Just a quick update. We really did run into a lot of snags in our trip planning. We found a good fare, we found hotels, we went to book the flights, and even though the fares were published, the flights were full. We looked again, the flights were still showing up in our searches, but when we tried to book them they weren't available. So we looked at another city...reasonable fares, no hotels. Tried the train. Yeah, we can get you down there, but all of the returning trains are full. How about flying down and bussing back? Everything is good...oh wait, we can't book online within three days. So I went to the bus terminal first thing in the morning, nope, the bus is full. How does that happen? You were closed last night, the internet said you have tickets, yet you don't have them now?
So we ended up choosing a two-day trip to Copenhagen. We aimed for four, but due to the problems above we had to cut it short. It's a bit disappointing in the "it wasn't our top choice" kind of way...like planning a trip to San Diego and ending up with a weekend in Chicago, but it will still be a lot of fun. We did want to go to Copenhagen anyway, so it's a good chance to cross one city off of our list. My main worry now is that the Carlsberg brewery will be closed for the holiday weekend.
Anyway, we'll have some new pictures on Saturday.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Miranda has really exploded!
Scott and I walked out of our night class today with Djina, our instructor, who was babbling in Swedish while using a variety of gestures and expressions to illustrate a large explosion. I'll admit, I was extremely confused for a few seconds until I realized that no physical explosions were involved. She was actually talking about the improvement in my Swedish. "You have really exploded!" (Jaha!) It was an encouraging, although seemingly strange compliment.
With a few weeks of Tuesday/Thursday night classes under our belts now, plus a full week of morning classes for me, I have a much more favorable impression of the Swedish language. This, of course, is based on the fact that I can now understand at least some of what the teachers are explaining in class. I felt so lost during the first few classes when the instruction was (and still is) all in Swedish, and I have to admit it was a bit disheartening at first. My confusion was obvious in class. Scott has even pointed out that I no longer hesitate or pause when answering questions in Swedish. Before I had to take the time to choose the words, think about the word order, then work my way through the pronunciation. Now the language is starting to flow. Only a few weeks of classes and I'm so much more comfortable, or perhaps simply more confident, that even when I do find myself confused, it's much easier to solve the problem.
Also, we are now the proud owners of two English-Swedish dictionaries, and I don't dare leave home without one of them anymore. The first boasts a hefty 85,000 words, and the second, a pink pocket dictionary, features 32,000 words and phrases specifically for "Amerikanska" translations. (The British English dictionary was blue, but Scott confidently chose language over looks. We're proud to be pink.)
As it turns out, neither Spanish nor English has been very helpful for me as I study Swedish - apparently my Swedish heritage isn't any help. I think Scott's German courses provided a nice basis for his great pronunciation and grammar (which has earned multiple compliments from our instructor). Without going into the details of learning the Swedish language, it will suffice to say that there are a few crazy but consistent rules, and an extensive vocabulary we have yet to memorize, but Swedish is quickly becoming a lot more fun.
My days have quickly filled up with these language classes. Shortly after Scott leaves for work, I head out to my Swedish For Immigrants (SFI) class, held from 10:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. It takes about 45 minutes to commute each way, including a short walk to/from the subway station, the train ride itself, and a short walk to/from the school, located on the ninth floor above a shopping mall. Add in my evening homework and these classes eat up my whole day.
Here's a quick run-down of the countries I can recall that are represented in just my SFI class: Hungary, Iran, Thailand, New Zealand, Japan, Ukraine, Turkey, India, South Africa, Argentina, China, Tanzania, France, Poland, Spain, Russia and USA (both Minnesota and Florida). It was amazing and humbling to find out that nearly everyone in the class speaks English in addition to their native language, and some even speak a third or fourth language as well. It makes so much sense to me that the government would make such a basic investment in the people who live, work and study here. It also makes me think back to when I was a volunteer ESL teacher, and hope that I was able to help.
To wrap up my run-down of the class schedule, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm usually at home for about an hour before heading back out to night class with Scott at Folksuniversitet. Twice now I've spent this hour doing homework for that night's class. A bad idea, that made for two really, really long days. Students at Folksuniversitet pay to attend the school, unlike the government-sponsored SFI, so the class size is quite a bit smaller, but still it was still nice to hear that my extra studies have not gone unnoticed.
As for graduate studies in the fall, I'm told the new publishing date for notification of admission is now officially May 8, 2008. The schools have posted some arbitrary numbers that are used for internal ratings online. Even though each school uses a different scale and provides no information on what the ratings mean, Scott is optimistic and thinks they indicate a very strong position. In the meantime though, I'm pretty happy with being a Swedish student. Heck, I've exploded! Yes, perhaps this Swedish introvert just might become her extroverted self again after all.
With a few weeks of Tuesday/Thursday night classes under our belts now, plus a full week of morning classes for me, I have a much more favorable impression of the Swedish language. This, of course, is based on the fact that I can now understand at least some of what the teachers are explaining in class. I felt so lost during the first few classes when the instruction was (and still is) all in Swedish, and I have to admit it was a bit disheartening at first. My confusion was obvious in class. Scott has even pointed out that I no longer hesitate or pause when answering questions in Swedish. Before I had to take the time to choose the words, think about the word order, then work my way through the pronunciation. Now the language is starting to flow. Only a few weeks of classes and I'm so much more comfortable, or perhaps simply more confident, that even when I do find myself confused, it's much easier to solve the problem.
Also, we are now the proud owners of two English-Swedish dictionaries, and I don't dare leave home without one of them anymore. The first boasts a hefty 85,000 words, and the second, a pink pocket dictionary, features 32,000 words and phrases specifically for "Amerikanska" translations. (The British English dictionary was blue, but Scott confidently chose language over looks. We're proud to be pink.)
As it turns out, neither Spanish nor English has been very helpful for me as I study Swedish - apparently my Swedish heritage isn't any help. I think Scott's German courses provided a nice basis for his great pronunciation and grammar (which has earned multiple compliments from our instructor). Without going into the details of learning the Swedish language, it will suffice to say that there are a few crazy but consistent rules, and an extensive vocabulary we have yet to memorize, but Swedish is quickly becoming a lot more fun.
My days have quickly filled up with these language classes. Shortly after Scott leaves for work, I head out to my Swedish For Immigrants (SFI) class, held from 10:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. It takes about 45 minutes to commute each way, including a short walk to/from the subway station, the train ride itself, and a short walk to/from the school, located on the ninth floor above a shopping mall. Add in my evening homework and these classes eat up my whole day.
Here's a quick run-down of the countries I can recall that are represented in just my SFI class: Hungary, Iran, Thailand, New Zealand, Japan, Ukraine, Turkey, India, South Africa, Argentina, China, Tanzania, France, Poland, Spain, Russia and USA (both Minnesota and Florida). It was amazing and humbling to find out that nearly everyone in the class speaks English in addition to their native language, and some even speak a third or fourth language as well. It makes so much sense to me that the government would make such a basic investment in the people who live, work and study here. It also makes me think back to when I was a volunteer ESL teacher, and hope that I was able to help.
To wrap up my run-down of the class schedule, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm usually at home for about an hour before heading back out to night class with Scott at Folksuniversitet. Twice now I've spent this hour doing homework for that night's class. A bad idea, that made for two really, really long days. Students at Folksuniversitet pay to attend the school, unlike the government-sponsored SFI, so the class size is quite a bit smaller, but still it was still nice to hear that my extra studies have not gone unnoticed.
As for graduate studies in the fall, I'm told the new publishing date for notification of admission is now officially May 8, 2008. The schools have posted some arbitrary numbers that are used for internal ratings online. Even though each school uses a different scale and provides no information on what the ratings mean, Scott is optimistic and thinks they indicate a very strong position. In the meantime though, I'm pretty happy with being a Swedish student. Heck, I've exploded! Yes, perhaps this Swedish introvert just might become her extroverted self again after all.
Monday, April 28, 2008
I can't make up my mind
Sweden has state holidays on Wednesday for Walpurgis Night and Thursday for the overlapping Labor Day and Kristi Himmelsfärds Dag (literally Christ flies to Heaven day, aka the Ascension). Since everybody would take vacation on Friday anyway, we get a freebie and the office is closed for what they call a "squeeze day." Squeeze day for a non-major holiday. Pretty rough, eh?
The educator in me was about to type a brief explanation of Walpurgis Night as it seems pretty interesting, but I decided to save myself the trouble and just link to Wikipedia.
Back to the five-day weekend, I decided it was time to plan a trip. I've been doing some research on traveling for a while, but keep running into one major roadblock...too many options. Miranda and I want to see all of Europe, but it's tough to pick where we should go first. Then there are other things...yeah we could go to Prague, but it would also be cool to take a week and see Prague, Bratislava and Budapest in the same trip. Same goes for Italy. Why go to just Rome when we want to see Florence and Milan as well? Amsterdam? It's so close to Brussels, and once you travel there and back, we just don't have enough time. All of the good single-city destinations are really expensive, and as of now we're hoping to stay within a decent budget.
Then there's the whole question of train vs. plane. It seems everyone in the U.S. has heard of Ryan Air. The problem is that even though flights are "cheap" or "free", taxes cost more than the tickets, and you have to pay extra for every little thing. And, their airport is ninety minutes south of town, and the bus ticket costs more than the plane ticket. By the time you add in the extra expenses and waste so much time getting to and waiting at the airport, then catch a bus or train from the destination airport into town, you might as well pay the extra money and take a more expensive flight from the good airport.
Trains don't have any of those hassles, we just don't know anything about train travel. So far it seems pretty expensive for single destination tickets, but that's only because we are trying to book last minute tickets.
Anyway, I just got some leads on sites similar to Travelocity and Orbitz, but focusing on inner-European travel instead. It only took me three weeks to find some good ones. Hopefully we'll have some good travel stories on Sunday!
The educator in me was about to type a brief explanation of Walpurgis Night as it seems pretty interesting, but I decided to save myself the trouble and just link to Wikipedia.
Back to the five-day weekend, I decided it was time to plan a trip. I've been doing some research on traveling for a while, but keep running into one major roadblock...too many options. Miranda and I want to see all of Europe, but it's tough to pick where we should go first. Then there are other things...yeah we could go to Prague, but it would also be cool to take a week and see Prague, Bratislava and Budapest in the same trip. Same goes for Italy. Why go to just Rome when we want to see Florence and Milan as well? Amsterdam? It's so close to Brussels, and once you travel there and back, we just don't have enough time. All of the good single-city destinations are really expensive, and as of now we're hoping to stay within a decent budget.
Then there's the whole question of train vs. plane. It seems everyone in the U.S. has heard of Ryan Air. The problem is that even though flights are "cheap" or "free", taxes cost more than the tickets, and you have to pay extra for every little thing. And, their airport is ninety minutes south of town, and the bus ticket costs more than the plane ticket. By the time you add in the extra expenses and waste so much time getting to and waiting at the airport, then catch a bus or train from the destination airport into town, you might as well pay the extra money and take a more expensive flight from the good airport.
Trains don't have any of those hassles, we just don't know anything about train travel. So far it seems pretty expensive for single destination tickets, but that's only because we are trying to book last minute tickets.
Anyway, I just got some leads on sites similar to Travelocity and Orbitz, but focusing on inner-European travel instead. It only took me three weeks to find some good ones. Hopefully we'll have some good travel stories on Sunday!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Melodifestivalen
I promised this one a while ago, and it's finally time to come through for you. Most of my research was done in Wikipedia, but I did tune in for the finals of the losers' bracket and the overall finals, so what I'm about to tell you actually has some relevance.
It all started with the Eurovision song competition. Some might say it's kind of a big deal. The first big television network in Europe was up and running sometime in the 1950s. To show off the technology, and to create some sort of post-WWII friendly competition between the European nations, the Eurovision network decided to host a song competition, broadcast live in a large number of nations through central Europe. Live broadcasts are obviously pretty common now, but at the time, broadcasting a live show taking place in France (or wherever the first competition was held) across the continent was an incredible feat. So the premise of the show is that each of the participating countries enters the best song, always sung in the language of the home country. Not sure how the voting took place at first, but the bands would perform live for everyone to watch, and the country with the winning band got to host the competition in the following year.
The competition has evolved so that like American Idol, which is really a modification and a ripoff, people now vote by text message. Also, the English speaking countries had an unfair advantage since everyone understands their lyrics, so all countries are allowed to enter songs sung in English. The Eurovision competition has basically been the starting point for most European pop bands, and even as Top 40 fads change with time, the original pop styles of the 50s and 60s are still some of the most popular songs, just because of tradition. Us Americans have never heard about this because few European bands make it across the Atlantic...with one exception. ABBA won the competition and that's really where they got their start.
There are also some interesting voting issues. The Nordic countries always tend to support the Nordic artists, the Eastern European countries tend to vote together, etc. That makes it much harder for a Norwegian to win because of the lack of people. For example, there are more people in Amsterdam than in Norway and Sweden combined. If the Belgians throw their votes to the Netherlands, Sweden doesn't have a chance. They do have some sort of thing to kind of sort this out. A panel of judges from all over Europe vote and some sort of score is tallied, and the bands are also given a score for the popular vote. These to scores are given equal weighting, so the judges have a lot of power to offset the regional voting problems.
The Swedes do have another chance though. They're absolutely crazy (they're own words) about this competition. That's where Melodifestivalen comes into play. Melodifestivalen is the Swedish competition that takes place in the months leading up to Eurovision, and this competition is how they select their entrant into the Eurovision competition.
It sounds like a big battle of the bands, but that's a huge understatement. The battle isn't about the band, the battle is about the song. Songwriters submit about a thousand songs and they're whittled down to the top 30. Then the songwriters take those songs and find an artist that they want to represent them in the competition. The artist can say yes or no, and once the lineup is set, the competition begins.
Each week the artist performs their song, exactly the way it will be performed at the final competition. Same clothes, same body movements, same camera angles, same everything. From week to week the only variation is that a few bands have been kicked out of the competition. Typically they vote off the worst band or two, but the losers bracket was exactly that, a single elimination competition. The top two bands from that night actually performed their songs live three times in two hours. Think about that...you sit down to watch a TV show, and you see the EXACT same thing, over and over and over. And the Swedish crowd just ate it up.
On top of that, the songs are pretty cheesy.
So anyway, I tuned in for the losers' bracket and once Miranda arrived I made her tune in for the finals. She had no idea what to expect, but wow did we have a good time. It didn't matter that the show was hosted in Swedish, it was hilarious. I had to watch it anyway...my coworkers told me it was a Swedish tradition and sure enough, it was front page news for a few weeks towards the end of Melodifestivalen.
So Sweden has now picked their winner. Some sort of discoish tune sung by Charlotte Perrelli. I guess she's won the entire competition before, so the Swedes really hope she'll come through for them again. The Eurovision finals will take place on two days at the end of May. We'll be tuning in, and will do our best to keep you all updated.
We've also been bombarded by the winning and losing tunes on the radio. At the post-volleyball party last weekend we actually heard "Lay Your Love on Me" by B.W.O. played on repeat about five times straight. The tune is okay on the radio, but seeing it performed live is a totally different story. I called the lead singer Hansel as he's a carbon copy of Owen Wilson's Zoolander character.
I realize that none of the stuff I've written will seem funny to any of you, but it's more Swedish than Swedish meatballs, so I had no choice but to write in great detail. To truly share in the fun, you've gotta check out the performances. I've done my YouTube research and cut out the slowest ballads. They're in no particular order, but I hope you enjoy.
Charlotte Perrelli - Hero (The winner.)
Rongedal - Just a Minute (My boss' favorite.)
Linda Bengtzing - Hur Svårt Kan Det Va?
Funny story, Linda Bengtzing waited on my coworker a week before this competition. My coworker had had a couple of glasses of wine when she started talking to Linda and Linda told her that her music career was just breaking through. My coworker replied "Yeah right!" and continued to be quite rude. Linda got a newspaper article with a picture of her and an interview to show she wasn't lying. My coworker still wasn't impressed. A week later she was topping the charts with a new CD and one of the top Melodifestivalen songs. My coworker feels bad now.
Caracola - Smiling in Love (Didn't make it out of the losers' bracket.)
BWO - Lay Your Love on Me (Hansel?)
Frida feat. Headline - Upp o Hoppa (No idea how this made the finals.)
Ola Svensson - Love in Stereo (Old 80s song, teen heartthrob, didn't get out of the losers' bracket.)
E-Type & the Poodles - Line of Fire (GnR wanna-bes? Look at their hair! Didn't make it out of the losers' bracket.)
Nordman - I Lågornas Sken (Entered the finals by winning the losers' bracket. My favorite, but apparently had some critics because the witch burning brought back bad historical issues.)
Amy Diamond - Thank You! (15-year-old superstar with a huge middle school following. Song has a horrible knack for getting stuck in your head. Couldn't she have picked backup singers and dancers that weren't 25 and better than her? The emotional part really moves me...)
Christer Sjörgen - I Love Europe (Sweden's Wayne Newton. That's the only reason he made the finals with this song.)
Sibel - That is Where I'll Go (Also came out of the losers' bracket.)
Now watch each of those about three times, and then rewatch the best parts to simulate highlight clips before and after commercials, add some comic relief, and you've got one episode of Melodifestivalen. Even though each new performance is live, they're still such carbon copies from week to week and from hour to hour that you would never know the difference. Somehow, it was still quite entertaining. Once again, I hope you enjoy.
On a totally unrelated note, we've heard there's some confusion about who's writing. We always write each post independently. Either Miranda posts, or I post. We never flip back and forth between paragraphs. I have not referred to myself in the third person, yet, and she does not refer to herself in the third person either. I also refer to my coworkers quite often, and if the post is overly long, you can probably blame me. Lastly, I tend to use parentheses way too often, and probably don't punctuate correctly when closing a parenthesized statement or a quotation. I think there is usually a hint in every post where one of us refers to the other by name, or does something to give away the identity of the author. Hope that helps!
It all started with the Eurovision song competition. Some might say it's kind of a big deal. The first big television network in Europe was up and running sometime in the 1950s. To show off the technology, and to create some sort of post-WWII friendly competition between the European nations, the Eurovision network decided to host a song competition, broadcast live in a large number of nations through central Europe. Live broadcasts are obviously pretty common now, but at the time, broadcasting a live show taking place in France (or wherever the first competition was held) across the continent was an incredible feat. So the premise of the show is that each of the participating countries enters the best song, always sung in the language of the home country. Not sure how the voting took place at first, but the bands would perform live for everyone to watch, and the country with the winning band got to host the competition in the following year.
The competition has evolved so that like American Idol, which is really a modification and a ripoff, people now vote by text message. Also, the English speaking countries had an unfair advantage since everyone understands their lyrics, so all countries are allowed to enter songs sung in English. The Eurovision competition has basically been the starting point for most European pop bands, and even as Top 40 fads change with time, the original pop styles of the 50s and 60s are still some of the most popular songs, just because of tradition. Us Americans have never heard about this because few European bands make it across the Atlantic...with one exception. ABBA won the competition and that's really where they got their start.
There are also some interesting voting issues. The Nordic countries always tend to support the Nordic artists, the Eastern European countries tend to vote together, etc. That makes it much harder for a Norwegian to win because of the lack of people. For example, there are more people in Amsterdam than in Norway and Sweden combined. If the Belgians throw their votes to the Netherlands, Sweden doesn't have a chance. They do have some sort of thing to kind of sort this out. A panel of judges from all over Europe vote and some sort of score is tallied, and the bands are also given a score for the popular vote. These to scores are given equal weighting, so the judges have a lot of power to offset the regional voting problems.
The Swedes do have another chance though. They're absolutely crazy (they're own words) about this competition. That's where Melodifestivalen comes into play. Melodifestivalen is the Swedish competition that takes place in the months leading up to Eurovision, and this competition is how they select their entrant into the Eurovision competition.
It sounds like a big battle of the bands, but that's a huge understatement. The battle isn't about the band, the battle is about the song. Songwriters submit about a thousand songs and they're whittled down to the top 30. Then the songwriters take those songs and find an artist that they want to represent them in the competition. The artist can say yes or no, and once the lineup is set, the competition begins.
Each week the artist performs their song, exactly the way it will be performed at the final competition. Same clothes, same body movements, same camera angles, same everything. From week to week the only variation is that a few bands have been kicked out of the competition. Typically they vote off the worst band or two, but the losers bracket was exactly that, a single elimination competition. The top two bands from that night actually performed their songs live three times in two hours. Think about that...you sit down to watch a TV show, and you see the EXACT same thing, over and over and over. And the Swedish crowd just ate it up.
On top of that, the songs are pretty cheesy.
So anyway, I tuned in for the losers' bracket and once Miranda arrived I made her tune in for the finals. She had no idea what to expect, but wow did we have a good time. It didn't matter that the show was hosted in Swedish, it was hilarious. I had to watch it anyway...my coworkers told me it was a Swedish tradition and sure enough, it was front page news for a few weeks towards the end of Melodifestivalen.
So Sweden has now picked their winner. Some sort of discoish tune sung by Charlotte Perrelli. I guess she's won the entire competition before, so the Swedes really hope she'll come through for them again. The Eurovision finals will take place on two days at the end of May. We'll be tuning in, and will do our best to keep you all updated.
We've also been bombarded by the winning and losing tunes on the radio. At the post-volleyball party last weekend we actually heard "Lay Your Love on Me" by B.W.O. played on repeat about five times straight. The tune is okay on the radio, but seeing it performed live is a totally different story. I called the lead singer Hansel as he's a carbon copy of Owen Wilson's Zoolander character.
I realize that none of the stuff I've written will seem funny to any of you, but it's more Swedish than Swedish meatballs, so I had no choice but to write in great detail. To truly share in the fun, you've gotta check out the performances. I've done my YouTube research and cut out the slowest ballads. They're in no particular order, but I hope you enjoy.
Charlotte Perrelli - Hero (The winner.)
Rongedal - Just a Minute (My boss' favorite.)
Linda Bengtzing - Hur Svårt Kan Det Va?
Funny story, Linda Bengtzing waited on my coworker a week before this competition. My coworker had had a couple of glasses of wine when she started talking to Linda and Linda told her that her music career was just breaking through. My coworker replied "Yeah right!" and continued to be quite rude. Linda got a newspaper article with a picture of her and an interview to show she wasn't lying. My coworker still wasn't impressed. A week later she was topping the charts with a new CD and one of the top Melodifestivalen songs. My coworker feels bad now.
Caracola - Smiling in Love (Didn't make it out of the losers' bracket.)
BWO - Lay Your Love on Me (Hansel?)
Frida feat. Headline - Upp o Hoppa (No idea how this made the finals.)
Ola Svensson - Love in Stereo (Old 80s song, teen heartthrob, didn't get out of the losers' bracket.)
E-Type & the Poodles - Line of Fire (GnR wanna-bes? Look at their hair! Didn't make it out of the losers' bracket.)
Nordman - I Lågornas Sken (Entered the finals by winning the losers' bracket. My favorite, but apparently had some critics because the witch burning brought back bad historical issues.)
Amy Diamond - Thank You! (15-year-old superstar with a huge middle school following. Song has a horrible knack for getting stuck in your head. Couldn't she have picked backup singers and dancers that weren't 25 and better than her? The emotional part really moves me...)
Christer Sjörgen - I Love Europe (Sweden's Wayne Newton. That's the only reason he made the finals with this song.)
Sibel - That is Where I'll Go (Also came out of the losers' bracket.)
Now watch each of those about three times, and then rewatch the best parts to simulate highlight clips before and after commercials, add some comic relief, and you've got one episode of Melodifestivalen. Even though each new performance is live, they're still such carbon copies from week to week and from hour to hour that you would never know the difference. Somehow, it was still quite entertaining. Once again, I hope you enjoy.
On a totally unrelated note, we've heard there's some confusion about who's writing. We always write each post independently. Either Miranda posts, or I post. We never flip back and forth between paragraphs. I have not referred to myself in the third person, yet, and she does not refer to herself in the third person either. I also refer to my coworkers quite often, and if the post is overly long, you can probably blame me. Lastly, I tend to use parentheses way too often, and probably don't punctuate correctly when closing a parenthesized statement or a quotation. I think there is usually a hint in every post where one of us refers to the other by name, or does something to give away the identity of the author. Hope that helps!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Sweden is good for my taste buds
I've done my best to approach all new foods with an open mind and an open mouth. The food has rewarded me with some delightful tastes.
Couple quick updates. As most of you know, pepperoni is one of my favorite foods. I honestly despise other pizza toppings not because they taste bad, but because they ruin the taste of plain pepperoni.
Well, now I actually enjoy pizzas with multiple toppings. One pizza I enjoyed had shrimp on it, and a stranger pizza (still good except for one topping) had a lightly poached egg in the middle. We weren't sure if we were reading the menu correctly when we ordered that one, but sure enough, the cook cracked an egg and dropped it on the center of the pizza before throwing it in the oven.
We ate at Pizza Hut yesterday to enjoy their lunch buffet. Wednesdays are Pepperoni Lovers' day (good place for the ladies to meet large quantities of single men it seemed). When we got there they only had some sort of combo pizza on the buffet, so I took that while waiting for a pepperoni pizza to arrive. I'm ashamed to say this, but after a few pieces of pepperoni I was given the choice of the combo or the pepperoni, and I chose another combo.
Miranda has also been taking advantage of my lack of culinary defenses. She decided to make broccoli quiche last night. I think I swore off quiche the first time I saw it, and it still doesn't strike me as visually or aromatically appealing, but it was actually quite good.
Anyway, lesson to be learned from my rants is that I'm either growing into a non-picky adult, or the food is just that much better here in Sweden. I'll get the opinions of all of our visitors (once they start to arrive) and post their opinions with time.
Couple quick updates. As most of you know, pepperoni is one of my favorite foods. I honestly despise other pizza toppings not because they taste bad, but because they ruin the taste of plain pepperoni.
Well, now I actually enjoy pizzas with multiple toppings. One pizza I enjoyed had shrimp on it, and a stranger pizza (still good except for one topping) had a lightly poached egg in the middle. We weren't sure if we were reading the menu correctly when we ordered that one, but sure enough, the cook cracked an egg and dropped it on the center of the pizza before throwing it in the oven.
We ate at Pizza Hut yesterday to enjoy their lunch buffet. Wednesdays are Pepperoni Lovers' day (good place for the ladies to meet large quantities of single men it seemed). When we got there they only had some sort of combo pizza on the buffet, so I took that while waiting for a pepperoni pizza to arrive. I'm ashamed to say this, but after a few pieces of pepperoni I was given the choice of the combo or the pepperoni, and I chose another combo.
Miranda has also been taking advantage of my lack of culinary defenses. She decided to make broccoli quiche last night. I think I swore off quiche the first time I saw it, and it still doesn't strike me as visually or aromatically appealing, but it was actually quite good.
Anyway, lesson to be learned from my rants is that I'm either growing into a non-picky adult, or the food is just that much better here in Sweden. I'll get the opinions of all of our visitors (once they start to arrive) and post their opinions with time.
A painfully fun day for the weekend warriors
On my first day in the office a coworker told me "we have a volleyball tournament on April 12th, I already signed you up." I immediately thought about how much I dislike volleyball, especially competitive volleyball, and replied "sounds good." It was explained to me that the tournament is sponsored by the biggest insurance company in Sweden, and that this company has created some sort of "insurance league." Meaning all of the other big insurance companies (or financial service companies that provide similar services) are invited to put forth a team of their workers to play. I was also told that there was a bar near the gym, a pizza party following the match play, and some sort of music trivia. That made my commitment seem a little bit better, but I was still pretty reluctant to play.
About a week later the same coworker asked if Miranda would want to play. I know she's a bigger fan of both recreational sports and social functions than I am, so I volunteered her to play. Apparently that was against her wishes, but she was a good sport about it.
So my office entered two teams, a good team including our most competitive coworkers and a former coworker and his friends who play on a professional team, and then the rest of us. I begged to be placed on the bad team, and am quite happy with the decision.
So, the B-team looked like a pretty sorry bunch. We were out there in mismatched clothing, doing our best to bump and set the ball to each other, but instead sending the ball in the wrong direction about 40% of the time. To be honest, my other three coworkers on the court could hold their own. Basically, Miranda and I sent the ball in the wrong direction 100% of the time, and the other three made up for our mistakes...that's how I get to 40%.
Then we saw our opponents. They were all dressed in matching black uniforms with their company logo on the chest. Stereotypically Swedish in every way...stylish, fit, blond, and quite serious. They were all sporting knee-pads and court shoes, and doing warm-up drills with Eastern European efficiency. Based on their team huddles you knew they meant business.
Then the next fifteen minutes were a blur, but apparently our chaotic style confused them because we managed to pull off the win.
The rest of the day seemed to take forever (the tournament ran from 9 am to 6:30 pm). Don't get me wrong, it was a good time, but by the time we completed the second match we were so red and bruised that we had no desire to keep playing. Unfortunately, the first two games were just set up to seed us in the double-elimination tournament. We lost number two, earning us a game against Mercer's A team. We might as well have forfeited, and wanted to forfeit after watching Mercer's pros spike the ball in their warm-ups, but in competition they were quite nice and pretended they didn't know how to spike or place the ball. They still beat us painfully quickly, but didn't do anything to hurt our bodies or our pride.
Miranda had to drop out before the fourth game. Her bony arms were too black and blue to even consider bumping another ball. In my mind, the fourth game was our best as a team. That had nothing to do with Miranda's dropout and everything to do with the fact that it took us three games just to figure out what we were doing on the court. We still got our butts kicked, but we were able to keep the volleys going and pass more effectively...just weren't able to convert that play into points.
Mercer's A team went on to win it. The semi-final and final both came down to the last point, (in international scoring you can get a point even if you don't serve, and you don't have to win by two) so the games were pretty intense. It was funny to see the pros turn up the heat, but apparently the competitors had some pros as well, because both sides had to work pretty hard for their points.
After the tournament everybody seemed to loosen up a bit. Apparently Swedes aren't very social in competitive situations. Most weren't too social towards Miranda and me either, but that was probably because we didn't even know how to start a conversation in Swedish. The setting did lighten up though. We played some pool, sat through the music trivia in Swedish, (Miranda and I even helped our respective teams with a couple questions on Melodifestivalen) and after a while Miranda got roped into the game "runt ping." So runt ping is basically the party form of ping-pong. Everybody grabs a paddle and lines up on each side of the table. One person serves, then runs to the end of the line on the other side of the table. The person at the front of that line returns the serve and runs as well. When someone makes a mistake everyone stops, the person nearest the ball re-serves, and the game continues. Once an individual makes two mistakes they're kicked out. As more and more people get kicked out the players end up just running in a circle around the table. The final two players play a best of three match. It's actually ridiculously entertaining to watch, but quite fun as the Swedes are quite good at ping-pong and many take runt ping quite seriously.
My arms were better in about a day. Miranda's bruises still don't look the best, but she's actually healing quite nicely after five days. It was fun, but I hear the summer tournament is beach volleyball and isn't co-ed. The guys supposedly play full-force, so I think I'll just attend as a spectator.
Sorry for the long post (and the excessive use of the word "quite"). Believe it or not this is the super abridged version.
About a week later the same coworker asked if Miranda would want to play. I know she's a bigger fan of both recreational sports and social functions than I am, so I volunteered her to play. Apparently that was against her wishes, but she was a good sport about it.
So my office entered two teams, a good team including our most competitive coworkers and a former coworker and his friends who play on a professional team, and then the rest of us. I begged to be placed on the bad team, and am quite happy with the decision.
So, the B-team looked like a pretty sorry bunch. We were out there in mismatched clothing, doing our best to bump and set the ball to each other, but instead sending the ball in the wrong direction about 40% of the time. To be honest, my other three coworkers on the court could hold their own. Basically, Miranda and I sent the ball in the wrong direction 100% of the time, and the other three made up for our mistakes...that's how I get to 40%.
Then we saw our opponents. They were all dressed in matching black uniforms with their company logo on the chest. Stereotypically Swedish in every way...stylish, fit, blond, and quite serious. They were all sporting knee-pads and court shoes, and doing warm-up drills with Eastern European efficiency. Based on their team huddles you knew they meant business.
Then the next fifteen minutes were a blur, but apparently our chaotic style confused them because we managed to pull off the win.
The rest of the day seemed to take forever (the tournament ran from 9 am to 6:30 pm). Don't get me wrong, it was a good time, but by the time we completed the second match we were so red and bruised that we had no desire to keep playing. Unfortunately, the first two games were just set up to seed us in the double-elimination tournament. We lost number two, earning us a game against Mercer's A team. We might as well have forfeited, and wanted to forfeit after watching Mercer's pros spike the ball in their warm-ups, but in competition they were quite nice and pretended they didn't know how to spike or place the ball. They still beat us painfully quickly, but didn't do anything to hurt our bodies or our pride.
Miranda had to drop out before the fourth game. Her bony arms were too black and blue to even consider bumping another ball. In my mind, the fourth game was our best as a team. That had nothing to do with Miranda's dropout and everything to do with the fact that it took us three games just to figure out what we were doing on the court. We still got our butts kicked, but we were able to keep the volleys going and pass more effectively...just weren't able to convert that play into points.
Mercer's A team went on to win it. The semi-final and final both came down to the last point, (in international scoring you can get a point even if you don't serve, and you don't have to win by two) so the games were pretty intense. It was funny to see the pros turn up the heat, but apparently the competitors had some pros as well, because both sides had to work pretty hard for their points.
After the tournament everybody seemed to loosen up a bit. Apparently Swedes aren't very social in competitive situations. Most weren't too social towards Miranda and me either, but that was probably because we didn't even know how to start a conversation in Swedish. The setting did lighten up though. We played some pool, sat through the music trivia in Swedish, (Miranda and I even helped our respective teams with a couple questions on Melodifestivalen) and after a while Miranda got roped into the game "runt ping." So runt ping is basically the party form of ping-pong. Everybody grabs a paddle and lines up on each side of the table. One person serves, then runs to the end of the line on the other side of the table. The person at the front of that line returns the serve and runs as well. When someone makes a mistake everyone stops, the person nearest the ball re-serves, and the game continues. Once an individual makes two mistakes they're kicked out. As more and more people get kicked out the players end up just running in a circle around the table. The final two players play a best of three match. It's actually ridiculously entertaining to watch, but quite fun as the Swedes are quite good at ping-pong and many take runt ping quite seriously.
My arms were better in about a day. Miranda's bruises still don't look the best, but she's actually healing quite nicely after five days. It was fun, but I hear the summer tournament is beach volleyball and isn't co-ed. The guys supposedly play full-force, so I think I'll just attend as a spectator.
Sorry for the long post (and the excessive use of the word "quite"). Believe it or not this is the super abridged version.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Wrong number
Due to a few recent reports of confusion, I wanted to clarify that our new telephone number is a local call from the Twin Cities. It's a 612 number that you can call from any phone, anytime. The number is just directed to our computer here at the apartment, so there's really no need for you to use Skype on your end unless you want to chat with us using a webcam. Sorry we didn't manage to make that clear in our earlier post.
Scott and I are learning the numbers in Swedish class right now, along with other basic phrases. Tonight, I introduced Farooq, my partner in class, as a 77-year-old man...except he's actually 29. The first of many more amusing language blunders to come, no doubt. Skål!
Scott and I are learning the numbers in Swedish class right now, along with other basic phrases. Tonight, I introduced Farooq, my partner in class, as a 77-year-old man...except he's actually 29. The first of many more amusing language blunders to come, no doubt. Skål!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Late night ramblings
It seems to get harder and harder to find time to blog. I've got another long one in the works, but here's a quick note to entertain those of you looking for an update.
Don't assume anything here, but we learned the Swedish word for marriage in our Swedish class on Thursday. It's sweet when you think about it as an English word, as the Swedish word for marriage is gift (pronounced yift).
So I mentioned that to my coworkers on Saturday. They informed me that gift is a funny word, as it also means poison. Using the transitive property of equality, if marriage equals gift and gift equals poison, then marriage equals poison. Seems to take the sweetness out of the English translation, doesn't it?
I just cracked open our first Mountain Dew since we got here. We paid a premium for two cans in the imported goods aisle of the grocery store (around $2 a can). To enjoy it at its best I placed it in the fridge to drink immediately after my Sunday long run. It was a bittersweet experience...so good, but now I'm craving more. Hopefully the fact that it's hard to find and expensive to purchase will help me break my addiction.
We also just posted some new photos on Picassa. They're quite random and a few are fairly entertaining. Please note that there are four other people posing with us in this album...all of which have mustaches. This is not typical of Sweden. We hope you'll enjoy this gallery anyway.
Don't assume anything here, but we learned the Swedish word for marriage in our Swedish class on Thursday. It's sweet when you think about it as an English word, as the Swedish word for marriage is gift (pronounced yift).
So I mentioned that to my coworkers on Saturday. They informed me that gift is a funny word, as it also means poison. Using the transitive property of equality, if marriage equals gift and gift equals poison, then marriage equals poison. Seems to take the sweetness out of the English translation, doesn't it?
I just cracked open our first Mountain Dew since we got here. We paid a premium for two cans in the imported goods aisle of the grocery store (around $2 a can). To enjoy it at its best I placed it in the fridge to drink immediately after my Sunday long run. It was a bittersweet experience...so good, but now I'm craving more. Hopefully the fact that it's hard to find and expensive to purchase will help me break my addiction.
We also just posted some new photos on Picassa. They're quite random and a few are fairly entertaining. Please note that there are four other people posing with us in this album...all of which have mustaches. This is not typical of Sweden. We hope you'll enjoy this gallery anyway.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Language barriers
We just finished doing our Swedish homework for the night and it's late now, but I wanted to post a quick update on the language lessons yesterday. No surprise, they didn't exactly go as planned. I showed up to my morning SFI course about 20 minutes early to check in, only to find out that the date on my letter said the 18th, which both Scott and I had managed to read as the eighth. I was told to come back next week, but at least I'll know where I'm going next time.
For the night class, Scott and I were running about five minutes late. Six flights of stairs later (the elevators were moving at the speed of turtles), when we finally found the classroom, we were a bit flustered. Two people in the class shifted seats so we could park in the corner of the room, and the teacher immediately started firing questions at us. In Swedish. I looked at Scott, who did a pretty darn good job of mustering his answers, and thought, is this teacher serious?? After a few embarrassing minutes, Scott had the good sense to confirm we were in an A2 class. A2 is not the beginner class. So we repacked our belongings and shuffled out of the room, muttering numerous apologies to the instructor, and headed back down the six flights of stairs. At this point Scott was obviously flustered. The guy at the front desk explained that he didn't have the authority to reassign us to another class at the A1 level, plus he said that everything looked full. Only once we packed our bags and put on our jackets did he say that we could go upstairs to a class that didn't appear to be full, but we would have to ask the instructor if we could sit in for the night. So, back up the stairs we go - three flights this time (which was great, compared to six...although I did feel bad for Scott, who had about 30 pounds of crap in his backpack). I knocked on the door and tried to explain to the instructor, Djina (sounds similar to Gina), why we were unexpectedly trying to join her class 20 minutes late, but she was pretty nice about the whole situation. A1 still reminded us of why language lessons aren't much fun, but the class went much more smoothly than my first two attempts at learning Swedish, and our new classmates seem really cool. But more about that later.
Clarification of the day: Jag = I. Ja = yes. That "g" is silent, and ja, they're both pronounced the same way.
For the night class, Scott and I were running about five minutes late. Six flights of stairs later (the elevators were moving at the speed of turtles), when we finally found the classroom, we were a bit flustered. Two people in the class shifted seats so we could park in the corner of the room, and the teacher immediately started firing questions at us. In Swedish. I looked at Scott, who did a pretty darn good job of mustering his answers, and thought, is this teacher serious?? After a few embarrassing minutes, Scott had the good sense to confirm we were in an A2 class. A2 is not the beginner class. So we repacked our belongings and shuffled out of the room, muttering numerous apologies to the instructor, and headed back down the six flights of stairs. At this point Scott was obviously flustered. The guy at the front desk explained that he didn't have the authority to reassign us to another class at the A1 level, plus he said that everything looked full. Only once we packed our bags and put on our jackets did he say that we could go upstairs to a class that didn't appear to be full, but we would have to ask the instructor if we could sit in for the night. So, back up the stairs we go - three flights this time (which was great, compared to six...although I did feel bad for Scott, who had about 30 pounds of crap in his backpack). I knocked on the door and tried to explain to the instructor, Djina (sounds similar to Gina), why we were unexpectedly trying to join her class 20 minutes late, but she was pretty nice about the whole situation. A1 still reminded us of why language lessons aren't much fun, but the class went much more smoothly than my first two attempts at learning Swedish, and our new classmates seem really cool. But more about that later.
Clarification of the day: Jag = I. Ja = yes. That "g" is silent, and ja, they're both pronounced the same way.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
"Cool American" flavor
Whatever happened to plain 'ol Cool Ranch?In other observations from the grocery store: No Kraft Singles (no American cheese, for that matter) or Mac & Cheese. Talk about the blue box blues. And you should see the price of Mountain Dew (sold only by the can)...we haven't become quite that desperate for a fix yet.
Scott's been busy posting this past week, but as for me, I've been busy collecting a lot of plastic for my wallet:
1) Joined the gym - Acquired my sleek black SATS membership card.
2) Joined the library - Received the official red Bibliotek card.
3) Joined the bank - Added a beautiful Mr. Visa card to the mix.
4) Tried to join the country - Denied a Swedish I.D. card because the correct forms were not in stock at either of the two Handelsbanken locations we visited. This was especially irritating because we had Scott's supervisor along with us to vouch for our identities. Grr.
Speaking of hiccups in the system, I'm happy to report that my transcript finally showed up (although I really did appreciate the offers to help "move things along")! Now we can only wait while the National Admissions Office processes the application, and keep our fingers crossed that this epic drama pans out in the end.
Finally, language lessons (a.m. and p.m.) begin tomorrow. Swenglish, here we come!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
First bout of homesickness
So I had my first bout of homesickness tonight. It was silly, I was writing to my parents and grandparents, and yeah, I miss them, but then I started thinking about my (favorite) cat, Marble. I'm close to my family, but it wasn't too difficult to move to Sweden as we've been living two and a half to five hours apart since 1999. An email is still nearly instant, whether I'm in Minneapolis or in Stockholm. But with Marble it's different. I've had her for about two years, and during that time I have grown quite fond of her. My only form of communication came through the tone of my voice, a fun game, or a scratch behind the ear. All things I can't do from here.
She would greet me at my bedroom door first thing every morning, pretending that she wanted food, but she would never eat until I had given her a few minutes of solid attention. Same story after work. It didn't matter where she was, as soon as my butt hit the sofa, she could be seen happily trotting across the apartment, wanting nothing more than to lay down in my lap. It was weird, but it really seemed like my time in the apartment was the highlight of her day.
Of course I miss all friends and family, but the fact that I can't communicate with her makes me miss Marble even more. Helius (my other cat), he's another story...cute, but a huge pain in the butt. Miranda misses him, but I'd guess that's because he can provide hours of non-stop entertainment. Guess I don't feel like writing much more, other than a quick thank you to my parents for transporting Marble down to their place in Iowa and Miranda's parents for taking on Helius. It obviously means a lot to us.
She would greet me at my bedroom door first thing every morning, pretending that she wanted food, but she would never eat until I had given her a few minutes of solid attention. Same story after work. It didn't matter where she was, as soon as my butt hit the sofa, she could be seen happily trotting across the apartment, wanting nothing more than to lay down in my lap. It was weird, but it really seemed like my time in the apartment was the highlight of her day.
Of course I miss all friends and family, but the fact that I can't communicate with her makes me miss Marble even more. Helius (my other cat), he's another story...cute, but a huge pain in the butt. Miranda misses him, but I'd guess that's because he can provide hours of non-stop entertainment. Guess I don't feel like writing much more, other than a quick thank you to my parents for transporting Marble down to their place in Iowa and Miranda's parents for taking on Helius. It obviously means a lot to us.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
March went out like a lamb
From what I have seen, it looks like we've been blessed with the same weather as those of you in the Midwest. It's different here though. There's always foot traffic, but as soon as the sun starts to shine, people just start sitting around everywhere. Not quite everywhere...only the places where they can sit and enjoy the sunlight.
Today we walked down a street and saw two pubs straddling the street, both with sidewalk seating. The pub with seating in the sun didn't have enough room to handle everyone that was lining up for the next seat. The pub in the shade had set out huge blankets on each chair for their patrons to wrap up in (a very cool idea), but still only had about 25 percent of the people that the other pub was entertaining. We thought that this may have something to do with the quality of the pub, but as we continued down the street, we noticed that this was a pretty common occurrence. Not only at restaurants and coffee shops, but in parks, in front of public buildings with large staircases...pretty much anywhere you could stop and sit in the sun. I think it's fair to say that nobody takes the sun for granted. Either way, it's pretty cool to see so many people enjoying such a simple pleasure.
The other cool part about seeing everybody out and about is that nobody is really doing anything. Some shop because they want to shop, but there's no sense of urgency in the air. People are out for day-long strolls, stopping in parks, sitting in the sun, moving on to the next coffee shop, and then walking along the water again, just because they can. When was the last time you took a day-long walk? How about multiple weekends in a row? Until I got to Stockholm, I hadn't enjoyed a day of just walking around and doing nothing since a lazy spring Saturday in college. Personally, I love it. Give it a try. Forget your errands and spend a day just enjoying the parks and street cafes around town. You'll remember how much you love it too.
Today was another big step for me. I put in my contact lenses for the first time in ages and decided it was time to get some "hip" sunglasses, a spring jacket and maybe a new pair of jeans. Finding a jacket was the big goal, but so far the jacket has proven to be quite elusive. Either that or I'm too picky.
Next came the jeans. You've heard our rants about skinny jeans. Well, I decided to make the plunge. It was quite difficult. Not finding a pair that I liked, they all look cool. The difficult part was to get into the jeans. Guys don't like trying on clothes because we're lazy. I learned today that girls don't like to try on clothes because it takes a lot of work to get in and out of tight clothes. After I had pulled on my denim skin and sucked in my gut far enough to button my jeans, I actually liked them. They're straight leg, which in the U.S. would be the "skinny" cut. I thought about trying on the Swedish "skinny" cut, but decided that would be too painful. I'm pretty sure they would have cut off circulation to my ankles. I'm wearing them around now to break them in. Miranda laughs every time I try to bend over. Hopefully they'll loosen a little with wear.
Our last stop was to find some sunglasses. Most of you have probably never seen me in sunglasses, mostly because I think I look like a bigger dork than normal when I wear sunglasses. Also because even though I'm not blind without my glasses, I like being able to see off into the distance. So we found a few cool pairs, but I was unwilling to pay 1200 SEK ($200), so we had to dig further. After about a half hour of trying on every pair of shades in the store, Miranda finally gave me a pair I liked...except they were brown and I wanted black. I finally gave in, and I liked the price, so had no real reason to complain. So now have a sweet pair of sunglasses...cheap and hip. Just saying that means I'm still a dork, even if these sunglasses do look somewhat cool.
Miranda has some other news to share, but since we're falling behind in the post count, I'll let her post separately.
Today we walked down a street and saw two pubs straddling the street, both with sidewalk seating. The pub with seating in the sun didn't have enough room to handle everyone that was lining up for the next seat. The pub in the shade had set out huge blankets on each chair for their patrons to wrap up in (a very cool idea), but still only had about 25 percent of the people that the other pub was entertaining. We thought that this may have something to do with the quality of the pub, but as we continued down the street, we noticed that this was a pretty common occurrence. Not only at restaurants and coffee shops, but in parks, in front of public buildings with large staircases...pretty much anywhere you could stop and sit in the sun. I think it's fair to say that nobody takes the sun for granted. Either way, it's pretty cool to see so many people enjoying such a simple pleasure.
The other cool part about seeing everybody out and about is that nobody is really doing anything. Some shop because they want to shop, but there's no sense of urgency in the air. People are out for day-long strolls, stopping in parks, sitting in the sun, moving on to the next coffee shop, and then walking along the water again, just because they can. When was the last time you took a day-long walk? How about multiple weekends in a row? Until I got to Stockholm, I hadn't enjoyed a day of just walking around and doing nothing since a lazy spring Saturday in college. Personally, I love it. Give it a try. Forget your errands and spend a day just enjoying the parks and street cafes around town. You'll remember how much you love it too.
Today was another big step for me. I put in my contact lenses for the first time in ages and decided it was time to get some "hip" sunglasses, a spring jacket and maybe a new pair of jeans. Finding a jacket was the big goal, but so far the jacket has proven to be quite elusive. Either that or I'm too picky.
Next came the jeans. You've heard our rants about skinny jeans. Well, I decided to make the plunge. It was quite difficult. Not finding a pair that I liked, they all look cool. The difficult part was to get into the jeans. Guys don't like trying on clothes because we're lazy. I learned today that girls don't like to try on clothes because it takes a lot of work to get in and out of tight clothes. After I had pulled on my denim skin and sucked in my gut far enough to button my jeans, I actually liked them. They're straight leg, which in the U.S. would be the "skinny" cut. I thought about trying on the Swedish "skinny" cut, but decided that would be too painful. I'm pretty sure they would have cut off circulation to my ankles. I'm wearing them around now to break them in. Miranda laughs every time I try to bend over. Hopefully they'll loosen a little with wear.
Our last stop was to find some sunglasses. Most of you have probably never seen me in sunglasses, mostly because I think I look like a bigger dork than normal when I wear sunglasses. Also because even though I'm not blind without my glasses, I like being able to see off into the distance. So we found a few cool pairs, but I was unwilling to pay 1200 SEK ($200), so we had to dig further. After about a half hour of trying on every pair of shades in the store, Miranda finally gave me a pair I liked...except they were brown and I wanted black. I finally gave in, and I liked the price, so had no real reason to complain. So now have a sweet pair of sunglasses...cheap and hip. Just saying that means I'm still a dork, even if these sunglasses do look somewhat cool.
Miranda has some other news to share, but since we're falling behind in the post count, I'll let her post separately.
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