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. 

Swedish cheese slicers

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!

Unisex babies/baby clothes

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!

Hair woes

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.  

subway rant

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.

Taxes!

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

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!

Odd shoe observation

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.

a Swedish wedding

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...

March 17th

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.

A weekend above the Arctic Circle

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.

Off to the store

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.

Möhippa

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...

So Swedish

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 ;)

Egypt, condensed

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.

turkey day

I'm supposed to be studying Swedish right now, but instead, I'm writing a blog post about how I am supposed to be studying Swedish. Useful, huh? (We are watching Ondskan, though, which I had to read for Swedish class, so that should count for something.)

I'm really just using this blog post to complain. We are both kinda bummed about Thanksgiving this year.

The holiday is tomorrow, but since we live in a country unfamiliar with pilgrims, indians, overeating and football played with helmets & pigskins, we don't get the day off.  We aren't going home to family in the States. Our friends in Stockholm are having a big ol' American-style Thanksgiving at 3. Our friends from back home are having a big ol' Thanksgiving get-together in Amsterdam this weekend. And we are missing out on all of it! I have to work at Moderna Museet from 9-5, and then run to the university to take a Swedish exam, from 6-9. Stu has his project taking up a full-time schedule now, too. So no turkey for us on Turkey Day this year.

I know I shouldn't complain too much...we had a really lovely Thanksgiving last year, somehow fitting 14 people in our small apartment *and* finding a giant turkey (no small feat here.) But  because we won't even really be celebrating Christmas this year, either (yes, I did just squeeze in another reference to our upcoming Egypt trip) we do wish we had gotten to plan a traditional Thanksgiving.

Anyway, Glad Tacksägelsedagen to everyone! Hope it's safe and happy!

Falukorv: another major Swedish landmark down

Tonight, we made falukorv for dinner.

This giant red curved odd hot dog thing is as Swedish as apple pie is American. I hadn't eaten it (unless you count its presence in pytt i panna) much less cooked it at home, but I thought since my dad is in town, it would be appropriate to try. You know, like we had to try all those other ridiculous Swedish foodstuffs like tunnbrödrullar, salty licorice, messmör and julmust.

It had kind of an interesting story. It is a protected food in the EU, much like Parma or Buffalo mozzarella, and you can't call it "Falukorv" unless it is made like it has been traditionally in the region surrounding Falun in the middle of Sweden. Something about being made with potato flour and a certain percentage of a certain kind of meat. Anyway, the sausage recipe comes from way back in the 1500s, when the copper mines near Falun was slaughtering large numbers of oxen for their hides, to make rope to pull the ore out of the deep mining pits. The meat from the animals was too much for the miners, so they smoked it and it became well-known. And today, its a staple of Swedish school lunches and family dinners.

It wasn't so bad! I quite like sausage (I tried vegetarianism for over a year once, but it was kielbasa I dreamed about and turned me omnivore again!) It isn't exactly like sausage, but like a fat ballpark hotdog. Which would make you think you should just boil it, or bake it, or slice it up and fry it, right? Sadly, I didn't realize that you don't eat the casing until halfway through cooking it, and it would have been far easier to peel that bastard before it was super hot. Oh well. It was a success, and my dad even ate the brussel sprouts I made with it.

Figuring out the future so soon?

Stu & I moved to Sweden to be full-time grad students about 14 months ago now. We came from the US with shiny student visas (and in my case, a spouse visa since I hadn't heard about school yet.) We knew even though our programs were two years long, Migrationsverket (the immigration board) would want to check up on us after a year to make sure we were passing and still had some money to live off. Since his visa was set to expire September 1, Stu recently sent his renewal forms in for what I think of as "Stockholm, Year II." He just got his approval today, meaning he can head to Migrationsverket office for a new picture in his passport, and should have no problems traveling to London when we take my dad there next week.

But we were surprised when reading the forms...apparently, they only approved Stu to stay in Sweden until June 2011. We had been going on the assumption that we would have a full two years here, and though we would graduate in June, we would have the summer to finalize plans our next phase, post-grad school. We even signed our lease at our apartment to end on August 31, 2011.

That may not seem like a huge time difference, but we have no idea where we will be heading as of June 2011! The timeline in my mind was to start looking at the job market next May or so, and we would both basically apply for anything and everything that we saw in Stockholm, several large UK cities, and the major cities in the US. In an ideal world, we would get the summer to travel again, knowing exactly what city we would live in by July and then could leisurely move to new digs (whether in Stockholm or abroad) in August, starting fantastic and well-paying jobs in September. But the economy hasn't exactly bounced back as high as one would have hoped, so I know the job hunt could be challenging.

In fact, though, we hope to get jobs here in Stockholm, to take advantage of the connections and networking our education has fostered, to enjoy living in this country while making a decent living wage, maybe take advantage of some of the amazing parental benefits while we were at it, and pay back into the tax system that has so generously supported us for what will be 22 months.

But leaving Sweden in June is too soon! We have to give our landlady 3 months notice that we will be leaving (so that's the beginning of April.)  I foresee April being the *busiest* 30-day stretch for us school-wise in nearly 2 years, without even thinking about applying to jobs, applying for new visas, moving across more large bodies of water, etc.

I think it's worth noting how dysfunctional we find aspects of the Swedish education system when it comes to educating foreigners. Sweden has always (and will continue until next year) made education free to everyone, whatever nationality. One would think that if the government is investing millions into human capital every year, they would want to make it as easy as possible to reap the benefits of their investments! To educate someone from outside the EU, bestowing masters or even PhD degrees, and then giving them NO time to find suitable work in this country before they are legally required to leave just doesn't make sense. One of the reasons given that the country elected to institute tuition starting next year is because "people come for the free education and then leave." But in reality, the government gives them no choice.

It's going to be winter here sooner than I'd like to admit, so maybe if I were writing this blog post 2 months from now, the tone would be different. As in "get me the hell out of here!" Working in San Diego *would* be pretty great, come to think of it. But the point is that it is too soon to think about it!  Ugg, how frustrating.

Peanut butter

There are a ton of things we miss from the US. Mostly food and people. You can get American stuff here, but it's often overpriced. I've seen oreos and Dr. Pepper, both which shocked me with how much they were charging. But the case is a little different with peanut butter here. You can get it. It's just not the same. It tastes wrong or is a strange consistency. And our friends in the US who have come to visit (or sent us care packages) have been awesomely supplying us with a steady stream of good ol' American brand peanut butter. 

And now, surprisingly, I think we're good.

We were brought two new giant containers of chunky peanut butter last week, so when I took stock by pulling out what I was hiding from myself at the back of the cabinet, I realized we had two other large unopened jars. So we have four giant jars of peanut butter...I know its a bit premature, but I think we have enough peanut butter to survive the next year. 

Surprisingly, everyone brings JIF. No other brands.

To be honest, I think it's the desk job saying I don't need any more peanut butter. Only 3 weeks into being office-bound for not even 30 hours a week and my clothes are already feeling a little tighter. Or maybe it's winter insulation, a little early? It does get cold in Stockholm! Either way, as of today, I've decided A) less peanut butter and godis and B) I must walk as often as possible to Moderna this fall. The latter is just under 30 minutes, and I get free entertainment, like the live opera wafting through Kungsträdgården this afternoon. The former might be more difficult..."less" godis will be tough to measure, and really, really, really hard to stick to. 

Mondays will be rough

First Swedish class of the semester tonight, from 6-9pm. I worked at Moderna from 9-12, then went to my philosophy class from 1-4. And then had Swedish until 9pm. It was a long day. Mondays suck anyway, but they are going to be bad here on out.

I think Sweden has a Mondays-suck attitude, as well, based on the decision to "celebrate" Chlamydia Monday. It's already the worst day of the week, so getting tested for an STD and possibly finding out you have one can't make it that much worse, right? At least you aren't ruining a perfectly good other weekday with that kind of news.

And I guess it is a problem here. According to the ever-so-scholarly article in The Local, four people contract chlamydia PER HOUR in this country. I'm shocked at that number (condoms, people!) but feel like maybe I should take that "fact" with a grain of salt....after all, the related articles linked through this page include: Swedish officers fined for flying painted penis and Swedish snails hide sex to avoid horny males.

On that note, I've been waiting this entire long day, desperately hoping no one would spoil it on Facebook, to watch the True Blood finale. Oooh, I hope Erik isn't really toast...he's my favorite. And not just because he speaks Swedish on the show (I know that's what you were thinking.)