Cool Elevators in Stockholm

Ode to the Elevator in my Stockholm Apartment Building...

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/12/07/charming-elevators-in-19th-century-stockholm-buildings/#disqus_thread

The doors to the elevator in my building...

 

Stockholm Supper Club

Cool Thanksgiving dinner with the Secret Supper Club in Stockholm...

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2642

Photo by: Jakob Fridholm/imagebank.sweden.se

Come Along On My Walk to Work in Stockholm

Walk to Work With Me in Stockholm...lots of pics!

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2611

One is for cyclists and one is for pedestrians...but which is which?

My Year in Sweden

Check out my latest post over at Sweden.se...

15 Impressions After Living Nearly One Year in Sweden

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2395

"Rabbit" enjoys a Fall Day in a Stockholm park.

Every Dog Gets its Day in Stockholm

On a cold October day, Rabbit and I strolled over to check out "All Dogs Day" at the mall.
Read more here: http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/10/21/all-dogs-day-at-the-mall/

Rock & Roll in Sweden

See my Expat in Sweden Blog...Rock & Roll in Sweden. No, not really...this is an ode to the Stockholm landscape...glacial rock and the archipelago... 

blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2304

Photo by K.Lund

How to Keep a Californian Dog Warm in Stockholm

I just published on Sweden.se..."Shopping for a Winter Jacket" or  "how to keep a Californian dog warm in Stockholm")  http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/09/23/shopping-for-a-winter-jacket/

You should see the one I returned! (Check out the photo at the link above.)

“Winter is Coming” to Sweden

Stockholm City Hall. Photo by: Anna Andersson/imagebank.sweden.se

Please read my recent post "Autumn in Stockholm...“Winter is Coming”" over at Sweden.se

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2177

A Vital Tip for Expats Invited to a Crayfish Party

I just posted "A Vital Tip for Expats Invited to a Crayfish Party" on the Sweden.se Expat blog...Check out what you need to know!

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/09/12/a-vital-tip-for-expats-invited-to-a-crayfish-party/

Crayfish. Photo by Cecilia Larsson/imagebank.sweden.se

A New Voice Joins Sweden.se's Expat Blog

Please read my newest post A New Voice Joins the Expat Blog

at: http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/09/10/a-new-voice-joins-the-expat-blog/

Riddarholmen, Stockholm. Photo by Ildikó Lukács/imagebank.sweden.se

Switching Venues For Awhile

Dear readers,

I wrote a blog for 6 months for the Swedish government about what it was like to come to Sweden for work. Now I have been offered the opportunity to blog for them about being an expat. This basically covers what I write about here on my private blog. (There are a few exceptions...things I can't write about for them that I can write about here but we will see...).For now, please switch to reading my posts at Sweden.se.

Read the expat blog at http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/.

You can subscribe to it at http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/feed.

I expect to return to blogging here when the Sweden.se blog is finished so please don't cancel your subscription here. For those of you who find it more convenient, I will also  post links to the Sweden.se posts whenever they are published.

Thanks for being such loyal and interested readers! 

- Kristin Lund

Sweden's Reputation: Blame it on the Ads...

Sweden has a reputation of its people being more comfortable with open sexuality and sex in general. I can't really say one way or the other. I've noticed that Swedish parents seem more comfortable with their teenagers' sex lives. But I haven't seen any streakers in the streets of Stockholm. I haven't seen any acquaintances naked...But I have marked that they do show a lot of things on TV that, for example, the US shies away from. And the TV commercials show a lot more. And the ads in other places.

Here's a (sorry, blurry!) picture of an ad displayed in a Stockholm subway train.It says:

"Isn't this the world's most beautiful place to have sex?"

It's an ad promoting Stockholm County Council's drive for sexuality and health.

This is a picture of an ad on a Stockholm subway car. Those are tents and the sign says, "Isn't this the world's most beautiful place to have sex?" It's an ad promoting condom use.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to be so open. But I'm so unused to it. In the subway! With little kids eating ice cream right next to me.

So, at the end of the day, Sweden shouldn't be mystified about its reputation since the ads keep the idea alive. It's like those silly postcards with the polar bear superimposed onto a picture of Stockholm. It keeps the misunderstanding going. Then Swedes say how crazy it is that people think polar bears roam the streets here...

The Light and the Dark in Sweden

You hear a lot about lightness and darkness in Sweden.

The Dark Side
Swedes grumble about the 18 hours or so of darkness in the heart of winter. I moved to Sweden last November, arriving at the month many Swedes hate the most because Autumn has definitely gone and the December holidays with all their candles and celebrations have not yet arrived.

But you know what? I actually liked the darkness last winter. It seems almost heretical to say it. I marveled that I couldn't even see people's faces when I hurried past on the way to the commuter train in Stockholm. I liked the way you could slip through the shadows. I liked the dark even before I moved to Sweden so I figured that I was strange and also that I was new to the Swedish darkness. I figured the novelty would wear off and I would feel depressed like many Swedes come wintertime.

Only time will tell.

“Early morning Lucia procession in Gustav Vasa church in Stockholm. Lucia is an ancient mythical figure with an abiding role as a bearer of light in the dark Swedish winters.” Photo by: Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.se

The Light Side
Now, as we just passed Midsummer, the days are as long as they can be. The sun sets around 10:30pm (but it's still light for quite awhile) and rises at 3:30AM. And you know what? I think it's kind of a pain! It's hard to get a room to be reasonably dark (this said by a person without an unlimited budget nor or even much control over the window coverings in my shared apartment). It kind of wears on a person. You feel like you should be doing something because it's light out.

I thought this, too, was heretical thinking in Sweden. I thought you were supposed to LOVE the 18 or 19 ours of light because you were sort of "banking" it for the dark months. But yesterday, two card-carrying swedes where I work said they felt the same way. They both thought that August was a good time to take some vacation because it is still light but the sun goes down at 9pm or so and rises later. This, they thought, was a happy medium between the two extremes of having nearly no light at all or too much light.

Maybe I'm not such a heretic, after all.

“Midsummer is one of Sweden’s most beloved holidays and ever since pagan times Swedes have celebrated the longest day of the year, around the time of the summer solstice.” Photo by Lena Granefelt/imagebank.sweden.se

Speed
A final note about the dark and the light. I was surprised at how quickly things change in Sweden. What I mean is that the transition between the short days to the short nights seems very fast to me--as though it took a week or so. Boom! Suddenly it was light nearly the whole night.

I expect the switch back might be as quick in the Fall.

...Wonder if I'll complain about it. :)

Signs of Confusion, Part 4

So, here it is...my last post in this series on odd signs (or controls) that I fail to understand in my new life in Sweden. I mentioned the strange controls on my oven earlier. Well, I am also confused by the microwave controls.

I can appreciate, by the way, that they skip having to use written words and in that way people who don't understand the language can still use the device but for me, it would be better to use words. Words, I could look up. But what am I supposed to do with picto-grams or whatever these are?

There are lots of things you can't do on a ladder...

 

...especially if the ladder is in Sweden, apparently....

 It's a good thing we managed to raise that tent for the Studenten party last week even though we used this ladder. I, myself, climbed this ladder many times and I probably was in violation of most of these "no-no's." Wait, though, I never had one foot on a chimney so that's good...

The Studenten Party

I wrote a previous post about getting ready for my friend's son's Studenten. Gabriel is 19 and just graduated from gymnasium. Nineteen is the average age for finishing the Swedish equivalent of American high school. Except that gymnasium is more specialized in Sweden and students go to a school that specializes in an area the student wants to study, such as computer science or art or English.

We had some crazy weather last week including the coldest June 2nd in 84 years of Swedish weather. But the gods were good and there was no rain last Tuesday, despite the fact that there was a "70% chance" according to Weather Underground.

Gabriel's class came out of graduation which only the students attend at 1:30pm. The families stood outside the building, most waving signs with large pictures of the graduate as a little kid. I know that part of the reason for the signs (which are seen at every school's graduation) is so that the graduate can find his/her family in the crowd but also maybe there is a "awww, cute!" part and a "let's embarrass them" part as well.

Another tradition is that the graduate wears all sorts of revelry around their neck, sort of like Mardi Gras. You can buy all sorts of "necklaces" in many stores at this time of year. The "necklaces" are small stuffed animals, plastic medals, figurines, balloons, candies, and more. Many graduates also ended up with small bouquets hanging from ribbons around their neck.

We expected approximately 80 guests and were not disappointed. My friends live next to the woods and unfortunately Tuesday was the first day I have seen the infamous Swedish mosquitoes this year. They suddenly appeared in droves--I suppose because there were all those victims. Anyway, the use of mosquito spray helped tremendously.

The food was wonderful and all made by hand--no caterers involved. We did have two women washing dishes for several hours which was invaluable because there were very few paper plates, plastic ware, etc. Swedes don't seem to use much of those, at least not at the parties I have been to. I worked my buns off running up and down the stairs, clearing places, restocking. It was really fun and I was glad to be able to do something for my friends after they let me stay so long with them when I first arrived in Sweden seven months ago.

The tables all set to go inside the tent (which was in case of rain). Beautiful!

The party was a huge success. Most people left by midnight but there was a small group that stayed and danced till around 3AM. I was able to see the sun come up at approximately 3:30AM. I am definitely going to have to blog about how light it is all the time at this time of year!

Getting Ready for "Studenten"

"Studenten" is the word used in Sweden for the activities around graduation from high school. There are lots of parties and traditions.

One of the biggest traditions seems to be alcohol-soaked graduates riding through the streets on the back of a truck. Think of migrant workers going to the fields, standing in the back if an open top truck with sides. Only these are privileged kids, whooping and hollering.

I saw my first truckloads of kids last Thursday and Friday in Stockholm. It's suddenly very cold and rainy in Stockholm. The rain isn't so awful but it's really cold! As the trucks rolled past, I was glad not to be freezing my parts off in one of them.

Students in Stockholm, 2010. The sign says "Today blind drunk, tomorrow jobless." Photo by Holger Ellgaard (CC BY 3.0)

My friend, Helen's middle son will celebrate his studenten on Tuesday. Helen and her husband have built a new deck for the party (but also because they have always wanted a deck. This weekend I helped work on the deck and  on raising the tent they will have over it. As I mentioned, it's been unseasonably cold the last few days. The Local reported that "Stockholm broke an 84-year-old cold record on Saturday, [June 2] as the capital's temperature only reached 6 degrees Celsius, the lowest June maximum daily temperature the city has seen since 1928." I was standing in the rain and I thought my fingers were going to fall off, my hands were so cold.

On Sunday, it rained for three minutes every five minutes but at least it was much warmer. Here's a picture of the not-quite-finished deck and the tent which is also not fully up in this photo (for example, one wall of the tent is covering the railing).

On Tuesday, I will watch Helen's son and his whooping classmates come streaming out of the graduation ceremony (which only the students attend, no family--very different than in the US!), then they will do the whole truck party thing, then host the party at is home. Stay tuned for my report on all that...

Signs of Confusion, Part 3

More signs of confusion in Stockholm, Sweden...I can't help but share the laughs I enjoyed while examining the new first aid kits they purchased and mounted on the wall at work.

#1 Check out the spurting bloody ankle in the pink pictures. Ewwww!

#2 Why is the man lying on his side in the yellow pictures? Is he sleepy? Is he going to throw up? Is he drunk? Why is his hand to his mouth?

#3 Now the man (still in the yellow) has a comfy blanket. His hand is still to his mouth. The nice man in the Mr. Rodgers sweater should not give him any more beer to drink at this time.

These Swedes and their first aid kits are a laugh riot...

Signs of Confusion, Part 1

Well, I've lived in Sweden now for just over six months and I have to admit...I'm still mystified by the signs. I'll tackle the street signs in another post and for now I'll just cover the confusing pictorial directions on kitchen equipment, elevators, and, of all things, first aid kits.

Here's my all-time favorite sign. It's on the elevator of the building I recently moved to.

Is this not fantastic? I ask you. For the non-Swedish readers, the sign says that there is a "warning about the risk of getting pinned (or squeezed or jammed...depending on how you translate it)." Then it says that it is dangerous to transport things in elevators that do not have an inner door. There are lots of old elevators like that in Sweden. (In other words, there is an outer door but once you're in the lift, you could touch the outer doors on each floor as you move past them--from inside the elevator.)

What part do I not understand? Well, I guess it's just how poor "Kläm" manages to get pinned by the head to the ceiling of the elevator.

I mentioned loving this sign to my friend and she informed me that there is a Facebook group for lovers of "Kläm who gets stuck in the elevator." There are pictures of more versions of this sign on the Facebook page.

Awesome, Ted!

Tune in for my next post on signs I don't understand in Sweden.

Loaner Bikes in Stockholm

You can borrow a CityBike for 3 hours in Stockholm as long as you have a loaner card. Photo courtesy of

http://www.citybikes.se/

I wrote about my borrowed "Old Lady" bike awhile back in my blog for Sweden.se. You can read that post here. Now that I am trying to move to Stockholm from Uppsala, I have taken more notice of a system for borrowing bikes in Central Stockholm. I did a little research and found out the bikes belong to Stockholm City Bikes. The bikes are a partnership between an advertising company called, Clear Channel and the City of Stockholm. The project is funded by advertising so it doesn't cost the city of Stockholm anything. 

Right now all the bikes seem to be advertising Svenska Dagbladet whose common abbreviation is SvD. Svenska Dagbladet is published in Stockholm and covers national and international news as well as local  Stockholm news. Its subscribers are concentrated in the capital, but it is distributed in most of Sweden.

According to the CityBikes, The plan is for there to be more than 2500 rental bikes, spread over 200 stations throughout Stockholm. To use the bikes, you have to buy either a April -October subscription card for 250 SEK  (approx. $34.91) or a 3-day card for a little more than half that. 

It's a nifty idea and maybe I'll get a card although it's best to have done that back in April since it's the same price.

Here's how it works:

1. You buy a bike card and take it to any of the Stockholm City Bike stands (there's all kinds of maps that show where the bike stands are located via a PDF or online). 
2. You scan your card in the reader at a particular bike stand. You are allocated a bike and you  take the bike from the allocated slot. 
3. If you don't take the bike within 30 seconds, then it is locked again for security reasons. 
4. You are only supposed to have the bike for less than 3 hours. Return the bike at any Stockholm City Bike stand. Place the bike in an empty slot where the lock has a green light. Wait until the light turns red and ensure that the bike is firmly locked.  
5. If you return your bike late you get a penalty point on your card. After three demerits, or if you keep the bike for longer than 5 hours, your card is blocked. 

Interestingly, the section of the City Bikes website that says it is about the bikes & helmets says nothing about helmets. But I read at one of the stands that there is some sort of deal where when you buy the card, you can buy a helmet from them for very cheap. Of course, I read that in Swedish so perhaps I misunderstood. The website does says that the bikes are repaired regularly and are replaced when necessary.The specially designed bikes are meant to be used in a city environment and are equipped with both foot and handbrakes and all have three gears. 

Kinda cool. Maybe I'll check it out! 

Anybody out there use this service or one like it?

One of the bike stands near where I work...

Here's a close-up of the locking mechanism. They don't want you using your own lock...rather you are supposed to find one of these stands, even if you are going to come back and use the bike again shortly.