Christmas

We had a lovely, quiet Christmas this year. The pro of being abroad for the holidays is that you get to do whatever you want and eat whatever and when you want on Christmas Eve/Day. You're not beholden to anyone else's agenda, traditions or obligations. So to celebrate not having to navigate my dear family's eating requirements (low carb, vegetarian, no red meat for those who DO eat meat, etc.), we had roast beef with gravy and creamed horseradish, potato and mushroom gratin, yorkshire pudding, green beans with bacon and red peppers and chocolate mousse pie. Can you tell I was being reactionary?! The cons of being abroad are not being able to hang out with your family laughing about silly things, and not having said family around to watch children who might be a little crazed from, say, too many presents and too much mousse pie.
The kids were of course very cute opening their presents on Christmas morning. Ava was all about the unwrapping and less about the presents and Julian just ate raisins like a maniac all morning. I offer him raisins all the time, but somehow the raisins that Adrian gave me (yes, he gave me raisins) really floated his boat and he carried the red pot around with him all morning until Adrian finally took it away fearing some, er, repercussions later in the day. Anyway, many of the other pictures involve me having a very bad hair morning so I won't post any more here. Those are Julian's favorite PJs, by the way. He loves them. Those and his Italia T-shirt from my Mom. Choice.
On Christmas day we went sledding, or sledging as Adrian calls it, on some frosty grass at the park around the corner. Being from San Francisco, it would never have occurred to me to sled down some grass, frosty or otherwise, but that's why you marry a non-native I guess and it worked out perfectly. After that we strolled downtown for some people watching and went out for hot chocolate before coming home to watch Peter Pan. It was great day.

I make a quip or two on this blog, but quips aside, Adrian and I feel so blessed to have each other as partners and such wonderful, healthy, happy children, and to be experiencing this time abroad together as a family. So far Sweden has been a terrific adventure.

We wish you and your families happy holidays and a peaceful, joyful New Year. We hope you all get to spend time with the people you love. See you in 2009!!

Shortest day of the year

Sunrise was at 8:55am and sunset at 3:26pm today. Total length of the day (officially): 6 hours and 31 minutes. Total amount of sunshine (unofficially per Nevada): 23 minutes.

End of school blues

Ava and Julian had their last day of school of the Fall term on Friday and don't go back until January 7. ABC (Ava's school) had a little party for the parents a week ago (see pic above). Good thing they decided to do it a bit early, because shortly thereafter a vomiting epidemic broke out at the school and all but closed it down for the remaining 5 days. At one point 9 teachers were out and Ava was one of about 30 kids at the school, which usually houses 92. We thought Ava and Julian had escaped, but on Friday Julian started puking and last night the barfing came a knockin' on Ava's door ... at 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am ... you get the idea. Unluckily for us, the laundry room is booked until the 24th, so we have a huge pile of barfy laundry just sitting in the corner of our room. Merry Christmas!!

On a positive note, we got word that Julian has a spot at ABC beginning in February. The only reason we got a coveted 1-year-old spot was because the school is expanding and decided to add 2 more classes for the littlest pupils. Ava is a "Lion" and Julian will soon be either a "Panda" or a "Bunny." I'm pulling for Panda. Much cooler than Bunnies for sure.

Swedish TV

Some argue that the reason Swedes are so good at speaking English is that the TV stations don't dub their English programming. It's not unusual to turn on the TV and have the majority of what's on be in English with Swedish subtitles. The exception is the plethora of Swedish reality shows, such as "Farmer Seeks Wife," "Swedish Idol," "Single Moms Looking for Love" and, my favorite, a show called "The Ferry," which chronicles Swedes getting really drunk and out of control on ferries cruising the Baltic Sea where the booze is much cheaper than on shore.

So there's plenty of shows on for us to watch if we're so inclined. To Adrian's delight, there are lots of British cop shows on BBC all the time like Waking the Dead, Spooks, the State Within and Afterlife. There's only so much torture and serial murdering I can handle in a week, so it's nice that Grey's Anatomy and Mad Men are there to give me some respite.

Trailing spouses

The women who follow their husbands around on expat assignments (and let's face it, it's still mostly women doing the following) are apparently called "trailing spouses." So I guess I'm a trailing spouse (and as an aside is it just me or is "spouse" just too close to words like "mouse" and "louse" for comfort?). The big question for most trailing spouses is how to make some money and stay engaged in their careers while the husbands are working (and if applicable, and it usually is, the kids are in school).

I knew one woman in SF who asked me why I was worried about my career moving to Sweden, when I could just "spend my time exploring!!!!??" (include broad sweeping hand gestures with this comment). Well, exploring is all fine and good for the first month (or perhaps three if you live in Copenhagen and six if you were in Paris or Rome), but after that, I would argue, it's human nature to a) run out of money, b) want a routine and c) feel useful.

Pursuing (or should I say desperately trying to hang onto) your career is of course a challenge when you don't speak the language fluently and you aren't, say, a world-renowned musician whose calling is free from the constraints of language. Since this is Sweden, it's probably more forgiving than any other European country if you can't speak Swedish but can speak English, but it's still difficult for many women to find some way to make money and stay engaged in the working world.

I know women who teach yoga, clean houses, make hats out of recycled materials, work remotely for companies in the U.S. doing urban planning and graphic design, and teach at English-speaking preschools. I also know some who started their own businesses and a few who have "regular" jobs at Swedish companies where they speak English. And I know many women who are home full time because it's been too hard to find a job in Sweden.

Whatever their situation, I say let's hear it for all the trailing spouses out there who are finding ways, in the immortal words of Project Runway's Tim Gunn, to just ... "make it work!"

Lights of Liseberg

When I was little we used to drive by the Chevron refinery in Richmond off of I-80 on our way back from Sacramento late at night. The oil refinery was lit up with a million lights and I'd say "Mom, look, there's heaven!" Well, I think Ava feels the same way about Liseberg right now, and probably more appropriately so. It looks great right now, with lights, fake snow and Christmas booths everywhere. They also have these great BBQ stands filled with glowing coals that are just for warming your hands. Love those. For the kids there's an ice-skating rink, learn-to-ski slope, reindeer sleigh rides, and the regular kiddie rides, of course. I never thought I'd be going on a roller-coaster in the snow, but there you go!

SFI, check!`

I passed the final test of Swedish for Immigrants level 4 this week. Hurray for me! Can I speak Swedish? Well, better than I could in August... but no, not really. I can understand most of what I read (like simple books and newspaper articles) but my conversational Swedish maxes out at making a waxing appointment or ordering a turkey on the phone. All the certificate really means is that now I can start the advanced class called Swedish as a Second Language (SAS-G) in January.

Advent

Advent is here and you can't miss it because nearly every window has either an electric "ljustake" (triangular candle holder thingy) or advent star in it these days. In fact, there are candles and lights EVERYWHERE, including, I might add, in the daycare centers and preschools. Young children and candles don't mix in MY mind, but there are so many darned candles in Sweden I guess you have to start them out young.

The statue in the picture above is of Poseidon on Götaplatsen, just a stone's throw from our apartment. They've been showing a surreal outdoor "Christmas movie" on the facade of the art museum behind him a few times a night over the past few days. The movie involves mermaids singing merry Christmas, trams, crabs and some heavy metal band doing a Christmas tune. I'm not sure I get it, but I like it.

Adrian and I are digging Christmas in Sweden. I love the Christmas markets filled with slightly creepy stuffed gnomes, saffron-spiked lussekatter, pickled herring, sweet-roasted almonds, and glögg (spicey drink with raisins floating in it). Here's me appreciating said glögg (while chewing a pepparkaka) in Haga:
Everything is just so darned cozy right now. The lights, the candles, the shearling-lined boots ... Good thing, because otherwise the fact it's full-on dark at 4pm would be downright depressing. (As an aside, we have been eating dinner around 5:45pm because it feels so late by then. I think I finally get why Midwesterners are famous for eating early.)

Ava's school had their Christmas bazaar today (spelled bazarre, which I found bizarre) and she was not sure about her face-painting:
Otherwise, the kids had a great time (read: ate lots of cookies) and played for a long time in the "pillow room" together, which was very cute. People keep commenting that Julian has really grown. It's true of course (I mean, kids do that), but I think it's more that he's turned the corner from baby to little boy recently, which the picture below captures pretty well. I walked passed him the other day at school and didn't recognize him because he looked too old to be mine!

Swedish Community of Facilitators

I presented at my first conference this past week. The conference was a meeting of the Swedish Community of Facilitators. Is this funny to anyone else but me? For some reason, saying it always makes my giggle, perhaps because I get some image in my head of lots of consensus-oriented blond people chatting in a big circle every time I hear the phrase. Actually there were lots of consensus-oriented people in circles, but most weren't blond and even fewer were real blondes.

At any rate, the title of my presentation was "Strategic Visioning Using Simple Graphic Facilitation Techniques." Fancy, right? I had 2 sessions, each 1.5 hours, and they went really well, if I do say so myself. We talked about what a vision is, what makes it compelling and how to help groups to tap into their creativity. I showed some examples of my visioning graphic facilitation (like the two below), then had the group use a simple template I designed for creating their own personal visions. They dug it.
The conference was a marketing opportunity for me and lots of AstraZeneca folks were there, so I'm crossing my fingers that it translates into some business in the coming months. Since Adrian was denied to expat tax break we applied for, said business would come in handy.