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!
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 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
