5 Weeks Old and Climbing

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 7.018 SEK

Now that the little guy has passed the five week mark we thought we'd post some new pictures for you. Actually we just posted an update of the album from the last post. And to make up for the fact that the slide show in the last post has been down for a few days I have taken the opportunity to post a video of him there instead.

Since our last post we have had Ragen's folks stay with us and Ryan and Kim as well. My parents are hitting the road from the West Coast in a week to come out and help us and for Thanksgiving. Everyone has been a great help and right now we are going it alone, a scary thought but it seems to be working out ok. I think we have survived the flu and have included bottle feeding and working on a nap schedule so that things run smoothly when mom goes back to work and Ciaran is left with Jax and Mr. Mom. He's definitely getting bigger as you'll see in the pictures and starting to develop his personality. He loves to look at ceiling fans and if you stand under one and walk around it he'll follow it. He's got the kung fu grip on your fingers, lips, whatever he can grab really, and is starting to move his hands with some purpose it seems. All very exciting stuff for new parents. Ciaran's up over nine pounds now and about 23 inches long and is already too big, well long really, for a lot of his newborn clothes. Fortunately we have a large supply of clothes for all different age ranges thanks to everyone sending them to him.

Without further adieu, here is the updated photo album:

Here He Comes!!

How Much Is You Dollar Worth?
$1 = 7.0486 SEK

Well I know that I have not been keeping everyone updated with everything going on with us so I'll get right to the point and let you know that the day has come and the little guy is now here. Ciaran Adam Edward McGowan was born at 9:19 on Tuesday (9/29/09), hmm sensing a theme here. He weighed in at a health 7 lbs 15 oz. and 22 inches long. Other than being a long delivery day (15 hours) and a false alarm the night before the birth went off without any complications and Mom and baby are doing fine. Okay, enough talking here he is:



He is a good looking kid I know.

Also for fun here are some pictures from his nursery.





And for those concerned, Jax has been acting as a good nanny and shows concern whenever the little guy starts to cry.

Bye-bye for now.

BIG NEWS

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 7.9767 SEK

So we have been on hiatus recently as we are finishing up a major"ish" kitchen project in the house. We were lucky to have Ragen's folks come in and help us with it for a few days as well as bring Jax back for us. We really appreciated them looking out for him while we are in Sweden but we are very happy to have him back with us. Unfortunately for him summer has arrived here in the mid west with current temps in the 90's with some high humidity pushing our heat index into the triple digits. Fun times. But he gets to stay inside with the AC blowing to keep him cool until the evening when we go for our walks and he ignores the fire flys.

The really big news that some people probably already know is that we are expecting a little one this fall. Around the second week of October we are going to have a little boy. So we are very excited about that and have picked out a name for him, now we just need to figure out the spelling. We are going with Kieran or Ciaran. Probably the first because we think fewer people with mispronounce it given that it is the Anglicized version. We still have time to figure it out I suppose. That means that our next big project here is to get the baby's room set up. We are going with an animal theme of course and will get some pictures up as we go. We've included his first picture for everyone to see. Enjoy.

The Kindness of Strangers

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 7.6549 SEK
On Wednesday we went down to Kansas City to watch the Mariners play the Royals. It was a beautiful day and made for a nice night at the ballpark. The fountains (pictured above) are pretty cool. We were going to buy tickets ahead of time at the Hy-Vee (Midwestern grocery chain) in St. Joe but their computer was down so we figured we would buy tickets at the gate.

We arrived at game time and crossed the giant parking lot full of drunk college kids tailgating (it was College Happy Hour Night at the K -for Kaufman Stadium). There were still some long lines at the main ticket window and there was ushers urging people to walk down to the ticket window in right field. We were walking that way when this guy walked buy and said he had two free tickets. We didn't think much of it and kept walking, then thought free tickets would be nice so we tracked him down and asked if they were really free. He said that he had bought four tickets and couldn't use two of them and offered them to us instead of letting them go to waste. They were really good seats so we asked if he was sure we couldn't give him anything and he said we could buy him a beer since we would be sitting together.
You can kind of tell from the above picture that we were about 15 rows behind the Royals dugout along the first base line. It was pretty sweet. Much like babies wearing noise cancelling headphones. They had recently completed (or maybe half completed) major renovation of the stadium. It's pretty nice. We'll try to go back for some other games later this summer. There are new seats near the fountains in left field that run $7 and you get a free hat. An ugly hat but a free hat. Good times.
The new/updated video board in center field is absolutely huge and is definitely the focal point. Like I said before it was a beautiful night for a game. It was in the high 70's that day and stayed warm during the game (which didn't take that long because the Mariners swung at everything and got it over quickly - 9-1 Royals, UGH). There was some rain that morning but it burned off which was nice. Better than some of the other weather we've had in the last couple weeks. We've had the tornado sirens go off about a week and a half ago and we hung out in our basement until the sirens turned off. Now we have to figure out what room in the house will be good for hanging out during the storm and to pack an emergency kit. We had another tornado watch issued last night but luckily the storm missed us by a couple counties to the east where a couple tornadoes touched down. We did have a big thunderstorm during the night and woke up to some BIG THUNDER around 6:00 this morning. Always something I guess.

It was great to see this guy back in Seattle. He is definitely not as fast as he was and he's a bit heavier (like the rest of us) but he still has the sweetest swing in baseball (doubled and a couple walks).

In other sporting news the 86ers played their first game of the new season last Sunday in Göteborg on the west coast of Sweden. The guys had to leave Uppsala at 5 am to get there to play a team that moved down from the upper division during the offseason. My guys won 61-12 in dominating game. A good way to get the year started.

Now for what everyone has been waiting for, pictures of the house now that the previous owners have everything out. You'll notice the painting we've done in the dining and living rooms. Really the only rooms we have set up yet. Enjoy.

Big Belated News

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.0079 SEK

WE HAVE A HOME!!!  Most of you probably knew that but we have been gone awhile.  We closed on our home on the 17th, later in the day than we had hoped but still, we got it done.  We had to drive to Kansas City to get a cashiers check because our bank doesn't have a branch here and none of the local banks would do it for us.  We waited down there until we heard from our Realtor about when our closing time would be.  We bought some stuff and met a dude named Lars working at a Target.  I noticed he had a little accent and so I asked him if he was Swedish. He said he was and that he had just become an American in fact.  I took Lars as a good sign that we would get our house that day and we did.  So now we are home owners.  We've been busy painting and unpacking boxes.  Our shipments from Pullman and Sweden both arrived last week and I think we have 75% of the boxes opened.  Still don't know where to put half of if, but it's here.  And later next month we get Jax back as well.  Good times.

We also bought a new car.  A 2009 Ford Fusion.  It's a good car it has that SYNC feature from Microsoft so we can make calls with it or tell it to play "Michael Bolton" and it will do nothing because we don't have that on the mp3 player hooked up to it.  Can't have everything I guess.

So that is a quick and dirty update.  Maybe if I keep them shorter I'll update more often.  Kind of like twitter but not as mind-numbing I hope.

Later

Opening Day!!

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.0331 SEK

Our Rental Car

Hello again dear neglected readers.  How long it has been since last we spoke, er... read I guess. Whatever.  

Still in the hotel.  So that's what's new. Um, good make your own waffles thing which is nice. Ready to move into our home though.  On that front, we are finishing up our loan papers.  Trying to figure out how to get some of our Swedish financial information in a timely fashion.  Always difficult.  We did however go down to the giantist furniture store in the whole world (at least in the greater Missouri/Kansas area) and order a new bed and couch to be delivered to the house the day after we close. Exciting! We'll stay in the hotel one more night just in case it we don't close until late in the day and we want to get a cleaning crew in before we move in there. 

On the job front:  I've got a few federal job apps in, several with one agency.  I spent four-and-a-half hours at the local Office Depot trying to fax cover letters and copies of transcripts to support these multiple job applications.  Apparently a lot of people were trying to do the same thing and I kept getting a busy signal when trying to fax.  Not a bad way to spend a Monday afternoon.  You get to meet a few of your neighbors that way and see what kind of interesting things they are copying and faxing and printing.  I would say it's similar to sipping coffee along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.  You know where if you sit there long enough you'll meet everyone you have ever known in your life.  And I think I've just become the first person to compare the Office Depot in St. Joseph, Missouri to one of the most famous streets in the entire world.  How's that for cultural significance. I know that's why you come to this blog. To here the worldly musings of an over-educated and under-employed globetrotting cultural ambassador of overlooked bastions of high culture.  Now excuse me while I go check out the Big Kmart here where rumor has it that James Joyce was inspired to write Ulysses.

Oh yeah, opening day today.  Hope springs eternal today, at least until tomorrow.  Go M's.

Hej då!

Over the Jet Lag

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = $1 in St. Joseph, MO 

(but 8.0117 SEK)

Apologies for not getting back to y'all.  We successfully made it to St. Joe! We are now two weeks into our new life in the Midwest and things are moving right alongish.  Ragen has been on the job for a week and is enjoying herself.  I am looking for work and have made some contacts and sent out a few applications to see what kind of nibbles I get. 

The big news is that we have purchased our first home! Technically we are under contract and things could change prior to closing but we are 75% there according to our realtor, who has been nothing but the best. It is a beautiful home3 that overlooks the parkway in town so there are no neighbors behind us.  We will be on a quiet little street in a nice neighborhood and are looking forward to moving in.  We don't close until the 17th of April so we will be living in the hotel until then.  It's not a bad hotel and would recommend it to anyone while they are in town, but after a couple weeks it gets kind of old.  And we still have 4 weeks to go. But there is a pool and waffles in the morning and we don't have to vacuum so that's nice.

We are getting to know the surrounding area somewhat, mostly by accident.  The first weekend here we drove through Kansas to go to Kansas City.  We went through Atchison and Leavenworth and stopped at a nice antique mall somewhere in the middle.  We went to Kansas City without really having a plan, which is something I would suggest you don't do, so we drove downtown to see what we could see.  We did find the equivalent to the Pike Place Market near the river so we will go back there another time. Also parking is ample with 30 minutes until close, just so you know.  We also found the Nebraska Furniture Mart which is a mind-bottling huge furniture store outside of Kansas City, Kansas (not the Missouri side which we found out by taking the wrong part of Interstate 435 - but on the plus side if you just stay on it you get to where you wanted to go because it is a loop).  It took us nearly two hours to get there when it should have taken about 45 minutes.  So that was fun.  But we did go by one of the companies I've applied to so that's good.  Anyway, BIG. STORE.  It was well worth the trip though because we found much more furniture to fit our style than was available anywhere else.  We'll probably go back and order some pieces next weekend.  Maybe take a picture or two in order to convey the magnitude of this place.

More pictures of the house as we get closer to closing.  Back to job applications.

Later.

The Final Countdown

How Much is Your Dollar Worth? (A LOT)
$1 = 9.152 SEK (down from 9.3 yesterday)
Range during our time in Sweden: 5.8175 - 9.3856
That's a lot of flux, most of it since July. Crazy.

We are in our last couple days here in Sweden.  Monday morning we are catching a flight from Stockholm-Arlanda (subject of a new airport related reality show here) to Kansas City.  We have been making the good-bye dinner rounds the last few days.  Another one tonight and my last football practice tomorrow evening.

The movers (actually just one dude) came to our flat this morning to pack up our stuff and ship it for us back to the states.  We packed up everything, except for one suitcase each, to be shipped by boat and some by air.  The boat shipment will take 6 to 8 weeks to get to us while the air shipment will be 1-2 weeks.  We had to inventory everything that was packed with approximate replacement values for insurance reasons and fill out customs forms.  Good times.  Needless to say that we were finishing that at 2:00 am this morning with the mover coming before 9:00 am. When we moved over here we packed for a year and brought everything we could carry in six suitcases.  Not too bad.  But we made two trips back to the states for a wedding and the holidays, and ended up bringing approximately two extra suitcases of stuff back.  And of course we bought things here like bedding and a few clothes (not as much as you think though, things cost a bit more here).  We were lucky in that we found two furnished places to live so we did not have to buy furniture and dishes, but still. When you pack up your house you realize how much junk you really have.  We went through the same thing last year when we left Pullman, but this was more than I thought for just over a year.  I was impressed by the guy packing everything; it only took him an hour-and-a-half to pack it all up.  Snabb (I don't think that's right but you don't know so why am I even bringing it up).

It has been harder to say goodbye than we originally thought.  We lived in Pullman for 10 years. That's where we met, went to college, watched two Rose Bowl teams and two NCAA tournament teams, tailgated, played in the snow, never had classes cancelled for snow, earned our degrees, earned our graduate degrees, worked, began careers, made some really good friends, it's where I really got to know and be closer to my two younger brothers, and it's where we met most of the people that read this blog.  And that was difficult but because it is college town which is by definition transitory, and we stayed long enough to see a lot of our friends leave first (plus we left during the winter break so there really were fewer people to say goodbye to).  But I'm not sure that saying goodbye to Sweden hasn't turned out to be more difficult.  I mean we love Pullman, to me that really is what I consider home, but after 10 years it was time to move on.  I was working for WSU in the administration in an important position but because I went to school there and was still playing intramurals with my brothers and friends it seemed almost that I was still a student and not a professional and I needed to move on to really "grow up."  Well I can say that moving from your comfort zone to a country where you don't speak the language will make you grow up fast. Ragen loved her job here and had awesome colleagues, nej, friends who were so helpful in finding us a place to live before we got here and navigating life in Sweden.  Friends who are still helping us out as we are leaving like taking us to the airport on Monday.  I know that it would have been a bit tougher on us if wasn't for Tess  and Yezica (enjoy Africa), Sanna (you too) and Andreas, Emma, Elke, Fredric, Arnd, Birgetta (I think), and Linda.  Thanks to Sarah and Åsa for letting us live in your great apartments, we hope you both enjoy Australia. We are completely indebted to you guys and I know there is no way can really pay you back but you are always welcome to stay with us in St. Joe, a real destination for Swedes. 

For me my time with the 86'ers is something I will remember for the rest of my life.  The fact that the players and coaches welcomed me in, literally from out of the stands, was great.  Plus people listened to me at practice like I knew what I was talking about.  There was real improvement in the guys I worked with and I think I made an impact with them all outside of football as well.  And all this with these guys using a second language. I think I may actually be good at this kind of thing and definitely feel more enriched as a person having done so.  I will be seriously considering teaching and coaching when we get to St. Joe because of this time.  There are too many guys to thank all of them by name but I wanted to say thanks for letting me hang out and giving me something to do while I was here, especially Bodin, Andreas, Edvin, Frisk, Anders, Daniel, Jonas, and Coach.  And I hope Andreas and Edvin both stick with it so that I can have a lasting contribution to the club.  And I hope Fabian, Alex, Eric, and Jonathon make the U-19 national team so I can see you guys play in Ohio this summer.  And make sure you guys support Sarah and the women's national team.

Well I think we passed the point of this being a sappy Oscar winner speech or something but you all get the idea.  We had the time of our lives here and are counting the days until we can come back for Ragen's conference in August 2010 and spend a couple weeks catching up with everyone.  I would suggest anyone who has not been to Sweden to come see it.  It is a beautiful country with great people who are more than happy to speak English.  They like salty licorice here and pear ciders. And a final CiS cultural fact #1: Crocs (the shoes) here are referred to as "Foppas" after former NHL great Peter Forsberg (pronounced forsh-bury I believe) who has an endorsement deal with them here. That's right, I'm here to educate.

We also want to say thanks to our family for supporting us and understanding why we would want to move so far away for awhile.  Thanks to Ryan and Kim for coming to see us over you honeymoon.  The rest of you guys are jerks.

Anyway thanks for following us on this adventure and please keep coming back to see how we are doing in St. Joe.  Also because everyone here wants us to start a Facebook page and the lawyer in me says that's not a great idea (although I do blog like an idiot) look for Jax to get his own Facebook page, soonish... Now enjoy this awesome photo montage, and for added cheese factor hum Green Day's Hope You Had the Time of Your Life while you look at it.

Glad Fettisdag

How Much is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.9056 SEK

Glad Fettisdag!!! Bon Mardi Gras!!! Happy Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras everybody.  Here in Sweden you traditionally have semla (pictured below) with tea or coffee.  It's a cardamon-spicked bun with the top cut off and hallowed out and then filled with a mix of the bread crumbs, milk, and almond paste, topped with whipped cream.  Then the topped is put back on and dusted with powdered sugar.

You can find them at all the grocery stores and all the bakeries around town.  These are from coach's bakery. I went to a grocery store to find stuff for dinner and they were being put together in front of people in the middle of the store.  Lots of them.  I went by a little bakery and there was a line of about 12 people out the door.  Popular I suppose.  Well that's me droppin' a little knowledge on y'all.  I'm here to educate.

Make sure to listen to the President's address tonight (3 am Sweden time).  Important stuff. We'll catch the highlights in the morning.

Hockey Night In Stockholm

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.6981 SEK

The Globen Arena in Stockholm

(The world's largest spherical building but not where we watched the game)

Sorry for not getting this up sooner but I've been battling a cold the last couple days.  Last Thursday we went with a couple friends to a hockey game down in Stockholm.  Our first Swedish hockey game was a between Djurgården (a Stockholm club and home team as well as one of the clubs that the 86'ers played against this past season as our astute readers will no doubt realize) and Färjestad who was the top team in the league coming into the game.  

Now we've only been to a couple hockey games in the US, both minor league hockey games in Spokane and Boise, but it seems like the games are more of an event here, more like college football maybe.  Here are fans waving flags with the Djurgården colors.  These folks are more of the classy supporters with the nicer, more expensive seats along the side of the rink.  We sat in the end near the more rowdy supporters who were calling the flag-waving supports "peasent mother f^%#ers" before the game.  You stay classy Stockholm.

One thing people may notice about these pictures is the amount of sponsers on the uniforms.  This is really common here in Sweden to have like 50 sponsers logos on uniforms and a stark contrast to sport uniforms in the states (aside from soccer and Little League).  In addition there are logos on the ice surface in addition to along the boards.  So that's different to.  It's hard to tell in the above picture but the player names are in yellow below the numbers on the Djurgården uniforms.  Above the numbers is the sponsor logo for Bauhaus which is the equivalent of Home Depot here in Sweden (I think they are a German company).

Now it was hard for me to root for Djurgården since we played them in football but they did have an American on the team.  The little guy on the left is #4 in your program and #1 in your heart - David Schneider.  He's a defenseman that even had a goal on the night.  So good for him. 

We have a keeper down!!!

This thing is the Djurgården mascot.  Some sort of rabbit/dog/wolf thing with a hockey helmet and ninja-like quickness in it's hands.  Even with ninja hands it's pretty lame.  Doesn't even do anything, just kind of walks around.  This guy ain't got nothin' on Butch.

This picture is here so you can see that the photographers in the background have to wear helmets if they are going to sit rinkside.  However the coach/trainer guy to their left does not have to wear a helmet. Interesting...

It ended up being a pretty good game in the end but it started ugly.  Färjestad was up 4-0 in the first 5 minutes of the third period.  Djurgården came back in the third though with three goals and a frantic last few minutes but they just couldn't get it done and lost 4-3.  Like I said before Färjestad is at the top of the league and Djurgården is in the lower third so the result was not unexpected but it was fun either way.  Our friend Andreas above in a Djurgården sweater was took the loss a little harder than the rest of us.  Poor guy.

For our entertainment we got to watch some peewee hockey between the first and second periods.  It was fun to watch and there were even a couple girls on the teams. So there you go.

This sign was found on an overpass after leaving the subway station and heading to the areana. Basically it says: "This way for a restroom don't pee here."

Below is a random video taken from the hockey game that shows our enthusiasm early.  Best. Camera. Work. Ever. Enjoy.

It's Always Snowy in Sweden

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.7178 SEK

Hej all.  It's still snowy here in Sweden.  Then it's sunny.  Then it's snowy.  Then it's sunny. But it's always cold. 

Last week we celebrated our one year anniversary in Sweden.  We celebrated by enjoying a pancake breakfast at SLU.  We didn't have the traditional bean soup with it but the pancakes are always good, with the strawberries and cream.  Good stuff.  

In a related note, we had a party on Friday to celebrate our new apartment/one year in Sweden/Ragen's new job/farewell to us.  We had some friends over, made some tacos and refried beans and fresh black bean and corn salsa and guacamole.  It was good.  Put a couple pictures up for your amusement.
Here's a picture of some folks around the coffee table for chips and salsa and guacamole. The blurry girl is our friend Sanna who was bouncing on an exercise ball.  And the guy in the back is not using the corner as a bathroom but going to get a cold beverage from our extra large refrigerator/balcony.
Conversation at the dining room table.

This was our going away gift from our friends.  It's an Amerikakoffert.  These were used during the big Swedish emigrations to the US during the mid and late 19th century and into the early 20th.  We're not sure how old this one is but it was definitely used on some trip across and has someone's name on it even.  It's pretty cool.  It's made of wood with metal flashing and then some wood ribbing on the outside.  We were going to get one and then decided that we weren't sure how to bring it back with us and trying to save some money before we go so our friends bought it for us.  That was incredibly nice of them and cool.  We are actually making an arrangement with Ragen's new job to have some of our stuff shipped back to the US for us so it's perfect.  We now have our own Amerikakoffert for our journey back to the US. Somewhat poetic.

We have been househunting, talking to mortgage brokers, making temporary hotel arrangements, I'm sending out job apps, and we're trying to finish everything here.  Things are moving along towards us moving along.  We bought our plane tickets and now have our moving date of March 9. So we are down to a couple weeks.  Things are moving man.  Soon I guess we will have to start having our cultural facts about St. Joe, like CiS St. Joe cultural fact #11 - St. Joe is where the pony express started and Jesse James ended.  That's like some sort of marketing slogan or something.

Just for fun Ragen and I went to IKEA the other day to take some pictures of things we want to do in our house and found this "thing" below us.  So for a little contest let's see who can guess what it is.  Winner gets a shout-out, made fashionable by a woman who could've been VP during the VP debate (an embarassing moment in American politics from a season chock full of 'em). Lycka till!

Say hi to your mother for me.

Only in Sweden?

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.3554 SEK
Here's a picture from the 86'ers team Superbowl party last night at O'Leary's (a Boston themed sports bar) here in Uppsala.  We had a good time outside of the Stealers taking home another title. HELVETE!!!

It is definitely a different experience watching the game in another country.  For one thing, no commercials.  Every commercial break here was spent listening to three very boring Swedish commentators in the studio show, one of whom is the OL/DL coach of the Stockholm Mean Machine of the Superseries (the highest league here and what we aspire to be) and happened to play here back in the day with some of our coaches as well as another team called the "Pink Chargers" who happened to wear pink uniforms with the lightning bolts on the helmets.  Quite ridiculous to be sure, but well ahead of the trend for NFL team apparel for women.

Also the game didn't kick-off until after midnight so we celebrate Superbowl Monday here.  I got home around 4:30 in the am.  But at least the game was entertaining.

Check out the Conan O'Brien bud light "Only in Sweden" commercial (even if they didn't actually show it in Sweden).  Jätterolig!

In other news...

Sadly our time in Sweden is about at an end.  One of the reasons we were in the US so long over the holidays is that Ragen was going to a job interview in St. Joe, Missouri.  She was offered the job and we decided to take it.  It is a great opportunity for her because she will still work with dogs and cats and will still have the chance for international travel given that her new company has operations around the world. The pay is good and the cost of living is much lower than it is here in Europe.  Also, my chances of finding work increase significantly when I can speak the same language as everyone else, so I got that going for me...  

It was a tough decision. The people have been great, and I have loved being around football all the time again.  It's been difficult for us to tell people because we feel like we'll let them down but everyone understands we have to do what's best for us.  I know I'm surprised at how some of my players have reacted, especially some younger guys that just moved up from the U17 team and that I've only been around for a couple practices with.  I don't know, it's nice to know you've had an impact on someone's life, even briefly.  It's enough that I'm thinking maybe I should get into teaching and coaching when we get back.  Something I've never thought about before but it seems like if I can have an impact with young men who speak English as a second language than I might be kind of good at it.  Crazy.

It would have been one thing if everyone here had been mean to us but that's not the case. Things have not been exactly smooth for us in the year we've been here, but that's part of the adventure.  We wouldn't change that for anything. We did just get into a nice apartment so it will kind of suck to have to leave it so soon, but we should be able to buy a house in St. Joe within a couple months which is really exciting.  Kind of grown-up like for sure.  And hey, St. Joe is kind of cool, in a Lewiston, Idaho kind of way (there's even a Lewis and Clark state park in the area).  

We'll put some info up about it as we go.  I suppose we should keep the blog going and all. We'll head that way the first week of March so if anyone wanted to come visit, you got four weeks to get here.

So pour some out on the sidewalk for our time here and we'll see you soon.

Our New Apartment

How Much is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 8.0893 SEK



So as promised here are some pictures of our new apartment. It's a beautiful two room apartment down town near the train station. Lot's of space for visitors. We moved in last week and I think we have everything set up now. A little scared to use the fireplace yet. We don't have a tv yet so you see the laptop being used for the time being. We have some friends that have offered old ones to us so we will check those out.

The weather has been a little on the bleak side, snow flurries and cold, but hey it's winter time you know.

Back in Sverige

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 8.2668 SEK

Hej all. We are back in Sweden after an extended stay (4 weeks) in the US, mostly spent in Syracuse but included a quick trip for me over to western Washington to see my family as a gracious gift from Ragen's parents. We decided to stay longer than originally planned because we did find an apartment here but we cannot move in until Inauguration day, tomorrow. We figured we would stay longer to avoid having to couch surf at friends' places until then. Lucky for us one of Ragen's friends Tess left for a conference in Denmark a week early and we could stay at her place and not have to sleep on couches or move around from place to place to avoid overstaying our welcome anywhere.

Right now Ragen is also in Denmark for this same conference. She is at some little town that required a second flight from Copenhagen and an hour long taxi ride after landing at an airport similar to the one in Pullman or Nantucket Island (nice use of a Wings reference I know). She is staying in a frozen dorm room that takes the word spartan to another level. And she will be enjoying dinner in the cafeteria tonight where they were given strict instructions that only one beverage, be it a beer, wine, or soda, is free and you have to pay cash for anything more. Also there are no ATMs there at this "campus" and no one has any Danish crowns on them; just to make things more interesting.

As for me:

Status: Typing, duh.

Mood: Tired (got up at 3:30 this morning to see Ragen off to Denmark, also not adjusted to time change yet - harder to do when you hit 30 I guess).

What I'm watching: Twin Peaks on DVD thanks to our lovely host Tess (Little known fact: Swedes love Twin Peaks... maybe because of the Norwegians in the beginning).

That's for all you FaceSpace or MyBook kids out there, or what ever you kids do to stay in contact with each other when you can't be bothered to call or email or even SMS each someone. Kids and their technology, mmmrrrrggghhh, can't even be bothered to talk to someone in person. (Now that I'm 30 I am apparently channeling Clint Eastwood from Gran Torino, without all the racial stuff - good movie, see it if you haven't already). "But wait Mr. McClure isn't blogging the same thing?" "Ha ha ha ha. It sure is Billy. It sure is!" (Deleted scene from Troy McClure in "Meat And You: Partners in Freedom").

Anyway this was just a post to let you all know we are still around and kickin'. I'll post more once I get us moved from Ragen's office and into our apartment tomorrow "now with pictures!" Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day (there's even a street here named after him) and besure to watch the Inauguration tomorrow. They are already talking about it in every Swedish paper and on the news.

Take care.

P.S. I know who killed Laura Palmer

buh bum buh buh, bum buh buh buh bum buh (try getting that out of your head now)

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.