You're what? Tales from the occassional ex-pat.

That would be the typical response when I would tell people about my plans. This week I reclaimed my status as an ex-pat and considering the off and on nature I think I must really accept the reality that it is not a temporary situation this time but rather an occasional for one for the rest of my life. Yes, I am back in Sweden again. Our last longer term stint in Sweden was due to my husband's job, then a couple of short trips for visits. This time was upon my own accord. I have loads of stints as a kid in Austria and in my 20's was in Germany for nearly two years. While having been more than encouraged by my husband to bring the kids here to live, it took just the situation for me to feel comfortable doing this. That may have never happen except I felt a strong compulsion that K should be fluent in Swedish. Having grown up myself with an Austrian mom and American dad I feel its unimaginable that he not have that same opportunity to speak on a native level such as his sister. Bringing him and putting him in school so that he is completely immersed in the language is the quickest and most effective way I can think of to bring him to fluency.
Having had last week to pack up the kids and 50lbs each of whatever we would need for the next 2.5 months we boarded our series of planes for Sweden and voila, here we are. SO now that we are over our immediate jet lag I am really ready to start blogging about it! So read on if you are compelled or entertained or you really just have nothing else to do.