Finally! An Update!

Sorry for the long time between updates, but I've been doing things almost every day since I arrived here. The sun rises around 10am and sets before 1.30pm. There is almost no snow at all, and the weather is relatively warm with temperatures being often positive during the day.

David and I got so many wonderful Christmas presents. A set of matching sheets, a food processer, a blender, a knife set, books, a basket for fika goodies, hair stuff, video game stuff, usb memory sticks, a bathrobe, and masses of other small presents. I'm so spoiled! Christmas was wonderful because it felt so much like Christmas back in the US. Lots of people, good food, presents everywhere, excited children, and lots of sitting around the table talking.

We've been meeting up with David's friends relatively often as well. Lunch, evenings playing games, evenings just talking, and of course, the random meetings in town. We've done a bit of shopping, played some video games, and generally been taking it pretty easy between running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

We've been eating LOTS of Christmas food. We ate it for Christmas Eve, Christmas day, the day after Christmas... and now we are working on the leftovers! I've never seen so much sill in my life!

So far it's been wonderful up here, and I'm looking forward to moving to Skellefteå this summer. It will be nice to have our own place with a bit of privacy though. This is very much like being back in my mom's house! Which is nice for awhile, but a fledged bird shouldn't return to its nest! I miss having my own apartment with my own kitchen sometimes. It's great to visit though and not have to do cooking for a few days! Anyways, we'll be back in Uppsala January 2nd. We'll see if I manage to update again before then. No promises!

In Skellefteå!

Well, we finally made it north. And here there is snow! Today I am just completely exhausted because of all the traveling yesterday. We didn't land until almost midnight. It feels good to be somewhere that is a bit more Christmasy though!

So far only one thing is a bit messed up. I turned my cell phone off for the flight, but now I can't get it back on because I don't know the pin code. I've never used it except when I first got the phone. So later on David and I will go bother the Telia store and see if they can set me up with a pin-code that will work. Otherwise, I'm cellphone less for 2 weeks. At least I won't pay much in calls then?

Long time, no write

It's been busy here! I just now finished my home exam (Hemtenta) and mailed it in to the professor. Tomorrow night, David and I will fly up to Skellefteå. Today we did six loads of laundry while cleaning the apartment and studying and cooking and playing Zelda. Tomorrow we will pack, wrap the last of the presents, and go to Ikea, all before our flight leaves.

I'll try to still update from the far north in this land of cold and ice, but we'll see. Speaking of cold and ice... we were below freezing the entire day today. This is a first in more than a month I believe. Some December in Sweden this is! Where is the snow and ice?

Crunch Time

With Christmas just around the corner, the end of the semester stuff, and everything else, it will be a very busy week here. I have lectures or seminars every day this week. Thursday I have to do a presentation on a paper that I haven't even done the research for yet. I also have the last of my Christmas shopping to do and some Christmas cards to deliver still. David and I need to find some time to return to Ikea and buy a few more things and to replace the defective bookshelf board. I also have a hemtenta this weekend. The 18th David and I fly up to Skellefteå. Busy Busy Busy!

I'm thinking to maybe take a break from drinking too. This last weekend was a bit rough. Two drinking days. Even though I only had three ciders each night, it still seems a bit much. Every weekend it seems there is a new party. Maybe I'll go until New Years without drinking, but I think until Christmas will be good enough.

Oh, and I've made the somewhat adult choice that I'm not going to spend money getting my hair done until I'm earning money again. Not having a job right now means I'm only spending money and not ever getting new money into my bank account. 1000kr just to get my hair done is a bit expensive right now, so I'll wait. Annoying, but since we've been spending money on more fun things right now, getting my hair done isn't going to happen.

Cool Stuff

First thing first, I finally got all the pictures from the apartment online. There are before pictures and after pictures and in between pictures. You can see what the apartment looked like before we went to IKEA as well as what it looks like now.

Also, David and I got up early Friday morning and went and sat outside a toy store to get a Nintendo Wii. They only had 5 and we were 5th in line. We chose a very good place to wait, it was inside a mall, heated, dry, and we had music. The Wii is David's present from his younger brother. A very cool present. We have two games right now, the Wii Sports that the system game with and we bought Wii Play (and an extra numchuck). We have pre-ordered Zelda, but we haven't got that one yet. The game system is so cool! Even Peter plays it and he almost never plays video games with us. The new controls are easy enough that even a small child could handle it.

We are looking forward to Christmas very much. Next week David and I have to do the last of our Christmas shopping. I have a presentation on a paper I haven't started to research yet and a take home exam next weekend. So I'll give David lots of time to play his Wii without me bothering him.

Last night we went out to a nation and danced a lot. It reminded me that my knee isn't quite healed yet from the last bike crash. Tonight we will go to Sara and Anders place for a party I think. This is a busy weekend!

I exist!

Last night I didn't sleep very well. I kept waking up. When I finally got up in order to go to class... we had no running water. Studentstaden, our housing company, had turned it off again. I found enough water in a glass to brush my teeth, but that was it. Lectures at school today were relatively boring too.

But lots of good things happened to me today too. I got a package from my little brother, written in my mom's handwriting. I'm not sure if my brother even knows he sent me a Christmas present. But that is another present under our little Christmas tree. I got an even better piece of mail too. A letter from Skatteverket. I now have a personal number! I can do all sorts of things now that I officially exist. I can get an ICA kort. I can change my bank account over to a real number. I can own my own cell phone. I can tell the university my new real number so that I'm listed correctly. I can get a Swedish ID card (they even sent me the paperwork for this one). I can sign up for SFI (Swedish for immigrants). I can get healthcare! This is just beyond cool. I still have to deal with the immigration authorities a bit, but that should be much easier now that I have a personal number. It is nice to actually exist.

Oh, and I mailed out most of the Christmas cards. I have 4 more still to write, but since they should be done in Swedish, I'm going to make David write them.

Furnished Apartment

The apartment is mostly done now. All the furniture is where it belongs and put together. We still have a fair bit of organizing to do, but the apartment looks much better. I wrote out most of the Christmas cards today too, and did some cleaning. Every time we moved anything in the apartment we found more dust. I swear we need to move things around more often when dusting! I will take the last of the pictures tomorrow morning and get them online hopefully by the end of the week. Then you can see pictures of the newly furnished apartment. It is quite cool.

Ikea list

Here's what we bought at Ikea yesterday. I figured that someone would want a list. The receipt is 68cm long.

A GORM bookshelf (bought in pieces) - 246kr
BONNY Computer Chair - 695kr
Armrests to BONNY Chair - 270kr
BESTå 4 Bookshelves - 1580kr
10 extra shelves - 390kr
INDEX Curtain Rod - 39kr
NOT Floor/reading light - 139kr
PULT light for entryway - 79kr
DOKUMENT thing for holding papers - 89kr
5 Paper bags - 10kr
FOTO light for over the table - 99kr
REGOLIT light for the hallway - 19kr
DIMPA clothes basket - 59kr
FADO bedroom light - 189kr
4 sets of hangers - 36kr
GENIAL candles - 15kr
KULLEN wardrobe - 845kr
FNISS trashcan - 38kr
KASSETT storage boxes - 138kr
AGGER rug for desk - 25kr
NäSTVED rug for bedroom - 149kr
NäCKTEN bathroom rug - 15kr
2 365+ Containers for flour/sugar - 70kr
Lightbulbs - 265kr
LENA curtains - 249kr
REDA whisk - 39kr
REDA noodle strainer - 15kr
CHARM measuring cups - 9kr
CHARM funnels -9kr
LISBET hotmats - 29kr
SNITTA knives - 39kr
LEGITIM cutting boards - 19kr
BYGEL metal basket for bathroom - 19kr
IDEALISK whisk - 9kr
KNOCIS balloon whisk - 39kr
IDEALISK potato masher - 89kr
INDEX curtain enders - 58kr
KOPPLA light connectors - 20kr
365+ Pepper Grinder - 49kr
12 SVEPA glasses - 39kr
FOTHULT sofa - 2495kr

Total - 8744kr

DUKA Chairs - 998kr


So far the only room done is the living room. It still needs some more pictures on the walls, but the room looks quite nice. I've been taking quite a few photos as we build and arrange furniture in our apartment. Pictures will be up in a few days when we are done with the apartment. We will be making another Ikea trip in a week or two though. We need another shelf for the GORM shelf in the living room, another curtain thing for the front door. The curtain rod we bought was too short. We want some pillow for the couch and maybe a few other things that we'll gradually be noticing that we don't have. Some candle holders for near the TV for example.