Monday, September 13, 2010

Celebrating a 9-year anniversary with myself

Sweden
China
Finland
Australia

Today I celebrate my very own 9-years of leaving abroad anniversary! And how to celebrate that in the most fashionable manner? Well, of course by being "home" in my native Sweden, haha! I’ve had a very typical, Swedish day:

6am –wakeup, jetlagged
6.30am –breakfast consisting of Swedish sour milk, oats, berries and mom’s homemade sour dough bread. Add a large coffee to that…mmm, heaven! Nothing beats a Swedish brekkie.
8.30am –off to the forest for a 7km hilly run. Gorgeous autumn day. Fresh, crisp air. Thinking to myself: “do people who live here actually know how lucky they are?!”
12pm –simple lunch: oven baked fish.
1pm –off to visit my oldest sisters who had an adorable, little baby girl one week ago! Welcome to this world, Malou!
5pm –quick catching up with a good friend
6pm –dinner: salmon cooked to perfection. I could eat myself stupid over here. (Man, I have to get myself an oven again in China!!)

Quite an ordinary day but at the same time not. It’s not every day you fall in love with a new little family member.

Nine years ago, at this exact time, I was a young and lost Swedish girl who flew to London, not knowing what to expect. Six months later, I was studying journalism in Australia. Three years and a degree later, I got my first job in Finland. The job awoke a new interest, and one year later I arrived in Shanghai, China, armed with a suitcase full of hopes and dreams.

So that's it: My (grown-up) life story (so far) in a nutshell. Looking back at it all now, I have to say that life's pretty cool.

7 comments:

PattyF said...

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary, Auntie Jonna! You've made some wonderful friends and equally wonderful memories over the last nine years, I'm sure, and I'm so glad you've chosen to share a few of them with us. No matter where you live, may your continued travels always bring you peace, prosperity and a renewed appreciation for home.

P.S. Congratulations to your sister, as well, on the arrival of Malou.

Jonna Wibelius said...

PattyF -Thanks dear. Agree with you -one should never stop appreciate their home.

Martin said...

You are right Jonna...it is all pretty cool...and great that you share these experiences with the rest of the world.

thora said...

Jonna! Today I thought to myself: hey, let's look if that Jonna has carried on with her a blog and what do I see: you have! Congratulations on the 9th anniversary and most of all: WELCOME BACK!
Your happy reader, Thora.

Anonymous said...

恭喜恭喜你!

~elisa~ said...

Love reading your blog! Congrats on 9 yrs of successfully living abroad... I just hit my 2-yr mark a week ago and felt quite accomplished ;)

I've been a faithful reader of your blog for a while now, but I think this is the first time I leave a comment :S

Anyways, keep writing and inspiring all of us bitten with the traveling bug!

Jonna Wibelius said...

Martin -LG: life's good! :)

Thora -thanks for your sweet comment!! Happy to hear that u found your way back here!

girlengineer -ya, living abroad rocks! Even makes you appreciate your native country more. I think it has more pros than cons. Glad to hear I'm not the only one bitten by the bug... :)