Living abroad in a community made up largely of expats means saying goodbye more frequently and in more ways than I had imagined. It has been far more challenging than language or cultural differences. This quote sums it up for me…
“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”
A few days ago we celebrated our friend Carole as she and her husband move on to François’ new job in Mexico. Fortunately they have family in France and Spain (plus 3 young adult kids working and studying in Europe) so it will be not as difficult to see them. I hope to visit her in Paris before she makes the transatlantic move.
As I prepared a going-away slideshow for the party, I came across photos that brought back memories of lots of other people who came and went and the good times we shared during their time in Sweden. It was fun reliving experiences at the gathering which included friends, colleagues, members of the cooking club, International citizens hub, Lund Social, the food co-op, choir, sky diving crew, and more, since these two spent seven very active years in Sweden!
It was tough saying goodbye but I was really grateful to spend some quality time with Carole and François even in the midst of the chaos of their international move. Sometimes people barely have a chance to say goodbyes and it was apparent that everyone appreciated the opportunity to gather. The video ended up too long to share easily so Bryant helped me post it here.
Since I’m limiting my use of social media lately, I’m including some other photos from the last couple weeks as well. We were thrilled that the group we liked best for Mello won the contest and will go to Eurovision. KAJ actually have pretty good odds to win! Their song Bara Bada Bastu is fun and catchy, in Swedish (which imo should count extra in the scoring) with good dance/production etc that is enough to compensate for the fact that the group isn’t from Sweden but part of the “Finland-Swedish cultural sphere” Our upstairs neighbors invited us for a Mello party and then we hosted a small gathering here for the finale. I think most of the group was rooting for KAJ.
More sunny days recently and the domkyrka is one of the 2 main sunbathing locations in Lund.
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