Ridiculously Hard Gym Classes, Care Packages, Tack Sittnings and Linde's Birthday!

This has been a week of weird things happening. First, Linde, Alice and I went to a class at the gym on Tuesday directly after my Sustainable Eating course. For some reason, Linde and I both thought it was a Wednesday and had seen our normal gympastäng class on the schedule. Unfortunately, we actually went to a class called alpingympa, which was basically the most advanced class we could have gone to. At first we just thought that it was a more intense instructor - we didn't do any walking to warm up (just running) and the movements were much quicker and more difficult. About three-quarters of the way through, I realized no one had the "stängs" or the weight bars we usually lift in class. 

By the end, all three of us were dying and instead of doing our nice cool-down we did crazy sprints and exercises running across the gym. We were all just kind of half doing what we were supposed to and half limping across the gym - Alice said she felt like a weak deer in the pack and that we were going to get eaten. At the end, we looked at the description of the class we went to and it said "Very intensive workout, with heavy movements. Designed for those already in good shape." Oops. 

I went running on Friday mid-morning to my favorite park with the huge hills. I was almost into the main part of the park when two guys on dirt bikes passed me. I thought it was a bit strange, since it's not really a park where you would think to ride dirt bikes. About 20 seconds later I heard a noise behind me and one of them rode past and slapped my butt! It was completely unexpected and it made me extremely angry! I think all of us here have an idea of Sweden being this perfect, safe place where people don't do disrespectful things (besides shove you when they get too drunk), but I suppose there are stupid people everywhere. 

I received the greatest care package from my mom this week! I got an envelope in my mailbox that said I had to pick it up at the ICA (our grocery store). I picked it up and was basically bouncing off the walls when I got home. Alice and I opened it and it was CRAZY what my mom had managed to fit into the box. 

My brother had colored on it and drawn cute pictures inside :)

SO many treats plus three pairs of leggings! I'll have to share all the candy with my friends here - I'll never eat it all by myself. I think I'm most excited for my halloween socks :)

It's funny because I found a picture recently that was taken October 24, 2012 (also a care package from my mom with Halloween socks and m&m's :))

The most exciting day of the week (besides receiving my care package) was definitely Linde's birthday. We all went out the night before (a bit of a rough night for everyone) and in the morning Kate made pancakes for everyone. We all relaxed for most of the day - then Kate, Linde and I went for a short walk. It had been raining so there was a beautiful rainbow and the weather was perfect. 

Kate's the greatest :)

We walked to the Allhegonakyrkan (All Saints Church), which is around 10 minutes from our house, and went in for the first time! It was so beautiful and so peaceful. I will definitely miss the beautiful churches and cathedrals when I go home. We all just sat quietly for awhile, then headed back home. 

Linde didn't know, but we had all been planning a surprise dinner for her the entire week through a group message on Facebook. Renate and I were supposed to take her for birthday fika so that the others could all cook and get set up on the top floor. Our fika was really nice, we walked to a little bakery and split a kannelbulle between the three of us. On the way back Renate talked about how she had ingredients for a pizza and that we should come up to have dinner with her. When we got back to the apartment, Linde and I just hung around for a little bit - I was excitedly waiting for the text saying that I could bring her upstairs!

The dinner was supposed to be fancy and we had talked about surprising Linde, then letting her go downstairs to change. When we got back from fika, I proclaimed that I was going to put on my fancy clothes for her birthday and she reluctantly agreed to as well. I wasn't sure if she had any idea about her surprise (it was a bit suspicious that there was no one else in our the apartment), but she asked if I wanted to cook dinner with her so I figured she had no idea. I felt bad being so sneaky, but I figured it would be so much better if she was completely surprised. We eventually decided that Linde should do something social for dinner on her birthday, so we'd go up and make the pizza with Renate. As we were leaving, Linde was complaining that she was going to be overdressed and that everyone was just going to be lying around on the couches and we were all in fancy clothes. I told her not to worry and as we got to the top floor she saw a bunch of people standing against the window into the apartment - all she said was "no way..."

Everyone had done SUCH an amazing job - when we walked into the apartment everyone was in very fancy clothes and yelled "SURPRISE!" The two dinner tables were pushed together with candles, fancy place settings and cocktails. 

The food was wonderful - risotto with shrimp - and being surrounded by such wonderful, happy people was so great. 

Lucia said some really wise things at the dinner :)

Trying to do Alice's worm face

Cake by Sigrid :)

On Friday, Alice, Regina and I went to our thank you sittning (tack sittning) for working at the club in Hallands. We had stew for dinner and were given two mixed drinks and a bottle of wine between us. It was really fun! We sang lots of Swedish songs (with the help of the Swedish girl at our table, who I had met before at a pea soup sittning) and then sat in the pub for awhile. We talked about US vs UK politics with a guy from Alice's econ class for awhile and eventually went into the club to dance. Somehow we ended up in a weird circle of dancing Swedish boys again, but overall it was a great night!

Last night, about eight of us girls (plus Anubhav) watched P.S. I Love You and I think most of us cried at least once during the movie (or for the whole movie...Alice :)). I'm really going to miss ridiculous nights like these when I go home. 

Rainy days, Night walks, Almost burning the building down and Gotëborg!

The weather has definitely taken a turn for the worse in Sweden. There is the occasional day of sun, but most of the time it's pretty gray and rainy. I thought that this kind of weather would depress me, but it hasn't been so bad. It does have the effect of making all of us not want to leave the house, but we just make ourselves. The leaves are still incredibly beautiful, but biking in the rain is just not very enjoyable.

Here are some pictures from my run on the one sunny day this week :)

A few of my roommates and I did go for a night walk this week - we went up to my favorite hill to run up and the view was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of the view, but I have a nice one of us (minus Kate) lying on the ground laughing hysterically...

So cute :)

I went to the middle school again this week - this time I got to talk with three boys: Felix, Erik and Jakob. Erik was very talkative and the other two were very shy. We talked about movies we liked and they asked a lot about the differences between my school and theirs. They were all completely adorable and SO smart. It still really blows my mind how well they all speak English, but I guess it shouldn't since they start learning in third grade. 

In other news, I don't recommend plugging a heating pad into any outlets abroad. I wanted to use the one I had brought from home because my back was hurting. I plugged it in and immediately there was a loud popping noise, the lights in my room went out and it smelled like burning. The buttons on the remote of my heating pad had flown off and it all looked a little singed, so I'm just counting myself lucky for not getting electrocuted :)

Friday night, we all went to Hallands Nation for Sigrid's birthday. It was definitely one of the most fun nights I've had since getting here. There wasn't anything particularly special about the night (besides our awesome countdown to midnight and singing happy birthday :)), but almost everyone was out (minus Linde, who was in Copenhagen) and we all just danced crazily - there was a lot of jumping with our arms around each other involved. I don't actually have any pictures from the night - only a video of Alice singing "Stay" by Rihanna when Regina and I got an email saying that we could stay in Lund for a year if we wanted. I don't think that should go on the internet though...

On Saturday morning, Regina and I got up at 8am to board a bus to Gotëborg (Gothenburg), the second largest city in Sweden - after Stockholm. The bus was double-decker and the bus ride was three hours long - we were both completely exhausted after the night before. We stopped midway through to get some food at a shopping mall/grocery store.

When we got to Gothenburg, we first went to a giant park which doubled as a zoo. There were ducks, chickens, sheep, horses moose, etc. The animals seemed to be more of ones that would naturally live in that habitat, so there weren't any really exotic ones. The moose was exciting though and the park itself was really pretty - Gothenburg is more mountainous so it felt a little like being back in Colorado.

There's a sea otter in there somewhere!

After the park, we did more of a bus tour around the city. I was bummed that we didn't do more walking, but the weather wasn't very nice and the city seemed to be pretty spread out. We did get out to see the Gotëborg Opera House, which was right next to a harbour with lots of very large boats. Plus a hilarious statue of a sailor.

At the end of the bus tour, we stopped at a very large hill with a few hundred stairs up to the top. I was pretty sure I was going to fall and die the entire time - the stairs were extremely steep and crowded - but the view at the top was absolutely beautiful. You could see the city on both sides and all of the roofs were red.

Afterwards, Regina and I just walked around for a bit, then sat in a café once we got too cold. I really did like the city in general - it was a nice mix of the mountains with all the beautiful buildings. We had falafel for dinner (not the greatest idea) then met up with the rest of the group to go to an Australian themed bar called The Dancing Dingo. 

Coincidentally, we also met up with Jussi who had been with family all day but decided to join our group. 

After The Dancing Dingo, we headed to a club called Sticky Fingers. It was three stories, with metal/rock in the bottom floor, pop music in the middle, and house/dance music at the top. It was incredibly fun! The music they played seemed to be very American-oriented and a lot of it was pretty old, but awesome. There was Beyonce, Outkast, Black-Eyed Peas, and many more. There was also a live Swedish band in the middle floor.

As usual, Jussi decided to spontaneously pick someone up :)

Live music in the middle floor

 The bus back to Lund left at 2:30am and we didn't get back until 5:30am. I was definitely glad we had gone!