NO SNOW!!

That's right, no snow! Every day it goes bit by bit, it's so exciting! It did snow last night and I had to ride my bike through a blizzard at 11pm... but it was all gone by lunch time today. So I was a happy bunny. I have not been so cheerful this week as I was getting really sick of it here. Just one of those weeks... at one point I got extremely angry because it was really windy outside so I couldn't walk fast. I think I even stamped my foot.. 

However, then I got paid and bought some pretty dresses and now all is well. Also have Thursday and Friday  afternoon off! Yey! So Thursday theres a meet up in an Irish bar and then Friday its party time! Gotta make the most of it, as the mum is away for two weeks after this, so will be as busy as a beee. Can't wait to get home soon as well. I really miss everything right now. I give it 20 minutes after I land that the complaining starts though...

So yeah, the past few weeks it's been a total love/hate thing with Sweden. I wish I hated it here... because it is so much easier to be home, so much easier to meet people, most of my friends are there, and most importantly drinks are £1. For some reason though, I know I have to stay. With all the bad for some reason I still now I wanna live here!

I definately don't want to be an au pair for much longer, and if this family leave in June I don't want to have to go through having to find a new family again etc. So I'm going to go around nurseries etc and plead for at least some volunteering work for now to build up my CV. Also gonna go to an Aussie/Scottish (yeah, I don't know why its those two) that is always looking for staff and maybe get a job there. House sitting for a family in July/August for a month, freeee house! I plan to have people over so that I don't get murdered alone in the house ;)

Also my Swedish is kinda "clicking". I can read so much more suddenly, I have no idea why because I go for days and don't hear any Swedish at all, but at least it's improving! Slooooowly but surely...

Gonna go to sleep now, busy day tomorrow. One bad thing about the snow melting is that there is now a place to play football outside.. I don't know why I pretended that I liked football. But apparently I'm improving, now I can kick the ball but not in a specific direction. It's all too technical for me.

I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told...

I am so confused with the day's at the mo.. I was kindly given Friday off work so that I could go out and celebrate my first ever Paddy's day! It was pretty crazy... but in an awesome way!

Woke up with a giant shamrock drawn on my face which wouldn't come off until I scrubbed for at least 15 minutes with nail varnish remover. After that my face was still pretty green, so the shrek jokes came into play again..

Also had an origami bird.. and on Saturday night I was given a tissue paper rose. People are so cheap nowadays. I expect strangers to just give me diamonds.

So yeah I was partying Thursday night.. dieing on Friday (football and screaming children was not the cure..), then partied again. Then Saturday night I babysat to earn some dollah and didn't get home till about 2.30am. Was a reeeally nice Scottish family though! Ahhh I miss our accents...

It's been so sunny and pretty the last few days that I've just constantly said "oh my god, it's soooo pretty here. I love Sweden" over and over and over... I'm trying to stop it.

Been an expensive month though, and I have nothing to show for it! Nadda. I have no new clothes or make up and havent been partying too hard. Meh, been a cracked on a time though! Don't like how fast everything is happening though, it's so scary that everyone is going back to Raasay for the summer months. Seriously, it can't have been 6 months already?!

Getting more and more excited about being home for 10 days, it's gettin' close now. Still have no idea if I get to house sit over the summer... hope I do then I can finally get the seriously roastin' Swedish summer. If not I can go home for a week or two and spend my money in the pub... and do more pier jumps! Definately no getting out of it this time. Even if peoples fathers arrive to tell us it's stupid to dive off a harbour in the dark... We're tough yo.

Okay, babbling now because I don't wanna go for a run on the ice. I'm being driven by the fact that I'm sick of 80 year olds running past me! Damn Swedish healthyness....

On Wednesday my personal number finally arrived! Everyone in Sweden is given a personal number that you use when you go to the doctor, apply for a job or to open a bank account etc. So pretty handy to have!
As soon as I got it I opened a bank account so waiting for my card.. ahhh it makes things so much easier. Also means I can apply for free Swedish lessons (SFI, Swedish For Immigrants), so gonna have to look into that and see if the times work out better with the family work times..

So, it's all coming together really! The snow is all melted really, and the sun is always shining. Good times! Don't have a clue what's happening for summer yet though, house sitting a shweeet pad for a month... how I will earn some dollah is the only problem though. It will be fine, I will have an awesome house so all I need to do is catch wild animals to eat... no problemo.

BRING ON THE SUMMAH FUN!

Today I tried two Swedish treats! One definately better than the other...
First was a bag of roasted almonds, cant remember the Swedish name. They smell AMAZING and taste good but basically just of sugar. I will there was someway to have scratch n sniff on a blog because they smell deviiine dahling.

 Second was a Simla bun. They look sooo yummy, the buns smells of cinnamon and then there is all the yummy cream and almond paste in the middle. Yeah, looks so good so it also must taste simply deviiine. Nej.
It did not at all. It smells weird.. I can't think of what it smells like maybe cheese. And the cream isn't cream tasting at all, it taste of nothing just cheeseyness again.
However, because this is me, even though I was complaining in my head (there was no one with me, if it was nice I wasn't gonna share it was I?!), I decided to power through and eat it anyway. And actually the middle bit isn't so bad if you eat the yucky cream and some of the almond paste together. The outside of it is awful though. I'm kinda sad now that it didn't live up to my expectations. Shoulda let it be a yummy thing that I could dream about eating...

I got the snicker doodle recipe though! Lets see how long until I give in to my craving at make a huge batch of them. 5, 4, 3, 2....

OOH and on Sundays they have a car boot sale type thing in the square and today I found two cute little pocket watches. One of them would be nice as a necklace thing, if I can fix it.
I spend my money on useless junk...

Today I tried two Swedish treats! One definately better than the other...
First was a bag of roasted almonds, cant remember the Swedish name. They smell AMAZING and taste good but basically just of sugar. I will there was someway to have scratch n sniff on a blog because they smell deviiine dahling.

 Second was a Simla bun. They look sooo yummy, the buns smells of cinnamon and then there is all the yummy cream and almond paste in the middle. Yeah, looks so good so it also must taste simply deviiine. Nej.
It do not at all. It smells weird.. I can't think of what it smells like maybe cheese. And the cream isn't cream tasting at all, it taste of nothing just cheeseyness again.
However, because this is me, even though I was complaining in my head (there was no one with me, if I was nice I wasn't gonna share it was I?!), I decided to power through and eat it anyway. And actually the middle bit isn't so bad if you eat the yucky cream and some of the almond paste together. The outside of it is awful though. I'm kinda sad now that it didn't live up to my expectations. Shoulda let it be a yummy thing that I could dream about eating...

I got the snicker doodle recipe though! Lets see how long until I give in to my craving at make a huge batch of them. 5, 4, 3, 2....

OOH and on Sundays they have a car boot sale type thing in the square and today I found two cute little pocket watches. One of them would be nice as a necklace thing, if I can fix it.

Update!

Hey folks!
Not too much news for ya, apart from that I finally finished my four week course (and actually managed to learn so much!) AND, this is probably the most important, I won TWO games of monopoly in one week! Ahhh! That put me in a good mood for the rest of the week.

The last class was really cool as one of the most awesome people (he was originally from Scotland, obviously.) brought in looads of food and wine, then everyone else brought in things they had baked etc. I did bake shortbread but half was burnt, so rather than only bringing in a few okay bits.. I ate them. I brought in a big things of biscuits though! Not that mean..
One of the American guys make snicker-doodles, and oh my god they were amazing. I would eat them forever, so soooo good! I think he's gonna send me the recipe. I hope he doesn't otherwise my nights and any free time will be spent making them then seeing how many I can stuff into my mouth in one go. Ahhh that's the dream..

The weather has been awesome as well, the snow is melting!! So excited for the warm weather, will soon be complaining of the heat though, ya just can't win in my eyes.
Also, flights home bound are all booked. 15th-25th April, I can't wait! Will be awesome to see all the usual faces again and then to come back to no snow!

However since the snows melting thats means massive chunks of ice randomly fall off roofs, or they are cleared by special... snow...removing men? they even have their own whistle. So, very important people! I'm so scared Im gonna be walking along then get whacked on the noggin' by a chunk of ice. Not very interesting way to go...

OH and my week off was awesome. Didn't do very much but it was good, and nice to have break! Ate a 

ridiculous amount of pasta and tasty treats which is the trouble is your staying with a typical Swede with typical Swedes genes...

Pretty sunset in Gustavberg

Don't know what to do with myself now that Ive finished my course though. Would love to do another but the times wouldnt work with the family... so I'll just practice and then maybe in the summer. Oh and I have to practice for my Swedex exam in August ish time. Then I get a certificate saying I can speak/write/understand Swedish at a certain level and put it on my CV. Good times! Now gotta go job hunting for June.. eek

cheerio for noo

P.s For my little Dutch Buddy : Went to American cookies and bought a huuuge (very cheap!) muffin and it was YUMMY. I sat on the seat we sat on and pretended you were there as well. Eating a mooooooo-fin. People gave me weird looks, was totally worth it!