Sometimes I loose my Swedish...

... And it happens in... strange sistuations, kind of.

"Anna Maria, come over Friday and we can go camping in my closet", was not was I meant to say. I meant to say yard, that we could camp out in our yard, but yard is "trädgård" in Swedish, and closet is "garderob", so I mean, well, they could get mixed up pretty easily, right?

I've also had an "adsent cousin" (distant cousin - but "distant" in Swedish litarally means "absent", "dreamy" or "abstracted"), and payed a lot for gas (the kind that comes out of your rear end), along with a lakeful of literal translations and grammatical errors. It's interesting how you can be back home but still think (and dream) in your host counrty's language. But then again I haven't even been home a week yet.

The kids at work were adorable, talking of something else. They went into an old cellar that's not in use out in the forest yesterday without asking for permission and came back; "there's a house by number three, can you go in there? Becuase we did, and it's not dangerous at all, it's just a lot of trash and garbage in there!". I run from that place, it's scary! It's one of the old ones, half over grown, and kind of hidden under trees and stones...It's just scary. I can't believe our kids went in there, I thought the door was locked haha!

Today we discussed what parents are allowed to force their children to do, because "parents aren't allowed to force their kids to do anything, it says so in the legislation" (Hedvig, 7 years old), but some moms and dads forced their kids to put back their hair in a pony tail or to attach a little bike-flag-thingie to their bikes. I had to explain to them that putting your hair back in a pony tail and biking around with a little orange-red flag swagging from the back of your bike isn't against the law for parents to enforce on their kids, but that they can't force them to do big stuff, and that they jsut want what's best for their kids. Sometimes kids have the smartest thoughts.

I'm off work now, our little kids camp was only 4 days, so this week, and now I'm off until Sunday when I leave for a week of working at a camp 4 hours away from my place. Then, unless I get something else (keep your fingers crossed), I'm free the rest of the summer (and completely broke, too.)
   It's actually really nice to be home, although it feels like you can always have more time at your other home, I miss people like crazy, and a year just wasn't quite long enough. Awesomeness hugged me yesterday and told me how much she'd missed me, and it sort of hits me every time I hang out with friends here that I have really been gone for almost a year. A year's a long time.
   So even though I will always love Ohio and give a big part of my heart and thankfulness to the people I got to know, the relationships I got to make, and all the experiences I got to have there, Sweden will always be home. It doesn't mean I appreciate or miss you less, rather the other way around, but home sweet home. Home sweet home. My heart belongs in two places at once, and it's as simple as that.

Sweden 11:45 PM, Ohio 5:45 PM