I patted a reindeer.

Hello again!

I am back from a little town called Rörbäcksnäs where i have spent the past week with my host family. We stayed in a cabin/small house which is in the forest on the lake (which of course was frozen over). It was really cute and very cosy inside.. and it had lots of little swedish things inside and there were several little swedish flags around the place.

We left Knivsta last Sunday and picked up Loella in Västerås along the way. From there it was about a 6 hour drive. It was nice and cosy in the car with Mats, Sanne, Naya, Loella and I and the two dogs Sally and Selmer. Normally people wouldn't particularly enjoy a six hour car drive and would find it boring.. but i really enjoyed it! Not only because of the amazing scenery we were driving through, but also because i never have long car trips anymore! everything is so close, and buses and trains can get you pretty much anywhere you want to go, so there is not really any need for many car trips.. and if there is they are rarely over half an hour.

We got to the cabin at about 6.00pm sunday and it was a very refreshing -24 degrees outside. because all of the snow hadnt been cleared away, we couldnt get the car up the track to the cabin.. so we had to park the car down the bottom and carry up all our bags. (Mats cleared the snow away the next day). Once we had put all our stuff inside and made our beds and stuff.. Sanne, Naya and I took the dogs for a walk around the lake.. (please remember, that i said it is minus 24 degrees!!) It was soooo cold, but i was wearing warm clothes and Sanne gave me and Naya these really warm hats to wear.. They were from China and they were made out of dog fur... i tried not to think about that too much and just focused on how warm it was keeping my head.

On Monday morning when i got up, it was minus 28 degrees outside! as that was too cold to be out snowboarding we didnt go out till after lunch. Me and Naya did walk to the ICA (type of swedish supermarket, that is everywhere.... not pronounced I C A though..... it is said 'eeka') which is about 1 kilometre away and bought some food for the week.

After lunch Mats took me and Naya to Hundfjället which is about 20kms away from Rörbäcksnäs. Naya and I spent the afternoon Snowboarding.. Sanne stayed back at the cabin with Loella because, she started to get a nasty cough and it wasn't good for her to be out in the cold. Mats just watched us and helped Naya as she has only tried it once before. It was sooo much fun to go snowboarding again.. and i hadn't forgotten how to do it, which was good.

Each day Mats took Naya and I back there.. and we snowboarded everyday except for Friday, which is when we went home. The mountain there is pretty cool, and i enjoyed going down all the different runs.. there was one, which has all these models of trolls and creatures and things like that... so as your skiing/boarding down the run you are going past all these creepy little troll things.. and some of them talk and say things... it was pretty cute though.. i liked looking at them all... except because of them there were always lots of people on this run and it is very narrow.. and i'm not that great at steering... so that was a bit annoying..

It was funny, everytime i got off the lifts at the top of a run and would sit in the snow and do up my binding on my snowboard, i would look around and think.... 'wow im actually in sweden!' i didnt even try to think that.. but everytime!! i did.. it was weird.. and there have been lots of... 'wow im in sweden moments'.

Also all over the mountain they have little wooden hut things with a woodfire in them and seats.. so people would sit in there to get warm or to cook food on the fire which i thought was really cool.. we packed sandwiches and hot chocolate or soup each day.. so we would sit in one of these by the fire and i would eat my vegemite sandwich :)

Each day driving back to the cabin was the most amazing views! all you could see for miles was mountains, covered in forests, it looked soooo pretty when the sun was setting!!

Loella and Sanne ended up spending everyday in the cabin, because Loella got really sick with a bad cough. One night at 3am Sanne and Mats had to call the ambulance because loella couldn't breathe properly, so they met the ambulance somewhere and they gave Loella some medicine which helped.. She had Croupe or Croop or however you spell it.

Loella was really cute and quite a character.. it was funny because she doesnt speak english and i dont speak swedish, but we still played lots of games together.. one night she was teaching me how to do ballet and so we were dancing and jumping around the cabin.. and then she was teaching me the name for the colours brown, yellow and red by using the dried fruit from her muesli.

One morning it was minus 30 degrees, which is the coldest that i have been in since i have been here in Sweden... so i went outside in my pyjamas and stood in the cold for about 20 seconds.. just so i can say i have been in -30 degrees :)

Oh and because where we were staying is very close to the Norwegian border.. we drove over to Norway one afternoon.. so i have now also been to Norway!! :)

And there were two reindeer at the mountain and i patted one of them.. but the other one (the one in the photo) was really grumpy and not nice, but it looked cooler, cos it had antler things..

Overall i had a really nice week and it was really nice staying in a cabin surrounded by snow and lots and lots of trees. It was soo warm and cosy inside with a wood fire which was really nice to come home too after having been snowboarding in the cold each day :)

Today it has been quite warm! it was about 2 degrees i think, which is the warmest it has been in a long time.. i got quite excited... but when it is warm everything looks all gross, cos the snow melts a bit and there is lots of water and the roads are all gross and the snow is all brown...

The other day i was in deep thought, as to why it hadnt rained here yet.... seeing that it is winter! and that is generally a good time for it to rain... then i realised, that i am an idiot and that of course it isnt going to rain.. because it is soo cold.. and thats why it snows!!! it took me a long time to work that out!! anywayyy this afternoon when i stepped outside.. i noticed that i was getting wet, and that it wasnt from snow!. i wouldnt exactly class it as raining though.. it was barely spitting.. but.. i was relieved to finally see a bit of water falling from the sky.