BY- RADHA SHINKRE
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| sofias house |
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| my room in her house |
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| sofia, outside her house. |
A beautiful wooden and brick house, 60 years old on a picturesque and serene hill in Tumba was the place i lived in for 13 days during my visit to Sweden. Sofia Carlsson Warring and her dad had come to pick me at the airport, seeing each other after 5 months, we were so ,happy, we screamed with excitement and hugged each other tight :) she drove us to her house one and half hour from the airport, there her mum had baked fresh chocolate cookies to welcome me home, it tasted fantastic! my room there was cozy, they made me feel like home and during my entire stay i was homesick not even once.
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| sofia and me |
The amount of care Sofia took of me, no one else ever did! knowing that i feel hungry very soon, she would always carry some fruits with her in the bag whenever we would go out, her aim she told me was not to let me be hungry even for a minute. ( how sweet can that be :) ) during her stay in goa we had become really good friends, and with my stay in Sweden, we became the best of friends. she is a very nice person, fun loving and caring. i had the best time of my life with her.
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| crunchy with milk |
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| me with sofias mum |
Her mum, cooked delicious food, which i loved totally. it wasn't blend at all, it was full of flavor. for breakfast she would keep before me so many options , making it very difficult to choose one. A strawberry flavored cereal called crunchy, was awesome, i would have it every morning.( i was addicted to it ) She once took me to a nearby lake, where she goes swimming every summer. it was beautiful and so cool. the water was freezing cold and she told me she goes swimming in the summer when the water is warm about 15 degrees !!! ( wooo that's still cold for me)
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| the lake |
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| Indian restaurant in Sweden |
Her dad was so much interested in knowing about the Indian culture and expressed his desire to visit India so many times. he told me lots of things about Sweden and Swedish culture as well.
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her parents
her mum- a very sweet and a nice lady
her dad-tall , handsome and blue eyed.
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Once they took me to an Indian restaurant very close to their house. we ate chicken tikka masala, chicken madrasi , shrimps tikka masala and chicken malai kebab sizzle, butter garlic naan and even mango lassi! the food was good though not spicy.
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| birthday table |
They even postponed her mums birthday party to celebrate it with me. sofias sisters and their babies , sofias grandmother and uncle and some of her mums friends had come over. it was a nice day to meet her entire family and to witness a birthday party Swedish style.
I consider myself very lucky to be a part of this exchange program and to get a family to stay with like sofias. i had a great time there and will cherish it forever. i miss them so much :( specially Sofia. but we have promised to meet again, so i am eagerly waiting for that day...
