A job!

I've gotten a job!  A real one, on my own, without having J hook me up with something through his company.  Happy Face makes another appearance! (he appeared here first on my blog)  It was a very fast process.
 

Friday afternoon J and I were practicing putting up a tent we've borrowed from his parents (more on that in a bit) when I got a phone call.  It was an unfamiliar name, but because I had applied to a few jobs recently I figured I had to get over my scaredycatness when it comes to answering the phone and answer it.  So I did.  It was a woman calling about a personal assistant job I had applied to the day before.  Personal assistants in Sweden aren't personal assistants in American English terms.  They don't run around doing tasks given to them by an executive at a company.  Personal assistants here do a wide range of things due to the field, but basically they help anyone who can't function properly through the day whether from a sickness or an accident that might have lamed them.  In this case, it was an older gentleman who has MS and so can't move really at all.  He needs help with basically everything, from moving around to washing and so on.  She asked for an interview Saturday (yesterday) morning and so I went.  It ended up not so much an interview (there were no questions of "So, tell me about yourself").  It was more "Here is how the day is and what we do.  Could you start ASAP?"  So of course I jumped on it!  They needed someone pretty immediately to be a sommarvikariat, that is, a summer replacement.  However, she also gave me the fall schedule of times that would need to be filled in and so it seems like as long as it goes well in the near future I'll be welcome to stay on!

I just got back home after my first short 3 hour shift. There is so much to remember, but it doesn't seem too scary.  It's not super difficult or anything and there is no major medical care that needs to occur.  What I'm still happily reveling about is the fact that I now have a job and operate completely in another language!  It's crazy to look back and see how far I've come compared to just a little over a year and a half ago.  Back then, I was afraid to even go to the store by myself and had to really push myself to go out and make myself get used to it.  Now I can perform a job purely in another language!  Commence patting myself on the back....now.

The tent?  Well this next coming weekend is Midsommar (midsummer) in Sweden and it's their huge summer holiday.  They celebrate the longest day of the year which here in Gothenburg is 18 hours of daylight, give or take a few minutes.  "Night", though, is never night and it never truly gets dark out.  There is always a mid-dark blue in the sky and it most definitely begins to get light around 2-3 in the morning.  For Midsommar we've been invited to the lovely west coast, as I may have mentioned previously.  Because the summer home isn't so large and it has about 12 places for people to sleep, and 19 of us have been invited, J and I have opted to borrow a tent and camp out in the yard for the evening instead.  That is why we were practicing putting up the tent, and also it was to see if we both would actually fit in it.  J is not at all a short person, I'm even a bit worried that he won't really fit very comfortably in it.  We will see!

So I just wanted to write a quick update, although it's not all that short.  I should get to bed pretty soon as I have to be back tomorrow morning at 8am for more learning!

Is it really June?

So June has finally come around, but sadly it doesn't feel like it when you consider the weather.  That entire week of 25 - 27 C (up to 80F) two weeks ago in May very well could have been the Swedish summer, come and gone.  Nowadays it's only been around 12 - 14C (50s F).

Yesterday, though, was the Sweden's National Day and so everyone had the day off.  It was mostly sunny here in Gothenburg so there were definitely some people outside grilling and enjoying having a day off in the middle of the week.  J and I have been discussing that phenomenon lately, as I've realized in the US we just don't have that occurrence.  Our holidays almost always occur on "the first Monday of September" (Labor Day) and thus people have a 3 day weekend instead of having the work week kind of ruined/split up by having a holiday based on a date instead of a first Monday, or last Thursday of a month.  Lately there seem to have been a ton of "red days" (holidays, where you don't work, in other words) right in the middle of the week.  The 17th of May was a red day, and that occurred on a Thursday.  So what happens?  At least half of the Swedish work force decides to just take Friday off as well and make a nice 4 day weekend.  I'm all about taking an opportunity, relaxing, and making a nice 4 day weekend out of something.  But J has made a solid point when we've been discussing - he can't get stuff done at work that he needs to get done because lately he hasn't been able to count on people to be there.  He has a kind of job where he can't just up and take days off like a common office job would easily make possible.

Nevertheless, yesterday was Sweden's National Day, but we (J and I) didn't really do anything to celebrate it.  We relaxed and enjoyed the day for part of the day (hooray for getting to sleep in) and then I used the day to play catch up on my schoolwork and he used it to play catch up on some actual work work.  It seems to be somewhat of a debatable topic, Swedens National Day, as I read a letter in GP sent in by a reader on Tuesday who was complaining about how Sweden isn't anything to celebrate until there is equality for all in the country.  That's to put it in a nutshell.  For Swedes, they just never had to fight or win their independence from anyone so it just seems to not be much of a deal here at all.  Before 1983 the 6th of June was just known as Swedish Flag Day.  That year, however, the Swedish Riksdagen (Sweden's version of Congress) deemed the day to be called Sveriges Nationaldag (Sweden's National Day).  You would think since then they would have it as an actual red day, or a day off from work, but no.  Only since 2005 have Swedes been able to have the day off from work.

From what I can gather it seems as if they are still trying to figure out how to celebrate the day, as there just aren't really emotions tied to the day the way other countries are about their own national days.  As an American it is quite strange to see a country handle its own national day so nonchalantly.  We, of course, go all out with our grill parties, game playing and last but certainly not least, fireworks.  But I don't think you need to have gone through bloody wars to celebrate your country.  No place will ever be perfect, there are some parts about the US that I prefer to here, and vice versa.  That being said, Sweden has quite a good international standing, some would argue it has one of the best health care systems regarding the fact that all have access to receiving healthcare, and I could sit here and list things on and on that people would say is good about it.  The point is, just take a moment appreciate where you live if you choose to stay because there is a reason you're choosing to stay.  How many people a year come to Sweden to get away from a worse life in their own home lands?  Sweden isn't all that bad, and I hear a lot of criticism and complaints coming from its own native citizens.  I encourage constructive criticism, otherwise how would anything ever improve?  But I suppose as an outsider looking in, coming from another top country, there is still a lot to be happy about and celebrate about Sweden.  Why not have a day to celebrate and appreciate the country?

On a completely different note, J and I have been busy bees lately regarding weekend activities and it seems it won't ever stop until halfway through July!  A couple of weeks ago we went to Skövde to celebrate a friend's birthday.  This past weekend we went to Tibro to celebrate a dear couple's wedding together with them.  By the way, it was my first time to a Swedish wedding and I found it rather lovely.  The ceremony didn't last way too long by the priest being long-winded, and he wisely didn't try to win the crowd over by being excessively cheesy in his jokes.  Sure he threw some jokes in there but they were short and actually funny!  I suppose that's Swedish succinctness for you.  There was the traditional wedding march, but with that came the bride and the groom in together down the aisle.  There were a couple of prayers as a normal Christian wedding in the US, and a couple of church hymns sung as well.  But I liked the hymns because as we got through them they were basically just singing about how happy and glad it is when it's spring and summer time with the trees and flowers blossoming.  Who couldn't be happy about that?  Well besides those of you with terrible allergies, at least the blossoms are beautiful!  The ceremony lasted about 30 minutes and then it was outside to throw rice on the newlyweds and off to the reception.  During the reception we sang some weddings songs in traditional Swedish we-have-to-sing-traditional-songs-that-everyone-somehow-learns-growing-up-for-every-single-occasion fashion.  I still find it delightful and charming that Swedes somehow have these songs for what seems to me every occasion.  My first encounter of this was my first visit here back in the summer of 2010 when J took me to a kräftskiva at his parents' house and they had made their own pamphlets of songs to be sung while drinking schnapps shots.  It was delightful.

This is a picture of the church where the wedding was held.  It was built in 1839, so really it's a relatively new church.  I enjoyed the architecture, the inside was simple yet still had a beauty to it.

This coming weekend it's back to the Tibro/Skövde for a third time in a row!  This time we're in for a kusinträff, or "cousin meet" if you want to be literal about it.  J's dad's cousins all wanted to have a big get together since it's been so long that they've all seen one another.  I like J's family though, they're a bunch of fun and jokesters, so at least it's not something to dread the way traditional family reunions seem to be, in the US anyway (or am I alone on that?).  Then in the upcoming weeks we've been booked by J's parents who want to come down to the GBG to visit us here, also there is a big Midsommar celebration in the middle there where we are invited to a summer house located out on the west coast about an hour and half drive from where we live, and my birthday/good friend M's bachelorette party will be coinciding on the same day in the beginning of July.  Lastly, we've heard about a get together a couple of our friends in Norway are wanting to throw in the middle of July, so there could be a good chance for me of finally getting to see that lovely country, as well.  Talk about a full plate!

J says he may have me work a bit today as well, but at least that will be from home where I won't have to spend time commuting back and forth (when I take the bus, or buses, to work it takes about 50 minutes each way, whereas a car ride takes about 15).  As I'm a bit behind on my schoolwork, though, I think I'll be getting to that!

Congratulations Sweden!

Congratulations Sweden and Loreen on winning Eurovision Song Contest 2012!

Now I've never been one to follow and love the likes of American Idol, but I find Eurovision to be something quite different.  Oh sure, it's pop songs and would seem very much the same as American Idol but I think I love it because it makes you feel connected to the rest of Europe.  You know that 40-50 other countries are sitting down to watch the exact same thing that you are and root on for their own country's contribution.  What is more, I really enjoy seeing what songs each country has to put out there because it tells you a lot about their culture, even if, as said, it's "just pop songs."  This past Saturday night I was at a friend's birthday barbecue, but a couple of us would go inside every now and then to check in on the competition.

I had a really good feeling about Loreen this year as I absolutely loved her song and had rooted for her ever since she won Melodifestivalen back in March.  Immediately you could hear how strong her voice is; and to be able to have such stage presence as just one person belting out a song like that is quite a feat.  This time around in Eurovision with her song "Euphoria" she won with a huge margin of 113 points.  A new-found friend of mine (my friend M's downstairs Swedish neighbor) and I decided that next year in 2013 we will most definitely want to go see Eurovision!  The thing is, for those of you unfamiliar with it, the country who wins has to host the contest the following year.  Last year it was Azerbaijan who won, and so this year's contest was held in Baku, Azerbaijan.  I've heard (and after having quickly read it on a few blogs) that it will be held in Stockholm at the new Friends Arena that is set to be inaugurated in the end of October this very year.  What perfect timing!

As a newbie to all of this (after all, it's only my second year knowing about/watching Eurovision), I find it very exciting that Sweden won.  The last time for the country to win was in 1999, so it may be just that long again before Sweden could win.  I would love to take advantage of the fact that the contest is coming here next year.

Here is the winning song!

Walking around town

Today is the beginning of my and J's company's "step competition."  Some of you may remember me mentioning around this time last year that J had a pedometer and was competing daily to get the most amount of steps within his company.  Well, now that I work for the same company, I'm allowed to be part of the annual competition, too!  He texted me earlier today around 5:30pm asking how many steps I had.  Because I'd just gotten home and had been at work all day (he was in Skövde for the day, I was here in Gothenburg), I had only 4,000-something steps.  Most of them I'd accumulated walking to lunch and back with the third musketeer of our gang, ahem, I mean other coworker.  J responded, and I quote, "13,614. You better start walking."  As I knew he wasn't getting home until just about now (should walk in the door any minute), I decided to go on a walk.  In just under an hour-long-walk I upped my amount to my current 10,732.  I'd say it's a good start for the competition!  The day isn't over, yet.

I'm actually quite excited for this step competition thing.  I think it'll give J and I the motivation to not be couch potatoes so much of the time!  I feel restless quite often and I think a large part of it is due to not getting enough exercise.  So here's for hoping!

I have a little batch of accumulated pictures from over the past couple of weeks.

The Feskekörka downtown in the Rosenlund area.  The other week when going to take the test at Vuxenutbildning to see what level of Swedish I could test into I had to wait outside for about 10 minutes until Vuxenutbildning actually opened.  I had the pleasure to wait outside the "Fish Church" next to the water.  If you're too lazy to read/translate the link, the "Fish Church" is a big hall where they sell fish.  The building just happens to look like a church.  The picture below is across the water from where I was standing.

I took the picture below last night when J and I were carrying all of our recycling (5 or 6 big paper bags of it) down to the recycling station about a 10 minute walk from here.  The view was far more beautiful than the camera could capture!

Above is the big field I mentioned in my last post about where people were grilling on the edge of the gravel.  That field has been filled with a traveling circus for the past couple of days.  On my walk today I went by twice, on my way out and back into our little neighborhood.  You could easily hear them tearing down the bleachers inside.

I apologize for their quality, or lack thereof.  All four of them were taken on the fly with my phone.  Isn't it ironic how society was so excited to finally have a camera "in your pocket" when they were new to cell phones since you could take a picture of something as it happened, and nowadays, it's a shame how "terrible" the quality is?  I suppose it served its purpose at least; otherwise, I wouldn't have had any of these pictures to share with you at all!

Work, friends, and more Swedish holidays

I know I haven't posted in a while but I haven't been feeling the inspiration, and I figure it's better to write when I feel the will to rather than doing so just because.  J and I have been working a lot lately.  Not this past weekend but the weekend before we worked both Saturday and Sunday.  We were basically ordered by our boss to do so.  To make a long story short we have a lot of fixing to do with the program we develop for the company and have been set some serious deadlines.  It's not that exciting but that's been what's been taking up most of my time lately.

This past Saturday, however, was a huge breath of fresh air that I really needed!  My friend M was in town, as was her Swede.  They came from Skövde to meet up with her Swede's friend, so that he and his friend could go suit shopping together.  So for the entire afternoon M was mine to (finally) go downtown and mosey around in all the lovely little shops here in Gothenburg!  J is never interested in going downtown and shopping around/looking at all the stores.  Me, of course, being pretty new here, have no friends to go hang out with to do these kinds of things normally.  Needless to say I'd been dying to go downtown shopping with someone.  It's just not the same doing something like that alone.  It was great!  I ended up getting a much needed pair of jeans and two shirts.  M definitely didn't get everything on her list, but she was happy with all of the other purchases she made.  It was also pretty nice weather, which is surprising for this time of year.  More on that later.

Don't worry, J wasn't sitting at home alone while I was out happily shopping.  He actually had a svensexa, or bachelor party, to attend in Skövde.  So I ended up having the bed all to myself that night, as well.  After M and I went shopping on Saturday we ended up at her Swede's friend's house for a taco buffet and friendly company.  It was so strange, for once M and I were outnumbered by Swedes.  Why would that be strange in Sweden, you ask?  Well, whenever we normally get together with friends we're with our "immigrant" group, that is, our normal posse from SFI.  Surprisingly enough we had a tight little group in Skövde that sprouted from that.  This time in the Gbg, though, it was a bunch of Swedes we were with!  After the delicious taco buffet we went out to a couple of bars.  By the time I got home it was 4am.  In Skövde all the bars close at 2am, but not in the big city.  It ended up being a lot of fun!  I also now have hope to have made a new friend or two. =) 

Yesterday was a "red day," or a holiday as we say in the US.  The first of May is always a red day here in Sweden, and I can't even begin to explain why.  I tried to ask J and another coworker and they just couldn't really explain it.  I do know that there were a bunch of marches downtown by several of the left-leaning political parties.  Apparently they do this each year.  Some even call it "Commie Day."  The day before, being a Monday, was taken advantage of by a majority of the population and took the day off work.  Those kinds of days where there is one work day "clammed" between a weekend and a holiday are called "klämdagar," or "squeeze-days."  I think the explanation is obvious enough.

We took the day yesterday to catch up a bit at work (only worked 4 hours, though).  Then, because it was 20C (68F), warmest day yet I think, we decided to go to Liseberg since we got season entrance passes as a Christmas gift from J's sister's family.  We were excited to finally get to use them, as Saturday was the first day it was open this year.  We were only there for about 1.5 hours, but we really enjoyed it!  As it only takes about 20 minutes to get there, we weren't worried about spending such a short time there as we'll surely be back plenty of times this season.  The weather was perfectly warm and sunny and yet there were hardly any people there.  This somewhat surprised us as it was a holiday and the weather was so beautiful.  My hypothesis is that it was around dinner time and everyone was at home grilling out.  On the way back home we walked by a big gravel field (I think it's used for soccer) that has a lot of green grass around it and I saw several groups of people sitting precisely on the edge of the gravel.  I thought it odd at first and then realized they brought with them small portable grills and set them up on the gravel, while sitting comfortably on the grass nearby.  What a smart idea!  I told J we need to do that sometime.

Monday evening was another celebrated day in Sweden called Valborg (apparently Walpurgis Night in English).  The big event on April 30th of each year is the lighting of massive bonfires.  The fires can look like this.

We didn't end up doing anything on Monday night, though, as we were waiting for our arrival of Linas Matkasse (Lina's FoodBag).  It's a lovely way of avoiding going to the grocery store, while also eating healthy recipes.  It's delivered to our door every other Monday evening between 5 and 10pm.  You receive all the ingredients for 5 meals (4 portions each meal) and the recipes with directions for each meal.  So, for the two of us, it ends up being 10 meals each.  Handy for lunch and dinner!

Now I would like to do some catching up on reading my newspapers, as I have a daily subscription to GP.  =)

Adventures on the Gothenburg buses

Since moving to Gothenburg I've had the joy, if you want to call it that, of using the city's public transportation system.  I must say at first I was amazed at how efficient it was/seemed.  I'd only ridden the bus in Skövde a handful of times, and then only for trips of about 6 minutes in length.  Nothing special.

As mentioned in previous posts, I work 50%, 20 hours a week, and some weeks J is gone to other offices for one two, or even 3 days of the week.  Normally I would just stay at home and do my amount of work here since J would be gone with the car.  Contrarily, as we now have a full time third member of our little program-development-gang-thing working at the office here in Gothenburg, I try to make it into the office even for just a couple hours of the day so that our third guy doesn't feel hired and deserted.  Also, I try to offer what little more knowledge of the program I have to help him with his programming-fixing-bug-tasks.  You can tell I really have the programming lingo down.  This means over the past few weeks I have braved the Gothenburg public transit system more frequently.  To be particular, I've braved the buses.

I believe I'm finally getting over a pesky virus that I picked up early last week, most definitely from my bus rides.  Or at least I'm 99% sure that is where I picked up the bug.  I don't think any time in the near future I will forget the stout woman in the back of the bus last Wednesday hacking her lungs out for at least 10 minutes without covering her mouth.  To my relief, and I'm sure many others' as well, someone finally offered her a cough drop.  Several others laughed along claiming that they were about the offer the same thing.

Yet another thing I've braved on the buses?  An eventful...well...event occurred at the Nordstan stop on bus 17 towards Tuve today.  (For those of you unfamiliar with the city, Nordstan is the huge shopping mall right across the street from the central train station, so as you can see, a very busy stop).  I'm half expecting the "event" from today to appear in the "Dygnet Runt" (Around the Clock, as it could be translated; the crime listings that have happened in the past 24 hours, what, where, and when) section in GP tomorrow morning.  As we were about to leave the Nordstan stop today and continue over the glorious Göta Älvbron, I suddenly heard a commotion at the front of the bus.  I had to turn around in my seat, as I was facing the back, to see what all the noise what about.  It appeared to be a gang of young men, from what I could discern shouting in Arabic, throwing fists at each other right in the entrance of the bus!  It seemed like one guy wanted to get onto the bus and for some reason the other 3-4 weren't letting him.  He kept trying to break through and eventually I saw blood trickling down his face from his temple.  Another guy who had boarded the bus and moved to the back with his big black dog (a labrador mix) then moved, with his dog, to the front of the bus and the dog really let it loose with booming barks. I think it was just all bark and no bite, but it ended up being quite a fuss.  He joined in in the shouting and the attempt to convince the one guy to get off the bus.  Lastly, some Swedish lady stpped forward shouting, "Åh, lägg av! Stäng dörrarna, för fan!"  Loosely translated, "Oh, lay off! Close the doors, for fuck's sake!" (I asked J for the closest translation of 'för fan' since curse words are so related to their native language. Swedish cursing really is not very translatable into English.  För fan, literally translated, is 'for devil' but is, of course, much more harsh in Swedish than it appears in English.  Thus my translation.  And my apologies for the harsh language, I just want to recite the story truthfully!)  The bus driver, it seemed, never really did anything from what I could see, leaving the doors open.  Eventually after several minutes the gang of guys succeeded in getting the single guy off the bus.  Finally we took off for our trip over the river.  When I finally hopped off at my connecting bus stop to catch my third, and final, bus to the office I had to jog to catch my bus, otherwise I would have missed it.

In my few weeks of more regularly traveling by bus, I've come to label Nordstan as the trouble stop on my usual bus route to and from work.  Not only did today's fiasco occur there, but last week the bus I was on nearly slammed into the back of a tram that was stopped just in front of Nordstan.  We ended up being stuck there for several minutes as well and the bus driver ended up honking repeatedly at the tram since it, for some reason, was just sitting there.  I don't know if I could handle being a bus driver, I would always be stressed about running late!  Not to mention, most likely due to said stress, they drive pretty insanely most of the time.  Hence my reference to nearly slamming into the back of that tram last week.

Maybe I'll make this a series, my adventures on the Västtrafik buses and perhaps occasionally, trams.  I'm sure the longer I ride the buses, the more stories I will accumulate.  Hmmm, now to only find the perfect name for this possible mini-series/running subject on my little blog.

Waffles!

Last week J and I decided to buy a waffle iron. If it were expensive we wouldn't have bought one, but it only cost 99kr (approximately $15). Tonight I finally got around to making some waffles. I might add that this was the first time in my life ever making waffles from scratch! I was rather proud of the outcome. Sadly, though, we gobbled them up, and THEN it occurred to me I could take pictures of them for my blog. In any case, here is pretty much what they turned out looking like:

Thanks to Google for the lovely image. We ate our waffles with strawberry jam and whipped cream (no, not Cool Whip or premade sweetened whipped cream, but we used good old fashioned whipping cream whipped with a mixer, premade whipped cream is practically unheard of here). I must say it is most definitely far more delicious than American waffles with syrup. I've never enjoyed syrup.

The recipe I found to be strange as I'd never made waffles before, but I checked a second recipe to see if it was just some crazy variation, but it was the exactly the same, so I went for it! For those of you wishing to partake in a belated Waffle Day (mentioned last year in my post here) celebration as we did, here is the recipe I used. If you're not familiar with metric measurements, Google is a great friend when it comes to conversions. =)

Ingredients
75 g butter + a little for cooking the waffles in the iron
2 dl (decileters) ice cold vichyvatten (soda water)
4 dl flour
3 dl whipping cream
2 tsk (teaspoons, metric) sugar
For serving:
berry jam (your choice)
whipped cream (in addition to the 3dl above, since those 3dl are used for the batter)

1. Melt the butter and let it cool. Wisp together the soda water and flour, then mix in the butter. Whip the cream with the sugar and turn it down into the mixture light-handedly.

2. Heat up the waffle iron with a little butter and cook the waffles. Lay the finished waffles on a rack so that they keep their crispiness, pile them up in a "tower" when served.

3. Serve with sugar, whipped cream and a tasty jam.

This was the recipe directly translated. I don't think serving sugar with it is necessary, but to each his own. I also didn't bother with putting them on a rack (as we don't have one). This recipe should probably make about 8-10 waffles, as I cut the recipe in half and made 5. I thought it interesting that no milk was used, and especially that soda water was used! But they turned out wonderfully and surely were tasty.

Enjoy, if you decide to make some of your own!