We have been watching this comedy club series for a few weeks now. At first I paid scant attention since it was in swedish. Then we watched it with the text and I could read along and had a lot of laughs. Now I watch without the text and get the jokes and really enjoy it. I think this is the breakthrough for me, where I finally am confident enough to actually watch swedish tv without feeling like an ignoramous because Ibo laughs and I didn’t get it. *laugh*
I really loved that song when I was a kid. *laugh*
Feeling much better today, it seems it was a flu bug of some sort I picked up but it has run the course now.
Friday the kidlet and I watched a tape of kid shows from Canada. As luck would have it, just as he is starting a week of school break, the cable company is upgrading the complex to digital and we have no tv during the days. *laugh* He really enjoyed seeing the shows he used to watch as a toddler. Then we got out a pile of activity books in english and swedish (and one in arabic that I suggested he work on with farfar *laugh*) and we did mazes, shapes and lots of other fun stuff. By 2 pm I was wiped out and had to go and have a nap. LL played a game on my computer. At 3 pm farmor phoned to invite us to dinner and to invite LL to sleep over. So we got him showered and packed a bag for him. We passed on dinner because I was still feeling bad, but the kidlet headed off for a night with his grandparents. I went to bed early, slept for almost 12 hours. It was nice to cuddle up in bed this morning just the two of us, even though we like when LL crawls in with us on weekend mornings.
I have no idea what I am going to do today although we do need to carve the pumpkins still at some point. I just couldn’t do it Thursday, the thought of digging out the seeds and such made me just that much more queasy. *laugh* We had 4 kids trick or treating here last evening. I wish that if swedes are going to do halloween, they would agree that the holiday is Oct 31st. It really is hard when kids show up any time over the two weekends before and after the 31st. *laugh*
I woke in the night feeling nauseous and had to make a dash for the bathroom. When I got back to bed I had chills and felt totally awful. It took a while to get back to sleep but then I slept soundly. I never heard the alarm this morning but I did wake up to find my fellow was up and had woken the kidlet also. He said I could stay in bed but I got up and made breakfast while he and LL showered then packed their knapsacks. It was strange to see them go off without me. *laugh*
I am not sure why I feel so horrid, if I had eaten in the city yesterday I might have said it was food poisoning but I didn’t. I have a theory though that it is post barbell change reaction. I may talk the brave talk but really I am a total chicken at heart and I have found this piercing experience much harder than the ones I had back in Canada, because everything was in a different language. *laugh* This morning I am still very queasy but just now I am having a cup and tea and it is not making waves down there. *laugh*
Yesterday when I went to pick up LL from school I met the father of one of his classmates at the bus stop. He is american but has lived here in Sweden off and on for the past 30 years. We chatted on the bus and he asked where I was from in Canada. Imagine my surprise when he actually knew the small town I was from and had family in the area. The world is really a small place. *laugh*
Today I went in to Stockholm and got my permanent barbell for my tongue. It is just a plain one for now, since there is still healing to be done. I had gotten used to the longer one (except when I would bite it while eating) so this one feels odd and I have a slight lisp again because of it. That should be short lived though. *laugh* It was a nice day. I was early to the piercing studio, so I wandered about a bit in Jennifer’s old area. I checked out the Red Cross store and bought a “Kitty” book for 5 crowns. Ever since I discovered that the Kitty series is actually the Nancy Drew series translated to swedish, I have been wanting to read one. I also peeked into some second hand stores and picked up some stickers and pencils for the kidlet at the chinese store. Then it was back to the piercer’s for the new barbell. From there I headed back to the Central Station where I indulged in an Irish Dream coffee. It was nice to have some free time in the city, but I obviously missed my fellows since I picked up surprises for both them. *laugh*
Ibo was the lucky one who got to pick up LL after english class today. The kidlet brought home both missing water bottles, his light blue mitts and the missing red one. So all he has left at school is one purple mitt. Well and somewhere between the theatre and St Gertrud’s are his spare black mitts that fell out of his knapsack during the class trip. *laugh* Pappa also got to take the kidlet to swimming lessons, so it was an exciting day for him. *grin* There was mail when I got home two halloween cards, some ATC’s and this set for the kidlet. He was really excited to have left handed stuff and we will work at his lettering next week with the new pen. *smile*
I saw a funny poster in Stockholm today. It said “Does Stockholm need more rental apartments?” and then in the middle it said “Ask Johan (37)” and then at the bottom it said “and his mom” (this is a rough translation, since I saw it from a distance and it was really in swedish of course *laugh*) I had this image of a harried looking mom combing ads. *laugh*
The kidlet is off to the theatre this morning. All the kindergarten kids from Rävsta and St Gertrud’s are seeing a play called “Nyckeln” (which translates to Key). We drove him all the way to Sigtuna and he will take the bus back with his class, to go to the theatre that is a 5 minute walk from home. *laugh* After the performance he will go back to school, eat lunch and I will take the bus to go and pick him up. We could have arranged for me to take him and pick him up at the theatre but that takes away most of the fun of a class trip. *laugh*
I am feeling loved and content these days. I shouldn’t say that out loud though, because then something bad will happen. Hmm, I don’t normally think about jinxes, this must be Liz’s doing. *laugh* I just am content with my routines, my fellows and everything else. We will see how content I still am next week when LL has break week from school.
It is only 3 more weeks before we go to Egypt. It has snuck up on me, since it seemed so distant when we first booked. I bought all the things we needed over the past few weeks, sunscreen, aftersun, sandals, airsick meds, electrolyte replacement stuff in case of diarrhea. So this is really a non stressful pre vacation time. *laugh*
This was our conversation at pj time.
“Mom, can I move out when I am ten?”
“No, you can’t move out until you are 18.”
“18! Then I will be almost dead!”
“I am 46, am I almost dead? Pappa is 27, is he almost dead?”
followed by an ‘I don’t want to answer this question’ silence. *laugh*
We had a quiet weekend. My fellow got home Saturday afternoon from his conference. LL went out and played for a half hour. I still felt yucky so I basically rested all day and evening. The highlight of the day was a phone call from Meaghan to say she had received the little package we sent. LL spoke to her and did very well, not one swedish word was used. *laugh* She had called earlier in the week as well to say that she was going to St Catharines and ask if she could take anything to my grandparents. She is one sweet lady. *smile*
Sunday we went and did some grocery shopping, had Ibo’s dad and sister over for dinner and that was about it. My fellows played a Bamse game before the kidlet went to bed, he thought that was cool.
I had a weekend of feeling homesick. Saturday I got out the white wine vinegar and put it on my french fries. *laugh* It was not quite the same as white vinegar from home but it did make me feel a bit less homesick. I always get this way when I don’t feel well. I want my mom and if I can’t have her then I want my grandma. All that homesickness made me think of Robert Frost when I was out with Susan this morning. I was walking her in the woods and they were carpeted yellow from the falling leaves. It brought to mind “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” and I got to thinking about what if I had not come here. What I realized was that even though I get homesick and miss my family in Canada, I am glad I moved to Sweden. I love my fellow heaps, the kidlet has two loving parents here and I have grown to love this country. So there is truth in the fact that road I chose almost 5 years ago “has made all the difference”.
It has been a long day. *laugh* The kidlet was up at 7 am, even though he had no school today. He got up to watch cartoons. My fellow headed off to work and left from there to his conference. After breakfast when I suggested it was shower time, LL said he really did not want to go out today, he wanted to stay home and rest. So that is what we did. He made some more halloween cards, played on the computer, watched some tapes of kids shows from Canada and rested. He has a low grade fever and a really bad cough, so I am sure that is why he was so uncharacteristically quiet. But a whole day at home is also a long day for mom, who has to come up entertainment. *laugh* I too am feeling feverish and have sore ears and throat, so it must be the season. Since I take my multivitamin and vitamin C daily, it is not so bad.
With no Ibo at home I decided to watch my LOTR dvd’s. I am halfway through at this point but I doubt I can stay awake until the end of this second movie. *laugh* He did call to say good night to the kidlet and talk to mom for a minute or two. I am glad he does that when he is away, it makes it less lonely. *smile*
So I have babbled some to Ibo about this but I don’t like to nag over it, since it is not his fault and he has enough on his plate on a daily basis.
I love Llywellyn’s school. I love that he is out in the fresh air every day. I love that the classes are small. I love that he is learning about nature and the environment in addition to the normal school curriculum. I don’t mind the twice a day trip to Sigtuna to drop him off and pick him up. I like his teachers. I really like his english teacher. But I absolutely despise the lack of order in the coatroom (well that is what we called it when I was in school but it really is the entranceway where the kids put their coats and shoes). I have been talking about how LL leaves stuff at school. At the moment it is two mittens, one red, one purple and two water bottles. When we were at parent teacher meeting on Monday I found his spare rain pants under a bench but could not locate his rain jacket before we left to come home. What I did find were a dozen odd mitts belonging to other kids and one of LL’s I found on the top shelf of his cubby area, behind the box with his spare clothes. So that tells me that he took it off and threw it. When I pick him up on Wednesdays at St Gertrud’s the coatroom area is neat, all the kids stuff is hung up in their space and his is too. At his school there were literally piles of rainsuits, mitts, hats etc on the benches under the kids’ hooks and cubby holes. I feel that I take the time to mark his clothes with his name, send him with extra in case they get really wet or muddy, the teachers can at least make sure that the kids hang up their things. Ibo laughs at me when I say this, since I am far from organized at home. *laugh*
I was really incensed on Tuesday when I picked up LL. It was really cold, cold enough that I added a sweater under my coat and wore gloves and hat. My little boy got off the bus with no hat and no mitts and cold little hands. I understand this whole swedish concept of being responsible for yourself and deciding for yourself (another rant for another day *laugh*) but this is a six year old. I think a kindergarten teacher should look at the kids before they go out to the bus and notice if they lack hat and mitts on a cold day. She has 8 kids in that grade, I don’t think it would be so hard to say “do you have everything?” to those kids. Now I always have packed in the bottom of his knapsack an extra hat and extra mitts so I got those on to him right away, but he was still complaining about being cold at supper time.
So Wednesday I saw his teacher when I picked him up after english class. I was over my rage (and I did rage here for hours about this) at that point. So the first thing I did was check his knapsack and took inventory. She came out and saw me and said that he had told her that I said he was not allowed to go out and play after lunch, he was to go and dig through the stuff in the coatroom until he found all his lost clothing and water bottles. Then she babbled on about they were going to appoint a coatroom monitor to remind the other kids to hang up their things. I said that I had instructed LL that when he takes off his hat and mitts, hat goes into one pocket, mitts into the other. She was appalled at this and said that often they are really wet and dirty, that is why the kids put them in the cubby above their hooks. I said my way, at least his stuff comes home. Then she talked about self responsibility and I said that he is the same as other kids his age, they would rather be out playing that thinking about where there mitts might be. While they play they have no concept of cold. I said something along the lines of “he found the water bottle that was missing for a week and two pairs of gloves and his hat, but he forgot his mitts he wore today, his rain jacket and his red water bottle”. Thursday when he got off the bus he was mittless again but this time they were in his pocket to be put on. He had the mitts and rain jacket from the day before, but no water bottle again. *laugh* There were a number of other mitts in there as well and I said “Oh!, you found a bunch of your things”. He said no, his teacher did and not only did she find his stuff, she found all the stuff that other kids were missing. She had them sort through the mess in their corner of the coatroom. So I guess my non ranting comments got her attention. *laugh*
One of the reasons I want his stuff home is because he gets so dirty. This time of year when it rains 90% of the time, he gets a new jacket and mitts every day because the ones he wears to school get so mud encrusted. I have no problem with that, I have a problem with having the dirty things left at school until they are in a state as they were yesterday: his mitts were so caked with mud and clay that they were hard as a board and I had to soak them in the sink before they could go in the laundry, his rain jacket was caked with mud and had to be rinsed in the shower. That I can live with, but because it lay in a heap for two days, it was slimy and had some mold forming on it. That is unneccessary. Ibo says that I shouldn’t compare the two schools, that Rävsta has a different direction for the kids. I think that they need to have a bit of order and that means the teachers need to make the effort to create that order. I mean really, the rest of the school is well ordered. The kids have drawers to keep all their school supplies. Everything inside the school is in it’s place and to me that says that the teachers want it so, because it is easier to teach when everything is organized. So why is it not important that the kids also learn that it is easier to get dressed to go out, if they put their stuff in order when they come in?
Ok, enough rant, now I feel much better. *laugh*
It has been a very quiet week. I have a cold, Ibo has a cold and LL has a cough. So none of us have been balls of energy. *laugh* I took the kidlet to school on the bus Tuesday and Wednesday and pappa drove this morning. English class went well and he learned the “This Little Pig” rhyme. He has no recollection of his dad playing “this little piggie” with him when he was a toddler but he really liked the wee-wee-wee part, just like he did back then. *laugh*
Today was crazy day on the bus. I got on the noon bus to Sigtuna and a woman got on in front of me. She looked a bit like a sailor, rough skin and just that rough air about her. She made this huge production about hoisting her obviously heavy suitcase onto the bus. *laugh* She sat in the area where baby carriages go and kept sighing and wiping at her face. Then an elderly woman got on with her wheeled walker. She had trouble getting it to the safety buckle to secure it because of the big suitcase. So she said the other woman should move and the other woman refused. They argued and the old woman made a big fuss because it meant she had to stay with her walker instead of going back and sitting with her friend (the friend just moved up and sat beside her). This went on for all of one … yes one … stop, when the old woman got off and hurled insults to the suitcase lady all the time she was leaving the bus. At this point a very large gypsyish looking woman got on the bus and plopped into the seat beside me. Suitcase lady went back to sighing and wiping her brow. We drove on and turned towards Sigtuna. At this point my seatmate yelled at the driver he was going the wrong way. People all told her no, it was the Sigtuna bus. She said no, when she got on the sign said 580, not 570. The other passengers said no, the sign was 570 when we got on. The gypsyish woman then accused the bus driver of changing the sign and yelled at him that what he did was WRONG, then she got off the bus at the next stop. The rest of the trip went well, although suitcase woman continued her theatrics.
I got to school and picked up LL. We got onto the bus home and the first thing we saw was an old woman sitting in the seat behind the bus driver, waving a handful of twigs at us. LL chose the seat behind her and she literally shreiked “NO” and went on to say we could not sit close to her. I chose to ignore her and we did sit down, whereupon she leaped out of her seat, shook the twigs at us and yelled again we could not sit near her and then she ran to the back of the bus. At that point I sent an sms to Ibo to tell him the crazies were out in force. *laugh* I think they are getting their last hurrah before winter hibernation.
We stopped for a hot chocolate when we got back to Märsta because I needed it and I also had to go to the drugstore. We then went to get our bus home but it never came, 15 minutes later (it runs on a 15 minute schedule) 2 buses showed up. *laugh* Thankfully that was the last bus trip of the day.
Tonight we are having the first time ever web broadcast of the kommunfullmäktige möte (city council meeting). I am hoping I can see it on this computer and have told LL we can look for pappa. He thinks that is cool. *laugh*
My fellow is going away on a conference tomorrow. An overnight thing but of course we will miss him even though it is only one night. I think LL and I will go into the city if the weather is not too nasty.