The End of Summer

It's official summer is over. Here in the UK the August bank holiday that marks the official end of summer here has came and gone two weeks ago. And this past Monday was Labor Day in the US - the official end of summer for Americans.

My question is where the hell did summer go? I feel like it just started yesterday!

And because I live in London, I think that I do have the right to bitch about the weather. So, let me start by saying this summer was a complete let down! Although it started off well enough. And the weather I had while on vacation in the US was amazing! I was expecting to return to London in mid-July to experience some nice warm summer days in London. Boy was I disappointed! It was rainy and cold in London all summer! Other than the 4 weeks I spent in the US, I feel like I had no summer at all. Boo!

Alright, enough complaining. Let's quickly review what I did this summer...

To start with, I hit up the wonderful country of Spain twice in one month - first Barcelona and then Madrid!

I watched the second Sex in the City Movie.

I stressed about my summer of weddings and what I was going to wear and how I was going to face all those weddings ALONE as a single gal.

I went to the first fabulous wedding in Sweden and where I kissed a younger hot boy. I saw a dear old friend get married in Western Massachusetts. I went to San Fransisco where saw my "other brother"  get married in the most over the top kick ass party non-traditional wedding of the year.

I chilled at home in the USA with my parents and their pets and thought a lot about Americans. I went to one of my oldest friend B's beautiful wedding on Nantucket where I got to dine on yummy lobster and catch up with old friends.

I spent some time on boats on the Thames. The first time, I got to DRIVE the boat. The second time I met a hot Swedish guy dressed like Chuck Bass.

I went for a fantastic weekend trip to Smogen with the girls where we ate lots of seafood and I kissed a cute boy in the rain.

I experimented with leaving Chelsea. I went on boring date with a Scottish guy from Match, but I had more fun dating myself. The best date however was with the sexy cop - but unfortunately, he wasn't that into me.

I thought a lot about what it means to be a foreigner and what men should clearly not do when Internet dating.

I also offered up some words of wisdom.

I wrote my first unfortunate drunk blog. I went clubbing and met hot boys.

I went on a totally awesome trip to South Africa and saw 7 lions while on a safari!

And after all that overindulgence and alcohol this summer, I decided that since my clothes no longer fit right, I need to hit the gym and therefore I started to see a personal trainer who makes me do really crazy things.

I also found out my Ex-Boyfriend got engaged! And the Beautiful Swede reached out to me again. I have not written him back though - I'm proud to say!

So, what does the autumn bring for this International Woman of Mystery? Well, funny that you should ask? Because MASSIVE changes are on the horizon. I mean huge. But more on that later.

Stay tuned for an update on my awesome trip to Stockholm.

Toodles.

Smögen with the girls

Hi Y’all. So, I’m back from my latest great adventure. Did you miss me? I missed you!

Let me start by saying WHAT AN ADVENTURE these past 2 weeks have been!

I don’t know where to start.

Although South Africa is on my mind having just returned today and visions of lions and zebras (oh yeah - I saw both) are dancing in my head, I guess it’s most logical for me to start with the girl’s trip to Smögen.

And let me start by saying that my Swedish girlfriends are totally awesome. No seriously, they rock. I have never met a group of nicer kinder girls! And on top of that they are all cute too! The best thing is that we travel together at least once a year and amazingly we never ever fight. They are so drama free. It’s very refreshing. I love hanging out with them. This year our annual girl's trip was even more important for me because I don’t get to see them as often now that I live in London.

The only sad thing about the trip is that my oldest Swedish friend (and the reason that I know all the other girls) was not able to come with us this year due to the fact that she recently had a baby. We really missed her!

The other sad thing was the weather. It was oh so cold and rainy the whole time in Smögen. But we didn’t let a little grey weather spoil our fun. Oh no we didn’t!

Let me remind you that Smögen is a small harbor town on the west coast of Sweden. And it’s a major stop on the summer party sailing scene. Swedes are pretty big into sailing and one of the cool things to do is to rent a sailboat (if you don’t have your own) and go out for a week or 2 with a bunch of friends stopping at all the party spots along the route.

As we weren’t able to devote a whole week to sailing, we decided instead to drive the 7 hours from Stockholm down to Smogen (8 girls in a mini bus) on Thursday morning and stay until Sunday and hang out, catch up with each other and of course, party!

Despite the long drive, the rain, the cold weather and the very tight fit in our rented house, we still managed to have a super weekend!

I think the best way to explain the weekend is to revert to list format. So, here we go:

Things that happened in Smögen 

We pre-partied on a sail boat. A BIG sailboat. The first night in Smögen was the best night. It was the night that most of the sailboats came in as it was the place to be on the sailing route. I had mentiond to a Swedish colleague (who I do not know that well) that my 7 girlfriends and I were going to Smögen and he was like “well, me and my 7 boyfriends will be there as well. Come and join us on the boat for pre-party!” Well, ok! And so we did. And it was so much fun. My colleague and his friends were great hosts. They were a very international crowd of young professionals and therefore very interesting to talk to. And he had a particularly cute friend who was Swedish but lived in Dubai...

Blame it on the rain, but I totally had to kiss the cute friend of my colleague. The cute friend of my colleague and I exited the club together into the absolute pouring rain! There was nothing to do except run to his boat which was nearby. By the time I undid the strappy high heels I was wearing, and managed to climb over the boats moored together to get this his sailboat (note to self, do not wear hard to take off high heels when partying on boats -especially iu the rain it's impossible to walk across boats in high heels so you must take the off), we were completely soaked. I’m not sure why being barefoot and soaking wet on a sailboat wuld lead to kissing, but he was cute, so it did! And by the way, he was a good kisser. Admittedly, it was just a bit awkward when my colleague (who I did not know very well) came home later and caught us and laughed at us. I should note that he had been encouraging us all night so I think that he was laughing in a good way - let’s hope!

The girls surprised me with a spa day! I told you that they are awesome! The last time I was in Sweden, they had a birthday dinner for me and had given me a card with an IOU for a birthday gift in Smögen. But then they didn’t say that much about it. On Friday morning we were all feeling terribly hungover from the previous nights party but the girls told me that we were going to go swimming (in the ocean). I went along knowing that there was no way I would swim in the cold ocean on this cold rainy day. We did dip our toes in the cold water. But I was totally fooled. Until we walked into the hotel, I had no idea what we were actually doing! But it was a nice spa with a pool and hot tub and of course a sauna and we had a very relaxing day. The perfect remedy for a hangover.

I got a hot stone massage from an 18 year old boy. Before you jump to conclusions, this was actually a gift from the girls and the 18 year old boy was a certified (I checked) masseur at the spa. 18 is even too young for me. the hot stone massage was a new experience and not something I would have necessarily picked for myself but it's good to try everything once. I’m not sure I would do it again. But the whole massage situation was made slightly hilarious because this 18 year old boy who was giving me the massage, basically proceeded to talk to me the whole time while rubbing hot stones all over my body. So, it was kind of awkward and not that relaxing. But definitely an experience. It would have been a better experience and definitely more fun to blog about if he had been a totally hot and hunky 18 year old. But unfortunately, he truly looked 18 with the spots and the awkwardness to go with it. However, he seemed like a nice boy with lots of potential cuteness and I do think that he will grow out of it and become a heartbreaker someday. Maybe I will check up on him when he is 23 (that seems to be my lower age limit).

We ate so much amazing seafood! Smögen is famous for it’s seafood. We ate lots of shrimp, lax, crayfish, crab, and fish soup. The only thing that was oh so good but also oh so not good at the same time was the aioli. Shrimps in Smögen are uusually consumed dipped in aioli. I love aioli. I could eat it plain. And eat it I did. A lot of it. The problem was that it was not so conducive to kissing meeting men.

Seafood market

 

Räk Mackor (Shrimp sandwiches)

Dinner at the house

We ate this amazing sandwich called landgård! It has shrimp, crayfish and lax all on a piece of bread. Seriously this was the most amazing thing I have eaten in a long time. And we had fish soup on the side. Yum!

 Landgård = Yummy!

We enjoyed walking around the quaint town of Smögen and checking out the small shops. Seriously, how beautiful is this place:?

We partied with lots of boys boys boys... The best part about being in a sailing town was the fact that the guy girl ratio was way off. There were so many boys! And so few girls. My sexy single friend H and I were the only single gals in our group and we got lots of male attention. So much so that it was almost not really a good thing. Especially the first night when I was hanging out with the cute Swedish friend of my colleague. He seemed irritated by the boys grabbing me - it was irritating. I enjoyed the attention at first but it got annoying quickly. 

 A scene from a Smögen nightclub: lots of party! And lots of BOYS!

BOYS, BOYS, BOYS

Of course here was a little fun boy drama. And for once it wasn’t my drama. But my Sexy Single friend H who had the drama, has agreed that I could share her funny story. After the nightclub one night, H and I were for some reason sitting on the bench outside the nightclub. And of course due to the dispraportionate ration of boys to girls ratio as mentioned above, we did not manage to sit alone for long. H started talking to kissing this guy who flat out told her that he had a girlfriend but that he really wanted to kiss her anyway. I guess H decided that the girlfriend was his problem and that kissing on a bench was harmless enough. The drama ensued the next day when we went for lunch and the guy and his girlfriend were sitting at the next table! Ooops! The guy had forgotten to mention that his girlfriend was actually WITH HIM. We all had a good laugh about this. The always calm H, thought the whole thing was hilarious and didn't seem phased at all. We did joke about her going up to him and his girl and introducing herself as "the girl from last night.:" But, we aren't really that mean. We left the guy alone. Although poor girlfriend. Someone should tip her off that her boyfriend's a creep.

I met a boy who wanted to make me his partner in crime. Literally. While my sexy single friend H, was talking to kissing the boy on the bench with the girlfriend. Another boy was speaking to me. At first glance, he seemed like a very good looking boy. But he soon proved to be crazy. Literally. This was basically how our interaction went:

First we had a very annoying conversation that I tend to have often with very annoying Swedish men which involves me convincing them that I really am American (usually by showing them my American driver's license) and them still doubting me and thinking that I'm really Swedish and just pulling one over on them. I should have walked away then because the conversation continued to detriorate from there:

Him: Let’s commit a crime. I’m feeling crazy tonight.

Me: What do you mean? (realizing that he MIGHT really be crazy but still hoping he is joking)

Him: I mean, I want to rob a bank or something... Do something crazy.

Me: Well... I don’t see any banks around... (fortunately)

Him: Let’s rob a store then (tries to kiss me)

Me: (pushing him away) Sorry buddy, but my crime committing days are over. This one is all you.

Him: No seriously. Let’s rob a store together. I want you to do this with me. C'mon!

Me: I don’t see any stores around anyway... but if you feel like committing a crime, I’m not going to stop you... I’m not going to participate either.

Him: C’mon. I need a partner. (Tries to kiss me again with way too much force)

Me: (Tiring of the conversation and him forcing himself on me) See ya. (Grab sexy single friend H and run away from the crazy guy).*

We danced and danced and danced. The dance party started at the house fueld by glasses of rose and then we continued dancing each night in the clubs on the watefront. The second night, we went to a plac with a particularly good DJ and managed to find a small stage in front of the air conditioning unit to dance on. It was so much fun - although we had to keep getting rid of annoying men who wanted to join us - beat it boys! This was a girls’ night. The following songs will forever remind me of summer 2010 - if you don’t know them, check them out:

• Stereo Love
• Alors on Danse
• We Speak No Americano
• Dancing on My Own - Robyn
• (One) Your Name - Swedish House Mafia 

We had a great time with great friends. We all missed the party in Visby a bit. But it didn’t matter where we were because we were all together and that was what mattered. Thanks for yet another great weekend girls. You are the best! Krammar!

*I swear that this ridiculous conversation really happened. In fact, it lasted for around 10 minutes and was even more ridiculous than I managed to represent here - but I had also consumed high quantaties of rose wine so my memory did not allow me to take down the full 10 minute conversation so this is just a high level recap.

Back to London and being a Faux Swede

So, I’m back in London now and I’m kinda struggling to get back on the work schedule but in fact, a very strange thing has happened: I don’t have that much to do at work. There are some reason behind this which I will get to at a later date, but this is a very weird experience for me. I’m used to being really really busy. I don’t know what to do with myself when I don’t have 15 hours of work that I’m trying to cram into a 10 hour day! Oh dear... what is wrong with me? Why am I even complaining about this. I’m thinking that I should shut up now and just try to enjoy it.

I’m also thinking that now that I have some free time again, maybe I should pursue the London dating scene again! I’m simultaneously trying to pursue the work out/eat healthy/get in shape scene again - but that’s really not as interesting for me to write about and there are enough blogs out there about that!

I decided to jump back into the London scene Swedish London scene by attending a Swedish Chamber of Commerce event with my sexy single friend A. Ok for real. Why did I not do this before? It’s the perfect place to look for my future Swedish husband pick up cute 25 year old Swedish boys. But more on that in a minute - first I’m going to sidetrack a bit and talk about being a faux Swede - one of my favorite subjects.

The thing about Swedes is that you can spot a Swede a mile away. They stand out! But for good reasons. They look good, they dress good, they carry themselves well... overall they just have a good style.

As I have mentioned before, I look very Swedish - or at least that’s what I’m told over and over again by Swedes and Non-Swedes. However, it never fails to amuse me when people mistake me for being Swedish. I do take this as a really great compliment. I love being a Faux Swede!

So, after that introduction, let me get back to the weekend.

Friday night we hit the bar for After Work (as the Swedes would say) or Happy Hour as the Americans would say. Since I’ve moved to London I’ve been waiting anxiously for The Phene, a pub very near to my house to open. It’s been under renovation since I moved here but it looked like a great place with a huge outdoor terrace. It opened while I was on vacation and is seemingly a big success (especially with the Swedes who seem to have a good sense of nice pubs).

So, we headed there after work for a few drinks and let me tell you - it is my new favorite place! Fact. I plan to live there this summer. It has a great outdoor terrace and the inside is really nice as well. In fact, the whole place is really “Swedish” meaning I feel like I could be in Sweden and considering that the clientele was mostly Swedes (mostly my colleagues and their friends) I guess that is not exactly surprising.

The only downside is that I heard the food was not so great and you have to exit the terrace around 10 pm due to noise regulations. Oh well. Despite that, it’s still pretty good. And on this night there were even cute (Non-Swedish actually) boys to flirt with like Tom the investment banker... who gave me his business card but was too arrogant for my liking... Why is everyone in this city an investment banker? And even worse, it just seems like investment bankers are not my type. I wish I could meet a nice and interesting one and then I would literally eat my words. But I’m thinking that’s not going to happen.

So, a funny thing did happen at the Pub. I was speaking to a colleague who works in a different product that I met for the first time that night. So, we are in this long conversation which did involve me explaining some of my life including the fact that I lived in Sweden for 5 years but I started working for my company in Boston etc. I did feel that at different points of the conversation we were having trouble connecting, although I couldn’t quite understand what the problem was. So, about 20 minutes into the conversation I mentioned something about my Swedish being “not very good,” and she was like “Why not? Did you live abroad a lot as a kid?” And I was suddenly like “ You do realize that I’m American, right?” At that point we both realized that this whole time she’d been sitting there thinking I was Swedish and that had led to our small miscommunication! We had a good long laugh about this! But once again, unknowingly, I was posing as a faux Swede! I swear, I’m not even trying to trick people. It just happens!

Saturday night was the Chamber of Commerce event: a BBQ boat ride down the Thames. This time, I unfortunately did not get to drive the boat, but it was still a fun night for other reasons.

So, I’m waiting for my sexy single friend A to make an appearance - I am oddly early and she is oddly late. And I’m standing at Westminster Pier watching all the Swedes and reflecting on how amusing it is that you can easily spot the Swedes as they really stand out from the other tourists and Londoners. One of the organizers of the event (enter the aforementioned 25 year old Swede) comes up and asks me (in Swedish of course) if I’m Swedish and if I’m there for the party. I tell him in English that technically no, I’m not Swedish (just a Faux Swede - but I don't say that out loud thank God) but I am here for the event. And he is nice enough to make small talk with me until my friend arrives. Once again, I’m amused that he thinks I’m Swedish until I tell him that I’m not. There were obviously other foreigners at the event but I could easily pick out who they were. What makes me more Swede-like? Swedish followers? What do you think? Comments appreciated.

I was also amused by the 25 year old’s “oh-so-Swedish” outfit. The party was actually a theme party. The theme was ironically “The Hamptons” which I think he actually came up with. Ironic because here I was an American looking like a Swede pretending to be an American! Did I loose you yet? I think I lost myself... Anyway, back to his outfit. He was going for a Chuck Bass (you know from Gossip Girl) Hampton’s look and had actually Googled this picture below and managed to succeed in rocking this style:

The “oh-so-Swedish” part however was the socks. He was of course wearing pink socks (which were highly visible with all that white and because the pant legs were cut perfectly to show off the pink socks - So Swedish)! Seriously, why do Swedish men all wear pink socks. The Beautiful Ex Swede has like 5 pairs. It is hard for me to imagine an American man wearing pink socks*...

Anyway, the night progressed. The boat went up and down the river as the rose wine flowed and people started to get to know each other. And most importantly there were lots of cute boys to entertain my sexy single friend A and I. The night continued at a Mayfair club called Whiskey Mist which is a pretty fun club. It was actually a pretty good night! Fun to go to a club with 120 people you have just met. Makes you feel like you know everyone and sets a good party mood. The club was good. The music was good. The people were good. I was drinking champagne and dancing with the cute 25 year old Swedish boy dressed like Chuck Bass. And you know I can’t resist me some Chuck Bass...

And so I will end the night there... No need for more details... ;)

Hope your week is off to a great start!

*Shh... don't tell anyone, but I secretly like pink socks on men. This might be even more proof that I'm a faux Swede! Help!

A Nantucket Wedding

So, I totally owe you all an update on my Nantucket weekend. I’ve been focusing a lot on settling back into London life (more on that in the next post), so this has taken me a long time to write.

I’ve decided to go with some top ten lists - which somehow became top 9 lists (I seemed to have ran out of steam there on each list), as this is obviously my favorite format to blog in. So, here goes...

Top Nine Amazing Things about my Nantucket weekend

1. The wedding - B, one of my oldest friends (our friendship goes back to the diaper years) got married to D - a great guy! And they sure did it in style! B of course was an absolutely lovely bride and I have to say that D did make a very handsome groom. And they had great weather and a great location and of course, great guests! All in all it was a beautiful wedding and I wish them a life of happiness. Congratulations B and D!

2. The Clam Bake - Weddings these days are never just one day events. I see this as a good thing. More time to catch up with people you do not see enough. This time, the wedding festivities began with an awesome clambake. And this clambake was a lobster one -see picture! Lobster, clams, potatoes, chicken, sausage, corn - YUM! The clam bake was in a beautiful location - a private home the groom’s family rented in Tom Nevers. Everyone had a nice time although the dinner was served quite late and people were totally boozing it up in the meantime. By the end of the night everyone was totally hammertown. Fun but sloppy!

Yummy Lobster!

3. Hanging out and Catching up with old friends - I got to spend some more time with S and K who I have mentioned before. S and K are old old friends. We don’t go back quite as far as me and the bride B, but almost. I met K when I was about 6 and S when I was about 7. So we all go back like 25 years. Kind of cool. All of our group that grew up together from our small town has stayed close. As S says, the fact that she joined our school in second grade has always made her the “new kid.” Even 25 years later we still point it out that we have not known her as long. Obviously this is kind of ridiculous. But it just shows what kind of bond we all have. We sort of know everything about each other - even the things you wish no one knew. But it was great to catch up and spend time with S and K.

4. The Boat Ride - S’s friend from NYC has a house on Nantucket. And he very nicely invited us out on his boat! It was a beautiful sunny afternoon - a bit too hot to be on the main land, but PERFECT for boating! We cruised around the island checking all the big houses, we saw some seals, we soaked up some sun, drank some wine and we waved hello to John Kerry - for real: see the picture below if you don’t believe me.

Hello John Kerry!

5. Quaint New Englandness - No matter how far you travel, you can never escape your roots. I am a New England girl. Fact. There is no escaping it. And Nantucket is the epitome of quaint New Englandness. The cobblestone streets, the rocky shoreline, the lighthouses - see below, the cute little boutique shops, lobster, clam chowder, steamers...

6. The Bouncers - Apparently, Nantucket is a place where underage drinking is highly pursued. Therefore, the Bouncers at the clubs strictly enforce ID checks for most people before you can enter a bar. I am proud to say that my ID was checked carefully every time and one of the times, the guy actually said to me: “Congratulations! You look way younger than you actually are.” Needless to say, I was kind of stoked about this.

7. The LOBSTER - I heart lobster more than any other food (besides nachos). I can eat lobster every day and never get sick of it. As if to prove this point, I did have lobster 4 days in a row - first at the Clam Back, and then as an hors d'oeuvre at the wedding. Then as an Indian dish and then my dear Mom made it for me as a going away dinner. Did I get sick of it? No way! If I could eat lobster right now, I so would. Unfortunately, I’m in London and I only eat microwave dinners here.

8. The Weather - The heat wave continued and Nantucket had lovely weather. In fact, it was hot. In general, Nantucket is a place where you always need that extra sweater. But actually, this time - no sweaters needed. Luckily, in the South of the island where the wedding was held, the weather was a bit cooler otherwise we would have actually been too hot! We even used the AC at night!

9. The Boys - Actually, despite the bad dressing (see top not so amazing things about Nantucket below), the boys on the island were actually kind of hot...

Top Nine Not So Amazing Things about my Nantucket weekend:

1. The price tag - It was a great weekend, so I’m not really complaining. But I’m glad that I am no longer a cash strapped college student, that’s for sure. $65 for a return ferry ride. $60 for parking for 3 nights. $400/night for a hotel room (with a 3 night minimum).

2. Khakis - They should be illegal. Nuff said.

3. Feeling like a Foreigner - Despite being a New Englander, I felt a bit like a foreigner the whole weekend. I’m just not used to being in the US. It’s so different from Europe! Different dress, different music, different manners and customs. I have obviously been away for too long since I feel uncomfortable in the US now. And I couldn’t help comparing this island weekend to other island weekends in Europe - see list below.

4. Not Being Rich - I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of envy when scoping out the 30 million dollar “summer” homes. I mean, I do ok for myself... but that is ridiculous. I mean ridonculous!

5. The only Cute boy was taken - So the bride B has forever been talking up this boy that is friends with her now husband. She really wanted us to meet. She even introduced us on Facebook and we exchanged several messages. But unfortunately, he managed to find himself a girlfriend just in time for the wedding. As B dramatically said: “He ruined everything!” Despite the fact he had a girlfriend, I was still a bit curious to see what he looked like. I’m not going to lie, I doubted the ability of B to pick out a guy for me. Although we have been friends since we were babies, she has met very few of my boyfriends since I’ve been living abroad. But, I am pleased to say that B was right! He was hot! Damn the fact that he was taken.

6. The Skinny Jeans Conversation - The dinner conversation somehow turned to the topic of skinny jeans. I live in Europe! Who DOESN’T wear skinny jeans? But the entire table proclaimed their hatred for skinny jeans and as fashionista S was on the dance floor, I was left alone to defend skinny jeans! It was just one more reminder of how hard it’s going to be to move back to the US. Also let me note that I'm not a fan of Brooks Brothers or Lily Pulitzer either - and I have already expressed my feelings for Khakis in a previous statement... so basically I was having a bit of trouble dealing with the Nantucket fashion...

7. Getting really sunburned - We made a mistake in not bringing or buying sunblock. Unfortunately, this mistake was not realized until we were settled in at the beach soaking up the sunshine. We were highly aware of the no sunblock fact however and decided that we would only stay on the beach for an hour. That hour might have extended to an hour and a half - max. But oh man did we get burned. Unfortunately, as sunburns tend to do, it only showed up later when we were at the wedding. So my body felt like it was on fire all night and all the pictures show me looking like a big red ugly lobster. I will not forget sunblock again!

8. The Foreign Staff - Oddly, all the staff in Nantucket were foreigners: Irish, Eastern Europeans, Jamaicans. This included all wait staff, the DJ at the wedding, the babysitters (for the children at the wedding), and the taxi drivers. Weird. Although it was explained to me that Americans do not find it worth it to live on Nantucket and work (too expensive to live and save) and the actual island kids have such rich parents, that they do not need to work. Thus, the foreign staff who apparently live in dormitory style housing somewhere in the middle of the island. Now, you all know I love me some foreigners. But what I DO NOT LOVE is foreigner's ideas of acceptable service levels. As you know, I do like the American mentality of “service with a smile,” and “the customer is always right.” Therefore, I was not impressed with the Eastern European waitress who for whatever reason would not allow us to order another plate of calamari as the “kitchen would get mad.” Not only did she loose out on that order, we also gave her a reduced tip and left the place frustrated. I would not recommend this place to my friends either. So take that you mean waitress!

9. Crying through the wedding ceremony - What is is about seeing one of your oldest friends getting married that turns on the tears? I totally lost it right at the beginning when the Justice of the Peace told B’s father to “kiss your little girl” before he turned her over to her husband-to-be. That started the tears aflowing - let me tell you. It didn’t help that the bride cried all through the wedding and that I was sitting in the front row. Thank God I had remembered to bring tissues. My other girls were also crying although I did notice that most others had dry eyes! It seemed to have been just us!

Top Nine Comparisons between Nantucket and Gotland*

1. Both Nantucket and Gotland are islands

2. Nantucket is way more exclusive than Gotland - and WAY more expensive!

3. Champagne - In Nantucket, champagne is to be drank, not sprayed by brats

4. Cobble stone streets - both have them although the Nantucket cobblestone area is much smaller than the massive area in Visby

5. Preppy Dress - New Englanders invented the preppy dress style. But Swedes perfected it. Last summer Swedes seemed to reinvent preppy borrowing from classic New England but making it really cool. Guys were all about boat shoes and sweaters over the shoulders. But there wee no khakis except slim fitting ones in pink and blue and green. And there were definitely blue button down shirts, but there were absolutely no T-shirts underneath (that is totally America style). I have to say, the Swedes do preppy better!

6. Rose - In Gotland Rose wine is definitely the drink of choice... I’m not sure what a traditional Nantucket drink would be, but Rose was nowhere to be found unfortunately (actually, we did have some Rose bubbly)

Cheers!

7. The party - Gotland wins hands down! The summer months turns this Medieval village into party central when all the brats from Stockholm take over. It's now being called one of the top ten summer party destinations in Europe. It’s so much fun! Nantucket does ok, but nowhere near Gotland!

After beach at Kallis

8. The shopping - Nantucket wins here! Lots of cute little boutiques all over the place! I always felt like the shopping in Visby was kind of lame. But in Nantucket, you better be prepared to drop some serious cash. It is not cheap.

9. Quaint New England vs. Medieval village - Nantucket is very quaint New England, but Visby is a very quaint and very old Medieval village with a beautiful wall surrounding it built sometime in the 12th century. Let me point out that is WAY before America was born.

The wall surrounding Visby in Gotland Sweden

*Gotland is a Swedish island in the Baltic sea to the south of Sweden. The capital is Visby which is a a well-preserved medieval city that every year turns into a crazy party city for Stockholm's elite during week 29 and 30. I have gone 5 years in a row with my Swedish girlfriends. I couldn't help but compare my Nantucket adventure with my Swedish Gotland adventures.

About Americans Part II

Well, I'm off to London today and feeling rather sad about it - especially the going back to work part.

But before I go, I wanted to leave you with a few last reflections on Americans as a follow up to my last post on the same topic.

Bathrooms in America are TERRIBLE! I mean seriously in my book they are now ranking second worst IN THE WORLD outside of Asia (obviously). Nowhere else in the world has these terrible metal stalls where you can see underneath and between the cracks. When I'm sitting on the toilet here, I feel that everyone is looking at me. And when I'm washing my hands and looking in the mirror, I don't want to see through the cracks of the stalls and accidentally watch someone doing her business. Some things are meant to stay private. The Swedes and the Scandinavians have it right. Very nice bathroom stalls with proper doors you can shut - often with a private sink in every stall. And for some reason, despite being mostly unisex, the bathrooms in Scandinavia are WAY CLEANER than the bathrooms in America. I mean come on Americans why are your bathrooms so gross!?!

There are a lot of vegetarians and vegans in the USA - especially in California

Americans love ICE - Americans seem to only drink cold drinks and therefore use TONS of ice. I actually am not so crazy about ice and I have even been known to drink warm beer (all beer in Indonesia was served warm) when necessary, but I do hate it when I order an ice latte in Sweden and they put about 2 ice cubes in it which melt before they hand it to me. I mean, come on! But Americans use so much ice that there is hardly any room left for the drink. If you want an American to complain, just hand them a warm drink. And it does seem like every American household (including mine) has one of those refrigerators that dispenses ice.

Don't forget to go through the Drive Through - I know that drive throughs exist in other countries but I'm pretty sure it was an American invention and that it's still more popular here than anywhere else. As for me, I love me a good old Dunkin Donuts drive through any day! And I pretty much have driven through the Dunken Donuts drive through on a daily basis since being home.

Microbrew Beer is popular - Americans are crazy about their beer. They like to have lots of different flavors of micro brews on tap. It seems like everyone is doing their own beer these days. I love Sam Adams - Sam Summer is the best - especially if you add a lemon.

Light Beer - Here Light beer means less calories not less beer (umm... hello Sweden). Americans are crazy about light beer. It seems that Coors light and Bud light still are the beers of choice. I actually prefer Sam Adams light. Apparently Budweiser now makes a beer with only 54 calories - I haven't tried this yet. However, I do totally recommend Bud Light lime. It goes down like water and is oh so refreshing!

BBQ's (also known as cook outs) are a big deal in the summer time - traditional fare is hamburgs, hot dogs, maybe some chicken. A summer party is usually a rather casual affair. Someone mans the grill. Often guests bring some kind of dish. People eat on paper plates with plastic cutlery. They tend to eat standing up or can find a seat somewhere. In general eating is much more casual than in Europe where paper plates don't seem to exist and there is more emphasis on sitting down together to eat - even at a picnic or a BBQ.

New Englanders love their seafood - Lobster, clams, clam chowder, scallops - all traditional New England fare. If you are in New England, I totally recommend lobster although outside of New England (unless it's coming from New England), I would say skip it.

Service with a smile - In the USA, we know that the "customer is always right" and therefore Americans are known for their awesome customer service. Whether in a restaurant or a shop, you can count on Americans to provide service with a smile. It might have something to do with the fact that they are working for tips, which brings me to my next point...

When in America, do not forget to tip - Tipping is a big deal here. If you are at a restaurant, you should tip 15 - 20%. If you are getting a coffee, don't forget to leave your change in the tip jar. If you are at a bar, a dollar a drink is the deal. Even if you are at a wedding and it's open bar, you should be tipping the waitstaff (so bring one dollar bills). You should tip all the people who help you at the hotel (bell boys, the person who gets you a taxi). You should tip the taxi driver. And when you are staying at a hotel, it's common to leave a small tip in the room for the housecleaning! And at Christmas, you are supposed to give everyone something extra! In my opinion, tipping is a bit out of control.

Americans love hip hop and rock and roll - none of this Euro dance music for them

Summer means baseball! World Cup? What's that? I say GO RED SOX!

America the Beautiful

Although the Fourth of July is over, It’s officially still the Fourth of July weekend and I’m still feeling pretty patriotic!

Check out this awesome 100 Great Things About America list! It is so right on. It’s such a good list it reminds me of one of my own awesome lists! I totally could have written this list. In fact, many of the things that are on this list are things that I have mentioned before!

As I know that most of you are lazy and won’t even click on the link (although I really recommend that you do; seriously, just DO IT), let me list some of my favorites from the list: flip flops*, the Tiffany’s box, ice cream, chewing gum, Bendy straws, Redwood trees, The Golden Gate Bridge, New Year’s Eve (every country has one but they all watch Times Square), Baseball, Kegs, S’mores, salt water taffy, roller coasters...

Oh - and in case you are wondering what MY beautiful America looks like... well it looks something like this:

My Dog at the pool

My parents have a ginormous and fabulous pool!

I should note that the weather has been FREAKING FABULOUS! I don’t ever remember it being so amazing when I’ve been on vacation. Today was another day of “not a cloud in the sky” - see picture below so you know I’m so not lying. Although the temperatures soared (over 100 degrees which is about 38 Celsius), the humidity was low and all in all it was a beautiful day. In fact, this marks the 7th day in a row of pretty spectacular days!

See - Not a Cloud in the Sky!

I should also not that this is sadly the last week of my 3 week vacation (sob) and the final week of my four week US adventure. I go back to London a week from today. So... I’m kind of in that vacation panic where you realize it’s almost over and there are so many more things you want to do (or should have done). Above all I’m determined to soak up as much sun and good feelings as possible in order to return to London a more relaxed person.

This week I will actually attend wedding number 4 of the summer (remember there are 5 in total). My good friend B who I have known since I was three years old will get married to D her long-term love and they are doing it in NANTUCKET! Now, I have never been to Nantucket, but let me tell you, I’m oh so excited! Especially since I will be kickin’ it at a nice hotel with other long term childhood BFF’s S and K. We are headed out to Nantucket on Thursday where the wedding weekend will kick off with a Clam Bake. The actual wedding is on Friday and then we will stick around on Saturday (thank you three night hotel minimums) to just enjoy! S is attempting to arrange a boat trip - sounds like fun to me!

In case you are wondering, Nantucket is a small island off of Massachusetts (south of the Cape) and it’s a summer hot spot for the well-to-do. It’s supposed to be lovely! And hopefully this amazing weather will hold out.

Happy Monday everyone! Hope your week is off to a good start.

Happy Birthday America (and Dad)

Today America celebrates it’s 234th birthday and in other news my Father celebrates his 60th birthday (every year he thinks the fireworks are for him). Happy Birthday America! Happy Birthday Dad!

So, I guess you are wondering what I did to celebrate? I’m sure you are expecting some crazy party or story or at the very least a of the top fun things I did... But for once, I’m actually going to disappoint you. I have to admit that I did a whole lot of NOTHING on this Fourth of July. Life has been kind of running away with me for the past few months (if you haven’t noticed) and I thought that I would take this opportunity between big wedding weekends: last week San Fran and next week Nantucket, to just chill out a little bit. I think it’s been a much needed chill out time... But I have to admit, I’m getting a bit bored and am ready to get back into real life.

But the weather has been fabulous: over 90 degrees and yesterday there was literally not a cloud in the sky. Last night, we celebrated my father with a pool/keg/BBQ party - what else? So, I drank Sam Summer (from the keg) and chatted with my parent’s friends. Then went up to my parent’s friend’s lake house in Goshen to see some fireworks. Not exactly a wild evening - but nice.

Today I hung out by the pool and then braved the heat and went for a run (something I don’t really recommend doing in this heat - too hot)! Had dinner with the parents (hamburgs and hot dogs of course), hung out by the pool some more watching the sun set and then we decided not to drive to see any fireworks but rather to watch the on television (obviously not my idea and also something I don’t recommend as it’s not at all like being there). So, we tuned in for the NYC ones (which are supposed to be the best) and that was going ok until my Mother pressed some buttons on the remote control and started rewinding the DVR and then things got a little bit messed up. Then once Mom’s remote control privileges were revoked for the night, we settled in to watch the Boston Fireworks - which I actually thought were better.

But not to leave you with nothing (and for all my International readers), here is a rather boring list of Top Ten List of things you SHOULD do on the Fourth of July.

Top Ten Things you Should do on The Fourth of July

1. Go to the beach (if that is not possible, then a pool will do)

2. Gather with family and/or friends and have a fabulous time

3. Play sports such as wiffle ball or football (American style)

4. Have a BBQ

5. Eat hot dogs and hamburgers - as you do in America

6. Eat ice cream

7. Wear red white and blue (or something Patriotic - its seems that this year those Statue of Liberty Crown hats are a big deal) and march in a parade, watch a parade or join in whatever your town or city is doing to celebrate the Nation's Birthday

8. Sing Patriotic songs and wave American flags - seriously, this is important!

9. Drink beer - especially a patriotic and seasonal beer like Sam Summer

10. Watch FIREWORKS!

So faithful readers, as you can see... My Fourth of July weekend was a little calm. Did anyone else do anything crazy? If so, leave me a comment and tell me about it so I can live vicariously through you.

And Holla to Sweden - Midsommar kicks the Fourth of July’s ass. I know that as a true Patriot and an all around All American girl I should not say such things. But ha! I did anyway. I really missed Midsommar this year!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Fourth of July weekend. And please share your stories!

A San Francisco Wedding

Well I'm back (in Massachusetts) from my California adventure and trying to dry out after a crazy San Francisco wedding extravaganza. Weddings these days seem to be very long events with many nights of overindulgence. But so much fun! And this wedding (while exceptional and awesome in many ways) was no exception. It was a fabulous time! But let me start at the beginning to give you all a proper update of my California adventuure.

First of all I travelled to California with my parents. This was a strange experience since we had never been on a plane together. Despite the fact that I am an International Woman of Mystery and my brother lives in Barcelona half the time, my parents are pretty much homebodies.Oh yeah - we rebel!

Although a bit strange to travel with Mom and Dad, the experience was actually kind of nice. I felt a small comfort that reduced the fear of flying when I realized if I died on the plane, at least I would be with the people I loved (although I did have a few moments of panic about what would happen to my brother if we all died together on the plane and also a bit of a panic about my brother's flight - he was en route to San Fran from Barcelona at the same time - but overall panic level was down a bit as happens when you are with your Mom). Also, when I couldn't get the top off of my vodka (the family that flies together, drinks together) Dad was there to help me out! Nice.

First stop in California was Sunnyvale where my Aunt and Uncle live. Sunnyvale did live up to it's name - it was sunny the entire time we were there. We took a ride and went out to the Redwood Forest - which I had never seen before - to check out the old and gigantic trees. But mostly we sat around and caught up on family stuff and ate tortilla chips. Not but for real. A BIG BAG of tortilla chips was consumed - see below for a very American image (remember what I said about Americans and their love for the SUPER SIZE)?

Then we headed into San Fransisco for the beginning of the wedding festivities.

Let me start by saying that I thought a lot about Mark Twain while in San Fran (at least the first day). Mark Twain infamously said: "The coldest winter I ever spent, was a summer in San Francisco." Boy did those words ring true. BRRRRRR! I knew that I was going to be clothing challenged when we drove through the streets of San Fran on the way to the hotel and everyone was wearing heavy coats, scarves and even gloves in some cases and the wind was whipping their hair everywhere. People looked COLD! I suddenly had a bad feeling that my suitcase full of shorts and sundresses were not going to cut it. I did not even bring a jacket! I knew it was supposed to be cold, but I wasn't expecting it to be THAT cold! Note to you all: if you are in San Francisco in the summer, bring your winter clothes.

The first wedding related activity was a wine soiree at Terroir - home of natural and organic wines and a very cool place. It was nice to see C and S - the bride and groom - and meet and mingle with the rest of the people in the wedding party - especially the lovely Maid of Honor J. At this point I must introduce the Best Man to the story as every story needs a cute guy as either the hero or the villain - or both (I think the best man could be either one depending on the perspective). First of all. I have known the Best Man since we were very young. Second of all I actually used to BABYSIT the Best Man when he was young. Third of all - boy grew up to be HOT! Imagine Mathew McConaughey (although possibly without the abs - and no, I did not check). Actually, forget that, imagine him with the abs because that makes it better. But seriously, he was totally Matthew McCoounghy in looks and in mannerisms and even voice. Actually, thank you Google image search, he totally looks like the two pictures of Mr. McConaughey below. I did a side-by-side comparison (I don't show people pics here but friends check out my Facebook page if you are curious) and it's eerie:

 

 

Unfortunately, as if trying to live up to his movie star look-alike, Best Man was not only was he married, but Best Man brought another woman to the wedding/wedding activities! Thus the hero or the villain comment. I will not comment any further (God knows that I can't judge anyone else) except to say that several things I witnessed on this trip (not just with him) lead me to conclude that relationships in California are a bit more fluid then those back here in the conservative East. Well glad that CA lives up to it's hippie free love reputation. But to me the Best Man was a hero for making some good eye candy and being someone to inappropriately flirt with.

Side note: So, the Best Man kept calling my brother and I the dynamic duo. He reminded us of the fact that we were all in this after school care program (for children whose parents worked - not in any way as common back in those days as it is now) and that my brother and I essentially took over the whole group and made them play crazy games that we invented. We also made them sing a lot of songs if I recall. The adult actual leaders could never actually get any of the kids to do anything because my brother and I were always stealing the show! Well, some thing never change... Ha ha...

The second day in San Fran reared it's ugly head with a wicked hangover - thank you organic wines (although I fared better than most of the rest of the people who were up until at least 4 am with us, my brother was praying to the porcelain God and the bride hadn't slept all night). I decided that I would suck it up and go out and about with my parents - also suffering from hangovers. We went down to the docks and walked around in the cold foggy San Francisco morning weather. Of course I had to take the requisite photo of the Golden Gate Bridge - see below. The amazing thing is just about right after this picture was taken, the fog cleared off and it became a sunny beautiful (almost warm) day.

 

The evening culminated with the rehearsal dinner - which really had nothing to do with a rehearsal and more to do with gathering family (in our case almost-family) for a pre-wedding dinner. The venue for this event was Millennium which served awesome vegan food (vegans and non-vegans alike should seriously check this out). I should note that the bride and groom are long term vegans and many of the younger people at the wedding were vegans or vegetarians as well. As for me after 15 years of being a vegetarian, a little vegan food is fine with me. As for my parents and the rest of the older generation, I think they were crying a little bit and missing their steak. Oh well. It's good for them to live a little!

But now to focus a bit on the main event: the non-traditonal and very unique wedding of C and S. But first, a bit about C...

C is a very old and dear friend. In fact, I have known C since before he was born - he is four years my junior. He is for all purposes "my other brother." Most of the events of my younger life include C. His parents and mine have been best friends since before I was born. Over the years we have spent a lot of time with him and his family. In fact when we were younger, our parents would hire one baby sitter for the three of us while they went out and partied. I have spent more New Year's Eves with my brother and my "other brother" then anyone else (we even met up as adults on New Year's Eve 3 years back in San Fran - although none of us really remember that night). As adults we have taken over the party train from our parents in a way that we think would make their younger selves proud even though it makes their adult selves not so happy with us at times. But like mother like daughter... like father like son... right? The party tradition between our families lives on!

But as younger brothers tend to do... C has grown up into a very handsome, interesting and just kind of really awesome guy (not that he wasn't when he was younger - but who ever thinks their younger brother is all that cool) who met an absolutely beautiful woman. The irony is that C, the youngest brother, got married first! Who would have guessed (well probably anyone who knows my brother and I).

C and I have not been in touch as much as adults (although he does read this blog) but I absolutely consider him to be family and I hope that I will have a chance to hang out with him much more in the future as well as get to know the beautiful and lovely S a bit better.

As you know I'm very fond of lists...

So, here are the best things about C and S's wedding in San Fransisco in list format:

The amazing wedding venue. It was held at the Foreign Cinema  in a very nice and bright room. If you are in San Fran, I highly recommend that you go to dinner there.

C's amazing Paul Frank very slim tuxedo

S's beautiful purple and black Betsey Johnson dress (that's right, she decided to completely forgo the traditional white wedding dress) that looked fabulous on her

The awesome ukulele music played by my brother as the bride and groom walked down the aisle and the looping later on

The great rendition of "Such Great Heights" by my brother and the Maid of Honor - who by the way also looked fabulous!

C's college roommate serving as the justice of the peace and doing an amazing job at telling the story of C and S while interweaving life lessons learned from C and S. My favorite part was when he described C's progressive taste in music as "robots meeting robots."

Both the bride's Father and Mother walked her down the aisle

The bride and groom said their own vows

The parents of the bride and groom were asked if they approved of the marriage (and of course both said 'we do').

The Best Man's speech which for some hilarious yet inappropriate reason managed to include a story about C crossing the Mexican boarder (and I quote) "with a pill of Ecstasy strapped where the sun don't shine." Luckily I think that most of the adults missed the reference (or at least my mother did).

The long poem read and written by the Best Man about Frankenstein-esq Monster (which he said was NOT a metaphor for the relationship of C and S) meeting another Monster and falling in love. A bit of a strange choice... however, I guess at the end of the day, we are all monsters and love is indiscriminate and can make even the most terrible monsters human.

The amazing tapas style food catering to both vegans and meat eaters alike, that was passed around all night -especially the amazing watermelon dish with pine nuts and goat cheese (sounds gross but was soo good - wish I could get the recipe). The funny thing about the food was in the beginning it seemed that everyone was panicked that they wouldn't have enough to eat so some scavengers were literally standing by the door the waiters were coming out of and grabbing as much food as they could. OK, I admit I was kinda one of those people. About an hour into the food serving I asked my parents who were not scavenging food by the door, if they had anything to eat yet and both hadn't! I felt bad and scavenged them some food. However... there was really no need to panic as the food went on being passed all night and I'm pretty sure that by the end of the night everyone had more than their fill. I swear my dad must have eaten 20 plates.

The nightclub Vessel http://www.vesselsf.com/ where we went afterwards where things got even wilder and dancing on the tables ensued. And the best part was that the majority of the wedding (old people included in both the club going and the table dancing) actually joined and we shut down the club! Oh yeah!

The after party in the bride and groom's suite where we continued to dance and overindulge but at the end of the night most passed out in bed with the bride and groom and chatted about the highlights of the night (I told you this was not a traditional wedding).

The only thing that was not fun about the wedding is that I had an 11 am flight with my parents the next day. Mom's wake up call came just one hour after I fell asleep. Ugh. But I survived - and luckily I lived to tell about it.

Congratulations C and S!
Your wedding was fabulous. I had such a great time and it was so good to see you. I'm sad to be missing the East Coast event as I'm sure it will be a good time, but I hope to catch up with you again soon. You are always welcome wherever I am. 
XOXO

USA Update

So, I have officially been back in the USA for 4 days now. I got in late last Thursday so therefore today is officially my 4th day here. It is also my 4th day off of work. I have taken Friday and Monday off as vacation but plan to work out of Boston for the rest of the week.

Because my last post went on and on forever and ever, this time I will spare you the details and instead leave you with a very short list (relatively speaking) about what I've been up to since I landed back Stateside because I'm sure you are all very curious about what I'm up to and if I'm at all living up to my vacation to-do list. So, here goes:

First of all, I'm very happy to tell you all that I got CARDED on the plane on the way to the US! What is going on here? This is the second time in the past month (I must be doing something right). We didn't actually get to the point of me needing to show my actual ID. However, she did ask my age in a very skeptical tone and when I told her that I was the very old age of 32 she burst out laughing (and embarrassingly, so did everyone around me) and she actually said: "Wow. You look no older than 18!!" Well, that might have been stretching it a bit. But it did make my day err.... well, my week actually.

Since arriving home to my parent's house in Western Massachusetts, I have been very disappointed in the terrible cold and rainy weather. Blah! Where is summer? I want to lay by the pool!

On Saturday I attended the wedding of one of my oldest friend S. Despite the pouring rain, the wedding and the reception were fantastic! At this point I have to give a shout out to S. I have known S since we were 3 years old and we went to elementary school together. S and I have a long history that dates all the way back to his first bowl cut (over the years for some reason he chose to sport a bowl cut hairstyle most off the time). In elementary school he was like the way too "cool" kid who was always bullying everyone else. In high school he was the typical popular guy who played every sport. He was the guy who relentlessly teased everyone - although I think that he suffered his fair share of well-deserved teasing back. In college, he was the smart engineering student who knew how to have a good time and still get top grades.

Somewhere between elementary school and high school S and I became good friends and that friendship lasted us all the way to college at UNH. Over the years we have shared a lot of memories and good times (and some bad such as the infamous night that I split my head open at his girlfriend's apartment in college - oops). In high school he was a star basketball player and me being the cheerleader I was always had his name and even made up a special cheer for him (yes, we did relive this at the wedding). In college I remember driving home with S in TRUCK (pronounced loudly TRRRUUUCK) - it was a slow going ride since Truck only had 4 gears. People would joke that one day we would get together (I mean that's what you do in small towns right)? But S and I never had a romantic interest in each other. He is like a brother to me and I hope a friend for life.

I'm so happy that S found a beautiful bride in N. They are a beautiful couple I wish them the best of luck!

The wedding enabled me to to catch up with 2 of my best friends from high school who I went to the wedding with. So great to see them!

I also got to catch up with many other friends from high school mostly the high school "boys" at the wedding. Funny how quickly we all revert back to our high school selves and even the way we used to talk... As the mother of the groom said, "You all have such a special bond, and whenever you see each other, you pick right up where you left off." She is right...

As I so often do lately, I managed to feel out of place being one of the only single people as well as one of the few people without children - I guzzled gin and tonics as the couples went on and on about children. Not that I blame them or hold it against them (I'm sure I would be doing it too), it's just that I can't really relate and I certainly have nothing to contribute.

After a night of hearing my friends who are new parents talk about the early 5 am "wake up calls" from the kids and watching the married couples interact (not always in a very encouraging way) I have decided that I am in NO RUSH TO GET MARRIED OR HAVE CHILDREN! Perhaps single life is not all that bad...

I marvelled at the differences between American and Swedish weddings including: at this American wedding most guests (including the Maid of Honor) seemed to be wearing black which is a big "no no" in Sweden, the DJ serves as the person who gets the wedding going rather than the toast master, American weddings tend to have an emphasis on family members while the Swedish wedding has an emphasis on friends, the religious American ceremony vs. the very short and non-religious Swedish one, and the fact that the American wedding ended around midnight while the Swedish one raged on all night. Up next a San Fransisco wedding. We will see how that compares.

I have been trying to wean myself away from work but so far it's only been met with minimal success. Today while I was taking a nap (as you do on vacation) I had work stress dreams the whole time. I also have been unable to stop checking my blackberry (that damn blinking red light) and tonight and last night I actually found myself working for 2 hours! I hope I can find it in me to really leave work behind for awhile once I get through this week.

Today (Monday) the sun peaked its way through the clouds for exactly one hour. Unfortunately, that hour exactly coincided with the contractors who my parents hired to work on rebuilding our barn (no idea why this is important -it's not as if we have barn animals or anything). So, I sat in the house feeling very sorry for myself that I was missing the sun since there was really no way that I could strut out in my bikini in front of the 5 workmen. Thank you Mom and Dad for this great planning. I've been dreaming of a day at the pool for so long! I guess I have to wait a couple more weeks.

In general, I have been feeling a bit stressed and am not in vacation mode at all (probably because I know I have to work the rest of this week) I've been running around trying to sort out things, do work, get to the gym, etc. It has so far been anything but relaxing and so far I have not really crossed a single thing off my to do list and I'm struggling to find time to even sleep. And with this week in Boston and next week in San Fran, it doesn't seem like I will have much down time. Well, I guess that is the life of an International Woman of Mystery. I guess I should just get used to the fast pace.

I'm off to Boston for the rest of the week to work out of the office there and of course - have some adventures. Will keep you posted. So, stay tuned for a Boston update!

Have a great week!
XOXO

A Fantastic Swedish Wedding Weekend

I can't believe that the whole week has gotten away with me and I haven't managed to post my blog about my amazing whirlwind weekend in Stockholm last weekend! I'm now back in the US (more on that later) and have finally found the time to finish this post, so here goes.

Let me begin by summarizing the weekend in some bullet points.
During my Stockholm whirwind wedding weekend I:

• Grabbed a quick catch up with my Fab friend A by staying at her place
• Took a massive digger (he he - I love that word - it means fall in case anyone is not up on the American slang) while running in the park in Kungsholmen - amazingly I managed to fit in two long runs on my crazy busy trip
• Worked out of the Stockholm office for a day and caught up with my team there over a nice lunch
• Sat outside of Diplomat and had a glass of Rose while watching the crazy student trucks drive by - Gotta love the student trucks*
• Celebrated my birthday with a dinner at Josefina's followed by dancing at Cafe Opera with my great Swedish friends
• Attended a totally fabulous wedding of an amazing couple in the Swedish countryside in the bestest Swedish weather ever!
• Danced up a storm at the wedding
• Met one ex boyfriend at the wedding
• Decided that I preferred my 23 year old dinner partner to the ex boyfriend who was at the wedding
• Suffered a massively delayed hangover that came on in the middle of the wedding dinner (probably caused by the reaction of my body to new alcohol consumption after way too much the night before) so I spent a good hour and a half basically sweating, unable to eat or talk and just focusing all my attention on not throwing up (truly impressing both of my dinner partners)
• Managed to somehow shake off the hangover and make an amazing come back including finding my way back to the booze, dancing up a storm, finding sustenance at 2 am in 3 sausages (hot dogs to you Americans) and staying up until about 5 in the morning
• Fended off a phone call from the beautiful Swede who was either calling because he saw I was in Stockholm or calling because it was my birthday (I didn't answer - aren't you proud)?
• Was so happy for both the couple that got married and also for my friend A who has just moved back to Stockholm from London and started a new life and found a new amazing man - maybe there is hope for me yet!
• Managed to sleep only a total of 8 hours in 3 nights (and that might even be an exageration - it could have been more like 6)

 And now for the dirty details:

Ok. Let me start by saying. I NEED TO MOVE BACK TO STOCKHOLM! They say home is where your heart is and my heart is definitely in Stockholm with my friends... And yes, I know all you Swedes are probably thinking that I'm just being lured into thinking I want to return by the beautiful Swedish weather that made the weekend so wonderful (and is unfortunately not the weather pattern 99% of the time). Yes... that did have an impact. But those of you close to me know that even in the dead of winter, I was missing Stockholm badly and saying I needed to move back. But more on why I love Sweden so much later. It deserves a full blog post in itself.

Back to the weekend. So I arrived in Stockholm late Friday night and decided to stay with my friend A. Since she had to work the whole weekend (she has some kind of secret life where she rides around in helicopters on weekends, meets celebrities and MC's huge events - who knew!) I decided to stay with her so that we could find some time in between our crazy schedules to catch up. That time ended up being late Thursday night where we sat on her balcony and talked. A is a former colleague who has recently left London to return to Stockholm. She is so happy with her decision to leave London and has herself a great new job and a great new man. Basically a new and fabulous life. She inspires me. I need to make some positive changes like that (but more on that later).

Unfortunately... I had some minor issues with sleeping. First of all A didn't have any curtains in her apartment which is not that unusual for a Swede - I don't think I had any in my apartment in Sweden (at least not good ones that really kept out the light). You do get used to the light when you live in Sweden. But the problem was: I WAS NOT USED TO THE LIGHT. Below is a picture of what it looks like at midnight in Stockholm. This picture was taken from my friend's apartment. Basically that's as dark as it gets. And I usually think this is kind of awesome and it's one of the reasons I love Sweden (unfortunately you do compensate for this in the winter of course), but I learned the hard way that if you are not used to it anymore, it's difficult to sleep. Note to self: bring a sleep mask next time. The whole sleeping situation was not really helped by the fact that I was sleeping on an air mattress that kept deflating. Seriously, I'm starting to hate air mattresses or maybe they just hate me. This is the third time in a row that I have slept on an air mattress that deflated throughout the night. There is nothing like waking up a few hours later on the floor with the deflated air mattress surrounding you.

This was the darkest it got all night in Stockholm:

So, the next day after a good half hour to one hour of sleep, I decided that I would go for a morning jog cuz I'm kind crazy like that. But perhaps because of lack of sleep or probably more likely just REALLY bad luck and because stupid things have a way of happening to me, I manage to get into a small situation while running... Ok - this is for real. I don't know how it happened, but somehow I manage to get both feet stuck in a hair tie on the ground (one of those big headband ones that go around your whole head). Seriously, somehow both of my feet manage to get inside that thing and I go flying up and away through the air landing several feet away on my but and my hand which immediately begins to gush blood. I can't decide at that point whether to laugh of cry. But finally decide that laughter is the only option because I must be a super talented person in order to get both feet stuck in a hair tie while running. I stand up, brush myself off and continue running cuz that's how awesome and hardcore I am!

But luckily the weather was beautiful and that gave me the energy to get through the day despite my lack of sleep and my bruised but. And the Stockholm office and my team had a positive vibe so that helped. We had a nice lunch and then I managed to sneak away a bit early and take a short much needed nap. Then off to meet my girlfriends at Josefina's which is a fun open air bar on the water. The thing about Stockholm is I have GREAT GIRLFRIENDS and I have a LOT of girlfriends. We were 15 girls for dinner. And it was so great to see them all again. I miss them like crazy. After dinner we went to Cafe Opera where A - the girl I was staying with - showed up with her hot new man. Seriously, I'm so happy for A. And I'm so proud of her for figuring out that younger men (she is 7 years older) are the way to go! I have been telling her this for ages.

After a way too brief sleep, it was morning and it was time to wake up up and beutify myself for the wedding for the wedding. The thing is despite a few too many drinks the night before, I felt good when I woke up. But by the time I met my friends to drive to the wedding, I was feeling a bit shaky. Too much champagne and Rose the night before... But I soon forgot about it as soon as we got out to the church. It was another beautiful day and the bride was absolutely gorgeous. And the bride and groom just seemed in a bubble of absolute and complete love for each other! It was picture perfect.

I have to now make a small comment about this wonderful couple that got married. They are the BEST! S was my absolutely craziest single girlfriend in Stockholm. As far as I know, until meeting the guy she married, she had never had a relationship lasting more than a few weeks. She was one of the most fun girls I know (she still is - I don't really mean to be putting it in the past tense here - other than now she is married and I'm speaking of her former single self). She called men cookies and she sure had a lot of cookies around. We worked together and it was always the highlight of my day to meet her over a cup of coffee and hear stories about all her "cookies." She is the only girl I know who had the stamina to go on 5 dates a week. She introduced me to Internet dating (literally, she signed me up for a Swedish dating site one day when I was taking a shower and she was waiting for me because she felt that I needed to meet more "cookies"). You could say that she was my dating mentor or at least my dating inspiration.

And then one day she met her prince - it was at a work party (of course). She was about to move to Switzerland for work and he was living there and working for our company. I obviously kept in touch with her while she was away and based on that they were soon living together, I realized that this "cookie" was someone serious. And when he left his job and moved back to Sweden, she soon followed him. This was not a surprise, but I have to say that when she told me she was pregnant (less than a year after they met) I was a bit taken aback - although extremely happy for her. I'm happy to report that they now have an absolutely beautiful baby girl. My expectations were high for their wedding as they are both such a fun outgoing and kind couple. I have to say - that I was not disappointed. Their wedding was so amazing. And the way they looked at each other! It was as if there was no one else in the room. And he is such a nice guy! I often have said that he is like the boy version of my friend S. I'm so happy for my friend S. I love the story of how she meet her final "cookie" and I love how quickly they decided to build a life together. They just seemed to know immediately that they were meant to be - and it was obvious to everyone else as well. I wish them the best for the future and lifetime of love and happiness. And I wish that someday soon I will suddenly meet "the one" and it will happen just as fast and be just as natural. But as the saying goes, "you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince." Well, I'm still kissing frogs... but I'm hoping that my prince is just around the corner. I'm trying to stay hopeful.

The wedding reception was held at a castle overlooking a large lake and all the guests were staying over in assigned dormitory style rooms. It was a beautiful place for a reception. And a beautiful day - see picture below. We drank champagne outside on the lawn before heading in to dinner. I was feeling much better and looking forward to the rest of the evening and the champagne was going down nicely. But suddenly half way through dinner and after one glass of wine, I got the shakes and broke out into a cold sweat. And just like that a horrible delayed hangover hit me and knocked me out! Perhaps because the room was so crowded, perhaps because I forced alcohol into my fragile body way too early, perhaps because the appetizer course did not sit well with me... I don't know! But I felt BAD. So bad that I considered leaving the dinner and going to lay down. But I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to disappoint my friend. It was a small wedding and I worried that my absence would be missed. So, I decided to do my best to struggle through.

 

The thing about Swedish wedding dinners is that they are LONG and full of entertaining toasts and speeches (in Swedish - which means they are not that entertaining to me) about the couple from the friends and relatives. There is an assigned toast master and they guide you through the dinner and keep the pace between the different coarses and the toasts. The last Swedish wedding I went to, we sat down for dinner at 6 and got up at 1 am and witnessed THIRTY toasts! (Ok - I guess even by Swedish standards that wedding was an exception). But still... I knew this would be a long evening so when I started to feel bad, I began to panic.  

The other thing about Swedish weddings is that you do not sit with your date (which was fine for me since obviously I didn't have one). It is customary to spread guests out guy, girl throughout the room and Swedes tend to put a lot of thought into who sits with who. Between toasts, you are expected to talk to both your dinner partners on either side as the bride and groom have usually put them next to you because they think you have something in common. This time was no exception. I had great dinner partners. On one side was the best man who had lived in Boston for years and had previously worked for my company - he was very interesting and had lots of energy and enthusiasm. On the other side was a hot 23 year old guy who was also interesting and engaging but in a very different way - mostly being that he was cute and single and smart - although oh so young. I felt absolutely embarrassed by the fact that suddenly I went from being my usual social (and flirty) self to being almost dead silent. I ended up having to apologize to both my dinner partners and embarrisngly had to admit to them that suddenly I didn't feel well so I was sorry for being so quiet. They seemed to forgive me but both continued to pepper me with questions to which I gave one word answers while trying not to upchuck my dinner all over the table. Although determined to make it through dinner, at one point I was sure that after the dinner I would have to sneak away and go to sleep and skip the rest of the evening. Seriously. It was THAT BAD. I was suffering big time.

But, I'm happy to report that as quickly as my delayed hangover came on, it went away. I suffered through a terrible hour and a half of cold sweats while focusing all my attention on not being sick. But by the time the cake was cut, I was able to actually have a piece although I continued to have to forgo the alcohol for small sips of water throughout dinner. But after dinner I joined the rest of the guests in the journey down to the cabin on the water where the dancing section of the evening was to take place. I am proud to say that I traded in my heels for flip flops and danced like a maniac until 6 in the morning (gotta love the party all-night aspect of the Swedish wedding). And the evening, couldn't have been more beautiful. We experienced a beautiful sunset and an even more spectacular sunrise (see picture below). All in all it was perfect. Say nothing of the fact that the 23 year old who was my dinner partner seemed to forgive me for my weak dinner banter and decided to flirt with me. This was extra good since I then had a reason not to engage too much with my ex-boyfriend the slightly older Teacher who I had dated for a few months a couple years back (not THE EX) who was at the wedding (the bride had set us up once upon a time). Ha ha... what can I say? I love younger men. And turns out, they are not bad kissers either!

All in all it was such a beautiful wedding and a fantastic weekend - one of my top ten weekends in the past years for sure. I have to say that I love the simplicity of Sweden. The wedding was simple yet elegant. The emphasis was on the party and not on the decorations, or the DJ or the bar. It was just good fun with great people. Say nothing of the fact that we partied all night (American weddings tend to end around midnight). I hope the other 4 weddings of the summer can live up to this one. 

*The student trucks seem to be a truly Swedish phenomenon. When the students graduate from Gymnasium, the tradition in Stockholm is to rent a big truck with a flat bed in the back (I think that's how you describe it - basically like a big empty space behind the truck where in this case, around 40 to 50 people can stand and well party) decorate the trucks with birch leaves and the Swedish colors red and blue and usually a handmade flag from the school, and drive all over the city spraying champagne, beer and wine all over yourself and sometimes over the people passing by. They also tend to blare music as loud as possible, wear horns and other noise makers around their neck and just drive through the city getting totally wasted and screaming and yelling and shouting out to everyone. It's a hilarious tradition. And it's so fun to watch. It doesn't matter how old you are, you can't help but smile when the student trucks drive through town and you look at all the young kids laughing and partying and having a good time. The best thing of all is that I GOT TO GO ON STUDENT TRUCK! Unfortunately, I wasn't actually mistaken for an 18 year old and actually invited onto a student truck (that had been my dream since moving to Stockholm). But the second best thing happened and my work had a summer party one year which involved all of us oldies getting on a student truck and driving through town. SO MUCH FUN! One of my top 10 memories of Stockholm for sure!