Clarification on system and surroundings

[turtlebanana]

In the textbook, the system is defined as 'the chemical reaction' and the surroundings is defined as 'the rest of the universe around a particular chemical reaction'.

I know that the system operates within its surroundings and energy can be released (exothermic) or absorbed (endothermic) by a system into the surroundings, but what actually are the surroundings? Is it literally everything else? Can anyone give me an example that involves these both these concepts of systems and surroundings, and maybe explain further? Thank you

[Bucket Hat]

So in combustion of wood:

system = reactants (oxygen and organic material in the wood) + products (CO2, water)
surroundings = everything in the entire universe except the system = the nearby air (excluding the oxygen involved in the combustion), the floor underneath the wood, the people warming themselves by the fire etc. etc.

Thermochemistry is seen from the perspective of the system
 exothermic = loss of energy from the system (-ve enthalpy/deltaH)
 endothermic = gain in system's energy (+ve enthalpy/deltaH)

Because wood combustion occurs spontaneously and releases energy it is a loss of energy from the system (as energy in the reactants' bonds is less than energy in the products' bonds) and is exothermic

^^can someone please fact-check the bit in red because I've already forgotten chem  Cheers

EDIT:

Awesome explanations.
I wanted to expand on this because it took me ages to understand it until I heard this:
The activation energy of the respective reverse endothermic reaction to the exothermic is higher than the exothermic reaction.

Referring to the energy profile diagram of an exothermic reaction, one will see the rise in energy to meet the activation energy, and then the downwards trend where energy is being released.
If we reverse the reaction, we have an endothermic reaction.
Now, it can be seen from the diagram that the trend that was from the activation energy downwards (the release of energy) on the exothermic reaction, now becomes the amount of energy required to reach the activation energy in the endothermic reaction.
Therefore, because the activation energy is higher in the endothermic reaction, we can assume that the bonds in the products from the exothermic reaction (that have become the reactants in the reverse reaction) actually have stronger bonds that require more energy to break.
(Image removed from quote.)

[turtlebanana]

Thank you!