Hello dear old blog ☺️
You’ve been neglected yet again. As such, I think a recap of the year is definitely in order, with LOTS of pictures. Sound good?
Despite the lack of blogging, 2018 was a great year, overall. It started out a little rocky and uncertain, but so many good things happened to us. I got a permanent work contract, Conrad got his Swedish permanent residency request approved, we both went on lots of fun trips to new places, ate delicious food, and spent a lot of time with family and friends. C also finished his Master’s thesis! That was a BIG deal.
But to do a proper recap of the year, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
JANUARY
January was a bit of a mess last year. We spent the new year in Ngapali Beach, Myanmar, which was wonderful and restful, but then came home to cold, dreary Sweden and were thrust right back into real life. Upon returning, we both got sick and also decided the time had come to move to Uppsala officially (we were living in my parent’s flat in Stockholm at the time). I also had two work trips, to Poland and India, to prep for as soon as I returned home. A lot of things going on at once!























FEBRUARY
February came and went in a blur. I went to Bangalore for the first time, which was great. Also spent a lot of the month enjoying time in Stockholm before moving to Uppsala.















MARCH
We found an apartment! In March, we moved to our little stuga (cottage) in the forest surrounding Uppsala, and we spent the month making it as homey and cozy as possible. Conrad also went to Colorado this month to do his interview for his Swedish residency application, and ended up having to stay there for 3+ weeks because of bureaucratic BS.












APRIL
April was a BIG month for us, because Conrad got his resident permit and I got a permanent job!! We also had a lovely Easter on the west coast of Sweden with family and friends.






MAY
In May, we went to Colorado for Conrad’s graduation ceremony, followed by a road trip to Michigan to see C’s family. The trip was great, and even though C ‘graduated’ without his actual thesis finished, it was still really special to recognise and honour the journey he has been on since he started his master’s.


















JUNE
This month, Conrad went to Norway with one of his best friends from childhood, so I stayed home with Winnie and enjoyed the arrival of early summer. We also celebrated our first Midsummer’s Eve as a family in Sweden, and it was a wonderful, only slightly-rainy, affair.



















And that leads us up to July! I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of my 2018 recap, it was really fun to put together 🙂 Stay tuned for Part 2 coming very soon.
xxLena
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