You can see the whole video here. It is a large download, so please be patient.

Well, today's full house dinner went very well. Rose cooked, or I should say catered, a full dinner for our supporting bosses, staff, families, and students of the Swedish visit. Full bellies abound!

Swedish researchers have uncovered a stand of spruce trees with an 8,000-year-old tree root system in Dalarna, making it among the oldest in the world.
http://www.thelocal.se/11054/20080411/

Where has the last week gone? Well, let me tell you, it has been a blur! I honestly never had a chance to sit down and write a single sentence. I averaged about 4 to 5 hours of sleep per evening. So, you ask, what did I do that took all my time? LOL

We are all back in the U.S. with our Swedish guests. They are with us for the next 3 weeks. Lennart has his own blog started. Here is a online URL translator, but please understand that the translation is rather loose.

In a nutshell, here is a abbreviated list:
• Snowmobiling (day and night sessions) & BBQing
• Spending time with Lennart and Yvonne at their Summer Home
• Ice Golfing
• Shopping
• Teaching
• Bowling
• Virtual Golfing
• Working on networks
• Visiting schools, teachers, and administrators
• Conducting interviews and gathering more video footage
• Organizing thousands of photos
• Working and Exploring with Mr. Nygren
• Meeting more wonderful people
• Skiing (which I have never done before)
• Watching a local Swedish movie called Varg
• and of course, enjoying Fika and Kaffé

I have posted a few more pics in the gallery, but I have so much more. Coming soon!

Jet lag has hit us all very hard. I think I caught a nasty cold from the trip home, and I find it hard to stay awake today (Sunday). We go back to work tomorrow. There is more AV work to be done in the next two months toward graduation than all of last fall. Stay tuned, because the incredible ride continues.

So right now I am sitting with Linda at her house, the both of us exhausted from a weekend at the cabin in the mountains. While we were there, we rode snowmobiles (or skooters in swedish) around the mountains, and it was too beautiful to describe. One thing that the Swedes have mastered that Americans forgot how to do is to have a good time without spending too much money and without a whole lot of effort. We had a great time riding around the mountain and chillin' with friends in a hotel. It was good to just relax and enjoy ourselves without stressing over anything. Sweden in general seems to me to have a much more laid back mood, and all the people I've met have been very friendly. Some maybe a little too friendly. For example, on my first day here, one of the boys in Linda's class bowed to me and kissed my hand, and then later asked me to dance. He then serenaded me by singing a Madonna's song. How touching, eh? They are all very good with speaking English to me, teaching me some Swedish words and phrases. For instance, when I want to take pictures of someone, I say "hej hästen" (pronounced hey hesten) instead of saying cheese. It actually means "hello horse," but it makes people look =). The school system here is so much better in comparison to American school, because the students actually get treated like adults. The teachers respect them and trust them, and it is more like a working atmosphere than a strict school (which we all know to be our school system...*cough-RIM-cough*). So, overall, I am rather enjoying myself here. I am considereing coming back next summer to stay with friends and visit people I met recently or have known from before. Many of the people I've met in Sweden seem already like friends I've known for years, and I hope to keep those friendships going.

--Nicole Cory

Friday was a day of change all around. Although I planned a walkabout today, the weather decided against it. I did some iTunes work and watched some Jeff Dunham ventriloquism on my laptop. On TV, the family shows of the afternoon were The Simpsons and early versions of Married with Children. So, Homer and Al Bundy are images of great fathers. So this is what the world sees as American families. I ate some great cheese, had some dark coffee, and stared out the window a few times wondering about life's twists and turns. Although it was a Friday afternoon, you could hear the rain drops and birds' flapping the water off their wings. I longed to get online to chat with Rose and others, but everyone was still sleeping or getting ready for work.

Lennart came home exhausted from an anticipated short day that turned into a long meeting day. He graciously cooked a family recipe that caused me to have two full healthy plates. We then spent some coffee time chatting about a multitude of subjects. I probably should apologize for talking his ear off. LOL. However, I really had my family heavily on my mind today, and I am sure I repeated a few things over and over. After a long week of work, I usually spend time with family doing something goofy, shopping, or sports-like and I felt that pull today. Lennart generously let me use his office to work on the internet and I video-chatted for quite awhile with Rose, Sean, Meg & David Coons, and some classes. Nothing official, just talking, laughing, showing silly pictures, and whatever else flashed on the screen. I still want to see Allie on camera, but our time zones are really out of sync on her schedule. I tried creating a wireless network here, but their aDSL router does not expand with a switch very well. I had it working once this morning, but that was it. I have one more trick to try tomorrow, but it is more of a manual move; we shall see.

I feel better after this evening catching up with Rose in a not so official classroom capacity. I am bit of a sensitive person, and I needed that time. Sometimes, the simple things in life are the most important. Family is a way of life here in Sweden without a second thought. I know the feeling well, and it hit home a little harder today... and that's a good thing.

We send our thoughts and prayers to Mrs. Harding and her family in Minnesota.

Tomorrow we will try snow-mobiling in the mountains. It started to snow with heavy flakes around 9pm or so, so tomorrow looks better than having it rain. I also checked British Airways about the luggage, and we have two more bags with the status of "we think we found it, but it will take some time to confirm this" so cross your fingers. And Sunday evening, Dave Nygren arrives. I sure hope he has a decent trip out here. I know he needs it! Last thing: channel 2 here is showing the Latin Grammy Awards and channel 6 is showing Scrubs. Go figure.