Dear Friends,                           October 8, 2011

My name is Patricia Jörwall, but I have always been called Patty. I teach English to middle school students (grades 6 through 9) at the Bilingual Montessori School of Lund (www.bmsl.se). I am from the United States of America. I was born in Metairie, Louisiana (outside of New Orleans), but grew up mostly in Little Rock, Arkansas. I first came to Sweden as an exchange student (with the organization American Field Service) in 1986-87. I married my husband (who is Swedish) in 1996, but we did not move to Sweden until the summer of 2005. We live in the woods outside a small village called Blentarp (which is only around an hour from Copenhagen, Denmark by car) in the southernmost province of Sweden (Skåne) with our four cats: Gumman, Nissan, Bamse, and Betty. We have a large garden and we see many wild animals on our land, including deer, different kinds of birds (including birds of prey), foxes, badgers, and hedgehogs.

          My family lives in the United States. My parents, Don and Nancy, live in Little Rock. My younger brother, Rudy, lives in Virginia (but will soon be going to Bahrain for a year with the Coast Guard) and my younger sister, Mabyn, lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and two sons. I also have relatives in Maryland, Michigan, Connecticut, New York state, and Washington state.

          My hobbies are reading, travelling, walking, yoga, gardening, writing e-mails and letters, listening to the radio (especially National Public Radio stations in the U.S.), listening to music (especially classical but I enjoy most types of music) and watching movies. My favourite movies are “A Room with a View” and “Sense and Sensibility.” Another important thing to know about me is that I love animals, especially cats. I had one cat named Desdemona (named after a character in one of Shakespeare’s plays) who lived to be 21 and a half! Gumman is almost 16. I am a board member for Djurens Vänner (Friends of the Animals) Malmö and help out at their animal shelter on a regular basis.

I am very excited about participating in the Global Coalition project since I feel that promoting international friendship and understanding is one of the most important things I can do as a teacher.

                                                     Sincerely,

                                                           Patty