Emily Ross, Swedish Translator

So apparently I'm actually okay at Swedish. We were on our way by car to Gothenburg for a day trip and I could translate at the gas station. Cool right? I thought so. Something that is not cool? How I went on a bike ride for a few hours this afternoon, have been home for about and hour and am still freezing. But hey, I was the one who chose to come to Sweden. At least it was sunny.

This week was pretty low key as I'm going to Berlin on Thursday. I wanted to get ahead with homework so that was super fun. I drew my first portraits in class this week, maybe I'll post some photos of those. No self-portraits yet though...those will come! I had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off this week and most of that was spent doing homework, exercise and being a decent human being. On Thursday, I went for my first fika (Swedish for having coffee). Sarah and I went to Solde, a kaffebar. It was pretty good coffee, nice and simple like Cafe Fantastico at home. One small difference. As we were sitting inside sipping our lattes, we noticed a strange and slightly disturbing trend pertaining to Swedish mothers. This just proves how safe Sweden is. Every time a mom would come in to grab a coffee or loaf of bread, she would just leave her stroller outside. With the baby inside. INSIDE. OUTSIDE. Baby alone outside in stroller. Negative 5 degrees. Madness. And this didn't hapen just once, but like three times. Only in Sweden I tell you. Then we had a delightful Swedish class. I don't even know how I can sum up these classes for you. We are so ridiculous and usually end up making someone cry or spit out their drink. Yep. Still a class clown in Sweden.

Friday was highlighted by my locking my phone and keys in my room. I guess I was really tired. Luckily, Ingrid and I had to draw several portraits so that kept me busy while I located a master key. After said portraiture fest, we went to Willys, the grocey shop, and I finally fulfilled my wish of going down every aisle. It is so big. So this was quite the feat. I got some delicious foods including a Billy's Pan Pizza. Like in Steig Larsson's novels. I felt very Swedish. Speaking of very Swedish, I don't know how many times I say this, but the Swedes eat a lot of crap food (re: Billy's Pan Pizza's and cola) and are so skinny. I just don't understand. In fact, I saw the first actually fat person today and he was like 6. It wasn't even his choice to be fat. His mom better get him to lay off pizza and semlor. Friday night consisted of one of the weirdest parties I've ever been to. First it started with people sharing a 5L of 59% rum. Then taking shots of said rum straight from the box. That's right. Rum. In. A. Box. Then people were on other people's shoulders. Then people were lighting shots on fire in their mouths. Then a slip and slide was made in a hallway. Then someone had to get five stitches. I guess that characterizes a good party. Thanks boys from Mont Pellier.

Saturday morning came mighty quick as I had to get up at 6am to road trip to Gothenburg. Five of us piled into a car and made the 3 hours trek to the second largest city in Sweden. We roamed around for the day. Saw some sights and the sun (yay!). We also got cinnamon buns bigger then my head and that's saying something as my head is quite large. Then for the main event, we went and saw a hockey game. It's the best league in Sweden but is probably below the skill level of the Juniors. I scoffed when a Dutch guy asked if the league was better than the NHL. Said scoffing continued when I spotted a gentleman, wait I take that back, a jerk, wearing a Maple Leafs jersey. In Sweden. Maple Leafs. I wanted to go slap him. Anyways, I proudly explained the sport to all those less informed around me and felt very Canadian. One perk of the game you may ask? There was fire. Fire shows. Like rockets went off when the home team scored. Amazing. We then got some Max Burger, the slowest Swedish fast food and headed back home to the musical delights of Pop FM, playing the pop hits of years past. Amazing again.

Today I went on a little bike tour to Rosengard - the ghetto of Malmo. And let me tell you, this place makes Burnaby look like a dump. It is hardly a ghetto. There is nice student housing, parks, outdoor sports fields, public arts, murals. You name it, Rosengard has it (except for bullet proof vets). It just gets a bad rap because it's where a lot of immigrants live. There's this cool thing they have though where there are apartments above shops and in order to live in these apartments you have to own one of the shops. Full meal deal if you ask me. We then went to the city so I could take pictures of the cat sculptures on the water, meow, and had some more fika. Yum I love 5 dollar coffee. Now I am home again, bullet wound free and looking forward to a crash course in German tonight. Berlin comes next week and Katie and Rob come to visit the week following. I am a busy girl!

Facts of the week:
1. The bad parts of Sweden are about as bad as upper middle class areas in Canada. Love Socialism.
2. Bakeries in Sweden are amazing. Everything looks so delicious and I swear these cakes could make someone...who hates cake...love cake. That analogy sucked.
3. There is a Swedish version of Skor bars called 'daim'. It is just as delicious if you were wondering.
Be jealous. I'm going to eat so much pierogi.
4. Sports teams all around the world are called the Indians. We went and saw the Forlunda Indians play hockey. Funny part, most people don't have any idea what a First Nations person is. Ha.
5. MEOOOW.

xx