Three month update. And snow?

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. 

Moving!

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? 

Stockholm for 5 days

We got back from nearly 3 weeks on the east coast Wednesday night. I'm not even sure what to blog about! It was a great trip, despite that it was a bit chaotic (why did we even try to make a schedule...almost nothing went as planned!), it was a bit short (shoulda done a month, you know?) and it was HOT in DC (try 102 more than one day we were there!) 

Some of the highlights were my little sister graduating:

(Go Elena!)

Our friends Nancy & Andrew tying the knot:

(the wedding party, with Stu on the far left)

And one of my best friends Melissa having her first baby, little William Joseph Chalkias, born 25 June 2010!

(here with exhausted-looking papa, Mike)

We met baby Laura for the first time:

(with great friend [her mama] Cait, at the SI Folklife festival)

We even managed to see Stu's dad a few times, when he was able to get truckloads in our direction:

(Stu with his dad and Gabby at the NGA sculpture garden)

And we got to hang out with quite a few friends. Not nearly as many as we would have liked, nor for as long as we would have wanted, but considering the packed 2.5 weeks we were home, we did alright.

I should have taken more pictures, for sure. Oh well. So we are back just long enough to get over the jetlag before we leave for a week in Scotland and a week in Germany. I'll be attending an art librarians conference in Edinburgh, so there will be a little bit a work going on, but other than that, it'll be just vacation. And with Stu's mama and cousin Judi! 

Speaking of jetlag...its been tough to get out of the house, since I want to take a nap every other other. We have definitely missed some of the best time to be in Sweden. But our friends Sam & Sean will be here in an hour to stay the weekend with us, so we'll get some prime Stockholm time showing them around the city. So off to enjoy some BEAUTIFUL Stockholm weather.

One year! One month!

Amazingly, it has been one whole year since we started this blog.  And more amazingly, at least to me, we are almost 10 months in to our planned stay in Sweden. Crazy what has changed and happened!

We are also exactly one month from heading to the US for a few weeks, to celebrate weddings and graduations and babies and seeing friends & fam. I am so looking forward to the trip. And call me shallow, but one of the first trips I am making is to Target when we get home. I miss Target and Whole Foods more than you know.

We are planning on traveling most of this summer since we assume it will be our last before re-entering adulthood, with real jobs and maybe babies. After our short east coast stint, we have plans in July to be in Edinburgh and London for about two weeks, and to spend a few weeks all over Germany with Stu's mama. August we have plans for Paris, and maybe Turkey with Emre & Patti between August and September. And anywhere else we can squeeze in some time. Any suggestions?

One year of blogging! And one month til we are back in DC! Woohoo!

Våren?

Horse-back riders in Djurgården

If I had blogged on Saturday, I would have said something optimistically cheesy like "Spring has sprung in Stockholm!" It was a glorious 45 degrees out. Um, yes, that is warm for here in March...I don't want to hear it, 78 degree DC people. I got to switch to my cute new coat I got in London for warmer weather. 

The sun was out. And the people were out. Thousands of them! Stu & I went on a 3 hour walk through Djurgården, upper and lower. There was still snow out in the fields and forest, but the sun was quickly taking effect on it. We went to a dinner party in Midsommarkransen Saturday night (BTW, lovely little suburb...I would live there!) and everyone was talking about what they did *outside* that day. 

That, my friends, is moving water!

It was a fantastic Spring day, fittingly for the first calendar day(ish) of Spring. If I had blogged on Saturday, I would have been convinced we were over the hump of winter and it was all downhill coasting 'til summer.

But Sunday, Mother Nature kindly reminded us that we live in Sweden. Thank you very much. It was a blizzard! Back down below freezing, and snow. all. day. long. No sun. We left the apartment exactly once, when we determined it was safe because the snow flakes had shrunk to only Rice Krispies-size rather than the Wheaties-size they had been.  Most disappointingly, the roofs were blanketed again, and I was just remarking to Stu about how excited I was to SEE the roof again after months of snow & ice...the buildings in our complex have such a lovely color palate.

Today, I am back to optimistic. Its about 37 degrees and the sun is shining. I finally got rid of our Christmas tree this afternoon (I know its March! I don't want to hear about it, either!) I found a super, super cheap copy of the most-popular-ever Swedish cookie recipe book Sju Sorters Kakor while I was out buying toilet paper. And the House passed a monumental health care reform bill in the US. That is something to be optimistic about. 

Reading our blog, you: a) are probably in Sweden, so you know there is snow, or b) are in the DC area, which just got the biggest blizzard since 1992 and you have plenty of your own snow (and hey, I heard the federal gov't is closed today. Surprise.) or c) don't really care about snow that much and might be sick of seeing pictures.

I'm sorry, it's still a novelty to me, so this is more pictures of snow in Stockholm. Make Stu post something different...you never know what is going to come out of his brain.

The lovely blue concert house downtown. These statues just look hungry in the cold.

You can buy your Xmas tree on the street. Literally. Its a pop-up tree shop on the sidewalk.

I mentioned how slippery the streets were (snowtires, of course! They are mandatory!) But this "Don't Walk" signal says it better:

Our first Christmas tree. I couldn't get reasonably priced Eddie Izzard tickets for Saturday night ($200 is a lot for 3 hours of well-dressed comedy! We'll buy the DVD) so we spent $25 to see the movie "9." It was pretty good. And bought a tiny tree from the Sergels Torg market, and hauled it home. 100:- well spent because, lop-sided though it is, its perfect. Our landlady left us the straw ornaments.

And we had a mini beer tasting...I bought all the Jul Öl I could carry home from Systembolaget. I drank a little too much wine on Friday night with Swedes, so the idea of holiday-spiced beers was more appealing. And Sweden has SO many! Like I said, I only bought what I could carry:

The winner. Jul Mumma? It tastes like Christmas. Or maybe Julmust with beer mixed in.
(Julmust is a Swedish holiday necessity: spiced cola. Its really a bit of an acquired taste, but rather palatable if you add liquor to it!)

A few days from Christmas. Mom-in-law arrives early tomorrow morning, and we are forcing her to adjust to the time change by going to a Swedish julbord (pictures of sill to come, I am sure. Blech.)

Snow that sticks and other updates

One week til Christmas and we got snow! And its sticking! It is Tuesday, and its basically been snowing on & off since Saturday afternoon, so we have a few inches. Swedes know how to deal with snow, not like wuss Washingtonians. I had class at the Nationalmuseum today, and the buses were running on time, the museum opened on time, everyone went to work or school, and people were dressed appropriately.  Ok, I admit that living in the DC area, where they cancel school or the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT for a few flakes, made me think that one should always have vacation snow days when there is white stuff on the ground. But I am spoiled by my grad school lifestyle and can curl up in the house with cocoa whenever I want, so excuses to stay home are less attractive that when working 9-5.

I should have brought my camera when I went out today since there is much more on the ground than this picture above, but it was so windy, I probably wouldn't have gotten any decent shots.

 

I did make cookies (because what goes better with hot chocolate than more chocolate?!) and they were....a success! Finally, if you know how frustrated I have been! Thank you to Dark Fury and Blonde Justice for the baking soda, and to Nuk for the giant bag of Nestle chocolate chips. They don't have chocolate in chip form in Sweden, and I think the shape was crucial to success. When I tried to explain chocolate chips to our French friend P-BB, I said they are shaped like mini Hershey kisses, which went right over his head of course. He was also the one who was practically drinking our peanut butter out of the jar...I guess they don't do peanut butter in France the same way, either.

And, to add to the hot Xmas gifts of 2009, Lambi makes limited edition Christmas toilet paper. I thought this important to point out for no real good reason, but that Lambi as a brand makes me laugh. (I just realized I took a shot of the Christmas paper towels...rest assured, the TP does exist. It apparently isn't as photogenic.)

The exchange rate has gotten better over the last several weeks, which makes me indescribably happy. Still not as good as when we first got here in August, and no where near as awesome as the 9.2:-/$1 from March, but enough to make me feel better about most purchases.

AND, we made lots of travel plans for the next month or two or six.  I think I mentioned we planned a trip to London for my birthday in January, and a trip to Berlin for Stu's bday in February. We also just booked a week in northern Italy the first week of January, so we will be spending a few days in Venice and then in Milan. Not much warmer than Stockholm, but they get 9 hours of sunlight each day, with is double what we are getting here.  Seriously.

Annnnnnnd, we bought tickets to come back to the US!  We hadn't planned to fly back at all during this 2 year stint since it is so expensive (and we have no income!), but there are several big things happening at the end of June that make the trip worth it. I'll tell you about those later. We are missing our first Swedish midsummer, but maybe we'll throw a big midsummer party in DC?

Now THAT is how you protest!

The global financial crisis has forced US government offices to make major changes over the past many months. Just yesterday, Congress passed a bill (which Obama will sign into law today) extending unemployment benefits to the nearly 2 million Americans whose benefits will run out by the end of the year (that includes me!)

In another example of how the Feds have had to trim expenses, the US Postal Service is closing about 400 service offices next year to cut costs, including one in the Florida town of Lantana (pop. 10,000.)  Residents there were so upset about having to drive an additional 7 miles to pick up packages, they convinced the city council to let Washington know how they felt.

By mailing more than 1,000 coconuts to Postmaster General John E. Potter in Washington, D.C., hoping to convince him to keep their post office open!  The coconuts arrived individually wrapped and stamped to the offices.

Who knows if it will lead the USPS to change their minds about Lantana, FL's office, but what an awesome way to stick it to the man!  I love it.

The USPS donated all of the coconuts to Bread for the City, a local foodbank and homeless aid center.  They blogged about the donation here. And they are in need of recipes, so if you have a good one, let 'em know.

Stockholm ran out of money...

...and the library will stay as is! 

We live a stone's throw from stadsbiblioteket, the Stockholm main city library. Its lovely. Built in the 1920s, it has a huge round orangey drum, and the books are shelved in the round. Very cool. When I am done getting paid for working in a few weeks, I am thinking of volunteering there a few hours a week, just so I don't lose my librarian skillz. 

Anyway, there was a push to update and expand the library, which led to a design competition, and the winning design would have demolished parts of the historic building. This led to a big debate in the city, and even UNESCO's cultural heritage board Icomos threw in their 2 öre to say that the building was too exceptional and the architect (Gunnar Asplund) too respected for the proposed changes. 

Sound familiar? DC went through the exact same arguments around the same time with the main Martin Luther King Jr library...famous, venerated architect (Mies van der Rohe), plagued by problems and no longer fitting users' needs. Because of all this, MLK library is now on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Apparently, the city council thought function should come before form, and they have been hard-pressed for this expansion to happen. But this week, it was reported that the venture is just too expensive, and plans have been scrapped (didn't that happen with the Corcoran's Gehry, too?) I am so happy to hear this!  My opinion is too biased to count, though, because I LOVE this building (not to mention wanting to avoid 2+ years of construction in my 'hood.) And I think the Mies van der Rohe is ugly as sin, and a terrible library, so I am all for a revamp in DC.

Mascara is expensive

The exchange rate is in the toilet. At least as far as we are concerned, considering we are living off of our American savings. When we first started planning our move to Stockholm back in April, the rate was about 8.5 kronor per dollar. It meant the rent for our bigger, better Swedish apartment in a great neighborhood was the same as the mortgage on our DC condo. Fine by us! But the exchange rate has fallen steadily since its height in March, and is now hovering at 7 kronor per US dollar. It doesn't sound like that catastrophic of a fall, but it means that our rent is about $200 more per month than we were planning, just 5 months ago.

Aside from the exchange rate fluctuations, Stockholm doesn't seem all that much more expensive than DC.
Aside from the alcohol.
And cosmetics.
I was reading the Metro paper the other day (the free fluffy newspaper that they give out free on the subway, like the DC Express paper) and saw several ads from stores that sell cosmetics. They all advertised mascaras that ranged from 95:- to 165:-, and that is on sale (FYI, in Swedish, its "på rea". I learned that one real quick!) The Maybelline mascara I just tossed out was about 115 kronor...that's $16!! I am cheap, so I probably paid less than $5 for it at a CVS. Had I read the ad before getting rid of the tube, I might have kept it longer! And mascara is one of the few things I am anal about keeping fresh...they say toss it after 2 or 3 months of use, which I do. With always having contact lenses and sensitive eyes, and even more since having lasik in May, it's been important in preventing eye infections. Especially since moving, as we get free health care, but eye care and dental are NOT covered by the Swedish government (which makes me think I should stop eating all this Swedish candy soon. Probably.) But I can't afford to buy $16 mascara every few months being a broke student!

I'll miss using mascara. My eyes won't look the same. And we haven't been here long enough for me to miss all that much. American chunky peanut butter, affordable beer, friends, fam.
That's where you guys come in, friends and family. Several handfuls of you have said you will come visit us in Stockholm. And we WANT you to come visit! Come stay on our couch or blow-up bed (when we get it from the other side of the country, that is.) We'll play tour guide and make you Swedish food and entertain you. And when you come, bring a jar of chunky peanut butter, a bottle of scotch (at Stus request), and a tube or two of cheap Maybelline mascara (preferably not the waterproof kind...I would have to shell out for equally expensive eye make-up remover for that stuff!)

Please?

Visas!

We got them!
We were told to expect 2-3 months turnaround on getting our residence visa applications approved and back from the Swedish Migration Board. We dropped them off at the DC Embassy on May 9th (and I went back a few days later to re-do what was the wrong paperwork...whoops!) And we received a call on June 4th to say that we'd been approved to live in Sweden until September 2010. We'll have to renew after the first year, but it seems like we just have to submit a renewal application that shows that Stu didn't flunk out, etc.
The actual visa is an odd little print-out with our pictures and a raised stamp in the back of our passports....I don't know what I expected.
Either way, big hurdle jumped!

Things we'll miss in the US...

...Baseball.