Apartment Hunting

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 8.0035 SEK


On the last episode of CougsInSwedeland...

Well I guess it wasn't really in the last episode because I didn't write a last episode so I guess you don't know what happened last time. Or something. Stupid lazy writer, what else is he doing during the day, jeez.

Anyway we found out recently that we would be unable to stay in the apartment we are currently renting due to the apartment association regulation that an owner can only rent out an apartment for one year only. So we have begun looking for a new place to live next year.

Picture from a Jul (Christmas) bazaar below the cathedral.

We have sent out email inquiries to 50 or so apartments of various sizes and quality. Of course we heard back quickly from all the apartments that are really nice, and way too expensive for us. For your reference we have been paying 5,500 SEK a month for rent. The people who got back to us right away were looking for 8,500 or more a month. Some were beautiful apartments that we would love to live in but really just can't swing right now. We are looking for apartments that are furnished since we really only brought clothes with us, and have picked up a few kitchen type things and an airbed for visitors which may or may not become our bed for awhile.

Fine handmade Swedish Christmas things for sale.

We would love to live downtown in some of the older buildings. We looked a couple that said they were fully furnished, which included a couple chairs, a single bed, maybe a desk, very spartan really. But the hardwood floors were nice. Also note that many old apartments in Sweden do not have closets. I suppose that's why IKEA sells so many wardrobes and bureaus and dressers and sofas.

Pony rides. The little one is an Icelandic pony and the far one has Santa wrap on his ankles.

One apartment we looked at was a huge four room, two bathroom apartment on the river with a great view of the castle. We had responded to an ad posted on a local website for a "unique" apartment with a great view. It didn't say anything about the rent, and in correspondence setting up a time to view it the owner still didn't say how much it was. So we got all gussied up thinking that some pretty well to do types were living there and went to view it. We got there and it was a young couple, maybe our age, artisty types owning the place. It was a gorgeous apartment with a new kitchen and everything. It was furnished, in a minimalist kind of way. Finally we got around to asking how much it was a month and they were asking 15,000 a month, plus electricity. I'd like to say we both had an excellent poker face, told them thanks for letting us look and we were on our way, laughing our way down the street.

This is a goat made out of greenery. Goats and pigs are common Christmas decorations here, as well as little red mushrooms with white dots.

We also took the step of posting an ad in a local paper saying that we are a young professional couple from the US looking to rent a furnished apartment in Uppsala for around 7,000 a month. A couple people have called and we looked at one or two that were ok. Then a couple nights ago we got a call from a gentleman that is currently, or will be soon, living in the US with his family trying to rent a large 4 room/two bathroom apartment right down town with a huge balcony and recently renovated kitchen. He was really looking for someone to rent it and offered it to us for 9,100 a month, a huge discount considering it sounded pretty similar to the 15,000 one. We told him that we were very flattered and thought it would be a great place but we really couldn't do it at this point. But man that was a huge discount.


Christmas tree and little ice rink for kids in one of the main squares in town. This was from the first day this was open and Christmas music was playing. Let me tell you there is nothing like walking around a big town in Sweden to the sounds of Bing Crosby.

We had found a lovely place that was fully furnished but a bit smaller than the place we are now. The owner interviewed us for a few minutes and it seemed that we got along well and made a good impression. They told us they would make a decision that night and call us either that night or in the morning. We really liked it and thought that it would be the perfect place for us, but we have not heard back from them yet.

We are heading back to the States next Tuesday and won't be flying back until after the first of January. Since our lease ends this month we need to move our stuff into Ragen's office until we get back. So we are obviously looking for a place to start January 1. We looked at a place that was OK, it has nice French doors opening onto the balcony and between the living room and hall way. The hallway is a nice lilac color, livable I suppose, but doesn't start until the middle of January. We also heard back from a woman we emailed a couple weeks ago. She has a nice furnished apartment near the train station that was a little more than we think we could pay. She responded to our email saying how excited she was that we were interested in the apartment and she would love to have a couple of Americans living there and that we sound like awesome people. I cannot convey the level of excitement this woman put into her email, and we have never actually met her. Anyway she was in Miami for a little bit and just emailed us again to say she was back and that she would love to have us look at the place. We replied that we think the rent may be a little high at 8,500 and we need a place to start in January (her ad said February 1). She responded by saying that of course the rent is negotiable and she could rent to us for 7, 200. She didn't say anything about if we could move in earlier or not and wants us to come look at it on Saturday. I don't know, we kind of need to figure out something soon so we aren't homeless when we fly back in January. I get the feeling that this girl/woman/kvinna would probably take us as roommates for January. Could be a solution I suppose, it is a nice apartment...

Anyway we will let you know what happens.

Svart Fredag

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 8.0882 SEKHappy Black Friday everyone. Hope you all are out finding some holiday deals and pumping some cash into the economy and get that thing turned around.

Above is a picture of Gamla Stan in Stockholm from Monday. You'll never believe what I was doing. I was down there to audition for a part in a video game of all things. I mean, why not, I had some extra time on my hand. I responded to an ad looking for an "authentic American voice." I have one of those so I read for a voice part as a young marine in the Pacific during WWII. It was really fun to go down and yell things like "grenaaaaaade" and "meeeeeeeedic" into the microphone. I got some good feedback from the sound director who said I had a real shot. It was good to know that I didn't totally suck at it. As a thanks for coming in I got to pick a game from their game shop, which was sweet. Unfortunately they decided to go with someone else this time but they'll keep my audition on file for future projects.

And so, the job search continues... (not that that was a career choice or anything, it was only going to be two half days of reading, but to hear myself get shot and die in a video game, priceless.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 7.9699 SEK
Do your Black Friday Shopping in Sweden!

We thought we'd say Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers back home and around the world. Hope you all are imbibing and enjoying your turkey dinners with all the fixin's and some pumpkin pie for dessert. Due to the lack of turkeys and pumpkins we enjoyed some good ol' American homemade hamburgers with some "American Style" Ginger Ale and we'll have some caramel apple empanadas for dessert (so it's kind of like apple pie which we would have made but you can't find pie pans anywhere, just so you know). So eat, drink, watch the Seahawks lose again, d'oh!

Peace Out!

P.S. If you have Skype look us up so we can wish you Happy Thanksgiving over the magic of the internets.

Winter Wonderland

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 7.8918 SEKFirst things first... GO COUGS!! It wasn't a pretty game but a win over the Fuskies is the highlight of any season really. Especially in dramatic fashion. If you weren't in Pullman this weekend, and CougsInSwedeland obviously wasn't, but our man in the street said the huge mob that rushed the field took over downtown en masse. It doesn't matter what the rest of the season looked like, but on one afternoon it was if the Cougs had just won a national title. Hopefully it carries over to the islands this week against Hawaii.

Meanwhile we have just experienced a winter storm Sweden style. In the last post I put up a picture taken on Saturday morning. Here are some pictures from last night. For the most part Saturday was a nice day, the skies were pretty clear. In the evening it started snowing again but not much additional accumulation. When we woke up Sunday there was a little more snow on the ground but not much else happened during the day. That evening the wind started to pick up and it started to snow harder. I think it was the windiest day we have had here, and it is pretty windy up here. In fact there were hurricane force winds recorded less than a hundred miles south of us in and around the archipelago. The snow started to pick up that night and snowed all day on Monday. It was almost like a blizzard from Sunday night into Monday. I would say we have about a foot of snow, more in places due to drift. The bus schedule is all messed up, buses have gone into ditches, found themselves stuck after stops, and getting caught in an intersection as they try to take a corner. Craziness ensued. Not really. So we thought we would put up some pictures to show off.

Bicycles in downtown. Some of these are cleared off because people actually do ride through town on them. In the street because the sidewalks aren't always cleared off. But sharing the roads with Buses that occasionally slip and slide, I don't know if that's an idea I can get behind.

Make sure to check on your cars often other wise you should bring a shovel with you if you want to go anywhere.

Some bicycles parked in front of our apartment building. Unfortunately we just found out that we will be unable to rent our apartment for the next year. Since we are heading back to the states for the holidays on the 16th and our lease ends before Christmas, we only have a couple weeks to find a new apartment and move our stuff before we go. Or we could return to Sweden in 2009 without a place to stay. That would kind of suck. We looked at a couple ads last night for some swish apartments in downtown. They cost a little more than our current place but some are a lot fancier. Fortunately people seem eager to rent to young professional couple like ourselves as over half of the people we contacted last night have responded.

Star lamps are pretty traditional Christmas decorations and most homes and storefronts have them hanging in the windows. What we were surprised to learn is that red, white, and blue are traditional Swedish Christmas colors, much like the red, white, and green back home. As a bonus we now have some 4th of July decorations when we move back.

Basil. Also note how much snow we have on our windowsill. A lot.

Finally a picture taken this morning to compare to the picture from Saturday morning. Notice the difference, and also the windowsill snow in the foreground.

GO COUGS!!!!

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 8.3618 SEK (Now's the time to come visit if you want to stretch that dollar a little more!)

What we woke up to this morning!

A quick update today to commemorate the big day. The battle for 9th place. The 100th Apple Cup! Or as some people have referred to it, the Crapple Cup. Anyway we take the snow this morning and the scheduled cold weather in Pullman, as an a good luck sign and hope of a new Snow Bowl. We'll be watching here in Sweden cheering along with the rest of you. So as always... GO COUGS!!!!

Election Fever... Catch It!!!

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 7.6107 SEK

Ok folks it is finally here. ELECTION DAY!!! Get out and VOTE!!!

(Those of you who know us know which way we lean... HINT we are strongly PRO-POLAR BEAR)

Please note that the Swedish state television station has crews in DC and other parts of the US to cover the election. We are personally planning to have people over to watch two Swedish comedians cover it. Should be fun. But needless to say that the whole world is watching this thing. Even if we have to stay up all night to follow it. But what happens today does have an impact on the entire world, and for the most part the rest of the world really really perfers one guy to the other.

VOTE OR DIE!

CHOOSE OR LOSE!

DO YOUR DUTY!

INSERT OTHER OBNOXIOUS VOTING SLOGAN GEARED TOWARDS THE YOUNG FOLKS!

(update 10:15 pm Sweden - Starbucks is giving cups of coffee if you tell them you voted, and Krispy Kreme gives you a free donut if you show them your I Voted sticker, just so you know).

Of Snow and Coleslaw

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 7.7097 SEK

Sunset here in Uppsala, at 4:00

Winter is here! Winter is here! We had our first snow Friday afternoon. It was only a dusting and pretty wet stuff but it lasted a couple days in the shadows. I think it is now official that winter is here. Now is when Swedes like to get out of the country for awhile before the darkness and the rain sets in. Nice.

In other news I had an opportunity to work in a local Irish pub here in Uppsala on Thursday night. Long time readers might recognize it as the pub we celebrated St. Patrick's day in. I got to spend a shift in the kitchen that night to see if it would be a good fit. So this is an Irish bar, the owner is Syrian perhaps. The head chef might be as well and doesn't speak English, not a good sign for me, only Swedish and Farsi perhaps. My mentor for the night was born in Sweden and his family is Syrian. Other employees out front were from New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, and Sweden. A pretty global place to say the least.

My first task was to make coleslaw. I walked in the kitchen and the head chef had shredded up a couple heads of cabbage and a few bags of carrots into a large Rubbermaid-like storage container. Then he "added" a Costco size container of mayonnaise and a bottle of molasses or other syrup like substance. Then it was my time to shine. I got to mix it all up... with my hands. After scrubbing up of course. I dug in, elbow deep, pulling and mixing and squishing coleslaw. And let me tell you that stuff is cold after some time. My fingers were freezing and were getting a little numb. But I'm glad to know that I can make three or four days worth of coleslaw.

After that it was a brief tour of the kitchen and waiting for the first orders to come in. The first things I was shown how to make were burgers and club sandwiches, which they call "chicken bacons," to avoid confusion I suppose. Although its not really a club sandwich, I mean it does have the three pieces of bread and some chicken breast and bacon. But they don't cut into four pieces like they should. For shame. Well I'm sure you can tell where I'm going with this. It was fun for the first couple hours, but then it was slow, and then the dinner rush, and then then slow again. I must have made like 25 chicken bacons and well over a dozen burgers. Along with a couple orders of Guinness-battered fish and chips and nachos I think covered it. Six hours of that and then 20 minutes of cleaning. Not too bad.

I went in and talked to the owner at the end and he told me that if I wanted to come in a couple more times, work for food and drinks and tips (ha ha, people don't really tip in Sweden, and who ever tips the kitchen anyway) and then he'll decide if he wants to offer me a job. At that point I told him that I had to be honest and I didn't think it was the job for me. He asked if it was too hard and I said, "yeah, too hard... let's go with that." But he was cool about it and realized that not everyone likes that kind of stuff, so he told me the next time I came in, two beers on him.

And so the saga continues...

OH, AND DON'T FORGET TO VOTE TOMORROW!!

In Sweden they are just called fisk.

How much is your dollar worth?

$1 = 7.7353 SEK (down from a high of 8.2 earlier this week).

FALL HERE IN UPPSALA

We are back again with some news finally. Hooray! Where to start…

We finally heard that our visas have been renewed for another year. As you may recall we reapplied for the visas back in March or April after we figured out that we had to have proof that we would be staying more than a year to get our person numbers. We were told a couple months later after we had not heard anything that the migration office was backlogged and they would not even consider our application until there were two months left on our current ones. We purchased plane tickets back to the US for the holidays and would not be arriving until after our current visas expired so Ragen sent an email to them to ask when we could expect a decision. The next day they replied and told her that, as a matter of fact, they had decided that day to grant us a renewal. Coincidence?

We had to go to the migration office to get new stamps in our passport. Now one would think that a government office like that may be located closer to downtown with the other government type offices. But you would be wrong. The office was actually located on a back road in the industrial area of Uppsala, by a power plant and behind a place that washes busses and semis, and it was smelly back there. Ragen left work early on Monday so we could go before they closed at 4:00. We got there about 2:30, took our number and sat for the next hour and a half before we gave up and decided to come back the next day, when they opened, at 1:00. Typist Swedish office, only open three days a week for three hours each day. We were seen the next day and it took about 20 minutes for us to get everything taken care of. So now we have person numbers, ID cards, and renewed visas. So everything is taken care of so we can stay another year. The only piece left is me finding a job.

On that front, I did have my first interview about a week ago. I had called up a company that produces wave based power generators. It was a good meeting and I think it went well. They are looking to move into the US market and could use some help navigating the environmental regulations in the US and federal and state permit requirements. They told me they could use someone more “local” and familiar with the system and could probably use me at that point. However, since they do not have any US customers at the moment they didn’t have anything for me at the moment. But I think it was a good meeting, they were very happy to meet with me, which was a first since I’ve been here, and I think it was worth it. In the meantime though, I’m still looking. It’s just a matter of time right?

If you ever wondered what the H and M stand for in H&M

We went to a Halloween party this last weekend that one of my football players was hosting. We met some more nice people that he works with and goes to university with. We had some good conversations; people are very interested in the election next week. Met one guy who works at an insurance company and told me that they are very interested in increasing the diversity of their workforce and can always use more lawyers so once I get into some Swedish classes and improve my language skills he can put in a good word for me then. So I’ve got that going for me.

Speaking of the elections… that bird is crazy. Kind of glad that we are over here and are not being bombarded with all the campaign ads. But we received our ballots a couple weeks ago and filled them out and returned it. So by the time you are reading this, our votes have been cast and counted. Now that we are under a week to go, remember to vote next week.

In cultural news, Halloween is just in its infancy here in Sweden. Most grocery stores and stuff have some costume pieces, mostly masks and witches hats. We found one “costume” shop in town that had a few costumes and lots of wigs and makeup and some other assorted pieces. But nothing like the big costume shops and wide assortment of costumes and decorations you’d find in the big box stores in the states. They don’t have special Halloween costumes and we aren’t really sure if we will even get trick-or-treaters on Friday. We decided to represent at this Halloween party last week by going as “greeks.” Not the Socrates type but Alpha Kappa Iota Sigma Delta types. This also doubled as a good excuse to go to IKEA (pronounced EE-KAY-UH… I’m here to educate) and get another set of bed sheets. We are going to another party this weekend I think and since we are getting to help decorate and stuff we are going to do it old school. Since most of these people have never been to a haunted house and stuff we are going to do the whole cold spaghetti, peeled grapes kind of shenanigans that we are used to from grade school. Good stuff.

On Friday we are planning to have some of Ragen’s colleagues over for a scary movie night which will be fun. Speaking of scary movies, there is a new one out here in Sweden and in select US cities. It’s a Swedish vampire movie called Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In and already slated for a US remake in 2010). We are going to go see it, even without English subtitles, and we will let you know. From the trailers it looks pretty good, with some stark visuals… very bright lighting compared to your usual darkly lit type of move. But as we are starting to find out here, when it gets dark here, it gets very dark. And a lot of things are painted with some bright colors to reflect the light, so lots of sharp contrasts here.

So until next time…

Darkness falls down town, at 7:30

As Summer turns to Fall

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 6.6361 SEK

I thought I’d post something about my first season coaching.  For those of you just tuning in, I stumbled into a little bit of a football oasis here in the land of tall blonde people.  And by football I mean the kind that one where we use our hands and run into each other over and over again to gain a larger piece of lawn.  Fun for all ages.  I signed up as an assistant coach with the Uppsala 86’ers, an American Football club here in Uppsala.  Yep, we’re a real team with uniforms and everything.

 It was fun. I’d never really coached before was afraid these guys wouldn’t take me too seriously but there seems to be this idea since I’m an American I must know way more than everyone else.  Anyway, I started out working with the safeties and cornerbacks because that’s what I knew best from way back.  It was a good group, a couple guys have played for a few years, one guy played at a high school in Alabama as a foreign exchange student, and a couple younger guys who had only played for a year or two and were part of the senior team because we didn’t have enough guys to field a U19 team. 

The season got off to a rough start.  We lost the two games and then won three of the next four. I missed two of the wins to go back to the States in June.  That led to the July break.  As mentioned on these pages before, everyone in Sweden moves to their little lakeside shed/cabin for the month of July to swat at mosquitoes, sail their dinghies, go for a swim, and eat open face sandwiches and some fish, drink some beers and Schnapps (called snaps here).  And usually get a bit of a tan (not everyone is as pale here as you’d think but winter is fast approaching).  We won the first game after the break and then went into sort of a tailspin.  Early in the season the defense was carrying the offense, and then as the season progressed the offense was carrying the defense. And unfortunately for the last couple games we were handily dismantled by the top two teams in the league when both the offense and defense started to take a break. D’oh!  Here are some pictures from our last game at Örebro.  An ugly loss considering we had four take-aways (but slightly more give-aways).  Also included is a video of one of my getting an interception, slightly off-camera.

The season runs from May to the end of August and we play each team in our league twice.  Our team is currently in the second highest level, Division 1. We finished in the middle of the pack, 4-6, not bad but not great.  We had some really good moments and we had some real bad ones too.  Our defense was very good early on but didn’t finish well.  Injuries and dedication hurt us on both sides of the ball.  They may play football but they live it like us Yanks.  But some of the young guys who would usually not be on the team grew up a lot over the year.  A couple of them really impressed me in our second to last game against the team that ended up winning our league.  Late in the game we were getting blown out and three of the smallest guys on the team volunteered to be on the front line of kickoff return team.  That’s the attitude we need to build on for next season.

We are now in the offseason and all the coaches got together the other night to discuss plans for next season.  It was in Swedish but you can tell when everyone is talking about trying to get guys into the weight room.  Swedish is a weird language.  It’s an old language but they don’t have words for many of the more modern English terms.  So it’s a little off-putting when you are listening to someone talk in the melodic, sing-song, kind of Swedish way and they through in something like “rudimentary” or some phrase like “big deal.”  Weird.  Tomorrow night we have our end of the season party, and offseason workouts begin in a couple weeks.  I think at this point I’m still planning on coaching next season but I’ll go through the workouts too and get into shape in case I decide to play next year.  I mean where else am I going to get the opportunity to run into other guys over and over again for a couple hours?

Finally!

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 6.7565 SEK

(It's really going up)

Ok I know I have been neglecting the blog lately.  My apologies.  Here is the long promised slideshow from our trip to Dublin.  It was a good trip as I mentioned before.  The slideshow has some more of our touristy pics from places like the Guinness Storehouse and the Old Jameson Distillery.  And yes you get sample beverages at both places.  You can get a complimentary pint, or half pint, from Guiness and a drink from Jameson.  Either on the rocks, or with coke (which we learned is from NY and also Madrid), with cranberry juice (originated in Dublin), or Apple juice (Germany).  Good stuff.  And both are pretty interesting tours.

As for what's been going on with us since then, we finally got ID cards!!!! We can now rent movies!! Now we can fully integrate into Swedish culture.  All it took was 6+ months, and the head of the finance department of SLU to call up the President of the bank and gave him the what for.  And then we went down to the bank with Ragen's boss to open a new account and purchase our ID cards for 350 SEK each.  Lovely.  So that's kind of important.

The 86ers season ended without a trip to the playoffs, more on that later.  We listened to the Cougs get beat on in Seattle and Pullman, and watched them get beat on in Texas.  Good times.

I still get to play with the dogs and looking for other work.  Oh, and it is getting darker and colder already.

So, until next time, which will be a lot sooner than last time.

The Family Pub Crawl

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 6.3794 SEK

One of the highest points in months. I don't know if this means the US economy is starting to improve or if Europe is starting to feel the impact of mortgage and credit issues in the States. I know the Irish economy is heading towards a recession after enjoying a ten year boon, or "Celtic Tiger" if you will.
So we are back from tropical Dublin. In the name of full disclosure, we have been back for about a week and a half but I also brought a cold back with me so I am just now feeling like talking about it. Thanks for understanding.

I figured we'd start out wit a quick post with a few pictures of our "Extended Family Pub Crawl 2008," and follow that up with a slideshow of other pictures we took from our week in Dublin. Now you will be able to tell from the pictures but it was kind of gray and rainy while we were there. But what we were not expecting was how hot it was. It was in the mid 80's everyday we were there, and combined with the rain and humidity made for a very tropical experience. We had been informed before we left, thanks Ry, that Dublin has an ideal climate for palm trees. And lots of people had them growing in their gardens. So there you go, you learn something new everyday.

These first couple of pictures are from McGowans of Phibsboro. Ragen and I braved the rain one night to find this place and have some dinner. Nice place, huge bar area with different levels and the restaurant area had pictures of America movie stars which I didn't quite understand but hey, whatever brings people in right. The bartender was one Patrick McGowan and was a nice enough guy and gave a brief history of the bar. You can find some more of the history and some pictures on their website (http://www.mcgowans.ie/). Be warned though that it also plays the Cheers theme so don't have the sound up too loud. Also, they use Ocean Spray cranberry juice for mixing and serving.


O'Brien is one of the family names in Ragen's family so we had to post some pictures. O'Brien is a much more common name in Ireland than McGowan so it turned up a little more often. There is this chain of gourmet sandwiche shoppes throughout Dublin so here is a picture of one. We also found an O'Briens liquour store and of course
a pub.


Here is a picture from the front of the pub. Given the amount of rain in Dublin and hat they don't let people smoke inside, every pub has these awenings in the front which make it very difficult to get a good picture of the outside. That being said, this pub was on a busy corner so taking a picture and avoiding traffic was a fun game.



This is a sign that hangs in front of O'Briens and includes the family crest with the three lions. CiS Cultural Fact about Dublin #1: they don't use an apostrophe "S" when they write something in the possessive. Interesting I know.


A picture of some of the fancy stain glass they have at the pub. O'Briens was an interesting place. It had the nice wood, cramped bar space in the front, a slightly more open second bar place with seating for lunch to the side, and a swanky, recently rennovated upstairs dining area/lounge with a fireplace and flatscreen tvs, where we enjoyed part of the Olympic opening ceremonies while dining on a "burrito" and clubsandwich for lunch.

Now Fitzgerald is not officialy part of the family names, at least as far as we know, but we knew that Chaise and Megan would probably appreciate seeing some pictures. Fitzgeralds is right downtown near the river and the main shopping areas of Dublin. It comes complete with a nattily attired, crazy or possibly drunk, old Irish guy arguing with himself out front (you can see him leaning on the sandwich board). This is where we enjoyed some traditional Irish pub fare of fish and chips and shephards pie. It was allright, although the fish had no flavor to it. We also tried a "lumpy bumpy" for dessert. Which was this chocolate and vanilla cheesecake/icecream cake sort of concoction. Which was pretty good. So we proudly declare Lumpy Bumpy as CougsInSwedelands (note no apostrophe) official dessert of Dublin. Lovely.

Here is a mirror advertising Old Fitzgerald bourbon whiskey. From Kentucky, found in Dublin. It really is a small world.

Heat Wave

How Much is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 6.0739 SEK


Now that we are past the summer solstice it is now getting dark here at night again. It's still light out after 10 pm but around midnight it is now dark enough that we can see stars in the sky again. For the last two-and-a-half months we could not see the stars at night because the sky was never dark enough. Kind of weird when you think about it.

We also just finished up with a big heat wave here. This past weekend the mercury topped out over 90 degrees (F) here. I know that's not a big deal coming over here from Pullman where a good part of July and August and even September can be that hot, but it's slightly more humid here and it is really unusual up here where the average temp in July is only 61.9 degrees (F) so that's kind of a big swing. We bought a fan for the flat partake in the Swedish custom of enjoying ice cream to combat the oppressive heat.

Still don't have ID cards... super.

The other big news is that on Saturday we are leaving for Dublin for a week. Ragen has a conference there and I get to tag along. We're pretty excited. We planned a couple extra days so we can tour around. So expect plenty of pictures in the next few posts.

In other news:

-Still looking for work. With the country taking July off it's hard to find anyone to. So we'll see what happens when we back from Ireland. On the plus side I did get to spend a week as her lab tech with the dogs. We weren't actually working on her project but somebody else's. Still it was fun. Hold the dog, let the dog go, get the dog, hold the dog, let the dog go... It was fun. I may get to help out again when we get her project going.

-I guess we don't have any other news really. Our phones work. Getting ready to fly to Ireland this summer. A Lufthansa strike may affect our flights back to Sweden next week, but since we are flying on Lufthansa operated by SAS, who knows.

-Football gets going again after we get back. That will be fun. We have four games left and hopefully the playoffs so at least we got that going for us.

-The Julia Roberts trend seems to have subsided as well as the Steven Segal one. Richard Gere may be up for the crown now but he's not nearly as interesting as Steven Segal and the characters he plays... "He's a take-no-prisoners lawyer out to protect the environment," "He's a take-no-prisoners shaman out to protect the environment," "He's a take-no-prisoners elementary school lunch lady out to save the environment." Come on, that guy can play anything.

-Also, Apple-Lime-Elderflower cider is quite tasty.

So that's it for now. We'll try to say more from the Emerald Isle. Later

The Mobiles Arrive

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 5.9632 SEK

Hooray! We finally have cell phones, oops... mobile phones, again! So finally the phone saga is behind us. We hope. You've read it on this site before that we decided to order a couple phones from the States on eBay. We found a couple of LG Shines, pictured here, from a company listed as being in Hollywood. Doesn't get more American than Hollywood eh?. The prices were ok, buying a phone straight up is not exactly cheap but still less than they are here, and the shipping was good for two phones shipped to Europe. They came in a couple days earlier than we expected which was even better.

We open the box and look inside and the phones look pretty sweet. Very "shiny." Ha Ha. The company was kind enough to ship European chargers to us so we can plug them in here, plus adapters for North America so that we can still use them when we get back to the States. Looking at the manual you could see Cyrillic letters and so we thought, oh, maybe they sent us European phones and so the Russian or Cyrillic based language is just one of many in the manual. We open the phones to turn them on and notice that it has some Cyrillic letters on the keys too. (Plus English). The manuals turn out to be almost completely devoid of English except for the last two pages - which only told us how to use the camera and mp3 player on the phone. I casually take a look at the boxes, which are very cool by the way, and notice that the phones are Ukrainian. Super. So because we could not get phones here in Sweden, we order phones from the States, which really came from the Ukraine. (The Ukraine or is it just Ukraine? I guess it's Ukraine but doesn't The Ukraine sound better?) It's not like we found some really cool phones in Ukraine that we couldn't live without and decided we must have them. We bought these from the States, payed to have them shipped, payed taxes to customs for bringing them into the country, only to learn that maybe we could have had them shipped from a much closer location. D'oh! Obviously cautious readers would be leery of how these Ukrainian phones came to us from Hollywood, and probably with good reason, but fortunately they seem to work fine and so I'm going to say "Hey, it just makes for another interesting chapter in the book."

Here are a couple of left over pictures from our 4th of July celebration. There's a picture of the flag cake we made. It was quite a hit and since then Ragen and I have been asked to provide cake for our large group gatherings. Last night in fact we brought another cake to a welcome party for a couple more researchers over from Bristol to work on the dog program.

Here we have a picture of some of the Swedish team playing Kubb. It's a Swedish lawnbowling/lawndart kind of game involving throwing sticks at blocks and a king. Typically alcohol is involved. We ended up playing Swedes vs. the rest of the world. Look for it soon at a family bbq in your neighborhood.

And here is the British flag that flew over our 4th of July celebration, because Ragen's boss is English and she was hosting. Our flag cake was 10 times cooler and more memorable. People still talk about it. USA! USA!

Taking July Off

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 5.9673 SEK



We finally had our first visitors from the New World when Ry and Kim came to see us on their European Adventure. We showed them everything that Sweden had to offer, that we could fit into four and a half days. We took them down to Skokloster, a 17th century Baroque castle on lake Mälaren (between Uppsala and Stockholm). It was pretty cool. You can take a boat there from Uppsala. There are some pictures here in the slide show. When the guy who had it built died it was turned into a living museum by his family so it's full of some really cool old pieces that are a couple hundred years old. Here's a link to the Encyclopedia Britannica of our day... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skokloster

We also tried some restaurants that we haven't been too before. Some pretty good places. O'Conner's, the Irish Pub where we spent St. Patrick's day, was really good and I think that is a place where we can hang out quite a bit. The owner is pretty cool and said that he would look into stocking some root beer at the bar as well. Sounds silly to ask about root beer but they don't have it here and it is one of those weird things that you miss when it's not available. I guess it would be one of those "taken for granted" things that people talk about so much.

We also took them down to Stockholm to show them the "old town," Gamla Stan. Lots of cool things to see there and take pictures of, including the royal palace. We also got on some "Hop-on, Hop-off" boat tours to go around the Stockholm waterways and over to the Vasa museum. The Vasa museum contains the Vasa warship, built in the 1600's and sank around 10 minutes into it's maiden voyage. It sat in Stockholm harbor for 333 years before it was salvaged and restored and made into a museum. It's probably the finest museum ever built on the topic of sunken Swedish warships. I would strongly recommend it to any one visiting Stockholm. And as always, for more information on this topic, consult your local library... or this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_museum

Anyway it was a great visit and we can't wait for our next visitors to come out.

Moving to Sweden in 14,873 Easy Steps...*

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth
$1 = 5.9871 SEK
A lot of fluctuation lately
*And 6 flippin' complicated ones. That is what it's starting to feel like here. Just when we think we have everything figured out... they add another hurdle. Sweet. Here's a picture of the train station in Stockholm for your viewing pleasure, and yes that is a McDonald's at the very back.

Previously on CougsinSwedeland...

We had received our personnummers, changed our status with our bank, began looking for mobile phones, told we had to get our id cards at the bank, told by the bank to get a form from the tax office that says we are married, go to bank, bring passport photos, get ID card.

Now...

Ragen took a half day off of work so we could go and get our id cards figured out. So we started at the tax office and expected a hassle. Fortunately there wasn't really a line and the women we met with was helpful. It helped that Ragen looked up the name of the form that we needed. So we were in and out of there in like 20 minutes. Not bad. We're feeling good. Going to the bank. People are pretty friendly. No problem.

We get to the bank. The young woman helping us goes through our paperwork, she says we have everything we need but seemed a little concerned. She got another person who we had met with before. That woman told us that, again, we have all the right paperwork and all we need now is our Swedish relative to verify that we are who we say we are. WHAT? We explained that we had brought a Swedish person to vouch for us when we opened the account and the guy that helped us at the bank that day said that we wouldn't need someone to vouch for us again. The woman said that she was very sorry but the rules are very specific and that we would need our Swedish relative or someone from Ragen's employer (SLU) if the employer banks with our bank, Swedbank, although that wouldn't help me out since I'm not employed by SLU and having have my spouse vouch for me wouldn't work. Ok that could work, but SLU banks with Nordea not Swedbank so that doesn't work. The woman said she was very sorry and wants us to stay customers with the bank but suggested that we might have to get an account with Nordea. (Banks can issue id cards but police cannot, although they used to, because the police cannot verify you... a comforting thought to say the least). Otherwise we may be out of luck. Ragen went to work and I went home... defeated and broken.

Ragen told her coworkers, they couldn't believe it, and her boss is trying to figure out what SLU do can for us. On her way home from work Ragen stopped by Nordea to see if she could open an account. They asked if she had a personnummer, she said yes. They then asked if she had a Swedish ID card and she said she didn't and that she was under the impression that she could get one from Nordea after becoming a customer. The person at the bank said she could not get an account without an ID card. Ragen reiterated that she is there to open an account so she could get an ID card. Catch 22 time everybody!! So at this point it looks like no ID cards for us, unless maybe SLU can open an account at Nordea for Ragen without an ID card and then she can get one. And when I go for job interviews I need to ask potential employers if they do their banking with Swedbank, which will be my determining factor when deciding which of the hundreds of job offers I'll be receiving to accept.

So where does that leave us now? Well we are without ID cards for the foreseeable future. Well you might ask what do you really need an ID card for anyway. I'd tell you that you need an ID card for going to the doctor (for exams and physicals, preventative type stuff not emergencies because although you technically need the ID card in the emergency room they tend to look the other way and accept passports), to open accounts at Nordea, to enter into contracts for cell phones and such, if we are ever in a car accident or questioned by the police, for tax help at the tax office apparently (although they have no problem withholding taxes without ID cards), and for the really important things like renting a DVD. Also that probably means I can't play for the 86'ers because I need a medical license (like a physical) that says I'm ok to play.

On the phone front...
We've been to several different stores and told that in order to get a contract, and thus cheaper phones, we need Swedish ID cards, or to be Swedish citizens, or to live in Sweden for two years with our personnummer and ID cards, one guy did offer to take Ragen's offer of employment and send it to the home office and they would decide if we were a flight risk or not. So how did we resolve this conundrum? We ordered some unlocked phones off of eBay in the states and they should be here in the next couple weeks. So there Swedish mobile phone companies. You'll get no business from these Americans! We'll spend our Capitalistic funds (converted from Socialist funds) back in the land of our birth and help spurn a sluggish economy rather than support the power hungry grab of the evil mobile phone conglomerates of Scandinavia. Word.

Stay Strong. Until next time.

Tales from the tax office...

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 6.0673 SEK

A lot of things have happened for us in the past couple weeks so I thought I would break it down and cover a couple topics at a time, in no particular order.

First of all, a couple weeks ago, like the next to last week of May, Ragen and her lab group went out into the Swedish countryside to ride Icelandic horses. An Icelandic horse is a little horse (short legs) with kind of a 'fro for a mane. Ragen is third from the right in the red jacket. She said it was a lot of fun but it ended up being pretty wet and muddy out there, as you can tell from the picture. Where was I you ask? Actually I had football practice so I missed out. But at least it didn't rain on me. Another thing you may not realize when visiting a foreign country is that when you return to the US, as we did for Ry and Kim's wedding, you have to declare whether you have been on farm or pastureland during your visit as you go through US customs. I did not know that but we did and explained that we left the clothes that Ragen wore back in Sweden. The agent seemed satisfied but did take the moose, or maybe it was elk, sausage that we bought in the Arlanda (Stockholm) airport. So the moral of the story is that you really can't bring meat back to the states with you from vacation, or for vacation in our case. I would label that as CiS Cultural fact #4, but it really is more of a US cultural fact than as Svenska one, which maybe I can justify as saying that the Swedish life has rubbed off on me to the degree that I find the ways of the new world confusing and terrifying. Or maybe I can call it CiS Travel Tip #4 instead. Yeah, I'll do that.

IN OTHER NEWS...

The Friday before we left for the states we finally got word that we were granted Swedish Personnummers (I don't really know how to spell it at this point so that is what I'm going to say it is) at about 5:00 pm that day. We really couldn't take advantage of that before we left so we had to wait until we got back here to go to the bank and get Visa debit cards instead of ATM cards and sign up for some cell, I mean, mobile phones. Last Monday we were able to go in and update the bank so we could get the Visa cards; they said it would be up to two weeks but they arrived in three days... the fastest anything has happened here. So the next hurdle to clear was mobile phones.

Ragen and I have decided what kind of phones we wanted to get. The verdict is the new LG Secret (released in Europe, Asia, and South America maybe all on June 8, coming to the US later... suckers). A very stylish and advanced phones for all you technophiles out there, both of you. Personnummers in hand we went to a mobile shop called the Phonehouse which is across the square from our bank. We went in, they had the phone and we got our number for the queue and when it was our turn we spoke with the manager. Now the manager is a lady (Kvinna for your Svenska word for the day... Learning is Fun!!!) in maybe her early to mid 30's. Seems pretty helpful to everyone in the store. Except for us. For some inexplicable reason the lady does not like Ragen and I. She's very curt and unhelpful, not willing to answer questions, I just don't get it. Maybe she doesn't like speaking English or something, but it's weird. Don't let anyone tell you that all Swedes are polite and helpful, it is just not the case, especially when you are trying to get on the bus or stand in line at a convenience store, quite pushy they are.*

We ask the lady how much the phone would cost for a two year plan since we will be staying here that long. The first thing she asks is if we have our ID cards. We did not have those yet, forgot to ask while we were at the bank, and she said in a very curt way that she could not help us and walked away. Previously on CiS, we had gone into the shop when we first arrived and asked about the LG Shine which she had on display and she told us, via our Swedish guide, it was not available. Another time we went in she said she would not help us unless we had personnumers. Next time we go in she'll tell us she cannot help us until we speak Swedish or have become naturalized. Oh bother.

We went back to the bank, found the same person to help us and asked about getting our ID cards (banks are one place you can get them). The kvinna there told us that we needed to go back to the tax office of all places and get a form that said we were married, and then the bank could do the ID card. Apparently the bank does not trust the word of the State of New York that we are married, only Sweden's word will do. So ultimately we have to go back to the tax office, yet again.

After that we looked at a couple other mobile shops and one guy who was helpful asked us if we were Swedish citizens and when we said no he told us that they may need proof that we would be working for two years, so that the company knows they can get their money. I can't blame them for that, at least the dude was helpful enough to call his manager. Later Yezica, pictured on the left of the first picture in the last post, emailed Ragen a link to an online mobile store where we would be good to go with only our personnummers and not all the other rigmarole. We went on the site this weekend to sign up, but it was all in Swedish, and had some things that we couldn't translate on our own, so we will wait until we get the help of a translator. On the plus side, there were no Julia Robert's movies on this weekend.

SMS you later (That's Swedish for text... hej! That can be CiS Cultural fact #4... they say SMS instead of text.)

Oh wait, here's another picture of the Icelandic horses. Ragen's was the one on the left. Now maybe Kristen can leave me alone.

Sverige, Nordman, Julia Roberts, and truck related feelings

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 6.0754 SEK

We are back in Sweden now, well since Saturday anyway, and back into the midst of Swedish life, (tomorrow is a holiday and marks the time that many people take the next five weeks as their mandatory vacation time, brilliant). Our apologies for no updates but it was a busy two weeks back in the States and we have both felt like we were run over by trucks since we've been back. Two cross country, two trans-Atlantic, and two red eye flights in two weeks will do that I think.

But to celebrate our return we went to a party to watch Sweden, or Sverige in Svenska, play Russia in the last game of Group Play for the Euro Cup. Sweden needed a draw or a win to advance to the tournament portion. Unfortunately somebody forgot to tell the players that because they looked pretty flat and apathetic, remarkable for a team that was carded twice. Russia won 2-0 and that's it for the Swedish national team until the Olympics start. The party was pretty cool. It was hosted in a gym with plenty of beer and burgers and big screens and our "favorite" Swedish band, the Nordman (referred in this space as the "Van Art Guys"). Ragen and I even went out and bought some scarves and tshirts and stuff for watching the game, nothing crazy like these folks though.

Here you can see a couple of the screens they had up and the game projected onto them. The thing started by everyone standing up and singing the Swedish national anthem and some chants and stuff. Prior to kickoff everyone starts singing the base line of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. Yeah! Go America! Chalk up another one for US cultural influence! Whoo hoo! That's right up there with the 86ers breaking their huddles the same way we did in high school, and every high school does in the states. The guys ask me what other things they could say and to be honest, I tell them that they could do it in Swedish, and they'll look at me like they never thought of it. Sweet.

Ladies and Gentlemen... the "Van Art Guys"!!!

It's come to our attention that these guys were immensely popular like 10 years ago... and haven't done anything since then. That's probably why they are playing in a gymnasium during a football watching party in front of 1000 people maybe (at least there was before the game, ten minutes after there was maybe 100, including the catering staff). Nothing makes playing in front of 100 people sadder than smoke machines and dramatic lighting.




They only played like 5 songs and were done. Ragen and her friend Yezica, who was a huge fan back in the day, went out to get a picture with them. There were two people at their table to get CD's autographed. The guys asked Ragen if she wanted and autograph but she asked for a picture instead. They thought about it for a second, and agreed, so here you go! Apparently the lead singer (guy on the right) was a big drug user, and Ragen says he wears it. Awesome.


In other news, it no longer gets completely dark. The darkest part of the night is now twilight, the sky is still blue and is too light to see many stars. And by 2 am or so the sun is almost completely up. Good times. By the way, our what time is it picture was taken at 3am. That light is now equivalent to about 1 am.

In Julia Roberts news, including the weeks were were gone, we can now add America's Sweethearts, I Love Trouble, and Mona Lisa Smile. That we are aware of.

Until next time...

Julia Roberts' Reign over Sweden Continues

How Much is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 5.9067 SEK

We are about to make our triumphant return to the US next week. However, by the time we leave 3 more Julia Robert's movies will have aired. Last Friday was Ocean's 11 (ok not a movie where Julia Roberts is technically the star, but she did play a prominat part in the story), this Friday is Ocean's 12, and on Saturday night will be The Pelican Brief. That brings the total of Julia Robert's movies shown here in the 15 weeks we have been in Sweden to 12. That is like 35 percent of her films according to her IMDB page. Wow, it's going to be a long summer...

The biggest event in all of Europe occurred this past Saturday night. That is of course the Eurovision Song Contest finals. Imagine the American Idol finals only long and drawn out and some terribly cheesy hosts, so... I guess it's exactly like American Idol. Hmm. All of Europe (43 countries, slightly more than Europe) competes in this contest and then votes on the 25 countries that make it to the finals after the two semifinal nights. Everyone performs and then there is 15 minutes for people to call in or text their votes for who wins. 15 minutes. They don't mess around. They don't wait for 10 year old girls to vote 300 times like on American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. Then we get to see a talking head for each of the 43 countries tell us how their country voted (12 points to the country with the most votes, 10 for the second, 8 for the third, then 7,6,5,4,3,2,1). And you can't vote for your own country, which usually means that most votes of a given country go to their neighbors or related countries like most of Scandinavia will vote for the other Scandinavia countries. This works out to some wierd votes though like former Soviet countries voting for Russia and Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia & Montenegro giving each other 12 points each. The country that wins gets to host the contest the next year (Serbia won last year). We have conflicting reports however about the top five finalists. We were first under the impression that the top five finalists get a by into the finals of the next year, but then one of our friends thinks that the countries that spend thie most in sponsering the event get byes along with the host country. That could be plausible as the five finalists that didn't have to compete in the semifinals were France, Spain, Germany, the UK and Serbia. Obviously that's four of the biggest countries in Europe and could afford to poney up the green, or the rainbows of color that are the Euros. France and Spain had some weird entries but I dug 'em.

The Swedish entry has been pretty popular here, even if she looks like a cat, and her song has been on the radio and stuff nonstop for the last couple months. And she was pretty good in the competition but she did not get many votes, even from the other Scandinavian countries. She did get 12 points from MALTA of all places though, weird. I would say that she was at least better than the three other acts that were essentially the same thing, and all made it into the top 5 (Greece, Ukraine, and Armenia). Actually all three women from those countries looked pretty much the same and were referred to at our house by Miss Ukraine, Miss Ukraine #2, and Miss Ukraine #3/wannabe Britney (the Ukraine entry was a former Miss Ukraine). They all sang thumping clubbing Euro dance music, blah blah blah. Oh well. The winner this year, by a big margin, was Russia with a guy who looks a lot like Enrique Iglesias and had a cameo by a famous Russian figureskater dude, Evgeni Plushenko maybe? although I'm pretty sure it was Will Ferrell with all the crazy gyrations and hand movement. It was an ok song. The three Miss Ukraines were not that great, but I suppose the people of Europe like ladies in little dresses gyrating around. Norway was in fifth place with a lady with a 60's/Duffy/Amy Winehouse sound. One of our favorites though was the Croatian entry which had a guy in his 90's singing with a couple other guys who perform on the streets of Zagreb. It was really cool, and they beat Sweden. Latvia had a song about pirates, sung by people dressed like pirates in a very Barbie Girl kind of way.
We had a bunch of people over for the show, actually our place was volunteered for the event. They brought some wine and cheese, tradition apparently, and helped translate what the Swedish announcers were saying over the telecast. All in all it was ok. The music was pretty good, even if our favorites didn't make it (Turkey, Croatia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina - very Tim Burtonesque show they put on). You can see it all online and download the
songs or ringtones here http://www.eurovision.tv/.


(All artist photos from the Eurovision website).













In other news, I made my coaching debut with the 86ers on Saturday. I think we were a little better than last week although we still lost. The game did give me an idea of things we could work on this week. Here I am coaching up one of our safetys.
















WHAT TIME IS IT NOW?


Here's the new picture for you all to take a guess at to what time it was taken.

Congratulations to Emily for being the closest on the last picture which was taken at 9:30 pm. Your Souljah Boy cd is in the mail. As always closest guess wins a prize, or something.

PEACE