Stockholmies

Winter #3

Well hello again winter. If you have to start now, can you perhaps keep it a bit short this time around?

Strolling through Gamla Stan

With quite a bit of snow already, the city is looking very Christmasy. Loved the contrast in this photo.

Sunday morning paper

As some of you may know, TheLocal often brings laughs to our Sunday morning coffee time.  Having forgotten about it for a while, I revisited the site wondering whether my expectations would be met.  

Two stories really stood out this morning.  The first really highlighting how common certain names are here in Sweden, the second just amused me with some choice quotations from a school's principal after hearing of students making a nude film riding farm equipment on school property.  Yes, you read that right.

Björn Andersson...well, sure, in Boston or San Francisco that might not be the most common name, but here Ander's son Bear (which is pretty much what this would translate to) is quite common.  And, apparently, you don't have to participate in elections to get elected. As our first born is on the way, I am starting to think that we might have to settle in Quebec where Simards are everywhere so that she may get lucky like Björn.

And that takes me to the naked students...I love that "these things happen all the time" was the Principal's first quotation in the article.  And, even better, that this is prompting the Principal to consider offering courses in film making, despite the school's focus on Natural Resource Use:

"Despite the school’s farm theme, the video indicates there may be a number of budding cinematographers within the school’s ranks, prompting Gustavsson to think about offering classes on making movies."

Halloween 2010

Unlike last year where we celebrated Halloween with a costume party and complete drunkenness, we took it a little easy this year.  It was less by choice and more by necessity, being seven and a half months pregnant at the time, I didn't feel like dressing up as a pregnant nun or Juno.  And, frankly, didn't have much energy.  

So while we had a productive day getting the house together (we still have MANY blank walls and, at the time, some unassembled furniture) we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at Ramen Ki-Mamma.  We used to live (flat #2, Jan2009-Aug2009) only a couple of blocks from there, so would go there occasionally.  I was so surprised that a year later, the waitress that we used to talk to, would remember us when we walked in.  I mean, I was at least 12 kg heavier now, and lots of people pass through the place.  It was a nice little reminder that we are starting to feel a little more comfortable in the city.

Before being impressed by the waitstaff's memory at Ki-Mamma, I was very happy to see the Stockholmers embracing Halloween.  People were dressed up in the streets, and someone in a devil mask really startled me while we were walking down the street.  So, even though we didn't get to celebrate like last year, and I didn't make tarantula cookies and other treats, we got a little taste of what we thought we would never see here. Despite my heart racing from the unknown devil's trick, it gave me another reason to smile about our lives here.