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.

Gotland

At Linnaeus, there is the VIS program (Vaxjo International Students) and last weekend we went to Gotland with about 200 international students. Gotland is an island off the West Coast of Sweden. It was so fun, the city totally reminded me of something straight out of Beauty and the Beast, when she sings the first song to be exact. Anyway, we left Friday late afternoon and honestly it sucked. If my family thinks I get annoying in a car for 5 hours, try putting me on a bus and a boat for almost 6 hours! Jake would have straight up killed me. But once I got there I was fine. We stayed in cabins right on the beach, the cabins were way nice! They had a real shower!! None of this hose crap I have in my room haha. Saturday we went to Visby, which is the capitol of Gotland. The whole town is surrounded by this old fashioned wall, it was used in the 18th century for protection from pirates. In town, we walked around and saw some cool churches and went to the Baltic Sea. After that, we drove to another beach that had all these rocks that were formed by the Sea. They were pretty cool, but it was so cold there! Raining and windy! We literally sat under a bush for 15 minutes waiting for the rain to pass haha. All I kept thinking to myself was that it's only September.. I might die in December. That night, we went to a club for dinner and dancing. The food was actually way good! The dancing was fun too, they played a lot of oldies that I knew so happy day. Once we left the club, we went swimming in the Baltic Sea! Honestly, I can't think of a time in my life when I have been colder, but it was so worth it. I had to do it, I probably won't be able to go swimming in the Baltic Sea for awhile I feel.

On Sunday, we went into town again and looked around some more. Since it was Sunday, almost everything was closed! Kind of a bust. But we did go to McDonald's, loved it. Then we had time to kill so we went and saw Toy Story 3 in Swedish. I actually really liked it even though I didn't know what they were saying, I even teared up at the end! I basically knew what was going on, it was just like watching a movie on mute, not a big deal. I think I would really like it in English though, I'm adding it to my list of movies to watch when I get back. After the movie we walked around again, got some hot chocolate, then we had to go back home. All together it was a way fun weekend! Gotland is so pretty and I know my family would love it, it's in the 10 year plan.

Kalmar

Last weekend, Addy and I decided to go to Kalmar. It's a way pretty city right on the Baltic Sea. While we were there we went to the museum and it was actually fun! We were the only people there so we played around on the exhibits.. I don't think that's allowed but technically we didn't know because the sign was in swedish. We had fun walking around the town and seeing the Cathedral and other cool buildings. We also had delicious pizza and ben and jerries ice cream. Oh how it was soo freaking delicious. We haven't had the best of luck with food, but that day was a success. That night we stayed in our first Hostel. Ugh I did not enjoy it one bit. It wasn't dirty or anything I just didn't like it. First of all, we had to be there by 8 for some reason, so we were wide awake. We had nothing to entertain ourselves either! Just a bunk bed and a chair. We played "Would you rather" for 3 hours.. it got pretty interesting haha. Then to make things even worse I woke up at 4 and could not fall back to sleep for the life of me. Ugh. I strongly disliked it. But the next day was way fun so I got over it.

Anyway, we went to the Kalmar castle which was so cool. We got a tour of the castle in english too! I loved it, it was so interesting to see all the rooms and hear the history about them. After the tour, we went out by the sea and ate our snacks we brought and had a nap on the bench. We probably looked like homeless people because we were carrying around our back packs and there we are by the castle sleeping on the benches. I don't even care it was an amazing nap. After that we went and got gross food. I was so bugged, all I wanted was nachos and everything is in swedish but we finally found a place that said something that looked similar to "nacho" so we tried it. Nasty. I had chips, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. Way too healthy for what I wanted. I know that doesn't sound bad but honestly all I wanted was cheese, sour cream, salsa and guacamole. What kind of nachos don't have cheese? Seriously. Besides my nacho disaster the weekend was a blast! Kalmar is so pretty and I hope I can go back someday!

Dumb and Dumber

This week school started, I really like my classes! I am the only U.S. student in my class so it's pretty interesting to hear about everyone else's background. My class is 3 days a week for five weeks, then I start again with a different class but same teacher and classmates. So far I really like the people, they were all shocked when I told them I have 3 sisters because most of them didn't have any siblings.

Anyway, the other day Addy and I had to go into town to go to the bank. Well, we got lost and by the time we found the bank it was closed. So we decided to go buy an alarm clock instead. We found the alarm clock way fast but then stood in line for an hour to buy it! By this point we we're pretty ornery and just wanted to go home. We haven't had much luck for catching the bus and usually end up walking but today we refused to walk because we were so tired. Right when we turned the corner we saw the bus and we were so excited! We got on and assumed this bus would take us to the University... Well none of the stops looked familiar and we were a little bit confused. We were so concerned with where this bus was taking us turns out we missed our stop. We didn't think it was a big deal and we thought we would just go for another round. Pretty soon everyone else is gone and we are the only ones on the bus. Then the bus driver just pulls over and turns the bus off!! What the crap who does that?? So far, everyone we have talked to has spoken english, but just our luck this guy only knew Swedish. So he is talking to us waving his arms in the air, and Addy just keeps saying, "University" real slow hoping he will understand it, meanwhile I'm shaking my head saying "No More?" Trying to figure out if his shift is over or something. No luck. All the sudden he just turns around and sits down in the front of the bus and turns on the radio. P.S. we are so far away from campus, pretty sure we were in another town. None of it looked familiar whatsoever. So we figured we should start the trek back. We stand up and the bus driver tells us to sit down. ( At least, I think that's what he said.. ) No joke, he literallly sat there and took his half hour lunch break. With us in the bus. On the side of the freaking road. For 30 minutes. At first, we thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing, but then we were like ok, we're ready to go home. Thirty minutes later, he started the bus up again and began the route. Haha it was quite the adventure. Needless to say, now we ask each bus driver, "University?" and wait for the nod before we board the bus.