Written by Dena
04 Oct 2014
Sweden 101, lesson 1: You must know what a kanelbulle is. Kanelbullar* are Swedish cinnamon rolls and they are ubiquitous around here. In fact, they are so important here that Swedes have a National Kanelbullar Day, i.e. Kanelbullens dag, celebrated on October 4th!
That said, I want to tell you a story of how it turned out that kanelbullar are important to me as well.
Rest assured, nothing feels more homely than the smell of cinnamon in the morning. To be more precise, the smell of freshly baked mom-made kanelbullar on the day you ought to receive results of your scholarship application to study in Sweden for the next two years.
Undoubtedly, my love for kanelbullar walks on the borderline of insane and that morning, as I waited for my results, it escalated! I practically devoured them in hopes that if I eat as many as possible, I would actually have more chances of receiving a scholarship. As if kanelbullar were a sort of magic food that fulfills wishes.
I like to think that’s exactly what happened (I am trying to forget the amount of calories that binge-bullar-eating escapade gained me). I got it. A scholarship by the Swedish Institute was mine. A few confused stares at the computer screen later, my disbelief became euphoria: I am going to be a Master candidate at Lund University at the programme of International Human Rights Law! For those who are yet to understand my euphoric wave of emotions, I will let facts speak for themselves:
Lund University ranks among top 60 universities in the world and Sweden is the second best country for higher education. As if that is not enough, Lund University was founded in 1666 – that’s almost 350 years of teaching and Sweden has kanelbullar (among many other things)!
Now, some months later, I am in Lund. Living in a cute studio flat with a big window that often idyllically provides with a view of rainbows (no, seriously, I’ve seen actual rainbows at least 5 times in the past week) and am about to indulge into some serious Swedish fika that you can see on the photo above.
Talk to you soon and ha en bra kanelbullens dag!
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* Kanelbulle (singular) – a cinnamon roll. Kanelbullar (plural) – cinnamon rolls.
