Note: This post was written a few weeks ago, but I didn't get the photos uploaded until now...And then there was the visit from New York. I still have a hard time believing they’ve really been here! o.O
I was a bit panicked before they came here, since I was supposed to work both days they were here, Friday and Saturday. Friday was no problem to take off, but the three hours for Saturday was a bit worse. Eventually we found someone that could help out, thank gawd… So I was off and available for both days! WOHOO!!
And I was SO NERVOUS! I mean, I’ve known
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ruchirahni almost since I started to use my LJ, and man… that is a LONG TIME AGO! I didn’t remember how we’d meet, but Ruchi did, so she told me. :-) Apparently she’d ended up in an idiotic drama in a Xena community and I’d stood up for her and also gone to her LJ to say hi. Eventually we ended up friending each other and that’s how the story goes. I don’t remember this, but I’ll take her word for it. ;-)
Anyway,
ruchirahni is a vegetarian, so the Friday she and her best friend was to arrive, me and Alexandra started with a slow morning and then we went grocery shopping for vegetarian food. Once that was done, we went to the train station to pick them up.
See, they’d explored Sweden quite a bit before arriving to me. They’d been in Stockholm, the island Utö, Gothenburg and then me. For a history geek Stockholm is perfect. There are SO MANY museums there! You can learn quite a bit of swedish history in Stockholm alone.
Then they’d been to Utö which is a gorgeous island in Stockholms archipelago. And then they’d been to Gothenburg, which is the neighbouring city to Borås. So it was a short trip to Borås. And me. :-D
I was so nervous while we shopped me and Alexandra I had a belly ache. X-D Stupid, really. Like
ruchirahni says, we’ve known each other so crazy long we shouldn’t be nervous about meeting!
Alexandra thought it was fun to be at the train station and just wanted to go on the trains! Eventually they showed up though, and I gave
ruchirahni a great big hug. And it felt JUST RIGHT! Nerves just flew off of me.
And Alexandra started whining right away. Great… Figuring she was hungry we went home to my apartment first, where I cooked Alexandra food (definitely hungry at that point…) and
ruchirahni could explore my little home and I could get the groceries away. And we talked. Talked and talked and talked. Sara,
ruchirahni’s friend was very nice and waxed poetically about the swedish coffee!
We had a lovely time watching Disney Junior with Alexandra and making sure she got some food in her (and feeding Sara a swedish meatball).
Done with Disney and food, we went to the hotel where
ruchirahni and Sara were staying, and Alexandra fell asleep and took a nap. GOOD!
Then we figured we could go downtown for a FIKA! Which we did, even going to mine and Alexandra’s favorite fika-place. You think Alexandra behaved? Alas no. She was IN A CRANKY MOOD! And was going to make sure everyone knew about it.
( Cranky Alexandra is cranky... )I’d thought we’d go exploring the Textile Museum after our fika, but Alexandra was having none of it. At that point,
peting73 was off from work and halfway home, so we went to pick him up and dumped Alexandra on him. (Sorry dear!)
Finally we could go to the Textile Museum, which was great! Even if we could only stay for a short time, since they were closing and all that, we still made the most of it. They have old clothes in a part of the museum that you can try on, which had
ruchirahni and Sara go a bit nuts! Pulling me into the crazy we had a bit of a dress up session. *lol* Was a lot of fun! The exhibit they had going of a famous swedish designer was nice to, so I’d call that a successful visit.
( Being silly in the Textile Museum! )I think it was on the way back to the car that we checked out the University Library which is right next to the museum.
ruchirahni loved it and wondered loudly why they didn’t have libraries this nice at the universities in New York? Uhu… I wouldn’t know. X-D I thought New York University was a good one? *lol* And hey, you got New York City Library which is out of this world if I’ve done my research right. ;-)
( Interior of the University Library in town )Then we went home to my home again for dinner, which
peting73 had cooked and it was DELICIOUS! Such a nice vegetarian stew! Alexandra was cranky again though (sigh) so she got the leftover meatballs from lunch.
The rest of the afternoon evening was spent talking. Talking, talking, talking. Both me and
peting73 are some serious history nerds, movie nerds and book nerds, so the swedish part of those subjects were definitely covered. (I’m still amazed how little you learn in the US about WWI and WWII…) Alexandra eventually went to bed, and we made MUDCAKE! And had an evening
FIKA! (You can never have too much fika…)
( New Yorkers in my couch! )At one point during our discussions we discovered it was 1am in the morning! O.o OOPS! So I drove
ruchirahni and Sara to the hotel making a plan for the morning.
And that concludes day 1!
Next morning we took a slow morning for Alexandra’s sake, but we still managed to head out at around 10am. First stop was the big city library where I used to work. Again,
ruchirahni waxed poetically about how nice it was. *lol* I loved seeing her walking around in the library among all the books. If ever there was a book nerd, it’s her. For serious. *grin*
Alexandra loves the library, so she was (for once!) in a good mood in the kid section checking out all the picture books. We found the book I bought for my brothers kids, the POP BOOK! X-D So I had a little story time there for Sara and
ruchirahni. It’s a kid book and kids LOVE to talk about pop! X-D
( Exploring the city library and being booknerds of all sizes! )After that visit we got in our little car and drove to my brothers. Which takes 1½ hours. And it’s a bit cramped in the car… But we made do, and we had some lovely discussions in the car to which made the car-ride feel shorter.
Once at my brothers, we found that he was enjoying the sun on the backside of his house, listening to music after he’d baked a cake. A MUDCAKE OF COURSE! This seems to be a running theme during their visit… I have to send them the recipe… *lol*
And as soon as
ruchirahni and Sarah saw the cows grazing on the fields around my brother’s house, they got all excited and got in the field (past the barbed wire) to say hi to the cows. My brother, who works on a farm on a daily basis was a bit flabbergasted at this, but went with it. So we showed them a good way to get to the cows and my brother started talking swedish farming with
ruchirahni and Sara since
ruchirahni is a vegetarian, so she was really interested. Swedish farmers have a TON of rules they have to follow, more so than many other countries apparently, which she found very interesting. :-)
Also, my brother had been an idiot and
ruchirahni went into Doc-mood and checked his eye since it was hurting him and got quite red and irritated. If you are doing any welding, people. Use protection. And don’t do like my brother who just closed his eyes. IDIOT!
After we’d eaten mudcake and said hi to cows and tried to get Alexandra to eat anything (impossible since she was still grumpy), we left my brothers and went to moms instead. My brother came with in his big huge car, a Ford Galaxy from the 1960’s, which
ruchirahni and Sara rode in with him. On the way to mom’s we saw some elks/moose which got the New Yorkers all excited.
( New Yorkers on the swedish countryside! )At mom’s, Alexandra perked up a bit. She’d had a nap in the car, and hey… Grandma is always popular. :-)
More vegetarian food at mom’s, she’d made a full on dinner with some vegetarian beefs she’d found. ‘It looked interesting, I had to try!’ was mom’s reasoning behind picking that. They were made out of
quorn and DAMN they were tasty! Even Alexandra ate quite a bit! So we were all stuffed after that dinner!
After that we walked around and explored my mom’s yard and grounds. The garage which still looks like when my dad lived. The playhouse dad built for use when where kids from scratch. The view. The woods where we used to play. Our neighbours, closest one where the daughter in the house was the one who started off my bullying. Basically I told and showed all the things that had meant something to me when I grew up. Mom walked around with us as well, and even though she’s not that good in english (she understands it well, but can’t speak it), she managed to throw in a small comment here and there anyway.
Since it started to rain when we’d walked around for a bit, we went inside again looking at all of mom’s pretty things (she likes to collect pretty things and decorate her home). Checking out where my room used to be and all that stuff while mom prepared a…. FIKA! :-D We also took the chance to say hello to all of mom’s four cats, including HUGE Ozzy that
ruchirahni fell in love with, I think… He’s a Maine Coon… and a BIG one! Currently weighing around 11-12 kilos, and he’s not fully grown yet… Insane!
Then we had FIKA downstairs. And talked. And talked and talked and talked. :-D Both mom and I agreed and told
ruchirahni she would be a WONDERFUL doctor one day, since she got her heart right where it should be. Mom should know. She’s 62 and has worked as an assistant nurse ever since she started working.
Alexandra just played with mine and brothers old toys while we were talking that mom has pulled down from the attic. We didn’t even notice how the time flew until it was 9pm or so in the evening, and we had a 2 hour drive to get back to Borås.
( At my mothers to see where I grew up! And to be spoiled... )While driving we continued talking and talking and talking… So the ride back to Borås didn’t feel that long as it usually does. We also made a plan for the next day so I could drive them to the airport. I insisted. It’s only a 30-40 min drive, so why shouldn’t I? And their flight didn’t leave until midday, so it was no problem really.
Dropping
ruchirahni and Sarah off at their hotel we then drove home and once we’d gotten Alexandra to sleep in her bed instead of the car, we both collapsed in our bed.
Next morning was good and nice (with a kiddo not to cranky, wohoo!). Once I was ready I went to pick up
ruchirahni and Sarah so we’d be at the airport at a good time before their plane left. Once at the airport we had a FIKA, of course. ;-) And talked some more. During the whole weekend I felt quite comfortable talking to
ruchirahni friend Sarah, since I’ve learned so much about her from
ruchirahni’s entries. And apparently
ruchirahni had talked to Sarah a lot about me to, so it went both ways. (It appeared as if it was only good things to! I hope at least…)
As it got closer to them leaving, we hugged a lot. Both me and
ruchirahni assured each other that we were very happy about finally getting to meet. And that YES! Apparently I was just what
ruchirahni had expected. And
ruchirahni? Well… She was just what I had expected. Just a 1000 times more so! :-) Such an awesome woman. Whoever ends up with her as a psychiatric doctor is going to be really fucking lucky! :-D
Once I’d dropped them off, I felt empty and sad. Already missing them. We talked and laughed so much my jaw was a bit sore. :-)
Such amazing women. Just… amazing. It still blows my mind that she’s been here. It really does. All the way from Brooklyn, New York City, USA to little Borås, Sweden. Amazing.
So happy to be able to call you a dear friend,
ruchirahni.
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