"Picture Perfect"

When someone moves to another country especially from the US to Europe and we imagine their life, it is perfect, charming and like a story book. No problems exist in the lands far away and those who have moved there enjoy eating the country's delicious specialties every day, have a local pastry and (coffee/tea, local preference) every day at a sweet café on a cobblestone street and of course meet the local elderly who, with a twinkle in their eyes, give our expat friend the secret to a happy life...  Part of what feeds this belief is when our friend posts pictures of how *perfect* their new foreign life is.

That being said, I have randomly grabbed (carefully selected) some totally random photos (only the best) that I've taken here in the past 8 whimsical months. I'll let you decide if you want to believe that these photos are a true representation of everyday life here. I never said it wasn't!

Summer

Let's start off with Björn, the cutest kitten in the North. Actually, all cats in Sweden are this adorable, duh!

 Midsummer!

 

Can you spot the foreigner?

 

A teeny tiny square

 

 If the whole world treated their mailboxes this way...

One of us is tired after lots of dancing around the may pole.

When volunteering for the Swimming competition, they housed me in my own cottage in the middle of the forest (sort of)... So I walked 20 minutes through this every morning for 2 weeks.

Kent, a big Swedish band, was doing an outdoor concert in town (on the other side of this canal). We happened to be walking by before it would start. Naturally we sat by the water listening to the whole concert!

Then one day we took a visit to Brännö, one of the car-less residential islands in Gothenburg's archipelago.

 Took forever to find this, Café Husfik. No employees to be seen.

 But there was a cat shaved like a lion!

The ferry ride home...

That reminds me, did I mention I take a boat to school every day? Just 5 minutes across a canal, nothing like these pictures. But I'll have to get a picture of that too when the weather improves!

Fall

In the fall you have to find other things to do like...

Visit an aquarium!

Go to an amateur race!

Go to costume parties! Can you guess what the theme was??

The theme was British. (It wasn't Halloween). Most of the Swedes dressed up similar to Christoffer, while I went all-out--like you're supposed to at a costume party--as Vicky Pollard.

 Look at & take pictures of Göteborgs Hjulet. Maybe someday we'll be able to scrape together the cash to ride in it.

Enjoy Swedish wildlife just a 5-minute walk from home! These penguins are soo cute and the fastest swimmers I've ever seen!

Elk? Moose? Reindeer? Something Nordic that doesn't add an "s" to make it plural...

Fireworks for Liseberg (amusement park and magical world), closing night of the Summer season!

The professional, making "pancakes" or what I would call more like crepes.

If they were pancakes could I have achieved this with them?
Dinner                                                               Dessert

PS. The black oil-looking substance was my first balsamic vinegar glaze, ok? It was delicious.

View of something famous on the Göta Canal and view from the apartment.
 
 I am not much of a sea-farer so I don't completely understand what that Eriksberg thing is.

Winter

 The Haga Christmas Market with a parade.
 

Adorable little kids  figure skating at a park for the public.

Speaking of being a creep taking pictures of kids I don't know, here's a Swedish Lucia celebration on Dec. 13 from the Italian St. Lucia. The kids sing and one girl gets crowned Lucia with a wreath and candles and the boys are "stars"or something like that... I hope I got all that right!

Yes, I do feel the need to post a picture of my Advent calendar. I love these!

 Winter Wonderland - first view of Sweden when I got back after Christmas.

 Thanks for the warning!

 I got stuck in the snow

 My busstop got stuck in the snow

A traditional Swedish pastry called a Semla that they eat in Jan-Feb but there is one special day in February I think you're supposed to eat it. I had one on my birthday.

 Spotlight on Christoffer tearing it up on the ice rink.

Me tearing up my muscles on the ice rink (and practicing weaving through those cones)

 Christoffer turned the unsuspecting me Swedish.

 And there you have it! My perfect, charmed European life. I will share pictures of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's some other time.

"New" Title Photo in Celebration of a "New" Residence Permit

I know what you're thinking, I'm such a friggin' copy cat!! But I took a picture and edited it to be quite similar to the really awesome one I swiped somewhere online. (A reminder of the old, stolen pic). At least now this work of art is one of "my own." I feel soo uncreative for this. At least my version has a wintry touch and communicates the atmosphere of the whole city these days!

This blog is coming back to life! I found my camera's card reader (in my sock drawer) a couple months ago and tried many times with no results to upload an awesome video from Christmas. Coming up are some long-overdue photos about what the heck I'm up to!

FINALLY!
OH and it's not a big deal or anything, but after 8 months consisting of.... 1 case worker who had 8 weeks summer vacation, another case worker who, I recently found out she'll be back at work on July 7, my THIRD (or maybe millionth) case worker dusted off my case when I called him during the *1* hour a week he has "phone hours" (he also doesn't even have voicemail). He told me there was no reason I wouldn't get a living permit, it was just a matter of approving it (aka putting a stamp in ink and stamping??). He'd do it for me the following week since 8 months was quite ridiculous especially for an obviously-allowed-to-live-here-no-matter-what case. Then he was sick. Of course I couldn't reach him nor another human being that works at that office (when there are "too many" people calling, aka always, the customer service just tells you to call back another time, no queue option). So I guessed on the spelling of his name, sent an e-mail to 2 spelling variations of first.last@ridiculousgovernmententity.se, and within a couple hours got a response!  Ridiculous that these people are so hard to get a hold of unless you take stalker measures. (For the record, this guy was nice, competent, and helpful, unlike 80% of employees I have managed to encounter who work at this organization).

LONG (and WHINY) story short, I was approved yesterday to live here until 2013 if I want to. Whooop Whooop!!! I can do so many things now. For one, apply for some $$ reward for learning Swedish. Let the fun begin!

Here's another nice video of Göteborg! It's an ad for the energy company here and a musician from here (Timo Räisänen) singing sort of a love song to the city. The song's title Aldrig Långt Bort means "Never far away." He's saying "Even if I leave you now.... I'm never far away from you, Göteborg." Isn't that so sweet?



So, at 0:25 that is one of the streets right by my apartment, and the dome in the background is the Museum of Natural History that is nearby. (Sounds a LOT cooler than it actually is, trust me!) Next shot is of the boat going across the canal that I take to school though not a very good view and in a different part of the canal. View after that of all the trees is at the square not far from my apartment.

Ah, I just found another good video if you are REALLY interested in seeing footage of where I live.



At 0:20 (also the view before you press play) is the view from Christoffer's office in the Lipstick Building. PS Apparently this video was someone's school project.

LOTS of pictures coming up in the next post!!