First Grand Borås

... canoe ride in the surprisingly big lake. Tyler was a bit frisky and sitting down wasn't his strong suit. I was convinced we were going to tip over, but somehow we returned none the worse for wear.
 
For dinner, Per dug up some potatoes, cleaned and boiled them, and topped them with freshly picked chives, we grilled some Swedish meatballs, had some herring ...

En Vårmiddag. I Stockholm finns det en gata som heter Götgatan. På Götegatan ligger det ett hus. I huset finns det en våning. I våningen finns det ett matrum. I matrummet finns det ett matbord. Vid matbordet sitter Åke Forsberg och hans fru och ...

... are now going on to Holland, she was a little fire ball, but helped alot, we hope. We are going to tour the Volvo factory tomorrow which should be fun to see and pick up the car! Driving so far with Micke was interesting so now we are thinking we are in for it. Not sure where we are going tomorrow after the factory but hopefully there is a bed and our last chance to see pretty Swedish ladies. Might not be by a computer for a while but will keep in touch.

... hung out with Hans and Marta's two kids, Jenny and Maria, and their two foster kids, Moa and Lynn. Jenny and Maria spoke perfect English (the family lived in Shetland, Scotland for a few years) but Moa and Lynn were only 5 and 4 respectively so they didn't speak much. We managed to teach them 'How are you' and 'Happy'. Moa really caught on to this and loved it, so for our whole last week there she asked us 'How are you happy ...

... His father died in the the late 70's. His mother moved back to Sweden. Then Stanley moved to Sweden in 1996. that was married to Brigitta in December 1999. His mother Vera died in 2004 and lived in a living assisted home about six miles away. It is an absolutely beautiful and sunny day today. We decided to have dinner outside. Birgitta fixed delicious turkey with lots of good Swedish fixin's. Then we went ...

... br>
We arrived and met Hans and his daughter Maria. We weren't quite sure to what to make of Hans at first because after about a minute of talking to him we both realized that he actually DID swear like a sailor and it wasn't just our imagination. However, a few more minutes of talking to him, we realized that Hans was really friendly and very knowledgable about Sweden.

We arrived at the farm and ...

... New Hampshire on Route 95 but with only Volvos and Saabs around our vehicle. The landscape was covered with pines, birches, and oaks as back home, and finally people were driving on the correct side of the road. It was somewhat surreal at the time. When we arrived in Alingsas we dropped our bags at Ingavr's home and took on some food before we set out on a little adventure into the 'downtown' of Alingsas. At Ingvar's home we were greeted by two little hyper ...

... consists of 2 hot dogs in a bun covered with mashed potatoes. Not bad, especially when it's cold outside. Most of the next 2 days was just spent relaxing and having some beers around town. It's nice to be in a city with public transportation. I forget how nice it is to not have to drive everywhere. We managed to squeeze in a little culture as well by ...

... just so their American relatives would be comfortable? I honestly have been feeling terrible just being American since I have left, because there is no way a normal American would ever be half as accomodating. I have been given great meals as well. Last night I tried smoked deer and dried Reindeer, or as we called it Bambie or Rudolph. Rudolph was my favorite. Today we went into town ...

... that you buy your ticket on the bus so I ran around the airport for about 2 hours trying to find a ticket window that no one seemed to know where it was. A 5 1/2 hour bus ride later I was reunited with the rest of the Ciofi clan in Sweden. It was a really weird experience. I felt like I just arrived home and all these Swedes I was meeting were down visiting us. It has been a busy few hours here, I ...