International Gasque!

Sorry everyone that I haven't posted recently. I will attempt to keep my blog posts coming more frequently from today.  For those that don't know, on the top left corner of this blog there is a "follow this blog" button which if clicked you can automatically be informed via email that I have posted a new informative synopsis of my somewhat interesting experiences over here in Sweden.  

Being an exchange student is a wonderful experience. And it helps that I am not going for just a month, I am truly only starting to appreciate the culture after a full month.  I am enjoying my inundation of Swedish culture. Right now I am actually at a cafe in the city center and I just had a small fikarast before beginning this post and eventually start reading for my class. This weekend was of particular interest too in understanding Swedish culture and meeting more foreign (to my own of course) cultures.

On Friday I participated in my first gasque, for which I had to dress up in a suit. A gasque for those not interested on clicking on gasque is essentially just a formal Swedish student dinner party.  This particular gasque was a little less formal as it was the international student gasque. I met exchange students from all over! Gasque's are quite the experience as there are three ladies placed on all sides of the gentlemen (as are there three gentlemen on each side of each lady) and the lady to your right is 'your lady' for the evening.  Every couple of minute we had to Skål pronounced (Skol) which is a toast (interesting tradition there too, we first lift the glass with the left hand, toast to 'your lady', to the lady of the left, then finally to the lady in front - after which you drink and do the reverse toast.  My lady actually left the table almost after meeting me, (I was dressed nicely so it couldn't have been me!); she was from Finland. The lady in front was from Sweden (very international), and the lady to the left was from France). Of course I met a bunch of guys too and unfortunately there are too many countries to even try to recount. It's quite interesting to see how strongly Swedish formalities or traditions cling (yet in some aspects don't at all - as it would seem the language is constantly changing and they are very unreserved in certain situations).  

After the dinner (in which reindeer .... poor bambi was served) we had a dance party and karaoke (which I participated in for one song with three wonderful ladies from Iceland that live in my corridor). 

Saturday was interesting, I had fika with a friend and then went to a free organ concert at the Uppsala church (which is the largest in scandinavia). Hurried to a local musuem at the Gustavianum (located right next to the church and about5 minutes walk from my apartment).  More fika, partying, and return to study and sleep. And that brings us to today! Next post I will talk more about the Swedish education system (one of my favorite pieces of Sweden).

Ahh, a minor update on last week, I am continuing with Swedish classes and will incorporate words here and there - as one of my Math classes is following notes that are only in Swedish... meaning I must learn it now!

Till then,

hejdå! (hey doh)

ps. click on the links to learn more about the place ~~ they are links to wikipedia pages on the particular topic.

pss. For some reason my SD card isn't working currently so I will post pictures (especially of the fika place) later this evening.