It seems polite to begin with introductions. My name is Cheryl. I moved to Umeå in September of 2009 from California. Where I grew up in California it only ever snowed one day every three years... so you can imagine that there was a bit of a shock when I had my first Umeå winter. It's been more than a year since then and I absolutely love this city. I suppose a lot of this blog will be about Umeå and what it's been like being a foreigner. I'm learning Swedish and I do have enough of the language that I can get by in conversations, read, and understand- so if anyone ever has the whim to comment please feel free to use either language. Hopefully I'll eventually get up the courage to post in Swedish myself.

More to come soon! I hope anyone reading this has a wonderful day/afternoon/evening/or night!