Waffles and Ice Racing.

Last week on Thursday.. it was 'Waffle Day' in Sweden.. I don't really know why or how waffle day originated... but i googled it and it came up with this:
National Waffle Day is a holiday that originated in Sweden. It is called 'Vaffeldagen' in Swedish. The holiday coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation, a religious event. In addition, 'Waffle day' on March 25 has always been considered the start of spring - especially in Sweden. It became a custom for swedish families to celebrate the two events by making waffles on this day.
To 'celebrate' Waffle Day I went to Angelina's house (a girl in my class) and a few other classmates came aswell Lovisa, Philip and Axel.
We made and ate lots of waffles with jam and cream.. it was lots of fun and i felt sick from eating so many waffles :) Then we played a swedish board game.... well i kind of watched the others play it.. it was a word game, so knowledge of the swedish language is helpful. knowledge which i am currently lacking..


On Saturday Mats and I went into Uppsala to watch the 'Ice racing'.. it was motorbikes which had big spikey wheels racing on ice.. it was quite cool to watch!
Although i enjoyed watching the actual racing... i enjoyed looking at all the different people there almost as much... ...since i have been in Sweden i have seen minimal 'ferals'.. but now however after spending an afternoon at the Ice Racing, i can safely say that i have seen an abundance of ferals.. There were so many drunk people which was quite funny aswell, next to where we were standing there were a few guys who were really drunk and got in a fight with these other people.. which was really funny to watch.
There were around 5,800 people there.. and i think i was one of the 50 females that were there! seemed to be very much a middle aged men type of event..
There were some cool crashes though, which got me excited! And i was happy that the guy who has won the last five years in a row or something stupid, and who was winning all of the races... got beaten in the final race! and ended up coming second :)

Åre

sorry for taking a while to write another blog..

So.. last week as you are probably aware i went on a rotary camp... which was amazing!

I left last Saturday evening on the night train which left stockholm at 11.50pm.. there was 5 other exchange students on this train aswell.. so we all switched seats around and sat with each other.. and were the annoying, rowdy, teenagers that talked loudly while the rest of the train was trying to sleep. The trip took about 12 hours, we had at least 2 hours worth of delays though, so that was a bit annoying.. and we were all very ready to get off the train by the time we reached Järpen... When we arrived at where we were staying.. most of the other exchange students were already there.. out of them all, i only knew a couple before this week and that was from my language camp in Eskilstuna the second week i was here. So it was cool having so many new people to meet. That afternoon we all went into the town of Åre which was about 20kms away from where we were staying... we then got a tour around the small town by some old guy who has lived there a long time.. Then we went to this indoor swimming place, which was really cool, it had lots of different pools and spas and a water slide... it also had a 'sauna world' which was really cool.. before this year i think i had only ever been in a sauna once, and i almost died cos i thought it was so hot and hard to breathe.. but now i really like them and dont feel like i am going to die.. which is nice :)

There was a sauna there that was 80 degrees.. and there were a fair few of us all in there for ages.. a few people had been running outside and jumping in the snow after having been in the sauna for a while... so i decided that sounded like a pretty cool idea, and have wanted to do it for a while now... so i went with a few others out of the sauna.. then we jumped in a swimming pool that you can swim outside of the building in.. and then from there you can get out..

so we did that and got out of the pool into the freezing cold and then ran to the snow and dived into it and rolled around and pretty much just got really really cold... i however, managed to dive into the only part of snow that had big rocks underneath... and ended up with bruises all over my shins and a cut on my knee (luckily my entire body was numb and i couldnt feel it)
anyway, once we were covered in snow, we then made the 'what seems like forever' walk/run (so you dont slip) back to the pool... jumping into the pool was the nicest feeling.. it was good to feel my body temperature go back to normal.. it was a lot of fun though and a really cool experience.

Then Monday we had our first day of Skiing/Snowboarding! Most people skied but there were about 10 or so people snowboarding, myself one of them.. we had ski school for two hours.. and because everyone was kind of at different skill levels we all went with different instructors... somehow i ended up having an instructor all to myself, which was really cool. She was really nice and helped me a lot.. then after lunch i met up with others and went with them. That night we did some different team building type things in small groups, which was fun.. but they were all outside and by the end of them i was well and truly frozen. Each day we had to be ready by 8.30 to all go on the bus, which took us to Are, then we would leave there each day at around 4.30.. so by the end of each day i was quite tired.. we could have breaks whenever we wanted.. but most the time was spent snowboarding.. one of the coolest things at big ski places in sweden is they have this tent, where you can get free yoghurt and muesli and free milk or chocolate milk.. it was only a small bowl/glass.. but it was super cool and we went there as much as possible..

I also improved at going on the lifts a lot this week! which was good.. cos i used them alot... although it did take me 7 attempts to get on one of the T-bar lifts at one time.. and one of those times it hit me in the head and knocked my goggles off.. but by the seventh time.. i made it on safe and sound :)

they also had gondola lifts to get right up to the top of the mountain.. which were really cool and nice and warm and cosy inside. I went right to the top of the mountain a few times.. and each time it was really really foggy! you could hardly see a few metres in front of you.. it was quite scary.. and we just went down really really slowly.

On the second day of snowboarding.. the zipper on ski pants broke... which proved to be incredibaly inconvenient.. i was pulling them up the whole day.. and then when we were at the top of the mountain.. my gloves went all frozen and retarded and i couldnt get my hands in them anymore.. so i was trying to pull my pants up the whole time and my hands were freezing cos there was no way i could get my hands in my gloves (they were frozen into some weird shape) and i could hardly see a thing! all i wanted to do was get to the bottom, and go have some free yoghurt and muesli! Then when we went down another run, by the time we got to the bottom.. my pants were around my knees.. i would have been embarassed.. but by that stage i really didnt care about it anymore.. and i had tights on underneath, so it wasnt that bad ;)

the rest of the week, i borrowed some pants from another girl who had some spares.

On the wednesday afternoon we went to visit a waterfall which was nearby.. it was so amazing! it was covered in snow and ice.. and then there was all this water just gushing through holes in the ice! it was definately the coolest waterfall i have ever seen ( i havent seen that many waterfalls) we then kept walking and we seen a house made out of ice.. which was also really cool! it had lots of different rooms and was quite big... they make a new one each year, which i think would be really annoying having all that hard work melt each year..

Then the final night we had a 3 course rotary dinner at the place we were staying.. this was quite fun, we all wore our blazers and exchanged pins.. during the dinner we all had to do a presentation... each country had to speak about a different country for five or so minutes.. in swedish..

so for example.. all the Australians had to speak about Mexico, the Americans had to speak about Australia.. and so on.. with all the different countries.. it was quite funny.

Our (the Australian's) presentation was the worst out of everyones.. as we have all only been here 2 months, aswell as the people from argentina and new zealand.. however all the students from other countries have been here for 8 months.. so there swedish sounded alot better than ours.

We also all got given bright orange shirts saying 'Winter Camp Are' which was pretty cool and makes a comfy pyjamas top. Seeing this was the last night of camp everyone was pretty happy and was talking lots and listening to music and dancing and everyone signed each others t'shirts.

Me and three of the Americans were the last ones up and we were just sitting in the lounge area talking and listening to music... then we decided that we just wouldnt go to bed at all.. so we attempted an all nighter.... and we almost nearly made it. I think we ended up falling asleep at around 5.30am.. and we had to get up at 7.00 for breakfast.. so technically we were first there for breakfast seeing we never realy left the room.. that morning i drank coffee.. and i dont even like coffee..

then we had a final day of snowboarding.. and then that night people started heading back home on the night trains! it was quite sad saying goodbye to everyone.. as everyone had such a fun week and got to know each other quite well.

I can't really think of anything else to write.. but if you are still reading this, you are probably almost falling asleep from boredom anyway ;) so now is a good time for me to stop writing :)

oh and i have lots of photos from my week on facebook, if you want to have a look :)

SUN

The sun has come out a few times this week! which is sooooo nice.. and i hadn't realised how much i had missed it..
but i think the swedes have missed it more than i have ;)
At school one day this week, the sun was out.. and it was around 3 degrees outside.. so we went for a walk outside (without our jackets!!).. it was funny though.. because alot of the boys were already outside, just standing there in the sun.. with only tshirts on... i thought it was quite funny.. by the way everyone was acting, you would have thought it was a nice 25 degree day outside.. but no, it was 3 degrees!!
oh and something.. which kind of freaked me out happened this week!... i was laying in bed.. and i heard a buzzing noise in my bedroom.. then it stopped.. and i heard it again in a different part of the room... so i turned on the light and.. there.. was... a FLY! i didn't even think flies existed in Sweden.. but it was flying around my room and when it landed.. i had a closer look and it was definately a fly! i thought i was crazy for a moment though.. and that i somehow must have bought a fly with me from Australia... anyway once i had worked out what the buzzing was... i turned the light off and went back to bed.. and then tried to fall asleep to the relaxing noise of a dying fly.. which strangely reminded me of being back home.
And another thing! the other night i was watching t.v and i found that Hannah Montana was about to start... so i got quite excited! (for those that know me well, will know that i enjoy an episode or seven of hannah montana) so i sat down ready to watch it with my cup of tea... and then it started.. and Miley started speaking Swedish! and then so did Lily! and Billy-ray! it was horrible... they had swedish voiceovers! after about 5 minutes of watching in dissapointment i switched the channel over to Scrubs.. which didnt disapppoint.
I'm pretty happy that the snow is starting to melt.. its exciting to be able to see a little bit more of the footpath each day.. and the other day i seen some very dead grass atempting to poke through the snow.. which was exciting!
Although, i hope there is lots of snow in Åre next week.. because that is where i will be! I take the night train from stockholm at 11.50pm saturday night (tomorrow night) and then arrive the next morning at 7.54am! There will be a few other exchange students on the same train, so that should be good. There will be 40 exchange students on the camp and they will be from all different countries, i know a few people that are going already.. but most of the people i will have not met before.. We will be there till thursday and will be having ski school each morning then the rest of the day to go down different runs.. I have chosen to do snowboarding.. but some people will be skiing aswell.. It should be a really fun week..
so tomorrow i will wash and pack my clothes! i hate packing though.. i never know what i will need.. and i always end up taking way to much.. and then i am always the one with the ridiculously oversized bag.. and then i struggle to carry it!
Anyway i will write some more when i get back at the end of the week!! and hopefully i will still have working limbs and no injuries!

........

To be honest, i really don't feel like writing anything just at the moment... but i feel lazy if i don't and now that i have been writing quite regularly.. i should probably keep up the momentum!

I don't have to much new stuff to say... but on Monday.. we didn't have to go to school.. so me and 9 other girls who are in my class (and who are all lovely!) took the train to Stockholm :)
It was such a nice day, minus the weather... which was quite 'un'nice, it was snowing lots and because the previous few days had been quite warm, there were puddles everywhere... which made me realise that i think it is time i bought some new shoes! i only bought one pair of winter boots with me, because of the 20kg weight limit.. and they are getting quite old... and apparently quite holey.
i had wet socks all day, which was just brilliant..
haha i didnt really mind though.. i was just happy to be in stockholm :)

We spent the day looking in different shops.. and they were some really cool ones.. much cooler than the shops in Adelaide (not that i dont like the shops in Adelaide :) ) we went to a pizza place for lunch and all had our own pizza...
and i felt a bit silly.. when we got served our pizza's i said.. 'woah, where do i start' (i was a bit overwhelmed and the pizza hadnt been cut) and one of the girls said.. 'in the middle somewhere'..
so having heard that.. and being in sweden (where they do many things very differently) i thought.... okay i must just use my knife and fork and cut out bits from the middle... bit weird, but okay.. :P
so i was eating away at my pizza making a nice hole in the middle... (it looked like a donut) and then i looked over at everyone else and they were cutting there pizza into pieces and eating it... how you would normally eat a pizza. Then they all saw how i had been eating my pizza, and seemed to find it quite humorous... which looking back.. i guess it kinda was.. haha

We also had a look around Gamla Stan which is the old city centre of Stockholm.. it was really cool and the buildings are all so old and pretty looking.. i didn't take any photos of anything this day though, because the weather was so crappy and i was a bit lazy i guess.
Anyway it was a great day in Stockholm, with great company :)

Other than that i have just been going to school this past week... Yesterday (saturday) it was so nice and sunny, so Me and Sanne took the dogs for a walk and then sat in the snow drinking some weird hot drink stuff.. it was nice to see the sun again! Then Sanne's second oldest daughter Karen and her Boyfriend came here.. They have spent the past two months in New Zealand travelling and only just got back yesterday... so it was really good to meet them and hear about their trip..
Then today we found out that Sanne's eldest daughter, Marit gave birth to twins late last night.. so that is really exciting! She had two boys, and I'm not sure what they are named yet..
This afternoon Sanne, Naya and I went for a drive about 30kms away to some very small town that has some big shop, that is apparently quite good... so we drove there.... only to realise that it doesn't open on Sunday's... So then we went to some other shops on the outskirts of Uppsala and bought some baby clothes for the twins :)

This week I just have school all week.. but then on Saturday night i am taking the night train with Jess, another exchange student to Järpen ready for a week of snowboarding/skiing at Åre.. (which is a really big ski resort). It is a rotary trip.. so there will be 40 of us exchange students there.. I'm already getting really excited about it!

Oh and Happy Birthday Rhani! its not the 8th here in Sweden yet.. but it is in Australia :)