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In Connecticut, Stamford

Cove Island Park

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

Yesterday we left Thor at our neighbors apartment around 9:30 and then we packed a few things and drove to the Cove Island, a beach and park area 10 minutes from our apartment. Not much people around that time which was nice, they all came some time after noon. We stayed for about two hours. I dipped my whole body in the ocean twice, first swim of the year. So cold!! Jim, as always, didn’t go deeper than up to his ankles. I was one of the few people who actually let the whole body be under the cold water. I grew up by the beach in Sweden so I’m used to cold water:) 

After we had packed our things and left it in the car, we went for a little walk in the park there. Lots and lots of families there who brought their big grills and all their relatives. Seemed like a normal Sunday for them:) Very cute area. We will definitely go back there. 

In the afternoon, our neighbor dropped T off, J grilled some steak and corn on the rooftop and then we spent the rest of the night on our computers, me in my office upstairs blogging and J downstairs playing games. 

This was really a wonderful weekend! Can’t be happier:) I hope you had an awesome weekend as well!

In Dance, Stamford

Restless Creature and Wendy Whelan

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On Saturday, we went to see a film at the Avon Theater here in Stamford. A documentary, Restless Creature, about Wendy Whelan. She was a principal ballerina with the New York City Ballet for 30 years. The film is about when she had found herself injured in the hip and had to do a surgery. She has been dancing her whole life and had been very lucky to never have any bigger problems with her body before. She is a strong and beautiful dancer. After the surgery she eventually made a decision that she wanted to retire from NYC Ballet, after her 30 years in the company and she did a farewell performance. She was also working on some contemporary works with four male choreographers and together created the Restless Creature performance. 

After the film, Wendy Whelan herself showed up for an Q/A with the audience. When that was done, some of the younger ballerinas in Stamford wanted to take pictures with her. We left to get coffee. On our way back home, we walked passed the theater and saw that she was standing there. I quickly walked up to her, got to talk to her and take a photo before she had to go. Starstruck! I didn’t know who she was until a few years ago when she was performing with those male choreographers (one of the choreographers is a guy I have taken classes for and I have worked with someone in his company). But now when I know who she is and know more about her work, it felt like I was walking up to a celebrity:) 

Later in the afternoon, my husband and I walked to Harbor Point. It took us about 30 minutes. We wanted to find a place by the ocean to have a drink. That area is far from being done. Very industrial and they are building tons of new apartment buildings. We looked at some apartments there in December but we are so happy we found a place somewhere else. We sat down at two places before we took the trolley back to the city center. We finished the evening with grilled food and the movie Hairspray. A pretty awesome day!

In Swedish in America

Today is Midsummer

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Photo from 2013, Midsummer on Manhattan.
I think this failed photo shows exactly what Midsummer is:) 

I’ve heard that there is a lot of Scandinavians in Connecticut, so I wanted to check if there is a Midsummer celebration around here. My husband is working all day, so my plan was to prepare food and make a flower wreath headband during the day and when J comes home we could either go to a possible Midsummer celebration somewhere or just celebrate at home on our terrace with good Swedish food and listen to old Swedish music.

The yoga studio I go to offered me a free workshop because of the whole “no morning yoga” thing (on May 17th). I saw a few days ago that the class is 7:15 PM, not AM like I thought. An early morning yoga workshop seemed like a nice way to start the celebration of light, but apparently it’s in the evening. So, that will be my celebration this year. 

At first I got sad and I considered to skip the workshop. But, I really want to do the workshop plus celebrating here doesn’t feel the same as in celebrating in Sweden. A celebration with Swedish people I don’t know in a Swe-US way or a celebration with my husband who has never experienced it in Sweden, won’t actually give me much. It’s not the same. The sun goes down at 9pm here. The whole point of Midsummer is to honor the light and the best thing about it is that the sun doesn’t really go down. 

This is my 7th Midsummer away from Sweden. Some years I have been busy with other stuff and not celebrated. Midsummer is a tradition I really love, it’s special, but I live in the US now and celebrating it here would never be the same. It’s ok.  Although, it’s the only day of the year that I can feel really Swedish, but whatever.  

Glad Midsommar!

In Connecticut

Babcock Preserve

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This morning, we took the dog for a walk over to the yoga studio. A membership offer ends this weekend and for some reason it didn’t work to buy it online, so I had to buy it in person. After that, we had planned on bringing Thor for a hike, but he was so tired from the warm weather that he got to stay at home.

My husband and I drove to Babcock Preserve, a park in Greenwich. We had forgot the bug spray, so we actually didn’t walk that far in. Since it’s been raining for a few days, the ground was wet and there were a lot of mosquitoes. It was still nice though. Birds were singing for us and there were no other people until the end of our walk. We both love to explore new parks. This one apparently has a bigger waterfall that looks cool on pictures we’ve seen, so next time we go there we will def bring bug spray and explore more of the park. 

After our walk in the park we drove by all the big mansions. It was hard to see some of the houses since they were blocked by fences and several acres of land, but you could tell that somewhere in there was a giant castle. One house was so big it had its own parking lot. Unless you have a whole bunch of older kids, I’m not sure why anyone would need that much space. There were definitely some details that I like about the houses or entrances though. It will be a while until we have our own house, but I still like to get inspiration. 

We don’t have any more plans today except working out at the gym. We are staying at a hotel tomorrow so we don’t really feel like doing much today. 

In Swedish in America

Swedish candy and a Swedish movie

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Hello new week! We’ve had a wonderful weekend! The temperature dropped a bit from 33°c degrees to below 20, but it was still really warm in the sun. 

On Saturday morning we went to Costco to buy coffee and meat. We drove to Norwalk to buy some Swedish things at the Scandinavian Butik. I had found it online earlier in the week and they had a lot of stuff on their website, but the store was unfortunately a bit disappointing. Extremely overpriced and not much to choose from. I bought a “salt och blandat” (salty licorice candy mix) and crackers. We drove a different and longer way home to look at giant houses with front yards as big as soccer fields (and these houses are not even the biggest ones around here). In the evening we went to the rooftop to use the grill. My husband was super excited to grill some meat:) We finished our day with watching the Swedish Oscar nominated movie A man called Ove. For me, that was a painful movie to watch until the very end. People in that movie is one reason why I don’t want to move back to Sweden. The end made the whole movie worth watching, but ya, no, I did not like it at first. 

Sunday morning started with my husband coming in to the bedroom with coffee that he and Thor had bought for me. Aww♥ After breakfast, we walked over to a shopping area near us. We were trying to find bike helmets, but they all looked retarded, so we walked home again. We spent a few hours on our terrace. I planted some seeds and replanted a few things that needed new soil. I have no idea what I’m doing, but it’s fun to experiment:) With our sunburned bodies we went to the gym in the afternoon, I organized a few things upstairs and then we had dinner. Pretty slow weekend but we enjoyed it. How was yours?

IMG_20170520_161608_197rooftop-grill-20may2017