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. 

Preview week at school

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?

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.

the first step

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...

Who speaks Swedish anyway?

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.

Don't call the minister Frodo

First thing's first: holy blizzard, batman!  Today started innocently enough, with just a few more clouds than usual. But when I headed home during rush hour, I was stomping through 3-inch deep puddles of slush in a zero-visibility snow storm, bent over like an old woman to prevent the wind from literally bowling me over. You couldn't see one centimeter of platform space at T-Centralen, there were so many people taking public transportation to avoid the weather.

Anyway, to the post:
Stu and I decided to move to Stockholm from DC in March/April 2009, shortly before Daily Show segment the Stockholm Syndrome was aired (I tried desperately to embed the video, but Blogger was not having it. You'll just have to follow the hyperlink on Stockholm for Part 1 and Syndrome for Part 2.)  We thought it was hilarious, but only recently watched it again after *moving* to Stockholm, with more understanding of some of those things the Wyatt Cenac describes. Even funnier, because they do actually offer massages at Moderna Museet, on Tuesdays!

Another instance, I had NO idea who Leif Pagrotsky was in Part 2. And I didn't even really get why Cenac called him Frodo Baggins in the episode. I just thought it was because Pagrotsky was being kind of a stodgy douche...why not use lovely Swedish women to illustrate the insanity of the Swedish tax rate?!? But he was the Swedish Minister of stuff that included culture until a few years ago. Now, according to Wikipedia, he is apparently advising Greece on how to prevent more financial melting.

So, fast forward to Friday night, when I attended a very Who's-Who-in-the-Swedish-art-scene party at Moderna Museet to welcome the museum's new director. It was fun! The party was sponsored by Absolut Vodka and the food served was part of a relational aesthetics performance piece by an artist (meatballs and spicy noodles?) I had several "Oh My God, that's so-and-so" moments. The Swedish art scene is tiny, after all, but Joseph Kosuth was there!

As was Leif Pagrotsky. I didn't recognize him, really, until I was standing quite near him in the crush of people at the bar greedily awaiting another Absolut cocktail. Which was about when the interview with Wyatt Cenac slowly started replaying in my head, but it wasn't Leif Pagrotsky that I recognized this guy as, it was totally Frodo Baggins. I couldn't think of anything BUT Frodo Baggins!

This guy standing next to me, I have seen him before...what the eff was his real name again?!?

Sometimes words come out of my mouth before the filter kicks in, especially if I have had a drink or two, so I actually repeated in my head several times "Don't call him Frodo, Don't call him Frodo" while standing in line. Not that I introduced myself to him or anything, but did the whole hello & head-nod in recognition thing. How awful that my only knowledge of this apparently well-known and respected man is that he slightly resembles a well-known and respected hobbit. He is not a very tall man. Gah.

That particular drink was my last of the evening. Probably for the best.

Done for the year!

School's out for summer!
I turned in my thesis proposal this morning. Stu had one last excruciatingly and unnecessarily long final class this afternoon. 
Stu is celebrating at the pub with his friends. I celebrated by watching the Glee season finale and eating more than a half a bag of those weird Polly candies, which I couldn't resist buying because they were called Summer Berries. They are literally described as "Delightfully chewy foam drops with a lovely chocolate flavour coating." Surprisingly, they are not that good (not that it stopped me) and there are a remarkable number of calories in not-that-good fake-chocolate-flavored foam, and now I thoroughly regret celebrating in this fashion. I think I'll go meet Stu at the bar.

things we saw in Stockholm

It is nearly 10pm, but it's still light out. It is so nice in Stockholm, we've had our french doors open for the last 2 full days.

Blue skies, and no Ejayafjällasumthinoranother debris in sight.  Stu has a business trip in Göteborg (aka Gothenburg, or Yoda Boring) and is thinking about taking the train both ways to avoid the volcanic spew. And yes, my husband now has business trips...he has managed to score several sweet short-term contract jobs at businesses here in Stockholm and in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, their terms all overlap and we still have 3 weeks of school, so he happens to be the most stressed man I know right now, but regardless I am proud of him. Bringin' home the bacon.

We got to spend some super days with our super friends Emre and Patti this weekend, too. They managed to get back to Utrecht yesterday after more than 9 hours of traveling, thanks to the ever-present ash cloud of doom. They probably could have DRIVEN to Utrecht in that amount of time, but whatever.

• We did Gamla Stan, we went to some museums (the Medieval Stockholm museum and the Wine & Spirits museum, both highly recommended.) 
• We caught a crazy burlesque show...no little people this time, but there were a whole lotta attention-hogging people in the audience. And as many naked people in the crowd as on stage.  
• We sat outside at a bar on Medborgarplatsen on Saturday when it was so gorgeous, and I just read Alexander Skarsgård and his new gf Kate Bosworth were sitting in the exact same spot enjoying the sun yesterday. I'da loved that celebrity sighting...
• We had a few friends over for dinner and drinks super late into the night. 
• We took a boat out to a close island on the archipelago and ate ice cream and laughed at Stu getting harassed by large, angry birds. He does not like birds, of any size or disposition, within a few feet of his space. 
• We saw a few movies and hung out and generally enjoyed each other's company.

And it all generally made me more excited to head back to DC in a few weeks, to see everyone else we miss.

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!

a little art & medicine in Stockholm

What a nice week. For the most part, it was slow (jag var sjuk) and sunny. We received an awesome care package from Nina & Todd, and she sent me a bag of only the best chai in the entire world, from a lovely little tea house in DC called Teaism. I really miss their bento boxes and salty oat cookies, but the chai is wonderful. It made being sick easier. Like medicine! Which is good because I used most of the Theraflu we brought over. *That* stuff is like crack.

I felt like I had a pretty inspiring end of the week. I went to several places I had never been before, and encountered art and ideas I hadn't known about.  Stu & I skipped Swedish class Wednesday night to attend a lecture at KTH by Dr. Hans Rosling. KTH is the Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan.) We live quite close, as in walking-distance, but I had never been on campus before. Its large, and everyone else there is a hundred times more clever than I will ever be. Including Hans Rosling. He actually works for another big Stockholm school, Karolinska institutet, the well-regarded medical school on the other side of Stockholm where everyone else is also a hundred times smarter than I will ever be. His research relates to international health, and the man knows how to make statistics interesting and how to spin even the most dismal information into something that makes you wants to DO something about it. I had moments of why-is-my-country-so-stupid (the US) while at the same time feeling like wow-we've-come-a-long-way. Anyway, he is an incredibly dynamic speaker, and I suggest checking out some of his Ted.com lectures.  The second one is a doozy, if you get to the end where he strips off his shirt and swallows a sword!

Thursday and Friday were both quite long. We had lectures on curatorial tools with the head curator at Magasin 3, met with gallerists at Hudiksvallsgatan to discuss commercial gallery practices, then sat in on a thesis-planning session with art students at KKH, another school I had never been to. The royal college of art (Kungliga Konsthögskolan) is situated in a beautiful space next to the Moderna Museet, on the water, and everyone else there is a hundred times more crafty, arty and more stylish than I will ever be. It was nice to be talking with and working with artists! I guess I have not been as proactive as is possible in this town in meeting artists (there are a lot!) but my program is also pretty insular, in that we talk to a lot of curators and museum people, but not as many of the people actually creating what we will one day be displaying and writing about. Anyway, I hope to get over there more often to talk to art students about their work.
Thursday evening, we had a seminar at the Schefflerska palace on Drottninggatan, better known as Spökslottet, the Ghost Palace. Apparently August Strindberg coined that, and since he lived around the corner from it, maybe he knew things-that-go-bump there intimately. We live around the corner from it too, technically, but not close enough to determine whether he was right. If you are interested, I can tell you some more of the rumors in another post?
Anyway, Spökslottet owned by Stockholm University (when my mom attended, it used to be located there!) and houses a large and interesting art collection. They refuse to support it as a museum, so its now mostly used as a administrative office space and as a receiving place for important guests of the university. There is a curator, a woman who has been caring for the collection for the last 30 years, but its not open to the public and the university does not see it as important that the Bruegels and Tintorettos it owns be available on loan or for research. A bit of a tragedy, really. I could see liking working there, though. We've looked at so much contemporary art with this Curating Art master's programme, that it was refreshing to see some old dusty stuff.

I did not take a single picture of the Rosling lecture, KKH, Hudiksvallsgatan or Spökslottet, but I took several today at Bonniers Konsthall. We popped over to see the Tomas Saraceno show. Its fun...if you live in Stockholm, go see it.

 

Learning Swedish

Its late January, and Stu & I have now lived in Sweden for almost 6 months. There are so many aspects we love that the stuff we don't is still somehow not that bad. I think we both feel we have found a good fit here, and though we miss a lot of things, we definitely think of Stockholm as "home." Looking ahead, we will both have shiny new master's degrees in spring 2011, and the plan so far is to apply for jobs at various locations in the US, in London (because I *loved* it) and, of course, in Stockholm. One of the biggest hurdles to our eventual job search here is the language.

We have had a lot of people ask how our Swedish is coming. Well, its, kind of, not. At the moment, anyway. When we decided in April 2009 that we would move to Sweden from DC, we bought the Rosetta Stone language program. I recommend it...pretty pictures, easy to understand, total immersion in the language. It helped with the basics and with pronunciation, putting us roughly on the level of a 3 or 4 year old (which sounds demeaning, but kids ain't no dummies!) If we see an uncommon word we learned on Rosetta Stone, the exact phrases we learned it in still comes back to us. Its a bit weird, actually.

So in getting here, I signed up for SFI, Swedish for Immigrants, which is offered for free to nearly anyone. The government used to pay immigrants to take Swedish classes, and though they stopped that a while ago, I read that they tweaked the system and are piloting a version of the pay-for-learning plan in a few places, including Stockholm. I am not sure I'd qualify, but I'm sure I'd do it if I they threw a little money at me! I didn't start until late October, and only lasted until December. It wasn't terrible; they were educated, smart people taking the class with me, and it was nice to have nothing but Swedish spoken at me for a solid 3 hours. But it wasn't great, and after two months, I didn't feel like I learned all that much. Not to mention, all the art galleries in Stockholm hold their opening parties on Thursday nights, and I was either missing the openings or the class once per week. So it just didn't work out for me. And I have taken a month or so off from active Swedish learning.

But next week is when it all starts up again! Stu and I are paying to take a course at a local school together, once per week. It promises to have only a few students, and we took a placement test that will put us with other people on our level. Thankfully, we placed higher than total beginners! I would have been a little embarrassed otherwise. At once per week, we aren't going to become fluent anytime soon, but I might feel a little more comfortable talking to the grocery cashiers, and maybe later step up to the next course. I'm taking a beginner class at Stockholm University, mostly just to get more class time with professional professors (as opposed to the not-so-professional SFI professors.) And because it is for school credit, there is a bit more incentive to go to class and to do well. I think I'd also like a "language buddy" or something, too. A Swede that could get together for an hour or so a week to just practice the everyday phrases, etc. I could pay in cookies. Once I learn how to bake them here, that is. Or maybe Swedish pancakes. They are at least supposed to be super thin.

I was chatting today with Patti, a friend who just moved with her bf (and Stu's best friend) to Utrecht a week or so ago, and they are facing some of the same issues we did when we first got here...starting a new life, settling in, finding things, communicating with the locals, learning Dutch. I guess that is why I started writing this post. To acknowledge that its been 6 months! It feels like so long ago, but we definitely feel settled in Sweden. Even if we aren't fluent in Swedish (yet).

Oh, shameless plug, Patti just started a blog to keep up with everyone: http://goedgouda.blogspot.com/

Maybe we need some color

It occurred to me that we haven't been taking many pictures lately. We took so many while traveling...maybe Stockholm got boring in comparison? Its certainly more monochromatic. Nah, I know I have *seen* things that are picture-worthy, I just haven't had the camera with me. And come on, I am not really that interesting...the blog is just better when there are pictures. So I am using what we did this weekend as an excuse to steal a bunch from the web. With a little more color.

We went over to our friends' place for dinner Friday, and while they impressed us with filet mignon, and fancy salad and two different kinds of risotto, I brought chocolate glop. It was supposed to be brownie pudding, but it didn't set, and it turned out to be mostly pudding goo. It tasted like heaven, but turned out looking nothing like this:

Aaaaaaand I still suck at baking in Stockholm.

We stayed out too late Friday and slept in too late Saturday, and missed the few hours of sun in the day. Story of my life. But in the afternoon, we went out to an opening at Magasin 3, a contemporary art space in Stockholm. The curators there are huge supporters of my grad school program, so it feels a little like kissing up by going to the openings, but then again, they show some really great art! The current exhibition is "Always in a Spiral" by Maria Nepomuceno:

She creates these Dr. Seuss-like woven constructions, using rope and pearls and whatever else. They feel very organic and some look almost phallic or yonic, but since they are so super colorful and fun, you just wanted to lie on them like a hammock. We got the chance to meet the artist on Saturday (which is a privilege you get surprisingly often in Stockholm...galleries really support the artist meeting the audience!) and she was very nice. There is an interesting little video showing the installation and more pieces on the M3 website here.

Art sometimes makes me sleepy and hungry, and I think my body is now set to Swedish fika time. So when out for coffee, we also got our first semlor of the season. I feel like maybe the semla bun should have its own dedicated blog post, they are so good. Or maybe its own dedicated blog.

Because Lent is a time of self-denial, these only seem to come out in the weeks before Fat Tuesday. You can see why. Basically, its a sweet cardamom bun filled with almond paste and topped with whipped cream, and when you've finished the entire thing in 12 seconds flat, you want to order another. And then another.

Okay, so more pictures, of the non-hunger-inducing variety. We finally saw Avatar this weekend. It was pretty. It made you think. However, I liked the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus far more. Go see them both.

And Sunday, there was sun, and we actually got out to enjoy it! We walked to the Medeltidsmuseum, the medieval Stockholm museum, on the day it re-opened after a lengthy re-furb. Its built into a bridge in front of the castle, the oldest bridge in the city, in fact. The Norrbro:

I realize this is NOT in color, but what a cool image of the North Bridge from the 1840s!

They had the bridge closed while they reinforced it, so we hadn't even gotten the chance to stand on it until this past weekend. Saturday, the Crown Princess Victoria laid the final stone:

More photos of that here.

The medieval museum was packed with people, even people so hardcore they got dressed up in renaissance clothing for the opening. And I was struck that it had so much more information in English than most Stockholm museums. So we learned, too. We learned that we would never want to live in medieval Stockholm.

And I actually took this last one, a shot from the Norrbro over the river...in our most familiar color palette.

Picture post

A sunny day after a week of rain (okay, sunny for Stockholm in December is not exactly sunny for, umm, any place south of us)

 

 Kids skating at Kungsträdgården

 

A statute on the Royal Palace

 

 The NationalMuseum

 

Some nice street scene.

  Happy Holidays!

Okay, so I thought it said Happy Weekend the first time I saw it (Helg means holy/holiday AND weekend)

 

 

 Vs and Ws get a little mixed up to the Svedes.

 

And fika  at Saturnus

Hootchy Kootchy and midget burlesque

Our first burlesque show in Stockholm.  Stu and I used to go to burley-q shows fairly often in the US. Like yoga classes, we'd try to go to burlesque shows whenever we were in a new city.  We just hadn't jumped on any of the few opportunities since being in Stockholm until last night, when we went with our Finnish friends.

It wasn't cheap at 180:- a pop ($26) at the Kägelbanen back bar at the beautiful Södra Teatern.   We had missed a show last month with a Vegas theme, but this one was "A Family Affair." I guess they were channeling the Addams Family. The poster was kind of creepy...

The show started about midnight. It ended at 12:45. Seriously, the most expensive and shortest burlesque show I have ever been to.  But not without merit. The MC didn't overstay his welcome, and the acts were pretty tight...we have seen some disasterous burlesque shows, and this was surprisingly well-run!  Its the Swedish way.

There was a pregnant burlesque dancer.  Yes, like in her third trimester, with a very pregnant belly in a sheer pink body suit.  And there was a little person burlesque dancer. I am not kidding. Her second act was to be wheeled out in a baby stroller and then kick her blankets off so she was wearing some red sequined two-piece number.  Very interesting.  I think.  And there was a plus-sized burlesque dancer who probably had the best act of the night, bathing in a giant champagne glass while singing Chicago showtunes.

But better perhaps than the show was the scene at Kägelbanen. We have seen more fun, more interesting burlesque acts, but we have never seen the audience get SO into it (we even went to the New York Burlesque festival and didn't see nearly as many people dressed up.)

There was over-the-top make up, pin curls, and fishnets. There were men in goth, men in tuxedos, men in drag. There were women in goth, women in ballgowns, women in drag.  There were women in their underwear, and women obviously WITHOUT any underwear.  It was insane...I loved it! It was worth going solely to see how Stockholmers pull out all the stops as an audience.  I wish I had brought a camera. I really, really wish I had brought a camera.

If you were thinking of getting a free Swedish master's degree...

...better apply for 2010!
(oh yeah, we have internet again.)

Stu & I are both pursuing degrees that are tuition-free, thanks to the Swedish citizens that pay their taxes! And we get free health care, did I mention that before? (Quick deviation: We JUST YouTubed Obama's Joint Session address from yesterday, and are applauding his ideas. We have experienced first-hand how life-bettering social programs in Sweden are far more advanced than the American gov't has. Hopefully, the US can get something worked out soon! )

Anyway, we both get excellent educations for no tuition in Sweden. But the Svenska Dagbladet reported (here's the link in English) today that as of 2011, foreign students (like us) will have to pay tuition to Swedish higher-education institutions. Like, 10,000 USD a year tuition. Which is still a bargain, actually. But a big leap! We have loved living here so far, but the free tuition was one of the biggest draws to moving (Stu was looking at 38,000 a year at Catholic University in DC.)

If you were mulling over applying to Stockholm, or Mälmo, or Uppsala, or Lund, do it now! Its like a going-out-of-business sale on free education: www.studyinsweden.se

Unemployment: Day 1

I'm still in pjs, watching bad daytime tv, and drinking a lot of coffee. Not a bad first day of being laid off. I have a big list, but I figure this first day, I should just not worry about any of that. Well, Im doing a load of laundry, so that counts for something.

We are moving to Stockholm in August, so I had intended to leave my nonprofit job in the middle of July, at the same time we go to closing on our condo & become homeless. But Friday, I was told my position had been eliminated as of May 31, 2009, and I could choose to work out the next two weeks or just be done (that was a no-brainer choice!) I stuck out the day, unlike the other 3 people who also got pink-slipped.
I got a tiny severance package, too, and am eligible for unemployment, so considering I was leaving anyway, we're not in a terrible situation. It was definitely a big surprise, but all in all, not a bad surprise. I feel a little like a statistic of the current economy. And I liked my co-workers, so it would have been nice to have a few weeks of happy goodbyes, rather than pitiful "I'm so sorry"s crammed into a few hours.

The Livet Just Lagom name is kind of Swenglish...a poor translation of Life, just right. "Lagom" in Swedish is almost untranslatable, but kind of means moderation or in the middle, but also just the right amount...that sweet spot where everything is just right. Stu & I love the word, and since we've been planning this whole Swedish adventure, its come in to play a lot! Like me getting laid off. I got an unexpected extra 2 months of vacation to prepare for the move, most of which I'll still be making some money.

I should probably get dressed now...I don't want to forget how, now that I'm living a life of leisure!