Misha in Sweden: We're Getting Bigger, People

I just received mail from my friend at YFU that my blog has been posted on their website - in three places! Besides that, the YFU worldwide Facebook page also shared my blog plus an excerpt on their wall, which I wasn't aware of until it was pointed out to me. Again, I am so surprised and so humbled to be included in YFU at an even higher level than I already am. What a fantastic organization, to care enough about their students to follow their progress through a public blog. A big thanks to my dad for helping me to edit my posts and also of course to my family and friends who diligently keep up with my posts. I couldn't have dreamed of a better support system.

Speaking of which, my two biggest fans, my parents, totally made my week yesterday when I received a big birthday package! My birthday is technically next week, but I couldn't wait to open it. My host parents gathered around the kitchen table as I opened my gift and got more and more excited with every last thing that the cardboard released. My parents sent some of my favorite candies, like Resee's (which you cannot find here) and Snickers and York Peppermint Patties, as well as my favorite Japanese foods (I don't know how they possibly found them!) including some candy and furikake (rice seasoning) and toasted sesame seeds. But wait, there's more - I got duplicates of my favorite cosmetics as well as an iTunes gift card that will be cherished almost as much as the heavenly fuzzy socks and ten, I'm dead serious ten, varieties of herbal teas.

If that's not love, I don't know what is. The goods just kept on coming until the table was covered and I was literally jumping up and down with glee. My father's masterful packing skills utilized every square inch of that box and filled it deeper and deeper with the best collection of gifts I could dream of. My birthday is still a week away, but I can already say it is starting to be a very sweet sixteen indeed.

A couple days ago, my host dad came home from a business trip in Stockholm and he brought us all a sweet surprise. Vegard and Eva got chocolate, but I got an even better gift of mate tea! Lars had seen a tea shop and chose likely the most perfect tea I can think to find in Sweden. I had no idea that mate could be found here in Scandinavia, so far away from South America. Mate holds a soft place in my heart, so I had lots of great memories flooding in with the aroma. One of my best friends, Melissa, has roots in Argentina which is a country that drinks mate as a part of the culture. When I started going over to her house after school, her mom would include me in the tradition of drinking mate from a sort of small clay pot with a metal straw coming out. The tea is very earthy, bordering on bitter, so of course I immediately loved it. I've never been one for fruity teas - I personally find them pretentious. Anyways, there is a sort of beauty to the process of drinking mate that makes it all the more special. It is a social institution from South America, so there is an almost ritualistic component of the act that is delicate and specific. There is a very precise temperature for the water to be and a very special way to layer the mate tea with the water and the sugar; even a special way to share it. Some of my favorite memories have come about from sitting around that table with Melissa and her mom, listening to 80's music and drinking the mate that burned my unprepared tongue. I obviously didn't have the right equipment here in Sweden, but the precious tea was an ambrosial relief.

In my three and a half months or so in the Landrö household, I have more than doubled the collection of teas sitting in the cupboard. No one really drinks tea in the house, Vegard thinks it's just dirty water, and the teas they had before I came have been sadly neglected. Being energized from a cup of mate (which luckily, no one likes so it is all mine) and overjoyed with the package I had just received, I channeled my energy and took over the kitchen. The result was several drawers and cupboards meticulously cleaned and organized. It started when I needed to make room on the shelf for all the new additions to the tea family, and then just escalated from there. My mind was abuzz and I couldn't be stopped. Several hours later, I was giving Lars and Eva a tour of THEIR kitchen and went downstairs to organize my room since I wasn't quite done yet. The day ended on a high, albeit exhausted, note that I got to enjoy messaging another of my best friends, Annie.

I've had a lovely week and I hope everyone else has as well! Here are the links to the places my blog can be found on the YFU Sweden website. If there might be a slight chance you aren't well read in Swedish, perhaps you can recognize my name (although it is spelled incorrectly in some parts...):

http://www.yfu.se/content/bloggar

http://www.yfu.se/content/swedish-stories

http://www.yfu.se/content/bli-värdfamilj