More than One Room!!

We finally moved to our new apartment in Hallstahammar! Here is a brief video tour.


We are still missing some key pieces of furniture - first because we don't own them, second because we can't carry them up the stairs - but it is already a much happier place than the studio apartment in Västerås. We have bulging leg muscles and are exhausted from carrying heavy box after box after box, plus awkward shaped miscellaneous items up two flights of stairs over and over again. Hopefully we will give IKEA some business soon and turn it into a cosy home. I must be feeling better here because I sing little songs and visit other rooms in the apartment, just for the sake of being in a different room. I went for a walk in the beautiful forest just across the street yesterday and was amazed to discover that people that get lost really do go in circles! The main drawback of our place is that because of living so close together for so long, Mikael and I are used to being able to converse with each other from wherever we are at. After shouting "What?!" to each other a few dozen times, we are slowly learning that we have to first hold on to whatever it is we want to say and then find the other person and then say it, instead of just blurting out every random thing that comes into our heads.

A fun little project

I am quite proud of this picnic basket I custom-made for seester Maria's birthday. Many thanks to Ma and Pa Kvam for the sewing machine! The basket itself came from one of my favorite stores in Västerås, Design Torget, and is constructed to easily attatch to a bicycle rack.

A new Job

I have been having a bit of a career crisis in Sweden. I could complete the master's degree I started at Duke, but it won't do much for me in this country. I could try to pursue teaching, but then I would have to go to school for a few more years to collect my Swedish teaching credentials. I could try to become a priest in the Swedish church but that would require some more years of study to become appropriately attuned to way of formerly state sanctioned Swedish Lutheranism (not to mention conversion and membership). I could try to become a pastor in one of the non- formerly-established "free churches," which often lack money and therefore hiring capabilities and would require me to jump through whatever membership/ministerial hoops they deem necessary. Or, I could start all over and become a doctor or farmer or something.

Basically, after 6 years of university and post-graduate study, I am still pretty darn worthless in this non-religious society that requires documentation for everything and undervalues past experience, especially if it took place in a foreign country. Right now, I would just really like to have a job, but being as how all my education and past experience are undervalued here, I am rooting around in job applications that I am overqualified for, just hoping someone will give me a chance.

Thankfully in this dire mire, I received a call from Pastor Daniel (Västerås Penticostals to the rescue again) asking if I could help with childcare and cleaning for a family in the congregation in rather acute need of assistance due, in part, to the 2 of the children having asperger's syndrome. Being no stranger to aspergers or family chaos, I was quick to accept and have therefore been hanging out with some remarkable children and helping their parents keep up with the housework. I mostly spend time with the two youngest - 4-year-old twins. I think of them as rather less well-behaved versions of Freddie and Flossie, the adorable young Bobbsey twins (Characters in the children's novels from the early 1900s I used to read. now quaint examples of the heights to which racial and sexual stereotypes have flown in American literature.)


Here we are enjoying the pond and ducks at Djäkneberget.

Of particular Merit

I have recently strengthened my contact with the Västerås Penticostal Church . The pastors there have been surprisingly and overwhelmingly willing to let me do stuff there, which is nice because I really haven't figured out what to do with myself in Sweden yet and just finding people that will give me chances to do anything is great for building a contact network and references. The children's and family pastor, Tommy, invited Mikael and I to come along for their annual family camp several weekends ago near Nora.

I thought I would just follow along and support Tommy for the children's meeting and just start meeting people, but instead of telling me what the program would be, Tommy asked me what I thought it should be. We ended up planning the programming together which ended with me being responsible for not only supporting in the games and meetings, but teaching the children, leading songs, and preaching the Sunday sermon. It was a fantastic challenge for me and fun for Mikael and I to get to be with other people. We played a lot with the kids, I taught them silly camp songs from America, and, of particular excitement to me, preached my first sermon in Swedish!

I would get up early in the mornings and sit out by this lake to plan my teaching and sermon.

I'm back!

Since my internship at the preschool ended, I have miraculously stopped getting sick! So after spending February and March out of commission, I recovered from the bronchitis and have tried to reestablish my life. Unfortunately I have had to do so without the use of my computer, which is in the shop (hence my prolonged lack of updates). Mikael has a new computer for his new job that I can use now and we just got internet in our new apartment yesterday so I have been able to start reconnecting with the rest of the world. Here are some of the things you missed while I was gone!