A Chat with "Re-pat" Kate

My latest post...Interesting to hear from all other expats...even those who are now, er, "re-pats."
http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/12/19/a-christmas-treat-interview-with-repat-kate/

Kate works in Washington D.C. at the Swedish Embassy… a chance to continue her relationship with Sweden. Photo: Kate Reuterswärd

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

Santas Compete in Northern Sweden

Getting ready for Jul...Santas fly to Lapland to win the title "Santa of the Year..."

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/11/22/santa-of-the-year/

Photo by: Minna Ridderstolpe/imagebank.sweden.se

The Swedish Word "Jantelagen"

Find out what "Jantelagen" means...

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/11/18/jantelagen-means-humility-and-restraint/

Jantelagen discourages standing out from the crowd. Photo by: Carolina Romare/imagebank.sweden.se

Lagom--a Distinctly Swedish Word

Latest post...the meaning of "Lagom"...

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/11/15/lagom-means-everything-in-moderation/

This moose probably knows what “lagom” means. Photo by: Maria Emitslöf/imagebank.sweden.se

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/

Adventures in Swedish Banking: The Card Reader

New post...

"My Two Cents About Personal Banking in Sweden"

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/10/17/my-two-cents-about-personal-banking-in-sweden/

My bank issued me this card reader. I found it quite complicated in the beginning to use!

The Swedish Radio & TV License Fee

Family watching TV in 1958. This image is in the Public Domain.

Check out my blog post over at Sweden.se...It costs Swedish citizens approx. $311 per year for a mandatory Radio & TV License... 
http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2348

Germaine Greer...Almost!

I'm still blogging over at Sweden.se.

Check out my latest post "Famous Icon Lectures at SFI and I Was There…Almost"

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2325

The entrance to the Swedish Film Institute. Photo by K.Lund

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

Busting Yoga Moves...in Sweden

Find out what it's like to take a yoga class...in Swedish!

Check out my blog over at the Swedish Institute's blog site.

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/10/05/yoga-swedish-style/

Yoga Swedish-style. Photo by K.Lund

Rabbit the Dog Rides the Swedish Rails

Check out my adventure taking the train to Göteborg with my dog, Rabbit. It's posted over on the Expat blog at Sweden.se

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2281

Rabbit gets tired of sleeping on the carpeted train floor. Yup, that's my Kindle in the shot...

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Bergman

Latest expat blog post:
Lights! Camera! Action! I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Bergman.
http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2261

A Bolex movie camera Bolex movie camera. Photo by Glen Edelson (CC BY 2.0)

Different Tastes in Different Countries

New post to my Expat in Sweden Blog "Eating Foreign Food in Sweden" 
http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/?p=2228

Swedish Women's Soccer Gets a Boost

A little over a month ago, I wrote on this blog about my undying passion for Women’s Soccer. More specifically, I was discouraged by the challenges of watching the Olympic women’s soccer matches on TV in Sweden—especially when it wasn’t necessarily the Swedish team playing. I love watching the US women play and they did, in case you missed it, win 2012 Olympic gold.

Pia Sundhage

I also mentioned how wonderful the US Women’s National Team (USWNT) coach, Pia Sundhage is. I admire her enthusiasm, her soccer knowledge, her fun and calm attitude and of course, her winning record with the US team. To quote Sports Illustrated, "In just under five years with the U.S., Sundhage compiled an 89-6-10 record, winning two Olympic gold medals and finishing second at the 2011 World Cup."

Pia Sundhage, as I mentioned in my last post, is Swedish.

And now…

She’s just announced that she is stepping down as coach of the USWNT and moving back to Sweden to become the head of the Swedish National team.

Whahooo! This is great news. I am not the hugest fan of how the Swedish national team currently plays and I think Pia will bring great energy and new ways for the team to come together and play great soccer. (Note: Nice slide show of Pia on the Swedish page linked above. It's written in Swedish but just click the small blue box nearly half way down that says "Visa bildspel.")

Marta

Marta Vieira da Silva (known simply by her first name like all the Brazilian greats), who many say is the best female player in the world, comes from Brazil. She played in the professional league in the US and I saw her play many times for my home team, FC Gold Pride in the Bay Area. (now defunct league…don’t ask…painful subject). Marta previously played professionally for Umeå in northern Sweden. Why am I writing about Marta? Well because Marta also decided to move back to Sweden a few months ago and she signed with Tyresö FF here in Stockholm.

Awesome, Ted! (What? You never watched “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”?)

Two last points...

* Please don’t fail to notice that I am a trailblazer…both these women made their decisions after I moved from the US to Sweden.  (lol)

* Birthdays (I'm just saying...)

• Pia Sundhage: February 13
• Marta: February 19
• Kristin Lund: February 21

The Viking Gift That Keeps On Giving

These are Swedish scientists at Chalmers in Göteborg. You'll have to imagine British ones. Photo by: Jan-Olof Yxell/imagebank.sweden.se

Have you heard about the Viking artifact they found in Britain many years ago?

It is, in fact, a Viking turd.
 

Here's what went down. (Yes, these jokes just write themselves...)

During excavation prior to construction of bank vaults at Lloyd's Bank in York, England in 1972, archaeologists found a mineralized Viking Age human stool or “coprolite.”

Analysis of the find produced knowledge about what they euphemistically refer to as “the producer of the stool” on the Archaeology of York website. Scientists discovered that the Viking had eaten “cereal bran and other unidentified organic matter. ..[that]confirms other forms of evidence which suggest that diet at this time included meat, fish, shellfish, cereals, fruit and nuts.” 

On a more “ooh, gross!” note, they could also see that the individual had a good amount of intestinal parasites. You can find out more using the links below.

Here’s a list (in pictures) of significant finds in York.

Here's more information about the coprolite.

But wait, the story gets even better! 

The coprolite (don’t say I never taught you a new word) was accidentally dropped and broken into pieces during a school visit to York's Archaeological Resource Centre. Read about this titillating event on The Guardian Newspaper’s website.

Still with me? All humor aside, check out the tiny writing tablets they also found in York. Very cool!

PIzza Swedish-Style

Yum!

I present you my not-so-comprehensive research on pizza in Sweden. From what I have seen, Swedes don’t order one larger pizza to share but rather each person orders a single one for themselves. And boy howdy do they have some crazy flavors!

Because I avoid eating gluten, I don't eat much pizza. But I have found that pizzerias here in Sweden usually offer a gluten-free crust so I have tried it. Sometimes it's a good alternative, sometimes not. And like all things gluten free, it costs more. One must add 15 kronor to the price when asking for gluten- free. My friend says that is strange because since it is missing something, it should be cheaper. (ha ha)

Okay, but what about those crazy flavors? I present to you a selection of flavors from the local joint in Uppsala. (I haven't noticed that you can "build your own" from scratch, instead you choose one of their flavors--though I am sure you can add or remove items...)

Cheapest (65 kr. approximately $9.28)

The "Calzone" pizza has ham, mushrooms, and shrimp.

The "Campagniola" pizza has salami, onions, and shrimp. (What is it with all the shrimp on pizza?)

The "Oriental" pizza has hamburger meat and onions.

The next level of pizzas, a little more expensive… (75 kr.)

The "Big Ben" boasts ham, asparagus, and...béarnaise sauce.

The "Hawaii" has ham and pineapple (okay, normal) and then…bananas (ewww!)

More expensive… (85 kr.)

"The Amigo" offers hamburger, leeks, paprika, pepperoni, tomatoes, taco sauce, and béarnaise sauce

Most expensive… (95 kr.)

The "Pescatore" has shredded pork, pineapple, bananas, shrimp, and, wait for it...curry

What's your favorite flavor? Weirdest pizza you've ever seen? Post a comment. I'm curious!

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. :)