The joy of Christmas!

It was a long time since I wrote something here. Anyway, it has been Christmas and tomorrow it's New Year's Eve. On Christmas' Eve Sandra, Rob and Dan came, so we were seven people eating "Julmat" (Christmas Food in Swedish) and it was fun. Me and Kristina bought a Christmas tree (in plastic) when we were to Ikea and we have put alot of nice stuff in it. Rest of the weekend we had some lazy days, and it was nice just to relax and so.

Tomorrow it's New Year's Eve and we are planning to have a "Nyårsmys" (which is abit hard to translate) at Dan's place. I hope it will be nice!

About a dream

Hello. As most people know I have moved away from the safe haven that is 22 Vicar St but I thought I could make a little guest appearance - I am, after all, an utlandskorre*.

In August I left Cork and Ireland to move back to Sweden, but instead of going back to being the wicked witch of the north I ended up as a student in Gothenburg. It's all fun and games being in med school, until they tell you that you need to know every little part of the human body, in Latin. Anyway, I believe I kicked some anatomy butt and now, since I don't have any courses going on at the moment, I am trying my luck as an unemployed - at least until Monday when I will be going postal (stupid pun intended).

I live with a good friend of mine in an apartment about 5 minutes away from school and it is surrounded by loads of great take out places – those places are now getting the greater part of my study grant. Every now and again I go to Lund and visit that girlfriend of mine who I still adore – one of the few things that haven’t changed since I got back to Sweden (and it seems like it will stay the same for the foreseeable future).

What else do I do with my time? Well, I have bought myself a gym card and started going on aerobics classes. I am convinced that if all the aerobics instructors of the world ganged up they could take over, because you get a strange kind of zombie feeling when all you do is exactly what the person in front of you tells you – you stop thinking rather quickly (might be a kind of defence mechanism, because you look really silly doing that stuff). Another thing I am doing is dancing a Swedish dance called bugg where you get to do loads of fun stuff, such as lift the lady, throw the lady and the whirl wind. You get very dizzy at times.

But…You want to know the real reason why I decided to write this post? It’s because last night I had a dream about Ireland and all the people there. I really miss you all. I hope that if I work really hard I might earn enough money to at least be able to visit soon. Seriously, sometimes I really wish I hadn’t moved away from you all.

Loads of love from your very own squirrel.

* Roughly translates to either a foreign squirrel or a foreign correspondent.

place called home

Just three weeks after getting back from Sweden I have to go back there again for a funeral. It feels strange. Going to a funeral feels strange, because I've only been to two. Going to Sweden feels strange since I just came home, and my long vacation was my first trip back since I got here, almost a year ago. Leaving Cork feels strange since I have a new found love for the place since I came back.

Iv'e started playing world of warcraft, and Olof will take up playing again as soon as he buys a new pc, so soon we are going to be a happy little nerd family.

Otherwise not much is going on at Vicarstreet. We're all working and chillin' and eating good food and bein' lazy.

Things you realize about Ireland while youre away

• How nice everybody is. People smile and call you "love".
• No water preassure.
• Hot in cold water in different taps.
• Hot water available only when heating is on.
• Public bathrooms are constructed so that you can't enter them. It's strange. The door opens inwards and there's no room to both stand in there and close the door.

I have not forgotten about the traffic though. It's absolutely insane and anarchistic. Lovely.

After five weeks in Sweden I am now back in business. Things have changed on Vicar but I'm so happy to be back home. Home.

Sara has moved out, Olof is renting Sara's old room but living with Maria in her room. I am back in by big, big bed and my room is a mess. Tonight we're going out with the team.

seven

For a while we where seven people in the house. Olof has moved in, my friend Maia was visiting, and so was Amalie and Jojo.

It was kinda awesome. Maia left yesterday and Jojo leaves today, Amalie friday. Maria leaves friday too, for her holiday in Sweden. And Sara's sister comes here. And then Sara leaves, next week, for good, and before Maria comes back, the day before even, I go to Sweden for my holiday.

Olof and Maria are going to be alone in the house then. What a difference. And then, when I come back, it's going to be autumn and everything will be different... I think.

The joy of The Netherlands

Oh my god, we are the worst bloggers ever...

I have been in the Netherlands to meet some wow-friends this weekend. We were five girls who have played together and raided in the same raidgroup. I'm actually not in the raidgroup since I don't play anyway, but was invited anyway. But the other girls are still playing together... After this weekend I'm very tempted to start playing again though, meeting the girls and talking alot about the game made me miss it. I borrowed a laptop yesterday and did some dailies and also checked the new badges gear. (Well, I guess most people don't play the game and therefore don't really know what I'm talking about, but I don't care, hehe.) I need more than 400 badges (actually probably around 500) to get good gear so I can raid again in case I decide to start play, and at the moment I have 118, which is alot less than 400, hehe. But we'll see, I have not made up my mind yet and maybe the feeling of temptation will disappear.

Enough about wow, we went to Amsterdam one day, walked around and looked in shops and so on. I also had time to visit Ikea and bought some stuff that I have been missing here in Ireland. And H&M! I bought three t-shirts, all of them in black, but quite different from eachother. We went out for dinner on Saturday, it was really good food, and a great wine. Then we went home to Saph where we stayed and drank more wine. I will get some photos up on Pixbox as soon as possible, they are all in my camera. It was a great weekend, and very fun to meet them!

When I came back to Cork it was rainy and a grey sky, not so surprising. I'm longing for sun and blue sky. It is 24 working days (including today) until I'm going to Sweden. And then the summer is over (at least in my view as a person who grew up in northern Sweden) and the autumn is here. Things will change then...

Can you feel it?!?

Alright! After a quick nap I am now back on track. Or, after a quick nap, lots of pizza and some icecream. And some Jackson 5. Anyways!

Since Sweden was extremely crushed by Russia we have all been feeling extremely low, sad... rootless. That's why we haven't been updating lately.

But now! It's better! Happiness!

Sara is back, and she has really landed, she's a part of our lives again. And so is Olof, by now. He made copys of our keys even. And when Sara moves back to Sweden he's going to take her room. Wich is... wierd, in ways, but nice as well. Lots of fun. I'm sad that Sara's leaving but happy that Olof is moving in.

Last night Jojo arrived, with gifts! Candy and fishy things for me and I like her now. Fiiiish. And tomorrow (on Dave's birthday!) Amalie is arriving!!! It's great! We all miss her so.

Work is a bit tough, lots of calls and not very nice ones. We're all feeling a bit stressed out and tired over that.

But hey... Six people living on 22 Vicar for a couple of days. How about that, huh? Then Olof (who doesn't really live here but spends most nights) goes home to Sweden for his vacation. (Home? I didn't mean home. Cork is home. Sweden is gestapocountry.)

Well, all in all, life is pretty good.