Follow Christopher's New Blog!

My brother (copied me) started a new blog!  His is much different than mine, and he seems to be much better at consistently posting than I am!  He is a really creative and talented writer so you should all follow him too!  Here is the link:

Christopher's Blog! http://christopherantolakdaily.blogspot.com/

My brother and I at the Field Museum in Chicago!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today is my Dad's birthday!  I wish I could be there to celebrate with him (and have cake!)  He should have a fun night without me though... for the first time since his 40th birthday (you can do the math to see how long ago that was if you want) one of his favorites Duke Tomato (I guess it is really Duke Tumatoe but that looks so weird when I type it) is playing!  So him and my Mom are going with my Aunt Lynn, Uncle George, Uncle Joe, and Aunt Tina!  I hope that they all have a great time but especially my Dad on his big day!

                                 Duke TUMATOE

My Dad and I when my parents came to visit me in Sweden!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my all time favorite holiday.  I love everything about it, the movies, the costumes, haunted houses, decorations....  which is why I was HORRIFIED to find out that Halloween is not that big in Sweden.  Here is what a little something I found on about.com:

Halloween in Scandinavia: Traditions & Celebrations

How Do Scandinavians Celebrate Halloween? By Terri Mapes

While Halloween is very popular in the US, Scandinavia has only recently started to embrace Halloween and celebrate this annual event the way it is celebrated in other regions.

Halloween parties with scary costumes are now becoming much more popular with each year, and you will see Halloween-themed decorations and even a few pumpkins here and there. But, all in all, this day is still relatively quiet and you shouldn't expect this day to be a big event in the Scandinavian countries. 

Instead of wide-spread halloween decor and tick-or-treating, there is All Saints' Day after Halloween, a quiet holiday in memory of loved ones that passed away. All Saints' Day is a day of reflection. The long-standing tradition of lighting candles on graves is still widely practised by family members.

I asked around trying to figure out what people my age did for halloween and some people didn't even know when it was!!!  I then found out there was a student party which I couldn't go to because you have to have a student id.  Then I found out there was a BIG party at a student bar in town and I got so excited!  Unlucky for me it was already sold out so I told Foreigner that we would still dress up and watch scary movies... I had to have my Halloween.  At about 6pm that night Foreigner told me that he was able to get tickets to the party at the bar!  ( My hero!)  We rushed over to pick up the tickets and then rushed back home to get ready.  The night was a blast! The bar had a DJ, a Live band,  multiple rooms and bars, scary decorations, and a costume contest!  It was a great time!

Most people dress up scary here... I think we looked pretty scary!

creepy!

It was not easy to find decorations so I made some out of oranges, basil, and permanent marker!  My mom also sent me some great window and door decorations!

Finally got my charger!

On Nov. 1st I broke the charger for my computer... it died about 2 hours later which is why I haven't posted in so long.  Foreigner was nice enough to let me use his desktop but I didn't know how to load my pictures and stuff on there so I just figured I would wait until I got my new charger to blog.  Unfortunately Apple chargers are ridiculously expensive so I had to find one on the internet.. get it shipped to my mom and then she had to ship it to me... so finally today the package arrived!  Inside was my brand new charger AND some delicious peanut butter cups (my FAVORITE and they don't have them in Sweden :( ) and chapstick.  What a great day!  I promise I will take the time to catch you up on my life this weekend!

The package! (don't worry I took out the addresses!)

Yum!! I have the best mom ever!

Movie Night

On Thursday night I decided that I really wanted to go see a movie... so I walked to the movie theater in town and saw "The Social Network".  The movie was pretty good, I heard that it was REALLY GOOD, so I think that my expectations were too high.  It is always nice to see Justin Timberlake on the big screen though!  

The outside of the movie theater

The way you buy your tickets

The inside of the theater

The strangest thing about the movie theaters in Sweden is that you have assigned seats in the theater!  Luckily I was assigned a perfect seat in the middle!  Also, in case any of you are wondering, the movies are in English with Swedish subtitles.

My Apartment

Hello!   Sorry it has been so long since I've posted!  I realized I haven't posted any pictures of my apartment so here they are:

The Hallway and the door!

Kitchen

Kitchen

 Kitchen

Table and Elvis Face... It was already painted on the wall when we moved in... and foreigner's favorite singer is Elvis!  How perfect!

My Bedroom (notice how adorable busta da bust (my teddy bear) is!)

My closets!

Bedroom

Living Room

Foreigner's "Office"

Living Room

Balcony

Balcony

Balcony

View from Balcony

FOLLOW ME!

Hey everyone!  If you are reading my blog PLEASE become a follower!  I like to know who is reading so that I can post things that I know you will like or that reminds me of you! Plus you can leave comments!  Thanks for reading and miss everyone!