Tagged: americanabroad

20
Apr
2024

READY TO GO

By the time you read this, I’ll be gone. HA! What a way to start a post. I’m leaving, on a jet plane. But I know when I’ll be back again, because that’s how round trip tickets work. I woke up at 3 am on Thursday night, sick as a dog, and throwing up. Fever, etc., all the not-fun stuff of a stomach bug. Sick all day Friday which meant not being able to go the office for our consultant’s last day in Lund, her farewell lunch, getting stuff done, printing necessary papers, and then also having cancel my hair...

16
Apr
2024

YOU DON’T PAY TAXES, THEY TAKE TAXES*

For something like 20 years the 1040 tax form in the US was pretty much exactly the same. Maybe even longer, and then, about 6 years ago, someone decided it needed updating. And EVERY YEAR since then, that someone has kept on updating it. It’s different now EVERY YEAR. So you have to read the incredibly confusing instructions every year and try to make heads or tails of it again. Is it simpler? No. Is it easy to understand? NO. Is it better? NO. It’s just different. GAH. It’s that time of year again when my obligations as a US...

10
Mar
2024

POTTERY, PINK, AND PIE

Last week was really busy, so I’m kind of looking forward to this coming week, which isn’t busy at all (at the moment). Anders leaves for a week in Italy tomorrow morning, which also means I’ll be alone every evening entertaining myself with my book, iPad, TV, crossword puzzles, and a new jigsaw puzzle. Last Thursday I organized another pottery painting evening for the AIC, but it turned out to be just Lisel, Kirstin, and I, with Lisel’s 2 daughters, Martin and Theo, and Martin’s friend Thea. I painted the outside of a bowl (cereal-bowl sized) with a bird and...

19
Nov
2023

25 YEARS OF TURKEYNESS

We had our annual Friendsgiving yesterday and per usual, I did not take one single photo of the event, and apart from the kids, no one had their phones out at all, so there is no virtual record of the evening. We invited 28 people and ended up with 24, which turns out to be pretty much the perfect number, actually. With two long tables filling up the living/dining room, and everyone talking, it made for a very crowded, loud space, but it was so fun! Lots of laughter, and non-stop talking, and even after the buffet was opened, everyone...

03
Sep
2023

THE BUSY STARTS NOW*

Hello September! It’s the start of a new AIC season and the busiest time of both our AIC year and work, so things are a little crazy at the moment. We kicked off the new AIC season with a monthly meeting that wasn’t really a meeting at all: mini-golf at Ribersborg in Malmö. We had a lovely evening for it, sunny and warm, and a decent turn-out of 17 people, which included the manager of the golf venue and kiosk. I can’t remember the last time I actually played mini-golf. I suck at it, but it was fun, and surprisingly,...

12
Aug
2023

TO REGARD THE PEA IS TO ENVY THE PEA.*

Thursday was my birthday and I took both it and Friday off from work, which was really nice. Vacation feels very long ago, despite my semi-long weekend of travel to see Becky and London and now this long weekend to celebrate my birthday. The kids and I went out to dinner on Wednesday night, in Malmö, though we weren’t super impressed with our meal, unfortunately. It was still nice to hang out with the kids, and going to Dolce Sicilia afterwards for gelato made up for it. On Thursday morning, I got up early, and Karin got up with me...

02
Aug
2023

TRAVEL BUG

There was an article in The Local today about how to move an elderly parent to Sweden to live with you, but when I read it, the article was basically, “it’s really hard, the criteria is ridiculous, you have no chance”. I’d love to get my mom to move over here, but realistically, it’s such a long shot. You can get 1-year visas, but I doubt she’d go for that. She has all her stuff and her place and she IS closer to Sarah by a huge amount, so. But still, it’d be nice. She and Sarah are going to...

20
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: FERRY RIDE AND 2 NIGHTS ON ÅLAND

We got up quite early and left Loimaa to drive to Åbo (Turku) on the coast of Finland, where we caught the Viking Line ferry to Åland. The ferry ride is 5+ hours, so we had breakfast on the boat. We sat inside for a bit, then went out on the Vista Sundeck on the back of the boat, which was lovely. Sitting in the sun and the wind watching the islands slide by. The boat was HUGE and the archipelago was extensive, lots and lots of rocky islands covered in, you guessed it: pines and birch trees. We got...

19
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: FINLAND! ROVANIEMI, KAJAANI, LOIMAA

We had 3 pretty solid days of straight driving south through Finland, and unfortunately, we never made it to the Moomin Museum, which was on our list of must-stops, due to several factors including the rain and over-optimistic time planning. Ah well! A reason to go back and see more! The 3 days we spent driving were very rainy, which was okay, since we weren’t stopping much, but a little hard on Anders who drove the entire trip. And plus the scenery was pretty much exactly the same: pines and birches for miles. We saw another reindeer on the road...

17
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: FINLAND, KILPISJÄRVI, AND TRERIKSRÖSET

I had to laugh after we started planning this trip, because I Googled Treriksröset and discovered it was a big clump of concrete out in the middle of a lake, 11 kilometers into a national nature preserve without any roads. Sounds exactly like my kind of vacation destination, doesn’t it? Heh. But it was on Anders’ bucket list, and to be honest, the trip itself sounded pretty epic, going from tip to tip in Sweden. I was a little unsure of being able to do it, since there are no bathrooms once you get on the boat, and then you...

April 2024
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