Things I learned on my first day in Sweden. IKEA has got something right because every house and apartment I walk into here looks and feels like it just fell out of an IKEA catalogue. Fields of dandelions can be really quite beautiful, although Swedes dislike the weed about as much as we do. I now can truly understand where my love of coffee and the ocean come from. In fact my love of coffee is being put to shame in comparison to those around me. Don´t get me wrong, I am loving the morning, mid morning, mid afternoon, and evening coffee breaks when everyone sits down to enjoy a cup of kaffe together, but I know I´m going to be building up an even greater tolerance and love of the warm drink while I´m here over the next five weeks.
Today, day one, I also experienced what I´m sure will be many days of life long goals accomplished. 1. I arrived in Sweden. I´ve definitely always dreamt of this day. 2. I was able to sit outside mig morfars morfars stuga (my grandfather´s grandfather´s [nope that wasn´t an accidental repeat] cottage), basking in sunlight, enjoying a cup of coffee, and listening to the melodic Swedish spoken all around me by family members I just met and already love. I can only understand a fraction of what they are saying and yet the constant interjections of bursts of laughter every few sentences reminds me that I love where I am right now. Although I´m in a town I had never been to before enjoying coffee with family members I had never met before today, I know that in my own way I´ve come home.