Sweden!

Hello everyone.
Yes, I am still alive, and doing quite well in fact! I have been in Sweden since the end of September, and am loving every second. I have met and been reintroduced to nearly all of my relatives here, and every single person is so incredibly kind and generous. I have spent the last 2 weeks up in Jämtland in northern Sweden, spending my nights at Strandgården, the bed and breakfast run by my relatives. We did so many fun and different things...I milked cows on the dairy farm in Offerdal, I picked Lingon in the woods and watched Ingrid make 3 enormous batches of jam, I had fika about 7893 times, which is a good thing. We need more fika in America. For those who are not aware, fika is like a coffee break, but they have them all the time. We had fika every morning at 730, followed by fika after breakfast, and fika before lunch, and fika after lunch, and fika in the evening, and fika at night, and fika if we visited anyone, ever. I merely suggest we take a little more time to relax throughout the day, even if we cannot create the fika atmosphere as well as the Swedes. One of the first days in Sweden Steve and I went to Östersund and I had a shopping spree to get warmer shoes, a jacket, a scarf, a hat, mittens, wool socks, the kitchen sink...you get the idea. We saw a lot of snow for a few days. If I didn´t have trouble fitting everything in my backpack before, you can imagine the disarray surrounding my organization and packing as of late. I would love to ramble more, but the main idea is that I have been having such a wonderful time with my family, and more stories will have to come later. It was bittersweet to leave this past Wednesday, but I had the pleasure of staying in Bollnäs with Elisabeth and her family for a couple days before moving on to Stockholm where I am now. Marianne and family are taking wonderful care of me, and I am so glad to be back in a city. I missed out last night because I could have been at Swedish Idol with relatives from the Norwegian side of my family because Jordin Sparks was singing on the show, but we made up for it tonight. My cousin Louise and I were invited to meet my relatives and see Jordin perform at CafeOpera, one of the top 2 nightclubs in Stockholm, and the nicest club I have ever been in (not that I am the clubbing type, but still). We had a very nice chat with Pam, Jordins grandmother, and got to talk about our relatives. (I told her she needs to come and visit, Jostein!) The whole experience was pretty crazy, and made even better because before we went to CafeOpera, Louise and I went...you guessed it...swing dancing! I was thrilled, had quite a few good dances in a short amount of time in a club that was not super crowded, so all in all it was a successful night. I may even go again on Wednesday. It was Louise´s first time, but people were begging her to stay. Go figure. So, alive and well and wonderful.
Thank you for all of your words and messages! I have not had much quality time with the computer, but I am doing so well. Steve and I are meeting again in Germany in a couple weeks, so take time to stay posted on what he is doing as well!
Love from Sweden!