Valentine's Day

It was snowing the whole day yesterday, winter is in full force now.  Thankfully the temperature is not extreme, I think between 0 to -16 degrees is quite reasonable Swedish winter.  I do like winter because snow can really transform a landscape.  When everything is covered in white, even the usual normal landscape can become quite dramatic and very pretty.

And braving the snow yesterday, I went back to school after 5 years.  I signed up for a 3-month Japanese course because I needed to get out of the house, away from the kids and do something on my own, and also, I've always been interested in the Japanese culture and language.  I attended Japanese course about 20 years ago when I was in the polytechnic.  At that time, one foreign language (I think there was French, Japanese and German) was offered for free for business students, and since Japanese cartoons and tv series were ragingly popular then, I signed up for it.  But now 20 years later, all I can remember from that course was the auntie-looking teacher with immaculately pressed clothes and extremely tight hair bun.  She had a permanent scowl on her face and the only Japanese phrases I took away with me was "wakarimasen" ("I don't understand").... well, come to think of that, I was probably the only one she scowl at, since I always asked questions which were outside and way beyond what she was planning to teach (and most of the time very irrelevant as well....) and when she asked me something, most of the time I'd answer with "huh? wakarimasen...." ^.^

The first lesson was quite ok.  We took turn introducing ourselves in Swedish and then about an hour into the class, we re-introduced ourselves in Japanese, nothing dramatic, everything was cool.  My tongue just needs time to re-program itself to speak Japanese.  Towards the end of our first lesson, the teacher distributed out our homework.  Hiragana!!!! We have to learn 15 characters until next week and a lot of them looks like pretzels.... *groan* now I totally understand what Jovan and Angel are going through when they're learning new Chinese characters.....

When I got home, I had dinner (I made dinner before I went out) and got Ivan to sleep.  Hubby was already home then.  He had to come home earlier then usual (he's working late almost everyday... too bad I'm not technically-inclined in anyway, otherwise I can probably help him a little...) because I was going out.  I know, I'm so lucky to have a considerate husband, who lets me get away with almost everything! And when Ivan finally fell asleep, hubby brought out gifts for me! I didn't expect that he'd go hunting for presents given his crazy schedule! And I received these!

The mug and book ("Start painting watercolor) are from hubby, thank you for always indulging me in whatever crazy hobby I have! The 2 cards are from Jovan.  He wrote one (The red one) for me and signed it off as "hubby" and he wrote the other one for hubby and signed it off as "baby", so sweet! Although one look at the handwriting I knew they were from him, but the thought was very sweet!  And Angel sewed the 2 small bags/pouches for me.  Love the fabric!

I am blessed to be constantly surrounded by love and I am thankful for that everyday.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!