Day 24

Running a little behind, but here we go...
Today after we woke up, we all ate breakfast and then said our goodbyes and then headed for Kristinehamn to drop off my host-grandmother. When we arrived, we went into her house (well it's like a mini apartment, kinda like a multi-family house) and had fika, which was nice. She told me that the building was over 300 years old! (how long has America even been a country?) We had coffee, cookies, kanelbullar and chocolate biscuits which were all very good. Then we said goodbye and headed back home to Uppsala. I mostly listened to my iPod the whole time (although I must have listened to When You're Gone about six times...) About 40 minutes away from home, we stopped at this enormous candy store that had every type of (Swedish) candy imaginable and Amanda and I got some candy. They had some really strange ones, like salty octupus-shaped candy and egg-shaped (and possibly flavored >_<) candy, which I was too afraid to try. We also stopped at McDonald's on the way home and this was excited because it was the first time I had eaten at one, because I have been to them here before, but I haven't actually eaten anything. (when I went there I was hanging out with friends) I had their Asian Beef burger which was pretty much just a big burger with teriyaki sauce and cucumbers in it; it was pretty good though. Somebody back home check this for me: do we have Asian Beef burgers at McDonald's in the states? Or is it just here? Also here the Quarter Pounder is just called QP and the Big 'n Tasty drops the n and becomes "Big Tasty" and the Big Mac still looks the same. You can get just a regular cheeseburger for 12 kronor (thats "ingen big deal" as they say on the commercials here: not a big deal) I think it's a big deal, because 12 kronor, at current exchange rates, is roughly $2, and I believe unless things have changed since I left, you can get a regular cheeseburger (like with no meal or anything) or only like 59 cents or something. Then we arrived home and that was about it for the day.

Bwaaahh!!!! I absolutely forgot!!! For dinner tonight I experienced something so typically (and exclusively) Swedish: Surströmming (aka rotten fermented herring) The smell is well known for being absolutely horrible and when you want to have it, you have to open the cans and eat it outside or the house will forever be uninhabitable. Well it's not really that bad, (after a few years the house would eventually lose the stench) just after a while, it starts to get to you... The fish are whole (without heads and are already cleaned out) but you have to pull out the meat and try to remove the spine and the tiny bones in it. Then you put the pieces on knäckebröd (aka crisp bread, more like a large cracker than bread) along with potatoes butter and onions. Katarina was nice enough to prepare one for me, so I didn't have to get my hands all smelly and covered in shit herring. It didn't taste all that bad, and it definitely tasted better than it smelled. It was very salty and acidic; it didn't have the nicest flavor, but at least I can say that I've tried it. Most of my classmates were shocked that I even tried it, because they all hate it and most have never even had it!This is the Surströmming after it has been unleashed to wreak havoc on the world.