Moving day

Have we become crazy European hoarders since arriving in Sweden? No! We've only moved, taking down an entire forest in the process! I'm SO GLAD the movers wrapped a bundle of my pencils in 55 sheets of paper before putting it in a cardboard box with other similarly packaged items and topping the box off with another 43 sheets of paper. I mean, the sense of relief that my pencils had no chance of getting damaged en route is tremendous. Sigh. It should be noted that all of our furniture, and my Subaru Forester, made it to Sweden with no additional knicks, dings or cracks, but I do wonder if all this garbage is the only way. Anyway.

Aside from the environmental fiasco, our move into our new apartment in Goteborg went pretty well. The guys from Crown Relocations were very nice (no surprise, they're Swedish) and unpacked everything (thus the mayhem of the paper pile in the picture above), leaving us with huge piles of stuff to find homes for. If an international move has taught us one thing it's that we don't need so much stuff. I kept opening boxes going "More? We have MORE toys/jeans/Q-tips/cloth napkins????" Seriously, how many sets of placemats and napkins does one family need? I promptly created 4 big bags of stuff to give away (though I have no idea where to donate this stuff, but it's going, I swear).

This picture of the kids' room, and particularly Adrian's expression (he he) sort of sums up moving day. Boxes everywhere, exhaustion, hunger, children excited and frantic. But at the end of the day we were so relieved to be in our "permanent" Swedish home, and pretty much in love with our rambling, fifth-floor apartment on Sodra Vagen.

Home ... For Now

Our temporary home on Bergsgatan is definitely Ikea-chic with these beautiful 14-ft tall ceilings and lots of groovy Euro appliances (like a dishwasher -- finally!!). The apartment is in a nicely restored 5-story building right off of Linnegatan, a tree-lined street with lots of outdoor cafes, shops, and a tram line. There are 2 playgrounds within a few blocks and we're within walking distance of a cool area called Haga (old industrial area that's now pretty hip) and Slottskogen, sort of like the Golden Gate Park of Gothenburg. Needless to say, we are really happy with the apartment and the location. Adrian is thrilled that he'll have a 5-10 minute walk to work in the mornings (at least until July 1) starting on May 19.

I'm thinking the Swedes dig a bold pattern and white walls.

Jet Lag

Once you give up any notion of having time to relax, rest, read a book or watch a movie, flying with kids isn't that bad. Our flights from SFO to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt to Gothenburg were pretty uneventful (no barfing, hysterical crying, etc.), except that the kids barely slept. Aren't planes supposed to make kids pass out for long periods??

This picture is of the kids on the way to the airport in the HUGE Suburban that took us from my Mom's to SFO. Ava loved our driver, Manny, and was visibly upset that he wasn't at the airport in Gothenburg waiting to take us to our apartment.

Moving Day

Moving day, otherwise known as "pack out day" in expat speak (or so I've been told), was sort of exciting and mostly tiring. We spent the two days (and nights) before running up and down stairs throwing our things into various piles:

• Carry-on luggage
• Check-in luggage
• Air freight to arrive early May
• Ocean shipment to arrive late June
• Donate nice junk
• Toss old junk
• Store into over-stuffed storage compartment

That's a lot of piles. I think we did OK but sort of gave up in the end. Oh, and did you know you can't ship batteries, shaving cream, nail polish remover and SPLENDA? Don't even get me started -- those big boxes of Splenda are expensive and I'm addicted to the stuff!

Here's Ava waving goodbye to our beloved Rudden Avenue in SF. That was actually a really sad moment for me (she seemed fine of course).