Tagged: americanabroad

14
May
2022

ROMAN HOLIDAY, PART THREE

On Saturday, we went to the Pantheon, after a later wake up time and breakfast at 9 (as if we were on vacation, haha!). We had tickets for a guided tour at 11 and decided to walk (36 minutes) as the forecast said rain at 11, continuing all day. Instead, the sun came out and the forecast kept moving the rain back all day. We got there early and sat on the steps of the fountain across from the entrance for a bit before going in. Tickets for entrance were already sold out for the day, so we were very...

13
May
2022

ROMAN HOLIDAY, SECOND PART

We got up early on Friday morning, had breakfast, and then walked over to the main train station a few blocks away to pick up our rental car from Sixt. Anders has driven many times in Italian traffic (they are all apparently insane), so he was confident about handling the driving part, thank goodness, as I would never have been able to manage. We had a Jeep Wrangler, and we couldn’t get the GPS to work so we had to use Anders’ phone instead. Found out later that day that we couldn’t just put “Pompeii” but that we had to...

12
May
2022

ROMAN HOLIDAY, PART THE FIRST

We left for Rome on Wednesday, May 4, getting up at 4:30 am in order to drive to Copenhagen and make our 7:30 flight…nowadays the airport recommends 2 hours early for all flights, not just international ones. We didn’t have to wear facemasks on the plane but they were required in the Rome airport after we arrived. Living in a country that has basically ignored mask mandates completely, it was a bit of an adjustment for us (for me, anyway). EVERYONE in Italy wears masks…if they’re not wearing them, they have them quickly available. If they’re not wearing them at...

27
Jun
2021

GOTLAND, PART THE THIRD: IN WHICH ROCKS PLAY TOO MUCH A PART

Our last day on Gotland, we decided to head south. When we were there years ago, we stayed in a camping village just south of Visby that includes Villa Villekulla, the original house set from the Pippi Longstocking films done in the 60s. It also had a water park and amusement rides and was a great place to stay with small kids, but that was as far south as we got. Anders and I drove about 1.5 hours, south along the coast, to our destination: Hoburgen, another rauk area in the nature and bird reserve of the southern tip of...

26
Jun
2021

GOTLAND, PART THE SECOND: HEADING NORTH

On Tuesday morning, we ate breakfast outside the door of our cottage, and then headed north of Visby to Lummelunda. It’s a nature reserve that is most famous for the Lummelunda cave, one of the longest caves in Sweden (at 4.5 km). Then entrance to the cave, a natural cavern carved out of the limestone by water, was known for centuries; Carl Linneaus visited it in 1741 and the entrance is named after him. No one got very far into the cave, despite attempts in the mid-1920s, as the passage leading in was too narrow, in one place only as...

25
Jun
2021

GOTLAND, PART THE FIRST: VISBY

It’s been a very long time since we went on vacation, just the two of us. For our 25th anniversary, because Anders had to work that week, we planned a week away for midsummer week instead, and due to the pandemic, we stayed fairly close to home, heading up to Gotland, the large island off the east coast of Sweden. We’ve been there before, when the kids were young, with my mom, but I remember almost nothing from that trip. I must have spent most of it wrangling kids. Gotland isn’t super big; it takes about 3.5 hours to drive...

24
Apr
2021

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

About a week ago, I started a post with this sentence: Man, it’s *crickets* around here. It never even occurred to me how very specific that particular phrase is. To English-speakers, of a certain age, and a certain kind. And also how recent its use is. yourdictionary.com gives this definition: (US slang, humorous or derisive) Absolute silence; no communication. Derived from the cinematic metaphor of chirping crickets at night, signaling (otherwise) complete quiet. May be used alone or in metaphorically descriptive phrases. Merriam-Webster has a whole page in their “Words we’re watching” site dedicated to it…because it’s a word that...

16
Apr
2021

ALL THE THINGS

I made it through another work week, and this one without crying in front of my manager on a Teams meeting, so I call that a win. Work is still crazy but I am proud of my team for managing to keep our task queue at a reasonable level, despite the fact that we were 2 men down this past week as our freelancer wasn’t able to help us at all. Next week I have a massage scheduled and a hair appointment so I will actually be getting out of my house (more than just to the grocery store) for...

16
Jan
2021

HOMEFULNESS

One full week of work down and we’re on to week 3 of the new year. Which feels the same as the old year, still. My mom is out of her house, and now officially “homeless”. She and my sister stayed last night at the condo she’s been offered temporarily by a friend, but are leaving tomorrow for my sister’s home in North Carolina for about 3 weeks. I’ve had text conversations with my sister, but haven’t really talked to either of them, other than to update them on what’s going on with Anders’ mom, since they had so much...

28
Sep
2019

SPEAKING OF WHICH

Years ago, a friend who was a teacher asked me to speak to her English students about my thoughts and opinions of living in Sweden. I don’t remember much about it, except that I stood in front of a class of high school kids and told them what my experiences were and answered their questions. My kids were small then, and I had only been in Sweden for a handful of years or so. Now, I’ve lived here for nearly 23 years. My kids are, to all intents and purposes, grown and heading out on their own adult journeys. They...

April 2026
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  

Archives