Next we walked through the main center and eventually stopped for some kaffe at a fika. Another thing I learned today about the Swedes is that they really love their coffee and they love it really strong. (well actually I already knew that) But this morning (well actually noon when I woke up) I had breakfast which consisted of a sandwich and some coffee. Now this coffee was about half as strong as espresso (I think) and was black, with no milk or sugar; that's how my family drinks it. Now, despite what I expected, it actually wasn't that bad, it an interesting taste and flavor. Back to the fika, it was a nice small cafe and we had more coffee and some enormous kanelbullar which are cinnamon rolls with sugar chunks on top. (almost like tiny tiny sugar cubes) This time, I got an Islatte which had some milk and a scoop of vanilly ice cream on top. The milk didn't really help the taste that much, but the ice did. The kanelbullar were very tasty and looked like the giant pretzels you get in New York because they were brown and had the sugar chunks on them which look exactly like the salt on those pretzels.
After that, we walked over the creek that runs though the center of the town and past the Domkyrka or Cathedral and into the Gustavianum museum. Contained inside exhibits about early Swedish history and the vikings, but the main point of interest was the anatomical theater, which was a large room where medical students (and the paying public) would watch the dissection of executed criminals.Then we headed back to their house, but had a quick detour to the local marina on the enormous lake (the same one from yesterday but a different part) and saw some of the views. Despite it's size, the entire lake freezes and during the winter there are lots of people skating and snow yachting (which is basically a little sailboat on skis). The ice will even be thick enough to drive a car on, and many people do to avoid having to drive around the lake. (why drive around a lake when you can drive through it! ^_^)
I also met the neighbors around our house, and they are all very nice, I just wish I could remember their names... Two of them have dogs that are really cute and they both have pools. (I didn't think anyone would have a pool in Sweden) They also have sons all around my age and one who is 13, who's name is Erik (I think). Our next door neighbors also have two trampolines, that I am allowed to jump on at any time. The people here are so laid back and you can just walk into people's backyards and they don't care at all, the people here are so nice!
This reminds me of another thing I learned about the Swedes: they love to pick wild berries and mushrooms. Yesterday when we were walking around the lake we picked some wild raspberries which were very tasty. And today my host parents where asking our one neighbor who ate dinner with us if she seen any hjortron or cloudberries where growing in the area.
It was starting to get a little cold after dinner (we ate outside) so we went inside and I watched tv or "the telly" as they call it in English here. I was flicking through the channels but nothing particularly interesting was on, so I watched the news about the Olympics for a while and them looked again. After our guest left Per and Katarina came and joined me and we watched Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel. Another thing about Sweden; there are a lot of American shows and movies on the telly including Family Guy, Scrubs, Roseanne, America's Funniest Home Videos (which is on several times every day), The Fresh Prince "in" Bel-Air, CSI, All American MTV shows, all American Discovery (except shark week) and Animal Planet shows, and Dharma and Greg, to name a few. All American shows are in English with Swedish subtitles, which actually helps, because I can hear the sentences while reading the Swedish text and I can make the connections and also notice the differences in translations, especially with "figures of speech" and slang. We also had another cup of coffee while watching the telly, despite it being 10:30 pm.
Well now it's almost 1:00 so I need to be going to sleep so I don't wake up at noon like today. Tomorrow we are going to Stockholm to pick up Amanda, my host sister and to see the sights. I was just informed by Madelyn, who's from California and is staying in Stockholm that tomorrow there is a huge Gay Pride parade in Stockholm but I don't think Katarina and Per know about it yet, so this should prove to be a very interesting trip.
Well that's all for now, so until next time,
Hej då
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