Freezing weather, lots of food and family sittnings!

Time continues to fly here in Lund, as the weather gets MUCH colder and the days get shorter. The sun begins to set around 3:45pm now and on average temperatures are between 35-45ºF (3-9ºC). It does make it a lot less appealing to go outside, but I've still been going on lots of walks with my roommates and for the occasional run. I keep meaning to invest in a real running shirt here but everything is so expensive. The sunsets have been very beautiful, despite being ridiculously early.

Luckily, the cold weather does provide an excuse to go sit in the cathedral for awhile, where it's always warm. Kate and I had a nice talk in the cathedral on Wednesday - it's crazy to reflect on the first time we sat there and talked (the very first week). Back then we were talking about how scared we had been to come to Lund and how we were glad to have each other as fellow introverts. This time we talked about how scared we were to go home and how hard it's going to be to adjust to all of us not being together. We also talked about how remarkable it is how close we all are as a group and how we truly do feel like family now.

"Hey Jaim"

Love her :)

A picture from the night of the Welcome Party - the first or second week in Lund

That day I also had lunch at Malmö Nation, which is worth mentioning because it was super delicious. We had soup with cod, garlic bread and chocolate pudding. I walked there with Linde (I'm learning to appreciate walking again - you do definitely see more than you would on a bike) and it was mostly Dutch people at the lunch, but they spoke English so I could understand most of the time. 

Wednesday night, we had a girls night at Herkules. The night was pretty hilarious and resulted in some ridiculous pictures (that probably don't need to appear here), tape on my dress from a friend handing it out that said "Det er for vildt" or "It's crazy" and a late night snack of eggs on toast, of course. Thursday was fun as well - we went to the penthouse in Lunds Nation, this time with some of the boys. The nation was a bit empty, but it was still a fun night with lots of dancing..

We also had a sushi night this week - there is a sushi place about a 5 minute walk from my house and I had been restraining myself from splurging the entire time I've been in Lund. Our dinner involved romantic candles (naturally) and a side dish of teriyaki brussel sprouts made by Regina. It was magnificent. 

SO GOOD

I'm realizing that a lot of my blog this week revolves around food/drink, likely because I haven't traveled and it has been too cold to do much of anything. Anyways, Regina, Alice and I decided to try "Glögg" or mulled wine, which is traditional for Swedish people to drink around Christmastime. It smelled fantastic, but tasted horrifically sweet. We heated it up, which didn't help much so I ended up just choking it down. Glad I tried it, now I don't particularly want to drink it again :)

One of the two kinds we got from the System Bolaget

Also notable: I finally opened the Ben & Jerry's that I splurged on about a month ago. It was SO delicious. Regina should be proud since she made fun of me for saving it so long. 

Saturday night was our Spoletorp Family Sittning. We decided, somewhat on a whim, that we should all go to a sittning together. I was glad, since I missed the first sittning that everyone went to. Renate organised the dinner with Malmö Nation and we decided on a theme of "Retro Night." I basically ended up wearing Alice's closet (with the addition of Linde's jean jacket). There are the most pictures of the three of us because we were the most dressed up. We had a little preparty upstairs, then biked to a fancy dinner. 

The dinner was delicious - I only took a picture of the first course (asparagus), but there was also chicken, carrots and potatoes. Dessert was a really thick chocolate mousse - wonderful. 

Kate's binoculars

We had a middle party back in Spoletorp - so the nation could get the club set up where our sittning had been. 

Linde...

The club was really fun as well! We all danced a lot and though the coat check at the end was a bit traumatic, it was still a great night. 

Sunday morning we went to brunch (Linde's first time!) and then Linde and I went to a tour of the cathedral. To be honest, I spaced out for a lot of it and only got about 50% of what the tour guide said, but it was nice to be in the cathedral to sort through my thoughts. I felt better when we walked out after I asked Linde "did you like the tour?" Her response was "yeah, I didn't really listen to any of it." I'm still glad we went and it was a nice walk back in the sun.