New Friends!

I just hosted a very successful dinner party tonight and I'm so very happy about it. Its just great to have people all gather around a table of simple food and eat and talk. I just pulled together some pasta, sauce, and corn form the pantry and a new friend (Kate) brought nuggests, and we made it work to feed about 8 people. Most of us were exchange students except for Kate and her boyfriend (M) who live next door to me.

I'm excited that I've met good people so quickly and many of them were just happy to eat in a 'home' especially since they just arrived today. You see, I made friends with the couple Kate and M yesterday night when I went to buy a thick blanket from M who is selling a whole bunch of tstuff. And Mel and I hit it off with Kate right away. So I invited her and M over for dinner, something I was told Swedish people never do, and Kate was so thrilled that someone she just met would actually open their home and kitchen to a stranger.

I decided that I should also invite Marco and Daniel, two really nice guys from Brazil to join us as well and they each brought another exchange student to just arrived today, Michael from Switzerland and Scott from the US. So yes, it was wonderful to have a home bustling with great conversation and warm people.

Everyone came about about 8pm and only left at about 12am! I love dinner parties =D

On another note, I really really like Kate, she's so sweet. She brought me and Mel out to the thrift store to get stuff for the house and tomorrow she's taking us to the dollar store. She even helped me with dinner (while I was skyping with Shaun) and showed me how to work the washing machines here. She's a little lonely here, because even though she's Swedish, she's new to Lulea and she's a lot more forthcoming than most Swedish people - who tend to be more reserved according to her- so she was just really glad that Mel and I were so comfortable and open with her. She's just full of positive energy and she sees the good in everyone, I can learn so much from her. Mel and I didn't get Swedish buddies from the uni even though we applied, but I think we've gained so much more than just a 'Swedish buddy' in Kate, she's a Godsend.

I'm looking forward to the spending more time with all these guys here and I'm excited about welcoming my house-mates...I hope they come sooner than later so I don't have to be alone in this big house. But at least Mel is staying over here every night so it's not so bad and we are not 5Km away from each other any more.

Wish I remembered to take pictures at the gathering...but I guess I have all 5 months to take as many pictures with all these wonderful people as I want :)