Saturday, April 12, 2014

The birds are back!

We have a little bird feeder hanging on our balcony, but since crows were the only birds really left in Sweden in the winter, and they would fight over the food, I put it inside until today. Then this morning I saw some tiny little birds in the tree outside so I hung it up again and almost immediately they came and started eating from it. It's a good sign I think that hopefully winter is over! 
You can kind of see the birdy in this picture, Alex says it's called a "great tit". I thought he was messing with me so I googled it, but he was right! 

Today I took an early morning bike ride into town, and it was so beautiful outside. Here are a few pictures from this morning:
I know it looks kind of brown but it really was so pretty. It was like a Swedish ghost town. I'm also really just happy that most of the snow has melted. If it's not enough snow to sled on, then it should just melt. I told Alex I would never get sick of snow since I never saw it in Florida, but I did. I will admit it. But I do love sledding. And snow men.

Today has just been a lazy Saturday, but I thought I would try to start writing more often! Next weekend is Easter so I will definitely write a post next week about my first Easter in Sweden. I hope the Easter bunny knows I moved...

Our sweet next door neighbor made these bulle (Swedish cinnamon rolls) for us yesterday, they were delicious. 

Also if anyone has any good recipes for this:
Then let me know! I thought the picture on the box looked like tabouli, so I tried to make tabouli with it but it didn't really work out. 

We have been trying to watch the James Bond movies recently, we want to get through all of them eventually. We're on Live and Let Die. Also, making your own popcorn on the stove is so delicious, who knew? 

I've been reading some blogs lately about other peoples experiences moving to different countries when I started missing home a bit and I read one about Costa Rica since it's one of my favorite places (and where I met my sweetie). But after reading about all the giant spiders and break ins it reminded me that Sweden really isn't too different from where I'm from, I have actually never even seen a spider here! *knock on wood*. And I feel so lucky to be in a place where I'm comfortable and where I'm with the person I love and studying to do something I enjoy. :) but who knows, Florida or even Costa Rica may be in our future! ;)

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

April! And veggie burgers.



Its April and it is soo light out! Especially in the mornings, it wakes me up at 6am everyday (which I hate) but it's light until at least 8 or 9 pm now (which I love). 

Some pretty Eastery flowers Alex brought home from the market in town this week. Notice the fancy coffee mug vase. 

Alex and I have both started new classes which has been nice, my class is just basically writing a big paper for two months, like a mini practice thesis. My paper is on permafrost and how it affects dissolved organic carbon in surface waters if anyone is curious ;). We bought our tickets to go to Florida in June!! We can't wait! Woohoo!
Some things I miss about Florida!

I thought I would post a few pictures showing how the view from our apartment has changed. :)




And hopefully I'll be able to post a super green summery one soon. We have started biking to school again! And we now realize how out of shape we are. I only biked halfway to school today with Alex and then biked back home because I worked from home today but wanted some exercise. And I almost had to pull over my bike on the way back. I was soo tired. When I got home I just layed on the floor out of breath. But it felt good to be outside for so long! My new swedish class is still going well, I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with it and I understand a lot more when other people speak. However me speaking it is a different story. I don't think I'll ever be able I correctly pronounce ä å ö. 

Tonight Alex and I are cooking veggie burgers. Sometimes it hard to plan meals together besides quiches and pasta and vegetable and rice dishes because Alex is a vegetarian and I am allergic to beans. So it became our goal to make a delicious veggie burger without beans...and we did it! It has corn, mushrooms, onions, red peppers, garlic, breadcrumbs and eggs! So easy and cheap and delicious. At least to us they were, but our standard of delicious may be lowered since I started cooking. But here they are:
And Alex made homemade burger sauce, which he really likes, as you can see from his burger ;). 

Have a nice day!