It has been a while since I’ve updated this. Apologies to my avid reader(s). That is to say, “Sorry, Mom!”
Things are still moving along here in rainy and a bit chilly Sweden. My dad and step-mom are visiting this week which is exciting. They are staying in an Airbnb that is next door to Izzy’s school; Izzy is pretty excited about that. They’ll be doing a road trip down the coast here, starting at Kalmar and ending in Kristianstad/Åhus. I’ll be joining them for the day in Kalmar and then for a few days in Åhus.
I am planning on visiting the US next summer for a few weeks. In the meantime everyone is welcome to visit here. We can’t really host in our apartment, but my schedule is flexible, and I’d love to hang out. A great time to visit is December and January. Especially if you don’t like sunlight or warm weather.
Learning Swedish is going full force for me. I’m in SFI two nights a week and listening to various learning Swedish podcasts whenever I’m in the car. I think I’ll start trying to go to a språkcafé (language café) one night a week later this month. That will give me more practice talking. Swedish is hard, and I’ve never found learning languages easy. And I don’t think it gets easier with age. The word order can be a bit confusing for an English speaker. I sometimes feel like I’m trying to imitate Yoda; “Tomorrow go I to the store” and “Yesterday drank I not coffee.” The last one is patently not true, but you get my drift. And don’t get me started on pronunciation. How does one expect to know how to pronounce “sj”? And why is it pronounced sort of like a “wh”? What about “tj” or “gj”? And “k” is sometimes pronounced “k” and sometimes “sh.”
Anyway, SFI is interesting even if not super fun. Lots of people from various parts of the world. Currently we have students from Pakistan, Ukraine, Belgium, France, Italy, and Colombia. One of the students from Ukraine lives with her husband in Rottne, not too far from my workshop. Her husband is originally from Chile and has family living in the city. The two of them stopped by the shop for fika (coffee and pastries) the other day. It is a challenge to talk to her; she doesn’t speak English, so we have to try to communicate in Swedish which is hard. Her husband spent many years refinishing exterior doors, so he may stop by and hang out more often.
I’ve been busy. I helped Susanna’s dad, Dan, build a new outhouse down by the lake. Complete with a framed picture of the King and Queen! I’ve been building a deck (or rather an outdoor wooden floor), some fencing and other minor repairs for Susanna’s preschool. In the workshop it has been mostly repairing furniture, some for family, and some for a second-hand shop in the next town over. I do have a potential new line of work for a local window company, but we’ll see how that plays out.
The family is doing well. Izzy is back to school. Summer is fun, but by the end, it is time to get back into a routine. She seems to be thriving here. It is nice for her to just be able to walk to the store or to the city center and not need a parent to drive her. She doesn’t hate school, so that is a positive sign. She started 4th grade, which is “middle school” here in Sweden. Susanna’s job is moving along, though the commute and inconsistent hours are tough. It would be nice to have the same hours every day.
Hoagie is enjoying his time here. He doesn’t seem to mind moving from a big house with a big yard to an apartment in the city. This week he is recovering from his second surgery to remove cancerous tumors, but is pretty good about not chewing his stitches, so doesn’t need the cone of shame. The hardest part is that they removed a tumor on his back foot, so he doesn’t get as much time outside as he is used to. He gets the stitches out next week and will hopefully be back to 100% by then.
