Swede child of mine….(I know, lame)

It occurs to me that I said I was going to try to write something here every day since I have struggled to do so lately, so here you go.

Medical updates

Larry is doing ok.

Jen is doing ok

Probably neither one of them would agree with my assessment.

Life updates

I think someone is trying to send us a message or send us back to Sweden. Overnight, it seems, all of the fire hydrants in our sub-division were magically painted. What colors do they choose to paint them?

Curiously I went looking for some vague memory I have of our time in Sweden…lo and behold, Sweden is invading! This is the first step…taking over our fire protection services!

 

They sneak the old Blue and gold into your life and next thing you know it’s Tusen Tak for your country, we own you.

Winding down

Another Swedish dinner under our belts. Our exchangers from this house, now get this, came over to their own house, brought food, cooked us dinner and then went to stay with another family. It just keeps getting weirder to stay here. We had a great time talking the pros and cons of home exchange. Who broke what? Do the neighbors here in Sweden have those 3 a.m. parties often? We talked about favorite restaurants and things to do. It was fun. Today we will meet Eirik and his family as they have travelled from Oslo, Norway to visit us here in Gothenberg. The plan is that we are headed back to the Liseberg amusement park to keep the 5 and 6 year olds calm and maybe even keep Sara from telling her million “When we were in Norway…” stories. No pictures from last night…not sure why, but we will get some shots with Eirik and his family. Promise!

Visiting hours

Hey there! I took yesterday off from writing to organize the house and organize in general. We had Roland, our exchange families father, and his wife over for dinner last night to repay the wonderful dinner we had with them the previous weekend. We had a great time sitting around talking and at one point singing Swedish childrens songs. I promised Jen that she could use the video of that for Homeroamers.com, so keep checking back with her. We did get a surprise visit from our exchange family who are back in the country. They are very nice and we have dinner planned with them tomorrow night. I think we are in for some more traditional Swedish food and stories from Land O Lakes. It will be interesting to hear about their visit in our home and tell them our stories.

Apparently my mom and dad spent the day yesterday entertaining visitors. My mom sent an e-mail telling me a list of people who dropped by for food and games. My friend Mike Locander and his family apparently put a claim in on our dog while they were there. All in all it sounds like the Carroll family had a great day off yesterday. It seems a little boring to write about, but I’ll take a day like this anytime.

MiniG

If you would have told me that I would take my 5 year old to a place where he was given a stick and told to whack something really hard…and he would be challenged by this, I would have laughed. This is the same kid who walks around the house and grabs anything near him and proceeds to hit you quite hard and accurately with it. He eventually caught on and Sara did a good job too. I don’t remember that mini golf was as challenging as it was when I was a kid, but maybe it is a Swedish manliness test or something. We didn’t keep score, so I have no doubt that I won.

Mi Casa is su casa…no really, it is.

We are about to enter territory we’ve never been in before. Our exchange family from Sweden is coming home tomorrow. We don’t leave until next Friday. This could be weird. They are staying with some friends to fulfill the time frame we agreed upon, but I assume they will stop by and visit us at their house. Strange. We are very respectful of other peoples things, but I feel that the next week we will have to be super careful to keep the house, yard and car exactly the way they would like it or I would feel bad. On the other had we are looking forward to meeting them and sharing some stories and time before we leave. Stay tuned as I’m sure I will have some pictures and stories about this upcoming week.

Fika and a Fokker

Around 2:00 on most days you will notice that the Swedish people start to get a little nervous looking and jittery. This is because they all partake in something they call “fika”, or in my world, coffee break. I think the traditional coffee break in America is going by the wayside, but here everyone very much looks forward to dropping into a cafe and grabbing some coffee and a piece of cake. During our travels on Saturday we noticed that Roland was getting a little wild eyed at around 4:00 and we realized we had skipped his fika and he must be suffering from withdrawals. We did stop at a rather unusual location for fika, but it accomplished two goals. Coffee and Sam intervention. Take a look.

Out in the middle of pretty much nowhere was a car and plane museum. Normally people weren’t allowed inside any of the aircraft, but the Swedes are a very accommodating lot and let the kids in a couple of the exhibits. Jen even found a model of car that once belonged to her father.

We had a pretty good time wandering around looking at old cars and planes. It’s amazing how some of these items found their way to the Swedish countryside.

Little houses on the hillside…

As promised I have a couple of leftover stories from our weekend visit to the Swedish countryside. They both involve little outdoor houses.

The first little outdoor house was very intriguing to the 5 year old. As you can well imagine, country houses might have limited “services” available to them strictly due to their remoteness. I’m not talking about internet or television service, but the restroom services. Yes, the first little outdoor house of today's blog entry is the outhouse. The stuga itself was quite old and rustic and apparently the opportunity to add on to it had never involved indoor plumbing. When we got there we got the whole outhouse lesson, in case we weren’t sure of the procedure. This was the kid’s first experience with the outhouse and likely their last. That ought to make them appreciative right?

The second little house story is much more interesting to me because I spend a lot of time thinking to myself..”That would never happen back home”. This is certainly one of those instances. We have seen many signs for produce during our travels to Norway, Holland, Belgium as we passed through towns and country sides, but I had never figured out the process by which many of these things are sold. I now have the scoop. Located behind the farmhouse with the sign for potatoes was a little shed. Inside this shed was various produce items, a refrigerator, and a table. On the table was a notebook and a metal box. Here is the process. Poke around someone's unlocked shed full of produce. Pick the things you would like. Put money in the box to pay for the things you are taking and make change with whatever money you need from the box. I think the notebook was simply the ledger for the transactions, but it is the least interesting to me since I was already running through the reasons why this would be a disaster back home. We purchased some potatoes, but there was honey, eggs, and some other mysterious items in bottles. Even in the most trustworthy communities in the states I think this system is a stretch. Run this through your head and see if you can make it work. Maybe I’m too cynical.

Here are the rabbits that were guarding the produce hut.

A day in the life, Swedish style!

What a day we had yesterday!

When we started this trip one of our goals was to involve ourselves in the culture and customs of other countries. Yesterday we got the full on Sweden experience. Let me see if I can break it down into useable parts.

A lot of Swedes use the summer weekends to get away from their daily life and the best way to do this, they think, is to spend some time at their Stuga, or cabin. Most of them only travel a small distance and most Stugas are very simple and small. We joined Roland and some friends at a Stuga that they use yesterday for breakfast, a tour of the area, and then a BBQ. Let’s start with breakfast.

Breakfast

We sat down to a very traditional and challenging breakfast. Traditional in the sense that we were served anchovies, half boiled eggs, liver pate, and some caviar in a tube….a favorite of the Swedish. I managed to try a bit of everything, but Jen and Sara struggled a bit. Sara is a vegetarian and won’t eat fish, and Jen is a “don’t talk about my food as if it walked the earth” person. The worst part was the anchovies. I’m not a fish person either and having one raw and staring at me was tough. The caviar in a tube is one of those items that Swedes get very worked up about. They can’t get it in very many places and, like Americans and their peanut butter, miss it when they travel. I can’t figure out why. We didn’t tell Sam what the liver pate was, we just put it on some bread and handed it to him. Our hosts were very polite and didn’t seem to take offense at our struggles. Oh yes…I forgot about the yogurt and cereal. That was the saving dish for the girls as it kept them busy and made them look like they were eating.

“The tour”

Roland, the father of our home exchange family on the fathers side, never misses a chance to take us “around”. We have been on a couple of his tours previously and we now know that this tour can be long and sometimes, well, let’s just call it wide ranging. Yesterday the highlights were visiting the Pippi Longstocking playground, the beach, and berry picking along side of the road. I’ll save one of the other stops for further down the page. Here are some photos of “the tour”

 

I was skeptical when we stopped the car in the middle of the road. Roland has a habit of driving his car anywhere he pleases, so I was ready for him to turn into a field and start chasing cows. Turns out he wanted to let the kids pick some flowers and wild raspberries. We all got into the act. It was fun, the setting was beautiful, and my favorite part is that it included food. More pictures.

The tour consisted of at least 3 other interesting stories, but I’m saving them for later. I am also saving “Dinner” for later. Trust me there is a reason dinner is in quotes. Even if I can’t describe it in writing, or it isn’t as interesting to others as it was to us, it deserves its own entry. I’ll leave you with some additional pictures from the Stuga and our group. Come back later or check www.homeroamers.com later for more on yesterdays adventures.

I want to ride my bicycle…

So….Who knew that pumping up a bike tire would be so challenging?

We went to go for a quick ride to the local golf club for lunch. A nice, easy fun ride to get the kids out into the fresh air. The problem is…How to get the fresh air into the bike tires? The funny part about this little story is that the bike tires don’t REALLY need air, I’m just being vigilant and topping them off. By now most of you are saying to yourselves, “What? Is he stupid? You just pump the tires up.” Life should be so simple. It seems that like the metric system, things have to be done just a little bit different. Pump won’t fit the stem, stem doesn’t seem to be adjustable, unscrewing stem a little bit results in rush of air from the tire, game over. Instead of having a slightly underinflated tire, I now have a flat one. Good one Jon. I guess I should have watched this video (click) prior to attempting. I have no adaptor which equals no bike riding. Presta valves? Who knew? It’s always something with me. We went to lunch anyhow and had a great time. Here are a couple of pictures.

We are stirring

So the next couple of weeks have a couple of twists coming up. This weekend we are traveling to the south of Gothenburg to spend the day with the father of our exchange people, Roland. He has promised a day of nature, culture, and BBQ. I’m interested to see what a Swedish BBQ consists of. If they break out some big old salted fish, I’ve leaving. He has some other visitors, so we will be able to get a true Swedish experience. The week after that I’m hoping to catch up with another blast from the past. 25 years ago the Carroll family had an exchange student from Norway stay with us for a year. I called him, after some serious nudging from my mom, and we talked for about half an hour. We tentatively made plans to get together a few days before we head back to the states. This would be a great way to cap off our trip. I know my mom is interested in seeing us get together, and after talking to him I am too. Stay tuned.

Oh Lucy!!!

All of my transportation troubles aside we had a great time today wandering the Sjöfartsmuseet, a museum dedicated to the maritime history of Gothenburg, Sweden. There was an amazing collection of model ships for what seemed like every ship that must have sailed into the port. It occurred to me that I didn’t take a picture of the statue outside the museum that is a big deal over the skyline of Gothenburg, so the one I posted below is “borrowed”. We started calling her “Lucy” when we were looking for the museum as she was “in the sky” and our landmark to figuring out where to go. The reference was lost on Sara who prides herself on knowing everything like all 14 year olds. If you notice a stranger in the picture with us, it is Lisa, a visitor from Zimbabwe, and a friend of the family. I have no doubt I’ll be writing about her visit later as she is a VERY interesting and nice person. A couple of pictures in the meantime.

Here is a good write up about “Lucy” if you are inclined. (from Henrik)

One of Gothenburg's most famous sights is the high statue of "Sjömanshustrun" (the seaman's wife). It was built in 1933, in memory of all the swedish seamen that were killed during the WW1. 690 swedes, from 98 different ships, were killed during the war. And then Sweden wasn't even the war. Talk about stupid!?
Sjömanshustrun is a huge tower, 60 or 82 meter high (depending on how one counts) and is the highest monumental sculpture in Sweden. The symbol is that the wife is waiting for her husband to return, which he sadly enough never will. A strange thing is that she isn't looking out over the ocean, which she should be doing logicaly, but instead looking straight over the river, at the island Hisingen. One would think that it was me she was looking for, but the truth is that she's turned that way for a esthetic reason. As she stands now she's seen in profile from both the ocean and the harbour. It's possible to climb up in the tower, from where one will have one of the best views in the whole city. Unfortunately it's open only during the summer, although one can make a special request to be allowed in also during the rest of the year. Not sure how easy it is to get a permission though...? Seems like only school classes will be allowed in.
Once inside one can either take the elevator, or climb the 205 steps. At the bottom of the tower there is a huge sign with the name of all the killed seamen, where it also says which boat they were going with. The statue itself is five meters high, and made in bronze. It was built by the sculptor Ivar Johnsson and inaugurated by former swedish king Gustav V in 1933.

You can’t get there from here boy

I’m not sure what this blog is turning into really. I think I complain a lot or I’m making it into a one man “Three Stooges”. Today is a perfect example. We went downtown to the Maritime museum in Gothenburg which is a whole story by itself, so I’ll let it keep for a bit. The group split up because I have a job that starts at 2:00 p.m. that I love. That also is another story. So I’m turned loose on the mass transit, bus and tram system here, which is fine. I’m perfectly capable and not intimidated by it, at least I wasn’t. What I think is roughly halfway home the tram stops and this is the announcement I hear. “Vi har tekniska problem du byta tåg till vänster.” This is at least a rough translation of what I think was said. Sensing that all is not well I ask the man next to me, “What is the problem?” He shrugs his shoulders and gets off the tram. The next two people do the same thing and like the sheep that I am…I follow them. Now these people could have all been getting off the tram to attend the 20th annual Naked Pogo Stick convention for all I know, but what the heck I’m going with them. They all jump over some fence, walk half a block and get on another tram. Since none of them seemed to have any pogo sticks and didn’t seem to be particularly athletic I felt a little better. The tram eventually makes it to an area that I recognize and I transfer to bus route 94. I didn’t realize until the bus took off that even though I’m 10 minutes from “home”, that the 94 must mean either how many stops there are or how long it takes to get there. As my stop passes by the window I also realize that if you want the bus to ACTUALLY stop, you have to hit the little red button. Something that not a single soul has done up to this point, and I might add that my stop is the only one that we didn’t stop at. By the time I figured all of this out, the bus had done a U-turn and started over, giving me a second chance at the red button and success. Such is my luck here in Sweden most of the time.

Island hopping

We investigated the Gothenburg mass transit system yesterday as a group. Having a visitor is good as it makes us slightly more inclined to get going and see the sights. Every person we talked to up to this point would make a comment such as “Have you been to the islands?”, so we decided that we should go see the islands. This way when that question comes up we don’t look like rookies. Every leg of the train / tram system here costs about $2, so it is an easy and inexpensive way to travel. The interesting thing about the system is that the boats that service the islands off the coast are also roughly $2. This was a rare treat for us in Sweden…inexpensiveness! I’m not even sure that’s a word. The island we settled on didn’t seem to have any cars and a bevy of golf carts. We had a great time wandering around, including a trip through the boneyard, a lunch and the trek back. Here are a few pictures of the beauty of the island…no, not more pictures of me.

Something

So last night we were sitting around talking and at about 11:30 the fireworks start. We all look at each other and wonder what is going on. Do we have some American neighbors that couldn’t help themselves? Maybe the opportunity to light some fireworks is just too good to pass up, we’ll never know. I also took the opportunity to document the sunlight debacle that we keep complaining about.

It was the best of meals, it was the worst of meals…

Yesterday was a tale of two meals. For lunch we traveled to the “Fish church” to take a look at the central fish market and have some lunch. I didn’t have anything at the fish church. I took a look at the menu and chickened out. I’m more of a white fish, no shellfish, meat and potatoes kind of guy and I didn’t see anything on the menu I thought I would like. Turns out I missed the boat. Jen had a fish kabob with some very tasty items on it and the kids had some yummy pasta and salmon. John Wrenn, looking for the Swedish experience, had a fish tapas dish with a wide variety of things. We sat on the deck outside next to the canal and had a great time. See picture below. NOW….let’s talk about dinner. I tried to cook a pork tenderloin on the grill…an unfamiliar grill. I tried to use a thermometer that I wasn’t sure worked…it didn’t. We ended up with some pork jerky and eating steaks that Jen and Beth chased down at the store at around 8:00 p.m. I think we wrapped up dinner at around 9:00 or later and had quite a few laughs about it. No pictures of the dinner. You might never eat pork again.

Traipsing around…

The other day we hit the trail with our new visitors. We went back to our Norwegian roots and decided to trek around the nature trails in the area. This was new to our little niece Allie, but she had little Bear Grylls to show her around. Sam immediately launched into the troop leader grabbing his hiking stick and pointing the way. He didn’t entirely succeed in getting his troop to go everywhere he wanted, but he tried. We climbed some trees, sampled some nature, and met some Highland Cattle. Yes, I said Highland Cattle. At the end of the trail there was a stockade of cattle that had been imported years ago from Scotland and were now being tended by the granddaughter of the man who brought them here. They were pretty cool and the kids loved them. Sara had to translate, as the lady spoke zero English. Here are some shots of this episode.

I’ll find him for 5. Catch him, kill him for 10.

I think I complain a lot about our Swedish trip. I’m not going to take the time to go back and look over what I wrote, you’ll just have to let me know. My latest issue is probably minor, but it combines with my other complaint and makes me irritated. They have pterodactyls here. I’ve never really seen them, but I know a pterodactyl when I hear one. When the sun comes up at 3:30 a.m. it summons them to the backyard where they begin some sort of song. When I say song I mean some sort of prehistoric, million decibel screeching that will drive you insane. I know this because I am their victim. The only thing left to do is make sure they aren’t on some protected species list before I start hunting them. I will try to get a picture of this elusive creature to show you.

King me!

This morning was a “Guy event”. Me, John Wrenn, and Sam all took off on an adventure to visit a local castle. Anyone who reads this blog might think that this story would have all the usual elements…”Ooh…I can’t wait to see how lost Jon got this time!” “Haha, Jon can’t speak Swedish, this ought to be good.” Well to heck with all of you. We made it to the castle with very little problems. I won’t say we didn’t get lost, but we didn’t get THAT lost. Ok, sure the tour was almost completely in Swedish and we didn’t understand it. Hey…we went to a castle in another country, what more do you want?

The castle really wasn’t very old in castle years, but interesting and fun nonetheless. Here is a link that gives some history of the castle which is more than I picked up on the guided Swedish version of the tour.

Tjoloholm Castle – Actually the link is horrible. I find very little information about the history of the castle on the web. Tjoloholm is a beautiful Castle witch was built by a Swedish businessman J F Dicksson in the in the beginning of the last century. It is open to public in guided tours but the castle park is public area and always open. You can also take a swim in the ocean right by the castle. Tjoloholm is owned by the Kungsbacka community

We had a good time. The weather was beautiful and the grounds were pretty cool. Here are some pictures.

Visitors!!

It’s good to see some familiar faces and, no offense Jen, talk to some other people. The Wrenn family has joined us for most of a week and we have already been having some fun. As you can see by the picture we spent some time at the beach. Funny thing about this beach. We’ve visited it a bunch of times previously and never had to pay anything. The day we take off with an entourage is the day there is a sign saying you have to pay to get in. I trekked back to the house to retrieve the equivalent of 38 cents per person. I didn’t occur to me until I grabbed the money that I had done this to chase roughly a single dollar. Turns out the toll takers weren’t really a very diligent bunch and had let the group in on the promise of my return. Sam and I played in the “sand” which was fun, but really a good solid stretch of mud with some sand mixed in. After all of that it was off to dinner in Gothenburg. We didn’t get lost, didn’t have to pay to park, and the waiter spoke 172 languages (that’s what he said). All in all it was a great day.

Mama Mia, turn down the music!

It all started out just like it was supposed to. Our visitors arrived with no problems. They were exhausted, but happy to sit down, get settled, and enjoy a great meal that Jen cooked. How great was this? I started to become aware of the party happening behind the house during dinner, but thought little of it. Probably just some family getting together for a BBQ and a few beers. At 2:00 a.m. as I was listening to “JUMP” by Van Halen at full blast and suffering the slurred Swedish speech coming from across the fence I was less than impressed. I even heard children running around screaming. Needless to say this was less than a perfect introduction to Sweden for Jen’s sister and her family. At around 2:30 I contemplated going over there, but given my luck encountering people who don’t understand me I thought that trying to explain how rude they were being wouldn’t go over well…in any language. It’s roughly 10:30 a.m. here and everyone is still trying to sleep off the effects of either jetlag, or ABBA Fest 2009. It’s going to be a long day.