Livet (Just) Lagom

Welcome, Soren!

2011-12-02T21:03:00.003+01:00

A few hours old.

Välkommen, Sören! Our little Swedish meatball!

Born at 23:39, just minutes before Thanksgiving. And he is certainly a little butterball, weighing in at a whopping 8lbs. 11 oz. (nearly 4 kilos!) How did I carry such a big baby?!?

Super Soren!

Momma's Little Turkey.

He's healthy and so far happy, and Stu & I are totally in love with him. Even when he wakes us up at midnight howling, and again at 2am, and again at 4am...if my stomach were the size of a walnut, I'd be hungry too!

Getting his zen on with dad.

My awesome hospital bed...Soren and I spent 5 days on that thing!

First trip to the pediatrician.

First family portrait with his eyes actually open.

Because I really liked reading birth stories while I was expecting this little gubbe, I thought I'd write about ours. It has the word "emergency" in it, but it wasn't particularly dramatic.

I started work at the Smithsonian at the beginning of November (finally! and the job is great!) Because it's a brand new job, meaning I had no leave saved up, my plan was to work until I went into labor, and I essentially did just that.

The baby was only 4 days past his due date, and I had gotten to work at 8:30 Wednesday morning, when my OB office called to tell me that they were waiting for me in Labor & Delivery at the hospital to start the induction process. I guess they had a spot open up and I was next on the list. So I turned right back around (after telling all my new co-workers "Surprise! I'm having a baby today!") and met Stu at home, grabbed all of our pre-packed hospital gear, and headed to the hospital.

Checked in and hooked up to the IV, they determined that I was nowhere near ready to start induction drugs, so they administered a topical cervical dilation hormone, and Stu and I waited about 9 hours for something to happen. I did a crossword puzzle, read a magazine, watched some HGTV. It was really slooooow. Even slower when all you can ingest is clear liquids and jello. I ate at least 5 cups of jello in that period.

But around 7:30pm, I went into active labor on my own. My water broke, which started the most painful breath-stopping contractions I could imagine, and I lasted ONE entire hour before calling for an epidural.

That thing was worth it. Oh man. And I was truly scared of the whole needles and drugs thing before. I was wrong to fear pain relief.

At that point, the doctor (never my own doctor, just whoever was on call. Thankfully, they were all awesome) said I was 100% effaced and 8cm dilated, and we just needed to wait a bit to start the pushing process. I was kinda blissed out on the epidural drugs, though I could still feel contractions and could still wiggle my legs.

Through this whole process, the staff was monitoring my vitals and the baby's. The fetal heart monitor showed that many times, his heart rate dropped after I had a labor contraction (it should do the opposite.) They thought maybe he was sitting on or squeezing his umbilical cord in the uterus whenever the walls shrunk in, meaning he was not getting enough oxygen during those contractions. By 10:30pm, the doctor pronounced that if it were to keep happening, we should prepare ourselves for a Caesarean. At 11:00, after a particularly big contraction and low heart rate read-out, we were told that we needed to get the baby out.

So at 11:22pm, they wheeled me into the OR (thank goodness I got that epidural...they would have had to knock me out completely had I not!) I was awake, but I didn't feel a thing. Stu was nervous, but so supportive. And at 11:39, baby Soren was born, purple, slimy and screaming his perfectly round little head off.

I know our case (fetal heart decelerations) is one of the more common reasons for emergency c-sections and maybe could have been prevented, but though it certainly wasn't the ideal delivery scenario for Stu or me, it was absolutely the ideal outcome: a healthy baby.

We stayed a total of 5 days in the hospital, and those 4 after he was born were priceless. The nursing and doctor staff were excellent and we felt so well taken care of.

Soren is just over a week old now. I'll be home with him until early February (nothing like Sweden's maternity leave policies, that is for sure!) Stu is on paternity leave for a short time, doing nearly everything except the breastfeeding. I am healing, but it is slow-going. I can't get out of bed very easily by myself. I am still on pain meds and anti-inflammatory drugs. The baby is the heaviest thing I can pick up (and with the way he is packing on the pounds, he may exceed my max weightload pretty soon!)

Soren's first Swedish cultural event will take place tomorrow, when we attempt to take him to the House of Sweden's Julmarknad in DC. I'm sure it will be a short visit as they tend to get crowded...everybody and their mother comes out for free lussekatter and lätt glögg, apparently. I love seeing the Lucia procession (they use real candles!) but I doubt if we'll last that long. You have to worry about things like germs, loud noises, and where to discreetly breastfeed as parents! So many new things with a baby!
And maybe more to come. Stu and I have had some comical new parenting moments...the not-so-clean first bath, the trauma of my milk coming in, learning how to swaddle...and we've thought about starting a new blog. One to keep track of the memories we make with this little guy. We'll keep you posted.

Three month update. And snow?

2011-10-30T15:56:00.002+01:00

It has been a full 3 months since my last post on this blog, meaning THREE months since we moved back to the US from Stockholm. So much has changed! And is changing!

But before any real update, happy halloween. We spent our Halloween Saturday night (when most people shoulda been dressed up and drunk) watching movies under piles of quilts, since the heat in our new building hasn't turned on yet. And we had a frickin' BLIZZARD on the East Coast in October, making it way too cold to do anything but make things in the oven and then leave it on and open for extended stretches. We checked: it was 15c degrees in Stockholm; 6c in Washington D.C.

Anyway, Stu & I spent the first nearly two months of our return in Virginia, living with family, catching up with friends, applying to jobs, eating awesome and cheap American food, and watching a whole lotta crappy morning news shows (pathetic, I know, but I didn't realize how much I missed the Today show and Good Morning America.) There was nasty DC August heat, a hurricane or two, an earthquake, a tornado, and now, a snow storm in October.

We moved back in my 7th month of pregnancy, so the slow pace of transition was a really, really good one for me. Finally got our shipment of stuff from Sweden almost a month later than planned, but all intact and with few major problems. But by late September, we still didn't want to *unpack* our Sweden boxes without knowing where at least one job would be. We'd both had a few job interviews but no real bites, and my belly kept getting bigger, which made life a little more stressful since we didn't quite feel settled yet and the range of possible scenarios when Baby arrived was sooooooo wide. Oh, and diapers are expensive.

But within literally 12 hours of each other, Stu and I both got AWESOME job offers in DC, which we both accepted embarrassingly quickly ("Really? You want to employ me? Ohmygodyesyesyes!" It was seriously like a marriage proposal for me. At 8 months pregnant, a shotgun wedding?) Within a week, we bought a car and rented and moved up to an apartment in Arlington, and basically did a complete 180 from the "back-up" plans we had put in place.

Dressed up and gigantic!

Stu has been at his new job at a big consulting firm here in DC for the last few weeks, and so far likes it a lot. I am incredibly excited to start my new position as an art reference librarian with the Smithsonian (the job I have been working towards for years now.) However, I don't know *when* that start date will be, since I have been sitting around waiting for my federal background check to process for the last month, and I have exactly 3 weeks until my due date. Best case scenario: I start November 7, work for 2 weeks, then pop out a healthy baby boy in a quick and pain-free delivery, just in time for Thanksgiving. Buuuut, I am full-term and could literally go into labor at any time, and the government is frickin' slow. So I won't be surprised if I have this baby the day I get told I can start work, then immediately take maternity leave until late January (and the quick & pain-free delivery was probably never in the cards.)

So here we are, in our last few weeks (or days?!?) of being a family of two, still figuring out the day-to-day grind. I had to find a new doctor near our new place, which is really tough when you are on Medicaid and 34 weeks pregnant and in the DC area. And the doctor aside, finding day care in this area is damn near impossible: 10-12 month waiting lists for centers that charge $1900/month tuition for an infant. Almost a year? "Tuition" for a 3-month old?! $1900?!? Needless to say, we were completely ruined by the prospect of Sweden's system of health and child care.

The nursery in process.

And we miss a lot of aspects of our life in Stockholm, the city, our friends there, our awesome apartment. It isn't completely gone, though. I will probably never wear shoes in my house again. We still speak in Swenglish to each other, though I'd say the most oft used phrase is "Vad fan gör du?" by Stu to me, and rightly so, since pregnant women do a lot of strange things ;). We made kardemummakaka last night in an attempt to warm up our frigid apartment. We've gone to an event or two at the House of Sweden. And I have spent more money than I would like to admit at Ikea recently.

But we definitely think, especially with a little clarity from these last 3 months, that moving back to the US was the absolute best possible choice for us. And also that our time in Stockholm was so, so, so worth it. The travels and the experiences, and even the education (though I complained a whole lot about mine!), were life-changing, and I can honestly say we are in a better place in our lives than we would have been without those two years in Sweden.

So that is a little of what we have been up to since leaving Sverige. Aside from a picture or two to announce our new little Swedish meatball when he comes, I probably won't post much more here, and would rather keep it as a kind of time capsule of our lagom life in Stockholm.

Farewell, Stockholm

2011-07-30T14:26:00.000+02:00

I cried on the way to the airport leaving Stockholm.

I hadn't gotten too upset about moving away those last few days. I recognized this before we left...don't pregnant women have crazy hormones, so shouldn't I be a total mess by default? I guess there were too many details to deal with to get too nostalgic.

But while Stu brought our insane number of bags down to the super shuttle on Wednesday morning, I did a quick sweep of our empty apartment and turned off the lights, locked up, pulled our little name tag off the front door, and slid the keys through the mail slot. And it just felt so sad. So *final.* And I started to get upset in the elevator on the way down. It felt like a big moment to close up all by myself. It didn't feel so final moving to Stockholm two years ago. Our shuttle driver probably thought I was nuts.

It is nice to be back in Virginia. It is hot (103f yesterday!!) but we're getting used to it and the time zone shift. Slowly seeing friends. And yesterday, we ran into a Walmart for some soap, and walked out with a cart overflowing, we were so blindsided by the ocean of shiny choices and cheap prices. Just a little culture shock, oh, America.

We'll be back to Stockholm for sure...we fell in love with the city and made too many friends not to visit. And maybe by some strange twist, we might live there again one day.

Swedish cheese slicers

2011-07-26T08:58:00.000+02:00

We packed up our apartment for moving, the boxes have been shipped, our luggage is overflowing, and we fly back to the States tomorrow. Could this be the last blog post on Swedish soil? And I titled it "Swedish cheese slicers"?!?

Yesterday consisted of hauling the remains of remains to the second-hand shop...those random purchases we made while here, stuff that was useful but we had no space for in the luggage, stuff that wasn't very useful (yup, this guy was brought back to his original home!) And after we lugged our stuff to the donation room, out of habit, I poked around the kitchen section of the second-hand shop, on the look out for a cheese slicer.

I don't know if these are typical in the States or not, since we had one at our house growing up (but my mom is Swedish). But they are the best tool! The family I nannyed for had a dozen in their kitchen drawers alone. I wanted to bring a few back, just in case they are tough to find, so for the last several weeks, I have been looking for a few cheap ones to slide into the checked baggage.

No luck. I can NEVER find these at second-hand shops, which must mean Swedes never donate cheese slicers. Often, you will find whole, beautiful sets of Rörstrand dishes, entire sets of silverware, or lovely Kosta Boda glassware in the city mission store, but I have never seen a simple plastic-handled cheese slicer, much less the nice wood-handled ones! Relatives pass on, and their heirs go through the household, deciding what to keep and what to donate: 'The Höganäs pottery goes to Myrorna, but let's hang on to Mormor's cheese slicers.' ?!?

Stu has coveted the Viking cheese slicer since we saw them in the tourist shops in Gamla Stan, but we never managed to buy one. Not to mention they cost more like $30. His little horns would probably bend trying to get through a hunk of Vermont White Cheddar anyway.

So you have to buy them new. No biggie. I picked up a generic one up for a few dollars at a Öob. Nothing special. But it is the strangest phenomenon that with all the other kitchen crap you can find there, I have never spotted the elusive Swedish cheese slicer in a second-hand shop. Let's hope US Ikea has a source!

2011/07/22

2011-07-26T08:26:00.005+02:00

Oslo - Author: Mats Ottdal / Jeksel

Ack! 3 days left!

2011-07-24T10:34:00.000+02:00

Wow, how the time flies. How do we really only have 3 whole days left as Swedish residents?!? I would like to note that on July 19th or thereabouts, we received notification from the immigration office that we could legally stay in the country until August 31st. Thanks, Migrationsverke, a whole week and a half before we ship off for good. Couldn't have told us in June, when our other visas expired and we HAD to make exit plans?!?

Not that we could have really afforded to stay much longer than we are. We haven't secured jobs in the States (not for lack of trying...Stu is throwing CVs out there like candy on a parade float!) And we've been in "Goodbye" mode here, which means lots of lunches, fikas, dinners and drinks out to spend a last few hours with the lovely friends we've met here.

Our apartment is pretty bare. We had to pre-pack this weekend to figure out the last of it...we had roughly 6 suitcases worth of stuff and only 4 worth of capacity. Thankfully my giant, pregnant belly is a weeding device of it's own: can't pull it up or down over the bump? In the pile to Myrorna!

We have a few other things to donate, but we just got news in the last few days that our landlady wants to rent our awesome apartment out for at least 6 months (she had told us she would sell, and we should get rid of everything extra we have purchased.) Her renting is good news for us IF she can get someone in on August 1st, so that we don't have to pay rent on an empty apartment. And at 10.000kr (~$1,600) a month, we would very much appreciate someone having that kind of flexibility. So much so, we would leave them those extra plates and cups and lamps and all that useful stuff we accumulated while living here the last 2 years. Trust me, it is worth it!

The weather is sunny and 70-something, and we are enjoying the last of our time here. But we are also pretty excited to leave. Three days!?!?!

Girl with the Dragon tattoo trailer & Harvard

2011-07-19T20:25:00.000+02:00

The Hollywood version of the first Millenium series book looks shiny and racy:

I liked the Swedish version just fine, but I will definitely go see this one in theaters. (Which happens in December, and we will be living back in the States!)

And apparently, Harvard will have a class dedicated to Swedish crime fiction that will have several lectures dedicated to Stieg Larsson's work next school year!

Dalarna

2011-07-17T23:09:00.003+02:00

Oh my god, we have 10 days left living in Stockholm. TEN DAYS!!!!

We spent this past weekend out of Stockholm, bittersweetly trying to squeeze in friends and a little Swedish summer before we leave for good. Our excellent friends AnnaSara & Andy invited us and Melissa & Kevin to their family "estate" near Furudal, in the middle of Sweden in the region of Dalarna. I say "estate" because there are a gazillion houses and buildings on their property, and the family seem to be related in some way to all of the neighbors.
What's great is that these houses are the cute little 'Faluröd' red & white cottages that you see in all pictures of idyllic Sweden, and they were all in view of a big lake.
And it is Dalarna, which means the furniture in their house and in every other establishment we went into is *awesome*...I have always, always loved the traditional folk designs of the region, and just learned this weekend that it is called Kurbits.

The weather didn't exactly cooperate, but despite the rain, we still managed to pick blueberries in the forest and eat smultrön (teeny, tiny, super sweet Swedish wild strawberries), make flower wreaths, we fika'd (and fika'd and fika'd) swam in the lake (well, not me. I'm a wuss.) we climbed through the pastures and forest, visited Dala horse factories, AND, to boot, I drove a Volvo through Swedish wilderness. Seriously, it doesn't really get much more Swedish than that...we just needed snaps/aquavit and more singing. It was such a great weekend.

Our camera is in and out of commission so I don't have pictures of the cute little fäbod we visited or the lakes or blueberries, but I got some great pictures at the Dala Häst factories at Färnus and Näsnus, where we watched them turn chunks of Swedish wood into cute little orange horses. I bought a green one:

25 boxes, gone!

2011-07-14T10:09:00.001+02:00

25 boxes, gone!

The guy came 2 hours earlier than we were told he would, and two of our wardrobe boxes wouldn't fit in the elevator down from our 5th floor apartment (whoops!) but they all fit on two pallets, and hopefully make it to Gothenburg today. They'll be put on a boat sometime in the next week, and we hope will make it to the DC area in early August. We hope.

Now our apartment feels empty. Well, not totally...we rented it furnished, so we still have our bed, desk, dresser, dinner table, dishes, etc. We have someone coming to look at our couch this afternoon (Finally! cross your fingers! That couch was a bitch to carry in, and we don't want to be the ones to carry it out!)

And tomorrow, we head out for a weekend in the country with friends. Two weeks left in Sweden!!! Wow, I don't even know how to spend the last 14 days. What do you do with two weeks of vacation in Stockholm?

Unisex babies/baby clothes

2011-07-11T18:51:00.001+02:00

Did you hear about the family in Toronto that decided they wanted to raise their kids gender-neutral? I like the idea. We have a friend who has a ton of extra baby clothes that her little boy grew out of before she could even take the tags off, and she offered them all to us only "if we have a little boy." Both Stu & I thought the parameters strange, since we have no qualms with dressing a little girl up in onesies patterned with trains! Because really, at a few months old, our kid wouldn't know the difference...

Though we knew we wanted to find out the sex of our little nugget before he was born, Stu & I actually thought about not telling anyone, to avoid the inevitable gendered gifts in blues-for-boys or pinks-for-girls (I like both colors, personally.) Of course our next thought was "Then we'll get all yellow and green stuff" and I don't think I could handle a wardrobe and playroom of all yellow and green. And we are excited to share our news, so we couldn't keep it to ourselves anyway.

I know gender and sex are two different things, one being socially constructed and one being biological fact, and I don't have anything deep or earth-shattering to add to the debate on kids and gender. But despite the good intentions of what the Toronto couple is working toward, I think our society makes it hard on kids not to 'fit in' to some kind of box...it is human nature to try to figure something/someone out by associating them with what is already known. Still, I like the idea of letting a kid's personality grow more naturally, and without the shaping of gender-specific toys or outfits. Like Angelina & Brad's daughter, who somehow has gotten labeled as a lesbian at age 4 for liking "boy" things.

If I had unlimited money, I would dress our kids in all Polarn O. Pyret.

I'm a convert, having spent a year as a nanny for three squirmy Swedish kids with their own very distinct personalities and a penchant for getting dirty. ALL Swedish kids wear this brand (okay, SO much for my big "let kids be individuals" thing...Swedes are notoriously conformist.) But I still like their good quality and the relaxed approach to patterns and styles. They do make pink dresses in flower prints, but there are far more uni-sex kid clothes in their line-up than most brands can offer.

Their stuff isn't budget-priced. I bought my first pair of mamma jeans from PO.P last month and felt like I should be eating cheap falukorv for the next week to make up for the cost. But the jeans look good, and will last me the entire pregnancy (Well, I hope. Because if they don't, it means I gained too much weight and I can't pull them over my butt!) But I'd still buy them for my kids. Come to think of it, maybe I should be scoping out Swedish second-hand shops for used PO.P stuff before we leave! Of course, I haven't bought a thing for this kid yet, aside from the father's day gift for Stu (that I purchased before we knew we were having a boy, thinking a little girl would be just as subjected to her pappa's Eagles fever as a little boy would.)

Oh, we do think we decided on a name! We reserve the right to change it up until the day he is born (and maybe even after!) so we probably won't be sharing it anytime soon. Don't want anyone to get too attached. It is pretty darn Scandinavian, though. Poor kid...let's hope he likes his heritage later in life!

Moving progress - part 1

2011-07-10T17:51:00.000+02:00

We fly one way from Stockholm to the DC area on July 27, so still nearly 3 weeks until the big move.

BUT our stuff leaves us on Wednesday. The cheapest option for overseas moving is to pack-it-yourself and send it on a boat, which we did on the way over here in 2009. We could have forked over nearly $4K to have a company pack us up and handle all the details, but I guess like pain. To be honest, in paying that labor, we would have been paying for someone else's time, and Stu and I have lots of time right now. And, bottom line, it costs almost FOUR GRAND! Our DIY option will be closer to $1500. Not quite the $700 it cost to come over, but what can you do? Thanks, crappy US dollar exchange rate!

Regardless who packs, the boat option generally takes a month for your stuff to find its way to your door on the other side, so we're sending it off a little earlier than we are sending ourselves off. We managed to get a ton of it done in the week after graduation and before our big trip to France & Italy. But these last few days have been our final take-it-or-leave-it decisions on what gets put on the boat, what gets crammed in our 4 checked bags & 2 carry-ons, and what just gets tossed/donated.

Hooray, moving! So far, we have 26 large boxes filled. We came to Stockholm with 15. And granted, Stu doesn't let me *do* any heavy lifting, but I still acutely feel the stress of moving and heaving boxes, what with the fact that they are TAKING OVER our apartment.

But after Wednesday, they'll be gone. I've sold a large chunk of our other stuff on Blocket (ahem, we still need someone to buy our lovely red pull-out couch...it sleeps real comfy! Promise!)

Stu, taking apart our 3 large wardrobes for a Blocket buyer. Now our bedroom is so empty.

So Thursday, we'll have a pretty empty apartment to enjoy for a last 2 weeks. So sad.

France, briefly

2011-07-09T17:59:00.001+02:00

We spent just over one week in France, starting in Paris with Stu's competition to "green" a major international manufacturing industry. His team didn't win, but man, they really did a great job! They were competing against teams from India, China, and Malaysia among others, and blew the presentation to the panel of judges out of the water. And it was a great idea, one that needs to be implemented eventually and his team plans to protect, so hopefully, there will be life-after-competition!

The Q&A session in front of the judges


My very corporate-looking husband. Somebody give this guy a job!


We even spent a day at the Paris Air Show, the grand daddy of international air fairs. It was fun (sort of).

The SSE Team, which I was made an honorary member of.

Our hotel was just blocks from the Eiffel Tower, and though he had a jam-packed schedule, I got a little sight-seeing free time in and hung out with friends.

Notre Dame, check!

Stu got ONE day of actual non-competition Paris time, and said his trip would be complete with A) seeing Notre Dame B) Going to the Louvre and C) eat a crepe. We got two out of the three, since we generally kept ourselves stuffed to the gills with heavy French food, we didn't have any late-nite crepe callings. BUT my friend Alex is a tour guide at the Louvre, and she gave us our own awesome tour of the museum on Friday evening, so I think B) outweighed the crepe thing altogether.

Anabelle and I

The heaven that was Ble Sucré, which I had heard of the *last* time I was in town. Seriously, when in Paris, go to there.

The only picture I got with Alexandra

The Louvre pyramid, from the inside

After Paris, we took the train with Anabelle down to Saintes (outside of Bordeaux) where our friends Pierre & My got married. We stayed in a nun's cell in an abbey built in 1046.

It started off so proper and Catholic, but after many bottles of lovely French wines and champagnes and all the gazillions of toasts that Swedes seem to do at weddings, by the end of the night (or should I say early, early morning?) it was basically utter debauchery.

The groom, the best man, some unidentified Frenchy, and Stu. Dancing?
It was 3am. I was asleep.

Then we rented a car and road-tripped our way from the Languedoc through Provence to the French Riviera--from Bordeaux to Nice--over the next several days.

French chocolate milk. It really makes you feel healthy, drinking something called "Candy 'Up"

We stopped the first night in Carcassonne, the fortress city with walls built up by Celts, Romans, Goths, Franks, Visigoths, and Ostragoths over time. They call the towers 'witches hats,' done in an 1800s renovation. It is a COOL little city, and we stayed in a super charming B&B.

The view of the cathedral from our bedroom window

Then we drove through Provence, stopping in Nimes, where they have some of the most intact Roman ruins in the world. We *would* have gone into their amphitheater (a smaller, better version of Rome's Colloseum) but Bobby McFerrin was playing later that evening, so we skipped it. But how cool to see a concert in a 1st century Roman ruin!? Portishead and Ben Harper are making stops later this summer...

Then we drove through the Cote D'Azure, staying one night in Antibes, in a lovely little hotel with a pool and a short walk from one of the few sandy beaches. It was super relaxing. That is, *after* we finally found the place (thanks to the wrong Google maps directions in a roadwork zone and rush-hour traffic in the blinding sun!) Starving, we ate at the closest restaurant, which also happened to display every snooty French restaurant stereotype you can think of, and our 2 small plates of pasta and one glass of wine for Stu cost a whopping $74. Antibes is beautiful, but also not cheap.

Antibes, at sunset

Our tiny stretch of sandy beach

The rocks of most of Antibes coast line, and a little friend

We spent our last night in Nice, which is really, really nice! The old town is adorable, there are some lovely museums (like the awesome contemporary MAMAC, below) and we used our guide book reference for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant right on the water. They didn't speak a word of English, so after a few "Oui, oui, oui"s and not getting a menu, we proceeded to receive FIVE courses of divine all-veggie food. If you go to Nice, go to La Zucca Magica.

And then super early, we took the train from Nice to Florence, which started the Italy leg of our final European tour...

Real baby bump

2011-07-08T20:12:00.003+02:00

Finally! It only took 3 days of eating French pastries to get me to pop, but it happened!

June 3, at 16 weeks along, in Stockholm. Not much of a bump.

June 27, at almost 20 weeks along, in Carcassone, with full-on pregnant lady stance and all!

We ate too much in the land of croissants (the 3 main ingredients to all French cooking: butter, butter, and butter). And there were no vegetables anywhere! Then we spent a week in Italy, where I pigged out on pasta, pizza and gelato. Because, come on, it was Italy. I had no choice.
My belly is still pretty small, but at least it *looks* like there is a baby in there, not just too many macarons. He is now the size of a banana, which doesn't make a ton of sense, since last week at the half-way point, he was the size of a cantaloupe. Isn't a melon generally bigger than a banana?

The only picture of my actual belly, attempting to walk on the rocks in Antibes.

But better than being actually visibly pregnant is that I can finally feel the little guy kicking! I had a little wasabi at lunch today, and he went nuts! I don't know if that means he liked the spice or not, but it was still a nice feeling for me. Would it be considered fetal abuse to eat wasabi just because I like to feel him kick? Because I am seriously considering it.

Home, not home

2011-07-07T19:30:00.000+02:00

We're back from our big ol' contesting, mediterranean Europe touring, wedding crashing, babymoonin' vacation through France and Italy. We had a late flight out of Rome, and after a dirty, sticky hot day of dragging our butts around that too-busy city, waiting for the time to head to the airport (seriously, the last 6 hours felt like we were on Survivor), we were SO happy to be HOME. In Stockholm. To our impossibly comfortable bed, our awesome little apartment, and absolutely perfect Swedish summer weather.

But its only 'home' for a few more weeks! Then 'home' is back to the DC area, where we will be living with my mom until we figure out the next step (i.e. where jobs take us). Which is great...I love DC. And going 'home' to mamma's (meaning: the suburbs) still means we have a ton of friends really close by. But it is weird. I am going to miss my Swedish bed, and having our own lovely little place, and 74 degree sunny days, especially when its generally 94 in Virginia. And I'm going to miss a whole lot more, too many people, places, things, and ideas to list. Not so many people get to say they just picked up and popped over to live in Europe for a few years, and I feel so lucky that we got the chance and the experience. And had a great time doing it!

It's a...

2011-06-20T20:03:00.000+02:00

boy!

The evidence is in the middle picture, where the aptly placed arrow is pointing.

We got a million pictures from the clinic this time!

All fingers & toes, all heart chambers present and functioning, an amazing little spine. Look at that thing!
Our due date was pushed a little earlier. Baby & I are sporting an anterior placenta, which explains why I haven't felt any little kicks or punches. Now we just gotta figure out some mutually-agreeable boy names.

So that means we are ready for France & Italy!
Back in July...

Barnmorska meetings

2011-06-20T14:05:00.001+02:00

Today is a busy day. Well, I've basically beached on the couch all day, nursing my poor pricked finger, so maybe I should amend that statement. Today is a busy day, for Stu. My very clever husband has TWO interview with big Swedish newspapers, smooshed in between our TWO big pregnancy appointments. The interviews are because of the competition he and his very clever team are participating in two days in Paris. Cross your fingers and hold your thumbs for them...it could be a big ol' monetary prize if they win (and as consolation prize, we get to spend 4 days all-expenses-paid in Paris if they don't.)

But this post is about babies. This morning, we had our second appointment with our Swedish midwife, our barnmorska. You can read a little more about the funny Swedish translations of pregnancy terms here. We had our first appointment at 10 weeks along, when we had a long chat with our very experienced midwife and about a million blood tests. I cannot handle giving blood...I am scared of needles and have very low blood pressure, and tend to get all tense then lose all feeling in my whole body. That 10-week appointment was the pits. Then a few days later, as is just my luck, they called to say they had to do several over again.

Compared to the US system, I was surprised at how late that first appt was! When I called knowing I was about 5 weeks, didn't they want to at least confirm the pregnancy? Or give me some don't-eat-these advice? Or prepare me for the insanity of the first trimester? Nope. But somehow, I managed to figure it out (thanks to websites like whattoexpect.com and babble.com's awesome pregnancy blogs). And somehow, I've managed to keep this little person alive. Sometimes I don't know *how* I manage that, but we heard a heartbeat this morning, so things look good.
And thank god we did. The week or so leading up to our first ultrasound (when they test for the possibility of down syndrome and other genetic disorders) I was SO nervous that there would be no heartbeat, and they'd tell me I'd miscarried. It made me cry, it kept me awake. I've had the same anxiety this past week...I haven't felt all that pregnant for weeks now (not really showing, not feeling any movements, no obvious symptoms). So the heart monitor made me feel worlds better this morning. And it was well-timed good news, since it was after she pricked my finger, which also makes me woozy and fainty and see spots. It was also our last barnmorska appointment, since we're moving back to the US in just over a month.

And this afternoon, in about an hour, we have our almost-half-way ultrasound, which is when most couples find out whether they are expecting a boy or a girl. Oh, I'm hoping this sweet potato cooperates...I want to find out! I am probably jinxing myself just saying that. Just writing this post!

I haven't had any dreams or 'feelings' about the sex. My best friend had a dream which involved getting upset at Stu for leaving a whole bunch of baby girl clothes in our washing machine in our old DC apartment. Stu & I have been calling 'it' a girl ('cause you can't call it 'it'!) I used to think I was more of a girl-y kind of mamma, but since taking care of sweet little boys, I'm much more open. I will be happy regardless. So we'll see! In less than an hour! Woot!

Baby's first concert

2011-06-17T14:17:00.001+02:00

We introduced our unborn child to gypsy punk on Wednesday.

I'm just hitting the 18 weeks mark now and haven't felt so much as a flutter from my belly yet, so I was SURE that going to see Gogol Bordello at Gröna Lund this week would be the Balkan beat that made this baby jump.

Nope.

But it was still a good time!
It was the first time we had been to the Tivoli/amusement park on Djurgården, where the band was playing for 'free' (you had to buy tix to the park, but not the show.) It started off with a little rain, but cleared up and got quite nice.

125+ year old Gröna Lund was fun! We didn't ride any roller coasters, just walked around with friends and played a game or two. It is a great place to see a show...stora scen has a huge stage and viewing area. Between us, Stu & I have seen Gogol Bordello 5 or 6 times now, and this was the first time for me outdoors instead of a small smoky club. You could breathe!

But no baby kicks. They say any day now, but man, if Gogol Bordello didn't get him or her excited, I'm a bit worried about this child's future personality!!

Jordgubbar

2011-06-16T12:38:00.001+02:00

First Swedish strawberries of the season! (for us, anyway).

They call little kids (or friends when you are older) 'gumman' or 'gubban', which is little old woman or man. Jordgubbar translates to little ol' 'earthmen' or 'dirtmen', kind of. I think it's cute.

Getting Ready to Move and Travel Plans

2011-06-11T19:09:00.004+02:00

So, we're project people. No sooner have we finished up school and finally don't have any deadlines overhead, and we're already on to a new project... this time, the move. Plus, we're doing a farewell European road trip through France and Italy.

The Move. We saved all our boxes. I know my Scottish Grandmother would be proud: the plaid blood, as my mother calls it, makes it difficult to throw things away. And, boxes are useful! So thanks to our good fortune of having a storage unit in the basement, we kept them. We'll be donating a lot of clothes and such to the second-hand shop Myrorna, I think, and then deciding what we really need to take with us. Everything else must go.

The Trip. I feel pretty good about this one. Besides our great luck in getting to Paris, we've a friend's wedding in Bordeaux, a road trip through Carcassonne to Antibes, a little of Provence and a last night in Nice. Then we're taking a train to Florence for a few days, another wedding at a villa in Tuscany, then meeting friends from the US for a few days in Rome! Since this is our last big trip before leaving Sweden behind, plus the last vacation sans children I think it's fitting that it's a bit over the top. What do you think? It sounds fabulously bougie. I'm worried that my pants aren't tight enough.

Figuring out the details today was pretty exciting. I know the next few weeks will rush by us. Then it will be late July and we'll be gone. We're sad to leave Stockholm, but excited to return home. We have something like just 20 days of meals and dishwasher runs left in our apartment. Have to think of all the food we'll have to eat, and what dishes to box up. Finally, what the heck do we do with all this peanut butter!? Anne has amassed quite the stash. We'll have to parcel it out to worthy expats...

Master's degree #2 and the exhibition

2011-06-11T09:51:00.005+02:00

We had the most excellent time with Patti & Maggie last weekend. It was like a girls' weekend (+Stu, but he fits in nicely with the girls) with lots of eating and drinking and time outside. It was so great to have them visit before we move, and celebrate a little early about being done with school.

But this week was a big one. Thursday, I woke Stu up with the sweet sounds of me wretching in the toilet...I guess the whole morning sickness thing comes back when you feel stress? Because Thursday morning was my thesis defense, which I had to survive to graduate that afternoon! Aside from the sickness and then my class mate's alarm malfunctioning and thus us beginning an hour late, it all went very well. I now have a few edits to make before turning it in to the department for grades and archiving. And, most importantly, I now have a SECOND master's degree under my belt. Woot! Now the bigger question, am I employable?!?

Well, I darn well should be as a curator, since I also finished installing the small show I put together at Moderna Museet this week! It looks really professional, IMHO. Here is a little information online in English (though, admittedly, with some typos. Where did my italicized titles go, or that last 's'?)
I took pictures over the few days of installation, which I will post here whether you are interested or not. This blog has the secondary function, aside from communication, of 'archiving' our experience here, and I think its a project I want to remember. Regardless, it has been a lot of fun. I have felt a little insecure about some decisions, but I've still had to make them. I have done a ton of research and planning and installation, along with the *amazing* staff at the museum (I cannot get over how professional and nice they are!) It feels pretty good. And admittedly, it also felt pretty good when both the museum's director and deputy director came through and gushed about how good it looked. Almost like they were surprised about how good it looked, but regardless, I'll take the praise!

Day 1, a bunch of empty display cases

Day 2, placing the artworks, wherever they would actually fit!

"Closed for Re-hanging"

All of the works in their right places, display cases in their right positions.

Day 3, putting on the glass covers

The very funny conservator cleaning the inside of a case, while making Anchorman jokes about being in a glass cage of emotion.

Day 3, wall texts in place! Wow, I hope people read them.

And, we're done!

I love this wall. I love Henri Matisse. Holy wow, I got to put a Matisse in my school art show!

In the middle is the TV screen showing a sound piece in conjunction with one of the books. There are also two other screens showing book films I planned (and Stu edited!), from a selection of works in the show, with the idea that visitors can better see the three-dimensional object via film than they otherwise can under glass.

And then there are lots and lots of artists' books. Each book has a corresponding 100-word text to give it some context, so I hope people read them. You may not even realize what you are looking at without them! And each also had to have a specially designed cradle for it, so the conservator and prints & drawings technician worked incredibly hard to make these in a very short time span.
One of the other curators (one the museum actually pays for their work) wanted to use a few of the works I had already earmarked for exhibition, in addition to needing nearly ALL of the large display cases in storage for another show. I held on to the artworks, diplomatically, but since he had left post-it notes on so many of the best display cases, the technicians and I had to scrounge for whatever could be found. Surprisingly difficult, but it all worked out. I didn't have to cleave any of my darlings due to space issues. It just meant I could not group the books according to any particular theme; they just got placed where they fit.
There is no real 'opening' event. We had talked about it quite a bit, and early on, I had been excited about it. But in the last few weeks, I'd just gotten too busy and tired to pursue an opening or to think of a curator's speech, so it opens to no fanfare this morning at 10am. If you are in Stockholm any time this summer, go see it!

36 hours in Stockholm

2011-06-04T11:07:00.000+02:00

Maggie & Patti are visiting from Ghent & Utrecht! It is utterly gorgeous in the city. They'll be here for the long holiday weekend, and we're going to fit in some of the things on the NY Times "36 Hours in Stockholm" list...I've never been to Junibacken!

A little bump (after 10pm)

2011-06-03T10:12:00.003+02:00

At 16 weeks, I'm not really showing a baby bump yet. The kid is the size of an avocado, but I just have a little extra mush in the middle (well, all over...morning sickness and thesis writing made it tough to exercise!) Kinda like I need to lay off the twinkies (or rather, the kanelbullar.) They say for your first, it could be 20 weeks before even really looking pregnant, and that just seems SO far away. I have a friend who is a few weeks ahead of us, and she's been showing since week 14. At week 18, she looks properly pregnant. And I just look like I need to step up the cardio.

But despite this, I did buy my very first pair of maternity jeans yesterday. I still fit my normal pants, but buttoning them is either A) incredibly uncomfortable or B) damn near impossible. So I bought a pair of those stretchy-waisted jeans that you just pull on and off...they are *awesome*. I may never go back to regular button-up/zipper-fly jeans again.

Of course, I cried a little inside after buying them from the ridiculously adorable Polarn O. Pyret Mamma section here in Stockholm, then seeing they sell the exact same jeans for much less than half the price at the PO.P online shop in the States. Seriously, I paid nearly $100 for these jeans here, and they sell them to Americans for $40. Two months, people, two months and we'll be back to a country we can properly afford.

Anyway, here's a bump-y picture, after a giant spaghetti dinner. Generally, my belly feels about the size of this sculpture that sits on Sveavägen, between Handelshögskolan and Statdsbiblioteket, so I emulated it on a walk last night.

And just to point out how far we've come since winter, these pictures were taken around 10:30pm. It was still totally light out, and it doesn't even fully get dark black out at all. Just kind of a chocolately darkness. I was woken up at 2am by our neighbors doing karaoke Carole King (Why?!? I woke up to some girl's terrible version of 'Natural Woman'!) and it was just beginning to get light out again.

Woot, welcome to summer in Scandinavia.

Moving!

2011-06-02T12:06:00.004+02:00

It is decided. We fly back one-way to DC on July 26, moving back to the States officially!

I hadn't bothered to apply to a single job in Stockholm this year, so I wasn't expecting amazing job offers on my end. Stu had some great leads on jobs here, but none materialized as solid offers by our self-imposed deadline. So, with our residence visas expiring June 30th, a whole 2 weeks after Stu graduates, we figured, why drag it out? Holy crap, June 30th is in 28 days! Thankfully, we could apply for short-term extensions to finish the move (and keep health insurance!)

We have a super summer vacay planned, with a week in France (including 5 days in Paris, which are fully paid by major int'l company Stu is competing for!) then a week in Italy, with spending time with lots of friends in between. Then a few last weeks of decadent Swedish summer before the big move.

This weekend, we've got friends visiting, but starting next week, we start packing! I've already posted a ton of stuff for sale on Blocket (anybody in Stockholm looking for a pull-out couch? Some great Ikea chairs? Lamps? Coffee pot? Other random household goods? Here's a link to pictures of some of the stuff: https://picasaweb.google.com/lagom.sverige/Collages?authkey=Gv1sRgCPz1p8bS2vSvWw&feat=directlink#)

Uggg, another overseas move! We got so lucky coming over--it was cheap, the company was good, everything turned up on time and intact. But of course, that shipper is out of business and I don't expect it to be nearly so cheap on the way back. And to boot, I'm preggers, and we don't have jobs, and DC is hot & miserable in the summer. I hate moving.

But I am still so, so, so excited to move back. I've been pulling for this for months now. We have had such a great two years in Sweden, but it just feels like it is time.

But what will happen to the blog?

Thesis complete!

2011-05-30T12:34:00.001+02:00

I turned in my thesis today! Not too shabby, if you ask me. I am officially done writing about the complicated yet fascinating history of artists' books.

With the exhibition preview out of the way, and the paper complete, the last hurdle is a thesis defense on June 9, the day I officially graduate. And that promises to be pretty lame...out of 9 people in my program this year, ~~I am likely the ONLY one who finished the paper on time and will be doing a June defense. I don't even know if they'll make me do it?~~ I am one of two who will defend next week. Surprising, since I finished it and I have been PREGNANT since February...it couldn't have been that tough for my young and not-with-child classmates. To be fair, though, some have decided to go for double-length theses: ours only needed to be a piddly 30 pages as it is but one-half of the final project, though we had the option to do a 60-pager, which sets you up for PhD programs later. Of course, I went for the normal requirement...PhD? No, thank you.

So, I've got the small Moderna exhibition opening on June 11. Stu is done with his internship/consultant work tomorrow and is done with school a week after me. And then we travel for a few weeks, first to France, then to Italy. We'll be visiting the US in late July.

We have a meeting set with our landlady on Wednesday, which is when we have to officially decide whether we are staying put in Stockholm or moving back to the States (and leaving our excellent apartment in Vasastan!) She needs to A) know we want to stay to send our info for the building's Board approval before the July holidays, or B) know we are leaving to find new renters! We are leaning one way heavily, but haven't completely made the final decision. So Wednesday, I guess we'll have to know! What a strange feeling.

At the moment, I don't quite know what to do with myself. Very little schoolwork left, but I'm not on vacation just yet...

Hair woes

2011-05-26T12:03:00.003+02:00

There are some pretty strange and/or terrible symptoms of being pregnant: being constantly dead-tired, having your gums bleed, bloating so bad you look like you swallowed a Thanksgiving turkey even in the first month or two, wanting to throw up when you look at things like onions.

Another I've had is my hair has gotten really CURLY! I've always had a little wave, but my hair has gotten this weird kinky curl thing going on, and I just don't know how to deal with it! I hate blow-dryers. I don't like products. I have no artistic vision. Some women can and do it well...I suck at hair.

I have had bad experiences getting my hair cut in Stockholm. It's expensive for nearly all salons. I've tried those on the cheaper end since I don't think it is worth $60+ for my 1 cm trim, but I have never liked what I walked out with. Once, my hair was a half inch longer on one side of my head. Another time, she didn't even wash it...she just sprayed it with water, which she got all over my face, and then it didn't even look like I got it cut.

Part of that, I think, has to do with the fact that the stylists in a lot of these lower-end places are not actually Swedish, and as immigrants, many speak pretty terrible English. I realize how that sounds...I live in Sweden, I don't expect everyone to cater to my English. But when you are getting your hair cut and they don't understand my mime act to describe 'layers' (much less the word itself!), communication is pretty darn important! And then you spend the next 30 minutes in complete silence as they spritz & clip.

The last place I went to a few months ago was much nicer & pricier, and the guy gave me a a scalp massage and spent a lot of time and care to cut my hair. I walked out with a flat-ironed blunt cut...it looked really good. For 2 or 3 days. Until I washed it. You can't blunt-cut wavy hair! I've been cone-shaped for weeks now.

So now it is *curly*. I have desperately needed a trim or something, but I decided to go with the opposite end. There is a hair school 2 blocks from our place, and it is always packed! They only charge 120kr for a wash & cut ($18) and the stylists are young, hip, and Swedish. I actually had a great experience. When she wasn't quite sure when I was describing the shape of the layers I wanted, she got a book of images! When in doubt, look at pictures. But her English was perfect, so we ended up chatting the entire time...it was almost like I was in a different country. And granted, it took longer than it needed to, so by the end of the hour and a half, I was *starving,* but totally worth it to not have a weird-shaped head for the foreseeable future.

But man, I hope these curls go away after this baby is born.

Lök

2011-05-24T12:56:00.003+02:00

I have a real appetite again, not one that is based solely on white foods like pasta, potatoes, and bread (aka, things that don't smell when you cook them.) And I am over most of my food aversions that plagued the first trimester.

I do still have a problem with dried apricots and onions. We had pyttipanna the other day, and I spent a good chunk of dinner time picking out all the tiny little diced onion remnants--pyttipanna is basically just hash, so the dish is half onions! And the suggestion of 'vidalia' could get you punched in the mouth.

A few weeks ago, I had to hide from myself the onions we had leftover in the cabinet...just looking at them made me feel sick.

Yesterday, I found them again. Several had sprouted long green tendrils, like little alien life forms that were trying to bust through the bag of rice I had smooshed them behind. Whoops!
Think they are still edible? Not that *I* plan on eating them (and if Stu eats them, he might get punched in the mouth...onion breath is just as bad.) But technically edible?

Picture post: Millesgården

2011-05-21T21:51:00.001+02:00

A gorgeous Saturday meant we could take the afternoon off from school work (not really, but we did it anyway). We went out to Lidingö to Millesgården, the lovely house museum and gardens of the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles, and had a picnic.

Preview week at school

2011-05-20T08:21:00.001+02:00

My week of presentation at Stockholm University is over! Though I have organized my "real" exhibition at Moderna Museet (now opening June 11! Until August 21! Come see it!) we had to present something in our space on campus. So I put up a "preview" of the show--basically some images of the works that will be in the "real" thing, and I showed the films I made of several of the works. Nothing fancy.

The big stress factor was that yesterday was my final examination presentation, so even though the show hasn't opened at the museum, I theoretically have already been graded on it. Stu has become a *master* at presentations (I'm not kidding...he is good!) and he made me a fancy powerpoint, and I managed through an hour long presentation of what has consumed approximately one-third of my life for the last 4-5 months (the other thirds being thesis and baby.)

And they liked it! They gave me some comments and a little critique, and some very good ideas for other things, and a lot of encouragement. So all-in-all, very successful. I was truly scared of one of my examiners and thought he might just tear the whole thing down, but it was all for nothing. Woot! I celebrated by drinking half a light beer and going to see Thor in 3D, where I ate an entire tub of popcorn myself. Seriously, Stu ate like 6 kernels.

So now, I have exactly 10 days to finish my thesis (my thesis advisor thinks I can do it---hopefully she is right!) Graduation is June 9, the opening is June 11, Stu graduates June 17. We find out whether we will we have a boy or a girl on June 20. We head to Paris and points south on June 21, then on to Italy, and back to Stockholm July 6.

But then what?

subway rant

2011-05-18T13:39:00.001+02:00

Warning, this post is rife with generalizations.

I have heard countless times how closed-off Swedes can be in public--in the store (don't expect to be helped by the salesperson!), in the street (don't expect a smile, much less even eye contact), on public transportation (watch out for giant swinging bags that will hit you in the head while the person passes you, and don't expect an "excuse me"). I'll admit that if Stu & I stay in Sweden through this pregnancy, I am dreading that 9th month on the tunnelbana. And I am already super sure I will never be offered a seat on a crowded bus. But what has been bugging me lately is the inability of people in Stockholm to get ON to the subway car like considerate human beings! Swedes are generally awesome at standing in an orderly line, or taking a number form a little box to preserve their sense of order. You see it everywhere: the pharmacy, the bank, the alcohol store, the computer parts place. Well, almost everywhere. They don't queue for the free bus to Ikea...that is a free-for-all.

But on the subway, people stand like giant, squat buffalo directly in front of the doors before they open, totally oblivious to the fact that there are a dozen people who need to get *off* the train before they can on. They could stand a little to the right, or maybe a little to the left. Stockholm train doors stay open for a decent amount of time...they aren't going to miss it! And several of them will stand like buffalo together, making you have to elbow your way through them to get off the train. Ah, it irks the crap out of me! I don't remember the general population of subway riders in Washington DC being that difficult. Or New York, or Chicago, or San Francisco (granted, they all have their "charms", but at least there is some general common sense.)

Okay, I think I'm done now. It feels better to get that off my chest.

News

2011-05-15T10:01:00.001+02:00

First thing's first: Azerbaijan? There were far better bands in last night's Eurovision Song Contest finals than who won. Seriously, Iceland? Ireland? Denmark? Bosnia-Herzegovina? Moldova!? Way more fun. To be honest, I was amazed that Sweden did as well as they did (a really, really close third place) considering our contestant was ManBoy.

Second thing, I have been terrible, just *terrible* at posting on our blog! I have blog guilt. It started as a way to share with family/friends in the States our funny experiences and culture shock moving to the land of ABBA sill and tubed meats, but almost 2 years in, we have gotten over those initial "WTF" moments. Not to mention with the last several months, our lives have felt rather boring, what with thesis-writing, project-planning and generally finishing up our degrees. Oh, school. Less than a month left. And I am *never* going back.

And I have an excuse. Along with suffering grad school, I have been suffering from morning sickness! I promise this blog won't turn into a forum for me to whine about pregnancy (though there is *plenty* to complain about.) But it IS nice to be able to talk about it now that the little squirt is the size of a peach. And we've decided, for simplicity's sake, that she is a SHE until we are told differently. You can't call it 'It.'

We are friggin' pregnant!

More later (I promise) Right now, Stu & I are heading to SU to install my crappy little on-campus 'preview' show for my exhibition. I have a video of a lovely Swedish artist "reading" a book of punctuation, as in "comma, comma, period, question mark, period, parenthesis." But in Swedish. It is ever so charming, the first time or two. I think after listening to it for 10 hours in the mini-exhibition, I will be certifiably crazy. Just so you know.

May update

2011-05-09T16:15:00.001+02:00

It is so GORGEOUS in Stockholm right now. It's like summer outside and the sun is shining.

Which makes it such a drag that it is the end of the semester and I have a ton of school work to finish up on. Next week is my big presentation week at Stockholm University (we are required to present some visual example of our exhibition at SU, even if we chose to complete our master's exhibition project elsewhere.) Thankfully, we pushed the opening date of my little show at Moderna Museet back a few weeks to accommodate the heavy conservation required in the Siri Derkert show. So it is now June 11, my friends. And a tentative Family Day workshop (where kids & parents get to make their own artists' books!) on Sunday June 12!

Still got the thesis to contend with, and I am actually seriously contemplating extending my school time a bit to finish it! I am supposed to complete the thing May 24 to defend and graduate by June 9, but it is just not going to happen. So, along with 80% of my class, I may not defend until August. It is not a huge impact otherwise, 'cause I still plan to finish that sucker as soon as possible (I want to *enjoy* my summer!) But it does leave some uncertainty. Uggg. Stu will finish mid-June as planned.

We have had some pretty exciting things come up recently (sorry, can't spill just yet) but the bottom line is we still don't know for sure whether we will stay in Sweden or move back to the States. Talk about uncertainty, our self-imposed deadline of mid-May to choose WHAT COUNTRY we'll live in is fast approaching! And Stu & I actually can't agree! We are usually on the same page with these 'big life decisions.' I guess we'll see...anybody want to hire a librarian/curator/collections manager or perhaps a management/strategy/operations consultant? You won't be sorry you did!

Taxes!

2011-05-02T11:54:00.001+02:00

Done!

I procrastinated 'til the last possible day to file, but as of 15 minutes ago, it's done! I actually didn't even really file...I 'own' a business (which just means I work freelance, but in Sweden, you basically have to incorporate a company to get paid piece meal.) But since I didn't get it going until last September, I opted for an extended first tax year and only had to fill a bunch of boxes in the online form with zeros. Still, I dreaded it. And since Tax-Swedish doesn't easily translate with Google, I had to have some natives walk me through the basics.
Next year, I'll be on the hook for paying a small fortune. 54%+ of my earnings? Fun!

Valborg

2011-05-01T13:35:00.003+02:00

Last year, I said we'd definitely spend Valborg 2011 in Uppsala, drenched in champagne and racing rafts.

I lied. We didn't. Our friends Mandy & Reid came for a long weekend from NYC, and it just seemed crazy to take the train to Uppsala for the event when they had such short time to see Stockholm. We got about 3 whole days with them, lovely weather, spent a ton of time in Gamla Stan and Djurgården, they saw the Vasa Museum, we ate A LOT, finally trying out Pubologie (good place! Just don't go if you're starving and want big portions) and introducing them to some of the good and the strange Swedish traditions and foods. We had a fantastic time with them here.

And we did celebrate Valborg! We were going to picnic with some friends and do the big central celebration and bonfire at Riddarholmen, but it threatened rain and we decided on a living room picnic instead (complete with cold fried chicken.) And someone decided there should be silly hats...kind of an ode to the silly hats for the British wedding and the silly sailor hats that new graduates in Sweden wear on Valborg, but since we had neither, we went with silly birthday cone hats. We missed most of the singing and poems on the island, but made it to see the bonfire just before dark...so beautiful. So many people. We stuck around long enough to listen to a troubadour singing Evert Taube ballads, and left just as they opened the mike to anyone. Specifically, we left the moment a young Swede popped up on stage and started singing Justin Bieber.

Now Mandy and Reid are heading to London for the week. Planned it smart---just missing the chaos of the royal wedding. Which I totally watched live (or tried to...BBC's live feed got overwhelmed and I found myself "watching" stills, but whatever.)

Outside lunch at cafe Flickorna Helin & Voltaire

Enjoying giant kanelbullar at Saturnus

The pretty princess urinal got the thumbs-down

M&R in Stortorget

Art/art history majors from MWC...like a mini college reunion!

The non-traditional way to don a silly hat

Pensively non-trad

Riddarholmen bonfire, overlooking the water and Stadshuset

Hooray!

Sort-of celebrity sightings

2011-04-28T10:24:00.001+02:00

While waiting for the bus yesterday, I saw Simon, the Brit from the Swedish/British design shows Simon & Tomas (I love how the he speaks in English no matter what, even though he fully understands all the Swedish around him. I want to be that.) But yeah, he was walking his little tiny dog just off Odengatan. Does he live in my 'hood? Can't imagine how fabulous the apartment must be. Apparently, they recently had a few episodes of their show on the Oprah network.

And when I got off the bus, I got stuck by a Russian presidential motorcade. Vladimir Putin is in town, and I had to stand at the end of Kungsträdgården for 20 minutes for all 80 escort Volvos to drive by from the Grand Hotel. I'm from DC, where you have to wait for a motorcade every frickin' day (when Cheney was in office, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day!) I hear Putin is pitching Swedish-Russian nuclear cooperation...

Admittedly not the most exciting post, but hey, it's a post!

First outdoor fika of the year

2011-04-22T16:56:00.000+02:00

Woohoo for 4-day long weekends (for Stu from his internship, not me...there are no real holidays for the unemployed!) And it is GORGEOUS in Stockholm. So many people are out, and lots of tourists. I guess all of Europe celebrates a lengthy Easter.

We finally had a proper fika outside of a konditori in Gamla Stan. Well, not proper: who drinks light beer with their lemon meringue pie? Stu. blech.

Glad påsk!

Odd shoe observation

2011-04-20T20:34:00.001+02:00

Swedes take their shoes off when they enter private residences. It makes sense in a country that experiences 6 months of winter, since snow boots can bring in so much crap. We do it at home, too. And I think even after we leave Sweden (whenever that may be), it'll be one of those cultural things that stick with us. So hygienic!

When we were heading home from a walk yesterday, I was surprised to see a woman take her sneakers off as soon as she walked *into* a gym! She was one of those people who runs to the gym and then proceeds to work out, so she didn't have a gym bag with her as though she was going to actually change her shoes. Isn't it odd? Stu & I don't work out (gyms are just too expensive) so this is new! Does everyone take their shoes off to enter a gym to work out? Why bother, if you are just going to put them on again to run on the treadmill? I think that is a cultural thing that won't come back with us...

P.S. it is 8:30pm and its not even fully dark yet. We finally made it! The weather has been stellar lately.

3am pancakes!

2011-04-18T10:04:00.001+02:00

I woke up ridiculously early Sunday morning to find this in the kitchen:

Note the excess flour residue ALL OVER THE COUNTER. There was also a pile of his clothes in the middle of the living room floor. Ahhhh, drunk Stu.

WTF?? After the wedding Saturday, I went home exhausted, but Stu had energy and met his friends out for beers. I didn't even hear him come home, but it was apparently about 3am.

Which is also when he decided to pre-mix pancake batter for Sunday morning pancakes. At 3am.

I had had the weirdest craving for pancakes on Saturday afternoon and made him promise to make me some (he makes really good fluffy American pancakes!) And I guess at 3am, it made more sense to prepare the batter and not have me wake him up the next morning.

Which I did anyway, but I managed to wait until 10.

Really happy Me with pancake ears.

a Swedish wedding

2011-04-18T09:49:00.001+02:00

We attended our first marriage ceremony in Sweden on beautiful, sunny Saturday! Technically, we attended Part I of said wedding, since the couple is planning a proper wedding on Midsummer in the groom's hometown in France (and yes, we are going to that too! Woohoo!) But since the bride is Swedish, they had a legal ceremony and small celebration here in Stockholm.

It was at Stadshuset, the city hall. And the wedding room is just lovely--up a grande staircase, large and round and covered in warm tapestries.
The whole of the ceremony took about 6 minutes. And the bride and groom just answer "Ja" rather than "I do" or something more formal to the question of loving and caring for the other for the rest of their lives. It felt like an odd let-down. "I do" is so specific in English to marriage, but "Ja" is just plain old "Yes." Like, "Do you promise to take out the garbage tonight?" "Ja."

And the reception was fun and homey, held at the bride's parents house in Nacka. The groom has said to us several times that it doesn't feel like the "real" wedding, since they are doing it again in 2 months (his family didn't even come to Sweden for the ceremony.) But the bride said she spent more than 3 days preparing food for the reception, so I think the groom should be careful of her over-hearing his thoughts...why would a bride slave for 3 days in the kitchen for something that wasn't "real"? But he IS taking her last name (she has a great Swedish last name and his is unpronounceable French) so she won a big battle. Stu & I are still trying to figure out our last name, and we'll have been married 3 years this fall...

School update

2011-04-09T12:10:00.000+02:00

I graduate this master's program in exactly 2 months, to the day. Stu has to wait an extra week before he gets a proper graduation ceremony in Stockholm's stadshuset. I'll probably just get juice and cookies, but you know, with 7 of us graduating, it's a small class.

His big presentation of his Capstone is on Friday, the project he has dedicated the last 5+ months to, helping solve specific business issues with a big corporation here in Stockholm. They spent nearly half a year, working full-time, and he & his partner get whopping 10 minutes to present the project to a room full of suits, professors and fellow classmates (and me! Hey, there's a free lunch out of it!) And then he has 2 final classes to finish up before getting that MscGM! I'm so proud! He'll also be working at the big corporation part-time for the next 2 months, and I'm hoping in that time, they'll decide they just cannot afford to lose such a valuable employee and offer him an awesome job with an awesome matching salary.

The lovely stadshuset...city hall

I just hit my page requirement in my thesis, so while it's not done, it feels good to have written so much, so early! I didn't have to write a proper thesis for my first masters degree--I just took 2 extra classes--so this feels more "masterful." It is still shorter than most, since it is only one half of the culminating degree project, the other half being the dreaded exhibition!
My thesis isn't due until May 24, however, my final presentation of my own project is May 19, the installation of the exhibition is that same week, and the opening of the small show I am curating at Moderna Museet is May 21. So I have a feeling that I'll be so overwhelmed in a few weeks, I'll forget I even have a thesis requirement. And I just found out who my examiners will be for my final presentation of the exhibition, and oooh, I did NOT luck out. I got stuck with a particular curator here in Stockholm who frightens that CRAP out of me...I know I will get ripped apart, no matter how well I do! Not looking forward to May 19 at all.

Anyway, we're busy wrapping up, not doing much exciting, blog-post-worthy stuff, and generally worrying about the next stage. ACK! Jobs! What *country* are we going to live in!? It is a source of low-level yet constant stress. If all goes according to plan now, we think we'll be back in the States in July, either for a good long visit before returning to Sweden, or to stay.

Business trip

2011-03-29T09:40:00.001+02:00

It has been a while since we posted! I have an excuse...I have been generally sick while also working on my thesis and planning my graduate exhibition (got an opening date now! May 21 at Moderna!) Not very good excuses, but nonetheless.

But this week, Stu is going on his first business trip as an intern for this big Swedish-multi-national company, to the States! He'll be in Charlotte for meetings for several days (and I selfishly hope it has potential for a job there...NC is warmer than Sweden!) Then he is taking an extra day to hang out in NYC to catch up with a few friends. I'd be more jealous if he wasn't promising to bring me lots of presents back. And I *am* totally jealous...he's going to fill up on burgers and Carolina BBQ! Can't bring those back in a suitcase too easily. Nah, aside from a list of drugstore stuff, I'm hoping for some mac & cheese of all things, some American Easter candy, and maybe even an H&H bagel or two...

In the meantime, I'm on my own for a few days. I guess he thought I'd forget to eat or something while he was gone (because I'll be so distraught?!?) so he popped by the grocery store last night and bought about $100 worth of food for me for the week. Including my very own pint of Ben & Jerrys Baked Alaska. We often fight over a pint, and the thing gets eaten in one very short sitting. But now I don't have to fight with anyone over who gets those delicious little white chocolate polar bears. He's so sweet.

Thesis lament

2011-03-22T12:46:00.001+01:00

I am kicking ass in my thesis writing...this morning alone, I re-structured and added several more meaty ideas, and am more than half done with my required length and have a fairly solid skeleton for what remains.
But here's the problem.
It's really lovely in Stockholm today! It's sunny, and being in the 50s, it's warmer than it has been in 6 months (farenheit, of course.) So I really want to say "Screw writing about Artists' Books" and go outside to play. Yesterday, it was gray and kinda chilly, and I didn't get a single thing accomplished school-wise, nor did I have any desire to even leave the house. But the sun is out today, and everything feels easier and more clear with work, but all I want to do is go outside!
Grrrr...so do I work or play?

Graduation is June 9th, and that date can't come soon enough...

Picture post

2011-03-22T09:33:00.001+01:00

From London last week! We rendezvous'd with our good friends from DC who now live in Holland and Belgium, and enjoyed a lot of eating and drinking and laughing, shopping, burlesque, museums, and more eating and drinking and laughing.

Finally made it to the Tower of London. Not very bloody, IMHO. But there were some sparkly jewels.

Maggie & Stu with Starbucks. Which they don't have in Sweden OR in Belgium!

Fortress Health and Safety.

Stu thought the sky looked like the Scottish saltire

Mini Gherkin?

Yay! Brunch at Elk in the Woods

They thought he was crazy for ordering a "Pimms Cup." Apparently Brits only drink them in the summer. And they just call them "Pimms." The "Cup" immediately pegs you as American.

Shopping around Oxford Circus can be overwhelming and disorienting...its a dern good thing they put these signs up to remind you what to do!

Our payment

2011-03-18T10:38:00.000+01:00

Not that we were expecting anything for making cocktails at the art opening last night, but it was nice to go home with a big ol' bottle of Absolut for our efforts! And *green* limes.

March 17th

2011-03-17T15:46:00.001+01:00

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Again, I was the only one on the subway, as well as the only one in class, wearing any green whatsoever. It makes me feel *so* American (oddly, not Irish!) But any American kid has it banged into their brain that you must wear green on March 17th, or face the consequences...you will get pinched. And kids pinch hard! They are going for black & blue to shame you for your lack of green. I guess it has stuck with me, because both Stu and I left the house with plenty of green on this morning.

This year, we are skipping out on Irish pubs. We learned our lesson last year. Instead of going to a bar, though, we are going to barTEND. We are helping out a friend at an art opening event sponsored by Absolut Vodka this evening, so Stu and I will be slinging Cape Cods instead of swigging guinness. If you happen to be in Hammarby Sjöstad, stop by! But be sure to wear green, because I am American. And I will pinch.

Picture post: lights in the sky

2011-03-07T10:14:00.002+01:00

When up north, we had one night of the Aurora Borealis. It was too cloudy the rest of the trip, but that first night was pretty phenomenal. My friend Anabelle is a fantastic hobbyist photographer and spent more than an hour standing, sitting and laying in the snow to catch a few pictures of the lights in the sky. And I borrowed a few to post here:

The ice fishing hole...doesn't it look like the surface of the moon?

Stu, looking rather like an ax murderer

So the northern lights are caused by charged particles colliding in the ionosphere, and get stronger the closer one is to the magnetic north pole (though they happen south of the arctic circle as well). Wikipedia helpfully informed me that it is named after Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn, and Borealis, the Greek name for the north wind. We saw them starting at about 6:30pm, not too long after it was completely dark. They seemed to grow and shrink in green, gold and little bit of purple over the following 2-3 hours, but by 10pm, the sky had clouded up and the show was over. I am so glad we had that first night, though.

[All photos: Anabelle Lacroix]

A weekend above the Arctic Circle

2011-03-06T13:51:00.001+01:00

We were more than 150 km above the arctic circle! We spent several days in and around Kiruna, one of the very north-most towns in Sweden. We flew up and took an 18+ train ride back, and packed the time in between with cross-country skiing, alternately roasting and freezing in the sauna & ice-cold lake water, mushing dog sleds through the forests, being completely mesmerized by the golden green northern lights, eating reindeer in a Sami teepee and running through the Ice Hotel. As my Finnish friend said, we were doing the most touristy things, but they were *so* *much* *fun*! We had a great weekend. The weather was a perfect -5c and sunny.

I posted most of our pictures in the slide show below (minus the aurora borealis pictures...our camera is crappy in low light.)

We traveled with a group of my friends--five ladies and Stu. He was a good sport, especially when we were gossiping about how cute our dog-sled guide was (a bit like a Norse Brad Pitt.)
We stayed at the lovely Camp Alta in a giant, cozy cabin. We tried out cross-country skiing over a frozen lake, where others were ice fishing. I have never ever been on skis before. Once I got the hang of it, it was super! Especially with that insane Lapland wind blowing...you could really get up some speed without doing a thing. Except when it was time to go back, and we were skiing *into* the wind. I think my eyelashes froze.

The camp had a large sauna, and we made friends with another group who liked the room super wet and super hot. Everyone (except me, of course, 'cause I'm a wimp) jumped into the trapdoor in the sauna floor into the ice cold lake water below to cool off. They all loved it, but I would have either a) drowned b) bobbed out as a popsicle, or, most likely c) gotten sick.

Friday morning, we took a dog-sledding tour...38 km of beautiful Lapland countryside. We were 2 people per sled, hitched to 5 dogs. I don't really know what else to say about it, but I absolutely recommend doing this if you head up north, because it was amazing. The dogs were fun, the sights were great, the ride was exhilarating, the lunch was delicious, and the guide was cute (as afore mentioned.)

We spent an afternoon in Jukkasjärvi, running through the Ice Hotel (literally running...it was like a playground!) The rooms are really clever, beautiful works of art, though I basically affirmed that I don't need to *sleep* there. Which is fine, because at $400+ a night, I can't really afford to sleep there. I think the Ice Hotel deserves its own post, to come later...
But in Jukkasjärvi, we visited the Sami church and had reindeer sandwiches in the teepee. Which was a little weird, since the Sami Museum it was attached to is also a reindeer preserve. But we were fortified for the walk back to the Ice Hotel, walking on top of the huge frozen, solid Torne River, enough to get a few cocktails at the Ice Bar (You pay more for the glass made of solid ice, so they get cheaper the more cocktails you have, so we had to make the price worth it!)

And we had a great trip back on the night train from Kiruna to Stockholm. We had a short lay-over in the small town of Boden, which randomly had the best American-style diner and giant burgers and steak fries. To demonstrate just how "authentic" this place was, they actually asked how they wanted the meat cooked, which is something no other Swedish restaurant does when you order a burger (they just don't get it in this country.) Boden's Suzy Qs...such a boon! The rest of the trip, we watched movies and ate junk food and drank cheap wine-in-a-bag, and I feel a little grainy today because of it.

Buy 8 rolls of tape...

2011-03-02T17:52:00.001+01:00

This was a photo I took a while ago and just stumbled upon again (hence the lack of snow and the reflections of real leaves). I'm not sure I even realized what it said when I took it, probably thinking something along the lines of "Why the hell would the advertising people at Norwegian airline allow a ripped poster to be put up?!?"

But now that I read the thing, it is quite clever! It says "Buy eight rolls of tape or fly to Helsinki." 249:- one way. I just feel bad for the poster-plastering guy who may have had to rip up perfectly good posters and re-tape them before sliding them into bus stop sign holders all over the city.

BTW, we are flying with Norwegian into London in a week, and it only cost us the equivalent of 32 rolls of tape...

Off to the store

2011-02-26T16:02:00.006+01:00

We're having people over for dinner and to watch Melodifestivalen tonight. What can we say, we've adapted? But accordingly, we're making food for more than our customary two, and had to conglomerate the ingredients with stops to Lidl, ICA, Coop. You know, good value-for-money, and to get us out of the house.

We were in a looooong line in a naaaaaaaaaarrow shop (befitting city living), and so checked out the other people in line. We couldn't help but notice the poor little girl screaming cutely at the top of her lungs. Yes, somehow it's cuter when it's in Swedish instead of our native tongue.

What I found remarkable was her father's response. He calmly walked her back to where she'd found the Pink Unobtainium and made her put it back. I really admired and respected what that took, and thought I'd award him my mental: Parent of the Day. He was like a Zen monk. And she quieted a little as he picked her up.

We had just been talking about parenting at a fika this week, and how sad it is that kids are drowned in presents every Christmas. And I get it, parents get sucked in to it. So this resistant father gets my Tip Of the Hat. My description doesn't give you the sense of the master bargaining skills this little girl was employing, "det är dåligt, snälla snälla snälla...ja vill ha..." but it was impressive. I am a sentimental sort, and I couldn't help but think that although she didn't know it, that little girl had everything she needs.

I guess it's un-Swedish to notice someone else's business in public, but having seen kids get smacked around in stores before, it's nice to see an example of the other side of the spectrum.

Collect 'em all

2011-02-26T14:04:00.001+01:00

Yesterday almost hit 0 degrees, so I went shopping. I bought a dress and tights and a pair of pants, and a completely unnecessary wooden Sweden.

I have a weakness for household items shaped like Sweden. Thankfully, Sagaform fills my weird needs...we own their big Sweden serving bowl (bought that sucker at a second-hand shop for 100:-!) and now, we own the cheeseboard.

I have my eye out for a deal on the Dala horse. I'd love to eat candy out of that guy! And the mini-Sweden serving dish would really just be to complete the set...I'm not sure what it's function would be if I already owned a cute candy dish Dala horse. I use the big one to serve meatballs, of course.

Sagaform Spring/Summer 2011 catalog

Picture post

2011-02-23T16:45:00.002+01:00

I am supposed to be writing a 7-page paper exploring the possible legal issues in my upcoming graduate exhibition (7 pages!? Legal issues?!?!) Instead, I'm posting pictures of some of the weird stuff we encountered last week.

This guy is strapped in duct tape and bag-in-a-box wine bags, and these people are filling up using his thigh-spout. I think I'd prefer to buy my wine at the bar...

A little meatball wrestling, anyone? I feel it is obvious who would win a meatball-eating contest between a Swede and a Turk.

Some inspiration for my Artists' Books exhibition in May?

I'm more of a shower person, anyway...

I love guerilla knitting!

The handrail on the T-bana. Just in case you needed an invitation?

Despite the presence of so much thick snow, Swedish dogs have great aim. Still managed to blast the trash can! And I swear, you can't walk 10 meters in this white city without seeing one of these little yellow pee points. I can't believe I took a picture of this.

Lappland deep freeze?

2011-02-17T14:09:00.001+01:00

So we are planning a trip up to the very tip, top of the country in a few weeks. We fly into Kiruna, spend a night there, a night in Abisko at a national park, and then take the 18+ hour night train back down to Stockholm. We are going to sled with dogs and we are going to have (at least) a drink at the ice hotel, and dern it, we are going to see some northern lights! It may sound crazy in the middle of winter, especially when it has been so cold here, but if Stu and I move away from Sweden at the end of our studies, we might not ever do this again. And I really do think that the even-darker, even-colder north will make Stockholm feel like a southern paradise. It's all about your frame of reference, right?

But I just read an article that they are experiencing *record* cold up there. So cold that the electricity company cannot handle it...-42 degrees celsius (which, by the way, is about the same in farenheit...-40 is where the two meet!) The guy quoted says most people use wood stoves to keep warm. Yeah, with what alternative?!? Succumb to being a popsicle? How the hell does the power company stop functioning? That is their job. And this is Lappland...I get that it is a little colder than usual, but shouldn't they be prepared for that? This is SWEDEN!

Eh, nevermind, they probably imported the utility equipment from France, just like the rail cars that can't handle Swedish snow. But the cold weather is supposed to last another few weeks, just in time for us to visit. And thankfully, there will be six of us taking the trip together, so if the power craps out while we are staying up there, there are plenty of people to huddle together with for warmth.

the first step

2011-02-16T20:35:00.000+01:00

I spent several hours today at the Konstfack library, doing thesis research. I had a synopsis deadline due today, which finally got me moving on writing. Slowly. Sloooooowly. Only a few dozen daunting more pages to go. But seeing this typewriter and motivational quote mounted to the wall outside the art school library helped a bit (even with the typo.)

Only a few daunting more months to go...

Were these just left in the hallway?

2011-02-13T20:09:00.000+01:00

Pinned to our building's communal bulletin board:

Typical Swedish passive-aggressiveness, or someone's solution to beating the cold?

More snow

2011-02-12T10:23:00.001+01:00

For the record, Punxatawney Phil's predictions do not apply to Sweden. Maybe that's a no-brainer, but I was really, really hoping that winter was nearly over.

But it came back--we had a giant snow storm start on Thursday afternoon (I wore suede flats to work in the morning...it was a miserable trek home in a half a foot of snow that evening!) Friday, public transportation was an absolute disaster. They canceled all the buses in the city, the tunnelbana was only running through the center, and there were no cabs. Taxi Stockholm was quoting more than an hour wait! I had real snow boots on, but I still had to walk to Moderna Museet from the central station, which is not a short distance.

I am just sick of winter...

Möhippa

2011-02-10T22:57:00.000+01:00

I met up with a bunch of ladies in Stureplan this evening to plan a "hen" party, or in Swedish, a möhippa.

I have been to American bachelorette parties. I've done the strip club bachelorette party, the bar-hopping bachelorette party, the low-key dinner bachelorette party. And I was once a bachelorette! For mine, I spent the weekend with some girlfriends in NYC.

But I've never participated in the Swedish version. Apparently, it is an all-day affair with the girls. Expensive! And it is all kept a secret from the bride, even the date. The fiancé might make fake plans for the bride so that her friends can surprise her. Depending on the bride, you do something active as a group. Tonight, we mentioned tree-climbing at an adventure park, spending the afternoon at a shooting range, pole-dancing classes, or possibly renting a bakery and taking a lesson in sour dough. The day also includes games, dinner, drinks, dancing and clubs. And sometimes the bride has to sell things to strangers on the street. Yup.

But the most important part of a möhippa is the kidnapping. The bride's friends have to orchestrate an elaborate plan of action, like hiring a firefighter knock on the bride's door, asking her to evacuate because of a gas leak, or something. And then they are waiting outside in the firetruck! (or where ever the elaborate plan of action leads the bride.) I kind of love this part, and kind of hate it...personally, I don't think I would like the surprise (a girl's gotta know what to wear!) but I think I'd get a kick out of what the group came up with.

We've been invited to several weddings of Swedes this year. I guess that means there could be lots of kidnapping missions in my future...

Ducks

2011-02-02T20:29:00.002+01:00

I zoned out on the way to the museum this morning and missed my bus stop. But I saw a lot of water fowl while having to back-track across the ice-slick that is skeppsbro bridge, and I actually had my camera.
How do they survive that water? Don't they know they are supposed to fly south? There are ice chunks the size of small boats floating in there...soooo coooold.

Who speaks Swedish anyway?

2011-02-01T20:38:00.001+01:00

I realized it has been a few since I posted, but I had no idea what to write about?!? What we are up to? What we have planned coming up? Something totally random?

Currently, I am helping out with a project on postmodernism that involves 1980s Swedish art journals at Moderna Museet (and spent 8 hours today helping an artist make 400 paintings for the project...I have paint in my ears.) I am also supposed to be working on my final exhibition and thesis. It'll happen. I hope.
Stu is busy working full-time at a Swedish company for his capstone project, but he'll be done in 2 months. In fact, he'll be done with a 2-week break right when I will be most busy preparing for my final exhibition presentation, so I need someone to take my husband for that time....anyone want to babysit Stu? Anyone? If he is home with nothing to do, while I have to focus and produce, we might get divorced. Not really, but he could use a vacation then, anyway ;)

We are applying for jobs all over. I see lots of museum/library jobs in the States, but Stu has more options in Europe. So it's a bit of a toss up...I guess we'll take the first thing we get! We are traveling a bit. We are apartment-swapping in London in a few weeks, and are thinking about taking a weekend up to the super-north of Sweden to see the Northern Lights and have dinner at the Ice Hotel (yeah, just dinner...not all that interested in sleeping on a chunk of ice and wolf pelts.) We were invited to a wedding in southern France and one in Tuscany. I love it when people get married in exotic places. And our friends from NYC are coming for a visit in April, which I am *psyched* about! Hmmm...what else?

And for the something totally random...a commercial I really like. Tele2 has a sheep as a gimick because Swedes pronounce the word "cheap" as "sheep". Clever.

Consummentbaguette?
Ha. Swedes.

Picture Post: snowy mountains

2011-01-24T19:14:00.003+01:00

A weekend skiing in Åre:

Our home for 4 days

Stu, about to bana up the berg.

That is a frozen lake with TWO tractors on it.

Proof I was in snow gear

Stu was all over the slopes, like a frickin' puppy. I did NOT ski (too chicken) but I had a great time. Petter even played a DJ set while we were in town. Åre is a cute little ski town, and so convenient to Stockholm! People have been winter-sporting here for 100 years...I wonder if my grandparents skied here?

My mormor & morfar, though probably not Åre
(thanks to my photogy cousin for making these digital!)

So Swedish

2011-01-19T19:46:00.001+01:00

Just a quick one...my French friend Anabelle has been staying with us for the week (finding housing in this city is HARD!) For my birthday this week, she bought me a small box of lovely French macarons. I love those things, they are just amazing. Light green pistachio is my favorite. But she didn't buy them in France before she left, she bought them here in Stockholm. Can you guess which flavor the black one is?

Mmmm hmmm, salty liquorice. Swedes think it is okay to make a salty liquorice flavored macaron. It's an abomination, if you ask me.
But I'll let you know how it tastes...I'm not usually one to let baked goods go to waste, even ones that could have been concocted by Bertie Bott's Every Flavour ;)

To Åre, to Åre

2011-01-19T19:37:00.000+01:00

Heading half-way up Sweden! Taking the night train! We're going skiing for the weekend, in Åre with a group of friends. I have never, ever been skiing. I'm not sure I am going to pop that cherry this weekend, either. I fell flat on my face IN MY APARTMENT on my birthday, nearly smashing my laptop (thank god, it is fine and only only have bruises.) But in general, I lack both balance and coordination, which are both major requirements for successfully speeding down a hill of ice on two skinny flat boards with only dagger-tipped sticks to guide you. I can't even answer my cell phone without hurting myself, and I'm thinking it is too early for Stu to get to claim that life insurance policy. I have been told there is dog-sledding, however, and I am very excited about that possibility!

A few things I learned about Åre today from a group of very excited Swedes:
The most famous Swedish rapper, Petter, calls it home.
It is it's own republic.
There was a bid for the 2014 Olympics to be held around here
It is quite close to Östersund, which has been plagued by a terrible water-borne parasite, which apparently spread to Åre just in the last few weeks. We'll be drinking only bottled water, thank you.
There is also a Japanese restaurant not far from Åre, in the middle of nowhere, that has a few Michelin stars. Super random.

I can't verify most of those facts, but it should be a fun weekend anyway. Wish me/us luck.

Yum

2011-01-17T23:33:00.003+01:00

It's Princess Torta Day!

2011-01-12T14:53:00.001+01:00

I must have jinxed the city yesterday, blogging about all the sun and "warm" weather in Stockholm. Today it's back to that stupid gray color we suffered through all last winter. It's hovering right around freezing, but is still snowing, making the sidewalks a nasty, slushy, squishy, dirty mess.

But I didn't start this post to complain (I just happen to be good at complaining.) The last week or so, I haven't left my computer much, between writing essays for school and for the Absolut art collection and trying to start writing my thesis. And Stu has started school and work full-time, so it's unusually quite here. (I even started reading Gawker as a distraction.) I was feeling a little stir-crazy, so despite how gray and mushy it is out there, I had to at least get out of the apartment for a bit. I ended up at a second-hand shop. So strange...when I don't have a destination, I *always* end up at the second-hand shops! I guess it's the random assortment of distractions to look at and the fact that it's no big deal if I have a weak moment, because it's cheaper than any other possible shopping destination in Sweden. Anyway, I scored the coolest little Turkish coffee pot.

I had wanted to buy one in Egypt since I had stocked up on their cardamom-infused version of the coffee, but couldn't find anything ornate enough or the right price (one souk guy wanted to sell my a one-cupper plain pot for 60 egp, or $12. He chased me down the street, halving the price in the process, but still, it was too boring for the price.) However, this little guy was a whole 15sek (about $2). And yes, I am going to fika with it this afternoon! Stu is going to think I am an idiot for getting so excited about a copper pot that I blogged about it.

But that's not all! I ALSO scored the LAST bottle of glögg at the Systembolaget near our place. I am just not ready to give it up for the season! The people in line all chuckled when I explain how excited I was about buying it. Obviously, I haven't been getting out much.

And to top off those good things, I also spotted my first semlor of the year today! The Lent/Fat Tuesday buns have become my favorite part of February (celebrating Stu's birthday is a close second, though.) I frickin' love cardamom. Oooooh, brilliant idea...a semla and a Egyptian-style Turkish coffee might be *the* combination this year.

It says "Semlor, good people!" but I prefer to think of it as "Get your semlor, bitches!"

Okay, so I should go back to work now...I have to prepare a powerpoint presentation for school Monday (which also happens to be my birthday. Ugg.) But I will leave you on another good-thing note--we are gaining nearly a half hour of daylight every week now. It just keeps getting better and better...

Unusual winter weather

2011-01-11T11:51:00.001+01:00

The Stockholm sky is clear and it is sunny. And (relatively) warm! It's a good week (my mood is admittedly sun-dependent.)

We are going skiing next week in Åre, a big ski resort town for a not-so-big mountain from what I'm told (what do I care, I'm just going to be sipping hot cocoa in the lodge anyway.) But the snow seems to be melting, and fast! It got up to a whole 37F degrees (maybe warmer) and I can see sidewalks and roofs for the first time since November. In Åre, they are warning about the risk for avalanches.
Fabulous.
Some poor guy last week was knocked unconscious by a falling icicles on a Stockholm street. The weather report says it will get down to 20F/-7C later this week, so of course that means the slick sidewalks will be treacherous. Thankfully I don't have to leave the house much ;)

But I'm looking at the bright side right now! Sun!

Egypt, condensed

2011-01-09T17:31:00.000+01:00

Just one more Egypt post, I promise. Well, from me, anyway. Stu kept a written journal of his thoughts on our trip to Egypt, which seemed like such a great way to keep the ideas and feelings fresh. I didn't, but I think the pictures we took helped a little with that. We took nearly 1000, but there were so many things we didn't capture! I didn't get a single photo of any of the souks (bazaars) we went to, despite that they were overwhelming, colorful and fun. No pictures of our ridiculous donkey ride...too nervous to take my hands from my crappy reins. No pictures on New Years. No pictures at Valley of the Kings or the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (due to site regulations, but still!) We had an AWESOME tour group and tour leader for our trip (company link here), so I'm hoping a few of them will have pictures to share of those things we missed.

We would have been happy with simply the sun, blue sky, sand, and warmth. But wow, Egypt has so many beautiful parts. Just the history, not to mention the temples and monuments and mosques and sea. Horus became my favorite Egyptian god, and we visited several temples dedicated to his falcon-y awesomeness. I didn't buy nearly enough stuff, but the spices and scarves and jewelry were all so beautiful and cheap (it was just too exhausting to bargain at every corner.) And the food! Such good food in Egypt. And no one got food/water poisoning, as far as I know. We ate so well the entire trip, even on our 4 day bare-bones felucca cruise down the Nile, where we were treated to amazing food from a boat captain wielding a single gas burner and a few old pots. And I ate a pigeon.

And Egypt has some not-so-great parts. I fully recommend a trip there, but when you are a pampered westerner (even one without a job, like me!) you get a little humbled. The average Egyptian annual salary is not much more than $1,500; the average annual American makes at least $32,000. We were SO sick of everyone asking for baksheesh, but then you have to remember that those few coins they get from offering you and your other rich vacationers toilet paper might be what allows them to feed their children. Even little, tiny kids were begging (or trying to sell us touristy junk in perfect English.) And the housing is unbelieveable (in some areas, made up of only palm fronds and mudbrick, since it never rains.) The water is not good. We drank only bottled for nearly 3 weeks and racked up a small mountain of plastic refuse, which I can only imagine was dumped on the banks of the Nile. There is no such thing as recycling. The motor-powered Nile cruises would speed by us on our sail-powered felucca, leaving trails of oil that found its way onto the sand in black globs. Our toilet on our train was just a seat on a hole to the speeding track below. It was also my first time in a Muslim country. What was the appropriate behavior for us as tourists during the warbled call to prayer? And we were in the country during a terrorist attack, which is a little scary. Although I didn't experience anything too unpleasant aside from the challenge of finding a restaurant that served beer, our new friend Jess was refused service at a cafe because she is female (her brother could order, though.)

So, good with the bad, we could easily go back, since we missed several big sites, Alexandria, Sinai. I'd even take kids there (just with a slightly amended itinerary.) It was a great way to spend Christmas and New Years! Though if we are still in Sweden next winter, we owe the family a trip back State-side.

Jan 5, 2011

2011-01-07T11:23:00.002+01:00

Day 18

Last day. 10 hours of sleep, yet feeling a cold coming on, I was glad for the chance to take it slow and easy. We really were quite fortunate with the way things worked out the whole trip. Our last breakfast with Turkish Coffee which is exquisite as it is miniscule meant that tomorrow would be greeted with our customary Swedish carafe at home, and lots of it. After two weeks of Nescafe we won’t know how to behave!

The TV had what could’ve been anything but probably was more talk of the New Years attack on a Coptic Church in Alexandria, which killed more than 20 people. I’m sad about the news, which is disturbing, and shocked by how ignorant we can be of it all in our vacation bubble. Life goes on and the world keeps turning. Our experience in Egypt was completely divorced of any that kind of unpleasantness, but as I sold many insurance policies saying, “It only has to happen Once to you, personally for it to suck.” Eloquent, I know. The sad irony is that for us, every mention of the Coptic Church was married to how peaceful the coexistence was between Christians and Muslims: mosques and churches across the street from each other as a metaphor.

We didn’t wander for today, but played it conservative. No ambitious plans as the hour-long cab rides would’ve jeopardized our timely arrival to Cairo Int’l. Instead, Anne shopped the United Colours of Benetton and loaded up on random grocery items while I nursed my sniffles with a massive OJ. But nothing tastes as vibrant as the oranges we had on the felucca--new sense memories, and a new benchmark.

I felt completely relaxed on the cab ride out of town, in contrast with the one in. The city has become more familiar now, and everyday life goes on for the 20 million inhabitants. Early on, our group had tried to decipher what the honk patterns meant (2 short honks might mean, "Hello, on your left!" whereas 4 or 5 long ones meant "Get the f%$&* out of the way"). On the cab ride to the airport, I tried to figure the number of car honks per kilometer, and figured something like 25 million a day. Must have custom horn repair shops, as a busted one would render a driver mute. Surely a violation of free speech.

We’ll never forget this trip, and after coming to Egypt I sincerely hope that it continues to improve. Cairo reminds me of Seoul from about 20 years ago, and there are Hyundai’s everywhere. I hope that along with the lifting economy, the people can be led by what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Ma’a el salama.

Jan 4, 2011

2011-01-07T11:02:00.004+01:00

Day 17

On the sleeper train to Cairo. We opted to upgrade from the way we traveled south in order to return north with the added luxury of lying flat. Which was quite nice, and the bathrooms were a big improvement. Although these things sound “high-maintenance”, call us picky. Getting back to our last full day in Cairo refreshed and restored was another added benefit.

You have to just give over to Cairo traffic during cab rides... it has to be experienced to be understood. Words can’t describe the chaos, the clamor, the random donkey carts and pedestrians in death-defying acts, and I cringe to think of how an ambulance would arrive or depart in time should someone meet an ill fate.

We ventured out with Mike & Jess who had also upgraded to sleeper. A quick consult of our trusty Footprints guide and we hopped a cab (flagged by the hotel, no hassle) to Al-Qala-at Salah al-Din, or the Citadel, founded in 1172 by none other than Salah al-Din. But even on the trip across town our impressions began to shift.

“We are so over Cairo,” we had said to each other wearily.

After the bucolic and pharaonic wonders we’d seen in the desert sands and along the banks of the Nile, the prospect of such a honking, heaving, smoke-belching metropolis seemed a particularly unpleasant way to end our visit. But we were wrong. Crossing the river, we prepared ourselves for more of the same as we went through Downtown... which shocked me by how silent it was; calm, and gorgeous architecturally a blend of old and new builds as we continued westward. Coming up the ridge to Al-Burg we marveled at the view of Cairo and debarked the cab feeling already more enamored with our exploration.

The Citadel was magnificent. It was a clear(ish) calm day and we sat at a cafe with a terrace commanding Coptic Cairo, Giza, and the Mosque of Sultan Hassan. In the distance, the hazy view of the stepped pyramid was an awe-inspiring addition to the context and layers of history.

We then made our way north. Just when you feel that you’ve gotten enough of haggling, behold the Khan el-Kahlili. The granddaddy of markets since 1322. (We had to skip the Military Museum due to time: each cab ride took an hour, regardless of destination, it seemed.)

Getting down to the Blue Mosque dumped us into a thousand-year old warren of streets time forgot. We weren’t ready for it. After getting turned off by the prospect of haggling for a charity donation “for the children” (I’ll donate to UNICEF instead), we caravan/convoy marched out way out... a “grueling” 600 meters to be sure, but through uncertain neighborhoods, it was anxiety-inducing. We were confronted by sights, smells, sounds... and our own fears and prejudices. We were fine. It was just a true old neighborhood with life’s shoe repairmen, butchers, spice shops, scooters, puddles of dubious provenance, the acrobatics of balancing boards of bread on one’s head, wood-fired ovens roasting sweet potatoes, ladies selling corn by the ear, kittens, and the Khan.

The architecture is breathtaking. The twists and turns reminded me both of Venice (from our cosmopolitan travels), and the video game rendition of Damascus in Assassins Creed (from my more banal adventures, couchside). Arches, screens, mosques in striped bricks, cornices, towers, tunnels and stalls: I must’ve really fallen in love then.

And we must have hit the streets on a quiet day, if anything we had less hassle than in Aswan or Luxor, but maybe that’s just because we’re more seasoned. The bazaar was just hitting nightfall and seemed sparkling and mysterious and unending.

The cab back was supposed to be a pit-stop before heading out to an evening of belly dancing (seemed the thing to do, right?), but after another hour of congested traffic and CONSTANT HONKING and the impression of too much carbon monoxide intake, we were ready to cash our chips in early. A chance run in with Scott & James meant we could enjoy our last evening together of fuul, kebab and mango juice so pulpy you’d have to floss. Saying goodbye was hard, but if we tour like this again... maybe India.

There always be more opportunities, but I was also jealous that we weren’t joining the 5am departure to Sinai and Jordan for the next leg. When they proposed a late night of clubbing at Buddha Bar... we were happy to be in bed by 9:30. Old married folks.

View of Cairo from the Citadel

Jan 3, 2011

2011-01-06T21:41:00.005+01:00

Day 16

An early start, 5am, ends our first night of sleep indoors. But after a quick breakfast and tea on a water taxi across to the West Bank of the Nile, we prepared for take-off: hot air balloons over the Valley of the Kings. I was thrilled. It was incredible! Before we started we could see a candy-jar armada floating away, and on the ground were workers and trucks scrambling about. We got to watch as six balloons were prepped at once and I couldn’t help it: Flight of the Valkyries was playing on my mental shuffle.

I have always wanted to ride in an air balloon, since they fly over our apartment in Stockholm... Nej, earlier. Since my Trapper Keeper days with a giant multi-colored balloon photo on the cover. I remember that my aunt had described to me that take-off and riding in a balloon felt like floating, and once the billowing flame had sent ripples up the fabric of the craft fewer and fewer of the ground crew held the frame of the basket. Sure enough, rising into the air seemed the most natural thing in the world. I couldn’t help the backwards impression that the ground was falling away. Anne said it seemed no different than flying in a plane.

Valley of the Kings (or Queens, or Nobles?)

After we gained a bit of altitude, however, I felt decidedly uneasy whereas Anne blithely leaned over the edge and remarked how high we were. Two different experiences? You betcha.

We could not take a decent photo. It was slightly hazy and anyway, nothing is comparable to the actual experience of seeing it all. Karnak laid out bellow with its massive 50 acres (0.2 sq km), the crumbling Colossi of Ramses with their ant-like visitors, and the unusual architectural departure from pylons of the tiered temple of Hat-Cheap-Suit. The Valley of the Kings was laid out like a Lego set that we could reach out and reassemble.

As we drifted, I came around and dared look over at the donkeys and workers in the fields below which thawed into wonder as we skimmed the palm trees thanks to a little bit of showing off from our pilot. A farmer curmudgeonly complained at our arrival so instead of putting down on his crop two of the ground crew walked our basket over to a clear spot--lighter than air!

Our group (minus 3)

To give him the t-shirt, or not to give him the t-shirt. So strange.

There were children begging and complimentary t-shirts, a bizarre juxtaposition. And as we walked to our transport we saw workers uncovering yet another temple. Extraordinary!

The triangular peak of the Valley really does put one in mind of a great pyramid, and so was a fitting place for the Kings of Thebes to choose as a burial: first up high, then digging deep below. Alas, none proved defensible to thieves. They were all robbed. (I wonder if later Phaorohs were responsible, a Dept of the Treasury for the next funeral mask?) Except, one obscure and undiscovered until 1922. All we have is the mere 4,000+ artifacts of that nobody, Tutankhamen. (Seti I would have been a real find.)

The tombs of Ramses I, III and Merenptah were magnificent, and worth descending 140m to explore. Finally, we get to see hieroglyphics in full, vibrant color as they were meant to be seen. Sorry, they don't allow picture-taking in the Valley (camera flashes can deteriorate the paint.) But the in-tact painted walls put into perspective all the the sandstone-colored temples we’d gawked at, most of the paint worn off. With our stately elder egyptologist’s deft descriptions the pharaohs' funeral monuments came alive once more. It’s a feat of the imagination to mentally fill in all the patches and decipher the cryptic characters on the walls. Strangely, I was put in mind of nothing so much as comic books: stories told in panels of mythic super beings...

From high flights of fancy to lowly reality--we took donkey rides down out of the Valley of the Kings, a full 7 kilometers through the desert and villages. Cairo scooter jockeys got nuthin’ on us: try straddling and steering a beast with no throttle and no stirrups as giant honking tour buses whiz by. Once we’d descended the hills things improved after one final harrowing intersection, a donkey sans rider (she fell face-first over the donkey onto the pavement), a painfully sore bottom and steed behind mine amorously attempting to mount mid-gallop. Our pace slowed and we weaved through fields and villages which lead one to wonder, upon seeing the irrigation canals, just how long these stretches had supported life. 8,000 years? More?

This was before the Donkey Ride of Death started.

“Stop Donkey. Go Donkey. Good Donkey”

Steering is a matter of willpower, but speed (including zero) is impossible. Despite all this, and including one lady from another tour doing a face plant after an untimely pothole for which we couldn’t stop (“Whoa, Donkey”), we made it to a refreshing, delicious, traditional Egyptian meal. And there was beer. It’s amazing how soothing a cushion and a drink can be, especially after looking Death in the eye.

Another water taxi and were free to experience the Open Air Museum of Luxor one last time. I was tired of the unsolicited hassle for taxi’s and advice I didn’t want. (mish ayyiz) So I had to remember to take things easy, chill out and embrace the cultural experience... a mango smoothie aided immeasurably. We ran into our friends in the souk, or bazaar. I was the recipient of some more accidental haggling that resulted in a scarf I did like (bargaining thanks to Mike). We were treated to an unwelcome tour of the bazaar to a part we didn’t want to see...the real souk (not the sanitized tourist version) Beware of anything free, which in Egypt is especially true.

The Nile at Luxor

After finding Luxor Museum (new, beautifully curated) and dodging the touts by taking the waterfront, we met for one last meal with the whole tour group. They were an incredible bunch that we’d gladly travel with again. We went for a night cap at the regal Winter Palace, and then the “my kind of scum” dive bar around the corner. Talk about a “union of opposites”! Egypt certainly contains contrasts.

Jan 2, 2011

2011-01-06T20:31:00.004+01:00

Day 15

We woke up to our last breakfast on the boat and bid our crew goodbye. Think we were all sad to see our boat life go and shocked at riding in a vehicle with wheels again.

After 4 days camping on the Nile (again, without showers or toilets!)

Pop, like that, the bubble bursts and the spell was broken.

A luxury tuk-tuk?

The area of Kom Ombo is known for its sugar cane production, which meant the city was filled with black factory smoke.

Hungry?

Taking the back way through farming villages we could see how many people still live poor but simple, honest lives. With a bewildering array of mud brick ingenuity. We made our way to Edfu temple. Dedicated to Horus, Edfu is the most intact ancient temple. Period. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at stumpy Greek & Roman columns trying to imagine what it looked like. No need here. Thanks to being buried in sand for centuries, Edfu’s 90% intact, and amazing.

Horus and Anne

Nearly every temple we went to was defaced...by Christians. They took issue with polytheism & Egyptians gods.

Some random guy who wanted us to take a picture of him, then asked for baksheesh. Gotta love the Egyptians.

Even if we were starting to feel “templed out” this was a good order to see them in.

Then on to Luxor, formerly known as Thebes, and the capital of the New Kingdom (circa 1500 BC). We rode horse carts to Karnak, which was an incredible, huge temple complex. The columns! Oh, they were so cool. In rows 6 by 16, and so fat it takes ten people to link arms around them. Words and photos don’t do them justice.

Luxor Temple

Avenue of the Ram-headed Sphinx in Karnak

It would take a lot of Anne's to encircle that column!

One of Hatshepsut's fallen columns, with one of the only images showing her as a *woman* king.

Jan 1, 2011

2011-01-06T20:20:00.003+01:00

Day 14

More boat. More river. Thoughts drifting along with the current, between Heart of Darkness and Huck Finn.

I smelled like woodsmoke and mosquito repellent but I am happy. In the afternoon we stopped at Kom Ombo temple (woohoo, a real toilet!). Situated at a curve in the Nile and dedicated to falcon-headed Horus and Sobek, the crocodile god. We took coffee in a cushioned tent and enjoyed live musicians playing traditional music. Our guide explained this was a dual place of healing and appeasement to the crocs (since gone, with the High Dam). There were massive, breath-taking hieroglyphs and a ruined wall where you can see a secret passage the priests used to whisper to worshipers as the Mouth of God.

Dec 31, 2010

2011-01-06T20:02:00.003+01:00

Day 13

Set sail! On our way we made great time, take with and against the wind. 4 days sailing along the Nile, 3 nights camping on its banks (with all the associated joys of camping...sleeping bags, mosquitoes, peeing outdoors.)

As the waves carried us along I was awestruck yet again. The banks of the Nile, the sailboats, the sun... I don’t know what to write to describe it. We got to see the “real Nile” and let our minds drift back through the ages.

People still live and work the land with their livestock in simple mud huts, with palm roofs. Majestic feluccas furl their angular sails like white wings. Bloated, boxy river boats which vie between nostalgic chic and cheesy are the only things that break the spell.

That and Australians playing “I’m on a Boat” for New Year’s Eve.

Anne and I have spent the last 6 consecutive NYEs together. This one was one of the most interesting, by bonfire with our Nubian crew drumming and singing call-and-response songs...when we couldn’t quite catch on to the Nubian tunes, they switched to “She’ll Be Coming Down the Nile When She Comes”.

Happy New Year.

Dec 30, 2010

2011-01-06T19:54:00.002+01:00

Day 12, And... we’re off!

Nowhere fast. We arose, checked out and embarked on our adventure down the Nile by a rustic felucca sailboat. No electricity, no plumbing for 3 days/4 nights...

Our first day the winds were too high to go anywhere so we “camped” by a construction site... but on the other side, having gotten a tow across the majestic Nile with its eons of commerce and history! It was still relaxing to lie about and read, watching more fortunate feluccas sail the opposite direction up river. We took a break back at the hotel we’d just left for a soccer game and a beer. And a toilet.

We stayed in a secluded cove, told ghost stories around the fire, and got bitten by mosquitos.

Dec 29, 2010

2011-01-06T19:29:00.004+01:00

Day 11, Abu Simbel

3 am wake up call to join a Tourist Police Convoy to Abu Simbel. We were greeted by our cheery egyptologist, a Coptic Christian named Emat, who was our best yet. You could tell that he had a sincere passion for the studing antiquities and sharing out the curiosities of his home.

We saw the sun rise over the Sahara. I watched a star fade away into the daylight while Anne slept on my shoulder.

Abu Simbel was Ramses II homage to himself, the first standing king deified. He’s kind of a big deal, having ruled as Pharaoh for 67 years and fathered 180-something children.

It was also nearly submerged by the High Dam and moved stone-by-stone by UNESCO in the 1960s. The man-made Lake Nasr was gorgeous and we saw a line of thousands of ducks migrating North to Europe that stretched on for over 5 minutes... think we’ll see any of them up here?

On the way back, a mirage in the desert... (where else?) that looked just like the huge lake we’d just come from.

These words don’t do enough to describe what a great day we had, despite the 7-hour bus ride and the early start, but we got the afternoon to explore and relax.

And then came the camels.

This was an optional and to think we could’ve missed it! It ended up vying as my favorite part of the trip. For an hour I was Lawrence of Arabia. We saw the most magnificent sunset as we rounded 4,000 year old Nubian tombs and came upon the ruined monastery of St. Simeon. The browns & reds & grays & tans of the desert hills against the white/blue/yellow/apricot fading into pink and red of the sky... It was out of this world.

Oh, and we raced. Think I was 3rd, but think Mikey baksheeshed his way to the front...

Afterwards another soothing boat ride to the Nubian village for a home cooked meal and a henna tattoo for Anne.

Tomorrow more relaxation with the felucca motto: whatever, whereever, whenever.

Dec 28, 2010

2011-01-06T19:26:00.002+01:00

Day 10

Dirtiest window ever.

The overnight train to Aswan. 1000 km, 14 hours of full-blast AC necessitating sleeping bag deployment, bone-jarring starts-and-stops and the toilet from hell. 45° tilt only does so much in that case.

But the view from the train of the country-side was magnificent! It was nice to get out of the city and it was surreal to see desert on your left, and green fields on your right. Truly and viscerally impressing the vital importance of the Nile as a source of life.

We were all so exhausted and dirty and ready for our hotel (it’s truly a bonding experience) that we were so grateful for the van that picked us up... only to drop us off 500 meters later! What’s the point? But “rugged” backpackers that we were, we didn't argue when porters met us to take our bags. Egypt’s bewildering extremes.

Somewhat revived we set off for the Temple of Isis at Philae by boat. You can’t talk about Aswan without the phrase “laid back” and skimming out over the calm waters helped us to shift gears.

The Temple of Isis is gorgeous, and as survived over two-thousand years and submersion (baptism?) by the Aswan High Dam and defacing from the Christians who camped out there in 300 AD. It was surreal, mythic and the glittering sun on the waters and cool breezes made you want to stay and wander amongst the hieroglyphs for hours. Alas, our boat rental time and Nescafé were calling. So we retired to take it easy with the blokes at the hotel and some of the most amazing Egyptian food. Anne got to eat her requisite pigeon (surprisingly little meat...just spiced rice and skin!)

Another city, another market. Aswan’s known for it’s spices and it was an eye-popping, Kodak commercial of colors, a potpourri of scents, and even more imaginative banter “Buy one, get me free!” “100% off!” designed to turn heads and bring us into a conversation, some cups of tea, and a seal a deal. Anne was on another plane than I was when trying to buy a shirt and quilted Koran wall-hanging. Faktiskt, I bartered for the guy. After nearly an hour I wanted it, and to be done and on with getting a beer... I think Anne wanted blood.

Dec 27, 2010

2011-01-06T18:52:00.003+01:00

Day 9

Up, and breakfast. Oh Nescafé, your watery, instant-packet nature makes you an unsuccessful replacement for our Swedish Löfbergs Lila.

Getting to meet our tour who are mostly Australians, a pair of Kiwis and a Canuck, we feel like we can afford to be “less Swedish” than we had been on our own while in Hurghada. Maybe we’ll be honorary Aussies.

Giza’s a regular Cairo neighborhood... but for this one bit of real estate you might have heard of. Besides a glimpse form the plane coming in yesterday (totally cool), our first shot of Cairo’s main claim to fame was between views of apartments and convenience stores. While our egyptologist ramblingly debunked alien intervention in the construction of Egypt’s monuments we were left gawking at how there the Pyramids were. Indeed, even walking up to them from the parking lot one is struck by the thereness of the Pyramids. My heart quickened. I was in awe, and we joined the dumbfounded throngs and tried to shove off the touts. “You look Egyptian!”

Uh huh, we did that. For Mandy.

Yup, I clambered on the bit they let you on.

Nope, Pyramid 1 & 2 were closed, no King’s & Queen’s Chamber. But we did slide down into the belly of Pyramid #3, the claustrophobia-inducing burial chambers in little guy to the right. The shorter Pyramid of Menkaure would be huge in its own right if it weren’t for comparison. They’re incredible. 2500 BC.

Our group’s spirit was cemented by a “Toyota Jump” in front of Khafre, and we were off to the Sphinx. Mysterious, masterful, and grand, the biggest riddle to me is how it survived. Wondering and marveling at it, we had to pinch ourselves to believe we were really before such unmistakable landmarks.

Next, we completed our education at the Egypt Museum which was over-whelming and a bit out-dated in presentation. It wants for a dump of curating money. But we saw Tut’s mask and sarcophagous. We saw statues, and statues, and statues. I particularly liked the scribes with folded yoga legs. We saw mummified crocodiles and cats and cattle. There’s really so much stuff! A highlight was Akhenaten and then Hathor (Golden Calf?). We breezed through the much newer gift shop (funding?) and searched for our group. Rally point? “The Garden”. It’s huge. The trip home was a treat of rush hour Cairo. What a day!

Dec 26, 2010

2011-01-06T18:25:00.001+01:00

Day 8: ma’a el salama, good-bye

Off to Cairo! Hurghada’s been an interesting unwinding/stressful start to our experience, but it’s time to go from dipping our feet in the pool to jumping full in.

We accidentally haggled a great price (don’t lose heart!) from the airport then I wondered, not for the first time, just who it was we were riding with. Turns out, a very nice man in a very nice car. He considerately tuned the radio to the English language station (for future reference: 104.2 The Nile.) So we listened to Michael Jackson and Shakira while whirring by minarets, tenements and monuments. Had a slight miscommunication where I couldn’t understand if we were seeing the site of Sadat’s assassination memorial, or Mubarak’s current residence. (“the President, the President!” “Yes, but what about the President?”), and so settled in, to take the panorama with the paranoia.

I don’t know if it was the traffic or the Western bias that floored me more, but what they say about Cairo traffic is true. It’s utter bedlam. But by the time that we got to our hotel I could see that it had a kind of order. I think that congestion limiting speed is their only saving grace, but that proved a curse as we were serenaded by honking horns all night. You’re not in Vasastan anymore now, Toto!

Dec 25, 2010

2011-01-06T18:21:00.002+01:00

Day 7

Merry Christmas. The climate here doesn’t feel too Christmas-y but the funny thing is it’s closer to the real thing, eh? Watched the TV coverage from Bethlehem, and went to the Swedish-owned restaurant that had a Julbord. Oddly, for dinner we ate at KFC (we can't get the Colonel in Stockholm. Merry Xmas, indeed!)

We’ve been answering the question “Where are you from?” with “Sweden” becuase it’s true, and because it just seems easier than dealing with however they may feel about America. Not that most people here can tell, as many of the shop barkers (touts, in our guidebook) are yelling “Finland!” hopefully at us.

Arabic Santa (stuffed with pillows) and a very happy Russian sunbather

Dec 24, 2010

2011-01-06T18:11:00.002+01:00

Day 6 Ashoofak bokra, see you tomorrow

Chilled out on the beach all over again. Soaked in the rays. Read a book on logic, and waxed philosophical. We had a delicious mixed-grill lunch while Anne was fascinated by restaurant kitties. Tonight the moon, just past full was fat and low and beautiful, glittering on the water. Called home to the family to wish a Merry Christmas but barely got through.

Still need a scarf.

Dec 23, 2010

2011-01-06T18:10:00.001+01:00

Day 5: mish kweyyis, bad

After a hard day’s beaching, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for a truly delicious burger. But we got ripped-off by our sleazy cabbie (basically giving us .50 change instead of L.E. 50). We swore off taking any more taxis if we can help it, especially since the constant bargaining is so stressful. Met a nice Egyptian who had lived in Sweden and sold us some perfume and invited us for tea. Then watched L.A. Confidential with Arabic sub-titles.