Day 23 -something you crave for a lot

I think that would have to be coffee. I crave a lot of other things as well, but there are very few mornings I don't want (and by want I mean desperatly need) my cup of java. I don't drink coffee any other time of day, just in the morning. Or with breakfast I should say, some weekends and days off I may not have my first meal before noon, but it's breakfast all the same, and coffee is the best part of it.

This morning we started driving from our Boise hotel at 10 am and it was with one luke warm and bitter (although free) cup of coffee I started that ride. But we made it to north Idaho safe and sound and I got the caffeine I needed.

Other cravings include candy, dark chocolate, salty pretzels and cheese... just to drop a few.

Now Christmas is just around the corner and I have a feeling I won't have to crave much of anything for near future.

Day 22 - What makes you different from everyone else

That’s easy, my DNA. Oh, and my finger prints. Other than that I’m no more and no less unique than anybody else.

People like to act like they’re so deep and misunderstood and special and all that. Yeah, yeah…we’re all special. We’re all also just animals that eat and poop and sleep and want love and affection and attention.

I don’t like to argue with people, especially not people I like. It makes me sad and upset when people don’t like me or say mean things about me. I want to be a better person than I honestly think I am. I think of great comments and witty come backs long after I should have said them, and then I think “next time, next time I’ll that to his/her face!” but I won’t cause I want people to like me.
I care about what other people think.
I gossip and talk behind peoples’ backs sometimes.

But ok fine, sure I have some things that make me different. I have a scar over my belly button that makes my stomach look like I had a c-section delivering a Barbie doll. I have one large birth mark behind my knee and one on my lower back. My ears are grown together at the top, so like that flap that most people have, I have too, only it’s not a flap but more like a baked in pizza crust. That’s how different and special I am.

Day 21- Something that makes me happy

Swimming. In the summer time. In lakes. It doesn’t just make me happy, it helps me function. I need water around me so bad I sometimes feel like a fish. Living down town Coeur d’Alene this summer was heavenly for swimming. Pocatello kind of sucks for it.

I don’t mind the ocean, the ocean is great, but you get all salty and if you’re in Sweden it’s freezing and if not you have to worry about jelly fish or sharks or whatever. I like lakes.

Day 20 - Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future

I already married him so… and I do see myself being with him in the future. I feel like I’m a pretty good person on my own, but with him I’m just better. With him, everything is just better. Oh, that’s so corny….fine, this is the person I married and the person I am excited to be spending my future with.

Day 19 -Nicknames I have and why

For the longest time I didn’t have any. I remember wanting one, but with a three letter first name and a last name so similar to a guy in my class who was already called “Burre” I was out of luck. Not until high school, through a play on words/misunderstanding, did I end up with “oosty” based on nothing but a coincidence. That evolved into “oostylainen” and often just “oost” or “lainen.” Years later did I find out that lainen is Finish for “small person” but that is (also) just a coincidence.

In college some people called me Os, which is funny now since add an “a” and that is what people here in the US call me.

When I had my hernia the girl’s I worked with at the restaurant called me “druvan” which means the grape. Because the hernia made it look like I had a grape under my t-shirt.

This summer I had a boss who called me Asiago cheese.

My parents and the rest of family have never called me anything but Åsa.

Day 18 -plans, dreams, goals I have

I just wrapped a bunch of presents for our X-mas party tomorrow and lunch was absolutely nuts at the restaurant today (thank god I'm almost done with that place) so I am not going to take this too seriously.

Plans. I plan on picking up almonds and vodka tomorrow, I think that's all we forgot to buy today.

Dreams. I had a pretty crazy dream a couple of months ago about us having Thanksgiving dinner with out neighbours and it was so frustrating because whenever I would grab something and put it on my plate it would turn into something else. Like I'd take a spoonful of green been casserole and when I'd look down it was suddenly spaghetti. The yams turned meat balls, the bread became marshmallows and so on...really annoying.

Goals. When I was little I had a deal with my dad that whenever I scored a goal in a soccer game (it had to be a real game, with the team) I didn't have to eat black pudding for two months. I didn't score very often, but when I did, I was always way more excited about the no black pudding than the actual goal.

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for the day?

A person to switch lives with…hm, I love how these theoretical questions can keep your mind busy for ever, like it’s so important to get it right in case somebody would actually come knock on your door at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning and tell you to grab your purse cause you’re off to live the life of Lady Gaga/David Beckham/your mother/the pope…whatever.

Well, if that were to happen I think I would want to go life the life of (oh I feel like I should pick President Obama or Queen Elizabeth or Mother Theresa or somebody real important and interesting and blah blah blah)
Honestly though, I don’t know. Maybe I’d be my sister for a day so I could see what it’s like having four small children.

Speaking of which, it seems very very possible to be able to go home for 3-4 weeks this summer, I talked to my new boss about it yesterday and she said they pretty much close down for July anyways. Yay!!

Day 16 -Another picture of yourself

Another picture of me. This is almost exactly a year ago, New Year’s Eve actually. We were in Torres del Paine national park in Chile and spent three days hiking. That night though, we were at a base camp and went to a party at the loge with a bunch of random Germans, Spaniards and people from all over. It was fun. The 8 mile hike the next morning was not.

Day 15 - Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play

I don’t have an Ipod. I used to have a MP3 player but lost it somewhere in South America. I would like one but it doesn’t seem like a high enough priority for our budget right now. Maybe I'll have to win one. They have a contest at work now for the holidays where you can win an Ipad if you sell the most gift cards. But I really don't see the point of an Ipad, unless you need it for work, which I don't.

Day 14 - a photo of my family

This will have to do. This is Marta and Sandra. That is my mom and my littlest niece. I love and adore my mom even though we don’t always seem eye to eye, she is the reason I am who and how I am.
Sandra I have yet to meat, she was born this summer and hopefully I will see her before she turns 1.
If there are actual daughter and aunt points…. I don’t think I have very many.

Day 13 -a letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Dear X,

Friendship is not a one way street. When I ask you how you are, it’s not to be nice it’s because I want to know. And you always let me know. You always let me know everything, and I listen to it.
Maybe it’s because you assume your life is more eventful and exciting than mine, which is probably is, but you’ll never know because you seem to not care. I moved to a new city and looked for work (and friends) and could have used a cheerful word here and there or even just a reply to some of my messages.
Do you just assume that because I’m married nothing in my life is worth talking about now?
You are still my friend, you always will be, but I’m sad to say I don’t consider you my close friend anymore. Maybe time and distance had a part in that too, probably.
Anyways, I wish you the best, you’re a good person and I hope you’ll find true happiness. Whatever.

Day 12- Why I blog

Why? Because I love to write, that’s the main reason. Chairing feelings and information and pictures and whatever else… sure, yeah that too. But if I didn’t like to write I’d probably just make a lot of phone calls or update my facebook status ten times a day.

I really don’t like to speak on the phone much, especially not in English. But I married into a family who likes to pass the phone around like it’s a magic salt shaker or something so I’m getting a lot of training in small talk nowadays.

Writing is a form of communication that doesn’t necessarily force you to think twice about what you want to say, but it allows it. I like that.

Day 11 - Another picture of you and your friends

I told you this would be the hardest part, all these pictures.

Anyways, this is a whole other group of friends, from our time in China. I still keep in touch with most of them, although not nearly as frequently as I could and should and would like.

This was a fun night, visiting Jason (the guy in glasses next to Dylan) in Bao An. Good friends, good times.

Day 10- songs I listen to…

..when I'm sad, happy, bored, hyped, and mad.

Well. When I clean I like to listen to Tenacious D, Me first and the gimme gimmes, or anything fast and fun.

When I drive I like to listen to sappy love songs and sing along as loud as I can. I never understood singing in the shower. I mean, people (and you) can hear how off key you are, you get water in your mouth and if you forget the words you’re stuck with humming and wondering how the hell the song actually goes. With a CD or the radio in the car you can belch all you want, the sound of the engine (and the actual singer) got you covered.

When I’m sad I like anything slow and blue. The Lost Patrol is an old favourite when it comes to sad times.

But other times, really I’m not that picky. As long as it’s not techno or country-pop or just annoying in some other way, I’m fine.

Day 09 - Something you’re proud of in the past few days

Oh, I don’t know… had this been the assignment for day 12 or so instead I might have been able to say I’m proud of my GRE scores. But I don’t know about that yet.

I don’t have kids to be proud of and I’m certainly not proud of my cat who tore down the Christmas tree today and broke two ornaments and the top star.

Am I proud of the fact that I make it out of bed every morning and to work on time? Nah, not really… I feel like you have to have problems keeping your tongue in your mouth and ride a different bus to be able to take pride in such things.

It’s also very un-Swedish to say that you are proud of things. Out loud, I mean. I don’t think we’re actually more modest, we just act like it.
We don’t like to talk about things we are good at, take pride in, won awards for and so on.

I’m telling you, interviewing for a job is a lot different depending on what country you’re in.

Another thing we don’t really say out loud a whole lot is “I love you.” We obviously don’t love any less than Americans. But we use the word differently, and a lot more sparsely. I have never, to my recollection, said “I love you” to my parents, siblings, grandparents, or really anyone but Dylan.
That doesn’t mean I don’t love my family, I do love them, a lot. But when I speak to them we’ll say things like “I miss you, we’re thinking about you, kisses and hugs, your in my heart, etc”

To me it’s just the same and I was never even aware of this difference before moving here. But it is a little weird to me when people here tell me “I love you”, all casually. I mean like friends or people in Dylan’s family. I don’t want to be rude and not say it back, but at the same time it feels really strange to say “love you” to somebody I’ve known for three months when I’ve never said it to my own brother. So it always turns a little awkward and I’m sure I come across as the cold Swede.

When my younger brother left for Australia two years ago he actually told my parents that he loved them when they dropped him off at the airport. He said things got super weird; mom got all teary and dad coughed for a long while before finally saying “Ahem, well…yes of course we do. So…off you go!!”
Haha, we don’t like to state the obvious, I guess.

Day 08 - short term goals for this month and why

This month, huh? Well, let’s see…
To make x-mas treats and cookies. I don’t really plan on cooking a whole lot food, I’ll help out but leave it up to the more experienced cooks to rule the kitchen.
To enjoy the holidays and time in northern Idaho with friends and family.
To talk to home more than I usually do and make sure my family knows how much I miss them.
To go skiing.

Anything else? Probably, but that’ll have to do it for now. I intend to enjoy this holiday season as much as I can and maybe, maybe I get to spend next Christmas at home, which would be wonderful.

Day 07 - A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

My husband, best friend and the only person I would be comfortable crying in front of, naked and wearing face paint. A girl I met in high school and still consider one of my real good friends all though we don’t see each other close to enough once said about her then boyfriend
“I am so comfortable with R, I don’t even know what would be embarrassing, like I could be crying naked in front of him, wearing face paint.”

I don’t know why but I have always remembered that. And I don’t know about soul mates and Mr Right and all that stuff. But I could cry naked in front of this man, wearing face paint.

He is not perfect, I am everything but. But this is the person who have had the biggest impact on my life so far and I can’t wait to see what else he is going to bring into it.

Day 06 - Favorite super hero and why

Hm, I honestly can’t say that one comes to mind just like that. Superhero, I feel is either Superman or Spiderman or something like that or an actual person with amazing strength and personality.

Cartoon wise I am going to have to go with Batman. It was the only “boyish ”cartoon I would watch when I was little and I still prefer Batman over any other action hero.

Real person wise I am afraid I’m going to forget somebody if I mention somebody. Let’s just put it this way; all the people I meet that make me want to be a lot like them without making me feel inferior or belittled since they are so freaking amazing, they are the kind of everyday super heroes the world needs more of.

And when I can come up with a real good example, I’ll let you know. How’s that? Ok, job done for day 6. Yesterday I took the GREs and had a job interview and today I got the tree and decorated it and cleaned the bathroom and made the neighbour a birthday cake. Phew. Good thing I was dumb enough to request the wrong day off from work or I wouldn’t have had time for all that.

Day 5 – a picture of somewhere you’ve been

The Great Wall. It’s pretty great, I’ll give you that. This is from the second time we were there. It’s June and the weather is muggier than it was back in August when we were there the first time. But the first time we forgot our camera. We felt pretty stupid, don’t worry.

We lived in China for one year, not Beijing though but Shenzhen, and it was definitely one of the most intense years of my life. I learned a lot, was frustrated a lot, laughed a lot, gained patience, had wonderful massages, amazing food, brutal cases of food poisoning, met remarkable people and witnessed remarkable things. I would never ever live there again, but I would love to go back and visit.

Day 4 - a habit I wish I didn't have

It’s not so much a habit as a personality trait I suppose, but I’m very unspontaneous. Time with South Americans in college and travelling has helped a bit, but at heart I’m still about as flexible as clockwork.
I like to know what the plan is and if there is no plan I feel the need to make one, pronto. For me, half the fun of a party, going out or having dinner with friends is looking forward to it.
I keep a calendar even when I’m not in school or really need it for work, just cause I like the overview and daily planning. My best days are when I know everything we’re going to do (and it’s all fun stuff, of course). Not saying I can’t enjoy a surprise… I can. But if you really want me to enjoy the surprise, tell me about it three days early!

I have a father who will plan dinner for 6 pm and call you and let you know if it changes to 6:10. He will also call you at 6:12 and ask why you are late.
I have a mother who is so afraid to be late that she’ll take you to the airport an hour before the hour they tell you to be there early. So it’s not like I don’t know where I get if from.