Familj

"Familj" is the Swedish word for "family" and it fits today`s post in two different ways. First, I want to give an update about my work place, RAPATAC, that really is like a big family not only for us volunteers, but also for all the other stuff and the kids that join us in the center. More than that I associate family with the feeling of being home and as I mentioned many times before, I experience that here in Sweden, in Sandviken, and in our apartment with the other volunteers – especially now, after more than one week home with my roommates! But more about that later…

As you got to read in my previous post, my new year started quite smoothly, at work and in my free time. Even though right now we don`t have as much kids at the center as we used to have – probably because of the whole covid situation – we still started our courses and have quite a few kids take part in their activities and in other projects at the center. Starting the new semester, everyone in our RAPATAC-family is really motivated what makes the work atmosphere even better!

Besides that the northern winter here is amazing! Although it didn`t snow that much in the last few weeks, the lakes are still frozen so that we can go ice skating and the skiing tracks have good conditions as well. In general the sun shines almost every day and the sun hours increase what makes everything shiny and sparkling!

Two weeks ago some of us EU-volunteers finally went skiing at a quite big skiing area close to Sandviken. It`s called Kungsberget and has various tracks, especially for me as a beginner. We decided on buying season lift cards because we want to use this opportunity while living so close to a skiing area. Also, for me it is a great way to improve my skills at downhill skiing. So, after buying tickets we went skiing the whole weekend and it was so much fun! I couldn`t wait for the next weekend to come.

But then on Monday morning I woke up and suddenly felt really sick. My roommates felt the same way and we needed to stay home to get some rest. After feeling even worse the second day we decided to take covid tests. It took quite a while here to get appointments and even longer to get the results, but because most of us felt sick anyways we stayed home. Sadly, some of us got positive test results, so we all were in “family-quarantine”, like a real little family! I`m surely not happy about catching covid. We had some though days and I still feel little weak. But trying to see the positive side, I realized that those days brought the four of us together even more. Next to sleeping and resting we had a lot of time to eat, talk and recharge together. Looking back at it, it was really nice to not go alone through that and now even more than before, the others feel like my family!

Last weekend we all finally felt quite good again and went on a little walk at the ocean in the north of Gävle. It was amazing to get some fresh air and make new memories – winter here in the north really is an unique experience! But now, I hope I soon feel healthy and strong again to use my time here in other ways, especially for skiing, ice skating, and more. I also missed work and I`m so excited to be back!

Well, I think that was enough for today. I hope you all had a good first month in 2022 and used it in the best way possible. Sometimes things happen we don`t expect and that may seems bad at the beginning, but there are always good parts about it, remember that! Now I will get some more rest and hope I will be back soon with more exciting posts about exploring Sweden! Stay healthy and have a great day!