About

I am an American living in Sweden. Raised in a tiny town in northwestern Minnesota, first I learned Järnamål, a dialect of Swedish, along with English. I moved to Sweden in 1999 when I married my Swedish husband, Tomas. Now we have lived here ever since, except for three years in western China. We have a 2-year-old daughter, Yaminah.

Photo taken in summer 2010 by Ashley Yantes

I went to Augsburg College in Minneapolis and Uppsala University in Sweden. I have a Master's in Ethnology, but after China and having Yaminah, I decided to add a teaching degree to my education. So now I am back in school again, and trying to balance studies with motherhood! Along with studying teaching, I am studying Chinese at the university. My studies keep me hopping.

"In my spare time..." What is that anyways? Who has spare time when they have a toddler, busy husband, and are in school? :) Well, once a week I make time to go to choir, which is my favorite activity. I sing in Collegium Cantorum in the gorgeous Cathedral in Uppsala, Uppsala Domkyrkan. http://www.collegiumcantorum.se/  I love singing (soprano), have been privileged enough to be able to sing a few solos, and love taking choir trips. Personal interests (like I said, if there is ever time for those...) include reading, baking, long walks, music, and of course spending as much time as I can with my friends. But of course Tomas and Yaminah receive most of my spare time.

Tomas and I also attend Korskykan church in Uppsala. http://www.korskyrkanuppsala.se/

Because our family is spread out, whenever we can we go home to visit my family in Minnesota, and we also try to get up to Dalarna as much as we can. We have a cute little house there that we love to stay in whenever we can. Dalarna is not real life for me--for me Dalarna is just family and friends, and sitting by our fireplace or walking to the nearby little lake for a dip in the summer.

Our house in Dala-Järna, Dalarna

Past jobs: I worked for Julie Catterson Lindahl, American author living in Sweden, for a few years, and I co-authored the Resources Section of her book. It is a lovely book inspired by the traditional ideas of well-being in Scandinavian tradition. http://www.amazon.com/Julie-Catterson-Lindahl/e/B001K8I3CI  Recently I have translated/edited Jenny Berggren's upcoming book (Jenny is from Ace of Base). And of course, the three amazing years teaching in western China.

As soon as we can afford it again (i.e., and I am not a student anymore...) I can hardly wait to start traveling again. While we lived in China we traveled as much as we could, within China (including Xinjiang, Tibet, Hainan, Yunnan, Guizhou, etc) and in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. I can hardly wait to start traveling again! (Although from now on it will be a different adventure since we will have a toddler with us... :)  I love languages as well, and along with English and Swedish, I am working on Chinese, and have previously studied French, a little German, and just a tiny bit of Italian.

Hope you enjoy this little blog. Welcome!

Studying Chinese out on our balcony in October, 2011