Happy Halloween!

We woke up to fog and dreariness today, and decided to dispel the gloom with an excursion to a new part of Stockholm and a ´castle´ we had read about. Our target was Åkeshov slott. Once there, we found a lovely manor house. Unfortunately, it was closed to the public except for conferences (which were not ongoing today). We strolled the park nearby, but decided we needed a snack after the cross-town subway trip.

Although the nearby garden shop and greenhouse had a restaurant, it was completely packed. They were having an ´orchid exhibit´... So, we headed down town. And this is what we found...

A cute cafe in an old theater (now church of some sort)! Beautiful ceilings and cheap coffee, with free påtår (refill)!

Creepy artistic shot. can you picture the ghost of a Victorian lady

peeking through the doorway? ... I can...

When we got home, we carved a pumpkin and sliced another one up for soup. Of course we roasted the seeds. We´re going to try the soup in the morning. Well, after Swedish class and a trip to the store, respectively.

No trick-or-treaters here, but we did see a few kids dressed up as who knows what when we were out on our trek to the cafe.

Happy Halloween!!

A few more photos from our place

We recently moved to a suburb south of Stockholm from the summer house. I guess we´ve been here since August, but it feels like we just got here.

Here is sour path from the commuter train station into our complex of buildings.

Our neighborhood (or 'kvarter', or block, in Swedish) is named after an old warship that was captured at Narva in 1574 and sank off the coast of Sweden in 1576 (I just looked up these details. Cool!). It has lots of nautical themed decorative elements and sea-creatures abound. Here is the little dragon sea horse type guy that greets us every day when we walk through the entrance-way.

Our apartment is a "two room" apartment, meaning it has two rooms and a kitchen... Also known as a "one bedroom" apartment in the US.

Andy working (in wolf pants!)

Our cute rather big kitchen

These photos are a little old, so I´ll try to get some newer ones up here soon.

Off to museums with my bro!

Hello World!

Hi everyone! I'm taking over. This blog. Right.... now!

Stockholm City Hall today at sunset (5.06pm), today, October 28, 2010

So, we have discovered that Andy sucks at the whole blog-at-regular-intervals thing. :)

I'm going to hop in and see if I can add some posts now and then to keep the whole thing rolling. It's not that Andy isn't *allowed* to post, it's just that he usually doesn't.

What's new here, you might wonder? Well, most importantly, *of course*, is that we have our cats with us.

Adorable kitties

And, it SNOWed! On October 21, 2010. Just over an inch! Craziness.

It was beautiful in our local nature preserve, and we had a lovely walk complete with snowballs. The trees still have a lot of orange leaves, so it is an interesting contrast to see.

The "gård" that is at the center of our group of buildings

The view from our balcony / living room (out over the edge of the Rudan nature preserve)

There are lots of other fun new things, but I am just learning how to use blogger, so I'll be back.

Much love to all!

The new place

Well, last time I posted I said I had "lots of catching up to do". Now here I am, a month later, and I'm just now getting around to writing another post. I've got a lot more pictures and stuff to talk about from the summer. But, in my defense, we've been pretty busy. The biggest thing we've been up to is finding an apartment near Stockholm.

We had been hoping all along to find a place near the city to live (while still being able to go up to Dalarna to get away from it all every now and then, of course). This is helpful for AS's career, my attempts to start a business, and my Swedish studies. I hesitate to say this, since none of our Swedish friends can understand it, but I also kind of like the city. I'm not sure I'll be welcome back in Furudal after saying that, where they sell t-shirts that say: "Furudal: Tillräckligt långt från Stockholm" ("Furudal: Far enough away from Stockholm"). I'm used to living in the city, though, so I find the hustle and bustle kind of comforting, especially when I know I'll be taking frequent trips to somewhere tillräckligt långt från Stockholm.

But I think even our most Stockholm-phobic friends could appreciate this place. It's just one of those situations where everything seems to be coming together. When searching for apartments online, AS found this place that was being rented out by a woman with an African name. It turns out that she went to primary school in the same town in Uganda where AS worked in grad school. The apartment is two blocks south of the commuter rail station, where we can catch a 24-minute ride to Central Station. The only thing in between our apartment complex and the station is a small KTH (Royal Technical University) campus, which just happens to house the SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) classes that I should be starting next week. Our balcony looks out to the south east over a wooded park. To the west of our apartment complex is a beautiful, huge forested park with two small lakes and miles of trails for running and skiing. Vasaloppet, here I come!

I'll try to get some pictures up soon, but I've learned that I'll never post if I wait until I have picture upload and organized.

Happy Independence Day!

I have a lot of catching up to do, since I haven't posted anything in almost a month: AS's birthday, my parents visiting, Swedelife's family visiting, Midsommar (complete with 3 or 4 maypole ceremonies), and a July 4th party yesterday. I'm going to have to go back and update (with photos) from the past month, but for now I just don't want to get any further behind.

Yesterday we had a July 4th barbecue, which turned out nice in spite of the rain. I really wanted to do something that would be similar to what we would do back home. This means: grilling outdoors, an American flag flying, and beer. (Fireworks would also been nice, but there wasn't much we could do about that.) AS & I built a permanent grill in the yard from stones (of which there are many here!) and concrete, so we had a place to grill outside. For a flagpole, we used an old long piece of wood that used to be used for drying hay, which we clamped to an old cart. Of course, finding beer isn't a problem in Sweden (especially if you don't mind drinking beer that's only 3.5% alcohol). We needed a little bit of extra red, white and blue decoration, so we taped up some red and blue playing cards along with white pieces of paper along the porch railing. Instant Fourth of July party in Sweden!

We invited over a few of our local friends, who even stood politely while I insisted that we play the Star Spangled Banner. We also introduced some customary American games from college (involving plastic cups, beer, and ping pong balls) which were a hit and I'm sure will begin sweeping Scandinavia. The day culminated with a late night dip in the lake.

I think you're never more patriotic than when you're living in another country, so it was nice to celebrate the 4th. When you tell people that you've moved to Sweden, some people think of it as some kind of condemnation of America's policies or something. It's not. Sweden's pretty cool, but I'll always be an American, and I'll always be proud to be part of a country founded specifically on the idea of personal liberty rather than geographical location.

Happy Independence Day!

Some more milestones towards Swedish integration

We have crossed a few more milestones on our way to full integration in Swedish society. Yesterday we visited the Arbetsförmedlingen (the Swedish employment service). Besides the fact that they provide unemployment insurance and help you find jobs, it was also necessary for me to register with them to be eligible for some other services. There was a bit of wait, during which we entered our information into a computer in the lobby and looked at brochures. My favorite brochure was titled "Arbetsförmedlingen är Sveriges största arbetsförmedling" ("The Employment Service is Sweden's biggest employment service"). You don't say? While we were waiting, a guy walked in and figured out that he probably wouldn't get to talk to anybody before they closed. He just smiled and walked back out saying, "I can be unemployed for one more day."

Finally our number came up and we were invited into a small office with plexiglass windows adjoining the lobby. The lady there was very nice and seemed to genuinely be interested in helping us. We set us up for a follow-up appointment next week with a guy to help us in more detail.

I have also now received the codes, papers, cards, and secure USB card reader that are necessary not only for online banking in Sweden, but also to log in for many official government services. Many sites use the banks' card and USB card reader system as the method for digital signatures. It uses a combination of a special card (separate from your ATM/debit card), the card reader, a pin code, another code, and randomly generated numbers. It seems like a pain in the butt, but at least its secure (or seems that way to me). I have the paper from the Migrationverket (immigration service) to send to the state insurance agency as proof that I'm living here legally, and my transcript is on it's way the education agency so that they can determine the Swedish equivalent of my US education.

I'm also getting a little bit better at Swedish. It's still pretty frustrating when I want to say something complicated or have a real converstation, but it's slowly getting better. At the Arbetsförmedlingen , for example, we talked only in Swedish. I didn't say much (except reciting my personnumber), but I could understand just about everything.

Police drama in Dalarna

We had an unusual bit of excitement yesterday, involving fika, theft, and the police.

AS and I were at the local cafe after running an errand at the bank. It was a beautiful day, so we were sitting outside and enjoying our coffee. A local woman (who is known for strange behavior) sat down at the next table, and she and AS exchanged a bit of small talk about the weather. I got up and went inside to get på tår (a coffee refill, another great Swedish tradition). AS was going to wait outside until I got back, but she decided she would just run in and get her refill at the same time. Inside, we got caught up in a conversation with the two ladies working at the cafe, so instead of being inside for just 20 seconds, we were inside for about 10 minutes.

Soon after we came outside, the woman at the next table left, saying, "Have a nice evening!" We continued to sit there for another 10 minutes or so, drinking our coffee and chatting with the owner of the cafe. When we got up to leave, AS realized that her purse was gone. We rushed around, checking the bathroom and all around the table. We had just been to the bank, so not only did we have money and credit cards in there, but also our passports. AS thought to look in the trash bin, and, sure enough, there was her unzipped purse. Inside was her wallet, which was opened up with all of the cash missing. Everything else was still there.

Everybody was fairly certain that the notorious woman who had been sitting at the next table had brazenly taking AS's purse while were inside the door a few meters away, but we didn't have any proof. While one of the ladies working at the cafe called the police for us, we stepped back outside, unsure what to do next. The woman we had just talked to at the bank happened to be standing in front of the cafe. When she heard us talking, she realized that she had witnessed the crime. She had seen the woman at the table next to us going through a black purse and then tossing it in the trash can, but she had just assumed that was switching out her old purse for a new one.

The lady from the cafe was still on the phone with the police, so we relayed this new information. It still didn't sound like that the police would show up any time soon, and in fact the police seemed to be suggesting that we go confront the suspect ourselves, which seemed like a bad idea for many reasons. But, by the end of the phone call, it sounded like the police were actually going to show up.

The chances were slim that there was a police car anywhere nearby, and the police are notorious for showing up days later to investigate crimes, so we didn't expect them to come anytime soon. We left on our bicycles to go meet a friend, but when we went to the beach he was out on the lake. We decided to go back to town to ask the cashier at the convenience store if the woman had been in there spending AS's money. I was grumbling for the whole bike ride about how stupid the system was and how the police were going to be no help.

When we got back to town, the police were already there outside the cafe talking to the owner, much to our surprise. We went up to them, and one of the police officers asked AS a few more questions, including the phone number of the witness and the amount and denominations of the bills that were taken from her wallet. The police officers called their chief for permission to search the house of the suspect (who was a "known person" to the police already) for the missing money. The chief immediately gave them permission and they headed off to the house.

We were impressed that the police had shown up right away and seemed to have a good handle on the situation, but we still didn't expect much to come of it. After all, the woman could just say she didn't do it, and it would be a difficult thing to prove in court if she wanted to be obstinate. We started biking home and saw the police outside the thief's house on our way. Before we got home, AS's cell phone started ringing. It was one of the cops, saying, "We have some money for you." The cops drove down the road to meet us. The cop explained that they had gotten a confession from the woman, then reached in his pocket, pulled out the stolen money, and gave it to AS. We didn't even have to fill out any paperwork.

So, to sum it up, AS was robbed, the police came, they went to the house, got a confession, and AS got her money back within an hour and a half. Pretty crazy. I must say I was pretty impressed with the police.