I still think Swedes are weird because ...

• They love pear and licorice ice cream
  
• They will wait patiently in line while the girl behind the counter picks the stickers off some apples and pretends they don't exist
  
• They use snus (probably deserves its own post, must get pix first)
  
• They frequently tell foreigners how boring they are as a people
• They think it's normal to pay $30 for an entree at a mediocre restaurant
• They refer to time in the future by what week of the year something will happen (Classes start week 34! When the heck is that?)
• The telesales people give up without really trying ("Oh, so I guess you don't want our new service then ..."
• They think falukorv is a) actually sausage and b) yummy (see picture above)
• They love big sing-a-longs and actually televise them nationally
• They watch the Euro Vision Song Contest without a wink wink nudge nudge
• They must actually order pizza with peanuts, banana, curry sauce and ground beef because it's on most pizza menus
• They will bump into you, knocking off your purse and stepping on your feet, and never once look at you or in any other way acknowledge the event
• They are obsessed with their children being outdoors as much as possible, snow and rain be damned

Comings and goings

I went to a good-bye brunch for my friend Deirdre this morning. She's moving to Philadelphia on Friday with her Swedish husband and 2 young kids after a semi-unwanted, 4-year-long pit stop in Sweden. Merel and Denis are also leaving (very bad news), moving back to the Netherlands some time between now and November, and Clare is heading to Seattle in December.

All these impending goodbyes have been contributing to a new perspective I've had about being in Sweden since returning from our trip to CA in July. Suddenly, with 10 months to go, it feels like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel ... and that light is not far off. There's just something about being under the 12-months-to-go mark. Gone is that sense of ramping up, of trying to meet as many people as possible to build a network of social and professional contacts. It's been replaced on one hand with the positive intentions of really wanting to enjoy what we have here and enjoying the fruits of our labors (and I don't mean the children, though of course they are enjoyable and the fruits of one type of labor). On the other hand, the single-mindedness of the first year has also been replaced with the annoying feeling of having one eye on our life here and one eye focused on ramping up a life in SF again. Luckily I have quite a bit of work at the moment to keep me grounded on the here and now ... and hopefully pay for some fun trips in the coming months.

Fertility

I'm considering a new career as a Fertility Goddess, now that every one of my girlfriends in Sweden has gotten pregnant since my arrival. They are, in order of pregnant status: Traci, Karin, Gen (in the picture above with her as-yet-to-be-named daughter), Merel and Sandy. (Plus, my dear friend Amanda in CA had her second child this week, which proves my skills cross international boundaries and are therefore even more astounding.) I'm thinking I might be a natural, and much cheaper, alternative to IVF.

As someone most definitely done with having children, I'm feeling like I'm in the eye of the baby storm at the moment - surrounded by the whirl of birth stories, breastfeeding questions, and ultrasound images. It's great to be in the middle of things, experiencing the bigness of having a child with friends, and not have to be suffering from sleep deprivation and taking care of a newborn myself.

So a warm welcome to the new, beautiful, healthy babies in my life: Matthias, Theo, Amalia/Sophia and Colette!

Settling in ... again

The sun has come out and the kids are sleeping past 3am so my mood has vastly improved over last week, when my attitude about being in Sweden could have been described only as stinky. I have thus far studiously attempted not to Sweden-bash on my blog and I didn't have the strength to resist these urges until now, thus a slight lapse in posts.

Returning from a relaxed, sunny month in California full of family and friends to a rainy, empty, (many Swedes are still on summer holiday, which if I haven't mentioned this before lasts from the end of June until around August 10) expensive Gothenburg, was trying to say the least. I was going to bed at 8pm partly from jet lag and partly due to avoidance of the reality of being back in Sweden. Sort of like how Julian closes his eyes when he doesn't like something or someone and thinks that means they're gone.

Anyway, after some restorative visits with Merel, Gen, Anastacia and Karin, and a visit from Adrian's sister Sue and her family (and the sun), my mood is more chipper. Cue Adrian singing "Hallelujah" in background.

The kids started back at ABC this week for an hour or two each day. They both have inschooling again, which strikes me as a little weird since they are in the same classes with the same teachers, but hey, I'm all for easy transitions. Just wish mine were a bit easier.

California visit round-up

I've started a couple of posts about our trip to CA and haven't (obviously) posted anything because I'm having trouble summing up the trip in a few cute paragraphs. The trip was about catching up with friends, having the kids hang out with grandma and grandpa, visiting favorite places, eating the foods we've been missing, and also deciding where we want to live, how we want to live and what our priorities as a family are. You see the slight dilemma in what to post. A few nice shots of friends?Or maybe grandparents bonding with the kids in Calistoga?Or maybe shots of the gorgeous weather we had in Seattle and Sonoma?
Those would definitely be more cheerful than pictures of our house in SF with a big "for rent" sign posted out front; Adrian and I reading the details of the Owner Move In and Ellis Act laws concerning tenants in SF (did you know a family of 4 in SF are entitled to $18k+ in relocation expenses if they rent your house for a year or more? Thanks Supervisor Daly, and enjoy your home in Fairfield. Snark snark); and endlessly debating the merits of SF vs. Seattle with young children.

So we had a wonderful time -- I remembered all the reasons I love (friends! food! granny camp!) and am maddened by CA (traffic! shit schools!) -- that was laced with the financial anxiety about the house and the "what's next?" anxiety about moving back to the U.S. next summer. Despite the joys of having friends and family nearby, neither Adrian nor I really wants to step back into a 2-income, 2-kid urban SF lifestyle and all that entails. We'd both prefer a lower key lifestyle (Seattle anyone?), but after much soul searching (and meeting with our financial adviser - hi Adam), it does make the most sense for us to stay in SF for the time being. So Lord help me tame the spider web that is applying to SF public schools from abroad. I think I definitely need to reread that Power of Now book. Not the one about software development, the other one about breathing and staying in the moment and pain bodies, whatever they are.