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

Don't Curse the Darkness...

Blogged today about the Festival of Lights in Uppsala. 

"Light a candle rather than curse the darkness!"

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/11/04/let-there-be-light-in-uppsala/

Cultural Trainer or Relocation Consultant?

Latest post...My gig as a "relocation consultant"...
http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/10/31/cultural-training-on-both-sides-of-the-pond/

Dalahäst. Photo by: Cecilia Larsson/imagebank.sweden.se

Swedish Sexuality

My take on Swedes and Bodies...

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/10/28/swedes-and-bodies/

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.

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

How to FInd a Job in Sweden

Check out my latest post over at Sweden.se. 5 Tips on Finding a Job in Sweden...

http://blogs.sweden.se/expat/2012/10/14/5-tips-on-finding-a-job-in-sweden/

Photo by: Cecilia Larsson/imagebank.sweden.se

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

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

“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

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!

Watching Women's Olympic Soccer in Sweden

It's a whole other cup of tea, watching the Olympics from a foreign country.
Admittedly, I am not a huge Olympics fan. I like looking at how fit everyone is (seriously, swimmers and their shoulders!) but I find it a little dull in general. However, I am a HUGE soccer fan.

Women's soccer fan.

The US Women's team celebrates a goal in the qualifying matches (photo: Yahoo Sports)

Sometimes I watch men's soccer but I don't find it nearly as interesting.

It was a little difficult at first to figure out how to watch the games I wanted to watch. I would turn on the Swedish TV and they would have a sort of "Olympics magazine" type thing going where they just talk right through the actual bits I wanted to see. This guy, in particular, André Pops, does tend to go on and on...Dude, show the American games!

André Pops is ruining my game! (photo: Folkbladet.nu)

Yeah, so obviously Sweden is going to concentrate on their own teams. And they have shown the Swedish women's soccer team but I knew the team wasn't going to go far (they squeaked through the qualifying matches and lost to France in the Quarter Finals.) But the US women, they are so worth watching!

One day when I turned on the TV to watch the US game, old André just talked and talked with a couple of other windbags and then finally they said, ..."and now we will show you the second half of the US game."

Argh! Agony!

I surfed over to NBC's website in the US to see if I could see the highlights. Bingo! They have lots of highlight videos. So I clicked "Play" and then I got a message that said the videos could only be watched in the USA.

Double agony!

Then I finally cottoned onto the fact that Swedish TV (SVT Play) is showing the games on their website. Even the US games. Hallelujah!

Now I am living in bliss as the US team just beat New Zealand in the Quarter Finals. Whahoo!


My favorite player? 

Well, since you asked...It's been Abby Wambaugh for a long time. Go, Abby, go!

Abby Wambaugh fights North Korea for the ball (photo: Yahoo Sports)

Favorite coach? 

Of course it's Pia Sundhage, the US women's coach. She is admirably calm and collected on the sidelines...never screaming...always looking like she just plain old enjoys soccer. And where is she from?

Why, Sweden, of course!

Recycling Adventures in Eskilstuna

Recycling is taken very seriously in Sweden which is pretty cool. I have seen it handled differently in different areas of Sweden. In Uppsala, my friends work very hard to compost the food scraps, and sort through plastic and glass that can be returned for the deposit, plastic and glass that should just be recycled, newspapers separated from other paper packing materials, egg cartons, milk cartons, etc.

I am on my summer vacation and just spent a week in a small town located about 45 minutes west of Stockholm, near Eskilstuna. They have a recycling system there that involves sorting everything into different colored plastic bags. The bags are then tied off and all are put into the same trash bin which is set out at the curb and collected once a week.

I found it was actually a lot easier than sorting the trash in Uppsala where everyone tries to figure out their own system and it's awkward. Also, there you then have to take the assorted recycling in your car or on foot to the nearest recycling bins.

The Eskilstuna system, which is managed by Eskilstuna Energi & Miljö (website only in Swedish) is so simple, they wrote the directions explaining which color goes with which recyling in the form of a toddler's board book (a thick-paged book, the kind toddlers gnaw on when they are not reading). Here are a few pictures:

The book explaining the color-coded recycling system was designed to look like a toddler's board book.

"It's childishly simple to color sort!" (wait, is "childishly" a real word?)

Pages explaining what goes into the green bag and what goes into the orange bag.

You can ask for more bags at any time. I believe there are six colors used to split the trash into 6 different kinds of recycling. You are to use a regular, recycled grocery bag for the few things that fit into none of the categories.

It takes a little time to learn what goes where and one must dedicate an area somewhere for all these bags. They were just in the cabinet under the sink where I stayed. Some were held open by small containers and some were just sitting on the floor of the cabinet. The friend that owns the house where we stayed rents out part of the house in the summer, usually to people from Germany or Poland. These guests have to learn the system as well. But hey, it's childishly simple in any language!

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. :)

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...