Day 39: Thankful

I wonder how many people love their job? I mean REALLY love their job. I would venture to guess that the number would be quite low if a poll was taken. Do I love my job? Not really. I barely even like my job but I can feel thankful that I at least have a job.

I met a friend last night for dinner, which turned into having cake at a cafe instead. I'm not complaining. Dessert first is something I firmly believe in. Anyway, she is about to begin a job search in Stockholm and was asking me about the process I went through in my own job search. The story behind the search leading to my job is actually rather amazing.

I began to look for a job as soon as we moved here, but with no Swedish language skills it did not go so well. It was disheartening to receive rejection after rejection, if I even received a reply at all. I started to feel like I would never get any positive response. I continued my Swedish studies and tried to become proficient in the language. One day I discovered that I could request a job coach through my contact at the Arbetsförmedlingen (unemployment office), free of charge. The job coach was designed to assist you with motivation and tools in your search but not really help you look for a job. Ok. I was paired with a job coach and after a few mishaps we began my serious job search process. My coach assisted me with search techniques and with translating my CV to Swedish. Once my CV translation was completed, things moved quickly.

Carl and I had just come home from vacation at our summer house and I was on a field trip with my Swedish class to visit Stockholm's City Hall. My group was outside waiting for our scheduled time when my mobile phone rang. For the record, it was probably the first time it ever rang since we moved to Sweden and I nearly didn’t get to it in time, as I did not recognize the ring tone. I answered and it was someone from one of my job applications calling to offer me an interview. My first interview in Sweden and as it turns out, after two additional interviews for this position, my first interview became my first job. It was some kind of sheer, dumb luck and when I really think about it, it’s kind of cool that I am working in a foreign country, speaking a foreign language. So what if I don’t love my job. Today as I sit here I choose to feel thankful that I have a job. This very job.

Day 37: Fun with Language

When I am learning a new language, there is always a learning curve associated with a certain level of humor. How the new language sounds, especially when I pronounce things incorrectly and say things the wrong way provides my husband with hours of his own personal comedy show. Learning the new language is funny unto itself with all of the unusual pronunciations and new ways of expression but imagine how funny it would be to see words that you have used your entire life being used another way and with a completely different definition. Apparently these words are called “false friends” and they are quite entertaining. One of the first of these I discovered while walking around Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden where my husband comes from. It was a sign for a speed bump, or “Farthinder.” Fart in Swedish means speed. I had endless fun laughing every time we passed that sign. Every single time. You would have thought I was an eight year old.

However I am not the only one who has had fun with these false friends. When my husband first moved to the United States he drove past a billboard for a Pitt Barbeque restaurant. Imagine his shock, the word “pitt” in Swedish means penis, only the slang, vulgar version, which I will not write here. I am sure he drove with any Swedish visitors he had past that billboard. Some of the best things in life are free.

We had some friends from Texas visit us in Stockholm last summer and I guess I have lived here long enough now that I don’t take particular notice of these false friends anymore. One of them saw a sign for a “slut rea,” which means literally “end sale.” It is basically an end of season sale, or final sale. Slut is not even pronounced the same here. It is pronounced like “boot.” But that doesn’t change the sheer joy one feels when one discovers these anomalies.

The word for child in Swedish is barn. Grandchild is barnbarn. I don’t even know if it is acceptable in written form such as this to use “LOL,” which means laugh out loud, but I thought this was one of the funniest things I’d ever heard. How many barn do you have? That’s another funny thing. Whether you have one barn or two barn, it is the same word. No plural form.

There are several words for “good” in Swedish and they are “false friends” to their English twins. Two that are particularly peculiar are “god” and “bra.” “God” is used to describe something that tastes good or when wishing someone Merry Christmas one says, “God Jul.” “Bra” is more of a description, like when something is good or someone has done something good. The kind of bra you wear in Sweden is called a BH, short for bröst hållare, or in English breast holder. Lol.

Another one that was difficult for me to accept was the word for vacation. “Semester” is what the Swedes take when they go on vacation. When I started studying Swedish I would ask my classmates what they planned to take next “semester,” me meaning next term in school. They just looked at me confused. They had no clue what I meant. I have to say however that one of the funniest for me is “kiss,” which is the word for urine here. But again, it is pronounced more like fleas but with a short s at the end.

What I find unusual and confusing about these “false friends” is that many of them are not even the same type of word. Some are nouns and some are verbs, which further confuses a person new to the language. Just for laughs I am including a list below with a few more of these crazy, “false friends” for you to mull around in your heads:

English/Swedish word - Swedish meaning
Offer - victim
Sex - six
Men - but
Runt - around
Ask - box
Be - beg/pray
Gift - poison/married
Spy - vomit
Tall - pine

Day 36: Super Bowl (Sunday)

I started receiving the Whole Foods newsletter about a year or so ago. A friend of mine had forwarded me one of the newsletters she had received with an interesting recipe and I decided to sign up for it myself. Why not? I love Whole Foods and reading their newsletter would be a good way to stay connected to one of my favorite grocery stores in the states. Plus I get great ideas for meals when I am running out of steam in the kitchen or need a new idea for something quick and healthy. Some time in January their newsletter focused on the theme of "healthy bowls". They discussed making a healthy meal by building a bowl of grains or pastas, veggies, proteins and then adding different sauces. They listed several different themes ranging from Mexican to Asian to Mediterranean and more. Part of their planning was to provide ideas for meals that were healthy and could be prepared at a low cost. Saving pocket books and waistlines. What a fabulous idea. The first bowl I tried was an Asian bowl with rice noodles, carrots, snow peas, fake chicken, lime and cilantro topped with peanut sauce and it was delicious.

Food is one of my passions. I love to eat, as you all know from one of my previous posts called The Art of Eating (Day 4). So it was merely coincidental that I decided to make a bowl meal today. We will be having burrito bowls made with brown rice, black beans, diced tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, sour cream, salsa and maybe a handful of tortilla chips. Can you say Ole? So, while most of America will be watching the Super Bowl on TV today, we will be feasting on our own Super Bowl. Salud!

Day 35: Sun, Bicycles and -10 Celsius

A little over a week ago I asked my husband to order studded tires for my bicycle. The temperatures had been fairly mild, hovering around and just above freezing, and I figured I could withstand the cold under those circumstances. The next day I wondered if I had made a mistake that I would live to regret until spring. Temperatures started to trend downward, getting colder and colder the past week or so and it has been moving into pretty cold territory. A few days later Carl confirmed that the tires were ordered and should arrive during the early part of this week. Great. We went out shopping for insulated winter pants. Carl found a great pair and I ended up with a pair that would block the wind but were not actually insulated. I may have to exchange them.

Well, today was the day. He announced after breakfast that he was going to go change the tires on both of our bikes so we could go out for a ride. I couldn’t really back down now, since I had specifically asked him to order these special, winter tires. I started getting dressed. I put on wool long johns, a wool sweater and socks and then the wind blocking pants that I bought plus another jacket and a down vest. I went outside to see how the pants stood up to the cold air. It felt chilly but not unbearable. I tried out his pants. Wow, what a huge difference. I decided then that I definitely needed to exchange mine for warmer ones.

Not too long after he was done with our bikes we headed out with plans to stop by a store to see if they had a different, insulated pair of pants for me. We ended up going by three different stores with no luck but it actually didn’t feel too cold so we decided to ride out to Djurgården (one of the islands of Stockholm made up of mostly city park land with a few museums, cafes and a handful of elite summer homes) to enjoy the sunshine and have some lunch. It was a gorgeous day and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that even in minus degree temperatures, with the sun shining I could enjoy a bike ride in freezing, cold temperatures in the snow.

We had a great ride despite the fact that our lunch plans were thwarted. The cafe we planned to go to was closed for some unknown reason and another one we tried was so packed that there was a line of people waiting just for tables. So we bought a couple of cinnamon buns and wolfed them down quickly outside to stave off the hunger for our ride home. The snow-covered park looked magical with the sun shining through the bare trees. Though by the time we were heading home it had become quite a bit colder. It was actually so cold that my toes and fingers were getting numb. I think with the right clothing next time will be fine. Tomorrow I am heading out to look for insulated pants. I am just happy to know that the winter temperatures do not have to stop us from enjoying outings on our bicycles.

Day 34: A Good Winter Coat

During a true Swedish winter it can be what I like to call in Swedish, “As Kallt,” or dead cold. Your face hurts the air is so cold. I am talking temperatures around 8 F (-14 C). It is beyond any cold I have ever felt in my life, growing up in southeast Texas and then spending a decade or so in sunny California. You have to have the right kind of clothing. As my husband says, “There is no bad weather, just bad clothing.” Truer words could not be spoken.

The first year we lived here I had my arctic duffel coat, which was very warm but maybe a little overkill even for Sweden. The second year I decided it was time to get a good coat. One that was well insulated but also not so warm that I would roast the minute I walked into a store from the outside. I found one that I thought would be at least a start in the right direction. It was a US brand so I ordered it online in the US to save money and when we went to Texas for Christmas I brought it back with me.

We are now going into our third year here. This winter started out so mild that it really seemed more like an extended fall or early spring. However, the past week has changed all of that and the memory of how cold it was during our first two years has quickly come back to slap me in the face. Cold becomes defined by a string of four-letter words. I look at the first “winter” coat I bought for my first winter trip to Sweden, pre-artic duffel, and I laugh. It is definitely stylish and feminine but not at all practical and not very warm either. My new coat from last year is awesome. It is the perfect blend of style and warmth, though it could use a few small improvements. And although I am already starting to pick out my next coat, narrowing it down to the smallest details of perfection, this coat, right now, makes me happy. Living in Sweden one needs at least one good winter coat, possible two, so I am keeping my eyes and my options open.

Day 33: An Idle Mind is the Best Way to Relax

This morning I met with my physical therapist for session number two. I have had a painful, left shoulder and neck for a while now and when my left eye started twitching couple of months and did not cease, I decided enough was enough. Time to take care of it. My doctor recommended a few different Physical Therapy clinics and this one was closest to my apartment so I thought I would give it a try. My therapist is wonderful and the therapy itself is really great. I get acupuncture, a heat pad, massage, back adjustments and today she used a tens unit. For those of you who do not know what that is, “tens” stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. Small electrical impulses are sent into your muscles and supposedly it helps them relax by sending a different message to your brain. It actually works very well. She set me up on a massage table face down and once the needles, tens unit and heating pad were in place she left the room for a while. Ah. A little extra sleep coming my way.

Or not. Once I had been lying there a few minutes, the heat from my face activated the perfume left by the last person on the face pad. Fabulous. It just so happens that I am highly sensitive to smells and the smallest unpleasant odor can trigger a migraine. I tried to move my face around to see if that would help but I only managed to get my hair in my face. I moved my hair and tried to relax and concentrate on the scent of peppermint. Then the door opened and my therapist came back in the room. She asked how I was doing and I explained the leftover perfume etc. and she removed the face pad and the smell was magically gone. She could only smell the scent of the plastic material the face pad was made of. Lucky for her.

After that I was able to really relax, which brings me to today’s title. A school teacher gave her first grade students a list of proverbs that were incomplete and asked them to complete them in their own words. One student wrote the proverb above. I think it is absolutely fantastic. It suggests that a person do the exact opposite of what the original proverb suggests, which is that an idle mind causes a person to do/think bad things. I read this child’s proverb after my PT session during my commute to work and I chuckled to myself. Before the perfumy face pad was taken away all I could think about was the smell and how I would probably get a headache soon. Once it was taken away, my mind became idle and I did in deed relax. The wisdom of children should definitely not be underestimated. Unfortunately I did end up with a headache but that is what Tylenol is for.

Day 32: Crunchy Snow

The icy crunching of the snow under the soles of my boots reminds me of a crisp, fall day when I lived in Berkeley. My parents were visiting and we had ventured out to the football game at the university and were bravely making our way back home on foot. We chose to go by foot by necessity, not choice. Traffic was a mad chaos and it would have taken us hours to get home by bus. Driving my car and trying to find parking by the university or stadium was bad on regular days, but it was unheard of on football days.

By the time we made our way to the street where I lived we were dragging a bit, each of us walking in our own world. The street's gutter was filled with brittle, autumn leaves and I was crunching the leaves in a marching fashion as I made my way up the street to my house. I happened to look over at just the right moment and my mom was about to fall down laughing at me. “What in the world are you doing?” she asked through tears. “I’m crunching the leaves,” I remarked with a giggle. And now drawn out of my private world and back into reality, I had to laugh with her. I must have looked completely ridiculous. What can I say? I loved the sound of crunching leaves under my feet. At that time of year there was no shortage of them in Berkeley. Leaves were pretty much everywhere.

Just like there is this wonderfully, crunchy, icy snow today. I know it is a simple thing but I really love the way it sounds and feels as my feet tramp over its brittle crunch. After it snows the streets become eerily quiet. There is a buffering effect that the snow has on the environment and sounds are softer. Then a few days later, after it warms up enough for the snow and ice to melt a bit, it freezes again and we get the crunchy snow. And it is almost as good as the crunch of dry, autumn leaves.