It's been awhile and I feel like almost nothing has happened worth mentioning.
But then I was thinking and maybe something has happend after all...
For example I'm now a mom to a 20 year old.... can't believe it, but Alyssa actually turned 20 last week and that makes me feel OLD! Luckily I'm also a mom to an 8 year old, so that should even things out a bit ha ha!
Last weekend we went to Smedjans Dag at Hävla. It's an old community built around a black smith mill. They renovated it some and keep it open as a museum and one Saturday per year, people dress up in old clothes, they get the old mill going, they talk about the old time, and keep the house where the workers and their families lived open.
My family has always went there because my moms moms dad was the very last master black smith working there and my grandma grew up in that one room apartment. So when she was still alive she met up with relatives and old childhood friends there every year. And my mom and her siblings have kept the tradition going and provide new information, some pictures or what ever needed for the museum every year.
It was fun going there again after so many years to find that nothing had changed. The old lady that shows my great grandpa's room is still there, looking fragile and so adorable you have to fight the temptation bringing her home. The fika at the little cafe is still the same, just a little more expensive and the same people and attractions are still there as well.
We left to go to a big fair/market/sale in a neighboring community. Lots of vendors selling crafts, linen, food and old stuff were there. I had to restrain myself from not buying everything I saw it was so many beautiful things!!!
No one use ice here. The drinks are served without ice and it drives my kids insane. So I found a vendor at that market place who sold ice cube making bags that you just fill up with water and throw in the freezer. I bought a bunch of them! Dale promised to look for a little ice maker back home and bring it over here.
The kids are in school and they enjoy it big time. Both of them think the woodwork/ sewing class is by far the best thing every week.
On Sunday evening I went to a aerobics class at the school's gym. It was fun, and I got to meet some of the other ladies in the community. I am still a little sore from it.
Saturday I learned that the people we're waiting for to move out of "our" house won't move until December 1st. What a bummer!!
So now we're looking in to move in to a small apartment a couple of hundred feet from here while we're waiting. It's just a one bedroom, a living room, kitchen bathroom and laundry room, but it has a covered porch in the front and a balcony in the back. 4 small apartment is in this small building and it's still very close to school for the kids and we think it might be worth it. To have to live in a suitcase for an other 3 months here at my cousin's house is feels kind of overwhelming. We're waiting for a time from the land lord.
Fall is on it's way. I packed away all the kids shorts and tank tops this morning and made room for long sleef and fleeces instead. I know most Swedes probable don't like when the days get shorter, the cold weather hits and the constant rain from charcoal clouds, but I love it. The air is so fresh, it's so easy to breathe and I just can't get enough of it.
I have to go for a walk...
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Starting School
Östra Ryd’s school is a K through 6th grade school with a total of 87 students. It’s an old school with its doors open all the time.
School lunch is made fresh from start across the street where there’s a nursing home. The cooks there (three of them in total) prepare food for the preschool, school and nursing home every day. All kids come in the small cozy cafeteria and get their own plate and serve themselves what they want from the canteens. You can take seconds if you want, there’s a salad bar and a table with crisp bread and other bread with butter to put on. When you’re done you put your plate on the dish washer trays and tell the cook Thanks for the food. You don’t have to wait, you just leave when you’re done and go out for recess. But first you have to put on your shoes of course…. There’s no shoes allowed in the classroom or in the cafeteria. In the wintertime the kids are encouraged to have indoor shoes or slippers on and there are big dryers outside every classroom for winter boots and coats, mittens and stuff.
As parents you can come and go as you please and there’s no ID check or anything…
Erik’s class is a 3rd and 4th grade combined. A total of 14 students about the same amount of 3rd graders as 4th graders.
Here’s his schedule …
Monday-Thursday 8:45-2:40 and Friday 8:45-1:20
Specials are:
Monday: Music and Art.
Tuesday: Music and PE
Wednesday: Art
Thursday: Sewing class/ woodwork class, altering
Friday: PE
There’s a 20 minutes recess in the morning. 40 minutes for lunch and recess and then another 10 minute recess in the afternoon. When it’s science they spend that class out in the woods. PE was a huge hurdle for Erik because he didn’t like the idea of changing for PE and have to take a shower afterwards. But it worked out just fine!!!
Syssa’s schedule is
Mon. and Wed. 8:45- 1:15
Tues. and Thurs. 8:45-2:40
Fri. 8:45-12:10
She has the same specials but every Thursday morning to lunch they spend in the woods.
Her class is also a combined class with 1st and 2nd graders in one classroom. Only 14 kids in that class with 7 in each grade.
I have spent today in their classes helping them out when needed and had lunch with both of them.
Tomorrow I’ll let them be by themselves and the teachers will give me a call if they need me for something. And next week they start Frita (after school care) so they’ll have somewhere to be until I come home from work.
I think it’s going to be great!!!!
School lunch is made fresh from start across the street where there’s a nursing home. The cooks there (three of them in total) prepare food for the preschool, school and nursing home every day. All kids come in the small cozy cafeteria and get their own plate and serve themselves what they want from the canteens. You can take seconds if you want, there’s a salad bar and a table with crisp bread and other bread with butter to put on. When you’re done you put your plate on the dish washer trays and tell the cook Thanks for the food. You don’t have to wait, you just leave when you’re done and go out for recess. But first you have to put on your shoes of course…. There’s no shoes allowed in the classroom or in the cafeteria. In the wintertime the kids are encouraged to have indoor shoes or slippers on and there are big dryers outside every classroom for winter boots and coats, mittens and stuff.
As parents you can come and go as you please and there’s no ID check or anything…
Erik’s class is a 3rd and 4th grade combined. A total of 14 students about the same amount of 3rd graders as 4th graders.
Here’s his schedule …
Monday-Thursday 8:45-2:40 and Friday 8:45-1:20
Specials are:
Monday: Music and Art.
Tuesday: Music and PE
Wednesday: Art
Thursday: Sewing class/ woodwork class, altering
Friday: PE
There’s a 20 minutes recess in the morning. 40 minutes for lunch and recess and then another 10 minute recess in the afternoon. When it’s science they spend that class out in the woods. PE was a huge hurdle for Erik because he didn’t like the idea of changing for PE and have to take a shower afterwards. But it worked out just fine!!!
Syssa’s schedule is
Mon. and Wed. 8:45- 1:15
Tues. and Thurs. 8:45-2:40
Fri. 8:45-12:10
She has the same specials but every Thursday morning to lunch they spend in the woods.
Her class is also a combined class with 1st and 2nd graders in one classroom. Only 14 kids in that class with 7 in each grade.
I have spent today in their classes helping them out when needed and had lunch with both of them.
Tomorrow I’ll let them be by themselves and the teachers will give me a call if they need me for something. And next week they start Frita (after school care) so they’ll have somewhere to be until I come home from work.
I think it’s going to be great!!!!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Moving to Östra Ryd
After about two weeks with no electricity, no running water, and no bathroom or anything of what we normally take for granted it felt pretty good to load the car up and go out to Östra Ryd on Saturday morning. And since it had rained about 2.5 inches of rain the last 24 hours it also felt pretty good to get away from the constant moisture that thin walls can’t keep out in the cabin we had stayed in.
We had been invited to a crawfish party on Saturday afternoon and we also had scheduled to get a showing of our future home so after a quick lunch at Peter and Lena’s we walked over to Fridlunda.
And I had to say I was very positively surprised. I had pictured a small house with dark hallways and small rooms with a tiny kitchen and maybe very old and rugged wallpapers from the mid 70’s. But this house is nice, a few color changes on some walls maybe but that’s it.
OK, so it’s a two story house with walk outs on both levels, since it’s built on a slope. So you walk in through the front door and the house looks like a one story from that side. A big hallway and kitchen on the right. Big enough to have a kitchen table, plenty of work space and bright and airy. The living room is not huge but enough to have a sitting area and also a dining area if you want. Big windows make the room bright and the view is lots of wheat fields.
Behind the living room is a bedroom, either the biggest kid room or could also work as a master. I think it will be Syssa’s room. A hallway leads down to two more bedrooms and a bathroom. That’s it for that level. Downstairs is a big hallway that could be a landing used for a reading room, office or whatever you want. A den used as a TV room has a door to the back yard and a huge covered patio. A guest bedroom next to that and in the hallway access to an enormous walk in closet.
Further down the hall a utility room, laundry room, bathroom and at least two more rooms for just storage and stuff.
Outside, a one car garage, two additional parking spots and a lawn with thick green soft grass. The yard isn’t huge but plenty for a garden, a trampoline for the kids, a sitting area outside the covered porch and some space to just run around on.
Now, there’s just one problem, the tenants living there now still don’t know when and where they will move, just that they want to get in to town, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it will work out fast and smooth for all.
Full of impressions and thoughts we walked back home to Peter and Lena and picked up lawn chairs and our food baskets and walked over to where the party was held. It was very nice to get to meet so many of the families out here at once, and there were a few that I know and remember from back in the days. I think it was close to 60 people there and tons of kids that our kids will go to school with so it was nice for them too to get to see some of the kids before school starts.
Even though it had rained so hard the day before and even sprinkled some earlier the sun came out and the weather really turned out great for the evening. So we sat outside eating the most delicious, huge crawfish fished from the little creek just a few hundred feet away. Ahhh, what a life!!!
We had been invited to a crawfish party on Saturday afternoon and we also had scheduled to get a showing of our future home so after a quick lunch at Peter and Lena’s we walked over to Fridlunda.
And I had to say I was very positively surprised. I had pictured a small house with dark hallways and small rooms with a tiny kitchen and maybe very old and rugged wallpapers from the mid 70’s. But this house is nice, a few color changes on some walls maybe but that’s it.
OK, so it’s a two story house with walk outs on both levels, since it’s built on a slope. So you walk in through the front door and the house looks like a one story from that side. A big hallway and kitchen on the right. Big enough to have a kitchen table, plenty of work space and bright and airy. The living room is not huge but enough to have a sitting area and also a dining area if you want. Big windows make the room bright and the view is lots of wheat fields.
Behind the living room is a bedroom, either the biggest kid room or could also work as a master. I think it will be Syssa’s room. A hallway leads down to two more bedrooms and a bathroom. That’s it for that level. Downstairs is a big hallway that could be a landing used for a reading room, office or whatever you want. A den used as a TV room has a door to the back yard and a huge covered patio. A guest bedroom next to that and in the hallway access to an enormous walk in closet.
Further down the hall a utility room, laundry room, bathroom and at least two more rooms for just storage and stuff.
Outside, a one car garage, two additional parking spots and a lawn with thick green soft grass. The yard isn’t huge but plenty for a garden, a trampoline for the kids, a sitting area outside the covered porch and some space to just run around on.
Now, there’s just one problem, the tenants living there now still don’t know when and where they will move, just that they want to get in to town, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it will work out fast and smooth for all.
Full of impressions and thoughts we walked back home to Peter and Lena and picked up lawn chairs and our food baskets and walked over to where the party was held. It was very nice to get to meet so many of the families out here at once, and there were a few that I know and remember from back in the days. I think it was close to 60 people there and tons of kids that our kids will go to school with so it was nice for them too to get to see some of the kids before school starts.
Even though it had rained so hard the day before and even sprinkled some earlier the sun came out and the weather really turned out great for the evening. So we sat outside eating the most delicious, huge crawfish fished from the little creek just a few hundred feet away. Ahhh, what a life!!!
How Difficult Can It Be To Get A Phone?
The next couple of days at the summer home we tried to get things accomplished at the same time as we wanted to make sure that we got time to enjoy the last few days together with fishing, walks in the woods, fikas and some good foods.
Finally my numbers got reconnected and we could go and pick up the car!!! The dealer had been nice and let us borrow a small Nissan while we waited for my stuff to go through but to get the one we had looked out felt pretty good!
Since my numbers were working again I thought we’d go by the phone place and get a phone and access to the world again. Said and done, we walked in, picked out a black iPhone 4 with the services I wanted and were about to get a contract when the sales guy says, well, I can’t get you a phone because you have not been living in Sweden for 8 months yet…. YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME????!!!!!!!!
Now I can’t contain myself and I explode… seriously? And the guy says that it’s because so many people come in, get a nice phone and then leave the country to never be seen again… sigh! He says the only way to get around that is to have someone sign up for a contract for me and I pay through them for the first 8 months. Luckily I have a wonderful family and Peter promised to be my “parent” and go in there with me one day next week and sign the contract for me.
Finally my numbers got reconnected and we could go and pick up the car!!! The dealer had been nice and let us borrow a small Nissan while we waited for my stuff to go through but to get the one we had looked out felt pretty good!
Since my numbers were working again I thought we’d go by the phone place and get a phone and access to the world again. Said and done, we walked in, picked out a black iPhone 4 with the services I wanted and were about to get a contract when the sales guy says, well, I can’t get you a phone because you have not been living in Sweden for 8 months yet…. YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME????!!!!!!!!
Now I can’t contain myself and I explode… seriously? And the guy says that it’s because so many people come in, get a nice phone and then leave the country to never be seen again… sigh! He says the only way to get around that is to have someone sign up for a contract for me and I pay through them for the first 8 months. Luckily I have a wonderful family and Peter promised to be my “parent” and go in there with me one day next week and sign the contract for me.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
August 11th
We took a break from fixing things today and just explored the woods around us. And went looking for mushrooms!!! Tons and tons of Chanterelles are growing in the woods at this time of the year and we picked two full bags of them! Yum!!!
August 10th
Trying to be a Swede again is trickier than I ever thought it would be.
Dale and I took a trip to the tax authorities today to give them all the paper work needed for us to be legally in Sweden. For me and the kids that shouldn’t be any problem since we’re Swedish citizens all three of us, and for Dale since he’s both married to me and the father of three Swedish kids that shouldn’t make it hard for him to get a permanent residency either…. Or so we thought!
A very nice lady told me I had to bring the kids with me to get registered and Dale has to go through the Migration authorities first and preferable through the Swedish embassy in the US.
So we left the tax place and went to go get a phone.
People are different in Sweden, they do not look you in the eye, they don’t say excuse me if they cut in front of you or actually they don’t say much at all to you.
We just noticed that on our short walk up to the mall where the phone shop was located. There we realized that it’s not easy to get a phone either. Since I’ve been living in the US for the last 11 years my personal number (my birth date plus a four digit number, is used for absolutely everything, from borrowing a book at the local library to voting) has been frozen so no one can use it. Smart, and I like that idea, but now I find out that it’s not that easy to unfreeze that number when I move back. It can take up to 2 weeks from the time I get all my documents to the tax authority… sigh! We left the phone store without a phone and frustrated.
Back out to the summer home where we’re staying until we move in with Peter and Lena.
We went fishing on the lake, nothing is more relaxing and soul healing than sitting in our boat on our lake with a fishing pole in my hand, looking at the shore line, reflecting over trees that fallen since last time, watching the loon land, and dive on the calm water, rinsing my hands in the cool water to get rid of the fish slime after taking a too small to keep pike off the hook and throwing him back in the lake.
Aahh, now everything feels much better!
August 9th
We’re finally here, so much has happened and it’s hard to know where to start. I think I last put something on there when we were reaching the Azores.
After being there for less than 24 hours we got through the PAX terminal (Dale’s great fear) with no problems what so ever and made it to Germany in much faster speed than expected, thanks to Chris McDonald!
The best and greatest crew ever that flew us all across the Atlantic finally landed at Ramstein AFB in the middle of the night. All the par shooters and us got off and while they loaded a bus to lodging on base we called a can cab and loaded all our 8 A3 bags and everything else to go to our hotel.
I just have to mention the crew. The best loadmasters in the world Matt and Adam, with their apprentices Heather and Carlos, made sure we were as comfortable as we possibly could. All of them, crew chiefs, navs, pilots and engineers really impressed me on this trip and I’m so proud to have a small part of the 52nd Roos and the best squadron on earth!
In Germany, Kaiserslautern we’re settling in at the Hotel America. A small very cozy hotel with no AC and the microwave out in the laundry room!!! We were so hungry we had to eat something when we got there and we heated some microwavable food up at 3am and got to bed totally exhausted. Those 8 bags were not easy to haul and this was just the first leg.
Breakfast was served and it almost brought tears to my eyes. So not American with real silver ware, coffee cups on a saucer, cheese, ham and marmalade for your bread and two different kinds of yogurts.
The first night’s chauffeur on the taxi ride was a very friendly German feller so we thought we’d use the same company to get a ride to Kaiserslautern train terminal. Big Mistake!!! The lady that came this time was a grumpy, rude and not service minded at all!! But she got us the train station and I guess that’s what’s important…
We had to print our tickets there, and I got in to the ticket counter, waited for my turn for about 10 minutes and when it was my turn the lady at the counter told me with a snotty voice that she couldn’t help me but I had to get the tickets out of a machine out in the hall. Since my German isn’t the best it was a struggle to understand what buttons to press and where to go on the machine but after a while I got the tickets and we started the haul again to the right platform.
4 different trains, 8 different hauls, totally rude people, no help, Erik falling out of his bunk bed in the middle of the night on the night train with a huge bruise on his back, bathrooms that don’t work, 24 hours straight, blisters on our palms, fingers and hands, Syssa throwing up in the walkway on the last train…. A summon of the last 24 hours on rails, until we finally reached my hometown of Norrköpng and my two cousins Stefan and Peter greeted us at the platform.
WE ARE IN SWEDEN!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)