Back in snowy Sweden

I came home to Sweden yesterday, and damn, it was cold. On the way from the airport to my house it started snowing and when I got up this morning everything was white.I have, as usual, a lot of culture shocks. The first one struck me in Paris when I changed flights. On guy in the passport control was about as eccentric as the "computer says no"-dude in Little Britain. He took my passport, opened a random page, whitout looking at it, and gave it back to me without a word. Nice. Many people at the airport were rude (or rather, not extremely polite) and I started missing Japan immediately. The positive thing about that though, is that when people are very kind and polite here, they actually mean it. The cabin attendant at the flight from Japan (she was French) spent like 5 minutes explaining about Charles de Gaulle and how to find the terminal for my connecting flight, even though I didn't really ask. She didn't look bothered at all, but actually said something like "Come over her, lets look at the map!" with a happy voice. I like her. I mean, whenever Japanese people are polite it's just a part of their culture or profession, and they might hate you more than everything, but will treat you as a god anyway. Who knows, maybe my Japanese boyfriend is dating me just because it would be rude to break up. Over to Sweden. It's cold outside and the air is extremely fresh and nice. The smell of winter and snow is one that I had long forgotten and I couldn't contain my mirth when I stepped out of the car into our garden to fill my lungs with cold winter air. The air inside the house is also special. Since I didn't spend christmas at home last year, I had totally forgotten about the smell from hyacinths and also the wonderful shine from the advent stars and candle sticks in the windows. Today I have been taking a little walk in the snow and realised that it's impossible to get any farther away from Tokyo than this. When I got back in I started making christmas cookies and listen to Swedish radio, elements I have been missing. But then what? I have been busy all day doing swedish christmasy things, but after this there's not much more to do. My sister is coming home this weekend, which is something to look forward to. Until then I just have to play with the kittens, the two new family members. They are 4 weeks old and the cutest little things in the world. Still, they are a little too afraid to run around and be crazy in the house, and are basically eating, sleeping or wrestling with their mother, Putti Putti. But I think that in one week or so, they will be all around the house, climbing everything and everyone around them. One thing I know for sure is that this year, we will have to put the ornaments in the christmas tree a little bit higher up than usual.