Life in the Land of the Ice and Snow
Infiltrating Sweden one cinnamon bun at a time
I brought a sandwich to work in a refrigerated bag with an ice clamp just to make sure my cheese would stay fresh. Did I forget I live in Stockholm and it’s the end of October? Did I forget that the office I’m working in is currently 9c (50f) each day? Refrigerated bag – What … Read more
My friend Erin in Texas told me that she and her kids spent the morning in their yard hunting a possum with a baseball bat. It’s a shame with all the experiences my children miss growing up in Sweden. (or is it?)
I finally broke down and starting showing my kids the other Star Wars movies. I’ve kept it down to the 3 originals, but have realized that they need to see the others to keep up with the kids at school. Tonight we watched the second in the series, “Attack of the Clones.” Comments: “Why do … Read more
A follow-up to my daring feat of eating blood pudding last week. When I informed my family in Texas, they were all horrified. In fact, one of them was very concerned and told me, “You need to watch out for Ebola eating that stuff!”
The King of Sweden’s 1999 Volvo is for sale. I’d make a bid, but there’s way too much carpet and that would never work with young kids. “Don’t you spill that milkshake! That’s Royal carpeting! I’m going to tell the King on you!” I do like the “Armoured” part. I wonder if you bought the … Read more
In Sweden, every day has a name attached to it. Why is this? I really don’t have time to Google it, I gotta pick up my kids in 20 minutes. Anyway, when the day with your name comes up on the calendar, people here congratulate you on your namesday and you might get a little … Read more
Hang your coat on a radiator overnight to be nice and toasty when you wear it the next day. (Warning: Remove chocolates from pocket.)
Now that my son has to travel on his own to school, we gave him his own phone. Giving a 10-year old their own phone results in daily messages like this: (the woman in the picture is supposed to be me.)
My oldest son had his 10th birthday this week. I told him he could have anything he wanted for dinner, so he chose – Blood Pudding. Blood Pudding? You know, an American kid would have chosen an Oreo pie covered in ice cream. Blood pudding? In my 14 years in Sweden, I had managed to … Read more
My 7 year old son said: I’m sorry Mamma. I forgot to cover my ears at school, but I found out what happens to the Titanic. It hits an iceberg and sinks. Spoilers!
Why is Facebook so concerned about what I put out to other people? I don’t care about that! I need settings that stop OTHER people from posting annoying things to my timeline.
When did they change remote control batteries to “AAA”? How am I supposed to steal batteries for toys if the remotes don’t have “AA”? What is this world coming to?
Recently, I’ve been taking an online course on Scandinavian film. This course has been going on now for 4 weeks, but I can save you the time spent taking the course by summing up everything I’ve learned right here: Scandinavian film is extremely depressing. There you go. You’ve just earned your certificate with your knowledge … Read more
My kids just discovered “Mythbusters.” Should I worry that they laugh maniacally at the “don’t try this at home” warning?
“Part of Saint Birgitta’s golden arm, a relic of Saint Eugenia Catholic parish in Stockholm kept since 1875, was stolen Monday night from the church reliquary. “ More importantly – we had an arm?! I thought they only kept these kinds of things in Italy. I mean, I took my kids to see Galileo’s finger … Read more
I saw a commercial for a “new” Nerf gun. You know, the kind that shoots the foam darts? You had that around when you were a kid, right? Well they sell the exact same gun you remember, but now it’s “Zombie defense gun!” I watched the commercial. There is nothing zombie about this gun except … Read more
A woman asked if she could cut ahead of me at the store because she was in a hurry. No problem. But it got interesting when I realized she was in a hurry to buy a banana and panties. That’s all. My mind doesn’t even want to know.
Sweden is great because sometimes you can get 50% jobs as well as 75% jobs. It works out well especially if you have kids to pick up from daycare or take to activities. I think this one is going a bit too far though. 87.5% – What kind of random strange percentage is this? Not … Read more
I walked down an average neighborhood street yesterday in Stockholm past about 40 cars. As I looked in each one, I noticed they were all completely clean! No food wrappers, trash or even crumbs. Every car looked great inside. I think I’ve come up with the reason for this. No one eats in their car … Read more