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It's been exactly one week since I arrived in Stockholm (and much longer than that since I last posted) so I thought now might be a good time to finally update everyone on my life as a Swede once again.

It feels so nice to be back in this beautiful city that truly feels like home to me. I've said it before and I'll say it a million times...there is no place more beautiful than Sweden in the summer. In some ways it feels like I never left and that my year in New York was all a dream. But in other ways I can really feel how I have changed over the past year and how things this time around are different. I feel ready to settle in one place for more than one year and it feels so right that Stockholm is where I have landed.

I haven't stopped going since landing on Swedish soil last week and have no plans to do so anytime soon. The first few days, Klas helped bring me back to life here. We went to the bank and got my bank account up and running again, fixed my cell phone so that I could have the same Swedish number I used to have and went on long walks so that I could re-aquaint myself with the city. We then spent the weekend up in Sandviken (three hours north of Stockholm) at Klas' mom's place where we celebrated Midsommar. Midsommar is the greatest holiday ever. It is a day to be with family, to dance around and sing funny songs about animals and sunshine, and to eat all the best foods that Swedish summer has to offer, including pickled herring, fresh potatoes and dill, and wild strawberries with cream. Klas' mom has a summer cottage in a quaint village by the water where we spent the day and stayed the night. It was when I was laying on the hammock reading a Swedish book in the Swedish countryside that I felt as far away from New York City as one can possibly be.

I am definitely in a new world, but one that feels so familiar and comfortable to me. It's been nice to hear Swedish all around me again and yet challenging at the same time. I've gotten a little rusty and am still in the process of turining the switch in my head from English to Swedish. I'm looking forward to getting back into studying and practicing every second of every day. Lifting the Midsommar Pole.Klas' mom danced in the festivities...And Klas played.Klas and his mom on the chair swing at the cottage before our Midsommar dinner.Two of the small cottages.
Down by the water.