Baking Kanelbullar, listening to Veronica Maggio and building IKEA furniture

Does it get any more Swedish than that? And then later on we'll be running in the dark, cold, frozen Swedish woods and then enjoying a warm sauna. Although, it's true that running around in the woods at night with a headlamp is as foreign to some Swedes as it is to most Americans. One of the girls I tutor once said to me, "You say orienteering is popular here, but you are the only person I know who's crazy enough to run around in the woods at night!"

The days here have been clear and sunny this week, which is beautiful, but it also means it's colder than it has been. Will be about -6°C when we head out tonight to run this.

I have been taking Swedish classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings, and I feel that I have learned a lot about verb conjugation. I still can't remember what form of the verb to use when I'm speaking, but I'm getting there! I haven't been speaking Swedish enough, so I must force myself to practice more. Maybe I'll write my next post in Swedish. That will guarantee that it will be short.

Two weekends ago we went away on a 10mila training and club bonding camp :) It was great to run on some new terrain and to start thinking about one of the biggest relays of the year. We enjoyed good weather, food and company.

Boris and Ross at the 10mila training camp

To be honest, the reason I haven't written in awhile is because I don't know what to write about! In the beginning, everything was strange and different, but now it feels more like home. It's an awesome home, but I'm running out of silly things that Swedes do. This weekend we're heading up to Orsa for the Linné ski weekend! We have had snow cover here for a long time, but not enough to really ski on (although everyone has tried to). I'm exciting to spend a weekend with fun people, relaxing and skiing!

Frying dinner while still in training clothing leads to painful splatters.

 Maybe I need an apron.

And.... We're Back!

It's so hard to restart a routine when you've let it slide. Like when you're a day behind on your Attackpoint log and you think "Well, I can't log today until I log yesterday, so...." And then the next day it's "Well, I can't log today because then I have to go back and log the last two days and I don't have time for that..." And it continues until you finally slap yourself and just sit down and do it. Returning to the blog is a bit like that.

Our time at home was incredibly busy, much busier than I imagined it would be. Of course, this was fantastic because the entire time was spent with friends and family. My time at home made me appreciate all the fantastic friends that I have. Although this is incredible corny, I kept on being reminded of the song I learned in Girl Scouts when I was about 8:

Make new friends, 

but keep the old, 

one is silver, 

and the other gold.

So true.

Now, we are back in Uppsala and I'm getting back into routines. Training is going well again, and the lack of snow means we can continue to run in the woods. In fact, the weather has been perfect almost every day and night - around freezing and the swamps are all frozen! It's fantastic to run in the woods and not have absolutely frozen feet when you return. 

I've signed up for a Swedish course starting next week. It's the second half of a beginners course, so I've been frantically trying to learn everything in the first half this week. Trying to avoiding the humiliation that will come when I show up at class knowing nothing has motivated me! Unfortunately, the classes are only taught in the evenings, which means that I'm missing Monday night (rock gympa) and Wednesday night (orienteering training) with the club for the next 6 weeks. Hopefully, though, I can do the rock gympa on my own at home and I can run the Wednesday night courses in the morning (assuming I can get the map and there are flags out). I recently watched this video, and I think it's right. I have to start speaking Swedish more... but I hate sounding so silly!

Ok, I'm keeping it short and heading off to go grocery shopping. I'll leave you with some random photos on my camera ;)

Playing games on Christmas Day at my parent's house with Ross's parents.

Ross bought new skis! We're reading for Linné's ski weekend (since there is no snow here).

I made Swedish Dammsugare for soup night.