Life in the Land of the Ice and Snow
Infiltrating Sweden one cinnamon bun at a time
I like to give my kids cameras on all trips to encourage them to take pictures of what is most interesting and important to them. Today I give you photos taken by my children on previous Texas trips. Let’s hope they will be able to find even more exciting things on this year’s vacation:
Looking for a hotel this weekend on TripAdvisor and came across this. I guess I’ll have to find one with a lower murder rating.
One month in Texas = 10 lbs (that’s 5 kilos for the rest of the world!) I give you evidence:
I grew up in Baytown, Texas, just outside of Houston. I usually just tell people I’m from Houston since it’s more well known (and I pause for the required, “Houston, we have a problem” statement I get from each person thinking they’re the first ones to ever say that to me). But now maybe Baytown … Read more
It’s that time of year again! 4th of July – and we’re spending it in Texas. Let me write the equivalent of a school essay to help explain the 4th of July for those outside the U.S.: What the 4th of July Means to Me The Fourth of July means many things to me, but … Read more
People often ask me: “Do you want fries with that?” They also ask me how I keep in such good shape (as far as they can tell). Well, let me share a few secrets with you. 1. Keep your car parked a 10 minute walk away from your home. This helps you to either walk … Read more
We’re currently in Boston for the first time. As I’m scheduling this before we leave, I have nothing real to write about the place yet other than I’m hoping we are able to understand people better than we did in Dublin and we are hoping to gain 5 lbs each with good food.Plans for Boston: … Read more
Once again, we are changing planes today in Switzerland….. wait, I’m sorry Switcher-land, as my 8-yr old insists it’s called. We changed planes here a couple of years ago and he misunderstood the name of the country, though it made quite a bit of sense at the time. Since then, I’ve been trying to convince … Read more
Why do Swedes have to make the word “to hear” (höra) and “whore” (hora) so similar? This is really bad when I’m writing about something that happened. “You should hear about…” (Du bör höra om….) Yes, I think you see where I’m going with this. But if I just take away those dots – “Du … Read more
I like the use of the word “fruit-related heist.” I’m going to work that into my conversations more often.
It seems I missed this story in The Local over the weekend. When I say Swedes take their strawberries seriously, I really mean it. And no, it’s not a joke. It’s a real story. Forget stealing cars or purses…. strawberries are the hot commodity here.
This past weekend, we celebrated Midsommar here in Sweden. It’s a celebration of the longest day (though that’s actually yesterday, I believe), where Swedes dance around a Maypole like frogs…. this after eating pickled herring and drinking lots of schnapps. So I filmed a little one-minute video of our Midsommar celebration last Friday, Swedes hopping … Read more
Apparently, today is Father’s Day in the U.S. This ad showed up while I was browsing things to do in Houston. Do you think your father might be a bit afraid if you took him here for Father’s Day? Not sure this is the best idea.
In Sweden, most kids through Grade 3 have the opportunity for a free-time club through the schools during the summer. After Grade 3, you’re on your own once school is out. We have a son who just completed Grade 4, thus he has nothing to do now that school is out. I noticed plenty of … Read more
Answer: They go to Ikea of course! (ok, not really a riddle… more of a question…. and pretty lame, I know.) We made our bi-annual, required by Swedish law, trip to Ikea this past weekend on a rainy day. Of course, so did all other Stockholmers. I think we did well this time. With only … Read more
This headline is in The Local Sweden online news today. Once again, if this is the biggest disaster Sweden faces, I’m glad to live in this country.
I asked my son what I thought would be a fun question the other day: “If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?” His answer, with no hesitation, was “Donald Duck.” Apparently I am hot-tempered, hard to understand and do not wear pants. (Ok, maybe not the last one, at least not on … Read more
I’m starting to easily understand the old story of Alexander Fleming leaving an experiment over a long weekend and discovering penicillin from the mold when he came back. Apparently in my office, they are trying to recreate this experiment with leftover food and half-full coffee cups. Unfortunately, I don’t work in a science facility and … Read more
Amazon just recommended a book for me called “30 Days of Cauliflower Recipes.” Not sure if this is a cookbook or a fictional story about month-long starvation and torture. Photo: colourbox.com
