MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hej hej  GOD JUL och GOTT NYTT ÅR!

I hope that every of you had a nice Christmas and I wish you a happy new year plenty of happiness.

Mine was a special one but obviously a really good one. As I said earlier I was in Gothenburg (picture from a lake behind the house) with my host family’s family who is really kind. If this Christmas was special, this is because it was my first one without my family and therefore a Swedish Christmas is a little bit different than a French one. But hopefully “special” doesn’t mean “sad” because it was really interesting to discover how to celebrate Christmas in another way and I also had really good moments with my host family. Moreover this type of experience happens once in a life time so the minimum to do is to be happy and enjoy it!

Now what could I say about Swedish Christmas… Mmmmh first of all let’s talk about the food which is kind of different than in France! The typical Swedish Christmas meal is very simple and it comes from hundreds years ago, when Swedish farmers and people didn’t really have the time and the money for special food, they were used to cook really simple things. That’s the reason why for Christmas you can eat meat-bowls, a type of ham with Swedish bread and butter or moreover salmon.  But it was very good! Concerning the drinks, Swedish people usually drink some “snaps” (strong liquors) with Christmas beer but it wasn’t the case in my family. Swedish people have another special Christmas drink: “julmust” which is a kind of coke but better! Every Swedish children (and adults) love drinking that around Christmas time. Otherwise I don’t know if for Christmas you usually spend 3 hours or more around the table, but here in Sweden it is not the case, it’s less than an hour then sometimes you come back for a little coffee or Fika (*see my firsts articles in Sweden). During the “free” time the children usually play with their games and watch TV and the adults talk together. Concerning the presents, everybody receive it the 24^th of December. Usually, the morning you receive a small one in a Christmas sock and the “real” ones, “important ones” during the afternoon. One “important” tradition at Christmas happens just before the presents. At 3 in the afternoon, every year, there is on the TV a cartoon made especially for Christmas and which is a mix of Walt Disney cartoons. Swedish people watch it every year and after that, around 4 o’clock the “Christmas presents time” can start. Traditionally a Santa clause comes and gives some presents, and then it’s a kind of distribution. One person gives the presents, one after one, to everybody. Then the evening continues with dinner to late in the evening.

Now, what about New Year’ Eve? Despite a cancelled party, I had a nice evening. Usually Swedish people (children and teenagers include, most of the time) have a kind of “traditional” dinner (but without traditional food, just good food) with their family or friend. And AFTER that (not so late thanks to Swedish meal time), party time can start. Concerning me I have been with my host family to their friend’s house, next to Stockholm, and we were 6 “children”, it was quite fun! Usually every Swedish family buy some big fireworks for New year’ Eve and around 12 everywhere in the sky you can see all those lights, it was really nice.

This Christmas and New year ‘Eve was really special, but really nice. This year is plenty of strange feelings that you can just feel in this type of experience I think… I’m thinking about before the departure: you really want to be there, to discover everything but you are also kind of afraid and you want to enjoy time with your relatives. At Christmas time you feel strange to not be with your family but you are also really happy to discover and to leave this experience and I guess that before leaving I will also be really excited to see all of you again but really sad to finish this trip, this type of life. I think that if one day you or your children have the opportunity to be an exchange student, just to it! Go for one year because it will be the best experience of your life! And every day, every single moment, just keep in mind that it happen only once in your life, so enjoy it!

BONNE ANNEE 2012!