Food for Thought

If you're happy and you know it....

2011-05-27T18:36:00.003+02:00

Ok, so it has been nearly a year since I last posted anything on this site. I can't say that I will be posting anything too intellectually stimulating as my brain still has not fully recovered from the coming of Reed. But I thought that this was just too cute not to share (and I have to start somewhere - right???). We have a little clapping bean on our hands, and when I think back to how small and non-moving she was nine months ago, I am nothing short of amazed at the transformation.

Shots of Summer

2010-07-28T06:12:00.005+02:00

Hi Everyone,

We have been keeping pretty busy what with the move at the start of the month and then two weekend trips away - one to Kelowna to visit my mom and Wayne and one to Harrison Hot Springs Resort with Ben's parents. Ben and his mom did a "first" triathlon together and they both did great - Ben finished 1st overall and his mom was first in her age group (I'm just impressed they both completed it). Of course, we've been trying to fit in a few visits to see our newest niece and to hang out with our other nieces and nephew. Here are a few shots from our summer so far!

Miss you all,
Erin

Jake at Ben's mom's birthday party at the end of May

One of my naps on the couch, note the interesting pose

My sister and Kiley - lots of smiles!

Grandpa Tom and Kiley in her snuggly.

Amy's birthday hula hoop at Spanish Banks beach (this
was in June and it was cold).

Ben and his mom ready to start the Triathlon.

Emerging from the cold water

At the transition point between biking and running - he was in second at this point.

And the winner is....

Other people from Ben's lab did the race too!

Walking along the lake shore

Dinner at the resort restaurant, complete with four-piece band, and dance floor. The whole resort reminded me of the film "Dirty Dancing" minus all the nasty bits.

Another day, another shot with Grandpa.

Lazing around with Dad.

Here is a primo belly shot - 3 weeks to go and still playing badminton (albeit somewhat lazily).

Spring

2010-06-19T20:23:00.003+02:00

Hi All!

Summer is just around the corner but it doesn't really feel like it's here yet. Well, ok, yesterday and today have been pretty nice but we have been experiencing a lot of grey days, which to be honest don't always make me want to get out of bed.

This weekend is Father's Day in Canada so we're spending some time with our Dads and also celebrating our niece's 5th birthday. We also have to go to a pool party at Ben's boss' house but I have to admit that I'm not sure I'm going to be parading around in my bathing suit at this pool party (or even getting in the water at all). My belly has grown substantially in the last few weeks and I'm starting to feel like I'm carrying around a watermelon.

We recently went to Victoria on Vancouver Island for a weekend away. We had fantastic weather and were able to enjoy walking around downtown Victoria and just chilling. We also spent some time with Ben's family (most of whom live on the Island) and Ben managed to squeeze in some late night trout fishing with his cousin.

Here are a few shots of our spring:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=454131&id=842465120&l=5d29538a35

I hope you are all doing well. We miss you!
Erin

The Olympics

2010-05-22T16:37:00.002+02:00

Hey there! Well I finally figured out how to transfer images from our phone to the computer so I thought I would share a few snaps of our Olympic experience. We didn't get out to enjoy as much of the festivities as we would have liked (what with me feeling crappy and all) but we did get to the Men's Mogul events, where Alexander Bilodeau became the first Canadian to win Olympic gold on home soil, to a men's hockey match between Slovakia and Latvia - there was a great deal of sportsmanship on behalf of the fans at this game (we all wanted Latvia to score a goal by the end) and to a men's sledge hockey game at the Paralympics, which was quite the fun experience.

I know these are somewhat overdue (like three months) but better late than never right!

This is looking back at downtown Vancouver while we waited for our "Olympic Bus" to take us up the mountain for the moguls event.

Ben, wearing his Olympic gear, waiting at Lonsdale Quay.

You had to walk about a km to get to the event. Note the lack of snow everywhere except on the runs!

Where it all happens. We lucked out and had such a beautiful day.

The crowd waits for the event to start.

We switched sides during the finals. We only had standing "seats". Behind us at this point were about 4 men from Sweden. I think we surprised them when we asked, "Varifrån i Sverige kommer du?" (Sorry if this is grammatically incorrect). They then proceeded to tell us we had to cheer for the Swedish guy, Jesper somebody. I told them "Vi ska hålla for båda Sverige och Kanada."

Another beautiful day in Vancouver, where the sun always shines (hahaha). We are on our way to the hockey game, slowly making our way through the crowded streets of downtown.

A pick-up hockey game in the middle of downtown.

Shots of the city all decked out.

Slovakia vs. Latvia

Making our way back to the bus after the hockey game.
We went to a sledge hockey game with our friends, Sheena and Ryan. This was Canada vs. Norway. Canada won this one but ended up losing to Norway when it counted.

My new niece - Kiley Burton

2010-04-27T06:31:00.000+02:00

My sister had her baby on Sunday night - almost the same day as my b-day. I went for a visit today and everyone was doing well. Thought this was pretty cute, although probably not that comfortable for her. E.

There actually is something there...

2010-03-20T01:55:00.002+01:00

So we were introduced to our soon-to-be family member today. I don't know about you but I think he/she has Ben's nose. Apparently the baby has decided to be stubborn like it's parents as it wouldn't roll over for the technician to get the abdominal shot. However, she managed to get an image eventually (like after an hour of pressing on my stomach).

Hawaii a month later...

2010-03-07T21:27:00.006+01:00

Hej Hej

So as promised here are a few shots from our trip to Hawaii. We went for 10 days and spent 4 nights on Kauai and 5 nights on Maui. I think both Ben and I preferred Kauai, it was smaller, so lush and green (but it does get a lot of more rain) and just more of a laid back feel to it.

There were even chickens and roosters running around everywhere - including in between the buildings of our hotel.

Our first day there was a bit cloudy and drizzly so we decided to go up to see this canyon - Waimea Canyon. Unfortunately a lot of the view points were a bit foggy but we got to the end of the road and did this short mile hike and it cleared up a bit. You wouldn't want to do this hike if it was raining though as the path was more like a clay bank so it would be pretty slick.

This is looking back at the peak we hiked up to.

On our way back down the mountain road it cleared up and we were able to finally get a decent shot of the canyon.

And then since it was sunny when we got back to the coast we stopped at the Salt Ponds Park and enjoyed a swim and some sun while being serenaded by families out for a Sunday picnic at the beach singing karaoke.

The next day was beautiful and so we decided to head up the east coast of the island and check out the Kilauea Point Wildlife Refuge and Lighthouse. That was quite a good stop - especially if you like looking at birds, which we do. We saw two Nene - cousins to the Canada goose, quite a few Moli or Layson albatrosses, which are huge. We were lucky enough to see two take-off from their grassy slope of a runway. We also saw blue-footed boobies and a 'Iwa or Great Frigate birds.

After this stop, we continued up to the North Coast where we stopped at Tunnels Beach, called this, because there is a very cavernous tunnel across the street from the beach. The waves were pretty big at this beach and it was very large so you could be quite spread out from others. I also had a very delicious mango smoothie made fresh for me from a small truck (you can tell which memory stand out the most).

Our last day we were schedule to go on a boat cruise up the Na'Pali coast which is supposed to be amazing but unfortunately it was somewhat windy and rainy on the west coast that day so our trip was cancelled. Instead we checked out Wailua Falls on our way back to the east coast where our hotel was. We saw this fantastic rainbow on our way there.

The story of Maui was humpback whales. We saw them everywhere. You couldn't look out at the ocean without seeing a spray or an arched back. Our first day in Maui we were pretty laid back, Ben actually did a little work and I spent the afternoon at the beach of our hotel. The second day we went on a day long snorkeling trip to Molokini Crater and to the Island of Lanai. Here are the first visitors of the day...

This was a great day. We had beautiful weather and saw tons of whales, including seeing them breach jumping out of the water and some impressive tail and fin slips. We went snorkeling at two spots and enjoyed lunch on the boat.It ended with me getting an impressive sunburn on the front side of my body though. Unfortunately, I was almost the colour of my bright pink shirt.

On our third day in Maui it was overcast so we decided to head out and do a little shopping. Nothing exciting to report. The shops are pretty much the same anywhere you went on Maui (or so it seemed) full of touristy things. When we got back to the hotel it had cleared up so we enjoyed some beach time. That we went to a show that was a bit cirque-du-soleil-like and learned about the legends of how Hawaii and Hawaiians came to be. Afterward we enjoyed a fancy steak supper at Ruth's Chris Steak house.

On Sunday, Ben decided to take a surfing lesson in the morning. He did really well getting up right away, unfortunately by the time he got to where I could take a picture of him the waves look a bit puny (and they weren't huge to start with but hey this was a group of beginners).

In the afternoon we went up to the north west coast and spent the afternoon at a beach with even bigger waves and proceeded to watch surfers and boogie boarders fall off their boards.

This was our last full-day in Maui and we experienced another great rainbow and a fantastic sunset that night (this is a real photo and hasn't been doctored in anyway).

Now some of you may be wondering why only Ben went surfing and for those people who were observant you may have noticed that I am slightly more paunchy (and busty) in these photos than I was when you last saw me. To let you in on a little secret, Ben and I are expecting and will grow our family by one in mid-August. This put a little crimp in our Hawaii vacation as I was pretty sick most of the time and ended up going to sleep at 8pm or so each night. And of course, there were no shared bottles of wine on our Lanais but we still had a great time (and I'm now finally feeling a bit better).

Sorry for the lateness of this post. Next post will include photos of the Olympics. It will probably only take me another month to get to those!

Ciao,
Erin

For all those who are suffering through winter...

2010-02-11T00:04:00.004+01:00

Hi Everyone,

I am planning on posting some shots of our trip to Hawaii asap, but as I was walking around the UBC campus (where Ben and I work) I happened to notice some sure signs of spring and thought I would share them with you (actually I'm just rubbing in the fact that we live in such a temperate climate). My friend, Kangsoon, took these pictures for me TODAY - yes, today, February 10. The Olympics start here on Friday and I'm not certain that visitors to our fair city are going to pack appropriately to as these are supposed to be the Winter Olympics...

Enjoy!

Pretty crocuses

Rhododendrons

Another variety of crocus I think, although it looks like a tiny daffodil

The New Year

2010-01-04T03:10:00.002+01:00

Hey Everyone,

My dad came over for lunch today (and we had these awesome Rebar Club sandwiches complete with smoked salmon, prawns, avocado and chipotle mayonnaise - email me if you want the recipe) and he mentioned that I hadn't posted anything to the blog for awhile. And he is right, would you believe the last posting was August!!!

I sometimes feel like I don't have much to report on, but that's just an excuse, really it's just laziness, so while I hadn't made any New Year's resolutions this year, perhaps my resolution should be to stay in touch with you all through this blog. That way you can hopefully stay in touch with us and we'll still keep you in our lives no matter how far away we live. And besides that there should be lots to report in the coming months with a trip to Hawaii, the Olympics and more coming our way. I will also try to share with you more about Canada just like I shared so many Swedish tidbits through this blog when we lived there (plus it will keep B and I looking for cool Canadian things to try).

I wish you all a Happy New Year! Here is a glimpse at our last year - slightly less exciting than 2008 but a good year none the less:

Music from The Killers, Gnarls Barkley and Bob Dylan.

E.

A Weekend Away

2009-08-05T19:16:00.008+02:00

The Willing family headed over to Vancouver Island on early Saturday morning. It was a long weekend in Canada last weekend, in 1974 British Columbia decided that the residents of BC should have a holiday in August (as every other province did) and so proclaimed the 1st Monday in August to be a civic holiday, it was called BC Day to celebrate the early settlers of the province. Anyway, back to the weekend, we all arose bright and early and headed out to the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen. We ended up missing the 8am ferry and so waited on a grassy knoll for the 9am boat. Ben tried to take advantage of this wait to take a nap, but I guess we were too noisy for him as he kept piping up from under the sleeping bag (he was getting some strange looks from passer-bys as well.

We made it over in time for the wedding which was in Sooke. It was held in someone's backyard and it was a beautiful spot! There was a fog rolling in, but luckily we were sheltered in the yard as up on the road it was a wee bit chilly and everyone was dressed in summer wedding clothes.

Our traditional partial family photo

The reception was held in the Ranger club house and there was a lot of family there. The Willing family is quite large as Ben's dad has 5 brothers and sisters. Uncle Peter and his band provided the music and Sandra (Ben's sister), Kim (cousin) and Jewels (the bride) got up to provide the back-up for Mustand Sally. I, luckily, had gone to the bathroom otherwise everyone's ears would have suffered.

Ben's cousin, Brian (who we were staying with) is quite the fisherman, so he took us out on Sunday morning to go salmon fishing.

This is me reeling in a fish, there wasn't a lot of room to move around in the boat and take photos.

So beautiful!

Ben's parents also went out with Uncle Glen (Brian's dad).

It was amazing! We only caught Pink Salmon on Sunday, but we caught 16 5-7 lb salmon in about 1.5 hours. We were pretty much putting lines into the water and catching fish instantly. Both Sandra and I complained of sore arms the next day as our muscles are not trained for this type of activity.
We saw some seals!

We canned some of the salmon and gave 2 away but our freezer is still full of fish.

The rest of the weekend was spent with the greater Willing family at the Farm and Monday, Ben and Brian went out fishing again and managed to catch only one fish worth keeping - a Spring though, so nicer than Pink. Then we all went to the Sooke Potholes. for a quick dip before heading back on the ferry carrying our bags, a cooler full of fish and a box of apples from the Farm.

Ben wanted me to photoshop a photo of him with extended arms from the weight of the cooler and the apples, but I'm sure when we're enjoying tasty apple treats he won't be complaining.

Gotta run to go have lunch with Sandy!
Erin

Feeling hot, hot hot!

2009-07-31T22:36:00.003+02:00

That classic song is running through my head this early Friday afternoon. Everyone is feeling hot, hot, hot in Vancouver, where it was 34 degrees yesterday and then even hotter with the humidity. I was able to spend my afternoon at Kits beach (apparently that's where all the sexy people go so I fit right in :) )

Anyways, with the temperature still high and the sun still shining, sometimes I like to take a lesson in relaxation from a master...Taz.

Feel the zen!

Not that Soot is any stranger to relaxation but his style is a bit more unorthodox.

Looks like he's ready for a day at the office, and no I did not pose him, he's this weird all on his own.

Ok, two posts in one day, I'm sure you're tired of hearing from me now. Off to get ready for our trip to Vancouver Island. Family wedding to attend, I will report next week on the shindig.

Ciao,
Erin

Smiles in Seattle

2009-07-31T22:28:00.005+02:00

News! I got a job, however, my funemployment lingers on for a couple more weeks while I wait for my new colleagues to return from their vacations. I start on the 17th of August and I will be working as a Government Relations Officer at the University in a communications role. I'm stoked about the job (and about having some remaining time off - although my bank account is not as stoked).

I took advantage of this time to go visit my friend Terumi down in Seattle. Terumi and her husband recently moved house (on Saturday), and I thought I would lend a hand this week as they also have one year old twin boys to take care of. We didn't get to see a lot of Seattle - not that we wanted to spend much time outside as it was something like 105F/39C on Wednesday and it felt like we were walking through pea soup - but I did get to see a lot of smiles.

For example...

And this one...

And then there was this one...

Oh and this was a prize winner...

As was this one...

Not to be outdone by this one...

And to wrap things up...

I'm sending you smiles from Vancouver!
Erin

Happy (Belated) Canada Day!

2009-07-02T19:39:00.005+02:00

Yesterday was Canada Day and it got me thinking about Canada Day's of years gone by.

You'll recall (for people who have followed this blog) that last year we hosted a Canada Day Party for friends in Sweden, complete with a tipspromenad (trivia game)that stumped our non-Canadian friends.

Hard Core Canadian Partier!

Ben and Soot are ready to celebrate!

In 2007, the day was spent at our friend's Joni and Kent's and it was a dual purpose celebration, as we also celebrated Ben's successful defense of his PhD.

In 2006, we celebrated with my sister, Meaghan and her now husband, Brock. It was their first visit to Saskatoon and we spent the weekend hanging out at the jazz festival, playing golf, and showing them the city.

Some Canada Day's were more uneventful and less memorable. The typical Canadian celebration would include a backyard/patio bbq at someone's place, and sometimes with a sprinkling of fireworks thrown in.

In 2003, we spent our first Canada Day in Saskatoon. After a weekend away camping with Shon and Josefin to Cypress Hills Provincial Park, we ended up spending Canada Day evening with our friends and neighbours, Lorne and Lisa. That was a weekend of extremes, extreme cold one night, extreme heat the next, and an extreme number of mosquitoes (a typical Canadian experience :) ). (This was before we had a digital camera so no photos to share).

In 2002, I was in San Sebastian, Spain on Canada Day. My best friend, Alex, and I were travelling around Europe. We met up with some other Canadian travellers and the "Canadian Contingent" hit up some bars in that town, complete with maple leaf pins and tee-shirts from home.

Yesterday, Ben and I had a laid back day complete with some sunbathing and a walk down to the windy beach. We ended up at a bbq hosted by our American friends, Kristie and Dave (yeah, go figure that it was left to the Americans to organize the party).

So Happy 142nd Birthday Canada (I know we're so young!). And to all my American friends, Happy 4th of July to you too!

Ciao,
Erin

Bear with me (get it?!)

2009-06-23T22:42:00.003+02:00

Hej hej,

So, we went camping at the beginning of the month and we had quite the adventure. We ended up driving about 3 hours north of Vancouver to a very beautiful and mountainous area. We stayed at Birkenhead Lake Provincial Park. This is what greeted us when we entered the campsite:

We met Yogi and Booboo the next day:

Yogi

Booboo

Needless to say our camping trip was a wildlife filled one. We had a nice time though and for more shots from our trip you can check out my flikr photostream

It is now June 23rd as of next Wednesday, July 1st (Canada Day) I will be officially unemployed, or should I say "funemployed". I saw an article in the Globe and Mail (a Canadian national newspaper) about how more and more gen-xers are extending their periods of unemployment because they find the time off so rewarding. I'm betting Ben hopes I don't take on that attitude :) Seriously though I'm looking for work but plan to enjoy at least the end of next week at a more leisurely job search pace.

Hope all is well with you!
Kram Erin

Better late than cherry???

2009-05-28T02:14:00.006+02:00

Hey There!

Remember me? I'm ashamed to look at the date of my last post - it was in April and here we are almost at the end of May! This past month and a half has been a month of ups and downs. Thankfully we seem to be on an upward motion at the moment :)

In April, we managed to escape for a weekend in Kelowna with our good friends Joni and Kent from Saskatoon. It was a nice, albeit cloudy and somewhat cool weekend. For some shots of that weekend click here.

What else has happened? Well, I won't bore you with down bits - but I did pass my 30 year mark. Yes, I am now officially out of my 20s. I can't say that I was really affected though. I got many b-day wishes including a treasure hunt sent all the way from Sweden that had me wandering around my neighbourhood with a ladle. Guess where I ended up...at the Swedish bakery around the corner from my house where a princesstårta and other treats were waiting for me! (I was just thankful I didn't actually have to dig in the park with my ladle!)

Yes, I know I looked a little dorky (having thrown on some jeans after our baseball game) but I didn't mind, I did score a cake out of the deal.

Ben and I also celebrated our third wedding anniversary, an occasion that was marked by slightly undercooked burgers at a local pub. (Don't worry we sent the burgers back and got fresh ones.)

We have been playing softball - well Ben has been playing, I've been attempting to play. My sister and I are also playing on a soccer team together, and we were both a little sore after playing our first game. And when I say a little sore, I meant we could barely walk for the next 3-4 days. Thankfully we are both doing a bit better now, having played 4 games so far. Ben and I have also been gardening in our community plot. I will take some photos of it soon, and show you how it progresses. So far the only drama has been that someone stole some of our flowering plants. Boo, hiss! But we planted some more and they are still there.

Now, the moment you have all been waiting for - the story behind Vancouver's cherry blossoms.

So I had to do a little digging (thanks to the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival website) and it turns out that it was way back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s that the Vancouver Park Board staff initiated a number of significant ornamental tree plantings. In the 1930s, the mayors of both Kobe and Yokohama, Japan presented the park board with 500 Japanese cherry trees and gradually the city began to move away from the large, long-lived trees (i.e. Elms, Maples and more) to smaller, ornamental trees like flowering plum, cherry and crabapple. They did this because they "gave better value in colour and decorative effect, but also saved damage to the sewers and pavement". In 1990, a street tree inventory counted that nearly 36% of the cities 89,000 trees were represented by flowering plum and cherry trees. Now there are more than 130,000 street trees so the flowering population is surely higher.

If anyone ever has a chance, Vancouver is a beautiful place to be in mid-April to May, and I tried to take some photos but they just don't do the trees or the tree-lined streets justice.

I had to throw in a rainy day photo as this is how we normally see the trees.

These last three photos are actually of a magnolia tree (I think) but I have been seeing more and more of these around and I think they are beautiful!

That's it for now, time to get dinner started, I hope to be more mindful of my blogging in the coming weeks. We are off on a camping adventure soon so hopefully I'll have something to write about!

Hugs to everyone,
Erin

It's been a busy spring!

2009-04-07T02:12:00.007+02:00

Hej Hej,

It seems like this is becoming a familiar mantra but man, have we been busy! Not only has spring sprung with all its chores: gardening our community garden plot, soft ball practice and more, but we've also had the added fun of having our extended family visit from Japan.

We've been hanging out with our new nephew, Jake.

Reading and playing with nieces, Maya and Amy

Going on a day trip to Stanley Park!

And a family vacation to Whistler!

See I was there...I'm finally in a picture. I didn't go skiing though, P. and I were the babysitters so the ski photos are courtesy of B.

And if that wasn't enough excitement us women (Y. is not in this picture) went to the India Arie concert last night (way past my bed time). She was fabulous and I highly recommend her concert to anyone who enjoys soul/funk/r&b style music.

I know this post doesn't have a lot of substance, but I'm feeling like these guys after all this excitement so it may be time for a nap.

Next time I'm going to post some photos of Vancouver's beautiful cherry blossoms so stay tuned. I can feel the excitement already :p

Ciao from Vancouver,
E.

Correction

2009-03-14T16:35:00.002+01:00

A couple of corrections from my previous post:

B. isn't actually that proud of the photo, he says there are far more impressive ones from previous trips.

And Taz was actually in the washing machine with dry clothes, maybe he felt it was time for a bath.

Trevlig helg,
E.

"If You're Going to San Francisco..."

2009-03-14T16:32:00.000+01:00

Hej Hej,

Ok, so I know that I went to San Francisco in January but I have been asked why I haven't posted anything about the trip, so I thought that on this early Saturday morning, with my cats contentedly fed and B. sleeping soundly, I should finally make the effort and tell you about my trip. I say my trip because since B. was there for 3 weeks and I was only there for a weekend, he'd have to give you all the details about his trip.

I arrived in San Fran on a glorious sunny day. B. met me at the airport and then I got to experience the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) for the long ride to his hotel. He was staying in Pleasant Hill, which is about half an hour outside of downtown San Francisco by this train. We got to his hotel and then immediately walked across the street to a steak house, which was packed with people. We had to stand in the bar waiting for a table for about an hour but at least there was a band :)

The next day we borrowed Janet's daughter's car and headed out to the Napa Valley. It was another beautiful day, think 20 degrees Celsius, and the valley looked amazing. I have to say that if you are ever driving in unfamiliar territory that a GIS machine really helps (although it may not give you the most efficient route). We visited the Robert Mondavi winery where we went on the tour. It was one of the best wine tours I have ever been on and I've been on a few. I learned a lot about grape production, brix and soil properties in the Napa Valley. We ended the tour with a tasting (of course) and then we were back on the road.

We were feeling a bit hungry at this point so we looked into our guide book and chose a restaurant up on the hill - it was called Auberge aux Soleil and it was one of the most memorable meals of my life. We knew it was going to be expensive based on the guidebook but we thought we'd splurge. You know a place is expensive when they have free valet parking when you arrive. We managed to score the last table on the deck that looks out over the Napa Valley (the Inn and restaurant are nestled on the hillside). And for my foodie friends: I had a crab and pear salad to start and then a version of a nicoise salad: seared ahi tuna, a bed of spinach, an egg boiled and then deepfried in panko crumbs. It was so good, and the sun was definitely adding to the great atmosphere.

We hit one other winery on our way back to the city. It was a beautiful building but the wine wasn't that memorable.

On Sunday, we went to San Francisco. First stop was a trip to Alcatraz where we toured the cell block and then walked around the island. Once we escaped...:p we started our tour of the city at Pier 31 (?) Fisherman's Wharf, witness the sea lions, had some sour dough sandwiches at this huge bread factory/restaurant/kitchen store and then caught the expensive tourist tram to Union Square where lo and behold they had an ice skating rink. People were ice skating in tank tops mind you. I can't imagine what it must have cost - money and energy wise - to keep that rink cool enough to skate on. But I guess they weren't expecting it to be 20 degrees in January. From the square we trekked through China Town and then made it up to the Coit Tower where we looked down over the city. We investigated Lombard Street the "crookedest street in the world" and finally made it back down to the Embarcadero (where all the piers are), where we found a great Thai restaurant to eat at. We were pretty pooped by this time as we had been on the go since about 7:30 and it was now 6pm. I'm pretty sure we walked around 15 km. That pretty much concludes my trip to San Francisco, so now you're in the know.

Here is a link to all our photos of San Fran. Click here!

Our beautiful sunshine is now gone in Vancouver, but we had it good for a long time so no complaints. We were able to go on several walks down to the beach. We're headed out to Abbotsford, about an hour away from our house (due east) tonight to have dinner with friends we haven't seen since New Year's. Other than that the weekend is unplanned. B. attended a keg party last night with his colleagues from work, not sure what time he'll be getting out of bed. I avoided the party as I didn't really feel like hanging around with a bunch of beer-drunk people (I guess I was in an anti-social mood), but I did go have dinner with some good friends and ventured over to North Vancouver (across the Burrard Inlet).

B.'s so proud of this photo from his ski trip to Big White so I thought I'd throw it in.

Ok, this is getting to be quite long, so I'll sign off!
Hope everyone is doing well! Vi saknar er!
E.

P.S. How cute is this photo of Taz who likes to climb into small spaces, even if the small space is a washing machine full of damp clothes.

My sister's puppy

2009-02-20T05:34:00.004+01:00

Hej Hej,

I know, I know. I don't write in forever and then twice in one night. Crazy, eh? (I'm throwing out that 'eh' to my galpal Jessie who never tired of teasing me about them). Anyways, I just discovered this short video of Caine trying desperately to get in and join the party. I'm sure you'll find this as amusing as me. He actually did this almost the entire afternoon. And just to clarify, yes, he is a puppy. He is only 8 months old in this video. He has since learned how to open the door if it's unlocked so he no longer has to wear out his tongue trying to get in.

That's it from me...I still plan on telling you about our trip to San Fran, but that will have to wait for another day.

Ciao
E.

Our humble abode

2009-02-20T05:02:00.004+01:00

This is me, waving at you all on Valentine's Day from Kitsilano Beach!

Hello there,

Well I just checked the last time I posted and it has been far too long. We'll just leave it at that. Anyway, I have had some requests to put up some pictures of our new place and so I took a few photos (of the living area at least). You may notice a conspicuous lack of bedroom shots, however since our bedroom consists of a mattress on the floor and two end tables that are being used as nightstands, you're not missing much. I've also added some photos from our recent walk in the glorious sunshine around Vancouver. You can check out these shots here.

This is beautiful Vancouver. We're looking across False Creek at downtown from near to Granville Island
We are in the process of trying to decide if we want to go away for Easter weekend. We get Good Friday and Easter Monday off at UBC so we thought we could take advantage of that and go down to Oregon or something. Originally the plan was to go somewhere hot but due to the fact that we still don't own any bedroom furniture that plan quickly got quashed (by both of us).

Barak Obama came to Canada today. He came for lunch it seems :) No seriously, he arrived at 7:30am and was going to be home for dinner. We'll see what comes out of the visit. It seems more ceremonial but without any ceremonies as there were no actual chances for people to see him. I'm hoping he does enact the mandate against buying oil from the oilsands but that's the environmentalist in me and not the economist.

We have just had our sixth day of sunshine in a row. I'm not sure we Vancouverites can manage a seventh day. Our skin is drying up and is crying out for rain. I'm just kidding. I'm loving the +10 degrees. I enjoyed another beautiful walk down to the beach today.

Ok, that's it for this post. BTW if you are getting this in an email and would rather not just let me know. I will not be hurt and I can take you off the email list.

Jag saknar alla mina kompisar!
En stor kram,
E.

Sweden Withdrawal has hit

2009-01-30T04:23:00.004+01:00

Now, I'm not sure if it's just that this week my job has been a bit slow or whether I'm truly missing the Swedish lifestyle, but I'm dealing with a bit of Sweden withdrawal this week. Has anyone else ever experienced this? (I mean for whatever place you've moved from). I can't really pinpoint what it is I'm missing...although friends are a good place to start. But as I'm feeling nostalgic, I thought I'd throw a few photos up of our last week in Sweden...and my North American/pseudo-Swedish gal pals who I miss...

Showing off our fancy nails!

Fika

Our last day in Sweden

How can this not make you smile!

I'm going to add photos from San Fran momentarily, so be sure to come back!
E.

We have not disappeared!

2009-01-21T00:16:00.003+01:00

Hej Hej,

Just wanted to let everyone know that we haven't disappeared off the face of the Earth. B. is still down in San Fran and I started a new job last week and have been busy trying to establish roots and get a handle on that (and haven't had time to update the blog). I was down in San Fran over the weekend and will post pictures of that along with photos of our new home once B. brings the camera back :)

I hope all is well!
kram E.

Scenes from a fantastic year!

2009-01-04T18:58:00.003+01:00

Christmas in Vancouver

2009-01-04T18:23:00.004+01:00

A few shots from snowy Vancouver over the holiday season! I'll write more one I get full-fledged internet service!

S. cleaning off the walk, one of many times!

Beautiful trees laden with snow

B. with his new goggles...he says he wants to start doing triathalons

Christmas Day

Caine the giant puppy - he's only 8 months old

Signing off from Vancouver!
E.

Sta: Lucia

2008-12-15T09:08:00.005+01:00

Hej Hej,

Well, Saturday was December 13th or Sta: Lucia day in Sweden. In most schools and work places the day would have been celebrated on Friday, with singing, lussekatt (saffron buns) and glögg (mulled wine)(well, maybe no glögg at the schools :) ). I attended B.'s departmental Luciatåg (Lucia train) on Friday. B. was dressed as a stjärngossar (star boy) and participated in the singing.

Here's a clip of the singing...

Saint Lucia/Lucy Day is celebrated on Dec. 13th, which was the shortest day of the year in the unreformed Julian Calendar. Lucia is one of the few saints celebrated by members of the Lutheran church. The Church of Sweden is Lutheran and most Swedes are members of the church - although I'm not sure how many actually attend church on a regular basis. The story of the saint comes from Sicily (so it beats me why they always try to find a blonde Lucia in Sweden, unless Sicilians are known for their blonde hair???). Lucia means light, and perhaps that's why Swedes chose to continue celebrating this saint. Winter is incredibly dark here, so anything that brings light has got to be good.

Generally, young girls dress in white robes with one girl chosen to be Lucia. Lucia wears a crown of candles (real candles!). And the remaining girls hold candles. The candles symbolize the fire that refused to take St. Luica's life when she was sentenced to be burned (she had to stabbed to death instead). Boys also participate but they dress up as stjärngossar (like B. although lab coats are not necessarily the official costume of a starboy), tomtenissar (Santa's little helpers in red Santa-like suits) or as gingerbread men.

If you'd like to read the full story of Lucia Day you can find it here and for more background on the Saint herself you can check out this link: St. Lucy.

Today, the sun is shining, for the first time in what feels like a month, although I'm told it peeped out briefly last Sunday, but since I was in Stockholm on Sunday I must have missed it! I'm going to try and get out and enjoy a moment in the sun while I can. I hear its snowing in Vancouver, joy of joys. The gods must be trying to spite me :)

6 days until lift off...
God Jul,
E.

A little bit of silliness

2008-12-09T13:30:00.005+01:00

Hej hej,

If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at?

A little bit of silliness to cheer you up on a grey day...(at least in Uppsala)

Vi ses snart! Twelve days to go!
E.

Jul i Sverige

2008-12-05T08:43:00.003+01:00

Hej Hej,

Last weekend was a busy one. It was B.'s 30th b-day on Sunday so we went bowling (alongside about 4 little kids b-day parties - I just love watching little kid's bowling with giant 10-pin bowling balls) for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Then the group of us went to watch the fireworks. No, no I didn't organize them for B.'s b-day, it was just an advent celebration since Sunday was the 1st Sunday of advent. After that we had our bowling buddies along with about 7 more friends over for a sushi and wing supper. It was fun and although B. missed his friends from home he had a great time celebrating with all his new friends. Click here for some shots from the day!

Christmas (Jul) is a pretty big deal in Sweden. The first weekend of advent everyone puts up their stars in their windows and lights the first of four advent candles. The next candle is lit on the following Sunday, the third on the third Sunday, etc. Many families get together to celebrate the first of advent and attend a Christmas market or some event in their town. My friend, J. forwarded me this article about Christmas in Sweden...http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/12/22/sweden.christmas/ I thought it was an interesting read, especially since J. and I are headed to see nötknapparen (The Nutcracker) at the Stockholm Opera House tomorrow. It will be interesting to see the Swedish take on it.

Hope everyone is well! Two weeks until the trip home! Yikes!
Trevlig helg,
E.

Det snöade!

2008-11-25T15:21:00.005+01:00

Tjäne!

Well, the dusting of snow has turned into mounds. We woke up to a bit of snow on Saturday morning and it started again during our drive back from Falun on Saturday. It continued to snow most of Sunday and all day Monday. And we are now living in a winter wonderland (for at least a few days, the temperature is supposed to rise again on the weekend).

Enjoy!
E.

Sunday morning looking out over our square

Monday afternoon while waiting for the bus

Today, I went on a walk to try and capture how much snow has fallen - probably a foot/33 cm since Saturday.

Falun Gruva

2008-11-25T14:57:00.006+01:00

Hej Hej!

Last weekend B., S. and I drove up to Falun to check out the Falun Copper Mine. Falun is a town of around 55,000 and played a significant role in the history of Sweden.

The copper (and iron, gold and silver) mine is a Unesco World Heritage Site because of its "historical industrial landscape" and because of the fact that mining has been going on at "Copper Mountain" since 500 AD. Can you imagine?????!!!!!

The Mine is both a pit mine (as you can see from the photo) and an underground mine. Originally the miners would mine through firesetting. Setting large fires against the walls of the mine until the rock face would crack. They would then take their hammers and chisels and/or sledgehammers and chip away at the rock until they had some ore to send up to the surface.

Apparently the pit mine used to be three smaller pits but in 1687 an extensive cave-in took place. The galleries and chambers of the mine collapsed down to a depth of 1000 feet along with the rock walls that divided the three pits. Luckily this occurred around midsummer, one of the few times of the year that the miners had off, so not a single person was killed.

The minerals in the water of the mine preserve things very well. In one of the chambers, the staff put a Christmas tree (because the chamber was called the Christmas Gift - due to the fact that a large deposit was found there at Christmas time) five years ago. The tree is dead but it still is green and has all its needles. An even more impressive tale of preservation involves a miner named Mats. Mats was trying to finish up some work one evening and ended up being the last one in the mine. Unfortunately a rock slide occurred and he ended up dying in the mine. Unfortunately no one knew where he had been working so the body wasn't found. Forty two years later in the early 1800s a crew of miners came across a body. They brought it up to the surface and everyone was trying to figure out who this person was. There hadn't been any miners reported missing and the miner looked as though he had only been dead for a few days although his clothes were old-fashioned. The mystery continued until an older lady came up to see what the kerfuffle was about and she exclaimed, "Thats Mats!". He had been her fiance and it was quite a shock to see him so well preserved while she of course had aged. He had taken on some fluids though so he was a bit puffy and today the story of "Fet Mats" (Fat Mats) is in many school books across Europe.

There are over 4000 working sites in the mine and the deepest shaft that still exists is 680 feet deep and is bisected by an enormous wooden wall put in place to protect the pumps behind it. It is presumed to be the world's highest wooden construction. The miners would ride 7-8 at a time standing on the edge of this barrel going down the shaft and then have to swing out to the ledges and walkways and job off. They put up the wall so the barrel didn't hit the pumps on its back swing.

The copper mine was very important to Sweden. The glory days of the Mine coincided with the period during which Sweden was established as a great power. And to a large part this position was financially based on the export of copper from Falun. At times the mine accounted for two thirds of the copper needed in Europe. The mine closed in 1992 but is now a museum and heritage site. In addition from the leftover iron bits they make the famous Falun Red Paint, which you will have seen on some of the houses in my photos! The paint factory is still in operation.

We look a bit like linebackers in these photos, but it was drippy down there so it was nice to have the capes!

Trevlig tisdag!
E.

The Beginning of the End

2008-11-20T12:37:00.003+01:00

Hej hej,

Well, it has finally happened...snow has fallen and has stuck. Yuck. This truly marks the end of fall and the start of winter (even if the below zero temperatures had been signaling winter's arrival for at least a week). I had been hoping for a mild winter like last year but it seems that that my luck has run out. This was the view from our window this morning (we live above shops in a square).

The snow means that I'll probably be selling my bike earlier than I had anticipated. I got a bus pas yesterday so that will be my new mode of transportation.

This is also the start of our last month in Sweden. We are in the process of figuring out what we are going to sell, give away and take with us (not much). We're also trying to squeeze in a few more day trips to see some sites that we haven't made it to yet. So watch for a few more messages from Sweden yet!

Trevlig torsdag!
E.

Copenhagen vs. Stockholm

2008-11-13T16:30:00.006+01:00

Hej Hej!

So last week our friend, J., arrived for a visit and almost immediately we took off to Copenhagen. B. and I had already planned the trip before we knew she was coming but the three of us decided to go and after buying tickets with one airline that went bust we eventually made it there on airline number 2.

Reading the guidebook for Denmark, it made an outrageous claim. It said that Copenhagen was the most beautiful city in Scandinavia and that Stockholm shouldn't argue!!! Hmmmm. I had to wait to see Copenhagen to form an opinion but after spending 2 days there I would have to say that I remain faithful to Stockholm. Here are my reasons...

1. Stockholm is surrounded by water. It sits on 14 islands and the water is an integral part of the city, whereas in Copenhagen its more of a side thought.

2. Stockholm seems slightly cleaner to me (but I may be biased).

3. I like the old town of Stockholm better than the old part of Copenhagen (although it is beautiful too!)

I guess I have to be loyal to Stockholm, but for those of you who have yet to visit it, its definitely worth a visit. I believe that it is probably one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

While in Copenhagen we ate well. J., B. and I had a couple of very nice dinners, and we managed to fit a "fika" in most days. The first day we visited J. and R. (also of Saskatoon via Kamloops) and had coffee with them at their house. That pretty much took the afternoon and we got lost on our way there on the bus (but only momentarily). The next day we went to the "Bodies" exhibit that has been traveling around the world but was currently on in Copenhagen. They had some amazing displays complete with real parts from real people - including cross sections of bodies - very, very interesting. The afternoon was spent sight-seeing with Ben's colleague, who took us on a canal tour (where most of our photos are from) and up the Round Tower. We saw the Little Mermaid on the canal tour and while the guidebook suggested we would be disappointed I wasn't. I thought she was lovely. Our last day was spent wandering around the streets, checking out the fancy dept. stores and visiting the outside of the castle and a round church. The weather was not the best but it wasn't terrible either so we did ok.

Some interesting facts I learned while touring around Stockholm with J.: 47% of the MPs in the Swedish parliament are women. The only country to have a higher percentage of women in parliament is Rwanda and that is mainly due to the fact that they have a 50/50 quota in place. Second interesting fact, in the Stockholm City Council 52 of 101 seats are held by women. Pretty impressive, don't you think!

J. left yesterday and I have spent the last two days recovering. No seriously I was tired :) Now I'm ready to start getting organized for the move back and for Christmas (and B.'s 30th!)

Here are a few shots from our week! Photos

The days got shorter by half an hour in the last week. I am not impressed. The city has decided to put on a light show for the whole month of November to try and counter the dark days. I just hope the weather improves otherwise I might be a gloomy girl come December.

Vi hörs!
E.

Homeward Bound

2008-10-21T08:46:00.003+02:00

Hejsan!

Although the news travel fast there still may be one or two people left in the world who aren't aware that we are moving back to Vancouver. You heard me right. After 6.5 years of living in various places - Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Uppsala - we have decided to spend at least a few years in our hometown. B. got offered a post-doc at UBC with a very widely respected prof in microbiology and when we come back for Christmas its to stay. I'm still working on the job front, but I do have a few leads, well, just one so far, but I'm working on it. We already have an apartment lined up for Jan. 1st. We will be living at Arbutus and 10th. And guess what! It's just around the corner from a Swedish bakery so we'll be able to enjoy semlor in February, and perhaps even the odd princesstårta. Vad kul!

You might wonder how I discovered that it was right around the corner from a Swedish bakery, and so I'll tell you. The other day I found this website where you can calculate the walkability of your neighbourhood (not sure if this will work outside of North America - sorry international friends). You type in your address including city and province and it will show you all the shops, gyms, parks, etc. in your neighbourhood and calculate a score, which pretty much indicates whether or not you should be walking everywhere! This is the website: http://walkscore.com Our new neighbourhood scored a 88/100 = very walkable. My dad's house on the other hand scored a 17/100 = car dependent (although I noticed they didn't include the nearby vegetable/convenience store, which is very walkable, on their map). Just a fun waste of time, plus maybe you'll find some interesting shop near your house - like a Swedish bakery!

Other exciting news! A friend from Saskatoon is coming to visit us!! She just decided last week and is coming to stay from Nov. 4-12. We're all going to Copenhagen together, so it should be a fun trip. Now I just have to figure out what we're going to do...

Well, time to get out of my housecoat and get ready for work. I actually have work today, which now feels like an inconvenience since I haven't worked in so long :p
Hope all is well with you!
Trevlig tisdag!
E.

A Fall Wedding

2008-10-05T12:49:00.006+02:00

Hejsan,

Yesterday was a busy day. We attended both a christening and a wedding (and all for one family). The christening was for the son of our friend's C. and H. It was held at one of the oldest churches in Uppsala (practically next door to the cathedral). It was pretty similar to a Canadian christening, although it was in Swedish :p Here are a few shots from the christening.

The happy family!

After the christening we headed to Värmlands Nation for a fika, which included smörgåstårta and cakes. At this point we had some time to kill as the wedding didn't start until 4:30pm. Most people went home and we decided to walk home as the weather was nice and we wanted to enjoy the fall scenery. B. also wanted to get in a quick nap before the evenings festivities. Here are a few shots from our walk home.

A pathway of leaves

The wedding was held in the Cathedral (which is humongous). There were only about 75-90 people there so we sat in a few seats at the very front by the alter (I think a few tourists sat in on the ceremony too :) ). In Sweden, the bride and groom walk into the wedding together so that everyone knows that they are both coming willingly to marry. They are followed by any attendants they might have. The ceremony was nice (again in Swedish) and some of the passages were easily translatable as they are typical passages from a English ceremony, e.g. Corinthians "Love is...""Kärlek är..." Singing the psalms was a bit trickier as we didn't know the rhythms or the words.

After the service we walked down to another Nation, where we started the evening with a glass of champagne in the library. When the bride and groom entered the building we were all waiting on the staircase and joined them in a toast (and a few hooras). Then it was time to enter into the dining room. The dining room was very beautiful with tall candelabras on the table and red velvet curtains. At every Swedish function we have been to, couples are not allowed to sit together (unless they are engaged), but are generally at the same table. It seemed we were at the English table, although most people speak English so well it wouldn't have mattered. The dinner started with a soup (it was a sit-down meal), then we had a reindeer filet, and this was followed by a cheese plate. Every course was matched with a wine (very posh!). In between the courses, and, in fact, during the courses, the MC would make announcements or invite specific people to come up to speak. There were also a couple of fun games for the couple and their parents to take part in. We also sing songs throughout the meal (the songs are printed in the program). As you can guess, this means that the meal takes quite a long time. In fact we had a 15 minute "leg stretcher" between the main course and the dessert. In total I think the dinner took about 4 hours. We then moved back to the library for the cake and coffee, and then it was time for dancing. They had a four piece jazz band complete with a singer. It was really nice, we got to practice our walt, our foxtrot and our chacha. But by 1am Ben was pretty beat so we took off for home.

Here are some pics from the day (sorry for the length of this post!):

Trevlig måndag,
E.

E. goes to a Möhippa

2008-10-01T08:24:00.004+02:00

Hejsan,

Ok, so for those who aren't fluent in Swedish (which includes me) a möhippa is a stagette or a bachelorette party or a hen party depending on which country you live in. Apparently the word "hippa" is an old-fashioned word for a party. The male equivalent in Swedish is a svensexa, and again the word "sexa" is an old-fashioned word for party. Anyways, two Saturdays ago, I attended my first Swedish möhippa. This is an all-day affair. We met at the bride's house at 10am to surprise and kidnap her. Möhippas are usually a surprise. We gave her a list of articles to pack into a backpack and she was required to put on an outfit that was entirely pink (luckily she had pink pants, I don't know about you but I would be hard pressed to find pink pants in my wardrobe). We then drove down to this indoor fun-park thing, called a femkamp (five camp?). There we participated in five events, competing against one another, however, for the first event the bride had to sumo wrestle the groom (who was also attending his svensexa that day, which made it tricky as they had a six month old baby). We all tried to sumo wrestle, which is surprisingly hard work, and then we rode a Segway through a small course, raced go-karts, did archery and rode a mechanical bull. My favourite part was the go-karts! I had never tried go-karting before and man, oh man, it is fun. In the end I ended up winning third prize! Not bad. The bride got second (I couldn't very well beat the bride after all). After our mornings activities we stopped back at the house for lunch and then we whisked the bride to a glass-blowing hut where she got to make five different glass things, with the assistance of the glass-blower. Then it was time for more games and dinner. Before every activity the bride was given a riddle/puzzle to solve which would tell her what we were doing next. This möhippa thing takes a lot of organizing! I left at 11:15pm and was tired. Even without the normal drinking that takes place at a Canadian stag this was a long day!

Here are some shots from the day! The wedding is on Saturday so I'll be able to tell you about a Swedish wedding next week!

C. the beautiful bride

C. and H. "The Battle is on"

Don't I look like a jolly sumo wrestler?

The bride...looking somewhat scary

Getting our instructions, I choose not to wear the fancy racing suit

Me the speed demon

C. with one of her works of art

One of the games was for C. to taste various dips that we bought and try to guess what was in them. Yummm :p

Hejdå
E.

Uppsala...adopted home of Carl Linnaeus

2008-09-24T21:41:00.004+02:00

Hejsan!

Well, another summer is coming to an end (well here it seems to have come to an end up about a month or more ago) and that means that the Linné garden is also closing up for the season. (Carolus Linnaeus or Carl von Linné established the system of nomenclature that we now have today. He based his separations on the sex organs of the plants, i.e. the pistols and the stamens, the plants were organized into groups based on the number of each it had). B. and I had still not made it to the garden (although our hotel when we first came to visit Uppsala overlooked it), so I decided to make my way to that part of town today. Today was a beautiful day so it was the perfect time to check out the garden. I arrived in time for the 2pm English tour only to find out that it was going to be a private tour as no one else was there that day (at least not for the tour). So here's what I learned...

Carl Linnaeus did not actually establish the garden. It was Rudbeck The Elder who travelled abroad and brought back 800 plant species only to discover that the Queen, who had promised him the land to build a botanical garden (the first in Sweden), had abdicated the throne (this was Queen Christina who had travelled to Rome to become a Catholic). So he needed a home for his plants, and he took over his sister/sister-in-law's (I can't remember)kitchen garden. But this was not the best spot for a botanical garden as the soil was very alkaline and the Fyriså (Fyris river) often flooded the garden. Rudbeck the Elder ended up building a house by the garden (a very fire proof house) and he lived there and taught botany at the university. In around 1701, there was a great fire in Uppsala and most of the town burned down, including the castle, the cathedral and the garden (but not Rudbeck the Elder's house). This loss of the garden left Rudbeck so sad that he died a year later. His son, Rudbeck the Younger, was to take over teaching Botany at the University but because of the loss of the botanical garden and the loss of his father, his heart wasn't in it and Botany classes were not be found on campus. In around 1730, Carl Linné; came to Uppsala to take botany classes only to find that the so-called botany department was pretty much defunct. He was at a loss, he couldn't afford to go back home and he wanted to study botany. He happened to meet a man by the name of Celsius (not Anders Celsius who invented the thermometer; an aside:it was Linnaeus who reversed the scale so that 0 is the freezing point and 100 is boiling instead of vice versa; but his uncle). This other Celsius was also a professor at the University and offered Linnaeus a place to stay, and gave him a job as a demonstrator at the garden (some of the plants had survived the fire). Linnaues thus worked on the garden and started teaching Botany classes at Uppsala University. He never actually took a class in Botany and so was entirely self taught. Linnaeus expanded the garden and brought in animals, including monkeys that lived in little houses on the tops of poles. People were allowed in the main part of the garden but not in the various quarters, which were surrounded by hedges in the Baroque style. The garden flourished.

At some point, the King donated the Castle gardens to the University and these became the new Botanical Gardens. Linnaeus's garden fell into disrepair after the death of his son (another Botanist). About 100 years ago, the Swedish Linnaeus Society was formed and they helped to restore the garden based on Linnaeus notes. The university house that is on the property (and is where Linnaeus lived upon becoming a professor) has also been made into a museum. So the current garden has been in existence for about a hundred years. Last year, 2007, was the 300th anniversary of Linnaeus's birth and there were a lot of celebrations in the city. The people of Uppsala are very proud of him.

Here are few shots from my day! Enjoy!

Hej då
E.

A year ago...

2008-09-13T09:45:00.002+02:00

I find it hard to believe that its already been a year since I arrived here in Sweden. Yes, a whole year! September 4th was my anniversary day and my goodness how times flies. Although it has not always been easy living here, I have truly appreciated the experience. And as I plan to enjoy my second kulturnatten (Culture Night) here in Uppsala I was reminiscing about all that has happened this year...

A year ago today, Ben and I headed out on the town with our friend Kim, from South Africa, who sadly left Uppsala last November. That is one of the things that has been great about being here, meeting so many new people from so many places but its also a sad part as we often have to say goodbye. I was feeling the pain recently as one of my good friends here in Sweden left to join her fiance in the Canary Islands. I guess the one positive thing about seeing people leave is the possibility of visiting them one day! :) And hopefully that will happen with everyone who we've met.

B. just left in the taxi to the airport and will be gone for three weeks. I'm trying to make a plan of attack so that I don't get too blue while he's gone. Luckily I started two distance education classes and my Swedish for Immigrants class this week. So I should be able to keep fairly busy.

The new words I learned this week are: modersmål = mother tongue (moders = mother's, mål=tongue) and huvudstad = capital city. Its been a slow start to the Swedish class, but hopefully it will pick up. The positive part is that I've already met so many interesting people in the class. Its like a mini United Nations with people from Germany, Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq, South Africa, New Zealand, El Salvador, Chile, Mexica, Colombia, China, Lithuania, Poland, Bosnia, Sudan, Bangladesh and of course, the lone Canadian. Pretty amazing though.

I'll probably be lonely in the next few weeks...so if anyone is in the mood to chat, give me a call or Skype me!
Trevlig helg (Have a nice weekend!)
E.

Visby, Sheep Island and Maneter!

2008-09-05T09:12:00.003+02:00

Hejsan!

We're just about finished up an exhausting weekend/week! I think I'm getting to old to do this whole vacation and work thing in the same week...but it has been pretty busy! Thursday I spent in Stockholm, teaching a class, prepping more classes and exploring the Nobel Prize Museum while I waited for B. and our friend, S.-l. to come into town. Of course, the train they were supposed to be on was cancelled so we ended up rushing to our final destination, a concert by the Latvian Symphony featuring a somewhat weird cellist (strange clothes, long curly grey hair which he kept having to brush off his face, you get the picture - but I guess you need to have some eccentricities to be that good). The concert was really good though and was in this concert hall that had seats all around it - which I've never experienced before.

After the concert we crashed at S. and J.'s for the night as we were rising early to catch our ferry to Gotland (well first we had to take the subway and two commuter trains to get to the ferry). The ferry ride was uneventful, 3.5 hours of smooth sailing and a crappy lunch.

Visby was a really neat town. Its the biggest town in Gotland and has around 20,000 inhabitants although not everyone lives in the town walls. Yes, it is a walled city! We spent the afternoon wandering around the town, examining all the old crumbled churches, going into the existing cathedral, buying godis (candies) at a candy sale!!! We then headed back to our cell, for some pre-dinner drinks and some cards. We literally were staying in a cell, as the hostel was an old prison, complete with barbed wire around the walls. It was an interesting set-up as all the rooms were pretty narrow.

The next day we checked out the museum in town, which has a lot of picture stones in it and talks about the Geology of Gotland, which is unique in Sweden. Nothing too exciting...although we did all seem to have more fun in the kid's science part of the museum then we should have. Next stop was to pick up our brightly coloured rental car (see photos) and to head up north towards Fårö (translation: sheep island). We stopped in the town of Bro to examine the old church which contains some picture stones in its walls and has some of the only remaining standing stones in a farmers field (which we almost drove by). Then we stopped at this place (the name I can't remember) that has an old fort submerged in the middle of a lake (Atlantis????). Apparently you can dive and check it out if you want. It seemed from the limited signage, that the fort might actually have been built over the lake, but we are unsure of that detail. We didn't have our scuba gear with us so we refrained from diving in :)

We took the ferry (5 minutes) to Fårö and continued our drive up to the south beach where our cabin was. The beach was amazing there, super soft sand, very calm sea, thousands of jellyfish (maneter). Yes, I'm serious, for every square metre there must have been 7 jellyfish. It wasn't that it was exceptionally warm so we weren't planning on going swimming and suntanning that much but its always fun to run into the ocean. We tried this the next day, the others made it out a ways (the jellyfish still didn't subside though), I made it up to my waist and then decided it wasn't fun standing on jellyfish and having jellyfish brush against you every second so I beelined it for the shore. And I'm the swimmer, not a brave one obviously. Our second day on the island we rented bikes and rode out to some sea stacks. The sea stacks were formed when either the sea subsided or the land rose and then the coral reefs were eroded by the elements, until only these towers of rock remained. Our bike ride was a bit of an adventure on tractor roads, read: bumpy, swampy and windy. We did see many sheep so the island lived up to its name, we also saw old wooden windmills, and houses and barns with very cool thatched roofs. Of course, we had to stop for a fika so we stopped at bakery and enjoyed some paj (pie) and some saffron pancakes, a specialty of the island. The pancake is more like a gelatinous/eggy pie with raisins, rice and, obviously, saffron in it. It is served with salmbår (a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry) jam and cream (of course).

The rest of our trip included more sea stack spotting, some frisbee playing, walks on the beach and wine. We got back to Uppsala at 11:15pm on Monday night and were pretty tired.

To check out our weekend click here...

Trevlig helg!
E.

Lund, Ales Stenar and Kräftor

2008-08-27T11:33:00.005+02:00

Hejsan,

Sorry for the long time between posts! I have been busy sightseeing around Sweden with my sister-in-law, and time seemed to fly by.

S. and I headed down south last week. It was my first time travelling long-distance on the train here. Of course it was 45 minutes late arriving in Lund but since we had no specific plans it didn't affect us. We arrived in Lund in the early afternoon on Wednesday after 6 hours of train travel. Lund is pretty far south, its about 25km North of Malmö which is the town you take the bridge to Copenhagen (Köpenhamm) from. It is an ancient town and was once of the religious centres of Scandinavia. To attest to this is the nearly 900 year old Cathedral that is at the centre of town. We went on a tour of this cathedral with a very enthusiastic tour guide. She started by talking to us about the astronomical clock that is in the Cathedral. The clock plays music and has dancing figures twice a day, but the other aspect of it is that you can figure out what day anyone was born on, and the period of the moon, as well as all the religious holidays. Apparently, I was born on a Thursday (Thursday's child has far to go they say!) We wandered around Lund for the afternoon, before picking up our snazzy orange and blue rental car with advertisements all over it and heading down to Ystad.

Ystad is the amazingly cute town full of half-timbered houses situated on the Baltic. It has the oldest half-timbered house as well as the only full block of half-timbered houses in all of Scandinavia. Our hostel in Ystad was right on the beach so we were able to take some nice walks along the shore. We set out on Thursday morning towards Ales Stenar, it was incredibly windy there...check out this (sideways) video

After checking out the stones, we headed down to the beach and bought some tasty smoked salmon and herring and tried to avoid the wasps. Next stop was Glimmingehus, a 15th century castle that an unpopular guy built. Since he was so unpopular the castle has numerous death traps, and the word must have got around as there were never any attacks on the castle.

We were on our way to Kivik, when we decided to detour into Stenshuvud National Park. We hiked up to Stenshuvud and had a nice view of the surrounding countryside.

Final stop of the day was Kivik, where we walked around a 3000 year old burial ground and bought some apples from a roadside stand. On our way back to Ystad I got a bit of a start. We had just entered a townsite and I was gradually slowing down when I saw a cop in the tree with his speed camera aimed directly at us...luckily, it was just a dummy dressed up as a cop, as I hadn't quite got down to the slower speed limit yet :p

Our last day we decided to take a quick dip in the Baltic before leaving. And when I say quick, I mean quick. You know the water is cold when its warmer standing on the shore dripping wet with the wind blowing. The trip had been smooth sailing up to that point, but of course, something had to happen. Our train was delayed out of Lund as they couldn't get the two halves of the train to attach. So an hour later the first half arrived. Of course, our car was on the second half so we had to wait another half an hour for that half to arrive. We were a couple hours later than expected but now it just seems somewhat funny.

Sunday, we decided to hold a kräftorfest (crayfish party). There were six of us in total and we managed to eat 3kg of crayfish and a fair bit of snaps. It was somewhat odd having a crayfish party with no Swedes to show us how its done, but Ben has been to a few so he showed us how to get at the meat, and we had no problems coming up with our own songs to sing in between the shots of snaps.

I am now worn out, but we are heading to Gotland this weekend with S. and J. Hopefully it will be a relaxing trip!

For some photos of our adventures check out:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153278&l=c6949&id=842465120
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153284&l=51b6e&id=842465120

Hejdå
E.

An interesting way to mow the grass

2008-08-14T14:17:00.003+02:00

Hejsan!

I guess its been a few days since my last post...but I haven't been partaking in many fascinating activities, and so I do not have many tales to tell. My days have mainly been spent watching the Olympics, of which, we have day-long coverage of (in Swedish of course). I am proud to say, as a pseudo-Swede, that Sweden has now won 3 medals, one of which was returned in protest by a wrestler who won bronze today. I think this is pretty successful as compared to Canada who has yet to win one medal yet has four times the population.

Anyways, the other day I was riding my bike home from my yoga class (which by the way is harder to do in another language than you might think), when I noticed something peculiar going on in the park. I have been riding through this park all summer and was somewhat surprised at the lack of landscaping going on there. The park is mainly trees and grass with a playground in the middle. The surprising part is that they have not cut the grass all summer, so it was about waist high and in my mind, a hotbed of mosquito love. But on this gloomy evening, there was some cutting going on in the park, and not by a ride-on lawnmower, or even a push mower, but by a HORSE AND BUGGY with some sort of lawn cutting apparatus attached to the side of it. Now I am curious why this one park in particular is being cut by a horse and buggy!!!??? The other parks have been cut using electric or gas-powered mowers so why is this park, which happens to be called Engelska parken or The English Park, being mowed in this environmentally friendly manner? Hmmm, I'll have to see if there is some news about it in the local paper!

S. is coming to visit on Saturday and I'm hopefully going to be traveling down to Lund and Åles Stenar with her next week - if we can find a place to stay - so I should have some more exciting events to report.

Sorry for the excessive use of the word "which" in this post...must just be my mood!
Hejsan,
E.

Arholma Nord och Kallt Krigen

2008-08-06T08:28:00.005+02:00

Hejsan!

This past weekend, B. and I headed out on an adventure to one of the island's in the Stockholm archipelago. Did you know that Stockholm had an archipelago? It is the largest archipelago in Sweden and one of the biggest in the Baltic sea. It stretches 60 km to the east of Stockholm and is made up of approximately 24,000 islands and islets (which is by the way a small island - I had to look that up). The village of Ytterby situated on Resarö island is one of the most famous villages in the archipelago as it is home to a quarry that contains many rare earth minerals. The village is famous for naming no fewer than 4 chemical elements - erbium, terbium, ytterbium and yttrium (once again, I came across this info on Wikipedia - it wasn't just lying around in my head). But we did not go to Resarö, we went to Arholma, which is situated in the North Archipelago.

To get to Arholma, we took two buses and a ferry from Uppsala, on the way back it wasn't so easy and we had to take a ferry, two buses, the subway and the train from Stockholm to get back (this trip totaled 5 hours vs. our 3 hour trip there). Upon our arrival in Arholma, we actually managed to go to the wrong hostel (who knew there would be two on such a small island) and were surprised to find a) no one in the office, since they didn't mention that it would be unmanned and b) that it was nowhere near the ocean since we had rented kayaks. We dropped off our stuff and proceeded to walk back to "town" to ask for some info only to pass another sign which named the hostel we were looking for, so we walked on to this hostel and then had to walk back 2 km to pick up our stuff and 2 km back to drop it off. We were slightly grouchy at this point.

Our real hostel was on the ocean, it was near the north of the Island. And to our surprise, it was actually on an old army battery (but more about this later). So, on to the kayaking. We walked down to the beach and put the kayaks in the water...later B. told me that he was surprised I even got in the water as the ocean was pretty rough (I asked why he didn't mention this before we left the shore!). We paddled to the southeast and ended up going down the inside of the Island, where it was supposed to be calmer. It was easy going to start as the wind was at our back and we pulled our kayaks up on an island to lie in the sun for awhile. We proceeded to paddle a bit farther and then it was time to turn back. OH MY GOD! I could barely get my kayak to move. It was so windy. B. estimates there were 60km/hr winds. The waves were splashing us but that wasn't really worrisome, the kayaks are pretty stable, it was just so frustrating. Needless to say, I am not the world's strongest paddler and my technique is not great, but I'm not a weakling either. B. offered to tow me but I thought that was a bit wimpy so instead we paddled separately and it took us nearly three times as long to get back to the hostel. I was not a happy camper.

But, things got better, we had a nice evening, and we walked into the "town" for dessert at the one restaurant in "town". On the way back it was getting dark and we came across numerous frogs on the road, and fairly big ones, so that was cool. The next morning it was raining, but since we had arranged to go on a tour of the battery (and it was inside the hill) it didn't bother us much. The tour was in Swedish so it was good practice for us, although we are not that familiar with terms of war in Swedish :) The guide did translate some things for us, but the Swedish version would take 5 minutes while the English version was one sentence. He did however, give us a private tour after the main tour was done and let us go up into the firing mechanism room of the 10.5 cm Bofors that was there (which no one else got to do).

So the short version of the tour is that this battery was constructed in 1965 but was not ready until 1968. It was built to be a last line of defense against a Russian attack during the Cold War. There were several other guns situated on islands along the coast and many of them could be fired from the Arholma base. There were over a hundred men posted at this base, although not all of them slept inside the hill, some slept in tents outside in the woods. The base was disbanded in the 90s and then the residents had to convince the government to keep it intact for use as a museum. It now runs four tours daily and people come from all over to see it...including off sailboats that pull into the bay. One of the funniest things we saw on the tour was a switch box with the words "Krig" -war and "Fred" - peace on it. Apparently, if the lever was on war, then the gun could be aimed back towards Sweden in case the Russians had made it to shore, whereas if the lever was on peace then it could only be fired out towards the sea.

Since the weather wasn't so nice on Saturday we left the island in the early afternoon but it was still a nice getaway. Here are some shots from our quick visit!
Photos from Arholma

The weather has now turned cool but hopefully it will turn back for S. and M.'s visit in a couple weeks...also for me who is stuck at home trying to fill my summer days!
Ciao
E.

Ticks in Stockholm

2008-07-29T15:26:00.002+02:00

Hejsan Alla,

Well, I made it through my whole week of camping in Norway without any mosquito bites or any other bug encounters of that kind...only to go to Stockholm for the day and get bitten by a tick!!! Crazy eh? S., J., B. and I went to play mini-golf (golfbana) and when we returned to the apartment I discovered a small black beastie behind my knee. He had already started gorging himself on my juicy blood but I managed to rip him out and he hadn't gotten too big yet. Of course, this started me thinking about Lyme Disease and Tick Borne Encephalitis, but I did a little digging on the internet and discovered that if you remove a tick within 36 hours of being bitten it reduces your chances of contracting the disease to pretty much nil. Regardless, I bought myself a thermometer and proceeded to take my temperature several times a day over the next few days. I know, I have an overactive imagination and it doesn't help when its left to entertain itself.

Besides that adventure I have settled into a summer-time routine. Go to the gym, cook supper, check out the internet, perhaps have a fika with friends, sleepwalk...well, the last one isn't exactly a routine, but since we've moved to our new place I seem to be sleepwalking or sleep talking almost every night. My favourite story to date is the morning that B. asked me if I remembered talking to him, I said "No, what did I say?" And he said, "Don't let the chicken out!". As soon as he said that I remembered my dream about coming upon a cave with a wooden door covering the entrance. There was a sign on the door that read "Don't let the chicken out", someone did in fact let the chicken out, hence my verbal admonishment. Unfortunately, its gotten to be somewhat of a routine, so the other night when I rose to use the facilities, B. can be forgiven for saying, somewhat exasperatedly, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?". To which I responded, "I'm awake! I'm just going to the bathroom! And do you have to be so mean about it!!!"

Well, B. is gone for a couple nights so we'll see if that affects my night episodes!
E.

Tunnels and Trolls

2008-07-18T09:35:00.004+02:00

I just finished writing a super long email about our trip to Norway so I'm not going to repeat myself here other than to say that it was a great trip and that the scenery was amazing. So different from Sweden, somewhat similar to B.C. but in much larger doses. It seemed like every time we entered another valley it was more impressive than the last. One thing that I forgot to mention about our trip was the extensive amount of tunneling that the Norwegians have done. And I'm not talking about short tunnels. Most of the tunnels were at least 1.5km long if not longer. We ended up going through the longest tunnel in the world (at least on land) and it was 24.5km long. Can you believe that? I guess its more expensive to repair roads every year due to landslides than to tunnel right through the middle of the mountain. We kept expecting to see intersections in the tunnels that's how long they were! I have to say though, that tunnels do prevent you from seeing the scenery :)

The other thing I learned about Norway is that they have an affinity for trolls. I just looked up some information about Norway and Trolls on Wikipedia and found the following excerpt:

The Troll is a fearsome member of a mythical race from Norse mythology. Originally more or less the Nordic equivalents of giants, although often smaller in size, the different depictions have come to range from the fiendish giants – similar to the ogres of England (also called Trolls at times, see Troller's Gill) – to a devious, more human-like folk of the wilderness, living underground in hills, caves or mounds. In the Faroe islands, Orkney and Shetland tales, trolls are called trows, adopted from the Norse language when these islands were settled by Vikings.

Nordic literature, art and music from the romantic era and onwards has adapted trolls in various manners – often in the form of an aboriginal race, endowed with oversized ears and noses. From here, as well as from Scandinavian fairy tales such as Three Billy Goats Gruff, trolls have achieved international recognition, and in modern fantasy literature and
role-playing games, trolls are featured to the extent of being stock characters.

On our last day in Norway we drove down a mountain known as Trollstigen (sp?). In English, this translates to Troll's ladder. It had some serious hairpin turns on it, as well as the only Troll crossing sign in all of Norway :). That same day we stopped at the Troll's wall, the tallest vertical rock face in Europe at 1100m. Needless to say, the souvenir shops have profited off this love of trolls. There were trolls for sale in every shop, we did succumb and we purchased a small troll for our Christmas tree (we collect ornaments from the places we have travelled to). But by and large we managed to avoid the temptation to purchase some large troll statues for our home :)

I've finally posted the photos from our trip and you can check them out here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=137808&l=f4326&id=842465120
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=137811&l=c18eb&id=842465120

Trevlig helg!
E.

Canada Day Fest

2008-07-16T15:44:00.004+02:00

Hejsan!

We held our very own Canada Day party a couple of weekends ago...thanks to J. and R. for all the decorations! We decided to create a mix of Swedish party traditions and Canadian ones so we held a trivia quiz called a Tipspromenad (where you walk around with a partner or small group and try to answer trivia questions). We created a quiz about Canada to test our international friends on their Canadian knowledge (which is turns out was somewhat poor). I've included the questions in this entry so you can test your knowledge. Please keep in mind that we did have some Canadians participating so we had to make it hard enough to challenge them as well!For photos from our party click here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=136921&l=cdd62&id=842465120

Canadian Tipspromenad:

1. Which of the following was NOT a Canadian Invention?

a) Telephone
b) Zipper
c) Wonderbra
d) Can-Opener

2. In what year did Canada become the country it is today?

a) 1949
b) 1962
c) 1999
d) 2001

3. Which of the following is NOT a Canadian comedian?

a) Mike Myers
b) Will Ferrell
c) Jim Carrey
d) John Candy

4. What is the approximate distance from Vancouver to Newfoundland (coast to coast)?

a) 10,000 km
b) 5500 km
c) 7000 km
d) 12,000 km

5. Who was the first Prime Minister of Canada?

a) Robert Borden
b) Lester Pearson
c) William Lyon Mackenzie King
d) Sir John A. Macdonald

6. Canada is known as a hockey playing nation, but what other sport was invented by a Canadian?

a) Baseball
b) Curling
c) Basketball
d) Water Polo

7. What medical invention/discover was NOT invented/discovered by a Canadian?

a) Electric Wheelchair
b) Pacemaker
c) Dialysis Machine
d) Insulin Treatment

8. Which superhero was created by a Canadian?

a) Spiderman
b) Superman
c) Wonderwoman
d) Aquaman

9. What is the National Animal of Canada?

a) Moose
b) Cariboo
c) Beaver
d) Bison

10. If you were to travel from east to west across Canada, which of the combinations of cities is in the correct order?

a) St. John, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Winnipeg
b) Charlottetown, Montreal, Whitehorse, Yellowknife
c) Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay
d) St. John’s, Quebec, Toronto, Saskatoon

11. How many times would Sweden fit into Canada?

(You’re on your own for this one….take a guess!) (This was the tie-breaker)

Answers: 1. d 2.c 3.b 4.c 5.d 6.c 7.c 8.a 9.c 10.d 11. 22.2 times

Have fun!
E.

Glad Midsommar! (Happy Midsummer!)

2008-06-29T10:57:00.007+02:00

Hejsan!

Well, we experienced the longest day of the year last weekend. Here in Uppsala, the sun rose at approximately 3:30 in the morning, and set around 10:15 at night. I have now gotten used to the fact that we eat supper when the light outside makes it feel around 4pm. But the birds chirping at 2 am is harder to get used too...

Here is an image of the church backlit by the lightening sky at 2 am (and this was on May 23 a full month before the solstice).

The midsommar/midsummer holiday is pretty much the largest holiday in Sweden (maybe even bigger than Christmas). Swedes gather together, dance around poles, sing songs, drink schnapps and eat sill (yes, every holiday seems to encompass these food items), and play games. One of my students described a pentathalon of sorts that he took part in, where the games consisted of throwing a rubber boot as far as you could, walking with a stick between your knees, drawing a horse pooing (he used another term) with your bad hand, blowing up a condom as fast as you could and there was one other game that I've forgotten. My midsummer was slightly more laid back than that. S., J. and I rented a car and drove to their countryhouse (B. was in France). It was my first time driving here and I was slightly nervous that I may have forgotten how after my lack of practice :) On our way to the countryhouse we stopped in Gränna and watched them make polkagris (kind of like candy sticks), and picked up some fantastic knäckebröd (a hard bread like Ryvita). The country house is just outside of a small town called Gällstad (pronounced Ylstad) and it is about a 4.5 hour drive from Stockholm.

As usual, Swedes celebrate midsummer on the eve rather than the actual day, so Friday was a busy day getting the table set up in the loft and prepping for the arrival of the guests, which included 5.5 other Swedes and an Australian. We spend the afternoon making our midsummer pole and the girls made flower wreaths for our hair (mine was rather shabby looking but hey it was my first time!). We then did some traditional dancing around the pole and played some kubb. Our supper consisted of the traditional Swedish holiday foods and we enjoyed plenty of singing (luckily our hosts supplied song sheets) and schnapps after every song. Some of the other guests also brought along some song sheets of our own so we even ended up singing a German song (see video clip). I think that our celebration was somewhat laid back in comparison to those of other people but it made for a nice day.

Some cultures have taken to mocking Sweden for its love of this somewhat pagan holiday. The midsummer pole is actually a phallic symbol so this prompts some lewd ideas. For a crazy take on the midsummer tradition, watch this now banned Ikea commercial which aired in Germany....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I5BGsK5ZAU

Here is a video of our more tame version of midsummer...

For more photos from my weekend...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=129853&l=85c82&id=842465120

Well, that's it for now! We're moving tomorrow and B.'s parents arrive on Wed. so its going to be a busy week! We had a Canada Day Party last night (thanks J. and R. for all the Canada gear) and it was a big hit - and I think fairly educational for our non-Canadian guests...I'll write more about that in the days to come!

Hej då
E.

Toscana!

2008-06-16T16:19:00.003+02:00

Ciao!

Well, we recently returned from a brief trip to Italy, and I grew to truly appreciated Swedish efficiency during our time there. The trip was fantastic so don't get me wrong, but some events that occurred at the airport made me wonder about Italy and Italians :) One prime example, upon arriving at the airport in Florence we discover that our plane is half an hour late, no big deal...but then time ticks closer and closer to the time of departure and no one has come to the gate. Approximately five minutes after the time we should have been departing, a P.A. announcement announces that the plane has been diverted to Bologna because of bad weather (there had been a thunderstorm). And that's all it said. There is still no one at the gate, and no other information has been provided. So we all sit there and wait to see what will happen. Approximately 20 minutes later a second announcement repeats the information from the first and then announces that they will give us more information in 15 minutes. This is still all happening over the P.A. system with no actual physical presence at the gate. The announcement never comes, but we notice that we now have a new time of departure of 2 hours late. Phew! We're going to get to leave today. Fast forward to the time of boarding. The Florence airport is very small and you have to take a bus to the plane and then walk up the steps, so we all board the bus, complete with about 25 children under the age of 3, and wait, and wait, and finally a bus driver comes and drives us to the plane, only there are no stairs going up to the doors of the plane and the doors are shut. So the driver sits there for a minute and as we wait the plane takes off!!! Apparently that wasn't our plane. Our plane is a bit further away at another waiting area. At this point, we just had to laugh at the chain of events that has transpired. But it ended well, we made it back only 3 hours late, and still made it in time for our dinner plans with friends!

If you want to check out our photos you can take a look at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127147&l=3b9ee&id=842465120
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127148&l=b9217&id=842465120
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127150&l=e74d8&id=842465120
(yes, there are three albums, I know, I know)

Ahhh, long live Swedish efficiency!
Hej då
E.

Galen Studerande (Crazy Students)

2008-06-09T08:00:00.003+02:00

Hejsan!

I know its been awhile since my last post and I apologize. We are about to head off to Italy so I thought I better write something before we left. Last Thursday was graduation day in Uppsala. Not graduation from university but graduation day from high school (a.k.a. gymnasium). Students select the gymnasium they will attend based on the skills they want to learn. If you plan on going to university then you go to a gymnasium that will give you the classes you need, if you plan on doing something more hands-on, ditto. Graduation day started early last Thursday, as I was walking to the train station at 7:20am, the students were already lined up getting their graduation photos taken on the banks of the river. High school students also wear the traditional white student hat that I mentioned in my previous post. The girls typically wear a white dress, and the boys wear a suit. So far, nothing crazy....but....

I got off the train around 2pm that afternoon, met up with my friend Julie, and we headed into town. We had barely left the train station before a cacophony of horns and music met our ears. Apparently the graduation students either rent big trucks or big trailers that are pulled by tractors, or just have their parents drive them around in a convertible or other car, with the music blasting and the drinks a flowin'. Please see pictures for clarification! This continued for pretty much the entire afternoon, so traffic was somewhat chaotic in downtown Uppsala on Thursday.

Well, we are off to Siena and Montalcino this week. The weather forecast does not look great for Italy which is too bad. We have been having amazing weather here. Plus 25-29 all week!
We went for a bike ride on Saturday evening and saw a hedgehog! Pretty cool (we also saw some sheep but that was somewhat less exciting). Last night we watched the Germany-Poland (Tyskland-Polska) match, but it was not as exciting as I had hoped and I found myself doozing off in the pub (no, I had not had too much to drink, only one glass of wine).

Anyways, I'll write once we get back on Sat. and tell you how the trip went!
Ciao
E.

Sångerska om natten

2008-05-19T14:28:00.003+02:00

B. and I talked to a few of you this past weekend, and we told you the strange story of the "Men's choral music in the night" but for those who I didn't get to tell the story to, here's a brief recap. Friday night, 3:30 am, B. and I are fast asleep, when I awake to quite a few people talking in our street. Next thing we know, 15 men are singing choral music. Needless to say we were quite confused as to why approx. 15 men were singing choral music in the dead of the night! I have to thank my students this morning for filling me in on the reason.

Apparently, the spring ball was on Saturday night (read: tuxedos and ballgowns). The custom is that the men's choirs from the various Nations (Nations are like frats but for both sexes and based on different regions of Sweden), go around to their dates' houses, and the dates of men who hire them (think sing-a-gram), and serenade them with three songs. The first is a wake-up song, then a love song, and then a farewell song. The girl to whom they are singing is supposed to light a candle in her window to let them know that she has heard them, without letting them see her. Then when they have finished serenading her, she lowers a bottle of punsch, a sweet alcoholic beverage out her window to the singers. So the "mystery of the men's choral group in the night" has been solved. Apparently, the women of the Nations also get their chance (this is Sweden after all), but they sing on St. Lucia day which is Dec.12, generally early in the morning, say 6am (women tend to be more sane). And since this festival falls during the winter, they generally enter the buildings, so you are not as likely to hear them.

A little bit of strange Swedish trivia for you!
E.

Cyklar Överallt (Bikes everywhere!)

2008-05-16T09:00:00.003+02:00

When you first arrive at the Uppsala train station. You would think you had arrived in Amsterdam. There are bikes everywhere. Literally, 1000 people must park their bikes there at a time. I have yet to ride my bike to the train station because I worry about finding a parking spot for my bike :) It no wonder that bikes are so prevalent in Sweden, they provide awesome bike paths throughout the city and the countryside so its easy to bike around town without having to compete with cars.

It is an interesting culture - the bike culture - in Uppsala. First of all, since a lot of people living here are students, a bike is very useful because its a cheap form of transportation. You'll see girls riding their bikes to university in the shortest of skirts/shirts. You'll see a mob of cyclists travelling to the pub/bar together (although technically its illegal to ride your bike while drunk). But its not students alone who ride bikes. Older people are peddling along. People ride their bikes to work and people ride with their kids strapped to the back seat.

Uppsala is not very hilly, so most people ride a city bike. What's a city bike you might ask? Well, I happen to have recently purchased my very own city bike, so I will include some pictures (are you happy Dad?). The main features of a city bike, are a low cross bar, handles that curve towards you (so you don't end up with a sore back), a light on the front usually powered by friction from the front wheel, foot brakes - sometimes one hand brake, and only three gears.

Here are a few shots of my new bike!

Just to fill you in on what's been going on in our lives...we finally found an apartment. We are able to rent it until the end of December, its no longer in the city centre so we'll have to ride our bikes or take the bus to town now, but its closer for B. to go to work so that's good!

We are heading to Italy, specifically the Chianti region, in just under a month to meet up with some friends from SK. We will be touring around with them to Montalcino and Siena and we're super excited to soak up some Tuscan rays!

Ciao E.

Sista april

2008-05-02T09:32:00.006+02:00

Hi All!

Well, we celebrated our first sista april, and I thought I would put up a few photos of the day (and maybe a video). We were slightly disappointed by the hat waving as there was no throwing of the hats, and it was in complete silence. There were also no speeches, I guess they scrapped that a few years ago. So if you hadn't been looking at the hill, you might have missed the event entirely. We did manage to get over to the Academic building a catch a bit of the men's choir on outdoor speakers though....Enjoy! E.

Vår är här!

2008-04-28T09:14:00.011+02:00

Spring has arrived in Uppsala! We had almost a week of solid sunshine until yesterday when it clouded over (but no rain!) Spring brought everyone out to the river and it seemed like every shop in town started to sell ice cream. If you didn't know better you would think that no one works in the city...but then again, it is a city comprised of 40,000 university students, so maybe it's not that far from the truth.

I celebrated my b-day on Saturday and we had a fun time with friends from around the world - Sweden, U.S., Canada and Australia. We hit a night-club in town and it was pretty popular so we made a good choice. Here are a few pics from the evening (including one of our deck with the flowers we planted)!

So this week we have what is called a "Red Day". Red days are every Sunday and then stat holidays. They pretty much mean days that you usually don't work. Before every red day (holidays not Sundays), people generally get a half-day off of work, and since they only have a half day they usually take a whole day. This week since the Red Day is May 1st which is a Thursday most people will take Friday off too, which means that this is a very short work week for lots of people.

May 1st is called Valborg in Swedish. After doing a little searching I discovered (thanks Wikipedia) that Valborg is derived from St. Walpurga, a woman who was born in Wessex in 710, moved to Germany and joined a nunnery and then became a saint upon her death. She actually died on Feb. 25th but her relics were moved to their resting location on May 1st and thus the day, which had traditionally been a pagan festival celebrating the start of spring became intertwined with a Christian holiday (which has happened with a lot of pagan holidays). In the Norse tradition, May 1st celebrated the time when Odin died to retrieve the knowledge of the runes (but I haven't looked this story up yet). It was said to be a time of weakness between the living and the dead. And one of the traditions is to have large bonfires to ward of the sprits that roam the Earth that day.

In Uppsala, the last day of April, or sista april is also highly celebrated by the students of Uppsala. The tradition is to have a champagne breakfast in someone's home. Then to go down to the river, where students have built rafts and ride over the rapids/weir in a competition. Then the mob moves to the hill by the castle where everyone imbibes in a picnic lunch of shnapps, sill (herring), potatis (potatoes), köttbullar (meatballs), and probably other Swedish delicacies . The presidents of the two universities, Uppsala Universitet och SLU, both give speeches in front of the large library at the top of the hill, and then all the students throw their traditional white student hats (look like captains hats) into the air. The afternoon then continues with concerts, singing and partying into the wee hours at the Nations houses (somewhat like frats - but co-ed and representing different regions of Sweden).

I found this photo on Wikipedia (its a bit grainy but you can see the church and the white hats of the students)

We plan to partake in some of the activities but more so for the experience! We have a bbq to attend that evening so it will be more laid back for us.

Hope you are enjoying the spring wherever you are!

E.

As requested...

2008-04-21T22:06:00.009+02:00

As requested, here are a few pics of my sister and B.'s wedding

And a few of beautiful Canada!...Enjoy :)

An Interesting Perspective

2008-04-21T21:41:00.003+02:00

So for those people who aren't familiar with the Swedish housing market, it can be a bit interesting (or frustrating depending on how you see it). In terms of rentals, the current system involves people signing up on queues for various apartment companies, and hoping that you are at the top of the queue when a good apartment comes up for grabs. This means that once a person has a first-hand rental contract they are very hesitant to give it up. For this reason, its really hard to get a first-hand contract (especially in Uppsala). Instead you have to sub-let from someone. This is extremely evident at this time of year as there are now many apartments listed for rent for the months of May through August, and very few for any longer than that (August is when school starts again). Rent is also controlled by the government and so rental prices are fairly low, at least when you look at the demand, and do not differ that much across the city. This means that we paid about $950 Canadian for an apartment in the most desirable part of town, that was approximately 800 sq feet, and had a beautiful courtyard and now we pay $800 for an apartment that is half the size, in a less nice neighbourhood, where we look at all our neighbours across the street. It also means that there are way fewer apartments than are needed as companies are not willing to build more because they don't make enough money. The Swedish government is in fact thinking of changing this though...check this out for more info on the current "hot" debate in Sweden.

Anyways, the good news is, is that we may have found an apartment for the rest of our time here. We are going to take a look at on Thursday afternoon, so keep your fingers crossed. The only bad thing is that we might have to overlap with our current contract for a couple of months, but I guess its worth the cost if we have peace of mind.

My other news is that I finally signed up for the free Swedish courses offered by the government but they probably won't start until August, so we'll see if I'm still interested by then :)

After our experiences here looking for a place to live, I can only say that I don't think that I will ever get as stressed about finding a place as I have been here. I'm looking forward to moving back and being able to find a place that we can keep for as long as we want! We could probably very easily become professional movers with all our moving expertise :p

God kväll!
E.

Home

2008-03-25T17:31:00.002+01:00

We headed home for two weeks of Canadiana culture on Friday. The thing that always surprises me about coming home is how little things change. The same friends, the same sights, the same activities. In some ways it is comforting, you know you can always go home. In other ways, it makes me appreciate my experiences elsewhere that much more. I can now truly appreciate all the good things about Vancouver, while at the same time, revile in the things that I find burdensome or ugly. For instance, I have truly come to appreciate the ability to walk to most things (or at least ride my bike). The fact that I have driven something like 5 hours since I returned here, and that is just driving to people's homes, not some long distance journey, has made me appreciate the closeness of things in Sweden that much more.

I also appreciate the high-density housing. Every time I come home it pains me to see more and more houses built up the hillside. It would be so much better if we modeled ourselves after the Swedes and lived in apartments (with courtyards mind you) rather than in single family homes. Imagine how many more people we could fit into a smaller space, and how much more efficient a public transit system we could have if it didn't need to get stretched across such great distances.

Ok, enough raving though. There are plenty of great things about Canada too. Friendly people, everyone speaks English :) and bbqs!!!

I had the strange experience of walking with someone who was speaking quite loud, and thinking "man, are they ever speaking loudly, everyone is going to know that we are English speakers". Only to realize that it didn't matter because everyone spoke English here. As bizarre as that might sound, I definitely find myself speaking quieter in Sweden than I do here, so that I am not instantly labelled as a foreigner, although perhaps my clothes give me away :).

Well, I'm off to work with my dad.
E.

Fika med kompisar (with friends)

2008-03-15T19:07:00.003+01:00

So something that Swedes love to have is Fika. Fika is a noun but also a verb (at least in Swedish), you can fika as well as have fika! Pretty much it means to imbibe in something edible and have coffee (kaffe) (or tea (te) or hot chocolate (varm chocklad) or whatever strikes your fancy). But the important part is that you must do it with friends. Well, I had not been doing a lot of fikaing (?) as (sad I know) I had not made many friends who didn't work during the day. But the tides have changed. I have met two fantastic girls in my Svenska class, both Americans, both foodies, and when we get together we talk nonstop. It is fantastic! And what a difference some girlchat can make to your perspective on life. If you are at all interested in Swedish food, you should check out Jessie's website. She even posts photos...www.everyplateisapicture.blogspot.com. Fika has now become a weekly part of my life, and one that I look forward to a great deal! So let's hope it continues.

Now for another interesting fact: Swedes are addicted to "godis" or candies. There are the most amazing candy stores here, with bins full of candy. You mix them all in a bag and then just pay per the weight. Luckily, most Swedes walk a lot or ride their bikes, and so their health is not adversely affected by the vast amounts of godis they consumer. We have not gotten into this habit yet, but I'm sure it won't be long until we are having godis cravings. We plan on bringing some special Swedish godis home with us....salty black liquorice. Not really a fan, but I'm betting my father-in-law will be!

Hej då
E.

Be careful what you wish for...

2008-03-04T15:15:00.003+01:00

Well, I had been slightly worried about the lack of work, but then, javisst (of course), there is an avalanche. Phew! My voice is going to be tired from all the phone calls. But at least it means extra dough for the expensive trip to Canada.

Today, it is beautiful and sunny and everyone is in a good mood. I've been doing laundry which is actually a fair bit of exercise. The laundry room is around the block, but under the building, so you walk through all these crazy tunnels to get there. B. has to duck a lot so he doesn't smoke his head. I really like the group laundry concept though. It seems to work really well. Only problem with the new place is the lack of an iron and board, so we had to get an iron and will be using the dining table as a makeshift ironing board.

I've also been making semlor which are sweet buns that are filled with almond paste and whip cream. We treated Robi to some during his visit - but this is the first time I'm attempting to make them. Traditionally they were only eaten in January and February up until Shrove Tuesday (the buns are also called Fat Tuesday Buns). But now they seem to appear in early January and there are still semlor in every bakery you go to.

So my Swedish fact for the day: The Vasaloppet, the largest cross-country ski race in the world, was just completed last weekend. Over 50,000 people participated in the race and every year they race 90km in a day. Now a brief history lesson, in 1520 Christian II of Denmark, invaded Sweden and killed the ruler of the time, Sten Sture the Younger (Sweden, Denmark and Norway were united at this time under one crown in the Union of Kalmar). He granted full amnesty to the follower's of Mr. Sture, but he was really just tricking them as he then arrested 82 of them and tried and then massacred them in what became known as the Stockholm Bloodbath. The spot of the Bloodbath, Storatorget in Gamla Stan still exists. This started a rebellion under the leadership of Gustav Ericsson Vasa. The link to the race is that this rebellion almost never took place. Vasa had not been able to gather enough supporters so he was fleeing for the Norwegian border when two very tired skiers caught up with him to tell him that the people had changed their minds!!! Now this legendary journey is recreated every year in the Vasaloppet race.
An aside: back in 1520, the skiers only had one pole, how long do you figure it took for the two pole concept to catch on?

Gustav Vasa became the King after Sweden exited the Kalmar Union in 1523. He was crowned on June 6 which is now the country's national day!

Jag måsta tvätta nu, så hej då!

Oops

2008-03-01T08:04:00.001+01:00

I should have said that "we made" since B. made it too!

E.

Uppsala Apartment

2008-03-01T07:51:00.004+01:00

Hey All, For those who aren't on Facebook here is the video I made of the old apartment...I guess we'll have to make a new one soon....

I'll try to post to this blogspot more frequently. I started out with great ambitions but have been lazy...

E.

On an ordinary day in Sweden...

2008-01-24T16:29:00.001+01:00

Upon moving to Sweden we embarked on the adventure of getting a home phone (not so common anymore). The phone was to call family and friends across the vast Pacific Ocean in Canada and the U.S. There are two interesting things we discovered upon getting the phone. First of all, our apartment, built in the 1800s, has an interesting box, which looks like a smoke alarm but, which is in fact, a loud, annoying phone ringer. Anytime the phone rings, the box rings. And the minimum level on the box (there is no off) is not very quiet. Second interesting fact, there is a lot of telemarketing in Sweden. I have since learned not to answer the phone when call display says "private". I sometimes receive upwards of four telemarketing calls a day, but the one I received on Wednesday tops them all...

E: Hello, E. speaking (the polite way to answer the phone in Sweden)
Telemarketer: er, Hej, Jag ringer på E. (please excuse the poor Swedish)
E.: Jag heter E., but I don't speak much Swedish
Telemarketer: Jaha (classic Swedish phrase), well, I'm calling from...a...company....who sells....underwear!
E.: Ok?
Tele: I was wondering what kind of underwear you like to wear?
E.: ?????
Tele: high waisted, string,cotton...
E.: hmmm
Tele: We would like to send you two free pairs, and after that you do not have to buy anymore you can just tick the ingen membership box and post it, or you can join the club and we will send you 5 pairs a year....

Well, this was quite the interesting phone conversation. I declined the underwear club offer as tempting as it sounded, and while I'll be happy to get my name on the no call list, it will mean giving up the chance to hear the strange offers I get over the phone in Sweden!

Hej då! E.

2008-01-04T09:52:00.001+01:00