Today’s New Swedish Experience: Ballerina Cookies

Today’s something new: Ballerina cookies…yum!

This past weekend was pretty easy going, which was nice since I was still recovering from Thursday night. I spent the first half of Saturday working on virtual school up until lunch. Afterwards, I helped Ebba get the house ready for her friends who were coming over later that night. When they arrived a little later, we talked a bit, ate some delicious Indian food, and then I went upstairs to watch a movie with my host parents while they recounted old memories.

After they had left, Ebba and I went to meet up with some of her other friends and hung out with them for a little while before coming back home and going to bed. Sunday was simple too, spent mostly working on homework, drinking some tea, and learning more Swedish.

Today, I only had one class, Swedish, from 9:30-12:20 and then was done for the day. Normally, I would have English after lunch, but that class was moved to another day so I was out by noon! I am still not used to getting out of school so early, most of the time I don’t know what to do with so much extra time, but I’m definitely not complaining!! When I got home, I ate a quick lunch of some leftovers and then Lina and I decided to go for a walk because the weather was so beautiful.

Although Sweden has now transitioned into fall with all the leaves changing color, today was bright and sunny, unusual for the typical dark and rainy days of fall.

On our walk, I found a cute little creek and some beautiful views of the water that runs through Södertälje.

On our way back home, we met Ebba at ICA, the grocery store, and picked up some Ballerina cookies for fika. Ballerina cookies are very popular in Sweden, but I still had not tried them. They are similar to Oreos in that they have the same design, two cookies with cream in the middle, but they had chocolate fudge in the middle instead. They come in all different kinds, vanilla cookies, chocolate cookies, and many varieties and pairings.

We picked up the Kladdkaka package, which means chocolate cake directly, but it was chocolate cookies with chocolate fudge in the middle. If you couldn’t tell by now, we love our chocolate. Since the weather was nice, we sat with some blankets on the porch drinking tea, eating cookies, and playing cards.

Later that night, we cooked up some tacos for dinner, even though they are usually eaten on Fridays. I have noticed that Swedes put way more on their tacos than we do in America. Normally, I’m happy with my taco if it has meat, cheese, and a little sour cream. Here, we add meat, cheese, lettuce, cucumber, onion, corn, sour cream, guacamole, and more! It seems like there is an endless amount of additions for you to choose from.

After dinner I sat down with a cup of tea and worked on some homework. After I finish this blog, I’ll head off to bed since tomorrow will be a much longer day at school than today.

Yesterday was actually kanelbullardagen (cinnamon roll day) here in Sweden but Lina was working so we have decided to make them Wednesday when I get home from school. I’ll be sure to make a post about that later this week!

From Across the World,

Stacy