2018. Looking back at the first month of this year, it feels like it was an entire lifetime ago. This exact time last year I was probably just heading out for a 14 hour shift at work - the busiest day of the year in room service. What a different life I was living. Anyways, I'm getting nostalgic before even starting this post - let's have a look at 2018!

I started the year on a rooftop, watching the fireworks lighting up the sky over San Pietro, Piazza Venezia, Colosseo. Then I worked my last two weeks in Rome, and suddently my six month long internship there was over. I spent my last day spending time with my new friends, taking in the beauty of Rome and trying to get every last little drop out of the experience.

Before heading back to Sweden, me and a fellow intern took the train to Napoli and spent 24 hours there. I completely fell in love and the urge to go back has only grown since. This city is so full of life and contrast. I need to go back and properly discover it some day.

And then at the end of the month it was time to leave my Italian life behind and return to the cold. I remember having a lot of mixed feelings about being back. On one hand, it was sad to let go of a part of my life I knew would never come back. On the other hand it was suck a relief getting to be in Sweden for a while again after 7 months away - the longest I've ever gone without visiting.

In February I got on a plane again, across the big puddle and all the way to Boston. I've been wanting to go ever since my favorite American Dana left Amsterdam and we had an amazing week together with lots of brunching, exloring, soaking up the unexpected sun and catching up.

When I came back I enjoyed my last couple of weeks in Stockholm, went back to Amsterdam twice before moving back for real - once to go for a viewing for my room and once with dad to set it up.

And then it was back to Amsterdam life again, and I had a pretty great spring! The weather was amazing most of the time and I got sunburnt already in April. I turned 24, spent a lof of time with friends, my brother came to visit for Kingsday, a friend from Rome came to Amsterdam for a couple of day, I went back to Stockholm for a weekend and yeah... Life was pretty great.

When the summer holidays finally came, me and my family went to the south of Italy to do a ten day roadtrip. Enjoyed the sunshine, ate lots of seafood and pasta, explored a bunch of beautiful cities and most of all enjoyed spending time together.

Before school started again I had time to enjoy a couple of weeks at home in Stockholm with my family. The weather was absolutely amazing this summer, barely a day with less than 25 degrees. It was quite the perfect summer.

As for the rest of this year, it hasn't been too eventful. Summer stayed longer than expected and even came back for a while in October. My cousins, aunt and grandpa came to visit, so did Josefine and so did Raj as well. Other than that, I tried to focus more on school and finding a healthy balance, finally started working out regularly again and chose to spend time only with people who give me energy rather than take it. Overall though, a pretty boring fall and my mood wasn't on top. Maybe it was the contrast between all the amazing experiences I had the first half of the year that made the quite uneventful second half feel really dull.

And now as you know I am back home in Stockholm again for the holidays and enjoying the quality time with my family. I am not too big on new years resolution, new year new me kind of thing, but I think I'm going to try to write down some goals for myself for the year to come. In the end though, the first of January is just another day like any other and real change doesn't take fireworks and champagne at midnight to accomplish, but so much more. Either way, I hope you will all have a wonderful ending of the year and an even better start to the new one. Bring it on, 2019!

I can't tell you how happy I am to be home for Christmas. Last year I was working in Rome and didn't celebrate at all, so it feels like such a luxury getting to be at home with my family this year. I got here late Thursday evening, and on Friday the preparations began - first mission was to find the perfect tree.

We always decorate the Christmas tree all of us together the day before Christmas, and this year was no exception. I must say, I think we found the perfect tree this year!

On Christmas morning, me and mom went out on a long walk together. The weather was absolutely stunning, with only a few degrees below zero, snow on the ground and sunshine.

After our walk we got ourselves and the house ready for the Christmas celebration. It was just me, my brother, parents and granddad celebrating together this year, and it was such a calm and peaceful day.

​We ate lots of yummy food, drank some snaps, opened gifts and just enjoyed each others company. So grateful for all the thoughtful gifts I got, and even more grateful for my amazing family. I fell asleep on the couch in the evening with a full stomach and big smile on my lips. And that was Christmas! Today we're just relaxing at home and I've got some studying to get to. I gave myself a few study free days to really enjoy Christmas, but now it's time to start working hard again. Hope you've all had a very merry Christmas! 

Today I had zero classes on my schedule, so I took the opportunity and slept until 9:30. Felt great waking up feeling rested and full of energy, I've been so tired the last few days. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I was actually really excited about today. I managed to book a health and fitness consultation at the gym last night since someone had a last minute cancellation, and I was really happy to get to do it before I go back home for the holidays. So at 11:30 I biked to the gym, where I talked to one of the instructors about my goals and reasons behind working out, took my measurements and finally set up a personalized program for me to do the next 8 weeks.

I got home feeling this satisfied. It just completely rebooted my motivation. I have a really good feeling about this, I needed a little kick in the ass to get going with regular workouts and a healthier lifestyle. I was pretty horrified by my fat percentage and measurements, but hey, it doesn't really matter. The important thing is that I'm doing something about it. No point in beating myself up about how I got here, what matters is what I do about it from now on. Enough talk about that. The rest of the afternoon I've spent getting a couple rounds of laundry done and cleaning my room. Pretty productive for a day off! Now it's time to get some studying done and then I'm heading back to the gym this evening for an hour of Zumba. Hope you're all having a great Tuesday!