Leaving East TN

Getting out of town for me was a pretty rough go.  Except for a small stint as a single digit youngster, I have always lived in East Tennessee.  When I was younger, I thought I wanted to move away and see the world, but as I got older I realized I loved it there and I didn't have to move to see the world.  However, money doesn't grow on trees, and when you spend as much time in school as I have, you expect a job that pays, and sometimes that means moving.  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the new adventure, just saying.

First thing's first, I had to finish up my 5 year graduate school journey.  That required a lot of writing, bleh!, and a presentation.  Somehow I don't have a single picture of me and Claudia.  Anyway, I owe her a lot.  She was an excellent mentor and became a very good friend.  I imagine we will keep in touch for years to come.

This is pretty typical me.  Chris loved it so much he gave it some effects.

So dressed in orange, of course, I gave it my best.  I am happy to report that the room was full of friends and family.  It was awesome to have such support.  I was truly happy about everyone that attended, thank-you.  I know for the family it was an onerous task, but I thank you.  I especially thank Chris, mom, and dad.  They were troopers as they waited the hour it took for the one-on-one with my committee. (Side note on the orange blazer: my fashion guru handed me this blazer and said, "Wear this."  We were in Atlanta Jan 2012 for her birthday and we were shopping at H&M.  Was the H&M defense blazer foretelling that I'd end up in Sweden?)

The next week was a whirlwind of corrections, goodbyes, and packing up. 

Leaving my office in Neyland Stadium.  The best office I ever had!

Chris posted most of the good pictures, but I wanted to say just a few things.  I was happy to get to spend time with three of my oldest friends, Jacque, Daniel, and Ryan.  I've known them for about 18 years and I'm happy to say that we still hang out.  I can't see a time when they won't be in my life.  Then of course there are newer friends like Nicole and Sara, these are my girls.  We always have the best times together, and boy can we tell you a story or three.  And that leaves the newest friends, Samantha, Niss, and Sam (ok Sam isn't that new, I think I may have even tutored him in math or some such, but our reconnection is new).  We love all these people dearly!  This group made every effort to hang out with us the last few days and those are memories I'll never forget.

I sure will miss those hugs and kisses :(

It's a Corvette!  Who could resist a picture with a Corvette?!?

We spent our last night in town with my parents.  Saying bye to mom and dad was hard.  Mom has always wanted to me to be independent, but I think she got more than she bargained for with me.  I'm about as independent as they come.  There's pretty much nothing I won't do, and I sure don't need any help doing it!!  But when it comes to a little girl moving across an ocean from her mom and dad, even the most independent gets some reservations.  They are so proud of me, and I am so grateful for them.  I can't wait till we have enough data to Skype!

I love you!!

So that's it.  I'm not in Knoxville anymore.  I was the girl who still called Belk "that store that used to be Proffit's" and I remember seeing ET and Star Wars in the theater in the parking lot of West Town, long before the fancy Regal theater got built inside the mall (when West Town was a shadow of what it is now).  I remember going to the Mercury before it was Pres Pub, and when Watson's was on the Square.  I bought my 1st couch at Fowler's on Gay St., and I remember when Turkey Creek was still an official wetlands.  Oh yeah, and Tomo and Little Sister's used to be in the Old City, and Barley's was the Spaghetti Warehouse.  My parents have even older memories when Market Square really was a market.  They remember a day when visiting Knoxville meant getting covered in soot from all the industry.  My dad waved goodbye to his dad from the Gay St. bridge as my grandfather left for WWII.   I've seen a big turn around in Knoxville, and I look forward to coming back one day. 

So this is me, standing in my orange and white, wearing my locally made t-shirt, looking at my empty house and wondering what will happen now as I head out that door for the "old world."

In case you were wondering how that ole grad school thing worked out....well, you can call me Dr. Everett now!!

How cold is it?

When it gets cold in Sweden, even the statues wear winter gear. We saw this on our way to get groceries in Lund the other day. Yes those are what appear to be leg warmers. What makes this even cooler is that someone had actually taking the time to sew them on. Crazy Swedes!

Happy Easter!

The biggest difference between here and the states for Easter is the time off.  The official holiday begins at noon on Thursday before and last through the Monday after, a 4.5 day weekend!!  Everyone here gets pretty geared up too.  Here are some treats in the local bakery.

While walking around our town, Staffanstorp, we noticed trees with feathers in them.

Then we saw them for sale in the farmer's market in Lund.  They are stuck to the ends of sticks.

Notice all the flowers?  They sell flowers everywhere, even Ikea!  Mostly daffodil bulbs, and cut tulips.  The tulips here are beautiful.  They are all fairly small, but the colors and color combinations are so unique (I'll have to snag some tulip pics).  Anyway, back to feathers.  We decided the feathers were Easter decorations and now we notice them everywhere.

Oh yeah, and then there's this difference..

I can't say I ever remember waking up, putting on my brand new Easter snow suit and going out to hunt eggs in the snow.  Happy Easter!!

Get ready for the good stuff

OK, so I blew up the blog today with posts that I have been slacking on publishing. Going forward you will be reading posts on the life of the Tennessee Swedes.

When we landed in Copenhagen on Saturday morning it was -8 Celsius. Incase your not sure how cold that is, it looks something like this from a plane. Yes that is snow and no the pilot would not turn around. What have we done?

Turns out it does snow in southern Sweden and if anyone ever tells you that it doesn't get that cold during late March in southern Sweden... punch them in the face! At least the house is warm. 

Farewell to Richmond Friends and Family - take 1

We headed up to Richmond on March 19th. It was hard to leave our house that morning, we love our little house in South Knox. We have decided to rent it out just incase we need an evacuation plan in the next year or two. Here is a picture of us saying good bye to the house.

We got on the road and headed to Richmond to see my friends and family. OK so we have a very large dog named Charlie and he is one of our spoiled kids. If you didn't know we also have a cat named Tyler Durden. (insert Fight Club reference here) Both of our kids were on board for the journey to Europe. I will go ahead and let you all know now that both kids did great on the plane and are now living the dream in Sweden, more on the kids later. Here is a picture of the two of them trying to figure out what is going on as we head to Richmond.

We got to Richmond and stayed at my buddy Drew's house. Big thanks to Drew and Amanda for the hospitality to the Everett's that week. Wednesday was friends day so I had the day all planned out to hang with my buddies and chill downtown. We started the day at Legend Brewery. The plan was to have a beer or two along with some apps and then head down the road for some some lunch in The Fan. It was so nice that day we stayed on the patio at Legend for 5 hours in the sun. Did I mention that I got super sunburned? Well i did. It couldn't have been any nicer! Later we went to my buddy Jerry's house and he cooked burgers on the grill. We got to see his family and they were nice opened their doors for longtime friends to stop by and say hey. This truly was a great day!! Thank you friends!

Thursday was family day. We met up with my dad at his house and headed downtown to Strawberry Street Cafe for some lunch. My aunt Betty came into town with her husband Jim to send us off with their best wishes. Big thanks to them for stopping by, it was really nice. Sister Sara and her husband Brandon came with the twins and we all had a nice lunch. We ate at Mama Zu's that night. If you asked me what I was going to miss most in the states I wouldn't have to think to hard about it... the answer would be Mama Zu's. Hopefully Michelle and I will be reporting in the future that we made it to Italy and found somewhere that compares or dare I say it, is even better than the Zu. Anyway, we had another awesome meal at Mama Zu's with my sister, Brandon, and my dad. It was a great way to spend our last night in the states. Thanks family!! 

We hit the road on Friday morning and headed to Dulles International Airport to catch our flight. We headed to my dad's for one last goodbye. Miss you Dad! My sister and Brandon rode with us up to the airport and got us unloaded and checked in. They then got our car back to Richmond for us. Thanks to both of them for being troopers that day, we owe you guys big time. After we checked it at the airport we both took a few minutes to send out a few text messages and the then our journey began. Hej då!

 

Knoxville Farewell - Bonus material

I wanted to add some more pictures of our last couple of days in K-Town with friends. Thanks again friends we miss you all. Enjoy!!!