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.

Collect 'em all

Yesterday  almost hit 0 degrees, so I went shopping. I bought a dress and tights and a pair of pants, and a completely unnecessary wooden Sweden.

I have a weakness for household items shaped like Sweden. Thankfully, Sagaform fills my weird needs...we own their big Sweden serving bowl (bought that sucker at a second-hand shop for 100:-!) and now, we own the cheeseboard.

I have my eye out for a deal on the Dala horse. I'd love to eat candy out of that guy! And the mini-Sweden serving dish would really just be to complete the set...I'm not sure what it's function would be if I already owned a cute candy dish Dala horse. I use the big one to serve meatballs, of course.

Sagaform Spring/Summer 2011 catalog

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.

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...

Were these just left in the hallway?

Pinned to our building's communal bulletin board:

Typical Swedish passive-aggressiveness, or someone's solution to beating the cold?

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...