Ice Skating, Birthday Party, and Amazing Weather

Where do I even begin? The past couple of days have been unforgettable! Sunday, Rosenborg went ice skating. outside. on a massive lake. with no walls to hang onto. Im sure you can just imagine how that went. I tried to skate, but kept falling. So i decided it would be best if i just walked on the snow that wasnt plowed off the lake. However, a French girl had other plans and pulled me out onto the ice and made me skate. Eventually we got to the point where I could move a little bit with out falling over as often. But overall, not a huge fan of skating on a lake. The ice was thick enough, but it kept making these awful cracking noises! the lake we skated on...you can see little trails that were cleared off to skate on.

Later Sunday night, my Rosenborg family threw me a surprise birthday party! It was sooo nice of them! They made a cake and it had yellow sprinkles on it to represent the corn in indiana. (yeah i dont think i have mentioned this yet, but the words indiana and corn are never mentioned by themselves, they pretty much go hand in hand here. i have been nicknamed corn kid by some people). They also made me a book called "The Rosenborg Cookery Book." It has recipes in it from different people in Rosenborg, and before we leave, I hope to get most of the people to fill it out! And I got a cooking glove with moose on it for my cooking lessons :-). I had a lot of fun at the party. To make it like a party at home, Jump on It was played (and i had to teach the dance) and so was our favorite Prince song, dancing on chairs was involved just like always! I think that song was a hit :-P When it turned midnight, everyone sang Happy Birthday to me again because I was officially 21. Then out of German tradition, everyone lined up to give me a hug and tell me Happy Birthday. There is a video that I wanted to post, but I think the file may be too big. Yujin from South Korea filmed the first 20 minutes of my party. I will work on trying to get it up so you guys can see!

On Monday, I got the best birthday present ever! I woke up and the sky was blue and sun was shining in Karlstad! It was amazing, considering we havent had a day like this in a month! The sky was soo blue and the sun so bright, and all of the trees and the ground was covered in snow. It was like a winter wonderland or something. So, of course, we had to take advantage of the day. Sarah and I walked around the town taking some pictures and then we went to Mariebergskogen (the wooded area). We walked on this wooden pathway to a look out tower that was in the middle of nowhere. It will be a great place to go when the sun is setting because it over looks quite a bit. Later, about 6 of us went to IKEA for my birthday dinner. We ate swedish meat balls, boiled potatoes, and lingon berry sauce. It was delicious!

So much food and it was so good!

Here are a couple of pictures of the town:

This statue was a gift from Norway to Sweden. Papers were signed in Karlstad that gave Norway its independence from Sweden. This statue has been voted the ugliest statue in Sweden.

Sola i Karlstad. Legend has it that this girl was an orphan. She worked at a hotel/restuarante to earn money. Everyone liked her so much because of her great personality and warm heartedness that they tipped her. Tipping, however, is not a common thing to do in Sweden. She ending up earning enough money to buy the hotel/restuarante. Lindy, even though you arent an orphan, this could be you! You can take over the Kettle and we could build a statue of you outside of the kettle! I think this has potential! :-)

If you want to see more pictures, just click here.

Today in Swedish class, the class sang happy birthday to me in Swedish. It was fun but really kind of awkward because everyone was standing and I had to sit. I filmed it, so you can hear the swedish birthday song and see how awkward i felt! Here is a rough translation of the song:
"Yes, may she live, yes may she live, yes may she live for a hundred years. O sure she will live, o sure she will live, o sure she will for a hundred years. And when she has lived, and when she has lived, and when she has lived for a hundred years. Yes, then she will be pushed, Yes then she will be pushed, yes then she will be pushed on a wheel barrow." A four times hurra for (name). May she live. Hurra! hurra! hurra! hurra!...such a great song when translated to english, dont ya think?


I just want to say Tack saa mycket to my rosenborg family! You guys gave me a birthday that I will never forget! :-)