Easter, fashion, and summer on its way

I'll start off with some pictures of the past week, before I forget. =)


Just two of my Easter decorations - I posted a pic in the previous post of the bushes in the big square downtown. These two pictures are my own renditions for a party J and I hosted this past Saturday.




We went into a nearby little wooded area to pick up some twigs for my decorations and I was just so enchanted by the grass being covered in these charming little white flowers.


Last week my friend M and I decided to get some fika at one of the cafes on the main town square, it was so lovely and warm out, I could almost get a tan!


More public Easter decorations.


I felt I had to post this shot just to show how many, if not most, people in Sweden appear to be straight out of some catalogue, like H&M or something.

Living here has made me so fashion conscious. I wear pretty much only skinny jeans now, and nearly cringe when I look at my American-made boot leg style jeans sitting in my closet. This is pretty much my signature look these days. Which is also many of the Swedes' signature look as well. Me being of European descent, I blend right in. Until I open my mouth, none of the Swedes would even know I wasn't one of them!

The weather has been lovely, to say the least. With some sadness I might even venture to say that it would actually do us some good to have some rain. It's been weeks since we had our last truly rainy day. I'm sure all the new leaves and green grass would love some rain. But for now, I'll take all the sunshine and warmth I can get. I still feel almost naked walking outside without a real jacket on. Earlier today J and I rode our bikes downtown and back. It was so nice, it reminded me of being a kid.

This past weekend was both fun and tiring. You would think a four day weekend would mean a lot of rest, but no, J and I just had to throw another party. We booked our apartment company's festlokal and had a barbecue/themed Easter party with some good friends. Needless to say it was a bunch of fun. The next day was spent recovering. And then Monday came along and we did a whole bunch of nothing. I suppose you could say we did get some rest, although the first half to 3/4 of the weekend felt busy and hectic. Planning parties and throwing them takes a lot of effort! Who knows, maybe we'll even get one together in a couple of months for midsommar. For those of you who don't know what it is, the Swedes celebrate midsommar, or the summer solstice by throwing large barbecues and just having parties, or so I hear. It's probably a lot like the 4th of July in the States, except without fireworks. But with giant poles that people dance around. To get back to our Easter weekend, it was good fun, but I'm glad to keep moving forward towards summer. It feels like winter just ended and yet summer is nearly here, the temperatures have been near 20C each day, and I've been told Swedish summer usually hovers around 25C. Spring and fall seem to get the shaft on length here.

J and I have been throwing around the idea of attending Peace & Love, basically a giant music festival that lasts for five days at the end of June/beginning of July. If you visit that link, you'll see they've got some pretty big names booked. It could be a lot of fun! Plus a couple of our friends who live in Stockholm are considering going as well. I'll let you all know if anything develops on that front.

Well I can't think of anything else truly exciting to entice you all with further. I think I've included enough Swedish culture tidbits to keep you satisfied for now. Hope your Easter weekends were relaxing and enjoyable! Here is a belated Glad Påsk! (or Happy Easter!)

The grass is turning green

And the trees are beginning to have buds! I know, I know, you guys might all be getting sick of my mention of spring in every post I do now. But spring is apparently a slow, slow process here in Sweden. Right now in Ohio I'm sure all the blossoms have bloomed on the trees and little leaves might even be all on them. Here, the grass is finally starting to not look utterly dead, and the trees have the tiniest of buds on them. It's exciting. Not to mention the weather being anywhere from 10 - 17C this past week or two. That's low 50s to low 60s Fahrenheit for you folks across the pond. Yesterday J and I walked downtown to have some ice cream because it was just such a nice day outside. I didn't even have to wear my jacket.

This past weekend my friend M and I went to an SFI classmate's home out in the middle of nowhere to ride horses and just hang around. It was great to be able to spend time with someone outside of class where you only get to see one side of them. She showed us the farm/whatever you would call it that she lives on. They have horses, alpacas, chickens, a rooster, and even some peacocks. Not to mention she showed us a pond with a boatload of frogs in it!


One of the frogs was jumping about in the dusty road, and my friend M decided to screech and shove me aside like she was saving me from a cobra. Then I saw this cute frog trying to hop out of the dust.


I mentioned J and I walking yesterday, and I saw such a pretty lonely daffodil. I tried to get a nice shot, but apparently phone cameras still aren't very up to snuff.



Not much else is new in the world of Sweden. Spring really is the biggest happening. All the bikes are coming out (although they never all went away, crazy Swedes ride their bikes in the dead of winter). When I look out at the playground from my kitchen window, there are almost always children playing in it. I never knew how many kids we had in the neighborhood until now.

This coming weekend is Easter weekend. The Swedes get "Long Friday" off and "Second Day Easter", aka Easter Monday. They actually have names from Wednesday through Monday.

- Dymmelonsdag is the first day, the Wednesday before Easter. Dymmel doesn't have a direct translation, but it comes from dymblar, which are wooden sticks that were placed in church bells on this day starting quite some time ago. They replaced the metal at this time to create a quiet, discreet sound rather than the normal loud clanging.
- Skärtorsdag is the second day, the Thursday before Easter. This is known by some as Maundy Thursday.
- Långfredag, which is translated to Long Friday, instead of Good Friday.
- Påskafton, the Saturday before Easter Sunday, which roughly translates to Easter Eve.
- Påskdagen, Easter Sunday. It translates to Easter Day.
- Annandagpåsk, or Second Day Easter.

Here is a picture of typical Easter celebrations. I took this shot in the big town square downtown.


Not only do they have these in public spaces, but live branches with synthetic feathers glued to them are for sale in all the flower stores, and even normal stores. While grocery shopping yesterday I noticed many on display and for sale. It's a very colorful and fun way to celebrate spring/Easter.

The Swedes apparently throw tons of parties or get togethers over Easter weekend. And why not? It's the first weekend of the year where the weather is bound to be pretty good, and it's a four day weekend. Who wouldn't want to throw a good barbecue with friends in the warming weather? J and I are tentatively planning to throw one of our own, and hopefully we can book the apartment company's festlokal. A festlokal is kind of like what in America we would call a clubhouse. The apartment complex has a big area you can book for an evening to throw a party of any sort. Ours isn't in our building, but it is somewhere nearby in the neighborhood. Swedes tend to use them a lot more than Americans, I think. I've never heard of anyone actually ever using the clubhouse of their apartment complex for a party. But maybe that's just me.

I should probably study and work more in my SFI textbooks. I want to start picking up my pace a little bit, and it simply requires discipline at home. In class we rarely get time anymore to just work through our books. On Friday we didn't even have real class and went to the local stadsteater (city theater) and saw a local high school's music production. I thought it was rather good/entertaining for high school kids. What got me thinking was how talented they all seemed to be. In my high school there could be people who were pretty terrible at some instruments or in choir, but this whole show (90 kids) was great, talent-wise. I think it's because here in Sweden you begin to specialize in high school. When you attend gymnasiet (high school) you choose a track to take. For instance, J took the track that dealt specifically with science and math because he wanted to go into engineering when university time came around. It's an interesting way to approach education. On one hand, I think it's great that you can begin to hone your skills so early. And yet the other part of me thinks "I still don't know what I want to do with my life, how is a teenager going to know?" But apparently the system works. To get back to my original thought, all the kids were probably so great because they go to a specific musikgymnasiet, so they all focus on singing, playing an instrument and the like.

This Friday is Långfredag, so no class there either! Two short weeks in a row. One could perhaps say I'm finally getting spring fever. I really hope there isn't a surprise dump of snow in our near future, as I've heard threatened from J. He's told me it can even snow in May. I've got my fingers crossed!

Spring is on its way!

It's been warmer here in Sweden for the past week or two. I think I've finally let myself hope and wish for spring to come. Some people were speaking about and wishing for spring back in February or March, and I just knew better than to think about that so early in the year. Even though this has been my first winter in Sweden, I made myself expect the worst!

This weekend we went to J's parents' house to dogsit on Saturday, and I noticed all these little snödroppar, or snowdrops, all over their backyard. J told me that in Sweden, those are known as the "first sign of spring." They were so charming. It reminded me of all the tulips and daffodils that have surely already sprouted in Ohio. Not only have the spring flowers come out of the ground, but the weather has been fairly nice for the past week or two; and if the forecast is correct, it will continue to be nice and warm. Nice and warm being 10C, or 50F, as the high temperature of the day. It's been raining on and off, but that's spring, you can't complain about that. We also switched from winter to summer tires yesterday! So I've mentioned not one, not two, but three signs of spring. =)

Swedish traditions to be mentioned since the last time I posted: Friday, March 25th was national waffle day here in Sweden. Everyone apparently makes these cute waffles, and they eat them in what I consider to be WAY better than the American way. They whip some heavy whipping cream and procure some raspberry jam/jelly/preserves and top the waffles with those, as you can see in the picture I've linked. They taste way, way better than syrup! No, I did not take part on national waffle day, however, yesterday J's grandmother invited us over for waffles. Maybe I got spoiled since it was grandmother cooking, and who has ever had a grandmother with bad cooking? Needless to say she is quite a sweet woman.

The other Swedish tradition I wished to mention is April Fool's Day! I was glad to hear they do the same thing on April 1st as in America. Except they don't say April Fool's, they say "april, april, din dumma sill!" Which roughly translates to "April, April, you stupid herring!" When put into English it sounds a bit harsh, but really it's just a silly saying to let someone know they've been duped. And yes, I meant to spell April in lower case letters when typing in Swedish - for some reason they don't feel that months or days of the week are true names that actually deserve capitalization. The Swedish media even took part in the joke-playing on Friday. I was tricked! I read this article on The Local, which is an online newspaper of Swedish news in English. I exclaimed to J all about it, and then later saw this article and realized I'd been fooled. Way to go, Swedish media!

I don't think there is really much else to say about my life here in Sweden. I continue going to SFI Tuesdays - Fridays. Our group of friends in that class have bonded even further, we even do stuff outside of class/school time, now! A couple of weeks ago one of our friends had us all over for fika, and we had some really good conversation going. It was quite enjoyable. I helped that same friend find a bakery just last week so that she could secretly order her Swedish boyfriend a birthday cake and surprise him on Sunday. I saw the pictures on facebook, it all turned out well! She ordered what here in Sweden is known as a princess cake. I've never had it myself, and that vile shade of green makes it look not so appetizing at first. Here is a recipe, and the main reason I link it is so you can actually know what is inside of it. Maybe I will attempt to create one at some point?

Well I think this will have to do for now. I need to get ready and go meet a friend for fika soon. Here is another cheer for having free Mondays!

Swedish Radio

This won't be a long post, or an update on life happenings like I've become accustomed to when writing here. I've come this time to have a mini rant, or even a lament!

One thing I truly miss about the States: radio.

I was raised listening to the radio. In the city where I come from, there were a multitude of stations to listen to (although I ignored many stations, like smooth jazz or country). There were at least six stations I would cruise through in my car before settling on one. Rarely did I listen to a CD or my Ipod in the car - that was radio time! Maybe it's only because I was raised on radio that I love it so much. I've talked to others in my generation and they don't seem to have such a love for radio, they usually listen to their Ipods or something.

Anyway, here in Sweden they have like four national, yes national, radio stations. And maybe you might have one local station that comes in terribly. Out of those four stations, one is talk radio, so no good there. Another has quite strange music on it. Yet another is classical (which can be enjoyable every once in a blue moon). So I'm basically left with two stations. One is a mix station, so they are better about it that the other, which is just new pop. And mostly everyone knows that Sweden loves to pump out it's crappy pop music that is forgotten within half a year's time. So what happens when you listen to the radio here? You hear the same five songs on repeat!! For months at a time! I kid you not.

Each morning, as I've mentioned previously, it's my job to make sure J gets up. Well one of our tactics that works quite well is we have his clock radio go off and he'll listen to the radio (songs, and morning talk show of course). When they get to the songs, I just want to cringe! It's always the saaaaame songs. I actually enjoy the morning radio show usually because I try to listen to the show hosts to figure out what they're talking about, but when the music comes on I get so annoyed.

So much for diversity!

P.S.

I meant to mention, the director of that English program I volunteer at has asked me if I might be interested in leading a course myself for 5 - 8 year old Swedish children beginning sometime this coming autumn. It would be something like "English for Fun" and we would do arts and crafts, and stuff like that. I think I might be seriously interested! I asked him to give me more details. Life is certainly picking up, and I feel like I've been networking here in Sweden way more than I ever have done in my life back in the States!

I love feeling useful

The days when I am most happy here in Sweden are the days I am busy and feeling productive. This morning (just as every morning) I got up at 6:30, showered and got myself ready for school. I am also J's fail-safe alarm clock. Whenever his alarms don't seem to wake him at all (which is nearly every morning), my job is to get him up. The mornings I have to be at school at 8:20am, I feel like a drill sergeant. I have to make sure he's up and going so I can be on time to school! (I have to drop him off at work before I go to school, or if we're running really late he drops me off at school and takes the car to work).

Anyway! When I have SFI in the morning it runs from 8:20 to 11:40. J and I actually had lunch together today, and then we proceeded to the hair dresser in the downtown mall (he was getting to look shaggy!). After that we came home, I did some work, and then at 3pm I had my weekly meeting with a woman whom I shall call B. I'm not sure if I mentioned her before, but this is the second week I have met with her. She is a Swedish woman who is around 60 years old. I was given her email address by the director of the English program I volunteer at every other week to help Swedish children improve/practice their English. The woman, B, simply wants conversational practice with English so she won't forget the language. She told me last week at our first meeting that English is becoming more and more used here in Sweden (as I myself have noticed) and she doesn't want to be left behind. Thus, every Thursday at 3pm we meet in a local café and chat about anything and everything for about an hour. She buys me fika, and even gives me a little cash on the side for my time! She is interesting to speak with. It's a wonderful arrangement. I just arrived home from this about a half hour ago.

Then once I got home today I did the dishes, and here I am writing a blog post. I've been busy just about all day doing things "that matter," so to speak. I have a craving to do things that matter and that feel productive. I think it's greatly heightened here in Sweden, though, because it makes me feel like a part of society - getting out there and interacting with people. Sitting at home all day would absolutely drive me insane. It also makes coming home that much nicer at the end of the day.

As for the walk home from meeting with B today...well the temperature is hovering right around the freezing mark, and when this temperature combines with precipitation, it's not really all that pleasant to walk in. It is kind of snowing outside, yet when it hits your face and the ground, it definitely feels like really heavy rain. Thankfully, even though I didn't have an umbrella, at least my coat had a hood. Oh Sweden.

My friend M and I are going shopping together this weekend! I don't know what it is, she and I were talking about it in class yesterday, but we feel like we have to have someone shopping with us here in Sweden. When we are both back home in the States we're perfectly comfortable to go out shopping on our own. But for some reason here in Sweden it's like we feel exposed, or something. So we've made a shopping date over the weekend (I need a pair or two of jean-leggings, and she's spotted some things she wants to try on at H&M). Her sambo is also gone for a couple of weeks due to his job, and so she won't have much to do all weekend anyway. I also figure that J would probably love some alone time (as whenever he is home, I am home). I'm excited to go shopping with her, to say the least!

It's crazy how yesterday I was in a rather apathetic mood and couldn't be bothered to even do the dishes. Today, I feel like I want to do everything! I have three quite ripe bananas in the kitchen, and I want to look up a banana bread recipe. I feel like baking. Wish me luck!

Free Mondays!

Firstly I must say how happy I am that I do NOT have to go to school for the next six Mondays like I originally thought I would have to. My SFI schedule only has classes Tuesday through Friday each week, but this past Thursday our SFI teacher told us newcomers that we would be taking a computer course the next six Mondays. Yes, my friends, a computer course...to learn how to use computers. Now, I understand that some people in SFI need this course (e.g. if you are from a 3rd world country, I would most definitely recommend a computer course). However, after being in the class for six months, and then having the teacher tell you that you're signed up the following Monday to take a computer course is nearly laughable. I don't think they should just assume that everyone needs to take the course. At least have a questionnaire or mini test to see who would need to take it or not. It's a waste of the computer teacher's time and our (the students') time if we already know how to use a computer!

So, today in class the computer teacher spoke very slowly and very clearly, and it felt like intro all over again. As we were only ten minutes in, my friends and I realized we definitely, definitely do not need to take such a course to learn what keys are what, how to open Word, and how to surf the internet. Pretty quickly the teacher realized (after we told her, also) that we didn't need the course. She even asked us why we were there, so we told her that our actual SFI teacher made us take it. Long story short, she said she would talk to the boss of SFI, and that we could go home, after being in the class for nearly an hour. The five of us then proceeded to get some fika at a local cafe and chit chat. I truly do enjoy my new little SFI niche of friends. Rant over. Hooray for securing free Mondays!

There isn't much new here with life in Sweden. Recently it's gotten a bit warmer so all the snow and ice on the sidewalks/roads have melted, that in itself has been lovely. I've nearly forgotten what it's like to walk on a sidewalk without being continually conscious of where I place my feet to ensure that I don't fall to my demise. I'm sure this weather won't last too long, though. Many Swedes have informed me of snow in April and even May, in some extreme cases. I try not to get my hopes up too much for lovely weather. The fact that it's a couple of degrees above freezing, and I consider that "warm," is somewhat troubling, though. I've only been here four months, and already I'm thinking that way? Hmm...

Last weekend J and I went to Göteborg (Gothenburg, in English) for his niece's third birthday party. It's always wonderful to get out of the little pocket of Skövde now and then (although I'm beginning to feel like this really is home - I think that's due to finally getting some ties here, like friends). J's parents picked us up, and it was actually enjoyable to be a passenger for once because I got to get a good look at the landscape. Those of you who know me quite well will know that I almost always prefer to drive. I took several shots while flying along on the highway, most of which are awesomely (sarcasm) blurry. J and I went to Nordstan (big mall downtown) to shop a bit before the party got started since we arrived around 10:30 in the morning and the party wasn't until 2pm. Here are a couple of shots, although nothing too interesting.


Typical Swedish houses/architecture, but what I wanted to capture here was the giant rock formation in the background. Out on the western coast there are many giant rocks that protrude like this one.


A view from J's sister's apartment. You can see the harbor/frozen water in the distance. People were running around and sliding on the ice playing!


A house I thought was neat looking on the drive there. Lop sided, but that's all you can do when you've got to snap a quick shot.


One of the homemade cakes for J's niece. Quite tasty!

This following picture is one I took back in January, actually. It's the little creek down by J's parents' house. I was walking Elvis (the Jack Russel J's parents recently acquired) and thought the little stream was quite pretty.


Very wintry. Sweden is beautiful in winter.

Last picture for today:


When leaving the cafe we went to for fika today, I saw this building downtown here in Skövde. I've always liked its architecture, so I got a picture of it to share with you all.

I hope that suffices for some updated pictures. Alas, I forgot to bring the camera with me when we went to the hockey game I mentioned in my last post. We did win, though! I was happy to finally go to a game where our team won.

Well, it's time for me to go pick J up from work soon, and I've been busy practically all day. I suppose I will call this post to a close. Spring will (hopefully) be on its way soon. I look forward to even longer days (yay clock change within the coming weeks!) Happy March, everyone!