Back home. And back to playing boule and barbecuing with my friends. 

 Dividing the teams. 

 After the first game people started to get hungary. Time to light the grills and eat hamburgers and hotdogs.

 I've missed my hubby, being away from him for 5 (!!!) weeks. 

 Checking out Björns legs. 

 Not a bad hamburger, just Linda who is very animated when she tells stories. 

I got one win and one loss as my first result of the season. Today Seb and I are going down to Öland for the weekend. So hopefully we have a lot of great pictures to show when we get back from there. 

Thursday morning I had a chance to spend some time with my aunt Boo and my cousin Evan before they headed home to Seattle. We had breakfast by the Hudson River and then took some cheesy family photos with the gorgeous poppies. 

Now I'm finally finished with school for this semester! So my reward.. MAGAZINES!

Mother's Day Celebration with family last Sunday. 

I have not been such a good blogger lately, but I'm blaming it all on having my finals and my parents visiting. So this is some pictures from my parents first night in the city. Dinner at Vapiano, a german restaurant chain that we also have in Sweden. Great food!

Last two days! I'm really pushing it mentally and my body will likely break down after tomorrow. It really is a stupid system with finals week. Anything to mentally break the students I guess..

Älska att sakna

  Nu var det länge sen jag skrev något här. Jag kom tillbaka till Sverige och Sollentuna för knappt tre veckor sen och det har krävts en omställning vill jag lova. Det var ingen mjukstart direkt. Från att ha levt helt utan veckodagar och fasta tider i tre månader till att komma hem och börja jobba heltid samtidigt som man pluggar heltid på distans. Det är två olika världar. Men jag är glad och tacksam över att dom ville ha tillbaka mig på jobbet och det var fantastiskt kul att komma tillbaka och träffa alla igen.

  Men tiden går fort som sagt, i alla fall i efterhand, vilket är lustigt för när jag satte mig i taxin på väg till Newark airport för tre veckor sedan så kändes det som att tiden jag hade framför mig skulle bli den längsta någonsin. Hur skulle jag klara mig över en månad utan min fru? Vi har varit i från varandra förut i längre perioder men det här var annorlunda. Nu var det inte Oslo och en knapp timmes flygresa och komma hem på helgerna. Nu var det Stockholm - New York. Och jag måste säga att varje liten sekund som gått sedan den taxiresan har känts lång. Det har varit tungt. Det är tungt att sakna någon så mycket. Men nu har vi ändå tagit oss över krönet och det börjar rulla lite lättare, för nu är det bara en vecka kvar. Och en vecka känns faktiskt inte så lång. Det är som att man stått och tittat bakåt för att sista gången vi sågs, den stunden, har känts närmare, men att jag nu kan blicka framåt och längta lite mer än jag saknar. 

  Hur tungt det än har varit så är jag glad över att det har varit det. Jag är tacksam över att dagarna har gått långsamt, att det har känts tomt i sängen när jag gått och lagt mig på kvällarna och att jag haft svårt att koncentrera mig på plugg och jobb eftersom jag hela tiden har haft mina tankar hos dig i New York. Men jag är ännu gladare över att bilden av dig i regnet utanför vår lägenhet håller på att bytas ut mot en av dig och mig på Arlanda flygplats en solig vårdag, och den närmar sig.    

This movie is currently playing on a huge tv screen before I enter the gym. Motivation.
And then the mens version,

I just got Pinterest and spent about 3 hours on it. I need to get back to my school work... 

These are some of my favorites from the FIT fashion show. I stole the pictures from the FIT Facebook site, so it's ©2012 Lorenzo Ciniglio.

Now I've been two weeks without this guy. Gosh I miss him so much. 

Tonight the graduate FIT fashion show was held at my school. I had class to attend so we watched the show on a live stream. I must say that I'm a little disapointed. I thought it would be more creative and bold. Most of the garments seemed a little bit 'been there done that'. Sure there were some nice pieces, but nothing that felt new and stood out. I would like to see more risk taking, they are still in school they should explore! I think the garments look better up close when you can see all the detailing and all the constructions. I'm really impressed with the students that actually make everything themselves, I had just expected more of a show.

WARNING for sensitive viewers, the picture is gross.


Seb has already written about his experience from american indoor volleyball, and here is my version. 


So I played a volleyball game yesterday. My first volleyball game in over a year and my first time playing a whole game in what seems like forever. And I LOVED it. Gosh I miss playing so much... Yes, I have been playing some beach volleyball all spring but it's only been a substitute for my real sport. I do think I could love beach as much as indoor after a little more time, but for now indoor still has the # 1 spot. 


I got to the gym and must have looked pretty lost. Since a girl named Emma came towards me as soon as I stepped in thorough the doors. Two courts with teams playing and people everywhere.  On one court it was coed teams playing with the guys pounding the balls as hard as they could. On the other court there were women playing real volleyball. Middles running slides and everything. I met up with my team featuring three eastern european women that came here on scholarships in the beginning of this century. My team was great, we were 6 total with me only being second shortest. The league I was going to play was division 1 in the New York Urban Professional league. A lot of players move to the city because of work and the league started as a corporate league but eventually the players wanted to play with each other and win instead of playing with there co-workers. wow, long sentence.. Anyway that means that the league has a good share of players that have played for a good Div 1 team in college but simply got a job in the city. 


Ok, back to the game. 
Warm up was apparently overrated so we just hit one ball each then we were ready to go. The first set was intense. I had no idea what I was getting myself in to but on the court I was just playing. Everybody was so competitive and fought for every ball and every play. I was setting just where I left off for some weird reason, I was actually kind of okay. Setting slides, 4s, fast balls, BLOCKING (I had 3 solo blocks thank you very much) and dumping. The one thing I could not do for some reason was play defense. No big chocker there, but I thought that I would have gotten a little better from all the beach playing. Apparently not. 
When we won a rally we cheered like we just won the nationals. So much energy! I was exhausted after three rallies. The other team kept on fighting so the games got really tight. We won 2-1 after 1 hour playing without a break. Then it was the next teams turn. So in one hour I had played a volleyball game without warm up or knowing my teammates names. I had so much fun and realized how much I miss playing the game.
I found myself sitting on the subway going back home just thinking "what just happened?". 
And of course I got a really nice burn on my hip. Why haven't I learned that I can't keep my waistband of my spandex on my hips? It was a painful shower by the way. 

Yep, still drawing...