It's a New Year

Did I read something about them switching the date for the end of the world?

Anyhow, apologies to those that check in every once and awhile in hopes of a new blog post from me. Truth be told, just haven't been inspired to write like I used to be :-(.

Change is in the air here in Sweden. A move back "home" to Canada is imminent, though not tangible...yet. Still, the thought of it fills me with a mixture of "yes!" and "no...". You see, after overcoming the year of "Get me outta here!", you start to acclimatize. People, places, food, friends...it all becomes familiar and wraps around you like a cozy blanket. Those initial struggles to make your way, they become distant and at times, laughable memories.

Life IS good in this country. There's a sense of security here but always the gentle pull at the heart strings from our family back home. The longing.

When we do leave, it will be with a heavy heart as we have made a life for ourselves here in this place so far from where we came from. We have been truly blessed. Over the past six years, we have done what many dream of doing and few will ever actually do. We have lived in two vastly different countries and experienced their cultures, the good and the not-so-good and the downright BAD. We will return back to Canada changed from this experience. I am thankful. Thankful especially for the wonderful start we have given our son. For the strength in our marriage. For the courage. For the knowledge that we can make it on our own.

And I thank you all for sharing our experiences with me. Now to take the little man off to his swimming lesson, my favourite part of the week.

Much love from Uppsala,

Little Man enjoying a Christmas morning tradition, Swedish porridge, grött. The one who finds the raisin gets a special prize!

 

Montenegro, Summer 2010, our visit back

(Swedish)Jenn xo

We are the champions my friends

We won Olympic Gold in the only event that really mattered to Canadians...Men's Hockey.

We won against the Americans. It was epic. The winning goal was scored by none other than Sydney Crosby, a legend in my home province of Nova Scotia and my hometown of Halifax.

We dragged the little man way past his bedtime to watch the game with some new friends who invited us over. It was worth it. Sweden is second only to Canada in terms of how seriously they take their hockey and to heart.

To top it all off, Canada broke a record. We beat Russia as the country with the most Gold medals ever, in the history of the Olympics...14. So if you're counting wins by Golds, Canada won the Olympics. The 2010 Olympics that were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

We are no longer that grayed out area just above the U.S. border. "God keep your land, glorious and free. Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee."

I have never been prouder to be a Canadian. And neither have the hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets celebrating in every major city across our country.

Amen.

I.AM.CANADIAN

Vancouver 2010. The Opening Ceremonies tonight..well tomorrow morning my time. Just trying to figure out if I should stay up till 1:30am or have a little nap and wake up.

Funny how we Canadians don't seem to be all that patriotic until we move away from our "strong and native land" (line from the anthem). But have I ever noticed the patriotism from actual citizens and expats alike leading up to these games. Everyone's donning a maple leaf.

Games aside, I craved and wore with pride anything with a red flag after we became citizens of the world. And now, I feel I owe it to my country to stay up (or wake up) to watch the torch being carried in and the flame lit by whoever has the honour (everyone's speculating and putting in their two cents).

Now to find some red and encourage you all to watch this commercial, the best tribute to our wonderful nation that ever was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg

The Sorel Boot Saga Continued...

You might recall my last post on the horribly blistered feet I got as a direct result of buying a cool-looking pair of winter boots back in Canada.

Well, dear blog readers, all 5 of you: Within 24 hours of my rant in the blogosphere, a PR rep from Sorel commented on my post. In addition to asking me not to burn the boots, she offered to help me find a solution to my boot problem.

Now I'm in PR, have been for all of my adult life. And I'll tell you: This here is some good PR. She then proceeded to send me an email apologizing on behalf of her team for me sore feet and asked me to take a photo of the boot culprits. Before I had a chance to figure out how to hook my camera up to my computer and all that jazz, I received another email from a rep at Columbia, whom I assume owns the Sorel brand.

She asked me to jot down all the info on my boots and offered to send me a new pair! Stop. I do NOT want a new pair. I have tried, in vain, to befriend these boots but we just can't seem to get along. So instead, I have asked for a gift certificate of some form so that I may continue to patronage their fine brand but with a set of boots that adore me and my big ole feet.

I even figured out my new scanner (whose software is all in Swedish thank you very much) and sent her a receipt. This may seem like "whatever" to you all, but I am not one of these award-winning Mommy bloggers with thousands of followers so the fact that all this fuss is being made over little ole' me and my big ole' feet, well this is monumental and deserves a worthy enough post. We bitch and moan about bad customer service all the time (human nature) so when we get treated like royalty, we need to shout it from the rooftops. It's only fair.

I will keep you posted on the resolution. In the meantime, I gotta stop wearing my rain boots and get my tired feet into a store. Thank you Sorel and thank you Columbia for listening to a lonely customer in Sweden.

New Year and News

Now that I'm back and away from the hustle and bustle, joy and pain of our 3-week holiday "home" in Canada, I thought I'd get back into the swing of bloggyland with an Update Post. Some short (for me) words on what's been going on:

The Holiday: In a word: emotional. It was such a wonderful time seeing hubby's son, our parents and extended family. It was just what we all needed, some three-on-everyone time. Truly made us appreciate how important family and friends are. Our little man truly relished every moment, no matter how different, loud, crazy and unscheduled things were. He truly rolls with the punches this kid. He's an amazing little traveller and as I always say, "The best part of every trip". From sitting on Santa's knee to reading to my sis-in-law's two dogs to running around with his cousin Luke to snowshoeing, skating, sledding and helping Nana with the laundry, he soaked it all up. It really was all about the kids and it was great.

Forgiveness: I'm sure you remember my post from a month back about the friend I apologized to after 10+ years? Well she did write me back folks and apart from being absolutely shocked and confused about what motivated me to apologize after so many years, she was her usual, kindhearted self and accepted my apology. Her reply was candid, honest and rather generous. I don't know that we'll continue our friendship but I do know that I'm glad I reached out and did the right thing.

Itchy Hives: No sooner had we spent the first night in my Aunt's gorgeous but extremely dry home in Northern Ontario, than I broke out in a mad case of what I think are hives. Now I do have a history of mild ezcema, but this outbreak took the cake. Almost like "bites" but not quite. I'm still taking benadryl but it's not as bad as it was, where it was keeping me up at night. Apart from the very dry air or perhaps the stress of having my Mom around, I haven't the foggiest where they came from. I think a trip to the doc is in order.

Shopping: Couldn't believe the prices of everything as compared to the prices of everything here. Couldn't resist overspending and overpacking a bit and feeling rather guilty that I didn't do more. Just no time. Can't believe I forgot the essentials: Kraft Peanut Butter and Old Tyme Maple Syrup.

Jet Lag: It's amazing. We adjust in NO TIME when we land but coming back is altogether opposite. Little man only slept for 2 hours on the 12-hour trip back and after getting him to bed around 7pm local time, he was up between 12 and 2:30am and slept in until 11:30am Saturday morning! Same thing again last night! I'm still kicking myself for not setting the alarm this morning and am wondering how I'm gonna manage to get him up for school at 7am if he pulls the "I'm wide awake and ready to party" again tonight.

Homeless: We are STILL looking for a place to live for the end of February and time is running out. After months of searching, I finally found a great place but the posting went up on Friday, I responded Saturday and still haven't heard back. Getting pretty stressed about this. Demand seems far greater than supply.

Well that's about all for now. Will likely come back in a few days to expand on one or more of the above topics.

Happy New Year Everyone! SJ