a rare picture...

The only evidence (and not good evidence since i'm wearing a mask and hiding from the camera as usual) that I was in fact at the halloween party as a masked flamenco dancer :)

Fäktning-Fencing!

Last week a few of us from class tried fencing! Johannas boyfriend is a professional fencer from Romania and he gave us a quick lesson in "värja" ("épée" in english/french) and then we dueled! It was really tough, esp. since i don't have great coordination but it was lots of fun and a really great workout. Im fencing someone in all the pictures (I'm on the left). I took some pictures myself of the others which i'll upload later.

"I love Hjo"

Though I went on this trip a while ago I never posted the pictures. We saw a beautiful and rare wooden Cathedral.

Flower

I am a Violet What Flower Are You?

"You have a shy personality. You tend to hesitate before trying new things or meeting new people. But once people get to know you, you open up and show the world what you are really all about." I think thats sounds about right:)

can't forget the Crazy Cow...

Halloween In Sweden

Alice och jag blev inbjundna på en Halloween fest, och så här såg det ut! (Bilderna är inte så bra, men ljuset var ganska dålig) och som jag är fånig över att andra tar foton på mig så finns det inga bilder av mig som en flamenco dansös :(

Alice and I were invited to a Halloween party, and this is what it looked like! (The pictures aren't great, but the lighting was bad.) and because i'm so silly about having my picture taken there is no picture of me as a flamenco dancer :(
**doesn't the guy in the middle of last photo look like Heath Ledger as the Joker?!

When I went to Zurich for a year in four days

Thomas and a pencil

picture of a fence

Inside the university


a familiar looking statue...


so many clocktowers...

"Hoppet heter Barack Obama"

En amerikansk president, oavsett partifärg, kommer alltid att bevaka det USA uppfattar som sitt nationella intresse. Obama erkänner ändå att världen har blivit annorlunda, och att även det starkaste landet behöver samarbete med andra för att lösa dagens problem.

Trollywood

some good looking apples


one of the many villas along the river


in a lock!


approaching the lock!


Sverige är best!

on the river

Älven at dusk

how i've been feeling lately

Yes! Finally we have internet at home!! Things are going well, though I've been feeling a little bit useless. Getting started with a language class has been a really slow process. I wake up in the morning and wonder sometimes what I am doing here in Sweden!? I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere and I don't really have the opportunity to meet a lot of people. Suk! (Sigh!) Jag borde igentligen börja skriva på Svenska! (I should start writing my blog in both Swedish and English.) Above are some pictures from last weekend's trip to Trollhättan, Västen (the place is nicknamed "Trollywood" because many Swedish and American movies are filmed there). Alice and I went mushroom picking, took a boat ride on the river Älven (we went locking! in Swedish its "slussa"; its like an elevator for a boat. The water level slowly rises and lifts the boat up so you can travel along different canals and avoid waterfalls!), and Erik (Alice's father) gave us a tour of the construction site of his new country home. We ate great meals, enjoyed being outdoors, and I learned all about hunting!

The House, Zenith, and Dahlias

The house on SärÖ

Zenith, the crazy German Shepherd!

This weekend Alice and I went to Kungsbacka, a nearby town, to do some shopping and on the way home we stopped by her favourite florist. He is 96 years old and still going! He also sold us delicious potatoes, cucumbers, and carrots which he grows in his own garden.