Introspection

Gradually… then, suddenly.

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So, I swore I wouldn’t do this, but we’ve been so busy the past few days even though nothing major has been happening, I don’t really have a lot of time – SO – I am combining two days into one, and cutting this one super short. Here goes.

We’ve spent the past two days packing up the place, taking trips down to the recycling centers, storage shed, trash bins, and so on. We’ve now got the entire place packed up and shoved into one half of her bedroom, and the entire living room. Since the kitchen, bathrooms, hallway, closests, and dining room has to be 100% empty, it’s been a lot of work. Trying to figure out how to get the dining table out of the kitchen was the most entertaining… we took the doors off after 20 minutes of trying to take the table apart and failing due to stripped screws. Bastards.

The other night, Emilie spent the evening writing her homework “Memoir” while I brainstormed for a new story I’m really excited about. I still need to finish my current one, but it was nice to feel that creativity actually work with me, instead of against me for once. After writing a bit of the plot and character outlines, I played some more Sims on her big screen TV, we packed some more, and we watched How I Met Your Mother. We’ve made it half way through season 3 now, so we are moving through the series pretty quickly.

This afternoon while we were out recycling, Emilie realized there was another candy store she had forgotten about so we stopped by. We were in our sweat pants, sleep shirts and sweaters, but it was worth it. We had a blast while I pointed at literally everything and asked “what’s that?” or “Is is salty?” for every bin. I must say, they have a lot of candy, and it’s all so similar to other candies, so why so many choices? I was confused.

Anyway, I ended up with 2.18 kilos of candy and chocolate, and once we got home I spent an hour sorting it into bags for everyone back home to have their own personal bag with a little of everything. The bags came to 23 dollars, but it was worth it.

I spent an hour re-packing my bags, rounding up my belongings, and finished washing my clothes. I went through all the souveniors I’ve bought while here and realized I only bought three things for me – postcards, a candle, and measuring cups from IKEA. In reality, I figure the entire experience is mysouvenior, so I don’t really have a problem with it, plus, i’ll be buying more chocolate and candy before I leave, so I’m fine with it. I did a tally to see how much I’ve spent while here, and Emilie was shocked it was so little – $248.00 US Dollars. Not bad at all.

Tomorrow we wake around 9am, finish the last minute details for the apartment, load up the car, and take off around 1pm for Stockholm. I’ll be meeting her parents, and I’m soooo nervous about it. I know it will be awkward, but I’m just worried they won’t like me or I’ll do something wrong. Once we drop off her cats and some of our things there, we will head out once again for the harbor so we can catch the cruise before it leaves. I’m so excited about being on a ship, and sailing on the sea, and visiting yet another country, and having dinner on my birthday and getting drunk on the ship. It will all be so awesome, and a very cool well to spend my birthday.

Well, everything is packed, Emilie is already asleep, and I’m yawning every couple of minutes, so I think it’s time to say farwell. I won’t be able to update about the cruise until after we are back because there is no wifi, so I won’t be posting until Sunday most likely. So, until then – Adieu, Adieu…and the next time I post an entry, I will be yet another year older, and hopefully this year will be just as good as the last, if not even better.

Today we went to Emilie’s school to drop off a library book and then headed to Nisse’s, a discount store here in town. I bought a few more gifts for people at home, and finally bought a makeup pencil sharpener since I left mine back home, and then we went to the candy store. Rather, we tried to go to the candy store. Apparently it’s going out of business and the store was closed. We aren’t sure if it’s closed permanently, or if it was just for the day.

So, I was sad there would be no candy… and Emilie was sad she had let the American down… so we went to the grocery store and got some ice cream and cookies. The ice cream was gingerbread with cinnamon swirls and it was oh…my…god… delicious. I’ve never tasted better ice cream – seriously.

Besides the trip out, we didn’t do much but pack up the house and relax. We have a busy weekend ahead of us, so we are just enjoying our time together while it’s still so laid back.

Today was pretty laid back. I had yogurt, a banana, and tropical juice for breakfast, and then munched on chips and crackers all day. We packed up boxes, took down some trash, and I discovered Emilie’s love for shoes, bags, and jackets. She has some very awesome stuff, and great taste.

I fixed chicken carbonara with sour cream and garlic potato wedges and a side salad for dinner. It was really delicious – something I’ve never cooked before but plan to in the future back home. We then watched some TV which later turned into watching “The Mist” – a Stephen King movie. Emilie cringed and jumped at all of the appropriate places and I giggled at her reactions since I’ve seen it before.

After the movie, we hooked up the Sims to the TV screen and I played for a few hours – building a character and starting a house. After an hour or so of playing, I couldn’t stop yawning, so we went to bed around 2am.

I woke up this morning with a knot in my back under my shoulder blade that wouldn’t go away. We decided I could try sleeping on the roll out mattress on the floor, but it is kind of thin, so we padded it with blankets to help the comfort level a bit.

We spent most of the day just relaxing. I read quite a bit while she did homework. I didn’t want to turn on a movie or tv or music and distract her. After her homework was finished, we packed up the entry way and took some boxes down to her storage unit and brought some more empty boxes up to fill later. We felt pretty productive, so we enjoyed some TV, ate leftovers, and then got on the topic of makeup. She went through her makeup stuff and pulled out the things she doesn’t use or like or was given as a gift that wasn’t her colors and gave them to me to try. I found some foundations that hadn’t been used because they weren’t her shade that I liked a lot.

We decided to have a dress up glam night and did our makeup and hair and took pictures of us together. It was a lot of fun, and in the background we listened to/watched the Swedish version of American Idol – only it’s bigger here. They have Swedish Idol, but this is for all of Europe – like the finalists kind of thing. Previous musicians can compete against each other and then at the end they go on to have the hit of the year or something like that. The event last 3 months and there is a whole series of competitions – apparently this is as big as the Super Bowl in the United States. In my opinion, all of the songs were poppy dance club, trendy crap, but that’s the genre the contest is held in – or at least this episode anyway.

After we took pictures and watched the show, we stayed up until 2am talking about the differences between the US and Sweden… from housing differences, to taxes, social security, income, and culture in general.  We finally got tired and headed to bed, and I managed to have the best night of sleep since I got here. Who knew all I needed was to sleep on the floor, instead?

Today was inspection day. Emilie’s apartment complex is slowly renovating each apartment, and in order to do so while the place is still occupied with tenants, they are doing 6 apartments at a time, all within the same part of the building as each other. Ironically, Emilie’s apartment begins renovation the last week I’m here. Coincidentally, we had booked the Cruise and planned to stay at the summer house in Stockholm for the last week, so we won’t have to deal with the constant marching in and out of people the entire time.

The renovation is supposed to last for a month, and during part of that time, Emilie doesn’t have to pay rent, but she also can’t use her bathrooms or kitchen, so she decided to take her cats to her parents, and stay either with them, or at the summer house during the entire duration. Today was the day the building company was going to come by and inspect the apartment for any notable damages and decide what is staying and what is going. Emilie said she didn’t want to be there during their inspection, and since it wasn’t required, we took the time to conveniently go to the grocery store and stock up for the rest of the week.

I managed to get better pictures of the store this time, as well as the hand scanners and the wall you check in at.

We bought the things on our grocery list, but also picked up some chips and cookies that were popular in Sweden for me to try. The cookies were delicious, but the chips are just alright. They have sour cream and onion chips like our Ruffles, and they also make them in Dill flavor. We also bought some Cheese Doodles which is their version of Cheetos – the puffy kind, but they use a creamier and lighter yellow cheese which really changes the flavor a lot.

The cookies are kind of like Oreo’s, but more like digestive cookies with a thin filling of either chocolate, nougat, or mint. My favorite are the mint or the chocolate, but Emilie loves anything Nougat flavored – it’s her weakness. I’ll probably bring some home with me in each flavor because they are delicious.

The rest of the afternoon we watched How I Met Your Mother, and I uploaded pictures from the previous few days and gave them titles and descriptions. Around 6pm, Emilie fixed her pork stroganof and I made my version of garlic bread and we continued the TV marathon. By 10pm I was pretty tired, so Emilie went into her room to finish her homework while I fell asleep. Tomorrow we plan on boxing up a lot of the kitchen and relaxing I might even do some reading or writing while she finished homework.

Oh, I nearly forgot – this morning it also happened to snow, so I took some pictures and a video.