Dalarna

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

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

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

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

 

A little bump (after 10pm)

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

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

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

 

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

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

Woot, welcome to summer in Scandinavia.

Moving!

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? 

May update

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

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

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

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

First outdoor fika of the year

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

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

Glad påsk!

Odd shoe observation

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.

Thesis lament

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



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

Picture post: lights in the sky

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

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

Stu, looking rather like an ax murderer

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

[All photos: Anabelle Lacroix]

A weekend above the Arctic Circle

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.

Picture post

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

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

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

Some inspiration for my Artists' Books exhibition in May?

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

I love guerilla knitting!

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

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

Lappland deep freeze?

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

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

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

More snow

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

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

I am just sick of winter...

Ducks

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

Picture Post: snowy mountains

A weekend skiing in Åre:

Our home for 4 days

Stu, about to bana up the berg.

That is a frozen lake with TWO tractors on it.

Proof I was in snow gear

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

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