an update

Well, it looks like i've become a little lazy with the blog and i really have no great excuse. My life has become a bit busier lately, and the internet hasn't been working, so i guess those count for something. As Calvin said in response to this (imagine an overdone southern accent): "Darn Swedish internet service! I just knew it couldn't be as good as the 'Mericn kind."

I can't believe I have been here for a whole month now! I feel some days quite settled here, and other days it still feels so foreign. I have been living and working with my au pair family for 2 weeks now and we already love each other so much. I can't imagine having a better family. We really fit together, and as Hanna Klum (the mamma) said the other day, "what if you were the type that wanted to go out to the casino in Stockholm in your spare time?" Instead, I work in their garden and bake them apple cakes, which suits both of us so well. Alexander is too cute for words. Even though he has no idea who I really am or why i am here, he completely embraces my presence in his life, and asks for "hannawhite" when I am not home. :)

I have been cycling a lot, and now I'm borrowing Hanna's bike with the baby seat on the back so I'm sure I'm mistaken for a young mom, especially when I'm toting Alexander around on the back. :) I'm also manuvering my way around these Swedish highways in their manual car, which I am still quite a newbie at, and it makes the confusing signs and traffic rules even more complicated. But that is nearly the extent of my stresses here, so I have nothing to complain of.

I am taking Swedish for beginners through the folkuniversitet (literally's the people's univ.) which will begin in September, and I am looking forward to studying Swedish in a more formal way. For now, I am just picking it up as I go and jotting down some words on a list we've started specially to help me understand Alexander's vocabulary. I also found a course entitled "Global Challenges and Sustainable Futures" offered at Uppsala University for free which will meet every Monday night this fall and I hope will give me some intellectual stimulation. I hope it will also connect me with some like-minded students here to have friendships with.

A couple interesting notes beyond my everyday life.....it seems that Sweden is all about learning. There are countless ways to keep learning once one is out of college. Beyond the folkuniversities, which offer music, art, language, and other courses, unique to Sweden is something called a "study circle." This is a very informal, inexpensive gathering of 10 or so people who are interested in learning the same thing. I suppose one of the people in the course is more knowledgable than the rest, but as far as I know it is very much a group-learning experience. So if you want to learn to say, speak Italien or knit, you can join one of these circles! It seems like a nice idea to me, and a way to keep aquiring knowledge and skills of all kinds as you grow older.

Another note...in Uppsala people heat their homes and run the city busses on "biogas", a product produced when everyone's trash is burned. So they solve both the problems of waste/landfills, and the overuse of fossil fuels with this system. Nice.

The days have been lovely here.....the temp. is around 75, the blåbär (blueberrys), ligonberries, and mushrooms are in the forests available for the taking, and the apples are delicious and in abundance. Tomorrow Erik and I will go to a worship service being held in the forest. Once a year Uppsala has a kind of "skogen dag" (forest day) and in addition to this service there are some family activities going on. The forests here are amazing....the above picture is typical of here (white birches), but there are also forests with lots of pines, firs, and moss-covered stones. Today I took my hammock into the woods for a nap and when walking around afterwards in a sleeply state, I felt almost as if the forest itself eminated a sort of tranquil, fairy-land like potion on it's inhabitants. I can easily imagine now where all the great children's writers from Sweden got their inspiration for their books filled with scences from nature.
More later....Hej då for now!

a preview into my au pair life

I have met my family. My new family, that is, the Klums, who I will be living and working for this year in Sweden. I have become so used to living in Erik's house and enjoying a vacation-lifestyle with his family that I've almost forgotten one of my major purposes in coming here. The days of soaking in the sun and doing whatever we what whenever we want are over, yet I am full of excited anticipation over this new phase in my life here.

Erik and I rode our bikes over to my future home last Sunday afternoon to have cake, coffee, and conversation with Hanna, Mats, Jonatan (13), and Alexander (2.5). Fredrika (16) is away with a cousin for the week. It was a delightful 2 hours together, and Erik and I rode away on our bikes grinning from ear to ear and exclaiming about all the things we'd been thinking but had contained in the presence of the Klums. Let me explain. This family has to be one of the kindest and most wonderful in Sweden, and are only warm, loving, and welcoming to me. Here I am, coming to work for them, taking care of their most dearest possesions (their children) and yet they seem only concerned with making my time here a comfortable and enjoyable one. They gave us a tour of their new home, which is actually an old home from the 1930s which they are renovating enough to make it livable but still keeping its character. The floors, wooden ceilings, old iron door fixtures, and secret-looking hallways and windows are gorgeous. My room is in a little house attached to the big house, but with its own entrance and own small kitchen. Hanna asked, "here, why don't you pick out the paint color since it's your place?" Outside my door is a small white wooden table with two chairs "for your morning coffee," and "you need a bike? oh, we can fix up one of ours for you." I went to sleep smiling that night just thinking how God often gives us beyond what we need.

That was a pleasant, calm time together, spent in grown-up conversation, getting to know each other and talking about my future work for them. On Tuesday I got a real idea of what my work will include: me and the 2 boys spent the day at this huge indoor/outdoor pool in Uppsala with hundreds of crazy swedish children and potential hazards (drowning, slipping on the hard floor, etc). I realized then just how important it will be for me to learn Swedish quickly, because little Alexander has no idea I do not speak his language, and only gives me blank stares if I try a few English words on him. Just trying to get his bathing suit on him was difficult, because there I was in the changing room, searching my brain for the word "bathing suit" and the words needed to convince him that we were at this really cool pool and if he'd only put his suit on we could go swim! In just a few hours I learned countless new words as he was bubbling over with comments about all he was seeing. (he LOVES to take baths apparently, so this was the ultimate water experience)

I will move for now into the Klum's old home, just a few houses down from Erik's, while we await more renovations. This will make the transition from Erik's basement to a whole 5 minutes bikeride away a bit easier, I suppose. :)

coffee in the rain

To all who read my humble blog, I hope you're enjoying the news from Sweden. I could write forever about all I am seeing and thinking, but I'll try to keep this succinct. My days here so far have been nothing but lovely. The weather has been in the 60s and 70s, with an open, sunny sky and huge, soft clouds. I adore the Swedish countryside and don't think i'll ever grow weary of drinking it in.

Erik lives in an ideal location. In one direction you can walk to the small grocery store in 5 minutes. (which we do almost every day to buy the ingredients for dinner:) In another you can hop on your bike and be in the beautiful city of Uppsala, and in another you can walk straight into fields of wheat and dark forests with endless paths. A car is only needed in rare circumstances. Everyone, from the elderly to children to the punkiest 20-something, rides a bike, complete with a large basket for your groceries and other items, and a little bell to ring when you want to pass another cycler.

We have been spending the days having slow breakfasts on the porch, taking walks in the beautiful forests (they really have a magical feel about them....i'm sure i'll spend a whole blog on them later), riding bikes to town, and we have even been swimming! yes, for about 30 seconds today I endured the cold northern waters, and I thought longingly of the lakes at home which have such a perfectly mild temperature. Erik, Siri, his Mamma, and I took the car to a little "beach" today, spread our blankets on the grass, and had a lovely time lying in the not-too-hot sun, reading and drinking the dark coffee we brought along. (because we were eager to get to our desination this morning, the coffee and mugs were tugged along with us:) I couldn't quit smiling at the beach today, just watching all the Swedish children, blond and half-naked, engrossed in their child's play; climbing trees, finding oysters, freezing in the water. Sweden is really a family-country. There are always places provided for children to be; little tables at the cafe, a spot in stores for playing, and plentiful playgrounds.

Yesterday Erik and I picked all the red currants from his mother's bushes, and after eating a delicious pie made with a few of the berries, we froze the rest for the winter. We have now picked and eaten wild strawberries, rasperries, blueberries, and currants. The blueberries here grow nearly on the ground, not at all like at home on large bushes, and they are smaller and more tart. Other food news: The Swedes do love their coffee, and I've enjoyed the daily after-dinner cup, though I'm not yet able to drink it black. The yogurt here is very delectable, and somewhat of a cross between a plain yogurt and a sweet one. With a little jam in it in the mornings it is perfect.

My Swedish is coming along, and I'm being patient for the day when it subconsciously flows out of my mouth. Every day I understand a little more of the conversations around me and I am saying what I can in Swedish. Soon I will move in with my au pair family and I would like to speak mostly Swedish with the children, so that will improve it a lot. It is a humbling thing to not understand every word spoken around you, and I think it can be healthy to be able to relate to how isolated so many people in America must feel (illegal immigrant or not) when they don't speak English.

One more bit of news...the other day Erik and I biked to the organic food/home store and I purchased lettuce, spinach, and radish seeds and am hoping to get a small harvest before the winter sets in. I planted them in pots and it feels good to again watch things grow. I miss our garden at home and the huge harvests we were getting just as I left.

More news later....hej då for now!

p.s. the picture is from Stockholm where we spent the day on sunday

first day in sweden!!

There is so much to say, and i'm not sure where to begin. i am well, and i write from erik's house in sweden. i had a safe and uneventful flight here on malaysian airlines, which comes with strange meals and flight attendents who wear traditional dresses and green eyeshadow. erik was waiting for me when i arrived in the beautifully scandinavian-designed stockholm airport. we ran to catch a train out to uppsala, and his mamma picked us up in town in their blue volvo station wagon. She is very kind and we're communicating in small ways through her english and my poor swedish.
My first impression of Sweden as the train passed through the countryside was that it really is as "Swedish" as I could have imagined. Does that make sense? The houses really are wooden and painted yellow and red, and flowers abound, and birch trees dot the landscape, and there really are berries everywhere! The Brattbergs home is so darling, with lots of light wood and white walls and books and houseplants. Everything is small, and European. We had a late breakfast when we arrived of delicious "ekologisk" (organic) yogurt, with homemade current jam and museli. And Erik made an awesome round loaf of bröd (bread) yesterday and we also had that with butter and good cheese. And coffee of course.
After lunch we took a walk and not 100 meters from his house are these wide open fields of wheat and pastures where sheep graze and several acres of community gardens.....which just made me drool and i loved seeing what is growing here. unfortunately, i didn't see many (ok, any) tomatoes, but there were lots of potatoes, dill, lettuce, onions, greens, flowers, and herbs. There are countless paths everywhere, and bikes abound. Klas, Erik, and I walked to the grocery store before dinner, and I knitted while the boys cooked a delious meal of salmon, asparagus, and boiled small potatoes all smothered with a buttery leek sauce. Siri came over after dinner so now i've met everyone in the family. More than ever I can't wait to improve my swedish, and I feel it will come quickly as it is all around me.
A few more interesting notes....there are little playgrounds everywhere, and wild apple trees, and the soil is dark black, and the sun set around 11 last night! There will be more news and some pictures to come. Today Erik and I will bike to town and see Uppsala! For now, coffee calls. I love and miss you all!

lists

I don't know about every else out there, but I love making lists. Activities and events of all kinds make it on to my lists. Nothing is too insignificant to be written down. The daily "to do" lists are always nice, and it feels satisfying to cross each item off as the task is completed. The meal list and grocery list is a fun one to pour over, with cookbooks strewn around to get ideas from and with the garden's bounty always in mind. I'll admit I've gone too far. In eigth grade, my first in public school, I even wrote down what I wore each day so that I could reference my list and not commit the crime of wearing the same outfit within too short a time span. Thankfully I'm over that fear and now when I find a new combination to wear I can't seem to move on and I up wearing the same thing for days. :)

These days I'm working on my packing list for Sweden, and this is indeed one of the most exciting to make. As I write my list my mind drifts to all the exciting times ahead of me and the new places I'll get to see and smell and taste and feel. I must plan for several months, in a new climate, in a fashionable society, keeping in mind that it's not a third world country (i can buy things there if i forget something, for goodness sakes!) yet remembering how expensive it is (don't forget all the basics then have to fork over extra for shampoo and undies!). I want to keep it simple, yet not constantly wish when i was there that i had brought such and such book or picture or drawing supplies. For all you world travelers out there, what are the essentials included on your lists? What are the special luxeries you always like to bring along? And advice is welcome!

children's literature

I am already in love with Elsa Beskow, though we've just become acquainted. She was a Swedish author who wrote and illustrated children's books in the first half of the 20th century. Since I met my Swedish boyfriend Erik and am now soon moving to Sweden myself, I have become mildly obsessed with anything Swedish. I know the grass seems (fill in the blank: greener, more special, beautiful, interesting, European) on the other side, but it really seems that a lot of what comes out of Sweden is just plain wonderful. A friend of mine named Janke, a fellow lover-of-all-things-Swedish, first introduced me to Beskow, and she showed me the old copies of the books (translated into Dutch as she is from Holland) that she read to her children. The books drew me in. Elsa Beskow's illustrations are simple and breathtaking. Her stories are rooted in nature and inspire children to romp around in the woods and use their imaginations.
I happened to find an old copy of Pelle's New Suit in the library the other day. It tells the tale of a little boy who shears his pet lamb, exchanges weeding in his grandmother's garden for her to spin the wool, chops the tailor's wood so he will make the suit, and in the end Pelle says to his lamb:
"Thank you very much for my new suit, little lamb."
"Ba-a-ah," said the lamb, and it almost sounded as if the lamb were laughing.

This story gives children important lessons about the process of making clothing, and it shows them the value of exchanging labor for labor instead of always paying money. Pelle didn't spend a dime on his new suit. Instead, he spent the whole day helping his grandmothers and neighbors, working hard and lessening their load in exchange for their skills (carding, spinning, weaving, sewing) on his suit.
Elsa Beskow has written many adorable children's books; check out Peter in Blueberry Land and Children of the Forest to see more of her work. Her books are definitely already on my (future) children's booklist. :)

the detailed hospitality of l'abri

I imagine most people, like me, have felt the desire at some point in life to take time out to really rest... in every sense of the word. To feel no guilt in taking the time for quiet reflection. To consider what you are living for and what you really believe in the deepest part of you. Rarely is this yearning able to be realized, for we are always in the middle of a million things, and people need us and school and work calls us to continue plugging away at our lives at a faster pace. L'abri fellowship, a shelter for weary souls situated in the Swiss Alps, provides those who come with a unique opportunity to rest and reflect, and the atmosphere there is a large part of l'abri's ability to facilitate such rest. I am so thankful for the few months I spent at l'abri last fall, and I often remember those months with an impossible wish to be instantly transported back to that place and time. I won't for a moment pretend that 35 people living in one chalet isn't often loud with bursts of laughter and ping pong tournaments and hectic with meals for hungry 20-somethings involving pots of soup so big you could drown in them and 7 loaves of homemade bread. Yet, even with the hectic times there exists at l'abri a feeling that sitting and reading for several hours if desired is entirely appropriate and not at all a waste of one's time. Or that spending an evening knitting and listening to someone read aloud is a perfect idea, or that stopping for long, meaningful conversations during the day should occur regularly. In fact, though in our day to day lives we often experience guilty feelings for indulging in what may not be "official" important work, l'abri makes activities like sitting and talking with friends while sharing nibbles on a bar of chocolate seem like one's calling.

I think this aspect of life at l'abri is brought about partly by the way small things are given attention. This shows that nothing is too insignificant to deserve our time and effort. When I first arrived, weary from a long flight and a gorgeous train ride that forced my sleepy eyes to stay open, I was shown where I would sleep and I was struck with the neatly made bed I was directed to with a towel folded on the foot of it with a small piece of swiss chocolate on top of that. Someone had taken the time to prepare for my coming, and I felt welcome because of their effort. As I made my way into the main gathering room at l'abri, I was invited to join the other students for tea time, which i soon learned was a twice daily occurance. No matter how much work there was to be done, at 11:00 am and 4:30 pm, hot tea (black and herbal) with milk, sugar and cookies on the side, was served on a little cart which was wheeled out of the kitchen. Whoever was on work duty gathered at Chalet Bellevue to relax for 1/2 an hour. A ping-pong game often followed tea, and usually someone picked up a guitar to strum a little or sat at the piano to play. This first tea time immediately struck me as something to note for my future...something to include in my own life own day.

One of the first meals I helped prepare at l'abri was memorable because of the details involved. Every evening meal involved candles lit and the table set just so, but this late september evening we finished preparing the food early, so my friend merrie and i were sent on the important mission of collecting wildflowers for the table. As we hiked along the small roads and trails alongside the steep cow pastures, listening to the tinkering of cow bells and carefully searching for the last few flowers before the frost, I felt that there was nothing more pressing to be doing, nothing more urgent or significant than gracing the table with flowers. I imagined that Edith Schaeffer would have done just the same thing when she was there managing the meals. I believe that Edith largely created this atmosphere at l'abri of detailed hospitality, which most importantly involved caring about individual people. This is true hospitality. No matter what material things are able to be offered to a friend or stranger, a listening, caring ear and a loving word is what we all need most. L'abri managed to provide both listening ears and an atmosphere where beauty was valued, and for that i am thankful and inspired to do the same.