Tagged: culturalquagmire

17
Oct
2025

GETTING OUT OF THE WAY

The other day, I was driving from Lund to the new Costco, which is on the outskirts of Malmö. Normally this drive would take me about 15 minutes, but due to the fact that E22 which is the “highway” that runs between the two cities is under construction most of the way through Lund, and that there was apparently an accident somewhere, plus just CRAZY rush hour traffic, it took me more than twice that. The growth explosion of both of them has also not been compensated for in the infrastructure of the roadways at all. Malmö is the fastest...

18
May
2025

SHOWING OFF SWEDEN

So much for my good intentions of posting more in May. I managed 3 posts, then real life intervened. But in a mostly good way! My best friend from college, Julie, and her family: husband Todd (Benny), daughter Erin and son Drew, finally made it to Sweden to visit! I picked them up at the airport on Saturday, May 10, at 4:30 and we crammed all their bags into the Tesla and came over to Sweden. We managed to keep them up and got them on schedule right away, which I think was helpful for them. Anders cooked a delicious...

22
Jun
2024

MIDSUMMER MEALS & MORBIDITY

Another midsummer eve in the books and contrary to CNN’s strange idea of how Swedes celebrate, we only did the drinking part. And actually only 2 of us did the drinking part, since one was driving, one doesn’t drink, and the other can only drink limited liquids due to a heart condition. We had an absolutely lovely day, weatherwise, which was extra appreciated, because today is rainy, cloudy, and humid. Anders was out in the yard for most of the day: mowing, weeding, trimming the hedges, and putting down slug-killing pellets. I cleaned inside and outside, tidying up the deck,...

22
Apr
2023

GONE TOO LONG

I put together a list of things that struck me as weird while I was in the States. I dictated it to my sister during our road trip, because it had been taking up space in my brain for the first 3 weeks I was “home” but I hadn’t yet written it down or, really, formulated, what was so weird about these things. Some of these things are maybe specific to the Carolinas, or the South, but both of those things are just smaller subsets of things that struck me about being back in the USA after such a long...

10
Jan
2023

HALF MY LIFE

26 years ago today, I boarded a plane and left the US for Sweden. I arrived the next morning (January 11) and went straight to the hospital with Anders to see his sister, whose oldest child Henrik was born the day before I arrived. Everything about it was pretty much a blur, though I remember being impressed with the “patient hotel” that Maria was roomed in. I never got to stay in a patient hotel myself, when my kids were born, since they were both C-section babies, and major abdominal surgery requires that you stay in the ward. We already...

24
Apr
2021

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

About a week ago, I started a post with this sentence: Man, it’s *crickets* around here. It never even occurred to me how very specific that particular phrase is. To English-speakers, of a certain age, and a certain kind. And also how recent its use is. yourdictionary.com gives this definition: (US slang, humorous or derisive) Absolute silence; no communication. Derived from the cinematic metaphor of chirping crickets at night, signaling (otherwise) complete quiet. May be used alone or in metaphorically descriptive phrases. Merriam-Webster has a whole page in their “Words we’re watching” site dedicated to it…because it’s a word that...

04
Jul
2020

PATRIOT ACT

It’s the 4th of July today but we aren’t celebrating. We had tentative plans to attend a social distancing picnic with the AWC at the beach, but the weather and pandemic fears caused it to be cancelled anyway. It’s been raining steadily all day, an unending downpour in various degrees of severity from drizzle to hard-enough-to-bounce off the asphalt. Ah well, the lawn needed the water. Despite the rain, we were super busy today. Anders was up and out of the house before 8 am to fetch a rented trailer van and as soon as he came back we filled...

28
Sep
2019

SPEAKING OF WHICH

Years ago, a friend who was a teacher asked me to speak to her English students about my thoughts and opinions of living in Sweden. I don’t remember much about it, except that I stood in front of a class of high school kids and told them what my experiences were and answered their questions. My kids were small then, and I had only been in Sweden for a handful of years or so. Now, I’ve lived here for nearly 23 years. My kids are, to all intents and purposes, grown and heading out on their own adult journeys. They...

24
Jun
2019

SWEDISH EVERY WHICH WAY

If the first part of this year is any indication…heck, if the first part of this LIFE is any indication, the rest of this year will fly by and I’ll be left gaping at the fact that it’s Christmas time YET AGAIN. I’ve been gone for 2 weeks and even though I managed to post quickly last Monday before we zoomed off again to Stockholm for a week of city and sun and Swedishness, it feels like I’ve not really had a chance to sit down and gather my thoughts here. We had a lovely week, despite some bobbles at...

20
Apr
2019

SPRINGY WEEKEND WITH EXTRA TISSUES

If I did internet quizzes, which I don’t and neither should you, the one I would be providing right now, for your pleasure and edification, is “Which one of the Seven Dwarves is Liz?” Hint: I do not have a medical degree, and while I DO like to sleep in, Sleepy is not the correct answer either. I thought, after the interminable 3 weeks in March where I would have preferred to actually remove my eyeballs from my head rather than endure one more minute of unbearable itching, that I was done, HA HA HA, with allergy symptoms for the...

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