Winter

Went cross country skiing today. Then I drank hot chocolate and ate waffles and got really emotional about this place I’ve been visiting for as long as I can remember.

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(The thing about skiing is that it’s in my blood and bones, it’s what my dad and grandpa and great grandma did, it’s old and Swedish and the forests are dark and the views beautiful. It’s freedom and being out of breath and so much pressure. It’s me as a little girl. And it’s weird to think about the people working here, the guy preparing the tracks outside the window right now, or anyone else who’s been here. Weird that this place could mean even more to any of them.)

Darkest night

It’s the night of the darkest day of the year. 21st of December, the winter solstice. In the very north of Sweden the sun didn’t even rise above the horizon, which I guess it did here even though I haven’t really seen it in a while.

On a lighter note I highlighted my hair today. I bet you could make something poetic out of that, but I’m not really going to. Looks great though. Even better without the tin foil, I promise.

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Good niight.

I hurt myself in the weirdest of ways

The headline sounds like this could be a poem, but it’s the story of how I walked into a wall. I found it in my old notes and thought I’d share it. So, sometime during the summer of 2015: 

I woke up yesterday morning with a horrible pain in my back. I twisted and turned under the covers, but noticed that it was impossible to make it feel better, so I decided to stand up and go inside. Now, if you’ve read my blog for a while you know that I sort of live in a cabin in our garden, so this meant putting shoes on and crossing the lawn. And suddenly, while doing this, my vision started getting blurry along the edges. More and more of it turned black, you know the way it does when you stand up too fast, but then it didn’t stop and I realised that I had my eyes open and still couldn’t see anything. Delirious as I was my first thought was that then I simply had to feel my way inside, so I put my arms out to try and find the house wall. In my mind this was completely graceful. I tried to take a few steps forward. In reality I ran/stumbled a few steps and then crashed right into our porch.
I just imagine how this must have looked if any of the neighbours were watching. The girl next door wearing a huge white t shirt and clogs while stumbling across the grass and walking straight into the house before collapsing onto the grass, and then just sort of staying there even though it was quite a cold summer morning and had rained during the night. Wow. After a while I managed to stand up again and make my way inside, laying on the floor until everything stopped spinning. And that’s probably the most interesting thing that’s happened in my life lately.
(Fascinating)

Zambia Travel Diary – Last Day

2015.09.22 02.02  There’s someone screaming on the plane. Not constantly, just every now and then, but imagine a man’s voice sounding like a baby that’s almost crying. Also the movie I just watched left me with a bit of a bad feeling. I know I shouldn’t be scared, and I don’t know if it’s offensive that I am, but I decided to take a short walk and must’ve walked past where he sat so he started screaming and clawing with his hands (he sat a few seats in by the windows though) and I jumped and almost ran a few steps. Now in my seat with my heart still hammering, but it doesn’t really matter because I don’t think I could have gone to sleep anyway and now at least I’m not stuck in some middle stage.

This made me think of what a good story idea it would be to have someone mentally ill try to take control over a plane, and then make it really disturbing (Not to judge this man in question, literally don’t know anything about him), but the story idea creeps me out even more.

09.09 We’re landing. I can’t decide how much I mind. But I do want to take a walk through the forest behind my house. Just a short one. Because that’s a part of me and my childhood, but not, never, part of the frustrating feeling I want to move away from home for. (Sidenote: The 2nd Law by Muse on low volume is a very suitable background for flying today)

16.32 It wasn’t as cold as I would’ve expected when we stepped off the plane. Sweater was quite enough even though I could feel the colder air on my face, clear and crisp. It’s definitely autumn, but the leaves are still green, the sun still brings warmth to your face and the sky was blue. It could almost be a spring day, one of those early ones when you make an attempt at walking barefoot but the stones are cold under your feet. Or an early morning at a summer scout camp, or taking a break from skiing and having your body warm and the sun reflecting on the snow to melt your icy face even though the air is cold. I love these things so very deeply.

I did take a walk when I got home, even though it had started to rain and drops slid down my face. I found some colourful leaves then, that showed me that maybe this is autumn, but I don’t mind, that’s what I had expected. I am, however, gonna take a warm, long bath now. (I realise right before getting into the bathtub that my hair still smells like Zambia)

21.52 I’ve never been very patriotic. I love and very strongly dislike my country in the way you do with things that are what you are, yet so very different and they don’t understand. I love the way the world looks now, with the possibility to be international and unbound by cultures and borders, belonging everywhere and belonging nowhere, and it was first recently that I realised that regardless of the rest of my life, I will always be Swedish. It’s too late, I’ve already spent too much time here. I still try to ignore it though, maybe because most of the time I don’t even feel it. It’s like what I wrote earlier, that I don’t feel like I’m coming home, I’m just going to a different country. Lies, lies, how could I believe that it wouldn’t affect me to see it from the sky, forests and small fields surrounded by tiny red houses, like toys my brother played with when he was younger. How could I believe I wouldn’t react to the smell of it, like I’m inhaling lakes and forests, or the way everything is green green when we drive from the airport under blue sky dotted with tiny clouds, the sun shining down on my from the side window and the air bright in my lungs.

I feel like this is the thing I will never remember, and always be taken back by. I can see it, the type of life I want, filled with travelling and differences, and the way I always forget until I’m welcomed home, like the way I was welcomed home today while walking through the forest, the rain drawing tears on my cheeks like a sacrifice, like a purification, like a reminder that you’re here and you’re tiny, these forests knew you before and will bloom for many afters.
It’s a weird thing to have, such a big home.

(And I’m happy now, curled up and warm under white sheets, with the misty and dark autumn night outside. It’s different, jumping into autumn like this, because I like time to long for things, like eating chocolate and savouring each tiny bit, but now I’ve mashed it into my mouth and life is big, grander, great and waiting for me outside the door.) Goodnight.

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The colours of my autumn

Taking a break from the Zambia Travel Diary to share some pictures of this autumn life I flew (blew) into.

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My favourite thing about autumn is the air and the sky.

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Autumn is the best time to return to Sweden

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The Swedish north

An autumn post about two months late. We headed up to the north on vacation and I never got around to photobombing you with it so here we go, irrelevance is my motto and a christmas post seemed a bit unoriginal. But I do hope, nonetheless, that you’re having an amazing christmas!

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Rules and tips for attending a big concert

So I went to the One Direction concert when they were here in Sweden.. (shut up.) And I just thought I’d share a few of the things I learnt along the way of going to a concert this big, standing in line for hours and so on. Now, most bands do not have fans as fanatic as One Direction, so these things might not be relevant to everyone, but if you want to be prepared for fangirl attacks, here are some things to go by!

1. Be clever when it comes to packing for the day. If you’re going to stand (or sit) in line for a long time, make sure to bring things appropriate for that. I brought card games, which was a mess amongst all the people and the wind. You want something that is quick to get out of your bag and then back in, a book perhaps, or maybe a notebook.

2. Bring the right food, and make sure to stay hydrated. Keep a water bottle with you, and perhaps some soda. You want your food and your snacks to be easily accessible, maybe a salad and some chips, chocolate and a few cookies.

3. Battery. Your phone might very possibly die. So make sure to charge it as close to the concert as possible, and even if it’s a good way to pass time, try to do things not involving your phone while standing in line. Also, make sure you’ll be okay if your phone does die. Memorize the numbers to the friends you’re there with, or write them down on a piece of paper so that you can borrow someone else’s phone and call them. You could write down the numbers on your arm, but make sure your pen is good because on me they had faded before the concert was over!

4. Actually be there. There are plenty of people there to document it and you can spend hours looking at their concerts on youtube later. But you’re just there once (probably) so make sure that you don’t spend the entire night looking at them through the screen of your phone. Of course you can record them, and maybe you want to show everyone how good your seats were, but make sure that you also spend some time just being there, seeing them with your own eyes and making some memories that are just your own.

5. Be kind. Come on, people. This especially applies to One Direction – or other equally fangirlish – concerts. Pushing while standing in line is not going to get you far, it’s first when the concert actually starts that the war about the places begins, and be respectful then too. If someone is fainting or feeling sick, let them pass. We get that you want to see the band, but don’t let that turn you into an egoistic brat. Just, you know, make some fiends instead. Get to know the people you’re standing next to. And make sure that you enjoy your night!