Jul i Sverige !

Well, November was a very gloomy month : only 17,5 hours of visible sun for the whole month, which is in average 35mn a day ...
But it was gloomy only in terms of weather ! The windows are lighting up with candles or lamps and it was the time of house warming and the nutcraker ballet, and especially cosy fika (goûters) with the typical jul godis !

But what are the typical jul godis we might wonder...
Well, first of all there is this absolutly delicious drink : glögg ! (sort of vin chaud, but can also be found alcoholfree)

and then the saffran buns, roasted almonds, ginger cookies (that are sometime eaten with bleu cheese paste !) delicious...

One of the 2 sunny november days ...

a roasted almond stand...

glögg and fika !

A day trip in Uppsala

In november last year, I visited the lovely town

of uppsala just 40 mn out of Stockholm with Anastasia

To note :

- the gigantic bike parking next to the train station : The story goes that if your bike gets stolen, you can always find it again there someday ...

- The amazing cathedral, where we had the chance to catch a very important religious event with many bishops, and bishops hats (Uppsala is the center of the lutherian church organization )

- The anatomic theater Gustavianum( read : dissection room) build in the 1660's by the professor Rudbeck

- The ugly square pink castle build in 1549 with its canons pointed direclty towards the cathedral : historically a symbol of power over the church

-The expo of Alfred Frigo, artist obsessed somehow by the number six ... and by being remembered : recorded all his dream for 6 years in a huge book (right picture), and took pictures of what he touched with his right hand for 6 something (left picture)... quite fun !

- and of course, by night

The whole and truly true truth on KTH

Now, let's discuss her university. Its location give it the charm of Poudlard, as it is surrounded by a great forest, but the architect didn't bother too much, did he ? Not even tried to add a window !

For his defense, he didn't forget to build a very convenient torture room (top of the tower to the left)

This following picture wasn't taken in the torture room, as you might think, but in one of the classrooms : at least the physics students have the opportunity to work on the newest machines

As well as the latest publications.

And the most serious magazines (Bellow : Physician reading an issue of Physics and snowboarding).

Elsa

The whole and truly true truth on the residence

Diane's articles make you dream of Sweden ? Haha ! She is not telling you everything !

First of all, you have to walk past this guy to get into her residence :

Then, you know how she's talking about cooking all the time ? Would you imagine all this time the preparation of these delicious meals was taking place on a ... couch ?

But the worst comes when night falls (at around 4 in the afternoon...) : the poor swedish student actualy have to light themselves with candles !

Elsa

Пиковая дама Queen of spades

The week I spend with Elsa and Chloé , we went with Anastasia to the Opera in Stockholm.


It was the Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky and it was wonderful!


Well, as only Anastasia has Russian language skills, I did have to read the story on wikipedia but the swedish overhead subtitles did partially help understanding
what was going on...


We are going again this friday,
and the good news is that it's
cheap for students,
and the seats we get are
pretty good !

The place was really beautiful
so i'm putting up a few pictures
from my sister.

Kanebullar !

One of the best pastries I've ever had ...

It's full of cinnamon and delicious. and it's all over sweden ! They even have a day for it, kanelsbullars dag.

And the best part is that I have learned to make it,
considering they are not that hard to make if someone translates the swedish recipe , hence the many many pictures of it.

Kayaking in Stockholm

Back then when the night didn't fall at 15:30, I did a really fun activity.
After kayaking in the archipelago during the summer, I kayaked on a windy october day in the center of city!

The red line on the map shows our traveling.(KTH is my school and Lappis is the place I live)


We had to stop when we got in the center because there was so much wind and waves it was not possible to go farther...

It was great fun to kayak in stormy weather and with the city streets and buildings right next to us !

You can see the place we stopped, right next to the Stadshuset (the green and red building), of course not in the same weather ...

A weekend in Tallin II !

Leaving Stockholm : the archipelago by boat
The whole group ! and as it turned out, most of them were french but we did speak english most of the trip...
Our room and it's great mirror window ! Luckily I was on the top bed so I didn't get crumbs from our dinner on it ...
Tallin !
The old town !
and again !
and again !
Leaving the old town for a Estonien lunch !
Our boat ! kind of a big one, and our room were right under the car deck ... (but cheap)
Leaving Tallin !

A weekend in Tallin !

Every weekend there are boats going to and back from Tallin, so I thought I would try it out !
I left on a friday and came back on sunday, after a great trip !
It was pretty fun : 2 nights on a boat and one day in Tallin for a short visit.
But I did learn how to say thank you in Estonian ("aitäh") , walked around in the old town, visited the coast and had a great lunch in a delicious cafeteria!

Here are a few pictures !

PQ : The best way to dance

I followed a friend of mine who wanted compagny to try some dance. Considering my helplessness at reproducing someone's dancing move, I was not really planning to join.

However I had a great surprise and it was well worth going since I have now joined an orchestra !

The trick is that the music the dance group dances to is from an live orchestra ! It is the same band and they work together on mostly jazz music.

And I have to say it works pretty well !





It's the best way to start the flute again as it is run by only student and completly relaxed !

They do play pretty fast and know most of the songs already but I am getting there !

Apparently it is quite common in sweden,
and so we will be meeting other orchestra/dance
group for playing and parties. It's great fun !

Lappis : better pictures have arrived

Thanks to my parents and to the many dinners
parties, I now have nicer pictures of the place I live in, especially of the shared kithchen :

For cooking new dishes in my kitchen every week for 7,

For study groups at 9:30 on a saturday morning that turn into breakfast,

For cake parties instead of dinner,

For Fika,

For jam and russian cakes,

and For last minuteplans,

I have to say I believe this is a great place to live in !