A few last things about birthdays (or at least mine, including this year for both).
1.) There has been some form of wintry accumulation I think 7 of my last 10 birthdays.
2.) I have had a large paper, project, or test the day after my birthday 5 of the last 7 years.
3.) I'm going to have a sweet black and white party tomorrow night with my good friend Tomáš to celebrate both of our birthdays.
Americans don't eat vegetables
One of the first days I was on campus here in Sundsvall, I had the chance to meet the only other American students studying at Mid-Sweden on exchange. Coincidentally, they are all from the same college and all live in the same apartment complex, which is nowhere close to me. With them being from "the South," we inevitably got to talking about food and what we especially missed from home. So just like any good Americans who are always looking for an excuse to eat, we subsequently decided to plan an All-American dinner sometime in the near future. Each of us agreed to bring something to share and invite a few European friends over to try some traditional American food.
I was in charge of baking the cornbread, and after a successful trial run, felt confident to try it on human subjects. On the night of the dinner, I made a large pan so that everyone could have several pieces of the best cornbread in Sundsvall, thinking there would only be a handful of us. I loaded into a large canvas bag wrapped in a towel and proceeded to the nearby bus station, opting to pay the $2.50 to save me a 40 minute walk. Swedish buses (and by default I will assume most European buses) are nicer quality than stereotypical American buses. Maybe it is their more honest (less pretentious) committment to sustainability and reduced carbon emissions, but a lot of people in Sundsvall ride the bus on a regular basis. Yet, despite all of the use, they are always clean and devoid of a live-in homeless person. I actually enjoy riding the bus around town, and even though it may be because of the novelty, this bus ride was no different. I will tell you though, if you want to ever see something funny on a bus, bake something incredibly aromatically delicious and place it just out of sight in a nondescript canvas bag. People will be looking all over the place and sniffing, trying to understand why the bus is suspciously making them hungry.
After exiting the bus full of agitated stomachs, I wandered around in the foreign apartment complex, which was much larger than I imagined, until I finally found the right building. I climbed the stairs up to the sixth floor, knocked on the apartment door, and entered a room absolutely full of people. Counting me, there were close to 15 people, much more than the 7 or 8 I was planning for. Even now I can't believe I didn't consider the uncanny draw of free food on college kids. Fortunately though, we had enough for everyone. The main course was naturally Fried Chicken and it was complimented by cornbread, cream corn, baked mac 'n cheese, and sweet potatos. As expected by the chefs, the group's response was very positive and inevitably gave way to the required lethargy that accompanies all soul food. Toward the end of the meal, one of the Dutch girls sitting next to me scooted her chair back while holding her stomach and said something to the effect of "Don't Americans eat any vegetables?" I leaned over to her and politely said, "Of course we do. Take these sweet potatos for examples," as I added an equal serving of marshmallow fluff onto my plate.
everyone comes together around the dinner table
Living here for over a month has allowed me to see quite a number of different cultures and people, and while I tell myself and my parents that everything's normal, the differences are sometimes hard to get away from. I have to admit that a couple of times during the first few weeks of my stay there were days when I just didn't want to deal with weird cultural hang ups and non-native English speakers. I know that's a little pessimistic, but it's true and I know for a fact that most of the people here feel something similar from time to time. A couple of us have decided it has to do with being out of your comfort zone for so long, that sometimes you just get worn out from the difference. Fortunately, the longer I stay here the more comfortable I am and the better it gets. I think what helps more than anything else are the nights that the people in my hall hang out and just do things to show us how much we have in common. One night we listened to music, another night was youtube videos, and there are always the famous kitchen parties. I have to admit one of my favorites though was last night when we all came together for a multi cultural dinner.
The idea was that every person would bring something traditional from their home country, and we'd all meet together to share. Seeing as how I had already made cornbread for my neighbors once before, I wanted to branch out to another American delicacy. After thinking about what characterized American food, I knew it had to be fried and finger friendly. The answer was simple and turned out delicious. Homemade chicken nuggets.
After filling my kitchen with smoke saturated with fried goodness, I made my way down the hall to the other kitchen with nuggets in one hand and homemade honey mustard in the other. The table was set full of people and food from all across Europe. There were numerous casseroles and potato dishes courtesy of the Germans, ground brocolli soup and lasagna with a sweet brocolli cream also from Germany, my chicken nuggets and sauce, mixed vegetables and pasta from Canada, sugar coated chocolate balls with either rum or whiskey mixed into the batter from Sweden, and a Dutch apple pie. Even with a full table, we made dinner last for a couple of hours, people continually asking for seconds and thirds. It was great just talking and enjoying each other's culture and cooking. Honestly, I think that every United Nations meeting should begin with a potluck; a lot more would get done.
Last thing for this week, my Swedish language course actually started on Monday, so I've had a couple of cracks at the silly language. The best part I think is when my teacher will write a sentence on the board and says "this is how it is written," proceeds to cross off at least one letter per word, "and this is how it is said."
Vi ses på nästa torsdag. (pronounced 'vee ses po neirshta tooshtah')
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