Hello My Friends,
I know it has been several months since I have written. Well, quite a bit has happened in the last few months.
In February I went to Austin, Texas for 12 days. I had a great time visiting with my niece and her family. I spent a lot of time just enjoying the US and the sun!!!
At the end of March, we travelled back to Washington DC to see Allison and her family and then we headed to Las Vegas for some more sun time and drag racing. We had an awesome time again just enjoying all the choices we have in the United States.
Two weeks ago, we went to Paris. We had never been and had the opportunity to meet up with our good friends from Boston. I have to tell you, the Eiffel Tower is pretty awesome along with the other historical sites.
Two weeks from tomorrow (June 28th), we are leaving Sweden. David had worked it out to finish his contract in Houston, because we just were not happy here. They agreed and we were on track to do that, but then another opportunity has come along. We will be heading back to our "Sweet Home, Chicago"! David was given an offer too good to pass up and it means going back to where we feel our "real" home is. We have spent the majority of our married life there, our children graduated from high school there and the chance to do many activities is so abundant. We have not had choices for a long time, so hopefully, we will not feel overwhelmed. I am looking forward to buying a house and staying there for a very long time.
Sweden has been a learning experience and we are able to put things we learned into life lessons and can use this experience in the future, so that aspect has been very good for us. We are grateful that we had the chance to try living in another country and seeing what it is like to be an ex-pat. We are very proud at this point to be Americans!!!
I have enjoyed updating you on our time here in Sweden, but I am so delighted to be going home. Thank you for listening to me during the hard times and for being interested in our experience. I appreciate your friendship.
My dear friends have my private email and that will not change, so you can still contact me via email, it works no matter where I live.
Take care and thanks again for all of your support.
Much love,
Bridgette
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Some 'Splainin To Do
Happy Tuesday,
I am writing from foggy, grey, gloomy Älmhult. No this day is not unlike all the others. :)
After writing my blog yesterday, I thought about it and decided I need to explain myself a little more to all of you. I really do not want you all to think that I have not tried or I have given up completely. Perhaps, it will help you to understand some of the barriers that make it hard to live here. I think Sweden is a lovely place. Much of the scenery is beautiful but it is nice to visit, not live in on an daily basis. I am a city girl who loves her sunshine!
As you saw in yesterday's post, I talked about IKEA and most of the town being closed on New Year's Eve. Well, it is not just this one day that makes it rough. In Älmhult, the town closes at 2:00 pm on Saturdays, everything, but the grocery store is closed on Sundays and during the week, all the stores close at 6:00. This proves frustrating if you and your husband would like to go to the store and look at something, but it is closed. The hardware store closes at 1:00 pm on Saturdays. You cannot even easily work on home repairs. Yes, it is nice that families have time to spend together, but when my husband works past 5:00 pm most nights, it is hard to find time to go to the store. On Sunday mornings, we go to the grocery store between 9 and 10 am so we can avoid the crowd that comes at 11:00. There is no where else to go on Sundays, so it seems as if the whole town comes to the ICA Maxi. Even Mayberry (Andy Griffith Show) had more to do than we do in Älmhult.
Another thing we cannot do so easily is go to the movies. Movies are shown on Friday, Sunday and Wednesday nights at 7:00 pm. However, many movies are shown only one time and if you by chance have something else to do, you miss the movie. We do get some of the newer movies here, thanks to the money IKEA has spent on the movie theater, but we can go months without there being a movie we want to see. We do not have a movie theater with many screens and much to choose from. If you want to go to the movies in another town, you have to by your ticket online and you get assigned a seat. Not the same idea of doing something on the spur of the moment or a rainy day.
I also spoke about going to Copenhagen by train. Well, I figured out that when we take the train we leave our house at 8:30 am, walk to the train station and the soonest we get to Copenhagen is 11:00 am. That does not give you a lot of time to do shopping, visit musueums and such. The cost round trip is $100 with the discount we get for buying a family ticket. Then you add in a late lunch/early dinner for about another $75 dollars, for a decent meal and about $50 for a museum visit and you are looking at about a $300 day. Then we get home by about 8:00 pm. Yes, we have a good time, but it seems like a lot of money for a day outing.
Even if we eat at McDonald's or Burger King it costs us about $30 for a basic menu meal. If we even want to go to one of these places, it is an hour drive. So, this does not happen often. Also, there is not much more to do in the other towns either. There is no reason to waste the gas and money to go to another town that is not much different than the one we live in.
Another thing is that many of the people that do live in Älmhult, leave every weekend to go to their other houses either on the coast or in bigger towns. We have talked about this and it seems it would be stressful to leave every Friday night, get to the other house, run to the grocery store and then get your weekend started, only to return late on Sunday night or early Monday morning in time for work. They live in Älmhult to work, but really do not want to live here. Which is many ways, not different than we feel, but we do not want to add additional stress to our lives by all that running around. Plus, gas costs about 4 times more here than what it costs in the US.
As you all know, I have spent most of my time here trying to find a job. Well, due to headcount issues and the fact that I am not Swedish nor speak Swedish, it is impossible for me to get a job. Yes, I have had temporary jobs, but nothing of substance that utilizes my brain. I am not a person that can sit still and do nothing as many of you know. I just recently read an article written by an American who is living in Stockholm that cannot get a job either. Here is the article, take a look at the comments if you can, they are quite interesting. Many people have a false sense that they will get a job here if they speak Swedish. My personal experience is that you have to be Swedish, unless you want a crappy job that no one else will do. However, this guy cannot even get that!
Yes, it would be cool to stay at home and work on all the things that I want to work on, but the problem is, Sweden does not have the same kinds of crafts and supplies that we have in America. There is no selection of supplies really. Yes, if you like basic colored yarn, then life would be good. I do not like basic yarn and I like to have a selection of other things to do. I have searched high and low, to no avail. So I am not able to take advantage of the things I like to do in my spare time.
One of the biggest frustrations is that in Sweden everyone is equal (not that this is a bad thing), but no one questions anything. They accept everything at face value. If someone tells them "No" they do not question "why". I was not raised to just accept things. No one thinks outside of the cultural box. They are afraid to, especially at the company that David works for. You are just expected to follow because that is the way. We have found that this company in many ways is like a cult. You must drink the "cultural Kool-aid", if you will, to fit in. I cannot tell you how many times people have told David what we should do for the weekend or for our free time. Everyone thinks that they can just tell you how it should be. When it came out that I was looking for a job elsewhere, people actually asked if we would split up because David has a contract here. I told them that David likes the company he works for, but he loves me. They did not know how to answer that. Many of the people have not worked elsewhere and have not lived outside of this town, so they do not know what it is like to have a choice or want to have a choice. We have choices, like it or not.
The other thing is people do not understand why we do not want to live here for the rest of our lives. Yes, Sweden is nice and they have great benefits for families, but we no longer have small children and frankly, if we did, I would not want them to go to school in Sweden. They do not even start teaching their children until they are 7! This is why the society is the way they are. They are missing out on the early developments of their brains. Anyhow, back to living here forever, Sweden is a good country for those who come from countries that do not have all the things we have in the US, but for a United States citizen, Sweden is not the place to permanently live. It is our choice not to live here permanently.
Working and living in Sweden is a cultural experience, but not necessarily the cultural experience that David and I were looking for. I hope that some of this explains where we are coming from. I have pretty much become a hermit. I am not going out except for Sundays, when we go to the grocery store. I tried going to the Activity House to walk/run on the treadmill, but that did not work out either. People kept taking my times that I had signed up for, so I gave up. You all know that this is not me, but there is no where to go or anything to do.
I hope that our status changes soon.
Thanks for listening.
Much love,
Bridgette
I am writing from foggy, grey, gloomy Älmhult. No this day is not unlike all the others. :)
After writing my blog yesterday, I thought about it and decided I need to explain myself a little more to all of you. I really do not want you all to think that I have not tried or I have given up completely. Perhaps, it will help you to understand some of the barriers that make it hard to live here. I think Sweden is a lovely place. Much of the scenery is beautiful but it is nice to visit, not live in on an daily basis. I am a city girl who loves her sunshine!
As you saw in yesterday's post, I talked about IKEA and most of the town being closed on New Year's Eve. Well, it is not just this one day that makes it rough. In Älmhult, the town closes at 2:00 pm on Saturdays, everything, but the grocery store is closed on Sundays and during the week, all the stores close at 6:00. This proves frustrating if you and your husband would like to go to the store and look at something, but it is closed. The hardware store closes at 1:00 pm on Saturdays. You cannot even easily work on home repairs. Yes, it is nice that families have time to spend together, but when my husband works past 5:00 pm most nights, it is hard to find time to go to the store. On Sunday mornings, we go to the grocery store between 9 and 10 am so we can avoid the crowd that comes at 11:00. There is no where else to go on Sundays, so it seems as if the whole town comes to the ICA Maxi. Even Mayberry (Andy Griffith Show) had more to do than we do in Älmhult.
Another thing we cannot do so easily is go to the movies. Movies are shown on Friday, Sunday and Wednesday nights at 7:00 pm. However, many movies are shown only one time and if you by chance have something else to do, you miss the movie. We do get some of the newer movies here, thanks to the money IKEA has spent on the movie theater, but we can go months without there being a movie we want to see. We do not have a movie theater with many screens and much to choose from. If you want to go to the movies in another town, you have to by your ticket online and you get assigned a seat. Not the same idea of doing something on the spur of the moment or a rainy day.
I also spoke about going to Copenhagen by train. Well, I figured out that when we take the train we leave our house at 8:30 am, walk to the train station and the soonest we get to Copenhagen is 11:00 am. That does not give you a lot of time to do shopping, visit musueums and such. The cost round trip is $100 with the discount we get for buying a family ticket. Then you add in a late lunch/early dinner for about another $75 dollars, for a decent meal and about $50 for a museum visit and you are looking at about a $300 day. Then we get home by about 8:00 pm. Yes, we have a good time, but it seems like a lot of money for a day outing.
Even if we eat at McDonald's or Burger King it costs us about $30 for a basic menu meal. If we even want to go to one of these places, it is an hour drive. So, this does not happen often. Also, there is not much more to do in the other towns either. There is no reason to waste the gas and money to go to another town that is not much different than the one we live in.
Another thing is that many of the people that do live in Älmhult, leave every weekend to go to their other houses either on the coast or in bigger towns. We have talked about this and it seems it would be stressful to leave every Friday night, get to the other house, run to the grocery store and then get your weekend started, only to return late on Sunday night or early Monday morning in time for work. They live in Älmhult to work, but really do not want to live here. Which is many ways, not different than we feel, but we do not want to add additional stress to our lives by all that running around. Plus, gas costs about 4 times more here than what it costs in the US.
As you all know, I have spent most of my time here trying to find a job. Well, due to headcount issues and the fact that I am not Swedish nor speak Swedish, it is impossible for me to get a job. Yes, I have had temporary jobs, but nothing of substance that utilizes my brain. I am not a person that can sit still and do nothing as many of you know. I just recently read an article written by an American who is living in Stockholm that cannot get a job either. Here is the article, take a look at the comments if you can, they are quite interesting. Many people have a false sense that they will get a job here if they speak Swedish. My personal experience is that you have to be Swedish, unless you want a crappy job that no one else will do. However, this guy cannot even get that!
Yes, it would be cool to stay at home and work on all the things that I want to work on, but the problem is, Sweden does not have the same kinds of crafts and supplies that we have in America. There is no selection of supplies really. Yes, if you like basic colored yarn, then life would be good. I do not like basic yarn and I like to have a selection of other things to do. I have searched high and low, to no avail. So I am not able to take advantage of the things I like to do in my spare time.
One of the biggest frustrations is that in Sweden everyone is equal (not that this is a bad thing), but no one questions anything. They accept everything at face value. If someone tells them "No" they do not question "why". I was not raised to just accept things. No one thinks outside of the cultural box. They are afraid to, especially at the company that David works for. You are just expected to follow because that is the way. We have found that this company in many ways is like a cult. You must drink the "cultural Kool-aid", if you will, to fit in. I cannot tell you how many times people have told David what we should do for the weekend or for our free time. Everyone thinks that they can just tell you how it should be. When it came out that I was looking for a job elsewhere, people actually asked if we would split up because David has a contract here. I told them that David likes the company he works for, but he loves me. They did not know how to answer that. Many of the people have not worked elsewhere and have not lived outside of this town, so they do not know what it is like to have a choice or want to have a choice. We have choices, like it or not.
The other thing is people do not understand why we do not want to live here for the rest of our lives. Yes, Sweden is nice and they have great benefits for families, but we no longer have small children and frankly, if we did, I would not want them to go to school in Sweden. They do not even start teaching their children until they are 7! This is why the society is the way they are. They are missing out on the early developments of their brains. Anyhow, back to living here forever, Sweden is a good country for those who come from countries that do not have all the things we have in the US, but for a United States citizen, Sweden is not the place to permanently live. It is our choice not to live here permanently.
Working and living in Sweden is a cultural experience, but not necessarily the cultural experience that David and I were looking for. I hope that some of this explains where we are coming from. I have pretty much become a hermit. I am not going out except for Sundays, when we go to the grocery store. I tried going to the Activity House to walk/run on the treadmill, but that did not work out either. People kept taking my times that I had signed up for, so I gave up. You all know that this is not me, but there is no where to go or anything to do.
I hope that our status changes soon.
Thanks for listening.
Much love,
Bridgette
Monday, January 7, 2013
Roman Holiday
Happy 2013!!!
Well another year has passed and I wish you all the best for the next year to come. I am certainly hoping for a good year for both David and I and the rest of our family.
David and I celebrated Christmas this year in Rome. We had a great time with temperatures in the mid 50's to 60's and a lot more sunshine than we have had here in Sweden. We had quite a bit of snow in December, but now it has all melted and does not look as pretty as the snow makes it look. Unfortunately, the weather here has been very glum and gray. Not so good for lifting the spirits.
However, Rome did lift my spirits and we spent everyday walking and walking and more walking. We probably walked between 6 and 10 miles every day. We were so happy to be in Rome and have places to walk to, good food to eat and many things to look at. The history there is so amazing! To be able to walk down a narrow street and come to the end where it widens and there is another massive piece of history, is really cool! I would post some pictures, but for some reason, I cannot get it to work today. If you are interested, email me and I can send you a PowerPoint show that we put together. Sorry about that.
Anyhow, Rome made us very happy, happier than we have been a in long while. Coming back to Sweden was very hard. We returned on the evening of the 27th. People think that by living in Sweden, it would be easy to visit the rest of Europe. What we did not consider was by living 2 hours from Copenhagen adds many hours to our travel. Rome is only about 2 hours from Copenhagen. So the flight is not so bad, but consider we left the hotel at 11:00 am and did not arrive home until 9:15 pm. It seems everywhere we want to go it takes at least 8 hours, so it is hard to decide to go somewhere, because you use a day up, just with travel. On the way to Rome, we had to leave for the airport the day before and get a hotel room. This is because the trains do not run early enough in the day to catch an early flight and then you have to allow extra time in case the trains are not running on schedule or there is some sort of crazy delay. We have to put a lot of thought into traveling, when we were hoping that by being here we could see more of Europe.
Well, since the 27th David had the opportunity to experience my life here. When you are not working people do not realize that there is not much going on in Älmhult and NOTHING to do. Therefore, it made him realize how important it is for me to have something to do. I have exhausted every possibility of having a job here, so we have both started looking for jobs back in the good ole USA. We are hoping that something will come through and we can leave this summer. Yes, working for IKEA has its benefits, but with as many benefits it has, we are not sure they outweigh the cost of living here. I do not mean monetary cost, but cost of one's sanity and mental health. If it wasn't for some of the things David has set up for me to see TV shows from the US, then I would have lost more of my sanity sooner. At least I am able to keep up with the trends, shows and the news.
A couple of funny stories: on Monday, the 31st, David said for a change we could go to the new IKEA store for breakfast. So I get up and get ready, we head out to the store and find out that it is closed. We did not know things were closed here on New Year's Eve! So, we ended up stopping at the bakery for a roll. Not exactly what I wanted, but it had to do. So, then David promised me breakfast on the 2nd. Again, we got up and went to IKEA, they were open this time, but they did not have what we were hoping for, so we had to get a roll and the rolls from IKEA in Sweden are not like the cinnamon rolls you get at IKEA in the US. There is no hope for me to get a real breakfast here, except what I can make at home and the bacon we get here in Sweden does not hold a candle to the bacon we are used to from home. So my husband tries to make things better, but due to Swedish customs it kind of gets in the way!
I hope you all a fabulous year!
Keep us in your prayers.
Love,
Bridgette
Well another year has passed and I wish you all the best for the next year to come. I am certainly hoping for a good year for both David and I and the rest of our family.
David and I celebrated Christmas this year in Rome. We had a great time with temperatures in the mid 50's to 60's and a lot more sunshine than we have had here in Sweden. We had quite a bit of snow in December, but now it has all melted and does not look as pretty as the snow makes it look. Unfortunately, the weather here has been very glum and gray. Not so good for lifting the spirits.
However, Rome did lift my spirits and we spent everyday walking and walking and more walking. We probably walked between 6 and 10 miles every day. We were so happy to be in Rome and have places to walk to, good food to eat and many things to look at. The history there is so amazing! To be able to walk down a narrow street and come to the end where it widens and there is another massive piece of history, is really cool! I would post some pictures, but for some reason, I cannot get it to work today. If you are interested, email me and I can send you a PowerPoint show that we put together. Sorry about that.
Anyhow, Rome made us very happy, happier than we have been a in long while. Coming back to Sweden was very hard. We returned on the evening of the 27th. People think that by living in Sweden, it would be easy to visit the rest of Europe. What we did not consider was by living 2 hours from Copenhagen adds many hours to our travel. Rome is only about 2 hours from Copenhagen. So the flight is not so bad, but consider we left the hotel at 11:00 am and did not arrive home until 9:15 pm. It seems everywhere we want to go it takes at least 8 hours, so it is hard to decide to go somewhere, because you use a day up, just with travel. On the way to Rome, we had to leave for the airport the day before and get a hotel room. This is because the trains do not run early enough in the day to catch an early flight and then you have to allow extra time in case the trains are not running on schedule or there is some sort of crazy delay. We have to put a lot of thought into traveling, when we were hoping that by being here we could see more of Europe.
Well, since the 27th David had the opportunity to experience my life here. When you are not working people do not realize that there is not much going on in Älmhult and NOTHING to do. Therefore, it made him realize how important it is for me to have something to do. I have exhausted every possibility of having a job here, so we have both started looking for jobs back in the good ole USA. We are hoping that something will come through and we can leave this summer. Yes, working for IKEA has its benefits, but with as many benefits it has, we are not sure they outweigh the cost of living here. I do not mean monetary cost, but cost of one's sanity and mental health. If it wasn't for some of the things David has set up for me to see TV shows from the US, then I would have lost more of my sanity sooner. At least I am able to keep up with the trends, shows and the news.
A couple of funny stories: on Monday, the 31st, David said for a change we could go to the new IKEA store for breakfast. So I get up and get ready, we head out to the store and find out that it is closed. We did not know things were closed here on New Year's Eve! So, we ended up stopping at the bakery for a roll. Not exactly what I wanted, but it had to do. So, then David promised me breakfast on the 2nd. Again, we got up and went to IKEA, they were open this time, but they did not have what we were hoping for, so we had to get a roll and the rolls from IKEA in Sweden are not like the cinnamon rolls you get at IKEA in the US. There is no hope for me to get a real breakfast here, except what I can make at home and the bacon we get here in Sweden does not hold a candle to the bacon we are used to from home. So my husband tries to make things better, but due to Swedish customs it kind of gets in the way!
I hope you all a fabulous year!
Keep us in your prayers.
Love,
Bridgette
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Another Christmas Season
December 16, 2012
Yes, it is our second Christmas Season in Sweden. No, we are not enjoying it any more, sorry to say. We do have snow. The snow came on December 1st and pretty much snowed a few inches each day for a week, it does look very wintery and Christmas-y here.
We started the Christmas season by attending a Glögg party on December 1st. Basically glögg is just mulled wine. Some of it is good and other kinds taste like warm lemonade. You drink glögg warm with almonds and raisins in it. You serve it with pepperkaka. The Systembolaget (the liquor store) has a special glögg each year. This year it was Japanese. I thought it tasted better the other types I have tasted. One cup is enough for me.
This year on Sunday, December 2nd we did go to the town's Tree Lighting Ceremony and First Day of Advent "Celebration". On this day, the stores in town are open from 3:00pm to 7:00pm for the "Celebration". People were telling me that they change the windows for Christmas. I was thinking maybe, perhaps they would decorate them like we are used to. No, they just put festive clothes in the windows. Nothing like Macy's, Marshall Fields or Carson Pirie Scotts! The whole "Celebration" was a bit lame and mostly it was just groups selling lottery tickets for strange items.
Here in Sweden it appears that Advent is celebrated more than Christmas. You can buy candles and candle holders with the numbers 1-4 on them. However, you do not find any items with Jesus, Angels or the like on them. The Christmas cards are quite secular, not any that have the real meaning of Christmas.
This week on Thursday the 13th we celebrated St. Lucia Day. This is a very important day to the Swedish Society. The local Lions Club sponsors a contest for local girls to be selected as the town's Lucia. There are seven girls and the town is able to vote for the one they want. This is a big honor for the girls who are usually about 16 and have aspired to be Lucia since they were young. The Lucia then travels around the town on Lucia Day and sings songs about Pepperkaka and Luciabullar (ginger snaps and saffron rolls among other songs. None of them really Christmas related, at least to us. Here is an article about Lucia Day that I found.
After reading the article about Lucia then you might find this article about what happened at a school in Sweden when a child wanted to be an angel for Lucia Day. I found it quite interesting.
Another interesting thing about Swedish "Christmas" is the "Santa Claus", the one they pictured in the local newspaper was down right scary! The picture showed a man with a scary mask and they expect the kids to go up to him. Heck, I am scared of the picture, I think the kids should be scared. I will take a Santa with a fake beard over a Santa with a scary mask. (Sorry, I could not find the picture electronically).
Enough about Swedish "Christmas", we are off to Rome to celebrate Christmas in the Roman Catholic tradition. We are looking forward to our trip!
Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!
Love, Bridgette
Yes, it is our second Christmas Season in Sweden. No, we are not enjoying it any more, sorry to say. We do have snow. The snow came on December 1st and pretty much snowed a few inches each day for a week, it does look very wintery and Christmas-y here.
We started the Christmas season by attending a Glögg party on December 1st. Basically glögg is just mulled wine. Some of it is good and other kinds taste like warm lemonade. You drink glögg warm with almonds and raisins in it. You serve it with pepperkaka. The Systembolaget (the liquor store) has a special glögg each year. This year it was Japanese. I thought it tasted better the other types I have tasted. One cup is enough for me.
This year on Sunday, December 2nd we did go to the town's Tree Lighting Ceremony and First Day of Advent "Celebration". On this day, the stores in town are open from 3:00pm to 7:00pm for the "Celebration". People were telling me that they change the windows for Christmas. I was thinking maybe, perhaps they would decorate them like we are used to. No, they just put festive clothes in the windows. Nothing like Macy's, Marshall Fields or Carson Pirie Scotts! The whole "Celebration" was a bit lame and mostly it was just groups selling lottery tickets for strange items.
Here in Sweden it appears that Advent is celebrated more than Christmas. You can buy candles and candle holders with the numbers 1-4 on them. However, you do not find any items with Jesus, Angels or the like on them. The Christmas cards are quite secular, not any that have the real meaning of Christmas.
This week on Thursday the 13th we celebrated St. Lucia Day. This is a very important day to the Swedish Society. The local Lions Club sponsors a contest for local girls to be selected as the town's Lucia. There are seven girls and the town is able to vote for the one they want. This is a big honor for the girls who are usually about 16 and have aspired to be Lucia since they were young. The Lucia then travels around the town on Lucia Day and sings songs about Pepperkaka and Luciabullar (ginger snaps and saffron rolls among other songs. None of them really Christmas related, at least to us. Here is an article about Lucia Day that I found.
After reading the article about Lucia then you might find this article about what happened at a school in Sweden when a child wanted to be an angel for Lucia Day. I found it quite interesting.
Another interesting thing about Swedish "Christmas" is the "Santa Claus", the one they pictured in the local newspaper was down right scary! The picture showed a man with a scary mask and they expect the kids to go up to him. Heck, I am scared of the picture, I think the kids should be scared. I will take a Santa with a fake beard over a Santa with a scary mask. (Sorry, I could not find the picture electronically).
Enough about Swedish "Christmas", we are off to Rome to celebrate Christmas in the Roman Catholic tradition. We are looking forward to our trip!
Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!
Love, Bridgette
Sunday, November 25, 2012
I Am Remiss
Happy Sunday after Thanksgiving!
I made a mistake! I told you that there was nothing new in Älmhult, well I forgot that we have a brand new IKEA store, a new traffic light and another traffic circle. Funny thing about the traffic light, it has been up for a month now and I have actually only seen it on once and had to stop. All of the other times it is off. Not sure why, but it is what it is. Älmhult is starting to get with the late 20th century. No they have not yet made it to the 21st century since they are still backwards on so many things.
The new IKEA store is nice, it looks exactly like the new store in Colorado. Everyone is so excited by it. I had the opportunity last week to go to the store at 7:00 am while Country Managers and their colleagues came to tour the new store. I was amazed at how many people found it so cool. They were running around taking pictures with their phones and such. I guess I am a bit cynical, but all the IKEA stores look the same, yes, some are smaller and some are bigger, but the concept is the same. I think it is pretty neat that I have had the opportunity to have visited both the newest stores in Sweden and in the States. However, when people ask me what I think about the new store, again I say it is nice, but it looks the same as all the others. Sometimes their response is that they have not seen anything so big. However, there are stores in Helsingborg and Malmö that were built in the last two years and they look the same as the new store in Älmhult. I cannot figure it out, both places are not that far away from here and many had to go to these stores to get merchandise that the Älmhult store did not carry before November 2nd. I cannot explain it. Here is a picture of the store opening. I also just found out that the store has the very first escalator in Älmhult. Pretty amazing!
Yesterday, we went to Thanksgiving Dinner at another American's house. There was 14 of us with 4 children. Most everyone was from the Philadelphia area since that is where IKEA's Service Office is located. We had a very nice time and dinner was excellent. Yes, there was turkey, ham, lots of vegetables, including the famous green bean casserole, cranberries, and pecan pie. No, I did not eat the turkey or the ham and no green bean casserole, but David was happy to have some turkey, since he never gets it at our house and said the green bean casserole was good.
I was also happy to hear that many of the people we were with are experiencing the same struggles and fighting boredness as we are. Again, it is difficult to live in the middle of the forest when you are used to the bigger cities in the States. Right now, we are all struggling with the lack of daylight since the sun is not coming up until 8:00 am and it goes down at 3:00. Then add gray and rainy to it and it feels darker yet. By the time the Winter Solstice comes on the 21st of December, the sun will be coming up at 9:00 and going down by about 2:30ish.
David and I booked our trip for Christmas today. We are going to spend 5 days in Rome. Since, we live in the middle of the forest, we will have to leave the day before and spend the night in Copenhagen, since on the weekends the first train out of Älmhult is 8:53 am. There is no way we can make it to the airport for a flight that leaves in the morning. Always, an extra cost in time or money, but at least we get a vacation! We have never been and are looking forward to seeing some new sights and being in Rome for the Holidays. I think it will be pretty cool. Not sure yet, if we will join the millions at the Vatican to hear the Pope speak, but I will let you know if we decide to do it.
Talk to you soon.
Have a Happy Day!
I made a mistake! I told you that there was nothing new in Älmhult, well I forgot that we have a brand new IKEA store, a new traffic light and another traffic circle. Funny thing about the traffic light, it has been up for a month now and I have actually only seen it on once and had to stop. All of the other times it is off. Not sure why, but it is what it is. Älmhult is starting to get with the late 20th century. No they have not yet made it to the 21st century since they are still backwards on so many things.
The new IKEA store is nice, it looks exactly like the new store in Colorado. Everyone is so excited by it. I had the opportunity last week to go to the store at 7:00 am while Country Managers and their colleagues came to tour the new store. I was amazed at how many people found it so cool. They were running around taking pictures with their phones and such. I guess I am a bit cynical, but all the IKEA stores look the same, yes, some are smaller and some are bigger, but the concept is the same. I think it is pretty neat that I have had the opportunity to have visited both the newest stores in Sweden and in the States. However, when people ask me what I think about the new store, again I say it is nice, but it looks the same as all the others. Sometimes their response is that they have not seen anything so big. However, there are stores in Helsingborg and Malmö that were built in the last two years and they look the same as the new store in Älmhult. I cannot figure it out, both places are not that far away from here and many had to go to these stores to get merchandise that the Älmhult store did not carry before November 2nd. I cannot explain it. Here is a picture of the store opening. I also just found out that the store has the very first escalator in Älmhult. Pretty amazing!
Yesterday, we went to Thanksgiving Dinner at another American's house. There was 14 of us with 4 children. Most everyone was from the Philadelphia area since that is where IKEA's Service Office is located. We had a very nice time and dinner was excellent. Yes, there was turkey, ham, lots of vegetables, including the famous green bean casserole, cranberries, and pecan pie. No, I did not eat the turkey or the ham and no green bean casserole, but David was happy to have some turkey, since he never gets it at our house and said the green bean casserole was good.
I was also happy to hear that many of the people we were with are experiencing the same struggles and fighting boredness as we are. Again, it is difficult to live in the middle of the forest when you are used to the bigger cities in the States. Right now, we are all struggling with the lack of daylight since the sun is not coming up until 8:00 am and it goes down at 3:00. Then add gray and rainy to it and it feels darker yet. By the time the Winter Solstice comes on the 21st of December, the sun will be coming up at 9:00 and going down by about 2:30ish.
David and I booked our trip for Christmas today. We are going to spend 5 days in Rome. Since, we live in the middle of the forest, we will have to leave the day before and spend the night in Copenhagen, since on the weekends the first train out of Älmhult is 8:53 am. There is no way we can make it to the airport for a flight that leaves in the morning. Always, an extra cost in time or money, but at least we get a vacation! We have never been and are looking forward to seeing some new sights and being in Rome for the Holidays. I think it will be pretty cool. Not sure yet, if we will join the millions at the Vatican to hear the Pope speak, but I will let you know if we decide to do it.
Talk to you soon.
Have a Happy Day!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving
Hi and Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends.
I cannot believe another year has passed and again we are celebrating Thanksgiving in Sweden. Actually, David is at work and I am at home. On Saturday, we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving with some people from the US. That should be a treat! At least it will give us an excuse to get out of the house.
Nothing much has been going on lately. My contract ended last Friday, so I have been at home this week, catching up on things I was not able to do since I was busy working. A couple of weeks, I worked 56 hours! I am glad to catch up on my rest and everything else.
At this point, I do not have another contract. There is a headcount problem, so there are not any jobs available at this time. This is a bit frustrating, because I really do not have anything to do unless I work. Hopefully, something will happen on the work front soon.
I started teaching Conversational English two weeks ago, tonight will be my third class. The class is going well. I was surprised that I have two Swedish students, one gentleman from Lithuania and a young girl from Thailand. I think it is quite amazing to be living in the middle of the Swedish forest and have the opportunity to meet so many people from different places. What a bonus! They all speak English, but at different levels. I am having fun learning things from them and I believe they are having fun as well.
David has been really busy with work, luckily he has not had to travel too much lately. I am happy about that part!
We decorated our house for Christmas last weekend. Decorating took about 15 minutes total. We do not have too many decorations here, but we did find a couple of table top trees to decorate, so it looks kind of festive.
We do not have any snow, yet. The last two weeks have been very foggy, damp and grey.
I think we are going to make plans to celebrate Christmas in Rome this year. We really want to come home, but Christmas is not a good time. Perhaps we will make a trip in the spring.
I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving and I will write again soon. I hope something exciting will happen soon, I would love to share happy news with you.
Much love,
Bridgette
I cannot believe another year has passed and again we are celebrating Thanksgiving in Sweden. Actually, David is at work and I am at home. On Saturday, we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving with some people from the US. That should be a treat! At least it will give us an excuse to get out of the house.
Nothing much has been going on lately. My contract ended last Friday, so I have been at home this week, catching up on things I was not able to do since I was busy working. A couple of weeks, I worked 56 hours! I am glad to catch up on my rest and everything else.
At this point, I do not have another contract. There is a headcount problem, so there are not any jobs available at this time. This is a bit frustrating, because I really do not have anything to do unless I work. Hopefully, something will happen on the work front soon.
I started teaching Conversational English two weeks ago, tonight will be my third class. The class is going well. I was surprised that I have two Swedish students, one gentleman from Lithuania and a young girl from Thailand. I think it is quite amazing to be living in the middle of the Swedish forest and have the opportunity to meet so many people from different places. What a bonus! They all speak English, but at different levels. I am having fun learning things from them and I believe they are having fun as well.
David has been really busy with work, luckily he has not had to travel too much lately. I am happy about that part!
We decorated our house for Christmas last weekend. Decorating took about 15 minutes total. We do not have too many decorations here, but we did find a couple of table top trees to decorate, so it looks kind of festive.
We do not have any snow, yet. The last two weeks have been very foggy, damp and grey.
I think we are going to make plans to celebrate Christmas in Rome this year. We really want to come home, but Christmas is not a good time. Perhaps we will make a trip in the spring.
I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving and I will write again soon. I hope something exciting will happen soon, I would love to share happy news with you.
Much love,
Bridgette
Yes, It is Still a Swedish Adventure
(I thought I has posted this, but apparently, I did not. I will update you with a new post shortly. My apologies.)
Hi Friends,
No, I have not forgotten about you or my blog. On Tuesday, it will be 6 weeks without Internet, Television and Phone Service to our house! I am back to using my mobile broadband device, just so I can do a few things, like check my mail and keep up with the U.S. news and election! It has taken 5 weeks just to convince Telia (the Swedish provider) that a cable was cut somewhere and that they need to fix it. Well, on Tuesday, they finally confirmed that a cable was cut. Then they proceeded to tell us that by Thursday someone would be out to fix it. Well, it is now Sunday and we have had two more phone calls to Telia asking about the situation. Supposedly, it will be fixed tomorrow. I do not hold my breath that this will happen. The worst part is that David has to explain the whole story again and again, everytime he calls and he has called nearly 20 times in the last 6 weeks to get it fixed! No amount of getting upset or requesting to speak to a supervisor works here, everyone is the same and you will be tre Yes, I am still receiving my bills to pay and paying them, I do not want that to be a problem as well.
Anyhow, this incident has made us feel even more isolated and alone here in Sweden because we cannot talk to family, we cannot watch television (we cannot even get Swedish television. We use a VPN and are able to watch Netflix, ESPN, Hulu.com, NBC and CBS), and we have nothing to do, especially on the dreary, rainy days of the weekend. Luckily, I have a friend who likes the same type of television shows that I like (Downton Abbey for example) and she has the capability to record the shows from Britain and then she puts them on a memory stick for me to watch at home on my computer. Yes, I am already watching season 4 of Downton Abbey and it is off to a good start! I have taught her how to find and watch shows from the U.S., so it is a good mix. No, she is not Swedish, she is Australian, so we are on the same page about our Swedish experience.
Our fun meter is getting full in Sweden. Yes, it is a very nice place, but there is not a lot to do and our idea of fun is something completely different from theirs. No, it does not excite me to walk through the forest in search of mushrooms for my dinner. Sorry, but I can think of other things more satisfying. I have to tell you, we were excited last night to actually go to a special Lebanese dinner at our favorite restaurant in town. We were able to dress like humans, I wore a dress and David slacks. We live in blue jeans and our rain coats here because we get rained on all the time, so your hair does not even stay nice. I know, it is a little thing, but what a difference it can make.
Another frustrating thing, people are always amazed by what David and I eat for lunch. We continuously get teased for coming home for lunch to have a sandwich. The idea of a sandwich to the Swedes is half a roll buttered with a slice of cheese and either some sliced peppers or cucumbers. To have meat on the "sandwich" is a special occasion. Again, this is what they eat for "fika". The other day someone was surprised that I would eat a sandwich (an American sandwich with meat and cheese) for lunch and also have potato chips with it. They asked, "Don't you get lightheaded?" They are used to eating a big, hot lunch and are surprised that we do not do the same. They then asked if I put the chips in my sandwich and told me that to them chips are a Saturday afternoon snack. The Swedish people seem to always have rules and ideas when you can eat or do certain things. We are not that regulated. They would be surprised to know that sometimes I actually eat a sandwich for dinner! Sometimes it is strange that I always feel that I have to defend myself and my actions. I do not ask them why they do certain things, I can see it is part of their culture and I just accept it. Why do I have to defend what I do in my culture?
I believe I have told you before that the Swedish language has words that they use everyday, which are not nice words in our language. For example the word "slut" we know what it means in English, but in Swedish it means "end". There are many more, I just cannot think of them all at this point. Well, I came across this headline from the IKEA newsletter that comes out every month "Full Fart i varuhusen", this means that it is full steam ahead for the new IKEA in Älmhult to open. However, the headline to someone who does not understand Swedish would appear that someone had gas in the warehouse. Yes, we are getting a new IKEA on November 2nd. They are planning to make a human chain from the old store to the new store, which is about 2 kilometers. I will add information about it after it happens. They are looking for volunteers now. Anyone interested?
I also was catching up on my Vanity Fair reading and came across this article that completely defines what it is like to live here in Sweden along with the Swedish people. This article confirms that I am not out of my mind, that I am a reasonable person, but things in this society are not always what it seems. Making Swedish friends here is difficult because you cannot trust that you are getting their true feelings. Here is a link to the article, which will explain why you cannot trust that you are getting the full picture.
Right now, I am not sure that I am going to be able to make it another two years here. I really want to come home! I miss my family very much, I miss my friends, and I miss going shopping and out to eat where ever and whenever I want and even just going to the movies.
I will write again soon. Hopefully, my Internet will be up and running soon.
Love,
Bridgette
Hi Friends,
No, I have not forgotten about you or my blog. On Tuesday, it will be 6 weeks without Internet, Television and Phone Service to our house! I am back to using my mobile broadband device, just so I can do a few things, like check my mail and keep up with the U.S. news and election! It has taken 5 weeks just to convince Telia (the Swedish provider) that a cable was cut somewhere and that they need to fix it. Well, on Tuesday, they finally confirmed that a cable was cut. Then they proceeded to tell us that by Thursday someone would be out to fix it. Well, it is now Sunday and we have had two more phone calls to Telia asking about the situation. Supposedly, it will be fixed tomorrow. I do not hold my breath that this will happen. The worst part is that David has to explain the whole story again and again, everytime he calls and he has called nearly 20 times in the last 6 weeks to get it fixed! No amount of getting upset or requesting to speak to a supervisor works here, everyone is the same and you will be tre Yes, I am still receiving my bills to pay and paying them, I do not want that to be a problem as well.
Anyhow, this incident has made us feel even more isolated and alone here in Sweden because we cannot talk to family, we cannot watch television (we cannot even get Swedish television. We use a VPN and are able to watch Netflix, ESPN, Hulu.com, NBC and CBS), and we have nothing to do, especially on the dreary, rainy days of the weekend. Luckily, I have a friend who likes the same type of television shows that I like (Downton Abbey for example) and she has the capability to record the shows from Britain and then she puts them on a memory stick for me to watch at home on my computer. Yes, I am already watching season 4 of Downton Abbey and it is off to a good start! I have taught her how to find and watch shows from the U.S., so it is a good mix. No, she is not Swedish, she is Australian, so we are on the same page about our Swedish experience.
Our fun meter is getting full in Sweden. Yes, it is a very nice place, but there is not a lot to do and our idea of fun is something completely different from theirs. No, it does not excite me to walk through the forest in search of mushrooms for my dinner. Sorry, but I can think of other things more satisfying. I have to tell you, we were excited last night to actually go to a special Lebanese dinner at our favorite restaurant in town. We were able to dress like humans, I wore a dress and David slacks. We live in blue jeans and our rain coats here because we get rained on all the time, so your hair does not even stay nice. I know, it is a little thing, but what a difference it can make.
Another frustrating thing, people are always amazed by what David and I eat for lunch. We continuously get teased for coming home for lunch to have a sandwich. The idea of a sandwich to the Swedes is half a roll buttered with a slice of cheese and either some sliced peppers or cucumbers. To have meat on the "sandwich" is a special occasion. Again, this is what they eat for "fika". The other day someone was surprised that I would eat a sandwich (an American sandwich with meat and cheese) for lunch and also have potato chips with it. They asked, "Don't you get lightheaded?" They are used to eating a big, hot lunch and are surprised that we do not do the same. They then asked if I put the chips in my sandwich and told me that to them chips are a Saturday afternoon snack. The Swedish people seem to always have rules and ideas when you can eat or do certain things. We are not that regulated. They would be surprised to know that sometimes I actually eat a sandwich for dinner! Sometimes it is strange that I always feel that I have to defend myself and my actions. I do not ask them why they do certain things, I can see it is part of their culture and I just accept it. Why do I have to defend what I do in my culture?
I believe I have told you before that the Swedish language has words that they use everyday, which are not nice words in our language. For example the word "slut" we know what it means in English, but in Swedish it means "end". There are many more, I just cannot think of them all at this point. Well, I came across this headline from the IKEA newsletter that comes out every month "Full Fart i varuhusen", this means that it is full steam ahead for the new IKEA in Älmhult to open. However, the headline to someone who does not understand Swedish would appear that someone had gas in the warehouse. Yes, we are getting a new IKEA on November 2nd. They are planning to make a human chain from the old store to the new store, which is about 2 kilometers. I will add information about it after it happens. They are looking for volunteers now. Anyone interested?
I also was catching up on my Vanity Fair reading and came across this article that completely defines what it is like to live here in Sweden along with the Swedish people. This article confirms that I am not out of my mind, that I am a reasonable person, but things in this society are not always what it seems. Making Swedish friends here is difficult because you cannot trust that you are getting their true feelings. Here is a link to the article, which will explain why you cannot trust that you are getting the full picture.
Right now, I am not sure that I am going to be able to make it another two years here. I really want to come home! I miss my family very much, I miss my friends, and I miss going shopping and out to eat where ever and whenever I want and even just going to the movies.
I will write again soon. Hopefully, my Internet will be up and running soon.
Love,
Bridgette
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