Summer 2010

Well, I thought I'd make a general entry about the summer of 2010, as it is about to end soon.
And I have to say that this summer has been a bit different, compared to the last few summers at least.

For once, I left for the summerhouse rather late, around Midsummer. This did happen last year too (if I remember correctly, but usually I have gone to the summerhouse a bit earlier than that. Also, I didn't feel so great in June, and I ended up stressing like an idiot before being able to leave (Actually, I wrote the last 4 pages on a New Testament paper and sent in on the same day that I left for the summerhouse!!).
My Dad and his family was on vacation when I got up to the summerhouse, which was also something new. They try to take at least one vacation trip every summer, but they've never been away during Midsummer before. This meant that I spent the entire Midsummer weekend with my Mum, and it was a long time since we did that! She came to me in the summerhouse and stayed the night, which was really nice!

Then I had a couple of weeks in the summerhouse, both alone and with Dad and his family, and that was pretty much as usual. I'm amazed at how the kids grow - but I'll make a separate entry about the girls later! :) - and we spent some quality time together, as well as got some necessary work done!

In the middle of July, Zorro and I went back home - and that is very unusual ... I can't even remember when that happened last! :) We took the train (and a replacement bus *sigh*), and I do feel very grateful it is possible to take Zorro like that, because it certainly makes things a lot easier for me! I do feel bad for him, because I know he doesn't like it one little bit, but at least it's possible, he is able to rest and almost sleep for parts of the trip, and I guess that's the main thing!
Unfortunately, there was a pretty extreme heat wave when we were here ... I had high hopes of getting a lot of things done, and I ended up on my couch with a great big fan and lots and lots of ice and no energy whatsoever. I know this must sound pretty ridiculous, but I really truly hate heat ... I can stand normal summer temperatures - even though I don't like them - but when I can't get below 30 degrees inside (86F) at any time, I just feel truly sick!!!
So that trip didn't exactly end up the way I had hoped!

After about two weeks here we went back to the summerhouse, and when we arrived it turned out that my Dad's girlfriend (will call her C for her initial, it's easier!) had gotten a really nasty insect bite that really looked bad - so we ended up doing some emergency packing and cleaning, I went with them to their home (and left Zorro in the summerhouse) and borrowed their other car, and went back to Zorro that night!

I got some alone time in the summerhouse, which was nice, and my Mum and I were also able to take our annual West Coast trip, which was grate!!
I took a trip, alone, to a major animal park called Nordens Ark, but I will make a separate entry about that ...

And then I went to my Dad and his family, taking Zorro with me. They're redecorating one of their bathrooms and needed an extra adult, so we took turns doing that and being with the kids, and it worked out pretty well, although I find it being quite intense living with them - as I'm used to living alone.
I also got to see my Mum a bit, which was really nice!
After a while my Dad and his family, and me, and Zorro went to the summerhouse, to make it ready for the autumn, meaning clearing all the land as well as thoroughly cleaning the house - and when we were done with that, we all went here and my "summer" was over. They stayed for two entire days (three nights) and I think it worked out pretty well, though it's obvious that an apartment this size isn't meant for three adults, two kids and a cat! *lol*
The good-byes are always difficult, and this was no different ... I am truly enjoying my life down here, but it is very hard to say good bye (and more so to certain people ...).

It turned out that I had lived with my Dad and his family for almost two weeks in a row when they left and while it was hard when they left it had been pretty hard for me to be so close to so many people for so long ...

Since the left I haven't done that much, I've been going through a LOT of photos and get that in order, I've been doing some sorting and rearranging here at home, and I'm slowly finding my way back to the fall semester! :) Though this fall is still very uncertain, so I'm going to make a separate entry about that as well!

Finish off with a few photos from the summerhouse!

Back on Track - Hopefully!

While I have been back here for a while now, I haven't quite felt ready to start up the blog until now. My Dad and his family left on Friday, and good-byes are really not something I cope well with! The weekend was really really slow, I was very tired and had no energy at all. Since then I've tried getting back to routines and my life again after this summer, mostly fixing practical things, such as various errands, rearranging a bit in the apartment, doing a lot of cleaning and sorting through things etc.

My fall is still very uncertain as I haven't heard anything about anything (will make a post about that later on), and I find it a bit difficult to know what to focus on, as I don't know what will happen.

I will try to make a few 'come-back' posts - with photos! :) - tomorrow and I very much hope I will be able to update this blog on a daily basis, despite the intensity of what lies ahead (it will be intense no matter what, but in different ways!), as that was the way I started this blog ...

Hopefully I'll see you here tomorrow! :)

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!

Apologies and Good Bye!

Well, I had hoped to be able to bring this blog back to life one more time before my "summer" starts, but unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Right now I'm superstressed as I'm supposed to go to the summerhouse with Zorro "some time today" - and it's looking to be WAY late today!
So, I just wanted to make this entry to let you know I will be away for a while, and as usual - no regular internet! *sob*
This year my summer is chaotic to say the least, and I will probably go back and forth between home and the summerhouse more than I usually do. At this point nothing is decided now but I hope to at least make some casual blog entries during the summer to let you know I'm still alive! :) And then, of course, I hope to get back into "real blogging" (like an entry a day ...) when I'm back here for good - I know that hasn't worked for me for a while, but at least I'm still hoping, right?! :)

So, this will be Good Bye for now, I hope you are all having a GREAT summer and I hope to return to this blog in due time!

Take care!

Troubled Past and Minor Setbacks!

It's been a few days, again, since my last update, but hopefully this will only be a minor setback - as I am generally feeling better now.

The fact is, this entire semester has been really really hard to deal with. I can't make a list of the specifics but it seems that almost everything that has happened has contributing to things not working out. And since it's been going on basically since the end of January, I'm quite sick of it now.

Instead of making a really long and boring and depressing entry about everything that has gone wrong, I will focus on what has been going right this semester - and I will try to finish off by giving you some insight into how the future will turn out (which I really don't know, but still ...), what areas I will have to start dealing with now ...

One thing that has worked out this semester has been the mentor activity in the Old Testament/Hebrew course. There were a lot of uncertainties for me last year and I very much doubted my own capabilities - so I was thrilled to get another chance this year. And I think it has improved, at least that's the way I feel about it. Not everything has been going great of course, but I think I have handled my "leader role" in a better way this time, and I've had a lovely group of students to work with. I was also quite thrilled to get such as large group. Both the entire group that has been taking the course as well as the mentor group has gone through some changes during the semester, but toward the middle of the semester it started stabilizing in both groups, and by then the entire group of students were about 10 and 6 of them constantly came to mentor meetings! Fantastic!!

Another thing that has been working out (almost completely) has been the New Testament. I was going to take one small course in NT this semester, and felt I really needed to freshen up my koine-greek, so I spoke to the teacher giving that course (same one I had when I took NT Greek). He was only happy to see me at lectures again (lol) so I ended up going to most of his lectures as well. It turned out really well, I like him a lot and I also learned A LOT by picking this up again in this way!

I had some major problems with a smaller essay I was going to present at the end of this semester. For some reason it seemed impossible for me to write it, so I ended up in quite a panic toward the very end. I did finish it, but I wasn't that happy with it, and at the seminar I felt really bad. I can't be "objective" and say what really went on there, because I think I was quite affected by how tired and emotional I was, but let's just say I did NOT enjoy that seminar, that's for sure!!!
I had a few days to correct some things that had been addressed at the seminar and late last week I handed in the final version. And yesterday I had an email from my professor, telling me he had graded the essay and given it the high grade, VG!!! I really did NOT expect that at all, since everything about this essay had been so difficult! Also, I had basically felt that as long as I don't fail it, I just have to deal .... and instead it turned out really well! :D

Letting you rest your eyes for a bit with some photos from one of my nature walks (hasn't been that many of them this semester unfortunately):




And a CUTE Zorro! :D

This semester hasn't exactly worked out well for my Dad and his family either, my Dad being quite ill, so toward the end of May I decided to making a short trip to visit them. It did mess up my other schedules a bit but it was really nice to see them all again! They let me borrow their car, so I took Zorro on the train there (but we ended up having to go by bus the last bit due to some flooding ... *poor Zorro*), but we could take a car back home.
On the way home we went in to see the summerhouse, I just stopped for half an hour. During the end of last summer we redecorated the bathroom, and I was there for the boring part (ripping everything out) but hadn't seen the finished product. Also, we had some severe damage done (thankfully mostly to nature and not to our buildings) due to the heavy winter and snow this year, so I felt I had to see that for myself too.
Here are some pictures from my trip, the kids first (they grow SO FAST!!!!!), and some from the summerhouse at the end:







One more note before I start looking ahead. This Sunday I was at the ordination ceremony where four of my closest friends were ordained for the priesthood! I was there fore the ceremony last year too, for Sara, and this year it was time for Lena, Rebecka, Johanna and Per - it's amazing to be there and share that with them. I didn't attend any party afterwards, since there was no way I wanted to choose which one to attend, but it was wonderful to be there for the ceremony! :)

I think this entry ended up being longer than I had intended! :) So I think I'll save the "looking ahead" for the next entry, as I don't want to cause you to fall asleep in front of the computer! :)

Coming Back - to 24000!!

This last month has been quite difficult, and keeping up my blogging has actually been the last thing on my mind ... I think I'm through the worse of it now, although a lot of things are still very confusing and a bit disturbing.

I was thrilled to come back and see my visitors having reached 24000!! I'm quite impressed that people have visited since I haven't updated at all lately ...

I'm hoping to be able to start this blog up again, I know it hasn't been updated regularly for a very long time, but all I can say to that is that this entire semester has been most difficult and quite hard to tackle ... Still, all you can do is hope for a better future, right?! :)

I will be back later tonight with a "general update" and also some pictures!

I'd like to finish this entry off with a bit of GOOD news!!
A few days ago I got my diploma for the first three years of my education, so I now Officially Have a
Bachelor of Arts in Theology!
Wooohoooo!!!
(There were a lot of years where I didn't think that would ever happen).

Here a picture to prove it! *lol*

Returning and Leaving

I think I have made somewhat of a comeback in the blog this week, even though I haven't updated it every day.
This week has been VERY intense and I'm looking at some intense days ahead as well. Therefore I wanted to let you know, it might be a while before I update again! I'm starting to gain interest in the blog again, so I'm hoping this intensity won't make me skip it entirely again - but I might not be very regular either ... let's see how it goes, shall we?

Sorry about the shortness of the entry, I'm at Uni and I need to get quite a few things done before showing up at an OT lecture at 1 (which is in 1 hour 45 minutes!) ...

Take care!