"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!!

Streets and Vocab

Organized Chaos: I think Christine used that term several years ago... If you looked at my room, it would look like a huge pigpen. But what you don't see is that there is actually a place for everything and a thing for every place... Ask me to find something in that pigpen and I'll show it to you in the blink of an eye. Yes, that (insert thing) is supposed to be on/in/all over that (insert place), that's where it belongs. BUT what happens when this perfect balance gets messed up? I can't find my camera's card reader!!! I don't know where it could be, because it's not in the neat box of "electronic stuff." And if it's not there, it could be ANYWHERE. Or nowhere.

So sadly I can't share my Thanksgiving pictures! They are stuck on my camera!!! I'll keep searching though... But I've been wanting to share some funny street/bus stop/tram stop names in Gothenburg. Actually I think they are all stops on a bus or tram line, otherwise I wouldn't have remembered/been able to find them. You might think I'm living in some sort of story book world with some of these names... Translated to English, of course. Some of them aren't that funny (or at all?) in Swedish but just translate funny.

Positive Street (one of my faves. I always wonder if they mean in a scientific or a psychological sense)
Music Way (in the same area as Piano Street and Radio Street, no joke)
Vegetable Square (another favorite and the first one that made me laugh when I first moved here)
Prince Street
Medical Specialist Street/Medical Student Street?? (Doesn't sound that weird but looked it up anyway)
Seminar Street
Temperature Street
Wave Master Street
The Fescue
Paradise Street
Ship's Bridge (I think it sounds cool in Swedish)
Furniture Street
Rainbow Street (a new favorite! I get off here for Swedish classes!)
Sunbeam Street

I live right by Olive Valley's Street, which I think is cool. Especially because I LOVE olives, olive oil, anything made with either of the two. And the grocery store right below the apartment is called "The Olive."

While looking some of these up just now I found some new ones! Jewelry Street, Wishful Weather Street (we need that here), Virgin's Square, and Giant Stone's School (sounds like caveman education).

Yes, these are streets I often pass by and I actually have to take the voice recording seriously when she calls out the next stop. But it probably isn't as funny to the Swedes. Not just street names, a lot of Swedish words are funny too. To me it sounds a bit like how the Native Americans spoke back when (you know, the "Chief Big Bear lives on Big Rock by Blue Waters..." kind of stuff in the probably censored stories and books we read as kids) because a lot of bigger words are formed with really simple small words, more obviously than we see in English. Not to mention, the first name "Björn" is the same as the word for bear. Would that fly in English? I think maybe the language has been preserved well?... And yeah we could dissect English words from their roots and find funny/primitive translations too, maybe if you know Latin...

Yay for the Swedish Language and I hope you liked the little Anglofied window into the city!

Comparing Bios

Bio is short for biograf, which is the Swedish word for cinema.  So far I've been to the Swedish bio 3 times. (That doesn't count Haga Bion, my favorite, which always shows international movies including lots of French ones!!!) Anyway I've figured out a list of ways that Swedish and American cinemas are different AKA things I think are better in my home cinemas. (Sorry Swedes! Let me be ethnocentric, I'm a tad homesick!!)

The following list compares 2 different big and nice Swedish movie theaters I've been to 3 times (but not Hagabion!) to, say, the Warrens in Wichita, and even North Rock.

1. The talking norms- I noticed this one the second I set foot in the theater in Växjö last summer. You walk in to find your (reserved--one pro of the theaters here) seat before the movie and feel like you're walking into a high school cafeteria. Apparently it's totally fine in Sweden to have loud conversations before the movie starts (even during the previews). You can pick out the most interesting conversation in the theater and listen to it, since they are all equally audible. Last night's highlight was the people behind us very obviously making fun of the people in front of us. Magically, the people in front of us didn't notice because they were talking and surfing on their phone.

Then, finally after the previews, when the lights finally turn off (see #2) and the opening credits are rolling, most people start to shut up. I really missed the "message" from Warren or Dickinson theaters telling us we still have time to get popcorn and drinks, to turn off the cellphones and to be quiet. This is probably just me but I swear that people have been laughing much more loudly at movies here than at home. Or maybe the movies I saw here were funnier? (Sidenote: A funny thing I've noticed going to see subtitled movies is that you can tell apart who's reading and who's listening... the subtitle readers always laugh after the non-subtitle-readers... It's funny because it sounds like a delayed reaction... I catch myself doing it at the movies at Hagabion too).


2. The lights- The lights, err... spot lights, are shining on you until the second before the  movie starts. I miss going in to the dark theater and enjoying the previews in peace and...darkness.

3. The seating set-up- So maybe this is just these theaters and I'm sure there are other theaters in the states like this too. But I felt like I was in a very crowded stadium. In Wichita theaters, the floor is either inclined, giving everyone plenty of foot room under the seat in front of them, or there are 6-inch high steps that are long for plenty of foot room. In the theater here, each row (I'm not complaining or anything but last night's theater had all of 8 rows) is on its own tall and steep step.  So tall and steep that if you try to stretch out your cramped leg, you might just kick the person in front of you in the head.

To be fair, that last one has an up-side, in that there's no way your view can be blocked by someone's huge head, so that's nice! Especially if you're all the way back in row 8, far away from the screen.


Those are my rants for today... I think America gets enough shit to justify this list! I should add that the 3 movies I've watched at these theaters (The Hangover, Inception, and most recently The Social Network) have been enjoyable, so I guess the theater didn't ruin the experience! And speaking of America, I'll post pictures of my successful Thanksgiving dinner next time!

Miss you all, even you Mr. Bill Warren!

Remembering the Long Days

I promised to show some of you my pics from Iceland. (The cheapest one-way plane ticket from KC to Europe happened to be to Iceland. Then 4 days later I took a separate flight--that only allowed ONE suitcase--to Copenhagen.) I was there for the Summer Solstice, and now as we approach the Winter Solstice and the sky turns a deep midnight blue at 4:30pm, it's time to share (and reminisce)...

As we descended onto Iceland, I pretended this little chunk of land was the whole island (more exciting that way). Really it's just a small peninsula but hey, it works! Coming from Kansas, I had this weird sense of claustrophobia knowing I was on a somewhat small island, for most of the trip.

 Landed at 11:30pm. Not quite the Midnight Sun, but a couple hours later it was still/again light out.

 The next day was their National Day! I must admit I missed the festivities though, since we had gone out and experienced Reykjavik's bizarre nightlife the night before..

These are my LOVELY Couch Surfing hosts, Julien and Claudia. French and Italian, respectively. The airport bus driver drove me right up to their doorstep (instead of the bus stop, a 20-minute walk away- what a nice guy!). I felt guilty that Claudia was waiting up for me at 1am on a weeknight, until she asked me if I wanted to go out... So we went to some very hip bars and met a bunch of Claudia's friends.

I got  no pictures of said nightlife, but maybe this will paint one for you. Between the hours of 1am and 7am at your average, everyday Reykjavik bar: Guys wearing full-out suits, pushing and shoving like nobody's business, very interesting outfits, fun music, breaking beer bottles and glasses all over the place but it's so normal that nobody even looks up...

Oh, Scandinavian buildings!

The continental rift! The picture-perfect, "no-man's land" paradise between the North American and European plates.

 Me at the rift! Luckily there was a Bostonian also traveling solo, on his way back to the US. We awkwardly took pictures of each other at all the stops of our tour that day. What a bond we shared!

 Just a neat picture.

"Gullfoss" was quite amazing!!

 I hate to say it Dad, but Geysir is a little more entertaining than Old Faithful because it goes off every 5-ish minutes.

Giving several opportunities to time it just right to get these shots:

Those two pictures and their medium-low quality make me miss my good 'ole digital Canon Rebel. This is a shout out to the dirty camera thief,  possibly AKA my loser hostel roommate... If you are reading this, I hope you are enjoying MY camera. Or the measly couple hundred (dirty) bucks you sold it for. I'm sorry that your dad didn't get you your own of those for your 18th-birthday-Christmas-2005-high-school-graduation-Christmas-2006-and-19th-birthday gift. I guess you needed it more than I. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of me and my friends in Copenhagen, Göteborg, Malmö, and Paris that you also STOLE. I don't need the pictures of Göteborg anymore anyway. Just enjoy the pictures and never come here, please!

Back on track, here is the infamous Iceland volcano Kifoea;dsfjkanjdh!!!

JUST KIDDING! Not sure that pic has any significance. Did you fall for it?

 One of the many sweet kitties running loose in the city! These cats all (mostly?) have owners, but they just use the whole city as their back yard. They're mostly friendly and sweet! (PS. This picture was taken in the dead of the night. Isn't that so cool?!)

 Blue Lagoon, the must-visit spa-type place. It was extremely relaxing, and right on the way to the airport. I didn't hang out with anyone though so if I go again I will make sure it's with someone else and we can make the most of the swim-up bar.

A lot of that region just looks like this:

Remember the one suitcase rule? There was also a 44lb limit, INCLUDING carry-on. So, I got 2 regular bras, a couple sports bras (to flatten it out, making room for the rest you know), then over 20 shirts and ranked them strategically from tightest to loosest, and topped it off with a triple-jacket-combo and 2 scarves. Margo had already helped me practice the drill while packing...

I went in the bathroom at the Keflavik airport to put on my outfit. When it got too hot and stuffy in the stall, I went out in the open so as not to faint. Then I noticed a security camera. That put me on-edge until take-off, because it must have looked really suspicious. The funniest part of all is that they hand-patted me at security. They felt all my extra inches of fabric rolls and saw how over-stuffed but somehow boobless I was, and didn't even get suspicious.

Here are a couple shots half-way through my dressing. You can see I've already put on a few pounds in the first picture...

 Look at all those straps!! My face = relaxed from the Blue Lagoon.

The whole experience was probably dangerous to my health, but I took all those layers off right after security. Almost seemed like a waste, but it gave me something to laugh to myself about!