Someone asked me if I had stopped my blog. “Nonsense!” I thought before realizing that I haven’t been updating in quite some time. When I was in Japan, I updated a lot more frequently, didn’t I? I suppose it’s because I’m home. While everything ordinary in Japan seemed extraordinary to me, everything ordinary here in Sweden is… well ordinary to me. I have to remind myself that Sweden actually might seem exotic to some! And I got a great reminder last week when a friend from Germany visited me. We were actually classmates in Japan so it wasa lot of fun to meet again. But I’m getting ahead of myself!
My birthday is the 8th of november and I got to spend it at home the usual way. Being awakened to a breakfast of princess cake and tea! Although the cake layer was a bit messed up it tasted as good as usual.
Sitting there, eating the cake, it made me think of last year’s birthday. And I thought: “Wow! Has it really been one year, since I celebrated my birthday in Kyoto?”. It’s weird. Sometimes when I look back at my days in Japan it almost seems surreal. Like a vivid dream.
But let’s not get wrapped up in my Japan nostalgia.
This year I wanted to do something I hadn’t done in a very long time. A Halloween party! When I was a child, I always celebrated my birthdays this way. I adored it! I’m really bad with scary movies but I’ve always enjoyed reading and hearing about mystical creatures and Halloween always appealed to me. That’s why my username is “PumpkinTale”. It’s a combination of my childhood love for Halloween and my undying love for fairytales and stories.
This year one of my dear friends suggested we’d do something for Halloween and since the only day I was available was my birthday, we decided to combine the events. I didn’t want a big party though, so I only invited a few people in order to have a cozy dinner and movie night. We ended up only being three people but we had fun!
It was my first time decorating for Halloween myself. As a child my parents obviously always prepared these things. But it went well I believe and my friend came earlier to help out with the cooking. Just look at it! Doesn’t it look spooky? In the background we had Halloween music playing.
We even dressed up a bit for the occasion.
The picture below shows how the dark the room really was. I think everything turned out really cool!
And thank you Mah for helping out with the food! The pumpkin pie was delicious! My first time having any, actually!
We ended up watching Ghost busters and the norwegian movie “Troll hunter”. I’d say it was a delightfully eeiri evening~
Another highlight of the day, was actually a gift. It was a simple one but it still made me very happy. Someone sent me flowers. This might not sound very exciting but to me it was, because I’ve never had flowers sent to me before. Of course I’ve received flowers from relatives on events like graduation and so on but it’s just not the same. And why would I be so touched by flowers? I guess it’s one of those things you always see in movies and everyone thinks is so cliché but in real life isn’t that common. At least it isn’t to me. I don’t know how many years I’ve been thinking to myself whenever I bought flowers for someone “I wish that someone would buy me flowers like these.” It was also a lot of fun trying to guess who sent them. When I finally received them and read the card I have to admit that I was surprised. But yet again, thank you so much! It made me smile.
Lastly I also want to thank yet another friend who invited me to a lovely dinner at a crêpe restaurant the day before my birthday. Everything tasted so good! And my friend had even booked a table a week or so before. It was a lovely surprise and just makes me realize how lucky I am to have these kind of friends.
I genuinly appreciate all of this. Thanks for giving me a wonderful birthday to remember!
pumpkintale 