Hello there long lost friends.

Well, I don't really know where to start haha.

Life has been the busiest it has been in a long time. Not that I don't like it, I just wish I could spend more time with Joel! I guess a good term to call us would be "workaholics". We literally come home from our activities every night and just crash because we are exhausted.

When I first moved to Sweden with no job and nothing to do while Joel was at work, this was my thought process, "Life will only get busier and busier so I need to take advantage of this time now!"

Now that I look back on it, I wish I was busier. I would lay in bed until noon or one because I didn't have anything else better to do. Eventually I would get up, move to the computer, get on the world wide web and rotate between facebook, instagram, and pinterest of course. In my mind I knew I should make the bed, do the dishes, workout/shower, and get the apartment all cute before Joel got home around 5... because I didn't have a job or anything yet, I felt like that was my "job".

Then came study time. I started studying Swedish For Immigrants, or SFI in September. So, from July-September I had nothing to do. Thankfully I started studying Swedish to meet other immigrants and to realize we are all going through the same thing. But. I hated Swedish. Then I didn't want to go to class. I didn't understand a single thing. My teachers would ask me questions in Swedish, and I felt like a deer in the headlights because I didn't know the answer. I kept pushing myself to go.. that was the right thing to do, right?? Sometimes I was lucky to go to class once a week.

THANKFULLY Christmas time came, and saved me. Sure it was dark and cold... This was the time when people would put up lights in their windows. The Christmas spirit was there, AND I had a two week vacation from school. Finally I didn't feel guilty for missing school because it was vacation time :)

I feel like that was the changing time for me, when I started liking Swedish more. That first Monday back to class.. amazing. I sat there in class, and I could understand at least 50% what was going on, versus the 5% before the holidays. Something cool switched in my brain over Christmas break, and I felt 100% better. I have no idea how it happened, but my brain had finally reached the first step of learning a language.

Another thing I have a hard time with... comparing myself to others. Believe it or not, I am really hard on myself on the inside. A whole lot of guilty thoughts like this for example, "They learned Swedish so much faster than me. I wish I studied as much as them. They just got into the class, and already picked up Swedish faster than me." Aaaaand, my negative thoughts haven't made learning Swedish any easier. I still have a hard time in class, knowing how hard learning Swedish has been for me. I feel like when I first arrived in Sweden, a lot of people had high expectations of me. I had people tell me, "Oh! You will learn Swedish in no time." "I bet you will have it down in months!" etc.... Lets just say, it has been a lot harder than I thought!



Well, enough of the vent session and back to being busy. Since I have started working, I go to my SFI class once a week, and I feel great. I enjoy going to class, I LOVE going to work, and I am enjoying life. I have found I like to be busy (to a point of course haha!), unlike what I had imagined in my head when we were first married. Joel has this saying, "If you want something to get done, give it to a busy person." Oh boy, is that true!! When I had nothing to do when we were first married, I hardly got anything done. How weird is that?? You would think I would with all that time on my hands! Funny how it turns out to be the opposite.

Happy Friday everyone :)