Thankful for Sweden

I have so many things to be thankful for. These things include but are not limited to having a loving family in Alaska, having two more awesome host families here and overall just being able to spend an amazing year in Sweden. I was a little bummed that I would be missing out on some of my favorite traditions back home, like watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, followed by the national dog show and cooking all day with my family, but there were definitely some traditions that I don’t miss. For the past however many years, my mom has been forcing my entire family to go and participate in the Turkey Trot in Sitka. It wouldn't be that bad except it’s right in the middle of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and honestly, who even wants to run a 5k on the day famously known for making you fatter than a turducken? (A chicken stuffed inside of a duck, stuffed inside of a turkey.) Anyways, everyone has Thanksgiving traditions across the US, those are just the ones that I can think of off the top of my head. I had originally been planning on making a meal for my host family over the holiday, but my friend Anna invited me to go along with one of her host families for their annual Thanksgiving tradition. Every year they drive up to a hostel-like house where you rent by the bed. They had rented the entire house because there were about thirty friends and family members coming over all. Of course I had to go! This sounded like a blast! On Thursday evening, I took a bus to Lund to meet up with Anna. I stayed the night with her because we had to leave early Friday morning to get the the house early enough to make dinner. The drive took about five hours with a few food breaks in between and was loaded with friendly bickering between Anna and I, and non-stop karaoke. When we finally arrived, it was dark out and about 4 pm. We were the first ones there so Anna and I got to choose our room for the night. We ended up with the room that was previously a closet, but because of the small size, it warmed up quickly which was nice. For dinner the entire family worked together to make spaghetti and salad with the animal shaped noodles that Anna and I had picked out. After dinner, Anna’s host brother taught us a slew of complicated Swedish card games that I sucked at. We played the games until 12. By that time, more people had shown up and we decided to go to bed to be ready for the big day on Saturday, when we would have our Thanksgiving dinner. Saturday morning I woke up bright and early despite the grumblings of my roommate. When we finally went downstairs, there were a few more families to introduce ourselves to and then we had a breakfast of tea and toast. During the day, the entire group went on a walk where we enjoyed the beautiful lakeside views and checked out the local sauna that we would be going to later that day. After our brisk walk we had hotdogs around a small campfire. When we had finished eating lunch, it was the women’s turn to go to the sauna. I’d saunaed before in Sweden, but this was the first time that I got to jump into a lake right after. I highly recommend this experience for anyone who has never experienced it. After our sauna break, all the women walked back to the house and took their turn preparing various food items for dinner that night. There wasn’t much for me to help out with so Anna and I practiced our card game skills for the next several hours until it was finally time to eat. Dinner was delectable. The meal included everything that I would’ve eaten at home and more. The only thing missing was my favorite, a tofurkey (tofu turkey). In my personal opinion, tofurkey is a delicacy, but I am sad to say that very few people agree with me on this. I was just as happy with a real turkey. We cheered and skåled and gave many a toast while simultaneously stuffing ourselves dangerously close to food coma territory. When everyone had cleaned off their plates, the adults prompted us to all go on a walk in the dark, cold night so we could make enough space for dessert. On our walk, I talked to the other exchange student who came for the weekend. Her name is also Anna, but she is from Brazil instead of California. While walking, we ran right into the path of a herd of deer sprinting by in the moonlight. It was too dark to see the deer clearly but you could see their antlers and ears as they leaped through the backyard of a dark house. When we arrived back, all the dishes were cleared from the table and replaced with smaller plates and mugs, just waiting to be filled with pie and coffee. There were pumpkin, pecan, and apple pies and I couldn't help myself but to try all of them. That night I drifted in and out of consciousness while we played more card games and finally a very entertaining game of telestrations. Telestrations is basically the game of telephone but instead of whispering the phrase in someone's ear, they draw the word and the next person has to interpret was the drawing by their own drawing, and then the next person draws the interpretation and so on. I learned that I am not a very good artist under stress, but neither is anyone else. After such a long day, I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and we all went to bed. On the last day, my group would have to leave early, so we hurried to pack in the morning and immediately headed outside to participate in their traditional American football game. The yard behind the house was nowhere near as big as a football field but it fitted the needs of this particular game perfectly. One of the men at Thanksgiving has been collecting football jerseys for longer than I have been alive and he had an impressive collection to share with us. The night before the game, we all lined up and were assigned jerseys according to where we came from. He said that because all of the fishermen in The Deadliest Catch, (a famous TV show based in Alaska) cheer for the Seahawks, I could sport the oversized jersey of white and blue. I have never watched enough football to really care about what team is which, but I was happy to have the Seahawks because I at least know that most of the people in Sitka support them. We didn’t have much time so each half of the game was 15 minutes. We finished with 0-1. It was actually really difficult to get a ball from one side of the field to the other because there were so many people crowding such a small place. Either way, even though my team lost, I had a blast. After the big game, it was time to pack up and leave our small piece of the US behind and embark on another five hour car ride back to Sweden..

Words of the Week: Kalkon- Turkey Skål- Cheers!