Wonderful Weekends Episode 2

Once again I have had a terrific weekend, always doing something amazing!

 Lots of pictures=I will try to not use a lot of words :)

Friday afternoon Marie and Mickael got off work and I got out of my last class of the day to head up to spend the night with Mickael's parents in Falun.  Well actually they live 10km outside of Falun, but they say they are from Falun.  When we got there my host grandfather showed me how to prepare traps for crayfish!  We used sausage that humans eat as bait (strange I know, but it worked!).  Mickael's parents live right on a river where we put the traps.

Back yard of my host grandparents house!

 

My host grandfather has a little house/cottage in the back yard where he paints.  He painted the pictures above and below.  AMAZING!

The main reason we were invited out to Falun to visit was because Mickael's parents were having a dinner party with a bunch of their friends.  There were 13 of us and almost all of the guests were retired doctors.  It was very interesting to talk to them about their jobs!

As an appetizer we had little triangles of toast with onion, sour cream topped with caviar.  I thought it was going to be a weird combination, but it turned out to be very good!

For the main course we had crab!!  Swedish crabs are smaller than the ones that I have had in the states.  Also they are not cleaned/gutted so you got the honor of doing that all on your own J.  Once you had separated the crab meat from everything else you were given a piece of toast of hard bread which you then put butter, cheese (optional), this green gooey sauce that was really good, and the crab meat on, which was then topped with a bit of dill.  And there you have it, the Swedish way of eating crab meat!

The next morning we went to check the cages we set out to see if there were any crayfish.  Seeing as it is late in the summer, we were not expecting to catch very many of the little things at all; we were all elated when we brought about 40 crayfish into the house!!

They lived good lives, but now they make our lives a little bit better J

 

This cabinet is in the kitchen area of the house and I think Mickael’s father told me the wood is from the 1600s!  Absolutely amazing!

Dolla horses=the symbol of Sweden first started in this little town where my host grandparents live

 

Front of house

Church

Crayfish we caught ready to eat!

from this...

 ...to this :)

Culture Night:  After eating crayfish for lunch Marie, Mickael and I heading back to Uppsala for Kultur Natten!  Kultur Natten is when vendors and food carts and stages with music are set up all throughout Uppsala. 

We joined in with some dances that were happening near the music!

We posed with everything and anything!

Then when it got dark the knights and fire came out!

I got to meet some new Swedish friends that are friends with one of my host sister's who is on her own exchange.  They were able to show us around and tell us everything we should see.  It was the best night I have had in Sweden so far!

 

Today I went for a kayak trip with my host parents and their friends.  We rented kayaks for the day and took them all the way to the other side of the lake (7km?) and back.  Ronny, the family friend, is a very outdoorsy guy and brought a camping stove to cook burgers on for lunch!  Unfortunately I cannot very many pictures from today's kayak trip, but it was truly wonderful.  In the morning the weather was perfect, a little bit cloudy and not too hot.  In the afternoon clouds threatened but never cried on us thankfully!  It was a stupendous weekend!  I got to see another town in Sweden, spend time with caring and wonderful people and have fun!  What more could I ask for?

 

The best part about being an exchange student is that we don't care what others think!