Visiting my old life

Since January I have lived in London, but I have spent eight years of my life in Sweden. This weekend I was on trip back to my old life.....

The first "Sweden feelings" I got on this trip was on the bus in Heathrow airport that was taking us to the plane. There was a couple in their sixties sitting together. In Sweden the woman would be described as a "tant" (hard to translate, basically an old-fashioned, and maybe slightly bitter older lady). The tant started talking to her husband with a condescending tone to her voice. "Please, Olle, surely you haven't forgotten your glasses". She never looked at him, but continued to nag away "I can't believe you did this, what are we going to do now? This is so typical of you!". The man (in Sweden he would be called a "gubbe"), was frantically searching through his bag, ignoring the nagging comments of his wife. At last, he pulled the glasses from his bag with a smile and triumphantly put them on his nose. The woman just commented "I told you that they were there". I am sorry for you Swedes out there, but this nagging tant incident did seem very Swedish to me.

Anyway, we all made it to Sweden and flying in over the archipelago reminded me of what a beautiful country it is. The bus trip to Uppsala was great, as in Sweden they just don't have traffic (at least not in the London sense).

It was weird to be back, some kind of mixture of nostalgia and appreciation for my new life. I am starting the slow process of trying to let go of the Swedish part of my life. I have to admit it's hard. But it's great to know I can come back anytime and visit my old life. I know some great people over here and I love to be out of London city into some beautiful countryside.

But even though I love being in Sweden, I just can't wait to get home to my cat and Dr. P in London. There I have my real home (complete with IKEA furniture and Swedish meatballs in the freezer) even though a piece of my heart will always be in Sweden.