Hejdå Sverige

I can't believe its already time to go home, these past four months have gone by so fast! ( with the exception of the past 3 days) I've had so many fun memories here that I will never forget! I'm so grateful that I've had the opportunity to come here and study for one semester, but I'll admit, I didn't do much studying. I'm so excited to come home and see everyone! Definitely glad I'll be home for Christmas. However, there are some things I'm going to miss about Sweden...

Myca

I just love this girl, we have had so much fun together and I'm so sad we're leaving her! She She's from Washington, but goes to school in Idaho. She seriously cracks me up, I'm so glad we met her! She's coming to Utah for Addy's wedding though so that will be so much fun! So even though we are leaving her now, at least I know I'll see her in a few weeks!

Kebab

I love the Kebab man who sells kebab's from his truck at the end of our street. Sketchy? Not a chance, his kebab's are to die for! I crave them constantly, and I don't even know what kind of meat it is! It's mostly lamb I know. As you can tell, we usually dress in our finest attire to eat such a delicacy. He will be greatly missed in America.

Winter WonderlandI know I complain about the weather a lot, (it was -18 the other day!) but for the most part it is so pretty! We've had constant snow for the last 6 weeks at least. It looks so Christmasy and makes winter so much prettier.

Robert and Sigird

Our branch president and his wife. They have been so nice to us, making us dinners, taking us places, translating for us in church! They have been life savers! I'm so thankful that we were able to meet them! They have helped us out countless times!

Lea and Lief

Ok I want to be these people when I grow up. I honestly love them. They are the most genuine people I have ever met. They live out in the country, about an hour away, and they invited us over for dinner and it was the BEST dinner I've had in the past four months. They just kept feeding us and feeding us! The food never ended! It was fabulous. We stayed and talked to them for 5 hours! Time flies when you're having fun. I'll miss these people, they are too stinkin cute.

Living with Addy Jane

I decided Addy is my soul mate, in a friend way of course. She really is like a sister to me. Love her to pieces. Addy is getting married in February and I'm so excited for her. I've either lived with Addy or next door to Addy my whole life! And now we are going to live in different cities! I don't know what I'm going to do! We can seriously be the two biggest idiots on the face of the earth, but somehow we manage! It's a miracle we survived this semester and rarely got lost! I'm quite proud of us! So, so many fun memories with Addy, starting clear back from kindergarten. I'll miss her oh so much I don't even want to think about it! But I really am so happy for her and Dayson and with them the best of luck with marriage. Love you girl!

Well folks maybe by the time you read this I'll be home! I just want to say thanks to everyone for the letters, emails, packages and skype chats!! You've all been so good to me and I'm grateful for it! Thank you thank you thank you! It's a bittersweet experience to leave Sweden... BUT let's just say I've been in Sweden long enough and I am super excited to come home!!!

Getting Ready to Leave...

Ok I'll admit this blog is a pity blog. We are doing our cleaning for inspection today and ugh I hate cleaning. The drain in our "shower" hasn't been working and I've been avoiding it. Well, I decided to try and fix it since our inspection is today. And this is what I found....

I about hurled. Yes people.. that is hair.

Россия поездки

Cathedrals in the Kremlin

Cathedral of Spilt Blood in St Petersburg

St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow

The Kremlin

Anastasia'a Palace

Russia was our grand finale trip, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. The Russia Road Trip wasn't through our school, so we had to meet the group in Stockholm. We went a day early to explore Stockholm some more, love that place. We tried to see Harry Potter but it was sold out, so we saw Wall Street instead, it was pretty good, not my fav. In Stockholm, we shopped, ate yummy food, went to a lame museum and shopped more. It was very fun. We had to meet at the ferry because we were taking the boat to Finland. Getting the the boat was DRAMA! Addy and I were so lost and yelling at each other, it was quite a scene. We were so mad at each other but laughed about it 5 minutes later. Neither of us had any idea how to get there and we were in panic mode, but luckily we made it with time to spare.
Once we were on the ferry, they told us we had to get in groups of 4 for our cabins. I didn't care who was in our room as long as it was two girls. Fail. These two mexicans, Raoul and Enrique, come up to us and asked if we already have roommates! I was so bugged because everyone was already in their groups and we got stuck with them. Not to mention the rooms were so freaking tiny I woke up in the morning and opened my eyes and Enrique's bed was like two inches away, so weird. The next morning once we got to Finland we literallly drove until 9 that night and arrived in St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg was pretty, we had a city tour and saw a lot of cool sites and buildings. We also got to see Anastasia's palace! Addy and I danced in the ballroom in honor of Anastasia haha. People in Russia are super ornery, no one smiles and no one speaks english. It made eating at restaurants quite difficult, but somehow we managed. We also went to a Russian Folk dance, I totally thought it was going to be lame, but I was pleasantly surprised! Next we went to Moscow, I loved Moscow! It was the most unique place I've ever been, it had tall skyscapers, then cathedrals that reminded me of candyland and Aladdin. Moscow is a huge city and there was so much to see, I wish we could have stayed longer. We went to Lenin's Mausoleum, semi creepy. Everyone was standing in line and we didnt know what it was for, but decided to join anyway. Turns out we got to see his actual body in a glass case. Disturbing. We had another city tour in Moscow, and our tour guide was so stinking cute, she talked like the grandma on Anastasia, loved her. We had a tour of the Kremlin too, that place was way cool. Learned all about Stalin, Ivan the Terrible and Lenin. We also went to a Christmas market, it was super cute with yummy food. Honestly Russia had the best food so far, besides the gelatto in Italy. I liked every meal, plus it was pretty cheap! Bonus. The only downfall about this trip was the freaking bus. We had two overnight drives which were complete disasters, the mexicans were in front of us and they leaned their chair so far back I could smell their hair. I was so bitter. It's ok though, I still had a blast in Russia! We met some fun people, ate delicious food and saw a ton of amazing buildings and cathedrals. I am ready to go back!

Copenhagen

Tender

Officially a Nielsen Girl

Saturday, Addy and I woke up at the butt crack of dawn, literally, and went to Copenhagen. I was so tired and pretty ornery, I told Addy this better be worth it haha. And it totally was. We went to a place called Tivoli, it's an amusement park and flower garden place. It was decorated for Christmas and it was so cute! It smelled like Christmas and Disneyland, therefore it was just grand. They had ice sculpting, and little kids caroling, christmas stores, ah I love Christmas time. After Tivoli, we went to a round tower that we literally had to walk up the stairs to see the view. It was pretty, but elevators were invented for a reason! After that, we shopped as usual. Loved it. Then we went to the Royal Palace, it was cool, pretty similar to Stockholm's palace. Copenhagen was so fun and so pretty! Definitely worth waking up at 4 am for, I'd even do it again.

Christmas Market

Ann Sofie is our family friend that was assigned to us from the University. She's super nice, the other day she invited us over for a traditional swedish dinner with her and her boyfriend, Magnus. The dinner was actually way good! We had this sausage with rice in it.. sounds sketchy but I actually liked it! Then a boiled potatoe with meet and onions in the middle. Surprisingly I liked that too. That was just the appetizer. For the main meal we had salmon that was amazing, more boiled potatoes with this red sauce that tasted like cherries, and salad. In Sweden, they don't put dressing on their salads, so basically I am eating leaves. So far I haven't had the best of luck for swedish food, but Ann Sofie was a really good cook! After dinner, we went to a Christmas market that was in Huseby. It definitely got me excited for christmas, it was all decorated for Christmas with lights and wreaths, and they were playing Christmas songs! They had a lot of traditional swedish decorations they were selling, i wasn't a fan. They were also sampling a bunch of swedish meat, once again, not a fan. After tasting the meat I had the worst flavor in my mouth and I honestly just wanted to it out but I thought that might be rude, but then someone was sampling cheesecake and I was so excited because something sweet would taste so much better. Fail. Cheesecake here is nasty, its warm, lumpy, not sweet at all, and actually tastes like crappy cheese. When expecting something sweet, and that is what you get, it's even worse. Other than the nasty food, the Christmas market was very cute! It was so nice of Ann Sofie to make dinner for us then take us! P.S. I didn't get a picture because when I pulled out my camera to take one, Magnus muttered something about Asians always taking pictures so I got embarrassed and put it away haha!

Shout out to My Homeboy

Friday morning I got flowers from Greg! Haha when I answered the door I was in my pj's, wearing glasses, and my retainers were in. No joke. It was a lovely sight. The flower delivery guy probably thought some nice guy felt bad for me and wanted to brighten my day. But the flowers totally made my weekend! I love them! Thanks Greg you're the best! I love the flowers so much! I love you!

Bonjourno Italia!!

The duomo

The Castle

Pizza, pasta, gelato, shopping, warm weather, gondolas, amazing sight seeing... what is not to love about Italy? It's such a beautiful place, there is no way anyone can be miserable there. Last week, our adventure began. Monday night, we took the train to Stockholm and had to spend the night in the airport because our flight left super early. It wasn't too bad, although we were so cold we didn't sleep at all! We were so excited for Italy it didn't even matter though. Tuesday, we get to Bergamo around 9 then take the train to Venice. It was so pretty there, canals everywhere, people playing music by the water, gondolas through the canals.. I loved it. Once we got there, we got something to eat. I was so excited for Italian food, and sadly, our first restaurant was nasty. I didn't know what kind of pasta I had but I thought it tasted funny, then someone told me it was fish! I didn't eat another bite. I was so put out!! BUT we got gelato which definitely made up for my fish pasta. Gelato is my new favorite thing. I am having withdrawls, we got gelato at least twice a day. It's amazing, just thinking about it my mouth is watering. The rest of that day we just walked around Venice trying to find St. Peter's Bascila. It took us 3 hours to find it, but we didn't mind because we say cool things along the way. Venice is a little bit confusing since every house and bridge looks the same! Our hotel in Venice was so gross. I slept with my pants tucked into my socks, my shirt tucked into my pants, I wore my winter coat and I wrapped my scarf around my head because I didn't want bed bugs. It was not a pleaseant experience. The next morning, we went on our boat tour to three different islands. It was such a nice day! The first island, Murano, we saw a lot of glass work, and we made some American friends! They were a cute little old coulpe for Washington. The next island, Burano, was a fisherman's island. The houses were so colorful here! This island was popular for its lacework. The last island, Torcello only had 15 people living on the entire island! It had a lot of churches. Once our tour was over we went back and had lunch by the sea. It was so nice to just sit and enjoy the sun! Plus the food was delicious! I was satisfied. After lunch, we went up a tower to see all of Venice. Some people were put out it cost 8 euros.. seriously? That's like ten bucks! Freaking tight wads.. I loved the view though! The rest of the day we just went shopping until we had to catch our train to Milan. The shopping in Venice was not for us, I would walk in a store and the people would look at my shoes and I knew I didn't belong haha! We still had fun though.

Once we got to Milan we ate then went to our hotel. This hotel was the Grand America compared to our dump in Venice. Plus it had the best buffet breakfast the next morning! Crossaints, chocolate cake, muffins, cupcakes, we scored. Next we had a tour in Milan. I loved this tour, it started out by going to the Opera house. The Opera totally reminded my oh Phantom of the Opera, it was old fashioned and so pretty! We also went to the Duomo, which is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. The Duomo is seriously the prettiest building I've ever seen. It literally takes your breath away, it looks fake its so pretty! I loved it. It took 500 years to build. During World War II, the entrie city was bombed but the Duomo was the only thing that didn't fall. When we were inside, i started singing, "God Help the Outcast" from Hunchback of Notre Dame because it totally reminded my of that! We also got to see the castle and the Last Supper painting on our tour. I had no idea how big the Last Supper painting was! Leonardo painted it on this huge wall with some sort of putty to help it stay. The room was so reverent and when we left, everyone said they were on the verge of tears. Well I wasn't but I still thought it was cool! After our tour we went shopping! In four hours, we only hit 5 stores. Seriously I could have spent all day there. And of course, we had delicious pizza and gelato. We were all so sad to get back on our train and leave. I loved it there and I wanted to stay longer so bad! It's ok though, I am just grateful I had the opportunity to go and see and learn about some of the history and culture there!

This is for Kristal

This is our hostel

The Vasa Ship with a stranger in the pic

Royal Palace

Pretty sunset

Center Square

The guy on the end is Freek

Apparantly I didn't post enough pictures about Stockholm, but my camera died so I had to get other peoples camera cards. Anyway here is more pics!

Stockholm

Ok so Stockholm puts every other place I have been to shame. It's so amazing, I wanted to stay longer! And the seven hour bus ride that I was dreading didn't even phase me, I was a champ if I may say so myself. We got to Stockholm Friday around 3 and went straight to our hostel which was a boat. It wasn't bad. On Friday, we just walked around the city and went shopping. It was such a big city and so many stores, I was in paradise. That night for dinner we went to TGIF. I've never been so excited for a TGIF in my life. It was so delicious, best meal so far for sure. On Saturday, we had a tour of the city which was really cool. Stockholm is so pretty! Sidenote, people always say American's love Mcdonald's and crap but I feel it is just as bad if not worse here. During our 2 hour tour, most of the student's stopped at McDonald's at least once or twice. Plus on our drive down we ate there, and on the way back. They eat it all the time, so I better not hear any more crap about American's and McDonald's. They should be thanking us. Anyway, after the tour we went to the Royal Palace to see the changing of the guard, it was so cold. Haha Addy started crying it was so cold. After that, we had lunch at a cafe then went shopping again. I got all of my souvenirs for the family and some for myself too. It was a successful shopping day. That night, we went to dinner with all of the other exchange students at some bar. It was ok, TGIF was way better though. On Sunday we went to the Vasa Museum. It was the coolest museum I have ever been to. We spent four hours there! Seriously, I've never been a huge fan of musems but I just love them here. The Vasa Ship was built in the 1600's and it was the biggest and most expensive boat ever made. Well, 20 minutes after it set sail it sunk and 333 year later they brought it back up. It's a long story but anyway now the original ship is in the museum, but since it's so old it's deteriorating and they think it will only last 50 years. After the museum we hopped on the bus and drove back to Vaxjo. Stockholm was so fun and my favorite weekend trip so far, we already have our next trip to Stockholm planned!

Malmo

The Turning Torso
People that wanted to be in our picture on the Canal Tour

Malmo is the third largest city in Sweden and it has the tallest building in Sweden there, which is also the second tallest building in Europe. It's not that tall, it's 42 stories. Which is still big, but nothing like New York. Our fellow American friends went to Malmo a couple weeks ago and told us it was overrated and not to bother, but when we drove through Malmo with Robert and Sigrid (Branch President and Wife) we thought it looked so fun! First of all, there is a glass mall that is like twice as big as gateway. So we decided we had to go. The weather was so nice, not a cloud in the sky which is very unusual. When we got there, we went on a canal tour around the city, it was so cool. We saw all these houses from the 14th century where the famous people back then lived, and people still live in them today! We saw a castle, a ton of parks, a cathedral, the turning torse (biggest building) and some other buildings. When we first got on the boat we didn't even think that it wouldn't be in English haha, then the guide starts talking in Swedish and we were like, seriously? But luckily she spoke English too and there were some other people who didn't speak english so she spoke both languages! After the canal tour we went shopping! Once again, ugh I didn't get anything but I am going back for a pair of shoes that I can't stop thinking about. It's a sign I need to buy them if I'm still thinking about it. Shopping was still way fun, they had so many stores with the cutest things. We also went to see the turning torse. On our canal tour we rode past it on the boat but we thought we should walk there too. It took forever to get there.. we were thinking this better be worth it. Then we saw this store which totally reminded us of costco and we went in and they had Reese's! Totally made the walk worth it. The turning torso was cool though, except you can't go in it which is a bust! Still, I'm glad we made the trek. Lunch was a disaster. We found this place earlier that looked really good and we said we were going to come back here when we got hungry. Let's be honest, I'm horrible with directions and in a city I have never been to.. we never found the place. By the time we were done searching it was almost time to leave so we had to grab something quick. We went to a bagel shop thinking it would be easy, cheap and good. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Everything I ordered they were out of, literally everything. The only thing they had left was a bagel with bacon and tomatoe which had been made that morning. ( P.S. it's past 5 by now ) So I decide to try it. The bacon wasn't even cooked!! I gagged when i saw it. The workers probably thought I was a bratty American but I could care less, cook your freaking bacon! So I took everything off my bagel, but since it had been made 10 hours earlier the mustard was soaked into the bread. I ate a bagel with only mustard on it. I was quite bitter about it too, but I didn't let it ruin our fun day. We were sad we couldn't stay longer, since everyone told us it was overrated we weren't expecting much. However, we were pleasantly surprised! All in all it was a very fun day and I would do it all again, even eat the mustard bagel. Yummy.

Visit to the Temple

My Branch President and his wife are so freaking nice. On Friday, they picked us up and took us to Malmo for a stake dance. Haha it was interesting. First of all, you only dance in couples for every song! A 17 year old asked me to dance to "Single Ladies" and I full asked if he was serious. Not because he was 17, but because who dances to that song in pairs? Turns out he was serious. When I say dancing together, I mean like old fashion ballroom dancing, no joke. To Beyonce!! Could not get over it. But we still had fun and we met a lot of really nice people! Their stake dances go til midnight, a little long in my opinion. The next morning we woke up bright and early to go to the temple. Side story, Saturday morning I was super out of it and tired. I guess when Addy tried to wake me up I started tickling her back and said, "yes master." Haha we got a good laugh out of it, I don't remember it, I just remember waking up and her freaking out at me. If she would have woken up and started tickling my back I wouldn't have made her stop. Anyway, the temple was way pretty and so peaceful. Pretty small too. We did baptisms and everyone was so nice and helpful since we didn't speak danish or Swedish. The temple was definitely the high light of our weekend. It made me really grateful to have so many temples in Utah, I take it for granted for sure. When I get back I'm going to go more, it's such a good feeling. Going to the temple here is expensive and a long car ride. In Utah, it's a 20 minute drive and no border entry fees.

After the temple, our Branch President and his wife did two more sessions so Addy and I walked around Copenhagen for a couple of hours. We went to lunch at some ghetto place and I hated it. The food was ok, but the bathroom of the place was dirty so I was convinced they spit in our food since we didn't speak danish. Perhaps i was a bit dramatic. Copenhagen is such a pretty city, and it's super busy and the shops reminded me of New York a little bit. The shopping was so fun, except I had amazing self control and didn't buy anything. I'm going back in November though so I'm going to save my money and buy my souvenirs there. Once our Branch President was done with his sessions, we went back to Malmo for another stake dance. They really like stake dances here... Don't get me wrong, it was fun but we were so tired and ready to go home at that point. But crazy story, one of the members there went to Finland on his mission and knew Markus Gronlund and his wife! And he was companions with someone from my high school! Small world. I'm so happy we were able to go the Temple this weekend and I'm so grateful for my Branch President and his wife for taking us and finding us a place to stay for the weekend. They're amazing!

Moose and Glasswork

Cute baby moose

Making of Glass

We had another VIS activity last week. We went to the moose park and a glass museum. The glass museum was my favorite because we got to see how they actually make glass. I recorded it so I could show you the video, but it won't upload so you'll have to wait until I get home to see it. I decided when I'm rich I'm going to decorate my house with glass, turns out I love it. After the glass place we went to a moose park. There are 300,000 moose's in Sweden, and each year 100,000 are killed from hunting! I think that is way too many, it's sad! But I guess I can't be too critical because I ate moose meat! I was so nervous and I knew I was going to hate it, but I actually really liked it! I would even eat it again. Don't get me wrong though, I would so rather have cow. I got to feed the mama moose and the baby moose too, but it was sad because I knew I would be eating them in a little bit! Well not those exact ones but still! When am I going to eat moose meat again? It was all part of the experience, I'm over it. So if you ever get the chance to eat moose meat, I recommend it.