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!

Final are over and I am in New York! I though this would be a HUGE difference from the last two months of bumbi. Tji fick jag (Swedish for "what do you know").

This is what I left:

This is what I am currently hanging out with in New York. 4 x bumbibears.

 

 Äsch ok, we also had some time to walk around the City. 

 

The night before (stats) finals

Some (really cleaver) MPH student from last year's cohort developed this highly advanced graph. It cannot be more true. Reject null hypothesis of no difference in Facebook posts before and after finals!

Bumbibears

In order to increase our survival rate during this very dark and long semester, Saskia and I have developed two rules.

• Rule #1: We are not allowed to say the words "work" or "study" Instead, we say "gummibears" to associate our studies with something cute and funny. Over time, gummibears have developed into "bumbibears" and most recently only "bumbi". 

Sometimes I forget that far from everyone is familiar with our special rule. I almost told my supervising professor the other day that I was going to spend my weekend doing bumbibears (could be interpreted in many ways). That could have been the end to my academic career before it even started. 

 

 

• Rule #2: It is easy to get a tiny, little itsy bisty bit depressed here. Perhaps it's our European nerves that cannot stand the American academic climate, but the German and the Swede have been insanely angry at the world lately. Hence came the development of rule number two. After complaining and raging about the bumbibear-load and how we never get to experience sunlight, we have to say 5-10 things that makes us happy. Examples include nice coffee, crispy air, colorful trees, wine and cheese, hiking, skiing and friendly people. 

Other things that makes us happy includes Public Health (high-school) Prom-night!

Enough about bumbi. Since my last (ancient) blog update, much have happened. A few words to describe the passed months:

Football careers

We have celebrated out very first yberamerikanska Thanksgiving playing American football and eating tons of food together with the family of a professor that I work with. I feel a strong future career in football as I started to grap the game just as it was finished.

Swedish fish

Just as the darkness started to approach, we threw a combined midsommar-jul-kräftskiva with Swedish decorations and food á la IKEA in our apartment. Treats included tipsprommenad (quiz walk) featuring Swedish know-hows, sill (pickled herring), pepparkakshus (ginger bread house), knäckebröd (cracker bread) and snapps (that will have to speak for it self). What a night. It was like a huge behavioral experiment where at one point, we got the whole room of 40+ guests to sing Helan Går. Små grodorna (the little frog dance) came out during the after party for which only the coolest people stayed.

 

 

Please pay attention to the IKEA-bought cray-fish hats

George

For a few weeks, we escaped our apartment and moved down to house sit in Fells Point - an area of Baltimore where you can actually see the harbor and WALK long walks along the waterfront. The house we guarded came with a roommate - George. George is yellow, full of feathers and bites off fingers if you approach him to closely. Gustav says that he reminds him of me - stuck in a cage and eating only seeds and water. I am sure I must have more things in life than that?

 I stole a picture of George from Gus blog

Holidays are approaching and Gus and I are preparing to leave Baltimore for snowy adventures elsewhere. The city is getting into Christmas spirit and we have our very own (concrete) tree in the backyard: Baltimore monument. 1st of December is the lightening of the monument and I was able to gaze it for 3 minutes before returning to bumbibears. 

*Four more days to a long and well-deserved break* 

In the meantime, glad Lucia! (this may be from 2010, but hey, same same)

11.11.11

I wonder what this day will bring?

East Balimore walks and talks

Conversation with Jennifer, my Irish friend in Barcelona:

Jen: *Lifting up her dog and displaying him to the Skype camera*  - "Say hiiii to Anna"
Me: Hiiii dog, nice to meet you!
Jen: He is a bit depressed.
Me: Why?
Jen: Well, he doesn't have a lot of space to run around at during the day. Fiki (Jen's boyfriend) and me are working different hours and it is difficult to find enough time where he can run around an play (not Fiki, but the dog).
Me: *Distracted by Gustav playing charades behind my shoulder* - "Hmm. Reminds me of my dog (not a dog, but Gustav).
Jen: Yea, it's so hard when you feel like they don't get to explore and play where they want. Instead they are stuck in the same area with not much to do.
Me: *Looking at my over-energized husband*. "I hear ya".

I definitely need to find more time to take Gus out for walks. Each day I watch him dreaming about surfing, skiing, diving and other hyperactive stuff and it is only a matter of time before he escapes again. I miss all that stuff too, but school keeps me so busy I barely have the time to notice.

Mostly, I really miss taking walks. Living in Baltimore has made me appreciate the luxury of being able to walk everywhere, at all times. Instead I find my self packed like a sardine at the Hopkins shuttle bus every morning, glazing out the window as we drive through the infamous East Baltimore where Bloomberg School of Public Health is situated. It is really quite weird.

We spend every day inside the same building, learning about health disparities, public health challenges, socio economic differences in incidence and prevalence of disease, and yet I feel like many people fail to recognize that we are right in the smacking middle of it all. We learn about international health challenges in low income countries, challenges that ample people face every day in our proximate neighborhood. 

Part of east Balimore

Johns Hopkins Medial Institutions in the middle of it all

Again, weird. I am not sure how to tackle it and wish I could find more time and ways to be involved and learn about Baltimore community. It has taken me some time to adapt to the city and Hopkins (still adapting every day) and tackle the intense MPH study pace, which unfortunately gets in the way of other things. Such as being able to walk and play with my husband and getting involved in the community where we live. 

Some time this month I hope to start volunteering at an HIV outreach center which conduct targeted testing and counseling to high-risk populations. I am currently working as a TA (teaching assistant) for a course in HIV/AIDS prevention which is great since I am learning so much. Sometimes I wonder how I have been able to work in this field for 5 years without all the knowledge I am currently gaining. Hopefully I will get to use it in practice soon.

Wow. This got out of hand. My intention with this blog post was originally to write (in my usual sarcastic tone) about our trip to New York and throw in some pictures from Halloween in between. How did it get so serious? Quick-fix solution:

• For details about New York, please visit Gus blog.
• For Halloween updates, please see the following pictures. Please observe my outfit as the brand new (?) IKEA product "ANNA" (instruction manual enclosed).

Finalists in the MPH costume competition included humans and non-humans.

Best non-humans! IKEA and the Generalized Linear Model Sara.

Instruction manual for building the IKEA product ANNA.

Make sure NOT to attach the wrong pieces as indicated in the lower left corner.

In love

Hej alla.

I'm alive. Finals are over. New semester started.

And I have a new love.

Called New York City.

Just thought I should let you know that.

Hej då så länge