Ny blogg

Hej!

Har börjat blogga på ny adress med lite mer fokus på New York och min kamp för att komma dit. Välkommen att kolla in den HÄR. =)

December 2010

December was a calm month. Getting the results on both the exams was a big relief - A. Now the focus turned to working on the application: writing a statement of purpose, getting recommendation letters and so on. I spent as many evenings in the library during december as I did writing the exams.

Lisa came and visited me and we had a blast as always.

Here celebrating ten years of friendship with fabulous Italian food and wine.

At Dancing Dingo.Liseberg at christmas time.

Christmas was celebrated back home in Linköping as usual.The car that took me and Sofie home through the winter wonderland of Sweden.Christmas eve at my uncle's house.

New Year's eve was spent having a pyjama party at Tove's cabin. Scrapbooking, tv-shows, movies, good food and wine made for a perfect weekend.

Tove enjoying some cake.

Cheers! New Year's dinner.

Dessert.

November 2010

Exams for both my courses were due at the beginning of November. So when they were finished I decided to have some fun. Results: Roadtrip to Hot Salsa Weekend in Stockholm with these dudes.

First evening at Manchester Town Hall during the Great British Salsa Experience. Disa, Lilly, Mariam and me on the stairs.

The wifi at the hotel was ridiculously expensive, but the did have a computer downstairs that you could use for 15 minutes at a time.

At a Chinese restaurant with a whole bunch of salseros.

Tove and I spent a weekend at her cabin on Tjörn scrapbooking, watching movies and having wine.

October 2010

A bunch of us made a roadtrip to Helsingborg to dance some salsa. The event was far from a success but it was still a lot of fun.

The rest of the month I spent working and studying. I discovered that I actually miss studying a lot. But working full time and studying full time took up a lot of my time.

September 2010

September meant the return to New York for the congress. I spent ten amazing days in NY and determination grew stronger. The fabulous people, great dancers and beautiful city have me mesmerized.

View from my hotel room.

The pillow I ordered off of the pillow menu.

A bunch of us having dinner before the congress party.

Leon and Rodney

Me, Ronald and Lilly at the congress.

Leaving the afterparty at 8.30 am on Monday morning.Me and Wes at Honey.

V getting a pedicure. This after giving me directions getting me so lost that he had to come pick me up from my clueless wandering around Brooklyn.

Rodney and me on our way to Staten Island. Staten Island was not worth the trip, but the company was good.

Lilly and me having dinner with V on my last evening in NYC. Between the three of us we basically ate a cow. This made the dancing at Caché a little uncomfortable.

Enjoying the blistering September sun in Central Park.

Favorite quotes of the trip:

Lilly: I need a foot massage!
Me: You need to fork yourself?!

Conclusion: Too tired to be coherent.

At a restaurant where I ordered a pasta that was less than delicious.
Lilly to waiter: This is inedible!
Waiter: Do you want that to go?

The trip was so good and I was not happy about getting on the plane going back to Sweden. Back home I started studying full time beside my full time job to reach my goal - MSW in NY.

August 2010

Tove and I went to Italy where we spent time in Leccho and Como. Both beautiful towns. Unfortunately we managed to catch a lot of rain. But being in Italy is always a treat!

View of Como from the village of Brunate.



Me and Tove on our way to Brunate.


Lunch in Leccho before taking the boat to Como.


Tove enjoying herself in the hotel bathroom.


Roadtrip to the airport that almost made us miss our flight.

This month was also the first time I found something crawling on my plate at a restaurant. Having dinner with Anna at Farelli's I found a green caterpillar crawling around my plate. New experience and not one I care to repeat.

July 2010

July was very focused on spending time with Anna since she was moving back to Thailand. We took walks, had coffee, talked and just hung out. We also spent an amazing weekend in Falkenberg. Just us, the ocean, wine and good food. Such a good weekend. Miss her like crazy!

July also has the mandatory road trip to the Hamburg Salsa Festival. Me, Tove, Andreas, David and Ellinor took Andreas' Volvo and drove to Hamburg. There Mr Smooth aka Valentine came in from NY for the weekend. Great dancing and fantastic people - no wonder Hamburg is mandatory!

Having dinner at the Irany restaurant

Me and Tove chilling at the hotel

V, Ellinor and David at a restaurant on Colonnaden

Andreas, Tove and me

Tove's and my favorite hotel

May and June 2010

These months were filled with friends and learning my new job.

Me and Tove joined Anna's brother Fredrik on a roadtrip to Varberg to watch Anna's fight.

We spent midsummer in Lina's cabin in Lyse - amazing weekend!

I found a new favorite spot.
Tove helping Fredrik exercise.
Tove's famous midsummer cake

David the Devil and Ida the Innocent

Lina showing us one of her many talents.

I also made a lot of thinking. The trip to NY gave me a lot to think about. And after a looooooot of thinking I decided to see what I could do to get over there. Conclusion - apply to the Master in Social Work at the university in NY. Ok, first step - the test of English as a foreign language. You need it to get in. You could take the test in either Stockholm or Malmö (since then they actually have test dates in Gothenburg, but that was not the case at the time). So I decided to combine a little English test with a visit to my beautiful friend Deja in Malmö.

Tove had the fabulous party Glassens dag (The day of the ice cream). Long story short - waaaaaaayyyy too much ice cream and a little barbeque to top it off.

Next adventure

I know I shouldn't be doing this at work, but I just wanted to share what I've been up to during my lunch break.

Thursday 24th feb 2011

09:30 - 10:15 Göteborg, Landvetter - Köpenhamn, Kastrup
11:25 - 13:10 Köpenhamn, Kastrup - Zurich

Monday 28th feb 2011

16:35 - 18:55 Zurich - Stockholm, Arlanda
20:20 - 21:20 Stockholm, Arlanda - Göteborg, Landvetter

Tickets for Zurich are now booked and paid for. So the 24th of February me and Tove are going to Zurich for the Zurich salsa festival 2011. Joining us there are Lilly, Valentine and Disa from the US, Wesley from Canada, Karla from Brazil and a bunch of other people. The salsa UN. Already looking forward to it!

April 2010

In April I turned 25. The day before my birthday Anna took me on a surprise trip. She told me to pack a bag with clothes for working out and a bikini. She told me to meet her at the train station that morning. That's all I knew. I was kind of nervous she was going to take me to a Thai boxing boot camp. We got on a train and got off in Varberg. I was still clueless when we were walking through the town but when she finally stopped it was in front of the Asian spa. We spent the day relaxing in their spa pools, hot wells and taking relaxation classes.Perfect birthday present as I was fairly nervous about my birthday. Why? Cause that would be my first day as a paid social worker.

I also celebrated my birthday with a proper birthday party for the first time in years.

Jeanette, Tove (whom there isn't a single normal picture of from this party) and Lina

Andreas and Anna, whom I miss dearly

Ida, Tove och André

Pia

Me and Tove