September 12th, 2006



Today the entire school went to the zoo. They had 3 buses, one of which was an "accordion" bus that drove all the kids and the teachers to the town of Höör (a town whose name is nearly impossible for non-Swedes to pronounce correctly and which always elicits a laugh), which is about 20 minutes away and outside of which is the lovely animal park known as Skånes Djurpark. The zoo houses over 800 animals of over 85 different species in a huge parkland with natural enclosures. Because the park concentrates on Nordic animals, there are no lions or tigers or elephants here...the largest animals are bear, aurochs, wolf, lynx and my personal favorite: moose!

The kids were divided up into groups that contained at least 2 children from each class (0-6) and they walked around, explored, and ate "home-made" lunch together. My kids had their little old-fashioned metal lunchboxes (Martin has alligators, Karin has parrots) with them and they were thrilled because Anders made silver-dollar pancakes for them the morning before he left, expressly for the zoo lunch. Martin had a little tupperware container of maple syrup for his (thanks, thinkum!) and Karin (who as we are discovering is NOT NORMAL when it comes to eating habits, as she doesn't like chocolate or bread...or maple syrup on her pancakes and not even strawberry JAM on her pancakes like most self-respecting Swedes) had a tiny container of sugar for hers. *waves at the dentist sheepishly* Lest you think it was all about the poor nutrition choices, they also had summer sausage and a ricecake and cucumber sticks and a thermos each with "Mama's Saft"* which is how they refer to my sugar-free cherry Kool-Aid. :D

They also had 50 kronor each with them so they could buy ice cream and perhaps a little souvenir of some sort. After we got home they told me that they had had a good time despite being sore from all the walking (they were at the zoo from 9 to 2:30) and they both opened their backpacks and brought out little wrapped items which they handed over to me with smiling faces.

Karin's was a letter, written to me, IN ENGLISH, that says in careful pencil-block letters on Skånes Djurpark notepaper: i HAD A VERE GOD TIM AT SKÅNES DJURPARK, LOUVE KARIN plus 2 extra pieces of the notepaper for me to write my own letters on. Martin's was a little carefully wrapped and taped package which upon opening proved to contain a carved wooden MOOSE PEN! (which he had bought for me with the remainder of his money after buying ice cream, wasn't that sweet?!)

I would have taken a picture to post along with this, but I can't figure out how to get the damn zoom lens off of Anders' camera and my little digital is still missing in action. Wah!

Speaking of Höör:
Barbara: I think it's great that people are organizing more activities finally.
Liz: Yeah, I know! I'm putting some lunches in Eslöv up on the calendar tonight, along with Pumpkin Patch.
Barbara: And Martine just put up those lunches in Höör, too.
Liz: I don't know how many people live there, but it's nice that she's trying since she's out there so much now.
Barbara: But she didn't move there, did she? Isn't it just her summer house?
Liz: Well, she's changed her work phone to her Höör number.
Barbara: *cracks up*
Liz: *giggles madly*

Hippity Skippity Hoppity Happity Birthday Wishes to e11en!

*Mom's juice
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