Busy week

It was an incredibly busy week with our household.
I started my Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) class in Kungsbacka on Monday. It goes Mon to Thurs until June. I was nervous about starting as the class began a couple of weeks ago but I seem to be right up to par with the rest. We have a really fun teacher and they use a Bulgarian teaching method. Bulgarian of all places! It is called Suggestopedi and we use music, rhythm, role playing etc. to learn the language. It is not just sitting behind a desk listening and reciting back to the teacher. One afternoon a week we have a writing class and two afternoons a week we do a self study with computers or other materials in the Study Stuga at the school. I am enjoying being in a class with people from all over the world. We have a few Americans; Australians; Thai; Chinese; Polish; Czech; Romanian; Iranian and a guy from the Middle East.
With my schooling, that takes me away from home for many hours in the week. I am not so used to having to be organized when I walk out of the house in the mornings!
Hanna started her dagis inskolning this week. She is getting right into the routine and we are not required to stay along with her all day after all as she trots off and is happy on her own. She has made friend with a couple of girls and will have a playdate planned soon.
Both Hanna and Liv spend many hours outside during the weeks and with that we are constantly looking for mittens; not so dirty jackets etc. I will have much laundry to do this weekend!
I was invited to attend a Parent Teacher Association meeting at Liv's school this week. With my limited Swedish I attended and got to hear about the issues at school and although it is a bit uncomfortable, I figure this is a good way for me to understand the system. I think the topics for discussion here are similar to home--bus safety; playground behaviour; speakers; and the lunch lady came to talk about nutrition. She said they were introducing more organic foods to the school menu including all dairy products, knackebrod (hard tack bread), breads and some veggies. A new friend invited me to attend and she helped to translate.
This morning was my day off from school. I did child drop off duty and Mattias is working on legal things for his job. I met up for coffee in Kungsbacka with two English speaking Moms-- one Australian and one Swedish who I met through a English speaking parent website. The Australian's girls are friends with Liv at school and the Swedish gal lived in the U.S. and Zurich before moving back home to Sweden.
There are several other mom's that use the same site and for some coincidental reason, there are four of us with kids at the same school and all the girls have the same English as First Language class together. It will be nice to get to know these gals.

Next week in this area of Sweden is called SportLov week. That is a week's vacation (held over a three week period in the entire country of Sweden) that is for families to make sports together. Many go to the mountains for skiing, some play indoor sports, other fly to exotic places and have vacation. Hanna will be at dagis for her Sportlov; Liv will not have school. We will travel to the Värmland region later next week and spend time with Jens, Elisabet, Linus and Johan at Elisabet's family home. There is snow there, unlike here, so that will be great fun for all kids.

I am actually in bed now suffering from an achy body as a result of a cold that just came on from my husband. I took a big gulp of NyQuil and think that will kick in soon so I can get into a nice slumber. It is a rainy miserable day out and good one for a nap anyway.

More later,
Carrie