Gasque

I have pictures from the gasque so now I can post about it!  A gasque is basically a very formal and traditional dinner that they do in Sweden.  Kind of like a prom except much more formal and serious.  Everything happened in the V-dala nation which has a very large building for big events like this.  It started with walking downtown trying not to slip in my no traction Florsheim shoes which was eventful.  We got there pretty early so we avoided the huge line at the coat check.  I have never checked  a coat in before coming here and now I do it just about every day.

They rounded us up and up the stairs we went into our assigned seats.  I was across the table from Franzi who is from Germany and who I know.  She is in the group going to Lapland this weekend.  Mike from Canada who I talk trash to about the Toronto Maple Leafs and Bruins was 2 seats down and Penelope from Australia was about 3 seats down who I went to Berlin with so it was nice having people I know around me.  They started the night with some schnapps which tasted and smelled like gasoline( never tasted gasoline but I could only imagine).  They have a very fancy way of toasting or "skol" as they say here.  I'm still not very sure how to do it but each time you drink you have to raise your glass to the left, right and then center and drink.  Then to put it down raise your glass right, left and center and then drop it.  I think I messed it up every time.

They fed us reindeer and some salad for the appetizer which was pretty good.  The main course was moose and some potato salad.  The dinner was this very good ice cream.  The food was surprisingly great for 300 people.  Throughout the night they supplied you with beer and tons of wine as well as champagne.  I really don't like wine so I got the pleasure of observing everyone get pretty drunk.  At the end of the meal they give you a huge shot of Baileys whiskey which put a lot of people over the edge.  They sure do love their alcohol in Sweden to say the least.

Throughout the night during the 3 hour meal they had multiple musical performances.  They had an international choir as well as a violin group.  The dinner was completed with a drum line.  After the dinner they cleared the room and set up karaoke and a couple bars opened in the nation as well as a cover band which was pretty fun.  It was a very fun night all in all.  Here are some pictures from the gasque from a Penelope!

at the dinner with Mike from Canada on the right

Hanging out after the dinner with Lukas from Austria on the left and Jesse on the right

The crew going to Laplands this weekend!

Me being me in the background at the Snerikes pub crawl last week.  Went to 7 of the nations pubs

Here's a random cool map I made on Facebook.  It shows where in the world your Facebook friends are.  

  
Other News outside of the gasque is that the weather has warmed up quite a bit.  We went almost 30 days without going above freezing but got up to about 35 degrees yesterday and could get into the 40's next couple days!  This weekend we are off to Lapland.  15 hour train ride straight north to Kiruna on Friday night.  Look up the town on google it is about as far north as you can go in the world.  We are going about 700 miles north of here and we are already about 1,000 miles north of Portland, Maine.  Yikes.  I thought Maine was "up thea".  We will dog sled, snow mobile to the ice hotel, possibly see northern lights and snow shoe around the arctic or at least I will.  I am really excited for this trip.  

Lapland