Year of surprises

Happy new year!

Eight days into a brand new exiting year I find myself sitting in an apartment complex in Nairobi, Kenya. I arrived a few days ago with a terribly delayed flight, dragged myself to the place where I am suppose to work on a research proposal for a bit more than two weeks, only to find out I only need to start tomorrow. Since then, I have been extremely busy.

I have slept

I have eaten

Swam a couple of rounds in the swimming pool

I waited for food

 

Took a walk

Socialized with other random birds

Ate some more and drank a bit

Most importantly - I have been hiding from my upcoming workload

(Oh, and I went on a safari and felt the tongue of a giraffe)

But I haven't been here all my break. For the last couple of weeks, Gustav and I have been touring Sweden. We decided to continue out theme of "surprise" and show up the day before Christmas at our parents house (who thought we were in Colorado skiing). There's just something about surprises. I dressed up as a drag-queen santa with glitter everywhere and ran around in my family's garden. They eventually invited me in and I had time to both speak and hang around before they even started guessing what was going on. 

A few hours later Gus arrived, after touring the surprise tour in Norrköping. You might think my family would suspect ugglor i mossen when crazy creature #2 that evening started running around in the garden. But no, my mother was convinced it was kids from the neighborhood (she also thought I was a politician??) with LAZER (Gus had a blinking rudolf nose) "hide your eyes!". Gus had ample of time to come into the house and crawl a bit on the floor before the surprise was over. 

Watch out for the lazer nose

As always, my husband - the moviemaker - beat me to blogging (which can have something to do with that I use his camera...) and created a wonderful movie about our adventures hanging around in Sweden.

We had some fantastic weeks back home. It's quite fun to be a tourist in your own country, with your own family and friends. Experiences include:

1. Traditional Larsson Christmas in Lidköping, featuring pickled herring for breakfast, sugar overload, and a large family party on boxing day. 

Yum. Raw cold fish for breakfast.

The family clan

Mamma raindeeer handing out julklappar

However, there was a MAJOR skip of traditions this year. Instead of the mandatory lunch at 12 pm, we had lunch at 3.30 pm (due to some jetlagged visitors...). As such, we put Kalle Anka on pause (3 million Swedes watch Donald Duck and other cartoons on Dec 24th at 3 pm) and didn't watch it until 5 pm. SO crazy.

 Anyway, My family rocks. At day 4 since our arrival, my mother was still slightly chocked every time she saw me. I also realized how insanely tall and handsome my brothers are (or am I just very short?).

Middle, oldest, youngest. Makes sense?

2. Family outdoor-training with Gustav's sisters newly launched company, Stark Ute, where we ran across rivers and forests carrying children and saying bad words over lack of pulse and strength, in an attempt to digest to Christmas food. The whole clan was present, including his both sisters. Please see Gus video of the event for evidence. 

3. Checking in a hotel Ove (Gus father) who recently build a eco-house which might be the coolest place I have ever seen. I got to sleep in a TOWER. Som Törnrosa. Do I need to say more?

Our tower home.

4. Seeing long missed and much loved friends in Göteborg, visiting our flat and experiencing west-coast winter (cold rain).

5. New Years celebration in the Stockholm archipelago, with Gus "man-crew" + wives and other sorts, where one has a small baby and another one is expecting any moment. 

Excited crew waiting for the ferry.

Chef Annika rocking in the kitchen.

The high of the day was to watch Lisa place her drinking glass (of water) on her stomach. Looks so comfortable!

Gott nytt år!

6. Hang-around in Stockholm with Gus mother + sister + kids+ husband. More exercise and also some well needed shopping. I tried tricking Gus into shopping when we were in New York mid-December but without much luck. Finally, success. 

Anyway - that's it for surprises for this (last) year! For those of you uninformed, we got married in secret before moving to the US, and this spontaneous visit was the first time we saw our family since (minus Gus mother who visited Baltimore). 

 

I cannot emphasize enough how much I needed to be home for a bit. It's been a crazy 6 months and I needed a reminder that life can be something else than studying. Our families and friends were amazing to welcome us with such a short notice - much appreciated!

Back to Nairobi - gotta go, time to hang out with my new friends!