Last Day!

Yes, this is my last day home before heading north again. I don't really know when I'll return yet, but the plan is that my Dad and his family will drive me and Zorro down, sometime in the beginning of August (I hope it will be pretty early, but I guess that depends on a lot of things), and then spend a few days here as they usually do.

As always, I have tons to do today in order to get everything ready, and I'm also a bit nervous about the trip. I know Zorro's behaved like an angel on previous trips, but I know that if he starts having a breakdown, he won't quit any time soon. I also don't have a lot of time in Gothenburg, where there's a change, only about 20 minutes, so I guess I'm gonna have to pray the train isn't late coming in. Also there's a busride between Gothenburg and the next stop Trollhättan, as they're working on the rails there - so I need to 1) find where the buses depart from, and 2) make the busride work for Zorro. I'm also gonna have even more with me now then when I came here, at least one more bag ... and that's gonna be a problem as well ... but I guess there's not much to do, just "do it" and hope it works out for the best.

My time here at home sure hasn't been what I had hoped or expected, but it really goes two ways. Guess I'm gonna start with the negative and end with the positive ...:)
I know this probably sounds ridiculous, but the most negative aspect here has been the weather! I know you can't do anything about the weather, but it's really affected me in a very bad way. I usually feel bad when it's over 22-25 degrees (70-75F), and we've had above, and way above, 30 (85F) for a very long time now. One thing is that I'm sweating A LOT! I can live with it in the summerhouse, everybody goes around dirty and sweaty and working a lot - but when I'm in town, meeting people, getting on and off buses and trains, I really HATE that I'm soaked and probably smell really awful! :( The other thing, which is the worst, is that I'm actually having serious problems breathing in this heat. I know I'm overweight and I'm not working out the way I should, but I don't think my health is THAT bad ... It's enough I walk 20 meters, and I can't breath!!! That's gotten me a bit worried, but I know I felt better in the summerhouse, so hopefully it's this extreme heat that's causing it, and it's not that hot in the summerhouse right now, thank God.
Of course, me feeling so bad from the heat, has led to the fact that I haven't maximized my time here. My brain has been boiling when I've tried to study at the library, and I haven't had any energy whatsoever when I've gotten home ... I know this will cause problems when I get down here for good ... but I still don't know if I could have done it any different, considering how I've felt!

Enough complaining!! :)
Moving on to the positive aspects of my trip here! Part of it is that it's been good to get a "break" in the middle of summer. While I really enjoy spending time in the summerhouse, meeting my families, spending quality time with my sisters etc, fact is, I do like it here the best. This IS where I'm supposed to be, and even though things don't always work out here either (DUH!!), I feel very comfortable being here!
The other positive aspect is that I've managed to meet so many of my friends while I've been here. Since I haven't been here long, and they're busy (all of them working now, pretty much!), it's not always that easy finding the time to see each other, but I managed to see Sara, Lena and Rebecka, and that feels GREAT!! Rebecka and I hadn't seen each other in a LONG time, and I've had a hard time catching up with both Sara and Lena lately as well (even though we did manage to see each other before I left in June).
Oh yeah, I can't help myself but show some pictures (just thought of it now). I have pictures of all three of them from their ordination (Rebecka and Lena on June 13th 2010 and Sara on June 14th 2009): (if you don't want these pictures published, just let me know, and I'll remove them!)

Lena!

Rebecka!

Sara!

Amazing, aren't they?! :)

Well, I guess I'd better get started on everything I have to do today ... I might be able to get back online with an entry later tonight, though I won't make any promises.
And again, hopefully I will be able to bring this blog back to what it was originally once I'm back here "for good"!

Take care!

Update and Photos!

Yeah, this trip home during the summer sure didn't turn out the way I had hoped, that's for sure.
First a little about this week, so far, and then I'll try to summarize the time spend up north ... finishing off will be some photos from the summer so far.

I have managed to catch up with a few friends this week, which feels great, as I'm not home for long this time. On Monday afternoon, Lena came by after work. It took a few transportation-mistakes, but we found each other at last and managed to get to my apartment, but it was WAY TOOOOOO HOT outside .... I had almost 43 degrees (Celsius ... that's about 110 degrees Farenheit) outside my window and 30 degrees (86F) inside ... not nice!! It was, however, nice to catch up with Lena! It's more difficult now, when almost all of my friends are actually working, and working as priests they don't exactly keep regular business hours, so it was really nice catching up with her. She left a bit after six p.m. and I walked with her to the bus, something I in retrospect sort of regret ... it was really really hot, and by the time I made it back to my apartment, I felt really dizzy and barely made it up the stairs ... I sooo don't get along with the heat!

Tuesday night I was supposed to meet Sara in Helsingborg for an "after work" (well, for her anyway! *lol*). I had decided to take the bus there, we had decided to meet at 7 p.m. I got on the city bus, but apparently they were having a carnival in town (they usually do that the first weekend in July but obviously it was later this year), so the buses didn't go through the centre of town ... I felt completely lost, not knowing how the buses drove, so I ended up going all the way out to the railway station and taking the train to Helsingborg instead! :) Despite a lot of misunderstandings on my part, I met up with Sara eventually! We had a few beers and took a little walk and it was REALLY nice!!!!
I have to make a comment on how fantastic I feel when I can do these things ... I still feel nervous, but it's working out without major problems, and I'm just amazed!!! And extremely happy!!! I also have to comment on the fact that the first person (despite something that turned into a great huge big horrible mess!) I REALLY talked to and had contact with, after my sick leave, was actually Sara!! Who would have guessed we'd end up having this fantastic friendship ... ? *feeling quite happy*
The evening was wonderful, and I really need to start doing these kind of things as well, to "de-dramatize" something that has before been very anxiety-ridden!

I wasn't home until about 11 p.m. on Tuesday but I enjoyed every minute of it! :)
Yesterday, Wednesday, I had FINALLY decided to meet Rebecka! We've tried to get together for a number of months now, but it just hasn't worked out! It was fantastic to see her again ... I have quite a history with her, and it's great that we're still keeping in touch! We sure had a lot of things to catch up on, when we first met, I had some major trouble to contend with and now she's the one facing lots of problems! I have a feeling she's dealing with them in a better way then I did though ...

On top of this, I have of course, attempted to get some studying done. Note the fact that I'm using the word "attempt", because this horrible heat wave hasn't made it easy for me. Those of you who know me, know that when most people take out their jackets, I'm sweating in a T-shirt - so having 30-35 degrees (85-95F) has made it pretty awful for me. Also, not sure if I might be asthmatic, or if it's something else, but I'm experiencing feeling very out-of-breath ... just walking for a short bit in the heat and I feel like I can't breath at all!! I know they've warned asthmatics in southern Sweden as the ozone layer is really thin here now, and I'm not sure if that's what I'm reacting to, or if it's something else, but I really haven't been feeling well ... Hopefully temperatures will drop to about 20-25 degrees (68-78F) now, which will make a lot of difference, I'm sure!!!

Yup, that was it for my visit back here. I'm going to intervene with some photos from my trip to the summerhouse (photos span from June 24th to July 3rd) - and then finish with some comments on my time in the summerhouse!




First some beautiful nature photos ...


And little people sure do grow fast, don't they?! :) This being my sisters, the oldest one M being 6 years old and the younger is I, 3½!

I spent most of the time in the summerhouse, and most of it was really good! My Dad and his family were away during Midsummer, they'd taken a trip to Krakow in Poland, so for the first time in quite a long time I spent the entire Midsummer with my Mum. I went from the summerhouse to town to pick her up, and she stayed overnight before taking the train back the following day - and we had a great time! :D

Then I was alone for a while in the summerhouse, and tried to get most done on clearing the land (the summerhouse has about 7000 square meters attached to it, most of it we do by motor driven lawn mower but some of it requires a bit more to be cleared down. The weather put stops to my plans, so when my Dad and his family arrived we had a bit more than half a day of clearing left to do but after that we could take it a bit more easy and spend some time together.
The kids sure do grow quickly, I'm amazed every time I see them!!!!!

M has just turned 6 years old and I is 3½ ... yikes!! It seems like just a little while ago M was born, I got to hold her in the hospital when she was about 27 hours old ... amazing!! M is very smart, she's reading practically without any obstacles at all - which will be a great advantage when she starts school this fall - and I is the cutest thing you'll ever find, she could charm ANYone, I swear!!! :D

Basically, I spent some time with my Dad and his family and then headed back home with Zorro on trains/buses ... and thankfully that is working out fantastically well now!! The first time I took Zorro on a train was a horror, full stop, but now ... give him 5-10 minutes on a train/bus, we finds a comfortable place in his transportation box and falls asleep - fantastic!!!!!!

Wow, this ended up being a very long entry ... :) I guess that's compensation for me not writing a lot here while I've been home! *LOL*

Heat Wave and Fever!

I'm really sorry I haven't gotten around to writing any more entries here. We're experiencing a pretty severe heat wave, especially in southern Sweden, and those of you who know me, know that I do NOT handle heat well. On top of trying to do all that I was supposed to do despite the awful heat, I ended up with an unexplained case of really high fever. When I wasn't sweating floods and being unable to breath due to the heat, I was freezing, I had about 28,5 degrees Celsius inside and ended up under the covers in the sofa, really cold. Not fun!!

This visit has not at all turned out the way I had hoped, and now it seems there might be a problem with my trip back up north.
At least the fever went away this afternoon - yay - so I'm hoping that will make me feel a little better. I have an intense week ahead of me, though a few things of it are really nice, as I get to catch up with some friends, but I'm still worried how I'm going to cope with the heat, that doesn't seem to disappear any time soon!

Seems there's a thunderstorm coming this way, so I'd better shut off the computer now.
I hope I'll be able to make at least a few more entries here before I leave (next weekend), and share some photos, but I won't make any promises! :)

Home For A While!

I'm back! :) For a little while at least ...

I'm back home for a while now, I will probably go back up north again at the end of next week - but the idea for me is to get started on my master's thesis now, and I also hope to catch up with some friends!!

This will mostly be an "I'm back"-entry, I will try to add entries about what's going on later on - can't guarantee that it will be tonight, but hopefully I'll get some entries done tomorrow morning at least! :)

Basically I've been having a good time with my families, but I still feel like I really belong here, and this is where I truly feel at home, so it's really great to get these days here in the middle of the summer, even though it means more travelling for me and Zorro!

I'll try to get started on some other entries now, but I have a few pictures to share, and they take a while to get ready (transferring, renaming, resizing, uploading ...), so I still won't guarantee you'll get another entry tonight! :) Still, I AM back, and hopefully I'll keep the blog alive while I'm back at least!