Sun!

So, we just went for a walk in the sun. And in fact, we've had consecutive days of sunlight... In a row.

I think I appreciate it in a whole new way now. I'd heard of the March sunbathers. That is, that when sun-starved Stockholmers get some rays in still frosty days of spring while still bundled in winter coats but maybe removing gloves or hats to expose some skin. Yup, saw them on the steps of Kulturhuset lined up with the pigeons. And sure, it's funny, but I mention it with a large degree of empathy. That when I see the beaming faces soaking in the sun, now I do it with another layer of understanding. I feel ya.

Anyway, now the ice is melty (which is not quite melting, or melted) but it makes the sidewalks more navigable. Also, new observation: I give elderly people who are still out on the streets more cred. I'm scared I'll break a hip out there, and I'm relatively young and surefooted. Maybe they know some icewalking tips that I could learn?

As we wondered through downtown, Anne and I ended up retracing our steps from one of the first walks that we made through the neighborhood last summer. It was nice to have the perspective of almost 9 months in our new home. And the changing of the seasons really does give a new insight to how the city moves, lives and breaths. Now that spring is here I can't wait to get the snow out and the summer days in. For those of you playing a copy of our home game: 37F is what has unhinged my musings. Yeah, just a little above freezing, and a lot more sunlight than 3 months ago is all it takes.

How soon till the ice melts on the river? Didn't capture it on camera, but there was a man walking his dog under the bridge. Takes some courage that, as I just found out about the special ice-picks skaters wear to claw their way out in the event of a spill into the deep.

Picture post

A few pictures taken from the couch-- I was sick this weekend (still sick, really) so we took it super easy. Our living room ceiling & sad little lightbulb hanging from a mess of outdated electrical wires, Stu's make-shift footstool, our fireplace with his wedding ring left for safe-keeping during a yoga practice:

 

We couldn't NOT get out a little, though. We had so much lovely sun this weekend.

I even got Stu to agree to go into the Marimekko store. He didn't like the one in Silver Spring, but had to concede that the Stureplan store did it better. I wanted to buy everything.

  We did a lot of walking. I forgot sunglasses, but was somehow  okay with that.   

There are half a dozen new exhibitions I want to see, but we went to the Moderna because thats just where we ended up. And I was hungry and I like their cafes. 

I tried to get a photo of the Lee Lozano show doors closed from the inside because it looked like we were IN her mouth, but people kept coming in.

  

I never noticed the crouching statue before she was surrounded by snow. I kind of love it. And thats me, wishing I could also own the chairs we were sitting in. 

This is weather.com's forcast for the week. And yes, we're pretty happy to be seeing weather above freezing. Where, you say? We count zero as above freezing aparantly. We're optimists. And Monday's big ol' 1 degree, that's nice to see...

One thing we've also done is gotten on the metric train. (Which the US official adopted by act of Congress in 1975) It's part of going native.

But mostly, it's the sequential chain of yellow circles which contributed to a brightened mood. It's nice to see some sun around here. We went for a long walk in today's cold but sunny day and it's a nice payoff for forgetting what sunlight looked like in December. Six months of it. Nice.

Tack så mycket, GI Bill

We got some small but good news on an otherwise kind of crappy day!  Way back in the fall, Stu applied on a whim for GI benefits from the US Army. We weren't holding our breath, because Stu left the Army in 2003, having served his 4 years, paid off his undergrad loans, and said 안녕히계세요 (he was a Korean linguist, so "annyeonghi gyeseyo" is Korean for "goodbye").

But he got an envelop in the mail today saying they had processed and approved his request for post-9/11 education benefits!  Now, yes, his education has no tuition, because we live in Sweden, where higher education is free for all (well, until 2011 that is!) So the biggest benefit of tuition reimbursement is moot, technically. BUT, they give you a monthly housing allowance if you have dependents (hellooo, that's ME!) and a yearly book stipend.

It ain't much, but on a day where and I had classes on philosophy, meetings on the questionable direction of my program, and an EXAM in Swedish, and Stu had a crap day overall, it was nice.

We are going to see Alice in Wonderland tonight to celebrate.

Messmör

I am doing it again. Procrastinating. I am in my last week of anything having to do with the philosophy of aesthetics for the foreseeable future (hooray!) But for class tomorrow, I am supposed to be read what is a surprisingly accessible article by Kendall Walton called "Transparent Pictures," which discusses how we see through photography (believe me, its not so simple!)

Anyway, because procrastination is my superpower (if only it could be used for good!) I have been shirking the reading in favor of seeing pictures, but online. It could be considered background research, right? I read a LOT of design blogs online. I love the pictures. In fact, I don't read it if it doesn't have pictures. One of my favorites for cute and clever and interesting stuff is Design*Sponge (the editor used to be a writer for Domino Magazine, if you remember that fabulousness.) And this week, there was a post about Swedish food packaging:

Pretty great, huh? Check out some of the others from the D*S page. I thought the little cut-outs posing with the grocery store items were cute.
The "Bregott" is basically margarine, the "Fiber Havregrytt" is a porridge of some sort I think, the blue tube called Kalles with the perky-looking kid is actually caviar, and the "Falksalt" is, you guessed it, a brand of salt. In the corner, you can kind of see a little yellow carton of something called "Messmör."

I took a few pictures of our carton of messmör, because its weird and deserves some explanation (the counter looks awfully dirty in this picture. I blame Stu.)

The stuff is the consistency of a soft butter, but super sweet and with an indescribable tang. Its made from whey, and is big here because its low in fat but high in calcium and iron, so its seen as pretty healthy. The Swedish kids I nanny for LOVE this stuff. When I first started, I lamented about not being able to find decent peanut butter in Stockholm, and the mom just shrugged and said they were a messmör household. I admit tasting it for the first time last August and thinking WTF!?! *This* is what these kids eat instead of peanut butter? Torture! 

But I guess it grew on me, because now its in our fridge. I prefer it schmeared on bread or wafers and sprinkled with cinnamon. I checked out the Fjällbrynt website before posting, and they actually have some interesting recipes, so maybe one day, you'll see a Messmörkaka post?

Happy March!

With Xynthia, March came in like a lion here, so praaaaay the saying holds true in Sweden, and it will go out like a lamb. Like a warm, sunny, snow-less, ice-less little lamb.

We still have lots of snow on the ground, and its still super cold. But today was (nearly) all sun! It even inspired me to do a little yoga this morning, which I'm embarrassed to say doesn't happen too often...its hard to motivate to do sun-salutes when there is no sun to, uh, salute. I guess I should have been better at lighting candles--a tactic employed vigorously in Scandinavia to combat the dark and SADness (that and tanning beds on every other corner.) But with us gaining more than 5 minutes each day of light, I'm hoping to do a lot more yoga soon. Is there a Hindu lamb god? If so, I should pray to him...

Eff you, Xynthia. Alex came to visit anyway

This weekend, we got above freezing every day. Sunday was even 3c! I haven't seen those temps here since December easily. Things got foggy, mushy, melty, gray, and snirty (snow + dirt = snirt.) Then Xynthia came to Sweden. She had already killed about 50 people over the weekend in Portugal, Spain and France with her deadly winds and flooding rains. But for Stockholm, she only had snow and snow and snow in mind.

Today sucked, weather-wise.

I think she's done now. But crappy timing, since our friend Alex came this weekend from Paris, and it was her first time visiting the "Venice of the North." She even got diverted from Skavsta to Arlanda when she arrived Friday because of the weather (why doesn't that ever happen to us?!?)

But we managed to have a great time. Alex and I grew up in the same town (she comes from a family of librarians, too) worked together at the National Gallery in DC for a while, and she is now living in Paris while getting an extremely affordable MA in Museum Studies from the Louvre, also working as a nanny. So it was nice to catch up, share ex-pat experiences, commiserate over being a student again, culture shock, European oddities or things we woefully miss from home.

In particular, we slept late, window-shopped, made muffins that made Martha Stewart look like a Costco Sample Lady and watched a shload of American TV (neither easily found in Paris) and indulged in lovely French cheeses, chocolates and wines she brought with her (potentially found, but not easily or cheaply, in Stockholm.)

Stu and I both start new subjects this week, and with new classes comes more work. But it was nice to take the weekend off to show Alex around, and she will just have to come back when Xynthia isn't causing roofs to collapse and tricky iced-over lagoons to form on Odengatan (and really, "Xynthia," what kind of name is that even?!?)