Random news

I haven't picked a topic for tonight's entry, so I guess I'll just type whatever comes to mind.

Found out on Friday that because our address is technically a c/o address, all of our mail is being forwarded to the owner of our apartment...in Paris. As far as I know we haven't missed out on much, other than our new debit cards. Nothing wrong with a little old-fashioned banking though. Luckily, he's an incredibly nice guy and he still works fairly closely with our office here in Stockholm, so he'll be sending our mail to my office on Monday.

Friday night we met an old college acquaintance and his girlfriend for a few drinks after work. This was the same guy that hosted me for a night on a college visit to Luther. He was a long jumper and triple jumper, so I got paired up with him since he was on the track team. I'd been to Luther a number of times to visit my brother, but wanted another visit to see what life was like when nobody knew who I was. As the friend said, it's ironic yet fitting that he was there to welcome me to Luther, and now he's here to welcome me to Stockholm. We stuck around until the bar got too loud to talk, then split up for the night. It was an incredibly good time chatting and I have a feeling that we'll be meeting often in the future.

Saturday morning my coworker was doing a long run. I've run for years, but must say she's a crazily ambitious runner. She was a DI tennis player down in Arizona and has remained incredibly athletic. Her younger sister has recently gotten into running and talked my coworker into running the Goteborg half marathon, the largest half marathon in the world. My coworker bikes four miles to and from work each day (year round), plays tennis at least three days a week, hits the gym regularly and has now added running to her list of activities. But since she's so active, she only does the hard and the long runs (and likes it). Her view is that 10Ks aren't challenging because "everybody is in good enough shape to run 10 kilometers". Maybe in Stockholm, but that's not the point of this paragraph. Anyway, she hasn't been training for long and has not built up her distances like most runners would, but was planning a two hour run to do on Saturday, her third in four weeks. My coworker's friend and I joined her for about seven miles of the run. She picked a pretty scenic route, and it was good to run with people again, so all-in-all it made for a pretty good way to start the day.

Later that night Miranda joined up with those two girls for dinner and a trip to a night club. I stayed in to file for trip reimbursements and to do my taxes. Yeah, they had fun, but I like the looks of my future bank credits, so I won't complain. I had promised Miranda that I'd meet her later in the night, that way she didn't have to ride the subway alone. It was actually a really nice night, so we took our time and walked the two miles home, not realizing we were losing an hour to daylight savings time until we passed a church near the apartment that announced it was 4:15 in the morning. Ouch.

I welcome daylight savings time, or "summer time" as it is called here. Catchy, eh?

Right now our apartment is so bright at 5:30 in the morning that you'd swear it's the middle of the day. The days are lengthening pretty quickly here, so we'll have that same problem in about three weeks, but it'll be nice to sleep in darkness for a few more weeks. I really shouldn't complain yet. In another month we'll only have a few hours of darkness, and in nine months I'll be begging for more light. I guess the amount of light we get this time of year is probably the best balance I could ask for.

Slept in today, went for a run, then grabbed the sub of the day at our neighborhood Subway. We've started to form a friendship with the guy that regularly works there. He's been in Stockholm for about 18 months and is originally from Tunisia. He's been taking SFI courses since he arrived and they must be pretty good, because unless we're there he's always rattling off in Swedish. We got to talking about the exchange rate, so I need to get him some info on buying an iPhone in the U.S. Then we told him that the one disadvantage of such a good exchange rate for Swedes is that it's horrible coming from the U.S. to Sweden. We don't want to convert any of our savings to kroner. He teased that that's why we never order anything but the sub of the day. Funny, but true.

We finished our day with a hike across a huge bridge just to check out the view. It was around 50 degrees here, and once the temperature rises and the sun comes out, Swedes fill the streets. It's pretty cool to see so many people out, but it was also a bit annoying because every ten seconds you meet another group on the sidewalk. This sidewalk was pretty narrow, so it was kind of difficult to enjoy the view without accidentally bumping into somebody. After we made it across the bridge we made another trip to IKEA. We found a bench we'll be getting for our entryway, but didn't pick it up as I'm not quite strong enough to carry it around Stockholm on my shoulders. We'll be going back with a cart. We did end up with a few ice cube trays, and a hot dog and drink for each of us.

Don't know why, but Swedes appear to love hot dogs. They're weird hot dogs too, the kind that are really skinny and way too long for the bun. I wonder what they'd think of a Dome Dog?

Based on the restaurant frequency alone, I'd rank the three most common foods in Sweden to be kebabs, pizza and hot dogs. Miranda says burgers are up there too, but I'm not so sure.

I've mentioned running more in this post than in any so far. I've been able to build my mileage since arriving in Stockholm. Doing it slowly, as I always have, but still a bit more aggressive than normal. I logged 25 miles last week and although I was a bit tired today, it has felt really good. A friend is drafting a training program to target the Berlin Marathon on September 28. I'll start that plan in late May, so need to build up to 35-40 miles a week before then. Definitely attainable, it's just a matter of getting in five or six runs a week.

For the most part I've kept my routes on this island, but there are endless route possibilities in this city. Kungsholmen forms a natural 10K loop, most of which is made up of paths along the water. For those of you that plan to come visit, make sure you can hike about six or seven miles in a day. We don't hike that far every day, but the city is so scenic that the sights you see on those long walks make the efforts totally worth it.

The south side of Kungsholmen is quite scenic and the southwest side has some good hills. There is also a green-way running east-west through the middle of the island that's filled with paths, leading to even more options. Once I get off this island I'll have a million new running options. The city has been designed by people who love nature. The other islands offer a number of large parks, running and bike paths along the water, and because many people don't own cars, bike paths and sidewalks leading pretty much everywhere. The biggest problem is that I need to explore all of the places I hope to run, that way I don't get lost on the crazy crooked streets in this town. Anyway, it's a pretty exciting opportunity for any runner, so I hope to take advantage of it.

That's enough for tonight. Thanks for checking in.

We Got the Beat

I've managed to peek into the local stores while running random errands over the past few days and, let me tell you, spring fashion is scary. As if the current skinny jeans (yes, some of which are even tight-rolled) weren't already bad enough, there are leggings everywhere! It really hit home when we saw a new billboard on a bus stop last night, pictured here with Scott. And, yes, this really does say, "80s Edition."

Don't get me wrong, people always look well put together here, but any spring shopping is going to be a pain. I'm also bummed that I didn't pack my white leggings from last year's dance recital...er, nope, definitely not.

As of this afternoon, I'm one step closer to getting a grip on the Swedish language. Scott and I are already enrolled in a Tuesday/Thursday night class at Folksuniversitet in April, but today I also signed up for the government-sponsored Swedish for Immigrants (more commonly referred to as SFI). SFI classes are held five days a week. I opted for the morning SFI session, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., so that I'll have a break on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons before our evening classes. Night classes last seven weeks, and I was told the SFI classes can take five months if you advance quickly, or up to a full year as needed. Honestly, I've read mixed online reviews about both options, but I'm hoping for the best, and you'll hear my informed opinion after things get going next month.

One last bit of news on the grad school application. We've been told that it's here somewhere (still not feeling reassured by this) but, reportedly, it hasn't been entered into their system. Hence, the "you don't meet our requirements for consideration" message online. Seems a bit harsh, if you ask me. Either way, I'll be calling to double and triple check that K. Johannson in Shipping and Receiving isn't trying to sabotage me.

Alas

A bit of bad news today. Believe it or not, the Swedish University Studies office managed to to lose my official University of Minnesota transcript, which Scott discovered online this morning when checking on my application status, and I won't meet their eligibility requirements until the transcript is found. To make a long story short, I was able to contact the U of M to obtain the FedEx tracking number. According to the online tracking, the package was delivered on Feb. 18, signed for by K. Johannson. By the time we found this information online the Swedish University Studies office had closed, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out who this mystery Johannson character is, and what he/she did with my official transcript! Although this wasn't the only trouble of the day, it was definitely the most troubling.

I also made a trip to Handelsbanken to make a withdrawal and check on the status of our debit/ATM cards this afternoon, except there was no record whatsoever of the cards, or the application for the cards. I had to re-apply, so it should be in progress now - let's hope!

My one semi-success story of the day is that we managed to unlock my Nokia phone so that I can set up a local calling plan. The flip side is that The Phone House couldn't actually give me a plan because I need to show proof of funds. Given the way my day was going, I wasn't really surprised, but it was a thoroughly frustrating day.

Things are finally looking up right now - Scott is cooking dinner and vacuuming the apartment while I write this post :)

Also, Scott's brother David bought us a Skype phone number for Scott's birthday (thanks Dave). It's a local Minneapolis number that we don't want to post for the world to see, so just e-mail us for the number, and then remember that Stockholm is six hours ahead (seven as of next Sunday, due to daylight savings here). The calls are routed to our computer at the apartment, and if you happen to call while we're out and about you can even leave us a voice message. The other option to reach us online is to register for a free Skype account. Skype has both instant messaging and the ability to talk with video if you have a webcam (which we do), although you certainly don't need a webcam to talk as long as your computer has speakers and a microphone.

p.s. Two dynamite explosions below the apartment building tonight! Crazy.

Today's adventure: Skansen

It was so darn cold yesterday that our trip to Skansen was postponed until today, even though today ended up being colder than yesterday. After a few layers of long underwear, and the warmest outerwear we could find, we braved the relatively mild 26 degree weather for a day at the outdoor museum. (The wind was quite brutal yesterday, so we planned for the worst.) It doesn't help that Skansen is located on top of a large hill on Djurgarden, an island on the east side of Stockholm. It offers a nice view of the city, pictured here, but unfortunately the pictures don't really do the view justice. Djurgarden also is "the city's playground." The west side of the island is covered with museums, embassies, shops, a theme park and restaurants while the eastern side is covered in walking paths through a mixture of open grass areas and small forests. On a nice day you'll find people flocking to the island to get away from the enclosed streets of the city.

Skansen is the world's first outdoor museum, opened in 1891. It is a living history museum, showcasing life for the common Swede throughout the centuries. People are dressed in character, talking about all aspects of Swedish life. We visited shops from different eras, the houses of rich men, farmsteads from different areas of Sweden, open-air markets, school houses, and even the Nordic zoo which is also located in Skansen. A large portion of the buildings were closed for winter, but those that were open were quite informative. If you have a chance to visit, do your best to enter a building when Swedes are exiting, that way you can get the story in English. Otherwise you have to wait around, listening to a language you don't understand, hoping for a break so you can ask for a repeat in English.

The Nordic zoo was a bit of a letdown today. The moose (called elk in Sweden) were all resting and were missing a male. The brown bears were hibernating, the wolves were sleeping, the lynx was sleeping, the reindeer were there, but looked a bit sad, and we couldn't find the red fox. The wolverines were active, and the otters are always fun. It was kind of funny to see the otters walking around on a thin sheet of ice...looked way too cold to go for a swim though. Even though the animals were a bit reclusive, at least the Dala horses were fun.

We played a traditional Easter game for adults called Aggpickning (Egg picking). Each adult, armed with a hard boiled egg, brandishes the end of the egg towards the opponent and tries to crack the end of the opponent's egg without cracking his own egg. The game is played twice, once with each side of the egg. Miranda totally defeated me. The loser's spoil? I had to eat my egg...I hate hard boiled eggs. She was a good sport and ate the last half. Probably because she didn't want to see me throw up. I just realized, most people think museums are boring. If you've made it this far, you must be bored. Check out more pictures in the photo gallery, if you're up for it!

So many subjects, so little time

We have lists of subjects that deserve our attention, but even though we have plenty of downtime, we haven't been able to catch up on the blog.

First of all, we need to thank our good friend Ben for the blog title. Without his wit you'd be reading "Miranda and Scott's Adventures in Sweden", or something even dorkier and less original.

Second, I just asked a professional (my brother) to take on the task of making this blog look cool...on a pro bono basis of course. Hopefully he accepts.

Third, a look at future blog posts, in no particular order:

• Melodifestivalen/Eurovision
• Swedish food (Scott's perspective)
• Swedish food (Miranda's perspective)
• IKEA
• The Swedish workplace
• Easter traditions that we've read about but haven't experienced
• Gamla Stan
• Exploring via public transit
• Skansen
• American Women's Club of Stockholm
• The Swedish alphabet
• Systembolaget

Couple quick stories though. Yesterday we made the trip to IKEA (pronounced EKEA here) as we wanted some lamps. Most of the story can wait until later, but Miranda requested that I blog about our meal at IKEA tonight. We ate in the IKEA cafeteria and Miranda was having a very hard time deciding between the kottbuller (meatballs) and the viltfarbiff (wild beef). Both words need some umlauts, but I'm using the American keyboard, so I guess they'll remain umlautless. The viltfarbiff was half price, making it extremely attractive. I had enjoyed a meal of a similar name a few weeks before, but wasn't exactly sure what it was, so I asked when we worked our way up to the server. If you have a child that's reading this, send them away and do not tell them about this meal. I've heard it is especially unpopular with American children around Christmas. Viltfarbiff is made up of reindeer and moose. The first time I had it, the meat was served in a stroganoff type dish. This time it was served in ground steak medallions, similar to Salisbury steak. Both were delicious. Add a bit of lingdonberry and a few potatoes on the side, and you've got one heck of a meal.

As promised, I'll talk more about the food later. I've avoided the fish options, but I have loved everything I have been served. I have traditionally been a picky eater, so my conclusion is that I was born with Swedish taste buds.

Despite having cleaned every plate that has been set in front of me, I've still managed to lose weight at an incredible rate of speed. Three weeks in and I've already lost ten pounds. The change in weight is obviously due to lifestyle changes. I walked a lot in Minneapolis compared to most people, but I walk even more here. I have also gotten back into running, but haven't logged enough miles to make a difference in my weight. The drop is most likely due to the fact that I don't get free soda at work and that I don't have fast food for lunch every day. My diet is fairly well balanced and for the first time since college, the majority of my beverage intake is water. Yeah, I miss Chipotle, but I don't miss loosening my belt after each meal there. Moral of the story: If you want to go on a crash diet, you might as well come to Europe, eat well, and enjoy yourself. The weight will take care of itself.

There is one problem though, my pants don't fit. Even if my clothing was tight enough to pass for normal, now I have no choice but to wear "baggy American clothing." Oh well, I guess I prefer being out of style to the alternative.

That's enough about my weight. I promise to stop blogging on the subject.

Cheers.

More changes to come

I'm goofing around with the colors and templates, trying to come up with a Swedish color scheme that is both stylish and aesthetically pleasing. What you see now is the first blue and yellow combination that I've found that doesn't lead to blurred vision. It's not my favorite template, and I'm having a lot of trouble picking a title color that looks decent on top of the Swedish flag. I have some ideas, but will need a bit of help from my brother, and also need Miranda's input and approval. Please bear with us during these times of change.

Happy holidays

Happy belated St. Patrick's Day, everyone! Unfortunately, we missed the parade here (it started at noon, we had the time wrong and showed up at 2 p.m.), so I don't have too much to report on how the celebration went. I also wasn't able to enjoy my annual corned beef and cabbage meal here, but tried to make up for it with a delicious kabob sandwich last night. It was amazingly good, I'm happy to report, and would have fit nicely in my softball glove. If you visit, I'll definitely introduce you.

We just got home from the movies, er, cinema, tonight. We saw Sweeny Todd, which was not too bad for a musical, in my book. It was no Chicago, but definitely better than the torture of Dream Girls...although we did squeam quite a bit from all of the gore in that barbershop.

Scott commented that the one really good thing about watching a musical in English is the Swedish subtitles; the subtitles are worthless on television as the dialogue moves so quickly. And thanks to the repetitive nature of most musical songs, the subtitles were repeated over and over again, meaning it was possible for somebody who knows few Swedish words to match them up with the dialogue. He also pointed out that the Swedish language seems much more direct, because the subtitles required significantly less copy than the English dialogue.

The movies are certainly not inexpensive here. For the two of us, it cost about $30US dollars. Concessions, on the other hand, were quite a good deal compared to their American equivalents, and the price of the tickets. When you purchase your tickets, you are asked where you'd like to sit, and then assigned seats - it's brilliant. Shortly thereafter I felt like an American idiot standing outside of the locked women's restroom. Fortunately, an employee walking by offered her help in Swedish. After a quick switch to English she pointed out a key pad by the restroom door. (The theatre prints the restroom code on your movie ticket to avoid non-patrons using the restrooms. Brilliant again! Of course.)

On the 1.5 mile walk back home, there were already people out at one of the nightclubs we passed downtown. Since it was really cold out tonight, I commented on a girl smoking a cigarette outside of the club, wearing only a tube top. "She's smokin," replied Scott, "she's fine." Well, tell me how you really feel, Mr. Striegel! Okay, so maybe it was just a great word choice. But it just goes to show that, as a wise man once said in downtown Minneapolis, skanks (as we'll use the term loosely here) don't feel cold. No matter where you live!

I'm excited for the weekend, which officially starts tomorrow. Okay, to be honest, Scott's weekend starts tomorrow...my weeks never end, exactly... But either way, his office is closed on Thursday, Friday and Monday for the Easter holiday. We've put together a long list of local Stockholm sights and Ikea shopping to take care of. At the top is a trip to Skansen, a living history museum in Stockholm. I've read that the houses will be decorated for the Easter celebration, which should be fun to see. We've also been told that the children will dress up as Easter witches tomorrow and go door-to-door for candy, similar to Halloween back home. Not sure we'll get to see too many Easter witches though, as Scott has already threatened to eat all of the Easter candy before they arrive. Except this candy pictured below. Don't be fooled by the oversized Sno-Cap.



I tried one, too, and they really are terrible.

Oh, and one more thing - I'm looking for someone to stand in for me at the annual Fischbach Easter Egg Hunt. It's become quite competitive over the past few years, now that my dad has started putting money in the plastic eggs hidden throughout the yard, so please drop me a line if you're up for defending the 2007 title. Cheers!

I don't get it

As I've said a number of times, Swedes are skinny. I recently found out that Swedes believe they eat more candy per capita than any other country in the world. I doubted it at first since I saw no signs of this candy addiction in my first two weeks in the country. Then I opened my eyes and noticed the wall of candy in every grocery store. People shove past others to get to the candy they want. They also have at least one candy shop per block here in central Stockholm. I'm not talking about buying a Snickers bar as a snack, but buying large amounts of gummi and chocolate products by the scoop. Mass quantities of sugar.

I showed up at work today to find an Easter egg on my desk. Everybody had an Easter egg on their desk. The eggs contain about four double-handfuls of candy. Compared to other eggs that I've seen in grocery stores and shop windows, our eggs are actually quite small.

So I don't get it. Does eating a large amount of candy make people thin? Regardless of the answer, I like the Swedish diet. I think I'll fit right in.

S(we)des love to party

We got our first taste of Stockholm's nightlife last night. Actually, we got our taste of Stockholm's pre-night nightlife. At the end of the day on Friday my coworkers round up whatever they're doing between 4:45 and 5:15, then slowly filter into a common area to enjoy chips, popcorn, a few drinks and lovely conversation with whoever shows up. My boss told me that Miranda is an unofficial employee between the hours of 5:00 and 6:00 (more like 7:30) on Fridays, so she came to the office to "learn a little more about the work we do."

It's a very interesting setting. Young people are more naturally drawn to these inner-office gatherings, but ocassionally an older coworker will join in the fun. By American standards, everyone is extremely well educated and extremely well traveled. What's even weirder for me is that all of my company's lines of business are represented equally, and on top of that, they actually interact. That would never happen in Minneapolis. Even if my Minneapolis coworkers ended up at the same place, only a select few would interact.

The conversations always start in English, then side conversations break off, and if these side conversations don't include Miranda or me, they naturally revert back to Swedish. Soon the group gets involved in the Swedish conversation, and Miranda and I are left clueless on the sidelines until some merciful soul decides to switch back to English. I joked that I really didn't have any choice but to sit around hoping somebody would show interest in me and start up another conversation in English.

Our group conversation has included talk of some Eastern European cities and countries each week. It's sad because I love geography, but typically have no idea that the places they're discussing even exist. Western Europe gets so much attention that Eastern Europe is completely hidden in its shadow.

Enough of the conversation. Friday night we enjoyed a couple beers in the office, then took a fifteen minute walk through the posh business and nightlife district to the rich area of town. We went to a place called Hotellet in the exclusive Ostermalm. If I could use umlauts on this computer, the O of Ostermalm would have umlauts. Anyway, I don't know if Hotellet was actually a hotel, or if it was just a lounge, but if it was a hotel, it was by far the coolest hotel lounge that I've ever been in. At least three separate bar areas and plenty of table, bar and lounge seating. The place was packed, yet not crowded. Everybody was dressed well, but as Miranda mentioned, even though there are definite things that are "in style", as long as people wear their clothes with confidence, they fit right in.

I've been to plenty of bars in Minneapolis. I'm no expert, but I've been to enough to know that a bar like this does not exist in Minneapolis. No dress code, no cover charge, no waiting line, yet everybody looked good. At the same time, nobody in the bar seemed terribly self-important. Sometimes when you go to a bar this nice you'll find people and their entourages gaining attention through their size and the way they act. These people were mysteriously missing from Hotellet. Not that I talked to anybody outside our group, but I just got the feeling that everybody in the bar was on equal footing.

We stuck around for a few hours, then once things started getting late we went to a different club. Totally different scene. The restaurant downstairs was overlooked by a mezzanine lined with booths. The music was too loud to talk to anybody, and the upstairs was packed. Apparently this place was another pre-night nightclub as it closed at 3:00 in the morning. This might best be described as a club that Pondo would lead us to. We left after about an hour. The bar sucked, with the exception of one thing, they had a rockin' playlist. Miranda already promised to post on the music, so I'll leave that out for now.

We left around 1:00 and half the group went to yet another bar. Miranda and I joined two of my coworkers at a pizza and kabob restaurant about a block from my office. On the way to the restaurant we saw guys wearing tight-rolled jeans, something we had only seen on mannequins before Friday night.

I love the pizza here. Once again, that deserves a post of its own.

Once again, I started writing this post a few days ago, and by now it has lost all of its momentum. It doesn't help that Scrubs came on about 45 minutes ago, making it impossible for me to concentrate. To sum it all up. The night was a lot of fun. We hit an awesome bar, and even more important than the bar, my coworkers are a lot of fun. Here's to more to come. Skål!

Getting my bearings

Hej/hello, dear friends and family! This first week in Stockholm has flown by, and I can't believe tomorrow is already Friday. It's been exciting, but also exhausting.

After meeting Scott at the airport, we took a very nice taxi ride to the apartment on Tuesday. It was great timing that the movers showed up right when I did! Scott had bought some lovely tulips for the apartment before I arrived, both in the kitchen and in the living room (as we'll call the main room here). The apartment is actually larger than what I was expecting, and the views are even nicer than the pictures.



We started to unpack a few boxes at the apartment before it was time to meet Scott's co-workers for lunch. The subway stop is very close to the apartment, although we have to walk down a terribly steep hill to get there. I think the subway reminded me most of being in New York. Once we arrived downtown a few minutes later, we took a quick tour of Scott's office and I had the pleasure of meeting his co-workers. We grabbed lunch at a cute little restaurant nearby, where they were kind enough to translate the menu for us. I decided it would be best to check Swedish Meatballs off the list right away, and they were quite delicious! Following lunch, Scott led a wonderful mini-tour of what he's seen of the city. He's already well-versed in the street names, and a few key phrases that I'm still struggling with. From what I've seen, Stockholm really is a beautiful city, even with such dreary weather (about mid-40s, with very light rain most days so far).

Before I arrived, Scott warned me that the apartment is on top of a mini-mountain - solid rock, with huge outcroppings, not a rolling hill like we'd see in Minneapolis, he said. He had explained that for about 10 seconds every evening it feels and sounds like somebody sets off a fireworks finale in the apartment below us, or that people are firing hundreds of canons all at once. One of his neighbors at the office told him that they're actually hollowing out the rock for some sort of geothermal heating project. After our tour of Stockholm, I was ready to fall asleep standing up. Amazingly, I managed to sleep through the daily dynamite during my two-hour nap, and, after dinner, I had no trouble catching up on 13 more hours of sleep.

In addition to jetlag, I didn't get much sleep before I arrived. The night before my flight, Mom and I stayed up very late packing and laughing at ourselves while doing so. Then, I managed to be seated next to the one Swedish man on the 8+ hour flight that could not sleep on planes. He began making conversation a few hours into the flight, then continued to tell me all about his wife (from Oregon), astronomy hobby, and extensive knowledge of international airports. Very nice guy, but I was definitely ready to sleep by the time I closed my eyes.

Wednesday involved more unpacking and the apartment is finally starting to shape up! We also made a trip to the grocery store, which really is a challenge because everything is in Swedish. Not speaking the language is definitely the most frustrating part so far, even though everyone really does speak English if you ask them to. We also have to buy groceries in small quantities, since everything is carried home from the store in your own bags (I chose to shop with my very non-European "Relax...I'm a Ninja" shoulder bag, while Scott sported his courier back pack). The alternative is to purchase shopping bags from the grocery store. I understand that if you've shopped at Costco in the U.S., you're familiar with this concept, but Scott told me it caught him by surprise the first time he purchased groceries here.

At home, I had to laugh once we finally cleaned out the cupboards and put away our food. We stuck to just a few basics, so it appears to be a very random assortment of food that comes nowhere near to filing our shelf space. Unfortuantely, the kitchen boasts the most storage of the entire apartment. If we decide not to purchase an Ikea wardrobe, I could easily fit most of my clothes into the empty corner cupboard that is currently home to the plastic colander and Pyrex meauring cup...

Thursday - I was awoken by the mail this morning. The mail is dropped into a mail door and falls about five feet to the floor. However, there were still so many boxes piled up that one letter led to the downfall of a neatly stacked corrugated fortress by the door. It startled me, but I still managed to finish up my solid 11 hours of sleep before discovering that it was my Swedish "personnummer" that had been delivered. I have officially joined Scott as an Artificial Sweden-er!

I took off for downtown after lunch, hoping to find the key shop and have an extra set of keys made. Not only did I find the shop I was looking for, but I continued walking toward (what I hoped was) Scott's work. Eventually I recognized a drugstore from our tour yesterday and managed to backtrack two blocks to his office! I know getting around will be a breeze very soon, but today I'll call it small victory.

It's difficult not being able to pick up the phone and call home. Thank you to everyone who has sent e-mails and text messages. Also, please know that I haven't figured out how to check voicemail on my phone here (in case you've left me a voice message). Scott's done a wonderful job posting thus far, and I'll try to post regularly now that I'm settling in...and I'll try to avoid three-day narratives from now on! We also have a Skype account set up (plus the web cam, of course) that I'm looking forward to using. It's a much less expensive alternative to a traditional international phone call. Free Skype-to-Skype calls, and cheap Skype-to-phone rates (unless you're calling a Swedish cell phone, then it's quite expensive). Let us know if you have Skype installed as we'd love to stay in touch. We're still trying to figure out how to use it, so if you have any Skype tips, feel free to share. We'd love to hear from you!

Not just another day

I celebrated my birthday on Tuesday by waking up at the crack of dawn, taking the subway downtown, hopping on a high-speed train to the airport, then standing around for an hour waiting for Miranda to appear. It took her a while due to fog and a slow baggage carousel, but she finally made it, and to my surprise she even looked happy. I didn't sprint through the airport to give her a hug, and I've caught some flack because of that, but even though I've tried to hide it, I have been incredibly excited and incredibly nervous regarding her arrival. Mostly excited to share my experiences with her, but also nervous that she'll be bored or that she won't like life in this city. She still hasn't told me what she thinks of the move, so even though I'll be thankful for every day she's here, I guess I'm going to remain nervous for every day she keeps me wondering.

Back to the birthday, I didn't learn anything about Swedish birthday traditions. I could have learend a lot, but I didn't tell anybody that it was my birthday. Miranda thought my coworkers already knew, so she didn't bring it up when she met them. Tricky, eh? We ended up spending some time walking through central Stockholm, got some basic groceries, spent a lot of time unpacking the stuff we sent in an air shipment (the movers were waiting when we got back from the airport), took a nap, then went out for a late meal. Most of the cafe's and restaurants were closing, so we settled for a familiar meal at McDonald's. We could have hit up a pub, but McDonald's sounded surprisingly good. We came back to enjoy a makeshift cake made of an apple-flavored breaksfast bread and 27 candles that Miranda was thoughtful enough to bring from home.

All in all, it was a good birthday. I would have preferred my traditional Pizza Haus birthday pizza to McDonald's, partially because I love the pizza, but also because Pizza Haus pizza means time at home with my family. It's one of the sacrifices I accepted when I signed on the dotted line, but even though I made the choice, I'm still allowed to miss a few things. Pizza Haus with my family is definitely one of those things I'm going to miss most.

Basic info

I have a million things that I could type, but I guess I'd better start with the basics. Lake Malaren is a huge lake in Sweden that flows east into the Baltic Sea. The two bodies of water meet amidst the world's largest archipelago, composed of 24,000+ islands. Stockholm was built on 14 of these islands and has sprawled onto the mainland as well. Apparently the water in the lake is so pure that it is drinkable. If the tap water is an accurate reflection of the quality of the lake water, I might actually believe it.

Miranda and I live on the island of Kungsholmen (King's Island), which many people refer to as the "fine" area of town. The island is shown in the picture on the left, and we live at the green arrow. My walk to the office heads in a straight line, slightly southeast across the island, then crosses the canal where it gets really narrow and congested. It's about three blocks to the office after crossing the canal. Kungsholmen has lots of restaurants, shops, etc. Then again, almost every street I've walked in this city is lined with restaurants and shops. I guess the commerce in Kungsholmen must just be a bit more upscale.

The buildings on Kungsholmen aren't nearly as old as the old areas of town, but this area's architechture is still quite cool. Our apartment is a tiny apartment on the 4th floor (5th in American terms as the ground floor is the 0th floor) of an apartment building. The apartment is located atop the highest point in Stockholm, looking out over the northern part of the city. Most of the lake lies to the east, south and west, but it's still a pretty amazing view, made even better by the city's colorful buildings. There are two separate subway stations each located about four minutes from the apartment, and the subway can get someone to any point in town in a very short amount of time. The apartment is exactly a mile and a half from my office, so it's about a 25 minute walk to work. It's actually a very nice walk as well, making the location much more enjoyable. The picture at left shows some of the buildings along my walk to work.

Now I'll get to the people. Ideally I'd like this blog to focus on the Swedish people and the Swedish culture, but as I still have stories to tell, I guess it'll have to be a mix. In my mind, it's the people that make Sweden so interesting. It's tough to say what it is exactly, but based on my first week with the Swedes, I have nothing but good things to say. To begin, they are quite diverse. Throw all of your visions of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Swede out the window. They do exist, but the only place I can consistently find the stereotypical Swede is behind the counter at McDonald's. A bit ironic that the stereotypical Swede works at the stereotypical American restaurant, don't you think? I have only lived here for a week and I do not speak a lick of Swedish, but multiple Swedes have picked me out of crowds to ask me directions. Why me? I have black hair, a dark skin tone and I dress like an American. Apparently I still look Swedish.

I do not feel tall in Sweden. I have seen women in the street look down at me. Whenever this happens I look at the woman's shoes. Is she trying to trick me or is she really that tall? Miranda tries to trick me with heels. These women are really that tall. I also feel large in Sweden. The men in Stockholm are the typically very thin. I'll need to rebuild my former runner body if I really want to look like a man from Stockholm. I don't have to deal with this at work as most men wear normal business clothes, but the people on the street, men and women, wear the world's tightest jeans. Tight to the point that men walk funny. Tight to the point that skinny thighs and calves still find ways to bulge. They really should switch to Spandex with a denim pattern. It's probably less revealing and still more comfortable.

Then there's the personalities. The Swedes are genuinely nice. Unless they're discussing work that does not involve me, they switch every conversation to English as soon as I join the group. When we go to lunch, my coworkers order in Swedish, but as soon as they sit down they turn into American businessmen, rattling off perfect English without thought or hesitation. Yeah, it's inconvenient for them, but they never seem to mind.

A couple financial guys in the office are quite intrigued by the U.S. financial world. Lucky for me, that's something I love to talk about. Everyone is interested in my view of the primaries and elections. Obama and Clinton are making waves around the world. Republicans don't make the news over here as the most right-wing Swedes have the same views as Obama. It's baffling to them that conservatives and single-issue voters even exist, or that there are even enough conservatives in America to elect a Republican president. Swedes may or may not be very religious, but it's something they keep to themselves. It is actually frowned upon to be outspoken about your faith.

I started typing this post a week ago and have since lost track of what I really wanted to say. I'm sure I'll get back to the point later. For now, I just need to get this posted.

I've already shared the pictures from the apartment (panoramic from the balcony), but I want to post them again for those of you that don't use Facebook. We'll get some pictures of the apartment posted once we've unpacked and settled in. The last picture looks down on the rocky hill that leads to the water.

Also, Miranda just got here yesterday. Our air shipment arrived later in the morning, so our place is full of boxes and suitcases. My next post will be about the joys of having a companion here. Her first post will probably be about the shitty weather. I actually hope she's had a favorable first impression, but I'll let her share that with you.

You stay classy America.

Scott's trip to Sweden

So much has happened in the last week that I'm already way behind in this blog. I guess I'll start with the basics. The movers came on Monday, February 25, and did a whirlwind tour of my apartment. They boxed up everything in sight, loaded incredibly quickly, then left and offered a repeat performance at Miranda's apartment. It took about five hours for them to completely empty our places. Pretty impressive if you ask me. It would have taken me about three days to do the same work in my apartment, and unless Miranda was really focused on packing, I don't know if she could have ever finished boxing up her apartment.

For the most part there isn't much to tell, but there is one thing worth mentioning. The movers brought two moving trucks to each of our residences. A large moving truck for all of our stuff that we were placing in storage, and a full-sized semi to haul off our air shipment to some shipping center. I had no idea that they had brought two trucks until Stu called to tell me there was a full-sized semi parked in front of our apartment building. I walked out front to see this as it seemed pretty funny for a semi to be parked in Minneapolis' tight residential streets. Not only did I find the funny sight, but I also found that the semi was double-parked beside a row of parallel parked cars. It must have been there for about forty-five minutes, or so I was told by the angry neighbors who were late for work due to their cars being blocked in. I informed the movers, they moved the truck, and as far as I know everything was fine.

Tuesday was spent packing, running some errands, cleaning, saying my goodbyes to the boys, cleaning and packing some more. Miranda and Stu came to my rescue and helped with the final steps of the cleaning process. I ended up with four bags that were way too large for one person to navigate through an airport. Now that I'm in Stockholm I realize that I should have sent two of those bags straight to storage, but oh well.

Woke up bright and early on Wednesday as Miranda took me out for breakfast before my flight. She wasn't able to drive me to the airport as I departed during the middle of her workday, but fortunately her sister Laurel was free. Upon arriving at the ticket counter I learned that my biggest bag weighed 76 pounds and any bags over 70 pounds cost $350 each. Three pair of jeans weigh six pounds, so it wasn't much to move, but I was out of room in my checked luggage, meaning those six pounds were added directly to my 70 pounds of carry-ons. Yeah, my bag and "personal item" broke the carry-on weight restrictions, but apparently the TSA and flight attendents felt sorry for the guy lugging 76 pounds on his back.


(The tiny black carry-on was repacked inside a bigger bag to create my second carry-on.)

Other than that, flights were smooth. Quick flight to Chicago, changed terminals, met a few people coming to Mora for the world-reknowned Vasaloppet, a 90 km cross country ski race with about 15,000 competitors (two Norwegian brothers took first and second this year, followed by a Swede in third), then had a seven and a half hour flight to Sweden, landing at about 7:30 in the morning on Thursday. The cabin was a little too warm, even though I was lightly dressed, and the movie selection was nothing to write home about. Luckily I had V for Vendetta on my PSP, totally awesome.

This is for Mark Schulte, if he ever reads this. The skiiers I met were from Mora, Minnesota and had a son graduate from St. Olaf in 2004. Going into this race he had the highest place finish of any American ever competing in the Vasaloppet at 73rd.

Stockholm'a Arlanda airport was a breeze to get through. After checking my passport I ducked into a bathroom to clean up, apply some deodorant and change shirts, grabbed my luggage, saw a "nothing to declare" sign, walked by an empty desk (apparently customs) and next thing I knew I was at the taxis. I doubled back, expecting a customs officer to rough me up, and even went to the information desk to ask if I needed to go through customs. They nice lady behind the desk responded "you already have, apparently they weren't interested in you." So I exchanged all of my cash for Kronor, grabbed a taxi and went straight to the office.

That's it for my story of leaving the U.S. and making the trip to Sweden. Pretty straightforward, not a lot of room for thoughts or cultural analysis. The journey really began when I got to Stockholm, but it's late here, so I'll save that for tomorrow's post.