The weather has significantly improved in the past week - it is now roughly 25 everyday with a high of like 32 degrees. Its almost time to start wearing shorts basically. I was able to pull out the new purple vest I bought at H&M for 30 dollars. The thing with the H&Ms (plural because every store looks like H&M on the inside - its kinda freaky, like a store warp) however, the stores here have very little organization. The H&M is three floors in city center and all three floors have a womens section - its very confusing, like why can't one floor be women, one men, one children and randoms. Whatevs, classic swedes.
Speaking of Swede things, Meatballs are a god-send. Meatballs are among my favorite swedish food by far. You just buy them in bulk at ICA (Club ICA as Caroline and I prefer) and they take like 7 minutes to cook and delicious. I have yet to try a semla which is basically just a big cream puff, but I don't like cream very much. However I love chockladbullar which are little chocolate balls that are uncooked and it is like chocolate with butter and oats and then rolled in coconut. They are like truffley things and delicious. I like to have those at Fika. Fika as I have probably said before is like coffee/tea and snack time. So most of the nations offer fikas on different days because drinking coffee is a much more social thing in Sweden, they don't do the whole grab and go before work or class like Americans. But Swedes drink so much coffee is absurd, we have coffee break in all of my classes. My professor said you can tell who is an international student versus a Swede depending on who leaves the classroom to get coffee during the break. I still don't plan on ever liking coffee so whatevs. The other swedish foods that top my favorite list is their bread. They eat hard bread, so it is basically like a cracker but I love them! Wasa are for sure my favorite (wasa.com). Also I really like pitty-padma (sp??) which is traditionally whatever you have left over chopped up and cooked together but the kind I like and the kind they sell at ICA is potatoes, ham, and onions so it is a nice little side dish with eggs because it is basically like american hash. Other than those foods the food is pretty similar and nothing too crazy, except I still haven't experienced a traditional smorgasboard :(
I have just been going to class, exploring the city (running helps because I run through fields or different parts of town and get more acquainted with my area), and trying to be a swede. Caroline and I have deemed every saturday - tourist saturday and we will just do super touristy things so that we can explore Uppsala and we are planning a trip to Stockholm soon. Like last weekend we went to see the Cathedral which is the tallest building in Uppsala and it is so beautiful. I really wish that America had old buildings like that and it is nice that the tallest building is a beautiful landmark and not some stupid high-rise (aka Landmark in AA or industrial buildings). It is called Uppsala Domkyrka, which is the swedish word for Cathedral and it is definitely in my favorite top 3 spots of Uppsala. But as we are attempting to be more swedish, the other day we went to a birthday party for one of my friends friend the other day and we were the only americans which was super fun because they were all swedish and we usually only meet internationals. They were the nicest people I had ever met - like when I thought I lost my phone for a hot second #classic, they helped me looked for it and checked in the next day to make sure I found it. Also the girls were the most beautiful girls I had ever seen. They were the Swedish stereotype of tall, blonde hair, and BEAUTIFUL. I am still not feeling the Swedish boys but whatevs.
Swedes are very very honest people and it shocks me how some of their systems work compared to in America. For example, like in America when you go to the DMV and get a number and wait til your number is called that is how every place in Sweden is whether it is the bus station, the migration board, or even some stores. I kind of like it though because it avoids waiting in lines and the whole issue of budging (throwback to the 1st grade). But also the other day I had to print something out and you just go to the student union and print and then after you receive your pages you pay for however many pages you print, but it is all on the honor system. Like that would never work at school - I'd be like hell yeah printing is free bitchez. But I guess that adds to why they are such nice people compared to us ignorant americans.
However, what I was printing is the exciting thing. It was my boarding pass to go to BUDAPEST. Caroline, Amanda, and I are off to Budapest for 5 days tomorrow morning!!! I am beyond excited - so today before I go work at the pub I have just been packing, doing laundry, making dehydrated apples for airplane snacks (they are so good but take soooo long - 15 hours!!!), and procrastinating writing my paper for my class. What I am really hoping to do is to just go and be super touristy in Budapest and try hungarian food and the thermal baths (told you I needed to bring my swimsuit Kiley!!!) So I will be MIA for a few days and then I'll be back with Budapest updates and all!!!
Until next time....
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