and suggested a scarf. I found my old red hankerchief and tied it into a kind of bow. The final touch was a fake mustasch that Chad got earlier. All together, it looked a little something like this:
I went in on the bus. It was really strange when I got on in Glemminge because there was another Frenchman on board. I assumed that he was also going to the party, rightly as it turned out.
The party was supposed to start when I arrived at six o' clock, but it was mostly only his adult guests to got there then. It was his last host-family and some friends of his current host-parents. Chad's host dad was dressed as a German with leather shorts and high stockings.
Everyone was assembled at around seven. The Australians finally came after getting a little lost in Ystad and Filip and Marcus, the Swedes in attendance, were there a little after that.
I, of course, was a Frenchman, but what about everyone else? Well, Chad was dressed as a Swede with tight jeans and flattened hair. Sarah and Teagan had togas and Emily had a vaguely spanish dress. Filip was also a Frenchman and Marcus was... well, I'm not sure what he was. He just had a really nice suit on. We decided that he looked like Barney Stinson from "How I Met Your Mother".
We started with dinner; bread with cheese and butter, salad, potato salad, turkey sliced up like lunch meat but intended to be eaten alone and a whole rullebär, wheelbarrow, of drinks.
After dinner we sat around and talked. Filip had a baguette with him as part of his costume. I think it was really only intended to be a prop, but Chad must still have been hungry because he had a few bites. Then Marcus had a bite. Then Filip said that it was a year old. No more bites were taken.
We had a kings dessert of pies and cakes and muffins and ice cream, but I was far too full to put away any more food. There was also a lot of candy sitting out.
After a while it was time for the Australians to go, so I went with them to the station. When I got back it was quite dark and I found everyone playing poker betting the candies they hadn't eaten. I joined in as a spectator for a while. Finally we decided to watch a movie. It was quite late then, Lena picked me up at eleven thirty while the movie was only about a half hour in.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A Slice In Time
At this very moment I am sitting on my bed, covers askew, with a laptop on my lap. There is an old, beat-up nylon string guitar resting it's neck beside me. The bedside table is littered with papers. Amongst this rör, disarray, lie the essential things that I need every day. My bus card, my phone and my keys which are guarded by a red fish skeleton from Bo-Thomas. The trashcan is overflowing, I am a messy person. Iz is singing over the rainbow on the tv in the next room. I'm relaxing in my mjuka byxor, sweatpants. My brain is leaking algebra. It's like drinking from a fire hose. I've started messing with my hair to alieve my consternation so now I have Dragon Ball hair.
There are two weeks left of school, and we are halfway through one of them. On Thursday, Emily is going to ta studenten, graduate from gymnasiet. We're all going to go to Eslöv to see it. I can't stay too long for the after-party because I have Swedish tomorrow at eight o' clock in the morning. I am not a fan of mornings.
Today I only had one class, as per usual. Valentin and Caienna came in the afternoon and I showed them around Ystad and our school. They were duly impressed by the abundance of plant life in the halls. I showed them the ferries that go to Poland and talked about Wallander for a while. We went to Språkvärlden, my favorite place in the school as well. Then we all went to Gabe's house and played Mario Kart.
Afterwards I came home on the bus and watched Scrubs. I had a dinner of reheated köttbullar och potatismos, meatballs and mashed potatoes. I tried to learn some math but my attention was quickly taken by German and Russian. Every day, transparent.com does a "Word-Of-The Day" in several languages, including Arabic, Irish and English for Portugese speakers.
They also have a few blogs. The subject of the German blog was Lena's victory in the Eurovision Song Contest with "Satelite". She sings about the similarities between a satelite and her love of that ambiguous "you" who stars in every love song ever written. I thought it was a good song but Lena has kind of a whiney voice and seems unable to decisively choose which accent to sing in. From the blogpost I learned such words as "entdecken", "erreichen" and "Stimmung". They mean "discover", "achieve" and "mood", respectively.
Which leaves us at the present. I have now moved to the living room table, in the hopes that a chair will instill me with some kind of work ethic. My hair is still Goku-style. And I still cannot divide polynomials.
There are two weeks left of school, and we are halfway through one of them. On Thursday, Emily is going to ta studenten, graduate from gymnasiet. We're all going to go to Eslöv to see it. I can't stay too long for the after-party because I have Swedish tomorrow at eight o' clock in the morning. I am not a fan of mornings.
Today I only had one class, as per usual. Valentin and Caienna came in the afternoon and I showed them around Ystad and our school. They were duly impressed by the abundance of plant life in the halls. I showed them the ferries that go to Poland and talked about Wallander for a while. We went to Språkvärlden, my favorite place in the school as well. Then we all went to Gabe's house and played Mario Kart.
Afterwards I came home on the bus and watched Scrubs. I had a dinner of reheated köttbullar och potatismos, meatballs and mashed potatoes. I tried to learn some math but my attention was quickly taken by German and Russian. Every day, transparent.com does a "Word-Of-The Day" in several languages, including Arabic, Irish and English for Portugese speakers.
They also have a few blogs. The subject of the German blog was Lena's victory in the Eurovision Song Contest with "Satelite". She sings about the similarities between a satelite and her love of that ambiguous "you" who stars in every love song ever written. I thought it was a good song but Lena has kind of a whiney voice and seems unable to decisively choose which accent to sing in. From the blogpost I learned such words as "entdecken", "erreichen" and "Stimmung". They mean "discover", "achieve" and "mood", respectively.
Which leaves us at the present. I have now moved to the living room table, in the hopes that a chair will instill me with some kind of work ethic. My hair is still Goku-style. And I still cannot divide polynomials.
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