ELLEskling

The breeze was sharp and crisp as it whipped through the knit of my sweater and tinged my skin with fresh fall air.  Lights changed up Sixth Avenue; green to yellow to red and back again until they disappeared in the effervescent glow of Times Square.  Tucked safely, almost neatly, under the arm of my Swede, I felt safe. And despite the chill, I felt warm.

His phone rang and his deep, throaty voice undulated and exclaimed in the rhythms of its native tongue.   I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, letting his body guide me through the streets.  Beneath our feet a train rumbled past, across the avenue a couple braved the weather to dine outside, and for the first time in months, I felt home.

During the months he was gone, New York had begun to reveal herself to me, stripping off each fantastical layer one day at a time, until finally the magic was gone.  She stood before me, used, broken; many lines crossing her tired face.  The lights were blinding.  The traffic as dull as it was impenetrable.  I had been lied to.  The secret was out.  There was no intangible something in the air, no electric pulse, no ghosts whispering in the crooked streets of the Battery, no tycoons, no secrets but the secret of shame in the gilded townhouses of the Upper East Side.  I was where I should have been, and I was lost.

With this thought I nuzzled deeper under the his arm and listened to the sound of fragile leaves tinkering daintily across the concrete .  His chest vibrated as  he spoke and I clung to every quiver.  As we rounded the block back towards my apartment he finished his conversation and buried his lips in my hair, drawing in a deep breath.  As he inhaled, I let my eyes open slowly.  What I saw amazed me.  New York!  New York!  How I had missed it!  I looked with awe at the street that only weeks ago had been so cold.  Just inside the door, my Swede smiled and beckoned me toward him.  With the hum of the cabs whirring up Sixth buzzing in my veins and the shadow of the Empire State’s moody colors on my face, I happily obliged.  But not before casting one more glance out towards our glittering city.  I can say with some certainty, I saw her wink.

He had brought me back New York, and all the way from Sweden.

xoxo

Elle

Listening To: Fake Empire by The National

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Hej hej everyone!  Sorry it has been SO LONG since I last posted…my Swede came sweeping back into the country and we have been snuggling and making up for lost time ever since!  We just got a new apartment and I am so excited….now begins the fun part: decorating!  We found a store in TriBeCa called “Just Scandinavian” so I think we will head there today and see what we can dig up.

In the meantime, I’m planning my next trip to Sweden.  I’ve never been in the Winter and I hear I should keep it that way, but all this talk of darkness and snow piques my curiosity.  Hm..Christmas in Stockholm or perhaps a birthday celebration in January?  I’m excited to experience the depths of a Scandi winter.

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Put down your sword and crown
Come lay with me on the ground

You come beating like moth’s wings
Spastic and violently
Whipping me into a storm
Shaking me down to the core
But you run away from me
And you left me shimmering
Like diamond wedding rings
Spinning dizzily down on the floor

-Moth’s Wings, by Passion Pit

Listening to: Moth’s Wings, by Passion Pit

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Packing up my little rascal rat dog, Paisley, and heading out to the country life for the weekend.

Listening to: Ambitions by Donkeyboy

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So you want to know what’s going on in Manhattan, the city that never sleeps?  Well forget Serena, Blair, and their “Upper East Side” child’s play.  I’m your new connection between one tiny island and one giant collection of them.  Hi, I’m Elle, and I live in New York and looooooove Sweden!

A year and a half ago, to the day exactly, I probably could not have placed Stockholm on a map of Sweden.  The only time I heard the word “Swedish” was when my mother jokingly called me her little Swedish child, because I grew up so outrageously blonde and blue eyed.  Then, one fine, magical day, (leave me alone), I met Mr. H, my boyfriend.  From that day on, a whole, incredible world has opened up to me.  A world of Swedes, Swedish style, food, clubbing (amazing), Swed-ish (gorgeous and yet very difficult to learn)…I could go on.

Hi!

That world was turned upside down when, in January, his visa expired and he was forced to (suddenly) move back to Sweden.  I was devastated.  We had spent every single day, literally, of a year and change together, and now he was moving across the pond to a different time zone, no less!  He has been gone since May 1st, and it has not gotten any easier.  To his credit, he has made trips here almost every other weekend, sometimes more than that, and I have recently returned from a month long stay in Stockholm (we’ll get to THOSE stories later).  But…needless to say, it’s difficult to be half of an equation.  The emotional strain has been tremendous…the night before he left, I wrecked my car while driving down Fifth Avenue crying hysterically, and rather typically, blasting Kings of Leon and The Airborne Toxic Event.

We FINALLY received the happy news that he has, in his hot little hands, a new visa, and will be returning to NYC on October 1st.  This recent adventure has not only brought me closer to Sweden (and my Sweet Swede) but also made me seriously question some major assumptions about relationships.  I realized that the question isn’t always “How far will you go for love?” but rather, “How long will you stay in one place?”

Stay tuned for the goings on in this city, as I discover Swedish cafes and restaurants, hunt down my own version of Swedish style in New York (and try to bring it to my school, NYU), and find places that, if I can’t be in Stockholm, will at least remind me in some ways of my very much missed second home.

xoxo

Elle

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