There has been a lot happening since I last wrote about what I have been doing! A couple weeks ago I saw my first bandy game, which was a lot of fun! Bandy is a lot like ice hockey, except you play with a ball instead of a puck. Our friend, Nappe, who lives right across the hall from me is quite the bandy star, so we are all hearing about bandy quite a bit. However, the week that we saw the bandy match, he had a foot injury, so he was able to watch the game with us in the stands and explain some of the rules. The stands were outdoors, so we were all freezing by the time the game was over! It was interesting to me to see that everyone stands for the whole game, as well.
Last Friday, I hosted the "American party" in my room. Trent and I made some American food for people to try. I made buckeyes and a fruit dip. There is actually quite a funny story with the buckeyes! I was not able to find powdered sugar here, and people at both of the grocery stores that I went to insisted that vanilasocker (vanilla sugar), which is like powdered sugar but with a very strong vanilla flavor, would be fine. I decided to take their advice and use the vanilasocker. I made my buckeyes, and because I dislike peanut butter so much, I didn't actually try one. Later, a friend came over before the party and tried one of my buckeyes. Much to my surprise (and his too!), the buckeyes created a burning sensation after eating. I served them anyway at the party, and it ended up becoming a big joke of the night about how it burned to eat the buckeyes. The REALLY funny part about the whole situation is that when I asked a Swedish friend later about powdered sugar, he knew exactly what I was talking about and even told me where to buy it! Oh well... the party was a really good time!
That same week as the American party, my friend Frederike had a sunglasses party as a joke about how we all are wishing for the warm weather to come! Here are a couple pictures: The first is me and Nappe, and the second is "Team Fred" (Frederic and Frederike!)
This past week, I started my second class, which is all about the History of Vikings. It's actually quite intimidating because everyone in this class seems to be Scandinavian History experts. Also, we have over 100 pages of textbook to read per lecture! Luckily, I only have two lectures per week. However, the reading takes quite a long time. I have never been so happy to have English as my first language because I cannot imagine how long it takes the other exchange students to read the literature!
This past week I have discovered that there are free weekly organ concerts at our fabulous cathedral! I have a friend who also enjoys classical music, so we plan to make it a weekly tradition to see these concerts! This past week, I have also made a great musical discovery. One of my friends from ISU had sent me a song that she thought I might like. I really liked it a lot, and I started listening to more music from the same artist. After I had already fallen completely in love with this artist's music, I looked up the information on him. It turns out that Teitur (the name of the artist) is actually Scandinavian! I was so excited to find that because all the music that I have heard here is American!
Next weekend should be very exciting because I will be traveling to Paris! Trent and I leave on Friday, and we will be meeting up with two of our friends from ISU who are studying abroad in England. One of my best friends here, Lily, is French, and she is always popping in with new suggestions for places to visit! Lily will actually be going back to France for a couple weeks because she has a break in her courses here. She invited me to visit her at her university in France during a big celebration weekend, but I have plans already! It's too bad because I think it would have been a lot of fun to see France with someone who is French! I will just have to settle for my upcoming touristy weekend for now!
Time for dinner! I will definitely write about my trip to Paris soon!
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