An amazing semester comes to an end…
Door: Eline Bouwman
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Eline
28 December 2014 | Nederland, Terschuur
Hello everyone!
Finally I’m on Dutch ground again! I flew back to The Netherlands for Christmas as a surprise for my family and they really appreciated it. But before I’m going to tell you everything about the ‘moment suprême’ I first want to take you back to my last weeks in Jönköping, what was all about saying goodbye to everyone and exams.
After I came back from Lapland, I was really tired. But a lot of activities were on the planning, so I kept going on being busy. On Sunday I went to church with my Australian friend Hayley. The church is called Connect Church and it’s kind of similar to a Pentecost or Evangelical church. Hayley was already going to the services there for one month and a half, so she knew a lot of people there. That was very useful, because the whole services there are in Swedish. And since my Swedish is not that good yet, it was very useful to know people who were willing to translate everything what was said. It was an amazing experience! The people were so open and so nice. I always thought that all Swedes were a little bit reserved, but the people I met at church were the opposite of that. I think that is because they want to look like Jesus and Jesus also wanted everyone to feel at home with him. I immediately felt at home there at church. The people I met invited me to their homes to have fika someday and another girl asked me if I wanted to come to their street dance club on Tuesday. Of course I said yes! And so I went there on Tuesday. We were supposed to meet in the city centre at 19.30. I wanted to take the bus at 19.25, but I was late so I missed the bus… The next bus was coming in 10 minutes, so it was not a big problem. At some point I’ve found out that I forgot my bus card at home so I ran like crazy back home to get it and of course… I think you can already guess what happened… Yes, I missed the bus again. :-( I felt so stupid. It was already 19.35 and the next bus was coming at 19.45, what meant that I was going to be half an hour late… At that point I decided to do something really excited: I went hitchhiking! :-D I’ve never done that before on my own, so I was kind of nervous and with every car what was passing by I felt kind of relieved that it didn’t stop haha. I’m such a pussy sometimes. After attempt 10 one car stopped. A girl asked me where I had to go. I told her that I had to go to the city centre and she brought me there. It was soo nice, and I was just 15 minutes late instead of 30! It was an adventure itself, but it was awesome. Also the street dance evening was cool. Jennifer is a really good teacher and Hayley, Ester, Karolina and me are really good students. Ah well, Ester and Karolina are really good and Hayley and me fail a little bit more, but we can see the humor in it so that makes us good students as well! :-)
On Tuesday I also went out for lunch at Rosegarden. It was recommended to me by my Chinese friend Cody, because at Rosergarden they serve typical Chinese dishes. Not the typical Chinese dishes you have in The Netherlands when you order Chinese food, but really authentic. I went there with my roommates Armand and Sergej and we had company from three lovely Chinese girls who had to tell us everything about the food and what was inside. It was really good and 95 SEK was a good price for what we got! :-)
Wednesday was again a day where it was all about food! In the afternoon we namely had the Food Safari. The Food Safari involved that you are going on safari through town searching for food. I was in a team with Alexandra, my Swedish friend. We had to make the starter at Cyklamen. Two other teams were invited to come and eat. We didn’t know who was coming, so that was excited. The only rule was that we couldn’t use pork meat in our dish, but that was not a problem since we both don’t like pork meat. Our dish was smoked salmon rolled in ‘tunnbröd’ with crème fresh to hold the roll together. We served it with a dry white wine, recommended by the lady of Systembolaget. Tack så mycket för det, it was a really good combination! For the main dish and for the desert we had to go to the city centre to have those dishes with complete strangers. A good thing was that we were done cooking for the night! It was really cosy and nice to meet new people in that way. It was a nice experience. :-) After the Food Safari we did a few dances in Aka, with ‘Ugly Heart’ as well! Thank you so much for that dance, Rafa! I will remember that song as our song haha. :-D When I was done dancing I went home, where I continued partying. Larisa’s birthday party was namely running. She welcomed me with the famous Romanian ‘sarmale’ and although I was not really hungry anymore it tasted good!
On Friday there was another Aka night. Everybody was there and it was a great night! :-D With not a lot of sleep that night I had to be awake really early for going to Göteborg on Saturday for the IFF World Championship Floorball with Merle, Chris, Krišs, Ilze, Sergej and Iris. We saw the matches between Germany and Finland, Sweden and Latvia and between Czech Republic and Norway. For me it was the first time that I was at such an important tournament. I’ve seen the ice hockey game in Jönköping of course, but the IFF World Championship Floorball was something special. Especially the match between Sweden and Latvia. Krišs and Ilze are from Latvia and they were all dressed up in red and white. The others, included me, were more dressed up with the free stuff we got there at the tournament and we were supporting for Sweden. Although Sweden won the match, Krišs and Ilze still wanted to hang out with us haha. In the break we went to the city centre to see what was happening there. The sky was really clear and Göteborg was really beautiful, although it was already almost dark at four o’clock. We visited a church and outside of the church there were people playing the story of Christmas. It was soo cute and amazing to see and it really gave me the Christmas feeling. With that story in my head and heart we went back to the tournament to watch the last match. I had an amazing time there with those lovely people around me. Around 21.00 the tournament was finished and after taking a few pictures we left the arena. Our bus was leaving at 23.15 and we were back in Jönköping at 01.30 with an amazing experience richer.
The next two weeks, what were also the last two weeks in Sweden before I left for Christmas, were all about examinations and spending time with and saying goodbye to everybody. Both parts were hard to do… It was hard to concentrate for my exams while there were so many activities and chances to see everybody for the last times… For example there was the ‘farewell mingle’ on Monday and the last party at Akademien on Wednesday. It was nice, but I didn’t have time for studying... Thank god there was Santa Lucia on Friday at university. Santa Lucia is a Swedish tradition and it is the celebration of the light. Normally it is celebrated on the 13th of December, but since this is on a Saturday the university decided to do the celebration at the university itself one day earlier. I had to wake up at 05.45 to catch the bus at 06.35, because the celebration began at 07.00. It was a really special celebration. Lucia had a tiara with candles on her head and all the other girls and boys held a candle in their hands. The whole HJ-Aulan was dark and that made it really cosy. Lucia and the others sang songs in Swedish and although I couldn’t understand what they were singing, it was beautiful. After the celebration (the celebration lasted for just half an hour :-|) I went studying with some friends and that was actually really nice since I didn’t touch my books for the past few weeks and since my exam was in that same afternoon… Hopefully I passed!
On Saturday I went to church to see the real Santa Lucia celebration. This service began really early as well, but after I had a nice brunch with some friends so that was great! When I went home in the afternoon my ‘hutspot’ was waiting for me. That evening we had our last Cyklamen supper and everybody had to bring some food. It was such an amazing night! I really love that combination of awesome people so much! We ate good food, drank milk and wine, shed some tears, gave speeches, wrote on everybody’s flags, played Frisbee in the dark and enjoyed being all together. It was a night to remember. :-)
On Sunday there was the last service before Christmas at church and of course I went there with Hayley to sing Christmas songs and enjoy the beautiful Swedish language. After the service we went together to Råslätt for another ’goodbye mingle’. On Monday there was another mingle and on Tuesday I had a few fika’s with different people and between the fika’s an examination as well… In the evening I went to the house of the French’s place to say goodbye to Grégoire and Máxime who were about to leave the day after. I’m going to miss those crazy French guys. :-( Wednesday was really similar to Tuesday. I had fika with Rafa in the morning, then an examination and after the examination I had another fika with Alexandra. Damn, what a life. They should have that fika-tradition in every country! It’s an amazing excuse to get out of the house and being social! :-D In the evening I was invited for the Spanish dinner in Råslätt. When I came there I realized that I was the only non-Spanish there and that made me feel soo damn special. It was amazing to see my friends try to keep their conversations in English, since it is really tempting to speak in Spanish all the time if 95% of the people know Spanish. :-P We were with a lot. I don’t actually know with how many we were… Wait, I want to be sure so I’m going to count: 1. Rafa, 2. María, 3. Carmen, 4. Marina, 5. Martin, 6. Daniel, 7. Óscar, 8. Mario, 9. Zeki, 10. Alberto, 11. Ángel, 12. Juan and 13. ME! Yes, we were with 13, the lucky number! :-) It was amazing! Marina, I adore your croquetas! Omnomnom and the other food as well of course, but I normally don’t like croquette-stuff, so that’s why it’s worth it to be mentioned!
The last weeks in Jönköping it felt like I was living in Råslätt. I was more there than in my own dorm haha. For example after the Spanish dinner/party. I slept there, went home in the afternoon and returned back to Råslätt for the pre-party for ID that night. It felt a bit weird to travel so much around the city, but on the other hand it’s also really nice to have a several homes in Sweden. But well, on Thursday there was the final ID party. As I said I went to Råslätt for the pre-party and around 21.00 we went to ID to get a stamp to continue pre-partying at Delta-house. The party was JALEO, yes really crazy! Everybody enjoyed themselves in the company of great friends. When the party was over, I felt really sad. I realized that I was going home the next day and that this was the last time that I was able to see a lot of people… Again tears were shed, but it was not a ‘goodbye’, but a ‘see you later’. The first period will be hard to not have those amazing people around me and my return to Jönköping in January is not going to be easy, but I’m sure that the paths of a lot of people will cross mine again in the future. :-)
Well, so, on Friday it was time to say ‘see you later’ to Jönköping. It was time to go home for Christmas. Nobody knew that I was coming and that gave me a really excited feeling. My roommate Armand drove me to the airport in Småland and everything went okay. At my destionation, Düsseldorf-Weeze, another friend was already waiting for me. It was really weird to hear Dutch around me all the time and to speak Dutch myself as well… Sjoerd brought me home and for the people who didn’t see the movie yet, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITiHqIONAls.
Here in The Netherlands the weather sucks again… It is raining all day long, and if it’s snowing for a day, the snow is really wet… I didn’t have the chance to build a snowman yet. :-( I’m enjoying myself pretty well. If I can borrow dad’s car, I can go anywhere I want, since my public transport card isn’t working nowadays. That’s great! It’s weird to be at home, because since I live in Sweden I see my home in The Netherlands as ‘my second home’ or better said as ‘my parents’ home’. I know it’s weird, but it’s true. Both Christmas days were amazing! The whole family came and we ordered Chinese food (not as Chinese as the food they serve at Rosegarden, but Chinese enough for me) and that was good!
I also hang out a lot with friends what is nice, but it is also weird to realize that their lives went also on as well without me here… It’s okay, but it is sometimes hard to realize. Since I’m home I also discover who really missed me and who didn’t. That’s quite interesting to see. The people who missed me want to see me, want to hang out with me and invite me for things. Thanks for that, guys. I missed you too! And the others, well, thank you for liking my Facebook photo’s haha. :-) I’m looking forward to the time I still have here before I’m going back to Sweden. I have the feeling that I’m on holiday here in The Netherlands and that’s amazing. The fridge is always full and my new bed is big and really soft! Next week I’m going to Paris for the weekend with Danielle. Some people think it’s weird that I’m not going to spend all the time with my parents, but that is quite boring you know. They are working and I cannot go everywhere because I don’t have a public transport card. Also it’s a nice opportunity to see something more of the world with such a great friend who has a passion for traveling as well!
So, that was basically my story! When I’m back from Paris I will update you again about my excited holiday here in The Netherlands!
God jul och gott nytt år!
Okay, that’s not correct because Christmas is already over, but I wish you the best in 2015. Make it rock! :-)
Finally I’m on Dutch ground again! I flew back to The Netherlands for Christmas as a surprise for my family and they really appreciated it. But before I’m going to tell you everything about the ‘moment suprême’ I first want to take you back to my last weeks in Jönköping, what was all about saying goodbye to everyone and exams.
After I came back from Lapland, I was really tired. But a lot of activities were on the planning, so I kept going on being busy. On Sunday I went to church with my Australian friend Hayley. The church is called Connect Church and it’s kind of similar to a Pentecost or Evangelical church. Hayley was already going to the services there for one month and a half, so she knew a lot of people there. That was very useful, because the whole services there are in Swedish. And since my Swedish is not that good yet, it was very useful to know people who were willing to translate everything what was said. It was an amazing experience! The people were so open and so nice. I always thought that all Swedes were a little bit reserved, but the people I met at church were the opposite of that. I think that is because they want to look like Jesus and Jesus also wanted everyone to feel at home with him. I immediately felt at home there at church. The people I met invited me to their homes to have fika someday and another girl asked me if I wanted to come to their street dance club on Tuesday. Of course I said yes! And so I went there on Tuesday. We were supposed to meet in the city centre at 19.30. I wanted to take the bus at 19.25, but I was late so I missed the bus… The next bus was coming in 10 minutes, so it was not a big problem. At some point I’ve found out that I forgot my bus card at home so I ran like crazy back home to get it and of course… I think you can already guess what happened… Yes, I missed the bus again. :-( I felt so stupid. It was already 19.35 and the next bus was coming at 19.45, what meant that I was going to be half an hour late… At that point I decided to do something really excited: I went hitchhiking! :-D I’ve never done that before on my own, so I was kind of nervous and with every car what was passing by I felt kind of relieved that it didn’t stop haha. I’m such a pussy sometimes. After attempt 10 one car stopped. A girl asked me where I had to go. I told her that I had to go to the city centre and she brought me there. It was soo nice, and I was just 15 minutes late instead of 30! It was an adventure itself, but it was awesome. Also the street dance evening was cool. Jennifer is a really good teacher and Hayley, Ester, Karolina and me are really good students. Ah well, Ester and Karolina are really good and Hayley and me fail a little bit more, but we can see the humor in it so that makes us good students as well! :-)
On Tuesday I also went out for lunch at Rosegarden. It was recommended to me by my Chinese friend Cody, because at Rosergarden they serve typical Chinese dishes. Not the typical Chinese dishes you have in The Netherlands when you order Chinese food, but really authentic. I went there with my roommates Armand and Sergej and we had company from three lovely Chinese girls who had to tell us everything about the food and what was inside. It was really good and 95 SEK was a good price for what we got! :-)
Wednesday was again a day where it was all about food! In the afternoon we namely had the Food Safari. The Food Safari involved that you are going on safari through town searching for food. I was in a team with Alexandra, my Swedish friend. We had to make the starter at Cyklamen. Two other teams were invited to come and eat. We didn’t know who was coming, so that was excited. The only rule was that we couldn’t use pork meat in our dish, but that was not a problem since we both don’t like pork meat. Our dish was smoked salmon rolled in ‘tunnbröd’ with crème fresh to hold the roll together. We served it with a dry white wine, recommended by the lady of Systembolaget. Tack så mycket för det, it was a really good combination! For the main dish and for the desert we had to go to the city centre to have those dishes with complete strangers. A good thing was that we were done cooking for the night! It was really cosy and nice to meet new people in that way. It was a nice experience. :-) After the Food Safari we did a few dances in Aka, with ‘Ugly Heart’ as well! Thank you so much for that dance, Rafa! I will remember that song as our song haha. :-D When I was done dancing I went home, where I continued partying. Larisa’s birthday party was namely running. She welcomed me with the famous Romanian ‘sarmale’ and although I was not really hungry anymore it tasted good!
On Friday there was another Aka night. Everybody was there and it was a great night! :-D With not a lot of sleep that night I had to be awake really early for going to Göteborg on Saturday for the IFF World Championship Floorball with Merle, Chris, Krišs, Ilze, Sergej and Iris. We saw the matches between Germany and Finland, Sweden and Latvia and between Czech Republic and Norway. For me it was the first time that I was at such an important tournament. I’ve seen the ice hockey game in Jönköping of course, but the IFF World Championship Floorball was something special. Especially the match between Sweden and Latvia. Krišs and Ilze are from Latvia and they were all dressed up in red and white. The others, included me, were more dressed up with the free stuff we got there at the tournament and we were supporting for Sweden. Although Sweden won the match, Krišs and Ilze still wanted to hang out with us haha. In the break we went to the city centre to see what was happening there. The sky was really clear and Göteborg was really beautiful, although it was already almost dark at four o’clock. We visited a church and outside of the church there were people playing the story of Christmas. It was soo cute and amazing to see and it really gave me the Christmas feeling. With that story in my head and heart we went back to the tournament to watch the last match. I had an amazing time there with those lovely people around me. Around 21.00 the tournament was finished and after taking a few pictures we left the arena. Our bus was leaving at 23.15 and we were back in Jönköping at 01.30 with an amazing experience richer.
The next two weeks, what were also the last two weeks in Sweden before I left for Christmas, were all about examinations and spending time with and saying goodbye to everybody. Both parts were hard to do… It was hard to concentrate for my exams while there were so many activities and chances to see everybody for the last times… For example there was the ‘farewell mingle’ on Monday and the last party at Akademien on Wednesday. It was nice, but I didn’t have time for studying... Thank god there was Santa Lucia on Friday at university. Santa Lucia is a Swedish tradition and it is the celebration of the light. Normally it is celebrated on the 13th of December, but since this is on a Saturday the university decided to do the celebration at the university itself one day earlier. I had to wake up at 05.45 to catch the bus at 06.35, because the celebration began at 07.00. It was a really special celebration. Lucia had a tiara with candles on her head and all the other girls and boys held a candle in their hands. The whole HJ-Aulan was dark and that made it really cosy. Lucia and the others sang songs in Swedish and although I couldn’t understand what they were singing, it was beautiful. After the celebration (the celebration lasted for just half an hour :-|) I went studying with some friends and that was actually really nice since I didn’t touch my books for the past few weeks and since my exam was in that same afternoon… Hopefully I passed!
On Saturday I went to church to see the real Santa Lucia celebration. This service began really early as well, but after I had a nice brunch with some friends so that was great! When I went home in the afternoon my ‘hutspot’ was waiting for me. That evening we had our last Cyklamen supper and everybody had to bring some food. It was such an amazing night! I really love that combination of awesome people so much! We ate good food, drank milk and wine, shed some tears, gave speeches, wrote on everybody’s flags, played Frisbee in the dark and enjoyed being all together. It was a night to remember. :-)
On Sunday there was the last service before Christmas at church and of course I went there with Hayley to sing Christmas songs and enjoy the beautiful Swedish language. After the service we went together to Råslätt for another ’goodbye mingle’. On Monday there was another mingle and on Tuesday I had a few fika’s with different people and between the fika’s an examination as well… In the evening I went to the house of the French’s place to say goodbye to Grégoire and Máxime who were about to leave the day after. I’m going to miss those crazy French guys. :-( Wednesday was really similar to Tuesday. I had fika with Rafa in the morning, then an examination and after the examination I had another fika with Alexandra. Damn, what a life. They should have that fika-tradition in every country! It’s an amazing excuse to get out of the house and being social! :-D In the evening I was invited for the Spanish dinner in Råslätt. When I came there I realized that I was the only non-Spanish there and that made me feel soo damn special. It was amazing to see my friends try to keep their conversations in English, since it is really tempting to speak in Spanish all the time if 95% of the people know Spanish. :-P We were with a lot. I don’t actually know with how many we were… Wait, I want to be sure so I’m going to count: 1. Rafa, 2. María, 3. Carmen, 4. Marina, 5. Martin, 6. Daniel, 7. Óscar, 8. Mario, 9. Zeki, 10. Alberto, 11. Ángel, 12. Juan and 13. ME! Yes, we were with 13, the lucky number! :-) It was amazing! Marina, I adore your croquetas! Omnomnom and the other food as well of course, but I normally don’t like croquette-stuff, so that’s why it’s worth it to be mentioned!
The last weeks in Jönköping it felt like I was living in Råslätt. I was more there than in my own dorm haha. For example after the Spanish dinner/party. I slept there, went home in the afternoon and returned back to Råslätt for the pre-party for ID that night. It felt a bit weird to travel so much around the city, but on the other hand it’s also really nice to have a several homes in Sweden. But well, on Thursday there was the final ID party. As I said I went to Råslätt for the pre-party and around 21.00 we went to ID to get a stamp to continue pre-partying at Delta-house. The party was JALEO, yes really crazy! Everybody enjoyed themselves in the company of great friends. When the party was over, I felt really sad. I realized that I was going home the next day and that this was the last time that I was able to see a lot of people… Again tears were shed, but it was not a ‘goodbye’, but a ‘see you later’. The first period will be hard to not have those amazing people around me and my return to Jönköping in January is not going to be easy, but I’m sure that the paths of a lot of people will cross mine again in the future. :-)
Well, so, on Friday it was time to say ‘see you later’ to Jönköping. It was time to go home for Christmas. Nobody knew that I was coming and that gave me a really excited feeling. My roommate Armand drove me to the airport in Småland and everything went okay. At my destionation, Düsseldorf-Weeze, another friend was already waiting for me. It was really weird to hear Dutch around me all the time and to speak Dutch myself as well… Sjoerd brought me home and for the people who didn’t see the movie yet, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITiHqIONAls.
Here in The Netherlands the weather sucks again… It is raining all day long, and if it’s snowing for a day, the snow is really wet… I didn’t have the chance to build a snowman yet. :-( I’m enjoying myself pretty well. If I can borrow dad’s car, I can go anywhere I want, since my public transport card isn’t working nowadays. That’s great! It’s weird to be at home, because since I live in Sweden I see my home in The Netherlands as ‘my second home’ or better said as ‘my parents’ home’. I know it’s weird, but it’s true. Both Christmas days were amazing! The whole family came and we ordered Chinese food (not as Chinese as the food they serve at Rosegarden, but Chinese enough for me) and that was good!
I also hang out a lot with friends what is nice, but it is also weird to realize that their lives went also on as well without me here… It’s okay, but it is sometimes hard to realize. Since I’m home I also discover who really missed me and who didn’t. That’s quite interesting to see. The people who missed me want to see me, want to hang out with me and invite me for things. Thanks for that, guys. I missed you too! And the others, well, thank you for liking my Facebook photo’s haha. :-) I’m looking forward to the time I still have here before I’m going back to Sweden. I have the feeling that I’m on holiday here in The Netherlands and that’s amazing. The fridge is always full and my new bed is big and really soft! Next week I’m going to Paris for the weekend with Danielle. Some people think it’s weird that I’m not going to spend all the time with my parents, but that is quite boring you know. They are working and I cannot go everywhere because I don’t have a public transport card. Also it’s a nice opportunity to see something more of the world with such a great friend who has a passion for traveling as well!
So, that was basically my story! When I’m back from Paris I will update you again about my excited holiday here in The Netherlands!
God jul och gott nytt år!
Okay, that’s not correct because Christmas is already over, but I wish you the best in 2015. Make it rock! :-)
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