Crayfish Party!

I’ve already talked about fika a lot in my blogs so far, but I would like to add something else about it. I have a very strong love-hate relationship with fika. I love it when I’ve had a long class and can finally sink my teeth into a chocolate ball while washing it down with a much needed cup of hot tea, and I love simply being able to talk to friends while enjoying a thick slice of kladdkaka (mud cake). You may think that there is absolutely nothing that could go wrong with fika but believe me. There is. For one, fika makes me fat. I blame the constant dessert breaks for contributing to my weight gain on exchange so far. Fika also makes me poor. When out and about, I find that it is easiest to fika at Espresso House, the Swedish equivalent of Starbucks. The bad thing about that is it’s extremely expensive! Everytime I walk out of their doors with a pastry or drink in my hand, I’m silently scolding myself for once again wasting money on unnecessary treats. The last reason why fika is all but perfect is, it makes me miss my train. This past weekend I was heading on a trip that we had been planning for months. I woke up early, left the house early, and got to the the train station early. All so that I would have plenty of time to make sure I didn’t miss my train. Seeing as I had about an hour to wait, I texted my friend Mariana from Brazil and asked if she would come to the station early as well because we were taking the same train. She agreed and half an hour later we were enjoying an overly-expensive, holiday-themed coffee from Espresso House. We hadn’t seen each other for about a week so we were busy catching up when she noticed the time. We had exactly two minutes to make it to our train, which, by the way, was on the other side of the station. We both sprinted to the platform only to see the rear end of a train pulling out of the station. Obviously we were both shocked and very disappointed in ourselves. I took 95% of the blame because it was my idea to get coffee, but I put 5% of the blame on the train itself for leaving exactly 1 minute before scheduled. After finally being able to wrap my head around the fact that my train was gone, we had to go buy new tickets. We made it to our destination on time, but I have sworn off taking fika at the train station forever. The place that Mariana and I had finally managed to arrive at was the small town of Adelfors where we would be having a kräftskiva (crayfish party.) In Sweden they have kräftskivan near the end of the summer, usually in August, but for some reason this one was in mid-November. All of the exchange students in Sweden were invited and nearly all of them went. It was wild. The first night there wasn’t anything big planned because everyone would be arriving at different times. While waiting, we ate pizza, and every new student that walked into the room was greeted with screaming and an abundance of hugs. Those who had not yet met introduced themselves and soon enough, we were just one big family. That night we danced like there was no tomorrow and stayed up till the wee small hours of the morning talking and catching up with one another, comparing experiences with everything from host families to favorite Swedish foods. When we all finally went to bed we had to cram as many possible sleeping mats into four separate rooms as possible and hope that we wouldn't have to pee sometime during the night as we would surely step on at least one sleeping person's face while trying to locate the bathroom. Overall, I think we were so tired that no one really cared about how uncomfortable we were that night so there weren't any problems that I know of. The next morning I woke up bright and early for breakfast which went from 9 to 10. I am usually the first one up when it comes to these kind of trips so I wasn't very surprised when people started dragging themselves into the mess hall around 9:45. After breakfast we were split into seven teams to compete in a few friendly competitions during the day. The first competition took place after a barbeque lunch that we had to hike out too. The Rotex handed out balloons to everyone to blow up and tie to our ankles. We then had to run around and try to stomp the other team’s balloons until they popped. I stayed in for a pretty long time by simply holding my leg off of the ground but eventually I had to actually try along with everyone else and while running away from one person, I popped my own balloon. The game was fun but I was definitely disappointed in myself. Next we played a game commonly done with oreos in the US using Swedish cookies. The point of the game is to get a cookie or cracker from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands. My team came in a close second. After those two games, we all got together for some group pictures and while everyone was getting ready to go, in the spur of the moment, me and five other people all decided to jump into the nearby lake. We were anything but prepared, but I have enough experience with spontaneous lake jumping that I knew as long as we quickly got dried off, we would be fine despite the almost freezing weather. The walk back was brisk and I was excited to get into a heated car. For the next couple hours at the Scout house that we were staying at, we sat and talked while small groups were driven to a neighboring school for showers. It was nice to have a small break although we were all very excited for dinner. Then it was time for the crayfish party! We were all ferried over to the building where we would be eating in groups. I can’t exactly say what the building is usually used for, but it was perfect for this occasion. We walked in to see banners reaching across the room in different shades of red. On the tables there were party hats and small plastic crayfish that were quickly used to accessorize various exchange students’ faces and hair. I opted for the more subtle use of them by having the little claws grab onto my ears as classy earrings. Then it was time to eat! I honestly am not a big fan of crayfish. They are messy and require too much work to get to the edible bits, I’d rather just shove as much food as possible in my mouth at a time. While eating we were periodically interrupted so that we could sing Swedish drinking songs that commonly accompany kräftskiva. At the end of each song we all yelled “SKÅL” and drank from our little red solo cup shot glasses. Normally Swedes drink Schnapps, an alcoholic drink, but because we are exchange students, and one of our biggest rules is “no drinking,” we got to enjoy soda instead. After eating and singing, the Rotex brought out a special surprise for us. Surströmming! A very Swedish delicacy that few can stomach. It is known as the most potent smelling food on the planet and I wholeheartedly agree. I’m waiting to eat it for when I’m feeling a little bit more brave so I only smelled it but that was enough for me. After that fun/ disgusting surprise, it was time to do a few more games to determine the final winning team of the weekend. In the end my team tied for second which was good enough for me. After dessert and cleaning up, we all got back to the house around 11. The next few hours were spent talking and trying to make our time with each other count. It’s hard to organize events where all the exchange students can meet up so when we get the chance, we don’t waste our time together. On Sunday we all hugged goodbye and promised to visit each other. I love having the opportunities to see all of my closest friends on Exchange but it’s bittersweet because at the end of each trip we have to say bye knowing that it will probably be a couple months before we can see each other again. The good thing about it is that I always have something to look forward too. Currently, I am eagerly awaiting a trip to Denmark with all of the other exchange students in Skåne, Sweden, but that’s for another time.