Africa

So I'm in Africa. And it's a little bit overwhelming. I'm not sure how to describe it. On one hand it’s really wonderful and beautiful and hot and all that, but there are so many disturbing factors too. The poverty is just a little bit too much to understand. I find myself wanting to close my eyes and pretend it's not there. And when we ride the car through the landscapes, I am struck by the beauty of it, but also get a cramp in my tummy when I see the way people actually live.


The other day while we were waiting at an intersection a few girls, maybe age 5 – 10, came up to the car wanting money for food. And shortly after a girl of about 14 years of age with a baby wrapped around her hip came up to the car. I found myself wanting to give her all my money.. I sat there in our embassy car, with my pretty clean clothes and sunglasses and my newly bought cute handbag and a bag of candy worth more money than a normal family make in a week here, and I felt sick, Then I came home and I forgot about it and started eating like the pig I am.

It's so hard to take everything to heart. It's hard to understand it all. And it's hard to know that I have actually complain on my crappy situation in Sweden, as if it was ever even coming close to this. I feel ashamed and I hope I take this with me for the rest of mylife. I understand that I can't start giving everything I have away, I understand that I can't move into a tent in the park to feel better about myself, but I hope that I will remember this and grow from it and become a better person than I was before. And I really think I will.

Aside from the horror that is the living situations here for a big part of the locals, kara and dre live in a really nice stone house in a very safe compound. Which is nice since Africa can be a dangerous place when you are white and “rich”. (read: can get by on their income)
When I'm here I feel like I'm on a luxurious vacation in paradise. Same when I'm at the beach. And even though the poverty is to be clearly seen everywhere when I get outside the compound, I can also see that people aren't miserable, And I really think that it's is all very photogenic, so I can't really go around being sad all the time about something that is the everyday life for these people.

Anyways, most of my trip is still fun and exciting and when I make Kara laugh till she pee a little and start crying, I am a good friend and make her feel better again.
Like this:



I miss johan. Soooooo much. But it's nice with my winter vacation. Don't think I could go through 1 whole winter in sweden...

Going to africa tomorrow!

So I'm going to africa tomorrow morning. EARLY! 06.25 >_<;
And we havn't even set a date for the wedding yet. We've found one "wedder" who can do it on the 2nd of december. Which means I'll only be home 4 days before. O_o;
It's gonna be stressful. But I'm so excited.

And the best news is..... KARA is comming home! With me! :)
I feel a bit overwhelmed but I'm so excited. ^^

Wedding.

I was never the girl to dream of a white wedding. I thought that my aunts really big fancy "white wedding dress that looks like a cream cake" wedding was really cool and I guess that was a little how I saw it turning out if I would ever get married.
But we're not religous so I'm not getting married in a church, and we're not really into traditions so Who cares about white dress and all that stuff.
Like my friend Stina just said when I called her an hour ago and told her about the nonefancy city house wedding we'd have at the spur of the moment: "It will be a Johan & Elvira wedding". And it's so true. hehe
I'm trying to get a hold of my siblings and I will call my friends and inform them of it. But I don't think everyone will come watch us for the 5 min cermony. ;P
We will have a party in the summer before we move to japan. And people can come then. ^^

This is a bit bad timing. I'm going to africa for 2 weeks, which will be great! but I wont have time for planning anything. And I there only fits 20 ppl in the room at city hall so I'm not sure all the ppl who would like to come can.. : /
Family is over 10 people. So not many spots left. hehe

It'll be fine. I'm so happy. But I wish it I had more time to think about it all...
For example. Karalin is not here. :(
I kinda want to change in my tickets to africa for a ticket for her to come here for our wedding instead. Yes karalin, I would easily give up my 2 weeks sun vacation I need every winter for you being here on my big day. (even tho it's just 5 minutes)
But I will make sure that the date for the party is when you are home. And I will buy you a purple maid of honor dress that looks like a cupcake. Muahahahaha! ;P

Seriously. I so wish you could be here. And when Johan says he is worried that I will regret this quickfix wedding and that it's not fancy. I know that the only thing I can ever regret is you not being here for my day. Don't start crying now. *says the person who can't see through her tears while writing this*
I'm really happy that I get a 2 week vacation with you before. You will help me decide on accesories and maybe find a nice ring? (since it doesnt look like we can find one here, stupid sweden and it's boring jewlery shops)

I'm gonna go surf some more info on how to get married...

Johan got the job.

Johan has been offered the job with IKEA japan!!
The stupid part is that he got so sad about me not getting it, and us not being able to do it together that he is concidering not taking it! Ofcourse I didn't get it. I'm a terrible leadertype, I'm bossy in a bad way and very stressful. Johan is calm and very togehter. He is just perfect for this. I'm not at all sad about this. Ofcourse it would have been great if we both had gotten it, but at the same time, I'm not sure I would really be ready for something like this.
I think I may have to threaten him somehow.
It would be sooo stupid to give this incredible opportunity up! And I really want to move there!
I can study some japanese and work some parttime with anything, and then later on maybe I can look for a position at IKEA too.
He really has to take the damn job! I know we'll be appart for 4 months, and that's sad ofcourse, but we can visit eachother every other weekend or so. It's not a big deal! It's the chance of a lifetime.

All those who know Johan. PLEASE help me convince him that he has to take this dream job!
I'm so proud. :)

I didn't get the job.

I got a nice little email that I hadn't gotten the job. Johan came in and woke me up (2 hours too early) and looked like a sad puppy.
I'm not that upset since this probably means that HE GOT IT!!
Both me and our japanese classmate Simon have gotten the "no, sorry you didnt get it" email today. But he hasn't! This most likley means the got it. ^^
So he's gonna go for the educational period alone (for 4 months. U__U;) And then we are moving to japan.
Ok, lets wait till he ACTUALLY get's the phonecall about that he's gotten the job. ;)
I'm a little bit disappointed. But only with how I did my last interview. I really felt that it had gone bad when I left there. Stupid Simon for giving us the goos odds. ;)
Of 42 people I'm one of 7 or 12 that didn't get it.
I guess I can try to get an other position on IKEA when we move there.
Or I can just be a housewife and have our kids while he works. MUAHAHAHA!
No seriously. If this means what I think it does, we're moving to japan! <3

Nature's fun.

There was a snowstorm the other day. It went from nice colorfull beginning of autum and all of a sudden we had a blizzard, sending traffic into chaos and all that. Somehow sweden is always so unprepared for winter.

It's like we have never experienced it before, people panic, trains get stuck for hours as if they'd never been through a winter before. People are shocked and realise they've forgotten to change to winter tires, causing a lot of accidents and making the cocky people who have actually allready changed, hate them. It's amazing what nature does to us. And it's even more amazing how we never get used to it.

Special presents.

This is a picture of one of the best presents I've ever gotten. When I was moving back to sweden from japan I got this from one of the girls I got to know there. She is a really cool girl. Her name is Sayuri and she was so fun to hang with. She was very diffrent from me but I think that was what made me like her so much. I really admired her.
She knew how I love the cat from Alice in wonderland so she bought this box and she handmade those cookies for me! They were so pretty. And they tasted very special. This is the kind of present I will never forget. Probably because me and Sayuri didn't really meet that many times. We went for dinner at this Thai restaurant we both loved, about once a month. But that was about it. So maybe we met 10 - 15 times during the year we lived there. Still she gave me this perfect gift.

I just wanted to share one of my best memories from japan. ^__^

Crochetting.

So crazy Kao made me start crochetting. I was just gona buy her some yarn and needles but I ended up making 2 stuffed crocodiles and other pointless things and I'm still sitting on the sub crochetting, scaring people away from my cart.
<--- This was the first thing I made. A grey flower får my cap. Sumomo thought it was very interesting.
It's 11.48 on the first day of week 45. Still no answer from IKEA... How long can it take! They musta been at work for atleast 3 hours!!!!
Ok I have to get ready to go to my current work.. I really don't want to work there and other day. I'm so happy I'm getting a 2 week vacation in the middle of the christmas shopping. :)
Poor Johan who has to work for me... Na, I'm just happy I get to flee.

Blogging again.

It's been a while since I had my own blog. But many of my friends are using this way of writing a "diary" so to keep them happy (and make them stop nagging about me getting a blog), here I am again to let you all know about what I'm up to.

Right now all I can concentrate on is IKEA!
We have been to 2 interviews now and the odds are good of us getting it. But you can never know for sure. And to be honest our japanese isn't really good enough for this. :(
We can get by with what we know. But less than 1 year in japan doesn't really make you fluent. And for this kind of job we really should be.
Anyways we're gonna get the answers next week. (so within 5 days I'll know)
And the 15th I'm going to africa to visit my baby! And it's gona be so great! Away from the cold and snow and ice and cold people, away from darkness, and possibly away from the depression of not getting this dreamjob with IKEA. We'll see. : /

I'm too lazy to make my own design right now. I'll do that some day when I'm bored.

That's it for now. Happy Mommy A? ;)