Clara's Graduation!

Finally, half a week later, Let me tell you about clara's graduation! Since Clara's house was full of people, her and I shared a bed, so I awoke with her at 6 when she was up and about getting ready for her big day! We sat and had a nice breakfast together, then she got dressed and was off for the day. The rest of the morning the house was a bit hectic with last minute things being done for the reception in the evening. Blowing up ballons, making salads, along with getting ourselves dressed, etc. 

Here we are, waiting for Clara and her class to come out of the school building. From left to right is Clara's cousin Celeste, Clara's Aunt/Thorbjorn's sister Linda, Myself, Gabriella, Cousin William, Clara's sister Nora and Nora's friend from New York Rebecca. Thorbjorn is behind the camera. 

Before the students come out of the school everyone's friends and family gather around and each family has a poster of their student as a young child with their name on it. I had the honor of holding Clara's poster until she came out. 

After all the classes have come out of the school building, dancing and jumping and shouting, the students go out into the crowd and find their family. We then give hugs and flowers and hang things around Clara's neck. As you see she has some flowers, a bottle of champagne and a glass too! Then we stood around, giving congratulations and toasted with some champagne and strawberries, Above is Clara, her mother and her father. 

After we've all socialized for a while, and took more than enough pictures, Clara went to change out of her beautiful dress and into some more casual clothing. As you can see she is also armed with plenty of hydration. For what, you might ask. Well each class has rented a large truck which they decorate with painted sheets. On the truck awaited boxes upon boxes of beer cans. After the students all piled on the bed of the truck they proceeded to parade around the city of Stockholm for 2 hours, blasting music, dancing and spraying beer all over each other, the truck and the streets. During that time the rest of us went out for some lunch then hurried home to do the final food preparation and setting of the tables. 

Here's Clara's mother and Friend, Karin, next to the table of food that we spent many hours in the kitchen to prepare, finally finished! Now it was time we wait for all the guest to arrive. Clara's father was at the front of the yard to greet the guest with a beverage, along with a pin with clara's face on it. Possibly one of the best party favors I have received.. 

Here's everyone out on the porch singing a song that was rewritten to fit the occasion, the lyrics printed out for everyone, along with pictures of Clara throughout the paper. It was so lovely to get a chance to meet so many of Clara's friend and family. 

As a graduation gift Clara's aunts, Lotta and Linda, presented her with a backpack just in time for our trip around Europe. They put many little things in the bag, like a notebook, extra underwear, a swiss army knife, and some other nicknacks, each with a meaningful explanation. One of the sweetest gift presentations i've seen! Also all the speeches, songs and conversation was spoken mostly in swedish. I'm really getting a sense of the language, but not sure how much I can actually understand. It is fun for me to guess what might have been said. 

Later in the evening, Nora's friend from New York set up her keyboard and mixing board and did a short performance for Clara. She write all her own songs and mixes the sounds and samples as she plays. 

After the party had quieted down a bit, Clara and I had another party to attend. We headed into the city to a club where all of her classmates met and danced for the rest of the evening. We spent Saturday resting and cleaning up the aftermath of all the guests and celebration.

On Sunday for dinner we made Swedish Meatballs! They don't eat them very often at Clara's house, but since they had two american guests, we decided to do something traditional to Sweden. And wow, they were delicious! 

And for dessert, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie!!!

And here we are around the table, ready to enjoy our meal!! 

After dinner we headed out to the theatre to see Wes Anderssons new film, Moonlight Kingdom. Such a great film. It's a movie set in the early 60's. The color scheme in the movie was so pleasing to the eye, and whenever i see films set in that time period I feel like I missed something really special. 

The weather here has been mostly beautiful, some short periods of rain, but overall it's been lovely outside. I'm also really getting to feel much more comfortable on the subway, getting to and from places. Also something else I noticed, I'm getting much more fluent than I ever have been at getting on and off the escalator. Yes, that is a skill that must be mastered by any city-goers. Before this I probably stepped on an escalator 4 times in a year. Clara and I leave in a week and a half from today for a our Eurotrip so we have some planning and packing to do before then. This posted ended up being longer than I thought, but hope you enjoyed if you got all the way through it!