Lizardek

08
Aug
2023

SOCKS, STORMS, AND BEING SOCIAL

I saw some teacher’s Twitter post about how he is asking his students for 1 boring fact about themselves, because asking for an interesting fact is putting too much pressure on them. And I was like, what? What is wrong with some pressure? How hard is it to come up with something semi-interesting about yourself? But maybe it’s too much for people to have to be witty or interesting on demand. Maybe it’s easier to find something simple that you know about yourself, and share it, than trying to come up with something that makes you special. One of his...

02
Aug
2023

TRAVEL BUG

There was an article in The Local today about how to move an elderly parent to Sweden to live with you, but when I read it, the article was basically, “it’s really hard, the criteria is ridiculous, you have no chance”. I’d love to get my mom to move over here, but realistically, it’s such a long shot. You can get 1-year visas, but I doubt she’d go for that. She has all her stuff and her place and she IS closer to Sarah by a huge amount, so. But still, it’d be nice. She and Sarah are going to...

27
Jul
2023

SLOW DOWN YOU MOVE TOO FAST

Tomorrow is Friday, the end of my second week back at work and guess what? Still stress-free! I expect it to last until about mid-August when everyone is back and things ramp up and the crazy hits the fan again. Best things about working in July in Sweden (when you’ve already had your vacation): NO traffic on the highway NO cars in the parking lot NO people in the office (mostly) NO STRESS about the amount of work coming in Today, there were 4 of us on the entire floor. Technically, we’re not supposed to even be there, because they...

24
Jul
2023

NOT TAKING IT PERSONALLY

I just had the rudest response I think I’ve ever had in my life to a phone call I was making. I’ve never been a telephone salesperson, thank god, because I can’t imagine having to deal with responses like this on a frequent basis. Karin did it for awhile, working for a company in Lund that did telephone sales for things like magazine subscriptions. She said, generally speaking, that only old people were pleasant, and only because they just wanted someone to talk to. When I get the rare sales call myself (we’re on a no-call list), I at least...

22
Jul
2023

EVERY VOTE COUNTS

We were asked to send in our book recommendations for the next batch of books for AIC bookworms in June. I lobbied hard to get the amount of recommendations down from 5 to 3, but was overruled, so of course I sent it in 5 as well, because why not? BOOKS! We got the total book list to vote on while we were away on our trip, so I couldn’t vote for the 9 books until right when we got back. It turned out that only 6 books got enough votes to automatically make the list and we had to...

21
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: HALF-DAY ON ÅLAND, ANOTHER FERRY RIDE, STOCKHOLM, AND HOME

Our ferry didn’t leave Mariehamn until 2:30 pm so we had all morning to enjoy the town, after eating breakfast, checking out and packing the car. We walked back up the shopping street (where everything was open!) and over to the Maritime Quarter again, where we toured the little museum, visited some shops and the Beacon. It was sunny and hot and beautiful along the water. We came back down and did some shopping in town as well. I found a Moomin charm for my country charm bracelet (had already bought a little silver reindeer horn to symbolize being in...

20
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: FERRY RIDE AND 2 NIGHTS ON ÅLAND

We got up quite early and left Loimaa to drive to Åbo (Turku) on the coast of Finland, where we caught the Viking Line ferry to Åland. The ferry ride is 5+ hours, so we had breakfast on the boat. We sat inside for a bit, then went out on the Vista Sundeck on the back of the boat, which was lovely. Sitting in the sun and the wind watching the islands slide by. The boat was HUGE and the archipelago was extensive, lots and lots of rocky islands covered in, you guessed it: pines and birch trees. We got...

19
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: FINLAND! ROVANIEMI, KAJAANI, LOIMAA

We had 3 pretty solid days of straight driving south through Finland, and unfortunately, we never made it to the Moomin Museum, which was on our list of must-stops, due to several factors including the rain and over-optimistic time planning. Ah well! A reason to go back and see more! The 3 days we spent driving were very rainy, which was okay, since we weren’t stopping much, but a little hard on Anders who drove the entire trip. And plus the scenery was pretty much exactly the same: pines and birches for miles. We saw another reindeer on the road...

17
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: FINLAND, KILPISJÄRVI, AND TRERIKSRÖSET

I had to laugh after we started planning this trip, because I Googled Treriksröset and discovered it was a big clump of concrete out in the middle of a lake, 11 kilometers into a national nature preserve without any roads. Sounds exactly like my kind of vacation destination, doesn’t it? Heh. But it was on Anders’ bucket list, and to be honest, the trip itself sounded pretty epic, going from tip to tip in Sweden. I was a little unsure of being able to do it, since there are no bathrooms once you get on the boat, and then you...

16
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: JOKKMOKK, JUKKASJÄRVI, AND THE ICE HOTEL

We got up early at the Treehotel, walked over to the shower facilities in the early morning, giving the mosquitoes their breakfast, before getting ours at the main building, which was delicious. Then we drove to Jokkmokk. I’ve always wanted to visit Jokkmokk, which is right on the Arctic Circle, because it’s where my first Swedish friend, from SEVENTH grade (in The Netherlands) was from. I’m still FB friends with her, but I haven’t seen her since we were 14. Jokkmokk was lovely, and we saw all the sights: the old church (actually a replica, because the original burned down...

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