As any American will tell you, Americans recycle.  Yes indeed.  Please do not think that we throw all of our trash into the garbage.  Thank you very much.  Sadly, some Americans don't do all they could.  Swede's are, I believe, more faithful to recycle.  

 

This picture is the area under our kitchen sink.  The only garbage bin is the blue one.  Although we simply do not have room under there for every different type of recyclable, when it gets taken down to the trash room, we separate it by newspaper, packaging paper, plastic, colored glass, clear glass, metal, and now we are recycling food (including meat products).  The food is turned into energy which is being used in the local buses (and maybe elsewhere?).  John and I are having trouble figuring out a good plan for where to put this latest addition, and I think something is going to end up being suspended on the cabinet door.  As I said, Americans recycle - although I do not know of an area in the US which collects food scraps.  Typically however, we now place all the recycling in one container and let the sorting machines deal with it

But however it is done, recycling rocks.

 

 

 

It occurred to me as I was swimming this moring, that you may be interested to know that apparently having a life-guard on duty is optional in Sweden.  Or at least it is in Malmö.  The place where I used to swim in Malmö, a large public pool, always had several life guards watching the swimmers.  But where I swim now (not as often as I should), is a smaller pool at a club.  Occasionally a guard is in the room, but typically not.  I have also only rarely seen guards at beaches.  - For non-American readers: for a pool or beach in the US to not have a life guard on duty is rare. 
Anyway - just thought I would share. 

Elections

It makes me smile that I am getting SMSs (texts) asking who I will be voting for in the upcoming Swedish elections.  I guess SMSing is just the next step in technology, as I used to get phone surveys in the US.

And from The Local, the English language Swedish news-source:

Politics

Elections 2014

Sweden's Prime Minister hopes to cling on to power. Photo: TT

Tight race as campaign enters final week

Published: 08 Sep 2014 10:17 GMT+02:00
Updated: 08 Sep 2014 10:17 GMT+02:00

UPDATED: With less than a week to go until Sweden's general election, mixed opinion poll results and undecided voters suggest the outcome is far from clear.

• Alliance close gap to red-greens in new poll (07 Sep 14) 

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's Alliance has been performing badly for months and over the summer it appeared extremely unlikely that his government could get re-elected.
But as The Local reported on Sunday, fewer Swedes are planning to vote against the Alliance than a week ago and support for the Social Democrat-led opposition is dropping.
Sweden elections: Who's who in politics?
However, just how much the Red-Green lead has narrowed varies widely according to different opinion polls.
Sunday's survey by Novus put it at 8.6 percentage points but another survey released over the weekend suggested an even smaller gap of 4.5 percentage points, down from 7.3 points a week earlier and around 10 percent a month ago.

The poll by Stockholm-based research group TNS Sifo includes responses to the election manifestos revealed last week by the governing Alliance and the Social Democrats.
It suggests that an extra 135,000 votes for the Alliance could put them neck-and-neck with the Red-Greens, indicating that the election result could be much closer than many had previously speculated.
Sweden allows its citizens to cast their ballots in ahead of polling day in some parts of the country, but a fall in advance voting also appears to suggest that many voters remain undecided.
According to Sweden's Election Authority website, 881,364 advance votes had been recorded by Monday lunchtime, compared with 912,156 a week before the election in 2010.
There is also speculation that turnout could be lower than in previous years.

Sweden elections: How do they work?
Political commentator Dr Stig-Björn Ljunggren told The Local he believes the final outcome won't be too surprising.
"It is very unlikely that there will be such a dramatic change that the Social Democrats don't end up in government," he said on Monday.
But he argued that it was plausible that Fredrik Reinfeldt might attempt to stay in power if the gap between the Alliance and the Red-Greens continues to narrow.
"There are a lot of people speculating that the Prime Minister could seek help from the Sweden Democrats," he added.
"However everyone who knows him will tell you he hates everything they stand for, so I think that is very unlikely."
Dr Ljunggren said he believed there were several factors that could influence the election's outcome during the final week of campaigning:

• A political scandal involving any of the party leaders or top candidates
• Russia flexing its muscles further in Ukraine. Voters are more likely to select a sitting government during a international crisis
• Unexpected new policy announcements on key election issues such as healthcare, unemployment or immigration

On Sunday Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said that he was still "completely convinced that we can still change people".
He told reporters "a lot of people have indicated that they're still uncertain, and in that sense it's an open race".
"I will fight to do that all the way until the polling booths close," he added.

Welcome!

I know, I know: it has been too long.  I'm sorry.  Let's put it be behind us, and move on.  

I thought it might be interesting for you to take a look around our apartment.  Although Sweden is different from the U.S., it is not so very different.  I, however, took pictures of some of the things in our apartment that, for good or bad, differ from State-side homes in which we have lived.

The apartment building in which we live was constructed in 1910.  It is very solid.  The walls are, as you can see, quite thick.  I think they may be plaster over brick.  I know when I try to drive a nail in one I meet with limited success.  Also note in the picture that the walls are white.  This is not just common, but I will go as far as saying that having non-white walls is uncommon.  Lastly, and this will be hard for you to see, around the perimeter of the door frame is a white electrical cord, secured with white hooks.  Because the building is so old, and the walls are somewhat impermeable, when one adds electrical outlets, or whatever, the wiring is run this way. One of these days, we will get around to paint over the wire, which is what one does.

What I love about this door is that it is on the interior of our apartment.  It is between the livingroom and what is, for us, the second bedroom and the full bath.  Having said that, the second bedroom has a door to a back stairwell, so it may have once been a maid’s quarters.  Maybe.  I have no way of knowing.  But I like it.

This is the door to exit our bedroom.  I love the pattern on it.  Yes, it is wood.  Above the door is a storage closet.  Note how tall the ceilings are.

City living.  We love it, although I admittedly miss gardening and seeing green.  But I really do love walking out of our apartment and being able to go to a shop or grocery store etcetera.  Again, more white, thick walls.  Notice there are no screens on the windows.  In Malmo, there are, pretty much, no flying bugs.  We are right on the water and it is breezy, and bugs just don’t hang around.  The opposite is true farther north in Sweden.  There, I understand, one can kinda get eaten alive if one doesn’t cover-up (including donning a cap).

I love this little chandelier.  There are few things to say about it.  One it was purchased at IKEA.  Of course.  Two, although electric, it involves (fake) candles.  As .  Three, it is plugged into an outlet on the ceiling.  Convenient?  Yes.  But: because of that, when one moves, one takes their ceiling lamps with oneself.  That is totally fine, but it was a surprise to us, when we moved in, to find that we had no ceiling lights! 

Our kitchen.  It was remodeled around 2008.  Three things of note.  One: our small, weak microwave. Small enough that my large plates cannot fit in it.  Of course I am sure there are bigger ones in other apartments, but this is ours.  Hey, it warms my cup of coffee just as well as another microwave.  Two: Note the electrical outlet above the water-kettle.  That triple outlet (with and electrical adapter plugged in) was the only outlet visible in our entire kitchen.  When the kitchen was remodeled by two owners-ago (how does one say that?), even that outlet was not there.  It was added later.  Yup.  So what did we do when we wanted another outlet on the opposite side of the room?  We accessed the outlet that was in the cupboard above the microwave, plugged in a very long extension cord, and traced it around the wall and window trim and floor boards until it reached where we wanted it.  Sound familiar?

I could write more, and maybe someday I will, but I really need to post this!

 

A side trip to The Neatherlands

John had a business trip to the University of Twente, in Enschede, The Netherlands. So we bought an additional ticket and I happily went along.

For around half the days, it rained.  And I mean rained.  For around 30 hours straight.  When I asked the waitress about it, she said, "Well, this is The Netherlands." 

But on the days it did not rain, I walked or took a bus into town.

So neat and orderly.

Below is the theater building.  : )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the conference was over, we spent an over-night in Delft.  It is beautiful.  

Picture perfect. 

And of course...dessert. 

Östersund

Several days ago, John and I had a lovely few days as guests of friends in lovely Östersund.  John mentioned that when someone receives a gift that is beyond what one can repay, one is left to simply gratefully, thankfully accept.  And so we did.

The sleeper berth between Stockholm and Östersund

 Passing loads of lumber on the train. 

A local comfort food, "Kans".  A meat-filled steamed dumpling, served with a soft buttery cheese and, not surprisingly, lingon (think cranberry) sauce. The meat reminded of me of corned beef. 

Marshmallow farms.  : D

This floating raft has a sauna in the center. 

On the mountaintop

I was delighted how many wildflowers there were.  And this flower was the most plentiful.  

Waves of them were everywhere. 

Listening to the sound of silence on the mountaintop at ~ 1:30 AM

Gold.  "Hjortron", or what English speakers call "cloudberries". 

These much loved berries only grow in the north, and (as I understand it) only grow wild.  Thus, they are hunted down, and if there is an area where they can be found routinely, it is often a closely held secret. 

It is cooked into a jam, and is delicious warm over creamy vanilla ice cream (etc.) 

Fika on the veranda.

Laundry

First of all, let me say that I am not complaining.  I find our laundry circumstances very agreeable.  Some might find it inconvenient, but most of the time, it works very well for us.

Our laundry is in the basement.  That means we go down 2 1/2 flights of stairs, which in our building adds up to ~ 64 stairs per trip. We can take the elevator (the screened column in the center of the stairwell), down to the first floor, but then we must take the stairs to the basement, and go through two steel pocked door.  I still don't know why they are locked, but whatever.  (This is all better than at a previous apartment, where we had to leave our building and walk across a courtyard to get to the laundry room.)

Outside the laundry area is a sign-up sheet.  Every day is divided into three 5 hour periods.  We simply signs up for a time when they choose to do their laundry.  Both the washer and dryer rooms can be locked.

In the laundry room, we have a laundry sink (with built in scrubbing surface), two washers, and a dryer.  We also have a mangle.  I believe that my siblings and I are some of the few persons our age, who grew up in the U.S., who know what a mangle is.  It is a kind-of industrial strength iron.  The one I grew up with had an extremely hot, arched surface that wrapped over a rotating cylinder.  One passed material,/clothes between the cylinder and the hot curved ironing surface, ironing the clothes.  But the mangle in our laundry room are not at all hot.  It simply presses the clothes.  But don't use it for anything with buttons on it.  They will be broken!  As a side note: Many moons ago during the depression, my Polish grandmother created a small business for herself in Poland, ironing with a mangle.

The dryer speaks for itself.  But just to let you in on our adventure, here are the instructions for the dryer.  I understand most of it, but there is still a few mysteries.

And now, the drying room.  Down the hall from the wash room, is a drying room.  There are clothes lines, a heater, and a ceiling fan.  It is a nice way to hasten drying without having to put everything in the dryer.   In another apartment where we lived earlier, there was not a drying room, but a drying closet, the size of a wardrobe.  It worked well, but the metal hanging poles on which one hangs clothes, got so hot that I think it burned holes in a few more delicate garments.

And that is pretty much it.  Works for me.  

And if the machines breakdown, someone else gets to fix them!  

: )