Hello 2011!

Note from the author of this blog

Dear readers,

    If you ever happen to read this blog, you will notice that I’m a terrible blog writer in the sense that I’m terribly inconsistent in my updates. When you’re living life to the fullest (like me), you don’t want to spend all your excitement/energy sitting in front of a computer, typing… am I right? 
   But, sadly, if only that were true. The real story is something more like this:  when I think about something fun I did, I think “Oh I should blog about that!”, so I reach for my computer, laziness kicks in and I end up watching Hulu instead.

    Yes, I’m ever so sorry, dear blog followers, for depriving you of any entertainment value you may derive from my stories in Sweden. However, with a new year, perhaps things will be different. Perhaps.

Hearts

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The real blog entry begins here

The holidays were a fun time, filled with snow storms, delayed planes, rerouted flights, and amazing food. Yes, I went home to visit my family and it was wonderful. Minnesota has an amazing 8 hours of daylight. I cannot express the energy/happiness I felt seeing sunlight, not just daylight, for a straight 10 days. But, all that feels so long ago and I think if I try to remember how lovely it was, I’ll just make myself sad.

Back in Sweden now…

It’s still dark (surprise). We had some sleet storms that left us 6 inches of ice (leaving me to skate to work because walking was near impossible). Then we got rain and overcast skies for a week. In short, a mess. Still, the atmosphere in Stockholm is more positive. You can feel it. Advertisements on billboards and newspapers display “spring” things. Stores already have spring clothes out in these bright happy colors. Mind you, it’s still winter outside, but somewhere after the New Year, I think Swedes decide that “We can make it seem like spring is here if we just imagine it” Hooray for the power of imagination!

Work has started up again and I’m feeling motivated (maybe that imagination thing works after all). But, that’s all I’m going to say about work right now.

Last weekend, I went to a concert where local bands were playing. One of the bands was that of my Swedish colleague. The music was fantastic! I’m always so impressed by people who compose and perform their own music. Many people from the lab attended the concert, and it was a lot of fun listening to music and hanging out. My labmates are great fun, and I think we will have more “outings” in the future thanks to the spring mentality and everyone feeling positive. I’m going to arrange a “dinner club” hoping that people will want to discover the culinary delights of Stockholm.

Last week, I also started taking Swedish courses (in a class with other people). =)  The course has been slow so far, but that’s because we’re going over things I already know how to say. I can feel the pace picking up and with meeting two hours a week, 3 hours each, I can feel myself already thinking more in Swedish. I love that the Swedish government offers free Swedish classes to its immigrants; it’s a great way of including people in a society and help them learn about the customs.

Choir practices also began this week and we’re going to have two concerts this spring. Apparently, we will also try to record an album, and I’m really excited about that! I’m arranging a song that I hope the choir will sing in one of the concerts. But that all depends if the director and the repertoire selection committee feel that the song fits with their ideas for the concert.  

I guess if you got this far, you’ve probably picked up on the crazy schedule I seem to have now. To accommodate all these fun things, I’ve been waking up at 6, getting to work early, leaving around 4 to beat traffic, getting to classes around 5:30, and learning until 9 pm. In short, exhausting. Apparently, this is going to be the plan for all of spring… so I hope I last! Plus, we have zero holidays until April 24^th. In weeks, that is 15 people.

15...long... weeks.

Så, till nästa gång! Hej då!

(So till next time, bye)