As The World Turns...

Hej everyone! That´s Swedish for ¨Hi¨ and sounds exactly like ¨Hey¨in English. Hearing everyone greet each other like that in Sweden always put a smile on my face. To this American it sounded like everyone was best friends with the shop keeper, the waiter, the pharmacist. I loved it!

Truth be told, I loved Sweden more than I can put into words. It was like a perfect little world, a real life utopia. I know that they have their problems, but compared to what I am used to I could not help feeling I was walking around a modern day fairy tale.

Of course the experience was made immeasurably better by spending time with my dear friends. I hadn´t seen them in five years and let me tell you it was way way too long. Their six year old daughter became my Swedish tutor and the truth is, she´s a natural teacher. If I didn´t have perfect pronunciation on my first try, she would look at me very seriously and go through it sound by sound until she and I were on the same letter of the same line of the same page.

I got to Sweden 11:30pm Wednesday night and as I drove back (yes, I DROVE for the first time in months. Ah, what a beautiful, glorious experience!!!!) on Sunday morning I was reading simple signs and slogans. I know this will sound bizarre to the majority of my readers but knowing Spanish and English gives you (or at least me) a really good base for learning Swedish. I could follow some conversations that were entirely in Swedish just by connecting words to the other two languages. If my plate wasn´t already heaped with four languages I would gladly add the study of Swedish, just for fun. Maybe one day, when I´m not seriously planning on picking up a fifth...

And what do I mean by that? Well, I´m not going to write too much about it as a means to not get my hopes too high, but there is the possibility that I can work in Italy for a little while after my time here in Spain is finished. I told myself at first, ¨Okay Liana, enough is enough. You need to go home and actually follow through with the plan you finally reached after hours and hours and hours (and even a ranting blog entry.) But then I thought ¨Why pass up an opportunity like this?¨ If a friend of mine asked me for advice in the situation I would say,¨DO IT!!!!!!!!¨ So we´ll wait and see. I´m very blessed to have two good options, one leaving me with 5 languages to use in the future and the other with 4 - for the time being :-)

Ah, I know, what a crazy person, right?! Well....nah, I can´t deny it. I am. But I´m not so crazy that I don´t miss people. I know that if I were to stay in Europe three more months I would miss a lot of things like movie nights with two of my best guy friends (that can include crazy fantastical Chinese dramas), movie nights with my girls (that always involve way too much junk food and hours of chatting about everything past, present, and future). I would miss - more than I already do! - hugging my brothers, watching hockey games, and fighting over eating raw brownie mix and of course going to church with my family and meeting the rest of my family there. I may be this incredibly independent person, but I´m also aware of the tons of blessings that I have at home.

Ok, I can´t go getting all sappy. This entry has already turned much more personal than I had initially intended. And, oh my gosh, I have to go! I have to try to write a two page paper in Spanish and then run home to take care of Manolo. Yes, that´s right. I am living with a twenty-five year old, but as he is male, he needs his little hermanita americana (little American sister - as he introduces me to all of his friends) to make sure he takes his pills, etc. at the right time. So with that short update on my life and outpouring of my thoughts, I´m off to do everything I do!

Take care and hey, if you get a chance, drop me a line.

Hasta luego my faithful fans!

-Gypsy