I regret it. Spending most of my time locked up in hotel room 521, I mean. Although, I’m using the cold and the IB as an excuse, I am still disappointed in my own will to be curious. I forgot the purpose of TGS for a little bit. I focused on getting work done and not so much on having an adventure while I was there. I was in a foreign city, yet unmotivated to explore it. It could very well also have been the unappetizing meals, weeks of having a cold, and unfriendly faces of strangers, in addition to the dreary weather, but still, that was not a good enough excuse.
Sadly, it was not until the near of the end of the term that I actually realized I had not spent too much time out of the authentic Swedish hotel, by the time it was almost too late. The day I recognized my focus was more on the IB than travel was Sunday, November 15. Mayoya had booked a time for a group of students to do a glassblowing workshop in Skansen. Mayoya lead us and we ended up taking the right trolley, but in the wrong direction, so we made it to the end of the line when the driver told us we had gone the wrong way, so we waited, watching the action of the city out the window before he drove the opposite way. While we road, we were trying to figure out why there were so many people lined up outside closed windows and we realized as soon as we saw Santa riding in his sleigh, that it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Stockholm, even though it was still oddly warm. It was the first time I had ever heard of the area and it ended up being a very cute old fashioned town to represent the industrializing Sweden. There was a bakery, a petting zoo, shoemaker, and much more to do when it wasn’t a Sunday afternoon, the day most things were closed.
We learned how the little glass trinkets were made by dipping a metal rod in the melted glass in the boiling oven into the color and then into a hole to create the stripes. We then were able to use the tweezers to stretch the goo while it hardened to form a flowerlike shape. I was the first to go and I didn’t realize how hard I had to pull or how quickly the glass cooled, so it didn’t turn out the best, but at least I got to make something.
After that early start to the morning, I tagged along with Ayesha and Mayoya, who were planning on staying out for a day of adventure, procrastinating work like me. So, we decided to go back towards the action of Santa, which we saw earlier that day. Of course we got on the wrong tram again and said we would take whatever came next in the right direction, which was an old fashioned trolley. We got on and once again watched the city until we got to our destination.
We were offered heart shaped ginger bread cookies and hot tea before entering the mall to see Santa. We then went to have lunch, and what better than to have a nice cultural Swedish lunch than at TGI Fridays, a restaurant neither Ayesha or Mayoya had ever been. We shared a couple starters and milkshakes, since it was a bit over our stipend. We though about dine and dashing, but left the money on the table and spontaneously walked upon an outdoor ice skating rink. Skates were only 30 krona to rent, which is about $3, so we went for it. We kept telling ourselves that we were acting like true TGS students that day. After teaching the two people who come from hot homes how to skate, Gillian, Galek, and Ana showed up. I skated for a total of two and a half hours that day and couldn’t have been any happier.
Everybody left to go back home, except for me and Gillian, the little figure skater she is. We walked around Kunsträgården and into the city. We came across a very fancy looking café called Wienercaféet for the best homemade hot chocolate we had ever had. It was totally worth the 55 krona. I also had a toscabulle, which is a cinnamon roll with almonds and it was delicious.
I successfully stayed out in Stockholm all day long. Gillian and I were earlier to meet Southland for dinner at the Hairy Pig, but nobody wanted to go back to the ice skating rink after dinner with me, so I went home after a long day of adventure, and by home I mean the Quality Hotel to room 521 where I told Grace all about my day of nothing but fun.
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