Onsdag

Wednesday here in Uppsala. So we've been here a week now. Starting to get things figured out. We've got the bus system figured out. The number 7 stops by our building and takes you into downtown. Take the 14 from there to IKEA or every other 3 to Ragen's campus.

We've got our first bit of mail, from the bank. Still haven't heard about our ID numbers yet so no cell phones. We may not get some now anyway. Skype has been working well for us to call the states. We have a Swedish phone number associated with it. We may just put a Swedish sim card into Ragen's phone so she can use that. Until I start working somewhere, I'm probably better off holding on.

The little things are still tough. Like trying to figure out how to use the oven or washing machine. Well, we've figured out how to use them, but we're not sure about what all the symbols mean. Also when we go to the grocery store were not exactly sure what we're buying or how to cook them. We had chicken meat balls that were kind of not great, as well as some balled potatoes that were like little balls of fried mash potatoes. Those were kind of good. Milk comes in a box and yogurt comes in a juice carton, which does make it easy to pour, kind of tough to drink.

We've found that there is a baseball league as well as an American Football league, there's even a team here in Uppsala, the Uppsala 86'ers, so at least I've got that going for me. And of course there's a second division football team here and several teams in the top league down in Stockholm.

And oh yes, Swedish tv. We have a very basic set of standard channels and there is a remarkable amount of US tv here. It's an interesting mix too; the Simpsons, Smallville, Lost, ER, Gillmore Girls, Oprah, Montel, Rachel Ray, Ellen, the Tonight Show, Friends, Malcolm in the Middle, American Gladiators (the old ones), Pro's vs. Joe's, and some other short lived shows to name a few. We do get some good soccer games, Champions League, Serie A, La Ligea, and the Euro cup this summer. And some old MLS games thrown in. And there are some Swedish shows too. They seem to be mostly reality shows about hospitals and boat police and home makeover shows. They also have a lot of news shows and those game shows where people call in, I dont really have an example of something similar in the states but I know I've seen some. They are also big on gambling here. OTB's are everywhere, and we get some horse racing on tv too. My favorite TV moment so far has been an episode of Ellen from before Thanksgiving. Soulja Boy performed and at the end Ellen gave everyone in the audience a copy of his new cd. Needless to say the crowd reaction shots were ideal. There was loud cheering and some grandma types with some very confused looks on their faces. Pricelless. *note to our readers. Be advised that "Everyone in the audience gets a copy of Soulja Boy," or other derivation of that, will be CougsinSwedelands running joke.

Peace out for now.


Oh yeah, here's a link to some video about the "fire in the sky" on the Palouse the other day.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=13738