My Drop of Sweden

May 23, 2010

Skolfängelsen i Västerås

This used to be a prison for students and teachers that disrespected the school laws in the 18 th century. Now it is just an open garden..

May 13, 2010

Kanelbullar...

They look extremely complicated but in fact they are very easy to make. They are typical Swedish.

A Swedish girl, Sara Fard showed me how to do them and I succeeded both the first and the second time. They are delicious! And after I baked them, the house smelled like Christmas thanks to the cinnamon...

What I find interesting is that after you bake them, it is advisable to keep them in the refrigerator and heat them whenever you want to eat them.

Here you have the recipe http://www.recepten.se/recept/kanelbullar.html (for those of you that know Swedish) or http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Lifestyle/Food-drink/Swedish-culinary-classics/Kanelbullar-/ (for those not knowing Swedish).

Marry Him!

A tiring night on the rhythms of a Swedish band concert. As usually, at 2 sharp in the night the music suddenly stops and we are asked to leave the club. We are heading towards the garderobe. As expected, almost everyone was more or less drunk. I felt so weird in my soberness. One cider made me happy!

Near the exit I meet a French guy and, as I usually do, I told him Bonsoir! And we start speaking in French. Suddenly, he takes my hand and kisses it. I was shocked, but in an extremely good sense. The response of another French girl, friend of him was "Marry him". We all laughed.

We all leave to have an after party in the nearby student accommodation. The discussion was about whether our faces indicated our nationalities. No wonder many of them said I look like a French girl. And then the French guy says, in his drunkness, that he accepts me as a French because my French is so good. Really? He asks me for a glass of water, I give it to him, he says "Merci" and I answer naturally "Med plaisir". His answer... "It is admirable that you speak such a good French!". No really! And I was thinking... This is Swefrench... But the alcohol prevented him from noticing. And in his eyes I have a great French. Not. I start to mix it with Swedish.

My conclusions

French guys are indeed gentlemen
the alcohol sometimes saves you from embarrassing situations, otherwise it can cause them
I am thinking seriously about getting a French lover
I have to do something with my French before I forget it all

May 8, 2010

I wish I were Swedish

7 May 2010, Västerås, Sweden. My last month in Sweden as an Erasmus student... e

10 o'clock at night. I ride the bike from my quiet student accommodation to the city center to go to a concert. The ride is less than 10 minutes. But I was freezing on the bike.

4 o'clock in the morning, next day. On my way back with the same friend: the bike. This time, FREEZING COLD. The 10 minutes were like an eternity...

My question: how can the Swedish people ride the bike during winter time, when there are -20 degrees and also snowing and I caught a cold for having a 10 minutes bike ride in MAY?

I wish I were Swedish for this reason...

May 5, 2010

My First Swedish Rainbow/ Min Första Svenska Regnbåge...

5 May 2010. My last month in Sweden!

The nature is more that kind with me. When I left home, more than 3 months ago, I had a list of the things I wanted to do and see in Sweden. A rainbow was on the list. The "miracle" happened today!