getting out of town

Thank you Europcar! I must admit, I felt like an adventurous 16 year old when I drove off the car rental lot. I just wanted to explore and drive out to the coast just 20 km away but still unseen after 6 weeks of being here. I felt a sense of freedom having a car!




It was foggy Saturday so we drove just outside of town to Leo's Lekland, a large indoor playground.

Upon entering Leo's, Amelia's eyes sparkled and she got an ecstatic skip in her step at the sight of the slides, tunnels, ladders, balls, bikes... Chris and Carrie had a lot of fun too!

Later in the day we drove to the coast. Amelia was passed out in the carseat, tired from play at Leo's Lekland, and the weather outside was dismal. We didn't venture far or hang around too long. At least I've now seen the Baltic Sea/Gulf of Bothnia.










Saturday night the clouds dropped their snow and then cleared away, giving the sun a chance to shine down on us! We drove north out of town to ski part of the Tavelsjöleden. (I think leden translates to trail.) Beautiful blue ski, no wind, relatively warm... magical! While we were skiing Amelia mentioned several times that she wanted her own skis (rather than sit in the Chariot). We stopped at the Vintercafe in the small town of Tavelsjö on the way home. Reindeer antlers hung on the wall and a ski race played on the TV. Once again Amelia said she wanted her own skiis...




On the way home, we stopped by a huge grocery store on the north side of town. It is kind of like a super Target with groceries and much more. Chris spotted some children's cross country skis on sale and picked them up for her. I was a bit shocked at his impulse buy. Seriously, he doesn't want to look at Blockett first (the on-line classifieds) or other places around town. I ask him about it. He says, 'Oh that is all too complicated here'. And we have a car now. As soon as we got home she tried on her skis and did some laps around the apartments. She likes the downhills! Alright, Amelia and I will do some skiing this week. Fun!
I do hope she will get into the Chariot again so Chris and I can actually do some skiing.

Will you put dinkelmjöl on the grocery list?

Will you put dinkelmjöl on the grocery list?

We are speaking in Swenglish ;) Dinkelmjöl is spelt flour in case you are wondering.

Now that I’ve been to seven grocery stores, I’ve decided that I can write about them. There seems to be a grocery store in every neighborhood, although it may be small. There are basically only two grocery stores companies, COOP and ICA. It also seems that most areas have both competing stores. They are often even right next door to one another (see picture in Ålidhem central). (Oh yeah, they are capitalists here!) I haven’t yet decided which one is my favorite, as I haven’t really figured out how they are exactly different. It’s not like there is a Safeway, a Town ‘N Country, and a Bozeman CO-OP (reference for the Bozeman folks) with differences in price, health food, organics. The COOP here is not a co-op, it is pronounced ‘coup’ like a chicken coop. I guess both stores are a bit more like a Town ‘N Country, stores where you can find a bit of everything, including organic food and even a biodynamic/organic line Salta Kvarn, produced in southern Sweden. The selection just depends on the size of the store. There is also one kind of “health food store” that also sells other natural products. They have a few things that ICA and COOP don’t but mostly have the organic and natural brands that are also at the other stores.

Unfortunately the COOP doesn’t have Bozeman’s co-op yummy bulk tofu or the large bulk aisles of whole grains, oils, flours, and beans. Instead most of their bulk is CANDY! Yes, a large area of their store is devoted to candy. I found this at all COOP and ICA stores. Note in the picture that there are three candy areas in ONE relatively small downtown COOP store. And I wonder why they have three different areas. Why don’t they just put all the candy in one section?

I’m trying to figure out how they organize their stores. I look at unfamiliar labels of flour or beans and try to decide which to buy. Sometimes I can figure out the meaning of the Swedish if it’s similar to English, like röda linser (red lentil). I’m lucky if there is a picture on the label or the package is clear and I can see inside. I finally make my decision and then find a couple aisles over that there are more packages of flour or beans or tomato sauce to choose from. Besides candy, the store also has a very large variety of cheeses. I wish I was a cheese connoisseur to fully take advantage of this jackpot. Amelia likes the mild creamy Herrgård while Chris is fond of the salty strong tasting regional cheese, Västerbotten.

Fortunately we are able to find most things we like to eat. I suppose we can live without tempeh and molasses. Thanks to friends for sending us nutritional yeast! Its actually quite amazing what foods are available considering how far north we are. We are almost at the Arctic Circle. I suppose people don’t want to eat moose and reindeer stew all winter long. I have been surprised by what they do have here. There isn’t much of a selection of winter squash or greens but their exotic fruit selection is immense. I’ve never seen fruits they sell shipped here from South America, the Mediterranean and Africa. We haven’t explored the exotic fruit selection yet or all the diverse dairy products including shrimp and cheese in a tube. However, I am excited about all the berries we will be picking this late summer. I dug down a few feet in the snow in the forest near our house and found blueberry bushes!

I am starting to learn Swedish food words so shopping is starting to get easier!

Most herbs and some lettuce are sold in pots… so far north they have to ship them in pots so that they survive? Do you see the sad leaves? This basil plant did not like our cold walk home.

*Our favorite word at the store is jordgubbe, pronounced ‘yourgubber’, which is Swedish for strawberry.*

Our favorite character so far is this Turkish yogert guy. What do you think he is saying? ‘Oh so good!” ??

Or maybe these characters are even better. ?? They aren't found at the grocery store though. This is the alcohol store bag. ;) Wine, beer, and liquor is sold at the government run liquor store.

the key that opens the door

Imagine having a room with treats and comforts inside. You know that things like your pillow, sunglasses, your favorite coffee mug, salt, honey, a chocolate bar, and hot running water are inside the room; those things that add comfort to your life. The only thing is THE ROOM IS LOCKED. At some point you know that the key will be mailed to you but you don’t have any idea when. It’s out of your control, you must wait.

Here our key is a personnumber and the room is the Swedish system. Once we have a personnumber we are allowed to hop onto the tracks of everyday life here in Sweden. We are officially acknowledged as residents in this country.

Today, Monday January 30^th, a bit more than a month after being here, our keys arrived in the mail! We momentarily jump for joy. Yeah! Now we are covered by the Swedish health care system and have been told about other benefits that we will receive. For instance, I will receive a small stipend for being a stay at home mom. Amelia is entitled to 15 hours a week of free preschool. However, now that we have a key, we walk through the door to find a maze in order to gather up all these comforts and luxuries.

We walked downtown today at 4:00 to open up a bank account, which requires a personnumber. The door is locked, lights out. The bank closes at 3:00 everyday of the week except for Thursday. A man coming out of the bank says, ‘Oh you can do it on-line.’ He says it as if it is SOO easy. We believe him. We got on-line at home and after lots of Google Translate we give up and decide that we’ll just go back downtown on Thursday. We need someone to show us how to do the internet money transfers anyway. I don’t think there is much cash flowing around Umeå, instead bank transfers. I asked if I could pay for Amelia’s dance class with cash since we didn’t have a bank. The response was ‘Um, no. You can just wait to transfer money once you have your bank account set up.’ Even some yoga classes ask for internet money transfers.

Here we go in the maze to figure this all out. On the list of things to do now that we have personnumbers also include getting a phone and a frequent shopper card at the grocery store so we can attempt to cut some costs there. Can you believe it? You even need a personnumber to get a phone and to save on those special deals at the grocery store.

What do you do in all this snow?

What do you do in all this snow? SKI!

It’s Sunday morning, 8:00. The sun is rising. The sky is filled with pastel orange and pink. I walk through the empty snow covered open air museum to get into Stadsliden, the forest near our home. Trails weave around the forest and are groomed for cross country ski and skate skiers. I see a little stream that I hadn’t noticed before. Its quiet now and I see no other person as I ski and decide to go along the 3.7 km loop. I’m excited to ski in the tracks down the big hill I know is coming up on this loop.

The first time we skied in Stadsliden it was like a super highway. We were like an old VW bus pulling a trailer in the slow lane, trying to stay out of the way. We idled along checking out the scenery and stopped to chat with a great grandma on skis. Others were zipping by in the latest model sports cars. Amelia’s trailer slows us down, as does our skis and our technique or rather lack of technique.

While at InterSport, we were (possibly) clued into the ski scene a bit around here. To enjoy the long winters, I’m sure most opt to ski here in town. There are at least 8 groomed ski trails in the central part of Umea. (Likely, some people have several types of skis and also get out in nature some and take a weekend at the ski resorts closer to Norway.) The ski selection seemed telling. Next to a small selection of backcountry skis (the style we used in MT), were walls and racks of speedy skis, not only speedy skate skis but also speedy classic skis. We didn’t want to spend lots of money on skis that we probably wont use back in the US (hopefully we can sell them here) so we opted for some crappy skis that actually costs a fair amount of money. I knew things were expensive in Sweden but I didn’t think they sold crap. Oh well. We have skis with fish scales and no camber instead of the super speedy wax skis like most everyone else here. The sales guy was right, these skis basically have brakes on them. Along with fancy skis, folks here have some fancy moves. I’m fairly new to the whole ski thing but I thought if you want to ski fast then you *skate* ski. Here they even ski quickly on classic cross country skis. They ski in the tracks but kind of lift up their back foot to give them a big fast push.

That first day we skied happened to also be the day after their first big dump of snow for the season and the sun was out and the sky beautiful blue. Maybe this gem of a forest that we are fortunate to live near wont always be a super highway. Hopefully, it will be like it is today. I turn a corner and merge onto another trail. I see one other skier and two old ladies walking. I hear the birds chirping and again I’m facing south. It’s about an hour after I left home and the sun is still rising. The sky is pastel pink and orange and the light of day is just beginning to fill the sky.

Skiing is in their blood. This photo is of a 5,000 year old ski found in Västerbotten (the county we live in). It’s believed to be the world’s oldest ski.

Here are some photos in Stadsliden taken the second day we were in Umea. Now at least a foot of snow is covering the forest and trails.

Sweden has Great Tits!

Photo: Luc Viatour, Wikipedia

Parus major, that is... the great tit most common bird here in Umeå. The Swedish word for the great tit is "Talgoxe", but perhaps the English word speaks more to their sexual behaviour: while the great tits are socially monogomous and establish breeding pairs, these birds are customary cuckholders. One study found that up to 40% of the nests that were sampled contained offspring from a different male than the father, and 8.5% of chicks are (forgive the anthropomorphism) 'bastard birds' (Strohbach et al. 1998 Behavioural Ecology 9: 388–396).

Carrie snapped this shot at the birdfeeder near our home:


Here are some of the other birds we've found to be common here in Umeå (we even have magpies!):

English common name	Swedish common name	Latin name
Great Tit	Talgoxe	Parus major
Blue Tit	Blåmes	Parus caeruleus
Eurasian Bullfinch	Domherre	Pyrrhula pyrrhula
Fieldfare	Björktrast (Birch thrush)	Turdus pilaris
European Magpie	Skata	Pica pica
Commoon Blackbird	Koltrast (Coal thrush)	Turdus merula
Yellowhammer	Gulsparv (Yellow sparrow)	Emberiza citrinella
Eurasian Tree Sparrow	Pilfink (Arrow finch)	Passer montanus
Brambling	Bergfink (Mountain finch)	Fringilla montifringilla
European Greenfinch	Grönfink (Green finch)	Carduelis chloris

And here are a few more shots of the winter from this past weekend.

Björk(birch) near Nydala lake (Nydalasjön)

All hands: storming the sea at the beach at Nydalasjön

Life in the Dark

Life in the dark

Today was the first day that I actually saw the Sun. The actual ball of light in the sky that kind of hurts to look directly at. Even though it was -11˚C/12˚F, I got Amelia outside as much as possible. We initially played in the deep snow in front of our apartment, building slides and digging out forts. It was fun to play there in the deep snow and Amelia was probably staying fairly warm since she had to work so hard to climb up huge piles of snow. However, the sun was not shining on us. This was the first day the clouds had parted and allowed the sun and blue sky to shine. I wanted go to where the sun’s glow could shine on my face just be like the glowing trees up ahead. Amelia excitedly hopped into her new (thrift store) sled and I pulled her towards the light. Wearing my snow pants, coat, gloves, and boots, my face and spirit appreciated the *warmth* of the sun’s touch. I found the ball of light in the sky, the SUN, and looked straight into it. It was about 11:00 and the sun was barely above the buildings and trees ahead, which are downhill from us (Thank goodness we live up on a hill!). Amelia was starting to get cold so we traveled back home. As I walked, I appreciated the synergistic light that the snow, ice on the tree branches and the sunlight made, and the beautiful blue sky. Fortunately, we were traveling south so I looked right into the sun as we walked home. Inside we sat and ate. I attentively looked out the window and watched the sun’s glow slowly creep onto the building across from us. The sun’s glow only reached as far as the upstairs apartments' dormer windows. The sunshine never reached the ground in the green space we have in front of our building. I coveted the apartments that were kissed by the sun. We do have south/southeast facing windows in our bedroom but tall trees right behind our apartment and buildings across the street block any promise of the low rising sun. (I have enjoyed watching the birds and the squirrels in the trees. Amelia and I also saw a mysterious small glow of light on a tree – maybe a fairy?? so I’m not complaining too much about those trees!) Once Amelia was done with her lunch I swept her up into my excitement to go find the SUN in the sky. All bundled up again, we found that the sun had moved to the west but still just barely above the buildings.
It was my understanding that we’d only experience about 4 hours of light this time of year. I have been pleasantly surprised that we actually have light from about 8:00 to 14:30/2:30pm. Two and a half hours longer than I expected. The sun isn’t actually above the horizon that long but there is light that breaks the darkness. Another misconception is that as far as we can tell, Swedes don’t have the sing-song talking style that the Muppet’s Swedish chef has. Remember him?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY_Yf4zz-yo
According to Ulf, a man from the University helping us get our Swedish personnumbers, the Norwegians have this sing-song style. He said that even when they are mad it’s hard to take them seriously because they sound so happy.
(A story on our personnumber will be coming soon…)

Life in the dark. This has all been literal so far.
Figuratively, “life in the dark” has derailed us. Nothing is automatic or habitual. This can be hard. For instance, when I try to navigate through the grocery store and keep Amelia happy. I don’t know where things are or if I will even be able to find the foods we ordinarily eat, I can’t read the labels, I don’t recognize their food, and I’m attempting to do the math conversion to figure the price. Meanwhile, remember I’m attempting to keep Amelia happy and somewhat *controlled*. ;)
Life in the dark. It can also be inspiring. I see the SUN with new eyes like a child. Not only the sun, but everything. I took a picture of a “tree tunnel” covered in snow. The snow highlights every little intricate branch on the birch trees above us. A man asks me where I’m from and if we have snow there. I answer and say that yes we do have snow. I think to myself, oh but it’s so beautiful like the first snow I see each winter. And the light is so deep and full of color.
In both cases, “life in the dark” can be exhausting.
I will forever empathize with foreigners navigating the U.S. I vow to seek them out and be as helpful as I can. Give them tips for breaking the ice. I’m so fortunate that Mona arranged an apartment for us and that our Canadian neighbors have given us so many tips about living here in Umeå. My experience does not even compare to foreigners in the U.S. I frequently remind myself of the luxuries I do have even though I am a foreigner here. Yes, it is difficult to go to the store and not be able to read anything or understand people when they speak to me. But most people speak English here!;) I just have to ask. It’s also difficult to do internet searches for where to go for yoga, children’s activities, or where to buy skis. But Google Translate can do all the translations for me. Lots of copy and pasting so it’s a bit time consuming… but what an amazing tool! And a big thumbs up for Google maps! I also think, we haven’t had the internet that long. What did people do without the internet? I guess they looked in phone books and talked to people.
I don’t recall feeling so derailed when I had only a backpack on my back and set off to travel around Central America. Something is different this time. Maybe it’s that I have a child in tow. Or that I’m now in my 30’s. Maybe the magical fairy dust wore off of me somewhere in my 20’s. While playing today, Amelia sprinkled the snow around and called it fairy dust. There is a lot of it here, so I think I shall replenish.
It’s a new year and its 2012!! It’s time to find the beauty in the darkness.
Life in the dark. It teaches humility, empathy, appreciation. Ironically, it sheds light and opens the world.


P.S. If anyone wants to send us a little bag of nutritional yeast we will cherish it. We all love it on our popcorn and it’s my most successful way to get Amelia to eat anything that is green.

pictures of our home

We are fortunate to have such a nice apartment. These were taken when we first stepped into our apartment. Now we have Amelia’s artwork in the fridge, a bookshelf of Amelia’s toys and books. A vase of twigs found on the ground and a few candles are our only decorations. We are going to try not to accumulate too many things while we are here. Even though we have nothing on the walls, this tiny little apartment is feeling like home. The soul of my good cooking and our time playing has filled the space.
Behind Amelia is the original Lars Fägares Gard building. An old barn turned into apartments. Two other new buildings make a square around the green space. We live in a new building.
When we first got here there was just a little bit of snow on the ground. The first couple of days we were here it snowed for two days and dumped all this snow. The snow is at least a foot and a half deep.