Hello Friends,
I know it has been a while since I have written. David and I had a very nice trip to the United States. Colorado was absolutely grogeous like always, it was a bit hot, but looking at the beautiful blue sky and the ability to sit outside in the evenings is worth it.
Had a great time at the Rockies/Pirates baseball game, yes, the Rockies lost but Coors Field is a wonderful place to watch a game.
The day we went to the NHRA drag races, it was 102 degrees! Hot, but the show was awesome!
We are now back in Sweden where the weather is again fluctuating between rain, clouds and sun. Yesterday was beautiful in the morning, sun and a light breeze. My Swedish teacher, Christine and I headed out to Malmö for a day outside of Småland. Malmo is about an hour and half train ride away. Well, we had a good time, walking through the town and enjoying the sun. Ate lunch outside at an outdoor cafe and did a lot of window shopping. Towards the end of the day, the clouds and rain came in. We decided to get on the 3:48 pm train home. We did not get home until 8:00 pm! What happened you wonder? There was a power outage between two towns. Here is an article about it. We had to disembark the train in Höör, then get on a bus and go to Hässleholm and get on another train. Sounds easy right? Wrong! There are several hundred people on the train, many with luggage, strollers and kids returning from their summer vacation and there are no busses waiting. Finally one bus comes and it is a mad dash to try and get on, then this repeats several more times. Many of us waited for an hour and a half trying to get on a bus. We were finally successful about 6:20. Then we had to ride the bus for a half an hour to catch the train. By this time we had missed two trains (the trains only come once an hour), so we were planning to wait until 7:40 for the next train. Lucky for us, because of the trouble, there was a train that was leaving about 7:05 and we were able to run and make the train. Bad news, the train was filled with many of the people who had got on the earlier busses and the train was completely crowded. Then they told us, we were going to have to wait because there were taxis coming with people, so we really did not leave until 7:30, yes, earlier than we expected, but we were hoping for the extra half hour. If you are wondering, this is a common occurence in Sweden. The trains are not so dependable. We usually take a train at least one hour earlier than necessary so we do not ever miss our flights in Copenhagen. No, the Swedish people do not know how to queue and to be polite. (Just found this article on what the Swsedes think about others and queuing) I was amazed to see the rudeness exhibited to people with babies and strollers trying to get onto the busses. There was one woman who was by herself with about a 6 month old baby in a carrier, a stroller, car seat and luggage and no one would help her to get her stuff stowed under the bus and then let her get on. Finally, someone from the train company held the people back! She was actually the most patient and easygoing person I have ever seen in that situation.
We have to get on the train tomorrow morning to head to Stockholm for our Intensive Swedish lessons. Next week will be a 40 hour week learning Swedish. I am looking forward to seeing Stockholm, not sure how I feel about the lessons. We are trying to be eager and thankful for these experiences, but we are really starting to miss home.
Another little ditty, I was so excited to find cherry peppers at the store this week. Well, I opened them at lunch today only to find out they remove the stems and seeds! That is the best part of the pepper, getting the spice from the seeds! Really, it is hard to describe how things are so different here, even when you think things cannot be that different.
I finally got the courage up to find out how to use the self-scanning feature at the store, (our lines are alway long, they do not have express lanes at the grocery store - everyone is equal), anyhow, I found out that the store card that I had been using to get the sale prices was only a temporary card. I did not realize that the cards they sent to me several months ago was the card for the discount. I thought it was a credit card that I was not asking for! So, when you get the discount card at Kroger or whatever grocery store you go to, in the US that is your permanent card. Who would know that in Sweden, they send you another. Crazy and it seems like a waste. I will have to go back and get set up for self-scanning another day. I will let you know how that goes.
I guess this is enough information for one day. I will let you know how the trip to Stockholm turns out.
See you in a couple of weeks!
Much love,
Bridgette
