My last full weekend in Stockholm is over. I've visited every tourist attraction trip advisor has suggested, tried every Swedish food I could find (yes, even lutefisk), and I've even nearly finished my co-op project in spite of the fact that it was initially intended to take 6 months instead of 3. I think it's most significant that I've gotten to the point where I can spend a whole day lazing around my apartment cooking and reading, leaving only to get groceries, and not feel like I'm wasting time that should be spent exploring. It feels, well, normal.
I sort of expected this to be like an extended vacation, where I have to constantly be doing something and planning the next adventure. And I have, to some extent, done that, but I've also been content to just settle in to Stockholm life. Wake up, eat my filmjolk with muesli and lingon, bike to work, spend my day working alongside people from all over the world, break for fika, finish at a reasonable time, bike home in the dark, and then just relax or run errands or maybe go explore for a bit. It's not the same as life in Boston or Chicago, but it feels just as easy and comfortable even after barely 3 months. It's almost anticlimactic. I thought there would be homesickness and jet lag and culture shock, but it's just life as usual after no time at all.
This next week I will be systematically dismantling my life here. Sell the bike, finish my food, give back my keys, say my goodbyes, eat at my favorite bakery one last time. And this time next week, I'll be back in Chicago, jet-lagged out of my mind and binge-eating deep dish pizza. I am a weird mix of ready for everything I missed about home to be within reach again (have I mentioned that Stockholm doesn't have any good Mexican food? It's a travesty), but also dreading leaving a place in which I have so happily and comfortably settled.
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