there is no ship like friendship

It's funny. I started writing a long, long post about how homesick I've felt lately. It's been hot here lately. Hot and sunny. We've had incredibly long days with nothing but pure sunshine and it's been great. But it's brought back a lot of Texas nostalgia for me. So much so that I spent this whole morning reading online excerpts from D Magazine.

I've missed enchiladas from Mia's with my parent, walking their dog around Oak Lawn in the evening, smelling the street, the wavering heat steaming from the pavement, and ice cold, frozen margaritas with my best friend Leslie. I've missed warm evenings, short shorts, and the unmanageable, utterly exhausting heat.

It's funny and true, but you never really think you will miss your home town or that it's anything special until after you move away. 

So, here I was sitting in an arm chair, writing, and drinking coffee when there was a knock at the door.

And the post-lady was there with a package for ME! 

It was from Leslie (who will be visiting us in like two weeks!!!). I started shaking I was so excited! 

In the package was a ton of jolly rancher candies, sour gummi worms, really cute earrings, an awesome necklace, a long letter, and the best summer mix cd ever.

I have the greatest friend. She also managed the use the Dallas Morning News Puzzle Section as some padding for the package- I'm not sure if she is aware of my affinity for crossword puzzles but I am one happy person to have Texas news with me!

I met Leslie Spring 2007. We had the same class. This is also the same class that I met my husband in!  We sat next to each other but we didn't talk much. In Spring 2008 we had another class together and that was about the time that I started realizing that I was in love with my husband (who at the time was living in Sweden). Leslie and I sat next to each other again and I needed someone to talk to about my crazy love situation so we started talking about it. We had a group project together which meant we got to hang out a lot.

And a friendship was formed. I am so, so, so grateful for my friendship with Leslie. 

I don't have many friends (that sounds sad, but it's true). I am getting a lot more now, and I am so blessed and happy with these friendships.

I am so happy to have Leslie in my life and even though we are countries apart, we have kept in touch.

I am happy that she is coming to visit me. We are going to have a blast.

Friendships are a really good thing. 

PS. You should check out Leslie's blog. She is an amazing writer and has great taste in music.

finally, a real summer summer

I've been meaning to post for the past few days. Each time I sit down to write the internet gets extremely slow, so I take it as a sign of fate and just watch soccer instead.

We've been hosting friends for the past few days. It's been a lot of fun but also very tiring! It's also been hot, hot, hot here. Seriously, the weather could not be any better. The sun is out, there are few clouds, the sky is blue, and it's warm. The high is in the 70s. In Texas it is near 100. So I can't complain in any way.

My mother-in-law has a huge garden of flowers and veggies and herbs. My favorite part of the day is watering the plants. I like the smell of water, earth, and green.

On Midsummer I got to wear my new flowered dress. It was a windy day and the dress was a bit short so I pulled a few Marilyn Monroe's before it chilly enough to put on leggings.

My husband and I were laying in the grass on day and we noticed that the house was reflected in our wine glasses. The house is a very traditional Swedish styled house but newly built just two years ago.

And soon these guys will be red! I can't wait for the first strawberries of the season.

The First Day In The Country

We traveled up to my inlaws today. After a marathon grocery trip, I've been cooking and baking all afternoon.
And now we are watching a comedy Kung Fu movie and eating gigantic chocolate chip cookies.


















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vacationing

Tomorrow we go on vacation! Kind of.
I mean, I've been unemployed for two months now so I have pretty much already been on vacation.
And we are only going about an hour north of us. My in-laws are actually, really going on vacation so we will be house-sitting for them for the next few weeks.
They live in the countryside. And it is amazing. We will spend our days berry-picking, gardening, reading outside, and taking long walks in the forest. I will be commuting back to Malmö each day for the next week to finish Swedish classes for the term. And then, in about three weeks my BFF will be in Sweden visiting us!!! So we have some great summer plans.
And they start tomorrow.
In the countryside you can find things like this wood fired sauna.

























Which has a direct view of the lake. Which brave people jump into during sauna sessions. Myself, I am afraid of eels and fish and water bugs! So I just cool off outside.

There is also the amazing landscape:

And this forest:

And games like boules:

Friendly cows.

And really good food, really good snaps.

the past few days

Eeek.
I have been so behind in blogging. I guess I could blame the amazing weather and books. I've been reading a lot more and the sun has been out as well. So with both of those combined, the computer has taken a backseat in my life. Which is just fine by me, my eyes feel a lot better these days (they were super strained before).
I also finished my Level 3 Swedish course (yay!) and am starting Level 4. Unfortunately, there is a big break in July and August so I need to find a way to continue with Swedish and to keep busy. Well, July is a busy month for us but not so much of August.

Here are the past few days at a glance.

These are the plants that make Canola Oil. Right now there are just fields of yellow, as far as the eye can see. Like oceans. It is my favorite time of year.

This past Sunday we had lunch in the Castle Garden's (sounds fancy, right?!) I was expecting it to be a regular cafe but I was so surprised at the menu! This was one of the best and prettiest meals I have ever had: fried polenta with red onions, figs, and goat cheese.

The Turning Torso is a Malmö landmark. You can see the top of it from almost anywhere in the city (almost). The beach is man made.

We had some fun times at the beach.

I am not really a beach person. But we live pretty close to this one, which is kind of nice in the summer.

The sun sets around 10:00 (or later) right now. It's amazing.

This pier leads to a sauna and when you get too hot- you just jump right into the sea. I am not brave enough for this!