new york day one

New York. Day One.
We woke up super early and we were out on the city by 9:00! We walked all around Manhattan starting on Canal Street and ended at the craziness that is Times Square.
Today I:

• Watched American news while eating a too-sugary hotel breakfast.
• Carried three different drinks at three different times while walking (coffee, a water, and the best milkshake ever). This seems to be a very American thing to do- take drinks on the go. And I love it!
• Went to many stores but only bought items from the drug store. 
• Discovered that New York has a lot of smells, a lot of dirt, and a lot of people. So many people.
• Hung out with a friend from Sweden.
• And walked, walked, walked.

Later we're having dinner with more friends and then I get to see my parents! So excited!

new york!

We made it to New York safe and sound. I hate flying! But it was a smooth flight except for the newest addition of the Delta team, an automated recording of a lady very sternly saying "return to your seats immediately!!!" when the captain turns on the seatbelt sign. Every time that recording came I jumped 10 feet in the air. It was a 9 hour flight, I was calm maybe five minutes of it. I hate flying.

But we made got to our hotel, ordered Chinese takeout, watched a bit of tv and crashed around 9:45 (that's 21:45 for you Europeans).
I'm trying to treat my jet lag like I stayed up too late for a party. I'll let you know how it goes.

Ok, over and out. We're off to tackle this city!

Picture taken right before landing. I asked G to take it for me since I was too scared to take it myself. I think that body of water is the Atlantic.

visions of grandeur

Yesterday was no good. But also very good. Don't you hate it when days are like that? Then it's impossible to like a day or not like the day. You can't declare the day as "bad" when it's also been good.

I had one final surprise planned for G's birthday; a football game that his parents and brother would surprise him at. Except the team cancelled the game the night before and suddenly I found myself sobbing about how "nothing ever goes right." And we all went to go see the new Wall Street movie instead. But then they didn't show previews at the movie and the guy two seats behind me kept kicking his chair and I could feel it like he was right behind me. And then we went to dinner but the waiter put the five of us at a table for four even though I made reservations for five.

But I also got to spend time with family, eating great sushi, drinking sake, and laughing. Which is ultimately beats the bad parts of the day.

And in just two days I'll be back in America and hanging out with my family. I'm excited.

I also got a surge of inspiration today. Maybe it was laying around all day reading but suddenly I am excited about the future and all of the many things I have planned. Maybe too many things, but that's never a terrible thing now is it?

As promised, but a day late, here is the cake I made.

I had visions of grandeur when making this cake and it didn't come out exactly as planned. But it was still good. It's a vanilla and orange sponge cake. With a thin layer of fig jam. Covered in a vanilla and orange whip cream with roasted figs.

the past three birthdays...

Yesterday was G's birthday and my third birthday to celebrate with him!  The first birthday we celebrated in Texas and he turned 24 (which is how old I will be this February...). Among other things, I made him chocolate covered strawberries.

For the next year we were in Sweden. He wanted a camera and with the help of a few others he got the camera but I also wanted to get him something that would be a total surprise. Like all Swedes, G loves candy. So I got him 25 of his favorite candies.  (If you're counting, some of them are mixed in the bowl and on the cupcake tray).

This year, I was obsessed with doing something with the number 26. But I couldn't think of anything creative, fun, or in the end- budget friendly.  But then I thought it'd be fun to go on a scavenger hunt all around the city. He got 26 clues. Each clue led to a place with a present that (more or less) corresponded to that place. The first clue led to the kitchen and was his cake, a home made Princesstårta. He then had to go to class so the second clue came right after that.

We went all around the city and it was a beautiful, beautiful day. I was so scared it was going to be rainy but Sweden surprised me and the weather was flawless.

Some of the presents were silly/sweet homemade "coupons" (trying to be budget friendly...) but others were things like a nice sweater, beer making kit, an LP of The Smiths, running socks, etc etc.

I had a lot of fun putting together the scavenger, but it was a lot of work. It took several days to get everything in order, organized, and kept secret from G.

This homemade birthday banner was on of my favorite presents. The flags are from a fashion magazine and then I printed out "GRATTIS" (congratulations) on nice paper. Since we don't have a color printer I outlined each letter in red, glued them on the magazine flags, and then hung it all on a piece of brown twine.

I was in a bit of a hurry when I was making the flags so they are different sizes, but that's ok. 

When I was explaining to a friend what I had planned for G's birthday she exclaimed that it was "So American" to plan a big ordeal. Is it?  Maybe so. But I have fun planning and surprising.

And on that note, there is one more big surprise for G which is coming later this week....

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my dear Husband!
Today is his 26th birthday and my third birthday to celebrate with him.
The day has barely started and the skies are blue (not gray!) I have feeling it's going to be a beautiful day.

And there is so much more coming!

in between

Every once in awhile I get really, really, really homesick. When I first moved here I decided I wouldn't be homesick because it is counter productive to me if want to make a life here. Which I do. But sometimes I feel homesickness with such intensity that I become depressed for days.  Right now is one of those times (the last one was in June).

I've been missing Texas a lot lately. Everything about it.  As of December it'll be a year since I've been back to Texas. I'm excited about visiting the States in one week (!!!) but New York is not the same. Still good, but not Texas.
I miss the friendliness of Texas, grocery stores with so much choice, country music, Texas music, warm weather evenings, amazing sunsets, the easiness of English, outrageous Texan pride, the easiness of the life I'd always had until recently, English speaking church,  my family, my friends, Tex Mex food, frozen margaritas, feeling like I actually know what's going on, driving my car, and so much more.

I'm getting tired of Sweden right now. The grey skies are back, the cold is back, the rain is back. I am tired of not knowing how the systems here work, of public transportation and being crammed like sardines on a bus, missing my family, of constantly feeling on the "fringe", of the lack of choice and originality. I am tired, so tired, of Swedish- reading Swedish, writing Swedish, listening to Swedish, and struggling to speak Swedish. And feeling bad when people speak English for my benefit.

Lately I've had a few downs here and I'm thinking more and more about what if we were to move back to the States sooner than we've already planned. But as familiar as the States is to me, I will still feel like an outsider when I go back. It's inevitable after spending almost two years in another country.

So I guess all around I feel a bit lost.  Between two countries: one is my home but becoming stranger and stranger to me and the other is so strange but could maybe be home.

I keep trying to shake myself out of this funk but I can't right now. Maybe New York will help.
Any suggestions?

fairytale land

We went to G's parent's place this weekend. It was the perfect country weekend with green pastures, rainy grey days, and the kind of laziness that is actually good for you. I don't think we moved an inch on Saturday. We went on a long, long, long walk on Sunday. We kept walking down this one road waiting for it turn back into the town but instead it keep going deeper and deeper "into no mans land". We had no cell signal for an hour and finally when we could look at the GPS we realized we were in another town.
So we turned around and again walked passed the mushroom pickers, the edible Karl Johan mushrooms, and the poisonous flugsvampar. I personally hate mushrooms, but G was pretty excited. We passed the pine trees and the knee high ant hills, the birch forest that surrounded a small lake, the forest with the light green moss carpeting the ground, and finally we were in familiar territory: by the king deer hunting range, and then the Polish wood-makers house, and then home.
My in-laws live in a fairy-tale land, I wasn't just trying to be descriptive.