A Fig in Sweden Portland

wowed by white

The latest issue of Sköna Hem, a great Swedish interior design magazine, shows why we have started to fall in love with Scandinavian white walls. This is the home of IKEA photographer Per Gunnarsson. I love the simplicity of the style. Almost nothing on the walls, but it doesn't seem to need anything. In the U.S., white walls say "I haven't had time to paint yet." But most Swedes I know don't really use color on walls. Unless it's for contrast, like a red or black wall. Lewis has been resistant to this, but today he said he's itching to paint our kitchen and living room walls white. Right now they are a very pale yellow.

On that note... while we were out for a walk today, Lewis was saying that he couldn't think of anything to write in his blog (his last entry was in January.) "I guess we're pretty acclimated now," he said. Yup, I guess we are. 

our easter tree

Last weekend I rode my bicycle to the garden store in town to get some fresh flowers. Instead I bought some budding twigs. There were buckets and buckets of them, and they sort of reminded me of pussywillows. As I biked home with my twigs shooting out of my bike basket, I felt very Swedish. For whatever reason, it just seemed like a very Swedish thing to do. Like the French with baguettes.

Turns out what I really bought was an Easter tree. Swedes tie bright feathers to the twigs before Easter. It's supposed to make spring arrive faster. The other Swedish Easter tradition that's interesting is that children dress up like witches and go to people's doors asking for candy (like our Halloween). Last year Lewis bought two huge bags of candy, and we had nobody show up. But that was in our apartment. Hopefully we'll have a few little witches ring our doorbell this year. 

a glimpse of Swedish culture

It's Friday night in Älmhult, and that can only mean one thing... our butts are planted on the couch for some channel surfing. The local movie channel was having a Tom Cruise marathon, so we just had to watch Top Gun. Man, he wore a lot of tighty-whiteys in that movie. (We changed the channel when Days of Thunder started, though.) And then we stumbled upon my favourite Swedish movie: Masjävlar (or Dalecarlians, in English).

We rented this during the first few weeks we were both here in Sweden. It was one of our first glimpses into the Swedish culture, besides what I see at work. Now to watch it over a year later was interesting. First of all, I could understand much of the Swedish, which shows some progress. But, also, the way of life seemed more familiar. I guess we have adapted more than we think.

Check it out if it's available on DVD in the States. It gets two thumbs up from me and Lewis.

24 hours in Zurich

A few moments of play on a trip that was all work...

Sprechen sie latte?

damn kids!

Since we moved into our house in June, this has been my most frustrating sight. The mailbox left open. We've come home from a week-long vacation to find all of our mail dripping wet. Packed with snow. Bleeding ink everywhere.

The longer it goes on, the more I feel like my grandfather. "It must be those dang kids." Some little kid, I'm convinced, has been opening our mailbox whenever he or she walks by. I've never seen it. But I'm SURE that's what's going on. Sometimes I'll leave for work in the morning, put the lid down, and it's up again by the time I get home for lunch. I put it down, and it's up again when I come home from work. Damn kids!

OK, so same story yesterday. I go back to work after lunch and the thing is open. I put the lid down and start walking. But then I turn around and look. And I think. And I wonder, "Could the wind be blowing the thing open?"

It's still a mystery. But it's just funny that I did not consider this very logical explanation earlier.

And when we came back from Christmas break and saw how little firewood we had, Lewis was CONVINCED someone robbed us. Yup, they drove their car up and loaded up! He even explained to me how he could tell by the way some of the wood was stacked. A few days later he suggested that maybe we didn't get robbed, and that we had just used more wood than we thought.

Anyway, it's pretty hysterical and very interesting how easy it is for us to jump to conclusions... and in both cases how someone evil must be behind it. Yes, there are bad people everywhere, but little Älmhult is far safer than anywhere else we've lived.

I think I will post a web cam in front of the house and find out who the little bugger is!