... Has been deliciously uneventful! With Daniel taking the week off from work due to sickness (he has been working himself to the bone, so it's no wonder!) we hung around the house, sleeping in and taking nice little walks and spending time with friends and family. We found some cute flowers by the side of the road during one of these walks, and they asked to take their picture with me:
They must have never seen an American before... ;)
One really cool thing we did this week (you didn't think I was serious when I said uneventful, did you???) was spend some time at Emilie and Adrian's entirely too cute apartment! Everything in this country is pint-sized, they're big on efficiency and space-saving, so everything has it's place and function, while maintaining the maximum amount of coolness and top-chic-quality. Ok so I'm exaggerating... Maybe not EVERYthing, but everything in Emilie and Adrian's apartment does at least ;D Along with many other places as well. They also have a KILLER view of the city around them, which manages to show all the buildings around them while also looking as if they live right outside a forest. There are trees literally everywhere! And I'm not exaggerating with that fact ;) You can see trees for miles from their balcony :) We had a nice dinner and spent some good time around the table, with a beautiful view... What more could you ask for? Besides a million bucks of course. I knew someone was going to think it ;)
So tomorrow is National Day... I think I'm going to see the Royal Family! And the changing of the Swedish Guard as well, so much fun will be had. Later tomorrow Daniel and I are planning on going to a friend's BBQ, so that should be interesting, seeing that I'll only know 2 people. Haha... Well, that's never stopped me from having a good time before! Plus, I do have the fact that I'm from the US on my side, and that seems to be a great party trick around these parts... ;)
Well, I do believe I've exhausted my daily allowance of smiley emoticons, and it is getting rather late here (12:18 a.m.!) ... I'm hoping to get some amazing pictures of the assorted events tomorrow, so my next post should be even better than this one! If you can imagine it! ;D Haha. Love you guys!!!
Wow, today has been a very good day! I finally got out of the house for a long while, and took some time getting "lost" in Stockholm... Mentally, not physically, thank goodness ;) The weather was absolutely beautiful, and Daniel and I had planned to meet up later in the city to go to the opera, so I went a few hours early to enjoy myself in the city. Great choice!!! After spending $10 on a muffin and a bottle of water (yikes! But I enjoyed it ;) I sat in a beautiful outside cafe, which happened to be situated right under a grouping of big shady trees, with an amazing view of the city, the opera house, and beyond, and I caught up on my reading. It's a hard life ;) After doing a little window (and REAL ;) shopping, I met up with Daniel and we had a wonderful dinner before the opera in a sidewalk cafe... Herb-crusted medium rare filet steak, with snap peas and potatoes, all with a YUMMY spicy sauce! *salivation overload* ;) We had to make a run for the opera house, seeing that it was 5 minutes to door's closed, and while we were barely skidding into the doors, I spotted the coat clerk, and decided what a nice idea to get rid of my coat and purse for the evening! As I dropped them off with a Thank You, the man stood looking at me as if I were missing some vital part of this oh-so-friendly exchange... He wants payment for this??? *Psh* Luckily, Daniel stepped in to save the day by paying the now not-so-nice clerk guy a paltry $2 or something, and we barely make it inside. The opera was amazing! We got to see the final show of the season, and it was Verdi's "La Traviata" ... Beautiful beautiful beautiful! My camera's dead unfortunately, but I got some pictures of the royal swedish opera house, Kungliga Operan, online, so check em out!
The Outside:
The inside, from the stage:
And the inside, from the audience:
Upon our return, I was able to watch Claes make Daniel's birthday wreath... It is so cute! Again, my camera is dead, but I found a picture of what it kind of looks like:
Except it is not made with hydrangeas... It is just as cute though ;) If I can convince Daniel to let me post some pictures, I'll do that soon ;D Something tells me he may be hesitant though!Ok I'm "off for bed" now (Amy ;D)... And it's 1:50 in the morning! Something tells me I will not be getting my recommended nine hours of sleep tonight! God natt, pussar o krammar!*
*Translation: Good night, hugs and kisses! :)
I've taken a bunch of new pictures of the house and the apartment work we are doing, so check them out... Those of you who hate pictures without people in them, be warned! These pictures are purely to show you where I am spending my time and also what the apartment looks like before we finish it up next week ;) I'm going to take my party downstairs and get to work painting the walls, so enjoy the pictures and more will hopefully come soon!
Facebook Users:
House and Construction PicturesAll others:
Just click the tab at the top of my page that says "Daniel & Lana's Pictures" and the pictures are in the "House and Construction Pictures" album.
Ps: Daniel's birthday is tomorrow, so I think we are going to make his birthday wreath sometime tonight or tomorrow night. THOSE pictures will be fun! Coming soon!
Miss everyone :)
It's official, I am safely in Stockholm, Sweden! Well, Danderyd to be more specific, a municipality in Sweden that is quite near Stockholm. I am SO tired, but I just wanted to update this before I crash into bed! The last 30 hours (yes, 30 hours!) have been very exciting, from getting lost in LA with my mom trying to find a Starbucks, eating a DELISH meal at the Cheesecake Factory on the water in Marina del Rey, the 9 hour plane ride to London sitting next to a guy named Daniel Fogg from Manchester who told me all about his last 9 months traveling the world and answering every question I could come up with about England, to my first experience with exchanging currency on my own just to call home (just fyi: 8 dollars will get you about 5 pounds and a few pence in Great Britain), I saw the London Gherkin and Tower Pier in person (from the plane window), purchased a shot of espresso from a British Starbucks for exactly £1.35, ate a lovely meal with Daniel's family (Daniel Ankarcrona, my boyfriend, not to be confused with Daniel Fogg), was told Daniel's grandpa ("Morfar" in Swedish) said I looked like I could be a nurse and the Virgin Mary, spent some good time and had some great laughs with Daniel, Emilie, Adrian, and Samuel over tea while watching various comedy clips online, and just barely finished getting my stuff put away in Sophie's room (my temporary lodgings until the downstairs apartment is finished)... PHEW! :D I know I need to be going to bed right now, but I can't seem to close my eyes for long enough... I am "snookered," as Daniel Fogg would say. Apparently in England they have a game similar to pool that they call Snooker, in which one opponent attempts to "snooker" the other so they have no choice but to forfeit? I kind of zoned out when he was explaining it to me, so I won't be looking to play a round any time soon ;)
Well, I'm off for bed... Again! Hopefully this time I can actually close my eyes long enough to convince my body it needs and desperately wants sleep! :D
The above photo is of London from the plane.
Only 6 weeks to go! I am very much looking forward to my 3-month long hiatus in the country of Sweden... As is my boyfriend Daniel, who is only a "little" of the reason I am going ;) I've never done anything like this before, and am desperately hoping and praying that everything comes together for the good... And that my homesickness keeps itself at a dull roar ;) This being my last semester of achieving my Associates degree, I will be leaving on the tail-end of great feelings of accomplishment and success. This will be a very important and fulfilling milestone for me, having been FOUR years in the making (yikes!) and all. Hey, timeliness and speed have never exactly been my forte. Slow and steady wins the race, right? ;D
My reasons for starting this blog is so I can stay in contact with home... I won't be able to call or email everyone I would like to, and this way I can post pictures and funny/special anecdotes or other stories... Three months is a long time to store them all up and try to remember them! And it is also a very long time to be away from those I love, so I hope that my family and friends will check in every once in a while and leave me a comment, message, or some other little snippet to remind me of home. I am greatly anticipating this exciting summer, but I am not looking forward to missing out on day-to-day life, especially missing the first three months of my brand-new baby cousin's life! Don't change too much baby Morgan :( I will also be leaving behind a very huge chunk of myself in America, my best friend and co-conspirator/partner in crime... My mom. Not having her to call up at my slightest whim to poke fun at the random passersby or exclaim excitedly over a song I just heard on the radio or double over in fits of laughter with in the aisle at the grocery store... This will be sad. But we will hopefully be able to talk regularly and keep each other updated on the more important bits of news and randomness. Facebook is going to see a lot more action between the two of us! ;D I love you mom.
On a brighter note, Daniel has planned wonderful trips and exciting opportunities, including a two-week Swedish learning course and helping out at the Stockholm church in any way that I can, so I will be taking every chance to fully enjoy and grow from this experience :) My mind is open and very ready for this amazing summer and whatever God has in store for me. Keep me in your prayers and thoughts.
