Thunderstorms

Just a quick post today...
After watching the thunderstorms, I decided I wanted to capture them, however, this is not an easy task.  I stood on the balcony for about an hour, and was only to get one shot (there's a reason for the phrase "fast as lightning"), but still thought I'd like to share

It's kind of weak, and doesn't really show how dramatic it looked, so I'd like to show a clip of it that I took with my flipcam:

you can see it in the last four seconds.
Lester is actually getting used to all of it, and still prefers to sleep outside, even when it's pouring outside.  I actually greatly enjoy the rain because it's so darn humid here.  Everything feels sticky and muggy and gross...humidity was at 89% this morning! (all of this on top of the sun rising at 3:50 am...no joke, so hard to sleep!)

Christian snapped this pic of Lester stretching...I thought it was too cute not to share!

Flowers of Linköping

 


























 

   

An Afternoon at Trädgårdföreningen

Today, Christian and I took a walk in this park close to downtown- it's actually the same park his dad used to play in when he was in a small child. Being Sunday, there were tons of people laying out, soaking up some sun, and playing volleyball.  As the weather was lovely, and it was a weekend, there was the delicious smell of bbq in the air.  It was beautiful, there were tons of flowers everywhere, and the air just felt nice.  After the end of our walk, we got some ice cream at the restaurant in the park...I can't remember the last time I had an ice cream cone...it was a lovely Sunday.  Although tomorrow is a holiday, being Sweden's Nation Day, I have to finish up some work on my thesis...wish me luck!





photo by Christian, editing by me


photo by Christian, editing by me

This place is called the Golden Love Pavilion (Lusthuset in Swedish)






photo by Christian, editing by me

photo by Christian, editing by me

the view above us

relaxing

so green and beautiful

picture taken by Christian, editing by me

picture taken by Christian, editing by me




photo by Christian, editing by me

picture by Christian, editing by me

photo taken by me while walking

love the self-timer


picture by Christian, editing by me


picture by Christian, editing by me


picture by Christian, editing by me

the restaurant, Tropikhuset

The Secret Garden

Okay, this place isn't exactly a garden, but I never see anyone there and it's quite gorgeous.  However, it's not quite secret, as it's just in between where the two paths meet up the hill in Valla Skogen.  Yes, people did stop to stare.  The other pictures were taken on "our" side of the school (where Farrah and I have classes, but the rest of Swedish friends frequent rarely), mostly along this man made river-type-thing that was designed to clean water naturally, so all the rain pipes dump into it.  It's rather beautiful- but today it was less so, as it was less windy.

Also, I'm giving you fair warning - there are lots of couple-y pictures and some gratuitous shots of myself.  I also apologize my obsession with over-editing, hopefully I'll get over soon (but it's so much fun!)

First up, Christoffer and Farrah:

























Photos taken on "our" side of campus:





(I think I may be obsessed with taking pictures of flowers)
photo by Farrah










Christian and me (all photos by Farrah unless otherwise stated, all editing by me):










photo by me

Row, row, row your boat

On Saturday, six of us took part in a rowing competition (despite any real experience, minus a short practice on friday).  It was put on by Akademiska Hus, the organization which runs the school buildings.  Not only was it a fun, beautiful day, but we got tons of freebies for participating - lunch, a really nice dinner, and entrance to the music festival (Sof).  As you'll be able to see, we got our faces painted, and watched the most ridiculous parade I've ever seen.  Its theme was "Britain," which I found very strange, but it was so fun.  About half of the city comes out to watch it, around 70,000-80,000 people.

First, a cool gif of a bunch of us being silly

Now I want to show you a couple videos.  Here is Farrah, being interviewed by Michele, a girl in our program from the Netherlands.  We named our team "Team Awesome."

We had two races.  I couldn't make it to the morning race, as I had my written Swedish final, so I participated in the race at noon.  Here's a video of that race (we kicked butt!).  We're around the bend, but you can see us come into view at around 20 seconds.

Our team minus Erin. Left to right: Christoffer, Christian, me, Farrah, and Michele (photo by our friend Jakob)

Our teammate Erin, from Melbourne, Australia

The girls goofin' around, trying to shove me in the water (photo by Christian)

Team Awesome's second race, I'm third from the left (photo by Jakob)

Farrah getting her face painted in colors of the Swedish flag

Me doing the same thing (photo by Christian)

Michele and I doing some kind of silly dance (photo by Christian)

Michele blowing bubbles that I got in my Easter basket!

Farrah and Christoffer being all cute

The results board

A building downtown that I really love

After lunch, we made our way uphill to score some good seats for the parade (Sadly, Erin and Farrah had to leave us to take a Swedish exam)

Michele with an A on her forehead to represent team Awesome (it later got sunburned into her skin and I couldn't stop laughing about it that night)

A sax player getting interactive with me during the parade (photo by Christoffer)

(photo by Christoffer)

Francois (from France, obviously) and Michele

Molly (from Toronto, Canada) and me...the only ones rockin' facepaint on the parade route

Here's a video with clips of the parade...it was definitely very unlike any American parade I've been to

Spring in my step

After complaining about the low temperatures, the snow, icy streets and the heaviness of my winter coat...I think Spring has finally come to Sweden.  There were a few false starts...days that were above freezing, only to snow during the night. Although the wind has been insane (honestly, I don't think it's ever this crazy in Chicago!) the last few days, it's been worth it to see the (sometimes) see the sun again.

This afternoon I heard a strange noise...I go out to the balcony to see what's going on, and I see that my flower box is gone.  I lean over the railing to see my neighbor from the floor looking up at me, confused.  I pulled on my shoes and went outside, barely able to walk because the wind was so strong, and grabbed the box.  However, most of the flowers (winter ones that were pretty much dead already), had blown away.  I'm too afraid to put it up again until the winds stopped.

Today Farrah and I met up with our friend Nick, our friend who had been studying in Norway the last 6 weeks, for fika.  On my bike ride hope I took a few pictures of the green emerging everywhere.

my bulle

duck pond






scenes from the bike trail



my bike