Tuesday, October 27, 2009

more fall festivities!

Today Caitlin and I made pumpkin spice cupcakes, with the cute paper cups Sarah sent me! They are perfect, I'm so proud of them! I made the butter cream frosting and sprinkled pumpkin spice on the top! I think they are the best cupcakes EVER! :) We also carved a pumpkin! Caitlin calls him Grumpy...sooo, he's grumpy! Then we went to the Vatten Palatset, which is the indoor swimming pool. I didn't swim, but it was nice, I took one of the books Fredrik's sister's gave to me and I read 150 pages! It's good, good job soon to be sister in laws!

Fredrik seems to be in high spirits, and very sure he will be joining me and the girls tomorrow to see the movie we arranged to all go see together. We will see! He's just too sweet to not go. I know he doesn't want to let me down. I just wish he could get this surgery so I can feel better about his bones not rubbing together and healing wrong and him being in pain! Ugh!

Swedish word of the day is "pumpa" which is "pumpkin" and "pumpor" which is "pumpkins". Both sound how they look! :)

Monday, October 26, 2009

Hint taken, Sarah!

Thanks Sarah! :) But it's been a busy past few days! With a surprise birthday party for me, bowling, pumpkin carving and Fredrik breaking his arm! :)

Yes, Saturday we went bowling with Hanna and Andreas (Fredriks sister and her fiance). After we went to his parents house for dinner with his sisters, their boyfriends, and his parents. After dinner, they cleaned up and when we went back to he table there was a surprise dessert waiting for me! AND presents! :) Ann made me a chocolate cake, even with writing on it! Usually here, you just eat "kladdkaka" or "sugar cake" which is soooo delicious, but my cake was awesome! And his sisters gave me 2 books, a really nice scarf and a card. His mom and dad already bought me 3 pairs of shoes a few weeks ago, but got me a really nice card (that is even in English!) It was so nice and thoughtful, and really made me feel loved and a part of their family! I really love the new extension of my family, I'm really lucky!

Sunday, Fredrik and I carved our first pumpkin together! We named him Gert, which is pronounced "Jert" so it's fun to called it a Gert-o-lantern. So lame. But I think he turned out great! And it was so good to do something new with Fredrik, that he had never done before. He really loved the smell, picking out all the seeds, and cleaning them! :) He did a great job, and I think he likes the seeds. His family certanily likes them! I roasted them with garlic salt, worchestershire sauce, salt and butter!


And then there was today. Monday morning, the beginning of a long week with the girls off of school on fall break. So, I'm just down at the house getting some coffee made and my phone rings at 8am, and it's Fredrik's mom. Never a good sign. She tells me Fredrik has broken his arm playing soccer and she is headed to the hospital. Ugh. Can you feel more helpless! 30 miles away, in a foreign country, and not able to drive a car there! I nearly broke down crying! But, I trusted Ann to be there and to let me know what was going on. Finally, I talk to Fredrik and he doesn't sound too bad. He get's his x-rays, yes needs surgery. We THOUGHT it was going to be today so Mireille (my host mom) can come home early from work and I head into Göteborg. Call from Ann, nope, just get on the bus and go to the house, Fredrik will have surgery on THURSDAY! I repeat, THURSDAY! WHAT?! Oh, I was not happy about this. But there is nothing we can do. I just have to watch the person I love more than anything in this world suffer with his little temporary cast, while his bones rub on each other, for 3 days. I feel so angry about that! But he's so tough. He never complained! The only time pain showed was when he moved wrong and his face winced just a little bit. Other than that, he doesn't want help and doesn't want sympathy. This is a good sign for the rest of our future, because from what I hear, guys are real whimps when it comes to sickness and pain. But my man is tough, and a real trooper! So we will see how Thursday goes, and if all goes well, my trooper thinks we are still goin to Copenhagen Friday night. We will see!
Only he could look this adorable with a broken arm! The break is right where the tape is. From what he and his mom told me, the "big bone" is broken and laying over each other and twisted like a screw as well. This is one tough guy, I think!

The Swedish word of the day is "bruten arm" which is "broken arm" and is pronounced how it looks!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Is it too early?

I have already made my Thanksgiving menu...

Turkey (made the traditional way!)
Turkey gravy (made from the actual turkey drippings!)
Homemade sweet yeast rolls
Stuffing (sadly from a box!)
Grandma Miller's Creamed Corn
Sweet Glazed Yams
Mashed Potatoes
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Roll

I know I am missing plenty of items most people deem as Thanksgiving "musts", but Fredrik's family, who I will be celebrating with, already thinks this is WAY TOO MUCH FOOD! But I'm cooking it anyway! I have to! We will be celebrating the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and there will be 8 of us. Funny that my first time making a whole Thanksgiving meal will be in Sweden for a Swedish family. If I mess up, they might not even know! ;) I think the turkey makes me the most nervous, all the rest is pretty simple. But a whole entire bird! Yikes!

On a more, time relevant note, next week the girls have fall break. SO I get to spend the whole week with them. Sheesh. So I have some nice Halloween activities planned. Here in Sweden Halloween is really not celebrated at all. Younger people might dress up and have a party amongst themselves, but really, no kids are out trick-or-treating and such. So we will carve a pumpkin, make some pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting (thank you Sarah for the pumpkin mix and Halloween muffin cups!) and Mireille was so kind to buy me the movie "Hocus Pocus" which will always be my favorite Halloween movie, and one of my best memories of my grandmother. And Sweden being the "out of date" country it is, we will see "Upp" in the theater, since it just came out a few weeks ago! So hopefully it won't be totally unbearable! Plus, my birthday is Friday! So I think Mireille has taken that day off so we can do some fun things all together! And Friday afternoon Fredrik and I go to Copenhagen for the weekend! I love this time of year! So much to do, so much cooking to do, so much to plan! I miss home, but it's really fun to introduce the American way of celebrating, and learning the Swedish way as well!

The Swedish word of the day is "meny" which means "menu" and looks like it sounds. Only the "y" in Swedish is sort of special, you have to purse your lips, like you are trying to hold a pen between your lips and your nose. It's a REALLY hard sound to masture for a non-Swedish speaker!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Oh yea! It snowed too!

It was raining Friday morning and then I didn't hear the rain anymore, so I looked out the window to notice it was snowing! It was really beautiful, and not cold enough to stick, but still...it's October!



"snö" means "snow" and is pronounced "snuh"

ja må han leva!

The birthday weekend was really great. I had a really good time meeting more of Fredrik's family, and it was really nice to just sit around in the living room joking with each other, talking and eating good food. We ate "halv special" which is a Swedish specialty. Toasted hot dog bun, with a "korv", better known as "hot dog' to us, with mashed potatoes on top. Usually you put mustard and ketchup, but I don't! And as you can see, you can also put other kinds of "toppings" on. Here in Sweden, they have some weird salad type thing you eat on bread. I don't really enjoy them, but the Swedes sure do like them!

Also, Swedes love to sing to celebrate. They all sing at the same time, really loud, and at their own pace. As you can hear, it doesn't sound like our traditional "Happy Birthday to you". This is a song titled "Ja må han/hon (depending on the sex of the person) leva." You can see that everybody is standing up, singing however they want, and people are sitting down, and still standing, and still singing! It's chaos, but it's really funny! When I heard this the first time, I laughed, I laughed hard. THEN we sang it a second time, since we were celebrating 2 birthdays. And at the end, you can hear somebody should "skål!" which is "cheers!".



The Swedish word of the day is "skål" which obviously, means "cheers" and is pronounced "skoal!" I really dont think, in Sweden, you can say this word enough. It gives you a reason to drink!

Friday, October 16, 2009

long ago birthdays

This weekend, Fredrik and I will head up to his parents cabin for a fun filled weekend of birthday celebrations. We will be celebrating Ann's and Fredrik's. Even though they happened in September. Haha. But as we say in my family, it doesn't matter WHEN you celebrate, as long as you are all together to celebrate it sometime. So finally, we can all be there. So I will be meeting a few more members of his family I haven't met before! Yikes. And last night, I made enchiladas for 8 people in my tiny kitchen, for tonights dinner. Hopefully they go over well!

Today, on my way home from dropping Tara off, I heard an interview on the radio, and it was in English! They were interviewing Jordan Sparks, who is in Sweden to be on tonights episode of "Swedish Idol". I don't even like Jordan Sparks, but listened to that interview as if I have never heard English before! It's so funny that I do that. I speak English all the time, with my family here, with Fredrik, his family and on the phone with my own family. But when I hear English outside of the realm, it's so weird and exciting! If I hear people on the street or in a store, I want to ask them where they are from and what they are doing! It's so stupid, cause really, I should be practicing my Swedish!

The Swedish word of the day is "grattis på födelsedagen" which means "happy birthday" and is pronounced "grattis poa fudelsedagen". Directly translated this means "congratulations on your birthday".

Monday, October 12, 2009

Måndag

It's Monday, and my first day, after 4 weeks of class, that I have A LOT of time to relax. It's nice, but it might get old fast. We will see! I already have all my "chores" done.

Since I have so much time, I thought I would upload some of the pictures from recently!

The rings, together!


Ice cream for Grandma Fran

This was a really gorgeous road on the way to a "castle" Fredrik and I attempted to see. But it turned out to be a mansion that wasn't that great looking, and we had to pay for everything!

The Swedish word of the day is "ice cream" which is "glass" and pronounced as it looks. But this shouldn't be confused with "glas" which means "glass" :)

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Oops

It's been a bit longer than usual. But it's always discouraging to want to write when nobody leaves comments! Come on people! :)

Regardless, this week has been great. Fredrik and I joined my classmates on Thursday night for a really wonderful dinner. We all met, about 11 of us, and went and searched for a place to eat on Linnégatan. This is one of the busiest streets in Göteborg, with tons of café's, restaurants and bars. Here in Sweden, it is a bit more difficult to find a restaurant, on the fly, who can seat 10 or more people. So we were standing in front of various places asking the head waiter if it was possible, when we were standing in front of a nice place and a lady walked out and TOLD us to come in. There was nobody in there! That always makes you a bit skeptical to eat there, but none the less, it was delicious and was a really good time. I love being in Göteborg at night, it's so exciting to me!

Yesterday, Fredrik and I made a trip to Alingsås, which is a really typical Swedish town. We just walked around and looked at various things, and came home and I made a really delicious lasagne!

Also, yesterday was what I like to call 'Grandma Fran Day'. 10-10 was my grandmothers birthday, and since she has passed away, we have always celebrated her life by eating dessert before dinner. I upheld this tradition, even in Sweden! Fredrik was a little put off, as Swedes NEVER eat sweets before a meal, but I explained that I HAD to! Pictures to come, I promise. This day was also a bit more special because my mom has sent me my grandmothers wedding ring and band, and that is what I will be wearing throughout my life married to Fredrik. We were looking for an antique, gold, simple ring, and my mom had this great idea, that I should wear this one. I am so happy. The ring is beautiful and I'm incredibly honored to be wearing it. It was worn throughout 47 years of happiness, and I hope it does the same for me. Again, pictures to come!

The Swedish word of the day is "förlovningsring" which means "engagement ring" and is pronounced "furlovningsring". Don't forget to roll your R!

And it only seems appropriate to add "grandma" to the list. In the case of my mothers mother, she would have been "mormor". Fathers mother is "farmor" fathers father is "farfar" and mothers father is "morfar" I won't go into it now, but all your relatives, in Swedish, get special titles based on what side of the family you belong. It's a little confusing, but actually makes sense! I hadn't realized when you talk about your grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, you always have to specifically specify which side of the family they belong!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Jag hade en gång en båt

In my Swedish class (which, sadly, ends this week), we get a new Swedish song on Fridays. This past Friday we got a song I really loved.

Jag hade en gång en båt-I once had a boat

Jag hade en gång en båt
Med segel och ruff och köl
Men det var för länge sen, så länge sen
Svara mig du
Var är den nu?
Jag bara undrar... Var är den nu?

Jag hade en gång en dröm
Jag trodde att den var sann
Så väcktes jag ur min sömn och drömmen försvann
Svara mig du
Var är den nu?
Jag bara undrar... Var är den nu?

Det fanns en gång en soldat
Han kysste sin mor farväl
Han sa till sin flicka; du, jag kommer igen
Svara mig du
Var är han nu?
Jag bara undrar... Var är han nu?

Det fanns en gång en stad
I parken där lekte barn
Så släppte man ner en bomb och staden försvann
Svara mig du
Var är den nu?
Jag bara undrar... Var är den nu?

Jag hade en gång en båt
Jag drömde en dröm en gång
Men det var för länge sen, så länge sen
Svara mig du
Var är dom nu?
Jag bara undrar... Var är dom nu?
Jag bara undrar... Var är dom nu?
Jag bara undrar... Var är dom nu?

I realize this is all way too much for you all, but just listen and read, and you will feel kind of cool, cause you can pronounce some things!

TRANSLATION-beware non Swedish speakers! This song is actually really depressing!

I once had a boat
With sail and cabin and keel
But that was long ago, so long ago
Answer me, you
Where is it now?
I just wonder ... Where is it now?

I once had a dream
I thought that it was true
So I was awakened from my sleep and the dream vanished
Answer me, you
Where is it now?
I just wonder ... Where is it now?

There was once a soldier
He kissed his mother farewell
He said to his girl, you, I will again
Answer me, you
Where is he now?
I just wonder ... Where is he now?

There was once a city
In the park where children were playing
So let it down a bomb and the town disappeared
Answer me, you
Where is it now?
I just wonder ... Where is it now?

I once had a boat
I dreamed a dream once
But that was long ago, so long ago
Answer me, you
Where are they now?
I just wonder ... Where are they now?
I just wonder ... Where are they now?
I just wonder ... Where are they now?

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Kanelbulle!


Although they look good, they weren't! We threw them all away! How sad. It's quite difficult for me to either translate a recipe, convert "our" measurement into "their" measurement, or figure out all the ingredients i.e. yeast! Sheesh. Regardless, it was fun to cook with Fredrik! :) And the reason we did this was because here in Sweden it was Kanelbulle Dag! Cinnamon Roll day! Lucky us! And even though ours didn't turn out, Fredrik woke up nice and early and went and bought us some good cinnamon rolls!

The Swedish word of the day is "kanelbulle" which obviously means "cinnamon bun" and is pronounced like it looks! For English speakers, don't forget to say the "e", there aren't silent "e's" in Swedish! :)