Expat Jon takes on the world (well... Sweden)

     Being away from home is not a big deal for me.  We moved all over while I was growing up and now my entire immediate family is living outside of the state I spent most of my childhood in (Florida).  "Home" to me is a trip to my uncle Moonk's house.  That's pretty much the last place with many childhood memories.  So moving here isn't difficult from that aspect.  But the little differences do make me miss home.  One difference is the disposition.  I'm not going to say that people in Miami skip along the sidewalk with a goofy smile and give every passing person a thumbs up.  But if someone is walking around with a frown, they are probably having a bad day.  Here?  The frown is the default facial expression.  It's uninviting.  I look around on the train and everybody looks like they're on their way to a fight.  I normally have a smile/smurk on my face due to my penchant for constantly remembering and re-li...

    It all started when I was 23 years old.  I was still in the Air Force, living in Turkey and at the peak of my physical condition.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I was on the squadron basketball and softball teams.  I did PT with my squadron.  I had just got back from Iraq, and I had nothing but extra time on my hands to hit the gym extra hard (I also didn't have as much access to bad foods).  To me, I looked GOOD.  So one day I was doing my all-by-myself-in-my-dormroom flexes in the mirror when it hit me that I was missing something.  I would look at least 8% better if I got my nipples pierced!  That would put me over the top with my sexy!  My boy OX had them and he was quite the lady's man.  He was in great shape.  My other homie Marco had gotten one nipple done, but he passed out from the pain and didn't get the other one.  He had since removed it.  I'm sure it couldn't be that bad though.  And i...

I am a dedicated fan.  I pick a team and I ride for them until the end.  This hadn't truly been tested really until this basketball playoffs.  First off, I'm from Miami and I've been a Heat fan since before LeBron James joined us (yes I said us, I'm a dedicated fan, remember?) three seasons ago.  They're a front-runner now, so lots of people have been "fans" for these good years, but I've been around.  I digress.  The time difference, combined with the insane late ass start of the games means I have to catch the games at 3am here.  So now I schedule my sleep accordingly. I go to bed for a few hours with my phone set to wake me up 15 minutes before game time.  Then I get up and search for a good online stream on my new favorite website.  Then I put my headphones up so as not to wake anyone.  Side note: gambling and sex web ads probably won't get clicked on by some guy looking up basketball games at 3am.  It's so dumb that those are...

    Everybody has something to say.  Each person feels that what they have to say is important.  Those facts are what made me rationalize starting a blog.  I plan to talk about a variety of things.  I like sports, food, parties, relationships, traveling, politics etc.  So this blog should be pretty diverse.  It'll be more about opening myself up to you, than hearing about a specific topic.  I welcome all to voice their opinions as I learn how to navigate this thing and I guess we're off. A bit about me:     As I write this (June of 2013), I'm 30, married with no kids.  I'm from Miami, Florida, but I've lived in Texas, Chicago, Maryland and some other places throughout my childhood.  At 18 I joined the military and got to make the best friends ever and travel a bit.  I also got to meet my beautiful wife, so thanks Air Force!  My wife and I lived on the east coast for six years (Jersey and Maryland) and we rece...