Before I went home, I called my family and tried to make them promise we would go to Disneyland. A couple weeks passed and it was about time to go home, but THEN my lovely, generous mother surprised me with a trip (even after I was being mean old cranky pants). Having a pass while growing up, it feels like another home to me. I have so many happy memories there, and I'm really grateful I had another chance to go.
This post is just to show off how beautiful my family is :)
Even after this post, I still have unedited and unposted pictures to show you from my visit home.
Here goes:
Stephanie
Sam
Nana and Mom
Emily and Nico
Dad Guido
the kids with their friend Jessica
On Saturday, six of us took part in a rowing competition (despite any real experience, minus a short practice on friday). It was put on by Akademiska Hus, the organization which runs the school buildings. Not only was it a fun, beautiful day, but we got tons of freebies for participating - lunch, a really nice dinner, and entrance to the music festival (Sof). As you'll be able to see, we got our faces painted, and watched the most ridiculous parade I've ever seen. Its theme was "Britain," which I found very strange, but it was so fun. About half of the city comes out to watch it, around 70,000-80,000 people.
First, a cool gif of a bunch of us being silly
Now I want to show you a couple videos. Here is Farrah, being interviewed by Michele, a girl in our program from the Netherlands. We named our team "Team Awesome."
We had two races. I couldn't make it to the morning race, as I had my written Swedish final, so I participated in the race at noon. Here's a video of that race (we kicked butt!). We're around the bend, but you can see us come into view at around 20 seconds.
Our team minus Erin. Left to right: Christoffer, Christian, me, Farrah, and Michele (photo by our friend Jakob)
Our teammate Erin, from Melbourne, Australia
The girls goofin' around, trying to shove me in the water (photo by Christian)
Team Awesome's second race, I'm third from the left (photo by Jakob)
Farrah getting her face painted in colors of the Swedish flag
Me doing the same thing (photo by Christian)
Michele and I doing some kind of silly dance (photo by Christian)
Michele blowing bubbles that I got in my Easter basket!
Farrah and Christoffer being all cute
The results board
A building downtown that I really love
After lunch, we made our way uphill to score some good seats for the parade (Sadly, Erin and Farrah had to leave us to take a Swedish exam)
Michele with an A on her forehead to represent team Awesome (it later got sunburned into her skin and I couldn't stop laughing about it that night)
A sax player getting interactive with me during the parade (photo by Christoffer)
(photo by Christoffer)
Francois (from France, obviously) and Michele
Molly (from Toronto, Canada) and me...the only ones rockin' facepaint on the parade route
Here's a video with clips of the parade...it was definitely very unlike any American parade I've been to
My beautiful Bianca let me stay with her one night, and we hung out at Venice Beach. It was a gorgeous day, no clouds in sight. After walking around the canals, we picked up lunch and laid out. It was really nice to get some more time with her before I got back here to Sweden.
Although the weather has been pretty lovely since I got back, I find it odd that people just lay out in the middle of the grass...I require a body of water in order to get a nice tan. The other bummer is that because we're so much more north of the equator than southern California, it takes much, much longer to get the same amount of color.
Anyway...here's shots of my beautiful Bia.
yes, that is the house seen in Valentine's Day
the houses on the canal had tons of gorgeous flowers everywhere
look at her skinny little legs!
ah, to live along a man made waterway
had to take a shot of this
I don't know why, but I'm always amused by taking pictures of myself in the reflection of people's sunglasses
Yesterday, I had a fabulous day meeting up with a couple old roommates and our old boss (Bianca, Megan, and Ben). Although I was bummed Megan left early, it was a lovely day. We had no agenda, walked around Balboa Island, headed to the two piers in Newport Beach and finished our night by eating at Ruby's. It was a gorgeous day and I snapped many beautiful pictures.
It's so nice to be visiting my family and hometown California!
Ben took these fun pics of me and Bianca underneath the pier
My beautiful Bianca
Meg, Ben, and Bianca (Bia)
cutest mailbox ever!
Ben snapped a pic of the girls' legs
Ben long-armed this shot
that's me in Ben's glasses
we enjoyed looking through the viewfinder
Bia took this cute pic of Ben laughing
Ben snapped this pic of me
I didn't know these kids, but they were having so much fun
I'm jealous of Bia's long hair another pic of the three of us by Ben it was our first time on the tiny Balboa ferry
(For those of you non-Swedes, that would be "Happy Easter!") Before I left for California, I took some time to appreciate the color finally coming back in Sweden. Flowers are sprouting up, and the sun is no longer an infrequent visitor...actually, Christian, me, and his mom Charlotte ate lunch outside before I left. It was very beautiful. I also wanted to show you all some Swedish Easter decorations, which are a bit different than those at home, but I think they are charming and beautiful. Also, I wanted to include some snapshots I took in Linköping before I left- just scenes from home. Enjoy!
