The birds are back!

We have a little bird feeder hanging on our balcony, but since crows were the only birds really left in Sweden in the winter, and they would fight over the food, I put it inside until today. Then this morning I saw some tiny little birds in the tree outside so I hung it up again and almost immediately they came and started eating from it. It's a good sign I think that hopefully winter is over! 

You can kind of see the birdy in this picture, Alex says it's called a "great tit". I thought he was messing with me so I googled it, but he was right! 

Today I took an early morning bike ride into town, and it was so beautiful outside. Here are a few pictures from this morning:

I know it looks kind of brown but it really was so pretty. It was like a Swedish ghost town. I'm also really just happy that most of the snow has melted. If it's not enough snow to sled on, then it should just melt. I told Alex I would never get sick of snow since I never saw it in Florida, but I did. I will admit it. But I do love sledding. And snow men.

Today has just been a lazy Saturday, but I thought I would try to start writing more often! Next weekend is Easter so I will definitely write a post next week about my first Easter in Sweden. I hope the Easter bunny knows I moved...

Our sweet next door neighbor made these bulle (Swedish cinnamon rolls) for us yesterday, they were delicious. 

Also if anyone has any good recipes for this:

Then let me know! I thought the picture on the box looked like tabouli, so I tried to make tabouli with it but it didn't really work out. 

We have been trying to watch the James Bond movies recently, we want to get through all of them eventually. We're on Live and Let Die. Also, making your own popcorn on the stove is so delicious, who knew? 

I've been reading some blogs lately about other peoples experiences moving to different countries when I started missing home a bit and I read one about Costa Rica since it's one of my favorite places (and where I met my sweetie). But after reading about all the giant spiders and break ins it reminded me that Sweden really isn't too different from where I'm from, I have actually never even seen a spider here! *knock on wood*. And I feel so lucky to be in a place where I'm comfortable and where I'm with the person I love and studying to do something I enjoy. :) but who knows, Florida or even Costa Rica may be in our future! ;)

April! And veggie burgers.

Its April and it is soo light out! Especially in the mornings, it wakes me up at 6am everyday (which I hate) but it's light until at least 8 or 9 pm now (which I love). 

Some pretty Eastery flowers Alex brought home from the market in town this week. Notice the fancy coffee mug vase. 

Alex and I have both started new classes which has been nice, my class is just basically writing a big paper for two months, like a mini practice thesis. My paper is on permafrost and how it affects dissolved organic carbon in surface waters if anyone is curious ;). We bought our tickets to go to Florida in June!! We can't wait! Woohoo!

Some things I miss about Florida!

I thought I would post a few pictures showing how the view from our apartment has changed. :)

And hopefully I'll be able to post a super green summery one soon. We have started biking to school again! And we now realize how out of shape we are. I only biked halfway to school today with Alex and then biked back home because I worked from home today but wanted some exercise. And I almost had to pull over my bike on the way back. I was soo tired. When I got home I just layed on the floor out of breath. But it felt good to be outside for so long! My new swedish class is still going well, I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with it and I understand a lot more when other people speak. However me speaking it is a different story. I don't think I'll ever be able I correctly pronounce ä å ö. 

Tonight Alex and I are cooking veggie burgers. Sometimes it hard to plan meals together besides quiches and pasta and vegetable and rice dishes because Alex is a vegetarian and I am allergic to beans. So it became our goal to make a delicious veggie burger without beans...and we did it! It has corn, mushrooms, onions, red peppers, garlic, breadcrumbs and eggs! So easy and cheap and delicious. At least to us they were, but our standard of delicious may be lowered since I started cooking. But here they are:

And Alex made homemade burger sauce, which he really likes, as you can see from his burger ;). 

Have a nice day!

Snow snow go away

Hello!

Well it's the beginning of March now and I'm ready for spring. The snow really isn't so bad or the cold. 30 degrees Fahrenheit now feels normal to me. But it's grey and cloudy everyday and I miss blue skies and sun and the color green! :) and I actually really miss biking! Mostly because I need to start working off all these candy and semla calories I've been eating so that I can fit in my wedding dress haha. Semla day was yesterday (well Fat Tuesday), but in Sweden they eat these desserts called semla between Christmas and Easter, and they are amazing!!! 

Above are some store bought semla and semla we made on our own, I bet you can't tell the difference can you? ;) They are cardamom buns filled with vanilla whipped cream and almond filling stuff. Now you can understand why I need to start biking. 

School has been ok, I passed both my exams! And these tests I took were really hard and not my cup of tea having to spend two days working on a computer program, but I did it and its over! Now we just have a project left with a group.

Alex's parents both came and visited and it was great having visitors the past month and to get to show off our city that we love so much.

A picture of me standing on top of a snow shovel pile! They are pretty fun to climb. 

Well, that was just a little post that I'm writing from the bus on my way home from Swedish class. 

Have a great day!

February update!

Sorry it has been so long since I've written! School has been very busy recently, I started my newest class about two weeks ago and before that had finals for the last class. I figured out that the academic calendar at Umeå University is split up into quarters instead of two semesters. So when I applied for only one class for spring I was a bit worried when I found out I needed two! But it worked out :). So my class I'm taking now will end in March and then my next class will go from March until June! This class is analysis of ecological data which is mostly like an advanced statistics class and learning how to use a computer program called R. Anyways. On to more exciting things!

First, Christmas! We spent Christmas at Alex's dads house in central Sweden and it was nice and relaxing and I ate lots of candy, meatballs, and drank lots of swedish Christmas soda (Julmust) which tastes like a better version of rootbeer. They celebrate Christmas and open presents on December 24 in Sweden which was a bit weird for me because I felt like I was cheating opening presents before Christmas!

This was a picture a few days before Christmas. This day for a few hours was beautiful, but every other day was rainy and cold with no snow! 

Now onto New Years! Alex and I were back in Umeå for New Years and celebrated at home with some homemade spanakopita and saganaki (and yes, we lit it on fire, on the balcony, and it was AMAZING) and some wine and ciders. It was a great night watching movies and eating and relaxing. Then when it turned midnight the fireworks were insane. We live on the top floor so everywhere we looked people were shooting off fireworks and it was beautiful.

This spanakopita was so yummy and easy! Since its my birthday tomorrow I may actually make some more tomorrow! And Alex made a wonderful tzaziki sauce.

Our dinner setup! Notice our fancy wine glasses haha. We found some for just a couple dollars a week later so we now have real wine glasses which feels a bit more classy. :)

We dressed up for dinner too, just for fun!

This is the day after New Years, started snowing and hasn't stopped!

Then this past weekend was Umeå's "opening ceremony" for 2014 because Umeå is the European Capital of Culture 2014. There was a big show called burning snow with a concert on the frozen river in town where they set snow on fire and had fireworks. They also had lots of cool things around town like a snow castle and ice sculptures and reindeer!

The snow castle in town day and night with and ice slide that we of course had to try.

This was in the center of town, they had bonfires where the Sami (indigenous Swedish) were cooking reindeer stew. Suspiciously the reindeer from earlier were nowhere to be found...

This is when we were watching the show. It was sooo crowded and cold.

In other news, I got a sled. And sledding is the best! As well as very useful for carrying home groceries.

 The end!

Christmas time in Umea

It's about a week until Christmas time and it is SUPER DARK but school is out for winter break so the darkness isn't as bad. And after Christmas it'll start getting lighter! I thought I would post a few pictures from around town and Christmas activities!

We made lussebullar yesterday, saffron buns. They came out really light and fluffy and nice (and very yellow!). I'm not used to the taste of saffron though so it's a little weird to me still, but they were fun to make :)

 There is a big real Christmas tree in town! :)

They've made the center of town look very cheery with lots of lights and people and little tents set up. When we were there last they were setting up what looked like a little Christmas market, but I haven't been back yet to check. But I go back tomorrow and I hope they are still there!

Alex and I celebrated my last day of class (well not really last day, but last day before Christmas!) at Lotta's Krog in town. It was lots of fun. We hadn't been there since my parents visited!

The snowy walk to the grocery store! Sadly the snow melted today again and now it is a mess of icy sidewalks and slush. I'm hoping it'll snow again before Christmas! 

Well that was just a little glimpse of Christmas time here, I'll miss seeing all my family members on Christmas but I know it'll be very special here too and I hope everyone has a wonderful day. I will try to post more pictures after Christmas :) 

Swedish Thanksgiving

Last week was Thanksgiving! Of course they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Sweden so it was a bit weird to have no Thanksgiving break or big dinner with family. But we still had a wonderful Thanksgiving day! Just by coincidence I had the day off of school so we had plenty of time to cook a yummy meal.

Getting the potatoes ready to boil for mashed potatoes! One of my favorite foods. There is no shortage of potatoes in Sweden so this ingredient was easy to find.

One ingredient Sweden did not have (or that I couldn't find) was evaporated milk for the sweet potato casserole. So I evaporated some of my own milk! 

Taking the sweet potato casserole out of the oven to put marshmellows on top. I didn't realize that this was a weird dish until Alex gave me a disgusted look when I added sugar to the mashed sweet potatoes. I think it was a bit too sweet for him, he called it a dessert, but I loved it! It was my favorite food at our dinner.

Our Thanksgiving dinner! Meatballs for me and quorn for my vegetarian substituted for a turkey, but I did buy a packet of presliced turkey to keep some of the tradition. I thought it would be a bit silly to cook a turkey for myself. But it was an amazing dinner and we watched the Macy's Day parade on the computer while we ate which was fun.

One sad part of Thansgiving in Sweden was no pumpkin pie. There is no canned pumpkin sold here and the real pumpkins disappeared weeks ago. We even took the bus to the big supermarket in town, ICA Maxi, but had no luck. We did get some maple syrup though which our supermarket doesnt have. Yumm.

Without Thanksgiving it means that basically after Halloween it is Christmas time which was nice especially in the dark winter. Lights are up in town and everyone has stars and lights in their windows, including us! This is a snowman we made and hung by our door.

Our Christmas tree haha. It's very cute. We bought it on the way home from school yesterday. It fits in a coffee cup and fits perfectly on the window sill. Hopefully Santa doesn't bring us anything too big! ;)

The tree with lights on it! It makes me laugh.

Well that is it for now! My last week of school before Christmas break is in a week and a half, which is crazy! Lots to do but with so little daylight it definitely takes away some of your energy. The sun rises after we get to school and sets before we get home. The good news is that soon it'll be getting lighter each day instead of darker. Woohoo!

Hello again!

It's been a while seen I've written. My first class in Sweden just ended last week so I have been busy finishing and revising lots of papers as well as starting a new class so it has been a little stressful. But now my first class is officially over! Woohoo! And it really was a great class and I learned so much, even if it was pretty time consuming and challenging at times. Also my parents visited from Florida about a week ago and we had a wonderful time showing them around the city and spending time with them. I wish they could have stayed longer! We got to plan a little bit of the wedding stuff while they were here too which was nice. We're getting very excited for the summer! The time changed about two weeks ago so it has been getting dark very early which isn't really my cup of tea. But we have lots of candles and lights to prepare for the dark winter. I think when the snow comes it will make it better, but the snow here comes one day and then melts by the next day. But I'm looking forward to experiencing my first real winter. Right now it stays at about 0 degrees celsius (yeah I'm using celsius, woohoo!) and it has actually started feeling warm (well, not warm, but not super cold) to me which is great! Here are a few pictures since the last time I've written!

This is from our walk home from the bus stop today (yes, we take the bus sometimes now, it's just so convenient! but we still bike to school, just enjoy taking the weekends off :) ) Notice the sunset, at 3 pm.

This is a picture from when I was in the field last Thursday. We went up about an hour north of Umea and there was lots of snow! It was beautiful! But cold...

A picture from the airport before my parents left for Stockholm

My parents left us their really cool rain gear. We love them! haha.

We saw the Northern Lights from our balcony while my parents were here! When we saw them it was after midnight but I called and woke them up to come see them! They were amazinggggg. 

At a cute pub called Lotta's Krog in town. We went here with my parents before I went to my night Swedish class. Nothing helps you learn Swedish like a pint of English cider. Yummy.

Well that's it for now!