Cold but beautiful

It was quite cold this week, and as an outdoor worker I noticed it especially.  The temperatures during the daytime were anywhere from -10C(14F) to -6C(21F).  It did cause some beautiful scenery, though.  One or two days were sunny this week and I truly enjoyed it!  I took a couple of shots while out on my rounds this week.

Ice crystals formed on a house's mailbox. All of the mailboxes in the area actually had these on them. They were at least a centimeter or two in height.

All the bushes were covered in thick frost. I rather enjoy spending my time outside for so many hours in the week. It makes me feel fresh and healthy. But I also get to enjoy the beauty that the outdoors has to offer, even in freezing cold temperatures. All you have to do is make sure you're dressed in several layers! People ask me all the time in wonderment how I'm not freezing. You go try running up and down three flights of stairs every minute or two and see if you feel cold, especially if you have two pairs of pants on and three layers on top. =)

Just January

Just January has been happening.  The holidays are over and everyone goes back to the daily grind.  So it has been for J and I.

My vikariat (sub) position started this Monday.  It's nice to know that until March 1st I'm working every day, full time.  It also gives you a slightly different mindset because you're scheduled for certain times.  As a timvikarie (hourly sub) you generally come in at a certain time and finish when you're finished with the day's work.  This week I work from 7am to 3:30pm, so it's kind of nice having that end time to aim for regarding picking up the pace and trying to keep myself a bit faster when out on my routes.  It's also become a good, dare I say fun, challenge to really try and improve my times for how long it takes me to do the routes.  Even if there is a lot of mail or very little, the times don't vary too much since you still have the entire route to do.  It's just that you might have to run inside of Long Street 16B and deliver one letter on the third floor instead of several pieces of mail to each apartment on each floor.

A good piece of news, and I can't recall how much I've mentioned it in the past on here, or if at all (and I don't feel like looking up my old posts), is that I've lost a nice amount of weight since beginning this mail delivery gig!  As I don't want to go around blabbing about actual numbers, I will just say that so far I have lost 8kg, which is about 17 pounds!  I'm back down to a weight that I haven't been since my late teens.  No, that isn't all that long ago but still!  It's quite a handful of years.  =)  So hooray, I've been patting myself on the back for that accomplishment.

Something else that I have to look forward to other than working a lot, making money, and improving my overall health and condition...I'm going to visit the US in March!  The day after my sub position ends I'm going to be flying back home for the first 2 weeks of March.  Yaaay!!  I'm quite excited as I've been wanting to go home for several months now, but just haven't been able to make that call.  The initial problem is, and always is, money.  It's not cheap to hop across the pond (I take 3 flights, and this time it ended up costing about 5500kr, which isn't too bad compared to summer prices).  The second and larger problem this time around is that my residence permit expired in mid-October.  I reapplied for a permanent residence permit in mid-late September, and I still have not been given a decision.  It's recommended that you don't leave Sweden while they are processing your new permit because you can have trouble coming back into the country on your return trip.  Last week I simply got tired of waiting to hear from Migrationsverket (Immigration) and decided to buy a ticket as I had the money and have been wanting to go home for a while.  The last time I was home was for Christmas 2011, so it's about time!  The good news is that I received a letter and small questionnaire in the mail last week from Migrationsverket saying that if we (J and I) just fill out the questions, sign and return the form, they can make a decision based on that.  Basically it was saying they didn't want/see/feel the need to interview us in order to make a decision on whether I get to stay here permanently or not.  Seeing as how J and I are now married, I don't think there will be a problem!  My fingers are crossed that sometime in the next couple of weeks I will finally receive a decision and my new residence permit card.

God Jul och Gott Nytt År!

...or Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  I do apologize for taking so long to post.  I figured the last time I posted was December 9th, and with today being January 8th I'd better post before it officially was a month since I last posted.

What all has happened?  Well I didn't post anymore in December because life simply got too busy!  We were super short handed at work (remember, I work for Bring Citymail) so I was working full time and even some overtime up through the 21st of December.  I have no complaints - as stated before, I still love my job!  I'll be extra happy next week when I receive my paycheck for the month.  I believe it'll be my best one yet.  The only bad thing about my job is that it isn't actually a full time job, I'm just a sub, I guess you could call it. I work hourly, and only when they need someone.  Lately, they have needed me pretty much every day.  What's more, I have good news!  Starting later this month and going through until the 1st of March I have a vikariat, or substitute, position for someone who will be gone.  That means I basically replace them in their full time duties.  I will receive, gasp, an actual month's salary for the first time since moving to Sweden.  I've been making money for quite some time now, but I've never been paid a month's salary.  The downside: it ends on March 1st and so I will go back to my normal position of just being an hourly sub.  Oh well, let's hope more substitute positions show up in my future.

For Christmas J and I headed out to Tibro to stay with his parents for a few days.  J's sister and her family stayed the same amount of time we did. So it was a nice, relaxing few days of just family time.  What is even better, we had a super white Christmas!  It snowed on the 23rd just after we arrived, and then again I think on the night of the 24th it snowed again.  It was great!  It started melting on the drive back home on the 26th so it all worked out perfectly.  I'm sad to report that I didn't take any pictures over Christmas.  I know, for shame, for shame.  We did all the Swedish Christmasy stuff though like decorating the tree on the evening of the 23rd.  Then on the 24th we got up and had a nice breakfast, ate a giant julbord around 2pm and finished eating just in time to sit down with the kids and watch Kalle Anka (that's Donald Duck) at 3pm.  They play a mix and match of really old Disney clips, several including Donald Duck.  It's national tradition here in Sweden for the country to sit down and watch it at 3pm.  After that Jultomten (or Santa Claus) came by and handed out a bunch of gifts.  Then later we had leftovers from the julbord and of course risgröt (or rice porridge) with cinnamon.  It's a Christmas classic here.

This year, instead of all the adults getting gifts for everyone, we decided to play a swap game instead.  Each person bought a gift, wrapped it, and kept it secret from everyone else as to what it was.  Everyone got assigned a random number, opened his/her gift and then the game ensued.  To make a long story short we played a swapping game based on the roll of a die and I think everyone ended up happy!  There were 8 of us so it wasn't chaotic.  I ended up with an ice cream maker machine (which I actually bought, as well as J's mom and sister! So there were 3 overall).  I didn't end up with my own machine though, so there was that.  J and I have already made 2 batches of chocolate ice cream and it is sooo good!  I doubt I'll buy ice cream anytime soon as it is so incredibly simple to make and far more delicious than store bought.  As for J's gift, he received some nice crystal long drink glasses.  He gladly used them for the first time on New Year's Eve.

Speaking of NYE, my good friend M and her man were in Gothenburg for the holidays so we decided that we would have the 2 of them over that evening for some nice appetizers (turned out to be a mealsworth) and some fun games.  It was a blast!  They printed out their own version of Cards Against Humanity and it was so incredibly fun to play.  We did not stop laughing the entire probably 2 hours that we played it.  My face hurt from smiling and laughing by the end of it.  I definitely recommend it as a party game for adults!  We ended the night by meeting up with a couple of Swedish friends at the Hard Rock Cafe downtown.  The one thing that bummed me out that night was that the cafe didn't have a countdown!  Either that, or somehow we missed it.  There are several levels at this one, but most were closed so we were in the most populated area. Maybe Hard Rock figured they were too cool to have a silly countdown.  In any case, the evening was a blast, and it was great to see some good friends.

And here we are!  I worked 3 days last week and am working again this week, so it's back to the grindstone for me.  J technically has off from December 21st to January 14th since he had a lot of vacation days to take out.  He has, however, worked here and there since he is so needed at his job.  Tomorrow he is even going to a meeting.  I keep booing the fact that he's working when he should be on vacation, but only because he truly works so hard all the time.

I'll try to write more often, that will be my blogly (made up, yes I know) New Year's resolution.  Write more often!

Another photo post

As requested by a previous comment, I've taken some more photos.  The first one right below was taken downtown while J and I were out running some errands yesterday.  Talk about insane amounts of people out Christmas shopping.  Anyway, this is a hotel that was very neatly decorated.  I just had to get a shot of it.

The picture below is my lovely kitchen window.  I see the most "happenings" from this vantage point in our apartment.  The shot below it is if I go up to the window and look out to the left a bit.  Our building is angled that way towards the street so it's pretty difficult to see the other way up the street.

Below is if I look straight out our kitchen window.

The view below is out of one of our living room windows.

Looking the other direction from the window next to it (they both sit in the corner of the room, so one facing one direction and the other facing 90degrees in the other direction).

So these last 3 shots are like starting from left and going right when using the 2 windows.  This last shot is our "backyard".  The little deck there is for everyone in the building to use.  There are only 8 apartments I think, it's a small building, kind of like the one across the way there.

I apologize for the crappy quality of the shots - I used my new phone.  I wanted to test out the camera, but it seems you have to spend the insane amounts of money to get a decent camera equipped on a phone.  I have the brand new Samsung Galaxy SIII mini.  It was just released a couple of weeks ago from Samsung and is amazingly fast and I do love its performance.  However, it does only have a 5 megapixel camera.

Photo post

I cooked Thanksgiving dinner this weekend in Tibro, as previously mentioned.  J was a great help in the kitchen!  Without further ado, here is the result!

Salad, green beans almondine, candied carrots, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, lingon bread, turkey, cranberry sauce, and sweet potato casserole.

Dessert was a pumpkin pie I made, as well as strawberry flavored jello.  The cake is a princess cake, brought by one of J's aunts from a previous party.  Everything was tasty!

As it was December 1st, it seemed appropriate to see some snow on the ground, however little.

I love how my mother-in-law decorates her house.  Every time we are there there are new decorations out, depending on the season.  I loved all of the Christmas stars.

Everything was a success!  All the dishes turned out just as I had hoped, and everyone enjoyed the delicious food.

Holiday season

No, we ended up not going anywhere last weekend.  Today, however, we are heading to Tibro so that I can cook Thanksgiving dinner all day and have a bunch of the in-laws over for dinner at 7pm.  Yesterday I felt totally unprepared as I hadn't nailed down a menu yet.  I got that straightened out, though, and then made a grocery shopping list.  Now I have a game plan and feel much better!

By the way, happy December!  It's currently -5C (23F) outside according to my phone.  I can believe it since when I look out the window, all the cars in sight are completely frosted over.  I will say one thing - my job has become somewhat of a mini version of cold hell since it got cold this week.  The beginning of the week started off with 5 - 7 C (40s F) and that was totally fine.  But now it's been hovering around the freezing mark and that hasn't been too fun at all.  Plus with all the wind that this lovely town never seems to get rid of, I become an icicle out on my routes!  Luckily I have some more appropriate clothes being ordered for me by my boss so I can be properly attired.  Still, though, brrrr!  I'm so happy it's the weekend and I get to cook a once a year, delicious meal today!

It is Christmas season though, and I see all the cute little julstakar going up in the windows in the neighborhood.  Most homes have these in the windows under the Christmas season.  You also have many julstjärnor (Christmas stars) being hung in the windows as well.  I hope to convince J soon to get one, as I think they are so pretty!  Soon enough we'll put up our lovely fake tree, too.  Hooray for the holiday season! Come back soon, as I'm sure I will post some pictures of our delicious feast this evening!

November, November

Dreary, grey November is here.  This is my third November in Sweden although I've only lived here for 2 years.  I moved here in November 2010, so there's your answer.  When the darkness comes, as it is doing now, I don't mind it much.  I've actually tried to embrace it, and I think I've done well at it.  It's a neat happening as it's so different from my native Ohio.  Sure, it gets dark earlier in Ohio during the winter, but probably around 5pm at the earliest.  Here, it's currently getting dark around 3:30 or 4 at the latest.  In December, it will be dark an hour earlier or so.

What really gets me, at least right now, is all of the grey dreariness.  The sun almost never shows its happy, smiling face during November.  When it's daylight, I would rather see the sun for the few hours that it is up instead of just the giant covering of grey clouds that never seems to go away.  Half the time it's raining, too.  Blah to November weather!

Luckily, being an American, I have Thanksgiving to look forward to!  No, the Swedes don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I make sure that a few Swedes celebrate it each year, at the very least.  I simply cannot let Thanksgiving come and go without cooking and celebrating it!  The food is just too good to pass up.  This year we'll be going back to Tibro to J's parents' house and cooking for them and a currently unknown amount of guests.  We'll have Thanksgiving on Saturday, December 1st, but better late than never! His parents are going to invite some aunts and uncles and cousins and we'll see who shows up.  At most I think it should be around 12 folks so I shouldn't be too bombarded regarding cooking!

Yesterday J and I went to the big ICA Focus here in town right next to Liseberg.  It was our first adventure there.  I had heard, however, that they have the biggest American food section of any store so I had to go.  It wasn't marked at all as the American section, but it very clearly was!  It had Hershey's chocolate sauce, American candies like Reese's, bacon bits for salads, Swiss Miss hot chocolate, French's mustard, Jell-o and the list goes on and on.  I was so tempted to buy so much of it, like the mac n cheese, but everything was so expensive due to being imported.  The reason I needed to go there was to purchase cranberry sauce and pumpkin puree.  I got both!  We also happened to buy a box of strawberry jell-o to share with the family (I love sharing the little bit of American "culture" that I can share).  We'll see how the cranberry sauce is...it's canned.  Last year and the year before I made my very own cranberry sauce from frozen berries as I couldn't find sauce anywhere, but this year I thought I'd go a bit more traditional and lazy (the way I'm sure many Americans are regarding cranberry sauce).  Now that I have my pumpkin puree I can make a pumpkin pie for dessert.  Yay!

Last week J and I sold our 2008 Opel Astra and bought a barely used 2011 Opel Astra Kombi (or station wagon in English terms).  Neither of those links are the real cars we had/have, but they look exactly like them.  2008 isn't very old, only 4 years, but the inspections had begun on the car which of course cost money (the first 4 years of a car's life it doesn't need inspected in Sweden to be roadworthy).  But also as a car ages you have to spend more money on maintaining it and J is not one for needing to spend money on a vehicle.  He'd rather have a newer one and have lower costs on it.  This new car, after all is said and done now, costs actually just about the same or even very slightly less than our old car.  The insurance costs less, it's better on fuel consumption, and actually the loan costs about the same.  So yippee! says I.  In case you don't know me personally, I am very, very fond of cars.  As you can see in the pictures, you can tell how much of an upgrade the new car is.  Opel has really come along these past couple of years.  It's got 140hp instead of the 116 our old car had, and it has 6 gears.  It's a much nicer ride, and is quite practical with all of its loading space.  All of the extra technological features also feel luxurious to have.  So far, we are loving it!  We're even considering a road trip possibly next weekend just to take it out.  J has been to Skövde and back, but I've only gotten to piddle around town with it.  I'd like to see how it does on long distances.

I'll try and get some pictures up of the real car!  Perhaps next weekend if we do go on a road trip we'll take a ton more pics and then I'll have some more interesting picture material to post again.