My week in pictures || w15 2018

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Hej hej, everyone! I hope you had a very fine Sunday and enjoyed the first sunny Spring days! I feel like this week has been the first proper week of Spring! When I drove back home from the flea market earlier I went through some beautiful allees surrounded by white and green blooming trees and everything I passed on the road has been so colorful and green! It reminds me of the same time back last year in April, when I flew home from Finland for a surprise visit and I have been so very overwhelmed by all the colors and blossoms because at that time Helsinki was still covered in snow. 

This week I started to eat a bit healthier again and to treat and nurture my body better than I did the last couple of weeks. Because of stress, lots of work, laziness and many other excuses, I haven’t really taken care of my diet recently but at some point, your body shows you that it needs to be treated better. I started to prepare and enjoy breakfast again much more, drank more water, took my time to make a nutritious dinner and really enjoyed spending time in the kitchen and to taste those fruits and spices again! I am looking forward to Summer when all kinds of fruits grow locally again and I can enjoy my favorite ones like strawberries and blueberries! 

From my rooftop window, I can see the magnolia tree in our neighbor’s garden and it blooms so beautifully in white and rose at the moment that I asked them if I could take some photos of it. It is the garden of the sweet lady I spent some time with last week to drink some hot chocolate and chat about life and dreams. Of course, she said that I could feel free to come over and take as many photos as I wish since she also loves my nature portraits so one afternoon I went outside after work. The tree was larger than it seemed from my window but so so majestic and beautiful! Magnolia trees are my favorites in Spring! Their blossoms are so pretty, so gentle. I took some photos surrounded by them. When I looked up all I could see were hundreds and hundreds of white-rosy blossoms – they were floating in the sky. 

It has been such a grey day that afternoon but I felt so lighthearted after standing among the blossoms, and the beautiful wild garden of my neighbors also brightened up my mood. They have two little ponds there and a garden house right under the magnolia tree and an old wooden bench under a big pine tree. It is so cozy and wild, it feels like you are walking into a little forest! 

I also had my first class of the second Swedish course this Wednesday. I felt a bit nervous because the last course made me feel a bit insecure since everyone was so active and I felt a bit left behind, but this time it has been really good. I think I caught up because I practiced so much Swedish the past weeks, that I already knew some extra vocabulary and I’ve been really active in the class activity. It motivates me to keep going! The class helps a lot and Swedish still makes so much fun! Especially because I recognize that I make progress, I understand more and more of the Swedish vlogs I watch for example, which sounded like a big mess for me at the beginning. Slowly, structures are built in my brain and sometimes I even think in Swedish (in very wrong grammar probably, haha). 

Beside those nice moments in the garden, I also had a short down moment when I realized the hard way that I tend to postpone things because I don’t feel like doing them. In this case, I talk about my essay and thesis. I read for my assignments, I lend some books from the library and I sit down to work on it BUT I put other things first way too often! I make things a priority which should not be just because they are more fun. I work too much in the Health Store, I do photos and work on a thousand other things, and that’s okay, but that way I often forget that the only thing that stands between me and my dream to go to Sweden, are those assignments. And so time passes by and I am upset and frustrated that I am still not able to move yet, but I just had to work on it! So I took more time for my thesis this week! I’ve put other things to the side and concentrated on reading for my essay. Nevertheless, I also did a bit of music this weekend and it felt so good to sing and to play some new melodies and to create! I will continue this week as well and am very excited how it will turn out!

Now, I am so so SO tired, because I’ve spent the entire day on the flea market to sell some of my old stuff which was hiding in the basement for a very long time now. Clothes, decoration, and a hell lot of books. Since I wanna move soon I finally wanna get rid of it and now that the weather gets better I thought I could give it a try. I woke up at six this morning (and felt pretty energetic, surprisingly, I should wake up so early more often again) and made my way to the flea market. It was raining for two hours, so I sat in my car, legs on the seats, ate some breakfast and read “Alla vi barn i Bullerbyn” by Astrid Lindgren and watched the rain. After a while, it stopped raining and I dared to set up my tables. It got really sunny, and I got sunburned very badly because I forgot to use sun cream since the weather forecast said it should be cloudy and rainy. Well, now I look like a redhaired crab, but I sold a lot of stuff so I am happy. I might do it again next month 🙂 

For the rest of this Sunday night, I will just relax and enjoy the fresh Spring air through the open window! What have you been up to this week?

Lots lots lots of love, 
Michelle

 

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Translation

Da hab ich doch fast vergessen, auch ein bisschen was auf Deutsch zu schreiben! Hier also ein kleiner Nachtrag: Die Woche war ein bisschen verrückt. Der neue Schwedischkurs hat begonnen, in dem ich ein bisschen mit meinem Wissen glänzen konnte, das ich mir durch die ganzen schwedischen Vlogs und meinen Gesprächen mit Fredrik und den anderen angeeignet habe. Außerdem hatte ich einen wunderschönen Nachmittag im Garten meiner Nachbarn, wo ich Fotos von und in ihrer Magnolie gemacht habe. Hach, es ist einfach sooo ein schöner Baum! Dann ist mir noch klar geworden, dass ich dringend mehr Zeit für meine Bachelorarbeit nutzen muss, anstatt mit den Dingen, die mir mehr Spaß machen, zu prokastinieren! Und nun bin ich ganz müde und vorallem total verbrannt, nachdem ich den ganzen Sonntag auf dem Flohmarkt ein paar (sehr viele, um ehrlich zu sein) alte Sachen von mir verkauft habe! Deswegen melde ich mich jetzt ab und werde den Rest dieses Abends entspannen, oder vermutlich einfach schlafen gehen! Habt einen guten Start in die neue Woche! Liebe.