May: a month of birthdays and holidays.

May seems to be a good month here. We started off with a holiday, which was wonderful. May first is basically the Swedish equivalent of labor day. It was great to start the month off with a relaxing day. Anton's youngest brother, Isak, celebrated his birthday on the 2nd of May. We went back home the weekend after, because he spent the weekend before traveling in Iceland. The weekend of May 5th we celebrated Isak's birthday, by going to see the avengers and having cake with the family. I really enjoy spending time with the family. Everyone is so kind, and so loving, and they speak English around me which puts me at ease, because then I don't feel pressured to speak Swedish. Although I am starting to pick up on what everyone is saying when they speak Swedish, which is nice, because it makes me feel like I am really improving in my language skills. We always have delicious food when we go home with the family as well, which is an added bonus. On a side note, I love Swedish birthday cake. Its amazing. I will have to get the recipe before I come home.

The next week was not very eventful, I just cooked new foods for Anton, and had a lot of fun. And of course I went to class. I feel like through out this whole time I have learned a LOT of the language. and I feel great, and I have been using my skills more and more, because I feel silly not speaking Swedish. I have the opportunity to speak it and get better, so I feel silly not speaking it. I still have problems with speaking, because I feel like I don't know enough vocabulary, but I am getting a LOT better. I really enjoy the language, although I will say that I am not too fond of the skåne accent. Its a bit difficult to explain, but just as we have accents in different areas of the United States, there are different accents here in Sweden. Skåne is the most southern region, and the accent sounds so awful. In my opinion it sounds very throaty, its very difficult to replicate the accent.

Here are two videos that show examples of skånska. 

Even though you wont be able to understand the videos, they give a pretty good example of the different skåne accents, and how awful they sound. I have one more video to share. I guess, I have disproved the image that we as Americans have come to see of Sweden. After being here for officially over one third of a year, I have noticed that many of the images that we see of Sweden are not true at all...  this video is made of clips from movies that you probably have seen at some point, and it proves at least to me, that the image that many Americans have of Sweden is very different than what things are really like here. 

After Isak's birthday came my birthday. Now as many of you know, I am now 20 years old! Its exciting to have spent my birthday here in Sweden. I got Swedish cake, and spent the day in gorgeous weather, and got to see Isak perform with his gymnastics group! It was lovely. I have lots of pictures and videos. So I guess I will just place those here... 

The first thing that happened on my birthday was I was awakened by singing, food, flowers, and presents. What a great way to start the day! I actually have video of it. Please excuse my morning hair. 

I kind of like the Swedish birthday song more than "Happy Birthday" It just sounds more fun. Here are some of the pictures from through out the day: 

and yes, I did mow the lawn on my birthday, but I love the smell of fresh cut grass, and the weather was amazing.  After mowing the lawn, I hopped in the shower, and ate lunch, and then we were off to watch Isak perform! There were many great performances. It was incredible the amount of talent there was! Here are some of the videos that I took: 

Once we got back, we all, and by all I mean Antons brother Axel, his parents and I, as well as his dad's cousin, and his grandfather all went back home for fika! We had cake and coffee. It was delicious. (Isak had a meeting with his gymnastics team) Here are some pictures:

And that was about the end of my birthday weekend here in Sweden. Not really all that much has changed, I don't feel much different than I did when I was 19. Although, now I am not able to buy a child ticket for the buses and trains. I also can now legally buy alcohol from system bolaget (the only place to get real alcohol. its a government run store.) That's pretty much all that has changed.

Yesterday we got news from the migration board that i must come home and reapply for residency. I am not that worried about it, nor am I terribly surprised. I am a bit sad to have to leave, but it wont be long before I come back. So as of now my plans are to come home the 4th of June.

I will be planning a few get-togethers to show everyone all my pictures and tell all my stories, and share the food, and the language with everyone. So although I am sad to be leaving, it will be a good opportunity to share with everyone all the new things that I have experienced and learned while here, and I have confidence that I will be back soon enough.

 Now I will get to experience what Anton experienced coming to the united states... although it will be a bit different, because I was raised back in that environment, I still think it will be very different. I think that it will take some serious adjusting on my part. There are so many things that I think that I like more here, but I also have found some things that I like more from back home. I think I will discuss those on the next blog.

 Tomorrow is a holiday, so Anton and I are going to take the time to go out to old town, and see there and take pictures. Friday is also a holiday. Its technically called squeeze day here, and so if any of the museums are open on Friday I think we will go to them then. but if they are not, I will try to go on Saturday.

 I want to try to get as much in before I leave in three weeks. and hopefully I will figure out how to articulate my feelings about everything in both English, and Swedish better as the days go by. I know for sure that I will miss it here, and will be anxious to get back. but since for my birthday I got a Swedish cookbook, I will never be too far away.