Game night and the day you turn your clock

In place of the Marieudd weekend, we had a game night today. But it is really a let down to see that those who signed up for the weekend didn't turn up for the game night. In the end there were only 8 of us. Not a bad number but considering over 12 people signed up to go to Marieudd, it is rather disappointing.

I baked too many apple-orange muffins because of that. And of course, as usual, there was a rather good demand for my chocolate chip cookies. I'm the cookie expert; not cake baking, even though the muffins turned out pretty well too.

In case I made Marieudd sound like some magical place, it's not. The place per se is beautiful, but the weekend I was at wasn't. It was very much Swedes one group and others in another. Fellowship doesn't seem to be very important to them. Shy mah. That's their excuse. But I have to qualify. Not all are like that. There are a great number of Swedes who are very inclusive, and try to get you involved in their activities. Truly, no harm though. The other exchange students more than make up for the lack of interaction from the locals.

Plus I expected so much more from the weekend since it is organised by a religious group. But prayers and learning the Word are the furthest things on their minds. In fact, the Thursday meetings are very non-religious in nature. The only prayer they make is the grace before fika. Disappointing. And to them that is already very religious! What the... We (the Catholic groups back home) can show them what religiosity really means if they give us a chance. Heck, they don't even have to search too far to see how non-religious their meetings are. In comparison, the Moday meetings with the Protestants (It's more accurate to say that the meetings are attended by a very diverse group of people, from Catholics to non-Catholics.) are way better, both in terms of religiosity and fellowship. But if I'm not wrong, most Swedes are non-religious, so perhaps that amount of prayers, be it only the grace, may seem like a great deal. Any more, and they'll flee. In fact, I often hear stories about classmates looking at you as if you were some freak if you profess to believe in some kind of faith. Good thing this hasn't happened to me here. Science and religion cannot mix??? Bull.

I digress.

Anyway, we didn't play Settlers today. Heck, I wouldn't be able to win. I never do, at that game. Next to win, but never the winner. Always the best man, never the groom. So not playing the game wasn't a total loss, even though I would love to win at it some time. Instead, it was Cluedo. Ha! Finally something I know! And yes, being the great detective I am, I won! Ha!

And during the conversations, I found out that tonight before you sleep, you should turn all your clocks forward by one hour. So instead of 2340 it is showing on my clock now, it should be 0040 instead, so when I wake up tomorrow, I'll be on the right time. It's daylight saving. Since it gets bright early, the clocks have to be adjusted to reflect that. No wonder it's already bright when I awake these days. Good thing I learnt about this. Imagine if I didn't know and when I turn up for Mass tomorrow, it would have been over or half-way through since I'm always early. Or on Monday I turn up one hour late for work. Or worse still miss the bus or something. Lucky me. This is so confusing. How do they know when they need to adjust the clocks, be it forward or back by one hour. Is there a public announcement or something?

It gets really dry these days when it's warmer now. I noticed that the humidity (RH) fluctuates with the temperature changes. When it's below 0C, the RH is high. At about -10C, the RH can reach close to 100%. But when the temperature rises, the RH decreases. Down to about 40% at 2-5C. No wonder my skin's peeling so badly now compared to before.

Ooo... it's already past 12 midnight, close to 1am, with this clock turning thing. I wonder if this will be reflected on the clock you see on the right... Anyway... Time to sleep. Must get used to this new timing.