Christmas 2005

Frohe Weihnachten aus Deutschland! I left for Merzig, Germany at 6:15 in the morning from Lund Central Station. My thirteen hour journey took me through Copenhagen, across the Baltic Sea (train drove on ferry), Hamburg, Mannheim and eventually I reached my destination just in time for a nice warm dinner at my grandparent's house :-) It was really nice to see all the family again and spend some time with them. My days consisted mostly of sleeping in late, eating breakfast, eating lunch, having coffee and cake and eating again for dinner, which if I'm not mistaken is exactly what you are supposed to do at Christmas time! When I wasn't relaxing around the house I took some walks into the city or just wandered to the neighboring village of Mondorf where theres always some family to go visit. The snow pictures below were actually taken on one of these nice walks. Christmas Eve I spent with my grandparents, my aunt Irmgard, my uncle Wini and my cousin Annika. On New Years Eve I didn't go to Berlin as planned initially, but instead I had a lovely Fondue dinner with Kathrin and her family. Later we watched the fireworks over the valley and had champagne at midnight....it was a very relaxing way to ring in the new year. Anyways I did take one excursion to Trier with Kathrin, Christian and Barbara, which was a lot of fun as we explored all the Roman history of Germany's oldest city. Overall I accomplished little school related stuff, but I did manage to semi-spontaneously plan a trip to Prague!

London

Hello from sunny, yes sunny London! Most of you are probably familiar with the idea that England is very rainy, which is what I expected when I went there in the beginning of December. Instead I was fortunate to experience the fantastic weather you see here in the photographs. I went to London on a rather spontaneous move with my friends Kara and Emilie. I didn't actually stay in London but in Milton Keynes where Kara lives, so I also got to see some English countryside as well as spend some time in a typical English home. The fun with being there at Christmas time was that I got to enjoy some English traditions like mince pie and Sunday roast dinner :-) Anyways, we spent the first day doing touristy things like walking around London and visiting places like Big Ben, the Millenium Wheel, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and the Globe Theatre which were all really neat to see. The second day involved more of a relaxed pace (well as relaxed as it might be in London 2 weeks before Christmas!). Though I might add that I did get to see the Christmas display at the famous toy store Hamley's, which as my friends tell me is usually impossible to see around this time due to the number of people crowded around. Our last day of the trip the three of us joined Kara's parents for a day trip to the Cotswolds which was absolutely beautiful. It's the typical English countryside and it was such a different pace from busy London. The last night we went out to TGI Friday's and had drinks and burgers before heading out to an English club where we amused ourselves with the differences between the typical English guys and the Swedes we had grown accustomed to in the last term. All in all it was good fun and I hope to continue with fun travels in the near future. London pretty much wraps up my first term abroad and I must say its left me with some pretty great experiences and impressions thus far. I am not going back to Texas for Christmas but instead am going to visit my grandparents and relatives in Saarland, Germany.

Swedish Julbord

On December 3 my corridor had another dinner party together. This time it was a traditional Swedish Christmas Smörgåsbord with appetizers that included sil (herring in various sauces), salads and knäckebröd med smör och ost (crispbread with butter and cheese). The main course included a Christmas ham (served cold and with mustard) as well as mini sausages and Janssons (a dish made with sliced potatos, onions, cream and anchovies - very salty fish!). I helped Sofia make the Janssons and it was fun :-) Before any of the feasting began we had Glögg with raisins and almonds. During the dinner there was much singing and drinking of spirits which made for a very merry atmosphere. Afterwards everyone went out to Lund's nation together. The entire evening was fantastic and so much good food that will take a long time to forget!