347 days and 5 hours (GMT time)!...

Sometimes one has a kind of peculiar feeling just before a trip... Some butterflies flying wildly about in your belly, some sort of underlying sensation that you'll forget something dreadfully important, the vague thought that this, after all, might not have been the best of times to leave your fortress and wander about in the world... With me, it's often a severe combination of all of them and so many many many more - “the plane will surely fall”, “we'll loose our luggage”, “something terribly bad will happen in our absence”, etc etc etc. I surely could (and maybe should) write a book about the 1001 reasons why one shouldn't go on vacation – and, often, when one has 1001 reasons why one shouldn't go on vacation, it kind of rings of a desperate need for that time off.

The trip to Sweden is now behind my back. It was costy, in many levels, but we made it here and I'm nos sitting out in the sun, zipped up in my coat, enjoying the warming sun and fighting off the chilly wind with layers and layers of clothes.

The trip here was rather smooth... in a way, I guess. There was no screamy baby wanting out of the plane. Instead, we got a quite excited and cooperative 5 y.o. Who stared in amazement at pretty much everything and that happily mocked my panic look at each take off and landing.

On the other hand – of all the things that could go wrong, we got a bit of almost everything. We had a delayed flight, nearly missed the second flight and, in the end, arrived to our destination without luggage, as we made it to the second flight, but the bags didn't. So, I set foot in Sweden, bagless, exhausted to the marrow of my bone and with a not so handy urinary infection. Me suffers!

The first day on Swedish ground (which was yesterday) was planned out to be a handy fieldtrip to the nearest health center and pharmacy, but now I confess to be feeling a little bit better and not so potty-dependent. The weather, yesterday, was a bit of a downer – rain, rain and even more rain and with such low temperatures that it just reminded me of winter back home. Now the sun is out though, no threat of rain for now, clear blue sky and all these birds singing. There's also the sound of the wind passing through the leafs of trees and bushes and the waving of flags. Quite soothing, really, and it's this soothing feeling that often disarms me and makes me crave this space when my own reality settles in and life becomes a heavy burden to try and carry forward.

Many days have passed without words from my side. My Swedish learning plans still stand, though poor health has kind of settled in. No big reason behind it, which is both good and bad – good, because it's nothing serious, it seems; bad because I don't have a good reason to be feeling as bad as I've been feeling.

I will get back later with more news on my Swedish learning... for now, I'm just going to kick back and enjoy the world around me...