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.