Hej alla! You know how people write scads about their big life events, detailing them smartly and in a timely manner on their blogs? I'm not going to be like that, apparently! I do post most days on
Instagram. Otherwise, you'll have to make do with sporadic accounts.
So, it's been exactly one month since we moved to Sweden! One month since we hauled our ten suitcases across the Atlantic, schlepped them into our apartment and said: "woah, we live in Europe now." One month of language attempts. One month of trying and failing to find spicy food in restaurants. One month of cold and rain.
Gothenburg is really a lovely city - plenty to enjoy, friendly folks, a number of excellent restaurants and fairly good food generally. The city puts on a ton of events and there's lots of cultural things going on all the time. I think... we're happy. I've still no idea what I'm going to do for work, but there are a bunch of wedding photographers here, so I'm starting in the most logical place. George seems to be enjoying his work quite a bit and gets along great with his colleagues. Even one of our favorite physics couples is coming to live here in the summer, so we've gotten quite lucky on the friend front! Far from being lonely, it seems we're constantly doing social things. If only we made this much effort in DC!
Before we arrived, I committed to a 365 Project for the year (366 actually in 2016) and I've only skipped two days so far. Most of these pictures were taken because I pushed myself to put that photo on the 'grams. All you photographers reading, it's a really good incentive, even if it doesn't hold up so much to illness (like today).
In the airport, before we left New York:
A little scene from our new apartment. The Swedish apartment rental network is very convoluted, but suffice to say we only have it until August, after which we'll have to find somewhere new to live. It's too bad, because we *love* it here. We live in a great neighborhood (Majorna) and the apartment itself is clean, warm, and a very nice size for us. We're used to the studio, so having a door to the bedroom is a huge luxury.
More apartment scenes:
This is the only "street" picture I've taken in Sweden. I don't know culturally how OK everyone is with having a camera in their face, so I'm sort of playing it cool til I get a better feel for things.
A few days after we arrived, there was a big snowstorm and the city got something like eight inches. They don't shovel the sidewalks here at all, so there was just a thick layer of ice on everything until we got some warm weather a week or so later. There was also a snow penis, then a giant snow penis. In this way I knew I would get along in Gothenburg.
This is "Derpy Poseidon", as George and I like to call him. Much of the sculpture in Gothenburg is inexplicably hideous.
Not gonna lie, the first few weeks were tough, especially after George started work. I was just sitting around the house moping and trying to get work done. There was snow everywhere and otherwise it was raining the whole time. Last week I started language classes and things have been *much* rosier for me. I think it's also interacting with people regularly. It's exhausting "networking" but just hanging out with some folks is very pleasant.
Though I did always try to take a long walk when I could find time between rainclouds. Here's the Slottskogen, a beautiful huge park in the middle of the city that also has a small free zoo.
I'm very excited that in July Edmund and Amber (a physics guy and his wife) will come to Chalmers and Gothenburg. They visited for just a few days and Amber bought us this lovely plant, which I immediately set to killing. I don't think it made it a week.
On this particular day, I thought we might take a "nice" walk down to a fort that's about an hour away from the house. Instead, we gave up halfway because a bitter frosty wind was blowing. We ate our picnic in a bus shelter and took the tram home. It was pretty depressing.
I've also been doing #YogaCamp with
Adriene. It feels really good to get back into it. Last year I worked for a while on a home practice and I was very much enjoying that. I find that I do well when it's meant to be every day (and it takes the pressure off to push too hard if you know you'll be back at it tomorrow). I'm halfway through the camp and I don't know what happens after the end of these 30 days but right now it's just nice to be back on my mat daily.
Also, George says: "Your feet aren't normally that ugly." So, what can you do? I may be one of the only women in ... America (can't say that anymore!) who doesn't care if she has ugly feet.
On one of my last "free" days, I took the tram out to Delsjön for a long walk around the lakes. It was quite chilly but the sun was shining it's lovely slanty-all-day light.
On Mardi Gras, Swedes eat semlor in celebration of something that I'm sure is not religious (they're a very secular people). Because I went quite a bit crazy on the
Great American Road Trip, I had quite a bit of weight I was hoping to shrug off. Since we arrived, I've been on the very minor "diet" of no alcohol and no sugar, but I made an exception for a semla on the holiday. I couldn't eat the thing in one go, but I did eventually finish it, and feel sick as hell.
George and I haven't really been to any restaurants to speak of - some pretty good Vietnamese, Greek and Thai but nothing I'd write about. That said, we've been trying to tamp down spending, at least until I can find some work, so we haven't really been eating at the best places.
When we arrived, everyone said the snow was unusual, but we've seen quite a bit of it this month. The biggest problem is that they don't treat the sidewalks at all, so whenever it does snow, it just makes everything super slick and treacherous for just as long as the weather stays below freezing.
God, I love this cake. It's still in the bakery window and I'm well-tempted to buy it.
And that, my friends, finishes the pictures I have of Gothenburg. What else can I tell you?
Swedish class is going very well, I think. We had one week (minus a day when the teacher was ill) last week and I'm sort of blown away by how much my Swedish has improved in that time-period. Not speaking, really... I can't speak to save my life, but I am understanding *much* more writing and even a bit of other people speaking. It's quite cheering. The class meets for three hours every day, so it's very intense, which is good for me because I'd like to be fluent
now so I can start working somewhere (and get more travel money, of course). I'm trying to work very hard so I can get the most out of it. Plus, many of the people in the class are great fun and it's nice to have some associates to kid around with daily.
George and I have been working on tentative travel plans for the year. David comes next week and we'll go to Copenhagen. George has conferences in Madrid, Belgium and Lusanne, Switzerland this year and I'll probably tag along and we may take some time before or after at each locale. We're also planning a week in Iceland with some friends and hopefully a few weeks in Thailand next winter. If I don't have a 9-5 job thing going on, I'll probably take a few other trips as well, particularly if I can bring in some more income.
The grocery stores are quite similar to those here. There are a few items that are new (like herring) and some that are quite difficult to find and I don't know why (like crackers). We're mostly eating the same things we always did, with the addition of a lot more bread (it's mostly whole wheat), salmon and potatoes. The Swedes hardly eat any winter squash, which is surprising to me, but I suppose it is a New World food. They're a meat-and-potatoes people, which doesn't jive with my health sensibilities, but not much grows here anyway.
The weather has been mostly crap - cold and rainy, though not as cold as Arlington, I have delighted to see in my weather app. (Neener neener, Arlington!) One basically must tough it out and just bundle up and get out there, ideally during a break in the rain.
Hm, what else?
- They sell cheese in *enormous* quantities at very low prices. Swedes eat a ton of cheese. They're quite particular about which cheese is eaten at which meal, but I can't make heads or tails of any of it.
- Most toilet paper is 3-ply.
- They complain about the weather all. the. time. Which makes complaining about the weather much easier!
- They have as many brands of crispbread as we do breakfast cereal. They all taste the same to me.
- There are many social groups - two that I know of for ex-pats and they meet weekly or bi-weekly, in addition to two separate women's groups for English speakers. If I wanted to, I could be at two or three events every week, just for meetings and networking chit-chat nights.
- One must meticulously sort one's garbage. Sweden recycles or burns (for fuel) 99% of its garbage, and actually imports trash from other countries. We have three sorting piles in the house, which turn into four or five in the bins, in addition to biogas (food waste) and "garbage", which is mostly burned up.
- Food and disposable things are not that expensive. Anything that is touched by a human is expensive - like dinner out or services like haircuts (they have a very high minimum wage). Objects tend to be very expensive. Luckily, there's a thriving second-hand market for anything you could want.
- Healthcare is (almost) free. Dentistry is extremely affordable. Eldercare is free, I think. School and college are free, for Swedes. They pay a lot in taxes but everyone is well taken care of.
- Along the same lines, when you are quoted a salary for your job, it is after taxes. They tell you a number. You divide that number by 12 and that is how much money you will have each month. Civilized, right!?
- Likewise, everyone in a company at the same level makes the same amount of money. Also, everyone is free to discuss their salary.
- Coffee is included with everything. Swedes drink a ton of very strong coffee.
Alright, I think that's enough writing from me! I'd promise a Month Two blog, but you know I'm not going to make it. But I do a bit of journaling on the 'grams - if you really like me, you'd go there to read up. It serves much more like a diary than this blog does! Thanks for reading, pals. I hope things are going well over there on that side of the pond.
Those three glorious weeks we had in June... that was pretty much summer. It's been ok here, off and on - a day here and there where it's really pleasant out. But mostly it's been raining a lot and not all that warm. We've got our collected fingers crossed that we'll get some more good weather here in August (when we visited last year it was really warm) but for me, summer is over starting tomorrow anyway.
Yes, I start this bootcamp that will hopefully be a move into a new career tomorrow. I'm excited and a little nervous, but mostly ready to get to work. I like working and I love learning things. And I like the idea of being a coder. Starting tomorrow it's code all day every day until I know the ropes, so my days of lounging by the sea have come to an end for this year. But with summers like this, it doesn't seem like that big a sacrifice.
Obviously these images come from the Pride Parade back in June. Clearly I'm just a spectator but Gothenburg's Pride seems much more subdued than DCs. There are also way more boobs and less dick about. We saw lots of women just full-on naked in the street (some of them painted). I felt mad creepy taking pictures of them, so I didn't. But the festival itself came with all kinds of great activities, including free pap smears with bonus candies!
Actually, we found ourselves at the stage at one point and they were doing choreographed dancing and we were having *so much fun* until we realized we were inadvertently participating in an exercise class. Whoops!
Jobb = job. This is the employment agency marching. Honestly, the parade was pretty lame - it was a lot of government agencies and companies with a bunch of employees just walking down the street with rainbow things happening. I was like "where are the QUEENS?" But maybe if you have a more equal and accepting society, your parade gets really tame. It's not a bad trade-off.
All over town, these women (and a few men) sit outside the grocery stores and ask for money. They don't really do much except sit there and say "hej" to everyone that walks in or out. It's very non-aggressive. Mostly they just seem really bored. I enjoyed seeing this lady dancing and having a good time - sometimes we forget that people who have to beg on the street are *people* and they like doing fun things like dancing just like the rest of us.
I talked about this a bit on Instagram too, but one difference between Sweden and the states is that everyone is more ok with bodies here. Naked bodies on the street, pregnant ladies with their bellies way out, communal saunas and there's no such thing as a "nude" beach because it's ok to get naked at any beach. Swedes are just more comfortable in their own skin and ok with seeing other peoples' skin.
And then it was Midsommar! Lacking some kind of traditional, organized, countryside Midsommar affair, we hit up the official city celebration at a park downtown. They had make-your-own flower crowns, a giant "maypole", traditional dancers and lots of people looking cheerful and having fun. We had amazing weather that day.
The first climax of Midsommar is dancing around the pole. There's a ton of songs with choreographed dancing. Everyone forms concentric rings around the pole, then you dance left and right and do hand motions and kick a bit. It's great fun!
The second climax is going home, eating a ton, and getting shitfaced. George and I cooked a metric asston of food for a bunch of assorted friends and colleagues. I got properly wasted but it seems no one else did (or so I was told). As I understood (understand) it, Midsommar is the one time you're mandated to get properly drunk, so I did. I had a really great time, anyway.
Finally made it to Röda Sten before we moved. They had a really cool exhibit about climate change and things. This is giant plastic sheet suspended from the ceiling by a million pieces of yarn.
George did a lot of traveling in August, so one Saturday I made it out to Marstrand for a sailing competition. I honestly didn't understand the sailing at all - they moved back and forth and it honestly seemed like they were going kind of slow and the "track" was really small. But in the end someone won and people seemed excited. It was completely, ridiculously, windy so I didn't stick around near the sailing bit that much.
I ate crazy-delicious seafood soup in this little place.
Gothenburg has an event going on this year called "Green World." They've set up a bunch of different art installations dealing with nature. There are a bunch of "pocket parks" on the main strip downtown, a huge bamboo installation near the state theater and a number of really cool arty things in the botanical gardens. There's all kinds of crap like this in town - Gbg has a lot going on.
And then, we went to Stockholm! We had *the best* weather in Stockholm (it was 10 degrees colder in Gbg the whole time we were there). We saw tons of stuff and also managed to spend a couple hours every day just chilling drinking beers and such on patios.
City Hall:
Patio #1 was on a rooftop and it was sooooooo nice. We spent an hour or so just listening to music and completely chilling out.
Moderna Museet: meh. I've seen too many freakin' "world class" museums at this point to get excited about something with no big names or things I recognize. (Other takeaways from visiting a thousand modern museums: Picasso was damn *prolific*. Literally every modern art museum I've been in has a bunch of his stuff.)
Some kind of band concert in the Old Town's main square.
Museum Island.
Ok, Stockholm was kinda great - lots of stuff to do, pleasant to look at, lots of good patios to drink on. But the *best* part was Bunny Park. For some reason the park we walked through between our hotel and downtown had a whole family of bunnies living in it. Urban bunnies! They were out almost every time we went through, day or night, and they weren't very scared of people. They were damn adorable.
It's basically impossible to take a good picture of the Vasa, but here's a crap one. This was worth the $14 entry fee or whatever. They pulled an *entire* ship out of the harbor and built a museum for it. Crazy!
A sign maker who took his job too literally?
We did a whole bunch of stuff in Stockholm but mostly it was just a pleasant time, walking around and eating. George hates outdoor museums, apparently. He did not dig Skansen, but I liked it.
One of the coolest things we did in Stockholm was a tour of the metro art. We managed to completely screw up the meeting place the first day but they had another tour that fit right in with our train time. We got to see really neat art grottos and the like. Highly recommend and it's free!
I just haven't been taking that many "regular" photos, though I always have my camera on me. I guess I'm letting that slide for a while. So I don't have very many day-in-the-life stuff to show. Sorry! Here's some other things that happened:
I've told a number of folks about this already, so I can put together a reasonable FAQ but first, this one:
Before any more about me, something for you and you and you. I don't yet know what I'm going to be up to in Scandinavia, but I do know it will be useful to have a little more coin on me. Therefore, I'm reinstating all gallery coupons - that 20% off coupon you got when I delivered your photos. Coupon code "gothenburg" is good for 20% any print order of $30 or more through the end of the year and is good in all galleries - weddings, engagements, boudoir, etc.
In likely bigger news for those of you who never picked up an album, I'm also doing 30% off album orders through the end of the year. Yes - that 
Last item on the agenda today: I need your help in Sweden! George and I hardly know anyone in Gothenburg - just the colleagues he'll be working with in his office. They're lovely people but they always want to talk about physics. In the meantime, what the hell am I going to do? You can help! I want to know about anyone you know who lives in/near Gothenburg or any friends who have friends in Gothenburg. I'm looking for connections, people. I don't have anyone to grab coffee with in the whole country but I'm hoping that with the hundreds of people I've worked with over the years, I'll be flooded with odd coincidences of people who know people and we can all have a fika and/or get some photos done.
And now, some FAQ. I've been telling people more or less on the DL about this move for some time (it just became official), so I've a pretty good idea what you're asking (if you're even still reading this):
Q: Are you so excited?
A: I have a lot of mixed feelings about this move. It's very much a next-step for us. George will soon wrap up the Ph.D. and we'll embark on the next part of our lives. Yes, it likely means that Amber Wilkie Photography will be taking a break or possibly eventually closing its doors, but I'm sort of ok with that. I'm so proud of the business I built and I know I can do it again - perhaps in some other field. Who knows!
It's exciting, but it's also a little scary. There's also so much to do that it's hard to be really pumped about the greater picture when I'm worried about selling all our stuff, getting plane tickets, worrying about shipping, etc. We'll likely run the gamut over there - adventure, loneliness, success, failure, money woes, travel, and so many etc.
My feelings about this move change every day. But I think, overall, it's good. I'm ready for the Next Step.
Q: What will you do in Gothenburg?
A: I don't know! One lovely thing is that George's salary should be sufficient for us to live on. Rents there are very cheap, though eating out is very expensive. So we'll probably have to take a big step back from our lifestyle here, but we'll be fine in terms of shelter, food, reasonable entertainment. We've also been saving since we knew this was on the horizon, so we have a significant cushion in case of problems or unexpected expenses.
According to the research I've done, I can open a business and start taking clients basically right away. But who would hire me? The problem with trying to re-establish AWP in Gothenburg is that we'll only be there two years. It took me more than that to build momentum here and I speak the language. It almost certainly makes more sense for me to assist, second-shoot or try my hand somewhere entirely new. I'm also open to doing long-term volunteer projects, though I don't have any good ideas about where I might spend my energies. I figure - worst case, I can get a job at a coffee shop and have something productive to do with my time.
Q: But you'll obviously take photos of all the glaciers, right?
A: Sweden's a bit short on glaciers, but Norway has tons. Never fear, I will be photographing all kinds of things. In fact, I'm hoping to re-ignite my passion for photography. Over the years, it's become something technical that I execute at weddings and such to make money. I like photographing weddings and people and such, but it is indeed my job. I hope to have time and energy for personal projects, whether that's glaciers and northern lights or something I'm not anticipating. I'm also certainly up for collaboration - perhaps with some of the contacts you guys dig up for me!
Q: How long will you be there?
A: Two years, at least. It's unlikely we'll be there much more than that. In George's field, it's customary to do two post-doc positions (of about two years each), then move somewhere else for a more permanent (sometimes tenure-track) position. So we'll be doing a lot of shuffling over the next five (eek!) years or so. Yes, you can expect me to pester you for contacts once or twice more.
Q: You'll photograph weddings all over Europe, right?
A: This one is more complicated. There are some countries where I may be able to work mostly legally... in other countries, that is not the case. Certainly I will be looking to photograph intimate weddings all over Europe. If you and the soon-to-be-spouse are looking to elope somewhere epic, let me know!
Q: And you'll travel all over Europe too!
A: Maybe. This is going to depend how finances shake out. Yes, we'll be much closer, but Gothenburg is remarkably difficult to get to from most of the rest of Europe. Definitely we'll take lots of trips - at least I will - but maybe not the extended-European-holiday folks seem to think I'm headed for. One really great thing is in Sweden, it's standard to get six weeks of vacation and workers are encouraged and expected to take that time. Most of the country is off for the entire month of July. I'm crossing my fingers for a Southeast Asia trip.
Q: Will you learn to speak Swedish?
A: Probably. I've been doing Duolingo classes, so that is progressing as well as could be expected. The Swedish government also provides a free class to teach Swedish to immigrants (how about that!), so I hope to enroll in that as soon as possible.
Q: Can I come visit?
A: Yes! We want everyone to come visit us, or meet me somewhere in Europe for gallivanting, or really anything. The housing situation in Gothenburg is tough but once you find a place, they tend to be very nice - that is, we won't be living in squalor and unable to accommodate guests. Please come visit!
Pretty soon, I'll have another big blog post about the Great American Road Trip we'll be taking between my last wedding (Nov. 7) and our start in Gothenburg (January). Keep an eye out for that one and please let me know if you have any contacts for me!