Swedish traditions

Day 3 of the conference and the schedule is pretty much the same every day. :) There have definitely been some interesting talks about dog evolution and relating them to when the agriculture era started. The days have been divided up into 4 sessions (3-4 talks each session) a day. This evening they have a event planned for us where this guy

Met us and lead us through the city to the church where we had dinner.

When we first arrived we were offered a traditional walnut schnapps drink and a biscuit of some sorts.

 Dinner was amazing!!! AMAZING! We started off with a wooden plate (to stick with the theme) it was filled with pickles, ham, nuts, dried fruit, carrots, greens, beets, goat cheese (might have been sheep), and a bunch of other random things.

roasted pig

The second course was pickled salmon with red leeks, yogurt and a piece of bread. This dish is a traditional Swedish dish but is usually made with herring.

Next came family style dishes of root veggies (potaotes, carrots, parsnips) and pork chops and lamb.

Dessert was amazing my kind of dessert! Roasted pear (side note: I have eaten a pear here every day. I am not sure if it is a native fruit but they are the best pears I have ever had hands down) with whipped cream and a vanilla cookies then sprinkled with sliced almonds.

 
Through out dinner there was entertainment, a group dressed in old medieval clothes performing magic tricks, singing and fire throwing.

Then there was this guy (children advert your eyes)

Yup that is a butt your looking at. It was not expected there was a room full of doctors and world famous scientists and this guy. My boss was not to happy this was suppose to be a comedy routine that builds its show on the audiences reaction sort of like improv but I guess they didn't read the audience as well as they should have.

opps!

The Swedish girls in my lab said Michele I just want you to know that we don't do this on a daily basis! Ha!