Blöta Julgranar - Update
It seems like we've celebrated a new holiday in between every time I write on my blog. That could mean one out of two things, One - I'm not very good at updating my blog or Two - I'm not very good at updating my blog. Sorry about that, but time is just going by so fast (I'm mean I've been here for over a year now- crazy) and I never seem to have time to sit down to write. But here we go!
So last time I wrote was after Halloween sometime, and now it's been Christmas and New Years. Christmas time is a cozy time to be in New York. There is so much decorations and music everywhere you go. Even though my hostfamily does not celebrate Christmas so much, I think it was a very nice time anyway. And we did open some presents in the morning the 25:th, and also had a nice dinner with the cousins that was here for a visit during the winter break. The kids and I made gingerbread houses and insted of a christmas tree we had a penguin mountain. And because my hostfamily is so thougtful and was thinking I might miss Christmas, so therefore they got me a Christmas Flower and a Santa Claus to decorate my room. And one evening we went to one of the most holiday decorated neighbourhoods in Brooklyn and just walked around enjoying the amazing work they put in to give their houses that special holiday touch.
My Christmasflower
Decorations in town
Finally we got some snow
Christmas Trees for sale
Dinner on the 25th of December
Putting my gingerbreadhouse together
My Santa Claus that I got from my hostfamily
Walking around in the neighbourhood and our gingerbread houses
One of the most decorated houses in Brooklyn
Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you that I went to see Lucia in Manhattan. I was feeling a little bit sad about missing it and when I saw that the Swedish Church of New York were going to have a Lucia I just had to go! To go you had to go in to the church on Manhattan to buy tickets. Which I of course did. And to make me feel better I actually did write a text to post here, but it never made it, so here it comes. It is in Swedish because I wrote it in Swedish and I'm to lazy to translate.
Idag var jag till Svenska Kyrkan i NYC och fixade Lucia biljetter! Det var första gången som jag var där. Det var lite konstig att alla pratade svenska där, jag hade av någon anledning inte förväntat det. På andra ställen här i New York som säger sig vara svenskt har dem som jobbat där alltid bara pratat engelska. Så när jag klev in i Svenska Kyrkan och någon sa -hej, blev det hjärnsläpp för Sara som efter en stunds tänkande också fick fram ett hej. I Brooklyn umgås jag inte med någon svensk utan de flesta av mina vänner kommer antingen från Amerika eller andra länder. Så 98% av tiden pratar jag engelska. När jag pratar med familjen hemma ändrar jag väldigt lätt till svenska, men av någon anledning så varje gång jag pratar med svenskar här är det som att allt går så segt i huvudet, som om jag måste tänka varje ord jag säger. Det känns som jag pratar sådär sakta som när man pratar med en gammal människa. Absolut som svårast är när jag pratar med någon som har en annan dialekt än jag. Då blir det som jag glömmer bort hur jag själv säger orden och så låter det bara helt fel. På Svenska Kyrkan hade dem något som hette ung svensk i New York, en grupp med ungdomar som träffas varje Söndag. Så om jag har tid så tror jag att jag ska försöka ta mig dit någon gång. Dem sa det var många Au Pairer där.
Then there was New Years Eve. The day was spent on the skating rink in Brooklyn and in the evening I went in to Manhattan after I toasted with my hostfamily. I met up with Ninni and we went to Times Square to experience the crazy New Years Eve celebration that you most likely only will do one time in your life. We were not expecting to actually see anything because you have to spend at least your whole day in Times Square to even get close to the so called balldrop, but we got both fireworks and confetti and the atmosphere was awesome! And then I have this fun story I was thinking I would share about my New Years Eve.
First I have to describe how it works when they let people in to even get close to the balldrop. So it starts in the middle of Times Square and as it is filled with people the police close off around them and put up fences so people wont get all squashed. And to get in you have to find the place were they are letting people in at the moment. Fortunately we were able to find one of those places. Then they pack everybody in this line and you're almost standing on other peoples feet it is so crowded. So as we're standing and walking very slowly towards the place we're the police do a search to make sure you're not wearing anything illegal I can feel something under my foot. My first thought was that it was some kind of New Years Eve glasses or something like that. Because we've seen people selling those and funny hats all over on the way to Times Square and we've said that we should by something, but realized it was to late when we were stuck in line. So I say "Yay free New Years Eve stuff!" But as we both look down to see what great decorations can possible hide under my foot we do not see anything similiar to glasses or hats.. Under my foot lays a knife, and not one of those that you have in your kitchen, more likely something one person would bring going in to the woods I would think. At first we're just laughing because it's just so absurd and so New York. Of course someone brought their knife for the New Years Eve celebration and then just decided to drop it when they realize that the police will search you before you're let in. Our first thought is to just leave it there but as we think about we came to the conclusion that it might be a bad idea. What if someone with bad intentions were to pick it up, they would be able to do a lot of harm because there is nowhere for the people around to go, it is so crowed. So our solution ended up being my friend pushing this knife under her foot all the way until we get to the police. And when it is her turn, she says -"I have something that we found in the crowd." And the policeofficer says in the kind of tone only policeofficer speaks that can make you nervous even when you haven't done anything wrong -"What?" And she pushes the knife under her foot towards him. He picks it up and walks away and leaves my friend just standing there. When he comes back he's brought other policeofficers with him. We could hear the police officer telling them - "This little girl found this one in line" and their reactions were kind of wow, and hmmm... and then they started walking towards people standing in line. I'm thinking to make an extra check. And then when the police officer comes back my friend is finally alowed to walk in. Phew.. We we're a little bit afraid if they we're not going to belive us or something and we've had to leave. But that did not happen and we get to enjoy a fun New Years Eve in the masses around Times Square.
This year so far has been very busy as last year. I had one year dinner with my friends that arrived to the States the same time as I did, I've been out with friends and meeting new ones. I just recently signed up for two courses, one with a tour to Philadelphia were you get to learn about the Amish culture, wich I'm really looking forward to and also one one on Long Island were I'm going to learn about Marketing and Social Media and hopefully that will be usefull in the future. Lately I've been feeling a bit handy so I turned my halloween skirt into a nice background light curtain that i hung up behind my bed, great for reading books.
Before going out with friends
My halloween skirt turned into this
Och and I almost forgot to tell you about why I chosed the title Blöta Julgranar (Wet Christmas Trees), the reason why is that I realized that is the scent that makes me think of New York, that is what New York is to me. And this is because when I came here one year ago it was at that time when people were taking out their Christmas Trees and putting them on the sidewalk. And this was one of the first smells that I got to know when I got here. Just got some flashbacks of feelings walking outside lately.
