I am so happy to be back, with my Mom and my friends. It's worth gold to look in to their eyes and laugh together with them again. It's nice to see my relatives at Christmas and Easter. It's even nice, to hear my cat never giving up on me giving him food. Oh, and I missed the Swedish food while I was gone, though American steaks are something extra!
I love the fact that school's for free here and that I'm in a great class at the university! I've missed how the sun stay up longer in summer time, it's something special to walk outside in the evening while the sun still's shining. I've missed the water! So freaking much. I can just sit and stare at it.

There's so much I've missed, but there's even more things I miss now. I never thought my exchange in America would affect me so much.

I left having one family and I came back, having so many more. Now I just wish that we all could be together in one place. It's tearing my heart apart to be so far away.

I could I'd be writing about how much I miss my boys every day. I'd write about my feelings and tell the world how incredibly much I love and miss them. I hope they'll know forever, how extremely loved they are by their Swedish big sister. How amazing they are.

Having all my "new" friends and families so far away makes my heart sad, and what if noone knows how to fill my bucket?

Fair and birthday party

[Saturday]

Today we woke up early to stroll around at the spring street fair in my town. It was nice, just walking around looking at random stuff while meeting people I haven’t seen in ages! Unfortunately I must say it's getting kind of old. There's no quality at the fairs anymore... I miss the old fair where you could buy old cartoon magazines to collect, stamps, interesting boxes, the Native Americans who came and played their music and sold their cd's, rain pipes, dream catchers etc... When you were a little kid it was an adventure to walk down town and attend the fair. Now the magic is fading away… I know I’m older, but I have so much imagination, so I don’t think that’s the problem, I really think that the good spirit in the actual fair is what’s fading. It’s sad… Hopefully it will come back! :)  

In the evening we went to another city, Uddevalla, to celebrate our friend Jimmy’s birthday. On our way home from the fair we bought this really silly pink pony balloon for him, and I got some fun pics of my mom holding it together with cotton candy, looking just like a kid! :D I’ll try to add it later!

Anyway, the party was great, first we had a house party and we got to meet all of Jimmy’s friends. I’d say we made a good combo! After a while we went out for dinner and a beer, also very nice, and then back to party some more. When the clock tripped on midnight we hit up the club, and the music was just great! I had a really nice time, meeting really nice people – tho the dance floor could have been a little bigger! But you can’t get everything ;)

My teacher might be a vampire?

My therapy; decorating for Easter!
I LOVE hollidays!
I've made Easter crafts for two
weeks now, and picked the traditional
sticks for decorations.

This week blowed big time. It’s been the slowest week on earth! Dear God give me a nice weekend.

My typical day this week; Up bright and early to make breakfasts at work, then University, which took way too much time this week, considering, I hardly had class… gah. And then I have a new teacher too. Poor guy, who told him he’d make a good teacher? Who encouraged him?! I feel so sorry for him standing there. I’m considering the option he might be a vampire? He looks like he’s in pain, hurting the entire time, just like that guy in Twilight. Uhhh chills.. It’s so painful watching him! He rubs his chest, and his belly, and he has this ‘nervous caugh’ and he do all these nervous things… He is really good, knowing everything about his subject, I mean he’s smart. He just doesn’t have a “teacher face”… And then after class, rushing home to work again.
To give you an idea of how slow this week really has been, I went to bed before 8pm the other day cause I was so frustrated and angry. ME – IN BED – BEFORE 8 PM! When does that EVER happen?!

Oh, the cherry on top? I got my first phone bill on this new phone I got after I moved back to Sweden.  The bill is almost FOUR times higher than it was supposed to be, and does not follow the original plan and agreement I was told. Bullshit!
I also missed the circus I was supposed to go and see. Spend the evening with a friend being useful and changed tires instead.
Sometimes I just want to rip my ‘new’ life in to pieces, while missing the good old days!

***

Just got back from town, diagnose?
Cell phone - hopefully she'll fix my contract, otherwise; Kaputt!
Camera (2 month old) - Kaputt!
Lap top - Kaputt!

What did I ever do to derserve this? Fml! I take back saying April would be a great month..

Sicily



Anette

 

Sight seeing in Trapani



I spend a nice weekend in Trapani, Sicily, with great company.
We were a happy crowd flying down to celebrate
Anette's 50th birthday. 

   

Our first day we spend sightseeing and shopping in Trapani, which is a really cute old town. It's not touristy wich made me like it even more! The weather was nice, the sun was shining and it was around 25C (80F). We walked along the streets and the architecture was amazing. Their Cathedrals were really cool and all the houses had really cute balconies with flowers ("just like in the movies"). The streets were super tiny with the smallest cars and no sidewalks. 

In the evening we went to a local restaurant to celebrate our birthday girl with Sicilian food and wine. We had a good time with many laughs, but most of us were really disappointed at the food. I had Swordfish, and my taste buds definitely expected something more special..

 Our second day was mostly spend on a close by little mountain in a really old town called Erice. To get there we took a lift, and that was a cool thing to do. Just gliding slowly in the air watching everything around us.  The old town of Erice was like a fairytale with old castles and towers, and the view was amazing! We also had a nice little lunch with fair enough good pizza. All the "grownups" had rented a house in another part of Sicily so after our adventure in Erice, it was hugs n kisses-good bye.

Waiting for our pizzas

Two of the castles and
towers in Erice

While walking back down town, we did some more shopping and sightseeing before dinner. Today we heard our first "Ciao Bella"s and "Opa"s and we were also loudly called tourists because we walked around in light summer clothes while the Sicilians wore winter coats..

We decided to try out a new restaurant for dinner, which seemed a little more used to tourists, but also this ended up in disappointment. The food in the north of Sicily just isn't good! Whatever yall do, do not order meat/steak. Or grilled octopus.

Eating Italian ice cream :)

Sicily is, over all, a nice place to visit - I just didn't like the food. And I'm not a picky person when it comes to food.. Tho the Italian ice cream is just soooo great! It's delicious!

Waking up for the airport sucked, and later, sitting inside the plane waiting for 4 extra hours to depart sucked even more! First we couldn't leave cause of the fog, and then because of military activity. It was a bonus tho, that we actually got to watch this 'military activity'. The Air force had four planes taking off, just next to us. It's quiet some power in those small planes! 

 

All of us!
Clas, Anette, Ewa, Kjell, Jonna, Evelina, Stefan, Mattias, Me, Joakim



Sick :/

Yuck! Today I woke up early and got ready for school, just to realize that I'm sick just when I'm about to head down to the train station. Such a bummer. I'm pretty excited about this class I'm taking and I don't like missing it. For you who don't know, I'm taking Social Science. It's like political science, political history, political institutions and all that fun stuff.
Anyways, I got to stay home all day. Having some curves up n down, feeling better, feeling worse.. I worked some from home on our web page which is fun, but since I didn't feel too well I spend some time watching TV, which freaking sucks! Ugghhh.. What on earth are people watching these days?! I can't believe how much crap there is on TV!?! And in media. Gah, they should be ashamed of themselves for showing such crappy programs..



This past week I've been trying to do a lot a ot of Easter crafts.
I can't wait for the holidays to come :)



My dear friends who know's how very little I enjoy TV, will completely understand that I put on my working/painting clothes on top of my PJ, to spend some time in the basement painting all my frames and a shelf. I can't wait to put up a butt load of pictures of the kids, fam and friends in the States whom I'm missing so much! I think it will look great in my 'new' black frames. I'll also frame a really cool picture of my Mom and me from one of her visits, she's a big part of my USA too  :o) 

And now, before heading to bed, I did some more easter crafts.. I'm really going over board with all these decorations, especially after my exchange, but I can't help it - I love it! It's homie and nice. I just wish the kiddos could do some crafts with me, it's a big difference.

Weekend with friends



Team "Congrats Emil" singing
We are the Champions during or Spotify game.
Unfortunately for them, our team "Die Emil" won ;D



This weekend I spend with two amazing friends, Per and Joakim. It was great! Not forgetting all the new friends we made during our stay.

  

On Friday, I was gonna take the train to go and see my good friend Per in Linköping, were he goes to college. Joakim decided to come with in the last - very last - minute to surprise Per and our other friend Emil. It was perfect, since it was both fools day and Emils 25th birthday!

We decided to take the car to save some time - and money! Or... we would of have saved time if Joakim only would have listened to the GPS..! It must be a manly thing having to prove that your the greatest in all situations? Anyways, when we finally got there our friends got really surprised and we had a great time at the birthday party getting to know a lot of people.

Inside Linköping´s Cathedral

The first BBQ of 2011

Sathurday became Sight-seeing day! Yay! We walked around in Linköping and saw the Cathedral, ate some really tasty ice cream, saw the 'harbour' and did a tiny bit of shopping.

In the evening we played some frisbee, made the first BBQ of 2011 and then had a lot of people over for a game and drinking night.



A happy crowd playing boardgames, drinking and laughing :)



On Sunday we decided to go to the Air force museum and check things out. I recommend this museum to anyone who have the slightest interest in air planes and war history. It was such an interesting well made and planned museum! Way over my expectations. I know Liam and Aidan would have loved it too, it brought back many memories from when we used to visit the Air and Space museum in DC.

But so our visit had to come to an end, and while driving out of town, the angels cried. Not to fun to sit down in a car when it rains, but I guess I prefer that infront of a warm spring afternoon?

 

Outside the Castle of Örebro



Brunch at The Wall of China

We decided to stop in Örebro on our way home since we're not really in this part of Sweden very often. This was a great idea! One, we didn't have a long car ride home and two, we got to see the castle of Örebro and  the next day we woke up bright and early to do some more shopping! It was a perfect ending of a great weekend with good friends! :)