So… who am I?

My name is Julia. I was born on December 24th 1971, during my parents’ Christmas vacation in Finland. This date is actually the day you celebrate Christmas around here, so I guess you could say my parents got themselves the Christmas present of their lives! :o)
My parents are both Finnish, but I’ve lived in Sweden all my life. We have always spoken Finnish at home though, so together with Swedish and English, I guess I’m tri-lingual.

My husbandPierre and I live in a 2-room apartment in an old house near the sea in the small, beautiful town of Västervik on the south-eastern coast of Sweden. This town is Pierre’s home town, and although I’ve lived in several places, I spent most of my childhood and school years in a small village near by, so this is close to "home" even for me. 

After school and high school I moved to Stockholm (this country’s capital) in 1992 to study Behavorial Science at the University there. At this time Pierre and I also moved in together, and he started studying at the University as well. I never got a degree since I dropped out after 2 years, but then I took some courses in Psychology and English and nevertheless hopefully got a bit wiser.
5,5 years later we moved back to Västervik, and I have made a complete career change; I’m now studying to become a chef (in the village where I grew up actually. Life makes funny turns sometimes –I would never have figured I’d ever get back to Gamleby again…) and hopefully I’ll be finished some time in early 2000. My dream is to have a small, cosy place of my own in the future – a café/restaurant/deli kind of arrangement. Serve salads, sandwiches, yummy snacks and so on. And a couple of nights each month I can keep it open at night, have some live music and serve delicious classy meals.

As for hobbies.. well I’m interested in most things, really. I’m curious about things, and love to learn something new every day. I love animals –we have a really cool cat called Cleo, and I’d love to have a Jack Russell dog (I’m thinking of calling him ”Spike”) and a donkey (love those!) sometime in the future.  Other interests are food and wine (of course!) as well as films and TV ("Friends" rules!), music, Internet, travel and just enjoying things.
Perhaps my biggest interest is people… Interactions, relations, thoughts and functions of the human being. A neverending source of inspiration, consideration and emotion.

Besides my adorable husband and the cat, my family consists of my mother Kristina who lives in Stockholm (she got a job and moved there from Västervik a month after we moved from Stockholm to here!) with ol’ -almost 19 years- red cat Tiger. My dad Stig lives in Gamleby (remember –the village where I grew up and now go to school) and works as a chef/teacher (he’s been a chef all my life, but the apple didn’t fall down from that tree until a couple of years ago) and my sweet younger sister Laura who’s also living in Stockholm, and if you ever go to Arlanda airport, you might just bump into her by the check-in desk!

I will be attending school for quite a while now, and I just finished culinary school; the second part of a year long chef's education that was incredibly interesting, fun and beneficial.
Next mission is to find a neat job...

And some day, not in a too distant future, when our finances are in order, and Pierre and I have traveled some more, I hope we’ll be able to bring beautiful children to this world as well!
 

Pierre about Julia:

Julia is my love and joy. 
 After I had met her for the first time, I remember saying that I had met the girl I was going to marry, to a friend of mine. Of course I was joking, but  little did I know how right I was...
I didn't see her for a long time after that, but about a year later, a sweet girl came up to talk to me at a disco, and guess what -that was Julia. Coincidence? Fate? (Lucky me!!!)

I had to work really hard for this woman but it was so worth it!

Julia is both very intelligent and beautiful, a quite unusual combination. 
(Ever heard the cliché about dumb Swedish blondes?)
She has imagination, charm and a good sense of humor.
I love her very much, and I'm so happy to be her husband!
 
 

I guess that’s it for now… Any questions or comments –feel free to mail me or contact me via ICQ (#2779767)