Tagged: americanabroad

16
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: JOKKMOKK, JUKKASJÄRVI, AND THE ICE HOTEL

We got up early at the Treehotel, walked over to the shower facilities in the early morning, giving the mosquitoes their breakfast, before getting ours at the main building, which was delicious. Then we drove to Jokkmokk. I’ve always wanted to visit Jokkmokk, which is right on the Arctic Circle, because it’s where my first Swedish friend, from SEVENTH grade (in The Netherlands) was from. I’m still FB friends with her, but I haven’t seen her since we were 14. Jokkmokk was lovely, and we saw all the sights: the old church (actually a replica, because the original burned down...

15
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: UMEÅ, LULEÅ, AND THE TREEHOTEL!

We got up a bit later and enjoyed the hotel breakfast before heading on north again. We stopped in Umeå for lunch and to walk around the city center and riverfront a bit. They were hosting SM-vecka, which is the national championships week for all the little sports that don’t have their own world championships. We watched several games of 3×3 basketball, which I’d never seen before, but most of the events were scattered around the city and some were in venues you had to pay admission to. Fountain by Renmark’s square in Umeå, designed by Stig Lindberg Anders looked...

14
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: SUNDBORN, GÄVLE, HÖGA KUSTEN

After a delicious breakfast on the terrace in the sun, we said goodbye to Trollnäs and headed over to Sundborn for a tour of Carl and Karin Larsson’s home and gardens. It’s one of the most visited homes in Sweden and Carl Larsson one of the most beloved artists. His wife Karin was an artist as well, painting and textiles, but was very much overshadowed by her more famous husband during their lifetimes. The gardens and water were lovely, and the house super interesting, but we were not allowed to take photos inside, which was a pity because the house...

13
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: SMYGEHUK TO FALUN

We started our trip on Tuesday, June 27, by spending the night at Debbie and Ola’s AirBNB, which is a little 1-room apartment at the back of their garage extension. Debbie wasn’t home but we had a nice couple of hours chatting with Ola. This meant we were already down south for the start of our trip: at the southernmost tip of Sweden: Smygehuk. I’ve actually been there once before, but it was before we moved here, when we were on an apartment-hunting trip. This was the third attempt on Anders’ part to do this trip. He was stymied several...

23
Jun
2023

READY, SET, GO

Today’s my first day of vacation, though it’s actually a day off because it’s a holiday here in Sweden: Midsummer Eve. Tomorrow is Midsummer Day, which is a bit weird because the actual summer solstice was 2 days ago on Wednesday, June 21. Sweden celebrates midsummer eve on the Friday closest to the solstice, though, so it FEELS like today is the longest day of the year, even though we’re actually already on the downward slide to darkness. It’s Anders’ first day of vacation, too, though he said he has a couple of work things he has to deal with....

25
Apr
2023

THIS TIME EVERY YEAR

I suppose bitching about the US government and their continuing insistence upon forcing their citizens to file taxes every year, even if they live and work in a foreign country and pay taxes there, is not a smart thing to do, but ARGH GAH $^$££$&*(!!! EVERY year, I have to file tax reports for the US and use their stupid, overly complicated forms that change EVERY year, that I can’t even file online because it’s so complicated and the forms I need are difficult to enter in an online way. EVERY year, I have to figure everything out myself, with...

22
Apr
2023

GONE TOO LONG

I put together a list of things that struck me as weird while I was in the States. I dictated it to my sister during our road trip, because it had been taking up space in my brain for the first 3 weeks I was “home” but I hadn’t yet written it down or, really, formulated, what was so weird about these things. Some of these things are maybe specific to the Carolinas, or the South, but both of those things are just smaller subsets of things that struck me about being back in the USA after such a long...

16
Apr
2023

BORTA BRA MEN HEMMA BÄST

Back in Sweden after an entire 4 weeks in the US, which wasn’t going fast at first, but sped up amazingly by the fourth week, and now I can’t believe it’s already over and I’m home. Karin arrived home from Italy as well, on Friday, and I flew in early Saturday morning, so we are all home together again…aside from the fact that Martin moved out a week ago, to an apartment in Malmö, and Karin has already disappeared off with friends somewhere in Malmö or Lund, who knows. 😀 I had a GREAT time, and it was so worth...

30
Mar
2023

HOME-ISH

I’ve been in the US for nearly 2 weeks, and it’s mostly weird to be here. I don’t know if that’s because I’m in the Carolinas instead of Michigan or because I’ve been away from the US for so long. I’ve read that it only takes about 5 years for someone who has moved abroad to find things have changed so much in their home country that when they return it’s like coming to a foreign country. One that SHOULD feel like home, SHOULD smell like home, SHOULD behave like home, but doesn’t. I’ve not been back for 4.5 years,...

10
Jan
2023

HALF MY LIFE

26 years ago today, I boarded a plane and left the US for Sweden. I arrived the next morning (January 11) and went straight to the hospital with Anders to see his sister, whose oldest child Henrik was born the day before I arrived. Everything about it was pretty much a blur, though I remember being impressed with the “patient hotel” that Maria was roomed in. I never got to stay in a patient hotel myself, when my kids were born, since they were both C-section babies, and major abdominal surgery requires that you stay in the ward. We already...

May 2024
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

Archives