Moving back to Sweden after 11 years

After 11 years abroad I am now back in Sweden but actually it feels more like being in a new place. One month ago we packed our belongings, I quit my job at the embassy, we said goodbuy to friends and family in the Netherlands and moved to a new place. This place is Ulricehamn - a small town along lake Åsunden in the south of Sweden. I come from the south of Sweden but Ulricehamn is still a 3 hour drive from my family who all live in the "real south" of Sweden.

We moved because I had gotten a new and exciting job and because we wanted a different kind of life. Now the kids goes to a small montesssorischool with 33 children from grade 1 to 6, the town has 23 000 inhabitants spread over a large area and only 9000 of them live in the town itself. You can ski and skate here in the winter, sail and enjoy the lake in the summertime and as houseprices here are lower then what we´ve been used to in the Netherlands we now have a large wooden typically Swedish house. No more commuting to places far away (at least not for me!)!

So, after a month in this beautiful place we got the first real snowstorm yesterday. As we are renovating our new house we are currently renting a small summerhouse in the forest a few kilometers outside town. I picked the girls up after work, took a trip up to the house to have a chat with the carpenters, quickly stoped at the supermarket and then we headed out to the summerhouse. It was now getting late and dark and the snow was still falling. The alst piece of the road is a dirt road and there I got stuck. For half an hour I tried everything to get out of the snow but without success. It occured to me that I did not know who to call and I did not even know the address of our summerhouse (Jochem arranged it all and the roads ane not marked out there). Finally I told the kids to put all warm clothes on and in the dark we walked up to our house. The closest neighbour is probably a kilometer away and there are no lights in the forest. When it gets dark it gets dark and I was not sure if I wanted to leave the kids alone while trying to get help from a neighbour. Luckely I found a piece of paper with the phonenumber of the owner of the summerhouse. He responded quickly and arrived half an hour later with a large tractor to pull me out. I guess it was just a normal day in our new life. This easter weekend they are expecting an even bigger winterstorm but by then I will be a trained snowdriver!

Ulrika