Meet Our Friends: Scandinavian Edition

I'm lucky enough to have made some friends from oversees, some of which I still communicate with. I've never been to visit them in their countries, but I'd like to some day.

This is Anna.

She was an exchange student that lived with my family when I was in the 11th grade. Anna is from Finland and we had a very rocky relationship for the year that she stayed with us. I didn't like all the attention she got, especially from my mom, and so I wasn't especially nice. She came back to the states to go to college right around the time I did, and that's when our relationship improved. We wrote letters, e-mailed, and would get together at mom's house on school breaks. When Anna got married (to her first husband, who was an American) I was her maid of honor and my brother walked her down the aisle.

Anna (also known as Piggy and Sisteri) now lives back in Finland with her third husband and her adorable son. The last time I saw her in the flesh was (I think) back in 2002 when she came to my one year anniversary party. We still e-mail, though not as frequently, and I've used her little boy as the subject of some of my scrapbook pages. It would be fun to get together now that we're both moms, and have our boys play together!

This is Chris.

Chris was an exchange student in my brother's class. She is from Norway, and for a while I didn't like her much either. But that was due to a particularly nasty rumor mill that was going at the time and I should've known better. Chris was almost my sister-in-law, as she and Eli got engaged. He even took a trip to Norway to visit her around Christmastime. The engagement didn't stick, but the friendship did. We had a particularly nice visit when she came years ago with her then-boyfriend Oyvind.

Chris (who is alternately known as Freako or just Norway) and I e-mail a lot, and sometimes she calls me. I actually used to get these great drunken phone calls when she'd be out at the bar. Too funny! Two years ago she came for a visit and we spent a day of her vacation together shopping in Binghamton. She'll be back again next month for a whirl-wind vacation that will include a trip to Hawaii - so jealous of that one! Again, we'll have one day to hang out and catch up.

I'm so glad I have a diverse group of friends - they bring an interesting perspective and always some fun new words to learn! Because of Anna I still listen to a musical group called Lapinlahdenlinnut (Xander likes dancing to some of their songs) and Chris has hooked me up with two of my fave CDs - a Christmas album in both English and Norwegian, and A-Ha's Minor Earth, Major Sky album. They've both definitely enriched my life in fun and unexpected ways!