Snow life

The sign outside Liseberg says "Don't be doubtful, Spring is coming" (I'm sure there's a better translation for the "miströsta inte" part ...), but I'm feeling pretty darned doubtful after the amount of snow we've had over the past few days, with more on the way. We're hunkering down waiting for the next storm to arrive. In the meantime we're enjoying watching the huge icicles form outside our windows and drinking lots of hot cocoa.

Brrrr

In Little Women, one of the girls, Jo I think, goes on an on about how she hates French and so when some old Auntie is going to go to France and wants to take someone with her she decides not to take complainy old Jo, but to take her nice sister, Amy, instead. Amy just loooooves French and would just diiiiiiie to see Europe, so she goes and Jo is left singing "je ne regrette rien" in her whiskey (or maybe this only happened in my edition). This is the only part of Little Women I remember, so clearly the danger of complaining wasn't wasted on my 8-year-old brain. So it is with some trepidation that I admit I really really dislike snow and cold weather. My reaction to the piles of dog-pee-dotted white snow lining the streets and reflecting the weak winter sun, which seems to elicit joy from many, is along the lines of "just melt already so I can wear my high-heeled boots again."

Clearly, as well as not being a pet person I am not a snow/cold/wintery sort of person. I'm annoyed I have to wear long underwear; I'm annoyed I have to bundle the kids up 3 times a day; and I feel like a pack mule always trudging through the snow or slush with my stuffed Coop Forum bags. I'm sure my dislike is amplified by the fact that I don't ski and, being from San Francisco and all, have no fond childhood memories of frolicking in the snow. Now, I know it would be much more annoying to be living in northern Sweden, where it's been like -25 degrees (-33C) instead of the balmy 14 degrees it's been in Gothenburg for weeks, but I'm still annoyed. I am just always cold and I refuse to buy those super ugly $500 Bally Curling boots everyone has. I realize this probably ruins my chances of getting invited on an all-expenses-paid ski trip to Kitzbühl next year by my long-lost Uncle Teddy, but so be it. I am freezing my West Coast tush off and tired of looking like a puffy black ball topped with a purple pom-pom.

Spring

A week ago I started a post about Spring. We had a few days of really beautiful blue skies and warmer weather and the heads of purple and yellow flowers started peeking up here and there out of the brown landscape. The kids were actually able to spend the afternoon outside without snowsuits (hallelujah!).And then it snowed. Spring is a fickle thing and it's been toying with our emotions these past few weeks, giving us one day here and there of beautiful, warm-ish weather, and then descending into gray, nearly freezing territory the next day. But on the whole there's a wonderful feeling of speeding toward Spring and, inevitably, Summer now. Restaurants have started setting up the frames of their outdoor eating areas they disassembled in September; stores on the Avenue now feature halter-top dresses and slip-on shoes; the hot dog guy is back in Slottskogen on the weekends; and our favorite ice cream stand appeared again outside the library this week (it's empty, but it's progress). Yes, the promise of warm weather (and getting rid of the down coat I've worn every day since November) is definitely in the air.

Snow days

We got our first full snowy day yesterday and it was beautiful. After doing a little shopping in Haga (the top picture is in front of Hagakyrka or Haga Church), we spent the afternoon with Karin and Magnus and their munchkin Emma drinking coffee and policing the children. We all decided to brave the snow flurries and go out to tapas at La Sombrita on Linnegatan. We had a boisterous and tasty dinner, though Emma is apparently frightened of rice and so there was some drama when the saffron rice was brought to the table.

On the way home we made snowballs and it all felt very festive and Christmas-y. Then today we woke up to beautiful blue skies and 5-degree weather so it's slush city out, which the kids have also been enjoying.

Winter, continued.

Spring is a long way off. At Delsjön, the huge nature preserve area in Eastern Gothenburg, the birches are spindly and brown, and the lakes are frozen enough that we saw people ice skating (well, they looked like they were wearing dwarf-sized skis, so ice skiing?). We spent some time throwing chunks of ice onto the icy lake (ah, the joys of winter) and pondering the sun being 4 inches above the horizon at 11:30am.

Not having grown up with winters, I'm finding it sort of fascinating to go through a "real" winter, even if it is a coastal Swedish one and not a Lapland/Chicago sort of thing. Winter is beautiful and thoughtful and the cold, short days force us to spend lots of time huddled in our living room drinking cocoa, talking and playing the Hokey-Pokey. These are good things.

I have still yet to pull out my Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) light I bought in CA. I'm thinking of it as a last resort measure that might come in handy some time around February 22 if I've really had it with the gray skies and start pondering leaving the family and moving to Dubai.

Cold

It's gotten cold this week. At the moment it is 39 degrees and snow or hail (if I'm not misreading the Swedish paper) is a definite possibility tonight. In October! Lord! This means stuffing the kids into their snowsuits in the morning and afternoon for the journey to and from school and arguing with them about hats and gloves (and yes, despite his limited vocabulary -- he can only say "ball," "mama," and "dog" -- Julian is good at arguing using high-pitched wails and grunts). Since most of the Americans I know here are from Illinois, Michigan, and other frigid places, I'm getting no sympathy for my frozen tootsies from them. Only Sandy from San Mateo and Stephanie from Burlingame feel my pain. Luckily I look good in hats. Small mercies.

Fall is here

Fall has definitely arrived: the air is decidedly cooler, brittle leaves line the streets, some kids have started wearing their Michelin Man snowsuits to school ... and every woman from Malmö to Jokkmokk now seems to be wearing a uniform consisting of black, knee-high boots over skinny jeans and a sweater in some shade of grey. I don't think Ava is QUITE getting the concept of skipping through the autumn leaves. She has been doing a sort of kung-fu maneuver every time she encounters a pile (see above), much to Julian's delight.

We are ridiculously content at the moment. Really, I hope this blog isn't becoming a boring string of Isn't-Sweden-Great entries. I hate those! I mean who wants to read about how terrific someplace else is all the time? Please know we haven't forgotten the joys of California (weekends in Sonoma and Calistoga with friends, having a coffee with Mom [for less than $10], and getting a bagel in Noe Valley on Sunday morning to name just a few). Sweden just happens to be a great place for families with young kids. It's not the most exciting or visually dramatic place on earth (shocker!), but it's very comfortable with great work/life balance, and that's perfect for us right now. If we didn't have kids I'd probably be bored out of my noggin! I think another reason we are so content is because our time here in finite. We know we have about two years to enjoy the differences of life over here before we go back to our "real" life.

I'm off to Lund tomorrow night to do my first work assignment with Lorensbergs, and I've booked a two-day training (a presentation skills workshop) for November. As my friend Merel said last night over a tasty glass of Australian pinot (because I was just NOT going to pay $16 for a glass of merlot from Lodi), "Well, that is definitely part time!"

Puddles

Day 1: Julian in heaven at Näckrosdammen Park around the corner from our house. Note lack of proper Swedish rainplay attire. Bad Mommy.


Day 2: Properly outfitted like a good Swedish kiddie. Good Mommy.

Summer in Sweden

If you're from the Bay Area you kind of take the weather for granted. Most of the time it's comfortable out -- maybe a little too windy or a little too foggy, but basically you can go about your day not thinking much about the atmosphere. The Swedes do not take good weather for granted. Period. The drive to make the most of a sunny day is almost palpable ... or maybe that's the smoke from one of those funny little disposable grills everyone uses? At any rate, it's been a gorgeous month (unlike last May when it rained for 6 weeks straight), and we are doing our Swede-like best to enjoy the sun.

Last weekend we went to the 700th anniversary of the Bohus Fortress. Leave it to the Swedes to have like 10 fun things for kids to do there, including try on costumes (see princess Ava photo), play with swords, make jewelry, etc. Then on Tuesday we went with a few new friends to Deljon (pronounced "Del-unpronouncable glutteral w sound-n" in case you were wondering) to a little lake. Let me say that once we GOT to the lake it was lovely and we grilled on a disposable grill and everything. The picture of naked person on beach is Ava about 35 seconds after we arrived. The trip there was one of those "why-am-I-an-expat" experiences. First we all marched from the apartment to the parking lot where our rental car is with all of our beach stuff. Then I drove us all over town in circles to get to the lake, which should be like a 5 minute drive away because driving in a new city is just NOT nice. Then I parked in the wrong lot and ended up having to march Julian, Ava and Sonja 1.5 miles in the hot sun to the lake, just in time for Julian to need a nap, and Julian only takes a nap in his crib. His crib was NOT at the beach. Then we did the whole thing in the other direction, including the driving in circles bit.

Anyway, I needed a very large glass of (insanely expensive) wine after this outing, and happily, Sandy, Traci and a very funny Dutch woman named Merel were obliging. I think this picture of Sandy and Traci was taken around 9pm -- very cool to have light so late.

And finally I have to include this picture of Ava and Sonja that they took when they went to visit the moose in Slottskogen today because they are so darned cute.