Ramblings upon returning to Sweden

It is the middle of the night here. I keep trying to shut out the light and fall asleep with little success. Tomorrow is a work day (probably will be a rough one) but my body refuses to acknowledge that we've just skipped time zones.

I've been gone for three weeks and things are different here. Lilacs are in bloom everywhere and the air smells so lovely. The trees are all filled out with leaves. It looks so wild here.

And like the people said, it is not fully dark, despite it being the middle of the night. I don't even know what time the sun set, and I'm not going to look it up right now, because sometimes it is okay to leave a question unanswered. I do know that at 10 pm it was a very bright twilight kind of time, which allowed me to see a cute little hedgehog wander through the front yard. I really love wild hedgehogs. Welcome to Sweden - Where the air smells like lilacs and wild hedgehogs are a reality.

A lot of people seemed concerned that there are so many hours of daylight and I don't have curtains on most of my windows. I pretty much had myself convinced that I'd need to get some blackout curtains for the bedroom at least. But the thing is, I am not a person who only sleeps when it is dark. I kind of feel like most people are not that person. I feel like a person who is awake for sunrise is a rare thing. So I'm not concerned about that anymore. Birdsong starting at 2 am seems like a more valid concern.

Time to try to fall asleep again.

Snapshots from a Sunday

On Sunday when I woke up, I had the task of taking one photo. I had decided to participate in the Snapshots from a Sunday project (I don't think anyone else calls it a project, but I like to call it a project). Originally, I was thinking that this would give me a great reason to go exploring Uppsala on a Sunday morning to try to capture some beautiful images. But if the point of Snapshots is to share a glimpse of your daily life, I was certainly not going to embody that point.

So then I started thinking about how I could beautifully capture the ordinary that is my life on a Sunday morning. This is when I got the idea of playing with a long exposure to capture movement and activity in a still image. Normally I don't make the room as dark as possible while I make coffee, but on this particular day, I figured it would be worth it to get the longest possible exposure time.

This is the image that I chose to include in the Project.



I had the 3 am eastern time slot (9 am in Sweden). I loved looking through all the other images from the day, which you can view here.

Fun fact #1: I took eleven photos during my one hour slot. Here are a few of the others.







Fun fact #2: Snapshots from a Sunday is also a good project to motivate cleaning up your kitchen counter. Before I took these photos it was covered in dirty dishes and tons of recycling.

Ups and Downs

Normally I like to stick to the 'ups' because they seem more significant in the long-run, but sometimes I can't help but write about the 'downs' too.

So here you go, the ups and downs of my week so far.

U: On Sunday there were fireworks that were choreographed with (comically terrible) music!
D: It was bitterly cold. Too cold to be standing still outside, for sure.

U: There has been tons of snow which looks beautiful and makes everything a bit brighter during these dark days.
D: I haven't yet equipped my bicycle for winter, and walking or bussing everywhere is taking a lot more time than riding my bike ever took.

D: At dance class on Monday I danced with a Very rude girl. I know a good dancer when I encounter a good dancer, and I also know a dancer who believes themselves to be the world's greatest dancer when I encounter such a dancer. Unfortunately she was in the latter category and was actually quite mean about it. I know it isn't worth dwelling on, but it was actually quite hurtful, and that is quite real to me. It also sucks all of the fun out of dancing.
U: Luckily we change partners a lot, and I got to dance with a lot of other really wonderful people. One of the dancers I would classify as 'exceptionally good', like the kind of dancer who makes me look super good too. Another I would classify as 'quite good'. And a third I would classify as 'a surprising pleasure'. The third is a guy who has been in the beginner course from the start, and he always looks like he is struggling a bit. From the outside he doesn't look graceful, and the rhythm doesn't seem to come naturally to him. BUT I had a really fun time dancing with him, because he was trying really hard, and he was getting it (and it was one of the more complicated dances). It was also a good reminder to me about the types of things I need to do in order to adjust my style to match/compliment the styles of others.

U: I made a new friend! Similar to last week, when I was leaving dance class, I had a little conversation with a girl I had been talking with earlier. This time the conversation was in Swedish, and she asked me where I lived and if I was walking there, and I understood what she said! (super proud svenska moment)

D: In Svenska class, we were working in small groups and I had absolutely zero idea what the others in my group were saying. Ever. For at least 15 minutes. And vocalizing that didn't change anything. Up until then, Swedish class had always been a really fun activity that I happily looked forward to.

U: Tonight is my first "night off" in awhile (excluding a small task that I must accomplish that I definitely will photo-blog about (cliffhanger...)). I have been on-the-go quite a bit lately. Mainly in my attempts to force myself to be social and outgoing, because I need to find some friends. So tonight I will study some Swedish, and hopefully the next class will be a bit better.

se se se seven

Joining the others for 7 quick takes.

- 1 -

Monday. In the office. Freezing. Suspect that someone messed with the thermostat (that I messed with about a month ago to make my office a liveable temperature). Wish I had thought of this earlier so I could have checked it during my two seconds of alone-time in the office. I suppose not all of us plan extra bathroom breaks for the sole purpose of running warm water over their hands to return them to a functioning temperature. (In all fairness, I am extremely sensitive to temperatures. Usually I am freezing, but I can get equally unhappy if I overheat.)

- 2 -

Tuesday. I made it to the afternoon, but I have realized that my feet are now freezing. Not sure how long this has been going on. With foreknowledge of the office temperature, I thought I had prepared properly. wool socks, corduroy pants, wool shirt, sweater, second sweater. No such luck. I do have my scarf along today. And I can always put my hat on like I did yesterday. I guess I can try zipping my sweater up a bit more.

- 3 -

Wednesday. Getting better. The key is to wear four shirts.

- 4 -

These pictures were taken Ansel Adams style, as in, you get one shot and one shot only per day. So you better make it a good one. Or not.

The misery of being cold, as seen by my computer camera.

I am second-guessing whether it was Ansel Adams who took one photo per day or if that was another photographer, which led me to this article. I think it is a fascinating idea, but normally I am the type of person who either feels like taking pictures or doesn't. So some days get a lot of photos and some get none. However, the article is a nice reminder for me to take more care with composing photos.

- 5 -

Pie happened! I know I've kept you on your toes for a whole week plus four 'takes' wondering.. Will Meg & Greg make pie for Thanksgiving?! And oh yes they will. And they did! And the pies were deemed tasty! I had this great idea to set my camera in a corner of the kitchen and program it to take one photo every few minutes all night long. (I don't know if my camera can do this.) Then I would compile them into a little video clip. But I managed to not do this.

- 6 -

Oh and there will be fireworks on the first Sunday of Advent. This really secular country is really good at celebrating religious holidays.

- 7 -

A co-worker who had a baby about a month ago was visiting yesterday morning. She brought cake and pastries, so we really did have a bit of a feast (Swedish-style) in the morning. Another co-worker asked why we had so much food and someone told him she brought cake to celebrate her baby (even though the baby had not come to the office too). He had absolutely no idea that she had been pregnant or had a baby. Not sure how that goes unnoticed but leave it to a physicist to be capable of that.

The Lights of Uppsala

Throughout the month of November, there is a thing called The Lights of Uppsala going on throughout town. It basically consists of brightly colored lights in different places. I guess it has been going on for a few years now. I think the idea is that November is the darkest and dreariest month, because the days are getting longer and there is no snow yet. So the lights make things nicer and keep people from getting (too) depressed.

Here are some photos I took (with my small camera (meaning I have little to no control over how they turn out)) one evening.

New Bridge!

There is a new bridge in town, which is the talk of the town! We like the bridge because it makes our trip from work to Swedish class much nicer/shorter.
 

In true Swedish fashion, it is high-tech and awesome. We first heard that the bridge had opened at the physics and astronomy pub night. A group of astronomers arrived a bit later because they had to go out of their way so they could check out the bridge and do some "experiments". The bridge has a counter, which keeps track of the number of people who cross it. They ended up spending far too much time trying to figure out how it worked, because they wanted to know how accurate the counts were. And no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get the bridge to count them more than once.

Here is the total count for the day and the week.

And also for the year (which basically means since it opened a few weeks ago). I also might have noticed that it keeps different tallies for each direction. I am not positive, because I was on my bicycle, and I didn't stop to verify my suspicions. But I am almost nearly positive that it keeps track of the two directions separately.

The week in review in 7 quick takes.

I am a person who likes reading blogs and writing blogs. I have been a fan of the Conversion Diary blog for some time, and recently I've been thinking that I should play along with the 7 Quick Takes on Friday. I have been so close. Twice! Somehow six takes come easily, but not so much with the seventh (apologies in advance).

- 1 -

My new favorite Swedish word is 'tjabba'! Our svensklärare (Swedish teacher) told us it is his personal favorite, as far as greetings go. He said it is a somewhat dorky hello. (Update: In the following class he told us it was a "cool" way to say hello.) Also, it sounds like 'shabba'.

- 2 -

Greg and I are considering making some pies to bring to the office next Thursday. The only problem is that we would need a lot of pies. But can we really let Thanksgiving go unacknowledged?

- 3 -

Swedes are really into saffron during the Christmas season. I don't think I dislike saffron, but I'm not sure it is worth the excitement.

- 4 -

The foods that I miss the most from the US that I can't get here are those super soft delicious sugar cookies with frosting that I learned to lovingly refer to as "crack cookies" because they are entirely addicting.

I might have to try my hand at this recipe, which was the first link when I started to google "how do you make those su" and google suggested "how do you make those soft sugar cookies". Exactly, google. That was just what I wanted to search. You know me so well.

The other is the buffalo chicken wrap from Boloco (with dark meat chicken and extra buffalo sauce, of course). That thing is also addictingly good, and for some reason Boloco keeps sending emails about it. Probably just to remind me what I am missing.

- 5 -

Last Saturday there was a folk concert/dance at the cabin owned by the folk group here. I definitely signed up to go to that one. I actually wasn't entirely sure what I was signing up for, since the info was in Swedish, and sometimes google translates things in a bit of an odd way. The three musicians were awesome! They were a mother and her two daughters. I think they mainly played Bodapolskas, which is a specific type of polska that (I think) is named after a specific region in Sweden (the Boda region, of course (sounds like buddha). For dancing, there is also a specific Bodapolska dance, which is different from the regular original polska. Luckily the follow role is not unlike another dance I know, so I was able to join in without too much difficulty. Afterwards I watched some youtube videos and it turns out that the lead role is quite challenging, so it is a good thing I normally dance the follow role.

- 6 -

Although, at dance class on Monday, I decided I would try to hambo like a man. I had done the hambo enough times to feel somewhat comfortable with the woman's role. Plus there are extra women in the class. So I figured it would be a good chance to learn the lead role, especially since it is a beginner's course, so no one expects you to actually know what you are doing. Overall I'd call it a successful endeavor.

- 7 -

Now I'll talk about the weather. It is starting to get colder and darker. The cold I am fine with; it won't be any worse here than it was in NH or WI. The dark is pretty dark. Like right now it is 14:30 (that means 2:30) and it is just about dusk. There are good aspects though, like many candles in the windows of houses which feels quite cozy. And my morning commute is shortly after sunrise, so riding my bicycle with the sun in my eyes makes me feel like I get up so early. Luckily my helmet has a visor, so if I ride with my head down I don't get blinded! And lastly, every hour is a 'golden hour' because the sun is always at such a low angle.

Photos from lately

 

1. View of the cathedral from the castle, with a hint of the beginning of fall (this photo was not actually that recent).

 

2. My dad and the cannons outside of the castle.

 

3. Cannon.

 

4. A vibrantly bright autumn tree.

 

5. Saturday morning coffee and pastries at the konditori.

 

6. A bird seen out my office window, flying high to be in the sunlight after sunset.

TGIF - a listing

1. On Thursday we got the keys to our apartment. We like it a lot. In the bathroom there is a heated towel rack and a heated floor. I might have mentioned that once before, but it is worth repeating.

2. Somebody gets to spend his birthday moving. Unless of course we finish today. And in that case, somebody gets to spend his birthday shopping for things we might want in our apartment that are not already there.

3. I have ridden my new bicycle over 300 miles.

4. Our new commute is much shorter (maybe half the distance?) so my total mileage will be increasing more slowly now.

5. Greg and I are going to take Swedish courses. We've learned some of the language. Mainly, we can recognize food words (out of necessity at the grocery store). Pronunciation of words is tough though. I've been doing the Rosetta Stone course, which is helpful, but so far I've only been finding time to do that about once a week.

6. On Monday I get to go to a folk dance party! The student folkdance group at UU is quite good. You can read about the history of Philochoros here. The link is in Swedish, but google translate works wonders. So I've been taking their beginner course, which is open to more than just students. And on Monday, instead of our usual class, we are going to this cabin that is owned by the group. It is just outside the city, and it is quite rustic. There we will have a dance party! And sandwiches!

Sunday dinner

These photos aren't actually from today. They are from a Sunday dinner though, because Greg and I like to have roasted chicken on Sundays. And on this particular Sunday we also had apple crisp, with cream and also caramel ice cream. It was pretty spectacular.

I hope you don't get the impression that the dessert was more important than the dinner (based on the 4:1 ratio of photos). The problem was that the dinner was just so delicious that I forgot to take any photos until it was nearly all gone (hence the photo of the chicken carcass).

On weather and bicycles

Uppsala has gotten cold. This morning it was 3 degrees on the Celsius scale. I'm glad we are still above zero, because I'm not quite ready to try riding my bicycle over potentially icy roads. The good thing is that the act of riding my bicycle is a pretty good way to generate heat. Unfortunately, my fingertips, my feet, and my face don't really benefit from that. If I want to keep commuting in this manner during the winter I'm going to need some sort of face shield. I was in a store last weekend and saw these neoprene foot covers. They were pretty awesome, but probably a bit too nerdy for me to handle.

"I'm heading to the office!"
"Don't forget your foot booties to keep your feet warm!"

At any rate, the wind chill factor is not a factor to ignore while riding a bicycle. This is what I've learned.

I am also spending these days getting more acquainted with my bicycle. If you were wondering how much I can haul on my bicycle, it is quite a lot. Last weekend Greg and I survived a trip to Ikea, and we had our bikes loaded up with pillows, blankets, and towels. The need for our own linens and things is due to our upcoming move. We will finally have our own apartment, which we are pretty happy about. Finding an apartment in Uppsala is completely ridiculous, so I am glad we found one we like, and I am also glad that our temporary living situation has been as good as it has.

The new apartment is in a neighborhood that does not require riding my bicycle up a large hill to get to the office. I would say that is my favorite feature, but really, my favorite is the towel heating rack and the heated floor in the bathroom. What a great European delight!

Food and meals in Sweden

Back in NH, many of my meals were often prepared quickly, with the exception of my cooking streak during July when I wasn't working. Often, when things get busy, spending time cooking loses priority. We had a good variety of quick meals, either to make ourselves, or something inexpensive that was already made.

Here in Sweden, eating out is almost always expensive. Lunch is cheaper than dinner, but usually I am perfectly content eating sandwiches for lunch. In general, I haven't really built up a collection of quick meals to make. It is easy to make spaghetti, because it is obvious that tomatoes are tomatoes, and pasta is pasta. Finding the right spices took a little bit of time, but that got sorted out. Apparently mac&cheese is not a thing here. Although I just remembered that I saw a box of cheese sauce in the section with the sausage, so I'll have to try that sometime. But when we first got here and I wanted mac&cheese, I had to make my own cheese sauce. From real cheese!

So I am getting good experiences with cooking, but again, I don't really want to be spending too much time with cooking. One way I am cutting corners is with instant mashed potatoes. I remember eating them when I was a kid, and they were flakes that you mixed with milk and butter and salt. Now (or maybe just here in Sweden), the instant mashed potatoes are a powder. You just add hot water. It is as easy as making tea!

I'll apologize now that none of these paragraphs really flow or have nice transitions.

The other day, I found what looked to be a granola bar. It was in the gluten free section, where I was looking to find some oats (I eventually found them by the rice, and then I made a delicious apple crisp.). And it was delicious!!

I ate this yesterday before leaving the office. It had oats in it. And maybe oat flour? And some vegetable oil. And cranberries and pumpkin seeds of course. It was super delicious, and with 250 kcal of energy, it definitely held me over until I could get dinner. Greg also had one, and he said it tasted like cookie dough, so it makes sense why I thought it was so delicious.

I also love that it says "On-the go!" which is a bit of a novelty here. In the US, it seems typical to be eating foods on-the-go, or at least snacking on foods throughout the day. This does not seem to be the case here. Actually, I've noticed that in the European airports I have been in lately, people generally do not eat food outside of the designated restaurant areas. Foods seem to be eaten as meals, and proper meals only. No grazing here. Unless you are me, and you stocked up on Flapjack cranberry & pumpkin seed bars:)

Bicycling in the rain

Before today I always opted to ride the bus to work on rainy days, rather than taking my bicycle. Today however, today was a day for riding a bicycle in the rain. A quick check of the weather forecast made me realize that the afternoon and evening would be clear and nice. Plus the rain wasn't coming down too hard. I've been prepared to ride in the rain. I have a rain jacket now that is actually waterproof, plus I have rain pants. Combine that with my hiking boots and I become fully waterproof, with the exception of my face and my hands.

I used the technique of putting the hood of my rain jacket under my helmet. It blocked out some of my hearing, but it also kept the visor of my hood in place, so I didn't have to look like this:

That is not me, by the way. But it is what most people look like while riding bicycles in this town. Another popular technique is to wear a poncho that covers the handlebars and anything you might be carrying on the back of your bicycle. Like this:

That is also not me. The other option, which seems the most ridiculous and ineffective is to hold an umbrella. There might be a time and a place for this, like if you are riding a tandem bicycle on Mackinac Island, but otherwise, I just wouldn't recommend it.

All in all, I didn't mind riding my bicycle in the rain. The really unfortunate part was that it was also incredibly windy, and the wind was against me. The wind never seems to be blowing in the direction I am going. Either way, I am glad to have gotten past my first bicycle ride in the rain. Now the only thing left to look forward to is riding my bicycle in the snow!

Sweden purchases so far, and other things

Aside from food and beverage, these are the items I (we) have purchased in Sweden so far:
- rain coat
- umbrella
- pack cover
- bicycles
- helmets
- bike lights
- bike locks
- bike basket
- alarm clock
- a cell... ahem mobile phone

Other observations:

Greg spotted a wild hedgehog! It was awesome and adorable.

Here they call cilantro koriander. Which I suppose makes sense, although I didn't know for a long time that coriander is the seed that makes a cilantro plant.

I also made progress with getting a bank account, which is good, since I need one to be paid.

Despite the fact that people might be advertising hallways for rent, we are also making some progress on the apartment-finding-front. We updated our ad to say that we are 'scientists' looking for an apartment to rent instead of just a 'couple', and we also changed the photo to one of our engagement photos. Updating your ad also bumps you back to the top of the list. So some combination of these factors is contributing to more housing options than we had previously.

Snapshots of my evening

Princess Cake! Greg spotted these two slices of princess cake at the ICA (sounds like eeka). I am probably going to spend some time rating the quality of any princess cake I can get my hands on. I am still not sure why it is green, but I don't mind.

A telephone! No, I was not hanging out with some child and taking a photo of their toy cell phone. This is a real phone, and it is mine, and it works with a Swedish number. 

And I took this bonus picture of Greg as he was looking away.

Somewhat of a real update

We are arrived in Sweden. I've been going to work for about a week. We still don't have an apartment. There is a severe shortage of rentals available. However, if you feel inclined to buy, it only takes about a week. I have had good luck at the migration board and the tax office. At the migration board, I needed to have my photo and fingerprints taken. And they mailed me a card (like an ID card, but it is actually not the same as a Swedish ID card, which is something you can get at the tax office). They said it would take about a week to get the card, but it arrived in just two days. And once I had my card I could get my personal number, which is like a social security number. It consists of your birthday (yymmdd) and a dash and four other digits. When you get to be 100 years old it changes to your birthday and a plus sign and then your four digits.

After just one week of being here I gave a seminar. It was really only space physicists who were there. Maybe about a dozen of them. For me, I need a really large amount of time to prepare my presentation. I spent a really long time putting it together. It took particularly long because I had hastily transferred files from my old dying Mac to my new laptop the day before we had left. So the organization was lacking, which added to the time. Overall I think it ended up being fine, and it was not too short, which was one of my main concerns.

Greg is giving a seminar in the astronomy department in a week or two. I'm going to go so I can find out what he is working on.

I want to buy a bike soon so that I can get used to riding before the snow comes. There are so many bike paths everywhere, and I've been told they are plowed in the winter, so they should be good for riding year-round.

The only non-food purchases I've made so far have been for rain gear. I have a really sweet Swedish rain coat now. And an umbrella. And a waterproof pack cover which was too small for my backpack, but fits Greg's perfectly.

Oh and on Saturday is the 100 year celebration of Eric Sahlström, and there will be a lesson in Swedish folk dancing on Saturday. We are going, for sure.

I haven't really learned any Swedish yet. I was going to start my Rosetta Stone lessons, but it turns out that super fancy brand new amazing macs that you get for your work don't come with a CD drive. But one of the guys in the lab is going to get one that I can use. So hopefully I can get that going soon! Greg and I also might take some classes in town which start in September.

Daily log - Sweden

Here there are no screens on the windows. This means that there are not enough bugs for it to be a problem, which is really quite nice.

Apparently Swedes eat tacos on Friday. If you eat something else on a Friday, you are not a true Swede.

Here, there is not a very extensive cheese selection. Growing up in Wisconsin and also living in Vermont really contributed to my love of cheese. And even though I never took full advantage of the wide variety of cheeses, I still appreciated having the option. Luckily we did manage to find a (huge) brick of cheddar (which probably cost us $15-$25?).

Also, there is a thing called Princess Cake. I couldn't find it at the grocery store (so I ended up with a chocolately thing that was weird after the first bite, somewhat good after the second bite, and really super delicious right up to the end), but when I was flipping through an Ikea catalogue, I noticed that Princess Cake is on sale during Oktober! 10 SEK for princess cake and a coffee!


Swedish sayings (so I've been told):

There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

Swedes are happy in the minor key.

Sweden, as it becomes less of an oddity

I can already tell that things I am not used to are no longer seeming as strange or out of the ordinary as they first did. But for now many of these things are still memorable, and here I will recall what I can.

The doors continue to perplex me. First I can never tell if they are push or pull. Then I try both and sometimes neither works. Oh because there is a little lever that needs turning first. So I turn the lever and push, and it turns out that you need to turn the lever and pull. Or sometimes there is a button off to the side of the door. Yesterday I started to try the doors in whatever way was opposite to my intuition. So far, I've only gotten one door right on the first try.

Speaking of going through doors. The thresholds are also raised slightly higher than I am used to. So you are not allowed to shuffle through any door. You must step over the threshold or stub your toe. This is particularly important for bathrooms, which have an even higher threshold.

Yesterday we ate pizza like a Swede! With salad! But this does not mean what you think. Luckily we had a Swede demonstrate the technique, so we knew we were doing it right. The 'salad' is really like a spicy, oil/vinegar-based coleslaw. And you just put it on top of your pizza. It is pretty delicious.

I learned my raincoat is no longer waterproof. So today I will try to figure out how or where to buy something that is waterproof.

There is actually an actual Swedish craigslist! I had been calling blocket.se the equivalent of a Swedish craigslist, which is the website I've been searching for apartments on.

And apparently if you buy an apartment in Sweden it takes about a week.

When riding on the bus, you need to hold up your card and push a button. I have realized that the locals actually push the button with the card, so I tried that out. There are a LOT of buses and also a LOT of bicycles.

Oh and I met a Swedish vegetarian, which I didn't really think was possible. He has lived his whole life as a vegetarian, and apparently it is not entirely uncommon.

First Sweden Observations

Travels to Sweden were successful. We have arrived, without any issues. Our layover at Heathrow was awesome and totally painless, which was surprising considering it was the day after the olympics ended. We had a long layover and spotted a lot of athletes.

On the plane from London to Stockholm we got sandwiches called "coronation chicken." And they were very delicious.

The Stockholm airport is very nice. Customs was a breeze, which was nice. The train is also very nice, although it is not easy to get large amounts of luggage onto the train without being in people's way. Yeah, we are Americans, and we have a lot of luggage. This is why there are stereotypes. In my defense, I think two suitcases (one jumbo, one regular) plus a backpack and a briefcase are rather reasonable when going to a place for a year.

Our travels (from doorstep to hotelstep) took just about 24 hours. The following are observations from the next 24 hours.

People say 'hej hej' as a greeting. Hej sounds like Hey. I've heard them say goodbye as something sounding like hey-lo.

There are a LOT of pregnant ladies here. Or people with small children. Or ladies who are pregnant who also have small children. Often if there is a couple with a small child, the dad will be carrying the child in a fancy baby-wearing device.

Some crosswalk signs show images of a big cat and two small cats crossing.

A fire extinguisher has a sign by it that says Skum.

Yesterday for dinner we had kabob med bröd. That means kabob with bread. Except that it wasn't a kabob, it was thinly sliced meat. And there was lettuce and tomato and sauce and it was delicious. Greg and I like kabob.

For a traffic light that is red, an additional yellow light will come on for about a second, and then both go off and the green light goes on.