convenience food

For your viewing pleasure (?!?)

A collection of random photos I have taken of grab-and-go Swedish food:

A dairy case at a convenience store. Also of note: packages of blueberry and rosehip soup. I tried nyppon soppa (rosehip soup) for the first time a few weeks ago. Not so awesome. But I was told its packed with antioxidants and fiber, so its soup-er when you are sick. Your tastebuds don't usually work as well when you're sick, so that makes sense.

Caffe latte-flavored Swebars at a gym. Haven't tried them yet. Think I'll stick to Clifbars.

T-bana vending machine (consequently, they don't call it the "T" in Stockholm, ever. I don't get why not. I call it the T.)

That is a shrink-wrapped apple. In the vending machine in the T-bana. Not sure how fresh it is, but hey, its a step in the right direction! And to price it, 8kr is just over a buck.

The Big Corny. It speaks for itself.

daylight savings

Today is the last Sunday in March, and we stayed out until 3:30am (or was it really 2:30? or 4:30?) and slept 'til nearly noon to observe the time change in Sweden.

A little history: DST didn't become permanent practice in Sweden until 1980. They tried to introduce the time change in spring and autumn in 1916, but it proved so unpopular, they reversed the decision within 6 months. Since the 1980s, most of Europe and North America changed time on the same date, until under the last Bush administration, in an effort to conserve electricity, the Energy Policy Act was enacted and in 2007, the DST period was lengthened by about 3 weeks in the US (2 weeks earlier in March, 1 week earlier in October.) So, for the last 2 weeks, we have only been 5 hours different from you east coast folks.
We are back to a 6-hour difference. Sleeping until noon might seem extreme considering how few hours of daylight we have had until recently, but now, the sun won't set until after 7:30pm. And it only gets later from there! We earned it this winter. Seriously.

A related interesting fact: Iceland does not observe DST, neither does most of Asia, the countries of the former Soviet Union, large chunks of the African continent, nor Arizona or Hawaii.

Stalking the Ambassador sounds harsh

Stu and I went to an art opening last week at the Milliken Gallery. We've been to several openings there, but it seemed especially crowded last Thursday (or maybe it just felt claustrophobic with all the incense they were burning to complement the wierdo art on view?) And there were a lot of guys in suits, with those little FBI-looking earpieces. Like I have mentioned, we watch a lot of Burn Notice, so maybe I was just especially sensitive to spooks...you never know, there could have been a Russian-Swedish arms deal going on right under our noses under the guise of an art exhibition?
Anyway, we were chatting with some friends, and I guess it was crowded enough that Stu stepped on some guy in a suit. The guy was nice enough about it, though we noticed a little nerdy-looking and wearing a pin on his lapel with an American and Swedish flag. It took us a sec (okay, it took us several seconds) to realize the guys-in-suits must have been security for the American ambassador to Sweden. I remembered I had read that the gallerist Aldy Milliken (who is American) had very recently curated the collection for the ambassador's home.  Ah ha! Stu and I thought, "So he is American, WE are American, obviously he likes art, we should meet this guy!" But a moment of opportunity as good as Stu stepping on him didn't present itself a second time, so we just left and went home.

Last night, the galleries at Hudiksvallsgatan were opening new shows, and I promised Stu free wine after he impressively hauled 2 heavy bedside tables home for me from a Blocket puchase. And, full disclosure, I really wanted to check out the WhyRed pop-up clearance sale happening yesterday in the same complex...let's face it, I can't afford WhyRed designs unless they are at a pop-up clearance sale.

We were in Nordenhake Gallery, taking in some cute but bizarre story concocted by an artist who seemingly wanted to live in a rubber suit under water, when we saw the spooks again! And the nerdy man wearing the Am-Swe flag pin!

Sometimes Stu and I can communicate full conversations with very few words, so we made a nearly non-verbal agreement that there in that gallery, possibly next to the rubber aquaman suit, we would not squander another opportunity to step on this man and make his acquaintance! And we did. I forcefully invited myself into his conversation when he was talking to the gallery manager (yes, I did that. Rude, I know.) said something stupid about his bodyguards and immediately made him shake my hand and told him my name. He was quite nice, Mr. Matt the Ambassador. We chatted for a few, he introduced us to his lovely blonde wife (whose name is Brooke, btw) and I introduced him to my dashing husband. And that was about it. But we met the Ambassador! In my research figuring out who he was, turns out he is an internet big shot (founder or something of C-Net?) recently appointed to his position, and he moved to Stockholm the same week we did.

The rest of the art we encountered was okay. The WhyRed shop had some cute stuff, but still too expensive for poor students, even at pop-up clearance sale prices. And with a little wine in our bellies, we went on a silly late-night hunt for places still serving waffles, walked all through Vasastan, downtown and Stureplan, and we still didn't get waffles on Våffeldagen! We made it up to ourselves this morning intercontinental-style, with walnut bread French toast.

Våffeldagen

Today is officially Waffle Day in Sweden. Celebrating is simple: you eat waffles.  I am told it morphed from a celebration of "Vårfrudagen," Our Lady's Day. It sounds similar to Våffeldagen, so why not celebrate Our Lady's immaculate conception with heart-shaped waffles, whipped cream and berries?

Spotted: magazines

Maybe you'll think I'm ridiculous, but even so, I'm ridiculously excited...Vogue, Cosmo, Elle, Glamour, Marie Claire IN ENGLISH at the Pressbyrån next to SSE.

As I waited outside after work for Stu tonight, I perused the selection of magazines, and was surprised to see that they had at least half a dozen of the UK version of some of my fave girly magazines (the kind I only would allow myself to buy in airports.) Jinni (Stu's mama) randomly had an Us magazine with her when she came to visit, and I practically wore out the pages I was so excited to read it.
I haven't seen these types of magazines in English in Sweden! They do have Vogue and Elle here in grocery store aisles, but of course, they are in Swedish. Too bad the UK versions cost from 50-89 kronor a pop ($7-$11.50.) I can't wait to get back to cheap magazines when we visit the States in June. 

Its the little things, really. 

Våren?

Horse-back riders in Djurgården

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

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

That, my friends, is moving water!

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

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

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

Water, water...

One of the things we love about living in Stockholm is the clean drinking water. We even have our free Stockholm Vatten calendar which tells us about how clean our drinking water is. Think of it, you can just drink what comes out of the faucet! I love it. But it's not usual for me, coming from DC, which let's face it has had it's problems. So for me, it's like living in a magical land.

However... "Clean" takes on a interesting aspect when you consider, what's in the sewage. (What a way to figure it out. Aren't you glad this isn't your job?)

I think it's funny, but strange: that there's cocaine in the sewage (but, not as much as Oslo...) in a city that espouses clean living. Lord knows what's in DC's water.