Utrikeskorrespondenten's Blog

Rain

utrikeskorrespondenten — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 10:17:23 +0000

Once again, I´m sitting here in my mom´s kitchen, typing away at the computer. Wish I was a a better blogger. Sort of what I used to be, with daily updates. Now it´s more like a monthly thing. Maybe I should just stop promising to be better and just see what happens?

Here´s a little update of what´s been going on since we last spoke:

Beautiful weather. Sun, sun, sun, which (I think) is an excellent excuse not to blog. The summers are so short in Sweden the we need to take advantage and spend every second outside, enjoying it. That said, today it´s pouring rain…

Work. I´ve been spending most of my time working. A little sad when everyone is having time off, but a necessity and well, and who doesn´t enjoy that paycheck at the end of the month?

Family. Spending a lot of time with my family and my nieces, Stina and Kajsa. Whenever I feel sad about leaving NYC I think of them and how lucky I am to be able to be near them and spend time with them. Love, love, LOVE them!

Music. Anyone who knows me well also know that I don´t really enjoy concerts. Still, it must be something in the water here in Sweden because I´ve already been to THREE since I came back and another one is on the agenda for Friday.

Plans. Travel: Malmö and Munich for sure, and then I´m hoping for Athens and Bangkok as well. Practicing that whole ”lemons to lemonade” thing. I guess life ain´t so bad after all…

I missed you!

utrikeskorrespondenten — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:30:24 +0000

I´m back! And I missed you all. Once again I´m sorry for the long break that I took from blogging, but I had my reasons. Unfortunately, it´s a sad one… My grandfather passed away suddenly and it was very difficult for me. But we had the funeral this past Friday and I´m doing much better now. Hopefully this means that I´ll improve my blogging once more.

Gloves

utrikeskorrespondenten — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 07:41:09 +0000

First, breakfast al fresco and then some garden work. I´ve even got my own gloves. Hare core.

Happy 6th of June!

utrikeskorrespondenten — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:01:07 +0000

Well, it´s our 4th of July here today and this means a public holiday. This might sound like a given to all Americans, but June 6th have only been a public holiday for a few years and generally we don´t celebrate it all that much.

This year it happens to fall on a Monday, following Ascension Day (last Thursday), which is also a public holiday here in Sweden. Funny enough, as we are a very secular people… Anyway, this means that a lot of people got a very long weekend and that is certainly something to celebrate!

So, HAPPY JUNE 6TH TO ALL OF YOU!

On my way

utrikeskorrespondenten — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 06:48:16 +0000

On my way to Roslagen in the Stockholm archipelago. Found a picture online and if it´s this pretty I might stay forever! More to follow upon my (possible) return…

Green Card

utrikeskorrespondenten — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:57:29 +0000

In Sweden you don´t need a lottery to win a Green Card. Apparently you can just buy it at the fair for $25…

More digging? Really?

utrikeskorrespondenten — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:46:55 +0000

Remember my friend Jessica, who needed help with ”a project”? Well, she had some more digging for me to do, but this time I was smart. I enlisted help.

The ”help”. i.e my brother. He actually did most of the work since the ground was hard as rock. It took us an iron-bar lever and the super strength of my brother to even make a mark!

But I really did help! At least long enough to take a picture…

Unlike someone else I know… Although she did drive the getaway car later on, when we dumped the loot from the hole in a gravel pit down the road. Highly unethical and maybe a little illegal, so don´t do what we do! Or maybe we didn´t do it…?

Daylight

utrikeskorrespondenten — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:09:25 +0000

Things I love about Sweden in the summer time:

Sunrise: 3.34am

Sunset: 9.53pm

And it´s only June. Even longer days ahead. Yippee!

A Gardening Blog?

utrikeskorrespondenten — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 08:54:16 +0000

With fear of terrifying some of you with the idea of this turning into a gardening blog, I just have to post these pictures of my mom´s rhododendrons. They´re a favorite of mine and I love the color.

I love how they look next to the greyish apple tree stump. A small comfort, as I still mourn the loss of the apple tree that fell over unexpectedly last year and had to be taken down..

A close up of sorts. Do you see the light purple flower at the bottom? It´s a rhododendron, too. We just don´t know how it got there. Must have been the birds. Or biiirds (said with a British accent) as a certain young friend of mine would say.

Fika anyone?

utrikeskorrespondenten — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:42:45 +0000

The Swedes do like their coffee. There´s always time for fika. Even while food shopping!

Free coffee and cookies at the supermarket.

Although, I didn´t know they gave away free fika and after I spotted a poor old man munching on a cookie in the ketchup aisle, I pointed him out to my mother and with great disdain ”whispered”: People…they have no shame. Hmpf!

Luckily for me, the man wasn´t only hungry, but also slightly deaf and didn´t hear me. Still, I felt slightly embarrassed by my faux pas and decided to seek comfort in the cookie jar myself. And, yes, I did go back for seconds, which, when I think about it, might have been the real faux pas of the day…