- Yogurt and musli is so good.
- Morfar always slices pepperoni, and we eat half of it before we've even sat down with everyone.
- There's that thick honey from Lapland that you just want to eat out of the jar with a spoon- like Ben and Jerry's.
- Kalle's caviar is always on the table. Even if I don't want to eat it, I like knowing it's there IF I want to eat it.
- The second my glass of orange juice is empty or I don't have any coffee left, someone fills it up for me.
- Mormor's bathrobe with Chinese dragons on it.
- How Morfar always slices the cheese in the most impractical way ever.
I could go on for a while...
Once we'd eaten breakfast that first day, we loaded up the car with all of the food, baked goods, drinks, towels, clothes, and books we needed and drove to "landet"- my grandparents cabin about an hour outside of Stockholm. Ever since I was little, whenever we came to Sweden in the summer, and sometimes in the winter we'd go to the cabin. My mom and her siblings have been going there with Mormor and Morfar since they were little. I love "landet" just as much as I love eating breakfast in Sweden (maybe even more). It's not that there's anything all that special about the house. It's this small yellow house with a concrete foundation and concrete steps leading up to it. Before we got there I told Milja this whole story about how incredibly steep and huge the steps were, but when we were there I realized they weren't as steep or as huge as I'd remembered. Apparently I've grown. But even though it's not a mansion and you can see concrete on the outside, it's a pretty house, and it's at the bottom of a huge green hill. When you walk inside and open the door this smell comes rushing at you, and it's the "landet" smell. Whenever I walk in there I remember all of these things from when I was little that really aren't important at all: The one time Anna got mad at me for eating a sugar cube, fighting with my cousin Sandra about the playhouse, running around naked for the whole day.
This time when we were at "landet" I spent my time a little bit differently than running around naked. I went running right away. I don't know if the air was fresher, or warmer, or if my legs were just happy to be somewhere so familiar, but it was one of those really good runs where you get sweaty and exhausted and you feel super strong.
When I got back from running my aunts were just coming with their families. That day was just like all the other days I remember at "landet." My cousins were running around outside, Mormor was running up and down the stairs between the kitchen and the table outside taking care of food, Morfar was working in the garden, Anna and Karin were trying to relax. This time, Milja was there too- in the garden, fitting right into the picture.
We were only at "landet" for two days: Saturday and Sunday. Both days I got to run, we walked through the churchyard where we always walk in the evenings, we ate rhubarb pie, slept late, had to go down the basement stairs to get to the bathroom, drank "saft" and ate cookies that Mormor had made. On the second day after I went running, I ran and jumped in the lake before I could chicken out. It was so cold, and so nice... another thing that was just like I remember it.
It's weird, because I'm seventeen. It's not like I long for my childhood or anything. I'm still in my childhood. But sometimes I wish I could go back to some of those moments at "landet" or in Sweden; moments when I was scarfing down Swedish candy with mom, stealing food from Mormor while she was cooking, and drinking coffee with Morfar early in the morning. The last few times I was in Sweden, it felt a little like I got to relive them, almost like they were before, but this time maybe even a little bit better.
Milja and I could have stayed at "landet" forever, but Sunday afternoon we had to pack up the car again and leave. We ate dinner at Anna's house, and I got to see Frida and Linn for the last time until October when they'll come to Spooner. On Monday, Milja and I went into Stockholm together and did our best to find some sort of exciting event from "Love Week," since the princess was getting married. We didn't have very much luck, but Stockholm was nice like it always is. Later in the afternoon Milja went on a boat tour and I got to spend a few short hours with Johanna. We'd planned on going into Stockholm again on Tuesday, but we were out-shopped, felt a little bit like we'd seen what we wanted to see, and I didn't feel like going that far away from Mormor and Morfar. So we stayed in the area. On Wednesday we had to leave. This time it was a little bit harder leaving than around Christmas. I know that in a few weeks I'll be much further away from Sweden than I've been this entire year, and I don't know when I get to go back. I guess I'll just have to make sure it's not very long before I do.
Something Old: Mormor and Morfar (old but loved)
Something New: Milja (new in my life... until she's been in my life for a long time) Something Borrowed: the shorts I borrowed from a teammate in Portugal and wore in Sweden (I know, I know. But SOMETHING had to be the borrowed thing).
Something Blue: leaving Europe soon, "landet" being sold (but they'll be new trips to Europe and there's other places with smells that make me remember things)
