Week 17-18 At SVF

December 10th-22nd

The dreaded last two weeks of being in Sweden were finally becoming a reality. I quickly tried to squeeze in as many last minute memories as possible. Going out to my favorite bars for the last time. Taking walks within the beautiful fusion of nature and urban development. Touching as much snow as I could before going back to a bright yellow Christmas. Classes continued through the last week but there were small goodbyes and changes sprinkled into our usual routine. Students started to leave back to their homes earlier than expected and our classes started to end. We started to discuss the potential theme for the Christmas party and what we as a College Line would do for the presentation. We decided on putting on a sketch making fun of our line and poking fun at America and Sweden. We wrote a very rough sketch later on in the week and it would take place as a conversation that we would have at lunch in Matsalen.

The 13th was St. Lucia Day, and SVF put on a very beautiful ceremony hosted by the Music Line. I had never really celebrated St. Lucia Day before and it was a magnificent experience. (I will post videos). We were also invited to Gränna to see Mimmi and Klara perform in the St. Lucia show in Klaras home church. They both did very well and there were even some children performances and it was amazing to see this. St. Lucia day is celebrated in Scandinavian Countries, specifically Norway and Sweden and it is the celebration of one of the Christian Saints, Lucia on December 13th. Legend has it that Lucia vowed to remain a virgin in the tradition of St. Agatha, however a man who was in place to marry her was angered and reported her to Roman authorities. They convicted her of this and she was forced into prostitution. She was also convicted to death by burning at the stake but her death and her force into prostitution was interrupted by God. However, she was also stabbed in the neck with a knife and finally died. However, in reality she was among those who were persecuted because of their Christian faith in the Roman empire. Today in Sweden, Norway and some parts of Finland, the eldest daughter will be selected to play St. Lucia and dresses in a white robe and has evergreen and candles placed on her head.

This weekend, Emilia was coming to stay with me for a night and I was more than excited to see her again. She came to SVF on lordag afternoon and we went for a walk and then for dinner we headed to Rachelles where our two Indian students made us a traditional Indian meal as a celebration of the semester that we had together. It was a lovely evening. After dinner, we went over to Herrgården and watched Blades of Glory before going down in the city to go to pipes for the last time. Sondag morning Emilia and I went down into the city to go shopping and meet up with Cajsa and Kajsa for lunch. We went to Badabing (the amazing burger place) and I ordered a burger with Jalapeno cream cheese which was amazing. After lunch we met up with Jack at ICA to get food for the Smorgasbord that we would have at Hemgården on måndag. We then walked back home. Emilia then left to go have dinner with her family and Jack and I decided to work on some homework for tomorrow. We both wanted to go into the city to soak up as much of Jönköping as we could before going back to America, so we walked into the city with our backpacks and went to a new bar called the Bishops Arms which was very cozy. We sat and talked for a while before heading to Murphies because the Bishops Arms was about to close. We got a drink and then started our essays that would be due tomorrow. Måndag night was the night of our first Smorgasbord. We went to our classes and in our last Mediterranean World class we discussed how we would solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My group consisted of Olivea, Elin, David and Signe. My group discussed trying to put in place a three state solution, where there would be a similar set up as the United States with both a federal and a state government. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians would get representation in the government and then Jerusalem would be government owned so both could have access here. We realized that this solution would not fix everything and even bring up its own problems but this was the solution we could think of that would at least stop the wars. That night we all started making dishes for the Smorgasbord. Jack and I made a potato dish with herring in the middle called Janssons frestelse. It was fun to cook with everyone and then eat the feast. We ate all the food that everyone prepared, played games and opened Christmas presents. We ended the night with coffee, glögg, Lucia buns, and wonderful conversations. Our other classes continued as usual and then Onsdag was the day of the Christmas party. We had all spent so much time in the past days decorating the school and blasting both Swedish and American Christmas music. So that by the time the party was ready to happen we were all so tired. Kajsa, Olivea and I all got ready in our Christmas dresses and put on our make-up and then headed into the party. There was glögg and dancing waiting for us when we entered the building. The theme of the Christmas party was Harry Potter/magic so the school was draped in flying keys, floating candles, and everyone was decked out in Gryffindor colors, it truly was magical. The College Line decided not to put on the skit as it would take too long to put together. However, in our Swedish class, Jack, Kajsa, Olivea and I learned a Swedish poem and the Swedes thought it would be very cute to have us perform this for the school. First there was a feast. We all went up to eat the second Smorgasbord for the week with unlimited Julmust (Swedish Christmas soda). After the food was eaten we made our way down to Månsalan for the ceremony. Every line did something to represent their semester and I was petrified to read in Swedish in front of the whole school. There were skits, music performances and wonderful company. After we had all finished we moved the chairs out of the way and danced traditional Swedish dances usually done after the Christmas tree is thrown away. It was tiring but it was so amazing as I had never danced traditional dances before. There was also a bible reading and singing. After all the school events were done some of us decided to go out for a last time. We took some pictures with everyone and then headed out into the city. We went to pipes and stayed and talked for a long time. After pipes some people decided to go to Bongo bar but when we got there I realized how tired I was after a long day and wanted some sleep. I got back to my packed room and was filled with reminiscent tears. This was the last time I would be with everyone like this and I was really going to miss it all. The next day was the last day of classes for everyone and for our last Scandinavian History class, Anders drove us all to his house for fika. It was very cozy and lovely to talk to Anders and be with the Americans and the Indians for the last time. After we came back to SVF we said goodbye to Gabbe and Jeevan as their plane was leaving soon. It was really sad and hard not to start crying again. We then said goodbye to the teachers by giving them presents that we had made for them. Jack then left to be with family before flying home from Gothenburg. We then spent the day cleaning our rooms and the whole building. After we were done Elin invited some people over to her house, as she lived close, to have one last fika. Kajsa, Linnea, Oscar and I walked over together and found Jon, Elin, Kristin, other Oscar and later Otto came over. It was absolutely a wonderful last night. We sat and talked for a long time and it was so wonderful to end my semester among people I loved and have wonderful conversations before waiting three weeks to see them again. After Linnea and I walked back to school together, David came over to my room and we sat and talked together and shared our sad thoughts of the semester ending. This night was very sad for me and I was not ready to leave all of this behind. The next morning (fredag) Kajsa and I woke up in our empty rooms and headed out to get our first flight. We had a two hour bus trip from Jönköping to Gothenburg, an hour flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm, a two hour flight from Stockholm to Frankfurt, Germany, a 14 hour layover in Frankfurt and then a 12 hour flight from Germany to San Fransisco. It was hard not to cry the entire trip but when we finally got to California I was overjoyed to see my family.

Thank you so much to all who made my semester the best time of my life. Thank you for keeping up with all my blogs and my life while I was in Europe. I will treasure my experience forever and will carry these life lessons with me through everything. Thank you all!