Sköldpaddan och jordgubben

I don't want to write this post. But at this point, I'm resigned to the fact that we won't get a true winter in southern Sweden. The Swedes also seem to be resigned to this, as do the flowers. A bit hard to see but the crocus and other spring bulbs are already starting to push through the dirt in the picture to the left. I love winter. I love snow. One of the reasons we moved to Sweden for the year was to really get to experience winter- to be able to put on cross country skis and go ski out our door. We keep laughing at ourselves, as it turns out Stockholm doesn't actually get that much snow in the winter. A bit of geography research and we could have figured that out. As November grayed into December, we enjoyed the holiday lights and were assured that come the new year, the temperatures would plummet. We'd get plenty of ice and even maybe some snow. In August, Chris and Stephen were running around a nearby lake: people were training on how to self-rescue...

Cover of the newly minted Dr. Grech-Madin's dissertation, drawn by her.   Yesterday, Charlotte Grech-Madin defended her PhD at Uppsala University's Peace & Conflict Research Department. Her subject? The Water Taboo: Restraining the Weaponisation of Water in International Conflict. A few weeks ago, she asked me and a few others to read various chapters and help her prepare for her defense. Her dissertation is fascinating: while using water has long been a weapon of war over the last 3,000 years (think sieges, breaking a dam and flooding someone out, poisoning a water supply), water has generally not been used as a weapon of war in the last 70 years.  Along with really interesting research is the PhD process itself. In some ways, it's similar to the U.S., and in other ways, it's quite different.  Similarity: the student picks a topic and writes either one really large monograph or piece of work, or 4 papers of publishable quality (the paper option i...

  A view of the Uppsala Cathedral as I walked to work yesterday morning. Just because. Nothing to do with fika but pretty! This post has been a long time coming. As the internet explanation below notes, fika is one of the first words you learn upon coming to Sweden. According to one person I spoke with, the word "fika" is apparently kaffe backwards, though I don't know how accurate this is. In the U.S., we take coffee breaks. We might even meet someone in a cafe and converse for a while. What we don't do is take fika breaks 2 times a day, sit down with our colleagues, and talk for a while.  As I was talking with someone yesterday, to ask someone for coffee is to go get a cup of coffee. To ask someone to fika is to ask someone to engage.  Here's one explanation.   A social cup of coffee Swedes prefer not to translate the word fika. They don’t want it to lose significance and become a mere coffee break. It is one of the first words you will le...

Grattis på födelsedagen = congratulations on your birthday. January is birthday season in our household, with this year being a big one for birthdays. Up first, Linda Fowler celebrated her 75th birthday on 5 January. Up next, Frances Fowler (Mimi) celebrated her 100th (!!) on 7 January. We talked about joining the family celebration for Mimi in New Hampshire but couldn't quite make it work- sorry to miss the festivities, which sounded like they went well! A family brunch and an open house where Mimi lives, lots of family and friends visiting.  My birthday is 15 January and I turned 45 (Att fylla halvjämnt = to turn half even). A mid point in many ways. We're halfway through our time in Sweden. The season is turning away from darkness and towards light. The Swedes assured us that the temperatures would drop in January, but no such luck. The gray, lack of snow, and importantly, distance from friends has been a challenge for me. When asked what I might do for my birth...

Today, we watched a julgransplundring (jul = holiday; gran = tree; plundring = plundering) celebration at the Nordiska Museum. You might think that the holiday season ended, but 13 January is officially St. Knut's Day, and a day to take down the Christmas Tree. While St. Knut's Day might be tomorrow, the Nordiska Museum celebrated today. The julgransplundring celebration tickets were sold out, but our general purpose tickets to go the museum afforded us a majestic view of the central hallway and tree. Normally, this event involves kids taking all the candy off the tree and eating it. It also involves much dancing around the tree to very traditional songs. This particular celebration focused on a lot of cute kids, a songleader, pianist & bass player, and some very enthusiastic dancing. Elizabeth & Chris joined them while Stephen and I documented the events from the balcony. The ornaments are all paper ornaments, and the big owls (uggla = owl) were so cool.    ...

The kids started back to school yesterday. A 7 AM wake up came early and dark, especially having routinely slept (at least me and Elizabeth) until around 10 AM during the break. Hard to remember what we were doing before the break. Our trip to Norway was fantastic, and the last week as the kids were out of school we treated as a "staycation"- a chance to work a bit in the mornings, and play in the afternoon. Saw an IMAX film on rescue dogs, went to the Star Wars film, went to the Natural History museum, ice skated, climbed, read a lot, cooked some good meals. Nice to have some quiet time to catch up a bit. It's been quite a stretch of the kids not having too much school work since about 13 December- Santa Lucia day. Their last week of school before the holidays involved concerts, movies, and more. Stephen was pretty excited to play the electric bass for a couple of in-school concerts before school let out, so that's something. We finally looked at the feedback t...

Yesterday was Twelfth Night, and today is the Epiphany. I'll give a nod to the religious nature of the day for some by posting a picture of the church we went to today (for an organ concert- see below).  I expected many things from living in Sweden, but not learning as much as I am about Christian holidays. I missed writing a post about St. Stephen's Day (Dec. 26th). I have written my perspective on Santa Lucia- I'll get around to posting it at some point. I also can't explain the amount of time I've spent trying to figure out when the kids might (or might not) have school (hint-- no school today, or tomorrow). Yesterday was Twelfth Night, referring to the end of the 12 days of Christmas. Twelfth night (trettondagsafton) meant businesses shut down early and people celebrated (many by going to the movies, apparently, as that is what we did. Finally saw the newest Star Wars film. I've not enjoyed going to films in the US lately but actually enjoyed the the...