Sweden, Summer '99  

I was left in the dryer too long	Princess of Egypt waiting for E-Type	Me on the cute, little island Hamnskär
Nancy in a local mine	About to get some Swedish pancakes	Outside my uncle's summer cottage at Midsummer
Boat picnic. Finland in the background. :)	Me@Storforsen = Superman@Niagara	Nan outside the summer cottage
Rock carvings from 3000bc	My friend Petter and me in his back yard	The longest all wooden bridge in Sweden
Typical Swedish landscape in the background	Nancy gets a kiss from Petter's horse
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I had plans to learn Swedish this summer, but fate had other ideas. I moved out of my house, quit my job, found another home for one of my dogs, talked my brother into watching my cat, and moved Sebastian (my dog) to my friend's house. So...June 1st I flew to Luleå again (this time by way of Brussels). The East coast in the states was having a heat wave with temperatures in the 90s, but Sweden wasn't very warm at all. Our first two weeks were spent lounging around in Luleå, fighting off allergies, colds, and headaches. We took a road trip to the huge Storforsen waterfall made by the melting snow in the mountains. Then Marcus gave up his school apartment, we packed everything in a trailor, and moved south to Skellefteå.

In Skellefteå we alternated between Marcus's summer cottage on the sea and his family's house in town. Marcus was working at a computer firm in town. I liked being in town best because I could have hot showers, lunch with Marcus, and cable tv. I also was tired of having to go outside and across the yard in order to go pee. We mostly just took it easy...renting lots of movies, and struggling with the timeless question - what's for dinner? A highlight of the summer was the local music festival. It lasts two days, and Marcus participated in a boat race. We saw Robyn, Heather Nova, Jessica Folcker, Jennifer Brown, E-Type, Dilba, and (my favorite) the Corrs. We also celebrated to the Swedish version of Thanksgiving - Midsummer. I enjoyed watching Marcus and his family sing silly songs and dance around a pole.