Gasque

February 25th, 2011

In Sweden, they don’t have proms- they have gasques. Gasques are so much better in many ways. First of all, it’s a great excuse to get dressed up, eat, drink and dance. Secondly, gasques contain many Swedish traditions.

Gasques occur all the time and each one has a different theme. My first (and so far my only) gasque was the international student gasque. It was on a Friday in February and we had it at V-Dala Nation.

When we first arrived at V-Dala, we had a champagne cocktail hour. I think we were supposed to have only one glass of champagne each, but we arrived a little early and I think Taylor and I both ended up having at least 3 or 4 before dinner. The international student gasque is supposedly the largest gasque held on campus each year. I definitely believe this because it seemed like every friend I had made in the last month was there. We filled up all of V-Dala nation, and they have one of the biggest nation houses.

Even though there were a lot of us, we still had random assigned seats. I think it’s pretty typical to have assigned seats but I also think they did this so that all the exchange students could meet more people. I was at the end of the table and sitting next to two people I already knew. I was sitting across from Devin, an ISU student and right next to Josh. Josh is a Boston College student from Michigan. He also happens to be a part of Uplands nation as well. He’s really reserved and I don’t think he likes me very much.

After the champagne cocktail hour, it was time to be seated. We had to wait at our chairs until everyone was there to be seated. When we sat down, our places had been set. The interesting thing about gasques is that a lot of alcohol is served. So when we sat down, we had 6 different glasses and a beer already waiting for us. The appetizer was already there as well; we had reindeer meat. I was a little nervous to try it at first but once I tried it, I finished the whole plate.

Before we could eat, there was speech by the student who had organized the gasque. There was also a speech by the two presidents of the International Student Committee or something like that. Both were really funny. The first one was funny because he told really bad jokes. The second one was funny because apparently it’s tradition to give an ironic speech on the Swedish people’s modesty. So they gave a speech about how everything good in life was a direct result of a Swede or a Viking (no doubt).

After the reindeer appetizer, I had my first taste of true Swedish schnapps and the correct way to “cheers” during a gasque. They first came around and poured everyone a shot of schnapps. Everyone then sings a song in Swedish, and “cheers” in a certain order. Guys and girls “cheers” differently (which, by the way, was why we were sitting boy-girl). For girls, I believe you cheers to the person to your right first, then the person across from you, then to the person on your left. After this, you drink half your shot of schnapps. Then, you go in different order. You “cheers” to the left, then right, and then center. I could be getting this completely wrong. Since there was no one sitting to the right of me, I only had to cheers to two people. Also, I did this about 10 times over the course of 7 or so drinks that I was served throughout the 4 hour dinner.

For the record, in Sweden, you never clink glasses with anyone you cheers with (it’s bad luck). It’s also proper to look each person in the eyes. Finally, the word for cheers in Swedish is “skål,” which is pronounced something like “skull.”

Schnapps, as it turns out, is disgusting. I’m not really a big fan of hard liquor anyways, but schnapps tastes like hot gasoline spiced with black licorice. Some people really like it; it must be an acquired taste.

Then came dinner. We had a moose steak with whipped potatoes. I have also never had moose before but that was really good as well. Everyone also got a glass of wine, water and a bottle of beer with dinner.

We also had entertainment throughout dinner. There was a band, a choir, and a few other student groups that did some presentations. Somewhere in the middle of that, we were served a second glass of wine and yet another shot of schnapps.

Point of Interest: A friend of a friend of friend or something had told Taylor, Ryan and I that the amount of booze served during dinner “wasn’t enough” So we all had bought two extra drinks on top of what was already served. We had the choice of schnapps or avec and I bought one extra a piece. This was of course, without knowing that 6 drinks for light-weight Karlea would quite enough. I’m pretty sure I traded a girl at my table my extra schnapps for her beer and I ended up giving the extra avec away to Kevin later.

Dessert was wonderful, too. It was raspberry cheesecake. Coffee was of course served with it as well. A few minutes after this, the avecs were served. Avec is a Swedish word that translates to something like “after-dinner drink.” Sometimes it’s schnapps, but it’s usually a shot of some sort of sweet liquor. I choose Bailey’s for my avec and that went pretty well with my coffee.

After dinner, there was more singing. We were standing on chairs, dancing around and lots of clapping to the beat of the band. I thought it was hilarious because it’s such a formal dinner and then all of a sudden people are singing songs in bad Swedish while jumping up and down. I tried to take a video of all of this and I’ll try to put it up. It’s hard to see what’s going on but you can hear everyone trying to sing anyways.

When the formal dinner ended, the gasque was technically over. However, there was of course the after-party. The after-party had a live band for an hour, a DJ and a separate room that had karaoke. The live band was good but they had a really odd selection in music (that is another post for another day). Devin and I happened to stumble upon the karaoke room early in the night and sang “Party in the USA.”

The rest of the night was just filled with dancing, meeting new people and hanging out with the good company. The after-party was open until really late but I was really tired after everything that night. Kevin and I ended up leaving in order to get some MAX Burger and to catch the last bus out of downtown in time.

Overall, the gasque was such a success; I really hope we find a good time to attend at least one more before we leave.

Rome Part 2

Saturday seemed like it could have been a promising day. I somehow convinced Aaron (who is not the biggest fan of the Catholic Church) to make a trip to the Vatican City.

It was a sunny, pretty day and we spent a bit of time exploring the main center of the City. First things first, the line going into St. Peter’s Basilica was extremely long. Not knowing much, we assumed this was the only way to get into the museum, the church and the Sistine Chapel. So it was either wait in the huge long line, turn around and go back to Rome or... there were several people offering guided tours of the museum and everything. They said it cost about 20€ to get in, but if we took a tour with them, we could cut the line, learn a few things while walking through and that it was only 30€ in total.

So... that’s really expensive. At that point, I really wanted to go in and going all the way to Rome without visiting the center of the religion I grew up with seemed dumb. We agreed to the tour and then followed our tour guide around to the real entrance of the museum. The museum had no line. Once you were in the museum, it led you through the Sistine Chapel and then directly to St. Peter’s. No lines through any of that. On top of that, since we were students, the cost to get into the museum was only 8€....and we ended up paying 20€ for the guided tour. We definitely got screwed over. Our flakey tour guide also proved to have minimal knowledge.

During the 4 hours it took to go through everything, we got to see a lot. I actually really enjoyed the museum. The Sistine Chapel was amazing. I thought it was really strange though because visitors cannot take pictures of the ceiling (even though many people were). Apparently it’s copyrighted.
St. Peter’s Basilica was enormous and really beautiful as well. I didn’t get to see the Pope but I did manage to get really creeped out that I was standing next to an old dead embalmed Pope in the Basilica.

After our adventures in the Vatican City, we went to the Trevi Fountain. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be for some reason. I tossed in one Swedish crown, of course. We didn’t spend a long time there; although looking back, I wish we would have. It was my favorite place we saw in Rome.

Saturday was such a long day. Aaron and I didn’t even bother looking for a new restaurant for dinner. We went back to the one we discovered the previous night. We actually ended up sitting awkwardly close to the couple next to us and one of their meals looked divine. So I did one of those, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

I think mine was called something like “Penne alla Minerva.” Minerva being a Roman goddess, I think the name suited the dish really well. It was a large plate of pasta covered in gorgonzola, garlic, mushrooms and parmesan. It was our last night in Rome and I think it was well spent drinking the house wine and eating my weight in pasta. We even ordered tiramisu for dessert.
On Sunday, it was time to go back to Paris. Rome was interesting and I’m glad we went. However, I don’t think I will be going back to Rome anytime in the near future. I thought it was loud, dirty, historic and delicious.
When we got back to Paris, there wasn’t much to do on a Sunday night. We ended up seeing “The Social Network” at a small theater.

Monday was Valentine’s Day. It also happened to be sunny, warm and very beautiful outside. Aaron and I had a late lunch and just walked around Paris for a few hours. Then that night, instead of trying to fight the crowds in the restaurants, we attempted to recreate the “Minerva” pasta dish from Rome in Aaron’s small apartment kitchen. It turned out to be a successful dinner and a perfect day in Paris.

Rome Part I

I honestly cannot believe it has taken me this long to update and write. I went to Paris and Rome from February 9th- February 15th.

I flew into Paris on Wednesday night. It was one of the scariest flights of my life. The pilot was just about to land the plane when at the last second he pulled straight up and we had to circle around and try to land again. They said it was because there was a bad tail wind(?). Regardless, I finally got there and I had to take the RER and switch over and take the Metro to Aaron's apartment. I think I can officially work the Metro system better in Paris than I can in Chicago.

Thursday, Aaron and I got to walk around Paris a little bit. I'm pretty sure we had good old McDonald's for lunch and I had a cup of coffee because now that I live in Sweden, I have to have coffee at least once a day. Then we had to catch a bus to the Beauvais airport. It's about an hour outside of Paris. I hate this airport more than any other airport. It's far away and small and boring. I hope I never have to see it again.

The flight to Rome wasn't that long. Of course, we flew with RyanAir so we had to listen to 15 different advertisements for things that I don't care about. When we finally got to Rome, we had to get on another bus to get to the center of Rome. Then, it was about 11:45PM and we were in the middle of Rome with a suitcase and everything looked closed. Fortunately, we did find a cheap pizza place. My first taste of real Italian food!

I've actually been to Italy once already. I went to Venice for a day trip when I went to Europe in 2006 with a high school music group. For some odd reason, during the 10 hours I was in Venice, the only thing I managed to eat was McDonalds and french fries from a street vendor. Total Italian food fail.

After my first taste of Italian food, I had my first taste of Italian people. Aaron and I ended up taking a cab to our hotel. Even though it was not that far away from the train station, we didn't really know where we were going and it was midnight and there were lots of sirens going off. Our cab driver couldn't speak English and for some reason yelling Italian louder at us was supposed to make us understand better.

Then, we got to the hotel and the lady at the reception desk greeted us with, "Hi, you must be the Trautman reservation. We don't have a room for you."

....What?...

It wasn't until the manager walked over and explained that we would have a temporary room at the hotel next door due to "problems with the floor" in our original room. I still don't know what that means and honestly, I was afraid to ask.

Friday morning, we made an attempt to wake up in time for the free breakfast. After breakfast, we were kicked out of our temporary room. However, when we walked over to our hotel, we still didn't have a room. So the manager promised to lock up our bags, handed us a map and told us to have fun!

Do I sound bitter yet? It was a rough start. It did get better though.

After breakfast, we started to walk towards the Colosseum. When we finally got there, there were those pesky people that kept following us and trying to sell us cheap plastic jewelry. Then we saw the line. The long, long, long line to get into the Colosseum. We heard what the price was (I don’t think there was a student discount), and looked at the line... and decided that maybe the Colosseum wouldn’t make the itinerary for that day. We thought maybe we would go back, but we never did. I’ve seen pictures of the inside of the Colosseum and while it’s really historic and interesting, I’m also a poor college student who’s not really willing to spend more than $15 on a few pictures.

Lunch Time. Everyone definitely got a play-by-play on all the Swedish food I ate in Gothenburg, so no one’s escaping my delicious Italian food descriptions.

That day I got... pasta soaked in goodness. Ok, so I don’t remember what it was called. It was in Italian! But, I assure you, it was amazing. We sat at the outdoor restaurant for at least an hour because for one, it was sunny and warm in Rome. After being in Sweden and seeing the sun set at 3:30 PM, it was unbelievably nice to feel the sun again. The second reason we sat there for so long was because our waiter was this cute old man that walked like a penguin and kept forgetting our table existed.

Small story:

Aaron: I’ll have a Beck’s.

Waiter: ... Bud?

A: No, Beck’s.

W: Ahhh! Bud!

A: No, a Beck’s (points to menu).

W: Buck’s? (doesn’t look at menu)

A: Beck’s (points to menu again).

W: Ahhhh! Beck’s! (with an Italian accent).

Somehow the word for Beck’s isn’t the same in Italian as it is in English.

Friday had more walking, more taking pictures of buildings older than my country, and more dodging the annoying salesmen.

But dinner was amazing. In fact, I literally still have dreams about this restaurant. We had a late start to dinner, and we didn’t really know where to go. So Aaron and I took the advice of the receptionist and just started walking. We found a small restaurant with the TV set to soccer and wine bottles lining the shelves. Not only did this restaurant have the best food, but it was cheap.

The best part? The house wine was cheap, too.

It was so cheap that we both even ordered bread for an appetizer. Then for the main course, I had penne arrabiata. It was the largest, spiciest, more wonderful bowl of pasta I’ve ever had. We ended up drinking the red wine and slowly eating our food over the course of 3 hours.

Dear Italian restaurants in the United States: you’re doing it wrong.

Update

And like so many bloggers before me, I have failed to update in a really long time.

This is does not mean that I didn't have to time to update it or that I've been just way too busy to update... it just means most of the time, my thrilling plans of eating kräm and watching Pride and Prejudice for 26th time triumph over updating my blog.

And here comes the promise: I promise to update this weekend! I have a lot to cover (Paris, Rome, Riga, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and of course, more adventures in Uppsala) !

Before I go start to update from my trip to Rome, I have a funny story about Sweden...

I always manage to laugh when I go grocery shopping. I'm constantly on the hunt for things that I miss the most. So of course, I have that laugh, that isn't really a laugh, it's more of a WHY DON'T THEY SELL GATORADE IN SWEDEN laugh/cry. That's the first one. The second one is when they have literally have 3 rows of different brands and types of milk but to find just one jar of peanut butter (of even the weird off-brands) is absolutely impossible. I swear they move it every week. Finally, Swedes at the check out line. It's almost hard for me to write this and not laugh... You know that little plastic stick you put on the conveyor belt to separate your stuff from the person's food behind you? If you do not put that little plastic stick down immediately after you are finished putting your food on the belt, a Swedish person will get so mad at you. When I first got to Sweden, the lady behind me huffed really loudly and made a point to get the plastic stick and slam it down on the belt. Don't get me wrong, Swedes are a really nice group of people, but for some reason it really, really irritates them if your food isn't clearly separated from their food. It's funny too, because one of the times a Swede became upset with me, I was only buying a pint of milk and a banana for breakfast on the way to class. I'm fairly certain the checkout lady can figure out that I'm only buying two things.

Not sure if that's funny to anyone else but Taylor and me.

Prepare for updates!! <3

Upplands Nation!!

I am officially a member of the Upplands Nation!

Now, what is a nation?
According to Uppsala University’s website:
“The thirteen Student Nations are clubs dating back to the 17th century. Each nation bears the name of a certain region in Sweden and historically it was a club for students from that region.”

It used to be a rule that everyone who was a student at UU had to join a nation. It wasn’t until very recently that they no longer made it mandatory. However, I don’t know why you would not join one. Each Nation has a huge house that has a pub, a club, a restaurant, a library...pretty much anything you could ask for. They also have really great prices on the Big Three: food, coffee and alcohol.
Not every nation offers the same quality of things. Some are known for their weekend clubs, some for their delicious food and some boast a large selection of beer or boast a friendly fika atmosphere. Each nation also has groups of their own. Upplands, for example, has a brass band, a monthly magazine, a sports club and a theater group. Every Nation is different.

And no, a Nation is nothing like a fraternity or a sorority. Besides the fact that anyone can join any Nation they want, you can also participate in any Nation’s activities. Almost none of the activities are exclusive to “member’s only.” Even if a Nation has a Formal, called a Gasque in Sweden, anyone can go, members just get priority on the tickets.

Since we arrived to Uppsala, Taylor, Ryan and I have been trying to go to a different nation each time for lunch, fika, dancing or drinking in a pub. We tried to get a feel for each Nation. We waited until the last possible day to sign up for a nation because it was so hard to choose! Every time I would ask a Swede for advice they would say, “Don’t join this one because of this, this Nation is cool, this Nation isn’t....but it doesn’t really matter which one you choose.”

It’s true that it doesn’t “really” matter which nation you join. You should join the nation you plan to visit the most because members get discounts on cover to the clubs or maybe even food.

It really came down to same problem I had when choosing a sorority. Each one was the practically the same, only the people in them are different.

So we chose Upplands Nation because we knew the most people there. Every one is really friendly and we actually made Swedish friends there. (Texas and Sofia (the only two Swedish people I’ve mentioned so far) are in Upplands Nation).

So far, I love it and I’m really happy with my decision. Taylor and Ryan also joined Upplands Nation for the same reasons. I even got a free dinner and a free cup of coffee for joining!

Helsinki

It all started on a slow Sunday night in downtown Uppsala. Taylor, Ryan and I met this wonderful Swede named Texas. Yes, his name is Texas and no, he’s never been to Texas. But he also happens to be an American culture junkie. His knowledge is not only really entertaining but also really helpful when it comes to bridging the gap between all things Swedish and us. Upon meeting Texas, he could name all of Chicago’s sports teams, our mottos, our tourist attractions and even made fun of the Chicago Cubs.
Anyways, it was no wonder that Texas had the hook-up when it came to finding a place to watch the Bears vs. Packers game. We had met some Illinois State University students recently so we invited them and anyone who wanted to come, to watch the game with us.
Not many people go out on Sunday nights and the game didn’t start until 9 PM Swedish time. Needless to say, it was about 7 Americans, 1 Swede and 1 New Zealander in a completely empty bar watching the worst game ever. The only upside was that we didn’t have to deal with any Packers fans. But while talking to the ISU students, we made a wonderful discovery.

Apparently, there is a cruise ship that goes from Stockholm to Helsinki, Finland almost everyday and if you book the tickets last minute and you are a student, you can get the fare pretty cheap. It’s basically a “booze cruise.” It earned this nickname because onboard the ship all the alcohol and cigarettes are tax-free. This is amazing because Sweden has fixed-prices on their alcohol and it’s very expensive compared to alcohol pretty much anywhere else.
So we took the ISU students’ advice and booked a cruise. Here’s the best part: It only cost $5 US Dollars. $5 dollars per person got us a place to sleep. You’re supposed to buy the really expensive food on the ship... but we packed our bags with food and barely bought anything on the ship.
At first I was really nervous because I only spent $5.... so the ship must be deteriorating or really small or dirty or something. But when we got to the harbor in Stockholm, our boat was a big cruise ship. It was not unlike the cruise ship I took to Caribbean with family a couple of years ago.

We left on a Tuesday, partied and gambled all night on the boat, and when we woke up on Wednesday, we were in Finland. We only had about 8 hours onshore before we had to be back on the boat. But we got to see a lot of the city. First we found some really delicious and cheap food for lunch (I actually had Indian food for the first time ever...in Finland). Then we just started walking towards the big cathedral and just wandered around. It was actually a lot of fun because the cathedral was absolutely beautiful. It was so large you could see it from the harbor. We also ran into the Helsinki City Museum (which had free admission). When all of that was done, we had about two hours left before we needed to be back on the boat. We asked the nice museum staff for any advice and their advice was to get on one of the main tram lines and take it all the way around the city. It was the best advice ever. For about 3 Euro we saw every side of Helsinki in about one hour. We never would have known to do that and now I can’t wait to go back so we explore the other side of the city.
Wednesday night was just a repeat of the night before but when we woke up on Thursday morning, we were back in Stockholm.

Overall, Helsinki was a wonderful city. I really loved it. I’m really hoping we can repeat the cruise in the future (maybe when it’s a little warmer out).

Uppsala Update

I wish I had some really excellent excuse for my lack of an update. In reality, I’ve just been having too much fun running around Uppsala, hanging out with friends and sometimes just doing nothing.

I have a lot of free time. I’m a full time student at Uppsala University and I only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours each day. Granted, I’m not taking the hardest classes. I was trying to get into some international health classes that would go from 8AM-5PM for 4 days a week but somehow I didn’t get in to those classes. So I’m taking nothing but Swedish culture classes with other exchange students. I guess I really can’t complain.
Since I have all this free time, I’ve decided that I need to pick up a hobby or two while I’m here. First things first, I’m getting a gym membership. I literally have no excuse for that anymore. I also found an English Bookstore in downtown Uppsala. So I think my love of Uppsala’s coffee shops and the fact that I’m a few years behind in my reading might pair up nicely together. My friends and I also recently discovered the wonders of the sauna. Every building in Flogsta has a sauna on a the top floor. I think we will be taking advantage of that Nordic tradition quite often.

So I’m a little behind in updating but I’ll make separate entries about my trip to Finland and my nation! For all those people suffering in the blizzard in the Midwest, I think I have to tell you that it hasn’t snowed in Sweden in almost 2 weeks and today was a high of 38. And you thought I was crazy for wanting to go to Sweden...