random updates

Maybe a couple updates are in order.

-This term in my(John's) Swedish for immigrants class there are nearly forty students, about double last semester. Nationalities break down something like this: Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Armenia, Moldavia, Latvia, Belarus, Poland, Portugal, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mongolia, Thailand, Cambodia, Phillipines, Dominican Republic and little old me, USA. Basically we have an Arabic speaking block, a Russian speaking block, an English block and a whole lot of splinters. Though I'm friends or new acquaintance with much of the class, I'm determined to lay low and dig in this quarter. Our schedule is such that I'll have more time to study this term. Plus I didn't do so well on my written and speaking quizes at the end of last quarter. I want to finish strong this semester.

-We've had some guests over for dinner here at mormors lately. One of my former Iraqi classmates, Ottman, came over on Christmas break. On another night our neighbors and their sons came over, Poppe & Annika, Joel & Emil. Poppe is a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. A couple Saturday afternoons this past summer while working out in the yard I heard the Boss coming from a neighboring hill top. I didn't have to wonder where it was coming from. Poppe saw him in December in Stockholm and he'll see him again in Gothenburg on the 4th of July. Our boys are nearly the same age as their boys. I think as parents and neighbors we have a natural alliance I'd like to foster. We also have other neighbors we'd like to have over also. Plenty of winter left for that.

-Played guitar with the music leaders at church on Sunday for the first time. It was a really neat experience. The vocals were great and the songs were half in English and half in Swedish.

-If you didn't read the comment section on 'körkort' you might not have known that I failed my swedish driver's license theory test. Felt like I had studied pretty well, though I've learned that most people fail it the first time around. They try and trick you a bit the way they ask the questions. That and when I took it we'd studied with the Swedish book(via Monika) but I took the test in English. Over here sometimes they use a bit of a more British English than real American English. : ) Some of the terminology was different. Anyway, I should be taking that again in a few weeks.

-I got a new mountain bike to go with the bike helmet I got at Christmas. I think it's the first new bike I've gotten since I was in the 9th grade. That one was stolen while I was at band practice and it was only a couple months old. Hopefully we'll have better luck this time.

-Son #2 has nearly completely potty trained in 2 weeks. We are amazed. I think we're going to save the details for its own post. That is if anybody really wants to hear potty training stories.

Anyway, I think this about brings us current. Hej då!!