Silence....

OMG...for the first time in a very loooong while, I am home alone. Not in my own home but still. Husband is away, parents are gone, kids happily playing at neighbors' houses or out riding their bike - all alone.

I am at loss, do not know what to do? I only have 52 minutes but the possibilities are endless! Shall I take a bath, read a book and have a glass of wine? Should I attack the laundry basket and see if I can at least make one small indention and do some ironing. I should make sure that our tickets have been paid for so that we can leave Thursday as planned but that will take me all of five minutes.
Too many choices and too little time.

This summer, the kids have experienced freedom. There are plenty of kids in the neighborhood and they all roam free, more or less. The go to each others houses, by them selves, ring the door bells and asks if they want to come out to play. There is no scheduling play dates, no arranged activities and most importantly; no parental involvement. And so far, they all get along great.

So very different from Scottsdale and so, I believe, healthy. I wonder what it will be like in China? I will choose a place to live with plenty of kids but from experience I know that kids are very busy - kids in Asia especially.

When we lived in Tokyo I had a job. It was a three day assignment when I was the foreigner to look at and talk to. My friend set me up with a gentleman who had a juku, evening school, specialized in English and the world outside of Japan. Most of the kids had never before seen a gaijin (westerner) up close and of course never spoken to one. They knew all the grammar and could write long sentences in English but when it came to talking, they were suddenly terrified of making mistakes and loose face.
I brought Swedish ginger bread cookies to break the ice and we talked about karate and whatever other activities they did for fun.It was fun for me and very well paid for almost no work.
They didn't have time to play though, ever. There was always one juku or another after school, they never just  played.

But, the summer is coming to an end, the Swedish kids have gone back to school and we are leaving Thursday. Visas will be picked up tomorrow, tickets are paid for and we are so ready.

No clothes in the closets though so I guess I'll have to face the ironing beast after all. Bath/book/wine will have to wait.

Happy Birthday!!

Home school still going strong, today - four days in - we started with Chinese.
Ulf came home last night with an interactive CD-ROM with beginners Mandarin, perfect! Quite absurdly, two white devils are the instructors but whatever. We learned useful words like beer, wine, aspirin and hospital. Since the kids' attention span is very limited we didn't get very far, but it is fun clicking away and hearing some for me familiar words. I am hoping it will all come back in a few months.

Today, is my birthday. At this age it doesn't mean much. I've passed the dreaded 30 and survived the terrifying 40 Now I have some years ahead of me that doesn't really matter, age wise. I am not worried about my biological clock ticking and my heart is ticking fine. Are these maybe the years when I will get back into pre-baby shape and be both physically and emotionally stable. Will I not only find peace with myself and others but also have a wonderful family life and maybe even, this is an interesting idea, find out what is the meaning of my life? Will I find myself a career that is not only lucrative but also makes me grow as a person and satisfies my spirit. Dear Oprah, I could use you now; where did you go?

My goodness, time really pass by quickly once you reach a certain age! Or is it the fact that I'm on duty 24/7?  Can't wait for the kids to go back to real school, give me a break for at least a few hours a day....

Just say cheese!

We have started "home school", please God help me. Since real school started yesterday, and the kids won't be able to go until September 5th, we decided to, after almost seven (7!!!) weeks of holiday, that it was time for some structure, some organization - a plan and most importantly, routine. We need to really start the day earlier, not just lounge around in pj's until lunch, and most importantly; get the kids in bed at a decent hour so that we (read I) can get a quiet moment and adult time.
We have a white board and everything.

Day one went fine, we did some reading, some writing, some math and played YATZY and I realized Marcus is way ahead his math work book and we need to find him some more challenging stuff.

Day two, today, was field trip day. As we are mere kilometers away from the Drottningholms Palace and The Chinese Pavilion it would be stupid not to pay our royal family a visit. Not that they were home of course but we did get a nice walk and some culture. The Chinese pavilion was actually a present to Queen Lovisa Ulrica on her birthday in 1753 from her husband, King Adolf Fredrik. A nicely sized palace full of Chinese art and artifacts. A very nice birthday present, I'd say. I wouldn't mind come Thursday when it is my birthday...

Anyway....we happened to arrive at the same time as a Chinese group with real Chinese people armed with cameras. I had put the kids to work, we were sitting down on a bench and they were to draw a picture of either the palace or of anything else they chose to put in their school work diary. Suddenly the other visitors changed their focus, their lenses no longer pointed at the pavilion but at the kids, working away on their art. They started discretely but slowly worked their way over until they were right next to us and then asked (!) if it was ok to take a picture. Ok, sure, if that makes your day, why not? I doubt they will be put on obscure websites and I know from experience that this is only the beginning.

In our neighborhood in 1997, on Xin Zhong Street and around Sanlitun, locals were pretty used to foreigners and didn't stare that much. But as soon as we ventured out anywhere else in the city, especially big tourist attractions like Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City or the Summer Palace, we were immediately the focus of attention. People approached us, pointed at us, laughing at us and more often than not; took pictures of us. Of course, most people at tourist attractions were in fact tourists. Chinese tourists from other city's and provinces where waigouren, da bitsu (big nose), white devils - you choose! - are few and far between. No wonder they wanted to take our picture and show all the other people in their village or city inhabited by a million people or so. It got tiresome after a while, actually a bit annoying but what to do? You cannot change a nation that it is not polite, in our culture, to do so. Easiest was just to live with it.

Which is what we will tell our kids once we arrive; just live with it and say cheese.

Almost the beginning of new beginnings...

After many weeks, small puzzle pieces are finally falling into place.

The kids have been accepted at International School of Beijing. With the help of the wonderful Stacey we think we have found a service apartment to stay in when we arrive. Shakespeare the cat is doing well at Dr. Pruitt's. Everyone is healthy and somewhat sane and the visa procedures are moving forward.

Talking with our AZ friends who started school last Monday was wonderful but sadly, tears and night terrors followed. There are so many emotions involved, hard to handle when you are six 1/2 especially.

Sad is also that we won't see our things until the middle of October but hey, it will be like Christmas two months early and we will most likely get our Halloween decorations just in time.

Being in transit and waiting is unfortunately nothing new for us but we usually plan and organize so that we have to spend as little time as possible in hotels, service apartments and more or less empty houses (we LOVE IKEA!). More often than not, shipments are delayed. When we moved from Hong Kong to Annecy, France, our container was for some reason unloaded in Genua and never put back on the ship. To simply drive the container from across the border in Italy to the end destination in France, a mere two hour or so drive, was impossible. Instead we waited patiently in Sweden, trying desperately to entertain Marcus, then nine months old.

We moved from an apartment of 300 square meters to a loft of 100 square meters and it got quite crowded to say the least. Once everything was unpacked, it worked out fine, but 300 or so boxes in our little space, piled on top of each other was interesting.... On our first night in the apartment my mother and I climbed on top of the boxes to find pillows and blankets so we could spend the night. It doesn't matter how organized you are when packing; once it is time to unpack again, everything is all mixed up. It's a mystery; like how one sock can disappear in the laundry or what came first - the chicken or the egg.

The night will be spent a deux, Ulf and I will go see Eldkvarn (www.eldkvarn.se) at Lasse i Parken (www.lasseiparken.se) and the kids will have fun with farmor.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Safari with sound effects

But why stay in one place, sleep in the same bed, more than a couple of nights in a row? But why?

We took yet another family road trip, this time sans les dads, to Kolmårdens djurpark (www.kolmarden.com); me and the kids, my sister and her two children: Petter 3 1/2 and Maja 10, and our parents.
Two days without any electrical distractions, Nintendo's locked up in the car and no music machine (Amanda's mp3 player) around. Just us and the animals; who is looking at whom?..

When travelling with a 3 1/2 year old, no other entertainment is necessary really. Petter is more than enough and combine him with Amanda, and we have non-stop blabbering. New this year is the cable car safari ride; 30 minutes of slow travelling over the Swedish forest, African savanna and Asian jungle. We saw brown bears, giraffes, lions, deers and mountain goats - all accompanied with the soundtrack from Petter who knows songs about every animal alive (and dead - he knows some dinosaur ones as well...). We floated over the brown bears: "Björnen sover, björnen sover i sitt lugna bo", we were feet away from the majestic mountain goats: "Lilla bocken Bruse, trampar över trollebron..." , not a dull moment. Here he is in action:

Somehow there's only uphill at Kolmården, and with a ten year old, and eight year old, a six 1/2 year old and a three 1/2 year old it can be quite wearing, add in that it was pretty much the two warmest days of the summer. Phew. That first day we did not only go on the safari ride; we also saw the dolphin show, we saw the seals and sea lions and one lonely penguin, two out of three kids did trampoline bungy jump, we visited the monkeys, had lunch and ice cream, of course, and we walked. And walked and walked.
When we finally reached the hotel and got our dinner and exhausted fell into bed, the adults had consumed six large bottles of beer and three bottles of wine. Out of pure exhaustion I believe.

Enough already!

After almost two weeks of family visiting and parties, long evenings with wine drinking until dawn or dusk, depending on where in the country we have been, we are finally back at home base for a day. My head has turned to mush and my body has gone soft. Too many late nights and not enough exercising. It is clear I am not one of those who work best and are most creative under the influence. For me writing and exercising has to be done in the morning or it won't happen at all, especially not if cocktail hour starts at 3pm and goes on until 2am.

Today it's Ulf first official work day with his new company. So exciting and also so very confusing for the kids. He is going to work here? In Sweden? Do people work here? For them, Sweden is vacation; no rules, almost no strict bed time routines and as much ice cream as they want. And an endless stream of relatives and visiting.

This, that he has started working again feels like a tiny, ant-sized, step in the right direction. Hopefully we will soon have our paperwork and can be on our way because I just can't wait to go home. I am so very grateful that we can stay with family and that we are welcome to visit and enjoy the company of so many but I've almost reached my limit. I miss so many things in my home. My bed, my clothes, my shoes (YES!), my kitchen, my way of doing things. My stuff really and just being home. That we don't have a house doesn't really matter. A house is a house wherever it is, a home is where you live and the location is irrelevant. Routines, school, getting settled.  Feels like a dream at the moment.

We spent five days visiting with my brother and his family up north. Five days of baking, cooking, zip-fucking-lining, visiting with relatives - alive and dead, breathing in fresh air and the most beautiful landscape there is, eating, drinking and surprisingly almost no mosquito hunting at all.

Back in Stockholm we went back for another blood test for the visa application, did massive amounts of laundry (while traveling in Sweden you have to be prepared for any kind of weather and a bathing suit, rain boots and fleece jackets are a must, sometimes you were them all at the same time) and prepared for our next trip.
It was time to really celebrate Marcus 8th birthday. As per tradition, second year in a row, we spent the day at Gröna Lund (www.gronalund.com). Seven and a half hours of amusement park fun followed by a night in a hotel.

The next day we checked in at my sisters and her family. Three days and two nights of intense visiting and copious amounts of alcohol and good food.
"We only see you once a year", my sister proclaimed while getting yet another bottle of champagne, "once a year. So what to do? You have to be a good sport, right, and try, try really hard, to force the bleak roe, home made bearnaise sauce, macaroons, nectarine tarte tatin and champagne, a very good Californian Zin, dessert wine, coffee, brandy and liquores down. I mean, what to do? Once a year! Only once a year!
We ate and drank and talked and listened to music until 2am when Amanda came up from our room in the basement wondering where we were.
And the next day, we did it all over again. This time we were celebrating Marcus - again! That boy gets more parties than anyone. But again, what to do, we just had to suck it up. And we did because that day we had a crayfish-and-other-seafood-for-those-that-are-allergic-party. Yum, there is nothing better.