Xmas in Vimmerby - Sweden

 

This Christmas I had a great time with my girlfriend Helena and her family, we have a Xmas lunch/dinner and we opened the presents.

I had a very white Xmas with -20C degrees outside. A lot of snow, like one meter or more outside. The best is the quiet and nice town with all the surrounding forest that Vimmerby has.

Very nice memory to remember this Xmas 2010 for ever.

Weekend in Vimmerby with Moose and trees

One of the nices weekends ever, this weekend I went to Vimmerby to visit the parents of my swedish girlfriend Helena. Over there we went out in a local bar, we had some drinks with friends, but what really made this different from other weekends was that I got to see one of the oldest trees in Sweden with around thousend years old.

 

The second amazing part of this trip was that for the first time ever, I got to see the Moose (Älgar) in a reservoir close to the town. We got to feed them with apples and they made some special tricks with the girls if they put their apple in the mouth the Moose could go carefuly and got it from there very like a kiss.

 

Anyway, it was a fantastic trip, and I can't wait for the next time i get back there.

Summer break in Colombia

After 36 hours of traveling from Linköping, I am finally back in Colombia. My family welcomed at the airport after almost a year without seeing them, from there we went directly to have my favorite colombian dish ... Bandeja Paisa :D in a place nearby the airport.

 

In the beginning it was hard to get used to the time difference with Europe again, specially because the most of the time the world cup of Sudafrica 2010 was on, and the matches started since 6am colombian time, so in the afternoon I was already feeling sleepy.

I was such a short time, only 3 weeks. The most of my friends complained that I couldn't even see them due to the short agenda and the few trips I did during this visit. I did a short welcome party on my new rebuilt terraza with the most of my family and friends, I try to invite almost all of them but there is always someone forgoten.

First the changes, Medellin my city looks beautiful, my house is completely rebuilt so I have no more my apartment where I use to live. My niece looks bigger, she is almost 15 years now. My mother let her hair grow a bit so she looks a bit different, my father a bit more old but still the same as my sister. And my myself everybody said that I look more skiny and fit, it must be because of the running and the study for the exams.

 

I could visit my University and my ex-collegues at EAFIT, and give a short tour around since there are new buildings and in a short time they will start the construction of a new bridge on the Medellin river, so part of the University will be affected by this.

The short trips I did during this stay in Medellin were only to Llanogrande to enjoy the famouse "vuelta a oriente", to eat some tradicional food in a town called "San Antonio de Pereira" and of couse to see the "Represa de la FE" which is where I am on this picture.

 

Finally we spent 3 days in a country house nearby Medellin, and I could visit my 89 years old grandfather who lives nearby.

The trip is over, so I will be in Bridgeport Conecticut USA visiting my cousing and her family for 5 days and then the trip back home to Linköping which will include this time stops in Miami, New York, Boston, London, Stockholm and finally Linköping.

10km Blodomloppet Linköping 2010

This is my first official race ever, I ran yesterday 10km around Linköping. I have been training for around 2 months, no so constant as I wanted due to several reasons, including the trips. But I manage to score a 55:14 min time and arrive at least not in last position :D. I notice that my shape is not the best even if I put my 100% on the race and improved my time for 10km.

My friend Claudia from Colombia also ran the race, she did the short one race of 5km. I got very motivated to race again, maybe next year the same one, maybe sooner another one :D

Close to my first year ...

almost done with the first year here in Sweden, it's been amazing all the trips, all the people, all the life style I got since I came here, now I'm focusing all my energies in trying to learn some swedish, since I plan to stay here longer it will be handy. At least I can now read some and hopefully soon be able to communicate some basic.

4 cities in 10 days Stockholm, Brussels, Valencia and Barcelona

4 cities in 10 days Stockholm, Brussels, Valencia and Barcelona

it was a great and exhausting experience, and I end up sick but it was great to visit old friends and get to know new ones.

Everything started in Stockholm, I had to vote for the Colombian congress there at the Colombian Embassy, so I stopped there for 2 days, I got to see the national museum and some members of AIESEC Stockholm.

After this, my next stop was in Brussels, where I visited some of my friends from AIESEC Colombia, I got to taste the Belgium beers and did a walk around this nice city.

I loved the festival of Valencia called "Las Fallas", it is a pity how such a nice sculptures get burned after the festival.

I hardly slept in Valencia, so when I arrived to Barcelona I was really tired, I met my friends and went out for a drink but got a bit sick the day after, so even if I walked all day I wasn't feeling that good.

The best thing was to arrive home and start to take a rest from my hard trip and get ready for the next one which was going to be just after a few days.