Apparently there is a big book sale in February every year in Sweden. Every book store has huge discounts on all books and the Swedes elbow to the front of the lines to get the best picks. One store in Jönköping even opened up at midnight for the diehards! My teacher suggested we pick up a book or two to help our studies so I set off to the closest bookstore.
This was at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday! The line was around the corner so I gave up!
My Faith in Humanity is Restored!
So, we crawled back to our place in Jönköping after running around the USA for 3 weeks. It was late, we were tired and jet-lagged. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my bike was gone! SOMEONE STOLE MY BIKE! Now, I heard this kind of thing happens in Sweden. I heard that it is the #1 crime in this country. But I was pretty upset going to bed that night.
The next day, I was walking to the library and noticed my beloved bike parked by the entrace where I had left it 3 weeks ago! No one had touched it! It sat there the whole time, unlocked and exposed!
I just found out my brother does a blog for his job at Sogeti. It is in Swedish (sorry) and all about computer stuff. You can check it out as I added it as a blog link to the right or just click on this link to http://blogg.sogeti.se/itentifierat/
After a car trip, 3 planes, 1 bus, 1 train, and a car ride we are HOME! From 11 am Saturday in Minneapolis to about 5:30 pm Sunday in Jönköping.
As we landed in Gothenburg we both said: Icelandair next time. We are not traveling over there in February anymore unless Icelandair starts flying to Minneapolis in February again. It is too long and too many transfers. No wonder we forgot one bag on the last train that stopped in Jönköping.
Thank you to my brother, his wife and family for helping us the last part of the trip AND getting us food so we didn´t have to go to the grocery store right away!
We have been here for 3 weeks now. It is so strange to think back to our home in Jonkoping now. Back at my job and all the stress I was feeling right before we left. It all seems so far away. I guess that is what vacations are for! Get perspective and get rid of all that stress. I am looking forward to start back up again. My team will be starting on the 19th with me. It will be great to not be so alone!
We have done so much during our time in the US. We got lost with the blogging because we value our time with friends and family more. Spending time with them right in the moment was more important than posting blogs. And the computers were mostly preoccupied with taxes, ringtones, and youtube clips.
We traveled 16 hours over the ocean, 15 hours with train, 7 hours with car just to turn back again and travel all those hours the opposite way. That is close to 80 hours! We had snow, we had rain, we had fog and more fog. Temparatures in the -30’s all the way up to 40’s.
I got sick last weekend and been spending most of the last week indoors and sleeping. I think I still have a fever and I can’t really hear out of my right ear. I am not looking forward to the pressure changes in the airplane!
It was strange to come back to Minneapolis at first. We have adjusted to Swedish life and it was a bit of a culture shock to come to the US. It was strange to come back to a place were we lived for so many years, where everything is familiar yet it doesn’t feel like “home” anymore.
Yet we started right back up with our friends where we left. Spending time with Jonas and Shie. We are getting to know them in a different way now that we have been spending nights at their home.
Seeing Maxima and Blips was so much fun and having time with Irish. It was great to spend time with our church here. So even if Minneapolis doesn’t feel like home physically we feel right at home spiritually, mentally and in our hearts with all of you that will keep us coming back every year!
To all of our friends and family in the US, we say “until next time…”
Congrats to my brother Carl and his fiance Christian for getting engaged.
It must have been the suit.
They just broke the news tonight to the family and we are very excited for them both. I guess that means we are coming back to the states this summer!
The trip goes on and on and on and….
We got on the Amtrak train in St. Paul. Like usual it was about an hour or two late which meant that we left 15 min after midnight. We got to Malta Montana at about 4 pm (Minneapolis time). So over a 15 hour train ride.
They train over here is a lot slower than the ones at home. I think it is because they are diesel trains and they are two levels high. They feel a bit fancier with the observation deck and the leg rests on the chairs. Of course I didn’t realize they had leg rests until early in the morning.
It was nice to get to Malta were Jim and Nancy met us at the train station. We had some coffee and Sam got a bunch of Flu medicine. He was so sick on the train he was pale yet green. I had a headache and I think it was because I hadn’t had coffee in about 24 hours or so.
We had some great stew and played Farkle and Phase 10. Next day… we all piled up in the van and drove about 7 hours southwest to Missoula…
Shie & Jo are starting a blog too! Check out the link to the right!
Yesterday was the BIG game. The championship finals of American Football. Sam is convinced that media picks who they want to win every year and that team has the refs and judges on their side and… win. This year it was the Colts, their team was featured on the commercials and news stories a lot more than the Chicago Bears.
Jonas and Shie had invited a lot of our friends over for a Super Bowl party. I think we were all about 20 people. We all gather together and eat good food and watch the game while talking and screaming. It was great to spend time with everyone and Sam was happy to watch som American Football. I love sports but NOT AF. I love baseball, soccer, tennis, hockey, skiing… pretty much anything but AF! I really tried but it is just not my thing!
Sam and Jonas have been playing Madden on the PS2 through out the week. They only had one controller so they got to take turns against the computer instead of playing against each other.
More than freezing really! We knew this was awaiting us as we left Sweden. It is one of the coldest weeks in years overe here. We drove by a sign that records celcius and it read -26.
That is not considering the wind chill. They say it is about -30 Fahrenheit which is about the same in Celcius and if you stay outside for 12 minutes you will have frost bite!
It makes me wonder what kind of temperatures we are having in Sweden right now. The thing is, we don’t have that much snow over here. It is way too cold for it to snow!
So with all this in mind we went to the St. Paul Winter Carnival yesterday. As we walked from the car I was screaming. It felt like icicles were hitting me in the face as the wind came blowing in from Mississippi River. Sharp icicles! Like the wind pierced right through me! As I was breathing into my scarf my glasses fogged up and quickly turned into ice.
Sam and my brother bought tickets to the maze. Shie and I were not too happy but went anyway. Our feet were so cold it felt like a million ice cold papercuts on our toes… until we couldn’t feel them anymore.
Ok… we were not even outside that long! We spent most of the time in the warming tent sampling warm soup. Shie had a blanket wrapped around her. At one point Jonas had to carry her because her feet hurt so bad. Jonas was comfortable. He said his feet were so warm he was sweating!
As we went back into the car I just started crying, tears running down my face as I laughed. It was so painful!
But we got some nice pictures of the sculptures. Our camera batteries died before we could take a picture of the Minnesotan that was walking around in shorts!