Hej,
All is going well this week in Älmhult. This past week when I wrote of my silliness with the shower gel I forgot to tell you we had a nice Saturday outing to Ljunby and did some walking around the town and shopping. Ljunby is about 60 kilometers from our house. The problem with shopping on Saturdays, the stores usually close about 2:00 pm, so you have to get an early start. Some of the larger stores outside of the town centers will sometime stay open until 5:00 or 6:00 on Saturdays, but it is definitely not guaranteed.
The week was relatively quiet until Friday, when I had to go to a spouse coffee in the morning and in the evening I went with a friend to a glass painting party. The spouse coffee was for all the recently relocated spouses to meet and get to know one another and to learn more about Älmhult. On Thursday evening when I was picking up David from work, I had the opportunity to make friends with someone else. She moved here last weekend from Shanghi, where she lived for 6 years. The great thing is, she is from Australia. Her husband will be working in the same division as David, so it is nice to have another acquaintance in the same boat as I am. She also attended the coffee.
When I went to the glass painting party, I met a lady from France who has lived in Älmhult for 11 years now. The glass painting is very similar to ceramics, you paint on glass and then you have it fired in the oven. I made a plate, I hope it comes out well and then I plan on adding to it and having it fired again. However, I did get some great ideas on things to do in the future, so I may be busy with this activity for awhile.
Yesterday, David and I drove to Helsingborg and took the ferry across the sound to Helsingör Denmark and then we had to take the train to Humlebaek. We went to visit the Louisiana Museum. The museum is a modern art museum and this weekend was the last weekend for the "Living" exhibit. Here is the website: www.louisiana.dk and you can read about the artwork on display there. I was hoping to see an original Andy Warhol of Marilyn Monroe and a Picasso, but they were not on display because of there other special exhibits. The "Living" exhibit was quite interesting because it explored the megatrends of how people around the world are living. So many are moving to the cities that they are finding creative ways to get the people places to live as well as green space, it also focused a lot on small space living. Small space living is one of the concepts that IKEA works with and is a part of. We learned a lot by the exhibit.
David's division asked me to do a special project to introduce one of the new items, so I am working in putting together, staining and decorating a chest of drawers in the way an American might use it. I have some great ideas, so I will post pictures of it when I am finished. The piece will be on display at IKEA of Sweden for several weeks. Wish me luck that my idea comes out the way that I imagine.
Starting tomorrow, I have a temporary job helping at IKEA, so I will keep you posted on my adventures with that. We have to see how well David and I manage getting ready to go at the same time in our smaller bathroom with only one sink, unlike our bathroom in Houston, where we each had our own space. :)
Hope you all had a great weekend and I will talk with you soon!
Love,
Bridgette
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Yes, I am Human
Hello,
Yes, I am human and here is a funny story. Buying items in Sweden can be difficult, especially if you do not read Swedish. Yes, I can figure out butter, milk, and basic stuff. The funny story comes in when a couple of weeks ago I was anticipating the fact that I needed to buy some new lotion. David and I were at the store after a day of shopping and his patience for shopping tends to wear out towards the end of the day. He wanted me to hurry up and I grapped the first thing that looked good. We went about our shopping.
Last week, I finished my lotion and opened my new bottle. I went to put it on and thought it was kind of strange that it was more liquidy than normal, but after all, this is Sweden and things are different. Well, as I continued to rub it in, it turned white and disappeared into my skin. Not thinking much about it, I thought that it was okay. So I do this for a couple of days and when David got back from Poland, I told him about this lotion and the way it was behaving. He looks at the bottle and tells me that I have been putting shower gel on all week! Yes, I felt completely stupid and immediately rinsed off in the shower again. The bottle was labeled "duschcreme". Me, not speaking Swedish found out that dusch means shower. Okay, so then next time I go to the store, I look for lotion again. David looks at the bottle and confirms that it is indeed lotion. However, we could not figure out why this lotion seemed much less expensive than some other lotion in another aisle. We decide that it is lotion and buy it. The next day, I go to put it on and guess what - it is shower gel again! This time the bottle was labeled another way. Apparently, they have several ways to label shower gel. I guess this is another learning experience. You have to understand that the way they lay out the stores here can be confusing and frustrating and obviously it is difficult to find exactly what you need. I will learn and hopefully I will be able to find a bottle of lotion soon!
Another frustrating update - I have told you about how we cannot have items shipped from the U.S. due to the excessive custom and duties charged by Sweden. Well, we did find out that we can order items from Amazon.com/uk and not have to pay the excess. David ordered a book and it came without any problems. Cool! However, now we were trying to order a pair of boots for Dave and a cat feeder for when we go away. Well, we have found out that many of the sellers through Amazon do not ship to Sweden. We are back where we started, frustrated that we cannot seem to get some of the basic things we need.
Anyhow, life is treating us well and we have settled down. We are getting into a routine and are starting to enjoy life a little better. We do now have internet in our house and a wireless connection, so things are better!
Hopefully, I will have some more interesting things to tell you about soon.
Enjoy your day!
Love,
Bridgette
Yes, I am human and here is a funny story. Buying items in Sweden can be difficult, especially if you do not read Swedish. Yes, I can figure out butter, milk, and basic stuff. The funny story comes in when a couple of weeks ago I was anticipating the fact that I needed to buy some new lotion. David and I were at the store after a day of shopping and his patience for shopping tends to wear out towards the end of the day. He wanted me to hurry up and I grapped the first thing that looked good. We went about our shopping.
Last week, I finished my lotion and opened my new bottle. I went to put it on and thought it was kind of strange that it was more liquidy than normal, but after all, this is Sweden and things are different. Well, as I continued to rub it in, it turned white and disappeared into my skin. Not thinking much about it, I thought that it was okay. So I do this for a couple of days and when David got back from Poland, I told him about this lotion and the way it was behaving. He looks at the bottle and tells me that I have been putting shower gel on all week! Yes, I felt completely stupid and immediately rinsed off in the shower again. The bottle was labeled "duschcreme". Me, not speaking Swedish found out that dusch means shower. Okay, so then next time I go to the store, I look for lotion again. David looks at the bottle and confirms that it is indeed lotion. However, we could not figure out why this lotion seemed much less expensive than some other lotion in another aisle. We decide that it is lotion and buy it. The next day, I go to put it on and guess what - it is shower gel again! This time the bottle was labeled another way. Apparently, they have several ways to label shower gel. I guess this is another learning experience. You have to understand that the way they lay out the stores here can be confusing and frustrating and obviously it is difficult to find exactly what you need. I will learn and hopefully I will be able to find a bottle of lotion soon!
Another frustrating update - I have told you about how we cannot have items shipped from the U.S. due to the excessive custom and duties charged by Sweden. Well, we did find out that we can order items from Amazon.com/uk and not have to pay the excess. David ordered a book and it came without any problems. Cool! However, now we were trying to order a pair of boots for Dave and a cat feeder for when we go away. Well, we have found out that many of the sellers through Amazon do not ship to Sweden. We are back where we started, frustrated that we cannot seem to get some of the basic things we need.
Anyhow, life is treating us well and we have settled down. We are getting into a routine and are starting to enjoy life a little better. We do now have internet in our house and a wireless connection, so things are better!
Hopefully, I will have some more interesting things to tell you about soon.
Enjoy your day!
Love,
Bridgette
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Randon Thoughts Part Three
Hej,
I woke up this morning with inspiration to write to you and to see a light frost on the grass outside. Fall is definitely here! Sweden is absolutely beautiful in the fall. When you go for walks, there are fallen leaves on the paths and the sky and trees are an awesome sight! The sky the last two days has been clear and very blue! The sunshine lights up my house and makes it feel bright and warm! However, the amount of daylight is starting to get shorter. It will not be long before we only are getting about 6 hours of daylight per day. That will be a big change for me.
Anyhow, I thought I would tell you some more about Sweden.
By now, you all know that merchandise, groceries and the like are very expensive here. However, the one thing that is not expensive is milk! Milk is only about $1.15 for a litre. Compare that to the almost $4 for a gallon in the U.S. or the $3.69 I was paying for a half gallon.
On the other hand, gas is very expensive here. Comparatively, it is about 4 times the price in the U.S. For ethanol, which is the cheapest gas, but all cars do not use it, the cost is about 9 SEK or about $1.40 per litre. A litre is about a 25% of a gallon. The more expensive gas is about 15 SEK a litre. So it is not really prudent to drive too much. Interestingly enough, the gas stations are not manned! There are 3 gas stations in Almhult and none of them have employees. You just pay for your gas with your credit or debit card. In other places, they do have some 7-Elevens and Shells that are convenience stores with gas, but the majority of them are just pumps with no store or anything.
The few times that we have gone out for burgers at a place called Max's, it was more than $20 dollars for two meals. Max's is comparable to Wendy's. We do have McDonald's here, but it is pretty expensive as well. We do not have any of these places in Almhult. Perhaps with the expansion of Almhult that is coming in the next few years, we might get something like this. Speaking of restaurants, the Swedish people like a lot of sauces on their food. Their burgers come covered in sauce, all the dishes at the restaurants are served with sauces and all the grocery stores sell all these sauces. For example, a burger at Max's comes covered in this Thousand Island like sauce and ketchup. You need a boatload of napkins just to eat it.
One other interesting thing I found here is that many of the larger stores actually have wrapping stations located near the exit. So if you go and buy a gift you can wrap it right there at the store. One of the electronics stores has red paper, one has a striped blue paper. I have also seen them at the grocery stores! Some of them are free, some cost 5 kroner to get 1 meter of paper. They have all that you need right there to wrap a gift. Here are a couple of pictures from one of the stores:
Quite interesting!
Life so far in Sweden has been a learning experience. I keep looking for new experiences to share with you and I have to tell you, there are several. So I will keep collecting and sharing with you.
Have a wonderful day!
I woke up this morning with inspiration to write to you and to see a light frost on the grass outside. Fall is definitely here! Sweden is absolutely beautiful in the fall. When you go for walks, there are fallen leaves on the paths and the sky and trees are an awesome sight! The sky the last two days has been clear and very blue! The sunshine lights up my house and makes it feel bright and warm! However, the amount of daylight is starting to get shorter. It will not be long before we only are getting about 6 hours of daylight per day. That will be a big change for me.
Anyhow, I thought I would tell you some more about Sweden.
By now, you all know that merchandise, groceries and the like are very expensive here. However, the one thing that is not expensive is milk! Milk is only about $1.15 for a litre. Compare that to the almost $4 for a gallon in the U.S. or the $3.69 I was paying for a half gallon.
On the other hand, gas is very expensive here. Comparatively, it is about 4 times the price in the U.S. For ethanol, which is the cheapest gas, but all cars do not use it, the cost is about 9 SEK or about $1.40 per litre. A litre is about a 25% of a gallon. The more expensive gas is about 15 SEK a litre. So it is not really prudent to drive too much. Interestingly enough, the gas stations are not manned! There are 3 gas stations in Almhult and none of them have employees. You just pay for your gas with your credit or debit card. In other places, they do have some 7-Elevens and Shells that are convenience stores with gas, but the majority of them are just pumps with no store or anything.
The few times that we have gone out for burgers at a place called Max's, it was more than $20 dollars for two meals. Max's is comparable to Wendy's. We do have McDonald's here, but it is pretty expensive as well. We do not have any of these places in Almhult. Perhaps with the expansion of Almhult that is coming in the next few years, we might get something like this. Speaking of restaurants, the Swedish people like a lot of sauces on their food. Their burgers come covered in sauce, all the dishes at the restaurants are served with sauces and all the grocery stores sell all these sauces. For example, a burger at Max's comes covered in this Thousand Island like sauce and ketchup. You need a boatload of napkins just to eat it.
One other interesting thing I found here is that many of the larger stores actually have wrapping stations located near the exit. So if you go and buy a gift you can wrap it right there at the store. One of the electronics stores has red paper, one has a striped blue paper. I have also seen them at the grocery stores! Some of them are free, some cost 5 kroner to get 1 meter of paper. They have all that you need right there to wrap a gift. Here are a couple of pictures from one of the stores:
Quite interesting!
Life so far in Sweden has been a learning experience. I keep looking for new experiences to share with you and I have to tell you, there are several. So I will keep collecting and sharing with you.
Have a wonderful day!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Forest is How Close?
Hi. I hope everyone is doing well! Things have been rather quiet this past week here in Almhult. After 7 weeks here, things are basically settled. The last thing is next Monday we will (fingers crossed) get DSL here at the house and we will no longer have to use the mobile broadband.
I have also learned that it is not efficient, monetarily to order or have anything sent here from the U.S. Last month, I had my daughter send a package of goods, kind of a care package, and it cost me an additional $60 to pick it up at the post office due to customs and duties. Then I received a catalog in the mail from Land's End and they said they ship to Sweden. Well, David wanted a couple of new shirts and a pair of boots for the winter, so I placed an order thinking that everything was included in the shipping and such. Well, needless to say, I was wrong again! I guess UPS left a notice or two in my front door, which we don't use and when I did see the notice, they wanted me to pay an additional $70 to pick up a package that was worth no more than $60. The boots were on backorder, so I contacted Land's End and asked them not to send me the boots and I am just now hoping that UPS sends the package back to Land's End. I am not certain on how Sweden determines the charges when the package comes here, but it is incredibly expensive. They can even charge you if you receive a gift and it is more than a certain amount. So please, do not send me anything! One reason I wanted to get some items from the U.S. was because things are obviously less expensive. Last week, I noticed my mascara was running low, so I decided to pick one up at the supermarket, well it was $20 (155 kroner). I will be restocking when I come home in December!
Otherwise, we had a great weekend here. The weather was beautiful and the sun was shining down on us. On Saturday, my friend, Carmen invited to take me around Almhult to visit stores that I had not visited and to show me around. We had a great time, shopping and looking. Mostly, I looked. However, I did find a nice Christmas present for my daughter and some ideas for other gifts for my family. Saturday night we had Carmen over for an American dinner of North Carolina Ribs, packet potatoes, coleslaw and carrot cake.
On Sunday, David and I decided to go Geocaching on our bikes. We rode 9 miles and found 3 caches. If you don't know what Geocaching is, you can learn all about it at www.geocaching.com. Basically, we use satellites to find Tupperware in the forest or other places. Anyhow, we found these great forests that are just 1 - 2 kilometers from our house. They were absolutely beautiful, especially with all the leaves changing colors. When we were in the different forests we found ruins of old farms from the 1830s and 1890s out there as well. Here are some pictures from this weekend. I hope you enjoy seeing them. I think it is amazing that we are so close to the forest. This area reminds us very much of Colorado. It is a blessing to be able to spend so much time outside in clean air, enjoying nature.
 |
| Swedish Horse Farm |
 |
| Forest across from the Farm |
 |
| Sign designating the different counties (We live in Smaland) |
 |
| Inside a circle of beech trees looking up |
 |
| Trail/Path through the forest |
Hopefully, I will have more to share with you soon.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Amazing!
Happy October 5th! Today is my 26th wedding anniversary! I can't believe that time goes so fast.
Anyhow, things are going smoothly here in Sweden. Finally, something went easy for us. We went on Friday afternoon to buy a car. We had an idea of what kind of car we wanted because I had done some research on the Internet and found a couple of good cars at reasonably good prices. The dealership is located about an hour away from our house. When we got there, we found a salesman, no they do not assault you at the door, like they do in the U.S. We explained what cars in particular we were looking for, we found the ones that were advertised on the Internet and checked them out along with a couple of others. We decided on the gray Ford Focus Kombi from 2008. Took it for a test drive and then decided that yes, we wanted to buy it. You will not believe that we were in and out of the dealership in less than ONE HOUR! They use your person nummer and the information comes up on the computer. We had a one page contract and were told we could come back on Monday or Tuesday with a check to pick up the car. (The check has to come directly from the bank, we do not have checking accounts here like we have in the U.S.) Wow! I could not believe that we did not have to spend the whole day at the dealership, negotiating and stressing over the price and all that usually has to be discussed.
Well, we came back on Tuesday, gave the check to the salesman he gave us a receipt and the car in less than 15 minutes, included in that time was the time he took to show us how a few things on the car worked. So one hour and 15 minutes to buy a car - absolutely unheard of!
Otherwise, things are getting settled here. On Sunday we took some time and went on a 6-mile bike ride around Almhult and shared a pizza at the restaurant located at the train station. We are trying to enjoy the fall temperatures and sunshine before the weather changes.
I took some more pictures of Amhult to share with you.
Below is a picture of a map of Almhut and Almhult's Kommun. Near all the towns, they have these type of maps located about 1 - 2 kilometers outside of the town. They are located so you can drive your car up to them and see where you need to go. This picture was taken at the train station/bus terminal.
Also located at the train station was this very old steam engine.
Here are some pictures of the other church located in Almhult. This is the Mission Church and was built in 1894. This church does have a cross located on its steeple. I like how colorful the church is.
Anyhow, things are going smoothly here in Sweden. Finally, something went easy for us. We went on Friday afternoon to buy a car. We had an idea of what kind of car we wanted because I had done some research on the Internet and found a couple of good cars at reasonably good prices. The dealership is located about an hour away from our house. When we got there, we found a salesman, no they do not assault you at the door, like they do in the U.S. We explained what cars in particular we were looking for, we found the ones that were advertised on the Internet and checked them out along with a couple of others. We decided on the gray Ford Focus Kombi from 2008. Took it for a test drive and then decided that yes, we wanted to buy it. You will not believe that we were in and out of the dealership in less than ONE HOUR! They use your person nummer and the information comes up on the computer. We had a one page contract and were told we could come back on Monday or Tuesday with a check to pick up the car. (The check has to come directly from the bank, we do not have checking accounts here like we have in the U.S.) Wow! I could not believe that we did not have to spend the whole day at the dealership, negotiating and stressing over the price and all that usually has to be discussed.
Well, we came back on Tuesday, gave the check to the salesman he gave us a receipt and the car in less than 15 minutes, included in that time was the time he took to show us how a few things on the car worked. So one hour and 15 minutes to buy a car - absolutely unheard of!
Otherwise, things are getting settled here. On Sunday we took some time and went on a 6-mile bike ride around Almhult and shared a pizza at the restaurant located at the train station. We are trying to enjoy the fall temperatures and sunshine before the weather changes.
I took some more pictures of Amhult to share with you.
Below is a picture of a map of Almhut and Almhult's Kommun. Near all the towns, they have these type of maps located about 1 - 2 kilometers outside of the town. They are located so you can drive your car up to them and see where you need to go. This picture was taken at the train station/bus terminal.
 |
|
Here are some pictures of the other church located in Almhult. This is the Mission Church and was built in 1894. This church does have a cross located on its steeple. I like how colorful the church is.
I thought you would also like to see the building that David works at. The building is only 3 stories tall, but you would not believe how many people actually work in the building. I also took a picture of the giant allen wrench located at the front of the building. The allen wrench is really one of the symbols that relates to IKEA.
Hopefully, I will have more to post soon. I will try and find some more interesting things to take pictures of for you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)