Weekend in the Archipelago on the west coast

We spent a wonderful weekend visiting my sister Mari and Janne. We went out boating on the west coast and the weather was so wonderful! We really had an amazing weekend. We went to Marstrand and visited the Carlsten's fortress which was really cool otherwise the rest of the weekend was amazing. The nature here in Sweden is so amazing and it is so relaxing to be out with the boat. No TV or errands just relaxing.

Family reunion

The first weekend of August we went to Hultsfred and had a cousin's reunion. It was all the cousins on my mother's side that got together. We were a group about 30-40 people with kids that met up for games, dinner, singing and lots of laughs. It was really great to get to see that side of my family since it has probably been like 15 years since I last saw some of them. Here are some photos from the weekend.

Sweden bound

So I relocated from Chicago back to Sweden and I have been here about a month now and not been able to update the blogg at all. My main excuse is that I have been lazy and things have been busy with work and trying to get accustome to the new culture. Even if I am Swedish I have had a little bit of culture shock myself:

1. The coffee drinking is insane here. It is mandatory after every lunch. Blank with no suger and milk, pretty much taste like crap. I miss the sweet sensations of starbucks

2. Everyone is so tan here eventhough it rains pretty much every day. It even rains when it is a clear sky and sunny, not really sure how that can happen but it happens here. I am guessing everyone is fake tanning

3. Stores, banks etc close very early. Not sure when a person gets to shop if they carry a 9 - 5 job.

4. People walk or bike everywhere. There are lots of cars around of course but they are all extremely small.

5. Swedes are designey.. It seems like all swedes spend most of their time at ikea or other decorating stores because their homes are so stylish. I need to get with the program and get rid of the old couch.

6. Drinking age is 18. Which makes me feel so old when I go to the bar because some of the people at the bars over here doesn't even look like they have entered puberty.

Those are a couple of things that I can think of right now. I really have been loving it here and everything here is so beautiful, the archipelago, the city and the nature. I really feel blessed to be here and really only have one thing to complain about and that is the rain.

Torsdagkvall med svenskorna

Igar sa hade vi en liten picknick i parken nere i stan med svenskatjejerna. Det var jattekul att se alla och det borjar kannas lite vemodigt eftersom jag inte kommer att se vissa utav dem innan jag flyttar till sverige. Vi satt och snackade och sedan sa spelade vi kubb.. syd mot nord precis som i Robinson! Jag var pa syd laget for allt soder om stockholm var syd. Vi vann forresten, kandes valdigt bra!

Filming in Utah

So I went to Utah from Monday to Wednesday this week for work. We stayed up in a beautiful resort in Deer valley, but I still like mountains better with snow on it. I like to ski not hike. We were there to film a presentation for one of the trauma registrar trainings. I do not like public speaking and do really not like being filmed while doing a presentation. I am not a film star that is for sure. I did pull it off without to much fidgeting and now I will be on the internet as a lecturer.. maybe I will get a fan club? On Tuesday night my friend Stephanie came and we had dinner, catch up and hung out for awhile. It was great seeing her before we leave. I am thinking we will have to continue our annual ski-trips but maybe I can convince her to come to Europe for one?

Weekend of Angola

Last weekend we went out to celebrate my husband since he put his 2 weeks notice in. Yes, it is really worth celebrating since he has pretty much dreamt about that day and been looking forward to it for a very long time. Unfortunatly his boss was sick that day which stole some of the thunder. We also celebrated that he had gotten accepted into graduate school in Sweden which will be awesome because I was a bit worried about what he was going to do once we got over there. No more worries for us. We had beers in a beer garden by the river and I realized how beautiful chicago is during the summer. On saturday we drove to my brother's in Indiana. We hung out at their house, bbq and played lots of lawn games. It was such a nice day to just hang out. On Sunday we were back in Chicago and had open house, cleaned, started packing and ran errands. I get exhausting just thinking about it, because that was in fact a really really exhausting day.

The 4th

We went to minneapolis for the 4th of July to visit our friends Tracy and Greg. The weekend was filled with hanging in the sun, beer drinking and bowling at Brit's, playing kubb in the park, a twins game and lots of Wii playing. It was really a great weekend and fun to get some quality time hanging out with friends.