7/16/10

Ever since I first arrived, Madeline and Anders have been telling me and Vivian that they have a surprise for us on Friday, today. They created this big hype and wouldn’t tell us what they had planned for today. By Thursday, and part of this morning I started getting very annoyed with how they wouldn’t tell us anything. I mean I love surprises but you should leave it at that, a surprise. They kept telling us part of things like who they were going to invite and that they wish this one opera singer could have come but she already had plans. Like hinting at things but when one of us asked about it they would be like “nope, it’s a surprise” I guess its just me, I don’t like it when someone tells me part of something but wont tell me all of it and I would much rather they say nothing at all, idk.
Anyways, this morning, after breakfast, we went to the store to pick up food for later, for the surprise. I think ive said this before but we go grocery shopping every single day. Luckily I find it interesting still, looking at all the different products. Kinda off topic but not really, the swedish word for pineapples is “ananas”. I love saying it :) and I learned that from looking at the sign in the grocery store. Going to the grocery store is a great way to learn the names of products in swedish since I can see the product and make the connection between what it looks like, the english word and the swedish word. Also kinda related, the swedish word for sale is “rea” and the tax is included in the price of the products here so the price you see is the price you pay.
When we came back to the house we took the dog, Zack for a walk around the neighborhood with Anders. It was a nice way to see the area around their house. We ended up walking to a small lake near by called, I think, Bastasjön. It was really pretty and peaceful. Anders said that there is a path so we can walk around the lake. Vivian and I plan to do that sometime next week. While we were walking back Anders told us that they build their house and have been living in it for like 26 years. He said that to build a house in their neighborhood costs around 5 million swedish kronors. In American money that is like $678,030.75. I don’t have a good concept of money and how much it usually costs to build a house at home but that sounds kinda good. There are still empty lots in the neighborhood here but im not sure I’d like to live here cuz the price for everything else is so high. The swedish government does pay for college here so then mommy and daddy could have their house in the British Virgin Islands and their boat called “college fund” :P haha! The nature around the neighborhood here is really nice but I do really love my home and where its located and plus we have lots of nature around our home too.
Back at the house, we just chilled till 4 (when the surprise was supposed to start) but people ended up being late and we didn’t start till 6. Whatever happened to the swedish not believing in being “fashionably late”?
I bet youre wondering what the surprise is. Well, the surprise was a swim party with her Lucia girls. And they sang some songs for us. They are very good singers. Lucia is a thing they do in sweden around christmas time where a procession of 7 girls go around to old people homes and sing for them. I guess kinda like caroling but these girls have to audition for it and it’s a big honor to be chosen as Lucia or one of her “court” (sorry that’s probably not the best word but I cant think of any other) they are 17-20 years old and they were all really nice. They taught Vivian and I some more swedish words and helped us learn how to count to 10. The words for 2, 4 and 7 are really hard to pronounce!! And they thought it very funny when ever we tried to say them. Haha it was fun though. After their little show of singing for us, Madeline had Vivian and I dress up too in the Lucia clothes and we all took pictures together. (Vivian and I didn’t sing, thank goodness!)Then swimming! It was a short swim cuz everyone was tired but we all had fun.
Overall, I enjoyed our surprise and Im glad I got to meet some people my age. Im already friends with one of them on facebook :) haha! Now our friendship is official :P