I feel settled...

People have been asking how I like Sweden and am I "settling in"? I can honestly say that today I felt very settled...and it was nice. Maybe things went smoothly - both Dwight and I love our commutes to school and work. I really like the fact that I pass way more people walking or biking than in cars as I take William to school. Davis is sleeping well again and feels very comfortable with his old crib in his new room. I have lost battle for trying to make William dress
up for school.
We were so spoiled with uniforms at Heritage which is the way to go in my opinion. William gets up and dresses himself in jeans, t-shirt and his Auburn hoodie every day.

I went to the grocery on Saturday so the fridge is stocked. We are officially registered with the Swedish authorities (all except the Audi). And recently, I have had time to read a novel Dwight passed along to me. We have yet another Swedish holiday coming up and plan to BBQ again this weekend. We have thoroughly enjoyed a charcoal grill borrowed from a neighbor and I bet we have cooked out more since moving into the house several weeks ago than we did all of last summer in Atlanta.

I have done more shopping at Ikea than I care to add up but the house is in fairly decent shape except for poor Davis' room which has nothing much but his crib. One thing I have not doen is buy anything to go over the windows in any rooms except the bedrooms where black out shades are necessary. It is now 12:46 AM and sunrise is just around the corner! The views from our large window are just beautiful. Watching the sunset from our family room at close to 10:00 tonight was amazing.

William and I are know focused on decorating the play house in the garden. William decided to turn it into Torquilstone, a castle from his favorite book, Ivanhoe. We just finished reading it again...many thanks to his teacher, Mrs. Hill for giving him such an appropriate gift. We are also reading the second book to in the Chronicles of Narnia series. William's passion for books goes way beyond anything either Dwight or I had a child.

The Curse of the New York Yankees

There is always plenty of good old fashion hatred when it comes to sports teams and how they feel about each other. I could name plenty of examples of teams that don't get along. Here in Europe there are weekly examples of this especially in soccer matches (sorry, I just can't call it football...especially because its not).

But some sports rivalries transcend the field. I would say the Atlanta Braves vs. the New York Yankees are a good example of that. First off, everyone hates the Yankees (or so I thought). They spend more money on their roster than Sweden spends on its military. They are arrogant, they always win, but most important their fans are jerks. And if you are a Yankee fan reading this (or having someone read it to you) you know its true.*

When the Yankees and Braves play there is more on the line than a baseball game. In the back of everyone's mind it's the North vs the South...its rich vs poor and it's the city vs the country.

In 1996 the Atlanta Braves were riding high. We had won the World Series in 1995 and stormed back to the championship again in 1996. (side note - any of my British friends that are reading this I don't want to hear a word about how its not the world Series if the WORLD is not competing. Let me clear something up. If the world CAN'T compete then it IS the World Series. You can go put the best team of all stars together from around the globe and I will bet you 20 to 1 that the Milwaukee Brewers could beat them 45-0 in 5 innings.

At any rate the Braves marched up to Yankee Stadium in 96 and promptly took the first 2 games from the Yankees. The Braves dropped the third game, but then dominated the 4th taking a 6-0 lead. This WAS it...not many teams are going to overcome and 3-1 deficit in the World Series. However, the Braves started to come un-glued in the 6th inning after Right Field umpire Tim Welke couldn't get his fat self out of Jermaine Dye's way and a routine pop fly was dropped. It went downhill from there and the Braves ended up losing in extra innings.

The point to this long story is simple. I hate the New York Yankees.

But that is okay right? There are no New York Yankee fans in Sweden...or are there? If I had a nickel for every Yankee hat I see in Sweden I could retire next week. At first I thought it was a novelty. Being so far from home it is just nice to see something that reminds you of the US. I can tell you that sentiment faded pretty damn quick. I started to seeing more and more Yankee hats...everywhere I went I saw a Swede wearing a Yankee hat. What the @!&#??

Why are Yankee fans following me to Europe? Is there no end to this torture? I see so many Yankee hats here I'm certain that I am going to see a Yankee hat on the subway one day and as the head under the hat slowly turns up to look at me its going to be that of a laughing Derik Jeter. He would say, "you can't escape the Yankee curse! (insert evil laugh).

Anyway the point of this is...I hate the New York Yankees.

I hate the Alabama Crimson Tide too, but so far...no Alabama hats have been spotted.

*(footnote) Larry Schapps is the one exception to the rule about Yankee fans. He is a pretty nice guy. If you are reading this Larry, I meant to say all Yankee fans are jerks except for Larry.*

The Day Davis became Self Aware

there was a line in the movie the Terminator about how the "machines" became self aware. It was meant to describe the moment in time when computers realized they could think and act. Ultimately in the movie they took over...The Matrix had a similar plot (shouts out to Neo!)

Well, today Davis became self-aware. I don't mean he became destructive (any more than he usually is - the kid can wreck a steel marble) or that he tried to take over the world and force all human kind into slavery. I just mean he all of the sudden realized he was here and being here is pretty damn fun.

I think he literally knew 5 new words by the time I finished one work day: Da turned into Daddy. Ma turned into Mommy and Do turned into Doggy (by the way Chapel still doesn't like him).

Every since Davis became self-aware he has been dancing, laughing, talking and basically hamming it up. We may be the first family in history to have two sons pursue a career of stand up comedy.

You can't make this stuff up!

Working with the Swedes

Work to live or live to work? This is the philasophical question that separates (in my mind) the difference between working in the US and working here.

Here is an example. At around 11:30-11:45 here, people start getting up, putting their coats on and heading out the door to lunch. It happens every day just like clock-work. A new employee from Silicon Valley, CA was in the office last week and ask me, "does everyone here take lunch at 11:30?" He went on to comment about the culture in San Francisco...people quite often work right through lunch or eat at their desk.

Another difference is email traffic. Here it shuts down about 3:00 PM on Friday afternoon. When I was in Atlanta it was not at all unusal to have a slower, but steady stream of work emails coming in over the weekend. I have to say...I prefer the Swedish way :-)

At any rate it all comes back to what I mentioned above. Here (and this is a generalization), you work because you want to, but also as a means to an end. In the US and in many other cultures you find yourself living for your job. While it can't be quite frustrating to adjust to a new culture (like this one) I do have a certain admiration for the change of pace.

Oh, and by the way...Swedes are not considered lazy....Norwegians are.

--posted by Dwight

The new house is Bohemian

Is that the right word for eating and sleeping on the floor?

Our new place was ready and we moved in even though our "stuff" has not arrived (it is on its way from Germany where it took a short travel-break). Of course without furniture we have become very bohemian (meaning we are eating and sleeping on the floor).

Elizabeth found us some blow-up beds that we are using for the next few days. She is also going to IKEA today (where else would you go in Sweden?) to pick up some other items that will help us get more comfortable until Tuesday when the boat arrives.

However, even without furniture we are still very happy to be out of the Solna apartment. For sure that was a convenient place to live for work, but managing the kids and the dog on the 5th floor of a small apartment with bad accoustics is no fun.

Elizabeth's parents, brother (Thomas) and sister-in-law Milena are coming next week, so we are all looking forward to that. The new house has plenty of room to say the least. A better way to say would be that we have too much room. So for all you that are thinking about visiting - take a hint and book your tickets!