Arrival in Sweden

Johannes, Matilda, pappa and I left the Atlanta airport at 8pm on July 8th, and arrived at the Stockholm airport, Arlanda, at 11:40am Swedish time (5:40am American time). The flight took about nine hours, and it all went smoothly except that a man had a medical emergency and needed to be seen by a doctor. Luckily, there was a nurse or a doctor on board at the time. During the whole flight I sat next to a man from Los Angeles; he was very pleasant to talk to and actually ended up talking way more than me, which was pretty strange. We talked about many different aspects of our lives and I found out that he is the boss of a company in Los Angeles and speaks many languages, including Spanish because he has to hire people with many different cultural backgrounds. I also found it interesting that his wife is from Sweden, and since she for some reason lives in Sweden, he only gets to see her every now and then.

When we arrived at the Stockholm airport, we were greeted by my Swedish grandparents and Sabrina. My Grandma gave me a few late graduation presents and then Sabrina and I had to hurry out to her mom’s car because she was waiting for us. About ten minutes later we stopped at McDonald’s and it was completely astounding to hear everybody speak and order their food in Swedish, after being used to hearing only English when going out to eat. They also served banana milkshakes and McFlurrys with the flavor of a popular Swedish candy called "Bilar" (which means "Cars"); that was interesting! We ate outside and I was amazed at how blue the sky was and how warm it was, but it wasn’t humid like it is in Georgia – the weather was perfect and I loved it. I wanted to eat fries and drink Coke but I couldn’t because of the gallbladder problems I had then, but it didn’t bother me. I was in Sweden and it mattered to me more than anything!

When we finished our meal we drove through Stockholm and I gazed upon the astonishing old buildings and beautiful bridges that passed us by. Stockholm must be one of the prettiest capital cities in the world with all of its old architecture and its many lakes and harbors, but most importantly of all, that is where I spent 4 years of my life, and passing through the city brought back so many wonderful memories that I had forgotten until then. When we finally reached Tumba, the city Sabrina and all of my other close friends live in, I felt this breathtaking feeling I have never felt before. Everything looked the same as I had left it, yet at the same time, it looked so different. Right now, as I am writing this, I feel almost as happy as I did then, and I realize how wonderful of a feeling it is! As we drove up Storvretsbacken (the long, steep hill leading up to the part of the city where Sabrina calls home, and where I lived five years ago) I still had an incredibly hard time realizing that I was finally back in Sweden, after all these years. For four years I had dreamt about being able to travel back to Sweden, the country where I still truly believe I belong, and for four years I had tried to envision what it was feel like to see everybody again – but I never thought it would feel as incredible as it ended up feeling. :D

When we arrived at Sabrina’s house, I was greeted by her dad and her two dogs, Iron and Nemo. They actually remembered me, after all these years. They were wagging their tails as if they had long anticipated my return and it felt great! Normally the dogs will bark at people ferociously but they jumped up and started licking my face like crazy.

Sabrina’s dad helped me bring my two suitcases inside and once I had set them down in Sabrina’s room and taken off my shoes, I went inside the kitchen to get something to drink. My heart was racing with excitement realizing how close I was to my old friends, distance wise, and I was hoping it wouldn’t be long until I’d be able to go see some of them again. Most of them did not know I was there, and I figured that those who knew did not know I was already at Sabrina’s house. Suddenly, I heard knocking on the door. My first thought was that it was one of Sabrina’s friends who wanted to say hi, so I slowly moved towards the door to greet them. When I finally reached the hallway and saw who was standing there I thought I was going to faint – right in front of my eyes stood Axel, a good old friend of mine. It felt completely surreal that for the first time in four years, he stood right in front of me again. The only thing I could do was jump almost straight up in the air and give him a hug! It was crazy! At that precise moment I felt like nothing could ever go wrong in my life again.

After catching up with each other, Sabrina, Axel and I played a game called "Kubb". I have no clue what it is called in English and if any American who has never been in Sweden even knows about the game. It’s fun though, and Sabrina and I (who were on a team) actually won once, which was amazing considering how tired I was from the trip and from being jetlagged. After the game, Sabrina sent Axel home because we had to eat and later on we went over to his house to watch movies. His whole family was out with their sail boat which was too bad considering that I really wanted to see them again but I figured maybe I’d have the luck of seeing them again before going up to Northern Sweden to see my own family.

I do not remember what movie(s) we watched; all I know is that I managed to get Axel back for tickling me, which was awesome! :P I mean, he wasn’t ticklish but it was a nice try anyway. When Sabrina and I left Axel’s house to go to bed and walked the three minute path to get back to her house, I still couldn’t believe I was back in Sweden. I’m sure somebody out there knows what it is like to leave a place you love with all your heart and return there after several years? It is incredible.